Beefstick and Lambchop

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Zine
Title: Beefstick and Lambchop
Publisher: NoShaman Press/Quantum Fire Press (issue #1), Agent With Style (issue #2)
Editor(s):
Date(s): 1997-1999
Series?: yes
Medium: print
Size:
Genre: slash
Fandom: The Sentinel
Language: English
External Links:
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Beefstick and Lambchop is a Sentinel slash anthology zine.

cover of issue #1, TACS, nominated for a STIFfie

From a fan in late 1997:

Have you seen BEEFSTICK AND LAMBCHOP? Can the stories be as intriguing as the title? [1]

Issue 1

Beefstick and Lambchop 1 was published in May 1997 and contains 188 pages. Cover by TACS. B/W interiors by MegaRed and TACS.

The editorial: "'Welcome to my blood, sweat, and tears. I fought deadlines, and last minute glitches, the chore of deciding who'll get top billing... Anxiety and panic attacks became a way of life... But I persevered, and here is the result. An action-packed cop show with all the possibilities inherent in that genre. You know, hurt/comfort, touchy-feely. With a touch of the supernatural. A gorgeous, long haired hip grad student. And a bond between them that might be destiny. Or fate. Or primal. I think you'll find this zine has something for everyone, from a few hot & heavy PWP's to in-depth and intense character studies. All centered around Blair and Jim. After all, that's why we're here. Enjoy!

  • inside page sample, MegaRed

  • inside page sample, TACS

  • inside page sample, MegaRed

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

I got my copy of Leah's "Beefstick and Lambchop" zine a week ago. Loved it. Inhaled it, devoured it, read it. Talk to Leah about ordering one.

188 pages, art by TACS and MEgaRed - all lovely art. Wowsa.

If Santa Had a Harley - Leah. I had the pleasure of reading this in beta form, way back. (Neeners). It was, and is, a good story. I like the image of B under a tree, being all nostalgic and dreamy. A nice beginning to a great zine.

Morning After - Ann. A hot little PWP. Well written, and a great way to wake up.

Waving or Drowning - JKW. Well, *I* liked it. ;-)

Dancing for Strangers - Leah. This was *incredible*. The thought of Jim dancing... hummuna. I thought the characterisations were realisitic, and think the unvieling of their relationship was passionate, well-wrought, and interesting. The only complaint I have is in spots it seemed to be missing a scene, for example at the end B has chosed to share his rooftop sanctuary with Jim, but that use of the roof wasn't shown enough to make the impact of that sharing strong enough. But then, it had Jim dancing....

HEatwave - Siren. An interesting look into psychological drama, sex, and love. It seemed a tad reminescent of other stories, though, so I sometimes felt as if I'd read it before. Not "the" same story, but bits reflected bits in other stories.

The Falcon and teh Breeze - JKW. Again, I liked it and so did my gf. And she gets to hear the sequel before I write it down.

Rules of Punishment - ALexis Rogers. This story made me think. I couldn't decide whether I liked it, or liked it *and* found it arousing. And whether or not I believed it of Jim or Blair. I finally decided I did, and I consider this story a worthy accomplishment of AR. This story, and the otehrs in this series, have captured my imagination and I am grateful for any author who does that. :-)

The River - Leah. I liked it. Yum. Did I read this before? I loved the scene at the end, where after everything that happened and everything they'd been through, there was still doubt and love and wondering what might happen tomorrow to change things. Love it.

Scent of a Guide - a look at how the Sentinel's senses can drag him, kicking and screaming - or not ;) into a relationship with his Guide. It would have been great if slightly longer and more developed; as it was it was heavy on the CASE and not enough relationship developing. I *like* case, dont get me wrong. But I want lots of love and angst, too.

His Guide's Voice - Beefstick. Noramlly I skim over poetry in zines, but this hit me like a truck. I *love* it. It is *so* erotic, and romantic, and incredible. Makes me want to hold my SO close and not let go.

Faith - Sue Walker. The longest piece, and a fine read. The plot was engaging, the angst and love nicely handled. I *loved* the way the characters at the station were handled - watching them make their alliances and act on their loyalities was fascinating. The only complaint is that Jim and Blair didn't seem exactly themselves. A few little things about their behaviour that made me go 'no, he wouldn't do that'. But honestly, I don't care much about things like that. I notice them, but there are so many interpretations of what the characters are that I cant judge a story by differences in opinion. The story is *good* regardless of if it is strictly canon or slightly AU.

All in all, a zine worth reading.[2]

Lambchop and Beefstick [sic], a Sentinel slash zine form NoShamanPress a divison of Quantum Fire Press.

The zine starts with a wonderful TACS cover and contains interior art by TACS and MegaRed. I found the drawing by MegaRed entitled "Comfort" especially nice. I'm not sure why, but I have spent a lot of time looking at this drawing of Blair being held by Jim.

Authors include [Leah S], Ann, James Walkswithwind, Siren, Alexis Rogers, Wendy, and Sue Walker.

I enjoyed all the stories, which cover Christmas, first times, trials and tribulations for our favorite boys. All the authors, except Sue Walker, are known to me and their stories were of the quality I expected. I wasn't disappointed. Sue's story was last and longest and very good.

If you like the Sentinel and love slash, this zine is worth buying. It was everything I look for in a zine. (And the typo in my story is my fault.) [3]

Issue 2

Beefstick and Lambchop 2 was published in May 1999 and contains 183 pages. Color cover by K9. B/W interior art by Geli.

cover of issue #2, K9

The zine was originally going to have the sequel to Faith that appeared in the previous zine. The story grew like topsy, and eventually was published as a standalone zine, Hope.

The disclaimer:

Beefstick and Lambchop 2 is a co-publication of Agent With Style and NoShaman Press and does not intend to infringe upon the copyrights or holdings of Paramount, Pet Fly, Danny Bilson, Paul DeMeo, wake up calls, go to sleep calls, just dozing for a moment calls, no, really, I'm up calls, jungles, forests, my backyard, vendettas (renewed or otherwise), getting mad a/xf getting even, afterglows, beforeglows, nightlights so I can see to get a Tab in the middle of the night, merry-go-rounds, other props from Somethig [sic] Wiccan, er, Wicked This Way Comes, heros, gyros, other sandwiches no one is sure how to pronounce, stakeouts, Stake 'Ems, other really good carryout places, following me, getting noticed, getting arrested, getting put in jail for stalking, tubbles (tele and otherwise), people who've just gained a few pounds, people who have lost a lot of pounds (Hi, Kim!), a few wrong turns, a few too many miles in the wrong direction, "Give me the damn map, Sandburg!", rent, other really good musicals I haven't seen yet, a pirate's pet, a pirate's pot, a pirate's pit, no let's don't go there, hammers, nails, thumbtacks that'll actually go into walls, falling, tumbling and tripping over one's own two right feet. No bribes of a landscaping company that's available now, time to get Flagstaff, my homy little kitten, fixed or a free shot at Dean valentine's head with a Nurf laser canon were offered. Dammit. Laugh! Cry! Send LoCs!

  • Wake Up Call by Toshua (1)
  • Solitary by Ann Teitelbaum (8)
  • Jim of the Jungle by Jane Mailander (9)
  • Spoken by Ann Teitelbaum (41)
  • Renewed Vendetta by K. Ann Yost (42)
  • Flirt by Ann Teitelbaum (51)
  • The Guide's Prayer by Jane Mailander (52)
  • Afterglow by Jane Mailander (53)
  • Merry-Go-Round by Bog (56)
  • Hero by Grey (59)
  • Stakeout by Chelsea Frew (77)
  • Follow Me by Chelsea Frew (81)
  • Fella Tubbies by Bog (90)
  • A Few Wrong Turns by Voracity (93)
  • Rent by Jenny (131)
  • Cartoon by Jane Mailander (138)
  • The Pirate's Pet by Pumpkin (139)
  • Vice by Ann Teitelbaum (146)
  • Cartoon by Jane Mailander (147)
  • Hammer to Fall by Sue Walker (148)

  • inside page from issue #2, first page of Jim of the Jungle

  • inside page from issue #2, Geli, art for Jim of the Jungle

  • inside page from issue #2, Geli

  • inside page from issue #2, Geli

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

"Beefstick and LambChop" #2 - Originally edited by [Leah S], who turned

this issue over to Mysti Frank when she could no longer do it. 183 pages, single-column, regular -- not reduced -- font size (about 12 point, I'd say), no unnecessary blank lines between paragraphs, but the margins are wider than they need to be.

Contributors include Toshua, Ann Teitelbaum, Jane Mailander, K. Ann Yost, Bog, Grey, Chelsea Frew, Voracity, Jenny, Pumpkin, and Sue Walker. Yost, Bog, Frew, and Walker haven't printed on-line. I'm not sure about Jenny. (Maybe she is Jenny Saypaw? Can't tell.)

The cover is a color piece of (who else?) Jim and Blair by Lyrade. Not one of her better pieces. (She's improving on a steady basis and has done some lovely pieces of late.) no composition to this piece, and the likeness of Jim is off.

Otherwise, there are a few interior illustrations by Geli. Her style tends to simple line drawings, and she's pretty good at getting the likenesses with those few pen strokes. These illoes aren't complicated -- most of them are recognizable photo shots taken off the screen. I think this artist will really develop into something, given time.

"Wake Up Call," by Toshua, is 7 pages of very little happening. Jim & Blair don't show up for work, Simon is worried and he and Joel go to the loft and discover the building is filling with carbon monoxide. They rescue the guys, Joel realizes they are a couple. The end.

"Jim of the Jungle," by Jane Mailander, is pretty good, and very much in the tone of the movie it's aping (you should pardon the pun). It's *very* funny. Blair, assistant on the expedition of a really obnoxious Professor Stoddard, almost gets eaten by a crocodile -- but he is rescued by a vine-swinging Jim, who calls him "new fella" and promptly slams them into a tree. Jim takes him back to the Chopec, where Blair quickly realizes that Jim is a Sentinel. Jim asks Blair to be his "lookout-buddy."

"Jim need lookout-buddy. Sometimes Jim forget to see when hear something too good, hit tree. Jim smell something nice, Jim there all day. Lookout-buddy hit Jim with big stick, stop Jim doing that." (Blair and Jim, of course, come up with a *much* better way to keep Jim from zoning out . . .)

And he has a pet "dog" named Gus -- a very playful black jaguar. There's also an action-adventure aspect to the plot, with bad guys to be foiled by our Intrepid Duo. Very enjoyable.

Ann Teitelbaum's contributions are all . . . paragraphs. Not poems, not even the prose-busted-into-lines that masquerades as poetry in so many fans' eyes. Not vignettes. Just . . . moments. Odd little things that generated no response in me.

"Renewed Vendetta," by K.Ann Yost, is an 8 page sequel to the episode "Vendetta." Yost has a really bad habit of underdeveloping story ideas. This story should have been fleshed out to a much longer story, because as is it reads more like a story outline. Freeman (bad guy from the episode) kidnaps Blair, beats him, and intends to rape him (on videotape). Blair saves himself and kills Freeman. Any repercussions from this (legal, emotional) are given the barest lip service. Jim's role in the story is to come get Blair when he calls, angst a bit to himself about his feelings for Blair and when can he tell him. Then, in the last couple of lines, Jim blurts out to Blair that he loves him, Blair says he loves Jim, The End. Very unsatisfying. This story just speeds along, giving every idea or moment a lick and a promise.

"Afterglow," by Jane Mailander, a just-after-the-first-time story, is only 3 pages, but it highlights a nice moment of insight into the characters, as Jim deals with Blair's reaction.

"Merry-Go-Round" by Bog is another one that seems to derail from its intended course and ends up being pointless. Three scant pages, from Stephen Ellison's point of view. He is reflecting on Blair's place in Jim's life, seemingly with a some degree of jealousy. An interesting place to start a story, except that there is no story. Jim tells Stephen that he and Blair are a couple, he tells him about the Sentinel stuff (all told, not shown). This, apparently, is all Stephen needed to hear, as now all is well in his world. The story (snippet is more like it) ends with a totally gratuitous joke.

"Hero" is 18 pages from Grey. Post "Three-Point Shot," Jim discovers that Blair and his bookie cousin, Robert, got Blair the information he needed to clear Orvelle Wallace by promising to let the bad guy screw Blair (which apparently Blair felt was the only way to help Orvelle -- and keep him from also hurting Cousin Robert). Then the Feds get involved, because they want this guy, and now they want Blair to go back to him. Story proceeds from there, involving personal issues between Jim and Blair, issues from the past, etc. Typical Grey stuff. An okay read, but again, I would have liked this story to be developed a little more. (Of course, that may just reflect my preference for long, complex story lines.) [NOTE: This story is now back up on Grey's web site.]

"Stakeout" and "Follow Me" by Chelsea Frew go together. In the first story (all four pages of it), Jim gives in to his feelings and kisses Blair while he is asleep. Except Blair isn't asleep, and they declare their mutual love. (What is *with* all these stories lately where this *major* shift in relationship -- and orientation, depending on your point of view -- is skipped over as if it were nothing? I find this very puzzling. And bad writing.) In the companion story, we get the first time sex scene. Nothing new here.

"Fella Tubbies" is another handful of paragraphs by Bog. A humorous bit (and I did chuckle), that involves Blair taking on the rest of the cops in a challenge. To say more would be to blow the punch line.

"A Few Wrong Turns" by Voracity is 37 pages of what struck me as soapy contrived melodrama, unrecognizably characterized. It starts with a cliche that really irritates me -- a misunderstanding between Jim and Blair (that apparently they are too stupid to wait and talk about) sends Blair running away to hide his pain. Conveniently (because it seems to be her only role in the story) Naomi contacts him to say she's terminally ill and in hospice care on the other side of the country.

So Blair goes to tend his mother, angsting about that and his relationship with Jim and company, having spirit dreams along the way. He is the Mary Sue of this town he's in, as everybody loves him and wants to do things for him. Eventually Jim and Simon show up; Jim lays his head in Blair's lap, confesses his feelings. Simon chimes in to explain how Jim was literally incapacitated in Blair's absence and couldn't work. (Phooey to that concept, says I.)

So, they all hang out and emote until Naomi has the good sense to kick off and get out of this soap bubble. Jim gets to comfort Blair and, several weeks later, they consummate the relationship (complete with a marriage proposal from Blair.)

"Rent," by Jenny, is a PWP, as the two play out a sex-for-sale fantasy. "The Pirate's Pet" by Pumpkin (who has written cute stories, interesting stories, odd stories) is a piece of AU PWP fluff (a pirate scenario, obviously, where Blair captures James' ship and plunders him). It is so AU that the characters can not be connected with Jim and Blair at all, except by name and description.

Jane Mailander includes a couple of really funny "Sentinel meets Rocky and Bullwinkle" cartoons.

The last (and best) piece in this zine is the 35 pages of "Hammer to Fall" by Sue Walker. Everything I have said about her writing stands: complex, intelligent, subtle, nuanced, strong, edgy. That applies to her handling of the characters and the plot (which is purely relationship-only, first time). [4]

References

  1. ^ from Strange Bedfellows (APA) #19 (November 1997)
  2. ^ comments on Virgule-L, May 31, 1997, quoted anonymously
  3. ^ comments on Virgule-L, May 24, 1997, quoted anonymously
  4. ^ comment at Prospect-L, a public mailing list, quoted anonymously (July 6, 2000)
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