Five time champion, George Breo, returns with the fourth issue of his belt winning fanzine…
Chronicle 4: 1974
Editor and publisher: George Breo
With this column, we wrap up the…uh…chronicles of George Breo and his fantastic fanzine, Chronicle! As usual, there are complete stories as well as columns, spot illustrations and more, making it a sterling entry in the annals of fanzine history. Superstar John Byrne makes a few appearances, already wonderfully stylistic in the days right before he became professional published by Skywald and Charlton. More abounds, so let us proceed!
As you can see above, the Spirit and Ebony adorn the cover…not sure who did it, though, as it is not signed or referenced within. I think I remember George telling me he did it. After an editorial, a few spot illustrations and an ad, the first story appears.
I have very strong memories of the graphics in the opening story by Jim Wisniewski, titled Future Shock. It is so clean, so well designed (for a fanzine strip), and some of the imagery really stuck with me. Jim himself was nice enough to chat a bit via email about his history with comics and fanzines. First though, the splash page…
Of his initial brush with comics, Jim stated
That was when I was 6 years old…my mother told me that she’d buy me a “comic book” in 1958. I saw Tales to Astonish #5, with a Kirby/Ditko cover featuring a creature getting its head lowered on to its body…I was ELECTRIFIED!!!! I HAD to have that book!!! She would not buy it for me, though, too scary she said. I was addicted for life though, just from that drug store comic book rack in 1958. I wasn’t able to buy my own comic books for a couple more years, but I LOVED those pre-Marvel monster books. As an adult I bought them all super cheap in the early ’70’s. Those really ignited my love for the medium as well as the fanzines that followed some years later. I was so thrilled to get something I drew into print besides my cartoons for the high school newspaper. An so goes the tale of the first comic book that led me down the path to a wasted life!
Another sampling of the story below.
Jim went on to tell me of his entering the world of fanzines by saying that “a kid in high school had a science fiction zine called Dynacense, which I did some art for, but there were NO comics zines around in 1968 tho…not in Hammond Indiana at least.” I thought he had done more fanzine work but he said that the other ones numbered “Zero. Just George, and the comic book I did called Tales of the Macabre associated with Chronicle. There was just no time! I had to make a buck because I had NO family safety net to fall back on. Daunting.”
Time for another page!
I also asked Jim if he had plans to try to become a comics professional and he told me “Oh for sure…but the art studios I worked at in Chicago deliberately killed any real art ability or aspiration you had, killing the real creative core of drawing anything else but kids, moms, and cute puppies! That was why I became an ad agency storyboard guy, it was closer to being a comic book artist at least. At least I could do SOME kind of comics work! Some of it is on my FB page…just posted a new one today!”
Guess what…
When I remembered seeing this art, I also remembered thinking it had a definite Steranko influence, but Jim set me straight.
Oddly, I just came across that whole story, in photostat form…total Wood/Kirby rip off, which is Steranko like, I suppose. I sent that art to DC comics, in ’73, since they had a beginners slot open in their art dept. I got a rejection letter (try getting one of THOSE today!) from Sol Harrison, which said, “we don’t need any more Jack Kirbys!” Funny, since that was the year Jack went over there! Shows you how much he was disliked by some of those short sighted jerks. Fave pros of mine included everyone from Wrightson to Adams to Kirby to Ditko, as well as even guys with styles I did NOT care for, they were way better than me. To this day I never put down any of them. Anybody who can do all that amazing work, with a gun to their head, sometimes over nite, has amazing talent indeed! I just got to tell Alan Weiss, over a lunch, what a fan I was, and he’s the original Crusty Bunker!
And…
Jim talks a bit about his life after fandom by saying “I worked at two greeting card companies in Chicago from 75-80, then became a storyboard artist though I was still doing some comics work (as I described earlier). I was also doing cartooning, illustration, logo design…it was awesome. I still have many friends from those days. Life before photoshop, right? hahaha.” He also mentioned several people from the fanzine years he still keeps in touch with, such as “…Mike Gold, Jim Engel, Monte Beauchamp, and I guess all the other Chicago comic book guys. We have some pretty big lunches!”
Roger Slifer, one of the CPL crew, along with Byrne, fills in the next slot with his column, Revivial Survival, which is adorned with some really nice spots by people like Byrne (left) and Doug Rice (right).
Next up is the Steve Boswick story, Mud Monster. I would have loved to had some input from Boswick, but Wisniewski stated that even he has not heard from him…and they only live two miles apart! Boswick exhibits a marked love of Jack Davis, at least to my eyes. You can judge below.
Vintage comic convention coverage? We have you covered! Though some of the photo below is blasted out, you can get at least a hazy glimpse into the New York Comic Art Convention of 1973 below!
Following that blast from the past is probably the big entry of the issue, John Byrne and George Breo’s Gideon strip. I so love this early period of Byrne, probably just nostalgia. Below you can see a few pages of the nine page story.
A feature covering the serials of the past, such as Flash Gordon, follows, and then another strip. This shows the very early work of Stan Sakai, nothing like what he became known for later, but really stylistic all the same. It is a continuing Chronicle strip featuring the character Dante.
Ron Fortier’s Fandom follows (a lot of alliteration for an aspiring anthologist!), covering some of the better known fan fiction fellows (more f’s!) such as Gordon Linzer and Bill Cantey. After the column, a sort of grab bag page of illustrations follows (including Jim Engel and Don Newton), and then the last story of the issue. Somewhat of an anomaly, this story (Calculating Mind) is by writer Chuck Dixon. His cartoony, but somewhat sinister style back then was fun, and to my mind, somewhat memorable. Check out a sample.
A letters page is up next, a few ads and then the back cover by Byrne, seen below.
And so we come to a close on another installment of Ink Stains, this one featuring a favorite zine of mine, and one of my favorite zine editors as well. Take a bow, George! Also, thanks very much to Jim Wisniewski for answering my questions and fanzine superhero, Greg Turner, for supplying the fanzine for me to scan! You da men!
As always, remember to go to my site to download the pdf, so you can see every last detail. Thanks for reading this far and hopefully you will leave a comment…and return next month!
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
This is WONDERFUL! Thanks for posting. I worked for a Christmas greeting card company in Chicago. One of my best jobs ever.
This is one great ‘zine! Breo put together a talented bunch of folks!
This is WONDERFUL! Thanks for posting. I worked for a Christmas greeting card company in Chicago. One of my best jobs ever. Mud Monster – terrific!
This is WONDERFUL! Mud Monster is terrific 👌. I also worked as an artist for a Christmas card company in Chicago. One of my best jobs ever! Thanks for the posts.
Ken, thanks for this article, really enjoyed it and look forward to going through the archives to your past posts. Are you able to share the address for your site with the pdf available?
oh sorry, yes, it is http://www.kenmeyerjr.com
Ken, even though he mentioned ToA #5 as the cover that changed his life, it is obvious he meant ToA #7 from the description
https://www.comics.org/issue/15470/cover/4/