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| © Supergraphics and Steranko |
So it’s quite an enjoyable experience to read comics news zines from that period for the first time, fifty or so years after publication. They encapsulate the hopes, dreams, excitement and aspirations we all had for the world of comics, where every tidbit of information about upcoming events was greeted with wonder.
This week I obtained a copy of issue #1 of Steranko’s “Comixscene” from November 1972, Jim Steranko's attempt to create a regular comics-focused newspaper that had high production values and had access to comics professsionals for news of upcoming events, as well as being a platform to promote Steranko’s own Supergraphics publications. I subsequently bought later issues a few years after, once I had visited Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in London, but back in 1972 Comixscene was an unknown quantity to me.
Reading the issue now immediately takes me back to 1972.
The first issue focuses on Doc Savage and other pulp heroes soon to make an appearance in comics at both Marvel and DC. The highlights of this issue (for me) is the publication of Steranko's full-page rendition of The Shadow that he did as a pitch for DC, as well as a two page spread of Doc Savage and his crew as rendered by Steranko and fellow artists. I especially like the Gene Colon version, although the machine gun is out of place.
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| © Steranko. This would make a great poster |
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| © Supergraphics and Steranko |
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| © Supergraphics and Gene Colan |
The cover of this first issue was subsequently used as the cover of the second issue of the Marvel colour comic. I prefer the version published on Comixscene.
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| © Marvel and Conde Nast. Compare this with the Comixscene #1 cover |
Did any of our regular readers collect Comixscene, or have recommendations for old fanzines to look out for?
