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The Collector 26: Summer, 1972
Editor and publisher: Bill G. Wilson

It’s no secret that one of my favorite all time fanzines was The Collector, from Bill Wilson. Bill started the zine when he was a young teen, and it can be argued that there were very, very few that matched his run of 29 issues. Bill consistently garnered some of the best fans (most became pros) and constantly generous pros such as those in this issue. Bill’s sense of design improved with each issue, adding generous white space when needed, limiting font choices, and more. With this issue, he certainly illustrates his knowledge of what makes an arresting cover! As you can see above, Steve Ditko really blew this one out of the park with this wraparound cover (sorry I did not stitch it together a little better). Steve was one of those professionals who supported Bill starting early on, and he contributes not only the cover, but an interior story…which, coincidentally, is the first thing up to bat! It’s yet another eye catching black and white (monochromatic in its point of view as well) outing of the impossible to ruffle arbiter of good and evil. See a few pages below of Dikto’s iconic Mr. A character.

Tom Fagan gives us a book review next (Batman meets Cthulu), and then we are treated to an autobiography (and group of opinions on comics and the industry) by Ken Barr. To me, Barr is one of the best artists comics had the privilege of publishing…but his devotion to his craft (and aversion to just making a buck by turning out page after page after page on tight deadlines which would end up being printed badly much of the time) kept him from making comics his main paycheck. Ken contributed to several fanzines during his career (and I am sure some were paid gigs), one being Phase one (an ad for it appears in the back of this issue), covered here. He made his living in illustration…and by god, was he an incredible illustrator! There were not many who were as good a painter as a black and white artist, but Barr was equally adept at both. It pains me to see how tiny his Wikipedia entry is. This article reprints work from men’s magazines, comics, warren mags, and other sources. And, of course, it is that much better because Ken wrote it himself. You can see two of the many superb illustrations below.

A Tarzan portfolio follows, with work by Joe Kubert, Don Newton, and Stephen Fabian. You can see one below, preceded by a typically beautiful piece by Robert Kline.

Up next is a fun little portfolio of Oodles of Doodles by Collector mainstay, John G. Fantucchio. You can see a bit below. Following that is a reprint of an early cover of The Buyer’s Guide, allowed by publisher Alan Light.

Bill Cantey follows with a column devoted to the radio shows of the 30s and 40s called The By-Products of Adventure.

If you thought one autobiography of an awesome artist was enough, think again, Jethro! Joe Sinnott presents his bad self to the readers (of course, Joe was widely known to be one of the nicest guys in comics), and includes some very rarely seen non Marvel work, along with the sports themed piece seen below.

Chapter 3 of the long running fan saga, Greenhorn, from Alan Hanley is up next. Check out the dense but typically whimsical and wonderful work below.

The letters column follows, then the big red cheese makes an appearance in illustrations by several artists (Bill Black, Stephen Fabian, and C. C. Beck, the subject of a short interview as well). Check out the super clean effort by mega zine publisher, Black, below.

The last non ad material in the zine is very much an oddity. Bill writes and pencils a 10 page story featuring his character, Hyperman. The catch? It is inked by several different artists, 2 pages at a time (for the most part). It is really fun to see the differences as we move from Joe Sinnott to Ed Romero to Craig Russell (when he was very early in his career, assisting Dan Adkins), to Dan Adkins to Steve Fritz and finally, Doug Potter. Bill took pains to try to have one style not be totally different from the previous so things would flow as smoothly as they could, and I think he succeeded. Check a few samples out below.

Be sure to get the pdf to read the whole story, as well as see all the other work by those mentioned, as well as Jim Pinkoski, Mike Roberts, Roy Krenkel, and much more! Thanks go out again to the mighty Manny Maris, for providing this zine for me to scan! Please leave some comments below, so I know how I am doing!

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com