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Post by hondobrode on Sept 30, 2016 23:54:52 GMT -5
I've read TCJ almost from the beginning. When I went from being a comic book reader to a real fan, with the birth of the direct market, my discovering great retailer Bud Plant, The Buyer's Guide For Comics Fandom, and The Comics Journal. I thought it would be fun to look backwards to TCJ's roots, when Gary Groth bought out The Nostalgia Journal as a competitor to Alan Light's The Buyer's Guide For Comics Fandom. The Comics Journal had articles, interviews, sketches, and I fell in love. As much as I love comics, I think I love fanzines even more. Looking back, here The New Nostalgia Journal # 27 (1976), the first Groth issue with a Frank Frazetta cover, and you'll notice a personal note wishing Gary good luck.  Those first issues are extremely thin, but Gary is finding his way. 
There's also this full page ad. At the bottom you'll see Richard Alf. I remember sending away for his list. Seems like the Stone Age now. BTW, the Jack Kirby interview advertised on the cover is not in this issue. I double checked. |
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2016 0:11:07 GMT -5
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Post by Nowhere Man on Oct 1, 2016 0:21:05 GMT -5
I've come to appreciate Groth's "art first" stance and how he was unrelenting in his criticisms of Marvel and DC over the years. TCJ was also surprisingly fair if a creator was actually doing interesting work while working at the Big Two. Groth deserves canonization for the Prince Valiant and Bark's Ducks collections alone.
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Post by Bronze age andy on Oct 1, 2016 8:02:39 GMT -5
25,000 bags! (for $325)
That is great bait. Someone orders that many bags...they might have some comics and can probably expect a letter asking about them.
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2016 11:54:18 GMT -5
It's funny that years later Fantagraphics published another fanzine I really love, Amazing Heroes, but in a completely different style.
More like Twomorrows' Back Issue fanzine now, it's light easy reading looking back at classic characters, creators and publishers.
I've learned tons from Gary Groth and his crew and been exposed to lots of stuff I otherwise wouldn't know about, mostly international works.
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 1, 2016 20:52:11 GMT -5
   
 Newswatch Happened National Periodical Publications now officially changes its name to DC Comics Gerry Conway comes over from Marvel as a writer and editor to write for DC. DC says they're not pulling anyone off of a title. Conway will be working on new titles, between 6 and 8 per month. Joe Staton and Bob Brown both sign contracts with DC. Murphy Anderson also rejoins the freelance staff as primarily an inker over Curt Swan's Superboy in  He was also assigned the Superman - Batman story in World's Finest starting with 
Walt Simonson did the 2 Dr Phosphorus stories here  and here  Gray Morrow cover of  Joe Kubert wash cover  The $ 1.00 80 page giants present all new material, a better value for the money, with  &  alternating with the above pictured World's Finest &  What do these covers all have in common besides their $ 1.00 format ? Supposed to happen but it didn't Planned title by Gerry Conway with art by Steve Ditko |
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 23, 2016 19:20:44 GMT -5
I read the Journal, fairly steadily, through the 90s. While I appreciate the work they highlighted and the in-depth interviews, Gary Groth's constant elevating indie material at the expense of mainstream material got more than a little grating. There was a place for both. He had valid criticisms of DC and Marvel; but, taking shots at producing superheroes, while producing mature work, like Sandman, was more than a bit hypocritical, given Fantagraphics were publishing porn comics. Some of those were decent works but many weren't, just like the superhero books at DC. I liked to get a mix of magazine material, with CBG, Comic Scene, Amazing Heroes, Comic Interview and some others (well, except Wizard). it gave me a nice spectrum of viewpoints.
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 24, 2016 0:40:13 GMT -5
Exactly, and I got plenty of Wizards too.
If you liked all of those you need to be reading TwoMorrows' excellent fanzines.
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Post by Spike-X on Oct 24, 2016 2:15:11 GMT -5
There was a lot I liked about The Comics Journal, but it did have a tendency to disappear up its own arse at times.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 24, 2016 9:38:27 GMT -5
Exactly, and I got plenty of Wizards too. If you liked all of those you need to be reading TwoMorrows' excellent fanzines. Oh, I've read my share of Comic Book Artist, Back Issue, and the Kirby Collector; plus, some of their books and specials. Funny enough, I found myself sort of quoted in an article about Mike Grell. In a segment about the Jon Sable tv series, it used the header "So good it lasted 7 episodes!" which was the title of my review, on IMDB (though I mistakenly had the number at six). I only discovered it after the fact, so I couldn't write in about it. |
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Post by hondobrode on Oct 24, 2016 14:16:05 GMT -5
Yeah, Gary Groth could pretty savagely attack what he saw as dreck, but you know what, lots of us like dreck, or at least some of it. Not everything has to be Maus or the Sandman.
I think he was important in helping to develop and widen the market and show that there are better and wider options than just what the mainstream publishers of the time were putting out.
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zilch
Full Member
Posts: 244 
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Post by zilch on Oct 25, 2016 16:42:06 GMT -5
I started reading at the first "Comics Journal" issue. In the pre-interweb era, kiddies, that and The Comic Reader was just about it for news.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 27, 2016 15:39:57 GMT -5
Yeah, Gary Groth could pretty savagely attack what he saw as dreck, but you know what, lots of us like dreck, or at least some of it. Not everything has to be Maus or the Sandman.
I think he was important in helping to develop and widen the market and show that there are better and wider options than just what the mainstream publishers of the time were putting out. He did that while publishing Porno comics. Hardly classics. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2016 19:53:49 GMT -5
I'm not familiar with this journal at all. Other than WIZARD, the only other comics magazine I read were a few issues of The Comics Scene which were from the early 80s.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 29, 2016 0:37:55 GMT -5
I'm not familiar with this journal at all. Other than WIZARD, the only other comics magazine I read were a few issues of The Comics Scene which were from the early 80s. The Comics Journal fashioned itself as a serious magazine, devoted to the art of comics, rather than a fanzine worshipping at the altar of DC and Marvel. They did a lot to champion the independent and small press publishers, though in varying degrees. They were less likely to push Kitchen Sink or Last Gasp then they were their own stuff. Gary Groth (and Kim Thompson) was often incendiary, attaccking the mainstream constantly. Even when talking about the "good stuff" at DC and Marvel, like Sandman, it was often couched as a left-handed compliment, as it was good in respect to the other "crap" they published. However, they championed Jack Kirby's fight against Marvel, to unconditionally regain his original artwork (he was asked to sign a Draconian release, which was far more wide-ranging than other artists), and they supported the Creator's Bill of Rights. they championed quality material, like Love & rockets, Hate, Eightball, and similar works, and shined a light on some great foreign material. they gave voice to people like CC Beck and Gil Kane, via regular columns, and had some of the bets, in-depth interviews in the business. they also covered a lot of industry details, including financial issues, creative battles, questionable business tactics, and similar stories. If you were a serious student of comic book history, it was required reading; or, if you were a real fan of the art form. It was also infuriating, if you were a fan superhero comics, as well as idiosyncratic stuff like Love & Rockets. Many of us felt there was room for both; they didn't, except classic Marvel and some Silver Age DC. The Journal also touched off a lawsuit, when, in an interview, Harlan Ellison referred to Wrath of the Spectre writer Michael Fleischer as "bu-f@#$," and opined that he might be legitimately crazy. Fleischer sued for libel/slander; but lost. The lawsuit soured Ellison and the Journal's relationship and the Journal (and especially Groth) was responsible for a childish organization, EOE (Enemies of Ellison) in the 90s. They also had a notorious interview with Jack Kirby (also in the 90s, a few years before his death) where Jack claimed Stan never wrote a line in his comics. Groth egged on Kirby's fulty memory and Jack and Roz Kirby's venom towards Stan and Marvel, for Jack's mistreatment. It got pretty nasty and was more than a bit unfair to Stan, though he is hardly the saint he has been made to appear. The Journal was also the place to find long-form interviews with newspaper cartoonists, with interviews with Berke Breathed, Lynn Johnston, Tom Tomorrow, and, especially, on of the rare Bill Watterson interviews. |
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