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This installment you see the last and best issue of what was a steadily improving fanzine, Chronicle, from George Breo. See John Byrne, Gene Day, Chuck Dixon, Brent Anderson and more, including 6 stories and a bunch of great pin ups!

Chronicle 5: May 1975
Editor: George Breo

George Breo produced a great fanzine way back in the mid seventies. Every issue had some of the best contributors available at that time, and each issue was not only filled with great pinups (like most zines of the time), but usually full and serialized stories. I profiled the first two issues already that you can access from my site here, and have the third ready for later.

Above you see one of several nice pinups that are sprinkled throughout the zine. As you can see, at left,  this is The Shadow, by Charles Pitts. He has a few others you can see when you download the pdf.

At the time of this issue, a few of the contributors had entered the pro ranks. Don Newton (not in this issue) and John Byrne both had started working in the pages of Charlton, Newton in one of the horror titles and Byrne with his Rog 2000 character in the pages of Joe Staton’s E-Man. You can see Byrne’s playful character, along with Byrne’s robotic version of editor Breo at left. Even this early, you could tell that Byrne was going places. Later in the column you will see a few pages from his funny animal…no, make that funny vegetable story, Qworph. Byrne also contributes a pinup you will see in a bit.

However, the first bit of continuity is somewhat of an anomaly. This is a story written and drawn by someone who would go on to make a real name for himself as a writer in the ranks of the comic book industry, Chuck Dixon. In fact, in just a recent column on the Bleeding Cool site, the headline reads: “Chuck Dixon – The Most Published Comic Book Writer of All Time? 40,000 pages on September 6th (2017).” It is apparent that, though Dixon was not an artist first, he certainly understood the dynamics of storytelling. He also makes good use of rub off textures to add atmosphere and depth to his hard boiled story, entitled For Gold and Country. See a few pages below.

The next story is a character created by editor Breo, called Dante. In the first issue of the zine, Stan Sakai illustrated an installment. This issue has some work that is very interesting to me, by Bill Baron. It is interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, Baron has a grasp of drama and page construction. He obviously has a sense of what makes a stylish image (see the third page below). But…for the life of me, every panel featuring a human being looks like a direct swipe from John Buscema. Perhaps Baron just really liked Big John…but, if you see his pin ups elsewhere in the issue, that influence is not evident. So, you be the judge. See below.

 Before we teleport away from the world of Dante, here is a nice pin up of the character by the late Gene Day, followed by a Byrne pin up of several Charlton characters.

The next story, a sword and sorcery tale, is written by J. Alan Tyler and illustrated by a young Brent Anderson. Judging from the work, I would guess he did this about the time of the third or fourth issue of the great zine, Venture, in which he regularly appeared with Frank Cirocco, Gary Winnick, and a few others. You can see Brent trying to establish a real sense of three dimensional space, especially in those first few pages. Below you can see a sampling of the story.

More Conan-esque material appears in the next story, “Savrina,” written by Breo and illustrated by Brian Clifton. Though the action can be a bit static at times, Clifton has a nice rendering style. Again, a sample below.

As stated, there are several pinups scattered throughout the issue. Below you can see one by CPL runner (and later Iron Man scribe) Bob Layton.

Next up is a story by a young Stan Sakai, still finding his style. However there are several really well done moments below. Real pathos and emotion come through here and there, and you can see Sakai trying different things visually. Especially good is the third page shown below. He is even trying to establish a syntax and sound with the word balloons and the text within.

Below you can see a sinuous pose from Doug Rice.

Lastly, John Byrne delivers a whimsical and sometimes off color tale of one randy onion in Qworph.

So, there you have it…several stories you can read in their entirety by downloading or viewing the pdf…I suggest you do, so you don’t miss that, plus several more pinups by Gene Day, Bill Baron, Charles Pitts, and Tom Wimbish/Clifton. If you don’t check it out, you will miss Batman and Batgirl!

I want to thank Herb Warren, as this is one of several zines he was kind enough to send me. Still coming up, thanks to Herb, are issues of Spa-Fon, Infinity, Chacal, Comic Crusader, and Chronicle. Download the pdf on my site, at the bottom, after all the other great zines that have profiled!

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com