Last
updated 20 August 07. The latest version of this document can always be found
at www.enjolrasworld.com. See last page for legal & © information.
Additions?
Corrections? Contact Richard J. Arndt: rarndt39@hotmail.com.
The Early Independents
witzend was the first of the
independent or “indy” magazines.
Premiering in 1966, it published 13 issues over almost two decades, most
of them between 1966-1971 and provided a welcome link between mainstream comics
and the then-new underground movement.
Although, at times, particularly in the early issues, it seemed to
suffer from the lack of a strong editorial hand at the helm, that was actually
at Wood’s insistence. He made it quite
clear in his original editorial in #1 that this magazine was intended as a
showcase for writers & artists, with little or no editorial direction or
interference. witzend certainly
showcased many important artists of the period and pointed out a direction for
every self-publishing writer/artist to this day. witzend publisher & editor Bill Pearson
has supplied some comments in the notes.
His contributions are in quotes.
witzend
1. cover: collage of panels from interior
stories done by Archie Goodwin/back cover: Frank Frazetta (Summer
1966)
1) Statement Of NO POLICY [Wally
Wood] 1p [text article, frontis]
2) Savage World [Wally Wood/Al
Williamson, Frank Frazetta & Angelo Torres] 8p
3) And In The Offing [Wally
Wood/Gray Morrow, Leo & Diane Dillon, Dan Adkins, Jack Kirby, Steve
Ditko, Gil Kane] 2p [text article]
4) Two Swordsmen [Reed Crandall]
1p
5) And Thereby Hangs A Tale
[Ralph Reese] ?p
6) Sinner [Archie Goodwin] 4p
7) Poems [Wally Wood?/Angelo
Torres] 1p
8) Bucky Ruckus—Dedications And
Credits [Wally Wood] 2p [text article]
9) Animan, part 1 [Wally Wood]
7p
10) Absurd Science Fiction
Stories [Jack Gaughan] 10p
11) Subscription Info And Errata
[Wally Wood] 1p [text article & ad/
on inside back cover]
Notes: Thanks to Emanuel Maris, we
now have credits for this issue! witzend
originated from an idea on Dan Adkin’s part to publish a magazine called
Outlet, then turned into Wally Wood’s Etcetera.
A logo was prepared using that title but when Wood discovered another magazine
with a similar title, the magazine’s title was changed witzend, after it was
solicited but before actual publishing. There
were two printings of witzend and, after selling out rather quickly, a bootleg
copy was produced by unknown characters around 1969-1970. The counterfeit copy has slightly different
paper for the cover—a slight pebble-grain.
Many dealers nowadays are unaware of the existence of the counterfeit. The original appears to have the same type of
paper as #2. ‘Savage World’ was drawn in
1954 and intended for Buster Crabbe Comics.
The comic was cancelled before the story was used and Williamson
accepted the art back instead of payment.
Wood wrote a totally new script for the story for this appearance as the
original was lost. Best story here was
Archie Goodwin’s chilling ‘Sinner’, which was reprinted in Marvel’s B&W
magazine Unknown Worlds Of Science Fiction Special #1 in 1976. Best art is by Wood on ‘Animan’.
2. cover: Wally Wood/back cover: Ralph
Reese (1967)
1) What Is It… [Wally
Wood/Tajana Wood] 1p [text article,
frontis]
2) Orion [Gray Morrow] 6p
3) Hey Look! [Harvey Kurtzman]
1p reprinted from ?
4) Hey Look! [Harvey Kurtzman]
1p reprinted from ?
5) If You Can’t Join ‘em…Beat
‘em! [Warren Sattler] 4p
6) A Reed Crandall ERB Portfolio
[Reed Crandall] 5p [pin-ups]
7) Poetry [Wally Wood, Ralph
Reese & Bill Pearson/Frank Frazetta] 2p
8) Cartoon [Will Elder] 1p
9) A Flash Of Insight, A Cloud
Of Dust And A Hearty Hi-Yo Silver [Art Spiegelman] 3p
10) Midnight Special [Steve
Ditko] 1p
11) …By The Fountain In The
Park… [Don Martin] 2p
12) Animan, part 2 [Wally Wood]
9p
13) Herein, And Furthmore…
[Wally Wood/Al Williamson] 1p [text
article]
14) A Word From Wood…Subscribe!
[Wally Wood/Roy G. Krenkel] 1p [text
article, on inside
back cover]
Notes: $1.00 for 36 pages. Gray Morrow’s ‘Orion’ serial would not be
concluded until its printing in Heavy Metal in 1979. Although Wood wanted all the material in
witzend to be original or, at least, appear there for the first time, he broke
his own rule to allow Kurtzman’s ‘Hey Look!’ pages to be reprinted. Ditko’s cute one pager is a reminder that the
guy had a sense of humor, something that is sometimes lost when regarding his
work. Spiegelman’s work was a wordless
strip. Martin’s was probably a rejected
strip for
3. cover: Wally Wood/frontis: Leo &
Diane Dillon/back cover: Al Williamson (1967)
1) Mr. A [Steve Ditko] 5p
2) Poetry [Ralph Reese/Leo & Diane Dillon] 1p
3) Reed Crandall’s ERB Portfolio, part 2 [Reed
Crandall] 4p [pin-ups]
4) Harold Sunshine [Art Spiegelman] 3p
5) Hey Look! [Harvey Kurtzman] 1p reprinted from ?
6) The Invaders! [Richard Bassford] 3p
7) The Chase [Roger Brand] 4½p
8) Poetry [Wally Wood & Bill Pearson] ½p
9) Pipsqueak Papers [Wally Wood] 3p
10) Vanessa [Sam Kobish/Roy G. Krenkel] 1p [text story]
11) Last Chance! [Frank Frazetta] 9p
12) Hey Look! [Harvey Kurtzman] 1p reprinted from ?
13) Contents And Portents And Otherwise Words [Wally
Wood/Al Williamson] 1p [text article,
on inside back cover]
Notes: Williamson’s back cover
featured Flash Gordon, whose comic book he was illustrating during this
period. That same back cover also
promised that witzend #3 would be an Al Williamson SF spectacular, which didn’t
actually happen. This was the debut of
Ditko’s famous {or infamous—depends on your outlook} Mr. A. While not as strident as later strips, it
still clearly depicts Mr. A’s black & white outlook on the world. Whatever you though about the actual story
you couldn’t deny that it was beautiful artwork. Frazetta’s story was a comic strip tryout
from 1950 refashioned into traditional comic pages by Bill Pearson. Roger Brand’s work was very good and shows a
strong Krigstein influence. This is an
excellent issue.
4. cover: Wally Wood/back cover: Frank
Frazetta (1968)
1) Words From Wood [Wally Wood/?
Conroy] 1p [text article, frontis]
2) Pipsqueak Papers [Wally Wood]
4p
3) Mr. A [Steve Ditko] 10p
4) The Rejects [Wally Wood &
Bhob Stewart/Wally Wood] 3p
5) Reed Crandall’s ERB
Portfolio, part 3 [Reed Crandall] 4p
[pin-ups]
6) A Proper Perspective And
Several Strange Viewpoints [Wally Wood & Bill Pearson/Leo &
Diane Dillon] 2p [poetry]
7) The Sneeze [Bill
Pearson/Grass Green] 3p
8) Virtue Ever Triumphant [Roger
Brand] 6p
9) The World Of The Wizard King
[Wally Wood] 5p [text story]
Notes: Frazetta’s back cover was
very good, showing an American Indian being carried off by a pterodacytal. It’s possible it was done for one of the
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books. Wood’s ‘Pipsqueak Papers’ was a cute and oddly
innocent erotic fable. Both Ditko &
Brand delivered strong stories & art and Pearson’s ‘The Sneeze’ was quite
amusing. Wood’s illustrated prose story,
‘The World Of The Wizard King’ would be reworked into traditional comic form
and published as a graphic novel in the late 1970s. Another good issue.
5. cover: photo of an rhinoceros’s
backside/back cover: Ed Paschke (Oct. 1968)
1) Editorial [Bill Pearson/Art
Spiegelman] 1p [text article, frontis]
2) The World Of The Wizard King,
part 2 [Wally Wood] 5p [text story]
3) The Junkwaffel Invasion Of
4) JAF [James Frankfort] 8p [art & story credited to Jaf]
5) A Reed Crandall ERB
Portfolio, part 4 [Reed Crandall] 3p
[pin-ups]
6) Pipsqueak Papers [Wally Wood]
5p
7) Prevue: The Adventures Of
Talon [Jim Steranko] 3p
8) Homesick [Roger Brand] 8p
9) Editorial Matters [Bill
Pearson] 1p [text article, on inside
back cover]
Notes: Publisher & Editor: Bill
Pearson. Wood sold witzend to Pearson
for the sum of $1.00 along with the promises to publish through at least #8
{the issue that Wood had sold subscriptions up to} and to run any story already
accepted by Wood as is. Steranko’s Talon
preview was for a Conanesque barbarian swordsman. The artwork looked great so it was too bad
the promised story never appeared.
Steranko later used the spelling of the word Prevue as the new title of
his renamed Mediascene magazine {which was itself renamed from the original
Comicscene title}. Thanks to the mystery artist JAF’s daughter Michelle, we’re
happy to announce the identity of JAF.
His real name is James Frankfort who was a successful cartoonist/commercial
artist for a number of years in Greenwich Village and taught at
6. cover: Mike Hinge (Spring 1969) [wraparound cover]
1) Alien [Bill Pearson/Jeff
Jones] 6p
2) An Interview With Will Eisner
[John Benson & Will Eisner/Will Eisner] 5p
[text article w/photo]
3) Subscription Ad [Bill
Pearson/Wally Wood] 2p
4) Qwamb! [Bill Pearson] 7p [credited to Sorrel Garika]
5) The Spawn Of Venus [Al
Feldstein/Wally Wood] 8p
6) The Avenging World [Steve
Ditko] 10p
7) Pin-Up [Gray Morrow] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: According to Bill Pearson,
the intricate, detailed cover took a huge amount of time & labor to achieve
in 1969’s pre-computer production days.
‘The Spawn Of Venus’ was a previously unpublished EC story, originally
intended for an EC 3-D Classic issue. Check
out Bill Pearson’s comments for #7 for further information on Ditko’s ‘The Avenging
World’. Benson’s interview with Eisner
is not only well done but provides the interesting information that, as of
Sept. 10, 1968, Eisner had no knowledge whatsoever of the existence of his
future publisher, Warren Publishing. BP:
“Mike Hinge was another overlooked genius.
He was a designer, not a cartoonist, but when he came to me with the
idea for this cover, I was immediately intrigued. Eddie Glasser, my business partner in
Wonderful Publishing Company and the head of the photography dept. at Admaster
Prints where I worked as production manager of the art dept., produced dozens
of intricate cels with overlapping machinery patterns and Mike and I both put
in dozens of hours creating the final wraparound design and logo. The printer had a challenging job too! Except for the printer, not a one of us made
a dime for all the work. In fact, we
lost money that could have been made for freelance work during those hours but
it was worth it. So many people have
told me over the years that something they saw in witzend inspired them, and
there’s no greater reward than that!”
7. cover: Vaughn Bode/back cover: Kenneth
Smith (1970)
1) Editorial [Bill Pearson/Ralph
Reese] 1p [text article, frontis]
2) Cobalt 60 [Vaughn Bode] 10p
3) Letters’ Page [Dan Adkins] 2p
4) Mr. A: The Avenging World,
part 2 [Steve Ditko] 8p
5) The Strange Adventure Of Ike
And His Spoon [Roger Brand] 6p
6) Pin-Up [Ed Paschke] 1p
7) Limpstrel [Berni Wrightson]
1p
8) untitled [Bill Pearson] 1p
9) Mr. E [Bill Pearson/Tim
Brent] 2p
10) Limpstrel [Berni Wrightson]
1p
11) The Journey [Betty
Morrow/Gray Morrow] 8p [Final page is
printed on the inside back
cover]
Notes: $1.50 for 48 pages. Bode’s cover was extremely gruesome. His interior story, ‘Cobalt 60’ was just as
gruesome but it was also his best straight SF tale. Beautifully drawn and powerfully written,
this featured the best story & art in this issue and is a genuine classic
of the comics genre. Ditko’s ‘The
Avenging World’ was not actually a story but a political/philosophical essay
told in comic form. The artwork was some
of his most innovative. Paschke’s pin-up
depicted Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Little Dot, Dennis the Menace, Casper the
Friendly Ghost, Little Lulu and Little Orphan Annie as dope fiends in an opium
den! Bill Pearson’s ‘Mr. E’ strip was a
rather savage satire on Steve Ditko’s Mr. A character. It was also printed sideways and was actually
four pages in length. The third &
last ‘Limpstrel’ story appeared in another fanzine in 1972. BP: “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.” As
mentioned in the notes for #5, Pearson’s agreement with Wood prevented him from
rejecting any Ditko stories that Wood had accepted and that agreement apparently
covered ‘Avenging World’. The Morrows’
strip was blessed with a good story and downright stunning erotic art. One of witzend’s best issues.
8. cover: Ralph Reese/Bill Pearson (1971)
1) Why, It’s…witzend [Bill
Pearson] 1p [text article, frontis]
2) The World Of The Wizard King,
part 3 [Wally Wood] 5p [text story]
3) untitled [Bhob Stewart] 1p
4) Barf The Insurance Salesman
[Bill Pearson/Ralph Reese] 7p
5) Foxtale [Nicola Cuti/Bill
Stillwell] 2p
6) Holding The Bag [Dr. Seuss]
1p reprinted from Judge Magazine (?
1932)
7) The City In The Sea [Edgar
Allan Poe/Frank Frazetta] 10p [poem]
8) The Break-Out! [Steve Ditko]
1p
9) The Hunting Of The Snark
[John Richardson] 8p from the poem by
Lewis Carroll
Notes: The title logo appeared in
the mouth of the devil depicted on the back cover. Reese’s cover was a panel blowup from the
interior story. Frazetta’s artwork for
‘The City In The Sea’ was originally done in 1960 {or earlier} for an
unpublished one page adventure Sunday comic strip. It was reformatted {similar to what was done
for Last Chance!} by Bill Pearson and combined with the Poe poem. According to Bill Pearson, the actual artwork
was very large, the same size that Hal Foster used to illustrate the Prince
Valiant Sunday pages. One panel from the
original page was not used. It easily
has the best art & poetry for this issue.
Perhaps someday the original tryout page will be printed. Cuti’s ‘Foxtale’ was somewhat of a preview or
prototype for his 1980-1982 series for
9. cover: Jeff Jones/titlepage & back
cover: Bill Pearson (1973)
1) The Films Of Charles Bogle
[Bill Pearson] 7p [text article
w/photos]
2) The Bank Dick: His Very Own
Photo-Story [Bill Pearson] 4p
[fumetti-style strip]
3) The Films Of Otis
Criblecoblis [Bill Pearson] 2p [text
article w/photos]
4) Complete Filmography Of W. C.
Fields [Bill Pearson] 1p [text article]
5) Adversity: The W. C. Fields
Game [Bill Pearson] 12p [game]
6) Between The Scenes/A Fussy
Old Man In The Movies [photo display] 13p
7) Alan Wood, On Stage With W.
C. Fields [Allen Wood] 1p [text article
w/photo]
8) W. C. Fields Pin-Up [Bill Pearson]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: This was a W. C. Fields
special. Publisher: Phil Seuling. Editor: Bill Pearson. $1.50 for 38 pages. No comics in this issue whatsoever. BP: ‘The printer screwed up the cover by
Jeff Jones, so I hastily had some full color prints of the painting made, and
included them with the magazine. This
issue got almost no distribution {I hadn’t solicited subscriptions beyond #8}
and Phil Seuling and I dissolved our business partnership soon after
publication. He financed #8 &
#9. I had HUNDREDS of copies, but it
became known as the ‘missing’ issue of witzend.
They were all destroyed in my house fire, so now it really IS a rare
publication.”
10. cover: Wally Wood (1976) [wraparound cover]
1) Kym: Lost In A Dream! [Bill Pearson/Dick
Giordano] 8p
2) 39/74 [Guyla & Alex Toth/Alex Toth] 10p
3) On March 17, 1969… [Howard Chaykin] 3p
4) Pin-Up [Terry Austin] 1p
5) Sally Forth [Wally Wood] 6p
6) Pin-Up [P. Craig Russell] 1p
7) The Avenging Dodo [Bill Pearson/Mike Zeck] 8p
8) Pin-Up [Walt Simonson] 1p
9) My Furry World And Welcome To It! [Nicola
Cuti/Joe Staton] 10p
Notes: Publishers & editors:
Bob Layton & Bill Pearson. $3.00 for
48 pages. Printed in conjunction with
CPL/Gang Publications. ‘Kym’ was a three
part dream sequence that would take 6 years to conclude. Based on the November completion date noted
in Chaykin’s artwork, this book had to come out in Dec. 1976. ‘39/74’ is copyrighted by Marvel Publications
so it must, at one time, been intended for a Marvel magazine. It’s well drawn, but the story itself is not
particularly interesting. Wood’s ‘Sally
Forth’ story had the appearance of being a reformatted comic strip. Russell’s pin-up appeared to be a slightly
redrawn Dr. Strange cover or splash page.
Best story & art goes to Chaykin’s rather chilling solo effort but
both ‘The Avenging Dodo’ and ‘My Furry World And Welcome To It!’ were amusing
and well drawn. BP: “By this time, I
wasn’t making much money, but coerced Bob Layton into financing what I think is
a pretty nice issue.”
11. cover, frontis & back cover: Bill
Pearson (1978)
1) Introduction [Bill Pearson]
1p [pin-up and brief intro]
2) Kym Pin-Up [Bill Pearson] 1p
3) Spurt Starling [Bill Pearson]
1p
4) A Portfolio: The Wicked World
Of The Wizard King [Wally Wood] 12p
5) Early Poop [Bill Pearson]
1p [credited to Q. P. Hamstrung]
6) The Care And Feeding Of Geks
[Nicola Cuti/Mike Zeck] 8p
7) Spurt Starling II [Bill
Pearson] 1p
8) The Enormous Slug Suckers
From The Planet Mars!! [Bill Pearson] 8p
9) The Slugsucker Diagram [Bill
Pearson] 1p [diagram]
10) Kym: Encounter [Bill
Pearson/Ruben Yandoc] 8p
11) Early Poop II [Bill Pearson]
1p [credited to Q. P. Hamstrung]
12) Spurt Starling III [Bill
Pearson] 1p
13) Kym Pin-Up [Dan Adkins] 1p
14) Pin-Ups [Bill Pearson]
3p [last pin-up on inside back cover]
Notes: $4.00 for 48 pages. The Wally Wood material consisted of unused
panels or sketches intended for his Wizard King graphic novel, which itself was
a reworking of the earlier text story that had appeared in witzend. The portfolio pages included here were
considered too erotic for the graphic novel itself. ‘Early Poop’ was an X-rated spoof of ‘Alley
Oop’. ‘Spurt Starling’ was a spoof of ‘Flash
Gordon’. Best story here was the
delightful ‘The Care And Feeding Of Geks’ by Cuti & Zeck although Pearson’s
‘Early Poop’ and ‘Spurt Starling’ are funny.
BP: ‘I thought I was producing a spoof of underground comix, but lost
all editorial judgement and used too much of my own art…and the reaction was
silent embarrassment. I conned Bill
Black into co-financing this issue {sight unseen} and I suspect he junked his
half of the print run.” This, along with
#9, are the hardest issues to find.
12. cover: George Bush/frontis & inside back
cover: Jerry Bingham/back cover: photo of woman posing
as Kym (1982)
1) Editorial [Bill Pearson]
1p [text article]
2) My Ship Of Dreams [Henry C.
Pitz] 1p [poem]
3) Stargazer [J. R. Blevins & Dennis
Janke/Dennis Janke] 12p [Janke’s story
& art credited to Z.
Capistance]
4) Bugs In The System [Al Sirois & David
Stone/Al Sirois] 4p
5) The Phantom Pin-Up [Gray Morrow] 1p
6) The Real World [Bhob Stewart/John Norton] 4p
7) untitled [Don Martin] 2p
8) Booby Trap [Steve Ditko] 1p
9) Kym: The Awakening [Bill Pearson/Mike Zeck &
Ruben Yandoc] 9p
10) Lunar Tunes [Wally Wood] 12p
11) Wallace Wood 1927-1981 [Richard Bassford] 1p
Notes: $3.50 for 48 pages. Bush’s cover was a rendering of Humphrey
Bogart based on a photo still of his character from The Treasure Of The Sierra
Madre. This was the 3rd and
last installment of the dreams of ‘Kym’
‘Lunar Tunes’ must have been one of Wally Wood’s final stories. Jerry Bingham’s pin-ups were quite well drawn
but the barbarian theme seemed a little out of place in this bunch of
stories. Some interesting alternative
work here. BP: “This is a nice issue, I
thought. I conned a gangster {well, he
was a major league drug dealer} into financing this issue, and he too kept half
{2500 copies} of the print run. You
better believe I paid him back as soon as I sold my 2500 copies! He surely eventually junked his 2500 copies.”
13. cover: Dennis Janke/frontis & inside
back cover: Victor Perard/titlepage: Bill Pearson & Wally
Wood/back cover: Bob McLeod
(1985)
1) Good Girl Pin-Ups [Rich
Chidlaw; Bill Pearson ; Frank Frazetta; Roy G. Krenkel; Willy
Pogany; Zolne Rowich; Norman
Price; ? Bauer; Stan Drake; Kenneth Smith; Hannes
Bok; ?; Vince
Alascia-Charles Nicholas; Jack Gaughan; Bruce Miller; John Beatty;
Richard Bassford; David
Karbonik; Brad Foster; Wally Wood; Ed Paschke; Frank
Godwin; Trina Robbins; V. T.
Hamlin; Mike Zeck; Heinrich Kley] 36p
Notes: Final issue. $3.00 for 36 pages. An all ‘good girl’ pin-up issue. No comic stories at all. Some beautiful pin-ups and sketches here with
great artwork from everybody involved. I
particularly liked the Wally Wood witzend cover mockup; Bill Pearson’s efforts,
Bob McLeod’s back cover , the Krenkel sketchbook art and Heinrich Kley’s {a
Jewish artist who disappeared during Hitler’s regime} artwork but all of the
artwork is of high quality. If you like
pin-up art {especially of mostly naked babes} this is a pretty good book. Rowich’s art was a drawing of Sheena of the
Jungle from the cover of Jumbo Comics #46.
BP: “I think I somehow financed this issue myself, and it was the most
popular number of the entire series. Bud
Plant kept reordering for years. Not
counting the hundreds of man-hours I put into it, this issue actually broke
even! Also destroyed in [my] house fire
were approximately 140 pages of what I hoped would be the ultimate issue of
witzend, many years in the making, an eclectic mix of some really fabulous
material. But it wasn’t to be.”
1. cover & back cover:
Wally Wood (1980)
1) Statement Of Policy [Wally Wood] 1p [frontis]
reprinted from witzend #1 (Summer 1966)
2) witzend #3 cover [Wally Wood] 1p [pin-up]
3) The witzend Story [Bill Pearson/Wally Wood]
2p [text story]
4) Pipsqueak Papers [Wally Wood] 3p reprinted from witzend #3 (1967)
5) Pipsqueak Papers [Wally Wood] 3p reprinted from witzend #4 (1968)
6) Pipsqueak Papers [Wally Wood] 5p reprinted from witzend #5 (Oct. 1968)
7) The World Of The Wizard King [Wally Wood]
15p [text story] reprinted from witzend #4-6
& 8 (1968-1971)
8) witzend #2 cover [Wally Wood] 1p [pin-up]
9) The Rejects [Wally Wood &
Bhob Stewart/Wally Wood] 3p reprinted
from witzend #4 (1968)
10) Animan [Wally Wood] 15p reprinted from witzend #1-2 (1966-1967) [one page from part 2
deleted.]
11) witzend #4 cover [Wally
Wood] 1p [pin-up, on inside back cover]
Notes: Although not officially an
issue of witzend, this reprint volume {not to be confused with the 1970s Wood
newsletter of the same name} of Wood’s work for witzend came out in 1980 and was,
in effect, an issue of witzend. The back
cover was actually the splash page from the second part of Animan.
1. cover: Frank Frazetta/titlepage: ?
(1970)
1) Pin-Ups [Kenneth Smith] 1p
2) Introduction [Mark Feldman/Jim? Miller] 3p [text article]
3) Dr. Demono [Jim Miller] 5p
4) Michael Kaluta Interview
[Mark Feldman & Michael Kaluta/Michael Kaluta & Roy G. Krenkel] 5p
[text article]
5) Cheech Wizard: Race To The
Moon [Vaughn Bode] 6p
6) Vaughn Bode Interview [Mark
Feldman & Vaughn Bode] 2p [text
article]
7) Vampires Of The Mind [Steve
Hickman & Mike Cody] 6p
8) Pin-Up [Robert L. Kline] 1p
9) The E.C. Answer To Comic Book
Originality [Meade Frierson III] 3p
[text article]
10) Next Issue Previews [Michael
Kaluta, Tom Sutton & Berni Wrightson] 2p
11) Portfolio [Kenneth Smith]
4p [pin-ups]
12) John Severin Interview [Mark
Feldman? & John Severin/John Severin] 5p
[text article]
13) Pin-Ups [Steve Hickman &
Steve Harper] 2p
14) Tom Sutton Interview [Mark
Feldman? & Tom Sutton] 2p [text
article]
15) Pin-Ups [Frank Frazetta
& Berni Wrightson] 2p
16) Berni Wrightson Interview
[Mark Feldman & Berni Wrightson/Berni Wrightson] 1p [text article]
17) Nick Fury & the Yellow
Claw Pin-Up [Jim Steranko] 1p
18) Da-Kar [Mike Miller] 3p
19) Pin-Up [Steve Hickman] 1p
20) Jeff Jones Interview [Mark
Feldman? & Jeff Jones/Jeff Jones & Sal Buscema] 3p [text article]
21) Pin-Ups [Steve Hickman, Jeff
Fantuccio, Richard Corben, Dave Cockrum] 4p
Notes: All information for this
issue was provided by Jeffrey Clem. It’s
much appreciated, Jeff! Publisher &
editor: Mark Feldman? $? For 72
pages. Frazetta’s cover was repeated on
the back cover sans copy. Sal Buscema’s
sketch in the Jeff Jones interview featured the Avengers battling Ultron and
had nothing to do with Jeff Jones at all.
Dave Cockrum’s pin-up also featured many Marvel characters in a
“bigfoot” art style. Severin’s interview
art featured his work on Cracked’s mascot logo.
Sutton’s interview featured no art at all. The next issue ad included artwork for
Michael Kaluta’s story ‘Hey, Buddy, Can You Lend Me…?’, which ended up in the
fanzine Scream Door {see below}.
2. cover, titlepage & back cover:
Kenneth Smith (July 1970)
1) Nest Egg [Alan Simons/Steve
Hickman & Robert L. Kline] 3p
2) Pilgrim [Tom Sutton] 5p
3) Stake-Out [Berni Wrightson]
4p
Notes: Publisher & Editor: Mark
Feldman. $.35 for 12 pages. Very thin, magazine-sized fanzine. Wrightson’s strip featured the Old Witch, the
Vault Keeper & the Crypt Keeper from EC comics. Both ‘Nest Egg’ & ‘Pilgrim’ were serials
{and, to my knowledge, neither were ever concluded}. ‘Pilgrim’, in particular, appeared to have
promise.
3. Never Published (see notes for Scream Door
#1)
4. cover & frontis: Berni
Wrightson/back cover: Frank Brunner (Jan. 1971)
1) Out On A Limb! [Berni
Wrightson] 6p
2) Pilgrim, part 2 [Tom Sutton]
5p
3) Pin-Ups [Frank Brunner &
Gray Morrow] 2p
5) Frankenstein Pin-Up [Tom
Sutton] 1p
Notes: Final issue. Wrightson’s ‘Out On A Limb!’ was originally
intended as the cover story for the never published Web Of Horror #4. Sutton’s Frankenstein pin-up was done just
before he began writing & illustrating the character for Skywald. Brunner’s back cover was a preview page for a
proposed series that was to have been called ‘Red Man’s Burden’. Wrightson’s cover showed the same frontier
coot that would headline the story ‘King Of The Mountain, Man’ from his early
collection Badtime Stories while his frontispiece was a try-out page dealing
with Frankenstein. Another page from the
same try-out appeared as the cover to Scream Door #1. Good issue & art.
1. cover:
Notes: At this time, information is
not available for this issue. Infinity
was somewhat of a hybrid fanzine, combining articles which featured a great deal
of artwork as well as the occasional comic story.
2. cover: Frank Brunner/frontis & titlepage: Roy
G. Krenkel/back cover: Jeff Jones (197?)
1)
Pin-Up [Frank Brunner] 1p
2)
Editorial [?] 1p [text article]
3)
Pin-Ups [Virgil Finlay] 2p
4)
Berni Wrightson Interview [? & Berni Wrightson/Berni Wrightson, Jim
Steranko & Gray Morrow] 10p
[text article]
5)
Pin-Up [Joe Schenkman] 1p
6)
Frank Frazetta Interview [? & Frank Frazetta/Frank Frazetta, Frank Brunner
& Steve Hickman] 4p [text
article]
7)
8) Richard M. Nixon Illustration
[Gray Morrow] 1p
9) Letter’s Page [illo by Dave
Berg] 5p
10) Pin-Ups [Jim Steranko, Roy
G. Krenkel & Michael Kaluta] 3p
11) Editorial [?/Ed Eschweller]
2p [text article]
12) Pin-Up [John Fantuccio] 1p
13) Editorial [?/Robert Kline]
1p [text article]
14) Pin-Up [Joe Schenkman]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: $1.50 for 48 pages. The Steranko illo that appeared in the
Wrightson interview depicts Marvel’s Black Panther character. Information on this issue provided by Jeffrey
Clem. There were at least two printings
of Infinity #2 with a few of the illustrations dropped and new ones added in
their place.
3a. cover: Frank Brunner/frontis: Michael
Kaluta/titlepage: ?/back cover: Robert L. Kline (1971)
1) Introduction [Alan Malin
& Gary Berman/Kenneth Smith] 2p
[text article]
2) Pin-Up [Michael Kaluta] 1p
3) Wrightson Portfolio [Berni
Wrightson] 3p
4) Jeff Jones Interview [? &
Jeff Jones/Jeff Jones] 6p [text
article]
5) Pin-Up [?] 2p
6) Virgil Finlay [Doug
Murray/Virgil Finlay] 2p [text article]
7) Frank Brunner Interview [?
& Frank Brunner/Frank Brunner] 9p
[text article]
8) As Night Falls: Cheryl’s Song
[Michael Kaluta] 2p
9) Pin-Up [Jeff Jones] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publishers & editors:
Gary Berman & Adam Malin. $1.50 for 28
pages. Brunner’s cover was originally
intended for the never published This Is Legend #2. This issue was split into two separate
magazines, with an additional supplement of six sketch pages given to
subscribers. The supplement features
sketches by Al Williamson {Flash Gordon}, Jack Kirby {Captain
3b. cover: Jeff Jones/frontis: Gray
Morrow/titlepage: Kenneth Smith/back cover: Berni Wrightson
(1971)
1) The Mating [Bruce Jones]
2p [story never concluded?]
2) Bruce Jones Interview [?
& Bruce Jones/Bruce Jones] 4p [text
article w/photo]
3) A Portfolio By Roy G. Krenkel
[Roy G. Krenkel] 10p
4) Life Among The Beetles, Boners,
And Hi And Lois [Mort Walker] 2p [text
article w/ cartoon
strips]
5) Mr. Wizzy… [Mort Drucker] 1p
6) Candy Camera… [Mort Drucker]
1p
7) Pin-Up [Frank Brunner] 1p
8) Reality Ad [Michael Kaluta]
1p
9) Wallace Wood page [Wally
Wood?] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: The second half of #3. This issue included a lengthy letters’ page
with artwork by Kenneth Smith, Al Williamson & Randy Yeates. Robert L. Kline, Gordon Love, Kenneth Smith
& Randy Yeates sent in letters.
Jones’ little two-page strip was the first part of a intended serial but
it was never concluded. Wrightson’s back
cover was a depiction of Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater. A similar page appeared in the portfolio
section of #3, part 1. These may have
been try-out pages for the adaptation of that nursery rhyme that appeared in
Abyss #1.
4. cover: Richard Corben/frontis: Joe Schuster/titlepage:
Al Williamson/inside back cover: Berni
Wrightson/back cover: Larry
Todd (1972)
1) Editorial [Adam Malin &
Gary Berman/Kenneth Smith] 1p [text
article]
2) Pin-Up [Jeff Jones & Joe
Sinnott] 1p
3) Fastest Gun In The West [?
Mooney] 2p
4) Comix!: A Phenonemon [Jack
Jackson/Jack Jackson, Gilbert Shelton, Roy Crumb, ?, Roy G. Krenkel,
Richard Corben & more] 11p [text article]
5) Jimi Hendrix Pin-Up [Tom
Yeates] 1p
6) Frank Brunner Portfolio
[Frank Brunner] 5p
7) Creation: The 1971 Art
Convention [Adam Malin/Roy G. Krenkel] 5p
[text article w/photos]
8) Michael Kaluta Interview
[Adam Malin, Doug Murray & Michael Kaluta/Michael Kaluta] 6p [text
article w/photos]
9) Mr. Odd [Mort Drucker] 1p
10) The Artist’s Corner [Roy G.
Krenkel, Jeff Jones, Gray Morrow, M. Serignt] 4p
11) The Deer [Michael Kaluta] 3p
12) Pin-Ups [
Williamson & Frank
Frazetta] 8p
13) Steve Harper Interview [Adam Malin, Doug Murray,
Dave Kaskove, Mike Kaluta & Steve
Harper/Steve Harper] 5p [text article]
14) Phase Ad [Ken Barr] 1p
15) A New Beginning [Al Feldstein/Al Williamson] 6p reprinted from Weird Science?
16)
17) Pin-Up [Berni Wrightson] 1p
18) Gray Morrow Portfolio [Gray Morrow] 3p
19) Letter’s Pages [Kenneth Smith, Roy G. Krenkel]
3p
20. Phantasmagoria Ad [Kenneth Smith] 1p
21) Butch Malin and The Berman Kid In Convention
Crisis! [Adam Malin/Randy Yeates & Rick Rydell]
4p
Notes: $3.00 for 80 pages. Joe Schuster’s frontispiece is a 1940’s era
cheesecake pin-up (it’s rather faint but very well done). ‘Fastest Gun In The West’ was signed “Mooney
1972’ but the writer/artist’s full name was not included on the titlepage and
the artist is unknown to me. Kaluta’s
story is wordless, but has word balloons.
The reader was encouraged to script the story and it’s possible this
effort at reader participation was inspired by Web Of Horror’s similar artist
contest. The artwork appears to be based on the same Chinese legend (involving
a were-deer) that Nicola Cuti used for two different stories in the 1970s and
1980s—one for Charlton & one for
5. cover: Larry Todd/frontis: Tom
Yeates/titlepage: Vaughn Bode/back cover: Michael Kaluta (Summer
1973)
1) Notes From The Editors [Adam
Main & Gary Berman/Gray Morrow] 3p
[text article]
2) A Portfolio Of Watercolors by
E. Maroto [Esteban Maroto] 4p
[pin-ups]
3) An Interview With Richard
Corben [Jan Strnad & Richard Corben/Richard Corben] 10p [text
article w/photos]
4) Tarzan’s Chicago Adventure!
[Mike Olshan/Frank Brunner] 2p
5) Infinity Fiction: The Man In
The Middle [Jan Strnad] 2p [text story]
6) Eyefull: Notebook Pages
[Larry Todd] 4p
7) A Report On Creation
Convention 1972 [Gary Berman & Adam Malin/Larry Todd & Vaughn
Bode] 4p [text article w/photos]
8) Sketch Pages [Al Williamson
& Larry Todd] 3p
9) Warp [Doug Murray/Neal Adams]
7p [text article]
10) Letters’ Page Art [Randy
Yeates, Tom Yeates, Gene Colan, Alan Weiss, Larry Todd, Bruce
Jones, Rich Bucker & C.
Lee Healy] 7p [pin-ups]
11) Junkwaffel [Vaughn Bode] 1p
12) 5:30 PM—N.Y.C. [Larry Todd]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: $? for 48 pages. A color
print by Berni Wrightson, depicting a macabre rock band called the Cryptics,
was inserted in this issue. Underground
artist Jack Jackson & future cover artist Clyde Caldwell sent in
letters. The Warp article covered the
1. cover: Berni Wrightson/frontis: Michael
Kaluta/back cover: Bob Juanillo (Sept. 1970)
1) Introduction [Richard L. Jennings/Kenneth Smith]
1p [text article]
2)
Titlepage [Kenneth Smith] 1p
3)
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow [Mary Skrenes/Jeff Jones, Alan Weiss & Berni
Wrightson] 11p from the
story by Washington
Irving [story credited to Virgil North]
4) Scroll Call [?/Kenneth Smith] 1p [text article]
5)
Pin-Up [Robert L. Kline] 1p
6) From The Book Of Useless Information [Richard L.
Jennings?/Kenneth Smith, Ken Kelley &
Steve Harper] 3p [text article]
7)
Pin-Ups [Bob Juanillo, Steve Hickman, Ray Cioni, Randy Broecker] 4p
8) Editorial [Richard L. Jennings/Kenneth Smith]
2p [text article]
9) Pin-Ups [Randy Broecker, Bonnie Moore, Ken
Kelley, Bob Juanillo, Frank Brunner, Kenneth
Smith, Roy G. Krenkel] 8p
10) The Gardener [Michael Kaluta] 5p
11) The Story-Telling Stone [Richard L. Jennings/Ken
Kelley, Kenneth Smith & Roy G. Krenkel]
4p [text story]
12) Pin-Ups [Ken Kelley, Randy
Broecker, Kenneth Smith, Bonnie Moore, Rick Rydell, Randy
Yeates, Bob Juanillo]
8p
13) Abyss Ad [Berni Wrightson, Michael
Kaluta, Bruce Jones & Jeff Jones] 1p
14) Pin-Ups [Randy Yeates, Frank Frazetta,
Steve Fritz, Steve Hickman, Bruce Jones] 5p
15) The Last Word [Richard L.
Jennings] 1p [text article]
Notes: $2.00 Publisher & editor: Richard L.
Jennings. The Rydell pin-up appears to
be a tryout strip (entitled Trolls) for Creepy’s Loathsome Lore. The Frazetta pin-up is a Conan sketch. Only two actual strips appear here, though
both are quite good. This is largely a
pin-up book. Mary Skrenes used the
penname of Virgil North during a period when female names (at least names that
were clearly female) were frowned upon by comic publishers.
1. cover: Jeff Jones/frontis: Roy G. Krenkel/back
cover: Virgil Finlay (Nov. 1970)
1) Quasar! [Steve Hickman] 7p
2) This Is Legend Ad [Kenneth Smith, et al] 1p
3) Jeff Jones Interview [Robert Gerstenhaber &
Jeff Jones/Jeff Jones] 12p [text
article]
4) Pin-Ups [? & Michael
Kaluta] 2p
5) Death Is The Sailor [Len
Wein/Michael Kaluta] 4p
6) Endless Chain! [Joe
Manfredini/Frank Brunner] 5p
7) The Making Of A Knight
[Graham Ingels] 1p
8) Abyss Ad [Jeff Jones, Berni Wrightson, Bruce
Jones & Michael Kaluta] 1p
9) Kenneth Smith’s
Phantasmagoria Posters Ad [Kenneth Smith] 1p
10) Editorial [Robert
Gerstenhaber/Kenneth Smith & Michael Kaluta] 1p
11) Pin-Up [Kenneth Smith]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: $1.50. Publisher & editor: Robert Gerstenhaber. Gerstenhaber was 14 years old when he
published this fanzine. The Wein/Kaluta
strip is only part 1 of the story. Both
it and ‘Quasar’ were originally intended for the never published Web Of Horror
#4. Ingels’ story/art page, depicting a
knight, was done in 1955, shortly after EC folded and apparently intended for
Classics Illustrated. Best story here is
Steve Hickman’s ‘Quasar!’, although if ‘Death Is The Sailor’ had been printed
in its entirety it would have been chosen.
Best art is Frank Brunner’s on ‘Endless Chain’. Check out the 2007 interview with publisher
Robert Gerstenhaber at the end of this page!
2. cover: Larry Todd/back cover: Michael
Kaluta (1971)
1) Artificial Limbs [Michael Kaluta] 1p reprinted from ? [frontis]
2) Titlepage art [A J. D’Agostino] 1p
3) Tidbits [Robert Gerstenhaber/Reed Crandall]
1p [text article]
4) Pin-Up [Berni Wrightson] 1p
5) Webster’s Page [Michael Kaluta] 1p
6) Death Is The Sailor [Len Wein/Michael Kaluta] 6p
7) Outside-In [Bruce Jones] 7p
8) Centerfold Pin-Up [Frank Brunner] 2p
9) Fandom, Writing, And Catching Up [Jan Strnad/A.
J. D’Agostino, Reed Crandall & Al
Williamson] 3p [text article]
10) Kenneth Smith: Portfolio [Kenneth Smith] 5p
11) Renegade! [Howard Chaykin/Howard Chaykin & Bill
Stillwell] 2p
12) The Amazing Liver [Larry Todd] 2p
13) As Night Falls: Michelle’s Song [Michael Kaluta]
2p
14) Pin-Up [Al Williamson] 1p
15) Phantasmogoria Ad [Kenneth Smith] 1p
16) Heritage Ad [Al Williamson] 1p [features Flash Gordon]
17) Time Lapse [Michael Kaluta] 1p reprinted from ? [on inside back cover]
Notes: $2.00 for 36 pages. The front & back cover appear to be
reversed, causing the magazine’s logo to appear only on the back cover, but
publisher Robert Gerson assured me that this was intentional. He wanted a full bleed painted front cover
without any type. He was inspired to do
this based on Jerry Weist’s efforts with EC fanzine Squa Tront’s 3rd
& 4th issues. Kaluta’s back
cover is quite nice. The first four pages of ‘Death Is The Sailor’ were reprinted
from the first issue, with the first two pages being combined and printed
sideways on a single page. The actual
story length is 7 pages. ‘Webster’s
Page’, ‘Death Is The Sailor’ & ‘Outside-In’ were all originally intended
for the never published Web Of Horror #4.
Other ‘As Night Falls’ segments were published in various fanzines from
1970-1972. There were three segments in
all. ‘Revenge’ marks then-Queens College
student Howard Chaykin’s comics debut.
Best story is ‘Death Is The Sailor’ while both Bruce Jones & Michael
Kaluta share honors for best artwork.
1. cover: Berni Wrightson/frontis: Jeff Jones/back
cover: Michael Kaluta (Nov. 1970)
1)
The Hunter And The Hunted [Michael Kaluta] 4p
2) Apprenticeship [Michael Kaluta] 4p
3) Specimen
[Bruce Jones] 8p
4)
5) Wrightson’s Revolting Rhymes [adapted &
illustrated: Berni Wrightson] 8p from
the nursery
rhymes ‘Peter, Peter,
Pumpkin Eater’ & ‘Jack Sprat’
6) Pin-Up [Bruce Jones]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: $2.00 for 32 pages. Published & edited: Berni Wrightson,
Bruce Jones, Jeff Jones & Michael Kaluta.
This one-shot effort has some very nice artwork (much reprinted over the
years) and may have been done in reaction to the cancellation of Web Of Horror
earlier in the year, which Wrightson & Bruce Jones were to have
edited. Kaluta’s first strip & Bruce
Jones’ contribution could easily have fit in that magazine’s framework. The best story is Kaluta’s ‘The Hunter And
The Hunted’ while Jeff Jones’ artwork on ‘
1. cover & titlepage: Berni
Wrightson/frontis & back cover: Steve Hickman (1971)
1) Rat! [Tom Sutton] 7p [story & art credited to Seane Todd]
2) An Uneventfull Flight [Mark
Feldman] 1p [text story]
3) Pin-Up [Steve Hickman] 1p
4) Someone Is Coming… [Bob
Juanillo] 3p [story never concluded]
5) Phantasmagoria Ad [Kenneth
Smith] 1p
6) Hey Buddy, Can You Lend Me A…
[Michael Kaluta] 5p
7) Web Of Horror #4 cover mockup
[Berni Wrightson] 1p
8) Pin-Up [Steve Hickman]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publishers: Mark Feldman & Robert Lewis. $? for 20 pages. This was probably intended as the third issue
of I’ll Be Damned as it follows much the same format and is from the same
editor of that fanzine title. [Emanuel
Maris, who purchased the fanzines when they first came out, confirms that this
should be considered I’ll Be Damned #3).
Oddly, the interior pages are slick paper while the cover is rough card
stock. Wrightson’s cover is a try-out page
for a Frankenstein story. With the
exception of the Juanillo strip, all of the comic stories published here were
originally intended for Web Of Horror #4.
Although Wrightson’s original cover disappeared when Major Magazines
publisher Robert Sproul moved his offices, Wrightson retained a mock up of the
cover and that is what appears here.
Sutton’s pseudonym, Seane {or Sean} Todd, was used when Creepy &
Eerie publisher James Warren forbid any of his regular writers or artists to
work for the rival B&W mag, Web Of Horror.
Tom Sutton provides both the best art & story here.
1. cover: Gray Morrow/back cover: Bill
Stillwell (1971)
1) Introduction [David
Jablin/Neal Adams?] 1p [text article,
frontis]
2) Next Issue Ad [Bill
Stillwell] 1p
3) Explored [Jeff Jones] 3p
4) The Catalonian Chapel [?]
1p [text story]
5) Tangent [Neal Adams] 3p
6) A Gift Of Love [Bill
Stillwell] 6p
7) A Trace I
8) Lady Madonna [Howard Chaykin/Bill
Stillwell] 5p [script credited to Eric
Pave]
9)
10) Poems [?/?] 2p
11) Conjure Woman [Berni
Wrightson] 3p
12) Nova Christus--O’Saving Grace:
A Preview [Howard Chaykin/Howard Chaykin & ?] 3p
13) Necromancy [Michael Kaluta]
3p
14) Dark Domain Store Ad [Gray
Morrow] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher & editor:
David Jablin. $2.00 for 32 pages. The next issue announcement advertises an
adaptation of a “classic” SF story by Neal Adams. To my knowledge this was never done. ‘Tangent’ was an unpublished syndicated daily
strip tryout. The copy I have is
actually a second printing. According to
Emanuel Maris, the 1st printing’s back cover was far too dark to
reproduce the halftoon pencil work, so a month after it came out, Jablin
returned most of the 1st printing and had a second printing
done. He also replaced a three page
strip that appeared in the 1st printing with the Nova Christus
material by a very young Howard Chaykin.
According to Chaykin himself, he didn’t ink that three pager and isn’t
sure who did. Eric Pave appears to be a
house name that was used for several different creators.
1. cover: Ken Barr/frontis:
Captain
1) Pin-Up [Berni Wrightson] 1p
2) Sword Of Dragonus [Chuck Robinson & Frank
Brunner/Frank Brunner] 10p
3) Impact [Ernie Colon] 2p
4) Pin-Up [Bill Stillwell] 1p
5) The Coming Of The Piranhas [Denny O’Neil/Steve
Skeates] 5p
6) Duel [Gerry Conway/Gray Morrow] 6p [text story]
7) Don’t Be Phased Out [Sal Quartuccio/Tony
DeZuniga] 1p [text article]
8) Soul Food [Phil Seuling/Chris Notarile] 3p
9) Comes The Gray Dawn! [Marv Wolfman/Rich Buckler]
2p
10) Home [Jeff Jones] 4p
11) Veteran [Kathy Barr/Ken Barr] 3p
12) Pin-Up [Murphy
13) Hero [Bil Maher] 10p [story never concluded]
14) As Night Falls: Sally’s Song [Michael Kaluta] 2p
15) Getting The Point [Kenneth Smith] 7p [text story]
16) Pin-Ups [Dan Recchia & Billy Graham] 3p
17) The Comic Book Freak! [Tom Sutton] 2p
18) Yesterday’s Rain [Steve Fritz] 4p
19) Pin-Ups [Ken Kelly & Bill Stillwell] 2p
20) Dragon Slayer [Len Wein/Tony DeZuniga] 2p
21) Pin-Up [Dan Adkins] 1p
22) A View From Without… [Neal Adams] 8p
23) Conan The Barbarian Pin-Up [Billy Graham] 1p
24) Editorial [Sal Quartuccio] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher: John
Carbonaro. Editor: Sal Quartuccio. $5.00 for 74 pages. In 1971 dollars that’s close to $25-30 bucks
today! A very expensive book! A crude attempt was made to censor pubic hair
on the DeZuniga story ‘Dragon Slayer’ but whatever they did actually ends up
highlighting it! ‘Sword Of Dragonus’ was
originally intended for Web Of Horror.
I’ve gone on record before (see the notes for Unknown Worlds Of Science
Fiction #1) about my high regard for Adams’ ‘A View From Without…’, a story I
believe to be one of Adams’ best works.
He uses virtually every type of comic art available in 1971, including
fumetti, pen & ink, wash, charcoal, shaded, and straight pencils, with each
panel being practically a comics textbook in artwork and layout for young
artists. There’s an artistic homage to
Joe Kubert & Sgt. Rock on page 5.
The story, originally called ‘Greetings’, is a horrific view of the
Vietnam War, narrated by an extraterrestrial observer who is portrayed by Adams
himself in photo inserts.
1. cover & frontis: Jeff Jones (1972)
1) One page pin-ups [Phil Trumbo, Henry Pitz, Howard
Chaykin, Howard Pyle, Berni Wrightson,
Mike Nally, Frank E. Schoonover,
Barry Windsor-Smith, Robert
Lewis, Dennis Fujitake, Yvon Sovereign, Michael Kaluta,
Joel Pollack, Fred H. Ball,
Arthur Rackham, Eric Friedrichs, Marc Cheshire, Dave
Cockrum, Walt Simonson,
Norman Lindsay, Verlon Vrana, Maxfield Parrish, Roy G.
Krenkel, John Lawson, Sherry
Ives, Steve Hickman] 30p
Notes: Publishers: Robert Lewis
& Joel Pollack. Odd & (as far as
I know) unique attempt at a fine arts/comic artists combo coloring book. The well-known fine art illustrators’ work is
beautiful. Most of the comic artists
were just starting out and the artwork ranges from quite good to basic fanzine
artwork. There’s lots of nudity so I’m
not sure who the intended audience was. The indica notes that Wrightson’s
artwork is from 1968 and it looks it.
Windsor-Smith’s rising sun/samuari art appears to be from 1969-1970 and
is reproduced from pencils. Cockrum, Jones
& Chaykin provide the best work here.
Jones’ cover is reprinted sans copy on the back cover.
1A) cover: Alex Raymond/back cover: Frank
Frazetta (1972)
1) Introduction [Doug Murray]
1p [text article]
2) Flash Gordon Faces Reality
[Jeff Jones] 4p
3) Flash Gordon: Super Serial
[Allan Asherman/Reed Crandall] 13p
[text article w/photos]
4) Smash Gordon: A Funny Thing
Happened On The Way To Mongo! [Frank Brunner] 4p
5) Gray Morrow’s Flash Gordon
[Gray Morrow] 4p [pin-ups]
6) A Talk With Buster Crabbe
[Allan Asherman & Buster Crabbe/Frank Brunner] 14p [text
article w/photos]
7) Kenneth Smith’s Flash Gordon
[Kenneth Smith] 4p [pin-ups]
8) Flash Gordon: Crash-Landing
[Michael Kaluta] 4p
1B) cover: Al Williamson & Gray
Morrow/back cover: Wally Wood (1972)
1) Introduction [Doug Murray]
1p [text article, frontis]
2) Flash Gordon Pin-Up [Berni
Wrightson] 1p
3) Flash Meets The Amazons [Reed
Crandall] 5p
4) The Girls Of Mongo [Mike
Royer] 5p [pin-ups]
5) Interlude [Bruce Jones] 4p
6) An Evolution Of The Flash
Gordon Strip [Larry Ivie/Alex Raymond, Austin Briggs, Mac
Raboy, Frank Frazetta-Dan
Barry & Al Williamson] 12p [text
article w/photos]
7) Stanley Pitt’s Flash Gordon
[Stanley Pitt] 3p [pin-ups]
8) The Thrilling Adventures Of
Flash Gordon [Steve Harper] 4p
9) The Warrior [Neal Adams] 5p
10) A Flash Gordon Portfolio
[George Evans, Carlos Garzon, Roy G. Krenkel & Reed Crandall]
4p [pin-ups]
11) Flash Gordon? [Adolfo
Buylla] 4p
12) Flat Gordon [Carlos Garzon]
2p
13) Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon
[Al Williamson] 6p [pin-ups]
14) Even Legends May Die
[Esteban Maroto] 4p
Notes: Publisher: Bruce Hershenson
{for 1B only}. Publishers {for 1A only}
& editors: Doug Murray & Richard Garrison. $? for 72 pages each. Flash Gordon tribute titles. Each issue was perfect bound, magazine-sized
trade paperbacks. Al Williamson provided
spot illos throughout both volumes. With
the exception of Neal Adams’ wordless tale, all artists were apparently
restricted to four pages apiece.
1. cover: Frank Cirocco/titlepage & back cover:
Brent Anderson (1972)
1) Introduction
[Frank Cirocco & Brent Anderson] 1p
[text article]
2)
Advent Ad [Gary Winnick/George Chelemedos] 1p
3)
Pin-Up [Frank Cirocco] 1p
4)
The Incident [Brent Anderson] 6p
5)
Grimley’s Tales [Frank Cirocco/Brent Anderson] 1p
6)
‘Tis Just As Well [Scott Burdman/Brent Anderson] 1p [poem]
7)
Garthan’s Quest [Frank Cirocco] 9p
8)
Grimley’s Tales [Brent Anderson] 1p
9)
Grimley’s Tales [Frank Cirocco/Brent Anderson] 1p
10)
A Tall Tale… [Frank Cirocco] 2p
11)
Elfrid [Gary Winnick] 3p
12)
Pin-Ups [Gary Winnick] 2p
13)
Grimley’s Tale [Brent Anderson] 1p
14)
Pin-Up [Frank Cirocco] 1p
Notes: $.75 for 32 pages in a
magazine-size format. Publishers &
editors: Frank Cirocco & Brent Anderson.
This first issue is very much a fan production with neither Cirocco’s
nor
2. cover:
Notes: No information is available
for this issue at this time.
3. cover: Gary Winnick/frontis: Neal
Adams/titlepage: Michael Kaluta & Frank Cirocco/back cover:
Frank Cirocco (1974)
1) Conan The Cimmerian Pin-Up [Jim Pinkoski] 1p
2) Flashback [Frank Cirocco] 5p
3) Gimmmley’s Tales [Brent
Anderson] 1p
4) Bugz [Frank Morant/Gary
Winnick] 8p
5) Pin-Up [Frank Cirocco] 1p
6) Green Arrow Pin-Up [Neal
Adams] 1p
7)
8) Batman & Angel Pin-Ups [Neal Adams] 2p
9) Grimmley’s Tales [Brent
Anderson] 1p
10) Pin-Up [Gary Winnick] 1p
11) Sin-Eater [Frank
Morant/Frank Cirocco] 4p
12) Grimmley’s Tales [Brent
Anderson] 1p
13) B.C. Comic Strips [Johnny
Hart] ½p [on letters’ page]
14) Original Artwork Ad [Brent
Anderson, Gary Winnick & Frank Cirocco] 1p
15) Deadman Pin-Up [Neal Adams]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher: Horizon Zero
Graphiques. Editors: Frank Cirocco, Gary
Winnick & Frank Morant. $1.00 for 32
magazine-sized pages. My copy came with
a pen sketch of a fish by Steve Skeates, who doesn’t appear anywhere in the
actual issue. Neal Adams’ frontispiece
is a drawing of the Vision. Although
4. cover: Frank Cirocco/ titlepage: Michael
Kaluta/back cover: Gary Winnick (1975)
1) Introduction [Frank
Morant/Frank Cirocco] 1p [text article,
frontis]
2) Pin-Up [Gene Day] 1p
3) Backworld Brigands [Gary
Winnick] 8p
4) Grimmley’s Tales [Brent
Anderson] 1p
5) Pin-Up [Kenneth Smith] 1p
6) Batman: Flasher [Frank
Cirocco] 1p
7) “…And On The Seventh Day We
Rested.”: The 1974 San Diego Con [?/Charles Schultz] 1p
[text article w/photos]
8) Pin-Up Centerspread [Frank
Cirocco] 2p
9) Grimmley’s Tales [Brent
Anderson] 1p
10) Batman: Horny [Jim Pinoski]
1p
11) Pin-Up [Carl Potts] 1p
12) Pin-Up [Gary Winnick] 1p
13) Synapse [Frank Morant/Frank
Cirocco] 5p [text story]
14) Batman: Well Hung [Brent
Anderson] 1p
15) Pin-Up [Eric Vincent] 1p
16) Letters’ Page Art [Ron
Winnicle, Jim Starlin & Frank Cirocco, Don Newton, Tony Salmons &
Brent Anderson] 2p [Starlin’s art features Marvel’s Captain
Marvel]
17) Grimmley’s Tales [Brent
Anderson] 1p
18) Parting Thoughts [Frank
Cirocco & Gary Winnick/Larry Todd] 1p
[text article, on inside
back cover]
Notes: The three Batman pages are
gag strips and rather amusing ones.
Winnick’s back cover features Tarzan.
Kenneth Smith & Don Newton
sent in letters. Not quite as good as
the previous issue but not bad at all.
The issue I have has a one-page insert ad for original art with a little
note on the back from Frank Cirocco asking ‘R.W.’ to write a letter for the
letters’ page.
5. cover: Neal Adams/frontis: Gary
Winnick/titlepage: Jeff Jones & Tony Salmons/back cover: Alex
Nino (1976)
1) The Triad [Horizon Zero
Graphiques/Frank Cirocco & Steve Leialoha] 11p
2) War Affair [Eric Toye/Brent
Anderson] 4p
3) Rogue World [Gary Winnick
& Brent Anderson/Gary Winnick & Brent Anderson] 11p
4) Pin-Up [Frank Cirocco] 1p
5) Letter’s Page Illo [Jeff
Jones] 1p
6) Pin-Up [Alex Nino] 1p
7) Unrendering A Conclusion
[Carl Potts] 1p
8) Pin-Up [Frank Cirocco]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Editors: Gary Winnick &
Frank Cirocco. $1.25 for 32 pages. Format change to a regular comic size with
color covers. Clearly this is an attempt
to upgrade this fanzine into a magazine similar to Star*Reach or Quack. The stories are good. The artwork is good. Too bad the magazine didn’t keep going.
1. cover: Michael Gilbert (July 1973)
1) New Paltz Comix Comix
[Michael Gilbert & Raoul Vezina] 1p
[frontis]
2) Confrontation [Michael
Gilbert] 10p
3) Cain And Abel [Raoul Vezina] ½p
4) Cartoon [Richard Fox] ½p
5) City [Michael Conway, Michael
Gilbert & Larry Hogan/Larry Hogan & Michael Gilbert] 6p
6) Observations [Michael
Gilbert] ½p
7) Cartoon [Richard Fox] ½p
8) Merrie Felonies: Hare-Brained
Fox in “Trooper Blooper” [Raoul Vezina & ? Lowe] 4p
9) untitled [?] 1p
10) Cartoon [Richard Fox] ½p
11) Cartoon [Michael Gilbert] ½p
12) In The Interests Of Science
[Harvey Sobel/Michael Gilbert] 3½p
reprinted from the
Commack High paper, Varohi
13) This Is Bill [Richard Fox]
½p
14) Asteroid [Michael
Gilbert/Raoul Vezina & Michael Gilbert] 1p
[on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher & editor:
Michael Gilbert. $.50 for 32 pages. ‘In The Interests Of Science’ was originally
published in a college newspaper.
Gilbert became publisher of this fanzine by accident. His college newspaper at SUNY New Paltz, in
upstate
2. cover: Raoul Vezina/alternate cover: Jeff
Eisenberg/frontis: Ned Young (1974) [a
flip issue, all of
Eisenberg’s stories &
art are credited to “Ironmountain”.]
1) Rubber Soul [Michael Gilbert & Raoul Vezina]
8p
2) New Paltz Gazette [Brian Buniak] 5p
3) See No Evil… [Ned Young] 3½p
4) Replay [Michael Gilbert] 3p
5) Candy And Sugar [Brian
Buniak] 1p
6) Editorial [Michael Gilbert]
1p [text article]
7) Rorschach Review [Linda Kent]
2p
Alternate side
1) untitled [Jeff Eisenberg] 4p
2) More Kleen Kut Komics [Bruce Metcalf] 1½p
3) A Day In The Life Of Bobby Baloon! [Richard Fox]
½p
4) The Miracle [Linda Kent] 2p
5) Candy And Sugar [Brian Buniak] 1p
6) More Kleen Kut Comics, part 2 [Bruce Metcalf] 4p
7) Cain And Abel [Raoul Vezina] 1p
8) Thoughts… [Linda Kent] 3p
9) Johnny Joint—That’s Me! [Vince Kimszal/Vince
Kimszal & Michael Gilbert] 3p
10) More Kleen Kut Komics, part 3 [Bruce Metcalf]
1½p
11) New Paltz Comics [Vince Kimszal/Vince Kimszal
& Michael Gilbert] 1p
Notes: $.75 for 48 pages. This is a flip book, with two front
covers. One side was ground level comics
and the other X-rated underground comix.
This issue was subtitled Amazing Adult Fantasies on both covers. Brian Buniak’s ‘The Sprite’ is a Spirit/Mr. A
spoof. ‘New Paltz Comics’ parodies the ‘Peanuts’
and ‘Blondie’ comic strips. Best art was
on ‘Rubber Soul’ while that story and ‘The Sprite’ share best story kudos. Other interesting work appeared from Bruce
Metcalf, Linda Kent and Ned Young.
3. cover: Larry Todd/back cover: Michael Gilbert
(1977)
1)
In The Interest Of Science [Mark Roland] 1p
[frontis]
2)
Madhouse [Jeff Bonivert] 8p
3)
Food [Raoul Vezina & Bob Kessell] 3p
4)
In Spite Of Ancient Astronauts [Kevin Meeks/Kevin Meeks, Michael Gilbert &
Al Gordon] 2p
5)
Orion Colonies Slave Girl Pin-Up [Clifford Neal] 1p reprinted from Dr. Wirtham’s Comix #1
(1975)
6) J’nnn J’nnzz, Manhunter From
Marzz!: The Rebirth [
Boxell, Raoul Vezina, Larry
Rippee, Brian Buniak & Mark Roland] 6p
7) Pin-Up [Steve Leialoha] 1p
8) Asteroid [Michael
Gilbert/Raoul Vezina & Michael Gilbert] 1p
reprinted from New Paltz #2
(1975)
9) Rot [Jeff Bonivert] 3p
10) Editorial [Michael
Gilbert/Larry Rippee] 3p [text article]
11) Old Fruit [Tim Boxell]
7p [story & art credited to Grisly]
12) Pin-Up [Nestor Redondo] 1p
13) Ooops! [Michael
Gilbert/Michael Gilbert & Al Gordon] 3p
14) There’s No Race Like Home
[Mark Roland] 9p
15) RIP [Brian Buniak/Brian
Buniak & Michael Gilbert] 2p
16) Black As Ink [Jeff Bonivert]
3p
17) Welcome Home, Traveler…
[Michael Gilbert] 3p
Notes: $1.25 for 56 pages. ‘Asteroid’ was reprinted from #1 because the
last line of the story had been left off by mistake. “J’nnn J’nnzz” was a retelling of DC’s J’onn
J’onzz, Martian Manhunter origin.
Apparently DC’s legal eagles weren’t looking too closely. Leialoha’s pin-up features Pan reading
Marvel’s ‘Warlock’, a comic that Leialoha had been the inker on. Gilbert only provided layouts on
‘Ooops!’ Bonivert’s three stories were
some of the earliest printed from this unique cartoonist. They’re all quite dazzling and are the highpoints
of the issue. However, the entire issue
has strong art and stories. There are no
weak spots here. Just great
entertainment in a magazine that is well worth looking for by a serious
collector. The inside back cover
reprints the back cover in B&W.
4. cover: Michael Gilbert (1984) [wraparound cover]
1) Fairies [Michael Gilbert]
1p [frontis]
2) All In A Day’s Work [Raoul
Vezina] 6p
3) Explorer [Mark Shaw] 9p
4) Numen Of The Night Sun
[Barbara MacLeod] 10p
5) Editorial [Michael Gilbert/Larry
Rippee] 1p [text article]
6) Numen Of The Night Sun, part
2 [Barbara MacLeod] 10p [story never
concluded]
7) Mr. Quidd & Me [Roger
Stewart] 5p
8) Consumo’s Last Meal [Scott
Deschaine] 8p
9) Exodus On Babble 3 [Brian
Buniak] 6p
Notes: Final issue. Now magazine-sized. $2.50 for 56 pages. Vezina’s story is the best effort here but
the rest of the material is rather weak.
‘Fairies’ was written & penciled in 1971 and intended as an
installment of ‘Creepy’s Loathsome Lore’ for
1. cover: Robert L. Kline (1973) [wraparound cover]
1) Annikki Pin-Up [Mike Royer]
1p [frontis]
2) Nimbus [Mark Evanier/Robert
L. Kline] 5p
3) Annikki [Mike Royer] 8p
4) Lord Sabre [Mark
Evanier/Steve Leialoha & John Pound] 11p
5) The Stalker [Mark
Evanier/Robert L. Kline] 8p
6) 78 rmp Records Ad [Robert
Crumb] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher & editor:
Denis Kitchen for Kitchen Sink Press.
$.50 for 32 pages. Worth buying
just for Mike Royer’s superb artwork on Annikki {the story ain’t bad
either}. Also fun early work by
Leialoha, Pound, Evanier & Kline. A
rare ground level comic from a company that, at the time, published mostly
underground comix.
1. cover:
(? 1974)
Notes: Publisher: Punk Publications. Editors: James Waley & Matt Rust. $1.00 for 72 pages. A fanzine out of
2. cover: Richard Robertson/back cover: Rob McIntyre
(July 1974)
1) Orb-Editorial [James Waley]
½p [text article]
2) Plague [Gene Day] 6p
3) The Galactic Queen [Paul
Savard & John Allison/Paul Savard & Gene Day] 15p
4) Musical Roulette [Ronn
Sutton] 3p
5) The Seeker! [Matt Rust] 4p
6) The Northern Light: The
Guardian Of Mars [T. Casey Brennan/John Allison] 7p [color]
7) Next Issue Ad [John Allison]
1p [color]
8) Dark Fantasy Ad [Gene Day] ½p
9) No-Man’s Land [Paul McCusker]
8p
10) The Continuing Adventures Of
Kadaver: Salvation [James Waley] 8p
11) Reeve Perry [Bruce Bezaire]
10p
12) Small Talk [John Ellis Sech?
or Greg Landry?] 4p
Notes: T. Casey Brennan was already
a pro and had worked for Warren, Skywald & Red Circle. His ‘The Northern Light’ was a superhero
series. Bruce Bezaire was also working
for
3. cover: Bill Payne/frontis: Rob McIntyre/back
cover: Ronn Sutton (Dec. 1974)
1)
Orb-Editorial/John Allison Profile [James Waley & John Allison/John
Allison] 1p [text
article]
2) Lepers [Paul McCusker] 6p
3) Orb Poster #1 [Rob McIntyre]
1p
4) Half-Life [John Allison] 10p
5) Orb Poster #2 [Dan
Archambault] 1p
6) Cheezy Nuggets [Alex Emond]
4p
7) Super Student! [Ken Steacy]
2p
8) The Northern Light: The Lone
Guardian [T. Casey Brennan/Jim Craig] 10p
[color]
9) Orb Poster #3 [Paul Savard?]
1p
10) Escape The Truth [Richard
Robertson] 4p
11) The Astounding Origin Of
Karkass [Matt Rust] 4p
12) Orb Poster #4 [Ronn Sutton]
1p
13) A Shroud Of Tattered Grey
[Gene Day] 6p
14) The Rescue Of Raniff The
Fair [Mary Skrenes & Steve Skeates/Ronn Sutton] 9p
Notes: Mike Friedrich, publisher of
Star*Reach and cartoonist Jay Lynch send in letters. Lynch also sends in a caricature of
himself. Gene Day and John Allison share
the best art & story for ‘Half-Life’ and ‘A Shroud Of Tattered Grey’. Ken Steacy makes his professional debut.
4. cover: Doug Martin (Nov.-Dec. 1975)
1) Orb-Editorial/Gene Day
Profile [James Waley & Gene Day/Gene Day] 1p [text article]
2) Electric Warrior [Kerri
Ellison/Ken Steacy] 8p
3) Orb Poster #5 [Jim Craig] 1p
4) Encore Une Fois! [Matt Rust]
4p
5) Gothic Glitter! [George
Henderson/Peter Hsu] 7p
6) Bakka Bookshoppe Ad [John
Allison] 1p
7) Dark Ninja [Vince Marchesano]
1p [color]
8) The Horror Of Harrow House
[Gene Day] 6p [color]
9) The Continuing Adventures Of
Kadaver: Child Slayer—World Saver? [James Waley & Matt
Rust/Art Cooper with an
assist from Jim Craig] 11p
10) Orb Poster #6 [Jim
Beveridge] 1p
11) The Origin Of The Northern
Light: Deja-Vu [James Waley & George Henderson/Jim Craig]
10p
12) Orb Poster #7 [Norm Drew] 1p
13) Spaze Scouts [Matt Rust]
1p [color, on inside back cover]
Notes: After a publishing gap of
one year, Orb becomes a magazine-sized book.
$1.00 for 56 pages. Steacy’s art
took a huge leap upward from his contribution in the previous issue. The first installment of ‘Electric Warrior’
also was the best written & drawn story this issue. ‘The Horror Of Harrow House’ by Gene Day
looks a lot like an attempt at a Skywald style horror story.
5. cover: Gene Day/frontis & back
cover: Don Marshall (Jan.-Feb. 1976)
1) One Man’s Madness [T. Casey Brennan/Gene Day] 6p
2) Dark Ninja: Harbinger Of Doom! [Russell
Wallace/Vince Marchesano] 8p
3) Electric Warrior, part 2: Retribution [Gene
Day/Gene Day & Peter Hsu] 8p
4) Man O’ Dreams [George Henderson/Don Marshall]
8p [color]
5) Orb Profile: George Henderson [Geroge
Henderson/?] 1p [text article]
6) The Origin Of The Northern Light, part 2:
Denouement [James Waley & Matt Rust/Jim Craig]
10p
7) The Continuing Adventures Of
Kadaver: …My Will Be Done! [James Waley & Matt Rust/A.
Cooper & Jim Craig] 10p
8) Tilt! Magazine Ad [Matt Rust]
1p
Notes: You’d never know it was a
Gene Day cover just from looking at it.
Totally different art style than anything I’ve seen before or
since. The Electric Warrior concluded
well, even though the entire creative team changed. ‘Man O’ Dreams’ had the best art while T.
Casey Brennan’s ‘One Man’s Madness’ was the best story. The Next Issue Ad stated that Augustine Funnell
& Gene Day’s leftover Skywald story ‘The Eaters’ would appear but it
actually wasn’t published until 1985, several years after Day’s death.
6. cover: Jim Craig/titlepage & back
cover: Gene Day (Mar.-Apr. 1976)
1) Orb-Editorial/Jim Craig
Profile [James Waley/Jim Craig] 1p
[text article]
2) Cosmic Dancer [Augustine
Funnell/Jim Craig] 10p
3) “Woof! Woof!” [George Henderson/Matt Rust] 7p
4) Orb Poster #8: Kadaver [Jim
Beveridge] 1p
5) Orb Poster #9 [Dan
Archambault] 1p
6) Raniff The Fair: Gyk The
Barbarian [Matt Rust & John Ellis Sech/Paul McCusker & Jim Craig]
8p [color]
7) Trojan Horse [Gene Day] 6p
8) Dark Ninja: Dawn Of Darkness
[James Waley & John Ellis Sech/Vince Marchesano & Gene
Day] 8p
9) The Flame Of El-Hamman
[George Henderson/Bill Payne] 8p
Notes: Final issue. A next issue ad featured a Viking with a big
axe named Bludd, drawn by Gene Day. An
uncredited someone, whose inking style was a lot like Mike Ploog {I don’t believe
it’s Ploog, just someone with a similar style} appears to have inked pages for
both ‘Cosmic Dancer’ and ‘The Flame Of El-Hamman’. Whoever they were, they were very good. Best story was Gene Day’s ‘Trojan Horse’,
while the best art was Jim Craig’s ‘Cosmic Dancer’.
1. cover: Ken Barr/back cover: Richard
Corben (Summer 1974)
1) Titlepage & Contents
page illos [Bil Maher & George Perez] 2p
2) Bug [Richard Corben] 5p
3) Shadow Of The Sword!
[Rich Buckler] 8p
4) The Proposition [Dan
Recchia] 1p
5) Hot Shot Ad [George Perez
& Bob Garrison] 1p
6) The Apple [Mike Snyder]
1p
7) Uncle Sal And Cousin John
Go Planet-Tripping! [Bob Keenan/George Perez & Bob Garrison]
11p
8) Poem [written: ?] 2p [no art]
9) Mice In Veloe [Bil Maher] 15p [text story]
10) A Thought In The Egg
[Doug Moench/Ernie
11) Flys [Ed Faust/Richard
Corben] 5p
12) The
Notes: $2.50. Published & edited: Sal Quartuccio. Magazine-sized issue. This could be Perez’s professional debut. His contents page artwork & the ad for
Hot Shot #1 both advertise the She-Devils, an adventure fanzine which ended up not being published by Quartuccio. ‘Mice In Veloe’ lists the artist as Baoman
Miller while the title page lists Maher as the artist. It certainly looks like Maher’s work. The Kent State Tragedy is an ad for the next
issue’s lead story. That particular
Adams’ story never appeared, although the extreme graphic violence employed by
2. cover, frontis & inside back cover:
Ken Barr/back cover: Bil Maher (Winter 1975)
1) Pin-Up [Bil Maher] 1p
2) Voluptas [Herb
Arnold/Richard Corben] 3p
3) Orion [Gray Morrow]
6p reprinted from Witzend #2 (1967)
4) Strawberry Tarts [Mike
Vosburg] 2p
5) House [Fershid Bharucha]
6p
6) Trigga Mordus [Bob
Keenan/Ed Manley] 3p
7) Editorial [Sal Quartuccio/Greg Theakston--Berni
Wrightson & Ken Barr] 2p [text
article]
8) Marhar I & II [Bil
Maher] 1p
9) The Champion’s Match [Bob
Keenan/Robert L. Kline] 3p
10) Centerfold [Neal Adams]
2p
11) The Mad Barber [Bil
Maher] 10p
12) The Mist [Bob
Keenan/Will Meugniot] 2p
13) Orion, part 2 [Gray
Morrow] 10p
14) A Case Of Possession
[Ernie Colon] 3p
15) The Scarecrow Ad [Bil
Maher] 1p
Notes: $4.00. This is a pretty good
issue. Ken Barr’s cover is quite
striking and would have made a great poster.
It does appear as the cover for Barr’s recent book collection of his
cover paintings. The Theakston/Wrightson
painting (reproduced in B&W) on the editorial page looks as thought it
might have intended as a cover for a Warren or Skywald horror title.
3. cover: Richard Corben/back cover &
frontis: Herb Arnold (Winter 1976)
1) Eirvthia: Prologue [Herb
Arnold/Tim Kirk] 6p
2) The Pawn [Stan Dresser]
10p
3) Interlude [Herb
Arnold/Tim Kirk] 1p
4) The Dwellers In The Dark
[Richard Corben & Herb Arnold/Richard Corben] 11p
5) Interlude 2 [Herb
Arnold/Tim Kirk] 1p
6) The Feaster Of Souls
[Herb
7) Color Art Prints Ad
[Richard Corben] 1p
8) Pin-Ups [Stan Dresser,
Herb Arnold & Tim Kirk] 3p
Notes: $1.50. Now comic-sized. The entire issue is a single fantasy saga
extending over many years, overseen by Herb Arnold. Best art & comes from the Arnold/Corben
chapter.
4. cover: Ken Barr/back cover: Robert L.
Kline (1977)
1) Titlepage art [Ernie
Colon] 1p [frontis]
2) Space Station Dora [Jan
Strnad/Robert L. Kline] 8p
3) The Vanguard [Alex Toth]
10p
4) House On Whore Hill [Mike
Vosburg] 4p
5) Pin-Up [Herb
6) Scarecrow Preview [Bil
Maher] 6p
7) Orion, part 3 [Gray
Morrow] 6p
8) Mercy [Bob Keenan/Ernie
9) Kenshi Blade! [Bill
Stillwell] 8p
Notes: ‘The Vanguard’ was originally
done for Atlas in 1975 and intended to be the new direction for Howard
Chaykin’s The Scorpion. Chaykin wasn’t
informed of this and was so angry when he accidentally saw the art that he quit
the strip. Morrow’s Orion was continued
& concluded in Heavy Metal in 1979.
Best story is Jan Strnad’s ‘Space Station Dora’ while the best artwork
is Toth’s ‘The Vanguard’. Good work also
appeared from Mike Vosburg, Bil Maher, Gray Morrow, Bill Stillwell & Ernie
Colon.
5. cover: Richard Corben/back cover: Herb
Arnold (1977)
1) Editorial [Sal Quartuccio] 1p [text article, frontis]
2) Tales Our
Of Eirvthig, Book II: The Four Demi-Gorgons [Herb Arnold/Tim Kirk] 6p
3) The City
Of The Black Idol [Herb Arnold/Stan Dresser] 9p
4) Interlude
[Herb Arnold/Tim Kirk] 1p
5) Chard
[Herb Arnold/Richard Corben] 10p
6) Interlude
II [Herb Arnold/Tim Kirk] 1p
7) Crown Of
Fear [Herb
8) Pin-Up
[Bill ?] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Again, this is a full-length
fantasy saga set in the same world as #3 and, again, the best art & story
is the Arnold/Corben chapter.
6. cover: Rich Larson & Steve
Fastner/back cover: Rich Larson (1978)
1) Titlepage art [Herb Arnold] 1p [frontis]
2)
12 Parts [Mike Nasser] 8p
3)
The Apprentice [Gail Schlesser] 8p
4)
The Walls Of The City [Steven Grant/Rich Larson & Tim Boxell] 6p
5)
Hornamania [Bil Maher] 6p
6)
Manimal [Ernie Colon] 8p
7)
Steel Souls [Dan Recchia] 2p
8) The Winter Of ’94:
Troubadour [Jan Strnad/Rich Larson & Tim Boxell] 8p
9) Pin-Up [Ernie Colon]
1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: $2.00. Both ‘Manimal’ and ‘The Winter Of ‘94’ were
new series and both led off with strong starts.
Best art were the two efforts by the team of Larson & Boxell, while
Strnad scored again with ‘The Winter Of ‘94’.
7. cover: Michael Kaluta/back cover: Rich
Larson & Tim Boxell (1978)
1)
Titlepage art [Bil Maher] 1p [frontis]
2)
Manimal, part 2 [Ernie Colon] 8p
3)
Hornamania, part 2 [Bil Maher] 10p
4)
All The King’s Man [Howard Hill/Sonny Trinidad] 8p
5)
The Winter Of ’94: People [Jan Strnad/Rich Larson & Tim Boxell] 8p
6)
Steel Souls [Dan Recchia] 1p
7)
Editorial [Sal Quartuccio/Bil & Nish Maher] 2p [text article]
8)
To Tell The Truth [Bil Maher] 8p
9)
Pin-Up [Terry Austin] 1p [on inside
back cover]
Notes: Kaluta’s cover was reused (and reproduced much
more clearly) as the cover to Epic Illustrated #4 (Winter 1980). It appears to be a try at a Conan cover. The artwork on Quartuccio’s editorial is from
a never published story entitled ‘Barbi Meets The Dirty Dworns’. Best story is again Strnad’s installment of
‘The Winter Of ‘94’ with best art being Ernie Colan’s work on ‘Manimal’.
8. cover: Neal Adams/back cover: Rich
Larson & Tim Boxell (1978)
1)
Titlepage art [Bil Maher] 1p [frontis]
2)
The Americanization Of
3)
The Winter Of ’94: The Death Of Dreams [Jan Strnad/Rich Larson & Tim
Boxell] 8p
4)
Heartfelt Thanks [Kathy Barr/Ken Barr] 7p
5) Editorial [Sal Quartuccio/Bil Maher] 1p [text article]
6)
Manimal, part 3 [Ernie Colon] 8p
7)
Starblind [Nicola Cuti/Charles Roblin] 5p
[poem]
8) The Winter Of ’94: Conclusion [Jan Strand/Rich
Larson & Tim Boxell] 8p
Notes: Final issue. The editorial
promises a next issue cover by Neal Adams & Richard Corben, as well as
stories by Ernie Colon, Mike Nasser, Bil & Nish Maher, John Bryne, Terry
Austin, Steven Grant and others as well as the long anticipated Scarecrow story
by Bil Maher but it never happened. The Manimal
strip was collected in a one-shot comic by Renegade Press in 1986. It’s also cover featured here with a great
painting by Neal Adams. Best stories
here were Strnad’s final two chapters of ‘The Winter Of ‘94’. Best artwork is Ken Barr’s work on ‘Heartfelt
Thanks’.
1. cover & back cover: George Perez
(1975) back cover reprinted from Hot
Stuf’ #1 (Summer 1974)
1) Introduction [James Glenn]
1p [text article]
2) She Devils: The Deadly
Sparklers! [George Perez/George Perez & Bill Garrison] 28p
3) Conjure Ad [George Perez] 1p
4) The Dragon Poster [Geroge
Perez] 1p [pin-up]
Notes: As seen in the notes for Hot
Stuf’ #1, this issue was probably done in 1973.
By 1975 when this work finally appeared, Perez was already a
professional working at Marvel. She
Devils features story & artwork by a very
young Perez, and looks it. The artwork
is quite crude but it shows a lot of promise.
The story is unimpressive.
Publisher & editor: James Glenn.
$1.00 for 32 pages.
1. cover: Wally Wood/back cover: Ralph
Reese (Sept. 1975)
1) Foreword [Denny
O’Neil/Michele Brand] 1p [text article,
frontis]
2) The Man Without A City [Lou
Schwartzberg/Marie Severin] 3p
3) Peep Shows [Archie Goodwin]
2p
4) My Word [Wally Wood] 3p
5) Can You Spot The Air
Breather? [? Petchesky] 1p
6) The Tube [Wally Wood/Al
Williamson & Dan Green] 3p
7) “A Nice Place To Visit, But…”
[Linda Fite] 1p
8) Over & Under [Larry Hama
& Neal Adams] 5p
9)
10) The
11) Lotsa Yox featuring Rodger
Farnsworth USAAF [Herb Trimpe/Herb Trimpe & Wally Wood]
2p
12) The Silent Minority [Mike
Ploog] 2p
13) Token [Herb Trimpe] 4p
14) Backword [Flo Steinberg]
1p [text article, on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher & editor: Flo
Steinberg. $1.00 for 32 pages. Steinberg was well known in the comic
community as Marvel’s receptionist in the 1960s and as
1. cover & back cover: Clifford Neal (1975)
1) The Editor Speaks: [Clifford Neal] 1p [text article, frontis]
2)
3) Decoding The Codex [Clifford
Neal] 2p [text article]
4) Startling Confessions!
[Clifford Neal] 7p [pin-ups]
5) Crime Comics [Clifford Neal]
6p
6) Decoding Crime Comics
[Clifford Neal] 1p [text article]
7) Pin-Ups/Cartoons [Clifford
Neal] 9p
Notes: Publisher & editor:
Clifford Neal. $? for 32 pages. All of Neal’s stories & art were credited
to Oisif Egaux. Dr. Wirthham’s was largely
an underground comix but also published some ground level material. This is the only issue that Neal contributed
all of the artwork for. His text article
‘Decoding The Codex’ is largely incomprehensible {at least to a
non-artist}. His artwork isn’t bad. His stories are particularly good.
2. cover, titlepage & back cover: Clifford Neal
(Winter 1976)
1) Hot Dog! [Will Meugnoit] 7p
2) Alien Mercy [Mike Roberts] 5p [credited to a Max Frizbee on the splash
page]
3) Snuff-Box [Clifford Neal] 5p
4) ‘Snuff Box’ And Binary Systems Analysis [Clifford
Neal] 1p [text article]
5) Hitler Pin-Up [Larry Rippee] 1p
6) Grave Concern [Steve Bissette] 2p
7) The White House Horror [Rick Veitch] 9p
8) Bumpen Grinder Burger Contest & Pin-Ups
[Clifford Neal] 5p [text article]
9)
EC Pickins [Bill Black] 4p [miscredited
to Bill Flack on the splash page]
10)
Angel Of Death [Larry Rippee] 1p
11)
Dr. Wirtham’s Ad [Clifford Neal] 1p [on
inside back cover]
Notes: ‘Grave Concern’ was Bissette’s professional debut. Mike Roberts’ artwork was heavily influenced
by Richard Corben. Nice selection of early
Meugnoit, Veitch, Bissette & Rippee art.
3. cover: Greg Irons/titlepage: Clifford
Neal/back cover: Mike Roberts (1977)
1)
Until Death Do Us Part [Mark Burbey/Doug Potter] 6p
2)
Heavenly Bodies [Mike Roberts] 7p
3)
Pin-Ups [Clifford Neal, Larry Rippee & Al Davoren] 4p
4)
Dead Heat [Clifford Neal] 6p
5)
Love Among The
6)
The Brain Meets The Zarg [Hector Tellez] 1p
7)
Dr. Wirtham’s Ad [Clifford Neal] 1p [on
inside back cover]
Notes: Pretty much a horror
issue. Best stories here are by Mark
Burbey. Best art is on ‘Until Death Do
Us Part’ by Doug Potter and ‘Love Among The Worms’ by Rich Larson.
4. cover:
Greg Irons/titlepage: Clifford Neal/back cover: Mike Roberts (1979)
1) Cheating Time! [Mark Burbey/Gene Day] 8p
2) Martian Meringue [Mike Roberts] 9p
3) Tales Of Gregor, Purpleass Baboon [Greg Irons] 2p
4) Some Binary Notes On 20th Century Fox
[Clifford Neal] 1p [text article]
5) 20th Century Fox [Clifford Neal] 6p
6) No Clues [Larry Rippee] 1p
7) …People Are Strange… [Par Holman] 1p
8) The Hood: 3-Deep Threat [Steve Vance/Steve Vance
& Bill Black] 9p
9) Death & Dumb [Mark Burbey/Rich Larson] 8p
10) The Tell-Tale Fart! [Steve Bissette & Rick
Veitch] 9p
11) Dr. Wirtham’s Ad [Clifford Neal] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: $1.50 for 48 pages. Roberts’ art again looks heavily influenced
by Richard Corben. It’s pretty good,
though. In fact, all of the artwork in
this issue is impressive. ‘The Tell-Tale
Fart’ is quite amusing potty humor.
‘Cheating Time’, ‘Martian Meringue’ and ‘Death & Dumb’ are also
quite good. A very good issue.
5. cover: Greg Irons/alternate cover: Steve
Bissette & Rick Veitch/titlepage: Clifford Neal (1980) [This
is a flip book with each
cover being a front cover.]
1)
2) Cell Food [Rick Veitch & Steve Bissette] 8p
3) A Portrait Of The Arteest As A Burnt Baboon [Greg
Irons] 2p
4) Mirror [Eric Vincent] 8p
5) Diary: One Night On
6) Pin-Up [Larry Rippee] 1p
7) The Puzzle [Greg Budgett & Gary Dumm] 8p
8) The Pen Is… [Clifford Neal] 1p
9) Sloty Beagle And The Scab King [Greg Budgett
& Gary Dumm] 1p
Alternate
side
1) Dr. Wirtham’s Ad [Clifford Neal] 1p [frontis]
2) Crazyworld [Mark Burbey/Marc Hempel] 10p
3) Squaw-Man [John Ellis Sech/Robert L. Smith] 9p
4) Little Minds [Mark Burbey/Rich Larson] 6p
5) Tools Of The Trade [R. C. Harvey] 2p
6) Pin-Ups [Jay Kinney, Eric Vincent, Will Meugniot
& Clifford Neal] 4p
Notes: Final issue. $2.00 for 48 pages. Another largely horror issue with some
excellent art & stories. ‘Cell Food’
by Bisette & Veitch is probably the most impressive work here but Iron’s
underground style wears well on ‘Portrait Of The Arteest…’, while there’s also
high quality work from Vincent, Gilbert, Hempel, Burbey, Sech, Smith &
Larson while Budgett & Dumm show considerable promise. No real weak spots at all. This is one fine magazine. ‘Sloty Beagle…’ is printed sideways.
7. cover: Ken Macklin/frontis: Neal Adams/
back cover: Tony Salmons (Spring 1977)
1) Editorial [Charles Boatner]
1p [text article]
2) Me An’ Stick [Steve Oliff] 1p
3) The Defense [Ken Macklin] 4p
4)
5) Digging Around [Ken Macklin]
2p
6) Mean Stick [Steve Oliff] 1p
7) The Agony Of Will [Mark Clegg
& Charles Boatner/Mark Clegg] 11p
8) Robots [Charles
Boatner/Charles Boatner & Anna ?] 14p
9) Pin-Up [Frank Cirocco]
1p [color, on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher: Graphic Stories
Guild of UCSC. Editor: Mark Clegg with
M. C. {Charles} Boatner listed as assistant editor. $1.00 for 32 pages. Apparently this is the continuation of
All-Slug Comics {which presumably were #1-6}.
This may be Ken Macklin’s professional debut. He provides the best two stories in this
issue. Steve Oliff’s work is also
noteworthy.
1. cover: Steve Bissette & Rick Veitch
(1977)
1) Deadline [George Erling] 1p [frontis]
2) Frabbit Comix’s [?}
3) Moorzen: Pinball Death [Jack
Venogker & Tucker Petertil/Tucker Petertil] 6p
4) Sees [Al Greener] 1p
5) Barefootz [Howard Cruse] 1p
6) Drivin’ That Train [Joel
Milke] 2p
7) Day After Tomorrow… [E. F.
Pasanen] 1p
8) Carnival Pin-Up [?]
9) Warehouse Archives [Tom
Veitch] 1p [text article]
10) Two-Fisted Zombies page
[Rick Veitch] 2p
11) Squopoite [Al Greener] 1p
12) Mind Probe #4 [Ray Weiland]
3p
13) Big Bang Real American Comix
[Doug Hansen] 1p
14) Bang-Up All American Comix [Doug Hansen] 1p
15) Weird Dick [Rick Grimes] 1p
16) B.B. Brain [Ray Weiland] 2p
17) Another Duck [Rick Grimes]
1p
18) Carmalita [Kathleen Kenoe]
3p
19) Barefootz [Howard Cruse] 1p
20) Arena [Jack Venooker &
Steve Bissette/Steve Bissette] 3p [last
two pages on the inside and
back covers]
Notes: Publishers: Jack Venooker
& Walter Gachner. $2.00 for 32
magazine-sized pages. There’s a big gap
here between artists who were clearly almost professionals and artists who were
clearly never going to be. Noteworthy
material appeared from Doug Hansen, Steve Bissette, Rick Grimes, Joel Milke and
Rick Veitch. Best work here belongs to
Howard Cruse. The rest of the book is
pretty much awful.
1. cover: Ken Raney/back cover:
Tom Kirby (1977)
1)
Introduction [John David Cothran] 1p
[text article, frontis]
2)
Marla Ravenhair: The Hunt [Ken Raney] 7p
3)
The Unbeliever [? Giovammo/Tom Kirby] 2p
4)
Captain And The Sorcerer [Charlie Thompson/Dave Sim] 9p
5)
Olde And Younge: Dealers In The Strange [Will Meugniot] 10p
6)
Paper Dragons [Gene Day] 5p
7)
Time’s Revenge [John David Cothran/Earl Geier] 4p
8)
Hobo Dreamer [John David Cothran/Gene Day]3p
9)
Contributor’s Notes [John David Cothran] 1p
[text article w/photos, on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher & editor: John
David Cothran. $1.75 for 40 pages. Ken Raney’s art looks very much like
Barry
Windsor-Smith’s circa 1973. This is a
pretty good little fanzine. Strong art
from Sim, Day, Raney, Meugniot & Geier and the stories are decent as
well.
1. cover: John Allison/frontis: Robert
McIntyre/back cover: Paul Rivoche (Sept. 1977)
1)
Editorial [Dean Motter] 1p [text
article]
2)
Pin-Up [Franc Reyes] 1p
3)
The Man Who Walked Home [John Allison/John Allison & Tony Meers] 24p from the story
by James Tiptree, Jr.
4)
The Escape And Pursuit Of Jeanne d’Arc [Dean Motter] 19p
5)
A Day At Ygsrd’s [Jason Ross] 2p
6)
Troll: Cerebral Swamp [Don Marshall] 1p
7)
Arik Khan Ad [Robert McIntrye] 1p [on
inside back cover]
Notes: $1.25 for 48 pages. Publisher: Bill Paul. Editor: Dean Motter(?). Somewhat similar in intent and approach to
Mike Friedrich’s Star*Reach, this Canadian fanzine focused on SF adaptations
and one-off stories. Allison’s excellent adaptation of the Tiptree story may
have been originally intended for Marvel’s Unknown Worlds. Jeanne d’Arc is largely wordless and was
probably a substitute for the Motter/Steacy serial ‘The Sacred & The
Profane’, which was intended for this debut issue but appeared in Star*Reach
when this issue was delayed. McIntyre
used the young girl who modeled for the frontispiece several more times.
2. cover: Don Marshall/frontis: Robert
McIntyre/titlepage: Paul Rivoche/back cover: Dean Motter (June
1978)
1)
Process [A. E. Van Vogt/Dean Motter] 16p
[text story]
2)
The Hidden Diaries: She Confronts Reality And Is Betrayed [Ken Steacy &
Jeffrey
Morgan/Ken Steacy] 3p
3)
Shawn Of The Ruins [George Henderson/Gene Day & Jim Beveridge] 8p
4) The Dark Side Of The Moon! [Tom Nesbitt/Tom
Nesbitt & Nick Pollwko] 20p
Notes: The Van Vogt story may have
been abridged by Motter but without the original story I can’t tell. Gene Day only provides layouts for ‘Shawn Of
The Ruins’, however it’s a good story & provides the best art of this
issue. Tom Nesbitt & Ken Steacy also
provide good work. Very nice covers from
Marshall & Rivoche.
3. cover: Paul Rivoche/frontis: Robert
McIntyre/back cover: Don Marshall (Sept. 1978)
1)
Editorial [Dean Motter] 1p [text
article]
2)
Wirely L. Wiremire [Tom Nesbitt] 1p
3)
Exile Of The Aeons [B. P. Nicol/Paul Rivoche] 26p from the story by Arthur C. Clarke
4)
Here’s Mud In Yer Eye! [Don Marshall] 20p
Notes: The nude woman in McIntyre’s
frontispiece is a swipe from a Playboy centerfold spread {circa 1976}. That particular centerfold used to hang on
the wall in the painter’s shop I worked for part time in college. A Eurasian girl, if I remember right. Best story here (for comics, anyway) is Don
Marshall’s ‘Here’s Mud In Yer Eye!’.
Best art is Paul Rivoche for ‘Exile Of The Aeons’.
4. cover: Ramy Bar-Elan/frontis: Robert
McIntyre (Dec. 1978) [wraparound cover]
1)
Editorial [Dean Motter] 1p [text
article]
2)
The
3)
For Tomorrow We Die [Brian Lee & Marc Griffiths] 9p
4)
Space Stuff [Tom Nesbitt] 6p
Notes: ‘The
5. cover: John Allison/frontis: Robert
McIntyre (June 1979) [wrapround cover]
1)
Editorial [Dean Motter?Paul Rivoche] 1p
[text article]
2)
The Big Hunger [B. P. Nichol/Tony Meers] 25p
from the story by Walter M. Miller
3)
Klang! Klang! [Derek Carter] 4p
4)
Visit [Don Marshall] 2p
5)
The Bellergon Version [written: B. P. Nichol/Tom Nesbitt] 16p
6. cover: Tom Nesbitt/titlepage: Ken
Steacy/back cover: Peter Hsu (Nov. 1979)
1)
Alan Dean Foster [Dean Motter] 1p [text
article, frontis]
2)
Why Johnny Can’t Speed [B. P. Nichol/Peter Hsu] 16p from the story by Alan Dean Foster
3)
Where Do You Get Those Ideas! [Alan Dean Foster/Paul Rivoche] 2p [text article]
4)
The Metrognome [Alan Dean Foster/Tom Nesbitt] 17p [text story]
6)
Thrust [Alan Dean Foster/Don Marshall] 12p
7)
Alan Dean Foster Checklist [?] 1p [text
article, on inside back cover]
Notes: Final issue. Hsu’s art is
quite nice and very unlike the Liverpool Press porn cover art style he used for
1. cover/titlepage & dedication:
Charles Vess (July 1979)
1) Charles Vess: A Friend Of The
Tale [Ragan Reaves] 5p [text article]
2) The Shadow Witch [Charles
Vess] 11p [text story]
3) Demon Sword [Charles Vess]
10p
4) The Fiddler And The Swan
[Charles Vess] 25p [text story]
Notes: Only ‘Demon Sword’ is done
in comic form. ‘The Fiddler And The
Swan’ is very much in the style of Vess’ later The Book Of Ballads material
from the 1990s. Beautiful artwork with
fair to middlin’ stories.
1. cover: Gene Day (1979)
1) Gifts Of Silver Splendor
[Gene Day] 16p
2) Hive [Gene Day] 6p
3) Days Of Future Past [Gene
Day] 6p reprinted from Imagine #2 (June
1978)
4) Gauntlet [Gene Day] 6p
5) Paper Dragon [Gene Day]
5p reprinted from Fairie Star #1 (1977)
6) War Games [Gene Day] 10p
7) Black Legion [Gene Day]
7p [text story]
8) What Is A Graphic Album?
[Terry Nantier/Steve Bissette] 1p [on
back cover]
Notes: A hardcover magazine-sized
book. These stories may be reprinted
from various Canadian fanzines. Good
stories & art throughout. Well worth
buying.
1. cover: Michael Kaluta/frontis: John
Byrne/titlepage: Raoul Vezina/back cover: Rick Griffin (May
1982)
1)
2) The Day J.F.K. Bought The Farm [Michael Gilbert]
1p
3) The Way We Wore [Trina Robbins] 4p
4) I Was A Teenage Mets Fan!! [Fred Hembeck] 4p
5) They Said it Couldn’t Be Done [Frank Stack]
3p [story & art credited to Foolbert
Sturgeon]
6) Pudge, Girl Blimp in Massage Muddle [Lee Marrs]
1p
7) ’69 [Jeff Jones] 1p
8) High School in Limboland [P. Craig Russell] 2p
9) Communal Life… [Rick Geary] 3p
10) Dial M For Monster [Tony Eastman & Kim
Deitch] 2p
11)
12) Nowhere To Run [Sharon Kahn Rudahl] 3p
13) The Return Of The Casebook Of Doctor Feelgood
[Frank Stack] 5p [story & art
credited to
Foolbert Sturgeon]
14) Pocked Lips Now [Gary
Hallgren] 4p
15) Cartoon Page [Randy
Caldwell] ½p
16) Pin-Up [Jim Starlin] 1p [on inside back cover]
Notes: Publisher: Tom Skulan for
Fantaco Enterprises. Editor: Mitch
Cohn. $3.50 for 48 pages. This was a magazine-sized fanzine dedicated
to telling stories about the life and times of the 1960s. Both ground level and underground artists
participated. A beautiful cover by
Kaluta and a rock poster by
1. cover: John Pound (1982)
1)
Re:Bop [Catherine Yronwode/Jim Engel] 1p
[text article]
2)
Fandom Confidential Ad [Jim Engel & Chuck Fiala] 1p [fumetti strip]
3)
Teen Beat ’63 [Fred Hembeck] 6p
4)
Baby Blues [Joe Schwind] 2p [fumetti
strip]
5)
Kitz ‘n’ Katz: The Lost Chord [Bob Laughlin] 1p
6)
Baby, That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll [George Moonoogian/Denis McFarling] 4p [text article]
7)
East Virginia Blues [Trina Robbins] 7p
8)
Losers Of The Blues [Bruce Sweeney/Dennis Lieberman] 2p
9)
A Night With Bo Diddley [Ron Courtney] 3p
[text article w/photos]
10)
Much Too Much [Jerry Lee Lewis & Cat Yronwode/Billy Fugate] 6p
11)
Reviews: Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On/Jerry Lee Lewis Rocks/Hellfire: The Jerry
lee Lewis
Story [Cat Yronwode] 2p [text article]
12) Barney Google With His
Goo-Goo-Googley Eyes [Murray Bishoff/Billy DeBeck] 2p [text
article]
13) The Mystery Dance? [Doug
Erb] 2p
14) Records Reissues Reviews:
Hoagy Carmichael/Gerry Mulligan Tentette And Quartet/Helen
Forrest [Dean Mullaney]
2p [text article w/photos]
15) Cowboy Song [
16) Taps [Alex Toth] 5p
17)
Notes: Publisher: Denis
Kitchen. Editor: Cat Yronwode. $2.75 for 56 pages. A fanzine devoted to comic stories &
articles about music. From Pound’s cover
depicting dancing jukeboxes to Rick Geary’s back cover tribute to Jan &
Dean, this is one lively magazine.
Plenty of highlights with Trina Robbins, Fred Hembeck, Billy Fugate, Cat
Yronwode {pronounced Ironwood}, Harvey Pekar, Bruce Sweeney and Denis Lieberman
producing great material. The best story
& art however belongs to Alex Toth’s ‘Taps’, a wistful, sad and moving tribute to Wally Wood & Russ
Manning. One of Toth’s, and thus the
comics field’s, best stories. ‘Much Too
Much’ is a comic interpretation of a Jerry Lee Lewis interview. ‘Losers Of The Blues’ is a parody of Robert
Crumb’s ‘Heroes Of The Blues’ card set.
There’s no filler in this issue whatsoever. Even the ads are top notch. Just a fine, fine magazine.
1. cover: Phil Foglio & Freff (Aug.
1982) [wraparound cover]
1) Introduction [Phil Foglio,
Melissa Ann Singer & Freff] 1p
[text article, frontis]
2) D’Arc Tangent: Clues And
Omens [Phil Foglio & Freff] 46p
3) The Perils Of Partnership [Phil
Foglio] ½p
4) Next Issue Ad [Freff &
Phil Foglio] ½p
5) Creators Page: Phil Foglio,
Melissa Ann Singer, Freff, M. Lucie Chen & Chris Claremont
Profiles [various] 1p [text articles w/photos, on inside back
cover]
Notes: Publisher: Melissa Ann Singer.
Editor: ?, although Chris Claremont is listed as an editorial consultant. $2.00 for 48 pages. This is one of the great “What if…?”
fanzines. This first and only issue was
quite impressive with a great story, promising artwork and engaging characters. It was intended to run 16 chapters or
issues. I’ve seen the artwork for parts
of the never published second issue and those pages are just as good as #1’s
work. I vividly remember the sense of
wonder and joy when I finished this first issue years ago. 22 years later there’s still a nagging
sadness over what could have been. For
more on this title, there’s an interview with Connor ‘Freff’ Cochran at the end
of this page.
1. cover: Frank Brunner/frontis: Lela
Dowling (June 1983)
1) Pin-Up [Terry Austin] 1p
2) Introduction [Howard Feltman/Lela Dowling]
1p [text article]
3) Bravo For Adventure [Alex Toth] 21p
4) Murder In The Garage [Rick Geary] 5p
5) Sugar In The Morning [Charles Vess] 1p
6) No Rest For The Weary [Howard Chaykin] 4p [color]
7) Cheshire Cat [Lela Dowling] 6p
8) Innerviews: Tripping The Light Fantastic [Bark
Hawkins Karl & P. Craig Russell/P. Craig
Russell] 3p [text article]
9) Pin-Up [P. Craig Russell] 1p
10) Queenie Hart And The
Andromedan Grzblch [Trina Robbins] 8p
11) The Ghost [Jon J. Muth] 3p
12) Blimp Tales [Charles Vess]
1p
Notes: Publisher: Nautilus
Dreams. Editor: Howard Feltman. $4.95 for 60 pages in a trade paperback
format. Excellent issue with a great
cover, an installment of Toth’s ‘Bravo For Adventure’ and fine work by Rick
Geary, Trina Robbins, Jon Muth & Howard Chaykin.
--
A 2005 Interview with Connor Freff Cochran!
RA:
Welcome & thank you, Connor! You did
a lot of work in the late 1970s, early 1980s using the name Freff. Can you give us some background on yourself?
CFC:
Born in
I’m told I had a good time during those first three years
in
KC also had the world’s first-ever multiplex cinema, the
Next big shift — and it was huge — came in the summer of
1969, when my family moved again and landed in Orange County, California, only
about eight miles from Disneyland.
That’s where I went to high school, and I never particularly liked the
place. Goodbye seasons, goodbye clean
air, goodbye great schools, goodbye trees, goodbye camping, goodbye music
classics (my high school didn’t have anything it that department except
marching band). Goodbye lots of things. The only real bonus was getting involved in
SF fandom, and that wasn’t local — that was in
During the 33 subsequent years I have been entirely
self-employed except for two four-month stints (the last of which ended in
1974), and have lived in Florida again (briefly), California (multiple times),
New York (multiple times), Washington, D.C., Virginia, Alabama, Colorado
(multiple times), Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Nevada. These days, home is a variable: I bounce back
and forth mainly between
Married twice. The first time a youthful mistake, and no regrets. We stayed together for years, gradually drifted apart, and have remained friends (she and her second husband even do consulting work for my company from time to time); the second marriage, to an extraordinarily brilliant and talented classical pianist, was a flaming disaster interrupted by sporadic flashes of possibility that kept both of us hanging on longer than we should have. No kids from either union, which wasn’t necessarily my preference but in retrospect is a good thing.
I am the only person I know who has been a comic book writer and artist, a magazine writer and illustrator, a video producer, a soundtrack composer, a science reporter from BBC Television, and a graduate of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. An odd life, with signs of becoming even odder.
RA: What types of books
or authors did you read as a kid?
CFC: Before I could read I would sit on the floor for three or four hours at a time with the Encyclopedia Britannica, turning pages and staring at them as if I was reading. Freaked my parents right out. Once I learned to read for real there were no limits. I read literally everything. If it had words I would dive in, whether I understood the material or not. The local library was one of my escape places, a way to just be on my own with all those universes that were hidden inside books. I read mainly science and history and classic fantasy like Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum during elementary school, and I positively devoured the library’s back-issue stack of Science Digest, Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. Somewhere in there I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs (the first paperback I ever bought for myself was A PRINCESS OF MARS) and that inevitably led to E. E. “Doc” Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Peter S. Beagle, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. LeGuin and all the rest.
Then in junior high I stumbled across an issue of FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION magazine on a newsstand, which opened yet another door, leading me on to GALAXY and IF and ANALOG and anything else in digest form which claimed to publish science fiction or fantasy; and then Ace Books started putting out their SF Special series with those amazing Leo & Diane Dillon covers…I was completely and totally hooked. And it was by the art as much as by the fiction. Kelly Freas, Jack Gaughan, Ed Emshwiller, Virgil Finlay, Hannes Bok, Mel Hunter, John Schoenherr, Richard Powers, the Dillons, these people were all amazing visual forces. I couldn’t wait for that moment when the new magazines would show up on the rack each month and I would be able to see their covers, and all the interior art, fresh and for the first time.
By 9th grade I had a 500-volume library of SF and fantasy on the shelves above my bed, and I could tell you everything about every book, almost down to the individual page counts. And I was still checking out 3-5 nonfiction books a week from the library as well, plus reading Big Historical Novels like THE ROBE and THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY. I loved those.
RA: When did you get
involved in SF fandom?
CFC: Fandom was something I read about in the SF
magazines, but didn’t participate in until after the move to
RA: When did you first
encounter the world of comics?
CFC: Comics…comics were just there, even before I could
read and before I had any real interest in drawing. I would sit for hours and cut
brightly-colored figures out of comic books, using any pair of scissors I could
get, small or large. It was no good to
cut on the printed
lines. I had to cut one infinestimal
skootch outside them, so they were
preserved, but not framed by any extra newsprint. All kind of obsessive, really, but phenomenal
training in terms of hand-eye coordination and fine motor control.
Eventually, thank
goodness, I started reading them just to read them. And as with all other reading, I was an equal
opportunity guy. I liked them all. DC or Marvel?
No, both. And everything else,
too. Once again it was the art grabbing
me as much as anything. I liked the
stories and characters, but I didn’t really think about them that much (aside
from coming up with a really great explanation for Robbie Reed’s Hero
Dial). On the other hand, I thought
obsessively about what I liked and didn’t like in the art. Some of the stronger influences: Wally Wood,
Gil Kane, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Russ Manning, Joe Kubert, Jim
Aparo, Jim Steranko, Steve Ditko, Murphy Anderson, and on and on. I even loved Mike Sekowsky. And I started copying, but only a few
artists. From the strip world I aped
Charles Schultz, trying to capture his misleading simplicity of line and
shape. And from comics my got-to-copy
God was Gil Kane, for the drama, power and flow in everything he did. And let’s face it, to a kid SF geek, the
Green Lantern Corps is about as hot as it could get, though Steranko’s SHIELD
stuff wasn’t far behind in its own very different way.
RA: Where and how did you make your professional debut?
CFC: Depends on
how you define professional. The first
time I ever sold my pictures was at a community art fair in
Soon I was
selling them 6-10 stories a month for their various titles, such as TWILIGHT
ZONE, GRIMM’S GHOST STORIES, BORIS KARLOFF’S TALES OF MYSTERY, RIPLEY’S BELIEVE
IT OR NOT, ADAM-12, STAR TREK, DARK SHADOWS, etc…, and I kept that up steadily
for the next three or four years. Len
Wein had done the same thing for them just before me. I pretty much stepped into his shoes when he
left, but then didn’t step further. Some
of the ideas in these pieces were good, but since we were aiming by design at
readers under the age of 8, none of the executions were terribly
memorable. The only thing I’m proud of
after all these years is that John Warner and I managed to get around official
company policy and actually sneak continuity-based storytelling into DARK
SHADOWS.
The money I was
making there was more than enough income at the time, given how cheap my
lifestyle was, plus by the next spring I’d also found my way into illustrations
via Jim Baen at GALAXY and IF. Jim had
just become editor. The magazines were
incredibly poor and paid very, very slowly.
So he needed people who could either turn the stuff out extremely fast
(like Jack Gaughan) or else were willing to do just about anything to break in
(like me and Wendy Pini). I’m not
complaining: along with a lot of forgettable garbage I also got to illustrate
Roger Zelazny and Joanna Russ and some other great authors, and I was there
when John Varley’s first work showed up in the slush pile, four utterly
astonishing stories appearing out of the blue.
RA: Besides Gold Key, you worked for both Atlas and Marvel. Did you work for any other companies? What work did you do for them?
CFC: I did minor
stuff at DC. A friend of mine once said
that I was “little known in many fields”.
In comics the description is apt.
I inked {or penciled or inked} a handful of character art pages that ran
in ads and in their STAR TREK guidebooks.
My work for Atlas
never got published. Dave Kraft had
become an editor there and was desperately seeking help to turn things
around. I got handed TARGITT,
MAN-STALKER, a book about a psychotic revenge-killing FBI agent (the Mob
murdered his family, you see) who wore body-amplifying bulletproof exo-armor
(don’t ask). Gerry Conway was the
credited writer on the first three issues, but they were so stupendously,
mind-bogglingly bad that I’m certain Larry Leiber rewrote every word of Gerry’s
scripts. There was literally nothing
workable in this material. My solution
would be standard stuff, today, but it was radical thinking for 1974: I
introduced a new supporting cast, a mysterious uber-villain/conspiracy, a
mutant Ditko/Kirby lunatic android hunchback as the immediate threat…and I
killed Targitt. Resurrected him two
pages later, to be sure, with the intent of launching him on a multi-issue
transformative quest. But BANG, YOU’RE
DEAD all the same, after four or five pages of total humiliation. I also planned on making his love interest
the Vietnamese wife of his maritally-challenged brother-in-law, another
mold-breaker for 1974 that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow today. Anyway, the book got penciled {by George
Tuska, I think}, and then Atlas went under before it could be inked. I still have the script in the files and may
yet adapt it into something else. It
would make fine television in the ALIAS/LOST mold.
Marvel…ah. My public work for them was mainly to write
articles and do interviews for their B&W magazines (PLANET OF THE APES,
DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG-FU, TOMB OF DRACULA, plus a PEOPLE knockoff called
CELEBRITY). I did vast amounts of that
stuff and in the process taught myself the basics of nonfiction article
writing. I also drew a few one-page
horror pictures for TOMB OF DRACULA and --- childhood fantasy attained — got to
ink Gene Colan for a house ad. That was
real joy, both because it was Gene and because I was inking for Marvel, which
had rejected my earlier work so forcefully.
But the Marvel
work I’m actually proud of doesn’t have my name on it. I ghosted several issues of TARZAN and the
two-issue MAN-WOLF ‘Stargod’ story that ran in MARVEL PREMIERE. These books were plotted by Dave Kraft, and
fully credited to him, but I wrote all the captions and dialog. What happened — as I understood it — is that
Dave had gotten into some kind of big argument with Jim Shooter, and Shooter
was trying to come up with a legitimate excuse for firing him. Since the fastest and easiest way to do so
was to be able to say Dave wasn’t delivering on schedule, Shooter loaded him up
with too many assignments, more than
any one writer could handle. Dave’s
elegant solution was to go to people who weren’t currently working for Marvel
and subcontract. Me, I got TARZAN and
the MAN-WOLF set.
I am still
absurdly happy whenever I hear some comic book fan call those the best MAN-WOLF
stories ever, which has happened often enough to make me think Dave was really
on to something with that concept.
Marvel should consider relaunching it.
RA: You’ve also worked as an essayist and interviewer. How did you get involved in that and what
were the highlights?
CFC: The need to
pay a higher rent (I was in
It was all pure
hackwork, but I’d like to stress that word “pure.” There was an innocence to it. While I was on the job I really was
fascinated by the subject matter of each article, no matter how pointless it
really was. I mean, really: a detailed
comparative analysis of all the PLANET OF THE APES movie novelizations? Interviews with virtually every human being
who had ever crossed paths with Bruce Lee?
Hah! But gradually I learned how
to do the job well.
My two favorite
pieces from that period were both interviews.
One was with
screenwriter Sterling Silliphant {ROUTE 66,
The other great
interview was with Stephen King, who really is plugged into something deep and
dark and primal in the fear zone, yet who is also so unabashedly pop culture
that one of his favorite childhood comic books was the Jack Cole PLASTIC MAN. The interview was conducted through the
course of one long evening, at a home he owned in the
What I’m proud
about in these pieces, and others, is that I learned to get past the obvious
questions that my subjects usually got.
I was able to surprise them, which led them to speak in new and
revealing ways instead of repeating practiced Standard Responses.
Becoming an
essayist came much later, when I got a gig writing a regular column about
creativity for KEYBOARD magazine. That
was a whole different kind of nonfiction writing and put me through an entirely
different set of changes. In between the
two, marking a transition, I wrote more than half a million words of articles
for various computer and music magazines.
In the decade
between the MARVEL phase and the KEYBOARD phase I actually wrote close to a
million worlds of articles for various computer and music magazines.
RA: Your artwork is striking and very unlike most comic artists’
work. Who were your artistic influences?
CFC: That’s a
nice compliment — thanks — but I’m not sure I’d agree. If there really is any difference, it may
come from the classical art and sculpture I unknowingly absorbed by growing up
in Kansas City, combined with the fact that I was more influenced by the work
of my favorite magazine illustrators, people like Virgil Finley and Jack
Gaughan and Kelly Freas and John Schoenherr, than I was by the work of my
favorite comic book artists (with the possible exception of Gil Kane: I see a lot of Gil’s hand in my linework and
the shapes I tend to reach for as I draw).
And we shouldn’t leave out cinema: there are lots and lots of movies in
my visual programming, with an especially strong nod to
There’s one other
thing I can’t really explain, just demonstrate, because it happens on the
subconscious level. While we were
working on the second issue of D’ARC TANGENT, Lucie Chin told me that the
reason she liked my comic pages was “the drawing behind the drawings.” When pressed for more detail she said that it
was obvious to her that each page had a bigger visual concept, a total image
that the panels were just part of, and she said she could prove it by showing how the lines and shapes
in different panels connected to it by showing how the lines and shapes in
different panels connected to and/or reflected each other. I scoffed.
People are programmed by evolution to be pattern-builders, I told her,
and she was just inventing a set of perceptions that weren’t really there. Pure coincidence.
Then we did the
second-issue promo ad and I was forced to eat my words. That ad consisted of six panels that were
originally drawn and inked, weeks apart from one another, on six separate
pages. We put them together in the form
of three nested pairs, each pair linking panels that originally formed the
outer edges of two facing pages, like so: 3L-2L-1L-1R-2R-3R.
And damn, there
it was: Lucie’s “drawing behind the drawing,” plain to see. Shapes and lines and curves and structures
that simply could NOT be lining up this way by accident, no way in hell. This forced me to accept that somewhere
inside my head these individual panels really were part of a single larger
picture…and even though they were done on separate boards, at separate times,
my subconscious was keeping track and wouldn’t sign off on any of them,
wouldn’t tell me a given panel was finally “finished,” until it matched up to a
set of specifications I was utterly unaware of.
RA: I thought D’ARC TANGENT had one of the most promising debuts of the
1980s indy scene. What happened to cause
it to appear only that one time?
CFC: We did
great. Great sales, great reviews, great
reader mail. One guy told us he read
D’ARC TANGENT the same night he saw the final M*A*S*H, and didn’t mind losing
the latter because something wonderfully new had begun.
But it wasn’t to
be, at least not in comic form.
The reason it
died is simple, and though I understand it, and can even forgive it, I won’t
sugarcoat it. The D’ARC TANGENT comic
book was killed by Phil Foglio’s ego, which had been challenged constantly from
the beginning of the project and just couldn’t handle any more.
The character and
story concepts had started with Phil, years earlier. But he’d never been able to pull the story
together commercially, and on the way to publication other people wound up
contributing more than he did. This is
how that evolved: we began issue #1 with the notion that he and I would play it
50-50 down the line as writers and artists, but at each stage that just didn’t
turn out to be workable. D’ARC was a
serious science fiction story, not a lighthearted “cartoony” one, and Phil’s
style was and is intrinsically cartoony (which I must add, is great for that
kind of material; I am a huge fan of Phil’s work on BUCK GODOT and GIRL
GENIUS). In our group plotting sessions
(Phil, me, Lucie Chin, Melissa Singer) only a few of his ideas were making the
cut. In our art tests we quickly
discovered that I could ink him, but he couldn’t ink me. In our page tests we quickly discovered that
we couldn’t have him draw the aliens and robots and have me draw the people and
humanoids, like we’d first thought we could, because mine would be consistent
and his kept changing—different heights, different widths, different number of
fingers, different costume details, literally from panel to panel. So we brought Lucie Chin in to help: she
would rework Phil’s pencils as needed to make them consistent enough so as not
to be jarring in this serious context.
Phil, not
surprisingly, was made uncomfortable by this.
But at least we were getting pages done, albeit slowly. In the end I wound up writing 80% of the
first book, penciling 80% of it, inking 100% of it (though the surviving
zipatone work was Phil’s), and doing 90% of the selling. Truth is, Lucie did as much or more penciling
that first time around as Phil, though she never got public credit because Phil
refused to let us give it to her. Phil’s
stubborn insistence was also responsible for the fact that he got “creator”
appended to his writer/artist credit while I had “producer” appended to mine,
despite the fact that I had put three years into story development and actually
had created more of the entire planned story’s characters and plotline than he
did. Since the team almost never yielded
to him over an art or story argument, we decided not to fight about the
credits, which didn’t matter all that much to the rest of us.
Then the book
came out, and people were coming up to Phil and telling him it was the best
thing he’d ever done.
Since he hadn’t
really done very much, obviously that bugged him. But he didn’t show it. Instead he soaked up the praise on the
outside, smiling, while inside I suspect he was burning up.
During the second
issue things got worse. Phil and I had
argued — a lot — during the first issue.
To try and create some insulation Melissa stepped in (she was our
publisher and editor, after all) and would go over Phil’s pencils with him
before they came to Lucie and me. If she
saw something that needed fixing, she’d point it out to Phil and ask him to try
again. Pages were going back to him five
or six times before I ever saw them, and they usually came to me not because
they were right, but because they weren’t getting any better — just different —
and Melissa knew Phil was near a breaking point. By the time they came to me they still didn’t
work and usually had two new problems as well: (1) Phil wasn’t leaving adequate
room for the humanoid characters and dialog balloons, and (2) there was now so
much heavy graphite layered on the boards that they couldn’t be inked or
lettered. I’d never seen anything like
it.
Lucie and I did
the only thing we could do, under the circumstances: we carefully erased every
incoming page until there was a clear but ghostly outline of what Phil had been
trying to draw…and then we actually drew it, after which I added my own pencils
and did the inks.
A horrible
process, but the results were really beginning to sing. The art that got finished for book #2 before
everything collapsed was much better than the art in book one.
Long story short,
this latest turn of events was especially galling to Phil. He talked to Richard Pini about taking D’ARC
TANGENT to WARP Graphics. We heard some
scuttlebutt about that and asked Phil, in a team meeting, if the rumor was
true. He told us…
1) Yes, it was.
2) He’d talked to a lawyer and he owned everything.
3) If we thought otherwise we could all go piss up a rope. (That’s a direct quote.)
Then he left the
room, whistling.
Phil hadn’t
actually talked to a lawyer, of course.
It was all just bluster and ego.
But that was that. The book was
dead. And it took nine years, plus me
taking him to court — an entirely separate horror story — to truly settle the
conflict.
RA: Was the series influenced in any way by
RA: Can you give us some examples of the good and the bad in your
collaboration?
CFC: Sure. First, the good side:
Page 1 is a place
where we both managed to shine. We
needed a great opening symbolic image and Phil came up with a doozy for me to
tighten and ink.
[Here we]
successfully combined layout concepts from both of us. The camera angle in the upper panel is Phil’s
choice, but the figure work and Bond-symbol is all mine. The vertical stack of robots in the lower
left panel is Phil’s idea {and a very effective one}, while the middle and
right bottom panels are woven from so many small pieces by both of us it would
be impossible to tease them out. This
was early in our collaboration, before we fried. Back then we talked about panel layouts for
hours per page, sketching possibilities at each other as we went.
Then the bad:
This was my first
clue that there was serious trouble in collaboration land. When Phil first brought his pencils over to
show me, all the aliens had identical bell-bottomed Smurf legs. Worse, where a vast techno-cityscape was
supposed to be, there was nothing but five seconds’ worth of meaningless
squiggles. When I lifted an eyebrow he said (and this, too, is
an exact quote) “You do that — you’re good with that scratch-ass kind of
detail.”
He was right,
but…oy.
Here’s an example
of the delightfully unexpected:
Again on page 4
& 5. Colonel Teel, the bizarre
little one-eyed alien, was a throwaway character. In out plotting sessions the character was a
nobody who came in to call our somebody, the Ambassador, to the bridge. There and gone, never to return. But what Phil drew was just so damn weird and
interesting that I could NOT put normal dialog in the thing’s “mouth.” So I listened, and listened, and from
somewhere on the other side of the universe I plucked out this weird style of
translator-mangled speech which was way too cool to give to a nothing character. Just like that, Teel wasn’t a nobody at all,
but part of the main cast. In fact, he
wound up playing a major part in the planned 16-issue story arc.
RA: What were the intentions for
the remaining 15 chapters of D’ARC TANGENT?
CFC: What we
planned was to tell an epic love story that was also absolutely straight
science fiction. It was going to run 16
issues in the form of four separate 4-issue arcs, each arc the equivalent of a
single novel or feature film. And then
it was going to stop. Important
characters were going to die along the way.
Others were going to suffer terrible tragedies. And still others would get through,
magically, without a dent or scratch. In
other words — and I don’t feel at all self-conscious in making this comparison
— we were shooting to do the WAR AND PEACE of science fiction comic books.
And we could have
done it, too, or at least come close.
The story we cooked up over three years of development really was
awfully good.
RA: Are there any plans to move forward on it today?
CFC: Yes. The final 1994 legal settlement opened
multiple doors. Original comic book
rights went to Phil, but under severe constraints that make it unlikely he’ll
ever tackle the project. Original novel
rights went to me, and I have from time to time done some work in that direction. All secondary rights — including media rights
— stayed the property of the group, as administered by Melissa Singer. That changed in 1995 when we made a movie
deal for the property, and a joint venture was formed by me, producer David
Nicksay {ROBIN HOOD, PRINCE OF THIEVES, most recently BE COOL}, and Pacific
Data Images, the company that went on to do ANTZ and SHREK as the DreamWorks
computer animation unit. I was sole
screenwriter, partnering on story development with a friend and business
associate of mine, David Roudebush. Like
many things in
What shot down
the late ‘90s film approach down, as much as anything, was simple poor
timing. We were ahead of the wave. Despite STARS WARS,
Now we’re doing
all four screenplays, and storyboarding all four films, and producing a ton of
conceptual art and GCI concept tests.
When the pitch package is ready we’ll start up the studio dance and see
if anybody bites.
In an odd way,
all the downtime has been a plus. I’ve
had 22 additional years to work on the story, years without Phil’s influence or
the then-limitations of the comic book field, and the tale has simply grown
richer and deeper for all the extra effort.
When DARC (as it is now titled) finally does make it to the screen, it
will be the epic I dreamed about when Phil first brought his failed comic to me
and said, “Here, fix.”
RA: Sounds like an exciting project.
Of your own work, what is your favorite?
CFC: In terms of
straight prose, I’m most satisfied with some of my Creative Options essays —
especially one called “Going Too Far,” which is about having to identify a
friend’s body in the morgue — and a horror short I wrote 20 years ago called “A
Night On The Docks”. In terms of
screenplays {an utterly different kind of writing}, my favorite is always the
one I’m working on at the moment. At
this time, that happens to be an adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s novel A FINE
AND PRIVATE PLACE.
In terms of
artwork, there’s nothing I’ve ever done that I’m really happy with. A few sketches here and there are
interesting, plus some of the D’ARC pages, a few of my illustrations for John
Varley’s TITAN and WIZARD, a few of my miscellaneous Zelazny pieces. Not much more. Art is still a sore point.
The personal work
I enjoy the most is probably the music I’ve written, and some of the
songs. That is all deeply satisfying. It’s more fun to work on music than anything
else except actually performing in front of an audience — nothing beats the
rush when a live show is going right.
I am also having
a great time now with the business that I’ve been building since 2001. Within a year we’ll have published at least a
dozen books and a half-dozen audiobooks; released three or four CDs; put out
prints and posters from multiple artists; and moved a half dozen film stories
closer to actual production. But this is
all collaboration, and good collaboration is something I find utterly
exhilarating. Not to mention how much
pleasure I get from the fact that all this great creative work is happening, if
not through me, because of me. Peter S.
Beagle is one of my clients. He has now,
after 37 years, finally written a follow-up to THE LAST UNICORN. And not anything half-assed or formulaic,
either—something heartbreakingly beautiful.
Getting to be the guy who made that happen, however inadvertently, is a
total gift from the universe.
RA: Do you still follow comics?
Who do you read today?
CFC: In every
city I’m operating out of I have my favorite and second-favorite comic shops,
and on new comic Wednesday I’m guaranteed to be at one of them. These days, unlike my childhood, it is the
writers who are driving my purchasing decisions: Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Neil
Gaiman, Brian K. Vaughan, Barbara Kesel, Geoff Johns, J. Michael Straczynski,
Joss Whedon, Dan Slott, Grant Morrison, Brian Michael Bendis, Kurt Busiek,
Scott McCloud (when he joins us), Paul Chadwick, whole bunches more. And that’s just the ‘straight comics’
writers. Add in the graphic novel and
alternative crowd, and wow — we’ve never had this much literary talent in the
field at one time, not ever, and I think it bodes well for the future of the
medium.
Though we
obviously still need more women writers and artists. That’s a serious weakness and I’d like to see
it change.
RA: Which writers do you read outside the comic field?
CFC: Same as
childhood: everything, though there’s now a project-related filter that keeps
me from reading as much random stuff as I’d like. Up ahead on the to-do list is a screenplay
set in pre-WWII
David Roudebush
says the world can be parsed into two categories: things I am insatiably
curious about, and things I am not insatiably curious about…yet. He’s got me nailed.
RA: What are you involved in nowadays?
CFC: The majority
of my waking time — and since I only sleep about five hours a night, that’s a
lot — is devoted to building the company.
The structure is simple. There is
a central holding corporation called CCI, for Connor Cochran, Inc. I am chairman, president, secretary and
treasurer. CCI operates sub-divisions
which deal in specific tasks and/or media: Conlan Press is the book and
audiobook publishing division, ACE-Kobata Music handles live performances and
recordings, Changeling Films is the cinema division,
Conlan is the
first division to go public, via the www.conlanpress.com
website. Our initial release is an
unabridged audiobook of Peter S. Beagle’s THE LAST UNICORN, which we are
promoting by also putting out a limited edition hardcover of “Two Hearts”, that
coda/sequel story to THE LAST UNICORN that I mentioned earlier. To get the new story, you have to buy the
audiobook: simple. And there will only
be 3000 copies of the collector’s hardcover to go around. Response has been great so far.
Beyond that we
have too many projects and releases to cover in detail, in too many different
realms. I’ll say only that I am
intensely excited by the work that is coming along, and truly honored to get to
collaborate with and support such talented writers, producers, artists,
composers and designers. CCI may never
wind up going toe-to-toe with Disney or Sony or Universal someday, but we’ll
make a good run at it, and have a lot of fun in the attempt. The art of business, the business of art, and
a chance to change the world, even if only a little bit. Who could say no?
RA: Thank you, Mr. Cochran!
A 2007 Interview with Reality publisher Robert Gerson!
RA: Can you tell us a little about your background?
RG: Born and grew up in
RA: How did you get involved in publishing Reality?
RG: Reality was the result of two of my passions as a teenager: becoming
an artist and collecting comic book and illustration art. The comic art community of the 1960s-70s,
which started with and evolved from the efforts of Jerry Bails, Roy Thomas and
Maggie & Don Thompson along with many others, was an amazing creative
environment for a young artist to learn from.
I discovered the first independent magazines that were being published
around the country thanks to Phil Seuling’s NYC comic art shows and G. B.
Love’s RBCC. After a few years of
reading and being inspired by Graphic Story Magazine, Alter Ego, Fantastic
Fanzine, witzend and Squa Tront, I decided to give the publishing world a try
at the ripe old age of 14. For a young
artist those magazines offered a glimpse of the creative potential in comics, graphic
design, and sequential art illustration.
There was also a friendly “
Reality, like most creative endeavors, was the result of a specific time
and place. There wre several independent
magazines published in the late 1960s that inspired me to create Reality. I recall studying several of the current
issues of those magazines as I thought about what reality’s contents would be. I was very impressed with Alter Ego #10 where
Roy Thomas had a perfect balance between informative articles and interviews
with rare behind-the-scenes art along with just the right amount of humor. Then there was Jerry Weist’s great EC-devoted
magazine Squa Tront, particularly #3 and 4 where Jerry was creating probably
the most exciting graphic design work of all the independent magazines
published during that era. His magazines
were more creatively designed than most of what was appearing on the newsstands
at the time. There there was Wally
Wood’s witzend. Wood, and later Bill
Pearson, really created one of the great illustrator and comic artist
magazines. What I really liked about
witzend was the blending in each issue of works by artists who started out in
the 1940s and 1950s such as Reed Crandall, Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood and
Harvey Kurtzman with then next generation from the 1960s, including artists
like Art Spiegelman and Vaughn Bode.
witzend really did set the table for the next wave of creativity in
comics and graphic stories.
RA: Where did your contacts with the artists and
writers come from? There were some
pretty heavy hitters in the two issues of Reality that you published.
RG: The first time I met some of the artists who were published in
Reality was at Phil Seuling’s July comic art show. This was at the 1969 and 1970 shows at the
Statler Hilton Hotel in
Another artist that I admired who first published in the late 1960s is
Kenneth Smith. He was creating all of
those exquisitely detailed illustrations and title logos for Squa Tront,
witzend and other magazines before he moved on to do cover work for Warren’s
Creepy and Eerie magazines along with paperback covers. I don’t recall how we initially met. I think I may have asked him to design the
logo for Reality through the mail or by phone.
After Reality #1 was published I would share convention tables with
Kenneth as he was beginning independent publishing with his own magazine
Phantasmagoria. He also published
several limited edition print series around that time. He would display several of his oil painting
that he’d done for the
RA: Why did the story ‘Death Is The Sailor’ (written
by Len Wein & illustrated by Michael Kaluta) get split in two for
publication? It clearly was not intended
to be published that way.
RG: Yikes! I still cringe when I
open issue one and see that story only partially printed. What can I say except that I was 14 years old. Clearly my editorial judgment and experience
was minimal. I recall having too much
art for the first issue, primarily because I had promised several free ad pages
to other people who were publishing their own magazines at the time. So the rather silly decision to break that
story into two parts was the result.
Probably it would have been better to pull some of the full page
drawings instead.
RA: A number of the stories were originally intended
for the professional B&W magazine Web Of Horror. Were any of the stories done specifically for
Reality?
RG: The stories that were specifically commissioned for Reality were the
Kaluta 2 page piece ‘As Night Falls’, the Frank Brunner story ‘Endless Chain’
and the Howard Chaykin/Bill Stillwell story ‘Renegade’. The Chaykin work was his very first published
comic story. Chaykin was a
As for the Web Of Horror stories, I was certainly in the right place at
the right time for them. Web Of Horror had
just folded after only three issues.
Most of the artists had just received their unpublished art back and
they were looking for somewhere to get the stories published. The most logical place would have been the
RA: Was your magazine a true fanzine or was it a
prozine? The difference being that a
prozine paid artists and writers some amount for publication.
RG: My idea from the beginning was to create Reality as a small, limited
edition magazine. I never really felt
qualified to do a fanzine since I wasn’t part of the fan collector’s network,
nor did I belong to any of the collector’s clubs that were around back
then. I did pay reproduction rights to
print those stories and for some of the full page artwork that was specifically
commissioned for Reality, such as Kenneth Smith’s work. In those days one was quickly labeled a
prozine if they had the nerve to actually pay for contributions. I paid $25 per page for the first printing
rights to all those stories. At the time
that was a high rate considering artists were getting $35-$45 per page from the
mainstream publishers of that period.
Honestly I couldn’t imagine printing those stories for free. Why wouldn’t I pay an artist for their work? There was always a moral cry from the traditional
fanzine publishers back then about paying for contributions. My intention was always to emulate a
RA: Do you still keep involved in comics in any way?
RG: Well I read Mutts everyday, probably the best and sweetest cat and
dog comic strip ever created. I don’t
really follow mainstream comics much except for a periodic visit to a comic
story. I tend to read anthologies and
collections and some of the graphic novels.
As an artist and designer I really do like the high level of artistic
technique, style, and design in comics today and I’m glad to see that the
subject matter has grown beyond primarily superhero stories.
RA: Have you ever considered reprinting the two
issues as a standalone trade paperback?
Perhaps with #1-3 of the Web Of Horror magazine included? Many of the stories have never been
reprinted.
RG: Every five years of so I think about doing a reprint issue with new
material but it never goes beyond the idea stage. Rounding up all the copyright holders would
be quite a project and I only have about six pages of the original art from the
magazine. I didn’t hold on to the
printing plates, which of course today would be useless anyway since all print
work is now based on digital pre-press files.
Seeing a reprint of those first three issues of WOH would be nice but
rounding up complete story art would probably be quite a challenge.
RA: What comic writers and artists inspired you in
the Reality days? Do you follow any
writers or artists today?
RG: Back in the 1970s the artists I studied and learned from included
Frank Frazetta, Jim Steranko, Reed Crandall, Roy Krenkel, Kenneth Smith,
Jeffrey Jones, Michael Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Victor Moscoso and Rick
Griffin. Their work is woven into my
paintings even today and probably always will be. A few of the comic artists and illustrators I
enjoy who are working today are James Jean, Patrick McDonnell, John Paul Leon
and Phil Hale.
As for writers, I recall enjoying Archie Goodwin, Jim Steranko, Roy
Thomas, Ray Bradbury and Will Eisner. I
loved Eisner’s creative innovations in graphic stories from the 1970s and on. His commitment to the development of comics
into graphic stories is very inspiring.
I never did get to meet him when I studied at Visual Arts. Today anyone in comics who is doing writing
about contemporary life or a creative look at social issues are the writers I
gravitate to. Writers like Art
Spiegelman, Craig Thompson and Daniel Clowes.
There is such a lot of interesting new art and stories being published
now that I know I’m leaving out many exciting writers and artists. It really is a great time for graphic stories
and comics.
RA: Any interesting anecdotes or stories that you’d
care to share?
RG: The Bernie Wrightson illustration in Reality #2 is the prototype version
of the Swamp Thing character and was the first illustration of the muck monster
to appear before Swamp Thing’s official debut in the July 1971 House Of Secrets
#92. At the time I didn’t even know I
was publishing a Swamp Thing illustration.
I was at Michael Kaluta’s apartment to pick up some of his artwork for
the 2nd issue and I mentioned that I really was hoping to have a
piece by Bernie for the new issue, particularly since he hadn’t appeared in the
1st issue. So I’m asking
Kaluta about how to get in touch with Wrightson and at that moment Bernie walks
in the door. Kaluta asks him if the
drawing of Bernie’s that he has sitting next to his drafting table can be
published in Reality. Mike grabs this
beautiful drawing and shows it to me.
Bernie says “Sure, go ahead and print it”. It certainly was cool to publish an early
Wrightson drawing.
The color covers to Reality #2 were printed as continuous tone
lithography. Back then, that printing
method was quite rare and mainly used for fine art prints and not for mass
reproduction. There were no 4 color screen
dots on those covers and that allowed for a more accurate reproduction of each
artist’s painting. Collectors have asked
me over the years about the print runs for Reality. Issue #1 had a print run of 1,000 copies and
issue #2 was 2,000 copies. On both
issues I only sold a few hundred copies directly to subscribers. The rest were sold wholesale to magazine
dealers.
It was a real thrill to meet all of those artists and writers at such a
young age. It shaped my life in becoming
an artist and still inspires me today.
Thanks for asking me about Reality.
It really is fun to get back to those times now and then.
RA: Thanks, Robert, it’s much appreciated!
A
2007 Interview with Adam Malin!
RA: We’re welcoming Adam Malin, publisher of the
1970 fanzine Infinity. Adam, can you
give us a little information on your background?
AM: I was born and grew up in
RA: When did you actually become interested in
comics?
AM: I was a Marvel fiend, and Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko were
my early gods. Fantastic Four was my
heaven, and I still maintain to this day (and I’m 51 now) that I am the World’s
Number One Fantastic Four fan, just as Stan Lee proclaimed (no doubt based on
information he created himself) that the FF was the World’s Favorite Comic
Magazine. To see the movie ads for the
Silver Surfer—“Rise”—as the star of the second FF movie is pretty much coming
full circle for me. I can’t wait to see
it, and I know my pal, Doug Jones, who is playing the Surfer, will bring the
same amazing talent to this character that he did in several of Guillermo Del
Toro’s films as well. The only question
is, how will they handle Galactus??
Jim Steranko was the other Marvel talent who really blew my mind, and I’m
proud to say that he was the first guest at the very first Creation Comic Art
Convention that Gary and I produced in 1971.
Steranko’s work on Nick Fury remains a high watermark of 1960s comic
books. During this period I also
stumbled across EC Comics, and they had a profound impact on me as well—I fell
in love with Graham Ingels, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, and all the others
in their stable. To this day I hate Dr.
Frederic Wertham for almost single handedly bringing the demise of those
beloved books.
I also made the acquaintance of Doug Murray, a super fan about 10 years
my superior, who took an early interest in me while I was still practically in
diapers (and no, he’s not a pedophile).
Doug was a mentor of mine who turned me on to the worlds of fantasy/sci
fi art beyond the limited scope of books I had personally experienced. He went on to publish an excellent fanzine of
his own called Heritage, in addition to writing many comics, including The ‘
RA: What inspired you to begin the Infinity fanzine?
AM: A genuine love of comic art and the graphic story medium. I had begun collecting comic art (as did
RA: Did you consider it a fanzine or a prozine?
AM: I’d say we were a fanzine in terms of our editorial content (almost
non-existent and certainly juvenile, at least at the beginning), but we were a
prozine in terms of art quality. Doug
contributed some interviews that were of professional quality, and he remains a
fine journalist and comic book writer today.
RA: Robert Gerson mentioned the friendly rivalry
between you and he regarding getting the best artists and writers for your
respective books. Could you tell that
story from your side of the fence? Are
you the same age? One of the reasons I
ask that is that your responses in the letter’s pages seemed a good deal more
mature than the average 14-15 year old.
AM: Robert grew up down the block from Gary and myself. He and I were in class together until I
moved out further on
RA: Robert’s Reality was a magazine that ran actual
comics while Infinity was largely a comics related magazine, although you did
run some comic strips—quite good ones actually.
What prompted the format decision?
AM: Infinity’s focus was on interviews and features on art talent, and
less on actual graphic stories. Issue #4
had a gorgeous full color cover painting by Richard Corben (and to this day I
hit myself over the head for selling that piece) and some cool Larry Todd work,
very subversive. Basically, we had the
money to afford some very great art, and we published it in a high quality
manner, including full color process covers in most cases. I also had all the type set in typeset
(during the era before desktop publishing and computer text existed) for the
later issues, which certainly increased the production values. We were pretty good on layout too, a carry over
from my Dad’s tutelage in magazine design.
RA: How did you locate and get artists to
contribute? You had some very impressive
ones doing covers, strips or pin-ups, including Frank Brunner, Bruce Jones,
Jeff Jones, Roy G. Krenkel, Kenneth Smith, Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta and
more.
AM: Many of these artists attended our early comic conventions, and we
got to know them through the events and/or by seeking them out. In particular, the “Studio” artists, which
were Wrightson, Jeff Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith and Kaluta—were favorites of ours. There are some funny stories concerning those
guys.
Jeff Jones: a brilliant painter who unfortunately has been facing some
challenges these past few years. I will
always love his work. In those days he
was married to Louise Jones, who went on to marry Walt Simonson. Jeff struggled with gender
orientation/identification even in those days (and sadly it was a much less
forgiving era socially) and in that sense he found a kindred spirit in dear
Vaughn Bode (himself the brilliant artist of Cobalt 60 and Cheech Wizard, who
allegedly died of autoerotic asphyxiation in 1975). Jeff had his gorgeous paintings all over his
apartment in New York’s Village, and I had the honor of visiting there on
several occasions. Did I mention that I
owned several Jones paintings, including the nude girl that was the cover of
Reality #1? Like a schmuck, I sold all
my Jones paintings over the years, much to my eternal regret.
Barry Windsor-Smith: Sensational talent who was fluent in a variety of
media, and lived up in Woodstock, NY. I
don’t think we ever had any of his work in Infinity, but he was a good friend
and displayed at several of our early events.
Michael Kaluta: Again a brilliant artist and graphic storyteller, who was
featured in both Infinity and Reality with strips and paintings. Doug did a great interview with him which was
featured in an issue of Infinity.
Bernie Wrightson: Possibly the most brilliant of the lot, Bernie invited
me up to his house in the Village on several occasions, where we interviewed him
and watched his amazing creative process.
He, of course, went on to Swamp Thing and then to his amazing work
illustrating Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. I’ve got a Swamp Thing painting by Bernie
hanging in my office that I’m very proud of.
One time I got my hands on a beautiful strip by him called ‘Peter,
Peter, Pumpkin Eater’ (originally published in the one-shot prozine, Abyss)
which was done in sepia gauche. Each
panel was magnificent, so what did I do?
I cut the page into individual panels and published each separately,
forever dismembering the page—typical of my “editorial style’, both immature
and disrespectful. I guess in a certain
sense it’s the ultimate compliment, as each panel was to me a painting
deserving of its own placement in our fanzine.
Bernie attends my shows even today, particularly the Fangoria Horror
Shows I coproduced in
Frank Brunner: Was/Is an amazing talent, and for some inexplicable reason
I ended up with a pile of his full-sized painting, some of which I
published. They were gorgeous. We had them underneath a dealer’s table we
had at some show back in the early 1970s, and Frank came by and asked to get
some of the paintings back (they were on loan or somesuch). I pulled up a painting with a big fucking
hole in it! Somehow we had damaged the
piece. Frank nearly did a shit fit, but
somehow he forgave us. Again, typical
juvenile hi-jinks from us as teenagers.
At least we knew great art when we saw it!
Bruce Jones: a fine writer and artist who contributed both individual art
and stripwork to us. We started to run
his written/illustrated strip ‘The Mating’ but it was never completed. Bruce has gone on to have a fine career in
the graphic story field.
Roy Krenkel: A dear man, one of the greats of the EC era. We published several pieces by
Jack Kirby: Incredibly, the King was the brother of one of the teachers
at the high school my mom taught at, and so I finally got to meet my idol. We published at least one or two pieces by
him. After Jack moved to
Vaughn Bode: One of the most subversive and original talents in comics in
the 1960s and early 1970s. my best
memory of him, other than his amazing slideshow extravaganzas that he present
at our shows, was a poignant scene that took place in the hallway at one of our
shows. The great Wally Wood, arguably
EC’s most prolific and finest strip artist, was a chronic alcoholic who was
reduced to almost homeless status by the early 1970s. At one of our early Thanksgiving shows I
found Wally crumpled on the floor in a hallway with Vaughn sitting cross-legged
next to him. Wally was sobbing about how
his life was over, that no one gave a shit about him. Vaughn was lovingly hugging Wally, reassuring
him that he was still the greatest artist of his era. Wally never came out of his funk, but Vaughn
deeply impressed me with the depth of his humanity, and I was very depressed
upon hearing the news of his passing those many years ago.
Larry Todd: One of the Haight Ashbury pack, who worked with Gilbert
Shelton on the Classic Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers underground comix as well
as his own marijuana-tinged parable, Dr. Atomic. Larry was a lovable rascal who gave us many
fun pieces of art as well as some beautiful paintings. Robert’s Todd painting for the cover of Reality
#2 is still a classic—particularly as enhanced by Robert’s use of the
giclee-like reproduction which eliminated screen dots.
RA: Why was there a supplement pamphlet issued with
Infinity #3A & #3B? For that matter,
why did you do a 3A & 3B set of issues and not simply a #3 and a #4?
AM: The two issue set of Infinity #3 was a progressive way of housing all
that beautiful content. We felt we had
two volumes worth of cover material, although, sadly, we didn’t have the money
to print Jeff Jones’ aborigine painting in color. It was gorgeous, in burnt umber and sienna
tones. We also had two issues worth of
interior content, so it just seemed to make sense then, and still does. By the way, does anyone really have copies of
these fanzines other than you and me, Richard?
I thought the Infinity series was completely lost to posterity.
RA: Well, I don’t have a complete set. I’ve only the double #3 set and #5, which
features a pretty cool Larry Todd cover.
I keep my eye our for 1970s era fanzines all the time though. Every once in a while, something turns
up.
Why did Infinity end?
AM: Gary and I realized producing live events was where we wanted to be,
not publishing, and 36 years later it’s obvious that we made the right
decision.
Until Gary and I graduated college, essentially we did one show a
year—the Thanksgiving convention in Manhattan, which took place at any number
of grade B New York venues, including the Statler Hilton, Commodore, Diplomat,
McAlpin, Roosevelt, New Yorker, Americana and more. I am an expert on funky, aged
Just as a matter of history, we spent our first 15 or so years running
comic book conventions, which slowly mutated into Sci Fi/Fantasy films and TV
events (beginning with Telefantasy in 1976, which was coproduced by Doug
Murray, Allan Asherman and ourselves.
Then we went on to individually-themed events for Star Trek, Etc.
At this point in my life, Creation Events has defined 2/3s of my
life. Doug Murray still manages some of
our events to this day, and occasionally some of our good friends from the
comics era come by to participate. We
book Stan Lee occasionally, and he’s as wonderful and hyperbolic as ever.
RA: Do you have any anecdotes you’d care to share?
I have a good Stan Lee story. Back
in the early 1970s, we would pay Stan a speaker’s fee of $1000, which was a lot
by the standards of those days but only a tiny fraction of the fees he now
commands for a public appearance. After
Stan’s appearance was over, I was to bring Stan’s fee—in cash—to him in his
green Volkswagon station wagon parked on the street outside the hotel. I did this several times over several
years. It was funny and idiosyncratic.
Jim Steranko was known for his maverick ways, and one year he proposed a
radical entrance for an appearance he was to make at the Statler Hilton. Those that attended events at that property
(which went on to become the Pennsylvania Hotel and is currently being reborn
as a condo) should remember that the fabled 18th floor, the top
floor of the hotel, had the Sky Top and Penn Top meeting rooms. Steranko’s scheme was to fly into the event
from a helicopter, which would hover just above the hotel. In those days helicopters had not yet been
banned from downtown and the disaster over the Pan Am building had not yet
occurred. Anyways, Jim fancied himself
another Harry Houdini and, in fact, he was an amazing illusionist and escape
artist. So his plan was to hang upside
down, bound in a strait jacket and dangling from the helicopter. He would extricate himself from the jacket
and drop down onto the balcony of the hotel which ran the length of the
building outside the ballroom. We were
all set to play out this ridiculous and dangerous scenario when the hotel
caught wind of the plan and promptly shot the idea down.
RA: Do you keep up with the comics field today?
AM: Of course! I just attended
Wizard World in LA and I try to stay on top of the latest talent in the
field. Continuity in the series
themselves, on the other hand—forget it.
Fantastic Four is up in the 500s now and I could never keep track. It’s an exciting time in graphic stories,
what with the convergence of comic work and filmmaking.
RA: Any of the current crop of writers and artists
that you particularly admire?
AM: The expected suspects, like Jim Lee, Tad Williams, Michel Turner,
Adam Kubert, Brian Bendis…there are so many talented people today. And, of course, it’s amazing for me to see
guys like Frank Miller and Steve Ditko up on the screen. Between 300,
RA: Anything you’d like to say in conclusion?
AM: Infinity was and is only a small part of the fanzine puzzle of the
1970s. There were magazines with much
stronger editorial values, including Squa Tront, witzend and Reality, but I
think we had a youthful exuberance and some nice art combined with good
production values that set us apart from a lot of the publications of the
era. In a sense, Infinity was the
springboard from which I transitioned from publishing into producing live
events, and for that I’m grateful, both for the exposure and the insight that
it gave me. If anyone is interested and
doesn’t already know about my current business and roster of events, go to www.creationent.com to check us out.
RA: Thank you, Adam!
A 2007 Interview with Doug Murray!
RA: Hi, folks, we’re talking
today with comics writer Doug Murray.
Can you give us some details about your background?
DM: I was born in Booklyn,
My folks were anxious to give me the best education
they could. They read to me from the
time I was old enough to understand.
Through the use of Golden Books and, later, Superman and Batman comic
books, they taught me to read before I turned five years old.
Television wasn’t a really big thing then—we got a set
when I was about five—one with an enormous five-inch screen. I loved Howdy Doody but when Rocky Jones,
Space Ranger came on the air, then Superman, I was hooked! I had an uncle who was a real science fiction
fan and he introduced me to written SF and SF movies—I saw War Of The Worlds
when I was five, brought the paperback book (which I still have) on my way
home, and have read SF and Fantasy ever since.
I kept my interest in comics and SF right through
Elementary School and, after a move to
I went to the World Science Fiction Convention in
1964—the same year Forry Ackerman visited my house. I loved the Con and purchased my first piece
of artwork there—a cover rough by Jack Gaughnn.
A couple of years later, I hurt a leg playing
basketball and got drafted! Spent almost
five years in the military doing this and that.
During that time I got in touch with several artists, including Kelly
Freas, Roy Krenkel, and Al Williamson. I
already knew Frank Frazetta—although not as an artist—I had played baseball
with him before my Army days! I only
found out that he was the same guy who did those great Conan paintings when I
was assigned to interview him by Take ONe magazine in 1968 or so.
It was around this time that I became aware of fandom
and fanzines.
RA: What got you interested
in comics? What was the first you
remember buying?
DM: Comics were one of the way I learned to read. I started reading around the end of the
Golden Age and I always bought Superman and Batman books.
RA: Did you have any favorite
writers or artists?
DM: I couldn’t have told you then who drew or wrote
anything in the comics—nobody was credited and there was no way in the 1950s to
find out that information. I just bought
the book for the character.
RA: Were you involved in the
fan movement of the late 1960s/early 1970s?
DM: I was sort of tangentially involved in the fan
movement. Mostly through contact with Al
Williamson and Roy Krenkel—I was never a joiner so I was never a part of
anything organized in any way.
RA: You did some work with
both Infinity and Reality, which were early fanzines. How did you get involved with them?
DM: I can’t really remember how I met Adam Malin and
Gary Berman, the publishers/editors of Infinity. I think they contacted me at some point
because someone they were talking to gave them my name. I had really gotten involved in collecting
artwork by this time—had a lot of Virgil Finlay stuff along with many SF
paintings. Adam and Gary needed interior
illustrations and, for me, that was a great situation—I provided stuff from my
collection (for a few dollars) and used what they paide me to buy more
art. As time passed, I got pretty
friendly with Adam and Gary (a friendship that continues to this day), who were
fairly young at the time. I’m not sure
what their folks thought of the situation—I was older than them, but it was a
different time and the kind of thing that happens so often now was much less
frequently heard of then. Today’s a
different story. I know Adam and Gary
introduced me to Reality’s publisher & editor Bob Gerstenhaber (as he was
then known), and I helped him a bit as well—but his concept of a fanzine was
different than what Adam and Gary were doing so I had less to do with him.
RA: What brought about your
own fanzine, Heritage, and why did you pick Flash Gordon as the focal point?
DM: Heritage actually came about for two main
reasons. First, I had become friendly
with Richard Garrison, a recent addition to my neighborhood on
I, on the other hand, was still in the Army and still
collecting artwork. A fanzine seemed a
good way to get artwork from some of the artists I was interested in and have a
way to recoup what the art cost. Also,
it was a chance to do something that hadn’t been done in a big way up to that
time. I liked the fanzine ‘I’ll Be
Damned’, which had featured some comic stories, but I thought it would be more
effective to do something with a single subject.
Al Williamson had become one of my most valued friends
at this point, and Flash Gordon was my favorite movie serial (as well as
his). Doing an entire book on the
character just seemed like a good idea.
RA: Who were Bruce Hershenson
& Richard Garrison, your co-publishers on Heritage?
DM: As I said above, Rich Garrison was a fan who moved
into my home town around the time that the Heritage idea took shape. It was fortunate that he did, because I got
sent overseas just before it was to come out—Rich took control and was
instrumental in getting the final pieces put together.
Bruce Hershenson was a friend of Ron Barlow, who was
another friend who was at that time involved with some Bernie Wrightson
projects. He’s since moved to
RA: With the exception of
Neal Adams, most of the artists in Heritage submitted stories of four pages or
less. Was that a requirement?
DM: I was paying what was at the time a very high
per-page rate. My budget demanded that I
keep the stories to four pages.
RA: How did you get in touch
with the writers & artists?
DM: I knew many of them before I did Heritage. The ones I knew were often able to put me on
to the others.
RA: Do you have any anecdotes
about the publication of Heritage that you’d care to share?
DM: Neal Adams’ story was the last one delivered. He was always slow and I ended up sitting
next to his desk for about a week to make sure he got the job done. That turned out to be a good thing as I ended
up being friendly with everyone at the Adams/Giordano studio and did some work
there later on.
RA: When and how did you
become a professional comic writer?
DM: I became a comic writer quite by chance. I knew a lot of contemporaries, of course—I
played poker with Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and some others. When I got out of the Army, I spent a lot of
time at
RA: Of your own work, what
would you consider to be your favorite?
DM: I think the first 12 issues of ‘The ‘
RA: Whose work in the comic
field do you enjoy following today?
DM: I don’t buy a lot of comics these days. I got kind of spoiled when I was working for
Marvel and got everything for free. I do
follow Frank Cho’s ‘Liberty Meadoes’, ‘Astro City’ (when that one comes out)
and pretty much anything by George Perez, Adam Hughes and Jim Steranko—and
anthing that just looks cool or sounds intriguing.
RA: What projects are you
working on today?
DM: I’m currently doing a new series called ‘Jungle
Girl’ for Dynamite Entertainment with Frank Cho! Frank is my partner on the series and will be
doing covers and layouts. The interior
pencils will be by Adriano, one of DE’s overseas guys who does some really nice
work. Issue #0 (my first #0) comes out
at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and I’m looking forward to the
reaction. I’m also doing an as
yet-unamed series for the new Savage Tales.
RA: Any final thoughts?
DM: It’s been an interesting time. I think I’ve been blessed—I love the fantasy
world and have spent much of my life living and working in it. I have a great wife, good friends (including
Adam and Gary whom I’ve now known for what, 30 years?!) and still enjoy what I
do. What more can you ask for?
This bibliography is
copyright 2003-2007 Richard J. Arndt.
© 2003-2007 R. Arndt.
Do not reproduce or mirror
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