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An issue of The Collector I somehow missed many moons ago! Dive in with me to see work from Dan Adkins, Don Newton, Don Rosa and Joe Sinnott!

The Collector 22: February 1971
Editor and publisher: Bill G. Wilson

As any regular reader of this column knows, Bill G. Wilson’s Collector (technically, THE Collector), is one of my favorite zines of those days long ago…when we had to wait for these things to come by mail! In fact, the fanzine I covered in my very first installment of Ink Stains was a later issue of this fabulous package of memories. Bill is on Facebook…go tell him you appreciate all he did, way back then, as a young publisher. I know I do.

Somehow, this issue of The Collector was never seen by these eyes. I think I would have remembered that cover (which, if seen sitting on a comic stand, would only show the right side, still identifiable due to those classic Kirby designs)! As with every issue, Wilson applied his eye for clean design, as well as his good taste in contributors. Let’s see what he chose for this issue.

As you can see, Dan Adkins’ always clean and clear style shines through on the wraparound cover (more on Dan later). Above left is a spot illo by the stylish John G. Fantucchio. That is his character, who you will see on the cover of the final issue of Fantastic Fanzine, profiled here. The first thing we see when we turn the page is a nice big ink filled illo by the legendary inker, Joe Sinnott, seen below. Joe did a fair amount of work for the fanzines back then, being the absolute prince that he is.

After a very short editorial, Fantastic Fanzine’s own Gary Groth covers the Metro Con of 1970…in 1970 I am guessing Gary was still only in his mid teens. A spot illo of Mr. Fantastic, by the star of last installment’s Realm 5, Artie Romero, adorns the report. Keeping it all in the family, the letters column follows, with The Buyer’s Guide mogul, Alan Light, writing in, amongst others. A full page illustration by Don Newton, seen below, follows. God, he was so good, so early. One of the best realist comic artists I can think of.

Another con report (Phoenix Con of the same year) follows, covered by Bruce Hamilton and John Clark, with illustrations by Skip Olson and Clark. Clark does some pretty cute spot illustrations of contributors as characters (such as Don Newton as Captain Marvel).

The big gun of the issue follows, and that is a really fun interview of Dan Adkins by Bruce Miller. They must have known each other pretty well, because the banter flies fast and furious! Left you can see a somewhat grainy photo of Dan and his son Chris. Upper right, Bruce does a nice illo to add to the visuals.

The crazy art of Jim Jones follows, depicting Halloween masks he made for his kids (who weren’t quite satisfied with the first draft). A Skip Olson centerfold is up next, and then a sequential piece by Don Rosa, not in his usual funny cartoon style. The sword and sorcery story is called Khulan, and was written by one Rich Fay. See a few pages of the 8 page story below…here and there you can see hints of his usual style.

A double page ad for Steranko’s Supergraphics line follows, and then the always charming style of Alan Hanley (looks like Alan was aiming for a cover with the full page pin up you see below).

The last thing you see before the back cover is an ad for another con, HoustonCon ’71. A somewhat short issue, but still full of that yummy fanzine goodness Bill was so adept at assembling. I actually found this issue because of a Facebook post by RBCC alum, James Van Hise, who sells a pretty good selection of zines on ebay at fair prices…check ’em out!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the trip back in time, folks…if you did, please leave a comment below. I hear this column is read by a fair amount of people, but you would not know it by the amount of feedback! Help a brother out!

Remember, you can access all the previous columns by going to the Ink Stains section of my website here, as well as being able to access pdfs of all the great zines, including this one!

Ken Meyer Jr.
kenmeyerjr@yahoo.com