Southern Comfort (multimedia zine)/Issue 7.5

Southern Comfort (multimedia zine) · Issue 011.5 · Issue 7.5 · Issues 1-1.5 · Issues 10-10.5 · Issues 2-2.5 · Issues 3-3.75 · Issues 4-4.75 · Issues 5-5.5 · Issues 6-6.5 · Issues 8.5-8.75 · Issues 9.5

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Issue 7.5 (Southern Comfort, Blake's 7)

front cover of issue #7.5, Leah Rosenthal

back cover of issue #7.5, Leah Rosenthal: "...it's the award winning "Weenie Caught in Spiral Binding" by Lumpy Bites" -- from IMHO* #2 (1995)

Southern Lights 7 was published in 1994 (early spring) and is 273 pages long.

flyer for issue #7.5

The art is by Leah Rosenthal (front and back cover), ORmaC, Adrian Morgan, IBACH, Randym, Melody Rondeau, Linden Boats, Sarah, Howarth, and Flatbush Bates.

From the editorial:

Hello everybody. Just a few quick words here to fill up the white space. As you can see, SOUTHERN COMFORT 7.5 is our biggest issue to date. I decided to go ahead and publish everything I was holding rather than make any contributors wait longer for their work to see print. Some of this material I have had a while and I know how frustrating it can be when you're waiting to see your story published!

I hope to do more issues in the future and continue on as always. Hopefully, the zines will not be quite as hard to produce, either, since I now have a computer to work on and contributors can send their work on diskette. However, future issues are dependent on two things: 1) contributions (I'm all out now!), and 2) sales of this issue.

Bootlegging seems to have reared its ugly head in fandom yet again and zine editors are taking big hits from the folks who bootleg a copy here and a copy there for friends. Every copy that gets bootlegged means YOU pay more for your legitimate copy, but it also means zine editors are less and less interested in continuing to publish. Doing a zine is a lot of hard work and takes a tremendous outlay of personal funds to put into print. So, if you know someone who is stealing zines at least make the effort to let them know that you do not appreciate their activity anymore than the editors being ripped off do. As an aside, I just received a letter justifying the bootlegging of my zines based on the fact that I have been late in publishing the last few issues. My zines have been LATE. That is hardly the same as if I'd said, "You paid for the zine but you're not getting it." There is NO justification for stealing.

• Letters of Comment (4)
• Stand-in, fiction by Riley Cannon (A/V) (7)
• Sword of Heaven, poem by Robin Hood (9)
• Opposites, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (A/V) (10)
• Twin Thieves, poem by Robin Hood (25)
• A Credit for Your Thoughts, fiction by Jacklin Scott ("Cally begins to think that Vila will never get the message she keeps trying to send to him.") (C/V) (26)
• Reliquary, fiction by Daley Kelly (A/V) (36)
• The Last Seska, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (A and T and V/essentially OFC) (40)
• Before the Madness Claimed Them, fiction by -Kay- (Tr/A) (52)
• In the Company of Strangers, fiction by Shoshanna (A/J) (62)
• What I Did for Love, fiction by Madelyn Darring & Coral Court (humor, commentary on Nearly Beloved) (65)
• Misericorde, fiction by Randym (T/V, A/So) (68)
• Never Love a Stranger, fiction by Willa Shakespeare (A/V, with B/A, A/Anna) (76)
• War of Escalation, fiction by Estelle Daniels ("A few innocent "lessons" turn into much more for the embezzler and the pilot.") (A/J) (90)
• An Innocent Man, fiction by R.L. Parker ("Even Vila finds it hard to believe that he ends making love with Avon, of all people.") (A/V) (98)
• Innocence and Wrath, fiction by R.L. Parker (A/V) (98)
• Paths of Destiny, fiction by C.A. McCoy ("Sequel to COLLIDING DESTINIES from SOUIHERN COMFORT #5.5 — Vila and Tarrant are rescued from the prison planet, but their greatest challenges still lie ahead.") (T/V) (110)
• Birthday Story, fiction by Daley Kelly ("Avon promises Vila anything he wants for his birthday.") (A/V) (139)
• Compromising Positions, fiction by Sonia (A/B - sort of) (146)
• Time Off and Good Behavior, fiction by Nicely Nicely ("): A little R&R and some fun between friends.") (A/V) (166)
• Family Traditions, fiction by "?" (170)
• Celebrating Life, fiction by Cassandra (T/A/V) (176)
• The Taste of Dust, poem by Robin Hood (181)
• No Respite, fiction by Daley Kelly ("The aftermath of Malodaar takes a bizarre turn that Avon never expected!") (was originally planned for #6.5) (A/V) (182)
• The Southern Comfort Story Contest (189)
• Mice and Men, fiction by Mistral ("A shocking alternate 4th season that pits Avon and Tarrant against each other in a battle of strength and wits...to forge a surprising ending.") (A/T, A/B) (193)
• Pushin' the First Amendment #1 (humor, parody of a proposed zine) (271)
• To Care for You, poem by Robin Hood (272)
• Brothers in Arms, poem by Riley Cannon (273)

• 

  from issue #7.5, first page of Mice and Men

• 

  from issue #7.5, Leah Rosenthal

• 

  from issue #7.5, ORmaC

• 

  from issue #7.5, Adrian Morgan

• 

  from issue #7.5, IBACH

• 

  from issue #7.5, IBACH

• 

  from issue #7.5, Leah Rosenthal, from "What I Did for Love" -- "Alas, it was a passion doomed to die unflowered. Vila was adamantly against any relationship, no matter how Avon pleaded and begged. "No slash," he cruelly sneered at Avon, savoring the sound of an Alpha heart breaking. "After London completely ignored me in 'Rogue', I've sworn off men forever.""

• 

  from issue #7.5, Randym

• 

  from issue #7.5, IBACH

• 

  from issue #7.5, ORmaC

• 

  from issue #7.5, ORmaC

• 

  from issue #7.5, IBACH

• 

  from issue #7.5, Randym

• 

  from issue #7.5, ORmaC

• 

  from issue #7.5, Linden Boats

• 

  from issue #7.5, Adrian Morgan

• 

  from issue #7.5, Randym, one of three illustrations by this artist of Tarrant being intimate with women, fans were asked to write a story using them, the result is in the next issue and called You Ought to Be in Pictures

• 

  from issue #7.5, parody flyer for "Pushin' the First Amendment #1"

• 

  from issue #7.5, Randym, for Mice and Men

• 

  from issue #7.5, Randym, for Mice and Men

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 7.5

See reactions and reviews for Mice and Men.

See reactions and reviews for A Credit for Your Thoughts.

See reactions and reviews for The Last Seska.

See reactions and reviews for Before the Madness Claimed Them.

See reactions and reviews for What I Did for Love.

See reactions and reviews for Misericorde.

See reactions and reviews for Never Love a Stranger.

See reactions and reviews for Compromising Positions.

[zine]: A long zine, but I'll skim most of it. The art is generally very good, as with all Southern Comforts. It is also fair to say that as other reviewers point out, the editor does say right at the beginning that this is basically stuff that she had lying around and hadn't published previously. It's also a lot of A/V - in general, let's assume I didn't read the A/V....

Jacklin Scott, "A Credit for Your Thoughts" (C/V) Light, forgettable.

Willa Shakespeare, "The Last Seska" (A and T and V/essentially OFC) This is not a bad plot - although anything to do with the Seska is a bit Ben Steedy, though having Soolin and Dayna around (being superior to men/rescuing men, but not in a shit way) really helps. Very non porny (i.e. it's a porn plot but we fade to black when the sex starts!) - which is also something to mention about most of the stories in this zine, or at least of the ones that I read. Which is fine, actually, and I think old fandom should do more of it (where appropriate) - but it's interesting.

-Kay-, "Before the Madness Claimed Them" (Tr/A) This is one of the best in the zine, though still not great. Avon and Travis are stranded together in a desert. Travis tries to seduce Avon because he knows this will work better for him from a practicality POV (i.e. he can continue to have sex with Avon), but then practically rapes him anyway. I guess Avon enjoyed it and liked the seduction a bit, as he saves Travis from Blake (which makes sense within the story, but not within the context of the show where it's always the other way around).

Shoshanna, "In the Company of Strangers" (A/J) No dialogue. Tedious.

Madelyn Darring & Coral Court, "What I Did for Love" Interestingly the ending (Avon gets a sex change to be with Vila) feels like something of a comment on 'Never Love a Stranger' - but I assume it's just written simultaneously. Not that funny - Blake being a peodophile is not funny.

Randym, "Misericorde" (T/V, A/So) This one is pretty good, though Randym is a very good writer and this could have been excellent. PGP, Vila and Tarrant are staying alive and making do. The T/So plot is a bit superflous but doesn't not-work.

Willa Shakespeare, "Never Love a Stranger" (A/V, with B/A, A/Anna) Cracky idea treated very seriously (Avon was Blake's female love slave, encouraged to become a trans-man by Anna so that no one would know Anna was a lesbian, Servalan is B and A's kid). To be honest, despite the instinctive 'omg wtf?' response to the plot, actually I think the latter part of that tag (i.e. 'treated seriously' i.e. it's so poe-faced) is what's wrong with this. In later years, I think the writer would have written this as crack, straight up, and it would have been better for it. Few people are going to be able to take seriously that Servalan is Blake and Avon's child - even if they were willing to tolerate Avon as a woman or a delta. It's also (given that it wants to re-write Avon's life so drastically) far too short. Blake seems to be important to Avon throughout most of his narrative (i.e. he's looking for Blake and their child, he hates that he's now a man because Blake won't recognise him etc), but we dispense with all their time together in-show in a few lines (in which Avon talks about how much he disliked Blake in show! I think because he went off with Jenna). Anyway - clearly this fic is a building block on the way to greatness. It's a very early fic for this author, who has written much and much better since.

Estelle Daniels, "War of Escalation" (A/J) Quite a nice idea, in that Jenna is trying to convince Avon to take her piloting lessons seriously - but the dialogue is so childish and boring that I can't get into it.

R. L. Parker, "An Innocent Man" (A/V), R. L. Parker, "Innocence and Wrath" (A/V), C. A. McCoy, "Paths of Destiny" (T/V), Daley Kelly, "Birthday Story" (A/V), Don't think I read any of these, though I must have glanced at Birthday Story as it's the other bribing Avon into sex story I was referring to.

Sonia, "Compromising Positions" (A/B - sort of) Hooray, an A/B at last! But it's a weird example of the same, and I'm not sure who it's for. As an A/B shipper I found the fact that Avon was very insistent that he and Blake were both straight irritating. However - if I'd been a non-A/B shipper surely I wouldn't enjoy the fact that Blake (who is actually a clone!Blake, spoilers, with weird erroneous A/B sex memories that Blake put there during the mindprint session so that Avon would know it was a trap, as Jenna indicated they might be gay once and they both thought it ridiculous!) screws Avon in the shower while they're under surveillance and he needs to keep up the pretence that they're lovers. (N.B. It's an alternate Terminal plot, basically, by a non-Servalan Fed agent). It's quite A-B as well, as Avon is determined to rescue clone Blake, and yet not - as he tells the clone not to tell anyone he is a clone, because they all need Blake (but Avon has no loyalty to the real Blake? And as long as they have one, the other one can go and die??). So I assume the writer doesn't want to depict Blake as a semi-rapist. It's also not sad, like something like 'Substitute'. Because they're still friends at the end, and Blake!clones feelings are mostly there for lols? I think. And so we end with no Terminal, and Blake!clone on the ship in love with Avon, who definitely does not want him. I guess ... this fic could use a sequel ... where we find out what all of this means (and ideally Avon realises that he is gay, and maybe the real Blake comes back and is confused - Avon, I thought we were bros! - and/or gets talked into a threesome). I assume it didn't get such a sequel. The Vila's past stuff was fine, and quite amusing.

[...]

... though I did skim 'Mice and Men' because it was so infamous. Not worth it.

[zine]: "This is a substantial zine - God bless the typists - with lots of illustrations of varying quality. The stories are by Riley Cannon, Willa Shakespeare, Jacklin Scott, Daley Kelly, Kay, Shoshanna, Randym, Estelle Daniels, R L Parker, C A McCoy, Sonia, Nicely Nicely, Cassandra, and Mistral. Poems by Robin Hood.

This is a satisfying zine for Avon/Vila fans as it contains eight Avon/Vila stories of varying lengths ranging from the sentimental to the bleak in tone. My favourites were "Birthday Story" and "Reliquary" by Daley Kelly, both very well written and with believable characterisation closer to the series' originals in spirit than many writers achieve. I also liked R.L. Parker's two short stories and the longer "Opposites", set in prison before the London, all hurt/comfort scenarios. Of the remaining A-Vs, "Never Love a Stranger" needs a considerable suspension of disbelief.

For Cally/Vila fans there is "A Credit for your Thoughts", which I thought rather overdid Vila's timidity but was otherwise a warm, gentle tale and has the bonus of a lovely drawing of Vila by Adrian Morgan; there's another on page 183. Other stories include a Travis/Avon, two Jenna/Avon, and a long one "Paths of Destiny" about Tarrant and Vila's life on a prison mining colony, which is a continuation of a story in Southern Comfort 5.5. I always find it difficult to imagine Tarrant and Vila having any sort of loving relationship but this is a very well-plotted and convincing attempt, and it is unusually well-paced.

Blake features very little in this zine, though his clone puts in an appearance with Avon in "Compromising Positions", which also deals with Vila's earlier life. Of the remaining crew, Gan does not feature at all, and Dayna and Soolin only in passing. There's not much of Cally or Jenna either.

[See this fan's comments about Mice and Men.]

[zine]: [This] zine was, as far as I was concerned, well worth avoiding. Rather the way one would a rabid, ravenous squirrel. [See this fan's comments about Mice and Men.]

I agree completely with Sandy on this zine--and I'm very interested in seeing a different interpretation of it. I'd really like to hear which stories you liked and why you liked them.

[zine]: To whoever it was, yes, most of this zine isn't *that* terrible or embarrassing; it is mostly just one mediocre story after another. My strong feelings about this zine come from two things: this zine is tragically bad considering the quality of the earlier Southern Lights/Southern Comforts; 3.5, 3.75, and 4.5 are among the best B7 adult zines you can find; 5.5 and 6.5 were not as good, but each of them had a few good stories to make you forgive the many barely adequate ones. This zine...well, it has no stand out stories, and has one story so bad...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'll try not to let this review get too large, but remember the zine itself is 273 pages long...

The cover (on *bright* pink paper) is nice enough - a pen and ink by Leah, but not up to her best work. The back page is a very cute cartoon, also by Leah.

The stories: Stand-In -- a not bad 2 page A/V, with Vila consoling Avon after Blake's disappearance.

Opposites -- An A/V set before Blake appears in the holding tank for the London. It includes one of the *worst* pieces of fan art I have ever seen. The story itself has a brave, thoughtful intrepid, gentle Vila that I couldn't believe for a second. Whatever Vila became, the Vila of the first few episodes would not be putting his life on the line repeatedly for a chance met stranger.

A Credit For Your Thoughts -- Slight V/C. Cally complains to Vila that she can't get the man she wants, deliberately letting him think she means Avon. Not bad, not memorable.

Reliquary -- Avon, mad from his last fight with Blake, decides to drug Vila so he 1) can't say no, and 2) will remember nothing. Dumb and contrived.

The Last Seska -- Pella's last adherent plots to restart the Seskas and Hommiks using Vila, Tarrant and Avon's genetic material; Dayna and Soolin save them. Not bad.

Before the Madness Claimed them--Travis/A. Neither of them is too offensively out of character, but there is nothing interesting here; nothing new learned about either character or the B7 universe as a whole.

In The Company Of Strangers -- A/J From Avon's POV, a very slight, short, PWP. A sequel of sorts; the author had written the same story from Jenna's POV for an earlier Southern Comfort.

What I Did For Love -- Silly parody; Blake plays 'find the banana' with 'Romper Room rejects,' Avon pursues a Vila that insists, 'no slash, how many times have I told you,' and Zen installs a vibrator in the pilot's seat to make Jenna easier to get along with. It has some cute lines, "Avon's face was etched in a mask of dark pensive foreboding that hinted at the despair tearing at his soul. Deciding that a mood such as this was destined to be shared, Avon decided to head up to the flight deck and ruin everyone else's day while he was at it."

Misericorde -- a PGP story; Vila has spent 3 years fruitlessly lusting after his shipmate and friend Tarrant (hey, it could happen), when Soolin (who has become a member of the Dark Priesthood) finds them, and hires them to take her to mercy-kill Avon. Seeing Soolin, facing the fact that she will never love him, Tarrant finally gives into Vila's wiles.

Tarrant to Soolin:...I don't expect you to love me. I don't even want you to."

Soolin considered this, her eyes growing bright with anger. "I see," she said at last. "That why you've chosen Vila. Because you will never be in any danger of loving him."

Tarrant didn't bother to deny it.

"How very convenient for you," Soolin said. "But what about Vila?"

"He knows."

"He always was a fool."

Neither Tarrant nor Vila are well in character, but Soolin was right on.

Never Love a Stranger -- Immediately post-Blake. Vila rescues Avon from the tracking room, and thinks about his earlier life as a delta *female* *love* *slave* bought for Roj by his dad to keep Roj company. *N*O*T*!* The story, if you can believe it, get s worse, as Avon relives getting pregnant with Blake's child, getting thrown out of Blake's house, having the child taken away, testing up to become an Alpha, meeting Anna Grant in college, acceding to Grant's wishes--dressing like a man so no one will know that Anna is a lesbian...I really can't go on. Suffice it to say that I was horrified when I realized this story was meant to be serious...

War of Escalation -- A PWP; Competition on the flight deck leads to a situation where neither feels they can back down, between A/J.

An Innocent Man -- Soon after Orbit; Avon rapes Vila on page 1, they are making love by page 3. Despite this unlikelyness, and the Blake bashing, I almost liked this one...

Innocence and Wrath -- A/V Awful from beginning to end--Avon is sweet and callous, sometimes both at once; Tarrant is raping poor defenseless Vila until finally, Avon coaxes the information gently out of him. All of the characterizations are bad, bad, bad. (Except, funnily enough, Soolin. Hmm, maybe a trend...)

Paths of Destiny -- PGP and a sequel; Tarrant and Vila are prison mates--Vila tries to show Tarrant the ropes, but proud, bold Tarrant holds his head up high...so the rapist/boss of his prison-block will notice him and require his pound of flesh. Vila and Tarrant end up together, but, hey, you knew that was coming. Vila is actually fairly well drawn in this, as are the rest of the Scorpio crew which eventually show up to save T & V. Avon's sole comment upon realizing their relationship, "Sentiment breeds weakness."

Birthday Story -- Avon and Vila bluff each other into going to bed together. Lame set-up, fairly well written.

Compromising Positions--Instead of going to Terminal, Avon follows up another secret coded message claiming to be from Blake. Avon meets a Blake determined to act as though they had been long-time lovers. While Avon is out-of-contact with this Blake, Vila organizes their rescue. Not bad--Avon dealing with a confusedly amourous Blake was quite well done; Vila being the know-it-all about the planet and leading the troops was overdrawn and overlong.

Family Traditions -- parody of Last Stand at the Edge of the World characters. Dumb.

Celebrating Life -- Tarrant, Avon and Vila turn their wake after Cally's death into a three-way 'celebration of life.' *Smirk.* Not a great story, not great sex, but Avon's dialogue is spot-on.

No Respite -- Avon offers himself to make Vila forgive him for Orbit--and while Vila has Avon in his bed, Vila slips Avon a mind-control drug that will make Avon his forever. Now *there's* a plausible plot.

[See this fan's comments about Mice and Men.]

The zine also includes some poetry (I don't review poetry) and some very cute cartoons.

All in all, if this was the first adult or slash zine someone saw, and they said they hated slash or adult stories, I'd understand.

Maybe somebody should review a good slash zine next, just to let the newbies (is that a proper use) or zine virgins know that they do exist...

[zine]: [in response to Sandy Herrold]'s review of the zine above]: Oh, but this was *funny* to read! I realize this isn't the reaction you were aiming at, but it almost makes me want to run right out and read the zine....

Avon as a transvestite ex-Delta love slave???? Wow. I will yield to few in how attractive I find Avon, but that is as a man.

If he were really a lower-class female I think he'd be more likely chosen to be a field hand than a sex goddess.

[zine]: Oh, I agree it's not the best slash zine I've ever seen. But neither is it without redeeming characteristics. The main impression I get from SC 7.5 is that the editor is intent on clearing out her story files.

The second impression I get is that a fair number of the authors are *new* authors. There are a lot of neo B7 fans out there, and not all of them are polished yet. That takes time and experience. I try to bear in mind while reading a zine that this is amateur writing and publishing, folks. The quality is going to vary from author to author and zine to zine. A lot of the old guard B7 fans appear to have moved on, so the up-and-coming writers are going to have a lot of rough edges that with time will hopefully smooth out.

That it took so long to be published is also unfortunate---anything less than near perfection is going to be a let down after so much anticipation.

.....

Anyway, here is a quick review touching on aspects of Southern Comfort 7.5 that left an impression on me (a caveat--a couple of the authors are friends of mine, so that naturally also colors my opinions):

I quite liked the front cover, though I admit I'm totally clueless as to what Leah's getting at in the scene. The back cartoon is a hoot, and I still laugh when I look at it. (The back cover went to auction, I believe, at last MediaWest. First art I've ever seen that sported a spiral binding as an integral part of the piece.)

Stand-In was a satisfying A/V---well-written and fairly believable. For such a short story, it sticks in the memory.

Opposites was interesting. Not the best, and overly romantic for my tastes. But the author shows a lot of promise. The prison routine showed some thought had been given to it. And I liked Akim, big Gan wanna-be that he is.

I liked "The Last Seska" very much; in fact, it's one of my favorites in the zine. I always thought the Seska had been written off far too quickly, so I welcomed Luxia and her little scheme. I actually felt rather sorry for her. Some of the dialogue is wonderful, especially Vila's grilling a malleable Avon on where he's hidden the good hooch! It might have been interesting if Dayna and Soolin had actually accepted Luxia's offer to make them Seska as well.

The Fourth Series would have been quite different: "Avon's Angels" my foot---move over guys!!

In the Company of Strangers. Excellent, as Stranger Things was before it. Totally believable Avon and Jenna. So gritty it hurts.

Misericorde. Very depressing. Naturally, I loved it! Seriously, I can see a T/V relationship developing under these circumstances. And as pointed out by Sandy, Soolin (so often neglected) was well drawn.

Never Love a Stranger. Well ... I have to admire the author's audacity! I do tend to take notice when an author approaches the tried-and-true from a different angle; this particular take didn't work for me, but I envy the boldness of the attempt.

War of Escalation. This was fun, and I like Avon/Jenna. Their competitiveness and determination to make the other crack first was a nice touch.

Paths of Destiny. I liked this one, but then I liked the prequel too.

Family Traditions. Last Stand, taken *far* beyond the Edge of the World. It was kinda cute, I thought, though the end was a bit of a cop-out.

[See this fan's comments about Mice and Men.]

[zine]: [Sandy Herrold] was far kinder in her review of this zine than I would be, and not only because she's not have the nasty piece of work I am. Honestly, this has to be one of the most disappointing zines in any subgenre of B7 in a *loooong* time. Even the stories that Sandy thought were either blah or so-so, I thought were awful, and incredibly out of character (yes, I *do* think there's slash that stays in character!), not to mention that worst flaw of all: they were boring. And as for that last story... Well, I won't actually vent any spleen here about that. Obviously, there are people out there for whom the stories in this zine will press the right buttons, so to speak, but I agree with Sandy: if anyone read this zine as their first and only slash and adult zine and then cleaved only unto gen, forever turning their faces from anything even hinting at age-statement-required, I'd understand too. Personally, though, I just dug out my collection of Sebastian stories. That soon did the trick!

[zine]: "Misericorde" by Randym isn't a love story or a sex story. It is. however, an adult story; one that is most appropriate to the dark B7 universe. Tarrant and Vila are working as smugglers after GP. with Vila casting long, lustful glances Tarrant's way. As the story progresses, we learn that they aren't the only survivors of GP, nor is Vila the only rebel with a case of unrequited love. It's a well plotted, unusual piece of fanfic with a grim, bittersweet ending.

"Celebrating Life" by Cassandra. The title says it all. Avon, Vila, and Tarrant are having a wake for Cally. They are drinking, relaxing, massaging. One thing leads to another until the three men are together in bed. It is all handled very tastefully and erotically.

"Mice and Men" by Mistral. This very long (98 pages) story was dark and violent, with more sex than I've seen in any other piece of fanfic to date. Often the sex was more brutal than I would have liked and often it was longer (to the point that it was boring) than I would have liked, yet I can't say I disliked the story. It is powerful, memorable, and different, with a few sweet moments that were most satisfying. The story involves a number of different sexual pairings, but the main focus is conflict and sex between Avon and Tarrant. In this AU story, the two men have very violent goes at each other. Yet—amazingly—Mistral manages a happy ending.

The zine is stuffed with wonderful Tarrant art, starting with the provocative front cover by Leah Rosenthal which could very well serve as an illo for "Celebrating Life." Randym's sensual A/T illos with "Mice and Men" are also particularly noteworthy. And the Story Contest illos all include Tarrant! The back cover may not be Tarrant, but it must be mentioned; it's the award winning "Weenie Caught in Spiral Binding" by Lumpy Bites.

SC7.5 is chubby (273 pages), attractively laid out, and easy to read, with page upon page of Tarrant. One of the things that I particularly liked about this zine was the number of long, well-developed stories.

[zine]:

Southern Comfort 7.5—apparently Annie unloaded everything she had around which was remotely B7 adultish, regardless of quality--there's the occasional gem (by S. G.!) amidst rivers of shit—this is the zine which attempts to prove that Sturgeon's Law is optimistic! It culminates with a 1-o-n-g story in which characters called Tarrant and Avon go through a sexual blender and come through thoroughly chopped, diced and whipped...my impression of this one was that perhaps someone had found a commercial s/m porn novel, and recast it with Our Heroes—is definitely doesn't have the 'slash sensibility'... This zine also takes the Grand Prize for the Worst Fan Art in Any Category -- one picture in particular had four of us in stitches the last night of ZCon!