zines
I mean, if that happened to me, I’d have titled my book that too.
So I acquired another issue for my Comic Reader collection, this one being #69 from 1968. I believe this gives me a complete run from this number all the way to the final issue, 1984’s #219, but I need to double check my collection. You can click on that picture above and get a larger image if you want to read the front page. Anyhoo, I gots it now. Here’s a John Romita head sketch of Daredevil from within:
I’m also in the process of reading this book:
…a collection of Peter David’s various anecdotes about his life and career, several of which I’ve heard before (like how he got the assignment to write Incredible Hulk) and some I hadn’t (like his involvement with two Will Smith movies, one of which never got made, and the other probably shouldn’t have been made). It was published in 2020, so it’s very much among his latter works, and in some cases it pulls no punches about some of the people he’s worked with. In other cases, specifically with a couple of family (or former family) members, he’s intentionally vague about on negative details. I mean, I know the negative details about one of those people, he’s not been shy writing about it in the past, but it feels weird to just imply “bad things happened” then not talk about them. I get it, it’s family stuff, just felt weird to leave it out.
Another odd quirk I noted is when he talks about getting that job to write a Phantom mini for DC. He mentions that he got to meet the Phantom’s creator, Lee Falk, but he’s only referred to as “Falk” and never identified as the creator of the character. You can kind of infer that he was important to the Phantom character by some of the things David writes, but I think there may have been a line or two edited out that left out any explicit identification.
But I’m only about halfway through the book, and I see by the index that the Phantom comes up again later, so maybe I’ll see some clarification then. But so far, it’s been an interesting “behind the scenes” of what was happening in comics in the 1980s/1990s. And, you know, other media. Like Will Smith movies. And yes, the book lives up to its title…Mr. David gets to said ass-grabbing right away.
There was a line in the book talking about comics distribution that alas I can’t track down now, but he’d written something along the lines of “I hope Diamond Comics doesn’t suffer financial failure and then got purchased by Disney.” I don’t know how much attention he was paying to the comics business and Diamond’s collapse when it happened, so close to the end of his life, but I wonder if he thought “did I predict the future? Will Disney buy Diamond?”
Time for my legally-mandated quinquennial (or so) posting about Ghost Rider.
So I’m sure you all remember this comic:
Released at the height of comic book gimmickry, this comic (by Howard Mackie, Ron Wagner and Mike Witherby) featured a cardstock “pop-up” foldout in the center of the book, which was a fairly unusual addition in comics at the time. And what was on said fold-out, you may ask? Well, something particularly lurid it seems, according to the original solicit in Diamond Previews:
Now that sounds all the world like we’re gonna see the actual act of Danny’s throat-ripping, as depicted in the most mature of formats, the pop-up page. And as expected, such a classy turn of events got quite the press, like this featured push in Wizard Magazine #8:
…which emphasizes the depiction of said throat-ripping in the pop-up.
Then there’s this front page headline in Comic Buyer’s Guide #950. BREAKING NEWS: THROAT-RIPPING:
As you see there, Marvel’s own sales director says this nigh-infamous pop-up “will make a Chicago butcher house look mild.” My Chicagoan readers, please let me know how carnage-filled a typical butcher house in your city is, compared to butcher houses in, say, Fairfax, or Portland. Any Portland. (EDIT: reader Matthew points out the connection that didn’t even occur to me…some English major I am.)
Anyway, what we’re being told here is that the throat-ripping we are about to behold in that pop-up in Ghost Rider #25 is gonna be something else. I mean, the butcher house comparison at least implies the pop-up’s gonna be a bloody mess, right?
Well, hang onto your flaming skull-emblazoned booty shorts, because here is a pic I took of comicdom’s most terrifying pop-up:
Ummmmmmmm, I don’t think this delivered what we were promised. There’s definitely some throat-action going on here, with the bad guy whose name I didn’t bother remembering has Ghost Rider by his. And there’s Danny, flat on the ground, post apparent throat-ripping.
The actual throat-ripping scene itself — and as an aside, I want to let you know that this is the most I’ve typed the words “throat-ripping” on my site, at least since the last time I wrote about dealing with comic distributors — appears on the page before the insert. Like so:
It’s…marginally more tasteful than what we were told to expect, I suppose. You know, as throat-rippings go. But as I recall at the time, the general feeling, at least around our store, was that Marvel may have had cold feet about something quite that brutal being depicted in what is essentially a gimmick common in children’s books, and thus did a last minute change to the art and story and pop-up.
I do not know if that was the case…and frankly, thinking about that now, I suspect that wasn’t the case. One possibility is that the lead time in producing this gimmick-laden comic would have precluded last-second changes to the final product, and I don’t recall Ghost Rider #25 was particularly late.
The other is that the content was being oversold, or that the promotion was being misinterpreted. But the original solicit, provided by Marvel, does say
“Blackout rips Dan’s throat out — a shocking turn of events depicted in an awesome, die-cut, 4-page pop-up center-spread!”
Oh, right, “Blackout,” that’s his name. But that’s pretty clear about what that pop-up was supposed to show. Not “Dan lying on the ground with his throat ripped out,” but actual, Stan Lee-approved throat-ripping, live and in color. (But in fairness to the sales guy, “bad guy fighting a leather-clad flaming skull dude in a cemetery” is probably much more extreme than what’s going on in your typical butchery, regardless of city.)
Ultimately, I don’t know what happened. Whether it was one thing then changed to another thing, or it was always intended to be like this and things just got exaggerated in the advertising, or what. But we were told one thing, and we got what we got.
This bit in Comics International #19 notes that speculation was afoot for this comic…not something I remember at our shop specifically at the time, but given the state of the comics market then, I don’t doubt it:
I like the incredulity of “a hot pop-up book.” I mean, like I sort of noted above, this gimmick is straight out of children’s books. Several comic book gimmicks came from children’s publishing. Hell, I had books with lenticular images when I was a child.
I don’t know if that speculation ever came to anything, as here in this dealer ad from Comic Buyer’s Guide #955, a few short weeks after that shocking headline feature, we got a guy just giving ’em away:
Speculator who got burned, perhaps? “What am I going to do with these 10 cases of Ghost Rider #25? Or those two cases of Magneto hologram cards, for that matter?”
This entire post came about because I just got to thinking about it again after pricing up a copy of this comic the other day. I have it at $4.50 in VF, by the way. You made $1.75 on that $2.75 investment!
Special thanks to Kwakk.info‘s ‘zine datebase, and Longbox Heroes’ library of ancient Previews! By the way, become a paid member of the Longbox Heroes Patreon so you can hear my contributions to their “Previewing the Past” podcasts!
“Get one for your lil sugar too!!”
So Thursday afternoon I acquired a small pile of underground comics from a person selling off a late relative’s collection. It was some of the expected stuff…lots of Robert Crumb comics, including a full run of Mr. Natural, some Freak Brothers, even some Zippy mags. However, in the middle of all these was this odd item that I’d never seen or heard of before:
…Wolfman Jack Comics, a digest-sized 28-page staplebound black and white publication. Obviously it was available through the mail, based on the label (which I obscured) on the front cover there.
A search online turned up very little about this item, save for an approximate publication date (around 1970) that I found on some ancient Wolfman Jack fan page that I’m not linking here as it will automatically forward to porn ads. I haven’t dug deep into any ‘zine collection directories yet, so maybe I’ll find something there, but I haven’t found this on eBay, or in the usual comic databases, and it’s not even in the Fogel underground price guide. (I haven’t been able to check the older Kinney underground guide yet.)
Thus, in order to provide future Wolfman Jack fans with some details on this comic via a (mostly) non-porn site, here we go!
The outer covers are color, and here is the back:
The cartoons inside are…okay, maybe not the most polished artwork you’ve ever seen, but there is a charm and childlike energy to it.
The stories revolve around Wolfman Jack and various supporting characters getting into shenanigans, including a surprising amount of family-friendly nudity:
And I’m posting this sequence with the Wolfman in a tank because I like it:
There’s an activity page, where you can dress up Wolfman Jack as you please…this is just the top half:
And there are ads, like the come-on for the Wolfman Jack fan club:
…and this page of merch (who wouldn’t want to take a swig of Wolfman Whiz?):
Here’s what some of those goodies will set you back:
Did I just do a search (unsuccessful, alas) for Wolfman Whiz on eBay? I’m not saying “no.”
“Koffman and Berenson” are the only credited names here. Aaaaand…that’s all I know about this thing. If anyone out there has more info, let me know or where to find it and I can add it to this page for later scholars to track down. And if you go searching and find a page titled “wolfy1” — that’s the site that throws up the porn ads, don’t click! Unless you want porn ads, you do you, friends.
EDIT: big thanks to Matthew in the comments for using his superior Google-fu (or Bing-fu, I won’t judge) to find the site of one of the creators of this publication (Dan Koffman), who still has copies to sell!
I’m not sure what a “sulfur cuddle” is, but that’s definitely an illustration of it.
So once again pal Brook has got me to seek out something for my own collection…and you can click on his name there to see what else he’s twisted my poor, innocent arm into getting. (Or, to be fair, just straight up given me.)
Anyway, he popped by the store the other day and let me borrow a certain mini-comic, and I adored it so much I asked Brook where he got it, and then I bought my own. And that mini-comic is…
Measuring around 5 by 5 inches, 36 black and white pages plus single-color covers, filled with full-page illos of Nancy and/or Sluggo in peculiar, humorous, horrifying, or just upsetting situations or permuations. For example, this one inspired by a somewhat famous piece of art:
Or how ’bout this, just picture this wheeling down the hall at you late at night:
Plus you get stickers, such as one advertising the name of the artist collective/company/whathaveyou that produced this publication, and another which will allow you to demonstrate that yes, you are a follower of the One True Sluggo.
The artwork is credited to what I presume are the Xwitter handles of @mattitude and @johnbrehmtattoo, but if you want to buy your own copy of this ‘zine, visit this here link. Tell ’em Mike sent you! Actually, don’t tell them that, they have no idea who I am.
Directly dazzling.
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?
Assuming the original owner didn’t die or anything.
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.
This cold case is finally closed.
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
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.
Oh the things I’ve ‘zine.
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.
The Progressive Ruiin Swimsuit Special remains an unrealized dream.
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.