Quintessence 1: 1969
Publishers: Mike O’Neal, David Tyson, Garrett Everett
Editor: Mike O’Neal
Hello all, and welcome back to another monthly installment of Ink Stains to satisfy your fanzine itch. That, and some calamine lotion should do the trick.
This month, we have a slim entry, but it does come packed with a fair amount of art, including early work by one of the best inkers of all time (in my opinion), Klaus Janson. You will also see work from O’Neal, John Cornell (the cover above, and some spots), Dave Russell, Ted White (do not know if it is the Ted White who became a well known editor and writer, but I kinda doubt it), and someone who goes by “GEM.” [Thanks to Aaron Caplan, who told me that is Max E Gottfried, and those are his initials backwards!]
Mike O’Neal was a pretty prolific zine artist back in the early and mid seventies, contributing to other zines such as Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine, for example. Here, it appears he was a bit too busy with the editorial duties, as he only adds a few spot illos to an insert (an ad for the NCS Review). On to the content.
After the editorial page, there are several pages constituting an article on the classic illustrator, Maxfield Parrish (King Parrish, by Bucky Larkins), which is followed by Shirley Gorman’s Marvelings (a general Marvel potpourri).
Randall Shepherd follows with E.C. and Censorship, and then, lo and behold, there is a short Barry Smith interview! He was definitely pre-Windsor here, being only 20 (and I gotta say, the current incarnation of BWS would never ignore the cheek the younger interviewer showed!). A general comic news column follows, and then fandom stalwart, Tony Isabella follows with All in Color for 15 cents.
The last article is an index of Star-Spangled Comics. Like I said..a bit thin, but I think I do need to cover as wide a spectrum of fanzines as possible. You can see more art from this zine below, and thanks for dropping by!
Hopefully Klaus Janson will find the time for some questions I sent to him via email that I will include later. Tune in next month!
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
I used to love Dave Russel’s fan artwork. Always felt he would be the next Dave Cockram. Nowadays, he lives in Australia and is a much sought-after storyboard artist. He worked on the main storyboards for the 1989 Batman and 1st Narnia film and many others. Nice to see some of our fanzine BNFs actually made it!
BTW, artist “GEM” is none other than Max E Gottfried, a prolific fan artist in 60’s/70s fanzines. Max told me that it’s his initials spelled backwards.
Always love the monthly column. Especially like the Dave Russell drawings.
Great article! And Aaron, thanks for the “GEM” insight!
ahh, thanks for the posts, people, and the info, Aaron! Also, if anyone has contact info for Dave, would always be great ot get new input in the column.