Graphex 4: 1978
Editor/publisher: Bill Mutschler
Welcome back to the world of the fanzines of the past! Hope you are all having a great new year…I mean, it has to get better, right?
I have covered this particular fanzine, Graphex, once so far (see issue 3 here and you can see editor Mutschler’s other zine, Entropy Cosmix here), and the quality work continues with Issue 4. If you like your zines filled with art, this is the place to be. I believe InterFan had some part in this zine, since people like Pete Iro, Doug Hazlewood, and Willie Blyberg are present. Also, continued from Issue 3 is the conclusion to an interview with writers Don McGregor and Doug Moench (and they also sort of interview each other in the process). Above you see the dazzling and super clean cover by Pete Iro, while above left you see one of the plethora of great spot illustrations that pepper the pages inside.
Bill Mutschler was pretty darn active in fandom, a real go-getter. I asked him how he got interested in comics in the first place, and he gave me a bunch of great quotes to sprinkle throughout the column, starting below.
My father bought a Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos comic on a business trip for me, somewhere between age 8-9. Born in Pittsburgh, we moved to Philadelphia suburbs after a brief stay in Mass., I think the first comic I bought was Silver Surfer 8, I would have been age 10. On NJ shore vacations in Stone Harbor, there were drug stores or sundry shops with comics racks and before long I was buying a variety of comics, mostly Marvel. I was an avid reader and followed the Space Program (I still keep a collection of news clippings). I worked through virtually all of the science fiction section, specifically Heinlein. I constantly drew rockets on copy paper my father brought home from work. I wanted to grow up and write science fiction. I remember an off-brand comic that had what looked like flexible cookie cutter dough aliens. I almost fell over laughing when I visited my first comics store in the 90s, and saw a reprint of the same comic.
I am also always interested in the circumstances behind how any individual entered fandom. To this, Bill replied…
In middle school, shop was divided into automotive or electronics, woodshop, and graphic arts. In the latter, I found my home. A darkroom, setting type by hand, an offset printing press. The smell of the ink! At one point I proposed an underground newspaper, which the teacher nixed. I don’t know how or why, maybe because I subscribed to The Buyer’s Guide,
I got it in my head to produce my own fanzine. I started to draw superheroes. I was drawn to what I felt were the “different” artists. Mike Ploog, Gil Kane, Jim Starlin (and his stories, WOW), Paul Gulacy, Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Barry Smith, off the top of my head. At scout camp, as a counselor in training, a friend who introduced me to the music of Yes (this is VERY important and will tie into something later) lived near Mike Ploog’s now ex-wife. He described watching Mike draw pages. I got a small painting from Gabrielle, his ex, to include in Graphex #1. A middle school friend gave me a copy of Kirby’s work at DC, and I bought and loved most all his work there. New Gods, Mr. Miracle, Kamandi, The Demon. I noticed that Mike Royer did all his inking and lettering.
Sounding my age, those were simpler days. I loved the covers of science fiction books, the works of science writers projecting orbiting colonies, the works of Drake and O’Neil. For a school English project, I wrote Robert Heinlein and got back a hand-typed postcard from his wife, Virginia. Someone told me that writer L. Sprague de Camp lived nearby. I contacted him and he gave me an interview. His water heater sprung a leak during or at the end of the interview, and being “a boy scout”, I stayed through and helped mop it up. He was impressed. LOL.
Next to a movie theater a school friend worked at, fantasy painter Robert Marquis had a studio and my eyes went wide with what oil or acrylic could do. I interviewed him. I never thought of myself as assertive or socially outgoing (I was the typical highly-intelligent and socially awkward youngster), but I was driven.
As time passed, I found out that Doug Moench lived within driving distance, and off I went. Lo and behold, Don McGregor was visiting — and tipped me off, but to keep it a secret, that he had just been fired from Marvel.
More from Bill later. For now, the first bit of content is a strip featuring a character called The Condor, and is presented by Tim Herzog, Pete Iro and Bill Mutschler. Some nice clean inking by Iro, as always. Below you can see a few pages of the 8 page strip.
Next up is a feature article on Warlock by Larry Twiss, illustrated by Doug Herring (left), Willie Blyberg, Mutschler, and some non-related spots by Joe Sinnott, Dave Mowry/Gene Day, and Rick McCollum/Mutschler.
Following the Warlock piece is what must have been an incredible get for Mutschler, as it features some pencil work by the unsurpassed Jim Steranko, probably unseen by anyone at that time. Below you can see a few of the pages from that section.
I was thinking that, in some cases, the culture surrounding someone, or their living circumstances, might guide them to an entity like fandom. I asked Bill about this, and his answer follows.
I was fortunate to have a white collar father who bought a house in one of, if not the best, school districts outside of Philadelphia. At the same time, it was a blend of cultures and economic groups.
Since I lived less than 1.5 miles from Middle School, there was no bus service. I walked, biked, or was driven. In Wayne, PA, where the middle school was, there was a bookstore, the library, a classic old style newspaper, magazine store and across the street from that, a drug store with a comics rack. The clerk told me the days new comics came in and I was there like clockwork.
I got an airbrush…inspired by science fiction art, probably due to my graphic arts class. Advancing to high school, I went to middle school after school to print my fanzines. I recall restoring a Multilith press with the teacher, Mr. Ed Hines.
At age 15, I worked in a burger joint below minimum wage under Carter’s “hire a teenager work program.” I mowed 2 neighbor’s lawns at $20+ each. This went a long way with 25 cent comics. I landed a coveted dishwasher job as I grew older and was driving. My money went towards comics and concert tickets. At $7.00 for a triple bill at the Philadelphia Spectrum or Tower Theater, I saw a lot of shows.
School was too easy. My passions were trumpet, comics, music and art. My father wanted me to be an engineer, I wanted to be an astronaut, science fiction writer, or comic artist. In high school I took basic art and life drawing, but not “advanced,” as that was meant for “career track artists.” My middle school teacher had, at some point, indicated it wasn’t appropriate for me to be coming to the middle school to print the fanzines, being that I was in high school. For the final issue of Graphex I used a print shop. My mother was telling me I should be making money doing it…I was clueless and happy.
A funny fanzine story…I got an odd order in a Hilton hotel envelope with the return address crossed out and “Rock Steady Productions” with address written in, signed Gene Simmons. I had no idea. Visiting with my neighbor in his basement (we went to a lot of concerts together), he had a copy of Kiss Alive or Alive 2 and I saw the close to identical signature “Gene Simmons” inside. I said, “wait a minute, this guy ordered my fanzine!”
A few ads and a UFO checklist (a loose knit fanzine organization that exists to this day. In fact, you can find their Facebook group) appears next, but after that is the conclusion to the McGregor/Moench interview. Once again, filled with illustrations (not always having to with either writer…I think) by the likes of Doug Herring, Dave Cockrum (and Mutschler), John Byrne, Keith Royster (Bill again inking), Tim Herzog/Doug Hazlewood, Rudy Nebres (Bill inking), Ernie Chan (ditto), Lou Martinez (ditto), Alan Limacher, Ric Cruz/Hazlewood, Herzog/Herring, Clay Fourrier, and even a rough Dan Adkins (inked by Bill, natch…it is his zine, after all, as he himself says in the credits!). The title illustration by Pablo Marcos and Mutschler is above left.
As stated earlier, Bill published several zines. He remarks that “Graphex was first, featuring interviews, art, and mini comics. One of my sisters briefly dated a very talented amateur fan, Tim Herzog. Pete Iro inked a short story and it was awesome (possibly the Condor story in this issue – Ken). He was destined for the pros. Entropy Cosmix was intended to be more free form, experimental, and humorous. I had put together a short piece based on my love of Yes music, which started after an issue or 3 of Graphex. Met a great cartoonist, Paul, who was attending the same different learning styles school that Sylvester Stallone had attended. I got much of my art by going to conventions and buying it. The pencils I inked on acetate, and later re-sold the sketches. Same with an unused character piece (he inked) by Steranko. I used it, sold it to fund the next.”
As we near the end of the issue, it seems a good place to talk about Bill’s eventual exit from fandom and what precipitated it. His expansive answer is below.
Until freshman year in college. I had put the trumpet aside, and my skills rapidly deteriorated. I worked very hard and was first chair, first trumpet in my high school jazz and concert bands. The jazz band drummer was Mike Hausman, who went on to be in ‘Til Tuesday and continued in the music business after that band broke up. I had seen Back to the Future and didn’t make the connection until someone pointed it out to me a few years later — Thomas F. Wilson (“Biff”), played tuba in concert band and maybe trombone in the jazz band. LOL.
I got into Princeton based on my board scores, my musical ability, and my fanzine work. The alumni interviewer was very impressed that I had such broad skills, talents, and was highly self-driven. I was woefully unprepared to be in classes where everyone was as smart or more so than me, and I had no study skills. I was getting crushed in most classes. I was the chairman of U.F.O. and threw in the towel as I simply couldn’t handle the school workload.
My father thought Princeton was a big mistake because they encouraged or were receptive to all my interests. Cornell or Lehigh would have been engineering, and nothing else. I just wanted to be an artist. That summer, I took a two day psychological and IQ Kuter preference test or something that concluded, “fantastic spatial logic, could be an economic analyst (or two others), wants to be an artist, and has the mind of a musician.” They suggested I switch to Temple and go into Media Communications (which I sort of ended up in). However, I thought, I got into Princeton, I’m not leaving. Which will lead to my switch to fine arts — yet another area I was in over my head but got a grip on it by the time I graduated.
I think at that time I was submitting articles to Circus magazine about Patrick Moraz (this story will evolve). The magazine was kind enough to write back that they needed an interview. ELP played Princeton, I tried to get an interview. I had brass balls enough to go to Warren Magazine to “knock on doors” for work. They took a xerox of a Tim Herzog character.
Yes, in a sense, I was screwed. Dad rightly said, “you’re interested in so many things, you never focused on any particular one”. Recently, at his 95th birthday, he started to rail on me again and I stood up for myself. I said, “Dad, a few years after me came a guy, Jim Lee, who is now a VP at DC comics. The thing is, he’s a much better artist than I was. So, those comics you thought were a joke, well…
I was also invited to be one of my instructor’s art assistants (to make stretchers.)…he was later proclaimed the best painter alive by art critic Robert Hughes. Personally, I couldn’t stand the idea of living in New York City. But, I recently looked up his work from that period, and now I know exactly why he asked for a combination of stretchers I had made. I said, no, I won’t give you these, but I could make duplicate for you…a road not taken, I guess. Fine art would have eaten me alive and I’d probably have lived hard, died young in NYC.
A John Beatty/Mutschler inside back cover follows, and then a very nicely done Nebres/Mustchler piece ends the zine on the back cover, seen below.
And, since that is the end of the zine, here are some comments about Bill’s life long after fandom, and it’s effects on him as his life progressed.
Short answers:
80s – computer graphics sales and visual shows for bands, two short lived jobs in medical communications and high end computer graphics sales
90s – had my own media production company that peaked with 7 employees, mostly presentations, early Digital Videos – freelance artist and producer morphed into…
2002 – 2015 – e-commerce, early medical retirement, year or three off, minor medical stuff – shoulders, knee, new hips
2019-20 became a happy camper once again
And now the long version!
Fandom lead directly to my career. I had no idea about modern art, but my education taught me how to think, learn, question visually and intellectually. I did end up with Bs and B+. A flyer on a job board said “slide mounters wanted, $5/hour, freelance.” Big money at the end of the 70s. I cleaned and mounted duplicate slides for a corporate multimedia slide production company. I soon was doing dark room work — that I had learned from school and continued with by publishing ‘zines. My hourly pay went up…and no withholding taxes!
One day, I brought a fantasy rapidograph drawing in to show one of the designers, and he said to his boss, “look at this — we can use Bill to work on the Volvo animation.” It was my skills developed through fanzines, handling a razor blade for amberliths, opaquing kodaliths, that helped me to get good paying work through my college days. I took a year off, worked at a weekly paper in both Princeton — then St. Thomas, USVI for 6 months. Upon graduation, I was offered a position as design assist.
However, while was I looking at help wanted ads, within months I spotted “computer graphics slide project manager” (sales/account person) wanted…for Princeton area. In 7 years I took a starter base of $70K per year in business and grew it to $750K. I had a company car, and made more money than I knew what to do with. I bought my first condo.
Meanwhile, on the music side, I started working with a band producing a slide show for their concerts with leftover images from the company, experimental work I was developing counting off seconds in bathrooms with a towel stuffed at the bottom, manipulating images, painting color dyes direct on kodaliths, other crazy stuff. This lead to a second band, a “minimalist” synth pop duo.
Lastly, I was curious what Bill thought his most treasured accomplishments were, fandom or otherwise. In his wonderfully expansive manner, he answered…
1) I became a scuba diver years after my 6 months in St. Thomas USVI — nothing like it, floating in a beautiful world.
2) I was awarded a Bronze Medal at the International Film and TV Festival – NYC for my work with that second band (Experimental Products), perhaps the youngest individual winner that year or ever.
3) I was invited to tour with an Al Jourgenson Ministry supergroup that didn’t come to pass (I also asked for a ridiculous amount of money as I didn’t know better).
4) I was an early adopter of Macintosh video graphics for business meetings. I got to travel to many wonderful, upscale venues as far as Hawaii, Madrid, and Singapore as an in-demand specialist, also invited to speak at a few industry events.
5) I produced a Patrick Moraz (keyboardist for Yes, then, later, The Moody Blues) live grand piano CD and DVD PM in Princeton that has been re-released on multiple labels — and was invited to join the Recording Academy’s (Grammys) technical division. The first concert I went to was the Relayer tour by Yes, and he was another teen hero.6) Around the turn of the century I reached that career peak by producing large one-day events for an American Express division. I bought long boxes as well as key issues with some of my earnings that I slowly bleed off to fund various life things.
7) I was an early web 2.0 pioneer and built a successful e-commerce hobby supply business with my wife — we had half the industry asking if we wanted to buy them, but I was very gun shy about taking on large debt.8) After the economic collapse of 2002, I came up with a way to make wooden “spindles” (used in many early cultures around the world to make yarn or thread) and was quickly acknowledged as one of the top craftspersons in the US.
9) Said electronic duo became a collector’s item – I had 10 copies of their rare first LP that I sold for $500 each on ebay in the early 2000s, funding my first electronic music studio. I released CDs in 2004, 2012, 2019, and have a new “work constantly as a turtle, not as a jackrabbit” approach to life — I’m 1/3 of the way through writing/recording my 4th CD which should be released this year.
10) We had my only child in 2003, a son, who is now 17. Like any parent, he is my pride and joy.
11) I literally cracked after my son’s mother died suddenly from a horse accident in 2005. My genetics and the tragic shock lead to a bipolar diagnosis. It took years to put myself back together. I successfully manage that diagnosis following years of hard work and two lucky referrals to genius specialists. Some people manage diabetes, overcome cancer–it’s just a diagnosis. It’s what you do about that diagnosis that counts.
By the way, if you want to find out more about Bill, there are several spots to learn about his many endeavors. For music, go here. For art, go here. For his spindles work, go here. He does it all!
And that does it, folks! Another great example of the abundance of enthusiasm that permeated all the printed matter of that time. Thanks this time goes out to the great Bill Mutschler for giving me a ton of great material to add! Thanks also to Manny “The Man” Maris for supplying the scans! Tune in again next month for another dose of ink!
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
