EugeneCh

I must have been really starved for Slayers after the long years. It started from the moment I read QP sama's old good fanfics again, in February. This year, I devoted myself in drawing Slayers fancomics. Since my 1 page is actually 2(double) pages of standard comics, the number of total pages is almost a thousand--> Boy I can't believe myself.
Below are the links of the comics, for your convenience to read them. Thank you so much for sweet supports, comments, and contributions! Again special thanks to Zelswift for English grammar corrections

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*Long comics (based on QP/Diana's fanfics)*

1) Magic dagger from another Universe (MDAU 235 pages)  Zel-centered story, Cannon+Alt couplings, mostly serious.
ch. 1 fav.me/d5y73qt / ch. 2 fav.me/d5z7eg2 / ch. 3 fav.me/d60m83j /

Talking with ~Bjarru about Zel & Xel's first encounter, I mentioned this story which Kanzaka sensei talked in Slayers special vol. 8.  At first I thought it was introduced in the main novel (vol.5) , but it's actually in Slayers Special vol. 8 atogake.
(Atogake: in the postscript of his talk with L-sama)

Please check here: homepage3.nifty.com/QPHOUSE/ge…

*I replaced my translation of the Story of Zel and Xel with the link of QP/Diana's translation, since her translation is more detailed in explaining the story and accurate in terms of grammar ^_^
This story is also very briefly mentioned in 'Zelgadiss' story under the hazy moon' with just one line. 

QP sama's old good Slayers site homepage3.nifty.com/QPHOUSE/sl… has a lot of Slayers info in English. Newer fans will get many help in understanding Slayers novels & its background stories

Reading LIS (Lovers In sorrow), many of you seemed to be shocked at Gourry's aggresive(?) attitude toward Zel. ^_^; As I mentioned in the submission, Black-Gourry trend in 1999-2000 seems to be an important influence on it.

In the Mr. Kanzaka's novel, Gourry and Zelgadiss are not so friendly with each other as they are in anime. All the relationships of Slayers characters are made via Lina in the novel. Even Zel and Amelia's.

In fact, Gourry looked a little bit alert if Zel would approach Lina. Not a few people felt it when he explained the meaning of Zel's handshakes (A swordsman gives his right hand) with Lina (while Zel avoided the handshake w Gourry) in the end of novel vol 1.
And the early official comic by shoko Yoshinaka reflected it: Gourry and Zel sometimes call each other as 'Danna', 'Omae-san'. Those are rather formal callings, in between 'Mr.' and 'Sir(?)'. For example, Rodimus called Zelgadiss 'Danna' as the meaning of 'young master'.

Danna has quite a wide range of formality, but anyway....we can see the two male characters are not so close like they are in anime. The formal calling shows that they are still a bit alert to each other, even though they look comfortable in many scenes. If they'd been so close like in anime, they would've not misunderstood each other even after long-term separation....

Still, for those who dislike Gourry's bad aspect (Even me, it was hard to draw & see;;; )...it would better for you to skip chapter 1 & 2 and go to chapter 3 directly. ^_^;

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*LIS (Kanasimi no koibito tachi : Lovers In Sorrow) written by QP/Diana in 2000

WARNING: ZEL/LINA (+Gourry/Sylphiel(...)), Black Gourry (Darker than original image). Very different from MDAU: Serious & Shojo.

Chapter 1 fav.me/d66utts
Chapter 2 fav.me/d670s40
Chapter 3 fav.me/d676ufh
Chapter 4 fav.me/d67drbl

The original fic of LIS has total 8 chapters and 2 unwritten chapters. Not sure if I can finish this after I come back.;;

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*MDAU links again (Zel-centered story, Cannon+Alt various couplings, written by QP/Diana in 1997)

ch. 1 fav.me/d5y73qt
ch. 2 fav.me/d5z7eg2
ch. 3 fav.me/d60m83j
ch. 4 fav.me/d61tawb
ch. 5 fav.me/d63kx98
ch. 6 fav.me/d65ltmu

(completed)
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*To Return (text/art by me in 2002-2004. Z/L, X/L, G/L)

Sorry for the uncomfortable navigation but hard to fix it==;
First page fav.me/d6g2ik has the links to all the pages.

(completed)
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Thank you! I'll leave home tonight Hope you enjoy your summer

Doing MDAU fancomic, I thought again about why early Zel fandom (at least Japan and Korea) supported Z/L so much. In short, I think that's partly (or mostly) because the novel story was told in the first person, not in the third person like anime.

In both countries, vol 1-7 of the novel were released before anime. Since the story was told in the first person (Lina is the speaker), novel readers in the early fandom consciously/ unconsciously had identified themselves with Lina.

Back then, many of novel readers were madly in love with Zel. Zelgadiss the white (Shiro-no-Zelgadiss), AKA Death in white from head to toe, with a unexpected warm feel, sometimes showing subtle signs of affection to Lina(->identified with the reader herself). Mr. Kanzaka mentioned "Zel fans are so enthusiastic that they're willing to sell their own houses and invest all those money to buy voting slips for Zel" in mid 90's.

And vol. 7, when the well-known illust of Zel-Amelia arm-in-arm was released, those Zel fandom became a chaos. Japanese Zel fans cried out "please take her off from Zel". This reaction influenced Korean fandom, too. Unlike anime fans, many novel fans were identifying themselves with Lina. Thus, it must be hard to see the coupling concepts without a biased (subjective) view. I guess they must have felt a sort of jealousy toward Amelia taking their love away    

Before Amelia came out-- In vol. 3, Lina fell into critical condition, attacked by Lantz (who's controlled by Elis Vrumugun). Zel, Gourry & Sylphiel were at other places separately.
When Lina got the attack and blacked out-- Zel felt a cold shiver ran through him, after hearing a subtle metal sound (a sound of sword Lina dropped). He immediately dashed to Lina's place, bound Lantz, and stopped the flow of blood from Lina's stomach. But Lina lost too much blood--Zel felt helpless because he didn't have recovery skills. At that time, Gourry and Sylphiel came back--Thanks to Sylphiel's resurrection, Lina could come to herself.

At this time, Mr. Kanzaka felt the need of a main healer in the Slayers party. Sylphiel could not be a main party member, since Gourry-Syphiel would threaten Gourry-Lina. So he introduced a new character, Amelia, in the next volume (vol. 4). Zel learned Recovery from Amelia later.

About the couplings, Mr. Kanzaka interviewed like this: 'Lina is Gourry's girl, so I just tried matching leftover characters together'.
That meant, Zel would be out of spotlight with Amelia (and it became true in part 2). That did not please early Zel fandom. Until then, Zel's role had been quite important in the novel. In Korea, Zel fans reacted to make tons of Z/L fanworks, hoping he could return to a main position (The speaker is Lina, so a character who's close to her has more possibility of being at the center of events). In Japan, they were not happy at first, but finally respected Mr. Kanzaka's thought- and found a charm of Z/A, I heard.

After anime released, got popular, ever since the anime fans outnumbered the novel readers, Z/A became a confirmed official. In anime, Z/A looks lovely, and we can see clear signs of affections between the two.

...But I still love the moments of Z/L in the novel (+some of in anime) X3

Doing MDAU fancomic, I thought again about why early Zel fandom (at least Japan and Korea) supported Z/L so much. In short, I think that's partly (or mostly) because the novel story was told in the first person, not in the third person like anime.

In both countries, vol 1-7 of the novel were released before anime. Since the story was told in the first person (Lina is the speaker), novel readers in the early fandom consciously/ unconsciously had identified themselves with Lina.

Back then, many of novel readers were madly in love with Zel. Zelgadiss the white (Shiro-no-Zelgadiss), AKA Death in white from head to toe, with a unexpected warm feel, sometimes showing subtle signs of affection to Lina(->identified with the reader herself). Mr. Kanzaka mentioned "Zel fans are so enthusiastic that they're willing to sell their own houses and invest all those money to buy voting slips for Zel" in mid 90's.

And vol. 7, when the well-known illust of Zel-Amelia arm-in-arm was released, those Zel fandom became a chaos. Japanese Zel fans cried out "please take her off from Zel". This reaction influenced Korean fandom, too. Unlike anime fans, many novel fans were identifying themselves with Lina. Thus, it must be hard to see the coupling concepts without a biased (subjective) view. I guess they must feel like jealousy toward Amelia taking their love away    

Before Amelia came out-- In vol. 3, Lina fell into critical condition, attacked by Lantz (who's controlled by Elis Vrumugun). Zel, Gourry & Sylphiel were at other places separately.
When Lina got the attack and blacked out-- Zel felt a cold shiver ran through him, after hearing a subtle metal sound. He immediately dashed to Lina's place, bound Lantz, and stopped the flow of blood from Lina's stomach. But Lina lost too much blood--Zel felt helpless because he didn't have recovery skills. At that time, Gourry and Sylphiel came back--Thanks to Sylphiel's resurrection, Lina could come to herself.

At this time, Mr. Kanzaka felt the need of a main healer in the Slayers party. Sylphiel could not be a main party member, since Gourry-Syphiel would threaten Gourry-Lina. So he introduced a new character, Amelia, in the next volume (vol. 4). Zel learned Recovery from Amelia later.

About the couplings, Mr. Kanzaka interviewed like this: 'Since Lina is Gourry's girl, so I just tried matching leftover characters together'.
That meant, Zel would be out of spotlight with Amelia (and it became true in part 2). That did not please early Zel fandom. Until then, Zel's role had been quite important in the novel. In Korea, Zel fans reacted to make tons of Z/L fanworks, hoping he could return to a main position (The speaker is Lina, so a character who's close to her has more possibility of being at the center of events). In Japan, they were not happy at first, but finally respected Mr. Kanzaka's thought- and found a charm of Z/A, I heard.

After anime released, got popular, ever since the anime fans outnumbered the novel readers, Z/A became a confirmed official. In anime, Z/A looks lovely, and we can see clear signs of affections between the two.

...But I still love the moments of Z/L in the novel (+some of in anime) X3