More geezer nostalgia, kids. Back in the days when information was mainly disseminated on paper, the pickings were purty slight for FAs looking for a regular fix of disreputable fantasy fiction. In this dark era (which we'll call the late eighties/early nineties), the primed source for FA fantasy was mail order. Dimensions (originally: FA-SIG, for Fat Admirers' Special Interest Group - snappy, eh?) was a mail sub title back then, and for a while, its fictional offerings were predominately male FA slanted. (I oughta know: R.B. Lawrence and I wrote most of 'em!) Outside of it - and the hard-to-find-on-newsstands BUF - the next-best-thing was the amateur newsletters.

So let us consider: FFI Newsletter and Belly Busters. The first, originally called Force Feeders International, then later tempered into the less ominous sounding Feed Lot, was the brain child of a Texan named Mike James. FFI was proudly pro-feeder at a time when even the fantasy was loudly condemned in the size acceptance movement. As such, the tone of its opening editorial comes off more than a little defensively cranky. But who can blame Mike when he had people calling him "subhuman" in print?

James edited the zine through two issues, at which point he self-reportedly started getting threatening correspondence. He passed the editorial reins onto a Georgian named Pat White, who made zine's the editorial tone less in-your-face, brought in new fiction and some wonderful graphics by an artist who signed himself "Will N. Dorf."

Dorf (not to be confused with the Tim Conway character) is a cartoony artist whose speciality is mega-sized women: One of his first tasks for FFI was a series of graphics featuring a two-ton woman named Dora. A close-up of Dora's fat-smothered foot being shoed by the hands of a lover is classic, both sexy and slightly disturbing. Like many amateur artists, Dorf could be inconsistent, but his best works make their own kind of structural sense much like other good cartoon figures. (Betty Boop doesn't make anatomical sense either, but that doesn't dilute her sexiness either.) When FFI died, he moved over to Belly Busters, helping that title immeasurably with his presence.

FFI also contained both weight-gain fiction and essays: many of the stories, have thankfully been reprinted on the Web and can presently be found in The Weight Room, though a few choice items still cry out to be posted. I'm especially fond of a Bruce Powell/Cal Stephens collaboration called "Lisa," which described a runway model's inflation after she's eaten a mega-calorie frozen dinner.

The essays were also choice: my favorites being a pair written by the husband/wife team of "Willie Prader" (reverse the name and you have a medically defined syndrome characterized by "overeating") and Kelly Goodman, the six-hundred-plus pound feedee who appeared in an issue of BUF. Eccentric and articulate, both writers were among the first to rally a written defense of their lifestyle. Last I heard from either them, they were selling a follow-up set of Kelly pics through Belly Busters. The Divine Ms. G. was reportedly much larger than she'd been in her BUF shoot.

FFI was nicely laid out in newsletter format, though more than one editorial glitch could be found in its contents. Most FAs had to wait for years, for example, to read the last few lines of Powell's "Tammi." When it appeared on paper, the ending was cut off; the complete version would show up later in newsgroups and The Weight Room.

The zine lasted six issues in print, but I understand it was an early presence in the FA computer community. In its stead came a scruffily typed newsletter calling itself Belly Busters, which continues to this day on a sporadic printing schedule.

BB's anonymous editor (it's credited to the Caldera Corporation) has tried for a slightly broader editorial perspective than its predecessor. While all of FFI's pieces focused on male feeder/female feedee relationships, BB been more egalitarian. As such, it's been the only consistent source for straight male weight-gain stories and graphics. The covers, which show photos of a single feedee model, have all been women, however.

The newsletter was the first forum for fiction by sexy woman writer, Betsy Bogert ("Heaven," "Satisfaction"), and for that reason alone its place in history is probably assured. But some of its other fiction has been choice and, to my knowledge, hasn't been posted on the web yet. Its publishing is sporadic at best: every once in a while, the zine's editor announces a new issue, which typically means a wait of six months more before you actually see it. The most recent issue has been number seven, and since it's still fairly current, let's take a look at it.

Issue seven contains three stories: two feeder stories with women as growth objects; one with a guy. The guy story is part of an ongoing series involving a feedee named Terry: it's a pretty surreal bit of bondage fiction. (Our hero gets forcefed by the Pillsbury Dough Boy!) I'm not that enthused by s-and-m-laced feeder fiction - to me, overeating should be a positively charged erotic act - so tales that focus on dominance fantasies leave me cold. It's obviously a drawing fantasy, though, since it shows up repeatedly in amateur FA fiction.

First of the two female feedee stories, T. Klien's "Unrestrained Pleasures," is a straightforward girl-meets-feeder story: enjoyable but for some excessive descriptions of the heroine's digestive processes.

The second, "Fantasy Diet," by T. Durham, is by far the most successful of the three offerings (weak title to the contrary). The diary entries of a naive young aerobics trainer who is deliberately fattened by the denizens of a small town, "Diet" carefully maps its character's growing appetite over a Fall-thru-Spring time frame. Because our heroine is initially unaware of her body changes (and later just accepts 'em), we're given glimpses of her physical growth through side details. As she balloons from a slender aerobocizer into Bonnie Grape size (a comparison reinforced by several details that match the book/film Gilbert Grape), she becomes the largest woman in a town full of fat women. While the character's obliviousness is a bit of a stretch - by story's end, she still unaware that she's been subtly fattened by one of her former clients - it's still fun to read. Wouldn't mind seeing a follow-up to this 'un.

Some folks look at Belly Busters for the personal ads and photos, but I'm not one of 'em. The problem with ads in particular is the delay between issues is so extreme, you've gotta wonder if the ads are current. As for the photos, while they may be actual women, the lack of head shots on so many of 'em is an irritant: if you're gonna show feedees, then for God's sake, show 'em eating!

The zine has some good amateur graphics, though. Dorf's not in this issue, but there's a nifty set of pics (by an artist with an illegible signature) of several mega-sized cuties. My fave is a rendering of a naked beauty walking with her belly being supported ahead of her on a dolly. "What do you mean, 'too fat'" she proudly asks the reader. "I can still walk, can't I?"

May not be a slogan that the size acceptance community will want to adopt any time soon - but it works for me!

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[Belly Busters can be purchased for $10.00 an issue from Caldera Co., POB 1892, South San Francisco, CA 91083.]

Copyright 1997 - Oakhaus Designs

---Wilson Barbers