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Comic Crusader Storybook: 1977
Editor/publisher: Martin Greim

There are so many amazing fanzines in the past, full of incredible input from so many individuals. Some stand out because of the quality of the contents. Some stand out because of the sheer size. Some stand out because of the input of either enthusiastic fans or seasoned professionals (sometimes both). There are, however, very few publications that can claim to have all of the above between two covers. Martin Greim’s Comic Crusader Storybook is the only one that can really fill that bill, in my opinion (though someone will surely correct me). After an incredible run with his regular version of Comic Crusader (you can see issues 5,6, 10-15 profiled in Ink Stains, accessible through my website at kenmeyerjr.com, in the Ink Stains section), Greim topped it off with one of the most incredible achievements of fandom. Pros such as Joe Sinnott, Dick Giordano (both seen above), Rudy Nebres, Jim Steranko, John Byrne, Neal Adams, Frank Thorne, Kurt Schaffenberger, Fred Fredericks, Joe Staton, Dan Adkins, and Gene Day all had a hand in the pages of this fanzine. And established fans (some to become pros) like Carl Taylor, Dennis Fujitake, Gary Kato, Don Newton, Biljo White, Grass Green, Ronn Foss, Mike Machlan, Pete Iro, Bill Black, Jerry Ordway and others combined all the aforementioned enthusiasm with laudable skill to tell the stories featuring characters originated in fandom itself. In Greim’s lengthy introduction, he shares many details about each character and the creators behind them.

The first story (broken into two parts, with part two ending the zine) features Greim’s character, Defender. Below, you see one of the two pin ups (the other by Nebres alone) and a page from the editor’s creation.

It has been stated too many times that Griem’s methods involved a lot of swiping, possibly some tracing, of some of his heroes. Above, eagle eyed comic fans can see elements of Wally Wood and possibly Russ Manning (Defender’s alter ego is actually named Manning)…Greim references this in his intro. In other panels, I think I see elements of Burne Hogarth and a few others…but, honestly, Greim does such a great job of running it through his sensibilities and abilities, that it becomes pretty darn seamless.

Up next is The Eclipse, a Ronn Foss superhero, with the strip itself being pencilled by Gary Kato. Below you can see the pro pin up and a page from the story, showing Gary’s great layouts. Gary does another story later in the book that shows his love of Ditko…stay tuned!

Greim mentions in the intro that The Eclipse was actually originally going to be a revival of the golden age character, Dr. Mid-night, but that was nixed by DC’s Julie Schwartz…so, after some rethinking, The Eclipse was born and first published in Alter Ego issue 5.

One of the most constant and productive fans at that time had to be Alan Hanley…he was everywhere! His cartoony style was reminiscent of some of Hanley’s heroes, such as C. C. Beck (Captain Marvel, the big red cheese…in fact, Goodguy’s “other” name is Major Marvel), and many of the villains and other characters were barely concealed homages and parodies of existing characters. Below you see a pin up and a page from the story.

Up next is Grass Green’s character, Xal-Kor the Human Cat, who first appeared in the “Texas Trio” publication, Star Studded Comics (along with many other fan characters). In the pdf you can see a pin up by Mike Machlan/Don Newton/Bill Wilson of the character, and below you can see a page by Green and Brian Buniak.

On Xal-Kor’s heels is the first of three stories featuring the artwork of a favorite of mine, Dennis Fujitake. This story shows how easily Fujitake slipped into humor, and what a command he had of human gestures. Later in the book, you will see not only did his Hawaiian compatriot, Gary Kato, have a deep love of Ditko, but Fujitake did as well. I was able to get an email response from Dennis (NO, the person on fb was wrong, he has NOT passed away!) about this zine, which you see below, in his usual humorous and self depreciating manner.

I forgot I had done these. I think I must have done them while I was working at an ad agency in a local department store. The main clue I use to deduce the timeline is the Zip-a-Tone which was an acetate sheet with the halftone dot patterns printed on them in various textures. One pasted them on the line art and used an Xacto knife to trim away the excess. I believe this ancient technology no longer exists. The one thing that still bothers me is my horribly sad lettering skills. Ah, to be young again with all that energy to burn while glued to my drawing table spending hours drawing just for the fun of it. 
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice must have been a humorous one-shot story I dreamed up for Marty’s book. There are no credits but I believe I was the writer and artist on the strip. I must have seen it as an opportunity to use some of Ditko’s Dr. Strange techniques for the spells and arcane incantations. I had fun doing this one. I think I was using a combination of pen and brush for the inking. 
The second strip starred Space Guardian that I was supposed to just ink. I have to apologize to Carl Taylor who actually penciled the strip. When I got the pencils from Marty the carbon from the pencil lead was especially thick and heavy on the bristol paper. I was concerned about trying to erase the pencil lines after inking it. I was worried that the ink would not be able to be properly absorbed into the paper so that when it came to erasing the excess pencil lines a lot of the ink would be lifted away. Rather than sending it back to Marty I decided to re-pencil the entire strip on my own bristol paper. 
Steve Ditko’s influence was still strong as reflected in the fight scenes. Lots more Zip-a-Tone as well as terrible lettering. Again, it was a fun story to draw especially with all the different faces and characters. It would have been really great if not for my shoddy lettering. 
The third story was by Howard Keltner. Dr. Weird is obviously a play on Dr. Strange. However, it did provide me with another chance to have fun doing a Ditko like story. What astounds me today is the amount of detail I put into the background. I don’t think I’d have the stamina now that I had back then. Dang, that was a lot of work. To all of you young artists out there, enjoy your youthful energy and put it to good use because it’s not going to be there forever. Oh, and did I mention the shabby lettering?
Well, that’s all that my steel sieve of a memory can recall. Just be glad that I’m typing this and not hand lettering it. 

Bill Black makes an appearance next (after the pin up by Mike Machlan, seen in the pdf), with one of several characters that filled the pages of the many zines in his fan empire, Paragon Press. Bill was one of those “mini moguls” who showed a great work ethic and love of comics.

Bill was nice enough to add a lot of great elaboration for this column through Facebook…I will let him share it below.

My remembrance of my contributions to CCSB is sketchy but I’ll do my best to piece it together. There is no copyright on the book but I assume it came out in 1978? At that time I was very busy working a full time job in Tallahassee, FL, doing freelance art for a film production company out of Orlando, inking for Roy Thomas at Marvel Comics and publishing Paragon Publications (5 books in 1977-78). Therefore my contribution to Marty’s magnum opus was limited. Marty, along with Bob Cosgrove, came up with a plot for an up-dated version of the Golden-Age superhero, The Black Terror. This involved crossovers with my character, The Shade, and Bill Wilson’s Hyperman. When inking What If? No. 9 (Avengers in the 1950s) I was assisted by a young and very talented teenager, Steve Vance, whom I met thru Tallahassee fandom. Steve was more excited about my working for Marvel than I was! Some of the pencil art was sketchy so I had Steve draw the motorcycle on page 4. He went on years later to working for Marvel and DC (and Mad Magazine!) but that bike was his first published pro work. So Steve penciled my Shade story in CCSB. I dialogued, lettered and inked it but only pages 2 (splash), 4 and some figures on page 5 were penciled by me. Marty inscribed the book “To Bill- You were always a pro – even before you made it. Many thanks for the years we’ve worked together. It’s been a great pleasure. Best, Marty.” That would imply that CCSB was published after What If? No. 9 (copyright 1978). Readers are probably unaware that I, along with my wife, Rebekah, appear as characters in the Martin Greim entry entitled “The Demon of the Dark Glass.” “Schwartz” is German for Black. Reb and I visited Marty’s New England home in 1971 and that trip may have inspired this story. It was great fun to co-star with Marty in a comic book story! I launched AC Comics in late 1982 using re-worked Paragon Publications stories under the new imprint. The CCSB Shade story appeared in Americomics No. 2, June, 1983, with a new art team of Rik Levins (who later had a very long run on Captain America) and Willie Blyberg. Marty and Steve are credited. Here the Black Terror is re-named The Terror with a mask now like an “X” across his face and keeping Marty’s white hair, black streak innovation. This character was assimilated into the AC Comics Universe and appeared in many stories over the decades. If memory serves he is currently partnered with the Rad, a character who is Ms. Victory’s daughter. And, of course, AC reprinted many of the Golden-Age Black Terror stories so Marty’s CCSB was actually a window into the future.

In an interesting twist, the story begun above continues (after another Machlan pin up, inked by fellow Inter-Fan, Pete Iro) in the following story, both containing the classic character, Black Terror, although the hero in this case is Bill Wilson’s (The Collector) Hyperman. Hyperman’s costume was “jazzed up” by fan fave John G. Fantucchio, as told by Greim in the intro. You can see a beautifully rendered page by Mike Machlan and Jerry Ordway below).

The next story features The White Raven, an Al Bradford character that, before this zine, only appeared in a pin up. Gary Kato does the art, and here you can really see his Ditko influence. First, though, is a pin up by John Byrne of the character, obviously modeled after a certain member of the star ship Enterprise.

If human bodies with big ol eyeballs is your jam, then the next story will satisfy your needs. It features Biljo White’s classic, 50’s inspired (in my opinion) The Eye! Below you can see newspaper icon, Fred Fredericks (The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician) pin up of the character, followed by a page from the story.

And…if funny animal superheroes are your cup of tea (more food and drink analogies later), Greim follows with his Captain Marvel inspired character, Thunderbunny. Art by Gene Day and Jerry Ordway.

Another InterFan product appears next by Steve Clements, Mike Machlan (surely the clean up hitter in this zine), and Pete Iro, The Matrix. The art appears as if it was done by Jack Kirby on speed! Some busy but really well rendered pages populate this story, one seen below.

Following is another Greim story, with the character actually based on him and drawn by him as well, but…inked by Dapper Dan Adkins! A definite visual change from the preceding story.

Next up is Mr. A, by Steve Ditko. Mr. A appeared in several fanzines in the 70s, most of the stories espousing Ditko’s libertarian views. This particular strip is different in two ways…there are no words and Mr. A actually battles costumed characters. Ditko was an anomaly in many ways, but the manner that interests readers of this column is the frequency in which he contributed to fanzines, especially with this character.

Bob Cosgrove’s character, Space Guardian, appears in the next story. And, super bonus, it is another beautifully rendered story by Fujitake. Note the naturalistic gestures and stances throughout, as well as the dynamic action work. Apropos that Fujitake’s uncanny synthesis of Ditko and Jeff Jones follows the Ditko story. One interesting side note, though. The story credits Gil Kane/Jack Kirby admirer, Carl Taylor with layouts. That seems like such a strange team to me, and I did not see any evidence of Carl’s easy to spot style. I was proven right when Carl, on the ol Facebook, told me, “Martin had Fujitake erase almost everything I drew, instead of just mailing my art back. He also gave me the wrong size to draw the story. He hated that my version was more of a Marvel style than the early DC type art he wanted. I sent Machlan a copy of my splashes pencils to ink but the splash that is in the story is all Fujitake’s. Only about 5 panels I drew survived in the whole story but the look & design of the characters is mine. I learned a lot from Martin but he and I argued a lot about how to do comics back then. I made copies of my pencils though So I still have those.”

Check out all this great work from Carl. Above and at left are pieces Stevens inked, and of the second group, Carl explains “Here’s a very quickly done book I sent Marvel in response to getting a rejection letter regarding me doing a picture for the Marvel Universe books. One of their inkers told me to tell them he’d ink it & they rejected me doing a single figure drawing because they didn’t think my storytelling was good enough. I drew this book to show my storytelling and to tell them I was never going to try to work for them ever again. They answered by featuring me in 3 Marvel stories later on. I then self published my own zine and had a letter of support in it from Kirby. This is what I sent Martin which he said they would’ve only looked at for 2 minutes.”

Carl also said that “Martin was wrong about me & Marvel. They did 3 stories featuring me in them as their answer to what I sent them. I’m the character “Mayhem” in an issue of Spider-man.” One crazy side note…a very young Dave Stevens was supposed to ink Carl’s version of this story, but got too busy with professional work! Below you can see several unseen pages from his layouts for the SG story…not necessarily in the right order since it has been many years since they were done!

Before we see Dennis’s version, a few last words from Carl…

Back then I was getting criticism from pros that since I could draw whatever I wanted, I should try to do something that couldn’t be printed in a regular comic. Mike Friedrich was working on Star*reach. He wanted me to do a western. I did three pages, introduced Dave Stevens to him too. Stevens was supposed to ink this too. But, I felt like I was faking too much stuff and I had poor references, so I never finished it. I drew this in the age of undergrounds and Mike’s ground level Comics. I was trying to make Martin’s story fit in with the latest trends. He wanted to do as close to a DC Green Lantern as he could, though. He said I turned his story into a violent slug fest. I still have the letter somewhere. When I said I was going to publish my version, he threatened to sue me if I did. I think that’s why he never sent me back my originals and probably erased them. We still kept in touch, as you can see from that letter he sent me about his Archie work. I was getting my art published in the letters pages and Rich Buckler gave me a Steel Sterling story to do to. Unfortunately when he called me saying he needed it, I was so sick I couldn’t walk across the room without passing out. So, he reassigned it to Adrian Gonzales. I have copies of the pencils I did for that story too.

And now Dennis’s take on Space Guardian…

If you did not get your Fujitake fix from that, then lucky for you, he is up next again, in a story featuring the uber classic fan character, Dr. Weird! Dr. Weird first appeared in the very first issue of Star Studded Comics, and is the brainchild of Howard Keltner. First, though, a typically sumptuous pin up by the late Tom Sutton.

The last story is part two of Greim’s Defender strip, but first, we are treated to a pin up by none other than Neal Adams! Granted, this looks like the sort of quick piece he probably did at a convention, but still…

And there you have it, folks. I need to reiterate…this book is big (which is why this installment is equally massive)! 168 pages, including covers! In the intro, Martin says the book took three years to finish, and I am not surprised. In fact, considering the number of creators involved, I am surprised it ever got done at all! This is definitely one you need to get the pdf(s) for…the book is so big, there are 3 of them, so go to my site and get the suckers!

Thanks again for stopping by and if you have time, please leave a few comments behind. Also, thanks to Dennis Fujitake and especially Carl Taylor for helping out with some inside items!

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com