Ink Stains 199: Radion 5

Little Tommy Mason dreamed of having a fanzine one day...that day came...and then, four issues later he did the fifth issue of Radion!

Doug Hazlewood

Radion 5: January 1976
Editor/publisher: Tom Mason.

That is one eye catching "The Devil Wants You!" illustration by "that inker guy who was everywhere" back then, Doug Hazlewood! He truly was everywhere. His inks were clean and dramatic. Doug himself admits he was a bit heavy handed early on, but he really made those illos sing, especially with people like Carl Taylor, who was also pretty omnipresent and whose work you will see in this zine. I am gonna jump into the zine and supplemental info in a sec, but first, some nice art contained in the pages below. Tom makes it easy to credit these, since he lists them all in the first few pages!

Jesse Flores/Hazlewood

Lee Jackson/Hazlewood

Doug Hazlewood sent a nice little batch of memories below, supplemented by an illustration by the wonderfully energetic work of Carl Taylor (so much energy, it's breaking out of it's border!).

Carl Taylor/Hazlewood

"Around the time of Radion 5,  I was at a new college after doing junior college in Victoria. I had been frustrated by only getting an illustration printed here and there and felt the urge to get some things done for print! Tom Mason was a friend via letters and I felt at home in Radion. I wondered why years ago I had some of the early new X-MEN issues, as I was not buying comic books regularly at all back then. 

Seeing that Colossus fan pic [which you will see in the pdf] was one reason. I had no idea who that was supposed to be. Must have had to buy other issues for Thunderbird and others as a few months rolled by. Turned out to be good purchases when I looked them up those years later.

I  was never trying to overwhelm pencils or sketches. Just go with the flow on sketches and use my judgment on fan pencils. I wish I was more of an overall artist who could easily see how to improve/fix things back then (and now). I was getting more confident and may have taken a Printing class already (offset printing mainly). I enjoyed that and learned about what would and would not print/show up.

I appreciate to this day Tom putting up with my long letters and giving me a reliable outlet. When my comps of it showed up I was very happy, especially with the cover. Did a stone litho print of the devil also for a "printmaking' class. I like it, but this came first and was a good guide. And my own work.

I still have dreams of being back in San Marcos and for some reason being way far away from my first class and not being sure where or what class it was [Doug, I have very similar dreams frequently!]. At least I have my clothes on. Or I never found out where my mailbox was on campus or some locker. Weird. Had hoped my local buddy was going to go there, too...as he was good at prodding me socially. He went to Stephen F. Austin instead. 

This one of of my favorite fanzine memories for sure."

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Tom as well was nice enough to give me more info to add to the column, so it's not just my yammering. Below, Tom lists his impressive credits as a writer, as well and some zine info.

From my brief fanzine dabbling, I worked as a cartoonist, then art director, then Dave Olbrich asked me to join him in launching Malibu Comics, and there I was full-time in comics. Then I started writing comics as a side-hustle. Malibu was eventually sold to Marvel Comics and I quit to write for television. I have credits on over 600 television episodes, mostly animation. And I've written or co-written 75 books, mostly for kids. My most recent is Stitch!: Best Food Forever, a manga graphic novel from Tokyopop. Here is a link for that recent project.

Paul Chadwick

Tom also won an Emmy as a writer on the TV series WordWorld!

As for Radion, after the editorial, Tom has an interview with Byron Preiss, a publisher I have always been impressed with, as well as purchased a ton of what he did. A bonus is an illustration by Concrete creator/writer/artist, Paul Chadwick, who contributes a few more throughout this issue. You can see one of those at left. The great news for all of us is that there is a new Concrete series in the works, so keep those eyes peeled!

Rich Morrissey contributes Scripto Boy Wonder, a very long article on writer Jim Shooter. Rich also went on to be a comics professional, and there is a wonderfully long article by fan and comic vet, Mark Evanier here.

The Shooter article actually takes up the rest of the fanzine. so kudos to Rich for being so expansive!

​For more art from this great zine, look below!

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Taylor/Wes Smith

Gene Day

Above you see two eye catching spots by the late and very great Gene Day. There are so many well published zine artists in this issue, including Ric Cruz, Tim Herzog, Arvell Jones, Bill Mutschler, and Sam de la Rosa, many who part of the fan organization, Inter Fan, and went on later to become professionals. There are also several pros featured, such as Gil Kane, Pat Boyette, Al Williamson, and Wally Wood. Below you see the back cover by another zine regular, Doug Herring.

Doug Herring

That sums up Radion 5, folks. Get the pdf to see all the illustrations and articles, thanks for tuning in, and feel free to comment! By the way, the TBG featured this issue is number 11, which reprints the cover to the first issue, and you can see it below in all it's Fantucchio glory! Get the pdf here.

John G. Fantucchio

Thanks this time go out to Doug Hazlewood and Tom Mason!

Ken Meyer Jr.
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