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It’s the mother of all art zines…Infinity 4!

Infinity 4: 1972
Editors and publishers: Adam Malin and Gary Berman

I have covered this incredible zine a few times now (find those old columns on my website), and I never get tired of looking at ’em. I know there is a fair amount of nostalgia attached to them that gives them more importance than they possibly deserve, but I don’t care…just look above for proof! One of the best zine covers I can think of, by the great and ground breaking Richard Corben. A great composition, equally good color choices (pretty much a straight complementary color scheme), interesting subjects…what else do you need?

Run by young guns Adam Malin and Gary Berman, who also ran the Creation con for many years (I assume that connection really helped with acquiring all the incredible art that populated Infinity), this zine remained at the top until it’s end. Talking to Adam on Facebook, he remarked that this issue was somewhat transitional in that he felt they had finally developed an editorial style. He continues with “…and of course we hugely admired Richard Corben and the whole underground comics movement. We had started running the early Creation events and were fortunate enough to be surrounded by incredible luminaries of the comic book graphic story medium. Imagine Frank Frazetta taking a hotel room at your show and setting up the room with all of his paintings spread on two twin beds that you could buy from Ellie and him for all of 500 bucks. I was just a brat teenager from Long Island with no money or I would’ve bought the whole damn room’s worth of artwork which would be worth millions today! Those were precious youthful fleeting times!”

Like most issues, number 4 is littered with visuals from some of the biggest talents available at the time (new and established), along with articles, interviews AND strips. So, let’s get started! To the right is one of many super spot illos, this one by Roy Krenkel.

There are two interviews this issue, both fairly expansive. First up is a young Michael Kaluta, and second, an equally young Steve Harper (see one of his stylish illos above left).

I believe that is editor Malin at bottom right…not even in college yet! In addition to the easy going interview, Kaluta is represented by a couple of full page illustrations, as well as a strip (probably intended for the prematurely defunct Web of Horror magazine). Below you can see the opening page for that strip, as well as a spot illo.

Harper provides several illustrations to go along with his interview as well (and Doug Murray, just back from overseas, steps in for a few questions as well…even Kaluta joins in). Harper’s work has always struck me as more design directed, more compositionally informed than his colleagues. You might get that sense from the piece above, and below as well.

One of the articles is a very in depth analysis of the then still new and controversial underground comix scene by one of the true insiders (and Rip Off Press editor), Jack Jaxon, and is called A Phenomenon. Another is coverage of the 1971 Creation Convention (with a great logo design by Kenneth Smith, I am assuming), which includes photos of keynote speaker,  Jim Steranko. Of course, amazing art dominates the issue, so below you seetwo pieces from Berni Wrightson, and one from Gray Morrow (I think that is Gray himself in the lower right corner).

Another art related feature is a Frank Brunner portfolio. You can see Brunner’s site here for a ton of great stuff. It was actually around this time that Frank started getting regular work, starting in the Warren mags, Creepy and Eerie (though a few years earlier, he inked a story in Marvel’s Silver Surfer). Below you see the images in the portfolio…get the pdf to see them full size. These images, for some reason, are really embossed in my brain cavities!

So many fun illustrations dot the pages of this issue…Chaykin, Krenkel, Al Williamson, Jeff Jones…it boggles the mind actually thinking of all this art being in one room. In fact, two of those giants are used to illustrate one story by long time Corben collaborator, Jan Strnad, called Island Fable. Below you see the Jones piece.

There is also a reprinted strip by Al Williamson called A New Beginning…which, by my eye, appears to be inked by Frazetta, which I know happened now and then. See a page below.

Other contents that you will see in the pdf include a whimsical strip by Randy Yeates and Rick Rydell starring Malin and Berman themselves, as well as a Mr. Odd strip by Mort Drucker, a Gray Morrow portfolio and more art from Frazetta, Williamson, Jones (inked by Joe Sinnott!), Yeates, Krenkel, Kaluta, Clyde Caldwell, Harper, Wrightson, and more. Truly worth checking out the pdf (seen on my site, along with access to all the older columns). Thanks to Herb Warren for loaning me the zine to scan! And, since this is the END of this installment, what more fitting image than the BACKcover by Larry Todd.

(By the way, as a legal note, Berman and Malin are not liable for any misuse of these images. If anyone has a problem or wants me to take them down or not offer the pdf, I am responsible, talk to me)

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
kenmeyerjr.com