Venture 2/3: 1973/1974
Publishers/editors: Frank Cirocco and Gary Winnick
Those of you that have read this column for a long time know Venture is a huge favorite of mine. I wrote letters of comment to it frequently, as well as befriended Brent Anderson through it (we corresponded through the mail a lot and he inked my first published work, an illustration of Bruce Lee). It was always a thrill to get a new issue, even if the zine only lasted 5 issues.
This column, as you can see from the covers above, illustrates issues 2 and 3. The third issue is when Frank Cirocco really started becoming “Frank Cirocco,” master of zipatone! I really loved his mysterious and incredibly well designed pin ups sprinkled throughout the issues (like the one above). But, I am getting ahead of myself…let’s start perusing issue 2.
It’s really pretty amazing the leaps Frank took between those issues, in the span of one year. However, the first story (and Venture was all about original stories) is by his partner, Gary Winnick, and is called The Wizard’s Tower. Taking place in a blasted post disaster Earth, a winged man finds a mysterious tower and gets a big surprise. Below you can see a sampling. Gary also had a predilection towards the ol’ zip.
Cirocco follows next, with a multi-chapter tale of magic, a sort of sick science, and of course…a surprise at the end! I think the boys were big EC fans! Below you see a few pages from Issac-7/Ivory Towers/Undead.
Brent Anderson seemed happy enough doing his funny little Grimmley’s Tales in both issues, featuring an utterly hapless little alien seemingly all alone on a desolate planet. Sigh with sympathy below.
Winnick appears again with God of the Mists. At first, I thought maybe Gary was a big Kate Bush fan, judging from the appearance of his female character, but then remembered this story was about 8 or so years too early to have known of Kate. Check it out.
Cirocco returns again with Ziggy, a tale with…you guessed it.
Hey, I was wrong! Brent does do a non Grimmley piece…one that must have taken a loooong time, as you can see below.
There are a few pinups by Winnick and Cirocco, as well as a few more Grimmley’s Tales, which you can see in the PDF! For now, on to issue 3.
Above you see a letter that whomever owned the zine was nice enough to keep…it shows another beautifully designed piece by Frank. On Facebook, Frank was nice enough to give me a little nutshell version of Venture‘s history.
Venture was a creative time of learning how to not only draw comics, but assemble a book with a professional enough look to sell commercially. Brent and I were in high school when it began in 1972 (I, a sophomore and he, a junior). It kicked off our amateur art careers that eventually led to a relationship with Neal Adams (pin-ups purchased at SDCC and #5’s consigned cover) to eventually starting our professional careers in NYC at Continuity in 1976.
Issue 3 has something new…sketches from the above mentioned Neal Adams, sprinkled throughout the issue. Check out the master of realism below!
One of the first full page images we see, however, is a nicely detailed rendition of Robert E. Howard’s most famous creation by Jim Pinkoski, seen below.
The cleverly titled Flashback (combined with the visuals) might give you a clue as to who is the star of the next story by Frank, where his love of Jeff Jones (I believe) is shown in the wistful imagery of the story.
Another installment of sad ol’ Grimmley appears next.
Gary Winnick appears here, with Bugz (written by Frank Morant), the visuals reminding me very much of Kenneth Smith and his elaborately detailed and sometimes whimsical creatures. You be the judge!
There is a nice little bit of coverage of the San Diego comicon from waaaay back in 1973 by Frank and crew, complete with the requisite blurry black and white photo reproductions! This was such a huge deal for people like me that lived nowhere near San Diego or New York, the only places to have cons back then, really.
Sin Eater is next, by Cirocco (also written by Morant), with, what? A surprise ending! Plus, lots of zipatone, a gorgeous maiden who is not as empty headed as she seems!
An especially gorgeous back cover finishes up this issue by Cirocco, also a master of mood.
Thanks for coming…both of you! Please leave comments if you have time, and don’t forget to go my site here, to get the pdfs of the entirety of both issues. And…come back next month for another installment of Ink Stains! Thanks to Frank for adding the inside scoop as well.
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
