Zine review: Exposures 1 (1988)
Jan. 21st, 2025 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timemidaeAnother older slash zine this time: Exposures (1). This one was a quick read - the spacing is wide and there are only 3 stories in its 166 pages.
Overall, I would recommend it, primarily for the first story, Some Kind of Friend, by Rettig Holt. This was my favorite of the trio, and luckily it's the heftiest as well, coming in at 80 pages. It's a fairly heavy angst story (vague spoilers:containing discussion of sexual violence and suicide), but it doesn't wallow. The tension between Illya and Napoleon is well drawn out - I tend to enjoy stories where they find themselves in conflict - and there's a look at Solo's manipulative side that's really interesting. He's willing to be cruel to Illya in the interests of protecting him, which I think rang true for the characters. The dialogue was effective throughout.
The second story, Friday Night by Steven J. Keller, is a humor piece that didn't quite land for me, but had some charming moments.
The remaining story, Stormy Weather by Candace-anne Clarke, is essentially a PWP. I have no issue with that, but the athleticism displayed somewhat beggared my belief, given that one of the characters allegedly has a recent brain injury at the time.
Aside from the cover art, there are no original illos as far as I can tell, just reprints of images from the show. Some of these have been doctored by someone named Steve (unclear if this is the same person as Steven the author) into mildly amusing cartoons.
That's a wrap on Exposures 1, here's hoping I'll get my hands on Exposures 2 and 3 someday.
Overall, I would recommend it, primarily for the first story, Some Kind of Friend, by Rettig Holt. This was my favorite of the trio, and luckily it's the heftiest as well, coming in at 80 pages. It's a fairly heavy angst story (vague spoilers:containing discussion of sexual violence and suicide), but it doesn't wallow. The tension between Illya and Napoleon is well drawn out - I tend to enjoy stories where they find themselves in conflict - and there's a look at Solo's manipulative side that's really interesting. He's willing to be cruel to Illya in the interests of protecting him, which I think rang true for the characters. The dialogue was effective throughout.
The second story, Friday Night by Steven J. Keller, is a humor piece that didn't quite land for me, but had some charming moments.
The remaining story, Stormy Weather by Candace-anne Clarke, is essentially a PWP. I have no issue with that, but the athleticism displayed somewhat beggared my belief, given that one of the characters allegedly has a recent brain injury at the time.
Aside from the cover art, there are no original illos as far as I can tell, just reprints of images from the show. Some of these have been doctored by someone named Steve (unclear if this is the same person as Steven the author) into mildly amusing cartoons.
That's a wrap on Exposures 1, here's hoping I'll get my hands on Exposures 2 and 3 someday.
