Tris/Alex

Fans have been writing fan stories for Led Zeppelin since the start of the band in the 1970s. But since Real People Fiction, or "RPS", was highly controversial and generally not supported, some fans found a way to circumvent legal issues or fannish hassles by changing the band member's names. 
This is how the pairing of Tris and Alex, an early 1990s Music RPF fandom with a twist, was born. 
Tris and Alex, short for Tristram Lindsay and Alexander Logan, are coded stand-ins for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. 
The Tris/Alex fandom was created by a pair of writers, Nancy Arena and Pam Rose and these characters starred in their novel For All the Gods Departed, as well as their short stories. The pairing of Tris/Alex caught on, and other people in this small fandom used those names as well. 
Unlike media fandom Tris/Alex fandom did not have TV episodes to create their canon. Instead, fans used live footage as well as articles and happily persevered to form their own fanon. In 1994, a fan Sandy Herrold explained: 
A fan explained the lack of canon was actually a benefit to those writing RPS: 
With such a small fandom struggling to swim upstream against the tide of fans dubious of RPS, all fan fiction, even unfinished stories, was greeted with joy: 
==Tris/Alex Art==
Image:alextacs1.jpg|Alex, unknown date, artist is TACS
Image:alextacs2.jpg|Alex, unknown date, artist is TACS
Image:tristacs1.jpg|Tris, unknown date, artist is TACS
Image:Tristacs2.jpg|Tris, unknown date, artist is TACS
Image:revolutionfront.jpg| front cover of the 1995 print zine, Revolution, the artist is Suzan Lovett -- Tris and Alex are one of the four pairings in the story. Kirk/Spock are in the middle, in the upper right are an AU Starsky (Starn) & Hutch (Halan). In the upper left corner are Bodi and Doyl. To the bottom right are Tris and Alex (Alyx). 
Image:revolutiondetail.jpg|detail from the 1995 print zine, Revolution, portrays Tris and Alex (Alyx)
Image:trisalexlovenest.jpg|2023, artist is theoriginaleppieblack, from Paradox House Late November 1970ish-Something; archive link theoriginaleppieblack-blog - "After a rapid mental calculation (Tris's taste in drapes, Tris's acoustic guitar, bedding from Alex's caravan, the wine glasses, the faint noise) Duffy closes it quietly but so quickly Cameron has to jump back. "They're shacked up in there." the drummer whispers." (November 19, 2023)
==Story Timeline==
 
 Image:tristimeline2.jpg| a fan's timeline 
 Image:tristimeline1.jpg| a fan's timeline 
== Tris/Alex Stories==
*American Gothic by Nancy Arena (8 pages)
*American Virgin by Nancy Arena (February 26, 1969, 9 pages, the title is a reference to a song on their third album, the story includes an “excerpt from the Radioactive review of the second third Paradox album Endgame Infinite Night.” One copy has "7" written on the corner.)
*Bad Penny by Nancy Arena (July 1975, 16 pages, takes place several weeks after For All the Gods Departed ends.) 
*Burning Down One Side (November 1972, 36 pages)
*Chicago by Pamela Rose or Nancy Arena (45 pages, at the top of first page: “Keep some add more craziness.” One copy has "15" written on the corner.) 
* Crossed Paths by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, April 1971, 33 pages. One copy has "12" written on the corner.)
* Driving Daze by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, March 26, 1970, 25 pages)
* First Impressions by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, 28 pages. One copy has "3" written on the corner.)
*For All the Gods Departed by Pamela Rose and Nancy Arena
*Friends and Lovers by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories (March 25, 1969, 15 pages. One copy has "8" written on the corner.)
* Growing Pains by Rosemary C. (13 pages)
* Ill Wind by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, December 31, 1969, on one copy March 1971 21 pages. One copy has "11" written on the corner.)
*Living on Tulsa Time by Pamela Rose, printed in Strange Bedfellows #1 in 1993 (part of Side Stories (May 1969, 28 pages. One copy has "9" written on the corner.)
* Love in Any Key by Rosemary C. (15 pages)
*Love the One You're With by Nancy Arena (December 30, 1969, 5 pages. One copy has "10" written on the corner.)
*Morning After by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, 27 pages. One copy has "2" written on the corner.)
* Night of the Hunter by Nancy Arena (October 20, 1972, 30 pages)
* Muppetland by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, March 1972, 20 pages. One copy has "14" written on the corner.)
*One Hundred and One Other Things To Do In Monte Carlo by Nancy Arena or Pamela Rose (4 pages)
*A Question of Loyalty by Nancy Arena (February 1969, 6 pages. One copy has "6" written on the corner.)
*Reason to Believe - an unattributed circuit story
*Revolution is an A/U novel by Madelein Lee that crosses Tris/Alex, Kirk/Spock, Starsky/Hutch and Bodie/Doyle
* Road Fever by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, May 21, 1969, 12 pages)
*Shattered by Nancy Arena (November 1973, 23 pages, takes place just before page 205 of For All the Gods Departed.)
* Show Off by by Pamela Rose (part of Side Stories, November 5, 1968, 17 pages. One copy has "5" written on the corner.)
* Still Life by Pamela Rose (April 1973-August 1974, 39 pages) (part of Side Stories) 
* Southern Cross by Nancy Arena (18 pages, printed in Concupiscence #2)
*Spare Scene: Beginnings by Nancy Arena (August 1968, on another copy October 1971, 4 pages. One copy has "1" written on the corner.)
* Spare Scene by Nancy Arena (October 1971, 2 pages. One copy has "13" written on the corner.)
*Tyger, Tyger by Nansi Loser and Nancy Arena
* Walkman - mailing list vignette by Megan Kent
*The Whys and Wherefores by Nancy Arena (September 1968, 8 pages. One copy has "4" written on the corner.)
* Look Both Ways, a crossover with Eroica by Barbara T and Megan Kent, was a work in progress 1994
==Sample Pages from Tris/Alex Rough Drafts==
 
Image:trisalex-1.jpg
Image:trisalex-2.jpg
Image:trisalex-3.jpg
Image:trisalex-4.jpg
Image:trisalex-5.jpg
Image:trisalex-6.jpg
==Vids==
* Promises by Megan Kent and Sandy Herrold (debuted at Virgule Con in 1994)
==Transformative Works==
* Tris and Alex make an appearance in the zine, Revolution by Madeline Lee, a pseud for Sharon Decker 
* Paradox House Late November 1970ish-Something; archive link theoriginaleppieblack-blog ("After a rapid mental calculation (Tris's taste in drapes, Tris's acoustic guitar, bedding from Alex's caravan, the wine glasses, the faint noise) Duffy closes it quietly but so quickly Cameron has to jump back. "They're shacked up in there." the drummer whispers.") (November 19, 2023)
* CHRISTMAS IN WALES, 1970; archive link (a story with fannish dolls) by theoriginaleppieblack (2025)
== Similar Fandoms Based on Led Zeppelin ==
Bird of Paradise is a fanwork with a similar premise as Tris/Alex. It is an explicit slash coded crossover with Starsky and Hutch/OCs (Derek Quinn and Allyn Sterling) who most fans believed were based on Led Zeppelin. According to the author, however, the OCs were instead based on real people in a lesser known band. - from the author: Gloria Galasso. Email to gardeners list. April 13, 2010.
The manga, From Eroica With Love, is also closely entwined with Led Zeppelin.
While they are not related to Tris/Alex or Led Zeppelin, there is lots of fan-casting in the fan-created universes of Harry & Johnny and Vas/Dex.
"Harry & Johnny" stars two characters in Dirty Harry and many fan-casted characters, many of whom were based on Starsky & Hutch as well as well-known actors of the time such as Robert Redford, 
"Vas/Dex" is a fan-created universe starring two original characters based on Starsky & Hutch and The Professionals.
==Fan Comments==
===1992===
===1993===
 
===1994===
===1995===
===2009===
===2013===
 
==Further Reading and Meta==
* Led Zeppelin in Fiction; archive link (2013) 
* Tris and Alex Masterpost
==References==
Category:Slash PairingsCategory:RPF Relationships
Category:Led Zeppelin
Category:Shared Universes