Comrades (Man from UNCLE zine)

Comrades is a slash Man from UNCLE anthology. The title appears in both English and Russian on the cover. The Russian is Товарищ (Tovarisch).
==General Reactions and Reviews==
==Issue 1==
Comrades 1 was published in January 1988 and contains 148 pages. The zine has one fan-drawn cartoon (not credited) as well as several non-credited black and white drawings of unicorns.
		
Summary from the publisher: "Contains the 1989 Fan Q Award Winner for Best Man from U.N.C.L.E. Short Story. With tacky cartoons by Sokolnikov and Tesla, and stories by fandoms best-known slash writers and Fan Q winners and nominees. With an all-text cover in English and Russian of terms that in this era of glasnost have found their way into American usage. This sneaky bit of camouflage results in a zine with the appearance of a doctoral thesis--maybe yours?--which means you don't have to panic when you leave it out and your mother-in-law shows up unexpectedly."
* Commentary, A Letter from the Publisher, discusses AIDs and gives information about safe and unsafe sex (3)
* Test Your English Skills by Sasha Sokolnikov ("Nyet, tovarich, a G-string is not a weapon used by G-men, nor is fellatio an opera by Mozart.") (NOTE: This fanwork was submitted without attribution, re-titled, and printed in Southern Comfort #5.5 in May 1990. The editor of that zine. See that issue, as well as the zine's editor's explanation/apology in issue #6.5.) (5)
* Not On My Time, You Don't! by Dominique ("Solo thought his new partner would hold up better to torture than this.") (6)
* Waterloo (Winner 1989 Fan Q Award: Best MFU Short Story) by Zach Nitzyekov ("Captured, blindfolded, raped. Where is Napoleon when you need him?") (reprinted in UNCLE Gold #3) (15)
* Checkmate, End Game (sequel to "Waterloo") by Zach Nitzyekov ("Still waters run deep and can be full of dangerous surprises.") (reprinted in UNCLE Gold #3) (25)
* Summer's Night by Dominique ("It's only a game, but it's one that Napoleon seems to always lose.") (30)
* The Tuesday Mirror Affair by Sasha Sokolnikov ("Children of the night--feh!") (37)
* Another Day in the Life Affair ("Oh, those nasty Thrushies and their threats of long, lingering torture. Illya's heard it before and it's only empty promises.") (38)
* Saturday in the Country by Alexi Tesla (1989 Fan Q nominee author) ("A summer day, a fast motorcycle, and Solo in all that black leather.") (39)
* Prelude by Eros (author of "City of Byzantium," 1989 Fan Q nominee for Best Novella) ("Illya was drunk. It shouldn't have happened, but it did. Now the only atonement can be separation from Solo--permanently.") (52)
* Postscript (sequel to "Prelude") by Eros ("Kuryakin's lifetime of self-punishment is cut short after only 15 years.") (55)
* Confessions: by Norman Kent ("Illya is leaving U.N.C.L.E. New York and won't say why.") (61)
* Another Day in the Backrooms of Vanya's by Sasha Sokolnikov ("The secret side of the Tsar of Seventh Avenue.") (74)
* A Clear Spring as Sanctuary (Unicorn Universe) by Zach Nitzyekov ("You're a what?") (reprinted in UNCLE Gold #3) (76)
* Life's Blood by Zach Nitzyekov ("Illya's secret saved Napoleon's life. Now the tables are turned, but Solo has no magic to save his friend.") (91)
* Lest We Forget by Alexi Tesla (Fan Q nominee author) ("The sounds of a slamming door and a 9mm round being fired can be interchangeable.") (100)
* The Toto I Don't Think We're In Kansas Any More Affair ("When you've got a time machine, you just gotta go somewhere!") (120)
* Dirty Parts: The Men from U.N.C.L.E. Visit a Space Station Affair by Sasha Sokolnikov ("Napoleon began pulling off his clothes. Illya rushed for the airlock--his only means of escape.") (122)
* The U.N.C.L.E. Inter-Office Bulletin Board ("Post official memos only. A sort of graffiti board.") (123)
* Forest Night by Eros (Fan Q nominee author) ("The moonlight can make you crazy--or mad, depending on your terminology.") (125)
* Birthday Surprise by Clotilda Willard ("It's another miserable birthday for Illya, because the one thing he wants, he can never have.") (132)
File:comrades1-1.jpg|inside issue #1, part of the "Inter-Office Bulletin Board," a more modern version of a graffiti wall
File:comrades1-2.jpg|inside issue #1, a bit of crossdressing
File:comrades1-3.jpg|inside issue #1, sample text
==Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1==
==Issue 2==
Comrades 2 was published in March 1990 and contains 147 pages.
		
Summary from the publisher: "...Fan-Q nominated stories and authors. With fantastic try-not-to-drool-on-the-pages art by KOZ (illustrator of "City of Byzantium" and 1989 Fan Q nominee: Best Artist), Angi Towski, Charlie Kirby, Sasha Sokolnikov and Alexi Tesla.
From the editorial: 
Also from the editorial: 
* The Guilty Parties 'Fess Up (2)
* General Propaganda: Letter from the Editor (2)
* AIDS Editorial (3)
* The 501 Affair by Alexi Tesla ("When is a gay rape accusation funny? According to Illya Kuryakin, when the "accused" is Napoleon Solo and the "victim" is homely Herb Groton.") (4)
* Walk Over the Abyss by Zach Nitzyekov (author of "Waterloo," winner 1989 Fan Q Award: Best MFU Short Story) ("It's Korea 1953--or is it New York 1969? A nightmare has returned for Solo and has Kuryakin in its clutches.") (reprinted in UNCLE Gold #3) (9)
* Two Hawks, Dancing (1989 FAN Q nominee: Best Short Story) by Debra Hicks ("The price of love and death can be interchangeable when paid in the coin of a man's soul.") (17)
* Conserve Water (1989 FAN Q nominee: Best Short Story) by Alexi Tesla ("All Napoleon honestly intended to do was make sure his injured but recovering partner didn't slip in the shower.") (37)
* One Arabian Night by Robyn LaSalle, illos by Angi Towski ("The desert, the sand, the pillows in the tent, ancient customs, Sulador the Chieftain and the "son" of Lawrence of Arabia".) (54)
* On the Good Ship Lollypop by Casey Melvin ("It was Napoleon's fault!") (62)
* The Last Wish Affair by Alexi Tesla ("What to do, what to do, 20 minutes to live, what to do...") (71)
* Running Wild (Unicorn Universe) by Norman Kent ("Poachers decide to capture a mythological creature.") (73)
* The Mosley Pike Affair by Jacquelyn Midcult ("Illya is taken prisoner by a blind madman who thinks he has Solo.") (96)
* Slippery Situation by Debra Hicks ("Necessity is a mother.") (116)
* Ghost Writers In The Wind (1989 FAN Q nominee: Best Short Story) by Alexi Tesla, illos by KOZ ("The healing of old wounds--even after six silent years apart--sometimes creates new ones") (In 1999, this story was expanded into a novel of the same name.) (120)
* Welcome Home by Eros (author of "City of Byzantium," 1989 FAN Q nominee: Best Novella) ("It was going to be so easy, moving in together. But all of Illya's old lovers are coming back to convince him monogamy with Solo is a terrrrrible idea, dahling.") (a sequel to this story is "Intermezzo" in "Comrades" #3) (141)
* Faux Pas by Zach Nitzyekov ("Kuryakin is not happy after what Solo's infected him with") (reprinted in UNCLE Gold #3) (147)
* Excerpts from the Memoirs of: The Confession by Tosya Stohn, illos by KOZ ("Recollections from Illya's private diary.") (150)
File:comrades2-1.jpg| from issue #2, KOZ
File:comrades2-2.jpg| from issue #2
File:comrades2-3.jpg| from issue #2
File:comrades2-4.jpg| from issue #2
File:comrades2-5.jpg| from issue #2
File:comrades2-6.jpg| from issue #2, Charlie Kirby
File:comrades2-7.jpg| from issue #2, Angi Towski
File:comrades2-8.jpg| from issue #2, Angi Towski
==Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2==
==Issue 3==
Comrades 3 was published in August 1992 and contains 160 pages.
Production notes: 
* Staff, Production, and Ordering Information (1)
* AIDS: A Letter of Commentary and Information from the Publisher (2)
* Safe Sex, fiction by Alexi Tesla ("Who says it can't be fun?") (5)
* Government Funding, submitted by Renya Spratt, adapted by Alexi Tesla ("What a tangled web we weave, when we file for government assistance.") (8)
* The We've Got You Now Affair by Alexi Tesla ("Trapped, bound, helpless. And the man in the lab coat coming closer.") (9)
* Mesalliance by Eros ("Illya has walked out on Napoleon without a word. No note - nothing. Not until the TV broadcast came on did Solo find out why.") (11)
* The Legacy by Alexi Tesla ("A stormy night and Napoleon is late. Illya fears the worst, until he hears a knock on the door. He opens it...to find Waverly on the doorstep.") (12)
* Russian Wry by Alexi Tesla ("Americans don't trust anyone.") (12)
* Central Park by Alexi Tesla ("Halloween along the bridle paths.") (in Zach Nitzyekov's "Unicorn Universe") (20)
* Dark Eyes, Blue Eyes, poem by Kazuo (34)
* The Hewlett Packard Affair by Alexi Tesla ("It's all Illya wants. Napoleon's so sick of hearing about it, he's ready to give it to him to shut him up.") (35)
* Of Ships and Sails and Sealing Wax by Alexi Tesla ("Retirement, the Pursang, and nothing to do but figure out what to do with all that coconut oil.") (reprinted from Rose Tint My World #1) (38)
* Back-To-School Days by Julia Donnelly ("Napoleon clears up Illya's confusion over slang terms.") (49)
* Money Maker by Garvin Mardens ("This is the communist Solo has known and loved for years?") (51)
* The Proposal: Part I and Part II, poems by Alexi Tesla ("Romance, candlelight and two gold rings. But will the answer be what each man hopes it will?") (53)
* Intermezzo by Eros ("And so begins Napoleon and Illya's life together. But though their personal lives are finally on the right track, everything else is going down the tubes for Solo--including his company, Solo, Inc.") (sequel to "Welcome Home" in "Comrades" #2) (64)
* Bonzo Wacko (Life with You), poem by Tesla (77)
* The New Self-Powered Solo, and The New Self-Powered Illya by Alexi Tesla ("Toys for your Xmas shopping list.") (satirical ads for blow-up dolls) (78)
* Under the Chestnut Tree by Alexi Tesla ("The big 4-0 has arrived for Solo and Kuryakin, and the choice of retirement, a desk position--or in Solo's case, The Big Chair. But the choices each had always felt they would make have been turned around. Now they face their final debriefing, conducted under deep hypnosis at the hands of UNCLE's finest psychiatrists ... and the revelation of things they've never admitted even to...themselves.") (80)
* Variation on a Thunderstorm, poem by Tesla (116)
* The Sounds of Love by Alexi Tesla ("Napoleon imagined it would be soft and sexy ... like Bolero.") (117)
* Blind Love by Alexi Tesla ("Solo is going blind. Is there nothing Illya can do to save him?") (119)
* The Retirement by Alexi Tesla ("In all the ways he envisioned Napoleon's career ending, Illya never suspected it would end this tragically.") (122)
* Special Delivery by Alexi Tesla ("It's been fifteen years since the partnership ended. Now Napoleon has come back into Illya's life - just as Illya discovers his own days are about to end.") (123)
* Samizdat/Comrades Writer/Artist Guidelines (152)
* 11 pages of flyers
File:comrades3-1.jpg| from issue #3 
File:comrades3-2.jpg| from issue #3
File:comrades3-3.jpg| from issue #3
File:comrades3-4.jpg| from issue #3
File:comrades3-5.jpg| from issue #3
File:comrades3-6.jpg| from issue #3 
 
== References ==
Category:Man from U.N.C.L.E. Slash Zines
Category:1980s
Category:1990s