Southern Seven

Southern Seven is a long-running gen Blake's 7 anthology of art, fiction, and poems.
The zine was well-received and quickly became popular not only for its content, but for its size (over 360 pages) and extensive art.
Image:Southern seven 2 flyer by leah rosenthal.jpg| These zines were huge! This cartoon by Leah Rosenthal makes a reference to an episode in Blake's 7 where Avon is desperately removing ballast from their space shuttle to prevent a crash. At one point in the episode he considers tossing his co-pilot Vila, but in the cartoon, the new issue of Southern Seven comes to Vila's rescue.
 Image:southernseven3-23.jpg|from the third issue, more commentary by Leah Rosenthal about the physical size of these zines 
==Original Home of The Bizarro Universe==
This zine series is where the very popular Bizarro Universe stories began.
==Original Home of The Hellhound Universe==
This zine series is where the well-known and sometimes controversial series, The Hellhound Universe, began. 
Later reprints of the zine did not include these stories as they were later reprinted elsewhere.
==Individual Issues==
Click on the links below to see more information about individual issues of Southern Seven.
Southern Seven Issues	Southern Seven Issues	Southern Seven Issues	Southern Seven Issues	Southern Seven Issues	
Issue 001 	Issue 002 	Issue 003 	Issue 004 	Issue 005 	Issue 006
Issue 007 	Issue 008 	Issue 009 	Issue 010 	Issue 011 	Issue 012
==Paul Darrow's Awareness of This Publication==
The editors of this zine, at least until 1989, wrote frequently of Paul Darrow's awareness of this zine, as well as of their personal contact with the actor. Wortham mentioned going to a play with Darrow and of consuming alcohol with Darrow; a cartoon by Celeste Hotaling in issue #3 refers to these things.
The editor's comment in issue #1: "'Bubbles"?! [And we call Paul Darrow that to his face! He hasn't killed us. Yet. Editor.]"
From a fan in #2: "["The Cynic Song"] opens up a whole realm of possibilities from the MAN OF LA MANCHA. "I Really Like Him" is nothing, if not a typical argument between Avon and Vila, and "What Do You Want Of Me" could easily be retitled "Avon's Lament". In fact, the whole musical would make a great BIZARRO 7 story." The editor responded: "Believe it or not, we once actually considered this: BLAKES 7: THE MUSICAL. Common sense prevailed for the moment." 
The editor expands on this idea in #3: "I must confess that this was Paul Darrow's idea and he even wrote some music for it. It was inspired by a night out at PHANTOM OF THE OPERA in N.Y. Paul felt he could do a better musical. He and Janet decided it would open with Michael (as Vila, of course) floating onto the stage inside a giant plastic bubble. Mercifully, I got drunk shortly after that and don't remember much more of what Paul "composed" for the production. Maybe Leah remembers...? Paul also wrote a filk about Vila and Michael Praed. I'm not joking." 
This ceased, at least in the positive sense, with the onslaught of The Blake's 7 Wars. 
 
 File:Southernseven1darrow.jpg| Paul Darrow and Michael Keating holding an original of the illo used as the cover of issue #1, at Scorpio in 1986 
 Image:southernseven3-21.jpg| from issue #3, Celeste Hotaling, an in-joke involving Paul Darrow, Ann Wortham, and champagne
==The Blake's 7 Wars ==
This zine series was involved in The Blake's 7 Wars as its two creators were major players in that fan controversy. 
There are mentions of the tensions in the letters of comment, some fans pulled their art and stories from submission (and in the case of Leigh Arnold, after publication), and there was a two-year gap in publication between issues #5 and #6 due to these conflicts.
There was also a change in the copyright disclaimer due to the Wars, starting with the fifth issue.
From issue #2: 
From issue #5:
==General Reactions and Reviews==
Category:Blake's 7 Gen Zines
Category:1986 Zines
Category:1980s Zines
Category:1990s Zines