Remaining Fanzines and Magazines?

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

Oh , the irony . Let's continue something that was discussed at the MSA Old Home , namely , remaining print comic fanzines - And , for diversity , pro/semi-pro/" pro-zine " comics publications as well .

  CBG remains in business . The Comics Journal has now announced that they will come out annually , with " a 600-page plus " issue .

  I am Facebook friends with Jon B. Cooke but I haven't yet checked to see if his Comic Book Artist has managed to continue recently , post-its Old Home...

  Toomorrows , which indeed has itself a little nook/corner , with The Jack Kirby Collectore , Alter Ego , and Back Issue .

  Now , including the " fan " side too...........

[Mr. Silver Age]

I remember LOC, although from the covers posted at that page it looks like I only ever saw the first 2-3 issues. I don't know if that's because my comics shop stopped carrying it or I lost interest. It definitely had a fannish look to it, but it was put out by a Florida publisher who did a few other magazines too, I think.

Making a distinction between "fanzines" and comics magazines gets to be tough, much like what qualifies as an "Independent" comic. AH was a professional magazine that had a paid editor on staff (at one point, it was Mark Waid). Whereas the Comic Reader was put out by two guys, but I also think they made money at it.

As the fanzines got into the 1980s and comics shops began to proliferate, there was more incentive to do zines because distribution was little more widespread. That seemed to encourage more professional-type magazines. I'm not sure they actually were profitable, but it changed them from the hand-stapled/mailed style.

-- MSA

[David N]

After reading through this thread, as well as MSA's wonderful CBG article on fanzines, it has me reflecting on one of my favorites from the late '70s that hasn't been mentioned: the late great Mark Gruenwald & Dean Mullaney's  Omniverse! Subtitled "the journal of fictional reality", it featured articles (besides the two cover stories shown) comparing Howard the Duck & Uncle $crooge's relative universes and a comparison of Ragnarok & Apokolips and the end (and beginning) of their relative Godcycles.

 

Besides the two editors, writers and artists on the two issues include such familiar names as Kim Thompson, Robert Rodi, Rich Morrissey, Peter B. Gillis, Jerry Ordway & Pete Poplaski amongst others. It was an entertaining cover-to-cover read and successfully made this (at the time) teenager's head explode with some of the concepts within. It's probably just as well there were only (I assume) two issues, 'cause who knows what the writers would have made of post-crisis/multiple-elseworlds/what-ifs and everything else that has happened in the last 30+ years of continuity.

 

Still, for the era covered I thought they did their best to unravel various timelines. Although even then no one attempted a Legion of Superheroes article!

 

 

 

[Mr. Silver Age]

I have a copy of #1 to this day, but I never saw #2. It's just as well, as #1 was a dense mother that I had a tough time making sense of, as I remember. Some of it was interesting, but most of it was beyond my ken. No doubt, those guys loved trying to fit all the pieces together, but it wasn't that entertaining for me--either in a fanzine or in the comics. Mostly, that was probably because the pieces didn't all fit together.

-- MSA

[Henry R. Kujawa]

I've never seen #1, but I do have a copy of #2, and yes, exactly what you describe!

 

Personally, I think that whole thing with trying to tie Dr. Doom in with Kang (and tossing The Scarlet Centurion into it) was just taking a momentary fanboy idea and artificially keeping it going for decades.  The whole scene in FF ANNUAL #2 where Doom & Rama-Tut met and wondered if they were the same person was just total B***S*** in the first place, and I've long interpreted it as Doom trying to confuse a potential rival and get him out of his way while HE tackled the FF. Stan (and Roy, and whoever else) should NEVER have brought it up again.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...I had OMMNIVERSE 1 and 2 , IIRC , was there a #3??????????? If so , there was a completed , but never-published , #4 , I believe . Unless it was #3 that was c-b-n-p .

  It blew my fanboy-ish mind , too !!!!!!!!! I meant to write an LOC to them but - sigh - I never did .

[David N]

I've never seen a #3 Em, even advertised at the time or since. You see #1 & #2 on eBay occasionally. Yeah Henry, the Doom/Rama/Centurian/Kang deal did get out of hand, especially after Englehart's "Celestial Madonna" run in the Avengers and afterwards. But I do find it fun to think about, and like Doom connected far more than Reed Richards' father, as Byrne apparently revealed somewhere along the line. If the magazine did continue, we no doubt would have ended up with ARTICLES LIKE THIS and would need a good lie down and some hot coco afterwards. For another writer's interpretation of events... CHECK THIS OUT. 

Emerkeith Davyjack said:

...I had OMMNIVERSE 1 and 2 , IIRC , was there a #3??????????? If so , there was a completed , but never-published , #4 , I believe . Unless it was #3 that was c-b-n-p .

  It blew my fanboy-ish mind , too !!!!!!!!! I meant to write an LOC to them but - sigh - I never did .

Henry R. Kujawa said:

I've never seen #1, but I do have a copy of #2, and yes, exactly what you describe!

 

Personally, I think that whole thing with trying to tie Dr. Doom in with Kang (and tossing The Scarlet Centurion into it) was just taking a momentary fanboy idea and artificially keeping it going for decades.  The whole scene in FF ANNUAL #2 where Doom & Rama-Tut met and wondered if they were the same person was just total B***S*** in the first place, and I've long interpreted it as Doom trying to confuse a potential rival and get him out of his way while HE tackled the FF. Stan (and Roy, and whoever else) should NEVER have brought it up again.

[Philip Portelli]

To David: Yep, that Rama-Tut entry was pretty dense. Usually I love these type of interlocking histories but when you keep adding layer on top of layer, it becomes more about connecting than creating!

To Henry: I never bought Doom as Kang either. If Doom became Rama-Tut, wouldn't Rama-Tut know that already?

[ClarkKent_DC]

I have Omniverse #1 squirreled away somewhere in the dim recesses of my comics collection, but I never knew there was a second issue.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

"To Henry: I never bought Doom as Kang either. If Doom became Rama-Tut, wouldn't Rama-Tut know that already?"

 

Exactly.  See, if Stan really knew what he was doing (and not suffering from sleep deprivation and too many cups of coffee hunched over that typewriter in the middle of the night), he would have included just one little thought balloon where Doom admitted he was conning Rama-Tut to get him out of the way.  Then, the whole scene would make sense.

 

But later, when Doom turned up THE AVENGERS, Stan brought it up AGAIN in the dialogue, as if it was legit!  WTF???

 

After that, well, Roy (and later writers) just wouldn't let it go...

 

Stan really needed an editor... (heehee)

[Kirk G]

So often, I think either the writers, or certainly the artists, who sit with a copy of the last appearance of the villian open in front of them, and without reading it carefully, would just use it as reference... "this is how I escaped without notice at the end of that adventure..."  and the artist would redraw the layout of one or two panels to trigger the memory of the reader.

 

That being said, I suspect that's basically all that Stan was doing, as he'd have the greatest access to the archives (were the Marvel Comics kept in the office in filling cabinets?  Or collected in boxes?)... and I suspect he was just so tickled with the whole "Grandfather Paradox" that he couldn't resist bringing his take on it up again and again.

 

But I agree, it would have been better left mentioned only once.

 

There was a brief series of parody comics that somebody put out that really did this well... I think the line of comics was called "1964" or something similar.  They combined a few elements from each of the early Silver Age Marvels for each one shot, and demonstrated that with simple artwork, you could recapture the feeling of the early Marvel comics.  The issue that dealt with the Avengers (Osirus as Thor, and I don't recall the team name) as they traveled through the timestream and saw themselves returning later was a wonderful nod to this sort of thing.

Does anyone recall just what the issue was? Or the title or series name?

[Kirk G]

I have heard of this publication before, and at the time, it was heavily lauded as the most complete, serious look at the Doom/Kang/Ramatut/Scartlett Centurian connections yet done.  I haven't thought about it since, but would love to get a look at it.  The fanboy in me would be interested in buying a copy.

Does anyone have an extra, or is it possible to get copies of the article or scans of the article via the internet without infringing on someone's copyright?

 

I'm serious.

 

Mr. Silver Age said:

I have a copy of #1 to this day, but I never saw #2. It's just as well, as #1 was a dense mother that I had a tough time making sense of, as I remember. Some of it was interesting, but most of it was beyond my ken. No doubt, those guys loved trying to fit all the pieces together, but it wasn't that entertaining for me--either in a fanzine or in the comics. Mostly, that was probably because the pieces didn't all fit together.

-- MSA

[Kirk G]

Yes, Phil ,  that's what occurred to me when I read the initial encounter (in a reprint).  But upon careful re-reading, Doom never makes the claim that they are related or the same man...  As I recall, the discussion actually is a hypothetical... "What if we're REALLY the same man at different times..."

 

Sort of like a couple of boy scouts sitting in their tent late at night telling ghost stories, or each one trying to out-spin the other one with an even larger concept.   Remember doing that as a kid?

Philip Portelli said:

To David: Yep, that Rama-Tut entry was pretty dense. Usually I love these type of interlocking histories but when you keep adding layer on top of layer, it becomes more about connecting than creating!

To Henry: I never bought Doom as Kang either. If Doom became Rama-Tut, wouldn't Rama-Tut know that already?