[Thanks to regular commenter McScotty for posing the question...."Was SuperStuff a real fanzine?" My good pal Nigel Brown, co-editor, co-founder of this blog, and regular columnist, took up the challenge of telling the SuperStuff story... ]
by Nigel Brown
It was Ian Baker’s idea to do our own comics fanzine. I came up with the name SuperStuff, no doubt inspired by my favourite comic book character.
We’ve already described how it was, fifty years ago, when we hunted down American comics books all over Portsea Island (‘Mad DC Comic Hunt’ and ‘Comics Shops in Portsmouth (Upcoming blog entry)’).
To set that time in context, that was just before Marvel decided to enter the UK comics market with their own comics (they had earlier allowed reprints in Fantastic, Terrific, Pow! Wham! and Smash! comics in the late 1960s).The Mighty World of Marvel # 1, a UK comic, arrived in September 1972. This was successful enough for them to follow it up early the next year, with the appearance of Spider-Man Comics Weekly #1 in February 1973. (I remember we were pretty scornful of these comics when they first appeared, comparing them to the full colour and up-to-date American originals that were still available in newsagents, and as back-issues in second-hand shops.)
A more epoch-defining event in the SuperStuff story occurred that following Easter, on April 22nd 1973, when Ian Baker received his first issue of Alan Austin’s Fantasy Unlimited #14, having seen an advert for it in Exchange & Mart.
I subscribed soon after, and together with Ian we began to send postal orders off for back-issue comics to ‘fill those gaps’ in our comic collections.
It took another year before we produced our own comics fanzine.
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| Shang-Chi swipe © Marvel. The rest © SuperStuff. |
SuperStuff #1 debuted in May/June 1974 (with an optimistic March cover date). It was, frankly, the best imitation of Fantasy Unlimited that we could manage… but so what? We had tremendous fun doing it. If we could have only transferred a small part of our enthusiasm onto our schoolwork I’m certain our schoolteachers would have been impressed by our diligence and energy!
As Alan Austin has described himself in his book about his life in comics (Comics Unlimited: My life as a Comic Collector and Dealer ), a major problem with producing fanzines is the duplication required for any kind of wide circulation.
Alan himself eventually solved this problem by acquiring a second-hand Gestetner Roneo No.2 duplicator. We never got that far, using two pieces of carbon paper with our typewriters to produce three copies in total of our own fanzine. Three sheets of carbon paper rendered the last page too faint to be legible. (Ian recalls experimenting with four carbon papers, but he had to hit the keys on his old Remington typewriter so hard that his Dad would call upstairs: “Stop that racket!”)
After the debut of SuperStuff #1, we were away. A second issue followed shortly afterwards.
Although I was the ‘editor’ of the first issue, in truth it was a total joint effort. We would each type up our own pages, then put them all together to make up the fanzine.
Once SuperStuff was established, it became an outlet for our creative energies and we produced further issues down the years. Some I produced wholly by myself, others were typed out by Ian and our other comics-collecting friend, Geoff Cousins. A healthy rivalry developed between us, leading to greater efforts to produce bigger and better fanzines, although still with circulations of three!
At least we knew our readership.
The SuperStuff contents were a mixture of comic and science fiction paperback reviews, along with some original fiction and articles (many of which were swiped from sources as varied as other fanzines, the comics themselves and, as I recall, even The Radio Times). We did come up with the odd original article, or took what was there and rewrote much of it to fit in with our own opinions.
Ian remembers that the paper we used for SuperStuff originally came from school, so the most expensive outlay was the carbon paper and the photocopies (5p) for the covers, first done at the Portsmouth Main Post Office, then later in the Main Library by Portsmouth Guildhall.
Here’s what we produced; see the end of this blog entry for a selected list of the contents of each issue.
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| SuperStuff covers #1-#10. Characters © their respective publishers |
I was pleased enough with SuperStuff #7 to send one of my precious copies to Alan Austin. He wrote back with a encouraging letter (that I published in the letter column of SuperStuff #9) but – more importantly – he asked if I had any material he could use for his own fanzine, by then named Comics Unlimited. I sent him a reworked article I’d written for my other fanzine Fantastic Voyages #2 (A Chronology of the Planet of the Apes), and he published it as the cover article in Comics Unlimited #36 (May 1976).
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| Planet of the Apes Chronology republished in Comics Unlimited #36 |
This was the second SuperStuff era-inspired article to see print in another fanzine. Previously, I’d had an article I’d written in SuperStuff # 1 (about Kirby’s 4th World) appear in the fanzine Eon #2 (May/July 1975).
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| EON #2 reprinted the Kirby 4th World article from SS #1 |
Geoff Cousins had a contribution published in one of Alan Austin’s fanzines, with a Silver Surfer illo in Fantasy Unlimited #27 (June 1975), and he also drew a Conan cover (unpublished) for Alan Austin's abandoned Sword & Sorcery issue of Comics Unlimited, which would have been #38.
Not that Ian Baker’s name was lacking in Fantasy Unlimited, either. He often contributed a wide range of interesting questions to the popular ‘We Want Information’ feature that Alan Austin ran.
Looking back, Ian notes now that we pretty much achieved our aim of producing a new SuperStuff every school holidays from March 1974 to May 1976, which covered eight issues.
1974 to 1976 was really the heyday of our fanzine-producing, but I decided to produce a SuperStuff swansong in 1984.
By then, I had access to Alan Austin’s own Gestetner 160 in the basement of his Islington shop, Heroes. He was generous with his time and patience and, along with his encouragement and advice, I managed to print enough copies of SuperStuff #11 (August 1984) to go on sale to the public.
We had begun SuperStuff as an imitation of Alan’s own Fantasy Unlimited fanzine, and now I determined to make this final SuperStuff a true tribute, printed on the same hallowed machine that had printed Fantasy Unlimited.
The main feature was an interview with Alan himself. I also was lucky enough to commission an original Baragrin strip for SuperStuff, generously provided by Patrick Marcel and Jean-Daniel Breque. SuperStuff #11 also featured articles by Ian Baker and others such as the leading Portsmouth Star Trek fan and founder of S.T.I.G. (Star Trek Information Group), Ross Carter.
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| © Nigel Brown. SuperStuff #11 - 1984 |
Alan Austin sold SuperStuff #11 in his shop Heroes, and Paul Hudson in Comics Showcase was also kind enough to allow a box of SuperStuff for sale on his shop counter in Covent Garden.
I can’t recall how many were sold, but an issue has turned up on eBay. If anyone still has a copy I’d advise them to hold onto it as one of the rarest genuine fanzines of that era!
That was intended to be the end of the SuperStuff story, but thanks to advances in technology since those days, SuperStuff has come alive again as the blog Superstuff73… as much fun to produce, I admit, as those type-written carbon-copied fanzines of yesteryear.
©Nigel Brown
List of SuperStuff issues 1-10
SuperStuff # 1
March 1974 cover date (May/June 1974 interior date)
Nigel Brown editor. Nigel Brown, Ian Baker contents
This featured articles on Kirby’s 4th World, World’s Finest Comics, Marvel’s Shang-Chi and various comic indexes, ending on a page with our spare comics for sale.
SuperStuff #2
April 1974. Nigel Brown editor. Nigel Brown, Ian Baker contents
This featured a Neal Adams biography, along with articles on C.C.Beck, DC’s Plop!, Marvel’s Iron Fist, and a feature on the best Batman artists.
SuperStuff # 3
Summer 1974. Ian Baker editor. Ian Baker, Geoff Cousins contents
This issue was more TV orientated, with an interview with Burt Ward of the Batman TV series and a piece on Star Trek, alongside articles about Iron Man, Robert E. Howard and a biography of Walter Gibson.
SuperStuff # 4
March/April 1975. Ian Baker editor. Nigel Brown, Ian Baker, Geoff Cousins contents
This had articles about the origins of some Marvel super-heroes, Kirby’s Forever People and an interview with Arthur C. Clarke.
SuperStuff # 5
July/August 1975. Ian Baker editor
We featured Kirby’s O.M.A.C., Ditko’s The Creeper, the best way to store comics, and an index of the first Bantam paperbacks reprinting Doc Savage pulps.
SuperStuff # 6 (incorporating Nigel’s separate fanzine Fantastic Voyages # 3)
April 1976. Ian Baker & Nigel Brown editors & contents
This issue continued the Bantam Doc Savage paperback index, a retyping of a Batman TV series script, as well as an article about The Spectre.
SuperStuff # 7
April 1976. Nigel Brown editor & contents.
This was a Superman Special, featuring articles about the Golden Age Superman, a comprehensive origin of Krypton and Superman, as well as the second part of The Spectre article.
SuperStuff # 8
May/June 1976. Ian Baker & Geoff Cousins editors & some contents
This issue featured the changing images of women in comic books, along with articles about Red Sonja, the origin of The Batman, and the Alan Dean Foster Star Trek paperbacks.
SuperStuff # 9
July 1978. Nigel Brown editor & contents.
This featured articles about comic back-issue prices, the new super-hero TV series (one starring Wonder Woman, the other The Hulk), and an index of SuperStuff issues 1 to 8,
SuperStuff # 10
July 1980. Nigel Brown editor & contents
This slimmer issue featured comic and book reviews.
We also produced our own fanzines separately, towards the end of 1975:
Fantastic Voyages #1
August 1975. Nigel Brown editor.
Similar mix of contents to SuperStuff, with opinion column, comic information feature and comic quiz.
Fantastic Voyages # 2
Autumn 1975. Nigel Brown editor
Similar mix of contents to SuperStuff, with a Planet of the Apes chronology, Denny O’Neil interview.
The Light of Other Days #1
Autumn 1975. Ian Baker editor
An intended mix of Science Fiction paperback reviews and discussions of Black & White SF comics. This never got beyond the "ashcan" stage.
The Light of Other Days and Other Worlds
Winter 1975. Geoff Cousins editor
Amazing Science Fiction Stories # 1
April 1976. Nigel Brown editor & contents
Science fiction.
SuperStuff Special #1
September 1979. Ian Baker editor & contents.
An original Shadow story.
Perhaps it's because I'm reasonably familiar with parts of Southsea and Portsmouth that I can easily imagine being part of the comics scene down there, even though I wasn't. However, it's like a sliding doors moment every so often, and it's almost like I lived an alternate life to the one I actually did. Here's an idea: With the improved technology of today, why not reprint those fanzines, but do them more professionally? Or do an Omnibus edition featuring the best articles from the various issues.
ReplyDeleteI like the "sliding doors" analogy, Kid. Am pleased if it triggers and memories of your time in Pompey. Nigel and I are working on a future blog entry piece listing as many of the places we visited and key comics we bought. We keep bouncing the text between us as new memories surface.
DeleteRe your idea of reprinting the fanzines, but more professionally....with the amount of swiping of content in the early fanzines, both Nigel and I would feel a bit uncomfortable about making them widely available. That said, there is good, original content across the issues that might bear an Omnibus edition. Or perhaps publishing updated versions of individual articles on this blog. Thanks for the suggestion - we'll mull it over.
I have actually scanned all of issues #1-#10 to PDF, and am currently working my way through issue #2 cleaning it up, colouring B&W images with PaintShopPro and trying to refine the extraction of the text content via OCR, with an objective of creating professional-looking versions for my own benefit.
I'd certainly consider buying an Omnibus edition, B. Have you seen the fanzine called Past Perfect? It's a great piece of work and still on the go. Jump over to my blog and type the name into the search box for a couple of reviews of it.
DeleteThanks for the tip about Past Perfect, Kid. I took a look at the two blog entries you made about it last year.....seems very much like something I would enjoy. Is there an index to the articles across what appears to be around 200 issues?
DeleteThere's a catalogue which contains a list of articles. If I can find it, I'll scan and email it to you. Probably better if you just emailed Dave and asked him though.
DeleteMeant to say, there's actually 3 posts about Past Perfect, but there's a non-related post between the 2nd and the 3rd one.
DeleteI'll drop Dave an email, thanks Kid.
DeleteNigel, Ian – Loved that article it brought back the time perfectly. I remember trying all types of options to print a fanzine from photocopying (surprisingly expensive in the 1970s) to even trying to hand print them just using the duplicator stencils (with no duplicator) and a roller, I spent much of my time as a 15 year old covered in duplicator ink. When I was 17 I saved up enough money from my part time job to buy a second hand duplicator ( I think it was a Gestetner 320) and found a guy that could electronically scan stencil art (for the cover) the rest is history - sadly nothing happened as we were flooded during a bad winter and the duplicator and my paper was ruined. It was interesting to hear your links to Alan Austin and Comics Unlimited . Your blog reminds my of when I was younger (about 10 years old )and my pal Allan and myself each drew a comic (based on UK comics) with print runs of 1 copy! - I had forgot all about that until I read this which brought the memory back. Some of your covers were so much better than what was being produced at the time so you did a good job guys.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed Nigel's article, McScotty, and that it triggered some memories of your earlier comic work as a 10-year old. It is amazing the passion we have for our interests at such a young age that we are driven to create new content for our own pleasure. What a shame that your later fanzine and duplicator were lost in a flood.
DeleteYou'll have to take early retirement (like me) and make your "twthen" blog a full-time endeavour to make up for it!