It's here!! Announcing the publication of the final issue of Alan Austin's Fantasy Unlimited!

 

Alan Austin (1955-2017) was one of the most respected figures in UK comic book fandom. He published a major fanzine about American comic books throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, at first named Fantasy Unlimited (later named Comics Unlimited), and also the Golden Age Fanzine, Whiz Kids (devoted to the original Captain Marvel and other Fawcett heroes), the first Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain. and the DC and Marvel Comics Indexes.

His fanzines gave a showcase to a number of future professionals in the comic book business, including, amongst others, Stephen Baskerville and Kevin O’Neill.

Now his Fantasy Unlimited fanzine has been revived for a final issue, re-titled Alan Austin’s Fantasy Unlimited, to include a celebration of his immense contribution to UK fandom in the 1970s and early 1980s.

“It was Will Morgan’s excellent idea to have this one-off issue, and try to involve as many of the original contributors as possible,” says Nigel Brown, who published Alan’s posthumous books. “I was doubtful it was a practical project after fifty years gone by, but I’ve been delighted at the response from names that will be familiar to regular readers of the fanzine, including Will himself (who contributed to FU/CU under his birth name of Howard Stangroom), Martin Lock, Allan J. Palmer 'the Phantom Rambler', Stephen Baskerville, Patrick Marcel, Jean-Daniel Brèque and many others."

“This has been an opportunity for previous contributors to Fantasy/Comics Unlimited to be back in the fanzine one last time, with personal memories and anecdotes about Alan,” Nigel adds. “But Alan Austin’s Fantasy Unlimited #54 will also offer its usual articles, and regular favourites like “We Want Information”, a new “Worlds of Emlock”, and even a special sequel to a comic strip first published in the fanzine forty-nine years ago!”

Alan Austin’s Fantasy Unlimited #54 is a non-profit project, published with the permission of Alan’s literary estate.

It is now available on Amazon in a printed edition only.

Amazon UK link:  Click here

Amazon US link:  Click here

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Alan also wrote two books. One was about his life in comics, Comics Unlimited: My life as a Comic Collector and Dealer, the other about his experiences as a book dealer (in fiction form, as a series of short stories), The Adventures of Bernie Burrows, Bookseller. Both of these books are still available on Amazon as paperbacks and ebooks. Follow the link at the top right of the blog to find those on Amazon.

Beneath The Planet of the Apes - Marvel vs Gold Key

Facebook handily reminded me earlier this month that we should be celebrating the 54th anniversary of when Beneath the Planet of the Apes hit US cinemas in 1970. I had to wait until 1975 to see Beneath at the cinema in the UK.  It had been classifed as “AA” upon it’s original release and so I was unable to see the film as I was under fourteen years of age. Our local cinemas in the Portsmouth area subsequently showed double-bills of “Planet of the Apes” and “Escape…”, and “Conquest..” paired with “Battle…”, but “Beneath…” did not make the rounds until 1975, when it showed up paired with “Battle…” at a small cinema in Havant, Hampshire.

By this time, “Beneath…” had acquired quite an allure for me.  I had read the Bantam paperback novelisation, and was yet to read the Marvel adaptation in the pages of the UK Marvel Planet of the Apes weekly comic. I had even bought the Super-8 mm cine film 10-minute condensed version of the film in black & White, even though we didn’t have a Super-8 movie projector!

My unwatched Beneath The Planet of the Apes 8mm film on my bedspread in 1977

And so finally getting to see the film was a great event, and I was not disappointed. Looking at the film now, the narrative suffers from not having Taylor as the protagonist throughout (Charlton Heston said he  would only appear if he disappeared at the start of the film, and was killed off at the end), but despite the story structural issues and the reduced budget, it is still a great science fiction film. Also I’m a sucker for anything with disused railway stations as well, so the underground Grand Central Station was also a big plus for me.

When I finally got to read the Marvel adaption of the film in the Marvel Black & White magazine, scripted by Doug Moench and drawn by Alfredo Alcala, I was very impressed. The artwork was a definite step up from the Marvel adaptation of the first film, drawn by George Tuska. I was not aware at that time that Gold Key had already issued a one-off adaptation of Beneath back in Sept 1970, with a December 1970 cover date.

I dutifully also collected the colour version of the story as reprinted in Marvel’s Adventures on the Planet of the Apes issues #7-#11, with new colouring by George Roussos. It is interesting to compare the Gold Key and Marvel versions.   Of course, Marvel had 100 pages to play with, while Gold Key had 30, but some direct comparisons can be made.

© APJAC and Gold Key

© APJAC and Marvel

Overall, the Marvel version has more power and better pacing. Alfredo Alcala’s artwork is stunning in places. The Gold key version (by Artists Alberto Giolitti and Sergio Costais) is generally very pedestrian, but not without its merits.  Compare the splash pages of each comic and you’ll see what I mean.

The Gold Key splash

The Marvel splash page

I think the Gold Key version is basically a written story illustrated by pictures, whereas the Marvel version is a visual narrative supported by dialogue.  Which I suppose is the contrast between the Marvel Method and the more traditional form of comic scripting used at DC and other mainstream comic publishers in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Gold Key version illustrates specific scenes taken from film stills, whereas the Marvel version does not emulate the camera angles of the film scenes, opting for a more fluid narrative. 

However, it must be said that the Gold Key version has a far better colourist - more accurate to the film, and more evocative. Compare the sequence early in the story when Taylor & Nova encounter storms and lightening ; the Gold Key version is miles more effective.

© APJAC and Gold Key

© APJAC and Marvel

The Gold Key version adheres more closely to the film in terms of costumes.  Taylor has a loin-cloth in the Gold Key version ; he wears a Tarzan fur in the Marvel version! 

Also, the Apes as drawn in the Gold Key version closely resemble their film counterparts, whereas in the Marvel version, the apes look far more simian.

Scene as shown in Gold Key

Same scene from Marvel

And the pacing on the ending in the Marvel version is far better, building the tension to the final atomic explosion.  The Gold Key shows the bomb going off an an accident ; the Marvel take shows the detonation of the Doomsday Bomb as a deliberate act by Taylor.

The Gold Key versions ends with Taylor triggering the dommsday bomb by accident

The Marvel version ends in a sombre, deliberate manner

Go out and find a copy of each comic and do the comparisons yourself. It's not often in comics that one gets the chance to compare two different versions of the same story.

By the way, I see that the recent Beware the Planet of the Apes comic from Marvel integrates individual panels from the George Tuska adpation as part of a flashback sequence.

Still here!

Just a brief post to let all of our regular readers know that we’re still here.  It is just that various projects and life has gotten in the way.

I’m currently typing this from a hotel room in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Mrs B and myself are staying as we travel homewards to Chicagoland following our bi-annual participation in “MINI Takes The States”, a cross-country rally for MINI Coopers of every stripe. This year we rallyed in our MINI Cooper Roadster S. We had around 900 MINIs participating in the official route which started in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 13th and finished in Seattle, Washington on July 21st 2024. We will have driven close to 6,000 miles including the time to get to the start line and finish lines, over a period of 2-3 weeks. If you’re a fan of driving 400-500 miles every day for two weeks, this is the hobby for you!

Here are a few photos from the event. I loved the Mini Roadster with the Rocketeer logo, particularly.

Love this photo of the Rocketeer MINI Cooper Roadster.

On the road from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Durango, Colorado

Our Roadster in Ouray, Colorado

Of course, taking part in such an event cuts into blogging time on the SuperStuff blog, so apologies for that.

However, things continue apace in the SuperStuff bullpen. My co-editor (and pal of fifty-plus years Nigel Brown) is busy putting the finishing touches to the print edition of Fantasy Unlimited #54, the Alan Austin memorial edition of that wonderful fanzine from the 1970s and early 1980s.  That should hopefully see print later this year.  Once it is ready, we will post an update here so that fans can buy a copy from Amazon, priced “at cost”.

I’ve (baggsey here) been continuing to research the history of the Atlas Publishing and Distributing Company Ltd, known to UK fans of American comics as the company responsible for the SuperAdventure, Superboy, Superman and Batman annuals we in the UK would see in the 1950s and 1960s.  Atlas Publishing and Distributing Company Ltd (no connection to the company which was the precursor of Marvel) was responsible for the publishing of US pulps in the UK from as early as 1915, before moving into comic reprints in the late 1950s, and the more I dig into the personalities and events behind the company, the more intriguing it gets. I’ll probably blog a summary about it here, but it really warrants a book or paper of its own to ensure that all of the research data is captured for posterity.

Of course, the big news here is Joe Biden dropping out of the Presidential race. Whatever your political affiliation, this is a time of great political upheaval in these United States. I grew up in the UK and spent half my life there (I’m hoping to get to age 80 at least :-) ). Recently, I’ve become more aware that my political views have been greatly influenced by the messages of DC and Marvel comics of the 1960s and 1970s; messages that heroes with strength have an obligation to help the weak, for example. Or the message that it is incumbent on us to not discriminate on basis of religion, or colour, or sexual orientation, or any other divisive criteria.  I fervently hope that any of us aging reprobates that revere the comic stories of the sixties and seventies embrace those values. Any thoughts on this, please respond in the comments section below.