Where the Rainbow Ends

Zine
Title:	Where the Rainbow Ends
Publisher:
Editor(s):	Lee Kirkland
Date(s):	1990-1994
Series?:
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Language:	English
External Links:	archived online, offline, Archived version
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Where the Rainbow Ends is a het and gen Beauty and the Beast anthology of fiction by Lee Kirkland focusing on Catherine and Vincent's four children (three boys and one girl who all look like Catherine).

General Reactions and Reviews

"I love everything by Lee Kirkland and Becky Bain, who is half of the Lee Kirkland pseudonym. The Where the Rainbow Ends series brought a mix of laughter and tears as I progressed through the stories of Vincent, Catherine, and the life they built together. Vincent playing the part of a dragon while his young children play-acted was a total delight and so in character with the gentle, playful father I imagine he would be. Catherine's role in that story was sweet, too."

Issue 1

cover of issue #, original 1990 edition1

another cover of issue #1, possibly a reprint

Where the Rainbow Ends 1 was published in 1990 and contains 135 pages.

• Family (3)
• Charles (25)
• The Dream, poem by John Donne (54)
• Dreams and Promises (55)
• Dawning (93)
• Jacob (97)
• Sonnet, poem by James Russell Lowell (114)
• Evan (115)
• Choosing a Name, poem by Mary Lam (128)
• Vicky (129)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

The stories here interweave with the overview presented in WtRE-1, focusing more on V/C's children than on V/C themselves. Note: since WRE-1 is now out of print, know you don't have to have read it to understand/enjoy the following volumes. Here, there is a mix of small, perceptive vignettes and well written short stories. One of the vignettes, “A Family Portrait,” has considerable understated power. “My Father's Hands,” in which young son Jacob writes about what his father's hands mean to him, is also very touching. In the full-length short stories, “Love Is Forever” chronicles the family's harrowing, long wait when Vincent, injured in a fall, cannot be found. In “Courage,” daughter Vicky is dared by other children to remain in the dark, which she fears, Below. And in the excellent final long story, “Somewhere There Waiteth,” Carey, a Midwestern teenager whose mother has just died, makes his lone way to New York where he hopes to find help. All the stories are quiet, understated; none is sentimental or cute. The insights are sound and the narrative power is immense. Worth more than a single reading.

In this zine the writer postulates that Vincent and Catherine have been married for twenty-five years and have four children. Through flashbacks we learn about their early days together and each child's birth. However, everything was not all rosy. Like any other young couple, Catherine and Vincent had their share of seemingly insurmountable problems. In the end, you are left with a portrait of a very happy, loving, and unique family.

Issue 2

copy of cover of issue #2, Marty Giles

from issue #2, Marty Giles

Where the Rainbow Ends 2 was published in January 1991 and contains 138 pages. Art: Phyllis Berwick, Marty Giles and Shirley Leonard.

• 'Til It Be Morrow (1)
• Where the Rainbow Ends (4)
• The Impossible Dream (6)
• Windmills (7)
• The Dream (23)
• Though There Be Thorns (27)
• Quarantine (39)
• Dragon's Release (59)
• Love is Forever (61)
• The White Dress (76)
• Brotherly Love (77)
• Courage (83)
• My Father's Hands (91)
• A Family Portrait (97)
• Somewhere There Waiteth (103)
• Footnotes (138)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

Second in the series is a continuation of Volume 1. The same theme but gives more detail and insight into Catherine and Vincent's life together. The incidents might be familiar ones, but they are dealt with in unique ways. For example, one child after another comes down with chicken pox and Vincent has to cope with being quarantined while caring for them. Or, how do you deal with Devin's illegitimate teenage son when he suddenly shows up on your doorstep with nowhere to go after his mother is killed? These stories give you an insight into how Catherine and Vincent raise their children as she continues to work, while Vincent splits his time between obligations to both worlds. All the children (none look like Vincent) live with their parents in a house easily accessible from the Tunnels.

Lee Kirkland is probably best known so far for the "Quantum Beast" digest-size fanzines. This is the second volume of a "Beauty and the Beast" series, expanding upon the first. This is a well-written effort describing a Happy Life for Vincent and Catherine set at various times in the future. It is a true and literal 'brownstone story' with a brownstone and four children, and should make those fans who are truly disgruntled with third season very happy. I enjoyed it, but then, I'm guilty of wanting that 'Happy Life' for them, too. I particularly enjoyed the development of a new character, Carey, an effectively-orphaned boy from the midwest who journeys to find the Wells. It had a particularly realistic feel to it and really makes you care about the character. My only beefs about the 'zine are that it lacks any fantasy feel, that in places it is choppy time-wise, and that Vincent is not prominently involved in most of the stories. It seems like it is really more about the children and their struggles, but I don't find that a fatal flaw at all. I welcome that twist on the dreaded specter SOS (same old stories) and read it anyway, with enjoyment. I would recommend this effort and watch for future Lee Kirkland products.

The stories here extend the stories of V, C, and their four children. The fifth young person in the Wells household is Carey-Devin's son. The stories in general are quiet, sober, thoughtful, realistic, unsentimental-and always splendidly carried off. In “At the Dark's Edge,” C has a severe bout of viral pneumonia, an ordeal which is perhaps hardest on V. Vignette "Seduction" has husband V preparing a special solace for overworked C. “In Place of the Stars” presents C with the problem of serving out the unexpired term-in Albany-of a state senator, with restless 13-year-old middle son Jacob unwillingly in tow. While they're away, a family tragedy occurs. Devin effectively appears in this story. Anecdote “The Surprise” has V observing the horsemanship of C and daughter Vicky. In “What Falls Away Is Always,” a follow-up to a story in WTRE-2, we go back to Carey's first months with the Wells household and his troubled reunion with father Devin after the death of Carey's mother. In “Amanda,” lovers Jacob and Amanda are troubled by C's apparent dislike of the girl. Attempting to confront it-and C-head-on, Amanda learns that C's coolness toward her is grounded in past events Amanda had known nothing of, at a time C/V had lost a child. In "Secrets," eldest son Charles' uneasiness about his genetic heritage places a silent barrier between him and Elizabeth Burch. A different problem manifests itself in "Growing Pains," in which the bond between empathic 17-year-old daughter Victoria and V puts a considerable hitch in her love life, to their mutual distress and mortification.

Issue 3

Where the Rainbow Ends 3 was published in 1992 and contains 142 pages. Art: Phyllis Berwick, Shirley Leonard, Terrie Milliman, Holly Riedel, Chris Schacter.

• At the Dark's Edge
• Seduction
• In Place of the Stars
• Surprise
• What Falls Away is Always
• Amanda
• Secrets
• Growing Pains

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3

The stories here extend the stories of V, C, and their four children. The fifth young person in the Wells household is Carey-Devin's son. The stories in general are quiet, sober, thoughtful, realistic, unsentimental-and always splendidly carried off. In “At the Dark's Edge,” C has a severe bout of viral pneumonia, an ordeal which is perhaps hardest on V. Vignette "Seduction" has husband V preparing a special solace for overworked C. “In Place of the Stars” presents C with the problem of serving out the unexpired term-in Albany-of a state senator, with restless 13-year-old middle son Jacob unwillingly in tow. While they're away, a family tragedy occurs. Devin effectively appears in this story. Anecdote “The Surprise” has V observing the horsemanship of C and daughter Vicky. In “What Falls Away Is Always,” a follow-up to a story in WTRE-2, we go back to Carey's first months with the Wells household and his troubled reunion with father Devin after the death of Carey's mother. In “Amanda,” lovers Jacob and Amanda are troubled by C's apparent dislike of the girl. Attempting to confront it-and C-head-on, Amanda learns that C's coolness toward her is grounded in past events Amanda had known nothing of, at a time C/V had lost a child. In "Secrets," eldest son Charles' uneasiness about his genetic heritage places a silent barrier between him and Elizabeth Burch. A different problem manifests itself in "Growing Pains," in which the bond between empathic 17-year-old daughter Victoria and V puts a considerable hitch in her love life, to their mutual distress and mortification.

Issue 4

Where the Rainbow Ends 4 was published in July 1994 and contains 167 pages. Art: Phyllis Berwick, Shirley Leonard (including cover and some graphics) and Chris Schacter.

• More Than Love
• Till the Sun Grows Cold
• Rainbow
• The Stars Were Laughing
• Full Circle

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 4

Always more quiet and thoughtful than dramatic, this excellent Continued Classic series concludes with a group of five stories focusing on Vincent and Catherine's children finding their loves and assuming adult position within the family and their chosen community, Above, Below, or both. Except in the final story, "Full Circle," in which Vincent becomes ill, these grown children are at the center of the stories rather than happily married and tranquilly aging Vincent and Catherine. In a change of pace, Jenny, widowed and embittered, is at the center of the first story, "More than Love," emphasizing (as do other stories here) the acceptance of loss and change. For not all endings are happy here, but the overall effect is positive, because of the support, consolation, and love of family and friends through difficult times. Though virtually all the stories move smoothly, without appreciable conflict, to their expected conclusions (an exception: "Rainbow," in which empathic daughter Vicky finds she's formed a bond with a man who seems romantically interested in someone else), the writing is up to the series' high standard and the characters are perceptively dramatized. So the stories will be more interesting and moving for those who've followed these imagined children, steady Charles, concerned about his biological heritage; Jacob, choosing to take up life Below; troubled, mercurial Evan; volatile, empathic Vicky; and foster child Carey (Devin's son), through previous volumes than will readers meeting this family for the first time here, though they'll have no trouble understanding the stories' background, which is clearly enough established without bogging the present tales down in explanations.

Art by Phyllis Berwick, Shirley Leonard (including cover and some graphics) and Chris Schacter; occasional poems by Jeanne Peters. Highly recommended to fans of this series of domestic triumph and tragedy.