Miracle Ama-zine 1: 1975
Editors/publishers: Eddie Eddings and Rudy Rankins
This fanzine just appeared out of nowhere for me. Though I remember Eddie Eddings being in so many places back in the late 70s/early 80s, I had no idea this zine existed until now. It comes with a cover by Pat Boyette, and, in my opinion, this is one of the best single illustrations I can recall seeing from the artist (who primarily published through Charlton Comics). What I didn’t know about Boyette could, well, fill a book (including the fact that he worked under several pen names, including Sam Swell)! I was incredibly surprised to find out, after doing a quick Wikipedia search, that not only did Boyette work for Charlton, Archie, DC, Atlas, Acclaim, Warren, and other comic companies, but that he had a career as a tv news anchor in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Not only that, but, in the spirit of Roger Corman, Boyette performed various functions on low budget films in that area for years (including director). But, considering recent developments in the tv and film world, his most well known creation is The Peacemaker! The recent series, spawned from the Suicide Squad film, is a profane riot, a huge chunk of fun.
So, one half of the creative team for Miracle is one Eddie Eddings. As I said, Eddie was everywhere for awhile, in many of the same zines as me, as a matter of fact! When I asked him if he had a specific endgame, he said via Facebook, “No goal, except to scatter my art everywhere. It was total fun and enjoyment to see my work in print.” He skipped from style to style and subject to subject fairly effortlessly (seemed to me, anyway). From Flintstones‘ like cartoons to superheroes, fantasy subjects and science fiction.
Eddie has some interesting connections, in addition to his skills as an artist. For one thing, he tells me that his father was a musician, as Eddie tells it:
My real name is Norman David Eddings. Eddie is a pen name. I got it in the penitentiary…just kidding, Eddie just naturally fits. My dad used the name Eddie as well. He was a country western musician. Ask Alexa to play “Yearning” by Tammy Wynette and as it plays ask Alexa who wrote it.
(I did look it up, and darn tootin, his dad wrote it!)
When asked about how he started his first forays into the comic world, he told me, “I ‘read’ comics before I could read. I was fascinated by the art and color. My earliest memory is viewing Little Lulu and Disney comics.” He continues with, “I started drawing at six years of age. My dad showed me how to draw the cartoon face of a drunken sailor. It was like magic to me. I started drawing faces. Pages of faces. Cases of faces. I had no training. Just passion and observation. Studying the comics on the newsstands and comic sections of newspapers were my instructions. It taught me to draw more than faces. That’s when it became a serious endeavor. My first attempt at a comic strip was when I was ten. I’m sure it was trashcan worthy.”
“Bill Watterson I wasn’t”
As always, I am interested in what fanzines were the favorites of my contemporaries and column subjects. Eddie told me:
RBCC was top of the list for me. The content and quality was unsurpassed. The Comic Reader was a treasure trove of info. The Buyer’s Guide is where most of my comic book pages were printed. Alter Ego, Star-studded Comics, I loved all of it. From cheap mimeographs to slick heavy bond, every zine had a “feel” of like-minded nostalgia. Friendships were plentiful. I have saved snail mail from Richard “Grass” Green, Don Rosa, Fred Hembeck, Alan Hanley, James Van Hise, etc. My mailbox was my gateway to fanland.
As he said, friendships were formed through this great and deep entity called fandom. Eddie continued by saying “Grass Green’s letters were a wondrous work of art. He would draw cartoons and illustrations of his original characters. Before our friendship developed, I saw him on TV (Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour) singing High School Confidential. He had more talent in his little finger than most have in total.”
He continued.
I think I produced more fanzine work while I was employed with The Houston Post. Jim Newsome and I were commercial artists there. We had a little friendly competition going for us. It didn’t take long to discover a network of fans in the Houston area. The HCCA (Houston Comic Collectors Association) is still alive and well…though most look like the Rolling Stones older brothers now.
Our brains were bursting with creativity and Rudy Rankins and I had many friends who suffered from the same incurable malady.
Rudy knew many artists and writers, and I worked with many. A free copy of Miracle was sufficient for our non-goal, except to scatter my art everywhere. It was total fun and enjoyment to see my work in print with my talented buddies. And, of course, they could keep their contributions.
I loved the different genres in comic book art. The Hanna-Barbara style was fast and easy. I could do a 5 or 6 page story in one day. I labored more on the super-hero stuff, but was most proud of the results. I could pencil and ink about a page a day.
His cousin was David Eddings, who was a very prolific fantasy writer (see image).
This zine tried it’s best to put all of Eddie’s personas in there! Having said that, much of the zine feels very Charlton like, down to the lettering in the first story by Eddie and editor Rankins, The Ninja. There is even a pseudo Charlton Ninja cover late in the issue. Eddie responded to my question about the Charlton connection by saying, “Boyette was kind enough to do the layouts AND the lettering! The altered cover was my own doing. I take the blame.” Check out a few pages of the Kung Fu (tv series) like story below.
Regarding his comic book beginnings, Eddie has an interesting story.
There was only one issue of Miracle. We planned on a second, but it never came to pass because WE had issues. Seriously, life took both of us in different directions. Tidbit: Here is the story of how Rudy and I became best friends. At twelve, my mother had remarried and we moved from the north side of Houston to 6307 Thrush, just a few streets down from where Rudy lived. I was riding my bike on the sidewalk, one day, where Rudy and his brother, Bobby, were out in their front yard. Rudy, a big hulking guy in comparison to my skinny frame, yelled at me to stay out of his yard! I yelled back, “the sidewalk is free to the public and I will ride my bike wherever I want to!” I stopped a several feet away and he and Bobby came to me. Rudy held my bike, looked as mean as he could, (imagine John Candy trying to look mean), and said, in Clint Eastwood style, “Do you want to fight!?” Hopped up, as usual, on Pixy Stix and Coca-Cola, I said “Yeah! I’ll fightcha!!” Then he asked me a question that changed both of our lives… ONE question… “Do you collect comic books?” The rest is history.
Pat Boyette gets some admiration from the editors, expressed in the editorial, as well in the actions of reprinting a Warren publications bio as well as some updated information, as it appears one or both of the editors were close friends with Boyette. Below is a page of the artist that the editors state was unpublished at the time of the zine’s publication.
There are several one page strips that seem more like teasers than full stories. You can see a few below.
You can see above the more standard superhero type style that Eddie could do. It might be there where the more obvious influences show through. Eddie says that “I’m STILL leaning! Early influences would be Curt Swan, E. C. Segar, C. C. Beck, and Simon and Kirby. Later, John Buscema, Gene Hazelton, Russ Heath, and Brian Bolland. I also have to give a shout out to two great inkers…Joe Sinnott and Alfredo Alcala. And the artist who could make grass a work of art…Nestor Redondo!” Below are two images when Eddie was honored to ink veteran, Dick Ayers.
Several pages of cartoons by Jim Richardson are sprinkled throughout the zine. I was not familiar with his work, though it is obviously darn professional. Eddie told me that, “Jim Richardson, a man who should have fulfilled his dream as a syndicated cartoonist, sadly never made it. He was the whole package. His personality, humor, skills, and quirks were bigger than life.” See below.
Mike Owens contributes a two page strip by the name of Warren Avery: Cops and Robbers is a Dangerous Game! To me, this fairly realistic style is really pleasing. It was surprising to me what Eddie said about Mike. “Mike Owens was a buddy of mine in art school. He had no interest in comic book illustration. He did those pieces as a favor for me.” A loss for the comic industry!
There is also a Ripley’s Believe it or Not parody/homage called Ripney’s Believe it or go Home. The sort of humor you would expect from a youngster. Additionally, there is a portfolio section that includes work from Eddings, Bob Webb and Doug Potter (a few pages seen below).
It’s pretty obvious what Eddie’s hopes were for a career at that time, but I will let THE MAN tell it!
From age twelve, my dream was to be a comic book artist. This was why contributing to fanzines was so exciting. It felt like I was on my way. Many years later while working at the Houston Post as an illustrator, I received a phone call from Dan Adkins. I thought it was a friend pulling a prank. But when he referred to Herb Trimpe, he pronounced the last name “Trimp pea” I knew it wasn’t one of my friends! In Houston, Texas we all pronounced it “Trimp”. This was before Google or smart phones. (Long story short)…He wanted to hire me as his assistant after he saw a Conan illo I did for RBCC. I flew to New York and stayed in his home for a week. Tagged along with him to Marvel, DC, Neal Adams Continuity Studios, and Mad Magazine. He said I could stay with him for three months, time sufficient to earn enough money to send for my family and move to New York. Decided not to go that route. Although I was honored for the privilege, I didn’t want the lifestyle I was witness to. Since then, I have worked commercially as a comic illustrator for several christian comics. I have also drawn thirty or forty tracts for different publishers. [See “Joe” below] Additionally, coloring books, video game covers, brands, logos, t-shirt designs, even did a comic strip for the Austin Stateman, called “Silent Partners”.
Eddie continued, saying that he “also authored 4 books and co-authored another. Did some voice-acting, worked with a comedy team on local television, and had my own comedy team, Eddie Eddings and the Funny Farm Factory doing live TV at 12:30 A.M. in Houston for a short time. Jim Newsome even appeared as Darth Vader in one of my skits. I also taught art, drama, and ESL in Kuwait. Also did a dozen or so radio commercials.”
Bonus! Eddie supplied some other art that he had sitting around…below is a nice piece by Frank Thorne and Eddie.
And…a double bonus! Here is a Grass Green Wild Man and Rubberoy strip inked by Eddie!
That about wraps up this somewhat hodgepodge of a zine. But, there are some nice nuggets in there! Tune in next month for…who knows??? By the way, the great Manny Maris has provided me with a treasure trove of zines to scan, so things will be getting interesting!
Thanks this time go out to Eddie Eddings, who supplied a huge amount of inside info via Facebook.
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@kenmeyerjr
