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In making some slight attempt to arrange the “to be read” piles at home, I put aside a bunch of recently acquired fanzines ‘n’ prozines, inside one of which I found this article:
This comics from Comics Feature #6 in 1980, and I figured this would be a good article to pick out given that there’s a brand new Dazzler series out on the shelves this week.
What really caught my eye was the phrasing of the headline, referring to comic book specialty stores as “fan shops.” Comic stores were still relatively new, mostly beginning to crop up in the ’70s (though there were certain some examples prior to that). I know most of us just call ’em “comic shops” or “comic book stores” now, even if the actual comic book sections are a minor afterthought to the shelves and shelves of Pokemon and Magic the Gathering product.
“Direct sales outlet” is another term used in the article that feels a bit dated, describing the nature of the different distribution between comic shops and newsstands that was on folks’ minds then, but not so much now. We’re primarily reminded of it on today’s new comics with the “direct sales” slug present on UPC codes.
Seeing “fan shop” reminds me of a common criticism of comic stores, as those of a particularly…unpleasant nature are referred to negatively as “clubhouse.” It wouldn’t surprise me to see someone referring to some unwelcoming shop or ‘nother on social media as “fan shop (derogatory),” as the popular phrasing goes with you young folks nowadays.
That’s mostly all I wanted to mention about this article, but I suppose I should note that theh print run on this Dazzler #1 was “a quarter of a million copies,” and even that was noted as being slightly less than a typical Marvel first issue, due to the “restricted” circulation. There are comic publishers who would strangle their mom’s favorite goat to get a print run that high on anything today.
Also interesting is that, while the first issue was comic shop only, it started getting newsstand distribution with the second issue. Sorry, kids with no “fan shops” in your area, you’ll never get to see Dazzler’s exciting origin!
And then:
Well…thanks, Big Jim, I…guess?
§ September 4th, 2024 § Filed under zines § 9 Comments
Larry Hama, the masterful comics writer, occasional artist, and occasional M*A*S*H actor (no, really!) is the man responsible for what G.I. Joe is today. You’d think that alone would be enough for Mr. Hama to live a life of luxury and leisure in his later years, but alas, Big Corporations being what they are, the man hasn’t seen an extra dime of gratitude for the massive franchise he helped inform.
As such, Mr. Hama is striking out on his own to pull in some extra scratch, while also giving you some new funnybook entertainment. His new book, Mounties Vs. Werewolves (drawn by Guy Dorian Sr.) is being funded on Kickstarter, with only a few days to go on this campaign:
The project is nearly fully funded at this point, but I’m sure more money above and beyond the goal would be appreciated. Help if you can, spread the word either way.
• • •
Wouldn’t be a post on ProgRuin of late if there wasn’t some
FANZINE TALK. Here’s just a minor thing from my collection, issue #175 of
Comic Reader from 1979.
It’s a pretty swell drawing of Green Lantern and Sinestro by Don Newton, inked by Terry Austin. But if you look more closely, an inscription appears:
Yes, it’s a signature from Mr. Newton his own self, scribbled right there on that big red astronomical object. It is personalized, after a fashion, with “to my #1 fan,” and uh nobody tell the late Mr. Newton that I bought it second hand years ago. Not sure how big a fan this guy was, frankly, if he let it go that quickly.
§ September 2nd, 2024 § Filed under zines § 5 Comments
Okay, I lied last time, I’m still doing ’70s ‘zine stuff today. Sorry, a mystery cropped up in my The Comic Reader collection, and it needed to be solved! I even sent a message to one of the folks involved in the mag around this time…but then I figured out the answer myself. Ah well.
So here’s the deal: I recently acquired two batches of Comic Readers…the one I discussed previously that contained issues sent to Sergio Aragones, and another set of issues 73-75 and 77. Now, I already had a #77 in my collection, but the batch was cheap enough that I went ahead and bit.
Then something funny happened. Here’s the #77 I received from eBay, a 8 1/2 by 11 publication (combined at the time with the ‘zine On the Drawing Board:
Here’s a close-up of the masthead:
However, here is the #77 I already had in my collection, a digest-sized item:
And the masthead for that:
Now it was about this time Paul Levitz took over The Comic Reader and combined it, for a while, with the Et Cetera ‘zine he did with Paul Kupperberg. My guess was that maybe there was a brain fart of some kind during the transition and there were just two #77s.
But a closer look points toward the full answer. Here is the masthead of issue #79, the second issue of the Levitz regime:
At this time, the combined Et Cetera/Comic Reader ‘zine kept the issue numbering for both publications. (And you thought Marvel’s current numbering system was confusing!) Et Cetera is at #11, and Comic Reader is #79.
Let’s look again at the digest-sized puported #77’s masthead:
This time Et Cetera is #10, matched up with that #77. Also, it’s the same month of publication as #79. It looks a whole lot like, unless #78 was matched up wtih Et Cetera #10.5, that there was indeed a misnumbering and this is in fact the first Levitz issue, #78.
And wouldn’t you know it, in an editorial piece on the back page of #79, here’s the explanation confirming it:
And there you go. Anyone out there wondering why they can’t find an issue of The Comic Reader numbered #78, that’s why. The larger Comic Reader #77 is the actual #77, the smaller digest-sized #77 is actually #78. THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED, you can all return to your homes.
So I’m a collector of fanzines, as I’m sure some of you have clocked over the years. The first ‘zine I was into was The Comic Reader, which began in the early ’60s and ran through issue #219 in 1984.
I started tracking down issues of this in the early ’90s, sometimes buying a lot or two from a seller in the classified ads of the Comic Buyers’ Guide, a dozen for ten bucks. Once eBay came along, I found more there, even as the prices slowly began to creep up. The most I ever spent was $30 on a copy of #11 from 1962 (follow that link to discover its original publisher Jerry Bails’ reaction to my purchase).
Now, prices had been creeping up a bit on these, as other collectors started to discover them, and I’ve sort of held off filling holes in my own run…especially as the ones I need tend to be the earlier issues. A check on eBay recently shows a lot more copies of The Comic Reader than I remember seeing on there before. While by and large not as expensive as I’d thought they’d be, there is the occasional extreme example that shows me I got quite the bargain on that #11 way back when:
So, you know, if any of you want to do some early shopping for Christmas presents for me….
But all that said, I did acquire some more issues for my collection, 7 in all from my former boss Ralph, making my run of The Comic Reader complete from issue #81 all the way to the end. I do have some scattered issues prior to that, but it’s nice to have an unbroken streak of about 60% of the series. (And did I just put in a bid on some other issues I’m missing, since I was looking at eBay? Maaaaaybe.)
I thought I’d show off a few here for your amusement, specifically the ones with the full art front covers. Like this one cover dated March 1972:
A great Thor drawing by our pal Rich Buckler, no? Maybe I should also note that for a time, The Comic Reader was combined with another fanzine, Etcetera, hence the hybrid name on some of these. Oh, and also, future DC Comics head honcho Paul Levitz was the editor on these.
Issue #87 here, also from ’72, contains the news that DC acquired the publishing rights to the original Captain Marvel, which was a HUGE deal at the time, leading, eventually, to copies of that first issue filling quarter and 50-cent boxes everywhere for decades. Until, you know, someone realized “oh wait so many of these were dumped in bargain bins that now there aren’t so many still in mint condition” and that’s how Shazam #1 is suddenly a pricey book.
Anyway, the story inside says “DC bought rights” which makes it sound like they owned the characters outright, but DC was actually licensing the characters from original publisher Fawcett until DC acquired them in full years later. And I’ll just note here that cover is by Alan Kupperberg, since I didn’t say so before and I’m not going back to reedit.
Now that’s a cover! Bernie Wrightson just Shadow-ing it up all over the place here on #88. Looks great, very striking.
As is that Don Rosa drawing of Jack Kirby’s Demon. This ‘zine was published in ’72, pretty close to the same time the first issue of The Demon was released. These guys work fast! Also, if you’re not familiar, Don Rosa did lots of ‘zine illustration (on top of all those Lance Pertwillaby/Captain Kentucky strips) prior to becoming famed as The Other Good Duck Artist on all those Uncle $crooge and Donald Duck comics he’d eventually start doing in the ’80s. That said…I’d read a Demon comic he wrote and drew. That’d be pretty buck wild.
Should note those two spots at the bottom center…that was from an old rusty staple that had held the mag together in the mails. Now that ‘zine looks like a really tiny, sloppy vampire bit it.
As an additional bonus, these Comic Reader had originally belonged to someone who eventually passed them along to my old boss Ralph, who apparently had them stashed away for years. That certain someone?
That’s pretty cool. Yes, I obscured the address…he doesn’t live there anymore, but I’m sure whoever does would prefer not to have a parade of strangers at the door, looking for that handsome mustachioed man what does the cartoons.
Just a reminder: reader Daniel pointed out that Kwakk.info, which had featured search engines for Amazing Heroes and The Comics Journal, has been greatly expanded. Now it includes Wizard, Hero Illustrated, Comics Interview, Comics Scene, Comics Feature, Marvel Age, FOOM(!) and The Comic Reader(!!!).
The Comic Reader database is the one I’m most excited about, being a huge fan and collector of that particular ‘zine. This search engine covers issues #75 through the end of the run, #219, with some scattered earlier issues.
When looking at the Amazing Heroes page, I noticed in the little rotating cover gallery they have there a cover from the post-Fantagraphics era of the magazine, when it was acquired by another publisher. Now when I went to look this up on Wikipedia, that article claims the title was obtained by Personality Comics, but “nothing came of it.”
Except something did come of it…Personality (under its Spoof Comics imprint) published at least two issues of new(?) Swimsuit Specials in 1993 (numbered 4 and 5), like this one:
And there were at least four issues of Amazing Heroes Interviews published in 1993 from “Amazing Heroes Publishing,” which I am presuming was another imprint of Personality:
I don’t have these on hand…I seem to recall looking at these at the time and thinking “…nah” (hence the “borrowed from eBay” images)…and I can’t find a lot of info on them online aside from finding sale listings. I think the interviews are new…doing a search on some specific phrases from the Walter Koenig interview only turns up references to the later magazine, not the original Fantagraphics series. And speaking of which, many online sources refer to the interview mag as “Fantagraphics,” though that doesn’t look like their trade dress. Maybe someone can set me straight.
So there you go. Despite Wikipedia’s assertion, another publisher did use the “Amazing Heroes” name, if even justr briefly. Perhaps amending the reference to “almost nothing came of it” would be more appropriate.
• • •
Anyway, speaking of thirty years ago, I’ve been monitoring your responses to my quest for
the most 1990s comic and I do plan on addressing the ensuing shenanigans there. I personally still think the ’90s remain Rob Liefeld’s world, and we were just living in it, though I waffle a bit on which comic is the most representative. I said
Youngblood at first, but am now leaning toward, teeth gritted and my contorted footless body backed by speedlines, towards
X-Force #1. It’s the perfect storm of both artistic
and marketing…let’s say “qualities” of the time.
But you folks are bringing up some compelling arguments for other books. Like I said, I’ll get back to this and crown the ’90s King eventually (which may go to my choice, because this is my website and I’m a jerk) but keep on chiming in with your thoughts. I always appreciate them.
My apologies for skipping out on Friday’s post…I’d been a little under the weather, and I’m still recovering though I’m feeling much better now. Not COVID, thankfully (and I got the most recent booster just a couple of weeks ago), but still, enough to throw me off my game.
So I’ll just try to do a little catch-up today, noting some things of interest, like (courtesy Daniel T.) this search engine for the Amazing Heroes comics ‘zine. Well, the link takes you to a page explaining how it was made, with a link to the search engine itself. But it’s worth reading the behind-the-scenes because, man, if I spent this much time putting something together I’d want people to read about my travails, too.
But I’ve tested it out on a couple of things, and it seems to work fine. Now I have an whole run of Amazing Heroes and its associated specials here at home, and over the years, mostly because of writing for this site, I’ve had to dive deep into the collection to research somethin’ or ‘nother and it would take a while because unless I knew right off the top of my head where it would have been, I otherwise would only have a vague sense of where to locate it and I would spend an inordinate amount of time paging through the mags. Anyway, this was quite the project, and I hope it stays around.
Also of note, I just found out there’s a new edition of Harlan Ellison’s legendary anthology Dangerous Visions on its way early in 2024:
That’s a wild color. I discovered this via a post on Bluesky via J. Michael J. Straczynski, who says he’s providing a new introduction to the volume (which makes sense, since the infamously-unpublished Last Dangerous Visions is in his hands). Another new intro is by Patton Oswalt, which…I mean, sure, why not, I like him, I’m sure both he and JMS can provide a modern context as to the importance of this book, and the cutting-edge nature of the work at the time.
It’s been a while since I’ve read Dangerous Visions. I don’t even own a copy, which is why I’m happy to have this new edition (and my choice of hard or soft covers, apparently being released simultaneously next March). I do wonder how the stories have aged since the book was first released in 1967, and how much time may have blunted those cutting edges. I do own a battered hardcover of Again, Dangerous Visions which is probably due a new poke-through after sitting on my shelf for many a year. (Or I can wait for that book’s reissue next summer.)
I don’t want to relitigate the whole Last Dangerous Visions thing here, which you can read about on Wikipedia if you don’t know the details. But I do wish JMS the best of luck wrestling that beast…the Wiki entry does claim that Blackstone (the publisher of the DV reissue) will be releasing Last Dangerous Visions late next year, but surely no one can blame me if I say “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Picking up on the promise from this post, I finally brought home the pile of ‘zines I had sitting at the shop. BEHOLD: Comics Feature #1 (March 1980):
The stack included the first three issues of the run, along with 5-6 and 8-9. These were rescued from my former boss Ralph’s stash of books from the last days of that old shop, and I finally badgered Ralph into selling them to me. So, here they are, more stuff in my house to be sorted into the collection which is already in disarray.
But enough about that. The magazines have some pretty cool features blurbed on the covers I think I’m most interested in the Cary Bates interview in #8, though I’m sure the Len Wein interview in #6 will be fun as well.
What I like seeing on the first issue pictured above is the “DC Adds Pages…Raises Price” tag, reminding me of the days when the adjusting of the standard funnybook’s cost was Big News. Not to be outdone, Marvel gets its own cover blurb on #2 regarding their own page count/price increase news. When was the last time comic price changes were a big point of discussion like this (I mean, aside from DC’s “Holding the Line at $2.99” thing, or just general complaining about how they cost too much?)
Another item on the cover to #1 that…bemuses me, I suppose, the “The Legion [of Super-Heroes]: Then And Now,” if only because I can picture the culture shock if they were to just peek ahead a couple of decades. “Hello fanzine writer! Let me tell you a little about something called ‘Five Years Later.'”
As implied by my statements here, I haven’t had much of a chance to actually crack these open and read the things, aside from a glance or two. I did see a news blurb about Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum creating an inventory story teaming Batman with the Blackhawks. I love seeing stuff like this…news about someone creating a fill-in story that may or may not see print. In this case, however, it did, in Brave and the Bold #167, cover date October 1980.
I look forward to finding more gems like these squirrled away in the pages of these ‘zines. Lot of interesting folks working on these, too…Carol Kalish, Don and Maggie Thompson, Carl Macek, Dean Mullaney, Kurt Busiek, Richard Howell, Peter Gillis, Peter Sanderson, Cat Yronwode…the list just goes on and on.
Also, along with these Comics Features, I also grabbed the first issue of this (from 1981):
Look, they got me with the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy article, okay? But I’m not sure about all this “Doctor Who” business…that’s probably never gonna last.
So Matthew recommended the newer comics ‘zine Bubbles, and you know, if you’re gonna get me to buy a ‘zine, put Nancy on the cover:
I also ordered a copy of #2 as well, and I’m sure this is going to result in me collecting up the whole series a couple issues at a time. Anyway, this looks good and thanks to Matthew for pointing it out to me.
• • •
Also wanted to point out that a couple of Joshua Quagmire’s friends have left
comments on the post about his passing. They came in a bit later, thus I wanted to point them out so you didn’t miss them.
• • •
I will be getting back to the
Final ’80s Countdown later this week. Thank you for your patience!
• • •
I have essentially scaled back my Twitter (or “X”) usage to just using the direct messaging system (as I do a lot of business with folks there still), and no longer post on my main feed. My primary social media shenanigans are on Bluesky, where you can find my account at
mikester.bsky.social. I can be found less frequently on
Mastodon as well. You can also keep tabs on me at
mikesterling.com (or
mikester.net).
At this point it’ll take the removal of Elon Musk from Xwitter and a reversal of his decisions (along with removal of the bigots, harassers and other assholes so emboldened on the platform) for me to go back to regular usage, but that seems unlikely. Anyway, if you’re on there, I highly recommend departing for safer and friendlier waters.
Sorry again, it’s been busy at Chez Mike this week, so the dreaded Low Content Mode struck again at Progressive Ruin Industries. Don’t worry, I’m still here, I’m still “blogging” on my “website” here on “the Internet,” and despite popular demand, I’m not going anywhere.
But I saw that in the comments to my last entry folks were mentioning other cool comic ‘zines of the ’80s, and, well…here’s the thing. I was going to dip into the ol’ magazine boxes and pull out my copies of various ‘zines that were mentioned, but, well, I’m in the midst of a huge reorganizing project with my collection, and not everything is where it should be. I know, for example, I have Comics Features, or at least the one with the Steve Bissette/John Totleben Swamp Thing art gallery inside. And somewhere I have the first issue of Comic Collector.
I did find my fun of Comics Scene, which was a good mag that brought comic news to the general public in an appealing way. (I believe it was an article in Comics Scene that first got me interested in Cerebus.) And I found the one issue I own of Four Color Magazine, a slick color news/interviews mag.
Something else I did find, and this is a relatively recent acquisition, is LOC #1 from 1980:
Taking its name from the abbreviation for “Letters of Comment,” the black and white magazine featured news, reviews, and general commentary pieces. You can kind of get an idea looking at some of the subjects on the cover there (and I feel like the placement of the “Why Don’t Women Read Comics?” blurb right below one of the possible answers is on purpose.)
I don’t recall seeing it on the stands at the time, though it’s possible it may have ended its run before I started frequenting comic book stores and other unsavory joints. But I have a few of these things and they have quite the interesting line-up of contributors. That #1 has a cover by Frank Miller and Terry Austin. Contributing writers include Kurt Busiek, Peter Gillis, Carol Kalish (who wrote the “Why Don’t Women Read Comics” article), and several other familiar names.
At my store, I know I have more copies of this magazine, along with a few more Comic Features and other ‘zines of the period, but I’m leaving them there until I get the mag situation at home nailed down.
So, did any of you read LOC at the time? Any other comic news/reviews mags that you can think of the from period? Let me know in The Usual Spot!
So last time, I mentioned that Amazing Heroes #45 (1984) was the first issue of that news/interviews/reviews mag I’d ever read. In chatting over on Bluesky with Johanna from Comics Worth Reading, she mentioned that was the only issue of the ‘zine she purchased read from her husband’s collection (for the “Sherlock Holmes in Comics” article).
She also noted that it apparently contained the first published artwork for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a comic book of some note. I was aware folks desperate to make anything collectible and, hopefully, expensive, were moving into things like ‘zines and distributor catalogs and house organs like Marvel Age to try to establish supposed “early” or “first” appearances of various characters. I’ve said in the past that I was lucky I bought all the ‘zines I did back when they were cheap, like getting a dozen Comic Readers for ten bucks, when now you’re lucky if you can get one issue of Comic Reader for less than that.
And that was just the result of people realizing “hey, some of these ‘zines are hard to get now,” with the attendant boost in secondary market prices. But this new wave of forced collectibles, pushing things like a solicit in Previews as a hot item (Spawn’s appearance apparently garnering $400+) are bumping up prices above and beyond what you’d think normal supply and demand would cause.
But, it’s still supply and demand…I don’t know how many copies of Amazing Heroes #45 are out there, but I’m guessing there aren’t a lot, and according to this entry on the Hot Comics App, there are a couple of reasons why it would command demand:
That…is absolutely buck wild. Note it doesn’t say “first” TMNT, but this is definitely an early appearance, with this illo (and accompanying patented editorial comment from our Fantagraphics pals) showing up in the news section:
The actual news blurb is headed, in bold capital letters “JUST WHAT WE NEED” before giving a basically straight description of the comic. It’s funny to see that the reaction, at least from this mag, to the advent of Turtledom was in effect a rolling of the eyes at this nonsense.
The Spider-Man black costume illo appears in the “Comics in Review” column, accompanying the critique of Amazing Spider-Man #252 where said costume first appeared in a narrative.
Again, I’m pretty sure this is just an early appearance of the costume, as I’m sure sketches and promo illos have popped up elsewhere prior to this Amazing Heroes…I think an issue of Marvel Age is considered its in-print debut, maybe? Though honestly I think it’s this Marvel Previews catalog sent to retailers for product appearing in 1992, when the line was still “2093” and he only creative team member they had listed was Stan Lee on Ravage.
Oh, I should note that the review for Amazing Spider-Man #252 is a positive one. As well it should be…beyond all the hype and “collectaqbility,” it’s actually a pretty good issue as I recall.
Anyway, I’m not selling my copy of Amazing Heroes #45 and breaking up my run. Also, like I said, this was the first issue of the run I’d ever bought, so it has some sentimental value to me. But I’m certainly glad that was the issue I’d started with, because I’d hate to be looking for a copy of it now.
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