Trace Elements

Trace Elements is one of the first Starsky/Hutch zines published. 
It is edited by Billie Phillips and Pamela Rose. Artwork is by Marie A. 
From the title page: "This zine is a brief exploration of other possible elements in a relationship." 
The zine's flyer said twenty copies of the zine were already spoken for, that ten were being held until February 6, 1982 for "the English fen" and that folks should start checking their mailboxes in March 1982. 
The zine was then listed in several issues of S and H in the "available soon" section; the last two mentions of this were in April and June 1982. The zine was also advertised for sale in Datazine #18, #19 and #20 (through August 1982). The next issue of S and H came out in September 1982 and "Trace Elements" had disappeared off the zine listings. This indicates it was published during the spring/summer and had probably sold out right away. 
 
== Code 7 vs. Trace Elements ==
According to some fans, Code 7 was at the printers when Karen B heard that anti-slasher fen were threatening to send the zine to the stars and to the producers of the show. She pulled the zine at the last minute and removed all the names. When Pamela Rose and Billie Phillips heard that they were going to publish the zine without author's names, they felt the Code 7 staff were allowing themselves to be influenced by the anti-slashers, and they hurried their own zine, Trace Elements, complete with authors' names as a statement. source: posts to Virgule-L, dated 1994, accessed May 1, 2011 
==Publication Context==
===The Political Climate===
The early 1980s in the United States were rife with political and social turmoil. Phyllis Schlafly, Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority, and what many fans referred to as the new McCarthyism was a reality. LucasFilm had hopped into the fray with Open Letter to Star Wars Zine Publishers by Maureen Garrett in the summer/fall of 1981, an event that had to have had a cooling effect on sex, explicit and otherwise, in fannish works. This is the climate from which the first issue of Code 7 sprang.
One prominent zine ed comments on "sensitive material" in her editorial of a how-to zine published in March 1982: 
===Trace Elements and S/H Fanfiction History===
Slash underground and drawerfic had, of course, been circulating among small groups of friends before "formal" zines were printed. One example of some fans' familiarity with the topic of S/H fiction in these pass around stories are comments about "Trace Elements" in the widely-read S and H. Several reviewers in #37 spoke of the stories in "Trace Elements" as having already too-familiar slash plots or execution. One fan wrote: "But she takes it beyond and beneath the usual first-time story with her insights into the characters." Another fan said, "This story contains no surprises. There is nothing here that hasn’t been done before and more creatively." Another fan described the story, What's a Partner For? as "a standard post-Sweet Revenge first-timer."
Even though their circulation was small, and one needed to be a member of the right fan community to know about them, more formal zines were soon to follow. These were publications that could be purchased by any fan in possession of the publisher's address.
Forever Autumn was the first S/H fiction zine published. It was issued in the UK in March 1980. 
Next, a single slash story was published in the second issue of Ten-Thirteen in February 1981. 
It is commonly understood that the first full S/H fiction zine published in the U.S. was Code 7 in Summer 1981, and then Trace Elements in 1982. 
Hanky Panky, though a letterzine, contained much art and fiction. That zine began in January or February 1982.
Some other very early slash zines were The Phone Booth (the front cover art is dated 1982, one piece of inside art is dated 1981), Fly United (likely mid-1982), Cucumbers and Crisco (likely 1982). All three of these zines were very roughly produced and considered pass-around zines.
A single slash story, A Handful of Sand, was printed in September 1981 in Daily Reports #2. 
There was contradiction regarding which full S/H fiction zine was first, Code 7 or "Trace Elements," but this was based on semantics and definition. This is because the editors of Code 7 issued an announcement in June 1981 that the Code 7 had been canceled. There is an announcement regarding Code 7 in S and H #22: 
The reason? According to some fans, "Code 7" was at the printers when Karen B heard that anti-slasher fen were threatening to send the zine to the stars and to the producers of the show. She pulled the zine at the last minute and removed all the names. 
In reality, the editors of Code 7 secretly published their zine, anonymizing the authors, and distributed it to a select group of people. Because of this, some fans did not consider it a 'real' zine.
The exact nature, scope and reality of the threat is difficult to ascertain. There were many veiled references in later issues of S and H about fans betraying other fans and how the anti-slash sentiment was driving good writers away from the fandom (or at the very least underground). See S and H issues 21-30. Yet even those rumors were hotly disputed in later issues of S and H. (See issues 30-38) 
Because Code 7 #1 was an underground publication, some fans consider Trace Elements the first "published" US S/H zine, but also understand that Code 7 was printed and distributed many months before. 
The secrecy regarding the publication of Code 7 is given a nod in this statement: 
A fan in early 1982 gives a wink to fellow fen regarding "Code 7": "I haven't seen that much S/H to date -- just one excellent zine (that doesn't exist, of course)." from Hanky Panky #1 (January or February 1982) 
In 2001, a fan wrote: 
Later issues of Code 7 were offered publicly in letterzines and authors and publisher info was included. 
Ironically, many years later, Code 7 was available at Agent With Style, a highly visible zine agenting and publishing business.
As early as these Starsky & Hutch slash zines were, Star Trek: TOS K/S has them beat by several years (and in the case of drawerfic such as The Ring of Soshern, My Love Has Wings, and Green Plague, by at least a decade). Some Starsky & Hutch fans would have been aware of these stories as there was a fair amount of cross-pollination between the two fandoms.
The first K/S novel was Gerry Downes' Alternative: The Epilog to Orion (around August, 1976, though it appears an earlier drawerfic was passed around several years earlier.)
The first fiction Kirk/Spock anthology was Thrust (around the middle of February, 1978)
An early K/S fiction series was Yea, Though I Walk by Katy Young (1978). Also see Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn (1980) by Pamela Dale.
==="Trace Elements" and George Lucas===
Some fans felt that the hullabaloo over this zine's publication was related to a controversy that had been heating up a few months earlier in the Star Wars fandom, and George Lucas' attempt to control fanworks and adult material. For more on that general topic, see Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers (1981).
Very shortly before "Trace Elements" was printed, a fan wrote: 
===The Black Notebook===
In 1985, a fan wrote described the climate of the time "Trace Elements" was published: 
==Slash as Old Hat==
One thing to keep in mind: even before fans edited, wrote, and read any of these zines, many had already had exposure to S/H stories in the form of pass around stories. One example of this experience is seen in the reviews of "Trace Elements" in S and H #37. Several reviewers spoke of the stories in this zine as having already too-familiar slash plots or execution: 
==Table of Contents==
* Let There Be No Strife by Billie Phillips (1)
* Come Dance With Me by Madelein Lee (established relationship vignette) (26) 
* Silver Lady by Pamela Rose (Hutch becomes re-addicted to heroin and doesn't want to quit.) (33)
* Trapped in Ice by Jean Chabot (After Gillian's death, Hutch goes downhill.) (37)
* Alternate by Pamela Rose (Hutch and a hustler. Was also in The Phone Booth.) (53)
* What's a Partner For? by Rosemary C. (57)
* A Virgin in These Woods by Rosemary C. and Pamela Rose, winner of an Encore Award (74)
* The Newlygay Game by Pamela Rose (A parody of The Newlywed Game. The contestants are S & H, Kirk and Spock, Harry and Johnny, and Anita Burnout and Phyllis Shifty (winner of an Encore Award) (111)
==Gallery==
Image:traceone.jpg|interior art, Marie A
Image:traceseven.jpg|interior, sample text, A Virgin in These Woods
Image:tracetwo.jpg|interior art, Marie A
Image:tracethree.jpg|interior art, Marie A
Image:traceeight.jpg|interior, sample text, "The Newly Gay Game"
Image:tracefour.jpg|interior art, Marie A
Image:tracefive.jpg|interior art, Marie A
==Reactions and Reviews==
===1982===
 
 
 
 
===1983===
===1986===
===1994===
==References==
Category:Starsky & Hutch Slash Zines
Category:1982 Zines