221B Baker Street

Duration: May 1993 to May 1996, four issues, four years.
Frequency: Annual
Editor: Gina Martin, D.C. Black, Bonnie Bills, Maura Kelly, Lynne Stephens, Lesley Skoyles, Pat Gonzales, Dee Dee Spencer,
Club Affiliation: The Lurkers of the Empty House

In the early nineties, I was lucky enough to get to Lansing, Michigan to see the fan phenomenon known as MediaWest*Con, where fandoms of every cult TV show British and American come to debate, buy fanzines, watch homemade music video tributes to their favorite shows, and just have fun. The Granada TV series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes was a prime topic back then — right up there with other television cult favorites like Star Trek, Forever Knight, and Highlander. There I discovered the fanzine 221B Baker Street, which spun tales off of the universe we saw portrayed in that latest of Sherlock Holmes series.

I don't know how many other old-school Sherlockian purists got into 'zine Sherlock, but there was definitely some fun to be had here. The four volumes of 221B Baker Street produced by the Lurkers of the Empty House were a great example of the Sherlockian fanzine, and oft-overlooked cousin of the Sherlockian journal. The first of its four volumes, put out in May of 1993, was a thick 246 pages with a colorful laminated cover, with something like two dozen short stories in it, art, poetry, and puzzles, and other issues followed suit.

With only one male contributor adding two little stories to its full run (Gee, I wonder who that was?), 221B Baker Street offered a feminine perspective from far outside of the Adventuress establishment of mainstream Sherlockiana. Checking out the schedule of the most recent MediaWest*Con, I noticed that the only Holmes panel was "Holmes and Russell Forever. Why we can't get enough of this delightfully odd couple?" and it leaves me to wonder: do current MediaWesters produce any Holmes 'zines, if their main object is a literary one, rather than a TV show?

-- BAK