My Favorite Fanzines! (Ask Mr. Silver Age, CBG #1682)

Henry R. Kujawa August 17, 2011 at 11:09am

I never read any fanzines back when. However, thanks to Bill Schelly's Hamster Press, I was able to read a couple of "best of" collections, which sparked my interest in this really obscure stuff.

I've often go on about how many series were at their most fun when they were "new" and "fresh", as opposed to grinding on and on, years and decades after their "expiration dates". Despite (or in some cases even because of) the amateur-level writing and art, I've found a lot of fanzine comics more fun than stuff "the big two" have been cranking out for the last 25 years. And by extension, that also goes for a lot of "small press" books. Somewhere in the middle would be Gary Carson's BIG BANG COMICS, which actually feature new appearances of Dr. Weird, who started out in the fanzines.

Here's some cover galleries I set up a few years ago, before the GCD editors got on my nerves too much.

STAR-STUDDED COMICS:

http://www.comics.org/series/20002/covers/

http://www.comics.org/issue/321170/cover/4/

FIGHTING HERO COMICS:

http://www.comics.org/series/22516/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/22565/covers/

KOMIX ILLUSTRATED:

http://www.comics.org/series/21525/covers/

DR. WEIRD:

http://www.comics.org/series/19524/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/5129/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/19525/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/19526/covers/

MONSTERS AND HEROES:

http://www.comics.org/series/1837/covers/

misc. Hamster Press:

http://www.comics.org/series/20776/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/20713/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/19940/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/20777/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/20710/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/20711/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/20712/covers/

BIG BANG COMICS:

http://www.comics.org/series/19220/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/13837/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/13838/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/13841/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/13842/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/13843/covers/

http://www.comics.org/series/18873/covers/

Mr. Silver Age August 17, 2011 at 11:25am

I was never much into the strip-zines, if only because I never had enough money for the regular comics coming out. The article zines gave me stuff I couldn't get anywhere else. There were probably nearly as many strip zines as article zines back in the day, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to them.

I'm aware of many of the big ones, and Bill Schelly definitely brought attention back to those. I was never a big fan of BIG BANG, although I've read issues off and on, mostly because they seemed to try to exactly replicate the originals, but just didn't quite pull it off.

Separating what's a "fanzine" and what's an "independent comic" or "comics magazines" gets grayer the further from the 1970s we go. An oddity in that spectrum was Dr. Wonder in 1996. http://www.comics.org/series/5708/covers/

It was done by one guy, but he had Dick Ayers drawing the Dr. Wonder strip that the publisher wrote, with the intent of invoking a Silver Age-ish feel. Then he also had a variety of Silver Age-themed articles (including reprints of my AMSA column). Needless to say, it didn't last long, but it was a nice package while it lasted.

That would've probably been a fanzine back in the day, but when it came out, it was probably an "independent" comic, even though it was closer to an old-time article/strip zine.

-- MSA

Dave Blanchard August 17, 2011 at 2:42pm

Mr. Age,

You mentioned CAPA-Alpha, sort of in passing, but I would consider that an APA, not a fanzine, the main distinction I guess being that APAs function as collections of extremely small-run fanzines, with typically 20-30 contributions per mailing. I was never in CAPA-Alpha (or K-A, as they called it) myself, but I was in a couple others, and they all pretty much shared the same basic set-up.

I heard, and this is decades ago, that somebody was trying to put together a compendium on all the APAs that then existed, but if that ever made it into print, I never saw it. It'd be the perfect thing to produce online, though it would be soaked in irony as it's probably the Internet more than anything else that has contributed to the decline of the traditional print APA. I would guess some of them might still be around, but it'd have to be a very small number compared to their heyday.

Henry R. Kujawa August 17, 2011 at 3:48pm

KLORDNY (Legion of Super-Heroes A.P.A.) is still around, although I haven't been able to contribute for several years now. Ironically, I got handed control of the KLORDNY Yahoo Group, where I posted covers of over 50 mailings (fronts & backs). I know they're still going, because they're planning some kind of "anniversary" mailing right now. In their case, the thing that really killed it was ZERO HOUR, which wiped out 35 years of continuity (despite several mini-reboots from 1986-up). More than half the membership just up and quit overnight in disgust, "their" Legion no longer existing in new stories.

The funny thing is, to a small extent, the Yahoo group allowed several old members who'd left years before to get back in touch with old friends, without the trouble or expense of having to do bi-monthly zines.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klordny2020/?yguid=478064085

Henry R. Kujawa August 17, 2011 at 3:52pm

"Separating what's a "fanzine" and what's an "independent comic" or "comics magazines" gets grayer the further from the 1970s we go."

I'll agree with that.

It's funny, but my growing interest in comics-zines gave me a much-increased appreciation for Bill Black's AC Comics line. Black has been publishing his own books since about 1969, and some of the older ones could well be considered "fanzines". In his case, he's actually found a way around the extreme rarity of the older books by making them available for sale online via downloads! The more I know about this guy, the more I admire him.

Not long ago, I got my hands on the very 1st appearance of FEMFORCE (long overdue). It was a WW2-era story, and I found it much more fun to read than anything Roy Thomas had ever done set in that time.

Mr. Silver Age August 17, 2011 at 4:00pm

You mentioned CAPA-Alpha, sort of in passing, but I would consider that an APA, not a fanzine.

I would agree, and I probably should have taken a sentence or two to mention APAs. But CAPA-Alpha was the only one I ever saw, and I didn't want to get sidetracked into yet another definitional swamp.

K-A was the only APA I ever saw, so I didn't want to generalize too much from my very limited knowledge of it. I do have a handful of the individual sections that contributors sent in, as they sometimes sent me an extra copy they had. I don't know if those are fanzines, since they weren't purchased or mailed separately, or APA-parts or what. I decided not to mention them as other fanzines I'd enjoyed just for that reason.

I knew there was a Legion APA, but if there were a lot more, as you're indicating there could have been, those were definitely under my radar then (and still). APAs were pretty amazing--the few issues of K-A I have would have been a lot of fun to receive in the mail, because they were massive.

-- MSA

Mr. Silver Age August 23, 2011 at 3:58pm

Bob Jennings, who produced The Comic World that I mentioned in my column, was kind enough to send me an update on what he's been doing (besides running a science fiction/comic book/game store). He let me know that TCW lasted until issue #21, until the work of running his store and his bigger interest in science fiction took him in other directions.

One of those directions was Faraway #22, the latest issue of his honest-to-gosh science-fiction fanzine, which he's publishing bimonthly. It's 32 pages of typeset and printed pages, but it's stapled in the fine tradition of fanzines.

Its look at science fiction is pretty wide ranging, including an essay on reading on the Kindle, reviews of collections of the Phantom and Captain Easy comic strips, a look at Marvel Science Stories pulps and a bunch of reader letters.

The best part is: The latest copy is free for the asking to Bob at fabficbks@aol.com. Later issues are available in exchange for a letter of comment or cash money ($15 for six issues).

It's nice to know that actual printed, stapled fanzines are still being produced. Check it out if it sounds of interest!

-- MSA

Mr. Silver Age September 4, 2011 at 11:27am

My column also brought word from another fanzine editor who combines old-fashioned fan enthusiasm with more updated technology.

Panelology has been produced by George Steven Fears since 2002 as a fanzine in PDF form on CDs. Each CD has a full issue with a variety of articles and plenty of artwork galleries.

George is a huge DC war comics fan, and most of the material in the zine relates in some way to those titles or their creators, but there is an eclectic mix of other stuff in there too.

Since they are CDs you read through Adobe, they never go out of print, so all back issues are available.

The ones I know of are:

1. A long interview with Ric Estada and a tribute to Bob Kanigher.

2. An interview and art gallery with Mort Drucker, plus a gallery of DC's Big Five war covers and a report on the Big Five banquet of 1996.

3 An interview with Joe Kubert and eight separate galleries of his work.

4. An interview with Joe Giella and an overview of the Rima comic.

5. An interview with Sam Glanzman and articles on collecting DC War comics, Bill Mauldin, and Quality’s GI Combat.

6. An interview with Jerry Grandinetti , and articles on Robert Heinlein’s juvenile books and the Roy Rogers museum

7. An interview with Gene Colan, tribute to Bob Haney and an article on the Gene Autry museum.

8. An interview with Henry Boltinoff, an Alex Toth tribute and an article on the Veterans’ Memorial museum in Branson

11. Another talk with Sam Glanzman, a visit to the Tom Mix Museum, and articles on DC non-War graytone covers, books about comics creators, and classic comic book house ads

Plus Special Issues devoted to the Big Five washtone covers, Quality's G.I. Combat index and GA Fawcett Comics house ads.

"Issues" are $5 plus $2 postage from George at 2913 S.W. 140th St., Oklahoma City OK 73170-5717 or GSFears@cox.net.

I have to admit, I still prefer doing long reading of articles with paper rather than on a computer, but these are easy to read, and the PDF format allows for reproducing lots 'n' lots of artwork in full color, which fanzines could never do easily or cheaply.

I think it's cool that technology can be adapted this way to keep fan efforts going. It wouldn't be too tough to e-mail these to subscribers (admittedly, it would take a lot of e-mail files) to eliminate the postage cost either, which was always a bottleneck for 'zines.

-- MSA

Henry R. Kujawa September 4, 2011 at 4:20pm

That reminds me, Bill Black has been making many of his earliest, rarest fanzines from the 70's available as downloads from the AC Comics site. Cool way to get impossible-to-find items with very small print runs!

Ron M. August 1, 2014 at 12:25am

Always wanted to join CAPA-ALPHA or at least buy a few issues. How long did it run, and how many issues were there?

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My Favorite Fanzines! (Ask Mr. Silver Age, CBG #1682)

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