 me/Brent Anderson  What the hell is that Creeper doing? Hello everyone. I wanted to give everyone kind enough to follow this column a heads up. This week’s installment will be delayed another 7 days due to some events I have to handle here at home. I have a couple of great ‘zines I’m going to choose from, including issues of Anomaly (Strnad, Corben, Kline), Reality (Kaluta and more), and others. For now, just for the heck of it, I will show a few pieces of mine from fanzines you haven’t seen yet (for the most part), as well as a few wacky Christmas cards (I do one each year). So, tune in again next week and we will get back on schedule with another great fanzine! EDIT: When reposting this on 1/12/2026, I added a few things. Above you see the very first thing I ever had published, aided and inked by my bud, Brent Anderson (appeared in a Baycon program book). Below you see a playmat (basically, a big mousepad) where I used a hand colored copy of the image at top, combined with a more recent portrait of Lee.   me, me/Mike Christian Above left you see a cover for a fun little sf fanzine that David Heath Jr pointed me too, while on the right is a trading card piece done for a set in the 90s featuring my character, Feral (sort of a combo of Wolverine and the Creeper).  This crazy thing was a submission for whatever company produced an incredibly funny comic called The Trouble With Girls, written by Gerard Jones.  Yes, that is Hillary Clinton. The gentleman to the right (Glen Williams), who had me do several other political shirts later on) asked me to do some art for shirts to help with her campaign for Prez a while back...that’s my art on the shirt. I am sure she is thinking, “What the hell is this sh@t?” It was fun, as were the following projects, since caricature is not something I do on a regular basis. It is fun, but challenging...you can see the other designs in my Facebook pages. In the comic photo folders there you can see many more Feral images and pages.  This is one of several graphics I did to try to promote the Caliber series I worked on for awhile called Kilroy is Here. They didn’t help.  Above and below you can see several pieces done for the San Diego Comicon program book over the years.   Above you see a selection of pages done as a sample to try to get work at DC (it didn't work). They were fun, as I was caught up in the enjoyment of those Justice League issues by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire. Such fun stories, facial expressions and characters!  One of my silly past Xmas cards.  In the 90s, I hooked up with that nut, Don Chin. In addition to the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters limited series, I did these silly ass covers for the lunatic!  Above, another tryout! This is Clive Barker's Weaveworld, done while in I was in the throes of one of my idols, Dave McKean. Lastly, below, you can see a plethora of portraits painted by the poopyhead that is me! These were done for the wonderful current (2026) comic magazine, Comic Book Creator. Check that sucker out! Ken Meyer Jr [email protected] 
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Richard Corben burst onto the fanzine scene in an earlier issue of this fanzine, Voice of Comicdom. His style and skill, virtually unmatched, made him an instant smash.  Voice of Comicdom 17: 1971 Publisher/Editor: Rudi Franke  I remember when I first saw Richard Corben’s work in fanzines such as Infinity, and later, his own Fantagor (closer to an underground comic actually), his work screamed for attention just like the demon to the right and hit me like a ton of bricks (sort of related to how some might describe the figures of his female characters). The images were lusty, alive, cinematic, full of action, and rendered with incredible skill. He could paint rings around his contemporaries almost from the beginning. I remember wondering, how does he make everything so realistic, so three dimensional and so otherworldly? Because of this sense of wonder, I searched for his work wherever possible, whether it would appear in fanzines or, forbidden to a youngster like myself, the sometimes x- rated world of underground comics. From Fershid Bharucha’s Richard Corben: Flights into Fantasy, Corben’s beginnings “as the artist remembers it.” The American Midwest. The early forties. In a farmhouse in rural Anderson, Missouri, Rich is born and lives with his parents...’til the farmhouse burns down. So they pack up what’s left and move to Sunflower, Kansas, where a new town has sprung up around the Sunflower Ordnance Works. The time is World War II and everyone in town is making gunpowder and bombs for Uncle Sam. Rich goes through grade school in Sunflower. It is a very small town: one grocery store and a theater that only opens occasionally. But the grocery store has comics and Rich reads Superman. He really loves Superman. Then the family moves to Kansas City, where Rich goes to high school and later to art college [Kansas City Art Institute]. Somewhere along the way he meets Dona and they fall in love and get married and have a beautiful baby. And Rich draws and Dona collects owls and their daughter goes to school in nearby Indian Creek. And they all live happily ever after in a condominium on the Missouri side of Kansas City. While reveling in the domestic bliss of his family, Corben served a few months in the Army Reserves, and then worked for a period of nine years in the animation department of Calvin Communications. While there, he continued to hone his skills in many areas of art, including painting, sequential work, and making short animated films of his own. As for his fanzine work, in 1969, Richard’s work appeared in several, including Weirdom and an early issue of Voice of Comicdom.  I confess I do not have any issues of VOC before issue 17 (issue 16 featured part one of the story you see here). The fanzine was closer to a newspaper until late in its run, when it started focusing on specific artists. In fact, Richard’s first published strip, Monsters Rule, appeared in an early issue of VOC. At the same time Corben was publishing fanzine work, he made his way into the new underground comix scene with work in Last Gasp and several others. Very soon after, Warren publications came calling and his work started appearing in those magazines as well. Regarding VOC, again from Bharucha’s book: Fanzine publisher Rudi Franke ran “Monsters Rule”, the first Corben strip to see print, in the June 1968 issue. It ran as a serial, ending in the May 1969 issue. Rudi knew he was on to a good thing, and in the same issue he published an eight-page Corben story, rendered on scratch-board (“The Lure of the Tower“). The next two issues had full-color wraparound Corben covers and the two parts of the now-famous Rowlf, with a script by Harvey Sea (R.V.C., get it?). Then Rudi disappeared with some ten pages of Richard’s unpublished artwork. But that’s fandom!  Rowlf was reprinted in two places I have heard of, Last Gasp and a Warren magazine, but both are hard to find, so I hope you enjoy the download, including the color covers! Corben succeeded in so many ways with his work in general and this story in particular (in fact, Moebius considers it Corben’s best). His forms are round, full of volume, and it is evident when weight is being applied (or when faces are being squashed!). It’s common knowledge that his storytelling abilities are excellent, which he infuses with a cinematic touch. I know I would be interested in seeing a film directed by Corben! In Bharucha’s book, Neal Adams says of Corben’s storytelling ability, “He tells stories the way a filmmaker makes a film, with proper sequencing and animation. He keeps his camera at the right level, he zooms and pans; he is a consummate film person.” Note all the various changing points of view below (as well as the still experimental background sharing of panels 3 and 4).  Corben is also very well known for his expert handling of lighting and shadows, often sculpting versions of his characters beforehand to see how those figures would react to light (see Ink Stains 11). I can remember being almost as enthralled with those sculptures as with the finished art! Those sculptures were sort of a glimpse behind the wizard’s curtain. It was a behind the scenes tutorial of sorts and inspirational seeing these amazing creatures in three dimensions. Another critical element in the action packed world of comic book storytelling is the fight scene. A well staged fight scene can make all the difference in keeping the reader involved in the action and the characters. Corben is and has always been highly concerned with realistic fight scenes. He shoots them from a variety of viewpoints, injects an understanding of martial arts into the actual stances and moves, and does not hesitate to show the effects of, for example, a foot hitting a face. Just look below.  Check out the emotion showing through Rowlf’s shepherd face! Not an easy thing to accomplish. More examples below.   Another aspect of Corben’s black and white art that always enhanced the story was his use of toning tools of the day. Whether it is crosshatching, zip-a-tone, duo-shade, or wash painting, you could tell he was always thinking of ways and tools to make the visuals sing. Check out the almost Parrish-like clouds in the vista at left. Jan Strnad, Corben’s frequent collaborator, probably puts it most eloquently as to what makes a Corben story so singular when he is quoted in Bharucha’s book as saying:  "...it is his skillful manipulation of face and figure that makes his characters so much fun to direct. They can act – displaying their emotions openly and convincingly – and they interact so completely with their environment as to blur the line of distinction between illustration and reality. Once they appear on the illustrated page they begin to demand respect as living individuals, and their destinies are no longer wholly in the hands of the writer but are determined in great part by the characters themselves. Once begun, writing a Corben series becomes an adventure of discovery with the writer in the back of the canoe, steering for all he’s worth, while the raging waters carry him where they will. " Please check out Corben’s own site here. You can see a web printing of the first installment of this story here. And of course, download the pdf right now, Jethro! See a few images below of Corben from The Bharucha book (printed in 1981). See the actual book, plus doofus, above.  Gil Kane. Alex Toth. Don Maitz. Rick Buckler. Joe Sinnott. Jim Starlin. Berni Wrightson. John Byrne...LOTS of John Byrne. All in one “little” zine. And that zine is...CPL 11!  CPL 11: 1974 Publisher: Robert Layton  Don Maitz As you know, if you read Ink Stains 5, which showcased issue 12 of this great zine (of which I wish like crazy I had more...can anyone help?), it is jam packed with incredible art from some of the best fans (and pros) of the time, along with some very good writers as well. This issue, number 11, is just as exceptional. As you can see, issue 11 starts out with a high contrast bang, courtesy of the justifiably lauded artist Alex Toth. He was always able to do so much with so little...which, as most artists will tell you, is not anywhere near as easy as you might think it is. CPL was put together on a quarterly basis by Bob Layton, with help from fellow soon-to-be pros Roger Stern and other artists and writers known collectively as The CPL Gang (and also as The Indianapolis Mafia). The artist that played the biggest part in this issue, as in issue 12, is John Byrne. But...we will get to Byrne’s many contributions later in the article. The first interior illustration is a full page Don Maitz illustration of Ka-zar. Don has gone on to be one of the premier fantasy artists of today, and he was gracious enough to answer a few questions via email about his involvement in fandom. Don got interested in fandom through a friend’s fanzine called Formula X: “It was produced by a high school friend. It was really bad, but at least it only had a print run of about ten copies. He had to give me a copy...actually several copies, as there was no way I was going to pay money for it. I do not think he could get his mother to buy a copy.” And the first fanzine Don was actually published in? “I do remember working in my very first fanzine. That high school friend I mentioned talked me into working on the second issue of Formula X ! We made it using a ditto copy machine in the high school print shop (using blue, green, and red ink). I illustrated the title comic story featuring his character, Formula X. I wrote and illustrated a short comic story in it as well. It was really amateurish, awful as well. The only saving grace was we knew the great DC comic book artist, Jim Aparo, who graciously did a cover ink drawing for us to use. He lived near us and we were allowed to sit with him in his basement while he worked on Aquaman, Batman and other comic book titles. We must have printed all of 20 copies of Formula X ! My friend’s mother still did not buy a copy, my mother avoided it as well. I must have been sixteen at the time.” Despite the disdain of any nearby mother, Don almost entered the comic book field while in art school. “Jim Aparo took my friend and I to Rockefeller Plaza, NYC into the DC Comics offices and introduced us around. I met Dick Giordano (then Vice president at DC) at his home and did two pages of “ghost inking” for Jim Aparo, as well as some pencils for ads appearing in Marvel Comics. I went into NYC with my comic portfolio and they put me to work that same day inking over poor xerox copies of Black Canary pages as sort of an apprentice, pay your dues introduction to working in comics. I do not know if they expected me to travel to NYC from the middle of CT every day to do spec work till someone gave me a paying job. Anyway, I decided to stay in art school as I began to be very attracted to oil painting.” See his gorgeous work here.  Clyde Caldwell As to what Maitz has done recently, he told me, “A couple of years ago I did concept art for Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and Ant Bully. I have some work coming out in a coffee table book titled Knowing Darkness, featuring artists who have illustrated stories by Stephen King. I have all new art in the 2010 Pirates! calendar and my work has been featured in an award winning documentary film titled Mythic Journeys. This film won best documentary at Dances with Film in LA and at a film festival in Rome last weekend (and you can see a trailer here). The film also features animated puppets designed by Brian and Wendy Froud, interviews by visionaries such as Deepak Chopra, and the voices of Mark Hamill, Lance Henriksen, and Tim Curry.” By the way, to the left you see work by a contemporary of Maitz, Clyde Caldwell, who we will examine next. Clyde Caldwell got into fandom via a different route and subject matter...Edgar Rice Burroughs. Clyde told me, “I had always read comics from early childhood. I started reading SF & Fantasy literature when I was in the 7th grade and was instantly hooked. When I was in graduate school working on my MFA, discovered The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom. There were ads for fanzines in TBG. I was a huge fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs so I ordered some of the ERB fanzines to see what they were about.” In fact, Clyde’s first published work was in a Burroughs zine called ERBdom. “I was in grad school...probably around 22 or 23 years old. I did a John Carter of Mars drawing in pen & ink and it was used for a back cover. The funny thing about it was that I did the piece in black & white. ”Caz” Cazedessus, Jr., who was the editor of the zine, sent the piece out to be colored without my knowledge. The colorist was [Marvel inker] Sam Grainger, who used to work with my father in Charlotte, NC (at Radiator Specialty Co.) When I was a kid, I used to do superhero drawings and send them to work with my dad to show to Sam. Sam was nice enough to critique them. At that time Sam was doing freelance work for Marvel Comics, in addition to working as a commercial artist at Radiator Speciality Co. I thought it a huge coincidence that he was called on to color my first ever fanzine piece. As it turned out, Sam was a huge ERB fan too.” I remember loving Sam Grainger’s inks over John Buscema on The Avengers, along with many other titles. You can see Caldwell’s beautifully accomplished work here.  John Byrne Roger Stern appears as editor of CPL for the first time with this issue, and delivers a column detailing the dovetailing of the fanzine and Charlton Bullseye, a short lived Charlton house magazine (and a very well produced one, if memory serves). Roger notes that John Byrne’s character, Rog-2000, is “the back up tenant in E-Man,” and the character also has a 6-page strip featuring not only the title robot character, but the CPL creators as well! Duffy Vohland, Byrne, Layton, Stern, and others put in appearances in this action packed humor strip, written by Stern and illustrated by Byrne and Layton. Check out this interview with Stern done in 2006.  John Byrne Don’t think the Byrne fun stops there, though. John’s smooth, easy to identify illustrations grace pretty much every other page of this fanzine. He gives us renditions of Howard the Duck, The Thing, Galactus, The Silver Surfer, The Flash, J. Johah Jameson, assorted robots, and also inks Rich Buckler on several full- page illustrations, a few of which you see below Joe Sinnott’s version of Galactus.  Joe Sinnott  Rich Buckler/John Byrne I can recall really loving Buckler’s work circa Deathlok and the like. The centerfold of that character above illustrates how smooth and sinuous his work could be. And of course, he could ape Kirby like few others, as witnessed by the Thing illo above. He has a few other illustrations not shown here that you can check out by getting the pdf.  John Byrne  The articles also are done by writers who would later become pros (or who were already working in the industry). Aside from the previously mentioned self referential article, Steve Gerber writes Further Muck Meditations, this installment focusing (he calls it “bitching”) on the effect of big companies on the creative process, as well as the element of “relevance” in comics (something that was all the rage back then, what with the classic O’Neil and Adams’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow issues, etc). John Byrne examines Galactus (see illo above) in his Northern Lights column (accompanied also by the full page Joe Sinnott illustration and a Byrne Silver Surfer spot illo), while Roger Stern, in his Sterno’s Hot Ones column, pokes fun at an issue of The Flash in which the title character streaks...luckily at Flash speed! Stern also gives us a page detailing the creation of John Byrne’s robot character, Rog-2000 (preceding the Rog- 2000 strip). An article by Paty (Greer, I think, is her last name, though she never used it) on the subject of The Vision and whether he has blood or not is followed by C.C. Beck’s instructions on creating characters called Don’t Show and Tell Everything. A letter column rounds out the text features in this issue.  As you can plainly see, CPL had one of the best stables of any fanzine in existence at that time (at any time, really), what with burgeoning pros like Byrne and existing artists like Gil Kane, whose work you see above. But hey, I have not shown it all! In addition to what you have seen, there are several more illustrations by Byrne, as well as work by Berni Wrightson, Jim Starlin/Pete Iro, Dan Adkins, and Bob Hall. So please, download the pdf so you can see all of the great work in this small, but potent fanzine!
CPL was one of my favorite fanzines from the 70s, and that is from only seeing two issues. If anyone out there has any other issues they would be willing to loan me or scan for me, I would be eternally grateful. For now though...download and leave comments! Thanks this issue goes out to Don Maitz and Clyde Caldwell for their time. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] No, this is not about the kiddie vampire movie. It’s a fanzine from 1976 with art by Dennis Fujitake, Gary Kato, Robert Kline, Clyde Caldwell and much more! Again...no vampires!  Robert Kline Always Comes Twilight 1: 1976 Editor: Dave Dapkewicz Publisher: Fantagraphics  Jim Pinkoski I will warn you, I don’t have a lot to add to the fantastic imagery this time out. Because of various issues, I was not able to contact anyone specifically about this fanzine, though I do have some previous input from artists Fujitake and Kato. And though there is a wealth of text (articles and stories), illustrations and sequential stories, this is the Fujitake and Kato show first and foremost, in my opinion. Initially though, let’s take a gander at some of the other creators involved in Always Comes Twilight. Several of the names will be familiar to readers of this column, one of which did the moody monochromatic cover you see above. That is the work of the precociously talented Robert Kline who, after doing a ton of fanzine work, disappeared into the wormhole of the animation industry. Kline also illustrates an interesting and provocative science fiction story by author Jan Strnad (a frequent partner of illustrator Richard Corben). The story, called Retardate Plus, involves “the computer,” an idiot savant named David Bruner, and God...and when the former two are merged to become as powerful as the latter. Interesting stuff! Another returning champion, if only for one illustration, is the late and great Don Newton. I just had to show it, though (see below), since it is such a nicely rendered Minotaur. Another artist that you have seen exhibited here in the Ink Stains mansion is Jim Pinkoski, who contributes a story on the subject of man’s first interaction with his soul. Jim’s wonderfully detailed work can be seen at left.  Don Newton Other contributors you may remember include Ron Wilber, whose detailed pen work and style might remind some of the great underground cartoonist, Robert Crumb. In addition to an illustration for Jim Wilson’s story, Controlled Experiment (in which he shares illustration duties with John McLaughlin, who appears to have referenced the old Leonard Nimoy Spock character), Wilber also assists in illustrating Hanna, by David Anthony Kraft and D. Jon Zimmerman (see below left). Below right you see early work by Clyde Caldwell, who is currently one of the best fantasy illustrators around (see his amazing work here). This illustration is part of an Edgar Rice Burroughs portfolio, which includes other artists such as Ronn Sutton and Gary Kato (more on Gary later).  Ron Wilbur, Clyde Caldwell John Adkins Richardson (now Professor Emeritus of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville), a frequent fanzine contributor, writes and draws Race Hardun in a format reminiscent of the more illustrative Sunday morning comics, such as Prince Valiant (both in the detailed style and the square panel layouts). A strange character and a strange strip, as it seems to combine the previously mentioned Hal Foster level of detail with some experimental imagery, a sample of which you see below.  John Adkins Richardson Another sequential story, courtesy of the loose knit fan organization Interfan, combines the talents of writer (and Interfan leader) Steve Clement with artists Karl Kesel and Mike Machlan, along with Jerry Ordway on lettering. That’s right. Lettering! Set in 16th century France, it comes complete with dusted wigs, a swashbuckling one eyed female vigilante, her dwarf companion and one very evil king of France. However, as I said before, this fanzine seems to show the deep talent available in Hawaii in the persons of Steve Leialoha, Gary Kato, and in the prime of his fanzine years, Dennis Fujitake. Check out the amazing batch of illustrations below and dare to disagree! Fujitake is at bat first, with some of his best fanzine work!   Now that you have seen the lithe and limber figure work of Fujitake (who only appears to have the tiniest shred of his old Steve Ditko influence electing instead to dive wholeheartedly into dramatic Jeffrey Jones territory here), contrast the work of his friend and fellow Hawaiian native, Gary Kato. Gary’s work is slightly more compact, a little more tightly wound perhaps. But Gary had a great eye for design and composition, even way back then.  I decided, in this update to also show this nice Ronn Sutton piece. Ronn is doing some really cool work on a Carson of Venus strip presently, ironically enough (since this is an ERB portfolio).  There are several other very nice illustrations by Gary Kato that you can see, along with a lot of other great stuff in the pdf. Gary Kato lists his influences as Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert and Wally Wood. Kato went on to work on projects such as Martin Greim’s Thunderbunny, Ron Fortier’s Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, The Original Streetfighter, Boston Bombers, Days of the Dragon and later, Mr. Jigsaw (where his love of Ditko shows proudly). You can see and order Mr. Jigsaw here.
Thanks this installment go out to Gary Kato and, if he gets back to me in time, Gary Groth! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Sometimes the best art comes in small – or in this case, thin – publications. Graphic Illusions boasted some pretty big name artists in its only issue.  Stephen Fabian Graphic Illusions, Summer 1971 Editor and Publisher: Rob Gustaveson Graphic Illusions was a one-shot, the combination of the sixth issue of Guts (the magazine with intestinal fortitude!) by Rob and Jeff Gluckson and the fourth issue of Robert Gustaveson’s Eon. This combination was done to fulfill subscription holders, but the contents hold together well enough that you would never know. Though primarily a showcase for the art of George Barr (working over several artists’ unfinished pieces), a Steve Ditko Mr. A story, and an EC article, there was still room for a few other illustrations within the fanzine. The only article was actually reprinted from another fanzine, Johnny Chambers’s Ymir. Titled Inside EC by Jerry Kolden, it was written with information provided by EC insider Kolden, and actually has a few small revelations (to me, at least). The major theme of the article is that it was not William C. Gaines that should have received the lion’s share of the credit for EC’s success (or more correctly, the high level of the content of the legendary if short-lived comic line), but the artists and writers themselves. A small group of creators, including Wally Wood, Ross Andru, Roy Krenkel, and Dick Ayers, offered to help a struggling Gaines and his slowly deteriorating line of kiddie comics and biblical adaptations for a less than standard fee, but with one caveat...they would have complete and utter control of the content. That is why EC was so ground-breaking and so good, in Kolden’s opinion. From that small start (and many title changes, as you will see from the article), great titles like Weird Fantasy and Tales from the Crypt emerged. There are several EC related illustrations gracing the article, including ones by artists such as Krenkel, Williamson, Wood, and as seen below, incredible draftsman George Evans.  George Evans As for the hows and whys of Editor Robert Gustaveson’s place in fandom, he stated via email that “... it was the sunday funnies that drew me into reading comics. One of the first comics I bought was an Action comic with Brainiac on the cover. Then I acquired all of them: DC at first, including Superman, Detective, Batman, Lois Lane (Superman’s Girl Friend), Jimmy Olsen (Superman’s Pal), Showcase, Brave and Bold and literally every title during the 1960′s. They never did put out a Perry White Comic. More below. Soon I was collecting every single Marvel, including Spider-man, Fantastic Four, Journey Into Mystery (Thor), Dr. Strange/Shield (Strange Tales), X-men, Hulk, Ant-Man (Tales to Astonish), Iron Man, etc. This lead me to Pre-Marvel Atlas comics with fantasy stories by Williamson, Ditko, Kirby and many others. And then into Charlton and finally into EC comics and I owned 80 % of those.  Tim Kirk/George Barr Tim Kirk, one of the artists the editor mentioned, is a well known fantasy artist today. At the time of this fanzine’s publication in 1971, Kirk was on the cusp of his professional career, as he told me via email. “My first professionally published piece was the cover art for a DAW book: Under the Green Star by Lin Carter, in 1972.” Kirk had been involved in fandom for a few years. “I can’t recall exactly which fanzine published my first drawings, but a likely candidate would be the Tolkien Journal, volume 3, #1 in 1967 – my entry into fan art was through Tolkien fandom. I was in junior college at the time.” Kirk goes on to detail more of his fan favorites with, “there were several fanzines that I felt a particular bond with, either because of subject matter or personality, and that I tended to submit to on a regular basis; Amra, Mythlore and Mythprint, Dick Geis’ Science Fiction Review/The Alien Critic, Charlie Brown’s Locus, Mike and Susan Glicksohn’s Energumen...there were many more, of course. It was the golden age of print fanzines, if there ever was one, and I shared the spotlight with several wonderful artists – Alicia Austin, George Barr, Mike Gilbert, Bill Rotsler, Steve Fabian...quite an impressive pantheon. Being a fan artist brought me into contact with a lot of truly amazing talents: L. Sprague de Camp, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch...I’ve been on convention panels with Vaughn Bode’ and Alan Lee, and a costume ball judge at Comic-Con. I’ve been very, very fortunate.” Since those self publishing days long ago, Kirk has gone on to do a host of high profile works. He states that, “after I graduated from college in 1973 with a master’s degree in illustration, I entered corporate America (Hallmark Cards, Current, Inc. and, for 22 years, Walt Disney Imagineering); as a result (mainly from sheer lack of time) my fan art activity dwindled to a trickle. Since 2002 I (with my brother and sister-in-law, who also worked at Disney) have been partners in Kirk Design Inc. (kirkdesigninc.com), doing basically the same sort of work we did at Imagineering: conceptual theme park and museum design. We’ve had several interesting projects, including the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, the Mini-Time Machine (a museum of miniatures) in Tucson, and the Flying Heritage Collection in Everett, Washington. I still do some book and magazine illustration and private commissions...last year I produced a couple of new paintings for a museum dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien scheduled to open soon in Europe.” As for his collaboration with Barr on the piece above, he succinctly states that, “All I can say is that George went FAR beyond the sketch I did!” In the several pages of explanations that Barr himself offers on the portfolio that is the meat of the fanzine (prompted by editor Gustaveson and springing from an evening of sketching with Wendy Fletcher, later Wendy Pini), he talks about the Kirk piece. “He merely outlined the character but indicated nothing at all of tone or shadow. The combination of Tim’s grotesque little cartoon character and my almost sculptural rendering of it made it look like nothing quite so much as an imitation Hannes Bok.” Barr himself has gone on to do many works of comic art though the years, but this folio shows a wide variety of subject matter and tone. It appears that pencil was used to finish the various pieces, several of which you see below. You will see Barr again later when I cover another issue of The Collector.  Alicia Austin/Barr. Wendy Fletcher/Barr Robert Gustaveson also wrote a few words (actually, more than a few, as you will see...the man has enthusiasm!) on the subject of George Barr and this wonderful set of images. The largely unaltered text runs below. Addendum: a diary 1965–1971 (Early fannish experiences) I always felt the George Barr Folio Collaboration was, somehow, incomplete. I wanted there to be an introduction page and also for there to be fancy type font sharing George’s magnanimous words. Subconsciously I probably blamed my co-conspirators – I mean co-publishers Rob and Jeff Gluckson for not laying out the folio as I wanted or for just typing Barr’s wonderful description on two pieces of typewriter paper. I always felt I was destined to do graphic design for a living (so you see why I like computers and the internet). People confuse me with Rob a lot. He was always known to me as Pagan Rob or Mythra. But now I see him as a conservative school teacher & “distance learning” innovator. Jeff is an actor and pianist. I am somewhere between artist and writer and comic book salesman and philosopher and web page designer. Rob Gluckson once lived in a tree house in a forest for a few years – I always admired that. To say nothing of him hitchhiking around the country. Rob and Jeff are my closest friends to this day. Though we do not see each other often. Together we published Graphic Illusions in 1971. None of us made a dime on the project (that I know of – I know I did not). If we had we would have shared it with the contributors (as far as I am concerned). I asked them recently what the print run was and got different answers. We all agree that the two print runs were under 2400 copies! I say the overrun folio was 200 copies! I wonder to this day why we were all inspired to publish our zines and connect with others who also did. We connected back then with a lot of other comic and fanzine editors. I published the George Barr Folio in 1971 as the central eight pages in my fanzine Graphic illusions. Indeed, all I had to do was ask George Barr or Tim Kirk for a sketch back then and they’d comply. Free. I went to the 1968 (or was it 1969, I’ve never been good with time) World SF Con in Saint Louis. I had a really great time at the masquerade (really creative costumes) and formal banquet (with white table cloths), photographing pros and meeting people. But when I walked into the art show and I was literally floored. I was shocked by the quality of art and I have still not recovered . I spent innumerable hours gawking at works by people I had never heard of until then and many who I had heard of as well. I witnessed originals by Richard Corben (who I met) and if I recall correctly (its been 30 some years) also Kenneth Smith and (I think) Frazetta.   Later I wandered into a near empty room and ran across Vaughn Bode’ and Jeff Jones. And soon I helped them set up the art show room. For my reward Bode’ gave me a free sketch for the help or just ’cause I asked and he was pretty nice (which later one of my friends swiped – I know who you are – give it back) and Jeff Jones did a sketch for me for $20.00! Which I cherished. Later Barr inked it and it joined the other 7 plates in this Barr Folio Collaboration. Giving it to George Barr as a thank you for rendering the folio was both a joy and a sadness. All this seems like only yesterday and I think I was molded & enormously influenced by early SF and comic cons. Times back then were traumatic on the world stage. Today they are potentially so again. But I think the future is still bright. That before us lay another Golden Age for inhabitants in the USA and Earth if we all use our creative intelligence rightly...in service to God and humanity (and all of nature). Selfishness could still destroy the world (as Bob Dylan sings) in the next 50 years. Or if we work together, fearlessly, united in commonality and brotherhood we can be the forerunners of a new race. All are brothers as Ghandi and the Saints of all religions pointed out - and lived. Where no one is left out. Where giving is natural. Did you know where more people meditate crime actually falls? We of the fannish circle have probably all come full circle in our lives. I hope you enjoy this incredible folio. I believe it inspired the Fantasy Showcase Tarot Deck and other collaborations too that came after. George Barr struck me as kind and gentle. I used to drive him and sometimes David Gerold to LASFS or LASFS sponsored poker parties when I was young. I drove people at high speeds in my 1956 midnight blue Cadillac (with power windows). Several times my girlfriend Sharon was with me. I’m sure Cerebus was based on the wit of Bruce Pelz. George was enormously generous with his art. And I never guessed how he really made a living. I hope you can all check out his book Upon The Winds Of Yesterday. His full color ball point pen work (which looks like painting) is a marvel to this very day.  Rob Gluckson can attest I had a lot of friends since I was the first one with wheels. Jim Shull may or may not have been impressed with my driving. But the person with the wheel and the brakes thinks he’s got everything under control. The others in the car don’t usually feel that way (everyone is really a control freak). We used to drive pretty fast near Olympic Park and up in the hills of Monte Mar Drive in L.A. Actor/muscian Bill Mumy lived a few doors down from Robert Gluckson. Gluckson was the inspiration for me to go to Saint Louis Comic Con (first time on a plane). Once there he did his own thing – and rarely did I see him ’til it was time to return. I and Keith Tucker and Mike Bennett (they also became animator’s) lived in the San Fernando Valley. We’d have car chases for fun – luckily no one was every hurt. We all belonged to SMASH – a comic book club. We were artists, publishers and writers. My life consisted of that plus going to Cherokee, Argosy, Bond St. Bookstore and Collector’s bookstore (and a few others) weekly to acquire comics or books with great art. I guess I was always into art. Joe Pearson later entered the fray and became a damn good artist too. He witnessed some interesting experiences at a couple of SF cons (friends of mine having too much fun). Articles unto themselves. Gluckson opened the doorway for me to meet Ken Rudolph – filmmaker, Mike Royer – comic artist, Jim Warren from Warren Publications. At this amazing World SF con I met and photographed Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Norman Spinrad, Robert Block, Harry Harrison, George Clayton Johnson (I think), and others. Wendi Fletcher is Wendy Pini who created Elfquest. I use to look though her drawings in the good old days. Tim Kirk became a member of the staff of Imagineering at Disney. Published a books called Kirk Works (smart dude got all us fanzine editors to print his work for free). My comic collecting friend (from my youth) Jim Shull also became an animator. I enjoyed the layout of his early fanzines (they were very cleanly designed). I do not recall meeting Jim Nielson but it is possible I did so at LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) where later, next door, from 1986 – 1996 I owned a small but mighty comic book store (parking issues they could never get over...ug). I have always marveled at Alicia Austin’s early work. Her line drawings were so sensuous and alive. They were crafted with detail unsurpassed. Yesterday’s Lily is my favorite art book by the great Jeff Jones. Only The Studio comes close to satisfying my fantasy art addiction. Cathy Hill was always a joy to run into at LASFS or a SF con – she’d offer her musical art at these SF cons. Some of her work will strike a chord of beauty few can sound. I love her smile and kind nature. I’m trying to give you the flavor of those early conventions and experiences. This is a first draft history I can build upon it in the future. We live in a dynamically changing Universe. So inspired by these people was I that I enrolled in Burne Hogarth’s art classes at Otis Parsons. I threw hundreds of autograph parties for comic and SF artists and authors from Jack Kirby to Stan Lee and Dave Stevens to Doug Wildey. Harlan Ellison took me to dinner once and I think he gave me tickets to the Director’s Guild to see Bladerunner there – nice place! In fact he was in the 13th row from the front to the right of me. But to return to the George Barr Folio Collaboration. Bjo Trimble used to let a bunch of us come over to her house to do creative stuff or costume events. She helped keep Star Trek on the air – that is, her letter writing campaign helped keep Star Trek around. Now back to the zine at hand. Let us not forget that Steve Ditko contributed (in the literal sense) a Mr. A story for this fanzine. See the back cover below.  There is so much more from the prolific Gustaveson. You can see much of it on his website here. He says nowadays he is “just enjoying life and seeing my kids and grandkids. Making webpages and videos is my new hobby. I hope to get a real job someday.”
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Robert Gustaveson for his help with this installment...heck, probably half the word count is his! Also, thanks to Tim Kirk and Alicia Austin for saying yes to my requests for personal involvement. I was asked to not have the whole fanzine downloadable, unfortunately. But if I mentioned something you want to see, let me know and I am sure I can get it for you. For now, you can see some George Barr art in the archives here (but nowhere near as much as you should see!). You can check out Wendy Pini’s official Elfquest site as well. Alicia Austin’s enchanting work can be seen here. There is an active Facebook group dedicated to Jeffrey Jones. Stephen Fabian is here, with tons of old stuff, as well as incredibly beautiful color paintings! Also, see a nice Tim Kirk wiki page here, and the archive of his site here. Ken Meyer Jr [email protected] Most fanzines were quick flash in the pans. Martin L. Greim’s Comic Crusader stuck around for a whopping 17 issues, and was the first to publish many great fan artists who later became pros.  Comic Crusader 10: 1970 Publisher and Editor: Martin L. Greim Like Fantastic Fanzine, the entry of two weeks ago, Comic Crusader not only published professional work (garnered primarily at conventions), but also showcased most of the best fan artists of that time (AND a Robert Kline interview!). This issue is a convention special, so not only are we treated to some great art and informative articles, but tons of photos of the comic luminaries of 1970!  Frank Frazetta, Tom Sutton, Nic Cuti, and Ernie Colon  Above you see only one of close to 50 photos of some of the best artists and writers in comics in not only the 70s, but of all time. The conventions of that time were less structured, more informal and arguably more fun than the more dealer’s room oriented conventions of today. You would consider yourself darn lucky to have a conversation with your favorite pro at all nowadays, and that only after waiting in line for hours. From what I hear (I was still a bit too young and did not live near enough to any of the cons back then to be able to write this from experience), many pros just gave away sketches and talked to fans at length. Ah, the good old days. Though he did go on to create a character modeled after a big fave of his, Captain Marvel (the C.C. Marvel, that is) called Thunder Bunny, Greim told me his ‘zine was published purely for the fun of it. In the 17 issue run, he gathered a very impressive group of artists each issue to share their love of the comic book medium with the reading audience. Greim contributed his art to most issues, which was very clean, if sometimes a bit derivative (something Greim himself admits), as the Gil Kane inspired cover of issue 10 shows. I also threw in (when reposting this vintage Ink Stains) a painting of mine (above) of Marty and his creation, hope you don't mind!  early Dennis Fujitake One of the many fan artists that Greim published on a regular basis is Dennis Fujitake (as well as Fujitake’s fellow Hawaii resident and buddy, Gary Kato, who went on to work on Greim’s Thunder Bunny character). Fujitake and Kato both did early work which showed a strong influence from Steve Ditko, while later work of Fujitake (seen in the last installment of Ink Stains) seemed more akin to Jeff Jones. The illustration to the right falls between those camps, as Fujitake’s work was starting to get more loose, more fluid and grew away from the Ditko style. Comic Crusader was in fact the first place Fujitake was published. Fujitake answered my email question of how he got started in fandom with, “this must be one of those trick questions where you test how atrophied that grey muscle I call a brain has gotten. I was about 17 or 18 and I was reading the back of a Marvel comic where Stan Lee mentioned something called a ‘fanzine’ published by a fellow named Martin Greim. Included was a mailing address and the pricey demand of $1 for 4 issues of Comic Crusader, a year’s subscription. This was my introduction to the world of fanzines. Here was a place where an aspiring comic artist could find someone willing to publish their work. A big bonus was the freebie issue in which the art ran.” Fujitake and Kato both affirm that Greim was their favorite ‘zine editor. Fujitake says that “I found him always kind, generous and supportive. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had a friendly relationship with Steve Ditko. Later on I started doing a lot of editorial work with Gary Groth on his Fantastic Fanzine as well as The Comics Journal.” In fact, check out a youthful Groth below, along with a host of other convention attendees.  The group above is a composite of photos from the New York Comic Convention of 1970. The photo immediately above is from the Warren awards panel, with typed (yes, typed) notes as to who is who. Billy Graham, for those youngsters out there, assisted in creating one of the first black superhero characters, Luke Cage (from which fan and actor Nicolas Cage took his last name). The Warren awards article is written by Greim and the man who brought him to fandom, Bob Cosgrove. Cosgrove also contributes several other articles in this issue (and one illustration), one co-written by Gary Groth on the subject of Comic Art and Education, focusing on the Intermountain Indian Boarding School, which used comics as a teaching aid.  Richard Corben, duh! Another convention related article delves into a panel devoted to the topic of sword and sorcery in comics, the members of which included Berni Wrightson, Gil Kane, Jeff Jones, and writers Lin Carter and Denny O’Neil (moderated by Roy Thomas). The article was accompanied by the Fujitake illustration near the top of the column, as well as the head-splitting work of Richard Corben, seen at right. Bob Cosgrove (whose fanzine Champion was the catalyst in Greim’s involvement in fandom) also writes a full page review of Jim Steranko’s incredible History of the Comics (from which the illustration below is taken, also reprinted in Comic Crusader). I can remember gazing in awe at the wraparound cover of volume one several times over, marveling at how Steranko was able to incorporate so many characters in such an inventive manner and in such an elegant but powerful style. I probably drew and redrew this illustration dozens of times in my youth.  In an instance of pure coincidence, the interview in this issue of Comic Crusader is with none other than Robert Kline, the main subject of the last installment’s Fantastic Fanzine 11. This interview is a little shorter and is accompanied by more superhero illustrations than normally seen by this artist (and, to be honest, I think he is slightly better at fantasy work, as evidenced by the wonderful illustration below). The interview was prompted by reader requests and comes from a conversation at one of the conventions Greim attended.  Robert Kline Near the top of this installment, you will see large photos of Submariner creator Bill Everett and Kubert School founder (who else?), Joe Kubert. These, along with a few spot illustrations, are part of an article on a “Convention Lunch” featuring the two creators interviewed by none other than Gil Kane and Neal Adams, respectively. Other convention subjects are covered in other articles, with but a few of the many photos that grace the pages of Comic Crusader 10 below.  Editor Greim told me via email that he published another fanzine that sounds to me like a goldmine. “The last fan thing I did was Comic Crusader Storybook...a 195 page publication that had the best of fan super heroes in all new stories by the original artists (coming in a later installment of this blog). It also had a lot of pro art and a Mr. A story, with no dialog that was one of the best things he [Ditko] ever did. It also had the first Thunder Bunny story that eventually caused me to do it as a pro.” Greim no longer draws and says he does not miss his days publishing, but I can only assume my readers feel the same as I do in that I am damn glad he decided to publish in the first place! Other artists in this particular issue include Mike Royer, John Buscema/Joe Sinnott, Paul Neary, Bill Black, Al Bradford, Gary Kato, John G. Fantucchio, Dan Adkins, Ronn Sutton, Jim Jones, Ron Foss and Don Newton. I believe I have one other issue of this great ‘zine, but hope to find more at some point in the near future. Please download the pdf, as I could only put a fraction of the material included. Thanks this installment go to Martin Greim and Dennis Fujitake. While updating this installment (1/11/2026), I decided to include these incredible jam pieces that Marty commissioned over the years below...feast yer eyeballs!      Gary Groth is known as a lightning rod in the comics community, and was the editor and guiding light of The Comics Journal for many years...but he had to start somewhere, and Fantastic Fanzine is that somewhere!  Robert Kline Fantastic Fanzine 12, 1970 Editor and Publisher: Gary Groth Our childhoods are filled with items and events that hold personal importance to us...sometimes an importance deserved, sometimes not so much. Fanzines fall into the former category as far as I am concerned. I think the reasons are several and interconnected. There is a fondness and a nostalgia from a time that seems in retrospect to be more alive, more full, more adventurous perhaps. That is definitely a part of it, but it’s not the only reason. When I discovered fandom, I found a community of people with similar interests, many of them able to illustrate those interests with incredible verve, skill, and imagination. All of these elements come together when I look at a fanzine like Fantastic Fanzine 12. I hope you will be interested in all the elements that make this fanzine such a great representative of the enthusiasm, the imagination, the skills, and the fun that fueled fandom at this time.  Kline again!  Don Newton If you read the installment of Ink Stains that focused on Fantastic Fanzine 10, you know Gary Groth was the editor and started his fanzine at the amazingly tender age of 13. By the time of issue 12, I assume Groth was in his early years of college. Issue 12 has a host of great artists and writers, but the focus is on frequent contributor and this issue’s cover artist Robert Kline, including a lengthy interview conducted by Groth. Kline has long been a favorite of mine and someone who I feel would have contributed greatly to professional comics if he had elected to work there instead of the animation industry, where I believe he still makes his living. When Kline burst on the scene, he seemed already at a skill level beyond most of his contemporaries. Amazingly enough, in 1970, when this interview was conducted, Kline was still only 23 years old. You don’t see many artists of this age with this level of skill. By this time, Kline had already contributed to many of the better zines of the time, including Comicology, I’ll Be Damned, The Collector, RBCC, and others. Also at this time, Kline was in the Air Force (in an effort to escape the draft, he said) and married. I’ve tried to track Kline down for this installment, but have had no luck so far. It’s really too bad, I know I am very curious as to the type of work he is doing nowadays. (years after this column posted, I was fortunate to visit Kline at his home for an interview seen in a more current Ink Stains) Since Kline is the focus of this issue, he contributes several gorgeous black and white illustrations, as well as the color cover. There are several drawings of dinosaurs (as well as several imaginary big lizards), one of his favorite subjects. We are also treated to images of knights, gnomes, barbarians, and magicians. Kline has a great command of the brush, pen, and even unconventional tools such as Q-tips and toothpicks! His placement of blacks is intelligent, as well as is his command of negative space. Suffice to say, Robert Kline is an artist’s artist.  Dave Cockrum Of course, Groth populated his books with many other wonderful artists as usual. In addition to his stable of artists such as Doug Rice, Carter Scholz, Doug Hazlewood, Dave Russell, Jay Mike, John Cornell, Dennis Fujitake, and others, there are many images by what I consider the ’super artists’ of the fanzine scene at this time. This includes artists like Dave Cockrum, Don Newton, and John G. Fantucchio. While on the subject of Fantucchio, I was lucky enough to get more information about the monochromatic but still flashy centerfold from the man himself, via email. In addition to reveling in the technique inherent in any piece by this artist, I was sure the photographic profile was Batman actor Adam West. John states that “...it originally was painted in black and white tempera. The spacey background is from a clipping from either a newspaper or an old magazine. The young man’s profile on the left is also a photograph from a newspaper or a magazine – I don’t remember which – no idea who he was, but it was supposed to represent Adam West (not the Batman one). [I think this has to be THE Adam West myself...who I peed next to at a San Diego Con! - Ken] It was cut out with my stainless steel scissors and pasted onto the background. The bracelets that are sitting on the space pedestal are painted – again in black and white tempera. The word KATANG was originally drawn on white two-ply drawing paper and cut out with an X-acto knife and pasted over the young man’s forehead. This was all executed back in 1969 or 70, long before computer graphics and electronic airbrushing. We’ve come a long way – but it’s really more fun getting your fingers dirty!” Fantucchio was probably the most supreme stylist in fandom at that time. His characters’ pointy feet, curled limbs, even his own detailed scratchy signature, were a big part of the community at that time. He continues to produce art and teach, and actually sells his work and vintage zines as well. If you are interested in contacting John, email me and I will pass along his information. You can see a great big image of his cover for the following issue of this fanzine (in a later installment covering issue 13).  An additional interview subject is uberfan and writer Dwight Decker, whose work populated many fanzines in the 70s. Decker actually contributes an article on Captain America immediately following his interview, as well as a review of Steranko’s huge The History of Comics. Other articles include Tony Isabella’s column, The Windmills of My Mind, as well as subjects such as The Second Golden Age (Dave Transue), and two satirical fiction pieces revolving around artist Robert Kline (one by Jim Wilson, the other by a Ladislov Prosnalkl, surely a pseudonym). Also included is a short story by David Anthony Kraft called The Sword of Eternal Strength, Bernie Bubnis’s Fanzine Fandom Revisited, (an article “about fandom by a pro”), a letter column, and a few other articles.  Dennis Fujitake Other content includes a one-page strip by Alan Hanley that references the Steranko interview in issue 11 . Funnily enough, Hanley’s work in this particular strip sort of looks like a combination of Archie and Robert Crumb (who would have still been very fresh and new in 1970)...the last pose of the main character is even amazingly similar to an iconic Mr. Natural pose. Ah well, maybe it’s just me. Jim Pinkowski contributes a two-page strip that ruminates on the theory of aliens populating earth in his idiosyncratic style. There is also the first part of A Brief Interview with...Syd Shores, which includes a finished drawing of a wild west character (seen below).  Carter Scholz, Dave Russell, Syd Shores Please avail yourself of the pdf of the whole zine, so you can get the full effect and see all of the material. You can see sites devoted to late great artists Dave Cockrum here and Don Newton Facebook tribute page here. You can see Don's old site in the archives here as well. If there is ANY zine that deserves your proper, pulsating, pdf attention, it is this one...tons of art!
Two clarifications given to me after this column posted below. From Gary: “At the time of FF 12 I was 15 —my son’s current age— which surprised me. As for other random comments...well, this certainly is an embarrassment. My interview with poor Bob Kline is obviously a raw transcript. You can tell because my questions were so terrible. Poor Bob. At 23 he’s knowledgeable and smart. I was clueless. It’s a miracle that he put up with me. What a nice guy. (And he put up with me a lot. I’d go over to his apartment whenever I could and just ‘hang out.’) Tony Isabella was certainly full of spunk back then, wasn’t he? I wonder what happened. [see his facebook posts, Gary. -Ken] The drawings on pages 34 and 35 (Magneto) were by Carter Scholz, who is now a brilliant novelist. Project repay was some good-hearted by wrong-headed scheme to “pay back” the soldiers fighting in Vietnam with subscriptions to Marvel Comics. The letter from Don Luskin on page 50 is dead-on. It was probably over my head; notice I didn’t even bother to answer it. If he was 15, he was a hell of a lot smarter than me.” ...and from John: “I would like to clarify a few statements that I made in my previous email to you. The photograph of the youth on the left hand side is absolutely not Adam West, the actor who portrayed Batman on TV in the 60’s. [I still don't believe him - Ken] I got into my time machine, which is my 1970 Volvo that can be seen on page 25 of Fantastic Fanzine #13 next to my wife Mary. This car still exists, so what I did was press a button on the dashboard – and out came the original artwork for the collage. I consider this a center spread, not a center fold; then I pressed another button – and out came the comic Captain Marvel #17, which at that time was only 15 cents. This issue was the inspiration for the artwork. There’s a profile on page 7 of the comic of a youth named Rick Jones, who will become Captain Marvel. Now notice on page 14 of the same comic – this is where we see Rick Jones become Captain Marvel and the word ‘KTANG.’" "All this was beautifully drawn by Gil Kane. I purposely left off the exclamation point. I gave this my interpretation – pointy boots and all. It’s really not much bigger than the reproduction, and the painted portion was done in black and white tempera. This artwork has been stored away in the caverns of time for 40 years. KATANG, Baby! I hope you have this 15 cent conic – it’s beautifully drawn by Kane and Adkins.” I would like to thank those that helped out, including John G. Fantucchio and Gary Groth. Again I say if anyone has any requests, please pass them along, and even more important, if anyone has any fanzines in their collection they would not mind loaning to me (or scanning for me), remember that as well. I have a good sized collection, but there are so many other great zines I do not have. Ken Meyer Jr [email protected] Many editors/publishers of fanzines used them as training grounds for what later became their careers. Frank Lovece did this with his art-crammed fanzine, Nimbus. This installment we examine issue 3, the final issue.  Nimbus 3, Sept 1977 Editor/Publisher: Frank Lovece  Mike Zeck Frank Lovece, the publisher and editor of Nimbus, is a professional writer nowadays. Like many professional artists and writers, he learned the basics of his craft in the world of fanzines. And also like many aspiring pros, he published his own fanzine, Nimbus. Lovece told me of his background and what part it played in his love of comics and entry into fandom: “Although I can’t remember the first fanzine I ever saw, I do remember being a teenager, growing up in a trailer park in West Virginia (I live in Manhattan now, overlooking Central Park...which is much better than ‘Trailer Park’), and anxiously awaiting each issue of The Comic Reader, a sort of TV Guide of comics, to appear in my mailbox. I don’t think it was the first fanzine I saw, but I do remember It. I also remember Don & Maggie Thompson’s Comics Buyer’s Guide, where I’d order back issues of comics with money saved from work (at my parents’ restaurant, at McDonald’s, mowing lawns). It’s funny – in looking up the spelling/punctuation of Comics Buyer’s Guide in Wikipedia just now, I ran across a link to the long- forgotten (by me) Stan’s Weekly Express, a.k.a. WE, and it jarred me into remembering I had a WE Seal of Approval number. I could be wrong, but I think WE may have been the first place where I published anything comics-related. “Where I grew up, in Morgantown, WV, there really wasn’t a lot of comics fandom, despite it being a university town. I did eventually meet a handful of other fans there – one fellow Mountaineer, Steve Saffel, now also is a longtime New Yorker and remains a friend; he’s a very talented editor who’s worked for Marvel and for Del Rey Books, and is the guy I’d want watching my back in any editorial foxhole.  Gene Colan/Pete Iro “And – woweekazowie – this is opening up a flood of memories! Somehow a Canadian fan named Paul Kowtiuk and I got in touch with each other; he published a tabloid-size newsprint fanzine called The Journal. Somehow or other, the idea came up that if I would attend the great Phil Seuling’s 1974 New York Comic Art Convention that I could report on it, supply photographs and be a published writer (in an international publication!). I was 16. God bless my parents for letting me convince them to take a family trip to New York, built around this.” In the mid 70s, the existing professional artists (and writers) at comic conventions were much more accessible, and fans like Lovece and his compatriots made good use of that accessibility, filling their fanzines with sketches and drawings from the pros. Lovece remembers that, “...back then, believe it or not, pros would often do sketches for free for fans, the way baseball players used to sign baseballs for kids at the ballpark – probably because they knew we’d keep them as personal treasures, not put them up for auction.”  Mike Zeck This final issue of Nimbus has work from such highly regarded professionals as Wally Wood, John Buscema, John Romita, Gene Colan, and more. Many of these are inked by Sam De La Rosa and Doug Hazlewood, two of fandom’s inking machines. In fact, editor Lovece told me that it was De La Rosa who was most instrumental in getting much of the professional art to fill the pages of Nimbus 3: “Sam de la Rosa, one of the Nimbus artists with whom I corresponded back in those days of pen-and-paper (well, typewriter-and- paper) letters and lettercols, knew of the material I had been collecting for the next issue, and with a generosity and work ethic that I admire to this day (though we’ve been out of touch) offered to publish it. It came out cover-dated Sept. 1977, with my editorial material (including writers Dean Mullaney, Pete Gillis and Paul Kupperberg, and an interview with Tony Isabella) and some artwork I supplied (including the Mike Zeck back cover), plus a wholllle lot more artwork Sam supplied, including a Pat Boyette cover drawn especially for Nimbus, in generous response to Sam’s request of a fellow San Antonian.” Lovece goes on to describe the beginnings of the fanzine itself with: “Paul Kowtiuk liked what I did, and for reasons I wish I could remember today asked if I would like to be the editor of a fanzine he wanted to publish. This wound up being the first of three issues of Nimbus. The name came from Eugene Burdick’s 1961 book about South Pacific culture, The Blue of Capricorn. I might have been reading it for school. I vividly remember a passage about nimbus clouds being particular to the region, and something about that imagery and the neat, clipped yet sibilant sound of the word just got to me. I know I must still have an issue of Nimbus #1 somewhere, though not readily at hand. I wish I could remember the contents. I do know it had a moody Frank Cirocco cover of the western Ghost Rider and a couple of other Western characters, and that Paul had been very understanding and patient with me when I asked him to up the $50 allotted for cover art in order to pay Cirocco his requested $75 – the difference being a lot of money in those days, when the minimum wage was about $1.65. “I’m sure, like virtually every fanzine, it returned no profit, but it was a nice product and something Paul and I could show with pride. Editing a relatively professional-looking product at 16 (I think I turned 17 before it actually came out) wasn’t a bad bit of self-education; despite my lifelong desire to write fiction (which I did eventually for Marvel, Dark Horse, Harris Comics and others), I would up making my living primarily as a journalist.  Craig Russell/Duffy Vohland “I don’t remember the exact circumstances, but I published the second issue of Nimbus myself, when I was 17 and 18, funding the printing costs with some grant money from a federal program for low-income students. (Not crying about it – just saying where the money came from. My parents worked hard in a hot kitchen six days a week, and my brother and I always found work, and I never once in my life felt poor or anything like that, but we had to watch our pennies. That my folks indulged my editorial and entrepreneurial zeal rather than make me sock away that portion of the grant for a rainy day says a lot about their love, support and trust). I remember for that second issue I interviewed Charlton Comics editor Nicola Cuti for an article I wrote about E-Man (who was the coolest new superhero around; I collected Marvel, but always had a soft sport for Charlton); did a long Q&A with Don McGregor (who remains a close friend, and who more and more seems to be getting his deserved recognition as possibly the most innovative and literary comic-book writer of the 1970s); and had contributions from a host of talented young fans, many of whom went on to become pros.” There are several illustrations sprinkled throughout Nimbus 3 from these young fans who were either just barely pros or had yet to enter those ranks, including Craig Russell, Mike Zeck, Jerry Ordway, Steve Leioloha, and Klaus Janson.  An interesting bit of trivia concerning this fanzine is the inside back cover ad for one of the very first graphic novels: “The back-cover ad for McGregor and Paul Gulacy’s pioneering graphic novel Sabre – eventually published August 1978, two months before Will Eisner’s A Contract with God – wasn’t a paid spot. Dean had promised me an article if I would publish a piece of Paul Gulacy art to promote this upcoming project. Publish a piece of Paul Gulacy art?! The virtuoso of Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu? Are you kidding? Of course I said sure! So, OK, I open up the mail sometime later to see that the Gulacy art was actually part of an ad. I had to laugh...and to this day I admire Dean, someone for whom I have great respect and affection, for having what I have since came to know as the word ‘chutzpah!’ Seeing that ad there now, published a year before Sabre came out, I feel a very wee bit part of the history of the graphic novel – or as the ad put it: ‘The kind of comic novel you’d choose ... if they gave you a choice!’” (Side note: Don actually asked me to do the art for a 2nd graphic novel of the character, but I just didn't think I had the chops to do it justice...but, boy, did it feel good that Don asked ME!) I want to be sure to not give short shrift to the writers and their contributions to this fanzine. Indeed, the content of the art revolves primarily around the subject matter of the articles. In fact, the original idea for the issue’s content was to revolve around war and its depiction in comics, and much of the content of the articles does involve war in some respect. Lovece himself writes an article centered around Marvel’s Sgt. Fury comic, discussing the characters, the creators, and the general aesthetic of the comic and the changes that aesthetic went though as the Vietnam War became more and more a part of our lives. If you look closely at the pdf, you will see a small illustration by me, inked by the incredibly clean line of Sam De La Rosa, by the way. Following the Lovece article is a treatise on death and how it is depicted in comics by Peter B. Gillis, and it is surprisingly deep and thoughtful for an article in a comic fanzine. After that is “One More Article on Howard the Duck” by Gene Kehoe, and then “Martial Law” by Chris Negri, the latter a critical examination of how martial arts are depicted in the pages of comics. The next article is Woweekazowie editor Dean Mullaney’s “A Comic Writer’s Fan Club.” This argues against the age-old premise that the artist is the most important element in the success of any given comic book. Following that somewhat lighter material, the content veers back into the war theme with Paul Kupperberg’s “War and Anti-War, That is the Question...” A very good interview with writer Tony Isabella follows and starts off with a bang up caricature illustration by Bill Neville and, who else, Sam De La Rosa. Around the time of the interview, Isabella and Chris Claremont created the Marvel series War is Hell, and much of the content of the interview deals with the title and what part death plays in it. The last article, “Protean Thoughts” by Dave Fryxell, continues the theme, writing a short history on the depiction of war in comics.  Walt Simonson/Doug Hazlewood I would also be very remiss if I did not mention the high quality (and volume) of fan art in this issue. Bill Neville turns in a large amount of very capable spot illustrations, as does Ric Cruz. The latter, inked by Sam De La Rosa, delivers an exceptionally well rendered action shot of Killraven being stalked by some tentacled beast. Carl Taylor delivers his usual dynamic synthesis of Jack Kirby and Gil Kane in several illustrations. And there are also spots by Karl Kesel, Todd Klein (yes, the letterer Todd Klein), Pete Iro, Willie Blyberg, Arvell Jones, and Kerry Gammill. Frank Lovece has gone on to do a wealth of journalistic work. He tells us that “after stints with an Internet start-up in Manhattan’s Silicon Alley, in the earliest days of the ‘net, I continued being a web editor, first at the publishing house Hachette Filipacchi, then for three years at the Sci-Fi Channel, before leaving to write a book about missing children (no royalties — I did it, with photographer Matthew Jordan Smith, to benefit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; therefore I can, without conflict of interest or self-interest, point you here (archives link) where you can get a copy for a measly twenty bucks).  Wally Wood/Doug Hazlewood “I also spent five or six of the happiest years of my life writing for Marvel, Epic, Dark Horse and Harris Comics. And if you’ll permit me to geek out for one moment, I’ve interviewed Stan the Man several times, for Entertainment Weekly, the United Media newspaper syndicated, and Newsday.
“Today I cover entertainment for Newsday, and do other freelance writing and web editing; I’ve also written several books. I’m married to the writer Maitland McDonagh, whose updated third edition of Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento comes out in a month or two – which is a good thing for horror fans, since the one used copy on Amazon of the 1991 edition is selling for $125! My older son is graduating from Fordham University this spring, and my younger son from NEST+M High School in Manhattan.” As I write each installment of this column, I often wonder if my love of fanzines and fandom from those years long ago is only nostalgia for a simpler and more innocent time, or something more profound. In this “get it now” age of the internet, Red Box video, etc., I sometimes feel we are missing something... something that we had back then, such as when you had to wait a few weeks to get your fantasy and/or comic book fix in the mail. Lovece counters this with “that time of fandom long ago... is, of necessity, so alien to the insta-news Webzines of today. The smaller, cozier fandom of my time, which we wished we could share with the world, we now do. What we lost in everyone- knows-everyone intimacy and a less slickly commercial convention environment, we’ve gained in the sheer access and availability of information, and the satisfying way we’ve seen the biggest arenas of pop culture embrace our little hobby of 12-cent newsprint fantasies. We saw then what the rest of the world sees now, and to have been a part of that – well, of all the adventures I’ve had writing for Penthouse, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and more other places than I can remember, I don’t think anything I’ve done in journalism has ever matched the excitement of holding those first, fresh copies of Nimbus in my hand. OK, that’s not actually true...I’m being nostalgic and sentimental. But it really does amaze me to see that these magazines that I and others produced in our freaking teens still mean something somehow – still resonate.” Please feel free to download the pdf of Nimbus 3 at your leisure and please, leave comments on the column and the fanzine! For this installment, I owe a huge thank you to editor Frank Lovece, who gave generously of his time, primarily by answering a host of questions via email. To a lesser extent, thanks to Sam De La Rosa as well. Check out Frank Lovece’s website here, Sam De La Rosa’s site here, and Doug Hazlewood’s site in the archives here. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Seraphim was one of the select group of fanzines that catered to those that appreciated the best artists in the business. The final issue delivered in spades, with stalwarts such as Al Williamson, Berni Wrightson, and Kenneth Smith. Get ready for a feast for the eyes!   Seraphim 5: 1970 Editor and Publisher: Tom Veilleux It is somewhat fitting that, considering this edition’s subject, Seraphim 5, I don’t have as much to say as I usually do. Seraphim was one of several fanzines that focused on the visuals. Editor and publisher Tom Veilleux put it best when he described the fanzine’s mission to have been: “...crammed with never before published art by the greatest pros around.” Though the fanzine does not possess a huge page count or number of contributors, the level of notoriety and quality is disproportionately high. To the left you see the image from the cover, a beautifully understated and typically graceful piece by Al Williamson. Inside the pages of this issue, you will also see a Flash Gordon head sketch by the artist, to whom this issue was dedicated. Directly following that is an ink drawing by Dan Adkins that appears to be referencing a still from an old adventure serial. It is a skillful exercise in crosshatching, line control, and using the light areas to direct the eye, all signs of an experienced and expert draftsman. Several other artists do one-off illustrations, including Gray Morrow (a back cover that looks to be a rough for a book cover) and Jeff Jones (see below). In case you did not know, Jones has become quite a regular contributor to her facebook page. New pieces of art seem to go up daily, much of it unseen until now.  Jeff Jones The main focus of this issue however, is divided between portfolios by three artists who are acknowledged as masters of their respective fields. These folios start off with a bang, courtesy of a still young Berni Wrightson, only a year from starting his career defining initial Swamp Thing appearance in House of Secrets number 92 in 1971. What is really striking is the incredible leap in quality between his work in Squa Tront, to the four illustrations in the this portfolio, spanning a mere two or three years. A sampling to whet your appetite (and get you to download the issue) is below. Following the Wrightson portfolio is an article on the early Mad Magazine, and especially Harvey Kurtzman’s part in the seminal humor magazine’s beginnings. It is accompanied by a black and white reproduction of the cover of issue ten. What I find charming, especially in this digital age, is the obvious (and maybe even manual) typewriter that was used to write the article. Letters rise and drop from the baseline, misspellings appear here and there. Keep in mind that this is the way many fanzines were produced back then. Methods available then seem primitive today, obsolete. But many a teenager or college student produced their fanzine in their home on typewriters, mimeograph machines, or, if they had money to burn, printed their gems on an offset printing press. Perhaps it is only charming to someone of my generation, who actually used these things!  After being immersed in the dark and shadowy world of Wrightson, the master of the macabre, it’s time to go back to that magical and fictional age when dinosaurs and man lived (and died) together, guided by the fine pencil and pen strokes of Kenneth Smith. Kenneth Smith was the artist and publisher behind the incredibly high quality Phantasmagoria (see Smith's erudite site here). The work in this issue of Seraphim looks to be very early. Smith’s usual attention to detail and fine line work is evident, though there are a few anatomy issues that he worked out later in his career. Smith was also one of the most intelligent artists (and writers) at that time, having finished a philosophy degree and begun his Ph.D in the same subject at Yale. No slouch in the brainpan area is Mr. Smith! Below, you see a few plates from the portfolio and after that, the cover of the first issue of his fanzine, Phantasmagoria. I urge you to search for more issues and pages. You can see a great selection of Creepy and Eerie covers, as well as other work, courtesy of “Mr. Door Tree” and his blog in the archives here. They are simply mind-blowing in their attention to detail.   Kenneth Smith  Roy Krenkel The last portfolio in this issue spotlights the incredibly prolific Roy Krenkel. I recall seeing (and buying) numerous great science fiction and heroic fantasy paperbacks in the 70s, especially those written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Many times I bought them solely because of the great covers. It was in this commercial arena of the gods that it always felt like it was a battle between titans and good friends Krenkel and Frazetta. In fact, if I may digress a bit into a personal anecdote, I spent almost all the money I had earned de-tasseling corn one summer in Minnesota on books with covers by these two great artists in one stop at the bookstore! I must have been about 14 at the time. Those were the days! After a short bio, we are treated to 8 pages of Krenkel sketches and finished drawings. I would submit that the sketches (as with many artists), have more life than the actual finished work.  Roy Krenkel From a succinct but very good online Roy Krenkel bio, it is said of his career as a commercial artist that “...most of Roy’s ‘career’ consists of occasional bursts of commercial output mixed with prolonged submersion into personal creativity. He told Bhob Stewart that he did the minimal amount of commercial work that would give him just enough to live on so he could spend his time drawing his own ideas — with no one to please but himself. Non-paying gigs like his uncounted contributions to the sword and sorcery fanzine, Amra, and the Burroughs fanzine, ERB-dom, were much more interesting to Roy than getting paid to illustrate some stories in Analog. He did five or six of the latter and hundreds of the former in the early sixties. Roy’s focus was always the past, not the future.”  Roy Krenkel “Roy’s knowledge of the past, both artistic and historic, were brought into play when Ace Books hired him to produce covers for their early 60s revival of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was this canon of three dozen books that would start a revival of fantasy fiction in that decade. The earliest to see print was At The Earth’s Core. Each book had the extra bonus of a small frontispiece in pen & ink. Halfway through the project, he enlisted Frank Frazetta’s help. The thought of the self-effacing Krenkel trying to convince the self-assured Frazetta that Frank would actually be a success at painting goes contrary to everything we know about the two men. Still, after a couple of collaborative efforts, Roy sent Frank out on his own and the rest is history.” Krenkel is widely admired by many artists, writers, and fantasy fans. Well known illustrator Mike Kaluta, in an online testimonial to Krenkel’s effect on his art says, “...I can still cast my mind back to those first impressions, very useful when called upon to work up anything remotely in the same vein. Spoken aloud in those earlier years and now a silent inner voice when caught at a loss, my mantra is: ‘What would Krenkel do with this?’ If the prayer is answered, I’m well on my way to a fine composition, thanks to the guidance I gleaned from my appreciation of Roy’s work.” Kaluta continues his admiration with, “The overall effect Roy’s work had on me was it gave me permission to delve into realms of imagination untouched by the run-of-the-mill illustrator. ‘Giving Permission’ is the greatest gift one can give to another, in art as in real life.” Krenkel’s sketches remind me of the great J. Allen St. John, his quick and lively strokes exuding a lifetime of skill and experience. He is one of the more overlooked artists of the past, and I urge you to search out his work  Roy Krenkel Publisher Tom Veilleux appears to have continued his appreciation of amazing art, as his website says he has been assisting customers with their fine art needs for thirty years. Please visit his website here.
Also, as always, please avail yourself of the pdf I have provided of this fine fanzine. Show me I am not doing all this scanning and assembling for nothing! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Galactic Heroes! Planet-shattering battles! Epic frontiers! The Star Slayers! All this in a 13 issue series, produced every three weeks, by fanzine kingpin/writer Matt Bucher and multiple artists, including yours truly!   Inked by me! Starslayers 1-13: 1981-1982 Editor/writer/publisher: Matt Bucher The Star Slayers was, by fanzine standards, a pretty nervy undertaking. Matt Bucher, writer and publisher, decided he wanted to produce a sequential fanzine every three weeks! If you like a big space traveling, Starlin-esque, epic sized series, filled with a George Perez worthy cast of characters, then The Star Slayers could be your cup of tea (or bowl of tribbles). Matt Bucher was one of a select few ‘fanzine moguls’ back in the 70s/80s, including people like Steve Streeter and Bill Black. These go-getters looked like they had big plans and the chutzpah to see them through. Bill Black had his clean commercial style of art with an eye on the mainstream in zines such as Paragon, while Streeter seemed happy producing fannish and fun tributes to the pop culture of the day in publications such as Paige Comics and The Outer Limits Newsletter. Bucher’s The Star Slayers was preceded by Ultrazine (which later morphed into Omniman), as well as publishing work by contemporaries such as Rick McCollum. Of his adventures as a fanzine CEO, Bucher humbly says:  Steve Brooks “Someone asked me how I appraise today the quality of those old fanzines. In other words: do I cringe? Absolutely! But mostly at the work I did myself — which was astonishing in its mediocrity. This is true of both my stripzines work and my Ultrazine efforts. And sure, some contributions by other fans were disposable as well. But you know what? There’s also much stuff that still holds up, even today. A few pieces are damn near transcendent. So much of the artwork is amazing. I only wish that I’d managed to print the books offset. And some of the writing is very clever — and funny. Plus, it’s hard not to smile at our obvious enthusiasm. God, we were having fun! I don’t care how sappy it sounds: there really was a sense of community in Ultrazine, despite our reliance on snail-mail to bridge our vast geographical differences. (It’s no accident that the letters column portion of Ultrazine doubled in size after it became more of a general-topic forum). As for the quality of our efforts, let’s not forget: we were amateurs, and many of us were kids.” On the subject of The Star Slayers, Bucher adds:  Steve Brooks “It was 1981. I’d been publishing fanzines for three years. I fancied myself a writer and had dreamt of producing an epic space saga. I hooked up with a young artist named Steve Brooks and we threw some ideas together. Both of us loved Star Wars and Jim Starlin’s cosmic tales for Marvel. Quickly we settled on an ambitious plan: Star Slayers would be a 15 chapter SF novel in comic form, published on a ridiculous every-three- weeks schedule. Everyone said I was nuts. There was no precedent for a fan-based comic book published on such an accelerated schedule. We began working, thrilled at how the early chapters were turning out. “Several issues in, Steve Brooks pulled out. I panicked. The schedule was so tight, I had to figure out Plan B overnight. Swiftly I assembled a squad of top caliber fan-artists to step in. And to my happy amazement, the book just got better. Willie Peppers penciled many chapters with his dynamic, John Byrne-like art. The brilliant Rick McCollum provided artwork and an uncredited story assist, injecting surrealism and near-poetry into my more conventional story. Ken Meyer Jr. contributed moody, kick-ass covers and back covers. Mark Heike and Steve Addlesee helped out. But the MVP was undeniably Bill Anderson, the fan version of Terry Austin, who worked tirelessly on the book from start to finish, churning out stunning work on a nearly overnight basis (bear in mind, most of us were just kids, doing this for free. By the 1990s, if not sooner, nearly all of these guys were working in the comics industry as professionals). “Okay, so we missed our original schedule by a few weeks. So what? “Halfway through I panicked a second time when I read that Mike Grell had a new book coming out called Starslayer. Yet he ultimately wrote me a very nice personal letter promising not to make a legal stink.  Steve Brooks, Brooks/Heike “Ultimately The Star Slayers became my best-selling fanzine after Southland Distributors (a comic subscription service) picked it up and started ordering several hundred copies at a clip.” Bucher’s promising newcomer, artist Steve Brooks, had a Starlin-esque style that fit the science fiction/space saga feel of the series perfectly. Many fan artists and writers were young...most were in college, some in high school...but the eighth grade??? Yes, unbelievably, Steve Brooks was only 13 years old when he started penciling The Star Slayers. I can tell you from being in the sequential program at The Savannah College of Art and Design that there were college students who were not as good as this youngster was way back then. Brooks confirms his precocious beginnings with, “I believe I was thirteen when I first started working with Matt. I penciled an Omniman story and then I penciled and inked an Argon, the Space Warrior story for Ultrazine.  More of my inks. At the time I was talking to Matt about writing and drawing a series of stories featuring his character Argon. I had the idea of doing it in serialized installments. There were a few things that really influenced me – the serials of the thirties and forties (I had a big book on all the serials), the Strange Tales issues featuring Dr. Strange by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and Nick Fury stories by Steranko . I just loved the idea of an epic adventure story told in eight or ten page chapters over a period of 12 to 15 episodes. The more we talked about it the bigger the idea became. I had the character of Damien Blackstar and wanted to include him in the stories. Matt had some ideas and pretty soon we had decided to make it a limited series. I had the idea of putting a synopsis page with the credits in each issue and making the back cover a preview of the upcoming issue. And I came up with the title The Star Slayers [as a title] not realizing that Mike Grell had the same title. As far as who came up with the other characters it’s difficult to remember. I would send designs to Matt and he would send ideas back. I only ended up doing five issues. Probably because I was so young and it became a much bigger project than I’d anticipated. Although at the time I thought we should have completed all of the issues before we started publishing it since it was a tight publishing schedule but neither one of us was that disciplined.”  Brooks/Heike, Meyer, Meyer Brooks acknowledges his influences freely, admitting that, “yeah, Starlin was a big influence. I was also a big fan of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and Starlin (at that time) seemed to pull both of those styles together in a modern way. Plus his stuff was very cosmic and out there which I really liked. Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart were two writers I appreciated. The list of artists is endless – Steranko, John Buscema, John Bryne, Gil Kane, Joe Kurbert, George Perez, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers, Walt Simonson, etc. I stole from anybody and everybody.” Brooks’s accelerated level of skill in one so young indicated that he would go on to work in the world of mainstream comics, but “then I got involved in filmmaking and playing guitar and comics fell by the wayside.” Steve Brooks has left the comic world behind, choosing instead to be a filmmaker. He asserts that “I’ve written a number of screenplays which have won some awards. I’ve directed a few short films and a no-budget feature. Currently I’m working on raising the money to make a feature film in 2010.” Though initially enthusiastic about The Star Slayers, Brooks would later succumb to the workload after a few issues and instigate a parade of fill-in artists. Mark Heike, Rick McCollum, Steve Addlesee and Bill Anderson all penciled issues, with Anderson’s inks many times maintaining a “house look” of sorts. Bill Anderson also started working in fanzines very young, with his first contributions being done at the age of 16. Bill elaborates on his introduction to fandom with, “I actually don’t remember the name of the first [fanzine], because I did the drawing as a commission for someone, not with the intention of having it published in a fanzine. I put an ad in CBG for artwork commissions and got a few responses, and one very frequent repeat customer. He later asked if he could submit one of the pieces I drew for him to a friend’s fanzine. It was very exciting, and even more so when I was published in ‘zines that I directly submitted to.” When asked about his reasons for getting involved in fandom in the first place, Anderson says, “Like most of us, I wanted people to look at my work, and it seemed like an accessible way to have that happen with folks who shared interests with me. That was crucial to me, because there wasn’t much of a comics (or any type of art) community where I grew up, so fanzines were a way for me to get better feedback about my work.” Anderson did not start out wanting to be an inker per se, but Bucher asked him to ink a few illustrations and he was then on his way to what would become his primary discipline within the comics world. When I asked him about his Star Slayers experience and his job as the “glue” of the book, Bill says that, “It was actually good practice for much of my later professional work. It brought together a lot of different artists, with wildly varying styles, and attempted to use them in the service of a single, coherent storyline. Was it successful? I think so, on its own terms. Certainly nobody’s going to publish the remastered oversize slipcase hardcover reprint collection, but considering that we were all completely inexperienced, and were working on a volunteer basis, I think we did alright.” Anderson’s experience with fandom helped him on his path towards professional comics, and he wasted no time blazing that path. “I started inking professionally right out of high school (‘81). Sporadic gigs for Marvel and DC, but mostly for smaller companies like Comico, Innovation and (it seems like) a million others. Then, in the early ’90s, it flipped around and I was working mostly for Marvel and DC with a few gigs here and there for smaller publishers. I’ve worked on Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, Green Lantern, Silver Surfer, too many titles to list.”  Willie Peppers/Bill Anderson If Bill Anderson was the Most Valuable Player of The Star Slayers team, then I would submit Willie Peppers as the Clean-Up Batter. OK, I don’t watch much baseball, but you get my point. Peppers, with his aforementioned and very professional John Byrne-like style, coupled with his ability to handle large groups of characters (which you will also see in a later installment of Ink Stains featuring Bucher’s Omniman Spectacular), was a perfect fit for the fanzine, as the saga became more populated with heroes and littered with huge battle scenes. Willie was a fanzine veteran by this time, having had work in many zines, including earlier column subject, David Heath Jr.’s No Sex, admittedly Peppers’s favorite zine to work on. You could see Peppers’s enthusiasm for his subject (primarily super heroes) and the medium of comics as a whole wherever his work appeared. Of his time then, Peppers happily says, “I was happy to be drawing. In all the things I had done, I had never felt such a sense of family as I did with my fanzine compadres. We were always sending work back and forth, helping out each other. A lot of us became the best of friends without ever actually meeting. I still have some strong friendships from those days and wouldn’t change it for the world.”  Anderson, Peppers, Peppers You could also tell that Peppers had strong desires to be in the mainstream, which he asserts with, Since the age of about 5 or so (when I decided I wanted to be a comics artist) I wanted to be a penciler at Marvel. The amount of work I sent them was staggering. Back then, when you got a rejection letter, it wasn’t a form letter. It was typed and signed. That’s how I got the actual signatures of such greats as Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. They were encouraging, but still telling me that I wasn’t quite ready. It hurt, but, looking back on it, they were right. I just appreciate that they didn’t just shoot me down, but said keep trying, you’ll get there.” His published work recently has included “...a freelance contract with Atlantis Studios. I’d done several projects with them until we had a falling out this past year. Right now, I’ve joined a local group of creators called The Pantheon. It’s a non-profit corporation consisting of writers and artists. I have been working on some projects of my own that I hope to shop around sometime soon. I just need to find some collaborators because writing, penciling, inking, lettering and coloring is just too blasted much for one person, I don’t care who you are!” Peppers actually did almost all of those tasks on The Star Slayers, including pencils on several issues, as well as lettering many others. Though Peppers has not, as yet, achieved his dream of working for Marvel, I am certainly pulling for him. If enthusiasm and a capability for handling a prodigious workload were enough, I think he would be in the ranks today. Matt Bucher works as a CPA these days. Steve Brooks, as stated earlier, is a burgeoning filmmaker. Willie Peppers, Mark Heike, and Bill Anderson continue to produce art, some in comics, some not. You can see more of Mark Heike online here. More on Mark below.  McCollum/Anderson, Peppers Other contributors played parts in making The Star Slayers the fun read that it is. Rick McCollum stepped in and helped to save Bucher’s bacon several times, penciling a few issues, as well as inking and lettering a few, and as Bucher said earlier, adding his cosmic take on a few story arcs. Mark Heike penciled and inked an issue, and did a few covers as well. Steve Addlesee also penciled an issue. Almost all the creators played a part in the final issue, with groups of pages done by different teams. I myself inked and lettered a few issues as well as a few covers in my bumbling efforts to find a style I could claim as my own. I think I am still doing that today!  Black Mercy, second from right, is a character of mine, though not much more than a costume design, really.  Heike/Bill Black Sidebar: Mark Heike Back in the Star Slayers days, Heike was still struggling to get work published, and in fact, is not happy with his Star Slayers work. He says “I was honored to be invited to participate, but when the time came, I was pretty uninspired. I did NOT consider it good work, and have always been disappointed in what I did on the story. There may be several reasons why- one being, I was inking my own pencils, which I always HATE to do. I enjoy both penciling and inking, but I’d rather it be a collaborative effort with another artist, whether I’m doing one or the other. I know that’s contrary to the way MOST artists feel, but that’s me. Also- though I didn’t really realize it at THAT time, but I don’t really enjoy drawing SF material that much- I’m not that big a fan of the genre. Funny, as once I got the chance to draw comics professionally, I kept getting jobs working on SF properties: Nexus, Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens vs. Predator, etc. Go figure.” As to how he got into fandom, Heike states that he “saw ads for the RBCC in the Marvel books around 1971, and sent away for a subscription. I would’ve been 12 or 13.” It was about 5 years later that Heike had his first published work, admittedly a Burne Hogarth swipe for a fanzine called Verse. And he says he actually got paid five bucks for it! I remember Mark as someone who was very good at drawing the female figure (a skill that obviously comes in handy for doing a comic called FemForce), and also as someone who seemed to get a fair amount of TBG covers! Mark attests that the practice in fanzines did help him along, saying that working for the zines “...motivated me to produce artwork. Some artists can fill up piles of sketchbooks doing drawings for their own amusement, but not me. I always needed more motivation than that. If someone wanted art for publication enough to contact me and ask for it, that was enough, so those demands kept me drawing.” Mark’s career in comics eventually took off. “I began to get jobs freelancing in the comics industry in the early 1980’s, and have been working full-time in the industry since 1990. I’ve freelanced as a penciler or inker on Green Hornet, X-Men, She-Hulk, Man Against Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpsons, Lady Justice, Mantra, H.A.R.D. Corps, Xena Warrior Princess and lots of others. My full-time “day job” has been Associate Editor at AC Comics, which as of now is, after DC, Marvel, Archie and Fantagraphics, the fifth- longest-running American comic book publisher in history. Our best-known creation, and the title I am most associated with, is Femforce. We will ship issue #152 in late April; I have been working on the title almost continuously since 1984, when I pencilled the first issue for by boss/publisher/editor-in-chief, the great Bill Black. Check it out on our official website, if your local retailer doesn’t carry it. Beyond freelancing & AC, another project I’ve been involved in for over a decade is inking my wife Stephanie’s creator-owned comic book series, 21st Centurions. It’s a teen-superhero kind of thing with a... you guessed it, SF tinge. Steph (who started out as a freelance penciler for AC Comics- I was her editor, dealing with her over the phone & mail for ten years before we ever met- now we’ve been married for 10 more since then) created, writes, pencils, colors, etc., etc AND publishes the book in full, glorious digital color through her own Centurion Premiere publishing house. Check it out on our personal site (from the archives, he may have a newer one now - ken), if your shop doesn’t carry it.”
Pretty impressive for starting in a fanzine! So, please, satisfy your need for some space-hopping, super villain bashing, Starlin-swiping, world saving action packed comic nirvana, and download all the issues! Utilize these links for issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. I really believe if you like a few of the creators and comics mentioned as inspirations by the various participants, you will like reading these fanzines. You can talk to Steve Brooks, Willie Peppers, Bill Anderson, and Matt Bucher on Facebook. I want to thank Matt, along with Willie Peppers, Steve Brooks, Mark Heike and Bill Anderson for answering questions via email and providing bits of text here and there The article would not have been nearly as much fun to write (or read) without their input. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] |
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May 2026
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