Marvel Comics #1 - a Morality Tale or a Golden Age Christmas Carol

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Back in the mid seventies, before there was wide spread access to computers, comic fans did not have access to wonders like these comic boards. There was no e-mail; there was no desktop publishing, no laser writers, no scanners, nothing that the modern fan takes for granted. There was mimeographing though; and a lot of fans put a lot of effort into producing a variety of typewritten material that got published in small batches of fanzines. One of the more unique genres of fanzines was faan fiction; stories featuring fans in a variety of stories. A group of fans out of New York produced a fanzine called Weird Faan Fiction that garnered some attention. The publication that I am going to present to you was much less famous; though at the time I thought it was marvelously fun. Greg White out of Phoenix pulled this together and I don’t recall how it happened but I ended up penning a story for an issue.

 

I apologize in advance for the story as I wrote it when I was fifteen and it shows. I still got a kick out of it on re-reading it recently and it is funny as I had remembered the book in question being an Action #1 as opposed to a Marvel #1. I actually find it odd that I used Marvel #1 as I was always a DC, not a Marvel fan. I don’t know what I was thinking!!

 

The story was mainly illustrated by Mike Kuypers who I did not know. I began a long correspondence with him after the story was published. Today, we just exchange Christmas cards once a year but Mike was a great guy and very active in Legion fandom and the Legion APA; INTERLAC.

 

I had to pump the contrast on Photoshop to get this to read as the original publication was incredibly light as originally printed. So enough of the introduction; I take you back to a time long ago when you could still dream of finding rare comics in the strangest of places. Any resemblance to characters you may know on the convention circuit today really is a coincidence!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

continued...

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

And now the cover of this book, remember that this was the era of Roots and Kung Fu on TV, so the cover artist was having fun with those themes. The results are quite questionable then as now!!

[thehumantorch]

Very cool.

 

A blast from the past for me as I was involved in a local Sci Fi club that put out fanzines, newsletters and even cookbooks. Produced by mimeographing and later on Gestetners it was a work of love and a lot harder to do than todays desktop publishing.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Very cool.

 

A blast from the past for me as I was involved in a local Sci Fi club that put out fanzines, newsletters and even cookbooks. Produced by mimeographing and later on Gestetners it was a work of love and a lot harder to do than todays desktop publishing.

 

And so many of the folks who did this sort of work went on to be involved in a variety of creative endeavors, comics, television, movies you name it. It was a great training ground for those who wanted to explore the creative professions. Since it was so hard to do; it was a labor of love and you had to really want to do it to get it done and out in the mail.

[thehumantorch]

Mimeographing had pretty well disappeared by the late 70's although it was still around. One of our local fans had 3 Gestetners in his basement and it was quite common to meet there, crank up the music and publish.

 

While cleaning my basement last week I tossed out some of my stylus' knowing that I will never need them again.

 

I also recall APAs. Each contributer would send in so many copies of his page or two and the pages would be collated and mailed to all members. The collating parties were a lot of fun .

 

Great memories.

[innocuous]

Nice story Frank. Thanks for sharing. Too bad you weren't able to get the kung fu monster from space in it.

[KirbyJack]

Very fun! It must have been great rediscovering that!

 

I re-wrote your ending. In my version, the kid managed to hide the comic before the attache case goes. He winks at the reader in the last panel, E.C. style.

 

And that little boy grew up to be...

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Nice story Frank. Thanks for sharing. Too bad you weren't able to get the kung fu monster from space in it.

 

Thanks Jay, that Kung Fu monster from outer space had no relation to anything else in the magazine. Just like the covers of the Golden Age comics!!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Very fun! It must have been great rediscovering that!

 

I re-wrote your ending. In my version, the kid managed to hide the comic before the attache case goes. He winks at the reader in the last panel, E.C. style.

 

And that little boy grew up to be...

 

HA! HA! I can think of a few folks he grew up to be; and not all of them in the comics field either.

[Yellow Kid]

It was a great story, Frank, and similar to the ones that so many of us daydreamed about as we drove around looking for old comics or attending cons. More importantly, I think it brought back some wonderful memories for you and everyone who has read it. Thanks for sharing.

Rich

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

Thanks Rich,

 

I don't see this sort of thing on line; I wonder if our current generation of fans would enjoy this sort of activity. The nature of electronic media seems to work against narrative within the context of fan communication.

 

Times change though and the boards provide fans opportunities we only dreamed of back in those early days.

 

Frank