Back in the 1970’s the main way that most of us found out about the latest comic book news was through the editorial pages of Marvels Bullpen Bulletins or DCs Direct Currents pages. However, for those in the know there were also fanzines, homemade fan publications most photocopied or printed on duplicating machines some with print runs of less than 50 copies. Many of these fanzines were created by comic book fans some of whom would eventually become professionals like Dez Skinn, Bryan Talbot, Dave Gibbons and Gary Leach. The above issue of Fantasy advertiser (issue 55) from 1974 was edited by Dez Skinn and the art surrounding Stan Lees face was the work of a young Bryan Talbot. Of course today fanzines are pretty much a thing of the past replaced by websites, twitter and blogs that are able to provide news and updates almost as soon as they are announced. But pre internet any self-respecting comic book fan would find his or her comic book news via the humble fanzine.
My introduction to fanzine was initially through an advert that appeared in the UK comic The Mighty World of Marvel from around 1974 for the above issue of Fantasy Advertiser (issue 53) which I promptly sent away for but sadly it was sold out and my 50p postal order was returned. I eventually picked this issue up a few years ago in a charity shop for 50p. The next time I heard of fanzines was when my brother started work in the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1975 and he told me about a colleague that he worked with that was obsessed with comics and literally spent his weekly salary on buying comics. My brother informed him (his name is sadly now lost to me) that I was a big comic book fan and he very kindly gave me a large pile of fanzines. In a strange turn of events it turned out that the small town we lived in at this time (about 12 miles south of Glasgow) was home to a man that printed quite a few of these fanzines from his house which was only one street away from where we lived. Some of my favourite fanzines are noted below:
Comic Media News issue 27 (1976). CMN was edited by Richard Burton who would go on to edit 2000AD, Tiger etc. This was one of the most professionally produced news fanzines of the time.
Comic Media News issue 38 (1978) with cover art by the great late Gary Leach.
BEM (originally called "Bemusing" ) was another news fanzine which was one of the most popular at the time. It featured details and covers on new comics largely taken from US fanzines like "The Comic Reader" along with some nice fan articles and fan art. BEM was published by Martin Lock who went on to set up Harrier comics in the 1980s, before seemingly disappearing from the comics scene in the 1990s. Above are BEM issue 19 (1978) and issue 22 (1979) with a great cover by the amazing Hunt Emerson.
Thing issue 18 ( August 1975). This was one of the fanzines my brothers work colleague gave to me. Thing was edited by Douglas Gifford and was primarily an adzine that listed 100's of comics for sale in the smallest font imaginable with spot fan art and a few articles.
Arken Sword issue 16 cover by Ron Smith was edited by Paul Duncan and ran for 34 issues ending with a fantastic professionally published book sized edition. Arken Sword was one of the fanzines that went semi - professional for a short period.
Comics Unlimited issue 37. Published by Alan Austin Comics Unlimited (originally titled Fantasy Unlimited), was one of the earliest and longest running UK fanzines its 53 issues spanning the period 1972 until 1983 . Alan Austin also published the very first Comics Price Guide for Great Britain in 1975 which was a much coveted publication to have at the time. Sadly Alan passed away in 2017.
Comix Plus issue 4 (1977). Comix Plus was an interesting and very nicely presented fanzine published by Alan Matheson. Comics Plus (no “x”) started out predominately covering US comics but with issues 4 its focus was largely on underground comix which were starting to become very popular at the time and this was reflected in the change in title to “Comix Plus” (adding an “X” which was very much in the underground mode). Issue 4 featuring another great Hunt Emerson cover was sadly the last issues of Comix Plus as Alan had secured a job (if I recall correctly) working for D C Thomson’s in Dundee.
Speakeasy issue 51 cover by Brian Bolland. Speakeasy ran for a total of 120 issues from 1979 until its demise in 1990. It was also one of the first fanzines to go semi-pro and featured some of Alan Moore’s earliest work on the comic strip "Maxwell the Magic Cat" (which was collected in a four issues series by Acme press in the mid-1980s) written and drawn under the pseudonym Jill de Ray.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
I don't have any of these fanzines (and never did), but I'm sure I've seen the first couple of covers before (decades ago) and I think I've heard of most of them. I was once involved with a fanzine called Morphious (which was likely meant to have been Morpheus), though I can't recall if they ever published any of my contributions. Also did a wee bit for Hugh Campbell's Fusion fanzine back in the mid-'80s, just before I became a professional freelancer.
ReplyDeleteI see you've just added one as I was typing my comment. I've got that ish of Speakeasy, plus a few others.
DeleteApologies for the delay in replying , work getting in the way of life again. I don’t recall “Morpheus” but “Fusion” rings a bell. I contributed the odd drawing and a couple of covers to a few fanzines in the 1970s , many with really small print runs but sadly I only have a couple of these left stuffed away in a box in the loft.
DeleteAs a young reader I was not much into fanzines because I barely knew what they were. I never subscribed though a few ads were tantalizing. Soon after I was first married my beloved late wife was instrumental in helping me become part of a fanzine group (an APA or Amateur Press Association) and we published the thing together for a year or so. Her stunning typing skills were key to what success there was. She didn't care so much for comics, but she did cotton to me. She was a wonder.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading about APA’s in some fanzines back in the 1970s but wasn’t exactly sure what they were all about so it’s good to get an update on that. I published an ill-fated fanzine (Outpost) around 1977 but due to a really bad winter and a flood ruined my duplicator and copies of the fanzine (the one and only issue ☹) . I do remember the hard work in typing the articles up so you wife did you a great service and it sounds to me like she was indeed a “wonder” Rip.
DeleteI must confess to knowing almost nothing about comic fanzines. So, this was a highly educational post for me. Thanks for posting it, McScotty.
ReplyDeleteI used to think most comic book fans were aware of fanzines but it seems that many weren’t and I was lucky (or not) in finding these through my brothers colleague. Glad you I was able to give you some information you weren’t aware off Steve.
DeleteI still have my complete collection of Fantasy Unlimited/Comics Unlimited starting with the first issue I acquired - issue #14. I have a few other zines from that era as well. For those of you interested, David Hathaway-Price's web site hosts PDF versions of many UK fanzines - he is aiming to build a complete repository of copies of all of the UK 'zines. Take a look at https://davidprice5.wixsite.com/classicukcomicszines
ReplyDeleteAs you say, fanzines were the only way into the wider world of comics fandom back in the 70s heyday. I was active letter writer to Fantasy Unlimited from 1973-1975 from my home in Portsmouth. Looking back through the Fantasy Unlimited letters pages there were also quite a few active letter contributors and avid collectors from Scotland at that time, and particularly the Glasgow area around 1975. I have a list of names if it is of interest.
Love that website baggsey thank you for the link - actually I think I may have taken the screen shot of the “Thing” fanzine from his site (on bing images) as my copy is falling apart. I think Glasgow was very much a comic book hot spot back in the day as can be seen from the likes of Mark Miller, Grant Morrison etc who progressed out of fanzines and became pros, - we also had a lot of comics shops at one time, even for a largish city. I don’t think I ever sent a letter to a fanzine but I contributed the odd illo to a few of them and as mentioned above I even took a stab at doing my own fanzine (Outpost) which ended up badly 😉. Was “Super Stuff” an actual fanzine that you produced if so that would be a great article for your blog ?
ReplyDeleteYes, SuperStuff was an actual fanzine that pal Nigel Brown and I (Ian Baker) produced, assisted by friend Geoff Cousins, in the school holidays starting in March 1974. Nigel and I alternated as Editors. Its production was limited to the amount of carbon papers we had and how much we could afford to copy on the photocopier at either the main Post Office or Portsmouth library. So the print run was very limited and copies were intended for friends. We did 8 issues over the March '74 to May'76 period. There was then a gap as University and girlfriends got in the way. After a 2-year hiatus, SuperStuff #9 came out in July 1978, and #10 in July 1980. Nigel was the driving force behind getting those done. The most recent (and with the largest print run) was #11 in August 1984 which was printed on Alan Austin's Gestetner, and was sold in one of the London Comic shops. Again, Nigel was the driving force behind getting that done. (Alan Austin mentions it briefly in his autobiography on page 44).
DeleteI think a copy of #11 was sold on eBay for quite a decent price. Google "Worthpoint SuperStuff fanzine" to see some info on the contents.
I have pondered how best to pull together a blog on the story of SuperStuff. I'm not sure that any of the early content bears reprinting, but it was a real passion of ours. Shame that you and I were not in touch all those years ago...we could have produced an Outpost/SuperStuff crossover.
That sounds a great story Ian and certainly one for your blog, great to read you went back to this in the 1980s. Fanzines seemed so exciting at the time to me, still are in some respect - great days. I only managed to post out about 20 copies of Outpost before we were flooded and all was lost. It was hard work typing up those duplicating machine stencils ( the letter "o" being a particular pain as it would sometimes end up a blob) but it had its good points. I did my fanzine on my own but managed to get some nice articles by some well known fan letter writers of the time like Him Ivers, Ivor Davis etc.
ReplyDelete