Bay City Gazette

Table of Contents

The Bay City Gazette was originally published as a stand-alone paper zine that premiered at SHareCon 2014.

Title Page

The Bay City Gazette, a Starsky & Hutch slash zine, is published by Flamingo, October 16, 2014, premiering at SHareCon, October 17, 2014. This amateur publication is created for entertainment only with no intent to infringe on any rights held by anyone holding rights to Starsky & Hutch. Edited and proofread by Flamingo. All errors are mine alone!

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Introduction

From the Bird’s Beak:

I’ve always said that fandom is just a microcosm of life distilled. And like everything in life, the only constant is change.

Paper zines, a mainstay of fandom from 1930 on (History of Zines), are becoming, like my beloved whooping cranes, endangered species. Once cherished, zines have spawned their own derogatory term: dead tree fandom. New forms of publishing are more immediate, more popular, and more affordable. Fans, generally early adopters of technology, are now avid users of ebooks and smartphones. (While ebook statistics are hard to nail down, approximately 30 percent of current book sales are for ebooks. Some predictors say this could climb to 50 percent or, conversely, that it is already in decline. It’s statistics. Take your pick.)

Zines, unless in digest form, are large and unwieldy, and for slashers, often have graphic language and images that makes them difficult to read in public. Ebooks and smartphones provide easy access to reading material. Several zine publishers I know have confessed, “If a zine is not an ebook, I probably won’t read it. It’s just not convenient.” “My reading time is so limited, I can’t be lugging a zine around.” There’s the storage issue and the expense. Beyond the purchase price, shipping is prohibitive. Postal rates have destroyed the overseas market for sales from the U.S.

I’ve tried to make zines available in as many formats as possible—some more successfully than others. With this zine, named after another endangered format, the newspaper, I’m attempting to straddle both worlds. I’ll probably end up with a groin pull, but I plan to present this zine in paper (print on demand) and an ezine simultaneously. You can obtain the ezine through the Starsky and Hutch Archive as a download. The SHareCon 2014 zine will also be available the same way.

Will I produce another zine in both formats in the future? Well, that depends on what happens to the Bay City Gazette. Will I continue to support written fic in Starsky and Hutch? You bet your sweet ass. Some things you can take to the bank.

So, enjoy the Gazette, and let me know what you think. We’ve got some wonderful contributors and a very eclectic mix of materials. Astrid gives us an exhausted Starsky in Huggy’s bar after a grueling ordeal with Hutch. Cyanne’s story was inspired by the SH Present Tense Big Bang, so the boys are young and working in today’s world, and dealing with a plethora of issues from other fan universes. If you’ve ever enjoyed Rayelle Roe’s Mixed Metaphors, you’ll love this modern version. Jessica Celliers takes Hutch on a dark and dangerous mission. Dawnwind shows Hutch working through his recovery after the Fix and coping with unsettled feelings toward the man who saved him. Glow and Kath Moonshine’s story comes with one warning: ladies, go to the bathroom before reading. LilyK gives Starsky and Hutch a fantastical case that’s going to take more to solve than a gun and a badge. Kath Moonshine’s solo outing visits Kiko as an adult and reflects on his past. Suz(tm) gives us a whole new way to enjoy our favorite show. Theresa Kyle gives us Starsky’s viewpoint in a way only she can as he and Hutch see the same movie from totally different viewpoints. We are fortunate to have a wonderful front cover by Suzan Lovett and a lovely back cover by Virginia Sky.

Thank you to all my wonderful writers and artists who are willing to put up with the world’s most harried and demanding editor. I am grateful to all you! Whether you are reading this on paper or on an electronic device, I hope you will enjoy it, and will take a moment to send some feedback to these terrific contributors who spent so many hours producing their contributions to this zine.

With love in Starsky and Hutch,

Flamingo

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