|
Dark Horse artist Patric Reynolds is one talented artist…and a damn funny guy to boot. And he is only beginning.  I will preface this interview with saying Patric Reynolds is a friend of mine and fellow former classmate at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Sequential Program, so I am somewhat biased when I say I see great things in store for this nutjob. He will deserve any and all accolades he receives, for several reasons. One, his work is already very good, much in the vein of realistic artists such as Bill Sienkiewicz, Jason Alexander, Duncan Fegredo, and Alex Maleev. Two, because he has a very commendable work ethic. He does not settle for “just ok” work and does not dictate a limited amount of time for any given job. Three, because he gambled it all on going to SCAD to further his dream of working in comics, not settling for the previous “Plan B” of teaching high school. And four, because he is a damn nice guy, very self-deprecating, always on the lookout for ways to help his friends, and possesses a wicked sense of humor. I also have to add that we do talk about the Sequential department at the Savannah College of Art and Design a fair amount and that, to some, this may seem like too much of an “inner circle” sort of conversation. However, I am trying to do two things with this (aside from entertain). First, I want people to know that college can be fun and a learning experience at the same time (if you can afford the cost). Second, I hope to interview several of the professors mentioned here, so it operates as a sort of teaser as well. I hope you find it interesting and not too obscure. To see art and read about the Sequential program at SCAD, go here.  I conducted this interview over the Facebook chat engine, with some additional information gathered via email, since Patric had moved back to his native Utah recently. We started waaaaaay back, in the prehistoric times of his youth…. Ken: I read that while in grade school you drew tons of dinosaurs. Patric Reynolds: Sure did. Ken: I think most kids, especially boys, are interested in dinosaurs. As a child, did you see movies with effects by Ray Harryhausen, and want to do that? Movies like Valley of the Gwangi, for example? PR: Hell yes. One of my favorite movies was Clash of the Titans, I really was more fascinated by the giant scorpions and the two-headed dog than the humans. Also, I loved the Sinbad movies (particularly the fight between that dragon and the cyclops). I even still like that skeleton fight scene in Jason and the Argonaunts. But I hated the way that scene [in …Titans] ended. They all just fell over a cliff? Pssh. Whatever… Ken: Oh yeah, those were huge in my childhood; Jason and the Argonauts, etc. I did a sculpture of the creature in 20 Million Miles To Earth…the “Ymir.” PR: The Ymir? never heard of it…. NETFLIX! Ken: Yeah, he started out out tiny and grew and grew until he was huge. Probably a silly movie, but when you are a kid, you don’t realize that…they just look cool. PR: Everything is cool when you’re a kid. Hell, The Last Unicorn was cool until I was 20.  Ken: So, when you were in high school, did you have any teachers that fostered your skills in art, encourage you, etc? PR: Yes, when I was in grade school, I think teachers had me draw to keep me busy, and from lighting the the classroom on fire… I had far too much energy. Ken: Yeah, I can understand that…it hasn’t changed. PR: HA! in high school, Mr. Case was one of those quintessential art teachers who you knew held all the secrets, but would always be so damn cryptic when he’d answer you or give advice that you were forced to do something out of your comfort zone just to understand the guy. But, I wouldn’t say he pushed me so much as he made me want to know more. Gradually, I become more self-motivated in this way. He really did make me want to find out things for myself. Ken: I had two art teachers in the 11th grade or so. First, an old lady by the name of Mrs. Cornia, kicked me out of class because of a cartoon I did of her in the school paper. Then came Mr. Gray, the perfect “it’s us against the system young bearded guy” sort of teacher. So, getting kicked out was a good thing. PR: Mr. Case knew I could draw, but up until then,I was just drawing wiley cartoons (squirrels, Ren and Stimpy knock-offs, etc.) But he wanted to see what I could really do with it. He turned me on to sequential art and McKean’s Arkham Asylum, actually. Ken: Great place to start. Now, you grew up in Utah. I cannot remember if you told me if your family was Mormon or not. PR: Nope. We’re sans-Mormon. Ken: Did you feel you fit in to the general fabric of society there? Not being Mormon can definitely have its drawbacks there. PR: Funny you should ask… Um…I should preface this by saying that no one should be judged by what they have decided to be right for themselves, and it’s the decisions that people make that can create a positive and negative environment, not the system of beliefs themselves. Ken: Of course. PR: …now that we’ve got that out of the way, it was tough. I wouldn’t say “oppressive,” but… Ken: I would say, perhaps, “exclusionary.”  PR: Oh sure. I really felt like an outsider, which was only exacerbated by the fact that I was a tall, lurpy, insecure teenager. Ken: I should interject for the readers, the strange coincidences Patric and I living in some of the same places without knowing each other. PR: Do it! I gotta think of something smart to say anyway. Ken: One day in a SCAD class, when I told Patric that I also had lived in Las Vegas (after already telling him I had lived in Salt Lake City), Patric asked sarcastically, “Are YOU my dad?” (I should add also that his father had disappeared early in his life, causing him a few health problems.) It’s just too strange a coincidence. PR: Yeah, I almost forgot about that. Ken: At that time, you had told me that your father wasn’t around much, right? PR: Um…yes.  Ken: I was just trying to establish the scenario why you had even sarcastically made that comment about me being your dad. PR: No worries, I get you. Ken: How many siblings do you have and what do they do now? PR: Oh, I was going to talk more about the Utah thing, if you wanted. Ken: Go for it, man, I would like for this to be more than just a ‘”what pens do you use'” sort of interview. PR: To backtrack, ‘exclusionary” is a good term. I had a hard time with it. Some of my friends would use our friendship as leverage to try and get me to be a part of the church. Ken: Yeah, I had several friends who would show me the binders they used on their missions to try to convert me. To this day, whenever I see two young guys in ties riding bicycles, I say to myself, “Mormons!” And I do so with affection. PR: Missionaries would follow me home as a boy… asking questions about whether I was making the right life decisions as I walked away. Ken: I will say also, that almost all of the ones I knew were darn nice people. PR: I know! I even got approached by missionaries in Vegas. I told them I knew the drill, then offered them a beer. This actually fueled my artist direction in high school. I started making comic pages that featured outcasts (homeless people, myself… I even illustrated a few pages of John Gardner’s Grendel). Ken: Every once in awhile some will come to our door and I will tell them where I lived, talk a bit, and then tell them I am agnostic and they should spend their time more fruitfully with someone else OK…so, your siblings…. PR: I have a younger sister, two older brothers I grew up with, and another younger brother through another parent’s marriage. Ken: What did they end up doing professionally? Are they stand up comedians like you? PR: Hah! They’re much funnier than I am. My sister is a civil engineer who specializes in hydrology, working on the water tables in Philadelphia. One of my older brothers is a residential DSL line installer. My other older brother does web design and marketing. And my younger brother is a graduated high school student. Ken: Onto college…I remember, when I was at Weber State and the University of Utah, I heard (too late) that Utah State’s Illustration program was top notch. How was that program for you? PR: Utah State is nationally known for its illustration program, one of of the best in the country. But, when illustration Champion Glen Edwards left, then program disappeared and it got absorbed by graphic design. Luckily, I was one of the last students he taught.  Ken: Did you learn many practical skills there at Utah State? PR: Yeah, I was there when lots of things were on the verge of going digital. While there, I learned how to draw and paint, basically, and find a voice. This is where I picked up most of my watercolor, oil paint, mixed media,and collage skills. Hell, I even learned how to do printmaking! Ken: Were they aware of people like McKean and Sienciewicz? PR: Um… not really. Ken: This would have been about when? PR: Late 1990’s/early 2000s. See, there, people mostly focused on making “pretty pictures.” Ken: The Bernie Fuchs and Bob Peaks? PR: YES!, but more so Gregory Manchess and Bruce Wolfe. In classes, almost everyone was going for basically immaculately rendered images that almost always involved wildlife or an attractive girl doing something subdued and beautiful in a abstracted background. Ken: Hell, I could look at Manchess all day long. PR: Yeah, he’s the N.C. Wyeth of our time. I knew I could never have the rendering skills of most of the other students let alone Glen Edwards. So, I experimented a lot, with media, with composition… I started making “sequences.” I’d be painting a model then I’d add frames to the images, trying to tell a more complete ‘story’ about the person…no one knew what the hell I was doing. Ken: Sequential was probably pretty foreign to most of them. Like you, I have a huge appreciation for Sienciewicz in general and his Hendrix book in particular.  PR: SIENKIEWICZ! Yes, I was enamored with his work. Still am. That was the problem. Bill’s great. I met him at HeroesCon last year. Really cool and accessible. I focused waaaaaaaay too hard on trying to be a multi media badass that I didn’t try to learn how to tell a story. And I was doing something different, so no one could really help me. Until I went to SCAD.  Ken: How did the first few weeks feel at SCAD? [The illustration above references a house Patric lived in for awhile in the worst of neighborhoods, with gunshots going off regularly, and so much more that I can’t print here.] PR: Oh God. I was sooooooo nervous. Ken: What was your first class, do you remember? I bet you talked a mile a minute! PR: Strangely, I rarely made any attempt to socialize or even make eye contact…in fact, one of my first classes was with you; Grad Studio I! I had just quit my teaching job, left my house, moved 2300 miles away and I DIDN’T KNOW ANYONE. It was kinda scary. I literally had nothing but my own two hands and my terrific family. Ken: Yeah, I remember being really impressed with how much you gambled. And, because of that, how much you had to believe in yourself, in your potential. PR: Well, I don’t know if I necessarily believed in myself, but other people sure did. John Lowe, YOU. Not a day went by that I wondered if I made the right decision. Ken: Let’s talk about some of the professors. I left feeling incredibly impressed with almost every single one. [To see a few Sequential professor bios, go here.] Let’s start with then department head, John Lowe. Mr. Boom voice. PR: HA! YES! Ken: A born leader. PR: Like he was eating a handful of roofing nails ALL THE TIME! John Lowe has the unique talent of giving you his complete and undivided attention, no matter how busy he is. He definately recognizes not so much talent, but people who are really able to want to help themselves. He really went the extra mile for people like that. Ken: Yeah, and he has so much going on all the damn time. And how about Paul Hudson? PR: WOW. Ken: The warrior priest. PR: HAHAHAHAHAHH Ken: The guy is the epitome of the Renaissance Man. PR: Thor. Wait…Bob Ross’ and Thor’s love child, totally dialed into his craft. Ken: He has worked for NASA, the FBI, Disney, among others, and can draw pretty much any dinosaur (or human or other animal) from memory…FROM THE INSIDE OUT. PR: Yeah, every damn cell, real or imagined. Ken: And he has the most incredible amount of humility as well. I remember him saying something like, “the only thing separating me from you is that I have done more bad drawings than you.” PR: Yeah, I was too busy trying to sculpt that f*cking half-sized model of ourselves to notice, though. Ken: We will have to show pictures of ours…I have mine still (see below, and keep in mind it’s about 2 feet tall and damn heavy).  Ken's sculpture PR: That’s right. Mine’s actually been disassembled…his ass fell off. Ken: OK, next up: Dove McHargue, another incredible procreator (John Lowe also has an impressively large group of kids). PR: Yes, he has the most adorable little set of triplets you’ve ever seen. You can tell he is a really good dad. His kids love the hell out of him. He’s a great musician, too, does all the songs for the sequalab podcast. CA: Dove McHargue is the guy you want as your instructor if you feel pressure, are worried, etc…he will set you at ease like few others, and he has incredible enthusiasm for comics AND his students. He is also a fellow admirer of Duncan Fregredo. PR: I think a lot of our professors are these “reniassance men,” they just have so much bottled creativity and skill that they have to let it out in many ways…drawing just won’t cut it. Ken: OK, last one for this interview, writing instructor Mark Kneece. PR: “AWWWWWWW, no one wanted to come to my party…” Ken: Explain. PR: So, no one shows up to class one day. Mark goes, “AWWWWWWWWW…no one wanted to come to my party,” and makes the sourest droopy droop face ever. Ken: His specialty. PR: HI-larious. Ken: Mark is very good at making a point, helping the student to learn, sometimes without the student even knowing it, because he was just so entertaining. [To see a review of his – a fellow SCAD prof Julie Collins – graphic novel, Trailers, go here.] PR: Yes, he made me actually learn how to put a cohesive thought together. If any y’all can read any of these responses, thank Mark Kneece. Ken: He is patience personified. PR: He is just such a sourass that you can’t surprise him with stupidity. Ken: You mentioned Paul Hudson’s Drawing for Sequential; was that your hardest class? PR: Um, yes…well, most workload intensive class. Ken: What was your least favorite class while at SCAD? PR: Oh gawd, um…Contemporary Art/Art Criticism, easy. Ken: Because of the subject alone? PR: I ain’t no art historian, dammit! For contemporary art, the instructor was waaaaaaaaay too harsh, and I think expected the students to be professional art critics. The material was pretty dry and impenetrable. Art criticism seemed just like a retread of contemporary art. Ken: Yeah, I think that class is mainly to teach you how to talk about art intelligently. PR: Which I never will. But I got to know Duncan Fegredo, Jorge Zaffino, Alex Toth, R.M. Guera, etc. I had never known of these guys before I got to SCAD. Also, I’ll say Doug Tenaple. I really dug “Creature Tech.” Ken: What did you get out of the workshops you did as a requirement of the program? PR: Well, through preparing presentations, I had to really think about why I was doing what I was doing, why I was doing things a certain way. When you teach things to people, I find you actually learn more about the subject. Ken: Good point…sometimes having to talk about what you do clarifies it more for yourself. PR: When you teach something back to someone, you have to make yourself understand it better first, you have to know it better than your students. But, those workshops got a bit redundant after awhile. I was pretty pissed that NONE of my professors in the classes that I was preparing the presentations for ever showed up.  Ken: Did you actually feel your being older than most of your fellow students (aside from me) had any effect on you at all? PR: Oh hell yeah. Ken: I have a feeling you were much more responsible about your assignments than some of the other students. PR: Yes, well, I had been through a lot more shit, too. Ken: I felt the pressure of having to be “better” because of my age and experience. And there were some damn good artists in that program! At the same time, I was consciously trying to not appear to think I was better (which I didn’t). I mean, I had just experienced more failure than most, like Hudson said. PR: Oh sure, I get you…more humility as a result. Sure. By this token, I was less likely to take things for granted.  Ken: Yeah, you had given up probably a lot more than many other students and had more riding on it, more likely to take advantage of more learning opportunities. PR: RIGHT. I knew what it was like to not have what I wanted for a looooooooong time. Ken: And you probably appreciate your position now much more than you would have if it had come easier and sooner. PR: Without a doubt. I think in your mid-twenties,you’re supposed to be grown-up, but most people aren’t…you keep thinking you’ll get second chances with things, but in your thirties if you still have this mentality, that’s gonna be a problem. Ken: Right. Struggle makes you strong. I’d like to talk about technique for a short bit. Obviously, you are influenced by realistic, but experimental artists, like Sinciewicz. And like him, you like to use a variety of materials in some of your work. Do you have a favorite media, and also, one that you want to do more of, but haven’t? PR: Watercolor is the most forgiving and rewarding. If I’m patient enough. But nowadays, I have the most experience with crowquill. Now its almost second nature when I draw with it. But I was initially trained as an illustrator, and I cut my chops on oil paint. However, I haven’t painted in oil in years. My homemade glass palette collects dust. But there’s this lushness that you just can’t get with any other medium. [To the right is a page from the never finished Stormchasers, from Desperado Studios, using crowquill, plus watercolor for tones.] Ken: Speaking of that, I know you like to use very loose pencils and then do most of the actual work in the inks, right? PR: Yep. actually, I’ve been told that my pencils are surprisingly tight, but they’re just contour line drawings. This is a good observation, because I then do a lot of improvising over the tight pencils with inks. Sort of think about it like the pencils are a bass line, and the inks are like a improvised tenor sax solo. Ken: You feel like you end up with livelier work I assume…and it keeps it interesting for you? PR: Yeah, pencils are just a foundation, just guidelines that I can follow, or not. I mean, I gotta know where the limits are before I can bust through them. Ken: Do you want to do licensed work with likenesses and such, or any specific sort of subject matter in comics? [To the right you see Patric’s representation of the main character from the HBO series, Dexter, done to benefit the CBLF.] PR: I just want to draw comics… ANY comics. But with licensed stuff, I tend to get more criticism from people on forums when I don’t nail the likenesses of characters they know. Sometimes trying to nail a likeness really slows down my momentum on a page…hate that. [Below you see a series of page sections from Patric’s Abe Sapiens one-shot from Dark Horse, showing both pencils and inks. Notice the perspective lines around the ambulance, showing that the artist is not cutting his corners.]   Ken: Are there artists working in comics now that work in your sort of style that you really look up to? Aside from Bill, that is. PR: Jason Alexander, although I haven’t seen a lot from him lately [he is primarily painting for galleries now – Ken]. I really like Zezelj, but he’s a bit more graphic (design-wise) than I am. Leonardo Manco, Alex Maleev. Oh, and Sean Gordon Murphy. Really nice guy…gave me portfolio advice, responded to my e-mail and gave me a nice critique. Ken: Have you been on any panels at cons yet? PR: Not yet. I’m supposed to be at ComicCon doing a signing for Dark Horse, but no news on me being on any panel. Ken: I will give everyone a heads up: if you see Patric Reynolds’s name on a program listing, don’t miss it…because, if nothing else, it will be freaking entertaining. PR: They probably don’t want to turn me loose in public in front of a microphone just yet. Ken: I was in a small room on a two man panel on painted comics with Dave McKean, if you can believe that. It was very…uh…daunting, to say the least. PR: My god. I shat myself just reading that. Ken: The crazy thing is…I would say something and he would disagree…he would say something, and I would disagree. Judging by career results…I would listen to him. PR: Huh? Like what? Ken: One point was clarity in storytelling. I felt the artist should be as clear as possible without being boring…and he thought the reader should have to work a bit…stay engaged, I guess. I can see his point. PR: But if you’re make the reader work too hard, they’ll close the damn book. Ken: What are the peripherals of your work habits composed of? Background music? Television? Considering how much you are into music, I would imagine the former. [At right you see an early preparation sketchbook page for Patric’s John Coltrane story, done while at SCAD. Below the art you see a visual graph of the story arc, helping to pinpoint the ‘beats’ or high points of the story.] PR: Tina f*cking Turner. Best song to do ANYTHING to is “The Best.” Seriously. Play it. You’ll think you can punch a bulldozer in half. Ken: While we are on the subject…name your top ten musicians/bands. PR: oooooooooooo….this is fun. In no particular order…Pearl Jam, John Coltrane, Led Zeppelin, Muse, The Black Keys, Bruce Springsteen, OutKast, Kings of Leon, Massive Attack, Lovage…and The Rolling Stones, man! Ken: Back to the production of art…do you try to keep a regular schedule, or do you work in spurts? PR: I work whenever I have to. I work until I get a page done, however long that takes me. Then I stop, and do it all again tomorrow. I have to keep a schedule for a deadline, so that usually means a page a day. If I take a day off, that means I have TWICE as much work the next day…yikes! But when I’m not working, I have a hard time staying motivated to draw. Ken: I think that is something new artists don’t realize…you have to be a real workhorse and you have to do it on schedule. [Below you see a few pages and covers from the recent Dark Horse Serenity: Float Out comic that Patric worked on.]  PR: I’m pretty good at being told what to do.
Ken: If someone (like myself) never saw Serenity, how would you explain the show, its attraction, and the related stories by DH? PR: Well, I remember someone telling me that its a western in space, populated almost entirely by Han Solos. By that, I think it means that every character has a very palpable charisma, and they always seem to be trying to get themselves out of trouble using their quick thinking and flinty resourcefulness. They’re trying to eke out their survival on the fringes of the “frontier” of space. Much like another Dark Horse title, B.P.R.D., not a single character is superfluous but it seems like you always are always trying to find out more about them. But Serenity has a very western feel to it…the show could have very easily taken place in 1875. Even the action sequences feel like they could have been a part of High Noon or 3:10 to Yuma. There’s just that gritty, dusty feel to how the scenes move back and forth. Do yourself a favor a go watch it. Ken: What was it like working with Patton Oswalt? PR: It was quite a ride. At first I was pretty intimidated. I mean, its Patton-freaking-Oswalt. He’s probably the most listened to stand-up comedian on my iTunes. But, Patton was very positive and encouraging. His brain’s always running. Even when he sent me comments about the Serenity pages, he’d spice it up with something witty (like when he told me one page would look better with the Herculoids duking it out in the background). This really helped ease some of the pressure. Ken: Did you find it hard to resist talking The Fan or his stand-up nonstop? PR: I haven’t seen The Fan yet, but I’ve been meaning to because I’ve read some pretty good reviews. Plus, I’d get to see Patton being a dramatic actor, instead of a comedian. For me it always a thrill to see people outside of their element, trying to add facets to themselves (like Jim Carrey did in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). But, I HAD to mention how much of a fan I was of his comedy, and that I was currently listening to Feelin’ Kinda Patton when I was drawing the pages. I mean, the guy makes me laugh my ass off, he deserves to know that. After I sent him a batch of pages, I told him I about about choked from laughter when I heard him lay into a retarded heckler on his Werewolves and Lollipops album. I thanked him for that experience, and he said “whoa… that’s surreal, man.” I think that was the only time I really nerded out on him. Ken: Did you have much direct contact with him? PR: Every time I sent off a batch of finished pages through e-mail, I had to “cc” about six different people, including Patton. He’d reply with comments after every e-mail, so.. yeah. We had some pretty entertaining e-mail conversations. Ken: Does he plan to continue writing comics on a regular basis? PR: Not sure. He has written for comics before (particularly JLA) though. I hope he does, because he’s pretty damn good at it. He’s really good at dialogue and quickly establishing strong character relationships. I’ll definitely be reading whatever he writes next. Ken: What would you say are the best things about working with DH? PR: That they always got my back, and they always take care of me. For instance, even though I had to abandon a project part of the way through due to a rewrite, my editor, Samantha Robertson, still made sure I got paid for that work anyway even through it won’t show up in publication. Also,they really really want me to succeed. Its like they give me an education on comics while I work for them. While I was doing Abe Sapien: the Haunted Boy, Scott Allie was really trying to get me to sell the action and make it fluid. He wanted my figures to show the same kind of effortless athleticism that Jack Kirby and Frank Frazetta had in their figures. For me that’s kind of difficult because I can’t really shoot reference of that…Frazetta and Kirby’s figures have a confidence and inventiveness that is tempered by their mastery of anatomy. A camera can’t make figures that extraordinary. Scott knew that if I was going to be drawing more comics, I had to make the ordinary believably extraordinary. He had me redoing certain panels until I got the action right, sometimes multiple times. I’m glad he never gave up on me. And they’re very accessible. Anytime I have an idea or concern, someone is always on the ball with a reply. Even the people who do regular work for them (like Dave Stewart and Marc Andreyko) are just really cool and supportive. I love the hell out of Dark Horse. Ken: Did you feel you had everything on the line with your first DH work? PR: I feel I have everything on the line with EVERY job that I do for Dark Horse. But, a lot this has to do with my personality. I feel like every job could be my last. I mean, they don’t have to keep giving me work, so I think that I have to knock everything out of the park. You never get through paying dues or having to prove yourself, I think. I try not to do anything that isn’t my absolute best. I think this is how good reputations are built. Ken: Do you have any plans of finishing Stormchasers for Desperado? PR: Man, I really wish I had time but I think Joe Pruett, Phil Hester, and Dennis Hopeless have already got somebody to finish it. Dark Horse has told me that they want to keep me busy, so I just don’t think I’ll have the time or the energy to finish it up on the side. I still feel pretty bad about it, but Joe, Phil, and Dennis were all pretty understanding about it (they even kind of expected it, according to Phil). I owe those guys a lot. They gave me my start. Ken: And you need a deadline to really work, huh? An assignment? You don’t sit around just creating for yourself? PR: No, not so much drawing on my own. This is a FULL TIME job, and then some. You can’t just clock out after 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 hours… you gotta get shit DONE. When its done, then I can stop. Ken: Can you talk about any projects on the horizon, comics or otherwise? [Remember, this interview was done a few years ago] PR: Sure can. I just got the revised script to Let Me In, which is going to be a four part mini series based on the film (which is a remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In) of the same name coming out in October. I’m just finishing up the layouts and the character concept sketches, so I’m just about ready to start drawing proper. Marc Andreyko has written a pretty intense and engaging script, so… I couldn’t be more excited about it. If I don’t screw this up, its going to be real, real good. See Patric’s work on the Dark Horse website and on his page here. He is also on Facebook, so search for him! Ken Meyer Jr [email protected]
0 Comments
This Ink Stains update was not originally posted here because the Archives didn't save installments that were interviews and such, for some strange reason. Even though the ComicAttack site is back up, I am going to continue to put these on my site for safety, if nothing else. So, here we go with an interview with one of my all time favorite artists!  Philip Craig Russell has been working steadily in the comic book field for close to 40 years now. Though his first full comic job was an Ant-man book, it was his extended run of Killraven/War of the Worlds in Amazing Adventures for Marvel that brought him into the spotlight. His eye for design and lyrical beauty have made him an artist’s artist, while his ability to move between the mainstream and the more personal projects gave him a freedom that few of his contemporaries share. His work has remained at a consistently high level of quality throughout his career, with no real artistic missteps along the way. Russell knows himself and knows what he wants to do with his work. It’s our good fortune that we get to see him pursue his muse. I conducted this interview live through the Facebook chat window.  Before I get started, I have a confession to make. I am a total geeked out fanboy when it comes to Craig Russell. His Killraven work figured mightily in my early development (meaning, I swiped a lot of his work in my futile quest to become a comic artist of his caliber and skill). As I looked again at his work in the past including Dr. Strange, Elric, and his many adaptations, I came to realize that I could think of no one who shows the beauty of this world (and others) like P. Craig Russell. We see the beauty of the natural world in his Jungle Book adaptations. We see the architectural beauty of the Mideast in his adaptation of The Thief of Bagdad. And we see the beauty of the human body in…well, everything. I can think of few who have elevated the human figure to such a state of lyrical and visual rapture as Russell.  Ken: What actually made you start drawing in the first place? Did you start tracing from comics as I did? P. Craig Russell: We always had some time to draw in grade school and kindergarten. I seemed to enjoy it more than most others. Ken: I actually have a picture from a newspaper my grandmother cut out, where I was sitting at a painting easel at about 6…and was told I would never be an artist because I did not draw feet on my people. Did you get a lot of encouragement from teachers and your parents? PCR: Yes, though not in any overbearing way. It was never considered as important as academic subjects. My teachers found uses for my talent in class. I could contribute that way. And I loved the attention. Ken: Did you ever get into any trouble doing it? I actually got thrown out of an art class in high school because I did an unflattering caricature of my art teacher. PCR: I did the caricatures but never got caught. I did get caught drawing ‘cigarette girls’ in 7th grade and got a very strange look from my Ohio History teacher and a warning to cut it out. Ken: Maybe you should tell the audience what a cigarette girl is… PCR: You see them in old movies, usually a night club. They go table to table with a little box hanging in front of them, selling cigarettes. They’re dressed very provocatively. Mine always had fishnet stockings. Ken: When you got into comics early on, did you have buddies you would hang around with reading and drawing? Was there much of a community there for you? PCR: Not at all. Early on, before I was a teenager and before the ‘Marvel age’ kids in the neighborhood traded comics, I had only one friend for a year or so who’d borrow my comics but no sort of community.  I also liked classical music at an early age. I had all sorts of interests that no one else seemed to share. Ken: Right…I was going to ask when the opera interest started, but I guess it started a very early age. It’s obviously very different from your average teenage marvel zombie…listening to Jethro Tull and BTO. PCR: It was more a part of the culture at large then. Opera singers popped up on the Ed Sullivan Show and on Carson. I just had an ear for it from age 5 on. It was so beautiful to me I just assumed everyone else would feel the same. Boy, I found that to be untrue. Ken: Yeah, I bet…most kids are just listening to the radio, rock and roll and watching The Munsters or something. I think an interest like that comes so much later in life for most people PCR: The Munsters had great theme music. Likewise, The Addams Family. Ken: True. The opposite was true with me. It was only in college with a constant exposure to other forms of music that I started liking different forms of rock and folk. It took me that long to get into progressive rock and until only 15 years ago to start listening to jazz fusion…Miles Davis, etc. Opera seems like a whole other world, especially for someone at that age… I wonder if it stems from the film scores of the day, which were much more operatic and less cut and paste than today’s soundtracks.  PCR: The first record I had was a yellow 78 that had 2 kid’s songs to a side. They were set to classical tunes though I didn’t know it at the time. The film scores were all classically influenced and Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was all Tchaikovsky. I do love a lot of contemporary film scores. Ken: I have always had a hazy memory of some film with a magical score that I had dreams about forever, but never seemed to get a good enough grip to really identify it. But, getting back to comics, was there a pivotal comic or more importantly, a pivotal artist who drove you to start thinking about doing comic work? PCR: Before there were credits I knew who the good duck artist was, who drew the best Casper and who the best Betty and Veronica artist was (Dan De Carlo). Around the age of 11 or 12 when Marvel started crediting artists I really started studying styles. Wood, Kirby, Ditko, etc. They all made me want to draw. Al Williamson inspired me the most, I think. The first comic page I ever drew was pure imitation Williamson.  Ken: I have a very hazy memory of your Ant-man and Dr. Strange work…but an almost photographic memory of many panels from Killraven. I was so taken with the lyric beauty of that artwork. I seem to remember noticing a familiarity between that and the work of the mature Barry Smith…is that the right timeline and did he influence you at all back then? PCR: Yes, Smith was a big influence just at the time I was beginning, Steranko as well, two very dissimilar artists. I also was studying many of the artists that Smith was studying so a lot of what I drew that was attributed to a Smith influence was actually the Pre-Raphaelite artists. Ken: It was Smith that led me to the Pre-Raphaelites in the first place and now that you mention it, I can see Steranko as well. I think I actually saw Smith more in the inks than anything else. PCR: That’s true, it was in the inks. A lot of us picked up certain inking mannerisms. I also tremendously admired Smith’s storytelling and layout abilities, something that I think is sometimes overlooked in appreciations of his work. I think he’s one of the best storytellers ever in this field.  Ken: Very true…I saw the pencils for that Hulk story that never saw print…and that Avengers 100 was just tremendous for me. I think the similarity I see in both Smith and Steranko is that their figures were tall and lithe and seemed to float just barely above the ground…something I just thought of as we were talking. PCR: I still had some reservations about his drawing up until Hawks from the Sea and then I was totally enamored. Hawks was his return to Conan after a 2 or 3 issue leave. Dan Adkins inked. That run culminated with The Song of Red Sonja, his swan song on the monthly book. Ken: Smith’s Red Sonja…boy oh boy. I used to have all those issues of Conan and Savage Tales…until my mom burned ’em all. PCR: Yikes. Ken: I would like to seque into fanzines for a bit, since that is the subject of Ink Stains. PCR: OK Ken: I do recall seeing your work in fanzines, but I think it was actually only after you were a pro, is this right? PCR: Yes. Ken: Darn! I was hoping I was wrong and would unearth some great fanzine I could search for! PCR: I did some things for Bob Layton’s CPL. Also a couple Buyers Guide covers. Ken: Yes, I have those CPL issues! Or at least a few…in fact, I already did a column on the one with the Gulacy cover. PCR: Not too much else. I was never connected to fandom as a kid, unfortunately. Ken: How did you get involved with CPL? PCR: Duffy Vohland was a friend of Bob’s. Duffy moved to East Liverpool when I was working with Dan Adkins. Later when Duffy moved to NYC, I stayed at his place when I made my move. Through him I met Bob, Roger Slifer and some others. I think they were all from Indiana.  Ken: Yeah, they even called themselves the Indiana Mafia or something like that. PCR: Right. Duffy moved to be near Dan, though Dan kept telling people (about me) “he’s not my assistant.” Ken: You have been doing comics for over 30 years now and keeping an incredible level of quality while you were doing it. What drives you to keep creating and more to the point, creating comics? PCR: Its 37 years and I just seem to like the competition with myself. In a sense, my lack of formal training in things like anatomy and perspective has kept me on my toes, I always have to solve problems. In other words, hacking is not the option or temptation it is to someone who can phone it in. Ken: Well, you could have fooled me. Your work is so smooth, it appears effortless, though I know it isn’t. PCR: The eraser is my friend. We’re on a first name basis.  Ken: When you were starting out, or a least a bit into your career, did you have any long term goals you have realized or yet to realize? Your numbering of the strips (Opus, 1, 2, etc) would lead someone to believe you had a master plan. PCR: By the end of my first year I knew one day I’d adapt The Ring of the Nibelung and that it would be one very big project. Once I started The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde I knew I wanted to do all 9 and that it would be spread over many years. Likewise, the opera projects. I knew I wanted to do 12 and I’ve completed 11. The opus numbers were simply to let readers know what might be missing if they were following my work. I once had a plan to do 100 or 101 opus numbers but now, with the development of the graphic novel, projects seem to be longer and require much more time to complete so I might not get there. Ken: The scope of most of those projects just boggles my mind. Anything that you are working on now that we can expect to see anytime in the near future? PCR: There’s the cycle of projects I’m doing with Neil Gaiman. They tend to be longer also. I’d like to do 12. Working on 7, 8 and 9 right now. Guess I like that number. I’m doing an 8 page Spirit story that Will Pfeiffer wrote for me for DC comics. And there’s going to be a volume of Gaiman adaptations for Dark Horse.  Ken: I was so glad when Joe (Pruett) told me he was doing a book on/with you…the retrospective is such an incredibly beautiful book. And the behind the scenes stuff was great, too. PCR: Thanks. I loved working on it. Just doing pure design was a thrill. It also inspired me to do a number of new pieces for the book. Ken: You ought to come down here to SCAD sometime to do a lecture. You would be so appreciated, and there are some great instructors here. [This interview was done when I was still back at SCAD] PCR: I’d love to come down to SCAD sometime. I visited there some years ago. Still carry the SCAD keychain with me everyday. Ken: Well, my hour of glory is up. Craig, as someone who has just plain idolized your work for many, many years, I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. PCR: Hey, it’s been fun; my first chat interview. I would like to thank Joe Pruett and Malcolm Bourne for assistance, and of course, P. Craig Russell
Let’s get in the hot tub time machine, back to when conventions were fun and convention program books weren’t 90% ads! Let’s ride the bubbles back to Bay Con 1, in 1975!  Tim Bird Bay Con 1 program book, 1975 Tom Orzechowski, editor Comic conventions these days, especially the big ones, are often impersonal, over commercialized affairs where you can get lost, get exhausted, get hosed, and still not get satisfied. But, there used to be a time when this was not true. Comic conventions used to be informal gatherings where creators and fans could fraternize without bodyguards and autograph charges. Honest! Though the entry for this installment is not a fanzine per se, it’s close enough. The program book for the first Bay Con (I thought there was only one, but Tom Orzechowski tells me there was a second, more on that later) certainly looks like a fanzine in its appearance. It is filled with great art from pros and a few fans, has a few columns, and given its rarity, deserves coverage in this column.  Jim Starlin This convention book is also very much of its time, both visually and thematically. Professional comics were going through a real “cosmic” phase. None represented this better than the “King of Kosmic,” Captain Marvel, Dreadstar, and Warlock creator/revamp specialist Jim Starlin, with his cover seen above. Created long before you could apply a filter in photoshop to achieve the starry starry night in this illustration, Starlin most likely physically masked off the white areas of the figure and planets, then used a toothbrush to apply all those white stars. Starlin was also connected to the “ground level” independent comic Star*Reach, and many other contributors of that comic make appearances here. Underground comics were also still being published, and San Francisco was the headquarters of this cottage industry. The illustration by Tim Bird shown below pokes fun at this battle for readers being fought between the two related, but separate industries.  Tim Bird Of course there were creators that moved back and forth between these two variations of the comic book publishing world, but not very many. Most of the underground artists and writers were either considered not good enough for mainstream comics, or just too hard to control. From all indications, those same underground creators most likely wouldn’t work at Marvel under any circumstances anyway, as the freedom of content they had in the underground would have been strangulated by the comics’ code in “the world above.” One of the seminal underground artist/writers was Vaughn Bode, who contributed the Cheech Wizard piece below. You can explore his site in the archives here. Sadly, the same year this convention was held, Bode died under suspicious circumstances.  Vaughn Bode Several other underground talents show up in this program book, including Paul Mavrides, and Larry Todd, who contributed the back cover illustration below of his well known toker, Dr. Atomic.  Larry Todd The “ground level” crew at Star*Reach are well represented here, as well. It might have helped that super duper lettering pro Tom Orzechowski was in charge of “publications” for the convention. Tom himself showed some variations on his well known Howard the Duck logo below.  Tom Orzechowski Amongst the Star*Reach group was a subset of artists/writers from the fanzine Venture, including Brent Anderson, Frank Cirocco, and Gary Winnick. You can see a few of their contributions below. Another untimely death the year of 1975 was Bruce Lee, whom Brent Anderson paid tribute to immediately below. More Lee later.  Brent Anderson  Gary Winnick, Frank Cirocco All three creators were instrumental in the formation of this program book, along with Orzechowski, Jim Pinkoski, and John McLaughlin, the latter two represented below. Orzechowski has a font/logo creation website in the archives here. Tom imparted a wealth of inside info and anecdotes via facebook that will illuminate and entertain below: Bay Con was a comics con for only a few years before it became a science fiction con in ’81. Were you part of the original 1975 organizing committee? I came into it pretty early. I was living in Berkeley then, and had been doing lettering for a couple of years for Marvel and elsewhere. A guy named John Watson came by one day to ask if I’d be a guest. He belonged to a comics buying cooperative, and they felt that there were so many comics pros in the area that a con would be a good bet. Well, John and I hit it off immediately, and I’d already had some con committee experience, so I took on the job of ads and publications. Pretty soon I was also the pro liaison, because I knew people who knew people. After all that, when it came time for the con itself, I’m not sure I actually functioned as a guest. How soon after this convention did Vaughn Bode die? I think it was the same year, correct? Did you have much interaction with him? Along the same lines, I couldn’t find any info on Vincent Bode, who I assume is Vaughn’s brother. Did he do much cartooning himself? Vaughn didn’t attend in ’75, but his brother Vincent did the cartoon concert. This was a less than dramatic reading of Vaughn’s character dialogue set to a slide show of Vaughn’s comics, panel by panel, and Vaughn did it for a few year at different conventions. For us, Vincent did it as a tag-team with another of our guests, Brian Narelle. Brian was in the cast of an indie sci-fi film called Dark Star that won a “Best Special Effects” award. The film, incidentally, also starred Dan O’Bannon, who wrote it, and later co-wrote the classic film Alien. Vincent did some cartooning at the time, but moved into fine art. I am not familiar with quite a few of the artists. Did they work mostly in the undergrounds? Not everyone. There were some local mainstream-leaning artists...Brent Anderson, Frank Cirocco, John McLaughlin, Jim Pinkowski Gary Winnick, Carl Potts and Tony Salmons. And you. Most of you moved to New York within a couple of years and started getting great gigs almost immediately. And then, of course, there were the Marvel people who moved to the Bay Area at around the same time I did: Jim Starlin, Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner and Alan Weiss. A lot of the others had solid credits but weren’t in the first set of underground artists, so their names don’t resonate. On weekends, Watson and I traveled all over town, meeting these great people and collecting all of this incredible artwork. Larry Rippee had a solid sense of ‘20s-‘50s comic strips, and did pages for a lot of anthologies. Becky Wilson did only a bit of comics work, mostly for the Wimmens’ Comics collective. Otherwise, she worked in graphics and publication design. Paul Mavrides scripted and inked Freak Brothers, and did illos for the Church of the Sub-Genius. Jay Kinney did stories for some of the earliest undergrounds, including Young Lust and Bijou Funnies. Barry Siegel & Bruce Simon did some self- published issues and some magazine work, a lot of which I lettered. Sharon Rudahl was in some anthology comics, and did some single issues for Kitchen Sink Press, as did Lee Marrs, who was also published by Star*Reach. I don’t remember anything about Tim Bird. Finally, there’s Larry Todd, who was in a lot of anthology titles, and did a few issues of Dr. Atomic Comics. Larry was also good friends with Vaughn Bode, and brought that sensibility to the con. All of the local Marvel artists came through for you, it looks like. That was the easiest part, since we were all in fairly close touch right then. Jim Starlin and Steve Leialoha, yeah, I worked with them all the time then. The con was intended as a midway point between mainstream comics and the undergrounds, so the program book is all over the place. The Bay Con Pig that introduces the book was by Carl Lundgren and Greg Theakston, a couple of commercial artists I met in Detroit. Carl had done posters for Detroit’s late ‘60s music venues before moving into book covers. Greg had assisted Jim Steranko before joining Neal Adams’ crew of inkers. Frank Hill drew the Short Ribs and Bugs Bunny comic strips. Leslie Cabarga didn’t do any comics, but at that time he was doing ‘30s style pieces like this cover for Marvel’s short-lived underground style mag Comix Book, as well as Deco-influenced commercial work. Alan Kupperberg was a cartoonist for National Lampoon and elsewhere. Don Rico should have been better known, since he’d worked on Daredevil in the early ‘40s, and then for Timely/Atlas/Marvel afterward. Jack Katz had credits back to Fawcett in ’43 and then everywhere else for another 30 years, before launching his key work, The First Kingdom. Terry Austin and I knew each other in our fan days, and he was a pal to send me a piece that he inked over his own pencils. He was assisting Dick Giordano in those days. The Brunner centerfold, was that done as a collage by you guys, Brunner himself, or redraws of various existing pieces? You had it right the second time. Frank assembled that one himself from copies of his inked pages. Between Doctor Strange, and suddenly Howard the Duck, he was riding very high at that moment. The Howard logos you show, were those sketches before the final one, variations on the logo for other iterations, or what? Those were my submission sketches. Marvel went instead with one that looked like a Marvel logo. I never was a perfect fit with them. The chief editor there once mentioned to me that my work looked too much like underground comics. What can I say? I also went for that ‘20s-‘50s look. What is the significance of the Charles Biscuit Band art? They were friends of Larry Todd’s, and played at the con. That’s Larry’s illo. Any chance you remember who did what on that piece that is an ad for Cymbaline Records and the other store? Was it an actual jam piece done for the con? Frank penciled the duck and probably the skull; Jim drew the facial feature creature; Scott Bell, a friend of Alan Weiss’, drew the banana critter. Englehart probably drew the moon. Alan penciled the gal, “smegma,” added the dialogue, and inked the whole page. And yes, it was done for the con, probably at Alan’s house. Why did Bay Con become a science fiction con? After two years, John and I had had enough of giving up our weekends. A third comics-style Bay Con was handled by a different comics dealer, after which I moved back to New York. I believe that a World Science Fiction Con was then held in San Francisco under the name Baycon, entirely unconnected to the comics cons. From there, the name was adopted by an unrelated science-fiction con based in San Jose. We used Bay Con as two words for our two years, but it’s been just one word ever since.  Jim Pinkoski  John McLaughlin A few more cohorts of the Venture crew chime in with some beautiful full page illustrations below. Carl Potts, with some help from Brent Anderson, followed by Tony Salmons’s wonderfully airy tragedy in space photo op.  Carl Potts/Anderson, Tony Salmons Now, the “above ground” professionals had their part in this program book, as well. Two big names, one from each of the big two, are represented here. Below you will see a mini feature on both John Romita and Joe Kubert.  John Romita, Romita, Joe Kubert Relatively new pro Berni Wrightson is also present...well, at least for a few panels, as you will see below. I guess we can see now why Berni never had any trouble accessing the dark side.  Berni Wrightson Damn, but that Berni sure can draw hands well, can't he? Well...I can contain myself no longer! This program book, along with the inking (and publication) help of Brent Anderson, allowed me to have my first published work! Before any other fanzine illustrations (and there were many), the Bruce Lee piece you see below was printed, and it was a huge deal for me!, even though I never got to attend the con. I was a callow high school student in a small town in Utah...far, far away, in so many ways, from the underground headquarters in the bay area. So, without further a doo-doo...  Ken Meyer Jr./Anderson There are many other glorious illustrations in this chronicle of times gone by, but I will save some for the pdf here. For now, you can see work by Steve Leialoha, Jay Kinney, and Becky Wilson below.  Steve Leialoha, Jay Kinney, Becky Wilson Kinney moved out of cartooning eventually and into writing books and editing magazines. You can see his very well done site here. Steve Leialoha became a pro at the aformentioned Star*Reach productions, but also did a ton of work (mostly inking) for Marvel and DC. He still lives in San Francisco with his fellow cartoonist, Trina Robbins (a mainstay of undergrounds and Star*Reach, especially those dealing with women's rights and issues).
Thanks go out to Tom Orzechowski, who answered several questions and supplied some information on his own. I hope you have enjoyed your journey back into a time when cons were fun, informal, but still filled with incredibly talented and friendly people...people you could actually meet and have a relaxed conversation with! This convention and this convention book (though professionally produced), is indicative of the laid back nature of the San Francisco bay area. It makes you want to back in time, hop a trolley, and check out a head shop or two. Light up! [This article was written years ago, there are probably several items that need to be updated, but one that was point out to me is that Trina Robbins sadly passed away on 4/10/2024] Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Back for another shot at the title! The Collector! Weighing in with John Byrne, Ken Barr, Gil Kane, Don Newton, Don Rosa, and more! Ding!  John G. Fantucchio, Stephen Fabian, Bob Smith The Collector 28: 1973 Editor/Publisher: Bill G. Wilson Those of you who have been with this column from the beginning know of The Collector, since it was the very first zine profiled! That was issue 27. This time out, it is the following issue, again stuffed with great illustrations and articles.  Ken Barr As you can see above, as with most issues of this great 70s fanzine, editor Bill G. Wilson knew how to choose a cover! Ken Barr, already a professional at this time, gave us a great EC tribute cover, reminiscent of Russ Heath, Wally Wood, and Frank Frazetta...but still his own. One of the few fanzines that actually did spot color (on the covers and a few interior illustrations), The Collector stood out for this and several other reasons. Bill Wilson had a great stable of artists, and several of the regulars make appearances here. John G. Fantucchio gives us the somewhat goofy Prince Valiant laboring with the logo at the top, and will make several more flashy stops during this issue. Others will follow in this issue, which had several overriding themes. First though, we will take a hectic journey through writer William Reynolds’s and artist Bruce Patterson’s “Occupational Hazards.” Below you see a few pages from this silly and enjoyable superhero parody piece. Though artist Patterson cringes seeing seeing the art today, for a lad of only 20 this (and a few spot illos later in the issue) was fairly accomplished stuff.  Bruce D. Patterson  Patterson  Patterson There are two other entries in this piece above, which you can see in the pdf! Through email, Bruce told me he was a DC fan at first, but was later turned on to Marvel by a friend. I remember seeing his work here, in The Comics Buyer’s Guide and several other places, and liking his clean style and sense of humor. He still has it! Bruce was pretty active at DC and Marvel in the 80s and 90s, primarily as an inker, but he also did covers, letters, and even some coloring. Today, he is taking commissions, so find him on Facebook here. That’s his skull illo to the left! He more recently told me that "I did a lot of small sketches for various fanzines. I don't have any specific anecdotes, other than I was happy to do them. Acceptance was really all I wanted at the time. It was fun and I started submitting art to convention shows. I made some connections that I wish I had continued, but once I started working, I also moved a lot, too. I only remember meeting a couple of the guys, Jim Van Hise and a couple of Bills or Williams. I met Bob Layton and his friends, most of whom went into comics. It was just kinda cool to talk to people and share stuff. As a fan, I liked humor as much as superheroes." Following that bit of humor is another by an established and widely published fan artist/writer, Alan Hanley. There is a nice little site here that shows a plethora of Hanley’s pleasantly cartoony styled illustrations and strips, often illustrating one of his favorite characters, C. C. Beck’s Captain Marvel. There is a fan appreciation page on the late artist/writer on Facebook here. Lastly, long time fan and writer Bill Schelly wrote a book on the founders of comic fandom you and I must get...you can get it here. Hanley is one of many artists and writers covered in the book that you will have heard about, if you have read this column regularly. Hanley passed away in 1980. Below you can see a few pages from his Greenhorn series, which has some great parodies/homages to characters such as Blackhawk, Sgt. Fury, The Spirit, Airboy, and others.  Alan Hanley  Hanley  Hanley  John Ellis The next theme covers many of the female comic characters of the golden age, and is illustrated by a variety of artists, including John Ellis/Skip Olson, Mike Roberts, Bobs Conway and Smith, Paragon founder Bill Black, Comic Crusader publisher Martin Greim, and two gorgeous pieces by John G. Fantucchio. Check out a sampling of work below. The well researched article by Graham Sterling also reprints many covers from that era.  Fantucchio, Martin Greim, Mike Roberts, Griem/Al Bradford, Fantucchio  Don Newton Fantucchio had such an identifiable style (especially evident in the Black Cat illustration above), and was a highly sought after fanzine illustrator. He has a few other pieces in this issue that you can see in the pdf. Taking a break from the themes, we are graced with a gorgeous Don Newton western illustration portfolio. Don came on The Collector “staff” very early. I know I have issues as early as 15 or so with Don’s covers. I have an especially fond memory of his Captain America cover on one of the early issues of this great fanzine. His realistically proportioned and often detailed figures (usually draped in dramatic shadows) graced many a fanzine, and enabled him to enter the pro ranks a year after this issue of The Collector, starting at Charlton with The Ghost Manor and The Phantom, and continuing on to DC before his passing in 1984 at the age of only 49 from a heart attack. You can see a site of his wonderful DC work here. You can also see a feature on his Phantom and fanzine work here! Below and to the right you see a few images from this portfolio.  Newton After an article reviewing several golden age comics, the trend for themes continues, this time profiling the perennial TV fave Star Trek. Several artists take a crack at the crew and the ships, including John Ellis (seen in the masthead, unfortunately scanned in black and white, not the original color), science fiction great Stephen Fabian (that’s his space monkey in the masthead), Jim Pinkoski, and even John Byrne chimes in with several full page renditions of space ships, including the recognizable Enterprise. The article also prints several stills from the series itself, as well as art from the animated series. Check it all out below.  Ellis  John Byrne Let’s take a short break from the themes again and look at the singular Gil Kane’s rendition of Warlock, seen below. I am sure he could do these illustrations in his sleep, but, man, they still look awesome!  Gil Kane The last theme of this issue of The Collector is The Shadow, with the article written by another fandom stalwart, Murray Bishoff, and entitled “Shadow of the Ages.” Again, many of the cabal of artists take a shot (pun intended) at the Shadow. We see renditions by Mike Roberts, John Ellis, Bruce Patterson, Jim Jones, Don Newton (also on the back cover), and Ken Bruzenak. That’s right...the same Ken Bruzenak who would make his fame as the incredibly inventive letterer on Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg (and who lives right here in Savannah, his wife a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design)! [Remember, this column was originally written about 10 years ago, when I was still in Savannah, and actually had a lunch with Ken!] Fittingly, it is a well designed piece, seen below to the right of the Mike Roberts version. Can you see Mike’s love of Steranko here?  Mike Roberts, Ken Buzenak The article, like the other main columns, reprints several of the great pulp covers, beautifully painted. Also shown and talked about is the Mike Kaluta DC Shadow series. Below you see the amazing Newton back cover of the “one who knows.”  Newton Now, remember, this is only a portion of this issue of The Collector 28! There is also a moody and gruesome story called Close Shave by Alan Riefe and Don Rosa, several other illustrations by John Ellis, Bruce Patterson, Anthony Kowalik, and Stephen Fabian, a Batman sketch by John Byrne, and more. And, if that’s not enough, howsabout a letter column featuring a much younger version of me? High school senior, to be exact, all gush and clue challenged! I AM actually pretty excited right now, because I DID NOT KNOW there was a Collector 29! I see it is available on eBay, and we will be profiling that at some point in the future!
Thanks this time go out to Bruce Patterson. Now, rush to download the pdf, so you can see the rest! Come back on April 1st for the next installment of Ink Stains! Please, leave comments, and feel free to leave requests! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] If you like the fanzine CPL and Charlton comics, this is the installment for you: Charlton Bullseye!  John Byrne (figures) Charlton Bullseye 4, 5: 1976 Editor/Publisher: Robert Layton In the 1970s the “Big Two” saw that fanzines were garnering a lot of attention and love from comic fandom and decided to enter the fray. Marvel had FOOM (which Ink Stains will profile soon) and DC had The Amazing World of DC Comics. Charlton Comics, a small company, didn’t receive as much attention as the big boys, but still had some wonderful titles and creators (inspiring nostalgia in many a comic fan these days, including this one). Charlton was contacted by the publishers of the great fanzine CPL, and later teamed up to form the new fanzine Charlton Bullseye. The “CPL Gang,” as they called themselves, which included John Byrne, Roger Stern, and Bob Layton, would start their careers at Charlton, and of course go on to bigger things later.  Joe Staton, Alex Toth The gang at CPL actually published a Charlton related fanzine before Charlton Bullseye called Charlton Portfolio (which was actually CPL 9/10), but it was the Bullseye that would become a serial fanzine, lasting 5 issues. It was primarily an outlet for some unpublished stories featuring Charlton characters such as E- Man, The Question, and John Byrne’s Doomsday Plus One. The two issues (4 and 5) covered in this installment of Ink Stains feature stories by Joe Staton (E-Man), John Byrne (Doomsday Plus One), and the great Alex Toth (Steve Ditko’s The Question), plus illustrations by the aforementioned creators as well as Frank Thorne, Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, Mike Nasser, Carl Potts, Dave Cockrum, Walt Simonson (see below), and others. They also feature interviews with John Byrne and the late Don Newton, with illustrations by both artists accompanying the interviews.  Walt Simonson Although I didn’t collect Charlton as maniacally as I did Marvel or DC, I have a soft spot for the company for several reasons. They were home to some great artists that were just not suited to superhero stuff, like Wally Wood acolyte Wayne Howard, Joe Staton and his lighthearted style, Tom Sutton with his slippery inks, and Pat Morisi and his somewhat staid and static style (he went by PAM, see an image below). Several artists would learn their chops at the notoriously low paying Charlton, like Jim Aparo, Mike Zeck, Steve Ditko, John Byrne, Don Newton, and writers George Wildman and Denny O’Neil.  Pat Morisi Probably the artist that would shoot to the top most quickly was John Byrne. I loved his smooth, round edged style back then, and would follow anything he did. Below you can see a few spot illustrations and column heads from these two issues by the artist.  Byrne Rog-2000 was a funny robot character that Byrne debuted in CPL, doing strips with the character and funny gag illos. In one of these issues the interview with Byrne is conducted by the cartoon robot his bad self!  Byrne Don Newton, another huge favorite of mine, and criminally underused, is interviewed in issue 5, partially because by that time, he was doing The Phantom for Charlton. One interesting fact I found in the interview that blew me away was that the late Newton was once the middleweight weight lifting champion of his home state of Arizona! At the time of this fanzine, though, he had become a high school art teacher. Don’s work is all over the fanzine world of this era. His realistic, dramatically lit and realistically proportioned characters were just too good for the mainstream superhero world. See a few images below.  Don Newton  Newton Issue 5 also boasts not only an action packed Alex Toth cover, but a Question story inside. Toth is in many artist’s top ten, and I am no different. His seemingly effortless command of composition, placement of blacks, and economy of line are unmatched. Below you see a few pages from his story. Just look at that amazing opening page!  Alex Toth God, does that cleanse the palate after some of the overly detailed work in modern comics. Below are a few more pin ups and spot illustrations before we launch into the next full story.  Mike Nasser/Jack Abel  Dave Cockrum  Frank Thorne Frank Thorne almost seems to add a little Joe Kubert-like scratchy realism to the usually cartoony E-Man of creator Joe Staton above. While on the subject, we can see the unpublished E-Man story below (well, some of it, you have to download the PDF to see it all!). E-Man was the fun and lighthearted antidote to the more serious fare of the day, as you will see below.  One big time pro makes an appearance on the back cover of issue 5, that being Neal Adams doing his version of John Byrne’s characters from his Doomsday Plus One strip. See it below.  And of course, you have probably guessed by now that this is the segue into the two-part story by John Byrne featuring these characters. Let’s jump into it below.    Byrne Well, there you have it. Charlton Bullseye, the last two issues, stuffed with great storytelling and some big up and coming creators, a few that would make big splashes in the years ahead! That's a John Byrne spaceship to the left (similar to the spaceship section he did in an issue of The Collector). The pdf of 4 is here, while the pdf for 5 is here.
Thanks this time out to to Jason Schacter, who gave me a bunch of great scans, including Marvel's version of an in house fanzine, FOOM. Any votes for that in the next installment? As always, I really appreciate comments from the readers, so please, don't be shy! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] If you have read previous installments of Ink Stains, you know that Jan Strnad’s Anomaly delivers! Richard Corben! Robert Kline! Git some!  Anomaly 4: November 1972 Publisher/Editor: Jan Strnad The last issue of Anomaly by writer Jan Strnad hits us with the one-two punch of artists Richard Corben and Robert Kline, through two gorgeous color covers, three stories, and a pin-up. Like the excerpt above says, “Oh My Goodness! Look at that!”  Now, how about that gorgeous Corben cover to start things off, huh? I ask you, in the fanzine world, does it get any better than that? I have to warn those two or three fans of my over-the-top praise and sometimes extreme wordiness, that you shall have little of that this time out. My friends, it’s close to Christmas, I have been busy with actual artwork, and there is little time to expound on the obvious virtues of this particular zine! So, I have parsed a plethora of pages (and one pin-up, partner) for you to peruse and pant over! To start with, the wonderful Richard Corben leads off with a short and funny little ditty of a story seen below. Let’s look!  Those are some horny little rabbits, I must say! Corben did have a great sense of humor, and when I get around to covering his underground comic, Fantagor, you will definitely see a heaping helping of that. For now, let’s switch visual tracks and take a gander at the mastery of the dinosaur form that Robert Kline exhibits below.  It’s no wonder that the animation industry snatched Kline up, never to be seen again in fandom or the comic world after the 70s passed us by. He was just too damn good. Below you see a few pages from one of the few full comic stories Kline gave us before exiting in a poof of dried cell paint, Leander and the Fat Queen, written by editor and publisher Jan Strnad. As far as I know, it is by far the longest story Kline ever published in fandom.  Next up is a Corben airbrush and ink tour de force (pardon my french), Encounter at War. Now, those of you with better memories than I will note that this story appears in a previous issue of Anomaly. However, this version has added pages and added story, as the previous version was told with very few words (some of them in an alien hieroglyphic sort of language). Below, you see a few of the newly added pages. I think this might have been the first Corben story I ever saw, and I was completely blown away by the lighting and cinematic quality of the art.  To end the fourth issue of Anomaly, what better image than one of the most iconic Corben paintings I can think of. This is one that is indelibly etched into my brain, possibly due to those incredibly saturated colors!  Whenever I would see images like this from Corben, whether in fanzines such as this or other art heavy zines like Infinity (or even more life altering to this young brain, his underground comic work), I would always wonder, “how does he do that?” The saturated colors, the soft tones (airbrush was still new to the world of illustration back in 1972, and certainly new to the world of comic fanzines). And of course, when you add in his mastery of the round three dimensional form and, well...those women...you can see why he stood out so starkly against a black and white (or garishly and simply colored) visual landscape. There was simply no one like him then. Don’t forget to download the pdf to see all the stories completely! There is so much more there! As I said, this installment of Ink Stains is a bit short in the word department, and I apologize. Thanks this time go out to Kristin Bomba, the poor woman that has to edit all our poorly written columns and make them all pretty-like for youse readers. And of course, thanks go out to you readers, especially those of you that leave comments. The comments make me feel that someone out there actually reads this stuff! Have a great holiday season, oh fellow fans of the zine! I am outta here! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] If you like BIG Cosmic story lines, then check out the BIG ideas in Jim McPherson’s Phantacea!  Phantacea: 1977 Editor/Writer: Jim McPherson Jim McPherson had big ideas even at the beginning of his writing career. Right out of university he put his creative writing degree to work crafting an epic in his Canadian comic, Phantacea. There are so many ideas and characters, in fact, that it is sometimes hard to keep track of what is going on and which cosmic hero is in action. But, you have to give creator McPherson credit. He was not afraid to challenge his readers and attempt to drown them in a soup of a new mythology. You will see that this mythology, which started in a somewhat ordinary looking superhero comic, has continued to today. It has gone through stages from comics to a graphic novel to several prose books.  Probably the main draw for those that have been reading comics for the last 20 years is the fact that the artist/letterer of this first issue is none other than Dave Sim, pre-Cerebus. That’s right, Dave Sim is a main component of an archetypical superhero comic. Though labeled by creator McPherson as “only a hired gun,” Sim gives this comic a visual air of professionalism, especially in the lettering department. In fact, it may be the lettering that inhibits it from entering the territory of the “big myth” that becomes more evident in the second issue. I say this partially with admiration, because Sim is completely in control of this skill. And we are talking hand lettering, folks, this 1978 comic was done long before computer fonts. There is a great sense of variety and fun in the lettering alone, from the balloons to the sound effects to the titles. On the other hand, the mainstream superhero style of this lettering is somewhat deceptive, in that the content ventures far beyond the standard skintight costume hero fare. Sim’s actual storytelling style is reminiscent of some of the more experimental artists of that time, such as Neal Adams and Jim Steranko, while his figure rendering style seems to point towards a combination of John Byrne, Irv Novick, and Gene Colan.  Some of the storytelling gimmicks (such as all the angled panels, for example) seem to indicate that Sim was biting off a little more than he could chew this early in his career. In Cerebus he would use out of the ordinary panel layouts to much better effect. Here these attempts draw too much attention to themselves and take the reader out of the story (see a few examples above and below). I will let McPherson relay his interactions with Sim: I connected with a fellow calling himself Terry Hamilton and said I was thinking about launching my own comic book series. Terry worked at my neighborhood comic shop, which still exists, and he hired Sim, whom I believe he knew from Ontario. As I recall he wouldn’t tell me his [Sim's] name in case I cut him out of process in terms of future issues. Terry was my intermediary for the first issue. And he was right. I’d already cut him out of Phantacea by second issue and contacted Sim myself, possibly through Star*Reach, though can’t recall precisely. Sim and I were never partners. He worked for hire. I wrote every word and provided him with a block-out of every page panel-by-panel. I drew, more like squiggled, everything out (minus balloons or serious sketches, just layouts) and sent photocopies to him along with script (description, caption, word balloons). I did that for every Phantacea artist and virtually all of them followed my layouts for the most part.  Sim would obviously have other things cropping up in his schedule soon, as Jim told me via email below: Sim thought Baron Justice was a winner. I disagreed; he (TJ Maxwell) was just another character who would appear once in awhile in Phantacea. (As it turned out, he only appeared twice, albeit only once as BJ.) I was prepared to publish another series, called The Justice Chronicles, featuring TJ-BJ, his grandparents, father and mother, the Signallers and Death Dodgers, et al, but Sim was into Cerebus by then and seemed disinclined to carry on hiring himself out. Just as well. My ambitions were much bigger than my pocketbook. And what is the story contained within this ambitious epic, you ask? Well, I will let McPherson entertain you again, from the foreword in issue two. During Vedic times, an extraterrestrial race of super-powerful creatures came down to Earth. They were the Devas. Their patriarch, their progenitor in fact, was Dark Sedon. Under his somewhat insane leadership, the devas sought to assert dominance over the indigenous peoples of the Earth. Unexpectedly, the Earthlings proved too rebellious, too difficult to control. The devas were forced to flee to a continent created by Sedon in the Pacific Ocean. This continent was fashioned in the Mad God’s visage, hence, is called Sedon’s Head. To keep the outer-Earth from interfering with life on the Head, and vice versa, Sedon raised a barrier dome over his Headworld. This dome is invisible and intangible. It may be described as existing in the same Time-Space continuum as Earth but on a different plane of reality. The dome is formed out of Sedon’s own essence and is called the Cathonic Zone. And that is less than half of the foreword to issue two! Added to that are the massive amounts of super characters, with names that would easily fit into the then current issue of Adam Strange, or an issue of any Fourth World comics (New Gods, et al) from the febrile imagination of Jack Kirby. Names like Vayu Maelstrom, the CosmiCar, Mr. No Name, and the Damnation Brigade. Issue one tries to set up the basic story line, but in my opinion, there are so many characters introduced so frequently, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of that story line. But you have to give McPherson credit...he aims very high. Below are the big plans McPherson had for his tale: I had grandiose notions. I’d keep on doing superheroes with Justice Chronicles, would get into sci-fi stuff with Mik Starrus, Weirworld, Uncle Universe etc, and devote the Phantacea flagship comic, Phantacea itself, to my real love, mythology – i.e. devils, demons, deviants and the Damnation Brigade, the sons and daughters of some of the above (1/2 of whom were Summoning Children). Rather, to updating mythological-style story lines to modern times and thereby create a new mythology (or mythos, as I prefer). Which is what won out; and is still winning out with the Phantacea novels, mini-novels and e-books. When I mentioned to McPherson via email that there seemed to be just too much going on this early in the comic, he responded with Actually I thought that would pique interest in Phantacea. Further to that, I’m not sure about the correct term but ‘character dumps’ rather than ‘information dumps’ comes to mind. Also, not having heroes and villains per se – hence An heroic Fantasy Illustrated – was part of my scheme from the very beginning. People tend to do what seems right for themselves, not for others. In other words, we’re all heroes of our own narrative. I see no reason why comic book or television or movie characters should be any different. Of course, it could be I read the Iliad and suchlike too many times in my childhood and too many Victorian and similar novels in my youthful years of later on in elementary and early on high school. I just thought that was the way it was done – get the required dumpage over with straightaway then move them along their own pathways afterwards. Times were also different. Patience was still a virtue, not a necessity. Instant gratification was not an expectation. That said, I was after action as often as could be per story sequence and hoped to hive off said stories in aforementioned three directions: ones represented by BJ/Centauri Island storyline; one by Helios on the Moon storyline; and the main one by Damnation Brigade leading to Sedon’s Head and devil-gods.  It was planned for some of these characters to leave Phantacea and move into his planned other comic, The Justice Chronicles. I have a feeling the second title would have leaned more in an actual superhero direction, leaving Phantacea to become more the fantasy book it should have been from the start. And speaking of a more fantasy oriented start, let’s start with the first thing you see; the cover (seen above). The new logo is a blatant rip off or fond homage to Roger Dean, he of the Yes album covers that were so popular in the 70s (I know, I have them all...in fact, the wallpaper on the computer I am writing this article on is a Dean painting). It sets a new tone. The mythology is also given a new pace, partially because each “chapter” is now done by a different artist. Unfortunately, it appears each artist also did his own lettering, some of which is either devoid of character, fairly unprofessional, or both. But, the good thing is that, for the most part, we are not seeing the sound effects heavy, superhero comic standard type letting Sim employed in the first issue (though he does appear in a chapter in this second issue). As for all these new artists and how they became involved, McPherson said : I met Parker the same way I came across Terry Hamilton, via the owner of the local comic shop. Terry was associated with something called Stampart. Together, they did this funny animal series called Fog City Comics. Sean Newton may have been involved in Fog City. Sim might have been, too. Ian Bateson found me, also via the Comic Shop as I recall. I’d been trolling some local animation studies for artists and letterers and Newton might have come to me that way.  The first story, Starrus Yajur & the Ubiquitous Uncle Universe, focuses on hero Mikelangleo Starrus. Artist Gordon Parker’s style makes me think of a black and white version of countryman Ken Steacy’s artwork, albeit less expertly executed, complete with airbrush renderings. However, the transfer lettering, all in caps (with very little breathing room around the strips and too much within the balloons) gives it an unprofessional cut and paste look. The storytelling, though, is more clear than Sim’s, so it is easier to tell what is going on without a ton of effort. As to the various levels of skill in the lettering department, McPherson said : Lettering is one of the great bugaboos of comics. No matter how good the artwork is otherwise, without decent lettering it’s trash. I wasn’t going to do any lettering and no other artist I ever hired wanted to either. Didn’t give them a choice, however, and it was only after they absolutely refused to do their own lettering that I looked elsewhere, with I’ll acknowledge limited success. So, yes, at least in theory every artist I hired was supposed to provide lettering for the sequence they drew. Some came back disastrously and, yes again, there were times I had to hire letterers either before or after fact and hated the result. Curiously, even if I liked their work, the letterers themselves found it too arduous a task so they never deigned to work with me again, not even if I offered them a howsoever minuscule raise.  The second story centers on Captain Dmetri Diomad, of Cosmicar Four, who thinks he’s back in a Vietnamese Jungle when he’s actually somehow ended up on the Hidden Continent of Sedon’s Head. Sean Newton’s art in “The Soldier’s Trilogy, Part 1: Vetala” is a very nice linear style along the lines of Oz/Age of Bronze artist Eric Shanower, and has some very nice inking as well (see four pages above). The actual storytelling is a bit pedestrian compared to the other artists, but it is also a nice resting place, because of the more simplistic panel compositions. There is also more breathing space around the figures, which adds to the feeling of a more restful and contemplative story, despite the fact that it has an age changing vampire woman riding a giant vulture! As to Newton’s skillset, McPherson stated : ...I was pleased with result. He was playful, too. The wooden leg the Vetala-hag is shown dragging along behind her comes from my description of what he had to draw, which went something like: “She’s so old and arthritic it’s like she’s dragging along a wooden leg behind her.” It was meant metaphorically, as in she could barely walk, but he took it literally and I left the leg in, just because I like playing around as well. But, to answer your question, I believe he was an animator. I know I would have hired him to carry on the Vetala-Soldier storyline that Verne Andru took over. Except he moved to Montreal in order to work on the Heavy Metal movie and I never came across him again. The next chapter, Meet: the Indescrible Mr. Noname! heralds the reappearance of Sim as artist/letterer. It makes more sense this time, as the title character is a more traditional comic type character in the vein of The Blob. Another character, The Gypsium Man, appears in a very Neal Adams-esqe splash page (complete with a big, toned title balloon).  The last story heads back into a more fantasy laden landscape, and features Vayu Maelstrom, a Master Deva, a protector of the Headworld and a Byronic Nucleoid. Cosmic enough for you yet? The art by Ian Bateson, is a pointillistically rendered combination of Richard Corben and First Kingdom artist Jack Katz. The lettering this time is both fitting to the visual style of the story (complete with that old presstype computer style so popular back in the 70s), and easily readable.  I think Bateson is the best visual fit to this epic (see pages above and below), even if some of the figure stances are a little awkward and stiff. Interestingly, a character called “Cerebrus” appears in this story... but he is far from an earth pig! A huge battle ensues between the main character and a “Devic Demon,” the living mountain. Soon after that, we are introduced to the aforementioned “multi-talented” Damnation Brigade, composed of characters with fanciful names like Wilderwitch, Blind Johnny Sundown, and The Awesome Akbar. As I said earlier much of this seems to be setting up the massive storyline McPherson would labor on for the next 30 years.  Though these two independent comics have their rough spots, they are full of energy and ideas. And though described by McPherson as a “money making venture”, the content sits perfectly in the stylistic bookshelves populated by the fantasy fanzines of that time such as Infinity. Author McPherson has a massive website (fitting the massive nature of his project) that you can see here. The author does a lot of traveling to service his interests, and he talks below about his plans for both and how they have changed over the years. When I was working I wrote on weekends. All sorts of stories came out of me in those days but it wasn’t until computers came along in the early 1990s that I got back into long fiction – and the Phantacea mythos. That’s still the medium I prefer – don’t have to deal with artists and letterers and distributors – but I don’t know that long fiction really sells anymore. I’m hopeful getting into e-books, with their speaking-book aspects, will make a big difference financially but I never was much good at marketing so who can say. I’ve scripts for the entire Phase One series that I started work on in 1980s and I’ve a Wilderwitch story written for a graphic novel but I haven’t the bucks to get back into comics as much as I love the medium. (I stopped reading, let alone collecting comics, circa 1990.) I enjoy working on web-pages and doing graphics for the medium. It’s something I can do myself, and it’s probably what I’ve enjoyed the most, but there’s no denying that starting out the comic books, writing the scripts, coaxing out the artwork, the whole process, was a highlight reel period for me in my own timeline. Lately, I’m mostly doing the innards for the next Phantacea Publications offering, which will be an e-book version of War-Pox. Once Verne finishes the cover for “Goddess Gambit,” Book Three of ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ trilogy, I’ll get it print ready and published. After that I’ll start counting pennies and deciding which conventions I can afford to attend in 2012. Not very exciting, I’ll grant you, but I still hope to make some serious money via the Phantacea Mythos. Am entertaining offers, as it were. Beyond Phantacea, life goes on. I’d planned on going on safari in the new year but Al Shabab’s going crazy in Kenya and that’s where I wanted to go. Travelling takes a big bite out of ever-limited financing but it’s what I enjoy most. Other than writing, doing graphics and taking photos, that is. Big time thanks goes out to Jim McPherson for answering a host of questions from me via email. I am also indebted to him for letting me make the pdfs available, considering he still sells the comics via his website. I also need to thank Jason Schachter, as these are two of the many zines he has forwarded scans of to me. Download the pdf of issue one here, and issue two here. You can also order his graphic novel, novels and other paraphernalia related to this most adventurous of publications, Phantacea, here!
Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Even early on, Infinity boasted a myriad of big name artists, including Berni Wrightson, Roy Krenkel, Jeff Jones, Frank Brunner and more...all this and more in the second issue!  Kenneth Smith Infinity 2: 1970 Editors/Publishers: Adam Malin and Gary Berman  Jeff Jones As regular readers know from reading my profile on Infinity 5, editors Adam Malin and Gary Berman did not scrimp on the art or content of this, one of the best fanzines of its time. “The boys” did their best to garner some of the biggest names for illustrations, interviews, and articles. This second issue holds to that pattern. As was the fashion in many of the higher end “art zines” of the day, the editors decided to go with a completely text free cover. No logo. No title. No issue number. It was just known, I guess, how good the zine would be. People just had to know what they were looking for! Below you see an oil painting on the cover by Frank Brunner, who would go on to do a large volume of work for Marvel, and who is now doing private commissions, among other things. Check out his own website (from the archives) here. Now, it bears mentioning that the editor’s notes mention Brunner’s contribution as the back cover, with the actual Jeff Jones back cover mentioned as the front cover. So...it seems the Oscar might have gone to the wrong person! Still, both paintings are as good as anything else you would have seen in fandom at the time. At left you can see yet another example of Jeff Jones' incredible control of composition.  Frank Brunner It is also mentioned in the editor’s notes that a valued member of the Infinity team “left the building,” taking a large amount of art that had been planned for this issue, and leaving Malin and Berman in the lurch. However, with the help of many fellow fans and collectors, the pair did a great job securing a great selection of art and other content. Below you see one of the other Frank Brunner pieces, a bit of fantasy cheesecake. Don’t worry...there is more on the way!  Brunner  Berni Wrightson The big “get” this issue was probably the Berni Wrightson interview conducted by editor Adam Malin. This was still very early in Wrightson’s career. As stated by Berni in the interview, his King Kull story had yet to appear in Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness (see a snippet below). Berni talks about his work in magazines such as Web of Horror, his favorite fanzines, comic characters, etc. In addition to the illustration to the right, we are treated to a gorgeous illustration from Wrightson’s King Kull, and a little head shot of Frankenstein. This master of the horror genre would figure heavily into Infinity as it went on, as would his “Studio” mates, Mike Kaluta and Jeff Jones. While on the subject of Web of Horror, you can see all of the stories in their entirety in the new compilation here!  Wrightson  Frank Frazetta That illustration seen above is dedicated to “Doug,” who I am pretty sure is Doug Murray, the writer who not only conducted a nice interview with Frank Frazetta in this issue of Infinity (ink sketch by Frazetta seen at left), but went on to write the incredible The ‘Nam series for Marvel about 15 years later. Coincidentally, it’s mentioned that Doug conducted this interview in late 1967, but was drafted and served in Viet Nam, gaining all the knowledge and experience that went into creating that amazing series. The interview sat unpublished until Infinity 2. At the tail end of the Frazetta interview, mention is made by Murray of a lunch meeting at the New York Comic Convention including Murray, Frazetta, Wrightson, and Ace paperback cover artist (and much more) Roy Krenkel. After Frazetta got up to leave, Krenkel said rather sadly, “I wish I had his talent, I’d like to be good.” I have heard of Krenkel’s feelings of inferiority to Frazetta’s talent, and possibly his impressive personality and physique. It is sad, because Krenkel had a career full of beautiful and impressive work of his own. I can remember myself collecting a wide array of Ace paperbacks by Burroughs with great covers by Krenkel. Crazily enough, following the Frazetta interview is a Roy Krenkel portfolio featuring both pencil and ink work, seen below. By the way, you can see more work in a great little bio from the archives here.  Roy Krenkel  Krenkel Many other artists grace the pages of Infinity 2, including Mad Magazine‘s Dave Berg. I was astounded to find out that Berg, who died in 2002 at the age of 81, attended the prestigious Pratt Institute...at age 12!!! A whimsical illo by Berg is seen below, followed by another Brunner illustration, and an oil painting by a young Mike Kaluta.  Dave Berg, Brunner, Mike Kaluta Also included in this issue are a few cover roughs by fantasy master Virgil Finlay, one of which you see below. You can see much more work by Finlay and read about him in the archives here, the same great place that has the Krenkel info.  Lastly is the aforementioned Jeff Jones back cover (originally intended to be the front cover...which makes sense, since it also has the title and issue number with it), seen below.  That wraps up this installment. As you can see from the table of contents below, you will see a ton more in the pdf! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]  Writer Jan Strnad started his award winning professional career in fandom with the beautifully illustrated fanzine, Anomaly.  Robert Kline Anomaly 1, 1969 Publisher/Editor: Jan Strnad If you have read Ink Stains regularly, you have seen Anomaly 3 already covered here, and you know what a stellar cast of artists and writers that editor/publisher/writer Jan Strnad regularly assembled. The first issue of this high quality fanzine is no different. Though the actual numbers of contributors may be fewer than what came later, the quality is just as high. Instead of listing all the contributors right off the bat, we will take them a few at a time. Above, you see two spot illos by Robert Kline, a big fave of mine (and Strnad’s). Robert is all over this issue of Anomaly, and as Jan Strnad puts it in the zine’s introduction, “We owe the existence of this first issue to one Robert Kline.” This was Kline’s first published work in fandom. It is obvious from the very first illustration gracing the cover (seen below) that Kline had the goods. Jan told me via Facebook that Robert had actually sent work to Jerry Weist and Squa Tront, but the work didn’t make it in, so Jan snatched the work and Robert up for Anomaly!  Kline The wash drawing is a widescreen wraparound cover, and a great introduction to the worlds of fantasy and science fiction that Kline would grace the readers with in fanzines such as Anomaly, Fantastic Fanzine, The Collector, and Always Comes Twilight in the years following this debut, before his entry into the world of professional animation. In fact, the very first content of note is a seven page story done in the classic style of the EC comics of the 1950s, complete with a twist ending. I will say that, at least at this early stage of his career, Kline fares more successfully in the single illustrations than the sequential work. Below you see a page from his story, His Brother’s Keeper.  Kline  Archie Goodwin Following Kline’s science fiction story, god of speculative literature Harlan Ellison weighs in with his single page story, The Voice in Garden. It’s either an exercise in writing punctuated with an in-joke...or just a joke. But of course, this story from 1967 is incredibly well written, as is all of Ellison’s work. What follows next could be considered the meat of the issue, a profile of writer (and sometimes artist) Archie Goodwin. Incredibly beloved in the industry, the late Goodwin is represented here by an interview conducted by long time fandom stalwart, the aforementioned Jerry Weist. The interview covered many subjects relating to Goodwin, including his start in a fanzine of the late 50s called Hoohah, and on through Goodwin’s incredible work in the Warren magazines of the late 60s, as well as Goodwin’s writing work at Marvel (specifically, Iron Man). Goodwin’s freelance work is also covered, represented by a monthly strip on the subject of fishing (a subject Goodwin admits to knowing nothing about). Goodwin’s awards in the comic book industry reflect both his expert skills as a writer and his ability to work both with intelligence and integrity with virtually anyone. His recognition includes Shazam awards several times over, as well as the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Eisner award in 1992, among others. Goodwin was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 1998, the year that he passed away.  Goodwin Above you see one of the fishing cartoons for Fishing World magazine. Below, a real treat, you can see the sketches/thumbnails that Goodwin provided artist Reed Crandall with for their Creepy Story, The Squaw. The whole story is laid out below, and you see the finished first and last pages under that.  Goodwin  Reed Crandall Goodwin provided layouts such as these for almost all of the stories that he wrote, following the example of EC/Mad artist and writer Harvey Kurtzman. Goodwin, however, offered these layouts merely as guides, unlike Kurtzman, who expected his artists to follow the layouts closely. Frequent Goodwin collaborators such as Crandall and Al Williamson are said to deeply enjoy this method of working, as long as it was with Goodwin! Following the Goodwin interview is a double page illustration by the aforementioned Crandall, seen below.  Crandall There are several spot and full page illustrations scattered throughout the magazine by Robert Kline, Kenneth Smith, and Stephen Hickman (seen below). Hickman has gone on to become a well established and highly sought after cover artist in the book industry, as seen on his site here.  Steve Hickman, Kline, Kline  Greg Phillips Above you see two illustrations by Robert Kline, and below an illustration by Greg Phillips to accompany a Jan Strnad science fiction story called Survivors of the Suicide World, of which this is only part one. I am afraid I have no knowledge of Greg Phillips. Another Strnad story (written with sometime partner Don Bain) follows, called The Enchanted Sword, which appears to be a riff on The Sword and the Stone, and has an illustration by Robert Kline (the swordsman appearing in the banner at the top of the page). Following this is a three plate portfolio by Robert Kline of Robert E. Howard inspired images, two of which you can see below. The illustrations below shows how, even this early in his career, Kline understood not only the craft of inking, the concept of good composition, but atmospheric perspective. The more lightly inked Worm in the background appears even more huge because of the understanding and use of this principle.  Kline A few Final Thoughts from Strnad appear after the portfolio, then another Kline full page illustration (along with a few other spots), and the debut issue of Anomaly comes to a close. Thanks this time go to Gil Agudin, who kindly sent the Archie Goodwin/Crandall pages within minutes of my frantic Facebook post. Also, a big huge thanks goes out to Jason Schachter, who not only provided the scans to Anomaly 1, but also to a host of others that will come later. This includes a complete run of FOOM, several issues of Charlton Bullseye, Fantagor, Fever Dreams, RBCC, Gene Day’s Black Zeppelin, Ralph Reese’s Reese’s Pieces, Scream Door, and many others! Get your requests in now! By the way, the reason I profiled Anomaly 1 now is because my scanner broke down...I had initially planned an early issue of Infinity, which will come as soon as I get a new scanner. As always folks, feel free to download the pdf, and please leave comments so I don’t feel all alone! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] As you know by now, Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine was one of the best of its kind. Issue 13 is no exception, featuring art by Dave Cockrum, Berni Wrightson, Don Newton, and more!  Dave Cockrum Fantastic Fanzine 13: 1971 Publisher and Editor: Gary Groth It seems like it has been too long since I have delved back into the fan repertoire of Gary Groth, especially considering how important this fanzine is to my young fan years. So, to rectify the situation, here is Fantastic Fanzine 13! To start off with a bang, below you see the beautifully color saturated cover by fan favorite, John G. Fantucchio. John also has a feature this issue that we will get to later. Now, feast your eyes downward!  John G. Fantucchio Now, tell me that wouldn’t stand out on the newsstands today! What was confirmed by Fantucchio via email to be acrylic on a photograph of New York is yet another bit of evidence as to why this artist was so popular in fanzines such as FF, The Collector, The Buyer’s Guide, and many others back in the 70s. His work always stood out as being unlike anyone else’s, with all the spiky linework, exaggerated figures, and lush textures in his paintings. I was told by Aaron Caplan (also via email) that Fantucchio actually did most of his art to fit the publication. That is, the black and white art you see below was painted in black and white. In an email, John told me more about the cover: The entire situation was sketched while I was sitting in a Goodyear balloon perched high atop New York City. From that it evolved to what you see. That illustration, thanks to Gary Groth, ended up on the cover of the Washington Sunday Post Potomac Magazine of August 13, 1972, with a fascinating article on the young master publisher (Groth). From there I entered the entire cover in the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington’s 24th annual exhibition, where it was chosen and hung. One of the judges was the late great illustrator, Bernard Fuchs. Below you see various images from his portfolio in this issue:  Fantucchio  Fantucchio  Fantucchio That last piece illustrates the humor that Fantucchio often exhibited in his work. He was just as prone to doing a caricature as a serious piece. You can see several other pieces in the portfolio, along with a page of photos from their home. That photo montage shows a treasured Volvo that was new at the time and that Aaron tells me is still in pristine condition in Fantucchios’s garage! While I am at it, I must reference Aaron Caplan’s website devoted exclusively to John and his work that you can see here. Fantucchio also contributes a text piece on the art of Steve Ditko.  Dennis Fujitake Conan gets an examining by Jeffrey Wasserman (twice, actually) in Conan! of Marvel, which is illustrated by Sal Buscema (much loved as a Barry Smith inker on Conan by Wasserman), Art Thibert, John Cornell, and two wonderful Hawaiians, Gary Kato and Dennis Fujitake (seen above). Following this article is one of the many convention coverages that Fantastic Fanzine and Groth specialized in. In fact, three cons are covered this issue, with the first being the 1970 NY Con. Below you can see a few photos of some of the industry giants that attended (that is Tarzan artist extraordinaire, Roy Krenkel at left, below the larger photo, Joe Sinnott to the right of Roy, then below left to right, Wally Wood and Gil Kane).    L to R, Frank Jacobs, Dave Berg, Jerry DeFuccio, John Putnam (moderator). In addition to these photographs, between the three con reports you will also see Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Dave Cockrum, Roy Thomas, Robert Kline, Mike Kaluta, Berni Wrightson, Marv Wolfman, and a few others. The photos really take you back! After the first of the two con reports, Bill Cantey delivers a western tale called The Man with the Golden Vest, which is garnished by a beautiful Don Newton illustration (seen below), as well as illustrations by Bill Black and Fantucchio. There is also a nice logo from Kenneth Smith, who did several like this for Groth over the years. However, this one was not printed well. In fact, Groth told me through email that he (still in high school at the time) had to sue the printer in small claims court for a terrible printing job on the fanzine. Even at that young age, Groth knew what he wanted! By the way, I think this illustration shows evidence that the late Don Newton was the best western artist fandom has ever seen, in my opinion.  Don Newton  Berni Wrightson Following Cantey’s story is an entertaining and pretty humorous interview with the writer, who has had stories illustrated by the likes of Richard Corben and Robert Kline, among others. He was a mainstay of Fantastic Fanzine, The Collector, and many others. Between the interview and the second con report (a very well written report by Cantey) is an appropriately grisly Wrightson illustration, seen at right. The articles include a humorous take on How Creation was Created by Gordon Matthews, Bernie Bubnis’ article on fandom by a pro, and Tony Isabella’s Windmills of my Mind column (which, among other things, cites his twelve most creative people in comics). Below you see the inside back cover, a really nice illustration by Mike Roberts (a Collector alumni). I have to say, this illustration has a lot going for it...crisp linework, really nice foreshortening on the spear the savage on the left is carrying...but the piece as a whole is marred a bit by the proportions of the main character (Ka-Zar, I assume)...the head is just too big for a heroic character! Still, a nice illustration, other than that. Other spot illustrations and full pagers are done by artists such as Jay Mike/Carter Scholtz, Alan Weiss, Martin Greim, John Adkins Richardson (who does a con report on the 1970 Metro Con, his first con...and his first con report), Vincent Marchesano, Ken Steacy, and R. Yeates.  Mike Roberts Probably the main article of the fanzine is a long interview with golden age great, artist/writer Howard Purcell, by Joe Mosca. The interview came about when Mosca saw a letter in a DC comic asking what became of several “older writers and artists” who had worked for comics such as House of Secrets and House of Mystery. Editor Murray Boltinoff listed a few and what they did, ending with the fact that Purcell taught art only one mile from where Mosca lived! A call was made and the interview was set up. Purcell had a hand in many prominent characters and titles in the comic industry, including the Black Knight (seen below in two full page illustrations), Green Lantern, Hap Harrigan, Sea Devils (of which many wonderful covers are reprinted, and one of the first comics I ever read), Unexpected, and many many more. The interview is long, thorough, very entertaining and, in my opinion, a required read for many younger artists out there who may not know what it was like working in comics in the golden and silver age.   The piece above is actually seen both in pencil stage and the more finished version you see above. I only had a vague memory of Purcell before reading this article. Very well done, I have to say. The issue ends with a bloody barbarian bang courtesy of Fantastic Fanzine regular and X-Men artist of a few years later, Dave Cockrum. Check it out below.  And so, another issue of Gary Groth’s great contribution to the world of fandom draws to a close. I still have a few others to profile at a later date, including the issue that followed this, which became Fantastic Fanzine special number 2, with a great Dave Cockrum wraparound cover of the Silver Surfer, among a ton of other great stuff. The next installment of Ink Stains may be Infinity 2, or it may be a few issues of The Charlton Bullseye...you decide!
Thanks this time go out to Aaron Caplan, Gary Groth, and especially John G. Fantucchio. Without them, the article would have been just me, and no one wants that! Forgot the links to the pdf, what a doofus! See them, get them now, Jethro! Go here and here! LATE BREAKING NEWS: Due to a reader’s incredible generosity (thanks, Jason Schachter!), I now have every issue of FOOM, along with the great Wrightson zine, Scream Door, among others! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] |
AuthorKen Meyer Jr. Archives
April 2026
Categories |
Ken Meyer Jr. Illustrator
RSS Feed