Fantasticomix 3: June, 1973
Editor/publisher: Scott Paauw
Hi everyone and welcome back to Ink Stains, the column devoted to the fanzines of the past! This installment covers Fantasticomix 3, another zine I did not know of before the guru of zines, Manny Maris, sent it along with a slew of other zines I could scan for this column. Thanks again, Manny! This fanzine definitely has a lot variety,
including strips, opinion, history, illustrations, and quizzes. Editor Paauw has assembled a pretty good crew of fandom stalwarts like Alan Hanley (see the cover above), Dennis Fujitake, Rick Williams, Clyde Caldwell, Gary Kato, as well as future pros like Arvell Jones, Aubrey Bradford, Keith Pollard (3 prominent black creators from the Detroit area, coincidentally), Rich Buckler, John Byrne, and Stan Sakai. Throw in a few generous pros like Joe Sinnott and Dan Adkins, and you have a potpourri, nay, a plethora, maybe even a preponderance of talent! Onward, true believers!
One thing I noticed right off the bat is that the design in general is fairly good…generous amounts of white space (in a few spots, a bit too much), an actual table of contents, etc. Another interesting element is a fan version of the Crusty Bunkers (Neal Adams’ assemblage of assistant inkers featuring pros like Alan Weiss and Russ Heath…but the list is so huge, it
seems like it was anyone who happened to stop by the Adams/Giordano
offices), the Lusty Bunkers. This group included pro Dan Adkins and future superstars like Craig Russell, Val Mayerik, as well as an assortment of fan artists). They feature on two strips within the pages here. After an editorial and a lengthy letters page (adorned with nice spots from Byrne, Rick Hoberg, John Onoda, Williams and others), Steve Mattingly presents Que Pasa?, a general opinion article. Next up is a superhero strip entitled, Tomorrow is Cancelled, it’s the End of the World!, featuring The Protectors. I have to say, it is a pretty standard fan superhero strip by Gino Membrino, Rick Hoberg, with an assist by editor Paauw. Great title, though! See a few pages below.
Following this is a one page profile on writer Membrino, illustrated by Hoberg. Clyde Caldwell follows with a somewhat pointillistic rendition of a female figure, while Paty Greer (later to be Dave Cockrum’s wife) also presents a pin up. Paty continues with a strip called Graphically Yours, featuring another superhero team, The Guardian Council (written by Michael Graycar), inked by Vohland and the Lusty Bunkers. This strip is also just a bit more than passable, I have to say. Then again, this was 1973, and I assume Paty and several others were still in their formative stages. You can judge for yourself below!
A Fearsome Foursome follows, which is just 4 images, the pencilled image done by Dan Adkins, and the other 3 inked by Carl Zschering (a professional illustrator and painter, they say). What it does illustrate is inking is not an easy job, and should be left to the professionals (or the best fan inkers of the time, such as Bill Anderson or Doug Hazlewood). This artist doesn’t know anything about line weight or any of the other skills an inker must have. Onoda then contributes a pin up (below) and then we see a page of grainy photos of pros and fans (better than nuttin, I say).
An Edgar Rice Burroughs portfolio follows, comprised of work by Jim Pinkoski (strangely, a virtually unchanged swipe of a well known Frazetta painting, from an ERB book cover!), Dale Broadhurst and Caldwell. Next up is a short opinion piece on the placing of labels in fandom (no credit) called Fan Philosophy. Next up is the always stylish John Byrne, illustrating a humorous 2 pages trip by Steve Mattingly. Check it out below.
Mike Raub then gives us the Fandom Trivia Quiz (with a couple of early Stan Sakai illustrations, seen below).
Bruce Westbrook follows with an article on a certain Cimmerian barbarian called Why Conan? It is illustrated by Rick Williams, Larry Kamp, John McLaughlin, Williams and the beautiful work of one of my faves, Dennis Fujitake, seen above left. Gary Getsoff (gotta be a pseudonym, right?) gives us Make Mine Marvel next. More letters follow and then Who Could Help but Like Him, a Captain America feature (adorned by the always generous and super clean Joe Sinnott, seen upper right).
Viewpoint DC, by John Cameron, is the last feature of the zine, and seems to have a definite anti-DC slant…or maybe he just didn’t like these particular DC comics. We then get a negative image version of the earlier Dan Adkins pin up, then the back cover and bam, we are gone!
Definitely check out the pdf to see the strips in their entirety, check out the articles and many more visual entries from Arvell Jones/Buckler, Williams, Onoda, Eric Kimball, Kamp, Buckler alone, Don Rosa, Jones, Mike Royer, Adkins, Roland Austin, Bradford, Joel Pollack, and Caldwell.
Again, thanks to Manny for the zine and I hope to see you all next time (comments, comments, comments appreciated!)
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
Good stuff as usual, Ken!
Hey! Great old FANzine! Thanks, Ken Meyer Jr., for another fascinating entry in your ongoing historical review of Comics Fandom.
I never saw this issue, though I drew the cover for the previous edition (Fantasticomix 2.) Many of the contributors to Fantasticomix 3 were also contributors to Comic Courier. A couple of minutes ago, I sent your Onoda scan to John Onoda, along with a link to your INKSTAINS entry. He drew that original 50 years ago–hard to believe the world has circled the sun that many times since!
I was very surprised (but happily so!) to see the Guardian Council strip. The Council was the creation of Mike Graycar, my co-editor at Comic Courier. The GC first appeared in CC in text form, and then later in a full-blown comic story written and drawn by Paty (in CC#7, 1972.) Mike gives CC a nod in the credits of “Graphically Yours…” when he penned “The Courier Comix Group Stupidly Admits…” etc.
You are quite right that many of these artists were just learning the craft, and that includes Duffy Vohland, who was inking everything he could get his brush on in those days. Paty’s own inks would have greatly improved “Graphically Yours…”, but she and Duffy were partnering on fan art at the time, and she was probably glad to turn the inks over to him. Eventually, Duffy was the one who helped open doors for Paty to work at Marvel, where she met her future husband, Dave Cockrum.
Scott Paauw was a great guy. He went on to become a gifted professional linguist. He died 8 years ago, this month, at the age of 57. Here’s an insightful memorial from the University of Rochester, where Scott was a professor at the time of his passing: https://www.rochester.edu/…/university-of-rochester…/
(And, yes, thanks to Manny Maris for passing this zine on to Ken!)
Thank you for sharing all this. It’s fun for me to see that a bit of my art work was included in a publication that featured so much talent. Bless Mark Ammerman for the love and energy he put into Fantasticomix.
Scott Paauw sat with me in my bedroom at my mother’s home. He was from out of town but I don’t remember from which one. He did not claim to be an artist but said that he was good at caricatures. He drew a cartoon of one of my friends and it really was good.
Thanks, Mark Ammerman. I read the obit. I had no idea of how his life had progressed. The obit mentions Buffalo which is an hour and a half around the corner from me. That might be a hint about why he was visiting me at my mother’s house all those years ago– probably fifty years ago. And I was surprised to read that he got a Master’s degree from York University. I got my first degree from York and lived only about three miles away from there. It sounds like he was a genuinely nice guy and very accomplished. I didn’t know he was gone. Now that I know, I am sorry he is gone.
Thanks for all the great comments and info, people!
That’s me, Bruce Chrislip, in the blurry photo taken in “Duffy’s Tavern” which was actually Duffy Vohland’s rental house in East Liverpool, Ohio in the spring of 1973. He had moved there from his home in Indiana to be Dan Adkins assistant. Soon after, he was in New York working for Marvel. On this trip, Duffy was accompanied by Scott Paauw (a very tall Michigan comics fan) and my brother Jim and I got to meet Dan Adkins and toured his studio. Great old fandom times!