RBCC 138: 9/1977
Editor and publisher: James Van Hise
Hello and welcome back to the past! Here in the safe basement of our parents’ house back in the mid seventies we get to peruse the best fanzines of the day. Break out the RC cola, get Star Trek on the tv in the background (never mind the crappy reception), sit down on the plush bean bag chairs and let’s all geek out to the comic worshipping amateur publications that we love so much!
If you read fanzines back then, you could not escape RBCC. Shepherded by G. B. Love, then taken over by James Van Hise, RBCC was one of the most stable, dependable, and well put together zines of the day. Van Hise took over a few years before this and revamped the fanzine to have much more content and be much more visually appealing overall. I think we all owe a big huge thanks to Jim. While he was making RBCC better with each issue, he was showcasing a boatload of new writers and artists. People like Mike Zeck (seen above at left), Kerry Gammill, Hilary Barta, Stephen Fabian, Marc Hempel (all in this issue), Don Newton, Robert Kline and many, many more. Let’s get this show on the road!
As you can see above, the front and back covers are glorious. Mike Zeck had a great run of covers (and some interior work) during this period. His smooth, sinewy style was destined for the professional ranks. In fact, for me personally, it is his fanzine work that remains the most iconic. I have said before that I think the daily grind of working professionally can take much of the individuality out of an artist, or at least smooth off some of what might be considered “rough edges,” but that I would consider positive and specific pluses.
Don Rosa’s Information Center (after the letters column) is the first feature and, with this issue, artist Hilary Barta takes over the visual duties from writer Rosa. Hilary had an expressive line back then (not that he doesn’t now), somewhat reminiscent of one of his influences, Berni Wrightson (featured later), as well as an understanding of form and lighting. You can see a few examples of his work above and below.
Hilary Barta has had a long career in comics after his fanzine days. In the eighties especially he worked (primarily as an inker) for virtually every company in existence! A few of the characters he has worked on as an inker or penciller include the X-men, Alpha Flight, New Mutants, The Thing, Airboy, Plastic Man and Power Pack. He can and did move back and forth between serious work and humor, being especially qualified in the latter category. Hilary was nice enough to take a few minutes out of his day to answer a few questions via email for me.
Of his beginnings, he told me, “I made art when I was young, and somewhere I have a page that was inspired by the Adam West Batman series, drawn when I was in grade school. But I didn’t really dive into drawing comics until much later. When I was young I read comics strips in the paper, but the first comics I read were brought by my older brothers. I read a few early Marvels. We also had the MAD paperback reprints, and those had a great impact on me.” Of fandom, he said, “I discovered fanzines when the manager of our local newsstand found an ad in a comic for the RBCC , ordered a copy and eventually wrote to the publisher, James Van Hise. I didn’t contribute to many zines beyond the RBCC. Just a drawing here or there. In high school I bought comics collections from two or three other kids. Eventually I learned about local comic shops, and attended a swap meet that evolved into the Chicago Comic Con. The folks who ran that show allowed amateur fan artists to set up at tables. Through that experience I met many local artists, and had my first contact with professionals. It was exciting to be published, and through the RBCC I came in contact with several of their other artists, including Bret Blevins and Marc Hempel.” As with most, the first years of professional work were daunting. Hilary says that “my first years as an inker were a learning experience. I was raw, and had no professional training. I was lucky that my editors at Marvel stuck with me while I was learning the craft. A highpoint for me was inking Jon Bogdanove on Power Pack and a few other projects.” Hilary mentioned he has kept in touch with many of his fanzine era friends through the years. His pro work has led him to a few film and tv projects, including The Muppets and Elementary. I would urge you to support his Patreon page here.
After The Information Center and Barta’s profile, a few house columns turn up, including the Critique section, R.C. Harvey’s Comicopia (including a fun Joe Kubert/Norman Maurer educational page seen above), as well as a feature entitled Comic Collector’s Comments by Howard P. Siegel. This column covers a 1960’s British comic called The Trigan Empire, with art by Don Lawrence.
The great Berni Wrightson turns up next, in The Unknown Wrightson, showcasing early art from The Baltimore Sun newspaper. No date is mentioned, but I am guessing it is around ’66-’67, before Berni started dating his work. Look below!
Editor Van Hise would many times build each issue around a central theme, to some degree at least. He does it here with Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. Van Hise explores the differences between the prose and comic book versions of this character, with illustrations by Kerry Gammill, Andy Warner, Marc Hempel, and John Adkins Richardson (as well as Fabian’s back cover), a few seen below.
Comics Commentary is next, followed by a press release announcing Gil Kane and Ron Goulart’s way too beautiful strip, Star Hawks. RBCC previews two strips as part of the declaration. TV news is covered next by Michael Shonk in Between the Commercials.
Don Rosa’s looooong running strip, The Pertwillaby Papers fills the next ten pages. This is installment 134, folks!!! I cannot think of anyone more persistently published in the fan world than Rosa….perhaps Alan Hanley is close. I would consider getting this far a pretty big achievement by any standard! See a few pages below.
Other than a fan poll, that is it for the actual content…a few pages of ads follows until the issue ends with the fabulous Fabian. Thanks again to Hilary Barta for spicing up the column this month! Come back November first for issue 136 of RBCC, hopefully with some involvement from the stylin’ Dennis Fujitake! On a personal note, I was lucky enough recently to trade for the art to the Fujitake cover of another beloved adzine, TBG…special because it is the cover to issue 8, the issue that made me aware of comic fandom in the first place!
Thanks for dropping by folks, and please leave some comments so I can prove you were here! And don’t forget to get the entire issue in pdf format from my site at kenmeyerjr.com!
Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com
