|
For the biggest names and the best artists, you could do no better than Infinity. With each issue the production got more lavish and more professional, culminating with issue 5, the final issue. Fans of Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Larry Todd and Esteban Maroto, this is for you!  Infinity 5: Summer, 1973 Gary Berman and Adam Malin, editors Infinity, Along with the great artzines such as Heritage, Anomaly, and Squa Tront, set the bar very high when it came to the quality of the art, writing and production. Editors Gary Berman and Adam Malin put out a zine that, if you loved great art, you had to have! As to why the two young entrepeneurs started the zine, Malin (from an interview by Richard Arndt, see link at bottom of article) said in 2007: “[We started the fanzine out of] a genuine love of comic art and the graphic story medium. I had begun collecting comic art (as did Gary) and we also drew art—really, they were swipes—of all our favorite comic characters. We published a xerox fanzine called Electra Fanzine, of which the less said the better. Suffice it to say that we used our own artwork which was silly, but it got us into the publishing business. Once we got past the stupidity of using our own art, and we began to accumulate some great pieces by some of our favorite artists, we knew we were almost ready to start a real publishing venture. However, we knew we had to score some interviews with our favorite artists, and Doug Murray was instrumental in assisting in that regard.” As it was with most issues, the content featured a central interview. This issue, that interview subject is one Richard Corben. Above you see an interior logo (appearing to have been done by Kenneth Smith) surrounded by Corben sculptures. Frequent Corben collaborator and writer, Jan Strnad, conducted the dense 7 page interview with the master colorist and lover of ample bosoms. Strnad has always been an inventive writer of fiction, which aids in making the interview very deep and entertaining. A big plus is Strnad’s insider status. The only complaint I have is that the illustrations accompanying it are on the small side. For a beautiful Corben cover, get issue 4, which I deeply wish I still had. What sets the interview apart visually are the photos of Corben’s sculpture work. Though the artist does these primarily for reference, it shows that he is a fairly accomplished sculptor as well as an illustrator and comic artist of the highest caliber. These pieces are usually done to help him with his realistic and often complicated shadow patterns. If you know his work, you will recognize most of the characters in the piece at the top of the page, as well as the other sculptures shown in the interview.  Larry Todd  Larry Todd The other main subject of this issue is Larry Todd, probably known primarily for his work in the underground comics of the late 60s and early 70s. Larry contributes a colorful SF themed cover (see above) which sort of looks like one of Todd’s hippie bikers if he was suddenly transported to the Edgar Rice Burroughs version of Mars, albeit with human sized Tharks with flat heads and an American Indian wardrobe. But who’s quibbling? In addition to the cover, Todd ’s entries include four pages of heavily annotated sketchbook pages (one figure to the right), a full page cartoon referencing the Creation Convention of 1972, another full page illustration featuring a Conan like character, a full page spaceship scene, and a very sexy and provocative “visual poem” (hearkening back to his uncensored underground work). Other full page illustrations include Tom Yeates’ renditions of Jimi Hendrix and a clean shaven Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (below the Maroto piece), a black and white painting by Gray Morrow, and Steve Harper’s close up of the pensive face of an American Indian. We are also treated to a black and white portfolio featuring four loose and expressive watercolor paintings by Warren stalwart, Esteban Maroto (below). I am sure we are missing much of the beauty of Maroto’s work regardless of the comparatively high quality of the printing. Neal Adams fans will want to check out the 7 page article on the ill-fated Broadway production of WARP, for which Adams designed the costumes. In addition to full page renderings by Adams of a few of the principals (several of which resemble certain comic characters), the article by Doug Murray (writer of The ‘Nam) chronicles the beginnings of the play, behind the scenes scenarios, the story contained within the play, opening night, and the not so kind reviews that came afterward.  Esteban Maroto  Tom Yeates  Al Williamson If you have always wanted to see Tarzan take part in a student protest riot, then join Mike Olshan and Frank Brunner in sticking it to The Man in Tarzan’s Chicago Adventure. There are also several pages reporting on the aforementioned Creation Convention of 1972, complete with photos of Isaac Asimov, Philip Jose Farmer, William C. Gaines and others.
Luckily, I was careful enough over the years to not lose the full color Berni Wrightson loose insert, featuring a sort of zombie Beatles tribute! Top the issue off with illustrations by Vaughn Bode, Rick Buckler, Bruce Jones, Al Williamson (see at right) and Alan Weiss, as well as an aviation themed back cover by Mike Kaluta and you can see why Infinity was one of the most beautiful zines of its time! Both Malin and Berman went on to produce conventions and events, of which you can learn more about here. Sidebar: Michael Kaluta I am sure most of us know Michael Kaluta’s consistently amazing work through the years, from the Shadow and Starstruck series to his plethora of covers for titles like Lucifer, Books of Magic and many others. He is also known as just being an incredibly nice guy, very approachable at conventions and much more accessible than contemporaries with less impressive portfolios. Kaluta lent his talents pro bono to the Tori Amos RAINN benefit calendar I produced for a few years and was gracious enough to answer a few questions via email for this column. Michael Kaluta started young, as most comic artists do. Though to many of us, he seemed to burst on the scene fully formed. However, also like many of his contemporaries, he contributed heavily to the fanzines of the late 60s/early 70s. Of his first exposure to fanzines he says “I didn’t buy my first several fanzines: I was lent them by Tom Long, soon to publish his fanzine, Graphic Showcase. I was introduced to Tom by my pal Mike Cody while I was in my first year of college. Mike thought my comic strip, “Eyes of Mars” done for myself and hung on the bulletin board in our local alternative book store and music venue, the Scarlet Griffin, would be a swell addition to Tom’s proposed publication. Tom was very forthcoming with his fanzine collection... he must have given me George Schither’s AMRA, Cazz’s ERB-dom, Jerry Weist’s Squa Tront and, my favorite, Rich Hauser’s and Helmut Muller’s Spa Fon. I wrote the Spa-Fon boys (they lived in Chicago) and offered my services as a comic book artist... Rich H recently showed me my original letter: I blushed at my temerity and downright gall set forth in same, but...I did illustrate the note!” Another favorite of Kaluta’s was Ink Stains subject, Witzend. On how big of an effect being published for the first time had on the young artist, Kaluta said “I believe Tom Long’s Graphic Showcase came out just before the issue of Spa-Fon I had my other strip in... they were on each others heels, that’s for sure! It was a Very Big Deal for me, and the way the ‘zine was presented: slick!!! Entirely offset litho, with full color covers... amazing!!! I was 19.” True to his genial inclusive nature, Kaluta continued with “well, I was so happy to be in any fanzine, I didn’t have any sort of judgemental take on their various merits... that feeling of loving to be included extended to the fanzines I’d be working in during my first few years of professional work. Wherever I turned up in print, I was excited to see myself there.” Many of Kaluta’s friends also honed their chops in the ranks of the lowly fanzine, and as usual, Kaluta doesn’t play favorites, including in his admiration “...all of them. Steve Hickman and Steve Harper were pals I’d met just before heading to college. As soon as I could, I let Tom Long know of their art: they were included in the first and subsequent issues. Mike Cody, Bob Juanillo, George Metzger... damn, I’m blanking on so many... Bob Kline, Kenneth Smith, Tim Kirk, Alicia Austin, George Barr, Larry Ivey...” When I asked if his experience in the world of fanzines helped him prepare for his career in comics, he answered “Definitely: it was Al Williamson seeing my work in Graphic Showcase and Spa-Fon that got him interested enough to have Phil Seuling ask me if I’d do some breakdowns on a DC story for him... That is definitely what I’d term help!” Did the relationships forged back in the stone age of fanzines flower into long lasting friendships? Kaluta affirms with big “Naturally! I left Bernie Wrightson out of the list above because I dragged him into Graphic Showcase after Hickman, Harper and I met him at the SCARP Con in NYC, 1967. Bernie and I are still friends, Mike Cody and I are still friends, Steve Hickman and Steve Harper are still on the speed dial! I’m still in touch with Rich Hauser of Spa-Fon fame, and get a hello via mail and email from Bob Barrett and Jerry Weist.” Lastly, Kaluta’s involvement with Infinity is explained with “The youngsters [editors Malin and Berman] called Jeff Jones, Berni and me after having met us at the various local NYC cons... they came over to the apartment building and did interviews, etc. This was in their early days, before they took over the convention world. The earlier issues were li’l things that were all heart.. the later mags were more on the scale of Graphic Showcase and certainly had a mob of terrific artists!” The lovingly detailed work of this artist as seen in the fanzines and later professional comics is just one reason I am sure I speak for many when I say I am glad Michael Kaluta was one of this “mob of terrific artists!” Please download the pdf here so you can see the gorgeous work inside it’s pages. Also, and this applies to every Ink Stains column, please honor the publishers and contributors by only downloading a copy for yourself to view. For a great group of interviews (as well as an annotated list many great fanzines, including Witzend), go to Richard J. Arndt’s bibliography page here! Subjects include Adam Malin, Doug Murray and more! Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]
0 Comments
For artist/writers such as Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, and David Lapham, telling a good story is the most important thing. The same holds true for this column’s subject, Earl Geier in his fanzine, Bald Ego.  Earl Geier came into view for me first in David Heath Jr.’s fanzine, No Sex. I was taken with his simple but effective storytelling and art. Not flashy, Geier wrote interesting stories, and his sequential work served those stories very well. Like some of the best writers, Geier puts ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. “I can remember reading 1950′s science fiction, which had a lot of stories where the common plumber or electrician would end up saving the universe, and I always wondered about the other people in the world, who were just swept up in the events. I remember the Archie Goodwin/Alex Toth story in Blazing Combat 3 left a big impression, with its desolate post- armageddon atmosphere. Some people see a glass of water as half full. I see it as half empty, with stuff floating in it, and a chip on the glass lip where I’ll probably cut myself.” Geier decided to self-publish his work because, in his words, “I killed three magazines,” and had “failed in my attempts to find a paying market for my artwork.” These magazines include Paper Cuts, Dragon’s Teeth (which coincidentally, intended to bump a story by Alex Toth for one by Geier), and Whispers and Shadows. While supporting himself by doing work for the role playing game market, Geier has also had jobs as a security guard, a teacher, and more. Geier did get some work in professional comics, but that seemed doomed as well, with companies such as Now and Innovation folding, and work at First not coming to fruition.  Earl Geier’s work first appeared in Robert Weinberg’s 5th anniversary Weird Tales tribute (see a webpage listing the content here), alongside such greats as Roy Krenkel, Frank Frazetta, and Tim Kirk. He went on to be in fanzines such as Ewigkiet (which I have an issue of and will review at a later date), the aforementioned No Sex, and Lari Davidson’s Potboiler. But it was in his own Bald Ego that he was really able to take flight (literally, as you can see from the cover above). Though, as I said, Geier’s visuals are not flashy, they are well constructed and well thought out. If you examine the construction of the cover to the second issue, you could argue that the direction of the kite points to the windows, which angle back downward to the center of the picture, and that direction is reinforced by the curtain being blown out one window towards the precariously balanced protagonist’s leg, which then brings you back up the other character to the kite, establishing an enclosed circular flow. Guiding the viewer’s eye, whether by purpose or intuition, is the mark of a thinking and self-aware artist. Geier, in his usual depreciating manner, calls it “instink” and goes further in saying, “I suppose there might be some artists who carefully plan out a picture, and manage to make it look natural. I can’t say I believe that works. Personally I don’t plan things out: you sketch out the picture and go ‘hmm, that looks boring, what can I do with it?’ You add things (or take away things), move things until it ‘looks right.’ The best artists make it look ‘right’ (and ‘better’) regularly, and more often than the rest of us. And, of course, time enters into it. Sometimes you have to say ‘good enough’ (or ‘good as I can do it right now’) and move on. On the cover I was just trying to add touches to make it look good.” The cover references the third story in this issue, but let’s save the examination of that story since Geier treats his issues as sort of a musical concert with multiple bands. There is a warm up band, maybe even two, leading up to the main attraction, and this particular story makes a great headliner, as you will see. For now, we can take a look at the first story, which is called “Listen to the Silence.” This story involves a future where the more evolved among the society have learned to communicate via ESP, becoming what is known as “esps.” Not everyone is adept enough, and these people, called “norms,” end up in internment camps. Geier shows us the mental communication by using a different balloon treatment... actually no balloon at all, as well as text of the esps being a typewriter typeface (and on a real typewriter probably, since this was before we all had home computers), rather than hand lettered. To be honest, lettering is not Geier’s strong point, but it shows that the artist/writer is continually trying new techniques to serve the story. Geier comes up with several interesting moments, one of which is a scene where the reader learns of the difficulty of the esps to ‘keep up’ with the speed of one character’s verbal communication. One Esp says that “oral was my worst subject in school.” This whole conceit could make for a long novel, but Geier only has so much space, so the story is told in nine pages. By and large Geier continues to come up with interesting and original ideas throughout his work, while keeping his art in service to the story. Gilbert Hernandez was an early admirer of Geier, stating that the artist/writer was one that “I really liked in No Sex. Looking back, he had a very pleasant Jesse Marsh approach to drawing and pacing his stories.” Jesse Marsh was an artist who did a lot of work for Dell in the 50s and 60s, primarily Tarzan, and was admired by many, including Richard Corben. I liken Geier more to someone like Sam Glanzman, an artist (and writer) who did a lot of war related work for DC (such as The Haunted Tank), in addition to Charlton and Dell. See a Jesse Marsh site here and the work of Glanzman here, along with a Glanzman interview here. Given the title Bald Ego, you would expect it to be a showcase for Geier’s work only. But at least these first few issues have other contributors. The second story is by friends and fellow No Sex contributors David Heath Jr. and Jerry Collins, and is called “Ships.” I don’t know whether the pair was having a laugh by the various Star Trek references or not (see below), but the references are both visual and textual.  The story takes us through the history of a specific spaceship. You can tell the creators loved their subject matter, though Collins and Heath’s artwork is cartoony, sketchy, and not for everyone. If nothing else, you might have fun spotting all the aforementioned Star Trek jokes! In an editorial of sorts that follows this story, Geier calls for contributions but says, “the story must have depth! It should not just be an excuse for pretty artwork!” As you can tell from what I have said so far, Geier follows his own dictum. But now...flick your lighters (or cell phones), it’s time for the main attraction! Flying the Hollow City was what convinced me of Earl Geier’s skills and prompted me to keep an eye out for his work. Again the story takes place in some sort of nameless future, after “the wars” and “the troubles.” Most of the adults are gone in this deserted and bombed out city. Those that were well connected or well off were able to sequester themselves in the clean tall “Towers.” Those that weren’t were left to fend for themselves or end up in the Army, the factories, or “scratchin’ in the city.” The protagonist, a teenager by the name of Gus, is in the middle of a blood feud with another young man over a girl. An old story, but one well told here. The art also, is some of the best Geier has done. In addition to using fewer panels on a page than usual, he showcases his adept handling of blacks and zip- a-tone to heighten mood, establish perspective, and guide the viewer’s eye, as seen below (lettering by Carole Cheval).   The innovative twist in this story is the use of hangliders as not only a thrill ride, but a method of transportation. Gus and his nemesis Vince decide to duel for the girl and their pride in a deadly flying battle. The canyons created by the deserted buildings supply the needed airflow. Though I will not go so far as to equate Geier with Alex Toth (the master of all things sequential), the glider duel reminded me of Toth’s benchmark Bravo for Adventure, specifically the page to the left. See more of the incredible work of Alex Toth on the official site here. Alex Toth is an inspiration to many comic artists of course, most notably Steve Rude. Below you will see two sequences from the air fight in Geier’s story.  I don’t know about you, but I almost get vertigo from just seeing those two sequences!
Issue two is rounded out by two full-page illustrations by Geier and a back cover by David Heath Jr. Geier was kind enough to let me scan and post the pdf of issue two, even though he is actually still selling this and other issues. In addition to downloading the pdf here, please go to his site and check out the other work he has for sale. Issue one of the new volume of Bald Ego has a story (Cold Steerage) you might have seen in the previous No Sex column, but the other issues should be all new to you. In addition to a portfolio, Geier has five more issues of Bald Ego (starting at Vol. 2, Number 1). After the first issue, Geier tried to tie stories together to form a theme each issue, with issue two being a “Special Crime Issue,” while three focused on horror, four on science fiction, while five is composed of one long 31-page story. Geier takes on many interesting topics and tries his hand at several experimental story techniques, including one story being primarily in a made up language. If you like creators like Mazzucchelli and Lapham, I think you will enjoy Geier’s work. Please show your support and approval of someone who is interested in, above all, telling a damn good story! My sincere thanks to Earl Geier for all his help in writing this column. Check out his site here. Also thanks to Jaime Hernandez. Again, download the pdf here. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] Many fanzines were repositories for spot illos and fanboy articles on the latest ‘it’ character. A few, like Woweekazowie, looked to be training grounds for those that truly wanted to make it in professional comics.  Woweekazowie 3 and 4, Summer 1978, Winter 1978 Publisher and Editor: Pete Iro  Jerry Ordway (nice lettering!) Very few fanzines were made up primarily of actual sequential stories. And even fewer had stories created by teams of artists and writers, like those in the mainstream comics industry in which these creators yearned to be making their living. The level of work in the stories in Woweekazowie was very close to what was being published in the pros at that time. And although there were spot illos of various mainstream superheros accompanying articles on various established characters, the bulk of the issues were filled with stories featuring the contributors’ characters. Let’s meet a few of the regulars, shall we? Publisher and editor Pete Iro was smooth. Not only were his inking skills first rate, but his lettering was one of the primary elements that really set this fanzine apart from its black and white brethren (see below). Iro lettered almost all the stories that appeared in these two issues, and inked several of them as well. I can only assume he also did the logos and mastheads for the various articles as well, and they were all first rate. From remarks made by Kim Thompson via email, the fanzine started by “Dean Mullaney gathering together a group of the most prolific published Marvel Comics letterhacks (contacting us via the addresses published in Marvel letter columns). I happened to be among them because I was writing lots of letters at the time. So we had endless mail correspondence, and eventually Woweekazowie sprang out of it.” Pete Iro took over at a later date, and possibly due to his connections with the fan group Interfan, many other members of that fanzine ‘union’ took part in the content as well. Iro is all over both issues, with inks on stories by Pete Botsis, Larry Houston and John Byrne. Iro also inks illustrations by Gene Day, Tim Corrigan, Carl Taylor, and Jerry Ordway. And as mentioned, he letters almost everything in sight. Iro went on to do lettering and inking for Marvel, with Dave Cockrum’s Giant Size X-men among his many credits. Probably the other most constant contributor is Willie Blyberg. Issue 3 (which editor Iro says is composed primarily of ‘filler material,’ since production of the zine had gotten away from him as he obtained more professional work) features a short story called Maarz that is related to Blyberg’s superhero/space saga, Victory. Blyberg also contributes a somewhat whimsical single page story called Space Mystery, as well as an Avengers back cover (see above). In issue 4, we see a bigger chunk of the Victory saga, along with several spot illos and a nifty C.C. Beck Captain Marvel color cover (above). Blyberg’s art is sort of a combination of the layouts and hand gestures of Gil Kane with the inking style of Wally Wood.  Other stories in these two issues are a few pages of Tim Corrigan’s wacky and Kirby-esque Elasticworm character in The Earth Worm Strikes! (Tim is still creating work, see his site here), an ominous Interfan story called Fisheye’s Bed (Interfan founder Steve Clement as writer, Pete Botsis on pencils, and guess who on inks and letters), an adaptation of a Nancy Lybrand story dealing with suicide (by Interfan members Bill Neville on pencils, Sam De La Rosa on inks, and Iro doing the lettering) called Bridge, and a two-page enjoyable and somewhat silly John Byrne story (which is noted as being a rejected Day After Doomsday submission for DC). Spot illos by Bill Neville, Jim Hanley, Jerry Ordway, Fred Hembeck, Mike Machlan, Gene Day, Carl Taylor, Karl Kesel, Iro, and others round out the material. The backcover of issue 4, seen at top, is a beautiful Gil Kane Blackmark vignette (appropriate, since so many of the artists inside the pages of WK seem to count Kane as a big influence). The articles in issue 4 (none appear in 3) include Marilyn Bethke’s The Selling of the Publisher (a pointed but respectful examination of Stan Lee as huckster); Fantagraphics member Kim Thompson’s humorous articulation of Gene Colan’s absence from the ‘fan favorite’ pool called A Few Thoughts on Values; Bill Wu’s examination of the depiction of Asian characters in comics in Perils and Punches; a comparison of the old “who is more important, the artist or the writer” theme by editor Iro; Gene Phillips’s Sex and DC’s Puberty; and an examination by Frank Lovece of singular and “bi- level” communication in comics in Below Surfaces. There is also a letters column in both issues...a young Kurt Busiek appears in one of them! As for Busiek, in an email he surprised me with the news that he and Scott McCloud each did some of their first work together in a Boston area fanzine called X-Mainiacs, when they were both still in their teens. The team also worked together for long running fanzine institution RBCC. Kurt was not actually that involved in fanzines, being much more interested in getting into the actual ranks of the professionals, while writing tons of letters to the letter columns. In fact, it was through those letter columns that he met Jackie Frost, who then directed him towards Woweekazowie. Aside from this ‘zine, Busiek remembers liking The Comic Reader and The Comics Journal (which he later wrote articles for). Busiek enjoyed seeing some of his fan friends Willie Blyberg, Pete Iro, and Doug Hazelwood make it into the pros. In fact, they worked with Busiek on projects such as Astro City and The Liberty Project.  Sidebar: Pete Botsis
In an email, Pete graciously summed up his fanzine experience, along with some recent history.... “I believe one of the first zines I saw was advertised in a comic book. The name escapes me but I’m sure you’d recognize it as it was well produced with a variety of good quality artists for a zine. I think that it was from Texas and had Don Newton’s version of Batman in an issue. I was probably 10 or 11 years old at the time. I’m 53 now so that was a while ago. [This may be The Comic Reader -Ken] The first zine I was in was a collaborative effort with my brother Theo (aka Ted). We did a pencil cover for a young local publisher of a half zine called RBCC. It was Conan holding the reins on a chariot swiped from an Arnold Body building pose. It was pretty exciting but as usual for me the printed version showed all the flaws that I couldn’t see in the original. I was probably 16 at the time since my brother left for college when I turned 17." “I remember a few artists work that moved me, like Don Newton and Gene Day. I thought Don’s fan work was better than his pro stuff. It had more edge and illustrative qualities that I’m sure they told him to tone down. Gene and I communicated a little right before he passed away. He even sent me a poem to illustrate that I just realized I never did and I wish I had. I wasn’t a big zine type of person. Except in the sense that I was amazed there were so many others that wanted to draw and write comics. Most people looked down on them as kid stuff and I always had a sense of embarassment about them. Back then you read them till you were about 11 or 12 years old then people wondered about your maturity or lack thereof. I never really wanted to be in fanzines, I always dreamed of being a pro. I just thought of it as a way to get practice and a stepping stone to the big time. I enjoyed reading them and seeing new artists too." “Over the years I got a lot of encouragement and close to being given an assignment several times. Once an editor even called me at home .... unfortunately just to give me a pat on the back and ‘keep trying’ pep talk. The only pro comic work I ever did was for Marvel Comic’s Epic Magazine. It was a 6 page adaptation of a Roger Zelazny story done in pencil that again looked bad when printed on the newsprint section of the magazine.” Interfan “I was a member of Interfan though I’m not sure exactly how I was contacted or got involved. Some of the people I communicated with were Pete Iro from Buffalo (an inker and letterer), Mike Machlan (a super tight penciller), Jerry Ordway a (‘Super’ nice guy), and Sam De La Rosa from Texas. The guy putting it all together was Steve Clement . He was always energtic and very much into trying to make Interfan into something. We spoke on the phone and through mail but I never met him. Interfan was a strange endeavour for me. Since I yearned to be pro but knew I lacked the skills, I wanted to partner up with people with the ability to help. Steve offered that with the enticement that he knew people in the business and that collectively we’d be able to assist each other in breaking in. Generally Steve would call, excited about a new story he had written, send it to me to pencil, I might send it to the letterer or inker and see it finished months later if at all. When it did come back I’d love parts of the inking, hate parts of the inking because it wasn’t what was in my head and then realize my pencils were to blame." “I think fanzines opened a window to others and kept the hope alive since people who I had corresponded and spoken to over the phone and met through Interfan made it. I kept in touch with a few, the biggest was Jerry Ordway who I reconnected with one day when he mentioned Interfan and me in an interview. But now at best it’s just a Christmas Card once a year. Life gets busy. Right now I am going through some major changes as I left teaching at a public vocational high school after 27 years. Although I really loved some of the students there was always a lot of conflict and stress as well as boredom with being in the same room for that long. It was killing me!! I’m working part time for two local Colleges RIT and Bryant and Stratton teaching design and digital illustration. I also taught an independent workshop this summer on comic and fantasy illustration, just finished a limited edition children’s book for a local non-profit that the writer and I hope to get a NY publisher to pick up. Other than that I am trying to learn to paint and survive.” See Pete’s work here (from the archives). Sidebar 2: Gene Phillips Gene Phillips is probably most known for his many erudite articles in the The Comics Journal. Gene got into fandom in his late teens, like many of us. The Nostalgia Journal (later to become TCJ) was sent to him as a free mailer, since Gene had been published many times in the comic letter columns. In fact, his first published work was an essay on Thor in TCJ 35 in 1977, when Gene was about 18. Although Gene contributed to many zines, it is his work in TCJ that he is most proud of. Gene thought the magazine “took new strides in the understanding of comics, to use Scott McCloud’s phrase.” Gene also sardonically notes that “I’m the guy who introduced Kim Thompson to The Comics Journal, which might earn me a spot in Harlan Ellison’s circles of hell.” [Kim says Frank Lovece actually deserves the spot in hell, but who am I to say?-Ken] More on Gene and Kim Thompson when I do a column on an issue of The Comics Journal. See Gene’s blog, The Archetypal Archive here. Woweekazowie (a title Kim Thompson laughingly professes to hate) was sort of an earlier version of the “ground level” comics of Star*Reach, as well as the later black and white boom of the 80s, if geared a little more towards the mainstream superhero content. If you like superheroes and would like a lesson in how to be industrious, check out this fanzine! Please download the pdfs of both Woweekazowie 3 here and 4 here! Ken Meyer Jr [email protected] The great Wally Wood did not only produce some of the greatest comics of all time, but one of the greatest fanzines of all time...Witzend!  Witzend 3 (1967) and 7 (1970) Publisher: Wally Wood Editor: Bill Pearson Most comic readers will know the name Wally Wood. He worked as an artist and sometimes writer for more than four decades. His name graced the pages of EC, Skywald, Warren, Marvel, DC, Tower, Mad, and others. Though he could excel in virtually any genre, he was probably best known for his science fiction work for EC, his work on the early Marvel Daredevil, and on the T.h.u.n.d.e.r. Agents for Tower. He was often portrayed as a troubled soul and bitter at the end of his career and life. However at the time of producing his fanzine, Witzend, he appeared happy and privileged to be a member of the group of artists and writers that populated the pages of this gorgeously produced zine. Witzend was a venue to publish work by himself and his contemporaries that could not be printed elsewhere.  This group contains some of the best and most highly praised members of the comic business. Frank Frazetta. Berni Wrightson. Reed Crandall. Roy Krenkel.Vaughn Bode. Gray Morrow. Steve Ditko. Al Williamson. Harvey Kurtzman. Art Speigelman. Leo and Diane Dillon. And that is just in the pages of issues 3 and 7 in this column! If you are wondering why I am featuring two issues of Witzend, I have three in my possession and I could not bear to choose just one!   I will start in order, with number 3 from 1967. Wally Wood was still the editor at this point, and his lighthearted touch runs through his contributions, which include a three page Pipsqueak Papers story, a simple but evocative cover utilizing the now obsolete specialty paper, Duo-shade, and a frequently whimsical editorial/contents page. The story showcases Wood’s acknowledged ability to “spot blacks” as well as his command of the human figure, in particular the female form. A related online article on Wood’s representations of sexual scenarios can be found here. This article also shows a fair amount of art, including other issues of Witzend. Steve Ditko, a frequent contributor, presents another installment of his moralistic hero, Mr. A This is followed by the poetry of artist Ralph Reese, coupled with a graphic woodcut type illustration by Leo and Diane Dillon, who have been producing award winning illustrations for the last 40 years. Four pages of Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired art by Reed Crandall follows, which in turn is followed by Art Spiegelman’s hallucinogenic A Very Strange Comic Strip. This is not the Spiegelman you may know from Maus, but a much lighter and more playful creator. It reads like a psychedelic book done in a commune for hippie children. Harvey Kurtzman continues the goofy theme with a few of his Hey Look! strips. After that is a strip called The Invaders, which appears to be a story married to visuals that have little to do with each other, and with art by Richard Bassford that looks like a combination of Wally Wood and fellow contributor Roger Brand. Brand himself follows with five pages of visuals that are reminiscent of Bernie Krigstein’s Master Race, while the story attempts to examine the reasoning of a murderer. However, the story suffers from an ambiguous finale. Rounding out this issue is a series of comic strip frames by Frank Frazetta (a different version of which you would have seen in a previous installment of Ink Stains featuring Squa Tront), with the text added after the fact. It is not made clear who actually wrote the words, but it has the classic EC “twist ending.”  Next we look at number 7, published four years later. Literally starting out with a bang on the cover by Vaughn Bode, the Wood-less issue (edited and published by Pearson) is decidedly different in tone from issue 3. Continuing from the cover, Vaughn Bode (a superstar among the Underground comics scene for you youngsters out there) illustrates Cobalt 60 with his usual singular style. In an answer to a letter later in the issue, Pearson reveals that founder Wood “sold Witzend to the vast Wonderful Publishing Empire for the sum of $1.00, on the condition that we would fulfill his promise to produce at least four more issues.” Though there is no work by founder Wood in this issue, the list of contributors more than makes up for it. Following the graphic cartoon violence of Bode comes part two of Ditko’s The Avenging World. Ditko’s black and white worldview is literally portrayed on the first page of this seven page examination of the world today (the world of 1970 anyway). It is followed by a one page Mr. A story, which continues what some might see as high minded lecturing, but is refreshing if only because it expresses an honest and vibrant opinion. Adhering to the usual high contrast from one contribution to the next, Ike and His Spoon by Roger Brand is playful, goofy, and far away both in tone and visual style from his contribution to issue 3. A young Berni Wrightson writes and illustrates two single-page installments of his Limpstrel series. A Ditko parody by Bill Pearson and Tim Brent follows called Mr. E. An interesting quote from editor Pearson regarding this story notes that: “Ditko had been one of the most supportive contributors to Witzend. Even after I became publisher, he came to my apartment a couple of times and spent hours with me stuffing envelopes and helping with the other drudge duties involved in maintaining the subscription files. This was after his Marvel years with Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. But I hated publishing that ‘Avenging World’ diatribe of his, and would have preferred to reject it and hope he couldn’t find another publisher either. I felt about him just as I did about Wood. Throughout our long association I tried, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, to keep him from publishing personal revelations that betrayed flaws in his character or deficits in his intellect. BOTH of these men were master cartoonists, genius talents, but they DID need editors. I really debated with myself about running ‘Mr. E’, but just had to offset Ditko’s strong positions.”  Gray Morrow’s The Journey (written by his wife, Betty) ends the issue. Morrow’s beautifully realistic black and white painted work illustrates a story of a witch, her death, and her unfortunate reincarnation. Other contributions include a single page strip by Pearson, Ed Paschke’s ‘famous comic strip characters on dope’ pin up, and a beautiful back cover by the enigmatic and erudite Kenneth Smith, as well as a small but beautifully rendered spot illo by Ralph Reese (seen at the top of the column).  As you can see, if you want a feast for the eyes, you will want to download both pdfs of these lovingly assembled fanzines. Issue 3 is here and issue 7 is here.
More Links: A fairly informative blog on Wood can be seen here. A very good page featuring Wood’s famous and invaluable “22 Panels that Always Work” can be seen in several resolutions here. A concise Wood bio can be seen here. Another bio, a little longer, can be seen here. Another very interesting (and well put together) site from John Hitchcock is called “The Wally Wood Letters,” and shows a personal side you will rarely see of your average comic creator. An exhaustive index of Witzend and other zines can be seen here. Please download the pdfs so you can see all of Wally’s Wonderful Witzend! Ken Meyer Jr [email protected] There were few minds as feverish or pens as prolific as Rick McCollum. You will see why this artist and writer can arguably be given the mantle of the Kirby of the fanzine world!  New Wave Heroes 1-3, Superhero Terror 1-7, Omniman 9 and more Creator and co-publisher: Rick McCollum If a case can be made for any creator frequenting the fanzines of a few decades ago to be as imaginative and prolific as the aforementioned King Kirby, that creator is Rick McCollum. I cannot remember if any of the zines featured here were the first time I saw his work, but they certainly point to someone who had no shortage of ideas, energy...or ink! His most often used inker, Bill Anderson, said McCollum’s work was “light years away from what everyone else was doing,” and that his pencils were “the best of both worlds, very tight but open to interpretation.” Frequent collaborator and publisher of Rick’s work, Matt Bucher, called the writing “complex and wildly creative (some might even say hallucinogenic)” and the artwork “visceral and compelling.” Artist Rafael Kayanan says of Rick’s work, “I always enjoyed his work even before I knew who was drawing it. I wish there was a collection of everything in a large volume somewhere. It was always unique, and I could look at his work all day – you can see the love of the material seeping through.” No one could produce that much work without loving what they were creating! Possibly like the artist himself, Rick’s male characters were rough, tough, often profane, and usually pretty darn hairy. He never squandered a chance to draw a virile, hairy chest! His women were buxom (but not Corben level buxom), mysterious, sultry, and sensual. He wasn’t afraid to throw a few F-bombs in the mix or show his hero on the porcelain throne. His stories felt drug fueled, sometimes Cthulu- esque, and yet he was also very good at keeping the story moving by successfully managing action sequences and fight scenes. And did I mention he was prolific? The pdfs available for you this time number a total of 120 pages of work that Rick created, wrote, penciled, lettered, and very often inked and published. This was in one year, 1981, and this is only a fraction of the work Rick McCollum produced in that year!  Even the names of Rick’s characters (sometimes in collaboration with Matt Bucher) were visceral. Rage. Horde. Styx. Slaughter. Slyph. Karnevil (seen above). His prose could be ornate and literate in one panel, then grimy and guttural in the next. From page one and two of Superhero Terror 7: “To reach the world called Vatican 800, you must pass by an armada of huge dreadnoughts and orbital defense satellites. On the surface, every inch, are populated palaces and shiny towers, populated by diplomats, bishops, admirals, prostitutes, philosophers and warriors. In its bowels are brothels, catacombs, and dark dungeons, filled with protestants, heretics, aliens, the discontent and the damned.” McCollum was not afraid to take on organized religion, race relations, politics, psychedelic scenery, and any other number of subjects not usually seen in professional comics, much less its often simple and sophomoric bastard step child – fanzines. Through it all, he advanced his story lines and kept the action fast and frenetic. As Bucher observed, most of McCollum’s publications ads featured the standard tag- line, “You must be 18, or willing to lie about it.” His comics were definitely not aimed toward the Disney crowd or the Marvel zombies (though several of his characters could be considered Marvel-esque). In the selections I have scanned and assembled for this column, you will read adventures featuring all the characters mentioned above. You will be able to read two exclusive but connected series, as well as an issue of Matt Bucher’s Omniman (issue 9) where Rick did all tasks save inking a few select pages. While being wrapped up in the stories, you may notice a somewhat Kirby-esque, simple but dynamic visual command of the human figure, and inventive (but never distracting) layouts. You may also notice a few severed heads, an exposed breast now and then, and some crazy mystical shenanigans. One thing you won’t be feeling is bored. You will see some beautifully clean inking by Bill Anderson, and some on the job training by yours truly. You won’t, however, be slowed down by over rendering, because Rick was not interested in that. Though some of his backgrounds could be geometrically intricate, he was mainly interested in propelling the story forward.  I sincerely wish I could have found Rick to get the juicy truth right from the creator’s mouth, but though I tried, I just could not track him down. I did locate two self-penned short bios from him, seen below. (NOTE: A few years after this column, I found Rick again...I visited his home a few years ago, and he is very active on Facebook now...go say hi!) First, from a 1982 interview: “I’m 27 years old. Married, two kids. The oldest is named Ragnar. I got a B.A. degree in the College of Design, Architecture, and Art, from the University of Cincinnati. I’m now working towards a Master’s in Art History. Every six months or so I go on a painting binge. So far, I’ve been in several art shows. I’m constantly reading. I’m very interested in theology and metaphysics. Karnevil is my attempt to bring God and Christ into real blood-and-guts tales as major characters.” And from 1991: “Born in 1954 with a Fine Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati, Rick McCollum has been many things: janitor, bartender, bouncer, rent-a-cop, freelance designer, Montessori teacher. Now a graphic artist for the City of Cincinnati, Rick has continued his perverse affair with comics. He is married to science fiction author Paula Robinson.”  You will definitely see Rick’s work again in this column. At some point, I am going to profile Matt Bucher’s galactic superhero saga, Starslayers. Of Rick’s involvement in that series, Bucher says, “The brilliant Rick McCollum provided artwork and an uncredited story assist, injecting surrealism and near- poetry into my more conventional story.” Artist Ben Adams compares Rick to a few well known professional writers below: “There were a lot of ‘fanboy made good’ types like Roy Thomas and Paul Levitz writing for Marvel and DC in those days — people who frequently had many letters of comment published in Marvel and DC titles and had near encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel and DC continuity. Many of these writers just didn’t seem to me to be capable of writing anything that seemed as fresh and new as, say, the Fantastic Four did in 1961. Many superhero comics seemed stagnant because they were becoming too inbred — i.e., they were written by people who didn’t know anything other than superhero comics." "After reading Rick’s work and interviews with him, I got the impression that a discussion with him in which superheroes were entirely off-limits would be an interesting one. According to an interview he did for Omniman Spectacular, I got the impression that he had suffered through some hard knocks, experienced real pain in his life, and that he was using his comics work to wrestle with his personal demons. The impression made him far more compelling to me than many [professional] comics creators. I know that he had studied art history, painting, and religion and that he was very interested in classical literature and metaphysics — a superhero comics creator with this kind of background who proudly showed it off in his work seemed very unusual and intriguing to me." "When I discovered Rick’s work, I had access to many superhero comics, but I didn’t know of many deeply personal, highly literate, and highly idiosyncratic ones like his. This is why I still remember his work but have forgotten many other superhero comics from this period. His work stands out in the same way that the best superhero comics work of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Steve Gerber stands out." "Ultrazine Special #7 ended up being my introduction to Rick’s comics work, but the Rage origin story in Ultrazine Special #8 was the story that really caused me to fall in love with his work — it was a complete and total home run.” McCollum appears in many other fanzines, including previous Ink Stains subject No Sex. He contributed to over a hundred fanzines in a 15 year period, and was poised to garner more mainstream exposure during his series Screaming Masks for Tundra, but the company fell apart at just the wrong time. During the black and white comic books of the late 80s, Rick worked for small companies such as Comico, Fantaco, Pyramid, Wormhole, White Wolf, and Crystal. He did manage to do a few issues of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as three issues of Turtle Soup, but not long after that, he seemed to disappear from the mainstream comic scene, contributing only to lesser known areas, such as Fantagraphics Eros line titles like Darker Side of Sex and Come Again. Thanks to Bill Anderson for a few McCollum pieces from the pre-release Screaming Masks portfolio from Tundra, one of which you see below, and the others you can see here.  You can see a large, but by no means exhaustive list of Rick McCollum’s work in the archives here. And keep in mind, most of these appearances were not single illustrations, but full stories (and also usually with Rick doing his usual one man band act). Rick’s amazing and prolific presence will be missed by myself and, I suspect, many other comic enthusiasts. For now, please download the pdfs, which include the three issue run of New Wave Heroes here, Who’s Who in Superhero Terror here, Omniman 9 , all 64 pages of the Superhero Terror series here, and the Superhero Terror summation of sorts, Origins, here.
Thanks this time out go to Matt Bucher, Rafael Kayanan, Richard Krauss, Rick Bradford, Ben Adams, and Bill Anderson. Rick, if you are out there...come back, Rick, come back (he did!)! Ben Adams’s site can be seen in the archives here. Ken Meyer Jr [email protected]  RBCC 135 (April 1977) Publisher and editor: James Van Hise Very few fanzines had longer runs than RBCC (Rocket’s Blast ComiCollector). Perhaps The Comic Reader and The Buyer’s Guide are the only ones that were around longer. Our featured zine was started in the early sixties by G. B. Love, who did not let cerebral palsy stop him from sharing his love of movies and comics with the world. Originally called Rocket’s Blast, it merged with another fanzine and became RBCC. G. B. Love died at the age of 61 on January 17, 2001. James Van Hise, who worked for G. B. Love from 1970-1974, took over the fanzine in ‘74 with issue 113. James was only 24 at the time, and he stayed with the zine for the next forty issues. It was a run filled with informative columns, art from future pros of the comic business, and a pure love of film and comics. And unlike many zines, it ran on time, month in and month out. No mean feat, considering the publisher’s young age! I chose to profile this particular issue primarily for two reasons: It includes work from Mike Zeck, who would go on to do many books for Marvel, and it features illustrations and stories from Ron Wilber, whose detailed and often humorous work stood out visually from his peers. I will profile other issues later, as many other artists were regulars, such as Marc Hempel, Ralph Fowler, John Fantucchio, Stephen Fabian and more. Though early issues of the zine were similar to later publications like The Buyer’s Guide in that it seemed the original content was secondary to the ads, when Van Hise took over, he made a concerted effort to reverse that ratio. Van Hise published many talented artists in his fifty issue run, including frequent cover artist Mike Zeck. Van Hise considers this Miami “local boy made good” one of his best finds. Zeck was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer a few standard questions I ask of most participants. When I asked him of his first published zine work, he said, “...I would have been around 18 years old and in my first year of art school. My figure instructor, who was also a comics fan, contributed spot illustrations to various Edgar Rice Burroughs fan publications. He suggested I do a few for submission. I think my first illo was published in one called Erbania. It’s always a big deal when that first piece is accepted for publication.” Zeck notes that there wasn’t much of a (comic) community in south Florida at that time, and that he was pretty much on his own, and the majority of his fan work ended up in RBCC. Some of Zeck’s favorite zine artists of that period included Richard Corben, Kerry Gammill, John Byrne, and this issue’s interview subject, Tom Sutton. Though Zeck had landed a few jobs at Charlton comics a few years earlier, RBCC was instrumental in getting work at Marvel. Marvel writer Roy Thomas, who was a RBCC subscriber, saw one of Zeck’s illustrations (a Conan back cover) and asked to use it in Savage Sword of Conan, which became Zeck’s first published Marvel work. Zeck’s work in this issue of RBCC includes a Blue Beetle front cover that exemplifies his sinuous line, low angle point of view and eye for good composition (as well as intelligent use of that now obsolete tool, zip-a-tone). Also included is a full-page Batman illustration functioning as the contents page (seen below, with various column titles added by me) and a Spider-Man spot illo (in a future column I will spotlight the previous issue, as it features a beautiful Flash Gordon strip which showcases Zeck’s sumptuous inks and halftones). I actually like Zeck’s fanzine work a little better than his pro work, as I feel his style got crushed in the assembly line process of professional comics. Van Hise feels the lack of good inkers might be the culprit, but Zeck himself states it was more likely the deadlines. He says his entry into Marvel consisted of picking up the slack of other artists’ missed deadlines, having to pencil a 22 page story in as little as a week! In spite of that, he thinks that inkers such as John Beatty, Gene Day, and Bob McLeod all did fine jobs on his pencils. He also says that those years in the fanzines were “unique times,” and that the work featured “an intensity that’s rarely repeated at the pro level.” In recent years, Zeck’s workload has moved towards uncredited licensing work, and is almost entirely digital. Instead of seeing his work in your local comics shop, Zeck says, “If you’re walking down the grocery aisle though and see Batman on a cereal box or a Spaghettio’s can, you just might be looking at some of my recent work.”  Tom Sutton is probably best known for his horror work with Charlton. Sutton’s frenetic and usually moody work is unlike most other artists, and certainly stands out in the pages of most any Charlton comic. This issue of RBCC features an interview with the self professed shut-in and hater of warm weather. The art from Sutton includes an appropriately psychedelic Dr. Strange inside front cover illustration (see below), a minimalistic full page Dejah Thoris doppelganger with a reptilian partner, an energetic full page Red Sonja piece which prefigures outline heavy work from current artists such as Bruce Timm, as well as a couple of half page illustrations. The interview is lengthy, covering Sutton’s Charlton work primarily, but also his work for Warren, Skywald, and mainstream commercial work. Sutton is acerbic, self depreciating, and darn funny. His distaste for summer’s heat is covered several times, culminating in a quote about inking an issue while actually taking a cold bath!  Other artists in this issue include Ron Wilber (see sidebar below), Don Newton/Bob Layton, Hilary Barta, fandom stalwart Keno Don Rosa (the final installment of his “133 part” epic, The Pertwillaby Papers, which you can see a snippet of below), and ends with a back cover rendition of The Shadow by Frank Hamilton. The columns’ subjects include a Ron Wilber profile, critiques of current books, magazines and fanzines (Critique by Van Hise), contracts in comics (Keyhole, by Gary Brown), checklists of Walt Disney Comics/Ellery Queen, tv series (Don Rosa’s Information Center), Stan Lee and comic strip artist Cliff Sterrett (R. C. Harvey’s Comicopia), Australian comics (Comic Collector’s Comments by Howard P. Seigel), Wally Wood (Van Hise’s The EC Artist Collector), the virility of the comic convention (Point/Counterpoint by Doug Haines and John Baglem), as well as the requisite ads.  As you can see from this column, RBCC had no shortage of material, talent, or in the case of editor and publisher Van Hise, drive. One of the very few fanzines that can claim to be printed monthly with very few publication deadlines missed (if any), RBCC stood almost alone in its field. It was very tough to get into the pages of this zine, and from the quality of this issue alone, one can see why. Sidebar: Ron Wilber Ron Wilber is a funny fellow. His art is funny, his writing is funny, and his answers to my questions were funny. The artist may be self depreciating to the nth degree, but his art stands out, if only for its wealth of detail. His meticulous approach to his craft comes from a practical lack of the art supplies... specifically, zip-a-tone. To all you young whipper-snappers out there, a sheet of zip-a-tone was a sheet of clear plastic with various patterns printed on them (dots, lines, and much more). In older comics (especially those printed only in black and white), the tones you see were most likely done using this tool. You laid it down over your art and either traced it and then cut it with an x-acto knife, or just started cutting. Then, you peeled it and stuck it down right on your art. Today of course, this is done digitally. Back then though, it was the only way your average artist could get tones like this on their art (aside from Duo-Shade board, which will be discussed another time). Wilber, however, says that “I was fascinated with the zip-a-tone other artists used, but being in a small town, I couldn’t get it. Nobody knew what I was talking about. The only way to add tone was to do it myself. What I was actually doing was the usual bad artist idea of over detailing art that wasn’t worth the effort.”  Ron appeared in several zines, but he is probably most closely associated with RBCC. In fact, the very first zine Wilber ever purchased was RBCC 64. You can see the detail and effort Wilber put into the work published in the issue featured in this column. Many of his favorite fanzine artists of those days also did very good and detailed work; artists like Richard Corben, Berni Wrightson, Don Newton, and, to a lesser degree, Robert Kline. Some of his favorite zines included Anomaly and Infinity, which had very high artistic standards. Though Wilber was published here and there, he never opted to publish a zine of his own, saying “the world can relax and breathe a sigh of relief, I didn’t self-publish any zine. No trees were cut down to print my junk.” You be the judge. Look at his hilarious and well drawn Mad-like parody of the TV show Space: 1999 in this issue (see a snippet above); it may just leave you clamoring for more. At the very least, it will give you several smiles of amusement.
Now remember, you can download the entire issue here! And please do, for it will most likely be the only place you will see this rare fanzine in its entirety! Please do, if for no other reason than to justify to me the hours it took to scan and assemble the 75+ pages! I only now realize I should be thanking those that have helped me with these columns, usually by answering questions via email or providing contact info for other participants. I will thank those I missed in order of the column appearances (when I actually had such assistance). For Squa Tront 2, I owe the most thanks to the original publisher, Jerry Weist. In the case of Fantastic Fanzine, the lion’s share goes to the publisher Gary Groth (as well as his compadre Eric Reynolds), and also John G. Fantucchio. Thanks for this column go to Mike Zeck, Ron Wilber, Marc Hempel (to be featured in a later column), and James Van Hise. Links: Article on original publisher G. B. Love along with early RBCC covers at the wayback machine here. Lengthy obituary on artist Tom Sutton here. Ken Meyer Jr [email protected]  CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature) 12 (1975) Publisher: Robert Layton, Editor: Roger Stern Much like The Collector, our current champion, CPL, could be lumped into the category of “semi-pro” fanzines. It had high production values (including color covers) and a roster that included many artists that were already pros, soon to be pros, or just the very best fandom had to offer. CPL had a general aesthetic that was a little more informal than The Collector though, a little zanier, a little goofier. Editor Roger Stern recalls CPL started as “...Bob Layton’s sales catalog and newsletter. At the time, Bob’s sideline was selling comics via mail order. But he was interested in honing his art and so he was slowly turning CPL into a fanzine. That was right around the time that he crossed paths with Roger Slifer, Duffy Vohland, and a few other central Indiana comics fans, myself included. We all wound up contributing to the ‘zine.” And, it had a big gun in John Byrne. Stern remembers that, “I think it was Duffy (Vohland) who’d made the original contact with John. I started corresponding with John, and he became a major contributor to CPL. As fast as he was, we could always count on him for art and spot illustrations.” Byrne was an honorary member of the “Indianapolis Mafia,” which contained publisher Layton, editor Stern, Roger Slifer, Duffy Vohland, and a few others. In fact, at the time of issue 12, Byrne had recently started working on Iron Fist for Marvel, as well as titles for Charlton.  The crew at CPL got involved directly with Charlton because, as Slifer recalls, “Most of us had been fans of Charlton’s short-lived action hero line, especially those produced by Steve Ditko. We had decided to produce an over-sized double-issue of CPL — also known as the Charlton Portfolio — and thanks to Duffy’s footwork, Charlton allowed us to print a previously unpublished Blue Beetle story in that issue. George Wildman, then the editor of Charlton, liked our work enough that he authorized Bob to produce Bullseye.” Issue 12 of CPL was full of beautiful imagery and entertaining writing. The front cover, as you can see, is a color piece by Paul Gulacy; the character depicted is named in the indicia as “his version of the goddess of self-abuse,” whatever that is! The back cover is another beautiful damsel (also color) by Mike Vosburg, the subject of an extensive interview that features more clean and crisp renditions of the female form by the artist, along with some work in other genres as well. (NOTE: Years after this column ran, I was fortunate enough to visit Mike's place, seeing an eye and mind boggling volume of work...a super nice guy!)   There are two articles on the short run of Atlas/Seaboard, one by Stephen Grant, and the other an editorial by Stern. John Byrne’s contributions are many, and his stylish and singular work stands out. There is a sketchy Red Sonja-esque spot illo, a couple of martial artist pieces for Grant’s article, a few illustrations of the Hulk, and a seven page SF story called The Inheritors. In addition, Byrne writes and illustrates an article on Darkseid, one of the illustrations being a really well done and appropriately Kirby-like full page illustration, seen above. The remaining pages are filled with illustrations by Syd Shores (full page western), Dennis Fujitake (a languid beautiful full page piece reminiscent of Jeff Jones), Al Milgrom/Jim Starlin, Don Maitz/Peter Iro (a very stylish Hangman seen at left), and a full page center-spread by Herb Trimpe of the Hulk taking a shower... don’t worry, it’s a rear view! CPL was one of those “half-size” zines, but every issue displayed quality any magazine sized fanzine would be happy to have. I know I was darn happy to get my copy in the mail! And, in a fashion, you can be just as happy by downloading the entire issue as a pdf here!
Thanks go out to Roger Stern. Links: Mike Vosburg is still illustrating fabulous babes here! See the incredibly beautiful color illustrations of Don Maitz here! Read a sweet bio on the wayback machine of the late Duffy Vohland here! Ken Meyer Jr [email protected]  No Sex 14 (1980) Publisher: David Heath Jr. No Sex can be summed up using a blurb from this issue’s contents page, which said “No Sex Fanzine is published in order to provide fans of sf and fantasy with a vehicle to have their works of art, story and article see print.” Of course, that doesn’t give you the whole story! David Heath Jr. was a character. A very easy going character, in the military during the lion’s share of the run of No Sex, his love of science fiction was worn on his sleeve and published in black and white. In the words of David himself: “No Sex Magazine is a ‘fanzine’ that was devoted to amateur SF/Fantasy and comic art. I started publishing it around 1973 and continued into the late 80’s. It was put out in order to satisfy a need to create art, story and feature work I liked. It became a forum for fan artists and story tellers to come together and show their wares. It was a lot of fun for me and turned out to be more than I thought it would be. Later on I was obligated to keep the magazine going because I had put out subscriptions to finance it. I also loved to get other people’s fanzines in trade for mine." "The final word on the title of the zine, No Sex, is that it is a play on the phrase ‘sex and violence.’ The phrase concerning the zine would be “No Sex, and all violence.’ At the time No Sex was coming out I was in ROTC and later the army. Many of the issues were done when I was in the army and I was influenced a lot by Vaughn Bode, who featured military art and violence (as well as sex). "   Jim Gray's actual art for the badly printed cover. "No Sex was first printed while I was in college in my junior year. I already had a history of drawing and art-editing for school newspapers from Jr. High through college. I drew a strip for the University of Hawaii Rainbow, I was art director of the SF Foghorn (University of San Francisco) and the editor of the San Francisco Quarterly (again USF). I had printed a mimeo-zine called David Heath Jr. that featured my characters in Jr. High." "By college I had some strips, family art and things stacking up and that led to the magazine. Issue #1 was on card stock full sized orange paper. The pages were one-sided electrostatic process, very odd looking if you are used to offset fanzines, but it was cheap. It was printed at the USF student press at a student discount. Some might wonder why on a limited budget I would do such a thing. I know my mother and father did. At 100 copies I was able to sell them to family and friends for 50 cents to $1. At some point my brother Guy introduced me to TBG [The Buyer's Guide] and I bought a few ads there.” David was an incredibly welcoming presence in fandom. I talked to him on the phone several times over the years (and of course corresponded through the mail a fair amount as well), and you could count on his easy laugh. He published my work very early on, as crappy as it was back then (at that time, I was still in college); along with his “crew” of constant artists and writers that included Jerry Collins, Earl Geier, Klaus Haisch, Jim Gray, and Willie Peppers (who was everywhere, it seemed). Peppers lists No Sex at the top of the zines he worked on, in fact. Geier exhibits similar sentiments in saying, “I just remember what a nice guy he was. Dan Watson introduced me to Dave. I was (and am) a fan of European comics. Dave was stationed in Germany at that time, and while he was unable to get me any good comics, we hit it off, and I started submitting art to his zine. I always thought No Sex was the best title I ever heard for a zine: everyone always went ‘What?’ when they heard it. Dave rode up twice (from Kentucky) for Chicago Cons, in 1980-81, I think. In ‘80 he stayed with Dan Watson, in ‘81 he stayed with me. I remember he had an early home computer, which was amazing. He also had a really blurry bootleg of Raiders of the Lost Ark.” More on Earl Geier in another column when I talk about his zine Bald Ego, but for now, please check out his site here. Each issue of No Sex would usually consist of a variety of SF themed illustrations from the crew, as well as other creators, along with various articles and reviews, fan fiction, and strips from David himself and others. Issue 14, one of the last issues, falls squarely into this format. Issue 14 starts off with a SF story by Heath called A Treasure Hunt, which shows his love of space ships and his quirky drawing style. Following that is a Rafael Kayanan illustration (seen above), and then one of the many regular columns that populated the pages of No Sex, The No Sexist. The modus operandi of the zine is reiterated in this column, albeit with a sort of value judgment: “You’ll see some stuff in our pages that could almost be pro quality and others not quite that good. These pieces are placed purposefully to give the reader a spectrum of the talent available in fandom.” Though only represented by one illustration in this issue, Earl Geier was one of the Heath regulars. Geier had what some might consider a pedestrian visual style, not as flashy as a lot of artists, but he was a wonderful storyteller. Jaime Hernandez remembers him from his appearances in No Sex by saying, “...one guy I really liked ...was Earl Geier. Looking back, he had a very pleasant Jesse Marsh approach to drawing and pacing his stories.” Fellow contributor (and current pro) Rafael Kayanan praised Geier’s “really solid stories.” Sidebar: Rafael Kayanan Rafael Kayanan was not really associated with any one fanzine... he was all over the place, if in small quantities. He got his start in fandom like many of us, myself included, through Alan Light’s The Buyer’s Guide. On the first fanzine he bought, he says “I ordered [it] from a small ad published by Alan Light’s The Comics Buyer’s Guide back in the mid 70s. It was titled Fantazine and listed art by Gene Colan plus a bunch of names I didn’t recognize at the time. At fourteen, I really did not know what I was buying. Fortunately, the rough edges and enthusiasm of all involved appealed to me. The Gene Colan sketch was probably a photocopied con sketch. There was no internet of course, so the only information of the zine’s content one got was from the small type-written ad. It was like-minded individuals, all having a ton to learn about the medium, but they just wanted to be out there; have work seen no matter how naive or crude it was. Some were older and more polished than others, like Earl Geier, who had some solid stories. Others [had] unknowns [like] Dan Clowes and Mark Heike, [who] were still developing.” Regarding his first published work and the enthusiasm he felt in the fanzine world, Kayanan continues, “I believe the publisher was a sixteen year old kid from Winnetka, IL and that impressed me because I was a 14 year old trying to soak in any drops of knowledge and experience I could get. I probably thought I was a lot better than I really was and could get my work printed alongside these talents. I was living in a real small town in SW Florida, [with] no access to comics beyond the local 7-11 and no friends who actually collected at my age. They were more into album art (remember those?) and fantasy/ science fiction books were also big influences. However, The Buyer’s Guide was like a lifeline to this vast community and the fanzines were a discovery that really lit a fire. I really had no concept of how things were printed or how art needed to be prepped for print. I drew a short fantasy related story that had some alien donned in some hybrid knight armor, just throwing all these influences in and having fun. The results weren’t that good but it gave me a chance to think about why I liked the medium so much and I got hooked on the creative side of it. I was discovering storytelling but I didn’t even know it was a term – just that it was fun!" "It was a big revelation that I became aware of a creative world beyond the confines of where I lived, which didn’t have much of an art community let alone a comic community. Young artists today have all these fantasy related sites, games, conventions, tv shows and films, it was a whole other world back then. It took several weeks just receiving a reply from someone if you were communicating through the postal service. So it was awhile before actually seeing your art in another physical representation beyond the original sent off months ago.” Current work (at the time of this installment of Ink Stains) by Kayanan includes a stint as an illustrator for the Spider-Man Broadway musical for director Julie Taymor, a Drizzt, The Dark Elf (see Rafael's site here) comic for Devil’s Due which is being collected in trade, a recent Wildstorm Resident Evil, a Dark Horse Conan trade paperback and huge Star Wars hardback contain his work. Upcoming covers for Alter Ego and the What If: Daredevil and Elektra issue are coming out from Marvel. Some film related projects are also in the works.   There are also book reviews, movie reviews, a con report column, fan fiction, a guide to Science Fiction Theater, a portfolio feature by regular Jerry Collins (space ships, space suits and some anthropomorphic character pieces), another SF comic story by Cosmo Ellis, and possibly of the most interest to current fans, a very early story by Gilbert Hernandez titled Inez. Hernandez says of David Heath Jr. “Oh yeah, he was very kind and patient with my eccentric comics. I’m sorry to hear that he’s passed away. I’ll always be grateful to him and Matt Bucher and Jay Van Bockel for having me in their zines when nobody else would.” You can see the webarchives Heath site here. David Heath Jr. was a hell of a guy. He will be missed. Thanks this time around goes to Willie Peppers, Earl Geier, Rafael Kayanan, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. Download the zine here. Keep in mind the PDFs are not meant to replace the actual zines. Ken Meyer Jr [email protected]  Fantastic Fanzine 10 (1969) Publisher: Alan Light (this second edition), Editor: Gary Groth Along with The Collector, Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine was probably the zine I was most excited to get my hands on when a new issue was published (and it continues to today in my never ending quest to get back issues I still haven’t seen). Gary had a knack of getting some of the biggest names, while still publishing both the best of fan art and the new kids on the block. The zine itself was started by a kid... a kid even younger than I originally thought. Gary Groth started publishing Fantastic Fanzine in 1967 when he was 13 years old. You heard me right. 13. He wasn’t even in high school yet. (NOTE: below you can see young Gary, front row, far right (right next to Bill Wilson!)  When I asked Gary if those days seemed like it was another life, he said, “I do see it as another life — but isn’t childhood always another life? I was sweetly innocent of any true knowledge of what made art tick during those fanzine days, and finally acquired an education that made me a more discriminating reader, able to truly appreciate good work. The one trait I share with my younger self was the joy of making an object that you can hold in your hands. Back then, I got better and better at it — from a hideous little xeroxed fanzine to to a somewhat better looking offset series of fanzines and books. I published a collection of Bob Kline’s work that was so beautifully printed that I still look at it in awe. And I still can get that thrill when we receive an advance copy of a new book from the printer.” The young Groth was full of that enjoyable combination of comic book fan fever, innocence and a can-do attitude that many fanzine publishers of this era possessed. This particular issue starts off with a typically dynamic Captain America cover by one of Groth’s early heroes, Jim Steranko. Of Steranko, Gary says, “I worshipped him. He was doing pretty exciting work in the context of the times and in the context of my 15-year-old self. He built a mystique around himself that I bought into. He was cool before I knew what cool even was; he acted like he just stepped out of an episode of Route 66. I vividly remember interviewing him in his small apartment in Reading, Pennsylvania. My Dad drove me up (I was too young to drive), which probably took three hours, and split for awhile while I interviewed him. It was very atmospheric, with cool jazz playing in the background. I wish I still had those tapes.” Groth made a habit of meeting his heroes at conventions and hitting them up for artwork, and Fantastic Fanzine was always full of gorgeous art, by both pros and fans. Of course, many of those fans later joined the pro ranks. One artist who features prominently in issue ten is the late Dave Cockrum, who was still in the Navy at that time. Dave did an Ant-Man back cover, full page pinups of Ghost Rider (the old west version), The Black Knight, Captain America, and also contributed a number of spot illustrations throughout the issue (one of which is part of the Ink Stains banner). Much of it accompanies an interview Groth conducted with the artist, and it is a thorough and entertaining read. You can see small inklings of the interviewing skills that Groth would later bring to The Comics Journal. In a funny aside, Groth gets Cockrum’s wife Andrea to crack that her husband “doesn’t beat his wife and is kind to animals.” Groth first “met” Cockrum through the mail; it was Groth’s father who actually met the artist first. “Dave was in the Navy when I was putting out the ‘zine and stationed in Guam. My dad had to go to Guam on business and literally brought him a copy of the latest issue, hot off the presses. When I did finally meet Dave, he was living in New York and breaking into comics. I took a train up to New York and stayed with him and his wife for a couple of days and remember that they were splendid hosts and that I had a wonderful time. I’m not sure why I think this (whether it’s based on empirical information or just my gut) but I don’t think Dave approved of the critical attitude of The Comics Journal, and we lost touch over the years.”  Other fan artists who were part of a loose group of an FF stable of sorts contributed spots and pin ups as well, including Al Grinage, Mike O’Neal, Dave Russell, Jay Mike, Dennis Fujitake, and John Fantucchio; as well as Dave Transue, Jeff Rinehart and Bill Black. The professional artists represented in issue ten, aside from Steranko, are Tim Kirk and Bill Everett. One curious Kirby-like illustration of a flailing Hulk is signed Barry Smith...yes, that Barry Smith. Groth remembers all of these artists well and has something to say about each one. “Speaking of first rate guys, I also met Barry Smith (pre-Windsor), who was nice enough to send me a few illustrations for my fanzine and who has since gone on to become a good and close friend. I’ve had the privilege to publish several of his books over the last decade and hope to publish a couple more. I still have a few long letters he wrote me from England circa 1969.” You may remember John Fantucchio from the column featuring The Collector. Of John, Gary says: “(He) had an intimidating gravity about him. He lived in Alexandria, Virginia and I’d visit him as much as he’d let me. He was also incredibly gracious, but he was a little older than Bob (Kline) and felt more like a grown-up. I attended Obama’s inauguration and while I was in town, I had dinner with John and his wife Mary. He’s still the same, just a little whiter. We went back to his place and he showed me his studio, which I’d never seen before and I hadn’t realized the breadth of John’s skills — he’s a talented painter in a realistic mode as well as a sculptor. It was great reconnecting with him.” “I probably met Dennis Fujitake at a comic convention, but only years after I started publishing him. He and I are closer to the same age. He was an incredibly good-natured guy that I loved working with. In my first year of college, when I was still dabbling in publishing ventures, I published a comic of his work with an incredibly pretentious title (that was mine) — I forget exactly what it was called, but it was something like A Book of Pictorial Narratives — presaging the widespread pretentiousness of today. Dennis was a skillful, versatile artist, obviously influenced by Ditko but with with a buoyant, playful, lighthearted charm to his work. I had lunch with him in Hawaii six or seven years ago with my Dad and my son, and he regaled my Dad with all kinds of wild stories that I’d forgotten about when he stayed with me after a San Diego con.” Dennis went on to do the whimsical and enjoyable series, DalGoda, among other titles.  As I feature other issues of Fantastic Fanzine, you will read about other artists and writers Gary worked with throughout the life of the zine, including Berni Wrightson, Sal Buscema, Robert Kline, Howard Chaykin and many others. It should also be mentioned that, even at an early age, Groth placed a premium on good writing as well. Included in issue ten are articles and fiction by writers such as Tony Isabella, Dwight Decker and Bill Cantey, with the subject matter spanning the Comics Code, horror artists, and the western Ghost Rider character, among others. Since it is common knowledge that Groth went on to take over The Comics Journal early in its publishing life and then lead it through many years of top notch comic criticism, you might think the jump from FF to TCJ was a logical and planned step. However, as Groth says, “I hadn’t the slightest idea what I really wanted to do; I was not a long term thinker and my brain didn’t have anything rattling around in it that could be considered as thoughtful as a “goal.” I was just having so much fun putting the ‘zines together, making friends, and talking to artists I admired that I didn’t think beyond that. My path was not carefully mapped out, but ad hoc. In 1973, Roy Thomas offered me an assistant editor’s position at Marvel, but I demurred because I didn’t think I could live in New York on the salary he was offering; so, I went to work for Steranko instead for $15 a week. I’m not sure what I was thinking. But I was obviously flailing about, without a goal in sight.” Groth might have thought he was merely flailing, but he still managed to produce one of the most enjoyable and well illustrated zines of the 70s. You will certainly be seeing other issues represented in this space at a later date. As always, please please please download the pdf so you can see all of it in large format! DalGoda is lauded here. Check out Bill Black's site here, complete with video interviews. Here is a pretty long Wikipedia page on Jim Steranko. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected]  Squa Tront 2 (September 1968) Publisher: Jerry Weist Squa Tront was one of the first fanzines dedicated to the creators and memory of EC Comics (a few others being Witzend and Spa Fon). Publisher Jerry Weist proudly displayed sketches from EC artists, ran articles on the artists and writers, and published those talents he thought were destined for great things, such as the feature on Berni Wrightson in issue 2. Editor Weist recalls the genesis of Squa Tront: “In 1966 my father drove me to the Tricon, Cleveland Ohio 1966 World Science Fiction Convention. It was the 24th World Con, L Sprague de Camp was guest of honor and the toastmaster was Isaac Asimov. This was the World Con where Frank Frazetta won the Hugo for best artist, Caz won the Hugo for best fanzine with Erbdom, and a young Jeff Jones displayed his paintings in the art show. Phil Seuling was in the hucksters (dealers) room with Bill Thailing and others. I walked into the hucksters room on the first day and found two boxes of EC comics under the table of famed SF dealer Howard DeVore.” Weist says that Devore warned him, “kid, the SF titles are 75 cents and the horror titles are 50 cents each,” perhaps underestimating the young Weist’s business sense and love of EC comics. Weist continues “I bought a huge handful and made money on them at the con after taking what I needed for my collection!” Keep that year in mind, folks. EC was still a very recent memory, the end of the horror line still only ten years in the past, while the beautiful full sized reprint books from Russ Cochran were still almost 20 years away. And obviously, the internet was even further into the future. So, fanzines like Squa Tront were godsends to fans of those great comics of the fifties, as corroborated by Weist. “Yes, Spa Fon had strong editorial content, but they didn’t end up getting the unpublished EC stories like we did, and would never have considered four color covers at one time as we did with issue #4. If you check the dates, is was Jerry Weist and Squa Tront that started the entire trend of having fanzine covers with 100% pure art [that is, no words at all-Ken]. We did this with issue #3 and it was so dramatic that many other very good fanzines began to do the same kind of cover presentation.” “Once John Benson took over Squa Tront from issue #5 onward the journalism and literary content went up by huge leaps and bounds – it was John Benson who made Squa Tront into a really professional periodical. His Bernard Krigstein special issue stands to this day a masterpiece of fanzine production and writing. Now the title is part of comic history. By the way the first printings don’t sell for huge amounts on e-bay...why? The answer is that Squa Tront was one of the most saved of all fanzines, and they are all still out there. I was flattered when I discovered that long time science fiction fan and editor of Algol, and later Science Fiction News, Andy Porter (who was a serious sf fan), had saved his entire Squa Tront run!” "Where else would you see sketches by Al Williamson, unpublished art by Frank Frazetta, Reed Crandall, or a Harvey Kurtzman cover rough for Two-Fisted Tales? And all produced by someone who was still in high school! He sold parts of his own EC collection to pay for the printing bill. Phil Seuling was an early buyer in bulk, and so was the young Bud Plant, who helped him sell through 70% of the early issues. Weist is grateful to Phil Seuling, who “really sold a lot at the major early 1960s comic shows, and he paid on time! Not until issue #3 did it become really expensive to print the fanzine; by that point I was selling entire EC runs to help pay the bills!”  Many pages of Al Williamson’s sketches are shown in this issue, covering several genres. Reed Crandall did a back cover himself that covered all the genres of EC comics as well, even aping some Wally Wood, Graham Ingels and (possibly) Russ Heath. Frazetta is covered in the Frazetta Collector section, reprinting a Tarzan like strip called Tiga that never got off the ground. The topics of the articles include EC war comics (in which we see both the finished cover to Two-Fisted Tales number 23 and the rough that Kurtzman produced) and a report on the 25th annual World Science Fiction Convention, complete with some great candid photos (see below).  Running a fanzine like Squa Tront proved valuable later in life for Weist, who states that “some of the importance was immeasurable. We met the entire Mad staff and I made life long friendships with Kurtzman, Feldstein, Elder, and Gaines. When I became Comics Consultant at Sotheby’s in 1991 some of this spilled over to business deals that changed history. I prompted Al Feldstein to start doing his re- creations of EC covers, the first one appearing in the first Sotheby’s auction.” Possibly the most interesting segment to current comic and horror fans is the Berni Wrightson profile, in which we see the still developing skills of the 19-year-old artist. While working as a staff artist at the Baltimore Sun, Berni told me he freelanced for “anything and everything.” You can see the stylistic elements that would take him to DC comics a few years later starting to develop in this early work. Weist recalls that “It was through Squa Tront that I published early Wrightson and at the 1967 New York World Convention introduced him to Al Williamson who helped him get some of his first professional assignments!!”  With good production values throughout, the rest of the issue is rounded out by full page black and white reproductions of some of EC’s science fiction comic covers and two full page illustrations by George Metzger, who would go on to be a driving force in underground comics just a few years later. Editor and publisher Jerry Weist remains one of the preeminent authorities on EC and has led a many faceted career, including the aforementioned consultant position for Sotheby’s. He continues to lend his vast array of knowledge of comics in general, and EC in particular, to venues such as the Wall St. Journal and USA Today. He recalls some of his proudest publishing projects as Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life / Journey to Far Metaphor, and From The Pen of Paul: The Fantastic Images of Frank R. Paul, which he wrote with Steve Korshak, published by Shasta Press. He is also working with Jack Butterworth to complete the 3rd Edition of The Comic Art Price Guide for 2010, and will begin work after that on a book entitled The History of Fanzines: or What the Geeks did Before the Internet. Jerry Weist can still gush with enthusiasm, saying “while nearing 60 years of age, I have the same passion for EC comics and their history as I did in 1966 when we first conceived Squa Tront!” Download the PDF here, folks ...this is only a small taste of your walk down an EC inspired memory lane! NOTE: Jerry Weist passed away after this column was originally posted, you can see tributes to him here and here. Links: Fantagraphics has an issue available here. The late Berni Wrightson’s site is here. The Frazetta Girls' site is here. Ken Meyer Jr. [email protected] |
AuthorKen Meyer Jr. Archives
May 2026
Categories |
Ken Meyer Jr. Illustrator
RSS Feed