Ink Stains 202: FVP 4

Chuck Fiala is a beloved veteran of fandom, and the fourth issue of his fanzine,
​FVP (Fiala's Vicious Presentation) more than proves that point!

Tom Wimbish

FVP 4: Spring/Summer 1972
Editor/publisher: Chuck Fiala

That incredibly arresting cover by artist Tom Wimbush adorns the fourth issue of Chuck Fiala's FVP. More on Tom later. I remember seeing Chuck (usually along with friends like Jim Engel) in many zines back in the 70s. The material produced by these nuts was usually pretty darn funny. Chuck his damn self was nice enough to answer my questions via email to add a little more interest to this installment of Ink Stains. When asked how he got into comics in the first place, he replied "I was given a few copies of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories by my grandparents in 1959. I was four at the time and really liked the pictures." That just about tracks!

​He continues with listing a few of his favorites, "I liked most of the Dell funny animal books as well as Harvey Comics. From DC, I liked Fox and Crow." Chuck also talked about his introduction into fandom itself with "I became a Super Hero fan in 1966 and was caught up in batmania. Soon, I was into Marvel fan because of The Fantastic Four Saturday morning cartoon. My first Marvel Comics regulars were the FF, Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. I joined Marvelmania getting their fanzine and learned about Chicago fandom in that first issue." He also listed a few of his favorite creators and influences with "At that point, I wanted to write like Stan and draw like Jack. I started drawing a graphic novel for Paul Kupperberg that I really liked but never got published. I wish we could have done more with that." You can see a few pages from his story in this issue of FVP below, done while he was still in high school, I believe.

Chuck Fiala

Chuck also explained that "RBCC was central as it came out 8 times a year and kept me current about what was going on. I met Jerry Sincovek and Mike Tiefenbacher of Street Enterprises doing regular stuff for their zines including my Bullet Crow Strip which was later collected by Eclipse." As for FVP itself and the contacts it helped him establish, he continued "FVP was originally supposed to be edited by me and Duffy Vohland who found he didn't have time to edit our little zine, so I kept it going as best I could as a high school student. Other local fandom people were helpful - Gary Rikker, who was local to me and Marvel Maniac of the Month in Marvelmania #1. Through him I met Jim Engel who I ended up doing some funny animal work for DC with as well as the fumetti Comics Confidential, first published in The Comics Reader and collected by Kitchen Sink. Through fandom, I met the Indiana Gang including Duffy Vohland, Roger Slifer, Roger Stern and Jim Novak. I also met Paul Kupperberg thru fandom as well as the local First Comics where we both did work on Weird Organic Tales for Mike Gold, and later on, Cool World and Stanley and His Monster. John Byrne was also helpful, giving me tips and not to sell myself short."

I mentioned Tom Wimbish earlier, and below you can see his strip contribution to this issue, Northcross. His style is very striking and seems like a sort of mashup of Vaughn Bode, Jeff Jones and perhaps a fellow zine artist at that time, Dennis Fujitake. I think if he had a good writer, he could have gone on to do big things, but my limited research pulled up nothing. You can see a few pages below of that strip.

Tom Wimbish

Of Wimbish, Chuck mentioned that "I met him at The New York Comic Con (1970 - think) The only thing I know of that he's done was some work in Alter Ego. "

This issue of FVP is one of those "half size" zines, but it sure looked to me like it was supposed to be printed full size...Chuck, however, says no, but that maybe Tom thought it was going to be! Chuck said "No, It had to be half 8.5 x 11 at that point, although Tom Wimbish might have thought it was an 8.5 x 11 size. It became full sized later because Alan Jim Hanley (also local cons and in Marvelmania Magazine) put me in touch with his printer for future issues." That segues nicely into the next strip, which is by the Goodguy creator himself! See a sampling below.

Alan Hanley

I always felt that Hanley should have been gobbled up by a major publisher...he was so prolific, full of ideas and characters, and appeared to have had an incredible work ethic as well.

The next strip, Aquarius, is by Gary John Reynolds, who I am pretty sure I saw in various other zines as well. Chuck said "He was local to me in the Chicago area and neighbors with Brian Augustyn who later edited me on my Bugs Bunny series (pencilling) I think Gary John Reynolds was doing advertising work on the East Coast.." Check out some of the story below.

Gary John Reynolds

Alan Hanley

I feel like that strip could have also benefited from a larger printing...lots of detail there, and some pretty small lettering!

That is a wrap, folks! Check out the pdf for the whole shebang. I feel good about signing off with a Hanley Goodguy illustration, rendered in his usual whimsical but professional style.

As for what good ol' Chuck is doing nowadays, he fills us in with "I'm retired and doing some digital freelance art with funny animals, mostly Phantom Bunny art from the Bullet Crow strip." Don't forget, you can get the whole pdf here!

By the way, the issue of TBG this installment is 34 (parts 1 and 2), the cover of which you can see below. No credit there, it sort of looks like early Wendy Pini (Fletcher), but your guess is as good as mine!

Thanks to Chuck for helping out!


Ken Meyer Jr.
[email protected]

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