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The list of contributors that made a mark in comics is huuuuge in this last issue of Shazam! Wonderful World of Comics !

Shazam! The Wonderful World of Comics 7: 1972
Publisher and Editor: Neal Pozner

(reading as Bill Hader’s Stefon character from SNL)

I heard about this amazing fanzine that could not decide on a name, Wonderful World of Comix or Shazam or Shazam! Wonderful World of Comix, the King only knows. It has everything…a Thing, a Flash, a Sinnott, a Cockrum, Gary Kato or Bruce Lee as Kato, a meat locker filled with Gary Groth’s dirty socks and Don Newton’s mildewing horse carcasses, plastic forks stuck into a jello mold memorial of Neal Pozner, melted toy soldiers, cucumber slices, make up on Paul Levitz by Vidal Sassoon, all stuffed into a Billy Graham interview (not THAT Billy Graham), spoon fed to a little baby mannequin made to look like Jack Kirby, cigar pacifier in place. The code word at the tiny back door of the Waffle House is… Smokin’! Try not to be overcome by the stench/perfume of the socks, the burning cigar, and the specially made anti-perspirant, John’s Pound, as you weave your way through the kitchen filled with special dishes honoring the contributors, like William’s Black eyed peas, Steve Englebeefheart on toast, and the special tonite, Donald’s Wong. Yummy!

You will have to excuse me, I just watched Hader’s Barry and was overcome with nostalgia for his Stefon character while trying to get this column off to a fun start.

But….this zine actually does have everything! Several existing pros like Jack Kirby, Barry Smith, Joe Sinnott, Mort Drucker and Carmine Infantino, along with soon to be pros like Klaus Janson, Neal Pozner, Dave Cockrum, John Pound and more. I profiled the previous issue of this zine, when it was just called Wonderful World of Comix, which you can see here. Editor Pozner, with this last issue of his zine, continued to line up the contributors like a who’s who of comic professionals and future pros. Let’s jump in!

At top you see the front and back cover of the seventh and last issue of this power packed zine, emerging artist Klaus Janson on the front cover and back cover of The Thing by, who else, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott. Coincidentally, Janson (who turned pro on Marvel’s Jungle Action one year after this zine came out) won the Inkwell award for The Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award (2010)! Klaus is all over this issue, including the spot illo above left and inking Don Newton at right. Klaus was a big favorite of mine, especially his incredible work on Miller’s early Daredevil run. His zine contributions were energetic and stylish.

One thing I love right off the bat about this zine is Neal’s adept hand at page composition. Very professionally done, lots of air around the images and text, and unlike almost all other zines, actual credits on the first page for everything inside!

The first big feature is an interview with DC giant, Carmine Infantino. A long interview, festooned with illustrations by Janson, Carmine (with Sinnott), John Pound, Bill Vigoda, and Gary Kato. Kato is a favorite of mine, along with his island buddies, Dennis Fujitake and Stan Sakai. Dennis has only one small illo in this issue, but Gary is everywhere. At left you see an example of his nice composition, placement of blacks, and individual style. 

An interesting and different feature follows, definitely a topic you did not see often in comic fanzines then, the connection between advertising and animation, embodied in the subject of Mort Drucker. This article (as told to editor Pozner) includes many pieces by Drucker of comic Henny Youngman, probably not seen elsewhere, before or after. Following that is an article by Howard Campbell entitled Comic Art? The art and writing in comics does not get much respect and certainly little praise in this piece by this “Chicago university graduate and author.” Oh well, at least we get to see a nice big Kato piece (below)!

Getting back to one of the giants of humor in the next piece, Marty Pasko and Alan Brennert got lucky enough to visit the offices of Mad Magazine, detailed in Near to the Madding Crowd. Check out the incredibly detailed piece by the master of caricature, Mort Drucker, below!

A feature on and by Bernie Bubnis follows, and then an article on something I certainly had never heard of, detailed by Pozner, in Graphic Opinion. It appears, for a time, a comics feature appeared in the sunday pages of the Long Island newspaper, Newsday. The originators wanted comic book professionals to take part in this political feature and chose Herb Trimp, (seen immediately below), as well as Barry Smith (below that), Steve Englehart (who of course, became much more well known as a writer later), and a gent named Gary Viscupic. I believe the Smith strips were reprinted in his wonderful Opus books.

A bit of fan fiction follows in Phandom Stranger written by Jeff Anderson, and illustrated by Janson. Lastly, we are graced with a good, long interview with the late and great Billy Graham. In fact, the whole reason I ended up with this zine is, 1) a gentlemen representing Graham’s family contacted me, looking for zine features and printings of Graham’s work, 2) I asked around and my go to guy for zine info, Aaron Caplan piped up, possessing both of the zines he was looking for, and 3) Aaron sent me a scan of the whole zine for my and your viewing pleasure! Take a bow, Aaron! Below you can see a full page illustration by Graham that went with the interview.

I have such fond memories of the incredibly powerful work of Graham on Luke Cage and Black Panther. He has been and will remain highly missed. It appears the new Black Panther film has garnered him some valuable and well deserved media attention of late. Hear, hear!

A letters page rounds out the zine, as well as a short bit of editorial info…and garnished by a full page illustration by another artist who left us years ago, leaving behind a wealth of wonderful work, Dave Cockrum. By the way, check this link for a special Cockrum estate auction! Oh, those Cockrum female figures!

You really need to get the pdfs (get them on the Ink Stains page of my site) for this sucker, folks! So much great stuff I did not have the space for here! In addition to the people you have seen above, there is additional work by Syd Shores, Ron Kasman, Rob Macintyre, William Payne, Jim Pinkoski, Bill Stillwell, Ronn Sutton, Donald Wong and more!

I hope you had fun paging through the memories pulled from the Ink Stains mimeo press on Funk and Wagnall’s porch this time out! Boy, I am really showing my age here with that Carson reference!

Thanks this time out, as said, goes out to Aaron Caplan.

Leave comments, the air is running out here in the vacuum!

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com