Fans-Zine 7: 1978
Editor/publisher: Jay Van Bockel
I have to admit, I don’t recall seeing this particular fanzine in my madcap collecting days, but I see I should have…all the usual suspects are here! You will see many familiar names as you flip through the virtual pages of Fans-Zine 7. The cover above is by Doug Herring, who was everywhere back then (I think he had a zine of his own, but cannot recall the name). Let’s jump right in!
After the cosmic confrontation on the cover, we are greeted right away with a real rising star in the personage of Jaime Hernandez (inked by his brother Gilbert). One thing I have very clear memories of is seeing his smooth and deceptively simple illustrations in the pages of the wonderful Comics Journal all those years ago. Check it out below.
The table of contents and editorial page follows and then another Hernandez bro takes the stage (again, a partnership). This time, it is Gilbert inked by his brother Mario. Does everyone else remember the incredible sense of discovery when that first issue of Love and Rockets came out? It was huuuuuge!
Gilbert came in second to Mark Heike as ‘Best Fan Artist of the Year” but I would have to disagree. As good as Mark would later get, Gilbert’s stuff seems much better at this point. Mark won with an illustration of Daredevil you can see in the pdf…but I cannot tell if the printing is just really bad or the illustration is largely black…you can judge for yourselves. The illustration accompanies a one page article on ol’ Shellhead, which is followed by The Gripe Page. A spot illo by Neil Riehle and Sam De la Rosa is there as well. Media Bulletins follows, a sort of catch all column, and is paired with a cartoon by the always wonderful Alan Hanley. Fanzine News is next (and the Heike DD piece), and yet again a Hernandez brother shows his skill. See Gilbert’s Spidey piece below.
Pin ups follow by Gary Hardman, Bobby Wright, and Tiger Roaop (a little hard to read the signature on that last one) and then a fanzine review column appears. The King appears next, inked by Mike Machlan. It is stated in the credits that this (and several other pieces) was provided by Sam De la Rosa. I have a feeling this was done while Sam was in InterFan, a loose knit organization that provided content to fanzines. You can read more about it in an earlier Ink Stains here.
An Avengers article follows, which initially chooses images of Spider-Man and a very off model group of Avengers before the always energetic work of Carl Taylor appears (inked by Sam yet again). You can see Carl’s charming melding of Gil Kane and Jack Kirby below.
An interesting trio of articles follows…Marvel news, a “rarest comics” list and…Kiss news! The latter features a full page Kiss piece by Neil Riehle’s brother, Mark. Next is the obligatory letter column, as well as an ad by artist Mike O’Neill for his original work (and below, you can see another Iron Man piece, this time by O’Neill).
A Red Skull article is next, and includes not only a spot illo by Sam, but a full page rendition of that Captain America nemesis seen below.
Favorites, by Jeff Roberts is next, then a Star Wars page, and another example of why the Hernandez brothers went on to do so well. Check out some mean jawas below!
A bit more editorial content follows and then the back cover by Heike signals the end for this issue of Fans-Zine and thus, this installment of Ink Stains as well! I would like to thank my Facebook buddy, Lyle Tucker, for providing the scans of this fanzine. I hope you all check out the pdf, available on my site (kenmeyerjr.com, in the Ink Stains section), and leave some comments below! Till next time…
NOTE: As always, I have been schooled once again by THE WATCHER (he knows all) of the fanzine world, Manny Maris. He suggested I point out that the only way to distinguish (if you only see the title) this zine from several others is the hyphen in the title. There was also a Fan’s Zine (no hyphen) from a Wally Stoelting, for example. Thank you, Wizard!
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
I had this one back in the day. Loved it. Tried like heck to steal some of the kick ass contributors. Snagged a few!
of course you did, matt! Thanks for commenting!
Great trip down memory lane for me… and without having to dig out my old copy. Just FYI… that Heike piece did not print well as it was actually a beautiful painting. Surprised you did not include the outstanding back cover of Dr. Strange also done by the great Mark Heike. So happy to seem that many of my contributors succeeded in the world of professional art. Good times
Love this website and the content, I always read it and find it very interesting and entertaining. Continue like this <3
Hello. And Bye.
Just wanted to say thanx!
Man I really need to do an update on INTER-FAN.
Yep, one of my covers… and no, I never did publish my own fanzine. I did contribute to an awful lot of them though, first Trekzines, then comic zines, a few SF zines, and a few Robert E. Howard zines…