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Fandom Presents: 1964
Editors: Bill Dubay, Rudi Franke, Marty Arbunich, Barry Bauman

A preamble by your usual befuddled guide, Ken…
This very early fanzine is important in the history of fandom, I but had no idea of it’s existence until Manny Maris pointed it out to me (several times!). It made sense to me to let those who had more knowledge of it to do the coverage, so a big mimeo thanks to Manny and, even more importantly, Mark Ammerman, who wrote most of what you see below…and there is a lot! Take it away, guys (Mark is up to bat first)!

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HEROES BY THE HUNDRED
(…and a few we’ve met before)

In June of 2019, while discussing early fandom heroes with Bill Schelly (via email), Bill asked me, “Are you aware of the fanzine Fandom Presents, which was published by Marty Arbunich and Bill DuBay [and Rudi Franke and Barry Bauman] in 1964?” I was not. He continued, “It’s devoted to informational listings and drawings of the amateur heroes published in fandom just up to mid 1964, and there are over 100. I can’t even fathom how many such heroes have been created in the fanzines and various ‘fan pockets’ in the last 50+ years. Most fans are, I think, mainly interested in the ama-heroes they created themselves or read in the fanzines they were getting. Interest in learning about other heroes by other fans might be limited. But what do I know?”

Bill knew a whole lot, of course, and was one of comic fandom’s seminal and principal historians until his unexpected death last September. Beginning in 1995 with the publication of The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, Bill took it on himself to chronicle our early days, and even to reprint (and in some cases revive) the adventures of some of fandom’s most fascinating amateur comic heroes (including Biljo White’s Eye, which Schelly owned at the time of his death.) He believed that the voluminous creative efforts of the comic book fan—especially the foundational efforts upon which fandom was built—were worth preserving and presenting anew. Ken Meyer Jr. believes the same, and for the past eleven years Ink Stains has been Ken’s top-drawer contribution to the cause. This present issue features (I believe) the earliest zine Ken has reviewed, a zine which contains within its many pages contributions by a dozen and a half of fandom’s founders. 

The heroes collected in this dittoed volume graced the pages of amateur comicdom’s first fanzines, though some of these characters debuted in Fandom Presents itself. Manny Maris has supplied the staples-removed copy of FP to Ken Meyer Jr. for scanning, and more importantly the daunting task that Ken performed of bringing out the mages, page by page, from this fading copy. Manny’s short introduction, and comments he garnered from other fans, fill the rest of this issue of Ink Stains, and the reader is the happy beneficiary of all this hard work.

[If you want to check out an archival film on mimeo machines, check this out! -ken]

The artists represented in FP’s pages are a “who’s who” of the golden age of comics fandom, and among the stand-outs in this fascinating compendium are Richard Eugene ‘Grass’ Green, Jake ‘Buddy’ Saunders, Bill DuBay, William Joseph ‘Biljo’ White, Rudi Franke, and Ronald Eugene ‘Ronn’ Foss. Grass’s few illustrations are playful images that bear the gleeful Green stamp. Buddy’s work has that striking Saunder’s edge, even in ditto. DuBay’s many drawings reflect the influence of comicdom’s own golden age. Biljo’s stuff is simply a delight. Franke’s ample offerings are energetic, elaborate, and engaging comic panels. And Ronn Foss rocks! Yes, Fandom Presents is a volume well-worth memorializing—perhaps worth resurrecting in a full hold-in-your-hands reprint someday, with an added section that updates the bios, fills in the blanks, and features some new, top-notch illustration of some of these cool costumed characters. “But what do I know?”

In looking for a copy of Fandom Presents for myself, I tracked down one of the quartet that originally published it. Marty Arbunich is one of the fathers of fandom written up in another of Schelly’s essential volumes: Founders of Comic Fandom. Marty told me he’s been a “comics drop-out for the past 50 years.” He loved comics while he was active in fandom, but long ago moved on to other things. He spent many years in the music business, and for the past 27 years has been publishing a niche market quarterly (CA-Modern magazine) focused on mid-20th century modern residential architecture. “When it comes to reflecting back on my days with Bill DuBay in comics fandom,” Marty said. “I really think I’ve forgotten more than I remember. After all, [that was] 55 years ago, when I was 15 years old. Bill Schelly caught the two of us [Marty and Bill DuBay] for an interview back in the ’90s, but that’s still a long time ago, and the memory has slipped more since then.” He wishes us all good luck with our projects, and that includes this Ink Stains issue about Fandom Presents. Marty only has one copy of his own Fandom Presents, so (understandably) he couldn’t pass it on to me.

Therefore, my copy of FP consists presently of pages I printed from scans (of the original zine) provided by a gracious fan (whom I’d never met) who responded last year to my online query for a copy of it. My first walk through the pages of a fanzine published when I was only ten was like strolling through a museum for retired superheroes (or digging through my own home-made comics from those days). I was happy to see a few familiar masked faces in this ditto power pantheon (mostly those that appeared in Star Studded Comics), and I recognized some of the artists from my early fan days in the late 60s.

One creative contributor, Ken Tesar (aka Kente, aka Miles Kente), had two dozen of his original characters packed into this collection (on pages 45 through 56)—and while eyeballing Ken’s classic lines (his simple, slightly stilted style has remained recognizable through the years), I realized that some of his heroes looked an awful lot like the characters in an 8-page comic story (The Four Horsemen) he wrote and drew for me for Comic Courier #5 (spring 1971). So I dug out that issue and, whuddyaknow!—they were the same grim, gritty guys (with a few changes) he’d dreamed up in the early 60s. I’m presently convinced they appeared nowhere else in the interim. 

Ken himself reprinted The Four Horsemen in the late ’80s, in a zine called Blue Zone. He produced a few issues of that zine as a project for a comic book club with high schoolers. BZ featured work by Ken’s students, but also new front covers by Ken (of characters we find here in Fandom Presents) and reprints of his earlier fandom work. Most of Ken’s creations chronicled in Fandom Presents had already appeared in the seminal zines of comic fandom’s genesis years: Mike Tuohey’s Super Hero; the Texas Trio’s (Howard Keltner, Buddy Saunders, Larry Herndon) Star Studded Comics; G.B. Love’s Fighting Hero; Biljo White’s Komix Illustrated; Steve Perrin’s Mask & Cape (which was originated by Margaret Gemignani); Jim Rossow’s Countdown; and Parley Holman’s Spotlite. Some of these same characters may have last appeared in Blue Zone. Ken passed away in 2017.

When Ken was sending me art and stories in the early 70s, I had no idea that he was a member of fandom’s old guard. His work appeared in my CC #5 (1971), #6 (1971), and #7 (1972), and a handful of other zines around that time (during a bit of a fandom revival for Ken), but I’d never seen his art or stories before that (I started buying zines around 1968), and he never mentioned any prior work. He just showed up in my mailbox with his subscription money and an offer to contribute. There was no indication that his Four Horsemen story featured characters he had created years earlier. Only in my recent perusal of Fandom Presents did I discover the connection—and that led to a bit of sleuthing and the following revelations. 

The illustration above is the splash page for Ken’s story that appeared in Comic Courier #5. Three of these four costumed characters first appeared in Fandom Presents. Two of the men depicted here (Dr. Death on horseback and Vengeance with the axe in hand) are clearly the same as those in FP, the other two (War and Justice) are not so obvious from this splash—but it is clear in the Four Horsemen story itself that they are also Ken’s creations as featured in FP. At the time of FP’s publication, three of these guys were written up as members of “Death’s Warriors,” and they were slated to appear “soon in REB.” I’ve done some cyber-sleuthing, as well as queried the members of fandom assembled on a few of the most populous fanzine Facebook groups, and I’ve specifically asked a few of Ken’s contemporaries (including Mike Tuohey) if they’ve ever heard of a zine called REB: nuh-uh, nada, nuttin’. Maybe our pal Kente (or another of his buddies) was planning something new and (like hundreds of other dream-zines) it just never happened.

But the heroes of “Death’s Warriors” did show up together at last in Comic Courier, redubbed The Four Horsemen. The fellow on the left in this splash is Ringo Savage (identified as War in the Horsemen story); in FP he shows up on page 48, but without the elaborate accoutrements Ken later gave him in The Four Horsemen. The guy second to the left is the Man with the Golden Eyes (identified clearly as such in the story, and bearing the moniker Justice in his role in the Horsemen)—he’s also sans-costume in his bio in FP (p47). 

Mr. Golden Eyes (alias Lon Tensor) is the only one of the Four Horsemen who appeared elsewhere before taking his place in the pages of Fandom Presents. He was featured in a story in Parley Holman’s Spotlite #3 in 1962, where he took down a freak canine by “tremendous brain power which he focuses through his golden eyes (FP p47).” In FP, Ken made no connection between this hero and his proposed super team Death’s Warriors. When the Warriors morphed into the Horsemen for CC#5, Lon Tensor had taken the place of an original Warriors member, Sundance (FP p53). And not only taken his place, but (comparing the Horsemen splash with the FP Sundance bio) his shield also.

We don’t have the time or space here (or the brainpower of the golden-eyed Justice) to untangle the threads of Ken Tesar’s comic universe, but it’s clear to me that through the years he remained close and committed to these fascinating characters from his early days in comic fandom. Half a dozen more from the FP collection appeared in other seminal zines as the adventure team “Six For Justice.”

Ken’s Four Horsemen is an excellent story (with very good art) that doesn’t depend upon (or indicate in itself) any former appearance of these fellows. But they are slated for another gallop. Guy Sparkman (editor/publisher of Exciter Comics, a zine with a focus on early fandom) intends to reprint The Four Horsemen again in a future issue of Exciter. 

An interesting coincidence is that Fandom Presents includes (on page 37) an entry for the 5 Horsemen of Death, a text story by Margaret Gemignani and Marty Arbunich which appeared – – with illustrations by Bill DuBay – in Marty and Bill’s Comic Caper #1 (1964, which became Yancy Street Journal with #3). These horsemen bear no resemblance to Ken’s mounted vigilantes, and I think Ken was reaching for the apocalyptic imagery of the “four horsemen” of Revelation when he chose his team’s moniker—but… who knows?

A handful of “side-bar” scenarios that came to mind and found their way into words as I thumbed the pages of Fandom Presents follows below.

HEROES ON THE FAST TRACK
Most of fandom’s founders felt compelled to add at least one dazzling speedster to their personal pantheons. And so (don’t blink or you’ll miss ‘em) we have: Cyclone and Olympian (both by Steve Perrin), Zodiac (Sherman Howard), The Cat (Rudy Franke), Mercury (Buddy Saunders), Mercury II (Bill DuBay and Marty Arbunich), Pink Terror (Ken Tesar), Speed Marvel (Grass Green), Zepher (John Wright), Atomic Man (Lon Mitchell), and last (and sort of least, because I’m judging him a speedster only on his “super fast reflexes”), Blue Blazer (John Chambers). On your mark, get set….!

DEADMAN
I doubt that this fascinating character gave rise to DC’s haunted hero of the same name later in that decade, but it’s always fun to find a fan hero that beats the big boys to the punch. Buddy Saunders’ Deadman was a detective before an automobile accident took his life—almost. His brain, preserved alive and functioning, was transplanted in a robotic body powered by solar energy (sustainable!) His powers are mainly limited to laser rays generated by the sun’s power. But too much sun and Deadman’s metallic body actually weakens, putting his brain at mortal risk again. Well, we all know too much sun can kill you!

GIRLS (and SPIRITS) ALLOWED
Of the 100+ heroes, villains, and whooziwhatsis in Fandom Presents, nearly 20% are of the (arguably) gentle gender—21 characters in all. Three of these gals were created by Rudy Franke, three by Ronn Foss, three by Ken Tesar, but only one (the spirit Pixie) by a woman herself: Ester Hasson, sister of Comic Hero editor/publisher Jerry Hassen. 

Featured front and center on the cover of Fandom Presents—the visual focus of a fine sampling of some of fandom’s better-known heroes—is Raymond Miller’s and Howard Keltner’s classy heroine Black Scorpion. 

Three of the female characters in FP, however, are “spirits”, official hosts or mascots for some of the zines of the day. Like Alfred E. Neuman for Mad, these cartoon fantoms (both male and female) materialized here and there as ambassadors for their respective publishers. The most famous of those spirits, Capt. Biljo (dubbed so by his namesake creator Bill J. White), spread his duties over a number of zines of the time: Komix Illustrated (the first zine to give significant page-count to amateur comic strips), Comicollector (appropriately named), The Stripper (a zine for fans of daily and Sunday newspaper comics), and Batmania (for collectors of all things Batman). Though the man Biljo has been gone from us since 2003, the spirit Capt. Biljo still happily haunts the print, online, and digital incarnations of a resurrected Batmania, published by Kirk Hastings.

THE LONE STRANGER
Of all these hooded, hatted, hapless heroes, only one hales from the hills and hell-blasted hamlets of the old American West: Silver Dallas! It would have been wonderful to follow the hot-leaded exploits of this two-gunned, coat-and-vested, mustachioed Ronn Foss gunfighter, but if he appeared anywhere beyond this collection of fandom fantasies, we don’t know about it (at least I don’t!) Raised by Indians, Mr. Dallas is the owner of an undisclosed number of silver mines, but with nothing else to recommend him to us but a graphic classic Foss pose, all that we’re left with in the “Appearance” category is the enigmatic “forthcoming.” And then off into the sunset.

“AYE, AYE, CAPTAIN!”

There are plenty of characters to salute in Fandom Presents, a dozen with martial sounding rank: eleven Captains and one Lieutenant. These are Capt. Courage, Capt. Danger, Capt. Glory, Capt. Lightning, Capt. Liberty, Capt. Marvelous, Capt. Occult, and Capt. Victory.

Victory shows up thrice in FP! There are two Capt. Victory characters – one by Steve Perrin and the other by Sherman Howard. Perrin’s Cap fights alongside his wife and her brother in the Victory Squad, and when they are not clobbering bad guys, they make a living as a comic book author and artist team: Dennis and Anne Markham.

John Chambers’ Lt. Victory (unrelated to the two Captains Victory) shows up with masked, grim-face resolve on FP page 64, but he hadn’t yet swung a fist elsewhere. How this “actor/acrobat” got his rank we aren’t told, only that he has sworn never to end up like the alcoholic father who drank himself to death. The Lieutenant’s powers are listed as the “indomitable” will to win and “the strength of an enraged bear.” Look out!

And we mustn’t forget fandom’s long-lasting “lifer”, the afore-mentioned cartoon sprite of Biljo White, Capt. Biljo.

IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

Yes, there is. But what kind of doctor are you looking for? We have Doc Freedom (a man who can fly and shoot power beams from his fingertips), Dr. Darkness (who sees in the darkness, drops nite-bombs to blind others, and zips around in his nifty Nite-flyer aircraft), Dr. Energy (who comes from “a super-civilization in the dim past” and can fly and show off his “electrical strength, etc.”), Dr. Law (who took up crime-fighting to convince his wife that he’s worth something), Dr. Satan (a super-schizo who morphs back and forth – ”every three hours – from the good Green Sceptre to the evil Dr. Satan), and Dr. Weird (whose origin and powers are similar to DC’s subsequent Deadman).

Dr. Weird, created by Howard Keltner, became one of fandom’s most popular heroes, gracing the pages of a good number of high-quality zines and illustrated by a panoply of talented artists, including: D. Bruce Berry, Buddy Saunders, Ronn Foss, George Metzger, Alan Weiss, Landon Chesney, and Jim Starlin. Some of those Starlin-rendered stories were written by George R. R. Martin. Eventually, Dr. Weird became one of fandom’s few “crossover” heroes, making the big-time in Big Bang Comics and other books published by Image Comics.

Last of all (or maybe he should have been first!) is Steve Perrin’s Medico, the only real medical man (though only an intern at the time) in the whole shebang. Medico has an alien bag of supermeds (galactic steroids and cosmic pychotropics) with which to combat the ills of the world. He wears a mask quite like those we are all donning in this season of the coronavirus, and if he were still around today, he might just have a cure for Covid-19.

MISAPPROPRIATED MONIKERS

Some of the characters in Fandom Presents sported names (though not identities) later picked up in the pro comic pages (Blade, Black Widow, Black Panther, Deadman… and more), but many others borrowed monikers already claimed by the guys and gals whose adventures sold for 10 cents at the corner drug store. Have some fun: check out the two character indexes (on pages I through V at the beginning of Fandom Presents), and make a list of all the guys, gals, and goons whose names you recognize from the mainstream publishers. You’ll find dozens of names that correspond with heroes and villains from the Golden Age until the present day.

IT’S IN THE CARDS

Nowhere near a full deck, but we’ve got two Aces of Spades, two Jokers, and an Old Maid on the FP game table.

Steven Kelez’ Ace of Spades is a genuine card shark, a master detective, and an agile acrobat (sleight of hand with a knuckle sandwich – and pow! – game over.)

Sherman Howard’s Ace of Spades is an android (stacked deck!)

Steven Kelez’ Joker is a bus boy at the Royal Casino (and the costumed sidekick of his card-savvy partner the Ace of Spades.)

Bill DuBay’s Joker is a mask-and-tights undercover FBI agent assigned to take down a murderous millionaire widow known as the Old Maid. Her weapon of choice is a deadly cane that spits out razor-sharp playing cards designed to cut a man to pieces! Neither DuBay’s Joker nor his nasty nemesis had yet actually played together when they appeared in Fandom Presents.

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL!

Rudi Franke has given us Mephistopheles, an immortal villain who ‘has existed as long as man” and whose powers include flight, being able to “see everywhere” (better vision even than Sauron!), and “craftiness” (that latter ability is especially nefarious!) Prior to starring as Rudi’s imaginative bad boy, Mephistopheles existed as a demon in German folklore, and as a main character in Goethe’s famous novel Faust. Classic Illustrated‘s comic book version of Faust (with excellent, evocative art by Norman Nodel) is one of the creepiest comics I ever read as a kid!

Biljo White casts his own hellish hero, Son of Satan, as the devil’s own son. As a youngster, this unfortunate son of Belial finds (and studies) a Bible in his home in Hades – and this holy tome changes the way this kid has been raised so far. Once grown to manhood (devilhood?), he ventures out into the world with his “magic lance” (one of those ubiquitous arrow-headed tridents we always see in Satan’s grasp) to attempt to undo his dastardly dad’s bad deeds!

– Mark Ammerman
(Mark Ammerman published seven issues of Comic Courier from 1969-1972. This year, 2020, he is celebrating his fifty+ years in fandom by releasing several fanzines, including a 50th Anniversary issue of Comic Courier)

It should also be mentioned that several other hero compendiums followed Fandom Presents, produced by fans though not about fan heroes, most specifically The Illustrated Comic Collectors Handbook in particular, a four-volume series published between 1966 and 1969 by Gordon B. Love.

Gordon should need no introduction, his stature in providing legendary published organs of sixties comics fandom is second only to Jerry Bails – indeed, it was by combining his own fanzine Rocket’s Blast 29th issue with Bails’s The Comicollector 16th issue, that the near twenty year run of the seminal G.B. Love’s RBCC (Rocket’s Blast & The Comicollector) began with issue #29 in 1964!

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Artists/Writers who originally drew/created characters represented:

MARTY ARBUNICH: Caper Carr (w/ Bill DuBay), The Micro-Gnat, Mortis, Nite-Crawler (w/ Bill DuBay)

ROGER BRAND: The Green Sorceress, John Orson

JOHNNY CHAMBERS: Ace Merrieuse, The Black Cloak, Blue Blazer, Discus Thrower, Firebird, Lt. Victory, Miasm, Silver Bolt, Silver Guardian, Spymaster, Warlock, Windsman

CHUCK CURTIS: The Bird (w/ Bill DuBay)

CHUCK DEAN: Capt. Danger, Capt. Nova, The Searcher, The Viking

BILL DUBAY: Billy De, Bird, Black Ghost, Black Wizard, Capt. Marvelous, Dr. Law (w/ Chick DuBay), Flag (w/ Marty Arbunich), The Gray Grasshopper (2), Green Sceptre/Dr. Satan, The Immortals, John Fulmen, Joker, Liberty Leader, The Live-Wire, Mercury (2) (w/ Marty Arbunich), The Old Maid, The Rooftop, Seymour/Seymour Hopkins Masked Surfer, Shadow Master & Shady, The Shields (five heroes), Surfer, Thunderbird (1), Thunderman

CHICK DUBAY: Alien Master (w/ Mike Lauret), Golden Avenger

TOMMY FISHER: Astro Man

DAN FLEMING: Doc Freedom

RONN FOSS: Belle Star, The Blade (1) (w/ Grass Green), The Eclipse (w/ Drury Moroz), The Fox, Joy Holiday, Silver Dallas, The Viper

RUDY FRANKE: The Cat, The Flame, The Human Skull, Mephistopheles, The Serpent, The Sorceress

JEFF GELB: Capt. Glory, Capt. Occult, Microbe Man

STEVE GERBER: Little Giant (w/Ronn Foss)

MARGARET GEMIGNANI: Mr. Ananomus [sic] (Mr. Anonymous), Eureka, Five Horsemen Of Death (w/ Marty Arbunich, Bill DuBay), Silver Defender (w/ Wayne Howard)

RICHARD GRASS GREEN: Action Ace & Thrill Boy,  American Man with Battleboy & Cyclone, Speed Marvel

ESTER HASSON: The Pixie (With Jerry Hasson)

LARRY HERNDON: Black Crusader, Defender, Herman Q. Fan, Val Vinston (w/ Bill DuBay)

DAVE HERRING: The Cosmic Ray, Kobar, Mercury Jones

STEVE HERRING: Keylar Inter-Planetary Guardian

PARLEY HOLMAN: Dimension Man (w/ Ronn Foss)

SHERMAN HOWARD: Ace Of Spades (2), Captain Victory (2), Dangerman, The Dark Star, Diamond Star, The Doom Commando, Dr. Energy, The Storm, The Three Infinities, The Vampire, Zodiac

HOWARD KELTNER: Doctor Weird, Powerman

STEVEN KELEZ: Ace Of Spades (1), Flying Commando (Commando Cody), Joker

AL KUHFELD: God, Polaris, Rocketman

PHIL LIEBFRIED: Astro (w/ Mike Vosburg)

ALLAN LUCAS: The Gray Grasshopper (1), Junior Commandoes [sic]

MICKEY MARTIN: Meteor, Toad, White Dragon

RAYMOND MILLER: The Black Scorpion

LONDON LON MITCHELL: Atomicman, The Champion, The Element

LARRY MONTGOMERY: The Guard

RANDY MONTGOMERY: The Space Creature

DRURY MOROZ: Vibro-Man (w/ Alan Weiss)

STEVE PERRIN: American Star, Anthem, Beast Master, Black Phantom, Captain Liberty, Capt. Victory (1), Cyclone, Dr Darkness, Dreamsman, Force Master, Golden Comet, Ibis, Law’s Angel, Medico, Night Rider, Norseman, Olympian, Sandstorm, Sportsman, Tele, Totem Chief 

BUDDY SAUNDERS: Changling, Deadman, Demon, Graviteer, Mercury (1)

DONALD W SCHANK: Capt. Courage (w/ Chuck Rogers), Nite’s Agent, Ruby Red

KEN TESAR: Black Lightning, Blue Streak, The Claw, The Exocution, Golden Gladiator, Golden Lance, Lash, Man With The Golden Eyes, Kandar, Mirage Master, Mr. Death, Phoenix, Pink Terror, Ringo Savage, Sky Master, Snow, Space Alien, Spiked Smasher, Stingray, Sundance, Thralg, Thunderbird (2), Tyrex, White Lightning

JAMES TOREN: The Skeleton

TIM TUTTLE: Black Widow, Capt Lightning

MIKE VOSBURG: The Cowl (w/ Ronn Foss)

LEN WEIN: The Prism

RICK WEINGROFF: Black Star

BILJO WHITE: Astroace, The Blade (2), Capt. Biljo, The Eye, The Fog, The Lion, Son Of Satan, 

MARV WOLFMAN: Excalibre

JOHN WRIGHT: The Black Panther, Union Jack, The Zepher [sic] (Zephry)

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Fandom Presents references heroes whose strips were published in the following fanzine titles (editors-publishers in parentheses):

Ace Comic Club Newsletter 9

Action Hero (Charles ‘Chik’ DuBay) 1 (Bill DuBay) 2 (Sherman & Wayne Howard) 3

All Stars! (Marty Arbunich/Golden Gate) 1

Alter Ego (Ronn Foss) 5, and various early issues

Aurora (Len Wein)

Batmania (Biljo White)

Black Star (Rick Weingroff) 1

Brave Adventure (Charles ‘Chuck’ Dean) 1, 2, 3

Comic Caper (Marty Arbunich) 1 (Marty Arbunich/Bill DuBay) 2

Comic Comments (Greg Feldman) 2

Comic Fan (Buddy Saunders) 1

Comic Hero (Jerry Hasson) 1

Comic House #1 ??????????? [Sherman Howard’s Captain Victory]

Comicollector (Jerry Bails) 8, and various early issues

Condor Comics (Donald W Schank) 1, 2, 3

Countdown (James Rossow)  1

Dateline: Comicdom (Ronn Foss) 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Dual Identity (Bill Bruesch)  1

Excitement Komix (Lon Mitchell)

FANtastic (Johnny Chambers) 5

Fantasy Hero (Bill DuBay/Marty Arbunich) 1, 2, 3, 4, X-Mas Special [between  2 and 3, so 2.5]

Fantasy Heroes’ Hangout (Bill DuBay/Marty Arbunich/Rudy Franke/Barry Bauman aka Golden Gate Qt)  1

Fantasy Illustrated (Bill Spicer) 3

Fighting Hero Comics (G B Love/SFCA) 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11

God Comics (Al Kuhfeld/Rick Norwood) 1, 2, 3, 4

Glory Comics (Jeff Gelb)

Headline (Steve Gerber) 1 

Hero (Larry Herndon)  1, 2, 4 

Heroes (Jeff Gelb/Alan Larkin) 5

Heroes’ Hangout (Rudy Franke/Barry Bauman) 1, 2, 3, 4 (Rudy Frank/Golden Gate) 5

House Of Heroes (John T Ryan) 1 

Jeddak (Paul E Moslander) 2, 5, 6

The Komix (John Wright) 1, 2

Komix Heroz Of The Future (Donald W Schank) 6

Komix Illustrated (Biljo White)  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Biljo White/Craig Garbett) 10 [aka Limbo #1] (Michael Martin) 11, 12 (Craig Garbett) 13

Komix Thrills (Charles ‘Chuck’ Dean) 1

Mask & Cape (Margaret Gemignani or Steve Perrin) 1, 2, 3 (Steve Perrin) 4

Masquerader (Mike Vosburg) 1, 4, 5, 6

Men Of Mystery va (Jeff Gelb/Howard Brenner) 1, 3

ODD [3rd series] (Dave Herring) 1, and various issues following

Rocket’s Blast (G B Love) 7, 9

Rocket’s Blast Comicollector (G B Love) various early issues 29-39

So What (Rick Norwood) 4

Spotlite (Parley ‘Par’ Holman) 1, 2, 3, 

Star-Studded Comics (Larry Herndon/Howard Keltner/Buddy Saunders) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The Stripper (Biljo White) 1

Super-Adventures  (Marv Wolfman) 1, 2

Super-Hero (Mike Tuohey) 2

Super Theater (London ‘Lon’ Mitchell) 1, 3, 4

Thuria (Larry Taylor/Tom Dietz) 1

Voice Of Comicdom (Rudy Franke/Golden Gate Qt) 2, and various early issues

These following fanzines, although mentioned in Fandom Presents, may possibly never have been published:

All Blue Streak Stories (Snow by Ken Tesar)

Comic House (Captain Victory by Sherman Howard)

REB  (Pink Terror by Kente/Ken Tesar, Mr. Death by Ken Tesar, Sundance by Ken Tesar, Ringo Savage by Ken Tesar)

Royal 1  (Union Jack by John Wright) confirmed Never published, some pages printed

By virtue of their numbering, it suggests that at least previous issue may exist, but I have been able to find no copies of any issues of the following:

Ace Comic Club Newsletter 9

Sentinal 3, 4, and 5 (Golden Gladiator by Ken Tesar)

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Below are anecdotes by several participants in fandom’s history.

   As a young teen fan, the fanzine world, starting with Star Studded and Alter Ego litho editions, I dove into ditto and mimeograph zines and APAs with the hunger of a starving man. Ronn Foss wrote me, “Like you, I believed if I just kept drawing, copying my heroes like Joe Kubert, I would naturally evolve into a pro. I was wrong. Study, take formal training, and then you may have a shot.” I did covers for a couple of ditto zines (I love ditto color themes) and loved the fan artists who were a bit better than me, but made me think my skill could still make it. 

Dorothy McGreal, a neighbor, and more importantly strip art collector and editor/publisher of the prozine World Of Comic Art: The Journal of Comic Art And Caricature (six issues 1966-69), looked at my art and really gave me a rude awakening, but encouraged my writing. Dick Giordano encouraged my writing. Many people encouraged my writing, so I pushed to become a writer. Fandom Presents was an introduction to titles I had never heard, the imagination of Steve Perrin, who is still a mover and shaker, but in the realm of role playing games, and many other fan active talents. 

   The one-shot Fantasy Heroes Hangout was a favorite, and I was lucky enough to be taken to Bill Spicer’s little one room cave on Stocker in Glendale, where I was opening the giant cardboard flats from Bill DuBay with full size art, clean, crisp and almost too clinical. Landon Chesney’s art was “laying around.” Bill taught me how to justify type on a typewriter and turned me on to one-color and four-color printers and processes. It was an education that continued to rise up and meet me every time I found a new thing to chase. Fandom Presents was a great introduction to a world I had barely seen, which brought me to Star Studded, Alter Ego, and Fantasy Illustrated. A rich seed that, when gardened properly, grew into a large, lifelong harvest of great fruit.

– Joseph K. Adams. Mr. Adams revived Larry Herndon’s ’60s fanzine Batwing, by publishing #4 in 1974. Adams, also a playwright and radio personality, went for many years under the nom de plume Joe Coleman as a game designer working on role-playing games, then resumed writing under his full name Joseph Kessler Adams.

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   To tell you my thoughts about the Fandom Presents, I should start at the beginning of my immersion into fanzines. My first-ever acquisition was the Charlton Portfolio, the special double issue (#9-10) of CPL (Contemporary Pictorial Literature) published back in 1974 by Roger Stern and Bob Layton. Wow!

   Next I found some of Bill Black’s ’70s Paragon fanzines at my favorite comic store. Fast forward to around 2000 and while looking around for the Charlton Bullseye fanzines, I found a vintage 60s zine Fighting Hero Comics with a hero character on the cover – I won it!. After that I started bidding/buying other vintage fanzines – but not all of them had comic strips in them. My specific interest was in AMA-strips, specifically the sub-genre of fanzines called Strip-Zines. Then I came across Marty Greim’s ultimate issue of CC, the Comic Crusader Storybook. This one-shot consolidated my knowledge of what an AMA-hero was. I started tracking down the fanzine titles listed in it, which brings me to the legendary fanzine Fandom Presents – as luck was with me as I won a copy.

   In this fanzine I found nearly one-hundred AMA-heroes, popular ones like Parley ‘Par’ Holman and Ronn Foss’s Dimension Man, John Wright’s Union Jack, Howard Keltner’s Doctor Weird, Billy Joe ‘Biljo’ White’s The Eye, and lots more; there were lesser known AMA-heroes also, and some not yet published. Dimension Man is now my favorite AMA-hero. But I also discovered the Gray Grasshopper, an AMA-hero that actually started out in a high school news paper …in 1938 – revived by Bill DuBay! Then there’s the AMA-hero Medico created by Steve Perrin. I’ve never found that Medico-featured fanzine for a price I could afford, but given the profile in FP it is one of the AMA-heroes I would love to read a story about. The Demon, Graviteer, Deadman and the Changling – all creations of Buddy Saunders – are in some of the fanzines I AM lucky enough to own.

 What a gold mine of information on fanzines! With it, I now knew what fanzines to search for. 

   Without Fandom Presents I would still be buying blindly and hoping for AMA-hero strips to be included – it served one of its main purposes, though decades later FP, along with issues of Spotlite by Parley Holman is the central – and untouchable – treasure of my fanzine collection. If you get the chance to own it, TAKE IT! You will be very glad you did.

   In a subsequent ‘zine purchase, i found to my surprise I was buying from Bill Schelly! With his help, I got in touch with other members of ’60s comics fandom. As I began my interviews, I discovered that several of the fanzines and strip characters listed in FP were unpublished. From talking with John Wright I discovered that his Union Jack text story from The Komix #2 was to be redone into comic strip form, drawn by the late Ronn Foss, in Royal #1, to be published by Jeremy [last name unknown]. Wright sent me a scan of the cover of Royal #1, also done by Foss, but to the best of my knowledge Royal #1 was never published. 

   Mr. Wright also told me he did a six-part Union Jack story “The Zombie Maker” for another South African fanzine named Comix News, published by Ed [last name unknown]. At the time of his last letter to me, Wright said he had 9 of the 11 issues of Comix News, but he never saw the issue with last part [six]. John Wright was later asked by Roy Thomas to use the Union Jack name, and was thanked in the letter column of the 12th issue of The Invaders. 

In one of my earliest interviews, this with Martin ‘Marty’ Greim, he informed me he had written nine David Manning/The Defender stories that have never seen print. I also found out that Ken Tesar had done a fanzine titled Blue Zone with his art students in the late ’80s, that included some of his used and unused art/strips from the ’60s. In talking with Buddy Saunders around 2005, he said he has enough stories to publish a novel if he wished to! 

  -Guy E. Sparkman, ed-pub of Exciter Comics Funzine (2007-now), which focuses on the ’60-70s stripzines, and interviews their creators. #4 should be out later this year.

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I bought FP back in the 70’s at I think The old Collector’s Bookshop in Hollywood. I was at that point doing my own superheroes and looking at this and seeing a lot of future professionals all started the same way.  I was aware of comic fandom but not how many people were so busy doing their own heroes, even George R.R. Martin! I liked the Bill DuBay’s the Gray Grasshopper and Biljo White’s The Eye. I wished I had participated more in fandom earlier than I did finally…

– Lance DOC Boucher, INTER-FAN PRODUCTIONS INK!

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The Fanzines of the Golden Gate Quartet and its various members:

BIll DuBay, Marty Arbunich, Rudy Franke, and Barry Bauman – aka the alternate Fantastic Four.

In late 62-early 63, Bill DuBay’s brother Charles ‘Chic’ DuBay published the first issue of the stripzine Action Hero; Bill himself would publish the second before transfering the zine to brothers Wayne Howard & Sherman Howard to continue up through #7,1966. (Wayne Howard would later pass through the legendary Wallace Wood’s studio as one of a long line of notable assistants, and with that influence under his belt go on to illustrate many of Charlton’s horror comic titles in the seventies.)

Bill DuBay & Marty Arbunich published five issues of Fantasy Hero (#s 1-4, and the X-Mas 1963 Special),1963-64.

Rudy Franke (aka Rudi Franke, Rudolph W. Franke) & Barry Bauman published four issues of Heroes’ Hangout (#0-3, 0 was a sampler actually #d 1A, and #s 1 and 2 came with standalone digest-size 2nd sections featuring strips from Roger Brand and Franke, respectively), 1963-64.

The two sets of partners met in 1964, deciding to pool their resources under the banner Golden Gate name, first planning Fantasy Heroes’ Hangout, which was a combination of both of their above zines (Fantasy Hero and Heroes’ Hangout), in which they also give details of that initial meeting; and Fandom Presents which came second.

Fantasy Heroes’ Hangout contained, among other things, a 21 page article on the Golden Age Nedor heroes, with illustrations of over 40 of them, and a 16 page strip starring The Invincibles, The Great Grasshopper Chase, written by Steve Perrin, illustrated by Franke and DuBay, where the Invincibles meet the original 1938 Gray Grasshopper.

Arbunich had also started another fanzine that same year, with DuBay’s help, called Comic Caper; with issue #3 it became Yancy Street Journal, and continued to #12 (1966). YSJ #13, the last gasp, only appeared as a section inside Heroes’ Hangout #5… what’s that you say?!?

[Marty himself added a bit more clarity from the horse’s mouth below. -Ken]

Just for the record, perhaps some clarification re: Fantasy Heroes Hangout and Voice of Comicdom. As you know, Bill and I published Fantasy Hero, and Rudy and Barry did Heroes Hangout. The title Fantasy Heroes Hangout was our natural and seamless way of bringing together each of our ventures into a single collaboration. Also, I believe the first few issues of Voice of Comicdom were edited/assembled only by Bill Dubay and me. I recall doing most of those primitive text past-ups myself. When Bill and I threw in the towel after the first few issues of VOC, then Rudi Franke took over, and without Barry I believe. I’m not sure the exact issue, but if you look at the layouts (and perhaps the mailing address), the transition point is fairly obvious. From that point on, Bill and I were not involved. Bill then went off to the Army, and I dove into college (locally) and got involved in the SF music scene. 

Yep, after the effectively-one-shot Fantasy Heroes’ Hangout, that zine split into two titles both spearheaded by Franke: the revived Heroes’ Hangout #s 4-7 (1966-7), and Voice Of Comicdom #2-6 (1964-66) under the Golden Gate aegis, and 9-17 (1967-71) by himself. VoC #s 5 and 6 only appeared as sections in Heroes’ Hangout #s 5 and 6 respectively (that’s your answer if you were wondering why you could never find those two issues of Voc, or the #1..). Voice of Comicdom #2 was tabloid size (as was #3 as well, before shrinking to 8.5×11″), and folded up was also included in copies of Fandom Presents.

Franke also published a single issue of The Collector (#1, 1966). In 1967, Bill G Wilson would also publish his own The Collector #1, an unrelated fanzine and a classic mainstay that lasted 29 issues through 1974. In addition, Franke published an issue of Impulse: The Heroes’ Hangout Newsletter in 1967 (this item’s info is per Aaron Caplan, as I have never seen a copy).

In 1965, Arbunich was also involved to some degree in Gotham Gazette, ed-pubbed by Steve Kelez, who also published the zines Magnum Opus (o/s stripzine), and the fantasy/fx films based Amateur Producer’s Magazine. But more importantly, Arbunich and DuBay spearheaded the amazing All Stars! title, #1 coming out in 1966 under the Golden Gate banner.

The Golden Gate quartet suffered attrition almost from the beginning. By 1966 Barry Bauman had effectively ended his involvement; by 1967, with the cessation of Yancy Street Journal, DuBay and Arbunich were not involved either, leaving Franke the last zine-publishing GG man standing for several more years, ending his VoC career on a very high note by publishing Richard Corben’s 2nd graphic novel, Rowlf, in issues #16 and 17. 

(Corben’s 1st graphic novel, Tales From The Plague, was published in issue #13 of Dennis Cunningham’s Weirdom Illustrated, 1969 (previously Weirdom). Franke had been championing Corben in the pages of VoC since 1968, serializing his very-first published strip, Monsters Rule, in issues #12-15.)

Franke also published 13th Floor, a section that appeared in the Jerry Bails-founded CAPA-Alpha – or K-A for short, a monthly APA that started in late ’64, and has continued to this day. Franke contributed at least 16 issues from 1968 to 1972.

The massive and phenomenal (Arbunich and Dubay Presents) All Stars! #2, 1970, collecting the handful of material from 1965-66 that didn’t make it into #1 – work from Al Williamson, Steve Ditko, Reed Crandall, Roger Brand, as well as a strip from Jerry Page & Jeff Jones – was added to unpublished work collected from ’66-70 from the by-now very well-known underground comics faves Rick Griffin, Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Greg Irons, Trina Robbins, Rory Hayes, Larry Welz, et al, et al – even a strip from the now well-known publisher Manuel Auad – was published after the demise of Golden Gate by Gary Arlington (San Francisco Comic Book Co.) in 1970. 

– Emanuel ‘Manny Lunch’ Maris, lover of 60s-70s comic fanzines, all-around info junkie and culture vulture, and a proto-typical ARCS (Anal Retentive Collector Scum). He is currently working on a (non-price) Comic Fanzine Guide/Index of anything/everything of relevance published from the 30s through the 70’s, to include indexing of major pro, pre-pro, and fan artist appearances, and writers/articles of major import – in every single listing.

Golden Gate Quartet Post Script: In later years, Rudy Franke would do very infrequent comic book artwork, but it was the late Bill DuBay who got a visible mainstream job, initially as artist, then story writer, and finally as editor – during three different periods – for Warren magazines’ many b&w comics titles. The last time around, Jim Warren gave him his own title, 1984 (later 1994), created in an effort to compete with Heavy Metal, wherein DuBay right away pissed off artist/writer comic grandmasters Wally Wood and Richard Corben – to the degree that they vehemently swore never to work for Warren again. He altered Strnad’s dialogue to include words and phrases that Strnad has called “a spew of juvenile obscenities” for the first appearance of Corben and Jan Strnad’s graphic novel Mutant World  (serialized in issues # 1-8) after it was sent in finished. He eviscerated/butchered the 12-page Wizard King-related Wood story The End, again after it was sent in finished, into two unrelated re-written 6-page stories Quick Cut and One Night Down On The Funny Farm.

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Well…..whew! This is definitely the longest Ink Stains so far…and probably ever! Thanks to Mark Ammerman and Manny Maris for all their hard work. Remember, you can download a pdf (in two parts) from my site at kenmeyerjr.com. Bring a sandwich!

My hand is sore.

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com