Flirty frenemies? Don't mind if I do.

[sholio]

Sooooo for backstory here, for the last year or so, philomytha and I have been reading each other's fic canon-blind (me: Falcon & Winter Soldier; her: W.E. Johns' Biggles books) because, at about the same time, we both happened to get into a vaguely similar character dynamic that lends itself to eerily similar fic and also apparently we share a lot of id quirks in common.

... all of which is leading up to the fact that I decided to finally give in and check out the canon in question, read like a dozen books in the last week, and promptly wrote almost 10K of shock collar AU, which is definitely a normal thing a person would do for a series of 1940s boys' adventure books.

Lightning in a Jar (9453 words) by Sholio
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Biggles Series - W. E. Johns
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Biggles" Bigglesworth & Erich Von Stalhein
Characters: James "Biggles" Bigglesworth, Erich von Stalhein, Algy Lacey, Ginger Hebblethwaite, Bertie Lissie
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book: Biggles Buries a Hatchet, Shock Collars, Developing Friendships, Canon-typical flirting
Summary: After the events of Biggles Buries a Hatchet, von Stalhein is permitted to stay in England—with one specific condition. AKA, the shock collar fic no one asked for.

For the 99.9% of people reading this who are unfamiliar with these books, philomytha has an excellent write-up of them here which covers the highs and lows, handily captures why these books managed to sink a hook into my Zemo-focused id, and also describes probably as much of it as you need in order to understand the fic. As I can personally attest, you don't actually need to know that much about the books to enjoy fic for it, although it's very interesting to discover how actually knowing the canon lends a whole new perspective to the ones I've already read.

(I'd had general intentions of keeping a lid on the fact that I'd read these books, for Sneaky Treating Purposes, but this fell apart when 10K of fic exploded out of my brain, and also because I'm probably requesting it in a couple of upcoming exchanges. Oh well, I'm the absolute worst at keeping secrets anyway.)

Comments

[timespirt]

I always liked the movie so I'm off to find the books. I didn't know there were books. Thank you for giving me a heads up about them.

[sheron]

Oo there's a movie?

Books are on my too read but I didn't realize a movie existed!

[sholio]

There's a detailed write-up here! (Spoilers abound farther down, but you can get a general sense from the opening paragraphs.)

[timespirt]

There was actually 2 movies and a British TV series from 1960 . There were two movies with Neil Dickson as Biggles.  I can't find the second one but I was watching the first one when I saw your email. You can watch it on Tubi, Roku or Youtube if you have streaming.

Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986)

Biggles appeared in a TV series based on the books with Neville Whiting playing the title role. There were 44 B&W untitled episodes of 30 minutes, which were made by Granada and ran from 1 April till 9 September 1960

[philomytha]

Unfortunately as far as I know there's no trace of the TV series anywhere on the internet :-(

The movie is still around and quite easy to find, and it's absolutely batshit in the best possible way.

[timespirt]

I was actually watching the movie when I saw your email about the books. Great timing.

[sheron]

Interesting, thank you for ithe info!

[madripoor_rose]

The movie is available here:

https://youtu.be/eoY8-wUim8k

and it is an experience! They started out to do a fairly close adaption...and then Back To The Future happened so the Powers That Be insisted on a hasty rewrite to a time travel plot. And what would have been an average war movie became one of those ridiculously bad movies that circle back around to brilliant. Worth watching for the helicopter scene alone, imho.

[sheron]

Thank you!!

[sholio]

I'm glad to introduce you to them! There are a lot of them, including some I bounced off, but I've liked most of them, particularly the war-era ones.

[timespirt]

Yeah, I was looking around for the books. Some are available and some are not. I saw them on Amazon as well. I guess I will start slow because even the Kindle ones are expensive. Go watch the movie though.

I was looking around and the first time there was a reference to 2 movies but I'm finding there is only the one.

[sovay]

For the 99.9% of people reading this who are unfamiliar with these books

I read a couple in, like, middle school, but would not have been able to detect the stratospheric levels of slashiness at that time and feel I would have remembered any giant squid, so either I was reading the wrong ones or it's time for a re-read.

[rachelmanija]

Biggles Flies East is really good. I also like Biggles & Co and Biggles Learns to Fly.

[sovay]

Biggles Flies East is really good. I also like Biggles & Co and Biggles Learns to Fly.

So noted!

This is reminding me that a couple of nights ago I ran across two different articles championing Angela Brazil, although my immediate takeaway was that Arthur "Marigold" Marshall was a national treasure.

[sholio]

I have not yet encountered any giant squid! I think this is mostly because I've been reading the ones set in Europe due to the non-Europe ones being much chancier for Period Typical Everything. On the other hand, I also don't think a giant squid in the North Sea would be completely unexpected given the books' general style.

[sovay]

On the other hand, I also don't think a giant squid in the North Sea would be completely unexpected given the books' general style.

You should totally put a giant squid in the North Sea. It's happened before.

[sholio]

BRB, putting giant squids in everything I write.

[sheron]

That AC fic where Peggy fights a squid monster in New York is still one of my favourites XDDD

[sholio]

I think I wrote that because I had an h/c bingo tentacle square and didn't know what else to do with it!

[sheron]

That was the fic that first started to turn me into a Jack (and Peggy&Jack) fan, so it always has a special place in my heart :D

[madripoor_rose]

omg. I literally just posted about the wonderfully dumb 80s Biggles time travel movie before checking my flist.

Bookmarking your fic for later.

[sholio]

Ahahahaha! Surprisingly small world. :D

I need a biplane icon.

[philomytha]

OMG WHAT HAVE I STARTED

Starting off with 10k of shock collar AU is a truly excellent way to start, and keeping secrets is overrated anyway :-)

[sholio]

I am having a delightful time. :D

[goss]

Ooooh!

You know, we actually have the entire catalog of Biggles books stashed in a bookshelf somewhere in the house, from when my brother collected them as a teen. I was more into Nancy Drew and YA romance at the time, but maybe I should dust off one of those paperbacks. :)

[sholio]

I'm really enjoying how many people in the comments know the books; it's great! As noted in the comment I left over at your post, some books are worse about racism/colonialism/etc than others, but the parts that he's good at (action scenes, lavish scenery descriptions, that kind of thing) are genuinely very good! I can see why these were as well known as they were in their day.

[ratcreature]

Interestingly I've only encountered the comic adaptation by Francis Bergèse not the books they were based on, but never collected them.

[sholio]

I discovered the existence of Biggles BD in my googling and I wish it wasn't woefully out of print, because I want to read it! I know enough French to manage with comics.

[ratcreature]

It got translated into German too. I've seen the artist do sketches at a signing at a comic con in the 90s, iirc.

[black_bentley]

A spectacular debut in the fandom, I am very much hoping for more :D

[sholio]

I'm thoroughly delighted to hear it, and was also delighted that my 10K of idfic got such a nice reception! I'm having tons of fun so far. :D

[black_bentley]

Idfic is the best fic... It's certainly the only thing I'm capable of writing. Glad you've had a warm welcome :D