1981

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1981 will most likely be remembered as the year of the Star Wars fanzine kerfluffle. In May of 1981, according to Langley [1] “L. Deneroff and C. Levine published a story titled "Slow Boat to Bespin" in Guardian #3, their mixed media fanzine.“ There were two versions of this story. One was written by A.E. Zeek. The other was written by B. Wenk. The story that was targeted was Zeek’s story which would probably be considered R Rated using today’s definitions. Most likely, as a result of Zeek’s story, Lucasfilms Ltd. sent out several cease and desist letters to Star Wars fanzines. The letters were sent by Maureen Garrett. Langley quoted part of the letters sent out in August as saying “Lucasfilm Ltd. does own *all* rights to the Star Wars characters and we are going to insist upon *no* pornography. This may mean no fanzines if that measure is what is necessary to stop the few from darkening the reputation our company is so proud of.” The community waited for guidelines to be created, guidelines Garrett promised were forthcoming in the cease and desist letters. The guidelines that came out in October were not really guidelines but a statement that there was to be nothing vulgar, pornographic, excessively violent or gory. People complained for a while but eventually the community moved on and people started writing and circulating more adult material. This event did have the net effect of making the Star Wars fan fiction community relatively slash free until the release of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

The Blake's 7 community was alive and well. Among other zines published this year was B7 Complex #1. The community was also beginning to take its first steps into ActorFic. Some of this material was circulated underground. Some of it was apparently circulated with the consent of the actors involved. The material ranged from serious character explorations to humorous pieces.

Warped Space, one of the most influential fanzines, went multifandom in 1981. Warped Space 46, which was released in September, contained a mix of Star Trek and Star Wars stories. (Verba)

In the Star Trek fan fiction community, the hurt/comfort genre became more established with the release of such stories Diane King’s Captives. The community discussion centered around the movies that were released. Slash was being discussed, as was how people preferred to view the Kirk-Spock-Bones relationship. Verba cited a survey which said most people preferred to see that relationship as a friendship.

After Star Wars fans did basically a clean sweep of the FanQs in 1981, the awards were changed to be given by fandom. This was to give greater exposure and prevent similar occurrences.



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