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Brent Anderson did not only produce work for Venture, but his own fanzine as well. Welcome to Mindworks!  Frank Cirocco Mindworks 1: 1974 Horizon Zero Graphiques/Brent Anderson  Brent Anderson I am not going to add a boatload of hyperbole this time out...I think I might have tired a few of you out last time! This fanzine is composed almost entirely of Brent Anderson’s early work, including an eight- page story (written by Eric Toye, a frequent Anderson collaborator) called Exile. This story stars a character possessing the fearsome name Animas Slayman, who bears a striking resemblance to tough guy actor Charles Bronson. See what I mean below.  Anderson When I asked him how this came about, Brent told me via email: Charles Bronson was one of my favorite movie celebrities in the day (as the deaf mute in House of Wax, countless uncredited cameo appearances in many early movies as Indians, gangsters, henchmen, laconic cowboys, etc.). I liked him even before I knew what his name was! I identified a little bit with his hard scrabble childhood and tried to model for myself a strong, silent, thoughtful, stoic male philosophy of life based on the person I thought Bronson was. As an aside, check out the Bronson Mandom commercial on YouTube. It’s hilarious, and a real treat for Bronson fans. The pages you will see in this story are obviously done by a young Brent who is still learning the ins and outs of storytelling, anatomy, and other essentials of comic book making. But, if I am correct, he was only about 23 or so at this time (Venture 3 mentioned inside as “still being available”). And Brent surely did not plan to make his living as a letterer! But there is an obvious love for the medium and care taken in all facets of the process.  Anderson There are several very nice passages in this parable about racism (or in this case, species-ism), such as the close up of the alien’s face seen above (complete with reflections in the creature’s eyes). All in all, it is a good exercise in the practice of making a comic book story. Brent’s Venture buddies make a few appearances in the zine as well. Gary Winnick pencils a pin-up that Brent inks, and Frank Cirocco contributes a nice back cover (see both below).  Gary Winnick/Anderson, Cirocco, Anderson, Anderson  Anderson Both artists contribute a few more pieces as well. Anderson’s humorous space character, Grimmley, also makes a few appearances. above. A highlight for me (or a series of highlights) are the illustrations of Bruce Lee and David Carradine (from the Kung Fu TV series). Both Brent and I were/are huge Bruce Lee fans (as referenced in last month’s column). In fact, I did a large poster sized illustration long ago that, totally independent of Brent, looks very much like his Bruce Lee pin-up above. I actually have a photographic memory of the poster we both referenced as well! When I asked Brent to expound on his love of all things Bruce and how he was introduced to the late superstar, he said: "I discovered Bruce Lee through a couple of friends in the early 70s who were enjoying the newly-imported “kung-fu” flicks from China (Five Fingers of Death and Hammer of God come most immediately to mind). I wasn’t much interested in these “chop-socky” films, but when my friends told me about The Big Boss and Chinese Connection they noticed something very different about this Bruce Lee guy. He was GOOD! I vaguely remembered Lee as the cool karate guy from The Green Hornet (Lee as Kato was the only reason I watched TGH, but there was never enough of him and too much Van Williams for my taste, so I wasn’t sad when the show died). I saw TBB and CC, then Enter the Dragon and I was big-time hooked. A week later, as I recall, Lee died, and I was crushed. But not deterred. I took up martial arts, began drawing a Kung Fu story starring Lee instead of David Carradine [see the end of the column for an Ink Stains exclusive of these pages!], did other unrealized comics projects, featured Lee in art projects and paintings and generally wanted to point out the lost potential of Lee’s immense talent. I believe he would have become as successful a filmmaker as Jackie Chan. Interesting side note: I unknowingly met Bruce Lee’s son Brandon at a Wonder-con in Oakland. Brandon was friends with Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer of Seduction of the Innocent, a band who frequently played the con. Miguel hadn’t brought his drums or something and had called Brandon to drive them up to him, which he did, but the deal was no one was to know who he was. Brush with greatness, indeed! " Seeing that Carradine image gives me cause to gloat a tiny bit over a similar thing I did many years ago. Sterling Silliphant (Enter the Dragon screenwriter, among other films) somehow contacted me to do an illustration of Carradine as the character in the Lee screenplay, The Silent Flute...I wish I still had an image of the art!  If you have ever been lucky enough to meet Brent Anderson at a convention or some other occasion, I am sure you will agree with me when I say that Brent is one of the nicest, most approachable guys you will ever meet. Humble in general, and filled with a love of comics and the process of making them. Brent is no aging Luddite, either. Recently he has started using the digital program Painter, to ink his Astro City work. Not too long ago I asked him how that was going and he told me he was very happy with it, noting how it helped him speed up considerably (and if you know his work, you know how detailed it can be). Also, as I said earlier, Brent was kind enough to send me large scans of the “Bruce Lee as Kung Fu” pages. Brent told me that these pages were done five years before his Ka-zar comic in 1980, when he was living in the back of a comic book store in San Jose. A year later he took his first trip to the Big Apple. He also told me the pages were very large, about 12 x 18. So, get your first look at this oddity below!  Brent would most likely do much more dynamic fight scenes today, with his many years of experience, but there is certainly some very nice rendering going on here!
So, there you have it. Mindworks 1. I don’t think there ever was a number two. Maybe Brent can do a modern version? Brent? Can you hear me, buddy? For now, though, you can download the pdf of Mindworks. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]
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Venture was a training ground and showcase for some big names in comics, including Brent Anderson, Frank Cirocco, Gary Winnick, and in this issue, Jeff Jones, Alex Nino, Neal Adams, Tom Orzechowski, and Steve Oliff. Venture 5: 1976 Publisher/Editor: Horizon Zero Graphiques/Frank Cirocco  Neal Adams Venture ran for five issues and showcased the growing expertise of its primary players, Brent Anderson, Frank Cirocco, and Gary Winnick. More an actual comic book in form than many fanzines, in that the contributors told sequential stories as opposed to just doing spot illustrations, pin-ups, and articles. This last issue shows why they went on to become comic industry players and successful graphic artists.  Meyer/Brent Anderson I confess I have a personal soft spot for Venture. Although I came into it around issue 3, I was also connected because of a pen pal relationship with one of its founders and main players, Brent Anderson. After I wrote a few letters to the fanzine, Brent and I started corresponding (in fact, you will see a letter from a much younger me in this issue, while I was a senior in high school living on an air force base in Utah). I can still remember the detailed letterhead I would see every few weeks or so, from the fanzine days through his first forays into professional comics with titles such as Ka-Zar. Brent’s Neal Adams- influenced style always impressed me, and we both had an admiration for the late Bruce Lee (Brent actually inked the very first thing I ever had published, a Bruce Lee drawing seen at left, and was also instrumental in the publishing of the piece). Via email, Brent told me that he was basically self-taught (by copying photos and comic art, and learning to paint from the Walter T. Foster series of painting and drawing books). “A big plus was assisting my high school art teacher in critiquing and helping instruct the other students in exchange for an ‘A’ in the class!” He has always been very personable, forthcoming, and helpful. He would later do a pin-up for a Caliber comic called Kilroy is Here that I did for a spell as well. It is really a treat for me to see how successful he has become, especially lately with Kurt Busiek’s wonderful love song to comics, Astro City. It proves that nice guys do not always finish last. Check out the end of the column for some very early Anderson work he was kind enough (and brave enough) to share with us!  Jeff Jones/Tony Salmons Venture started out like most fanzines published by eager young fans with big dreams but much smaller doses of experience and skill. Again, via email, Brent says that “Frank and I were attending Branham High School in San Jose (I was a junior, Frank a sophomore) when we heard of a guy named Gary Winnick who had produced and published his own fanzine called Advent in nearby Santa Cruz. We contacted him and he said he was planning a second issue, so we proposed to publish our first issue of Venture at the same time using the same printer.” Issue one (which you can see here), in 1972, strangely enough, has the exact same page count as this last issue, number 5. It featured a story by Anderson, two by Cirocco, and one by Gary Winnick, plus the humorous Grimmley’s Tales by both Brent and Frank, which would continue throughout the fanzine’s run. “Getting out an issue of Venture was a work of love and collaboration, yet trying to carve out a private niche in each issue we could independently call our own. For me it was Grimmley’s Tales and the occasional pin-up or short story,” Brent states. If you take a gander at issue one and compare it to the work you see here on issue five, you will be amazed at the progress shown by all three men in a mere four year span. Frank and Brent especially showed enormous amounts of growth, and seemed ready for the big time. Indeed, Brent was working on his first professional work within three years of when Venture 5 came out. Though Venture was primarily a playground for Anderson, Winnick, and Cirocco, there were a healthy number of spot illustrations and pin-ups from fellow fans and already established professionals. To the right you see an illustration by Jeff Jones, inked by Tony Salmons. Tony has developed a really loose and free style, somewhat akin to a Kyle Baker or a latter era David Mazzuchelli. You can see his site here. You will have a hell of a fun time looking through his work, as there is very little like it in comics today. Though Tony has no problem getting in your face with exaggerated figures and crazy gestures, his finishing style is much less the standard feathered cross contour line approach that is seen on almost every comic page. Another guest in this issue is Carl Potts, who at that time was already working at Neal Adams’s Continuity Associates. Potts was the utility player of the group and could do it all, later going on to be a mainstay and big player in the Marvel editorial staff in the 80s, overseeing Epic magazine as well as several mainstream titles. He also did the occasional cover, and wrote as well. In 1983, Carl would team up with Cirocco and Alan Zelenetz to produce Alien Legion. Along the way, Potts also worked in the online games industry and participated in Cirocco and Winnick’s Lightsource Studios (you can see it in the archives here), an all-purpose art firm delivering animation as well as static illustration and design. Below you see Carl’s contribution to the fanzine. Carl Potts continues to show his wealth of expertise and skills in all media, having completed a screenplay of his Alien Legion creation, just recently sold to Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney. Yet another tale of a fanzine creator making the big time! Very big! Carl was gracious enough to answer a few questions via the trusty Facebook message system.  Carl Potts When I asked him how he ended up in Venture 5, he answered: "While attending my first San Diego Con as a fan in ’73, I met Frank Cirocco, Gary Winnick and Brent Anderson. I lived in the East bay Area (in San Leandro, directly below Oakland, CA) and they all lived in the South Bay Area around San Jose. We all hit it off and kept in contact. At some point, Frank or Gary asked me to contribute something to Venture. I don’t recall if I contributed to more than one issue. I believe the one you looked at was produced after I began working at Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’s Continuity Studios in NYC. I began working there in the summer of ’75. If I remember correctly, Neal had promised to do a cover drawing for that issue of Venture but was late in delivering it, delaying the fanzine’s publication. Frank and Gary asked me to try and apply some pressure on Neal to get it done, which put me in a slightly awkward situation. I had to remind Neal about the cover several times before he got it done. Neal surprised me by presenting me with the original of his cover rough. The following year, Frank, Gary and Brent moved to NY to break into comics. I introduced them to Neal and Frank and Gary ended up working at Continuity for a while. " On the subject of his early involvement in comics, Carl continued: "I read comics my whole life. In the early ‘60s it was mostly DC war comics. When I was about 11, I got into Marvels, as did my cousin who was the same age. Until shortly before turning pro, my connection to real fandom was pretty much restricted to reading the letters pages in Marvel and Charlton comics. In addition to that, my cousin and my older sister also read my Marvels, I met one other guy who admitted reading comics. I traded comics with him a few times. For the most part, reading comics was considered uncool, especially when you got into high school, and was not something I advertised. Around 1974, after discovering conventions and comics shops, I believe I contributed to REH Lone Star Fictioneer and a Creation Con program book. " Carl read many of the fanzines mentioned and covered in this column, and he elaborates on that below: "I’d always seen ads for Marvel’s FOOM and Marvelmania but couldn’t afford them. I don’t believe I saw a copy of either until I turned pro and moved to NY. At the comics specialty shops I ran across Witzend (more of a “prozine”), Squa Tront, Phase 1, Infinity, Graphic Story Magazine, Heritage, Graphic Illusions, Orb, Guts (“The Magazine With Intestinal Fortitude”), Inside Comics, The Comics Reader, and a number of others I can’t recall off the top of my head. During the ‘70s there were publishing company “prozines” like The Amazing World of DC Comics and Charlton Bullseye (that I also read). " I also asked him if he formed any relationships through fandom that lasted, and if so, did any of those relationships help his career. "In the early/mid ‘70s, comics specialty stores began popping up in Berkeley and San Jose and, in addition to the San Diego Con, smaller cons took place in the Berkeley area. It was at these cons that I met some of the pros who had moved out from NY to live in CA at that time – Jim Starlin, Alan Weiss, Frank Brunner, Steve Englehart, Tom Orzechowski. Starlin and Weiss were very helpful when I decided to move to NY to try and break into the comics biz. Starlin, knowing I had no contacts or a place to stay in NY, arranged for me to stay with his buddies Walt Simonson and Al Milgrom at their Forrest Hills apartment! Living in the same building were Berni Wrightson and Howard Chaykin. I was in fan geek heaven but feeling very out of place! In addition to Frank Cirocco, Gary Winnick and Brent Anderson, after discovering conventions, I also met a number of other soon-to-be pros that lived in the Bay Area including Steve Leialoha, Joe Chiodo and Al Gordon. I remain friends with all but don’t have a much contact as I’d like. " Another contributor (contributing in a second hand fashion, as the illustrations were already on hand) was one of the Philippino artists that came into the industry in the 1970s, Alex Nino. Nino was always the ultimate stylist, more so than any of his contemporaries, in my opinion. Below you’ll see two pieces by the artist, one that was used on the back cover. Looking at these amazingly imaginative works of art, I can see now that I did not appreciate Nino in his heyday, being too immersed in the Marvel zombie mentality. These images make me want to search out his work again. The color work almost looks like Leyendecker on LSD!  Alex Nino Before we jump into the actual stories featured this issue, I wanted to show a few gorgeous images by its founder, Frank Cirocco. Frank was a visual stylist, forging a romantic and florid group of characters in his various illustrations. He also had a command of the technical tools of the time, including such now outdated (and missed) items like zip-a-tone and duoshade board. Below are two full page illustrations that show his detailed and beautiful work.  Frank Cirocco  Cirocco Cirocco would branch out into areas other than comics eventually. You can see an online gallery of other various forms of work here. This site mentions that Frank “has worked as a production artist, designer, art director, writer, editor and creative director for a variety of companies including Dreamworks, Yahoo!, LucasArts, Marvel Comics, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, LeapFrog, Mattel, Universal Studios and Rocket Science Games.” There you will see a few charming images of birds done in a style that inhabits the world of poster designer David Lance Goines much more than the comic art of Neal Adams. Of course, feel free to check out the previous link to Frank’s Lightsource Studios to see a wide variety of art that this creator can produce. Now, the meat and potatoes of the issue are the stories by the three primary creators. Cirocco starts off with an eleven page SF short story called “The Triad.” This is a cautionary tale of greed, set in a science fiction backdrop. The story is credited to “Horizon Zero Graphiques,” so I am assuming all three friends had a hand in it. Also working on the story were Steve Leialoha on inks (along with Cirocco), and Tom Orzechowski on lettering. The backgrounds contain incredibly expertly rendered gnarled trees, and the layouts are done with an eye for variety. Look at the left half of the opening spread, using the monolithic building as the background for the figures and the panels as well. The right side continues this motif. After this you will see page 3, showing off the aforementioned rendering skill and a layout that both works within the framework of the story and as a stand alone image.  Cirocco More than likely, the tone on the page above that forms the dark sky was done with a toothbrush spatter. The tone on the orb was zip-a-tone. For you youngsters, zip-a-tone was plastic sheets with various patterns and tones that you would lay over your art, cut out the tones, peel off from the backing, and then stick down on your artwork. The tone on the orb in the last panel was probably a white dot pattern, which enabled Cirocco to simulate the semi transparent nature of the globe. And, for my money, the image below is one of the most beautiful pieces of fan work I can recall.  Cirocco Below you see two more pages from this story. One thing I found interesting is the motif of the character running or standing outside the panel borders (seen in panel one in this page), a visual technique that Cirocco was doing in his work in the very first issue. Of course here, it is handled much better. This is a technique called “dramatic cropping,” used by a few of my favorite artists who are master layout technicians, such as Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. I really love that last page and the expert handling of the shrubbery, the shadows on the figure from the tree and the expression on the face in panel two.  Cirocco  Cirocco Brent Anderson’s influences begin with Neal Adams. “Neal Adams was by far my favorite artist at the time, but I also loved the work of Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Burne Hogarth, Al Williamson, Frazetta, John Romita Sr., Will Eisner, and many many more. But Neal was the Special Guest of Comic-con that year ['76, I assume - Ken], and definitely the main draw for me.” As for the part conventions played in his learning curve, Brent says that “My first con was the 1973 Comic-con held on Harbor Island in San Diego. Frank and I flew down from San Jose, took a cab to the Sheraton Harbor Inn Hotel and split the cost of a hotel room for four nights. We had a great time, but it was an expensive trip (at least for me). I had a great time. Frank and I dogged Neal Adams around the whole time, much to his chagrin!” Later, on a mission to get professional work, Brent says he “...did use pages from Venture and my own fanzine Mindworks as samples when I went to NYC in the summer of 1976. One of the pages from the Animas Slayman story ripped off Neal’s famous rendition of GL with most of his body shape used to outline a space scape panel. When Neal saw the page he said ‘Nice effect’! I was mortified.” Brent delivers War Affair, the second story (story by Eric Toye, letters by The Benje, an affectionate nickname given to Anderson by Cirocco in reference to his Ben Grimm-like upturned red nose). This is a story of three mercenaries on a mission to take down some alien warships, and allows Anderson to render some realistic figures and faces, some futuristic war vehicles, and lush foliage. On the subject of the main characters’ appearances, Anderson says, “...the black character was definitely influenced visually by the way Neal Adams handled the depiction of ethnic characters, though not specifically to the GL character you mention [I asked him about the black character in Green Lantern/Green Arrow that asked "what are you going to do for the black skins" - Ken]. The white guy was just supposed to be ‘cool.’ The asian character was based visually on a friend of mine named Nick Chinn, who worked at the San Jose Comic Art Store in downtown San Jose with me.” Anderson’s clean inks and variety of layouts make for interesting and professional visuals. See a few pages below.  Anderson  Anderson The last story in this issue is Gary Winnick’s Rogue World, which feels like the beginning of a series; in fact, it is shown in two parts, leading me to believe Winnick either thought there were going to be more issues of Venture or planned it to print earlier than this issue. The cover by Neal Adams spotlights the two main characters from this strip, one of them a buxom babe, and the other sort of a human/arachnid combination. Also working on the story is Brent Anderson on inks (and story assist), and Tom Orzechowski on letters. The story is one of violence and revenge and ends with a nod towards possible future stories. The artwork, though not quite up to the level of the other two stories, is easily better than most fanzine fare of the time.  Gary Winnick  Winnick These days, Winnick works in many capacities. From his bio: "Gary Winnick has worked as an artist, designer and art director. He began his professional career as an assistant to noted comic book illustrator Neal Adams. Later Gary worked for nine years as an artist, animator and art director at Lucasfilm and Lucasarts, where he co-designed the noted graphic adventure Maniac Mansion. At Lucasfilm he was also creator and supervising producer of Defenders of Dynatron City which aired as an animated special on the Fox Kids network. Currently, Gary serves as a creative director as at his own company Lightsource Studios, a bay area contract art studio whose clients include Yahoo!, Electronic Arts and Disney." Many enduring friendships formed as young people lovingly produced the fanzines mentioned in the various installments of Ink Stains. Brent Anderson says that “Gary, Frank and I became life-long friends and, at the time, we did indeed critique each others work, traded comics (though I mostly bought them from Frank!), and developed a fast friendship which endures to this day.” As to the effect of the natural networking that occurred reading and producing fanzines, Brent continues with, “‘Networking’ (before the term had even been coined) through my fanzine connections was very influential in my development as a comics artist. I came to realize that young artists can have a tremendous influence on other young artists in networking through fanzine collaborations. Some of my favorite or influential fanzines were Chronicle (George S. Breo), Art & Story (James D. Denney), OM (Steve Keeter), Eclipse (Jack Moninger Jr.), FVP (“Captain Chucky” Fiala), Spectrum, Mantra (Jim Main), The Terratoid Guide (Claude D. Plum Jr.), Transmutation (Bruce Litchfield), The Ultazine (Mike Iacampo), Nightspawn (Alex Marciniszyn & Kevin Siembieda), Comique (Chuck Robinson II), Fantasy Crossroads (Jonathan Bacon), The Monster Scene (David DeLorme), One (Bill and Steve Schanes), Infinity (Adam Malin & Gary Berman), Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector (Gordon B. Love & James Van Hise, Exotic Fantasy (Paul LeGrazie, Jr.), Paragon Publications (Bill Black), Comic Courier (Mike Graycar), and Omniwave (Nathan Rosen).” Tom Orzechowski lettered two stories in this issue, so I cajoled him into talking a bit about his fanzine experience around that time and, via facebook, this is what he said: "I probably met Brent, Frank and Gary... and Tony Salmons and a couple others from their group... at the San Francisco Bay Con in the spring of ’76 [the con featuring the program book with my first published art, the Bruce Lee near the beginning of the column! -Ken]. I’d been working for Marvel for three years by then, but on new projects rather than the flagship Marvel titles. As a Marvel guy living on the West Coast, I also got some gigs for the surviving underground publishers and a couple of small local houses. My approach was a little left of mainstream, which fit right in. Zines and creator-owned books had been in my background before the professional work. I lettered a few stories for Starlin & Milgrom and Mike Vosburg in the year before they began work at DC and Marvel, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you where they were published. There was one project that went nowhere, involving a number of ’40s costume characters that we were told we had permission to use. It was underway just as Jim started working for John Romita. Jim, Al, Terry Austin, Arvell Jones and a few other Detroit area guys were drawing this stuff, and I was lettering it, just months before we found ourselves working in New York. My primary involvement otherwise was with comics news reporting in a small monthly zine that Arvell published, not with anything that was story-driven. The zines I was reading in the early ’70s probably didn’t have much in common with what’s out there today, as the publishers didn’t take the fan base seriously then. You’d get a smattering of news, then a lot of opinions and fawning criticism. Creator interviews, press releases, these were rare. A few that come to mind were Voice of Comicdom, which carried fan work by Richard Corben; I think it was The Marvel Tribune that had fan art by Dave Cockrum as well as Alan Weiss; Superzine was the first place I saw art by Klaus Janson. A Detroit-area back issue dealer sponsored an auction-based zine that carried art by Terry Austin. It seems like any well- printed zine from those years had art by someone who was doing major league work just a few years later. So, meeting Frank and the others struck me as more of the same thing, the same good thing. I was always of a mind to approach things in a way that didn’t look like mainstream Marvel, so we got along fine." So, as you can see, our three heroes have come a long way since beginning the first issue of Venture. Yet another indication of how instrumental the fanzine scene of that time was in forming the comics and other forms of entertainment we enjoy today. Thanks this installment go out to Brent Anderson primarily, but also to Carl Potts and Tom Orzechowski. Please download the pdf for issue one, and the pdf of this issue to see the rest and read the complete stories. Look for Brent, Frank, Carl, and Tom on Facebook, and see Brent’s site here, where you can buy his comic pages and see more current work. Right before “press” time, Brent Anderson was forthcoming enough to share some work done a year or so before even the first issue of Venture. Below, you see in order The Monster Scene #2 cover (Summer 1974) published by David DeLorme, Man-ton in The Lake pages 2, 3 & 7 (Story by Mark Prosky, art drawn on ditto masters, 1973), Mantra Vol I #1 cover (1973) published by Steve Skeeter. Brent was around 18 years old when this work was done.  Anderson In "fixing" and reposting these columns, this particular one remains one of my favorites. Lots of involvement from the guys, and gorgeous imagery. Thanks again Brent, Frank, and Gary (and Tom)!
Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] The ultimate stylist. Magician, designer, illustrator, painter, writer, and all around coolest man in comics. Jim Steranko. It’s all Jim, all the time...50 pages worth!  Jim Steranko Portfolio, 1970 Editor and publisher: Supergraphics/Jim Steranko If you are truly a student of the comic art form, you have to know the name Jim Steranko. True, his stay in comics was comparatively brief, but his impact was huge. Though he started out as another Jack Kirby follower, he very quickly developed an innovative style, constantly pushing the envelope of what could be done with the content of comics and above all, the form of comics. I can remember being a Marvel fan in high school and being just blown away by Jim Steranko’s forceful but lyrical artwork on comics like The X-Men, SHIELD, Captain America, and a plethora of gorgeous and eye catching covers for other books. His work, though initially somewhat like Jack Kirby (partially because his first Marvel job was inking Kirby in Strange Tales), blossomed into something unlike anyone else. Jim Steranko brought the era of psychedelic experimentation seen in film, and indeed, lifestyles, into the world of comics. But even visionaries have to start somewhere.  Above you see the splash page of a very early strip by Steranko, who was a huge Marlon Brando and Saturday serial film fan. In the portfolio Steranko says: "Lifted directly from the film [The Wild One], my protagonist was named Johnny Thunder. My style was bold and simple and I took the most direct approach possible. Storytelling was my foremost concern as it still is today. I was about 15." Fifteen! Can you believe that? Though obviously primitive compared to his later work (whose isn’t?), you can see a bold use of blacks, a conscious use of tones to force our eyes to the lit area of the middle- ground, and the smooth, cool characters that would populate his strips as the years progressed. One year later, at the age of 16, Steranko steered his horse into the world of westerns with the strip Gunfighter, seen below.  Here you can see Steranko becoming more skilled at employing dramatic lighting on his characters. He is also moving the point of view around to suit his needs (though this page is composed primarily of a somewhat repetitive sequence of two shots). I have a feeling the pompadour coiffed chap in the background of panel 5 is based on a young Steranko. After he graduated from high school, painting signs to make some cash along the way, Steranko veered into the world of magic and the art of card tricks. He says: ...I focused my attention on the art of illusion, created a whole new approach to magic and wrote a series of articles and books about the subject while breaking out of jails, straitjackets and packing boxes dropped to the bottom of rivers. I abandoned art completely and joined a circus side show for a season as a fire-eater among other things.  This was all done around the age of 18, believe it or not. At 19, he says he “literally retired for a year except for a few dozen fast buck operations, then turned to commercial art again, eventually becoming Art Director of a small but busy advertising agency.” I have a feeling this time period influenced some of the graphics-savvy work that came later. After half a dozen years of agency work, Steranko started to think of working in comics again, and because of a chance meeting with artist/writer Joe Simon (of Simon and Kirby), he started creating new characters for Harvey Comics, a few of which you can see below, along with some unrelated work.  During this time, Steranko created for Harvey Comics characters such as The Gladiator, Spyman, Magic Master, as well as scripting the initial stories for each of them. Others, such as Future American and Spacewolf, were rejected. It was Jack Kirby who insisted Steranko concentrate on art, rather than writing. After being turned down by Tower and a few other companies, Stan Lee was the first to see the incredible potential of the young and headstrong Steranko, and put him to work inking Kirby on SHIELD in Strange Tales (see below).  After three issues of working over Kirby’s pencils, Steranko was let loose to stretch and show what he was capable of. In Don McGregor’s portfolio preface called Requiem, the writer speaks of the amazing strides Steranko was taking in the monthly book. "Expression became important. And in Steranko’s Agent of SHIELD strip, expression and style were the most important and consistent factors which contributed to the superiority of that strip. Mediocrity faded, if slowly, into a drastic representation of innovation, insight, imagination, creativity, emotion. "  McGregor continues, talking about the increasingly evident attention to style that Steranko was exhibiting by saying that style “created an impact, combined fantasy with social comment. Life larger than real life yet a commentary just the same. And always present: style, a distinctive touch, an individualist brand that was synonomous with the name Steranko.” And an individual Steranko definitely was. He would not be corralled into a monthly book for very long, even by the adventurous Lee. Steranko would move on to Captain America and other books, even having covers rejected, such as the Tower of Shadows (for being “too far out”) seen below. Think Frank Miller might have seen this and been inspired to do his amazing Sin City work? Stranger things have happened.  I can remember seeing Steranko’s art in the Marvel house fanzine, FOOM. Above you see a beautifully dramatic rendition of Spidey as only Steranko could do it. A great place to see a Steranko checklist is on the Pencil Ink blog here. You will probably be very surprised by the amount of work Steranko did, because he jumped from book to book, cover to cover, short story to short story, genre to genre. As Steranko himself says in the portfolio, “I felt the need to expand my thinking into new areas. Mystery. Horror. Love. I experimented with styles.” One rejected idea called Waxworks was about a “mysterious ghost-breaker named Karstone,” seen below.   Long before Hellblazer, Steranko was there! He even covered his fellow artist/writer’s ideas when it suited his fancy, such as underground legend Trina Robbins and her Panthea character seen above, in a style reminiscent (to me, at least) of a contemporary artist, Alicia Austin . Steranko also wanted to work within the sword and sorcery realm, so of course, he created his own character, Talon. You can see some pencil sketches of this character in Ink Stains 23 here, covering his interview in Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine 11. Some art from this portfolio is seen there as well). At left, you can see a fully rendered illustration of his barbarian character. As I said before, the elements that drew me to Steranko and his art were the lyrical beauty of his figures and his attention to the design and composition of every single piece of art. You can see it in the piece at left, the shadows of the imposing rocks engulfing the title character as well as the approaching foe, creating a dramatic middle ground. The skewed angle of the rocks leads your eye to the main character, as does the semicircular dissolving rock pathway. It defines the word dynamic, as does virtually every Steranko illustration. Look over a few more below, and see how he repeatedly creates enthralling pieces of work.  You can see the influence in the illustration above of the great golden age artist, Lou Fine, another artist who illustrated in a very posed and lyrical style. But Steranko outran his influences quickly, and created a catalog like no one else in comics. Very few have done so little work, but influenced so many. JH Williams III is one ("I do is definitely an Eisner or a Steranko influence, even Jim Starlin influence in there from some of his trippier stuff"). Writer Ed Brubaker is another. Kavalier and Clay writer Michael Chabon tells us Steranko himself was the inspiration for his Kavalier character in the archives here. I remember one of the reasons I loved Paul Gulacy’s art on the wonderful Master of Kung Fu was because it looked so much like Steranko. You can read a wonderful issue of Comic Book Artist magazine about Gulacy here.
Suffice to say, Jim Steranko’s influence on the world of comics is felt far and wide. But Steranko would never be limited to just comics. When asked about his best work, it’s no surprise that he says “that work is yet to come.” Thanks this time, in a huuuuuge way, go out to Tony Robertson for scanning and sending me this magazine (I cleaned it up a little for your viewing and downloading pleasure). I am experiencing seeing this for the first time just like you, and it is a great experience! You can see his Steranko site here. I wish I could share the pdf, but Steranko's rep, David Spurlock, forbade it. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] What kind of 15-year-old could wrangle Berni Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Reed Crandall, Howard Chaykin, Larry Todd, Kenneth Smith, Frank Brunner, and others to contribute to his fanzine? Robert Gerson, that’s who! This month, the fabulous, the entertaining, Reality 2!  Michael Kaluta Reality 2: 1971 Publisher/Editor: Robert Gerstenhaber (Robert Gerson)  Larry Todd Let us celebrate the joys of being a 14-year-old New York comics fan and aspiring artist in the 1970s. If you had the huevos to ask your favorite artists for sketches at the local cons, and the drive to publish, you could have been Robert Gerson...or Adam Malin! Gerson published this month’s subject, Reality 2, but it was a healthy competition with his school mate since kindergarten and next door neighbor, Adam Malin (of Infinity fame, see issue five profiled here), that helped spark those self publishing fires. It didn’t hurt that one of their favorite magazines, Web of Horror, was closing its doors, with unpublished work still sitting around for young hucksters to eagerly snatch up. One of these stories begging for a place to be seen was Len Wein and Michael Kaluta’s “Death is the Sailor,” of which you see two pages from below.  Kaluta Though Kaluta would obviously go on to do incredible work as he gained in skill and experience, this story is done by a young artist who was no slouch, even way back then. Kaluta renders the giant Kraken squid with squishy abandonment. The artist also appears to have done his research, judging by the details in the great wooden ship that follows the giant sea-bound beast. Like many stories following in the grand EC tradition, there is a twist ending that you will have to download the pdf to see! Kaluta also did a two-page story specifically for the fanzine (“As Night Falls,” one panel of which you see at the very beginning of the column), and has three one-page stories in the fanzine as well. In a very nice TwoMorrows Alter Ego magazine article by the self avowed black and white publication fan Richard Arndt, Gerson cites the fanzines of the time as giving him the idea and initiative to publish his own fanzine. Some names you might recognize include Graphic Story Magazine, Witzend, Spa-Fon, Squa Tront, and Fantastic Fanzine, among others...several already profiled right here in Ink Stains. Check out a current Gerson (below, at the top of the photo montage...does he ever age?) and the 1970s versions of super artists Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, and Jeff Jones (left to right at bottom).  From the aforementioned article in Alter Ego, Gerson talks about his relationship with Infinity editor Malin: There was also a friendly “New York neighborhood” aspect of getting Reality up and running, thanks to my across-the-street rivalry with my school pal Adam Malin. We were in school together since kindergarten, read the same comics, copied and did our first drawings from the same Kirby and Steranko pages together. Adam was planning to publish Infinity magazine, and we had a fun rivalry going back then about who could get the most interesting art and interviews for their magazines. Adam is still a very close friend today, and we have a blast going back in the time machine to the days when we published our magazines.  Berni Wrightson Gerson scored several times over with what would become known as The Studio group of artists (Kaluta, Jeff Jones, Barry Smith, and Bernie Wrightson). Issue one of Reality would sport a Jones painting, while this issue had what is purported to be the first actual illustration of an early version of Bernie’s famous Swamp Thing character later done for DC comics (seen above). Gerson elaborates (from the same Alter Ego article): At the time I didn’t even know I was publishing a Swamp Thing illustration. I was at Michael Kaluta’s apartment to pick up some of his artwork for the 2nd issue, and I mentioned that I really was hoping to have a piece by Bernie for the new issue, particularly since he hadn’t appeared in the first issue. So I’m asking Kaluta about how to get in touch with Wrightson—and at that moment Bernie walks in the door. Kaluta asks him if the drawing of Bernie’s that he has sitting next to his drafting table can be published in Reality. Mike grabs this beautiful drawing and shows it to me. Bernie says, “Sure, go ahead and print it.” It certainly was cool to publish an early Wrightson drawing. A compatriot of Wrightson who appears in this issue of Reality, courtesy of the early demise of Web of Horror, is artist/writer Bruce Jones. Jones was kind enough to answer a few questions about this time of his life via email. Bruce actually got into fanzines in a sort of reverse of the usual sequence of events. He was already a pro, having a story in the first issue of Web of Horror called Point of View. Outside-In (two pages seen below) was scheduled, but the magazine folded before it could appear in print. So, this story is actually Jones’s first fanzine work! To Jones’s surprise, “a lot of people don’t realize this, but the fanzines paid money! It actually got some of us through to the next month’s rent. I think many fanzines formed by printing the early published and unpublished work of the EC artists like Frazetta, Krekel, Williamson and Foster—then when Jeff and Bernie and Mike and I came along (all strangely at the same time from disparate parts of the country) we were the next wave of that kind of illustrative style—because those guys were our heroes. Everybody else—people who worked for DC and Marvel—were either drawing like Jack Kirby or Neal Adams. Our group was more ‘jungle’ and ‘sci-fi’ oriented.” Though Gerson considered it a mark of integrity to pay his contributors, most zines only gave copies of whatever your work was printed in as payment.  Bruce Jones When I asked Bruce whether he thought his fanzine work (or in his case, probably his Web of Horror work, combined with his fanzine work) helped him to get a foot in the door at the professional or larger companies, he replied, As a writer yes, but as an artist my style and the style of my friends wasn’t conducive to superhero comics, with the possible exception of Wrightson, who did Swamp Thing [which, though mainstream, wouldn't be considered a super-hero comic]. It was always tough getting work for Marvel and DC as an artist which is why I drew and wrote for the Warren type magazines, of which there were several then. Also we loved the way our stuff looked in black & white. Many of the fanzines actually had better reproduction than the four color comics. You could put one on your coffee table without being embarrassed in front of your girlfriend. Comic books weren’t “in” back then.  Bruce Jones Jones continued on, talking about his fanzine days in general, by saying, It was a fun time. We were all broke, but it was great hanging out, talking art, etc. Fandom was a much smaller and more personal entity. It’s now centered around superheroes, where as then it was more fantasy, sci-fi and illustration oriented—old school if you will. You talked more about the artists you loved and admired rather than which superhero was stronger or cooler. To give you an example, a [convention back then consisted of] a relatively small room with few people and comics everyone could afford as opposed to the current San Diego Comic convention, with hundreds of faceless people and fewer comics that no one can afford. I began to do less drawing and more writing, eventually turning to novels. My latest, THE DEADENDERS is available on Kindle and in trade paperback at Amazon. I did the cover art and the interior prose, so maybe I didn’t abandon illustration and narrative altogether!  Reed Crandall? In addition to the Web of Horror strips and other content we will get to soon, Jan Strnad contributed an article called Fandom, Writing, and Catching Up. This article takes issue with the practice of fanzines seeking out (and sometimes paying for) good quality art, but not paying as much attention to the quality of the writing. In addition to Strnad detailing the steps taken to produce a well written column or article, he takes issue with zine editors settling with an artist writing his own story, rather than contacting a writer to first write a story, and then have the artist adapt it, thus getting the best of both worlds. A good point made. Strnad cites such well written comics as Denny O’Neil’s Green Lantern and Green Arrow, Warren magazine’s publishing T. Casey Brennan’s award winning On The Wings of a Bird, and Hal Foster continuing to write Prince Valiant after leaving the illustration duties on that strip. Following Strnad’s article is a portfolio featuring the incredible beautifully rendered work of Kenneth Smith, a favorite of editor Gerson. Consisting of five full pages of Smith’s faerie folk, strange beasties, and humorous eccentricities, an example of which can be seen below.  Kenneth Smith  After being treated to Smith’s vivid imagination, we get an even bigger treat...the first published work of maverick Howard Chaykin (see photo below from the San Diego Comicon in 1976). In a story written by Bill Stillwell, Renegade shows inklings of what would come later, for companies such as Atlas, First, Marvel, and many others. We have elements of many of Chaykin’s later work in a swashbuckling main character, a beautiful female companion, and fantastic spaceships. Of his dealings with Chaykin, Gerson wrote (again, from Arndt’s Alter Ego article), "Chaykin was a Queens College classmate of my sister’s boyfriend, and one day they both appeared at our apartment while I was putting the first issue together. Howard was very persuasive in getting me to publish his work. Of course, Howard went on to create some very innovative work in comics, creating covers and pages that were more in touch with various illustration styles than most traditional comic art had been up to that point. Like acquiring so many of the Web of Horror stories, being the first to get Howard’s work into comics was another one of those odd little twists of fate that happened around the summer of 1970, when I was first putting the magazine together. " Below you see a page from the two page Chaykin/Stillwell story.  Howard Chaykin/Bill Stillwell Following Renegade is a two pager by cover artist Larry Todd. The Amazing Liver, a “spaced-out humor and cosmic comedy,” echoes the wonderfully zany and sometimes subversive work Todd did for the underground comics of the late 60s and early 70s. You can see hints of the artist’s friend and contemporary, Vaughn Bode, as well as inspiration for fanzine artists of the 80s like the late David Heath, Jr. See a page below  Larry Todd  Frank Brunner With additional art by Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Frank Brunner (see the centerspread above), A. J. D’Agostino, and a gorgeous Kaluta back cover below (plus, as a bonus, see the related piece done for a digest magazine below that Kaluta graciously sent me via email), I am sure you will agree that Reality was at the forefront of the great art/story fanzines of the past. At some point, I hope to get someone to send me a copy or a pdf of the first issue, so we can see that as well. The reality is, Reality was fantastic!  Kaluta Thanks this time go out to Richard Arndt for sending me links to many interviews he has done with people such as Richard Gerson, Adam Malin, and many others (see this archive page here); Robert Gerson himself, as well as Mike Kaluta and Roy Thomas. I would urge you to check out the whole line of TwoMorrows, which publishes Alter Ego, along with several other great publications, such as Back Issue and Draw. They are the best publishers of comic related material out there right now, in my opinion. Check out Mike Kaluta’s site here, and see some incredibly beautiful Starstruck covers on the main page. See Robert Gerson’s art here, while you can see Frank Brunner here, and Kenneth Smith’s site here.
As always, please download the pdf and leave comments! I would like to know someone out there is reading this darn column! Also, be here next month (December 1st), because I have a long out of print Steranko portfolio to show you...fifty pages worth! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Face Front, kiddos! It’s a Jim Steranko special and Fantastic Fanzine 11!  Dave Cockrum Fantastic Fanzine 11, 1970 Editor and Publisher: Gary Groth Those of you that have read this column from the start know that one of my favorite fanzines of all time is Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine. From the very first issue I saw (probably issue 10, though I later got the previous double issue of 8*9) I was amazed at the amount of talent Gary was able to corral into each issue. It read like a virtual who’s who of the fanzine world, and always included many illustrations by current pros as well (with many of the fans going on to become pros later). This issue 11 is no exception. It is jam-packed with exciting artwork, so much so that I could only include a fraction here. This is definitely an issue you want to download!  How a high school kid managed to score so many amazing pieces of art points to Groth’s future success as a publisher and muckraker. Issue 11 boasts a beautiful Steranko cover of the Black Condor, several pencil drawings by the seminal artist, as well as a lengthy interview, a mainstay of most issues of Fantastic Fanzine. Now, I will issue a slight warning...I was lucky enough to have a reader send me the pdf of this issue, as I lost it long ago, so there are a few blurry spots and dark areas at the edges, but I did try to clean it up the best I could. The only spot that is sadly affected to a large degree is the gorgeous T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents centerfold by Dave Cockrum. Other than that, the whole issue came through in pretty good shape.  As I said, the Steranko interview is lengthy, and Groth covers a lot of ground. Conducted in Steranko’s home and prefaced by a charming tale of nervous anticipation by the interviewer, it is a delightfully exhausting affair. I could stand to be exhausted like this more often! One craft related tidbit I found interesting is that Steranko inks everything with a brush...everything, and that includes machinery. Groth and Steranko go on to cover topics such as the Comics Code, Steranko’s favorite artists, his interactions with Marvel, and his own barbarian creation, Talon (several pencil drawings seen below). There are several more illustrations of this character, all the more reason to download the pdf! The interview is accompanied by illustrations by several artists in the FF stable (John Cornell, Robert Kline, and Doug Rice) of Steranko related characters.  Jim Steranko Another illustration I just have to show is the humorous and incredibly detailed full page piece by Robert Kline. Not only does it reference Steranko’s suave demeanor and plethora of talents, but it visually makes reference to the hapless cassette recorder with which Groth used to conduct the interview. Kline never disappoints, and his work is scattered throughout the zine.  Robert Kline Below you see a combination of a few illustrations that accompany the interview. Jeff Rinehart at top (with an illustration closer in style to Neal Adams, mentioned in the interview as one of Steranko’s favorites, rather than Steranko himself...may even be a swipe), Dave Russell at left (doing a very good Steranko!), Steranko himself in the center, and John Cornell at right.  Groth follows the interview with four different takes on the artist and his work by writers who contributed regularly to FF and other fanzines. Gordon Matthews, Bill Cantey, Richard Howe, and Dwight Decker all give their impressions of the artist as a man, and the artist’s work. There is also a Steranko checklist following the four articles.  Kline Bill Cantey also contributes a bit of fiction called Running Mate, featuring a Ka-Zar like character and illustrated by several beautiful works of pen and ink, such as the Robert Kline piece above. Also seen are Dave Cockrum’s entry into the ‘good girl’ art hall of fame below, and a J. Baldwin/Kline spot illustration of Ka-Zar. I need to correct a minor error here, as the Angel piece seen above actually is seen during the Running Mate story. Boy, between the illustration above and the following Cockrum piece, I think we have good girl art covered this installment!  Cockrum Following this story is an article dealing with Captain America, and hypothesizes how the character survived (and why the shape of his shield changed) from the golden age of comics into the silver age. It features illustrations by Al Grinage and Jeff Rinehart. After that, we are treated to the fan letters page and another great (and funny) illo by future pro Dave Cockrum (seen below).  Other articles fill out the zine, including a progress report on a campaign to revise the aforementioned Comics Code, as well as another update on the effort of fans to get comics into the hands of troops stationed overseas called Project Repay. All in all, yet another incredible issue of Fantastic Fanzine, showing Groth’s precocious skills as an editor/writer, and sheer joy as he reveled in the world of comic books and its creators. Groth and his stable of artists and writers produced the ideal representation of fandom in the 70s, which is why I have featured this fanzine several times. I hope you have enjoyed another glimpse into the world of fandom in general and Fantastic Fanzine in particular. It is possible I may find the time to scan and upload an incredible catalog of fanzines and related materials offered by fan favorite John G. Fantucchio. If you don’t see it when this article posts, check back frequently, as I may have to get to it a bit later. But, it is worth the wait, as John has a large and well preserved collection of material from that time...I wish I could afford to buy it all! See an illustration by John from this issue of Fantastic Fanzine below.  Big huge thanks this time goes out to Tony Robertson, who sent me the pdf of this issue. Please reward him by visiting his Steranko site here !
Ken Meyer Jr [email protected] Gene Day worked in professional comics for a spell, including a great run on Marvel’s Master of Kung- Fu. But, before his big break came, he contributed to many fanzines, including today’s installment, Epitaph!  Mitch Sonoda Epitaph 1: 1975 Publisher and Editor: Larry Nibert There were a multitude of fanzines assembled and participated in by artists trying to make it to “the big time.” Larry Nibert, an artist and writer, was one of these hopefuls and his vessel was called Epitaph. Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, it could be true that I purchased this particular fanzine because of the slick cover by Mitch Sonoda. Sonoda had been in a few other fanzines in my possession (one that comes to mind was called simply, Fanzine ’77). He was a very polished inker with a style reminiscent of Neal Adams, as seen in the figure below left. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sonoda cleverly used an Adams figure to build this character with, as it is a very Adams like stance.  Sonoda, Larry Nibert/Sonoda Sonoda was especially good at science fiction, and his strip in this issue, Doomsdawn, falls squarely in that genre. The only disappointment is that we only get a small indication of the cool spaceships Sonoda could seemingly pump out at will. There is liberal use of zip-a-tone throughout his story, and an EC inspired twist ending. Sonoda also inks a Larry Nibert full-page illustration (see above right) that looks as if it was a prequel to the following story by Nibert, if you didn’t look more closely. You can see a small snippet from Nibert’s story, Survivors, below. This story is sort of a combination of SF and Sword and Sorcery, with yet another twist at the end. It appears the Epitaph boys loved their EC comics!  Nibert After Survivors, we are treated to another cautionary tale aptly titled Epitaph, showing a protagonist and the girl of his dreams, who is not all she appears to be. This story is uncredited, but I think the artist is Bill Morse, who contributes a one-page visual exercise of sorts earlier in the zine. Nibert illustrates a poem by James Pack called The Forever Cave. Pack edited several other fanzines, the names of which escape me at this time.  Gene Day The star of the show here, though, is writer/artist Gene Day. Day cut his teeth on many a fanzine and small magazine before going on to do a host of professional comics. Perhaps his most well known was a run on Marvel’s Master of Kung-Fu, where he first started as an inker to Mike Zeck, but then took over all art duties soon after Zeck succumbed to the dreaded deadline doom. Day’s run on MOKF has been highly lauded over the years, and rightly so. The artist was a master of shadows, as you can see from his strip, A Time of Tigers, above and below.  Day was closely linked to Cerebus creator, Dave Sim, early on. Both were Canadian, and one tended to assist the other whenever possible. Sim lettered several of Day’s early strips. Sim remarks fondly on his late friend by saying: Gene really showed me that success in a creative field is a matter of hard work and productivity and persistence. I had done a handful of strips and illustrations at that point mostly for various fanzines but I wasn’t very productive. I would do a strip or an illustration and send it off to a potential market and then wait to find out if they were going to use it before doing anything else. Or I’d wait for someone to write to me and ask me to draw something. Gene was producing artwork every day and putting it out in the mail and when it came back he’d send it out to someone else. He would draw work for money and then do work on spec if the paying markets dried up. He kept trying at places where he had been rejected. He did strips, cartoons, caricatures, covers, spot illos, anything that he might get paid for. He gave drawing lessons and produced his own fanzines.  Day Day self published his work, one of which is advertised in this fanzine as Dark Fantasy, with the appropriately named company, House of Shadows. Day is held in such high regard in his home country that there is a self publishing award and grant in his name (that you can read about here). Gene had two brothers, Dan and David, who also illustrated comics and fanzines, of which a few I have in my possession and will profile some time soon. You can find out more about Dan Day here. David regularly posts on Facebook currently. You can also see his Swamp Thing work here, his Sherlock Holmes work here, and a list of comic work here.   From the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Blog: “Gene Day began his career with Canadian underground and independent comics, for which he published the short-lived title Out of the Depths in 1974, and collaborated with Dave Sim on Oktoberfest Comics #1 (Now and Then Publications, 1976). Day also penciled for Skywald Publication’s horror-comics magazines Psycho and Nightmare, starting in late 1974, as well as the science fiction-oriented Orb. “For Mike Friedrich’s early independent-comics company Star Reach, in 1977 and 1978, Day variously wrote/drew stories for the namesake anthology title Star Reach and its sister magazines Imagine and Quack, the latter a funny animal comic. Other work includes Cheating Time!, written by Mark Burbey, in Dr. Wirtham’s Comix & Stories #4 (1979). “In 1979, Day wrote and drew an early graphic novel, Future Day (Flying Buttress Press), a hardcover collection of seven stories that he called a “graphic album.” Dave Sim was letterer. Day also did illustrations for the fantasy role-playing games Arena of Khazan: A Tunnels & Trolls Solitaire Dungeon (1979) and Call of Cthulhu (1981). “Day began his seven-year association with Master of Kung Fu by inking penciler Mike Zeck starting with issue #76 (May 1976). He began doing finished art over Zeck’s breakdowns starting with issue ##94 (Nov. 1980), and became series penciler from #102-120 (July 1981 – Jan. 1983), after having split the work with Zeck on the double-sized #100. Day inked Carmine Infantino on Marvel’s 1977-1986 Star Wars sequel series, occasionally doing finished art over breakdowns, and pencilling the well-received issue #69 (March 1983), which took place at Boba Fett’s ancestral homeworld of Mandalore. Day also had significant stints inking The Mighty Thor, and Marvel Two-in-One featuring the Thing. “Day died of a coronary in his sleep [in 1982].” A frequent collaborator and writer, David Olbrich has a wonderful blog post on Gene Day here, with a few replies from various Marvel and other company contributors. Another bio can be seen here. And lastly, you can see a listing of Gene’s professional comic credits here. You can see from these various listings how industrious Gene Day was. I am sure he would have produced a massive amount of work by now, if he were still alive. There were few in the fanzine world that had as good a command of the depiction of shadows and light as did Gene Day. He has been and will continue to be missed.
Lastly, of course, please download the pdf! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Jan Strnad has written for Warren, DC, Dark Horse, the television industry, and published several books. But he cut his teeth on his very own fanzine, Anomaly!  Kenneth Smith Anomaly 3: 1971 Editor and Publisher: Jan Strnad Writer Jan Strnad is probably best known as one of the main, if not THE main collaborator of artist Richard Corben. Jan was the second person (after Voice of Comicdom, by Rudi Franke) to publish Corben’s work, and worked with Corben many times in his career. They collaborated in fanzines, underground comics, and later, mainstream comics. You can see Corben’s cover for this issue of Anomaly below. The partnership remains a substantial part of the writer’s career, but Strnad has done much, much more.  Richard Corben Anomaly was one of the best fanzines of the time. Packed with great artists such as Corben, Robert Kline, Reed Crandall, Stephen Hickman, Roy Krenkel, as well as writers such as Harlan Ellison and Strnad himself, it inhabited the upper echelon of the fanzine world in the 1970s. For this column, we will examine the final fanzine version, issue 3. Jan Strnad discovered fandom in junior high school through G. B. Love’s Rocket’s Blast Comic Collector (RBCC), with his friend Don Bain, a fellow comic book fan. Strnad would later go on to write for many other fanzines, including RBCC, The Monster Times, George, and Infinity. Strnad adds “I’m sure there are more, but as Hec Ramsey said, a lot of stuff’s gone under the thing since then.”  Smith Strnad knew his calling from the very beginning: “I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 14 or so. I was thrilled to receive a portable Smith Corona typewriter around that age. I typed up a published science fiction short story (sorry, I don’t remember which one!) just to see what stories looked like in manuscript format. Unfortunately I typed it single-spaced so I only got an approximation, but it helped to cement in my head that stories were words on paper, typed by a mortal human, and thus something I could aspire to create.” Anomaly came about a few years later while Strnad was in college, “pursuing my degree in English Lit. I had no professional credits at all, but I would soon get them through the pages of Creepy and Eerie magazines, published by Jim Warren. Warren paid $45 for an eight-page story at that time, which happened to equal the rent on my ghetto apartment in Wichita.” The first issue of the fanzine was published when Strnad was only 18. "Don and I visited Jerry Weist, a fellow Wichitan who was publishing Squa Tront, and I was inspired to do my own fanzine. Jerry handed me an envelope of sketches by a fan named Robert Kline. He liked the work but it didn’t fit with Squa Tront, so I wrote to Bob and he became a contributor and friend. Later he helped me get a job at Disney when I moved to Los Angeles. My first editor, Jymn Magon, was an Anomaly subscriber, as it turned out. "  Corben Richard Corben (see above) would enter Strnad’s world very early as well. The writer recalls his first “almost encounter” with Corben:  Corben "Don Bain and I were at the World S-F Convention in St. Louis in 1969 (I think that’s where and when). We had a table where we hawked Anomaly. I was away from the table when Richard came by and subscribed. I discovered his subscription when I got back home and my jaw dropped. I’d seen his work in Rudi Franke’s Voice of Comicdom and couldn’t believe that I’d missed meeting him because I was in the bathroom or somewhere. I approached him about contributing to Anomaly and he kindly accepted my invitation. Don and I later met him in Kansas City and I visited a number of times over the course of our collaborations. " In addition to his writing skills and his good taste in artists, I was also impressed at the actual design of issue three. The editorial pages are spacious and tastefully typeset. When asked if Strnad considered himself talented or experienced in this area, he demurred: Not really, but I had an interest in printing, publishing and graphic design. I worked for about a week for a printer, learned some prepress, how to basically run an offset press, and hung around City Blue Print (Anomaly‘s printer), enough to make a pest of myself.  The color piece Strnad references is an animation cell style color painting from Robert Kline, who is featured in an interview, accompanied by many spot illustrations, a couple of full-page drawings, and the aforementioned color piece. The interview itself benefits greatly from Strnad’s skills as a writer. It is not a simple question and answer piece, as you would see in several other fanzines (though Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine gets a warm plug). Quotes are interspersed intelligently and many subjects are covered, including a visit by the editor and a friend to Disneyland while Kline was finishing classes at Art Center, on his way to working for Disney as an animator. Various assignments at Art Center are discussed, informing Kline’s work and our understanding of him and his experiences. Other topics are covered as well, such as Kline’s admiration for Frank Frazetta, and stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen.  Robert Kline Following Kline’s interview is a Roy Krenkel portfolio, consisting of six beautiful full-page illustrations (some pencil, some fully inked). Though Krenkel had the misfortune of working in the paperback market in the same era of his friend Frank Frazetta, his work truly deserves attention. The work is intelligent, detailed, and incredibly imaginative, as seen below. Roy was also one of, if not the most generous (to fandom) professional artist...his sketches were everywhere!  Roy Krenkel Herb Arnold (below) follows with a portfolio of his own. I always saw Arnold as a poor man’s Corben, probably due to the fact that they seemed to appear in many of the same places, doing similarly toned work. Though very few can hold a candle to Corben, seen separately, Arnold’s work is worthy. The illustrations are moody and atmospheric, especially when the work stays in the realm of horror, the artist’s genre of choice. A feature in the first few pages of the fanzine, The Castle of the King, written by Strnad, showcases Arnold’s use of deep blacks, varied pen work, and selective use of duo-shade and zip-a-tone (relics in today’s digital world, but effective nonetheless). Unfortunately, the first feature also shows figures that are at times stiff, with a few specific elements (such as hands) that don’t quite work. Strnad states that, “I met Herb through Richard Corben. He was, at that time, another Kansas Citian, and he was a big Lovecraft fan.”  Kenneth Smith (who also did the logo you see at the top of the page, along with several spot illos and other logos) contributes a story called The Bog, which is much lighter and less obsessively detailed than his usual work. I say that with much love and respect for his obsessively detailed work, by the way! At some point, I hope to at least show some snippets of his incredibly beautiful fanzine, Phantasmagoria (there is a full page ad for the zine which shows what amazing work Smith could produce).  Smith’s good humor shows brightly in this whimsical short story, both in the writing and the design of the main characters. At a few points (as seen above) we do see flashes of the incredible control Smith had over his brush. Heck, his lettering was even top notch! The next and last story (below) is probably what this fanzine is best known for, Strnad and Corben’s alien abduction/war parable, titled Encounter of War. Corben’s deft handling of action is evident even in this early work, as is his command of realistic shadow play.  Strnad’s writing career has prospered since his fanzine days. Jan breaks it down, category by category:  THE MAN! In comics, the highlights of my so-called career are definitely working with Gil Kane on Sword of the Atom for DC and working with Dennis Fujitake on Dalgoda for Fantagraphics. Dalgoda also contained my first collaboration with Kevin Nowlan, Grimwood’s Daughter, which has been collected into a graphic novel by IDW. I worked with Kevin again on The Secret Origin of Man-Bat and, in volume one of Batman Black & White, Monsters in the Closet, which also carried the Corben-illustrated story Monster Maker. Incidentally, those two “monster” stories were conceived as a unit where Kevin would illustrate the comic book art in Corben’s story and vice versa, and one story would lead into the other and back again. Kevin didn’t want to sully his pages with someone else’s art, though, so that idea fell through. If you cut those pages out of the book and tape them together in a Moebius strip, you’ll still get the effect. The Corben collaborations included various underground comix and my favorites, Mutant World and The Last Voyage of Sindbad (aka New Tales of the Arabian Nights when serialized in Heavy Metal magazine). We parodied Den in Denz for Penthouse Comics, which I thought was a better story than it needed to be. In animation, I wrote a couple of Talespin episodes for Disney before going on staff, where my first job was the Darkwing Duck pilot episode, which came real close to being a direct-to-DVD film. I went on to write for Goof Troop, Aladdin, Hercules, 101 Dalmatians and other Disney shows before being fired. Then I freelanced for various studios and wrote some Spider-Man (Kraven the Hunter), Fantastic Four, Iron Man and X-Men cartoons, and smaller studio stuff including Ace Ventura, Pet Detective; Skeleton Warriors; Harold and the Purple Crayon (which I loved as a very young child) and others. My favorite animation gig was writing and editing Project: GeeKeR for Sony/Columbia/CBS which TV Guide called the best new cartoon show of the season. Unfortunately it ran opposite Spider-Man and got creamed in the ratings. Encounter at War in Anomaly 3 also ran in Marvel’s Epic Illustrated. My first and only movie job was on Judge Dredd, for which I wrote a treatment. Absolutely none of what I wrote was used in the film and I didn’t get a “credit,” thank goodness. Mutant World was optioned for an animated film by Phil Tippett and Jon Davison, but it went nowhere, and my horror novel, Risen, has been optioned five times, several times by Ralph Singleton (who made three Stephen King movies), but again, no film has resulted. In live action TV I wrote one episode of Young Hercules but was fired by Rob Tappert before he even read the script, a casualty of a mass firing of writers. I don’t think much of Rob, but his wife (Lucy Lawless) is very sweet. I’m making a student film with real high school students, called Things Change, just for fun, but it’s like pushing a rope. We lost a whole day of shooting for which we had our full cast of characters, extras, crew, etc. all lined up when our lead actress got grounded. “Making films is hard,” as Barbie might say. Another place you can get information about Jan and his work on his Amazon page, for one. Please download parts one and two of the pdf, so you can see all the wonderful work in this gorgeous fanzine! My thanks go out to Jan himself, who availed much of his time via email for all my questions!
Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]  me/Brent Anderson  What the hell is that Creeper doing? Hello everyone. I wanted to give everyone kind enough to follow this column a heads up. This week’s installment will be delayed another 7 days due to some events I have to handle here at home. I have a couple of great ‘zines I’m going to choose from, including issues of Anomaly (Strnad, Corben, Kline), Reality (Kaluta and more), and others. For now, just for the heck of it, I will show a few pieces of mine from fanzines you haven’t seen yet (for the most part), as well as a few wacky Christmas cards (I do one each year). So, tune in again next week and we will get back on schedule with another great fanzine! EDIT: When reposting this on 1/12/2026, I added a few things. Above you see the very first thing I ever had published, aided and inked by my bud, Brent Anderson (appeared in a Baycon program book). Below you see a playmat (basically, a big mousepad) where I used a hand colored copy of the image at top, combined with a more recent portrait of Lee.   me, me/Mike Christian Above left you see a cover for a fun little sf fanzine that David Heath Jr pointed me too, while on the right is a trading card piece done for a set in the 90s featuring my character, Feral (sort of a combo of Wolverine and the Creeper).  This crazy thing was a submission for whatever company produced an incredibly funny comic called The Trouble With Girls, written by Gerard Jones.  Yes, that is Hillary Clinton. The gentleman to the right (Glen Williams), who had me do several other political shirts later on) asked me to do some art for shirts to help with her campaign for Prez a while back...that’s my art on the shirt. I am sure she is thinking, “What the hell is this sh@t?” It was fun, as were the following projects, since caricature is not something I do on a regular basis. It is fun, but challenging...you can see the other designs in my Facebook pages. In the comic photo folders there you can see many more Feral images and pages.  This is one of several graphics I did to try to promote the Caliber series I worked on for awhile called Kilroy is Here. They didn’t help.  Above and below you can see several pieces done for the San Diego Comicon program book over the years.   Above you see a selection of pages done as a sample to try to get work at DC (it didn't work). They were fun, as I was caught up in the enjoyment of those Justice League issues by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire. Such fun stories, facial expressions and characters!  One of my silly past Xmas cards.  In the 90s, I hooked up with that nut, Don Chin. In addition to the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters limited series, I did these silly ass covers for the lunatic!  Above, another tryout! This is Clive Barker's Weaveworld, done while in I was in the throes of one of my idols, Dave McKean. Lastly, below, you can see a plethora of portraits painted by the poopyhead that is me! These were done for the wonderful current (2026) comic magazine, Comic Book Creator. Check that sucker out! Ken Meyer Jr [email protected]  Richard Corben burst onto the fanzine scene in an earlier issue of this fanzine, Voice of Comicdom. His style and skill, virtually unmatched, made him an instant smash.  Voice of Comicdom 17: 1971 Publisher/Editor: Rudi Franke  I remember when I first saw Richard Corben’s work in fanzines such as Infinity, and later, his own Fantagor (closer to an underground comic actually), his work screamed for attention just like the demon to the right and hit me like a ton of bricks (sort of related to how some might describe the figures of his female characters). The images were lusty, alive, cinematic, full of action, and rendered with incredible skill. He could paint rings around his contemporaries almost from the beginning. I remember wondering, how does he make everything so realistic, so three dimensional and so otherworldly? Because of this sense of wonder, I searched for his work wherever possible, whether it would appear in fanzines or, forbidden to a youngster like myself, the sometimes x- rated world of underground comics. From Fershid Bharucha’s Richard Corben: Flights into Fantasy, Corben’s beginnings “as the artist remembers it.” The American Midwest. The early forties. In a farmhouse in rural Anderson, Missouri, Rich is born and lives with his parents...’til the farmhouse burns down. So they pack up what’s left and move to Sunflower, Kansas, where a new town has sprung up around the Sunflower Ordnance Works. The time is World War II and everyone in town is making gunpowder and bombs for Uncle Sam. Rich goes through grade school in Sunflower. It is a very small town: one grocery store and a theater that only opens occasionally. But the grocery store has comics and Rich reads Superman. He really loves Superman. Then the family moves to Kansas City, where Rich goes to high school and later to art college [Kansas City Art Institute]. Somewhere along the way he meets Dona and they fall in love and get married and have a beautiful baby. And Rich draws and Dona collects owls and their daughter goes to school in nearby Indian Creek. And they all live happily ever after in a condominium on the Missouri side of Kansas City. While reveling in the domestic bliss of his family, Corben served a few months in the Army Reserves, and then worked for a period of nine years in the animation department of Calvin Communications. While there, he continued to hone his skills in many areas of art, including painting, sequential work, and making short animated films of his own. As for his fanzine work, in 1969, Richard’s work appeared in several, including Weirdom and an early issue of Voice of Comicdom.  I confess I do not have any issues of VOC before issue 17 (issue 16 featured part one of the story you see here). The fanzine was closer to a newspaper until late in its run, when it started focusing on specific artists. In fact, Richard’s first published strip, Monsters Rule, appeared in an early issue of VOC. At the same time Corben was publishing fanzine work, he made his way into the new underground comix scene with work in Last Gasp and several others. Very soon after, Warren publications came calling and his work started appearing in those magazines as well. Regarding VOC, again from Bharucha’s book: Fanzine publisher Rudi Franke ran “Monsters Rule”, the first Corben strip to see print, in the June 1968 issue. It ran as a serial, ending in the May 1969 issue. Rudi knew he was on to a good thing, and in the same issue he published an eight-page Corben story, rendered on scratch-board (“The Lure of the Tower“). The next two issues had full-color wraparound Corben covers and the two parts of the now-famous Rowlf, with a script by Harvey Sea (R.V.C., get it?). Then Rudi disappeared with some ten pages of Richard’s unpublished artwork. But that’s fandom!  Rowlf was reprinted in two places I have heard of, Last Gasp and a Warren magazine, but both are hard to find, so I hope you enjoy the download, including the color covers! Corben succeeded in so many ways with his work in general and this story in particular (in fact, Moebius considers it Corben’s best). His forms are round, full of volume, and it is evident when weight is being applied (or when faces are being squashed!). It’s common knowledge that his storytelling abilities are excellent, which he infuses with a cinematic touch. I know I would be interested in seeing a film directed by Corben! In Bharucha’s book, Neal Adams says of Corben’s storytelling ability, “He tells stories the way a filmmaker makes a film, with proper sequencing and animation. He keeps his camera at the right level, he zooms and pans; he is a consummate film person.” Note all the various changing points of view below (as well as the still experimental background sharing of panels 3 and 4).  Corben is also very well known for his expert handling of lighting and shadows, often sculpting versions of his characters beforehand to see how those figures would react to light (see Ink Stains 11). I can remember being almost as enthralled with those sculptures as with the finished art! Those sculptures were sort of a glimpse behind the wizard’s curtain. It was a behind the scenes tutorial of sorts and inspirational seeing these amazing creatures in three dimensions. Another critical element in the action packed world of comic book storytelling is the fight scene. A well staged fight scene can make all the difference in keeping the reader involved in the action and the characters. Corben is and has always been highly concerned with realistic fight scenes. He shoots them from a variety of viewpoints, injects an understanding of martial arts into the actual stances and moves, and does not hesitate to show the effects of, for example, a foot hitting a face. Just look below.  Check out the emotion showing through Rowlf’s shepherd face! Not an easy thing to accomplish. More examples below.   Another aspect of Corben’s black and white art that always enhanced the story was his use of toning tools of the day. Whether it is crosshatching, zip-a-tone, duo-shade, or wash painting, you could tell he was always thinking of ways and tools to make the visuals sing. Check out the almost Parrish-like clouds in the vista at left. Jan Strnad, Corben’s frequent collaborator, probably puts it most eloquently as to what makes a Corben story so singular when he is quoted in Bharucha’s book as saying:  "...it is his skillful manipulation of face and figure that makes his characters so much fun to direct. They can act – displaying their emotions openly and convincingly – and they interact so completely with their environment as to blur the line of distinction between illustration and reality. Once they appear on the illustrated page they begin to demand respect as living individuals, and their destinies are no longer wholly in the hands of the writer but are determined in great part by the characters themselves. Once begun, writing a Corben series becomes an adventure of discovery with the writer in the back of the canoe, steering for all he’s worth, while the raging waters carry him where they will. " Please check out Corben’s own site here. You can see a web printing of the first installment of this story here. And of course, download the pdf right now, Jethro! See a few images below of Corben from The Bharucha book (printed in 1981). See the actual book, plus doofus, above.  Gil Kane. Alex Toth. Don Maitz. Rick Buckler. Joe Sinnott. Jim Starlin. Berni Wrightson. John Byrne...LOTS of John Byrne. All in one “little” zine. And that zine is...CPL 11!  CPL 11: 1974 Publisher: Robert Layton  Don Maitz As you know, if you read Ink Stains 5, which showcased issue 12 of this great zine (of which I wish like crazy I had more...can anyone help?), it is jam packed with incredible art from some of the best fans (and pros) of the time, along with some very good writers as well. This issue, number 11, is just as exceptional. As you can see, issue 11 starts out with a high contrast bang, courtesy of the justifiably lauded artist Alex Toth. He was always able to do so much with so little...which, as most artists will tell you, is not anywhere near as easy as you might think it is. CPL was put together on a quarterly basis by Bob Layton, with help from fellow soon-to-be pros Roger Stern and other artists and writers known collectively as The CPL Gang (and also as The Indianapolis Mafia). The artist that played the biggest part in this issue, as in issue 12, is John Byrne. But...we will get to Byrne’s many contributions later in the article. The first interior illustration is a full page Don Maitz illustration of Ka-zar. Don has gone on to be one of the premier fantasy artists of today, and he was gracious enough to answer a few questions via email about his involvement in fandom. Don got interested in fandom through a friend’s fanzine called Formula X: “It was produced by a high school friend. It was really bad, but at least it only had a print run of about ten copies. He had to give me a copy...actually several copies, as there was no way I was going to pay money for it. I do not think he could get his mother to buy a copy.” And the first fanzine Don was actually published in? “I do remember working in my very first fanzine. That high school friend I mentioned talked me into working on the second issue of Formula X ! We made it using a ditto copy machine in the high school print shop (using blue, green, and red ink). I illustrated the title comic story featuring his character, Formula X. I wrote and illustrated a short comic story in it as well. It was really amateurish, awful as well. The only saving grace was we knew the great DC comic book artist, Jim Aparo, who graciously did a cover ink drawing for us to use. He lived near us and we were allowed to sit with him in his basement while he worked on Aquaman, Batman and other comic book titles. We must have printed all of 20 copies of Formula X ! My friend’s mother still did not buy a copy, my mother avoided it as well. I must have been sixteen at the time.” Despite the disdain of any nearby mother, Don almost entered the comic book field while in art school. “Jim Aparo took my friend and I to Rockefeller Plaza, NYC into the DC Comics offices and introduced us around. I met Dick Giordano (then Vice president at DC) at his home and did two pages of “ghost inking” for Jim Aparo, as well as some pencils for ads appearing in Marvel Comics. I went into NYC with my comic portfolio and they put me to work that same day inking over poor xerox copies of Black Canary pages as sort of an apprentice, pay your dues introduction to working in comics. I do not know if they expected me to travel to NYC from the middle of CT every day to do spec work till someone gave me a paying job. Anyway, I decided to stay in art school as I began to be very attracted to oil painting.” See his gorgeous work here.  Clyde Caldwell As to what Maitz has done recently, he told me, “A couple of years ago I did concept art for Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and Ant Bully. I have some work coming out in a coffee table book titled Knowing Darkness, featuring artists who have illustrated stories by Stephen King. I have all new art in the 2010 Pirates! calendar and my work has been featured in an award winning documentary film titled Mythic Journeys. This film won best documentary at Dances with Film in LA and at a film festival in Rome last weekend (and you can see a trailer here). The film also features animated puppets designed by Brian and Wendy Froud, interviews by visionaries such as Deepak Chopra, and the voices of Mark Hamill, Lance Henriksen, and Tim Curry.” By the way, to the left you see work by a contemporary of Maitz, Clyde Caldwell, who we will examine next. Clyde Caldwell got into fandom via a different route and subject matter...Edgar Rice Burroughs. Clyde told me, “I had always read comics from early childhood. I started reading SF & Fantasy literature when I was in the 7th grade and was instantly hooked. When I was in graduate school working on my MFA, discovered The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom. There were ads for fanzines in TBG. I was a huge fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs so I ordered some of the ERB fanzines to see what they were about.” In fact, Clyde’s first published work was in a Burroughs zine called ERBdom. “I was in grad school...probably around 22 or 23 years old. I did a John Carter of Mars drawing in pen & ink and it was used for a back cover. The funny thing about it was that I did the piece in black & white. ”Caz” Cazedessus, Jr., who was the editor of the zine, sent the piece out to be colored without my knowledge. The colorist was [Marvel inker] Sam Grainger, who used to work with my father in Charlotte, NC (at Radiator Specialty Co.) When I was a kid, I used to do superhero drawings and send them to work with my dad to show to Sam. Sam was nice enough to critique them. At that time Sam was doing freelance work for Marvel Comics, in addition to working as a commercial artist at Radiator Speciality Co. I thought it a huge coincidence that he was called on to color my first ever fanzine piece. As it turned out, Sam was a huge ERB fan too.” I remember loving Sam Grainger’s inks over John Buscema on The Avengers, along with many other titles. You can see Caldwell’s beautifully accomplished work here.  John Byrne Roger Stern appears as editor of CPL for the first time with this issue, and delivers a column detailing the dovetailing of the fanzine and Charlton Bullseye, a short lived Charlton house magazine (and a very well produced one, if memory serves). Roger notes that John Byrne’s character, Rog-2000, is “the back up tenant in E-Man,” and the character also has a 6-page strip featuring not only the title robot character, but the CPL creators as well! Duffy Vohland, Byrne, Layton, Stern, and others put in appearances in this action packed humor strip, written by Stern and illustrated by Byrne and Layton. Check out this interview with Stern done in 2006.  John Byrne Don’t think the Byrne fun stops there, though. John’s smooth, easy to identify illustrations grace pretty much every other page of this fanzine. He gives us renditions of Howard the Duck, The Thing, Galactus, The Silver Surfer, The Flash, J. Johah Jameson, assorted robots, and also inks Rich Buckler on several full- page illustrations, a few of which you see below Joe Sinnott’s version of Galactus.  Joe Sinnott  Rich Buckler/John Byrne I can recall really loving Buckler’s work circa Deathlok and the like. The centerfold of that character above illustrates how smooth and sinuous his work could be. And of course, he could ape Kirby like few others, as witnessed by the Thing illo above. He has a few other illustrations not shown here that you can check out by getting the pdf.  John Byrne  The articles also are done by writers who would later become pros (or who were already working in the industry). Aside from the previously mentioned self referential article, Steve Gerber writes Further Muck Meditations, this installment focusing (he calls it “bitching”) on the effect of big companies on the creative process, as well as the element of “relevance” in comics (something that was all the rage back then, what with the classic O’Neil and Adams’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues, etc). John Byrne examines Galactus (see illo above) in his Northern Lights column (accompanied also by the full page Joe Sinnott illustration and a Byrne Silver Surfer spot illo), while Roger Stern, in his Sterno’s Hot Ones column, pokes fun at an issue of The Flash in which the title character streaks...luckily at Flash speed! Stern also gives us a page detailing the creation of John Byrne’s robot character, Rog-2000 (preceding the Rog- 2000 strip). An article by Paty (Greer, I think, is her last name, though she never used it) on the subject of The Vision and whether he has blood or not is followed by C.C. Beck’s instructions on creating characters called Don’t Show and Tell Everything. A letter column rounds out the text features in this issue.  As you can plainly see, CPL had one of the best stables of any fanzine in existence at that time (at any time, really), what with burgeoning pros like Byrne and existing artists like Gil Kane, whose work you see above. But hey, I have not shown it all! In addition to what you have seen, there are several more illustrations by Byrne, as well as work by Berni Wrightson, Jim Starlin/Pete Iro, Dan Adkins, and Bob Hall. So please, download the pdf so you can see all of the great work in this small, but potent fanzine!
CPL was one of my favorite fanzines from the 70s, and that is from only seeing two issues. If anyone out there has any other issues they would be willing to loan me or scan for me, I would be eternally grateful. For now though...download and leave comments! Thanks this issue goes out to Don Maitz and Clyde Caldwell for their time. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] |
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