**Fandom History through Covers and Art!!**

One of the things we at INTER-FAN want to do on this site is try to educate creators and readers alike to the history of Comic Fandom and all it curtails. From the Sixties (and in some case earlier to the more recent endeavors of Small Press and Indie creators. The following two books are something every lover of comics should have.




The book below was a memorable romp through the eyes of Bill Schelly and his experiences in Fandom. A lesson to be learned by all. I was really inspired by this book that what we are doing here at IF is correct.



We appreciate Bill's assistance with some of our projects. To get the above books and other fascinating novels, please visit the link below.




The following covers are just some of what FANDOM has and had to offer. Enjoy!






My latest passion has been buying on eBay, I have gotten some great "second banana heroes" comics from the 60's,an old toy and some great Dyna-Pub reprint books. My favorites are of course Fanzines from the past. Here is what I have gotten and will be adding more! Hope to have a database set up so that we can list info on these facinating treasures!






Here is some more from my collection.





Some more additions two issues of ComicCellar by Neil Fifer of Canada, who will be sharing his exploits of Canadian Fandom of the 70's.




Haven't been here in a while but here are some more additions to the Fanzine Collection.



Below are two of my favorite fanzine artists. One is Alan Hanley, who had a wimsical way about his subjects and his zines were called appropriate enough...Comic Book. Then there is Fred Hembeck who I think does the funniest commentary of comics ever. His series was Hembeck, nuff said! I all hope you enjoy.






As my collection of Fanzines grows and I sometimes duplicate an issue by buying the same thing on eBay, I will now break down what I have by title. The first is Star Studded Comics




Some off shoot titles from Star Studded, these featured early work of a young Jim Starlin.



Next are some early RBCC (Rocket Blast/Comic Collector). More to come!




Here is something Steve Keeter of Blue Plague Publications recently posted on the SPA Forum and he has graciously allowed me to put it here.

I was thinking about this topic and with the deluge of current small press comics and zines, one might not readily recall (hey, you might not be old enough!-- although some of use small pressers are, er, just a little bit seasoned LOL) that there once was time, especially during the 1960s and early 1970s, when receiving a small press comic or fanzine in the mail was a real privilege and a real treat. Because there weren't quite as many, and things weren't quite as organized in the network as today, and the zines themselves, while lacking the production that is easily obtainable with today's pc technology, had so much soul and enthusiasm that they were a real joy to read.
Chuck Robinson's COMIQUE comes immediately to mind for me, admittedly because I knew Chuck in person, but also because it was one of the finest of the dittozines of the day that was ever produced. And Chuck never worried about the purple ditto method of printing, never produced an inferior product because offset printing was so much less affordable in those days. COMIQUE was always great, issue after issue, and gave us such characters of the Protectors, a group of super human characters who were never quite indestructible-- in fact, they lost members in battle from time to time and struggled to get along even with each other, Freedom Fighter-- a patriotic hero in the Captain America mold who never compromised his principles or doubted his country the way that Marvel has allowed Cap to do in recent years, and the Lizard-- and amazing and intriguing character whose brain was surgically altered to make him the perfect killing machine, unbeatable when following orders, BUT without any orders to follow-- he froze and became completely vulnerable.
I don't know if copies of COMIQUE are available on ebay or anywhere else, but it's a classic title well worth pursuing and collecting, if it's at all possible. Maybe some of you remember other titles equally as deserving. If so, it would be cool to hear about it. Let us know!

This next section is a bit of Houston Fandom History that I receieved from Marc Schooley. Here is what he had to say in a recent e-mail.

"Roy Bonario and I started the Houston Comic Collector's Association (HCCA), in 1965. This is where we first met Glen Kessler, Earl Blair, Gene Arnold, Ken Finnerty and others that were a major part of fandom in the early days.
Roy, Earl and I published a fanzine in the late 60's. It was called Saturday's World. It was very successful but we only managed to put out 3 issues because of time and cost.Here are pics of the front and back covers."






Russ Maheras e-mailed everyone about an exciting new section at CBG's (Comics Buyers Guide) website which has a searche ngine to see all the past covers of CBG's publishing history when it started as The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom. Please take a look.