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Back for another shot at the title! The Collector! Weighing in with John Byrne, Ken Barr, Gil Kane, Don Newton, Don Rosa, and more! Ding!  John G. Fantucchio, Stephen Fabian, Bob Smith The Collector 28: 1973 Editor/Publisher: Bill G. Wilson Those of you who have been with this column from the beginning know of The Collector, since it was the very first zine profiled! That was issue 27. This time out, it is the following issue, again stuffed with great illustrations and articles.  Ken Barr As you can see above, as with most issues of this great 70s fanzine, editor Bill G. Wilson knew how to choose a cover! Ken Barr, already a professional at this time, gave us a great EC tribute cover, reminiscent of Russ Heath, Wally Wood, and Frank Frazetta...but still his own. One of the few fanzines that actually did spot color (on the covers and a few interior illustrations), The Collector stood out for this and several other reasons. Bill Wilson had a great stable of artists, and several of the regulars make appearances here. John G. Fantucchio gives us the somewhat goofy Prince Valiant laboring with the logo at the top, and will make several more flashy stops during this issue. Others will follow in this issue, which had several overriding themes. First though, we will take a hectic journey through writer William Reynolds’s and artist Bruce Patterson’s “Occupational Hazards.” Below you see a few pages from this silly and enjoyable superhero parody piece. Though artist Patterson cringes seeing seeing the art today, for a lad of only 20 this (and a few spot illos later in the issue) was fairly accomplished stuff.  Bruce D. Patterson  Patterson  Patterson There are two other entries in this piece above, which you can see in the pdf! Through email, Bruce told me he was a DC fan at first, but was later turned on to Marvel by a friend. I remember seeing his work here, in The Comics Buyer’s Guide and several other places, and liking his clean style and sense of humor. He still has it! Bruce was pretty active at DC and Marvel in the 80s and 90s, primarily as an inker, but he also did covers, letters, and even some coloring. Today, he is taking commissions, so find him on Facebook here. That’s his skull illo to the left! He more recently told me that "I did a lot of small sketches for various fanzines. I don't have any specific anecdotes, other than I was happy to do them. Acceptance was really all I wanted at the time. It was fun and I started submitting art to convention shows. I made some connections that I wish I had continued, but once I started working, I also moved a lot, too. I only remember meeting a couple of the guys, Jim Van Hise and a couple of Bills or Williams. I met Bob Layton and his friends, most of whom went into comics. It was just kinda cool to talk to people and share stuff. As a fan, I liked humor as much as superheroes." Following that bit of humor is another by an established and widely published fan artist/writer, Alan Hanley. There is a nice little site here that shows a plethora of Hanley’s pleasantly cartoony styled illustrations and strips, often illustrating one of his favorite characters, C. C. Beck’s Captain Marvel. There is a fan appreciation page on the late artist/writer on Facebook here. Lastly, long time fan and writer Bill Schelly wrote a book on the founders of comic fandom you and I must get...you can get it here. Hanley is one of many artists and writers covered in the book that you will have heard about, if you have read this column regularly. Hanley passed away in 1980. Below you can see a few pages from his Greenhorn series, which has some great parodies/homages to characters such as Blackhawk, Sgt. Fury, The Spirit, Airboy, and others.  Alan Hanley  Hanley  Hanley  John Ellis The next theme covers many of the female comic characters of the golden age, and is illustrated by a variety of artists, including John Ellis/Skip Olson, Mike Roberts, Bobs Conway and Smith, Paragon founder Bill Black, Comic Crusader publisher Martin Greim, and two gorgeous pieces by John G. Fantucchio. Check out a sampling of work below. The well researched article by Graham Sterling also reprints many covers from that era.  Fantucchio, Martin Greim, Mike Roberts, Griem/Al Bradford, Fantucchio  Don Newton Fantucchio had such an identifiable style (especially evident in the Black Cat illustration above), and was a highly sought after fanzine illustrator. He has a few other pieces in this issue that you can see in the pdf. Taking a break from the themes, we are graced with a gorgeous Don Newton western illustration portfolio. Don came on The Collector “staff” very early. I know I have issues as early as 15 or so with Don’s covers. I have an especially fond memory of his Captain America cover on one of the early issues of this great fanzine. His realistically proportioned and often detailed figures (usually draped in dramatic shadows) graced many a fanzine, and enabled him to enter the pro ranks a year after this issue of The Collector, starting at Charlton with The Ghost Manor and The Phantom, and continuing on to DC before his passing in 1984 at the age of only 49 from a heart attack. You can see a site of his wonderful DC work here. You can also see a feature on his Phantom and fanzine work here! Below and to the right you see a few images from this portfolio.  Newton After an article reviewing several golden age comics, the trend for themes continues, this time profiling the perennial TV fave Star Trek. Several artists take a crack at the crew and the ships, including John Ellis (seen in the masthead, unfortunately scanned in black and white, not the original color), science fiction great Stephen Fabian (that’s his space monkey in the masthead), Jim Pinkoski, and even John Byrne chimes in with several full page renditions of space ships, including the recognizable Enterprise. The article also prints several stills from the series itself, as well as art from the animated series. Check it all out below.  Ellis  John Byrne Let’s take a short break from the themes again and look at the singular Gil Kane’s rendition of Warlock, seen below. I am sure he could do these illustrations in his sleep, but, man, they still look awesome!  Gil Kane The last theme of this issue of The Collector is The Shadow, with the article written by another fandom stalwart, Murray Bishoff, and entitled “Shadow of the Ages.” Again, many of the cabal of artists take a shot (pun intended) at the Shadow. We see renditions by Mike Roberts, John Ellis, Bruce Patterson, Jim Jones, Don Newton (also on the back cover), and Ken Bruzenak. That’s right...the same Ken Bruzenak who would make his fame as the incredibly inventive letterer on Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg (and who lives right here in Savannah, his wife a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design)! [Remember, this column was originally written about 10 years ago, when I was still in Savannah, and actually had a lunch with Ken!] Fittingly, it is a well designed piece, seen below to the right of the Mike Roberts version. Can you see Mike’s love of Steranko here?  Mike Roberts, Ken Buzenak The article, like the other main columns, reprints several of the great pulp covers, beautifully painted. Also shown and talked about is the Mike Kaluta DC Shadow series. Below you see the amazing Newton back cover of the “one who knows.”  Newton Now, remember, this is only a portion of this issue of The Collector 28! There is also a moody and gruesome story called Close Shave by Alan Riefe and Don Rosa, several other illustrations by John Ellis, Bruce Patterson, Anthony Kowalik, and Stephen Fabian, a Batman sketch by John Byrne, and more. And, if that’s not enough, howsabout a letter column featuring a much younger version of me? High school senior, to be exact, all gush and clue challenged! I AM actually pretty excited right now, because I DID NOT KNOW there was a Collector 29! I see it is available on eBay, and we will be profiling that at some point in the future!
Thanks this time go out to Bruce Patterson. Now, rush to download the pdf, so you can see the rest! Come back on April 1st for the next installment of Ink Stains! Please, leave comments, and feel free to leave requests! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]
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If you like the fanzine CPL and Charlton comics, this is the installment for you: Charlton Bullseye!  John Byrne (figures) Charlton Bullseye 4, 5: 1976 Editor/Publisher: Robert Layton In the 1970s the “Big Two” saw that fanzines were garnering a lot of attention and love from comic fandom and decided to enter the fray. Marvel had FOOM (which Ink Stains will profile soon) and DC had The Amazing World of DC Comics. Charlton Comics, a small company, didn’t receive as much attention as the big boys, but still had some wonderful titles and creators (inspiring nostalgia in many a comic fan these days, including this one). Charlton was contacted by the publishers of the great fanzine CPL, and later teamed up to form the new fanzine Charlton Bullseye. The “CPL Gang,” as they called themselves, which included John Byrne, Roger Stern, and Bob Layton, would start their careers at Charlton, and of course go on to bigger things later.  Joe Staton, Alex Toth The gang at CPL actually published a Charlton related fanzine before Charlton Bullseye called Charlton Portfolio (which was actually CPL 9/10), but it was the Bullseye that would become a serial fanzine, lasting 5 issues. It was primarily an outlet for some unpublished stories featuring Charlton characters such as E- Man, The Question, and John Byrne’s Doomsday Plus One. The two issues (4 and 5) covered in this installment of Ink Stains feature stories by Joe Staton (E-Man), John Byrne (Doomsday Plus One), and the great Alex Toth (Steve Ditko’s The Question), plus illustrations by the aforementioned creators as well as Frank Thorne, Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, Mike Nasser, Carl Potts, Dave Cockrum, Walt Simonson (see below), and others. They also feature interviews with John Byrne and the late Don Newton, with illustrations by both artists accompanying the interviews.  Walt Simonson Although I didn’t collect Charlton as maniacally as I did Marvel or DC, I have a soft spot for the company for several reasons. They were home to some great artists that were just not suited to superhero stuff, like Wally Wood acolyte Wayne Howard, Joe Staton and his lighthearted style, Tom Sutton with his slippery inks, and Pat Morisi and his somewhat staid and static style (he went by PAM, see an image below). Several artists would learn their chops at the notoriously low paying Charlton, like Jim Aparo, Mike Zeck, Steve Ditko, John Byrne, Don Newton, and writers George Wildman and Denny O’Neil.  Pat Morisi Probably the artist that would shoot to the top most quickly was John Byrne. I loved his smooth, round edged style back then, and would follow anything he did. Below you can see a few spot illustrations and column heads from these two issues by the artist.  Byrne Rog-2000 was a funny robot character that Byrne debuted in CPL, doing strips with the character and funny gag illos. In one of these issues the interview with Byrne is conducted by the cartoon robot his bad self!  Byrne Don Newton, another huge favorite of mine, and criminally underused, is interviewed in issue 5, partially because by that time, he was doing The Phantom for Charlton. One interesting fact I found in the interview that blew me away was that the late Newton was once the middleweight weight lifting champion of his home state of Arizona! At the time of this fanzine, though, he had become a high school art teacher. Don’s work is all over the fanzine world of this era. His realistic, dramatically lit and realistically proportioned characters were just too good for the mainstream superhero world. See a few images below.  Don Newton  Newton Issue 5 also boasts not only an action packed Alex Toth cover, but a Question story inside. Toth is in many artist’s top ten, and I am no different. His seemingly effortless command of composition, placement of blacks, and economy of line are unmatched. Below you see a few pages from his story. Just look at that amazing opening page!  Alex Toth God, does that cleanse the palate after some of the overly detailed work in modern comics. Below are a few more pin ups and spot illustrations before we launch into the next full story.  Mike Nasser/Jack Abel  Dave Cockrum  Frank Thorne Frank Thorne almost seems to add a little Joe Kubert-like scratchy realism to the usually cartoony E-Man of creator Joe Staton above. While on the subject, we can see the unpublished E-Man story below (well, some of it, you have to download the PDF to see it all!). E-Man was the fun and lighthearted antidote to the more serious fare of the day, as you will see below.  One big time pro makes an appearance on the back cover of issue 5, that being Neal Adams doing his version of John Byrne’s characters from his Doomsday Plus One strip. See it below.  And of course, you have probably guessed by now that this is the segue into the two-part story by John Byrne featuring these characters. Let’s jump into it below.    Byrne Well, there you have it. Charlton Bullseye, the last two issues, stuffed with great storytelling and some big up and coming creators, a few that would make big splashes in the years ahead! That's a John Byrne spaceship to the left (similar to the spaceship section he did in an issue of The Collector). The pdf of 4 is here, while the pdf for 5 is here.
Thanks this time out to to Jason Schacter, who gave me a bunch of great scans, including Marvel's version of an in house fanzine, FOOM. Any votes for that in the next installment? As always, I really appreciate comments from the readers, so please, don't be shy! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] If you have read previous installments of Ink Stains, you know that Jan Strnad’s Anomaly delivers! Richard Corben! Robert Kline! Git some!  Anomaly 4: November 1972 Publisher/Editor: Jan Strnad The last issue of Anomaly by writer Jan Strnad hits us with the one-two punch of artists Richard Corben and Robert Kline, through two gorgeous color covers, three stories, and a pin-up. Like the excerpt above says, “Oh My Goodness! Look at that!”  Now, how about that gorgeous Corben cover to start things off, huh? I ask you, in the fanzine world, does it get any better than that? I have to warn those two or three fans of my over-the-top praise and sometimes extreme wordiness, that you shall have little of that this time out. My friends, it’s close to Christmas, I have been busy with actual artwork, and there is little time to expound on the obvious virtues of this particular zine! So, I have parsed a plethora of pages (and one pin-up, partner) for you to peruse and pant over! To start with, the wonderful Richard Corben leads off with a short and funny little ditty of a story seen below. Let’s look!  Those are some horny little rabbits, I must say! Corben did have a great sense of humor, and when I get around to covering his underground comic, Fantagor, you will definitely see a heaping helping of that. For now, let’s switch visual tracks and take a gander at the mastery of the dinosaur form that Robert Kline exhibits below.  It’s no wonder that the animation industry snatched Kline up, never to be seen again in fandom or the comic world after the 70s passed us by. He was just too damn good. Below you see a few pages from one of the few full comic stories Kline gave us before exiting in a poof of dried cell paint, Leander and the Fat Queen, written by editor and publisher Jan Strnad. As far as I know, it is by far the longest story Kline ever published in fandom.  Next up is a Corben airbrush and ink tour de force (pardon my french), Encounter at War. Now, those of you with better memories than I will note that this story appears in a previous issue of Anomaly. However, this version has added pages and added story, as the previous version was told with very few words (some of them in an alien hieroglyphic sort of language). Below, you see a few of the newly added pages. I think this might have been the first Corben story I ever saw, and I was completely blown away by the lighting and cinematic quality of the art.  To end the fourth issue of Anomaly, what better image than one of the most iconic Corben paintings I can think of. This is one that is indelibly etched into my brain, possibly due to those incredibly saturated colors!  Whenever I would see images like this from Corben, whether in fanzines such as this or other art heavy zines like Infinity (or even more life altering to this young brain, his underground comic work), I would always wonder, “how does he do that?” The saturated colors, the soft tones (airbrush was still new to the world of illustration back in 1972, and certainly new to the world of comic fanzines). And of course, when you add in his mastery of the round three dimensional form and, well...those women...you can see why he stood out so starkly against a black and white (or garishly and simply colored) visual landscape. There was simply no one like him then. Don’t forget to download the pdf to see all the stories completely! There is so much more there! As I said, this installment of Ink Stains is a bit short in the word department, and I apologize. Thanks this time go out to Kristin Bomba, the poor woman that has to edit all our poorly written columns and make them all pretty-like for youse readers. And of course, thanks go out to you readers, especially those of you that leave comments. The comments make me feel that someone out there actually reads this stuff! Have a great holiday season, oh fellow fans of the zine! I am outta here! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] If you like BIG Cosmic story lines, then check out the BIG ideas in Jim McPherson’s Phantacea!  Phantacea: 1977 Editor/Writer: Jim McPherson Jim McPherson had big ideas even at the beginning of his writing career. Right out of university he put his creative writing degree to work crafting an epic in his Canadian comic, Phantacea. There are so many ideas and characters, in fact, that it is sometimes hard to keep track of what is going on and which cosmic hero is in action. But, you have to give creator McPherson credit. He was not afraid to challenge his readers and attempt to drown them in a soup of a new mythology. You will see that this mythology, which started in a somewhat ordinary looking superhero comic, has continued to today. It has gone through stages from comics to a graphic novel to several prose books.  Probably the main draw for those that have been reading comics for the last 20 years is the fact that the artist/letterer of this first issue is none other than Dave Sim, pre-Cerebus. That’s right, Dave Sim is a main component of an archetypical superhero comic. Though labeled by creator McPherson as “only a hired gun,” Sim gives this comic a visual air of professionalism, especially in the lettering department. In fact, it may be the lettering that inhibits it from entering the territory of the “big myth” that becomes more evident in the second issue. I say this partially with admiration, because Sim is completely in control of this skill. And we are talking hand lettering, folks, this 1978 comic was done long before computer fonts. There is a great sense of variety and fun in the lettering alone, from the balloons to the sound effects to the titles. On the other hand, the mainstream superhero style of this lettering is somewhat deceptive, in that the content ventures far beyond the standard skintight costume hero fare. Sim’s actual storytelling style is reminiscent of some of the more experimental artists of that time, such as Neal Adams and Jim Steranko, while his figure rendering style seems to point towards a combination of John Byrne, Irv Novick, and Gene Colan.  Some of the storytelling gimmicks (such as all the angled panels, for example) seem to indicate that Sim was biting off a little more than he could chew this early in his career. In Cerebus he would use out of the ordinary panel layouts to much better effect. Here these attempts draw too much attention to themselves and take the reader out of the story (see a few examples above and below). I will let McPherson relay his interactions with Sim: I connected with a fellow calling himself Terry Hamilton and said I was thinking about launching my own comic book series. Terry worked at my neighborhood comic shop, which still exists, and he hired Sim, whom I believe he knew from Ontario. As I recall he wouldn’t tell me his [Sim's] name in case I cut him out of process in terms of future issues. Terry was my intermediary for the first issue. And he was right. I’d already cut him out of Phantacea by second issue and contacted Sim myself, possibly through Star*Reach, though can’t recall precisely. Sim and I were never partners. He worked for hire. I wrote every word and provided him with a block-out of every page panel-by-panel. I drew, more like squiggled, everything out (minus balloons or serious sketches, just layouts) and sent photocopies to him along with script (description, caption, word balloons). I did that for every Phantacea artist and virtually all of them followed my layouts for the most part.  Sim would obviously have other things cropping up in his schedule soon, as Jim told me via email below: Sim thought Baron Justice was a winner. I disagreed; he (TJ Maxwell) was just another character who would appear once in awhile in Phantacea. (As it turned out, he only appeared twice, albeit only once as BJ.) I was prepared to publish another series, called The Justice Chronicles, featuring TJ-BJ, his grandparents, father and mother, the Signallers and Death Dodgers, et al, but Sim was into Cerebus by then and seemed disinclined to carry on hiring himself out. Just as well. My ambitions were much bigger than my pocketbook. And what is the story contained within this ambitious epic, you ask? Well, I will let McPherson entertain you again, from the foreword in issue two. During Vedic times, an extraterrestrial race of super-powerful creatures came down to Earth. They were the Devas. Their patriarch, their progenitor in fact, was Dark Sedon. Under his somewhat insane leadership, the devas sought to assert dominance over the indigenous peoples of the Earth. Unexpectedly, the Earthlings proved too rebellious, too difficult to control. The devas were forced to flee to a continent created by Sedon in the Pacific Ocean. This continent was fashioned in the Mad God’s visage, hence, is called Sedon’s Head. To keep the outer-Earth from interfering with life on the Head, and vice versa, Sedon raised a barrier dome over his Headworld. This dome is invisible and intangible. It may be described as existing in the same Time-Space continuum as Earth but on a different plane of reality. The dome is formed out of Sedon’s own essence and is called the Cathonic Zone. And that is less than half of the foreword to issue two! Added to that are the massive amounts of super characters, with names that would easily fit into the then current issue of Adam Strange, or an issue of any Fourth World comics (New Gods, et al) from the febrile imagination of Jack Kirby. Names like Vayu Maelstrom, the CosmiCar, Mr. No Name, and the Damnation Brigade. Issue one tries to set up the basic story line, but in my opinion, there are so many characters introduced so frequently, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of that story line. But you have to give McPherson credit...he aims very high. Below are the big plans McPherson had for his tale: I had grandiose notions. I’d keep on doing superheroes with Justice Chronicles, would get into sci-fi stuff with Mik Starrus, Weirworld, Uncle Universe etc, and devote the Phantacea flagship comic, Phantacea itself, to my real love, mythology – i.e. devils, demons, deviants and the Damnation Brigade, the sons and daughters of some of the above (1/2 of whom were Summoning Children). Rather, to updating mythological-style story lines to modern times and thereby create a new mythology (or mythos, as I prefer). Which is what won out; and is still winning out with the Phantacea novels, mini-novels and e-books. When I mentioned to McPherson via email that there seemed to be just too much going on this early in the comic, he responded with Actually I thought that would pique interest in Phantacea. Further to that, I’m not sure about the correct term but ‘character dumps’ rather than ‘information dumps’ comes to mind. Also, not having heroes and villains per se – hence An heroic Fantasy Illustrated – was part of my scheme from the very beginning. People tend to do what seems right for themselves, not for others. In other words, we’re all heroes of our own narrative. I see no reason why comic book or television or movie characters should be any different. Of course, it could be I read the Iliad and suchlike too many times in my childhood and too many Victorian and similar novels in my youthful years of later on in elementary and early on high school. I just thought that was the way it was done – get the required dumpage over with straightaway then move them along their own pathways afterwards. Times were also different. Patience was still a virtue, not a necessity. Instant gratification was not an expectation. That said, I was after action as often as could be per story sequence and hoped to hive off said stories in aforementioned three directions: ones represented by BJ/Centauri Island storyline; one by Helios on the Moon storyline; and the main one by Damnation Brigade leading to Sedon’s Head and devil-gods.  It was planned for some of these characters to leave Phantacea and move into his planned other comic, The Justice Chronicles. I have a feeling the second title would have leaned more in an actual superhero direction, leaving Phantacea to become more the fantasy book it should have been from the start. And speaking of a more fantasy oriented start, let’s start with the first thing you see; the cover (seen above). The new logo is a blatant rip off or fond homage to Roger Dean, he of the Yes album covers that were so popular in the 70s (I know, I have them all...in fact, the wallpaper on the computer I am writing this article on is a Dean painting). It sets a new tone. The mythology is also given a new pace, partially because each “chapter” is now done by a different artist. Unfortunately, it appears each artist also did his own lettering, some of which is either devoid of character, fairly unprofessional, or both. But, the good thing is that, for the most part, we are not seeing the sound effects heavy, superhero comic standard type letting Sim employed in the first issue (though he does appear in a chapter in this second issue). As for all these new artists and how they became involved, McPherson said : I met Parker the same way I came across Terry Hamilton, via the owner of the local comic shop. Terry was associated with something called Stampart. Together, they did this funny animal series called Fog City Comics. Sean Newton may have been involved in Fog City. Sim might have been, too. Ian Bateson found me, also via the Comic Shop as I recall. I’d been trolling some local animation studies for artists and letterers and Newton might have come to me that way.  The first story, Starrus Yajur & the Ubiquitous Uncle Universe, focuses on hero Mikelangleo Starrus. Artist Gordon Parker’s style makes me think of a black and white version of countryman Ken Steacy’s artwork, albeit less expertly executed, complete with airbrush renderings. However, the transfer lettering, all in caps (with very little breathing room around the strips and too much within the balloons) gives it an unprofessional cut and paste look. The storytelling, though, is more clear than Sim’s, so it is easier to tell what is going on without a ton of effort. As to the various levels of skill in the lettering department, McPherson said : Lettering is one of the great bugaboos of comics. No matter how good the artwork is otherwise, without decent lettering it’s trash. I wasn’t going to do any lettering and no other artist I ever hired wanted to either. Didn’t give them a choice, however, and it was only after they absolutely refused to do their own lettering that I looked elsewhere, with I’ll acknowledge limited success. So, yes, at least in theory every artist I hired was supposed to provide lettering for the sequence they drew. Some came back disastrously and, yes again, there were times I had to hire letterers either before or after fact and hated the result. Curiously, even if I liked their work, the letterers themselves found it too arduous a task so they never deigned to work with me again, not even if I offered them a howsoever minuscule raise.  The second story centers on Captain Dmetri Diomad, of Cosmicar Four, who thinks he’s back in a Vietnamese Jungle when he’s actually somehow ended up on the Hidden Continent of Sedon’s Head. Sean Newton’s art in “The Soldier’s Trilogy, Part 1: Vetala” is a very nice linear style along the lines of Oz/Age of Bronze artist Eric Shanower, and has some very nice inking as well (see four pages above). The actual storytelling is a bit pedestrian compared to the other artists, but it is also a nice resting place, because of the more simplistic panel compositions. There is also more breathing space around the figures, which adds to the feeling of a more restful and contemplative story, despite the fact that it has an age changing vampire woman riding a giant vulture! As to Newton’s skillset, McPherson stated : ...I was pleased with result. He was playful, too. The wooden leg the Vetala-hag is shown dragging along behind her comes from my description of what he had to draw, which went something like: “She’s so old and arthritic it’s like she’s dragging along a wooden leg behind her.” It was meant metaphorically, as in she could barely walk, but he took it literally and I left the leg in, just because I like playing around as well. But, to answer your question, I believe he was an animator. I know I would have hired him to carry on the Vetala-Soldier storyline that Verne Andru took over. Except he moved to Montreal in order to work on the Heavy Metal movie and I never came across him again. The next chapter, Meet: the Indescrible Mr. Noname! heralds the reappearance of Sim as artist/letterer. It makes more sense this time, as the title character is a more traditional comic type character in the vein of The Blob. Another character, The Gypsium Man, appears in a very Neal Adams-esqe splash page (complete with a big, toned title balloon).  The last story heads back into a more fantasy laden landscape, and features Vayu Maelstrom, a Master Deva, a protector of the Headworld and a Byronic Nucleoid. Cosmic enough for you yet? The art by Ian Bateson, is a pointillistically rendered combination of Richard Corben and First Kingdom artist Jack Katz. The lettering this time is both fitting to the visual style of the story (complete with that old presstype computer style so popular back in the 70s), and easily readable.  I think Bateson is the best visual fit to this epic (see pages above and below), even if some of the figure stances are a little awkward and stiff. Interestingly, a character called “Cerebrus” appears in this story... but he is far from an earth pig! A huge battle ensues between the main character and a “Devic Demon,” the living mountain. Soon after that, we are introduced to the aforementioned “multi-talented” Damnation Brigade, composed of characters with fanciful names like Wilderwitch, Blind Johnny Sundown, and The Awesome Akbar. As I said earlier much of this seems to be setting up the massive storyline McPherson would labor on for the next 30 years.  Though these two independent comics have their rough spots, they are full of energy and ideas. And though described by McPherson as a “money making venture”, the content sits perfectly in the stylistic bookshelves populated by the fantasy fanzines of that time such as Infinity. Author McPherson has a massive website (fitting the massive nature of his project) that you can see here. The author does a lot of traveling to service his interests, and he talks below about his plans for both and how they have changed over the years. When I was working I wrote on weekends. All sorts of stories came out of me in those days but it wasn’t until computers came along in the early 1990s that I got back into long fiction – and the Phantacea mythos. That’s still the medium I prefer – don’t have to deal with artists and letterers and distributors – but I don’t know that long fiction really sells anymore. I’m hopeful getting into e-books, with their speaking-book aspects, will make a big difference financially but I never was much good at marketing so who can say. I’ve scripts for the entire Phase One series that I started work on in 1980s and I’ve a Wilderwitch story written for a graphic novel but I haven’t the bucks to get back into comics as much as I love the medium. (I stopped reading, let alone collecting comics, circa 1990.) I enjoy working on web-pages and doing graphics for the medium. It’s something I can do myself, and it’s probably what I’ve enjoyed the most, but there’s no denying that starting out the comic books, writing the scripts, coaxing out the artwork, the whole process, was a highlight reel period for me in my own timeline. Lately, I’m mostly doing the innards for the next Phantacea Publications offering, which will be an e-book version of War-Pox. Once Verne finishes the cover for “Goddess Gambit,” Book Three of ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ trilogy, I’ll get it print ready and published. After that I’ll start counting pennies and deciding which conventions I can afford to attend in 2012. Not very exciting, I’ll grant you, but I still hope to make some serious money via the Phantacea Mythos. Am entertaining offers, as it were. Beyond Phantacea, life goes on. I’d planned on going on safari in the new year but Al Shabab’s going crazy in Kenya and that’s where I wanted to go. Travelling takes a big bite out of ever-limited financing but it’s what I enjoy most. Other than writing, doing graphics and taking photos, that is. Big time thanks goes out to Jim McPherson for answering a host of questions from me via email. I am also indebted to him for letting me make the pdfs available, considering he still sells the comics via his website. I also need to thank Jason Schachter, as these are two of the many zines he has forwarded scans of to me. Download the pdf of issue one here, and issue two here. You can also order his graphic novel, novels and other paraphernalia related to this most adventurous of publications, Phantacea, here!
Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Even early on, Infinity boasted a myriad of big name artists, including Berni Wrightson, Roy Krenkel, Jeff Jones, Frank Brunner and more...all this and more in the second issue!  Kenneth Smith Infinity 2: 1970 Editors/Publishers: Adam Malin and Gary Berman  Jeff Jones As regular readers know from reading my profile on Infinity 5, editors Adam Malin and Gary Berman did not scrimp on the art or content of this, one of the best fanzines of its time. “The boys” did their best to garner some of the biggest names for illustrations, interviews, and articles. This second issue holds to that pattern. As was the fashion in many of the higher end “art zines” of the day, the editors decided to go with a completely text free cover. No logo. No title. No issue number. It was just known, I guess, how good the zine would be. People just had to know what they were looking for! Below you see an oil painting on the cover by Frank Brunner, who would go on to do a large volume of work for Marvel, and who is now doing private commissions, among other things. Check out his own website (from the archives) here. Now, it bears mentioning that the editor’s notes mention Brunner’s contribution as the back cover, with the actual Jeff Jones back cover mentioned as the front cover. So...it seems the Oscar might have gone to the wrong person! Still, both paintings are as good as anything else you would have seen in fandom at the time. At left you can see yet another example of Jeff Jones' incredible control of composition.  Frank Brunner It is also mentioned in the editor’s notes that a valued member of the Infinity team “left the building,” taking a large amount of art that had been planned for this issue, and leaving Malin and Berman in the lurch. However, with the help of many fellow fans and collectors, the pair did a great job securing a great selection of art and other content. Below you see one of the other Frank Brunner pieces, a bit of fantasy cheesecake. Don’t worry...there is more on the way!  Brunner  Berni Wrightson The big “get” this issue was probably the Berni Wrightson interview conducted by editor Adam Malin. This was still very early in Wrightson’s career. As stated by Berni in the interview, his King Kull story had yet to appear in Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness (see a snippet below). Berni talks about his work in magazines such as Web of Horror, his favorite fanzines, comic characters, etc. In addition to the illustration to the right, we are treated to a gorgeous illustration from Wrightson’s King Kull, and a little head shot of Frankenstein. This master of the horror genre would figure heavily into Infinity as it went on, as would his “Studio” mates, Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones. While on the subject of Web of Horror, you can see all of the stories in their entirety in the new compilation here!  Wrightson  Frank Frazetta That illustration seen above is dedicated to “Doug,” who I am pretty sure is Doug Murray, the writer who not only conducted a nice interview with Frank Frazetta in this issue of Infinity (ink sketch by Frazetta seen at left), but went on to write the incredible The ‘Nam series for Marvel about 15 years later. Coincidentally, it’s mentioned that Doug conducted this interview in late 1967, but was drafted and served in Viet Nam, gaining all the knowledge and experience that went into creating that amazing series. The interview sat unpublished until Infinity 2. At the tail end of the Frazetta interview, mention is made by Murray of a lunch meeting at the New York Comic Convention including Murray, Frazetta, Wrightson, and Ace paperback cover artist (and much more) Roy Krenkel. After Frazetta got up to leave, Krenkel said rather sadly, “I wish I had his talent, I’d like to be good.” I have heard of Krenkel’s feelings of inferiority to Frazetta’s talent, and possibly his impressive personality and physique. It is sad, because Krenkel had a career full of beautiful and impressive work of his own. I can remember myself collecting a wide array of Ace paperbacks by Burroughs with great covers by Krenkel. Crazily enough, following the Frazetta interview is a Roy Krenkel portfolio featuring both pencil and ink work, seen below. By the way, you can see more work in a great little bio from the archives here.  Roy Krenkel  Krenkel Many other artists grace the pages of Infinity 2, including Mad Magazine‘s Dave Berg. I was astounded to find out that Berg, who died in 2002 at the age of 81, attended the prestigious Pratt Institute...at age 12!!! A whimsical illo by Berg is seen below, followed by another Brunner illustration, and an oil painting by a young Mike Kaluta.  Dave Berg, Brunner, Mike Kaluta Also included in this issue are a few cover roughs by fantasy master Virgil Finlay, one of which you see below. You can see much more work by Finlay and read about him in the archives here, the same great place that has the Krenkel info.  Lastly is the aforementioned Jeff Jones back cover (originally intended to be the front cover...which makes sense, since it also has the title and issue number with it), seen below.  That wraps up this installment. As you can see from the table of contents below, you will see a ton more in the pdf! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]  Writer Jan Strnad started his award winning professional career in fandom with the beautifully illustrated fanzine, Anomaly.  Robert Kline Anomaly 1, 1969 Publisher/Editor: Jan Strnad If you have read Ink Stains regularly, you have seen Anomaly 3 already covered here, and you know what a stellar cast of artists and writers that editor/publisher/writer Jan Strnad regularly assembled. The first issue of this high quality fanzine is no different. Though the actual numbers of contributors may be fewer than what came later, the quality is just as high. Instead of listing all the contributors right off the bat, we will take them a few at a time. Above, you see two spot illos by Robert Kline, a big fave of mine (and Strnad’s). Robert is all over this issue of Anomaly, and as Jan Strnad puts it in the zine’s introduction, “We owe the existence of this first issue to one Robert Kline.” This was Kline’s first published work in fandom. It is obvious from the very first illustration gracing the cover (seen below) that Kline had the goods. Jan told me via Facebook that Robert had actually sent work to Jerry Weist and Squa Tront, but the work didn’t make it in, so Jan snatched the work and Robert up for Anomaly!  Kline The wash drawing is a widescreen wraparound cover, and a great introduction to the worlds of fantasy and science fiction that Kline would grace the readers with in fanzines such as Anomaly, Fantastic Fanzine, The Collector, and Always Comes Twilight in the years following this debut, before his entry into the world of professional animation. In fact, the very first content of note is a seven page story done in the classic style of the EC comics of the 1950s, complete with a twist ending. I will say that, at least at this early stage of his career, Kline fares more successfully in the single illustrations than the sequential work. Below you see a page from his story, His Brother’s Keeper.  Kline  Archie Goodwin Following Kline’s science fiction story, god of speculative literature Harlan Ellison weighs in with his single page story, The Voice in Garden. It’s either an exercise in writing punctuated with an in-joke...or just a joke. But of course, this story from 1967 is incredibly well written, as is all of Ellison’s work. What follows next could be considered the meat of the issue, a profile of writer (and sometimes artist) Archie Goodwin. Incredibly beloved in the industry, the late Goodwin is represented here by an interview conducted by long time fandom stalwart, the aforementioned Jerry Weist. The interview covered many subjects relating to Goodwin, including his start in a fanzine of the late 50s called Hoohah, and on through Goodwin’s incredible work in the Warren magazines of the late 60s, as well as Goodwin’s writing work at Marvel (specifically, Iron Man). Goodwin’s freelance work is also covered, represented by a monthly strip on the subject of fishing (a subject Goodwin admits to knowing nothing about). Goodwin’s awards in the comic book industry reflect both his expert skills as a writer and his ability to work both with intelligence and integrity with virtually anyone. His recognition includes Shazam awards several times over, as well as the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Eisner award in 1992, among others. Goodwin was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 1998, the year that he passed away.  Goodwin Above you see one of the fishing cartoons for Fishing World magazine. Below, a real treat, you can see the sketches/thumbnails that Goodwin provided artist Reed Crandall with for their Creepy Story, The Squaw. The whole story is laid out below, and you see the finished first and last pages under that.  Goodwin  Reed Crandall Goodwin provided layouts such as these for almost all of the stories that he wrote, following the example of EC/Mad artist and writer Harvey Kurtzman. Goodwin, however, offered these layouts merely as guides, unlike Kurtzman, who expected his artists to follow the layouts closely. Frequent Goodwin collaborators such as Crandall and Al Williamson are said to deeply enjoy this method of working, as long as it was with Goodwin! Following the Goodwin interview is a double page illustration by the aforementioned Crandall, seen below.  Crandall There are several spot and full page illustrations scattered throughout the magazine by Robert Kline, Kenneth Smith, and Stephen Hickman (seen below). Hickman has gone on to become a well established and highly sought after cover artist in the book industry, as seen on his site here.  Steve Hickman, Kline, Kline  Greg Phillips Above you see two illustrations by Robert Kline, and below an illustration by Greg Phillips to accompany a Jan Strnad science fiction story called Survivors of the Suicide World, of which this is only part one. I am afraid I have no knowledge of Greg Phillips. Another Strnad story (written with sometime partner Don Bain) follows, called The Enchanted Sword, which appears to be a riff on The Sword and the Stone, and has an illustration by Robert Kline (the swordsman appearing in the banner at the top of the page). Following this is a three plate portfolio by Robert Kline of Robert E. Howard inspired images, two of which you can see below. The illustrations below shows how, even this early in his career, Kline understood not only the craft of inking, the concept of good composition, but atmospheric perspective. The more lightly inked Worm in the background appears even more huge because of the understanding and use of this principle.  Kline A few Final Thoughts from Strnad appear after the portfolio, then another Kline full page illustration (along with a few other spots), and the debut issue of Anomaly comes to a close. Thanks this time go to Gil Agudin, who kindly sent the Archie Goodwin/Crandall pages within minutes of my frantic Facebook post. Also, a big huge thanks goes out to Jason Schachter, who not only provided the scans to Anomaly 1, but also to a host of others that will come later. This includes a complete run of FOOM, several issues of Charlton Bullseye, Fantagor, Fever Dreams, RBCC, Gene Day’s Black Zeppelin, Ralph Reese’s Reese’s Pieces, Scream Door, and many others! Get your requests in now! By the way, the reason I profiled Anomaly 1 now is because my scanner broke down...I had initially planned an early issue of Infinity, which will come as soon as I get a new scanner. As always folks, feel free to download the pdf, and please leave comments so I don’t feel all alone! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] As you know by now, Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine was one of the best of its kind. Issue 13 is no exception, featuring art by Dave Cockrum, Berni Wrightson, Don Newton, and more!  Dave Cockrum Fantastic Fanzine 13: 1971 Publisher and Editor: Gary Groth It seems like it has been too long since I have delved back into the fan repertoire of Gary Groth, especially considering how important this fanzine is to my young fan years. So, to rectify the situation, here is Fantastic Fanzine 13! To start off with a bang, below you see the beautifully color saturated cover by fan favorite, John G. Fantucchio. John also has a feature this issue that we will get to later. Now, feast your eyes downward!  John G. Fantucchio Now, tell me that wouldn’t stand out on the newsstands today! What was confirmed by Fantucchio via email to be acrylic on a photograph of New York is yet another bit of evidence as to why this artist was so popular in fanzines such as FF, The Collector, The Buyer’s Guide, and many others back in the 70s. His work always stood out as being unlike anyone else’s, with all the spiky linework, exaggerated figures, and lush textures in his paintings. I was told by Aaron Caplan (also via email) that Fantucchio actually did most of his art to fit the publication. That is, the black and white art you see below was painted in black and white. In an email, John told me more about the cover: The entire situation was sketched while I was sitting in a Goodyear balloon perched high atop New York City. From that it evolved to what you see. That illustration, thanks to Gary Groth, ended up on the cover of the Washington Sunday Post Potomac Magazine of August 13, 1972, with a fascinating article on the young master publisher (Groth). From there I entered the entire cover in the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington’s 24th annual exhibition, where it was chosen and hung. One of the judges was the late great illustrator, Bernard Fuchs. Below you see various images from his portfolio in this issue:  Fantucchio  Fantucchio  Fantucchio That last piece illustrates the humor that Fantucchio often exhibited in his work. He was just as prone to doing a caricature as a serious piece. You can see several other pieces in the portfolio, along with a page of photos from their home. That photo montage shows a treasured Volvo that was new at the time and that Aaron tells me is still in pristine condition in Fantucchios’s garage! While I am at it, I must reference Aaron Caplan’s website devoted exclusively to John and his work that you can see here. Fantucchio also contributes a text piece on the art of Steve Ditko.  Dennis Fujitake Conan gets an examining by Jeffrey Wasserman (twice, actually) in Conan! of Marvel, which is illustrated by Sal Buscema (much loved as a Barry Smith inker on Conan by Wasserman), Art Thibert, John Cornell, and two wonderful Hawaiians, Gary Kato and Dennis Fujitake (seen above). Following this article is one of the many convention coverages that Fantastic Fanzine and Groth specialized in. In fact, three cons are covered this issue, with the first being the 1970 NY Con. Below you can see a few photos of some of the industry giants that attended (that is Tarzan artist extraordinaire, Roy Krenkel at left, below the larger photo, Joe Sinnott to the right of Roy, then below left to right, Wally Wood and Gil Kane).    L to R, Frank Jacobs, Dave Berg, Jerry DeFuccio, John Putnam (moderator). In addition to these photographs, between the three con reports you will also see Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Dave Cockrum, Roy Thomas, Robert Kline, Mike Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Marv Wolfman, and a few others. The photos really take you back! After the first of the two con reports, Bill Cantey delivers a western tale called The Man with the Golden Vest, which is garnished by a beautiful Don Newton illustration (seen below), as well as illustrations by Bill Black and Fantucchio. There is also a nice logo from Kenneth Smith, who did several like this for Groth over the years. However, this one was not printed well. In fact, Groth told me through email that he (still in high school at the time) had to sue the printer in small claims court for a terrible printing job on the fanzine. Even at that young age, Groth knew what he wanted! By the way, I think this illustration shows evidence that the late Don Newton was the best western artist fandom has ever seen, in my opinion.  Don Newton  Berni Wrightson Following Cantey’s story is an entertaining and pretty humorous interview with the writer, who has had stories illustrated by the likes of Richard Corben and Robert Kline, among others. He was a mainstay of Fantastic Fanzine, The Collector, and many others. Between the interview and the second con report (a very well written report by Cantey) is an appropriately grisly Wrightson illustration, seen at right. The articles include a humorous take on How Creation was Created by Gordon Matthews, Bernie Bubnis’ article on fandom by a pro, and Tony Isabella’s Windmills of my Mind column (which, among other things, cites his twelve most creative people in comics). Below you see the inside back cover, a really nice illustration by Mike Roberts (a Collector alumni). I have to say, this illustration has a lot going for it...crisp linework, really nice foreshortening on the spear the savage on the left is carrying...but the piece as a whole is marred a bit by the proportions of the main character (Ka-Zar, I assume)...the head is just too big for a heroic character! Still, a nice illustration, other than that. Other spot illustrations and full pagers are done by artists such as Jay Mike/Carter Scholtz, Alan Weiss, Martin Greim, John Adkins Richardson (who does a con report on the 1970 Metro Con, his first con...and his first con report), Vincent Marchesano, Ken Steacy, and R. Yeates.  Mike Roberts Probably the main article of the fanzine is a long interview with golden age great, artist/writer Howard Purcell, by Joe Mosca. The interview came about when Mosca saw a letter in a DC comic asking what became of several “older writers and artists” who had worked for comics such as House of Secrets and House of Mystery. Editor Murray Boltinoff listed a few and what they did, ending with the fact that Purcell taught art only one mile from where Mosca lived! A call was made and the interview was set up. Purcell had a hand in many prominent characters and titles in the comic industry, including the Black Knight (seen below in two full page illustrations), Green Lantern, Hap Harrigan, Sea Devils (of which many wonderful covers are reprinted, and one of the first comics I ever read), Unexpected, and many many more. The interview is long, thorough, very entertaining and, in my opinion, a required read for many younger artists out there who may not know what it was like working in comics in the golden and silver age.   The piece above is actually seen both in pencil stage and the more finished version you see above. I only had a vague memory of Purcell before reading this article. Very well done, I have to say. The issue ends with a bloody barbarian bang courtesy of Fantastic Fanzine regular and X-Men artist of a few years later, Dave Cockrum. Check it out below.  And so, another issue of Gary Groth’s great contribution to the world of fandom draws to a close. I still have a few others to profile at a later date, including the issue that followed this, which became Fantastic Fanzine special number 2, with a great Dave Cockrum wraparound cover of the Silver Surfer, among a ton of other great stuff. The next installment of Ink Stains may be Infinity 2, or it may be a few issues of The Charlton Bullseye...you decide!
Thanks this time go out to Aaron Caplan, Gary Groth, and especially John G. Fantucchio. Without them, the article would have been just me, and no one wants that! Forgot the links to the pdf, what a doofus! See them, get them now, Jethro! Go here and here! LATE BREAKING NEWS: Due to a reader’s incredible generosity (thanks, Jason Schachter!), I now have every issue of FOOM, along with the great Wrightson zine, Scream Door, among others! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] The names alone will draw you in: Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Tony DeZuniga, Rich Buckler, Ken Barr, Frank Brunner, Jeff Jones, Gerry Conway, Ernie Colon, Tom Sutton, Denny O’Neil...and more! All in Phase!  Phase: 1971 Published by Phase Publications/Sal Q There were very few fanzines (or “prozines,” which an argument can be made that Phase is one of) that were able to assemble the vast and deep array of talent that Phase was able to gather. Included in that list at the outset are some of the biggest names, the best artists, the most lauded writers, and some of the most singular creators working in comics at that time. Honestly, it boggles my mind the amount of high profile and highly regarded creators that Sal Quartuccio and his associates John Carbonaro, Doug Foley, and Jim Ciccolella were able to corral into this impressive package. Add to that a high quality printing job and a slick paper in an oversize format, and you have in your hands one of the best of its kind. Sal Quartuccio’s family moved from Queens, NY to beautiful Brooklyn around 1965. On the subject of the formative stages of his young publishing career, Sal states that: I used to see John Carbonaro walking up my block, always reading a comic. We finally met during a stickball game on my block and found we had so much in common. He introduced me to Marvel Comics (I was basically a DC and Warren fan). John was friends with other comic fans, Jim Ciccolella and Doug Foley. In 1969 we saw an article in the Daily News about an upcoming comic book convention in New York City. We all went and had a ball. We met many artists and writers, and got some nice sketches from several of them. I spent all of my money at one table – buying back copies of the first 4 or 5 issues of Witzend. I fell in love with the idea of publishing this type of black and white comic. After publishing a mimeographed fanzine called A.C.E. (Amateur Comic Enterprises), Sal and his friends decided to up the ante and publish something more substantial in every way, and that enterprise became Phase. Like many other fanzine publishers, it was remarkable how much he accomplished at such a young age. Sal was only 18 and a freshman in college when he started putting together Phase. Sal Quartuccio appears to have made a decision to concentrate on providing a wide variety of stories and story subjects. A few stories dealt with the big stories of the day, such as the Vietnam War. However, other genres covered included sword and sorcery, fantasy, humor, science fiction, and even a western tale. There were also several beautiful spot illustrations and pin ups. Look at the gorgeous and skilled line control from an inking master, Dan Adkins, the round and rendered forms in the Murphy Anderson piece, and the usual macabre mastery from Berni Wrightson!    But, as I said, Sal and his team were able to procure full stories from many of the creators, so let’s get to those! Frank Brunner starts the issue off with an 8-page sword and sorcery tale called Sword of Dragonus. It’s a great chance to see Brunner in his early Frazetta-inspired style. It was during this time that Brunner’s work was used in publications such as Web of Horror, Creepy, Eerie, and Marvel Premiere (doing one of his signature characters, Dr. Strange). Through email, Brunner told me that, “My inking was still developing. I used ink wash and pencil gray tones. The story was originally done for Web of Horror 4, which never saw print. Phase actually outbid Warren for the story, which Jim Warren wanted for Creepy!” Check out Frank’s official site here, and some selected pages from his story below.    After the wizards, creatures, and demons of the first story, we jump far forward into a science fiction short story called Impact, by Ernie Colon, complete with a twist ending. Bill Stillwell provides a breather with a full-page illustration, and then we are again thrust into a totally new frame of reference with The Coming of the Pirahnas by Denny O’Neil and Steve Skeates. Drawn by Skeates (a writer who produced a large quantity of work for Warren publishing, winning several awards along the way) in a style reminiscent of marginal cartoons in a high school notebook, it appears to be a lesson on how to conform and survive. Along the way, we are treated to some very fishy puns and jokes. Changing tracks again, the Phase train pulls into a town in the old west for Gerry Conway and Gray Morrow’s Duel. This is a classic western tale of a man wrongly tried, sentenced to death by hanging, and then...well, read the story! What I appreciate the most, being an artist myself, is the wonderful and seemingly effortless realistic style and skill of Gray Morrow. Morrow was a mainstay of Warren like many others in Phase, but he also did his share of work for other publishers, including a plethora of paperback book covers, Perry Rhodan being the most well known. His style was perfect for horror, western, and anything else that required a level of realism that few comic artists could muster. In fact, it was possibly the quieter type of drama inherent in truly realistic work, that stopped him from succeeding as well in fantasy arenas such as superhero comics. Sadly, Morrow took his life in 2001, after suffering for a time with Parkinson’s disease. Below you can see one illustration from Duel, showcasing his mastery of the toning material, zip-a-tone, as well as his command of line weight and variety.  A spot illustration by pro Tony DeZuniga fills the gap between Duel and the next story, Soul Food. Written by New York Comic Convention founder Phil Seuling and drawn by Chris Notarile, it is a tale of a man who commits an act that does the very thing that he is trying to escape...lose his soul. Notarile’s name was familiar to me for some reason I could not remember, until I did a web search and was reminded that he was a very accomplished illustrator, doing TV Guide covers and many other high profile pieces. You can see samples of some of his work here. A short 2-page fantasy tale by Marv Wolfman and Rich Buckler follows called Comes the Gray Dawn. This is another instance of Buckler showing what a pro he is and always was. I especially love the drama brought about by the skillful using of shadow and light in the first panel of the page below. Here, he is also free of his (probably requested) Kirby like style, rendering in a much more realistic, Neal Adams sort of style.  Continuing in the fantasy vein, but in a much quieter fashion, is Jeff Jones and Home. As always, Jones shows his mastery of composition and placement of black fields. His work always astounds me. As I mentioned in another column, keep an eye out for the film by Maria Carbado on the life of Jeffrey Jones called Better Things. Maybe you were lucky enough to see the panel at the most recent San Diego Comic- Con on the film...I sure wish I could have! See the story below and find out more about the film here.     Cover artist Ken Barr treats us to an anti-war story next with Veteran. Like Morrow earlier, Barr is a master of realism, though he does it with paint (on the cover below). I believe I can spot a few of his photo referenced subjects, including John Wayne, E. G. Marshall, and possibly even Leslie Neilsen. However, it’s Barr’s superlative painting skills that really shine here, and on the cover even more. Below you can see samples of both.   Following the Murphy Anderson pin up you saw earlier is a creator who, in publisher Sal’s words, ...has more talent in his baby toe than most artists in the biz, his only problem is sitting down and finishing something. He had so many ideas floating around, but he rarely ever got to finish anything. I always wanted him to continue with Hero, but that never happened, he did several short bizarre stories for Hot Stuf’ (there was a lot of interest in Scarecrow – but that was just a series of spot illos, nothing more). Then Bil went into computer graphics, worked at Disney’s Imagineering Dept., and then teaching art in Canada. He is talking about Bil Maher, whose work you saw in an earlier installment of Ink Stains on the aforementioned Hot Stuf’. The little bit of work I saw of Maher always left me wanting more. He seemed to have a command of a lot of techniques and could handle many types of subject matter. In “Hero,” a few pages of which you see below, he handles line and tone easily and moves back and forth between humor and “serious” sf/superhero type material with ease.    After Maher’s 10-page story, Mike Kaluta contributes a two-pager entitled As Night Falls, after which we are given A subtle philosophical sword and sorcery tale called Getting the Point by Kenneth Smith. Always a smarty pants (and I mean that very respectfully), Smith also is very good at throwing a little humor the reader’s way. Illustrated with Smith’s always incredibly rendered illustrations, it is a feast for the eyes and mind. See a sample below.  An about face is given to us by Tom Sutton with The Comic Book Freak, drawn in a Mad Magazine type style and peopled with parodies of some of the best known comic strip characters, such as Dennis the Menace, Beetle Baily, Daddy Warbucks, Dick Tracy, and even Archie! Zany! Next, we are thrust into a serious story by Steve Fritz called Yesterday’s Rain, chronicling the violence in human nature from the caveman to the atom bomb. Fritz uses many visual techniques to tell his tale, including pen and ink, photography, and collage. Ken Kelly, illustrator of many a sword and sorcery paperback book, follows with a cheesecake pin up. Bill Stillwell appears again with another pin up, and then a two-pager from Len Wein and Tony DeZuniga called Dragon Slayer that allows us to see that, yes, the Philippino artist can draw beautiful, naked damsels! Pulling up the rear with the last story, Neal Adams delivers a big emotional punch with A View From Without. Adams’s incredible rendering ability is on display here, along with his political views on war in general, and the Vietnam war in particular. It opens with a young man on a hike in the mountains, who finds a strange and futuristic communication device, much like the advanced cell phones we have today, 40 years after Adams did this story. Adams uses his hefty drawing skills and combines them with some photo collage and even a fumetti of a sort (the artist himself appears as the narrator/communicator on the device, complete with dramatic lighting and some darn huge eyebrows). Some of the images are just too graphic to show here, but suffice to say it illustrates the horrors of war pretty convincingly. See a few pages below.      After the emotionally draining Adams story, Billy Graham contributes a full-page Conan-like illustration, and then the magazine is pretty much over. Now, after seeing the incredible talent in this magazine, it shouldn’t have surprised me to hear from Sal that “Jim Steranko was the planned cover artist, but when we met at Phil Seuling’s home, all he offered us was a very nice and very dark western painting. We thanked him but passed.” How many 18 year olds would pass on a Steranko cover? Sal must have had a ball assembling this group. He thanks many people familiar to Ink Stains readers (such as The Collector’s Bill G. Wilson, TBG‘s Alan Light and Fantastic Fanzine’s Gary Groth). Of this group, Sal goes on to say that “many fellow fanzine publishers were kind enough to include our flyers in their mailings. That’s when publishing was just a fun thing to do, no one was looking for a film deal, no one was looking to get rich, we just wanted to pay the printing bill. We had a much better system then, now everyone is dependent on one comic shop distributor, and the 2 major publishers just want to flood the market and tie up every dime to prevent anything else from getting out there.” Sal Quartuccio says that later, “in 1973 I decided to go on my own and start Hot Stuf’, and brought in my good friend Bob Keenan to help it along.” Sal also published many other fine books and magazines and continues to do so today. Along the way, he worked and hobnobbed with the best, including playing softball with Phil Seuling, Angelo Torres, Gray Morrow, Dick Giordano, and occasionally Frank Frazetta. What a life! Now, obviously, this was one long installment of Ink Stains! So, you shouldn’t be surprised that the pdf download comes in three parts, here, here, and here! Please download and view those, as there is so much not seen here! I would like to especially thank Sal Quartuccio for answering questions via email and Facebook, as well as Frank Brunner. Tune in next time, as we will be seeing either Infinity 2 or Fantastic Fanzine 13! Feel free to send me your votes as to which you would like to see! And please, if you read the column, leave a comment behind...without ‘em, I feel lonely! LATE BREAKING ADDITION! SEE BELOW THE STERANKO COVER THAT WAS REJECTED FOR THE KEN BARR COVER! Thanks very much to the mighty Tony Robertson!  Ken Meyer Jr.
[email protected] On May 19th of this year [this column was originally posted in 2011) we lost one of the best painters of our generation. Jeffrey Catherine Jones was an incredibly prolific painter and comic artist with an uncanny sense of composition, among many other amazing traits. This installment, we look at the artist’s underground comic, Spasm.  Spasm: 1973 Published by Last Gasp Eco Funnies Jeffrey Jones is or should be well known to all Ink Stains readers (and comic fans, and fans of great art in general). Starting in the late sixties, Jones was producing gorgeous and sometimes singular art seemingly right out of the box. You will find his work in many Ink Stains columns and hopefully many more in the future. For now, I am focusing on his underground comic, Spasm. Though not a fanzine, per se, I feel it fits well enough within many of the higher quality art zines that he played a big part in.  This nifty little collection of stories shows Jones at his most loose. Most of the stories look as if they were done quickly, without worrying about perfectly feathered lines or incredibly detailed backgrounds. Some may think these are mere wisps of stories, but, in my opinion, Jones’s quick sketches are better than ninety percent of the finished work in comics and some of the illustration world. Lately, much of the illustration world is littered with faux naive scratchings and jaded, ironic work with little feeling. Jones can be called many things, but unfeeling is not one of them.  Jeffrey Jones is probably most known for his gorgeous renditions of full figured women, usually with very little clothing on. However, if you look at his website (urls will be given at the end of the article) you will see many evocative landscapes amidst the beautiful babes, dinosaurs, and flights of fantasy. Late in life, Jones seemed to be more interested in painting the wonders of nature all around him than filling the bookshelves with paperback book covers (something he did with gusto in the 1970s). When following his fanzine work, I was always taken with his command of the human figure, and especially the out of the ordinary contortions and positions he could put his characters in, such as the dying spaceman to the left. Jones himself posed much of the time for illustrations such as this and many of his paintings that would come later. This illustration is one of a few stand alone drawings in this comic, so let’s talk about the stories, shall we? The cover of Spasm, as Patrick Hill tells me (and he would know; he is probably the go-to person for knowledge on the career of Jeffrey Jones), is a rejected cover for the Dragonriders of Pern, a very well known entry in a fantasy saga by Anne McCaffrey. I have a feeling the very average looking dragon rider might not have been heroic looking enough for the editors, but that is just my opinion.  After another full page illustration (seen above), Jeff launches into a two-page story called Co- incidence. Done in a sparse and sketchy style, the story is much like his Idyll work, simple and somewhat whimsical. Some may see this story as merely an excuse to practice some figure drawing. But, when you can draw figures as good as this, I say, so what? After this, we get one of the best stories in the comic, Spirit of ’76, seen below in its entirety. I have a feeling the printing, combined with my scans, do not do justice to the soft gradations of watercolor used in this story. But enough jabbering; you be the judge.  You can see how seemingly effortlessly Jones was able to render naturalistic poses, even in children; a hard thing to pull off. The following story, Saved, is told in blocks of type and art within ovals of black. Perhaps this was meant to echo the prison/safety of the female astronaut’s suit, or maybe contrast with the vast emptiness of space...or both. Jones combines his influence of the old EC comics with his own still and small observations, giving us a Jones/EC twist ending, as well. I think you can also see a possible influence from his friend, contemporary, and Studio mate Berni Wrightson in the rendering of the dead astronaut’s face (and the dying spaceman near the beginning of this installment). Below you see two “panels” from that story.  Next, we are treated to The Enemy. Now, I will not pretend to totally understand this story. Maybe you can read it and get back to me? There are several instances where I had some unanswered questions; questions like, “How did he get there?” and, “Why did she throw the book through the window?” But despite those questions and some sloppy inking here and there, a few panels stand out for being beautifully composed. Composition was always a very strong component of Jones’s work. Possibly his best. Whether individual comic panels or large paintings, Jones was almost always able to arrange the objects on the surface in a very visually pleasing way. This story has a few panels that are drawn really well and also lead the eye where he wanted it to go. Two of these panels you see below.  If you are missing Jones' incredibly beautiful renditions of women, then you should be happy with the next story, Luce. This story features two woman on a hillside, both with wings, one very attached to her chairs. Like much of Jones' sequential work, there are metaphors and allegories masquerading as simple objects and actions. And also, like much of the artist's stories, the characters are beautifully rendered amidst designs where the artist intelligently utilized negative space. See for yourself.  From the light and airy open spaces of Luce, we are plunged into the black of space with Deja Vu. This story has some of Jones’s favorite subjects...spacemen and trees. And he is darn good at trees! The story mirrors the title cleverly as well. [JUST ADDED! Ronn Sutton, a friend of Jeff's from way back, supplied me with these great ref photos of him that Jeff used for the strip below. Ronn has done some great work recently, including a Carson of Venus strip...I am pressed for time this morning, but will do more on Ronn later).    The composition of that last panel on the first page and the second panel of the second page just boggle my mind. To take all those various elements and compose them so perfectly seems like a mysterious gift to me, though I assume it was a product of many years of learning. Next, one of many stories and paintings exploring the different ages of women, the frailty of the human condition, and the things we cling to as human beings. Below you see a few panels from The Bridge.  I don’t know of many artists/writers (especially in comics) that focus so much on how easily broken we humans can become, and how fragile we can be. Many of the heroic figures in his paintings are normally proportioned figures, as are most of his renditions of the female figure. After this quiet tale, we move on to Guarantee, possibly a morality play on the ethics of the police, or at least those in power. See below.  As you can see above, more open space is utilized in the last story of the book, coincidentally the last stage (to some) of life, that being Death. Another seemingly simple meditation on a very weighty subject, it is contrasted by the thin line weights and quick, almost gesture-drawing style.  There is another full-page illustration, and a beautiful and enigmatic back cover (seen below).  I feel so lucky that I was able to speak to Jeffrey a few times about his site, asking various questions and offering advice. He was usually succinct but prompt. About a year ago, he started posting very frequently on Facebook. It was truly a joy to see all the sketches and other works we might not have seen otherwise. Jeffrey seemed to really be enjoying himself on Facebook, interacting with his fans and friends. Posts were very frequent, many times just posting funny photos he found on the ol’ interweb. I wish I could ask him questions now about Spasm...but that can’t happen. It was such a terrible surprise to hear of his passing little more than a month ago. There were so many good things happening...a new book, a new film documentary on Jones called Better Things by the positive-vibe tornado of Maria Carbado (one of my favorite people of alll time). So much was happening...but now...he’s gone. It was a real shock. I can’t say I had a personal relationship with Jeffrey Jones...but I have loved his art for over 30 years. There are many places you can see Jeff’s work. The website, the existing books, all the comics, the fanzines, the paperbacks, and more. He was so prolific, especially early in his career. I thought I had seen most of it, but things I somehow missed seem to materialize daily. Download the pdf here and here (two parts). Below, you can see Maria and Jeffrey.  I would like to thank Patrick Hill for a few observations and facts (and hopefully, for a few fanzines in the future). I would also like to thank Maria Carbado for some input and the wonderful photo of she and Jeffrey above. But most of all, of course...I have to thank Jeffrey. He may have been too frail to survive this sullied earth, but his art will live on forever. [Before anyone gets upset about all my choice of pronouns in this article, I will say I talked to Jeffrey back then and asked him how he wanted to be referred to. He? She? I don't think "they" was a thing yet. He said he didn't care at all. So, no disrespect is intended] Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]  It’s serious business, folks! Ominous lettering! Massive power beams! Geometric headgear! Waist crunching logo belts! We must be in superhero land!  Fan Spectacular 1981 Publisher: Matt Bucher  Willie Peppers/Bill Anderson There were a few young go getters who saw themselves as the new Stan Lees of fandom. Precocious publishers who proceeded to pulverize the paltry printing...ok, you get the idea, they printed a lot of stuff! Matt Bucher was one of these select few, using his flagship title, Ultrazine, to launch several other fanzines and careers. In addition to Ultrazine, Bucher published or had a hand in Superhero Terror, Rage, Omniman, New Wave Heroes, The Star Slayers, and this monster! In 1980, 17-year-old Bucher, already a veteran of the fan publishing scene, got a vision to write the longest story he would ever write and publish the biggest fanzine he would ever publish. Here are the seeds in his words: Chalk this one up to a dizzy overabundance of youthful enthusiasm. You can see from the wraparound cover below that Matt and the artists had their work cut out for them. Rivaling pro books by artists such as George Perez, the 1981 Fan Spectacular had 24 different heroes for penciller Willie Peppers to juggle. Now, even in 44 pages, you are not going to get much character development with that many characters. But then again, books like this are not about superheroes going through lengthy periods of angst and worry over their predicaments and responsibilities. It’s time fer some supervillain fightin’! It’s time for power blasts and universe shaking battles! Keep in mind, the printing quality of these fanzines can sometimes not be magazine quality. This one suffers particularly highly in the loss of deep blacks. But, I tried to clean them up in the scanning process and later in photoshop as best I could. The basic storyline of the fanzine features a scientist’s experiment gone awry, which creates the super- being Ultron. For “reasons of my own,” Ultron creates some “Demigods” and forces this large group of heroes to fight them, and gain four clues along the way. If they don’t succeed, their planet will be destroyed! Of course, what else?!! Do the heroes succeed? Will our planet be saved and its inhabitants be safe to consume mass quantities of junk food and watch the invention of MTV? Read for yourself and see!  Peppers Bucher talks a bit more below about some of the characters, who created them, and where they appeared. For other characters, this was their first and only appearance: Xenogama and the Intruder, created by Troy Waters.  Peppers/Anderson And, when you think about it, a project this size, produced by fans...well, you have to be amazed it came together at all! Bucher had the usual youthful enthusiasm that came with the territory, but he needed a partner with an equal amount of enthusiasm and professionalism to be the workhorse of the project. That man was Willie Peppers (now Will Peppers...he done growed up!). Bucher talks about his decision to enlist the talents of Peppers below. From the first moment I conceived the book, I knew I’d only go through with it if I could convince Willie Peppers to pencil it. Willie Peppers was a famous name in fan circles back then, and his reputation as a dynamic, top-notch penciller was completely deserved — sort of like a fan version of John Byrne (during his glory days), or George Perez. If anyone could handle this monster-sized book with two dozen fan heroes, it was Willie. Bottom line, his artwork kicks ass – it did then, and it still does today. Plus, at a time when we were all just geeky teenagers, doing these home-grown comic books after school for zero pay, Willie’s consummate professionalism was inspiring. For a website set up by Willie himself, showing tons of his energy packed art, go to the archives here. At that site, Willie talks about his interest in comic art and how he got started. "I became interested in comics and art at the age of 5. My first experience with being published was my long and much loved stint in the world of fanzines (aka small press) which lasted from the mid 70s to the 80s. I came to make many friends during that time. Among them were George Lane, Bob Thistleton, Steve Addlesee, Jeff Cooke, Gary Barker, Jerry Foley, James Kirtley, Matt Bucher, Steve Streeter, Darrell Goza, Deon Nuckols and a host of others. All ardent comics fans, writers, artists and the like. Many of them were quite inspirational and influential. " I also was lucky enough for Will to answer a few questions via email about that period of his life. The Fan Spectacular 1981 is one massive piece of work...for a pro, much less someone who was still a ‘fan artist.’ How difficult was it for you to do that large a project?  Peppers/Anderson Below, you will see several pages by penciller Willie Peppers and the inkers on board for this 45 page monstrosity (and I mean that in the most complimentary of terms). In order you will see inks by Heike, Anderson, McCollum, and myself. On selecting inkers, Bucher said: "In the meantime, I started lining up inkers. I wisely chose to go with several so that I could utilize all my favorite guys, and to avoid overloading any one person. 44 pages may not sound like a heck of a lot — but trust me, friends, it is. At the time, I only knew of two or three other fan-produced stripzines anywhere near that size. " Mark Heike has done a lot of work in and out of comics since his stint in fanzines. You can see his colorful and fun website in the archives here. Mark’s credits are long and impressive, as his site says: Mark works for other publishers occasionally in addition to his regular position as an Editor at AC Comics, a long running major independent comic book publisher. At Marvel he pencilled X- Men, inked Magneto, and She-Hulk, at DC he inked Star Trek: The Original Cast, at Dark Horse he inked Star Wars: Golden Age of the Sith, Star Wars: Sith War, Star Wars: Fall of the Sith, Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Leviathan, Spyboy, and Xena: Warrior Princess and pencilled Aliens vs. Predator: War, at Image he inked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for Malibu he pencilled Mantra, Rhiannon, for Motown he inked Man Against Time, for Antarctic Press he worked on Lilith: Demon Princess, for Eclipse Comics he inked Parts Unknown: Dark Deceptions, and at First Comics he pencilled Nexus and Judah the Hammer. And there is still more!  Peppers/Mark Heike More background info from Bucher: In any event, I managed to corral a truly first-rate line-up of inkers in Mark Heike, Bill Anderson, Rick McCollum and Ken Meyer Jr. (All of these talented folks later went on to do professional work.) This is just a partial list of credits. Later, Mark Heike worked for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and AC Comics. Bill Anderson inked for Marvel, DC, and Image. Rick McCollum, ever the maverick, did work for the more independent companies such as Comico, Fantaco, and Tundra. Ken Meyer Jr. did artwork of various types for Marvel, Image, NBM and Caliber (as well as a ton of role playing game work). Willie Peppers worked for Malibu, DAK, and Caliber. Bill Anderson inked a ton of fanzine work around this time (including The Star Slayers, which was covered in another Ink Stains), and was also only 17 when he inked the art in this fanzine. He told me on Facebook that “I was doing this project around the same time as the first of the stories I inked over Mark Heike that ended up in Charlton Bullseye and Mystifying Excursions.” I did a quick search for some pro Anderson work and found a link to a beautiful page of comic art here, where he managed to secure a gig inking the great John Buscema on none other than the Silver Surfer! Bill says "For me, Big John Buscema will always be THE artist for The Silver Surfer (yeah, yeah, I know there was that Kirby guy). There is no other artist who etched Surfer into my childhood memories like John Buscema did in the first Silver Surfer series in 1968, especially the first few copies with Sinnott inks. I think I bought every issue of Fantastic Four for the next 5-years hoping to catch every cameo appearance. "  Peppers/Anderson, /Rick McCollum, /Ken Meyer Jr To compare the various styles of inkers, I grabbed four different panels with somewhat similar characters and compositions which you will see below. Upper left is Bill Anderson, upper right are inks by myself, lower right is Rick McCollum, and lower left is Mark Heike. The most individual style is probably McCollum, who I am pretty sure inked with a pen almost exclusively, and had a more ragged style. Anderson is mostly pen as well, but a more controlled pen along the lines of pro Terry Austin. I tended to favor people like Wrightson, so my work is a bit of both, with more brush than pen (and a little sloppy at both, compared to Heike and Anderson at that time, and it’s interesting how Black Mercy is the only one to have a core shadow pattern on his face, huh?). I am pretty sure Heike is almost all brush, with relatively thick strokes and thick outlines. As for the lettering, Bill did most of it, but I did mine on my pages (probably too large), and Rick did his own, with his usual energetic style.   Peppers/Meyer Jr. Ruminating on the event of the production of this big package, Bucher said: "Several months flew by. Then some more. The title was altered from Fan Spectacular 1980 to Fan Spectacular 1981. At times, I feared the book might collapse under the weight of its own ambition. It would be patently unfair for me to blame any of the artists when I had taken so damn long to finish the script. But finally the last pages arrived in the mail and – voila! — it was done. And I was thrilled with the end result. In fact, the feedback from fans was so positive that I considered making such a team-up an annual event, or producing an ongoing title which teamed the heroes (sort of like a “Justice League of Fandom”). Alas, neither occurred. About a year later, I went off to college and dropped out of the fanzine business altogether. Still, I’ve always retained a soft spot in my heart for Fan Spectacular 1981. " Summing up, if you love the crash bang, galaxies in peril sort of superhero action, then this fanzine is right up your alley. It’s packed with an enthusiastic love of the superhero genre from all parties involved. And, hey, it says it right there in the last panel, “...the most fantastic team-up ever!” Thanks this time out go to first and foremost, Matt Bucher. Also, Willie (oops, Will) Peppers and Bill Anderson for their input. The pdf is in two parts, part one is here, and part two is here. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] |
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