Ink Stains 181: The Heroines Showcase 12

The Heroines Showcase (formerly The Heroine Addict) 12: Winter 77/78
Publisher: Steven R. Johnson, Editor: Ted Delorme

I chose to cover this particular fanzine primarily because of the contributions of two fan favorites, Lela Dowling (who has been "Mrs. Frank Cirocco" for awhile now), and Brent Anderson. Brent did the sublime cover you see above, the illustration at left, and several others scattered througout this issue. Brent would be a solid pro three short years later. I had and have a strong connection with Brent, since we were pen pals from his fanzine days (in Venture and his own Mindworks) through to his conversion as a pro, and now, mainly through Facebook. In fact, Brent inked the very first artwork I ever had published, a Bruce Lee drawing that appeared in a convention program book (Bay Con 1, covered here). We were and are both huge Bruce Lee fans and did many illustrations of the Little Dragon.

The Heroines Showcase used to be The Heroine Addict...pretty clever, but probably good that they changed the name. The staff list is pretty strong, containing people like Mercy Van Vlack, Gary Winnick (also a Venture member), Bob Rodi, Dowling, Anderson, Anna Greenleaf, and others, including the late Tom Luth, official colorist for Usagi Yojimbo (sadly, you can see his obit here).

The first article this issue is a fun interview with Red Sonja artist, Frank Thorne. Below, you see him as the wizard he dressed as at conventions, many times with future Elfquest artist, Wendi Pini (as Wendi Fletcher, she contributed to several zines back then).

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Now, as the zine title obviously suggests, the focus here is comic heroines. Above you see Darrell McNeil and Brent Anderson's versions of a few of that select group. One of those is covered in the following article, A Tale of Four Wonder Women, by Carol Strickland, covering the WWs of Earth, Earth-2, and a few other iterations.

The Club News page follows, where editor Ted Delorme submits his resignation and goes over a few editorial policies and lauds fellow zine members. There is also a very nice pencil illustration of the then-ubiquitous Farah Fawcett....though I cannot tell who actually did the art. 

A Black Orchid feature is next up (Who is Black Orchid?), though this is before the excellent Vertigo series of the 90s. Then, publisher Johnson covers Miss Victory in Golden Age Girls (two nice Anderson illos accompany the article).

I want to jump in here and mention the contributions by Lela Dowling (the inside front cover seen above). She was in several other fanzines of the time (such as Princessions, Animag, and Rigel) and transitioned into independent black and white comics and then...well, heck, let's let her tell it! Below are some generous answers to some insipid questions that will flesh out the Lela Dowling story!

1. How and when did you get into comics (and/or fantasy)?

Well, I’d have to say that my parents were at least partly responsible. Not only did they approve of anything that would encourage their kids to read (they were both school teachers), my dad especially was a big fan of early comic books. He was really put out with his mom for tossing out his little big book collection while he was overseas serving in the U.S. Army in WWII! He and my mom were also big fans of Pogo, and had a bunch of Pogo comic books that my brother and I enjoyed, -- they got so worn that he finally had the whole stack bound into a book that I still have. So I’d have to say Walt Kelly’s work was the biggest influence on my early cartooning style. As for later, I recall when I was in high school and home sick one day, I went rooting through my brother’s comic book box for reading material to keep me amused, and developed a taste for beautifully drawn comics. I literally picked up an issue of Green Lantern & Green Arrow #76, and said to myself, ‘Now that is a beautiful cover.” Man, I wish I still had that comic, but I had to sell it during some of the leaner years of being a self-employed artist! I began actively visiting comic shops to seek out the best stuff. Anything by Hal Foster, Neal Adams, Craig Russel, Jim Starlin, Ross Andru, Michael Kaluta, Jeff Jones and many, many others.

2. What was your first exposure to fandom?

I met a guy in one of my commercial art classes at Foothill College, Alan Tyler. We started dating, and he took me to my first little sci-fi convention in San Francisco. I think that was the con he went to in full Planet of the Apes mask makeup, and my mom got a photo of us going out the door—me with my portfolio case, Alan with his prosthetic makeup -- she thought it was hilarious that her daughter was dating an ape! It was a lot of fun, and that got the ball rolling. I started making friends in fandom, and that was where I was introduced to fanzines.

3. You have a very distinctive style...who were your main influences?

The English book illustrator Arthur Rackham for my fine art, and Walt Kelly for my cartooning. I’m sure there were others along the way who influenced my style, too.

4. What were your most positive and/or memorable moments in fandom?

Wow, that’s hard to say. I was involved in comics & sci-fi/fantasy fandom for years, it was what I lived for! Socializing with ‘my people’ after years of being that odd kid who read a lot and liked scribbling unicorns and dragons. I had no artist friends until I was in college. Once in fandom, I made many friends who are still a part of my life today. I started selling my art, and was introduced to new writers and art styles. But no one event stands out apart from the rest. Bear in mind, that was a long time ago and at times, 'it's all a blur!'

5. Did you have any favorite zines both as a contributor and as a reader?

You know, although I found fanzines interesting, I didn’t really get into them like some folks did. But early on Steve Johnson latched onto me thru mutual friends, and put me to work illustrating his fanzines, The Adventuress and The Heroine Addict (later renamed The Heroines Showcase) I guess I was a rare creature in those days—a girl artist who liked comic books, and not just the ‘girly’ comic books, I preferred the superhero comics.

6. There is one main connection you made because of fandom (that I am thinking of), but please mention that and any other long running friendships you have because of fandom. [I was referring to her husband, Frank Cirocco, but maybe it was too obvious!]

Uh, are you referring to publishing? That would be Steve Johnson (god rest his soul) for his fanzines, which led to Schanes & Schanes for the art portfolios & comics work, which led to some comics work for … geez, I’ve gotta take a minute and go look up some of this stuff, … a little bit of work for Marvel, and a lot of comics work for Eclipse Comics, etc. But then there’s also the boyfriend connections I made thru fandom, and let me tell you—dating someone who understands one’s addiction to comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, animation & manga is a whole lot easier than a relationship with, well, a run of the mill normal person. Which I have tried. So that may be why I’m married to comic artist & graphic commercial artist Frank Cirocco, ha, ha! He ‘gets it’.

7. Did your experience and/or connections in fandom lead you to or help you to secure any later professional work?

You betcha! I think the biggest example of that was getting a job at LucasArts during the early years of computer games animation. There were no computer animation classes back in the days of pixels-as-big-as-bricks, and I was hired purely because of my sequential storytelling abilities, in other words; my published comic book art. Published work also proves that you can follow instructions, play well with other adults, and meet your deadlines. I was hired and taught the basics of computer animation on the job. One week of tutoring, and they threw me in at the deep end -- creating animation for Maniac Mansion, The Day of the Tentacle. I worked there for almost 2 years, but left after Sam & Max Hit the Road, when it became apparent that I would have to learn to do 3-D animation, and I just didn’t have the technical ability to do that.

8. What have you pursued and accomplished since leaving fandom (feel free to supply any links, sites, etc)?

I’ve always likened my move from one art career to another as leaping from one burning building to another one that is only starting to smolder. So I started out in fanzines, moved to sci-fi convention artshows, which then turned into a few gigs doing art portfolios & prints until that market slowed, and from there into comics, which tanked with the collapse of the black & white market, so I jumped into computer game animation, which led to avatar design for Yahoo!, which led to commercial art, and that’s pretty much where I’ve stayed—with brief forays into book illustration and fine art, etc. (When I was twenty I visited Neal Adams studio in New York, and his advice was ‘get into commercial art, that’s where the money is.’ Given my limited abilities as a painter, I have to agree.)

9. What is your life like now? What do you regularly do, and what are the things you have the most fun doing?

I used to still do sci-fi & fantasy art for some of the bigger convention artshows like Westercon, Baycon, WorldCon and the like, but people’s interest in original art started to change, and the internet offered so much more to draw people away. My convention art was selling for minimum bid, or not at all. It's too bad, I really enjoyed creating pen & ink & watercolor pieces. So I stopped doing it and focused on purely commercial art freelance assignments. I’ve been working for the same computer ‘edutainment’ company for the past 10 years on a project called Reader Bee. I illustrate the page layouts for games that teach kindergarten-age kids to read, and design word icons. It’s fairly easy work, and my boss and I are very simpatico so it’s easy to figure out what she wants. Unfortunately, it sucks up all my time, so I haven’t produced much else artwise, though I have projects that I’m hoping to work on as I get closer to retirement age. I’ve also had to look after my elderly parents for several years (and during the pandemic, too!) who still lived in their own house, and that finally ended earlier this year with my father’s passing. So maybe there’ll be time to work on the comic books, cartoon strips, and fantasy artwork that I still want to do. There are days when It’s really, really hard to focus on the paying work, when what I really want is to work on some personal art project. Other than that, Frank, our dog and I hang out on the balcony of our house up in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains and say to each other, “We live here!” He keeps busy with his ebay pop culture collectibles store, Pop Daddy Vintage, and I keep house, work on Reader Bee, and occasionally push a pencil around on some paper. It’s a pretty good life!

Characters such as Sheena, Rima, and others follow in Drumbeats at Midnight, The Jungle Heroine Debate, by Jeff Thompson and editor Delorme. then, in The Heroine Revue, the obscure Jet Dream and her Stunt Girl Counterspies appear (in Gold Key's The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). A fanzine review column follows, then the letters page, and we are outta here!

I have to say thanks for Lela, for contributing some illuminating info for this installment (that's a lot of alliteration for a blog boob), and there may be a similar contribution coming from Brent Anderson...keep your eyes peeled and I will announce when it gets inserted into the column. Tune in next month around the first for the next installment of Ink Stains! Remember to go to my site to find this column entry and get the pdf! (click on the fanzine name for the pdf)

Ken Meyer Jr.
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