WaP! #7: The Penultimate Issue

The Forgotten Activist Prozine Continued: Part 16

WaP! #7 was comparitively modest 20-page issue, with no postdate (the issues were now mailed in a flat envelope).

This issue sported my one and only WaP! cover art (above), caricaturing the leaked memo from Texan comics retailer Buddy Saunders. As a lifelong fan of westerns (novels, movies, comics, and TV shows), I couldn’t resist playing up the Texas connection—with all due apologies to Buddy—which definitely had its political overtones. Besides, in ways I’ll explain (and did then and there), this was becoming an increasingly personal as well as a professional concern for me.

The controversy was covered in the lead feature by John Ostrander, whose DC Comics title Wasteland was prompting a certain amount of retailer outrage and activism spearheaded by Saunders.

My cover art was also the only editorial cartoon in the entire issue. WaP! was already in transition.

I had my own reasons for thinking the leaked memo from Saunders chain of comic shops was ominous: As I’ve detailed exhaustively here at Myrant in the past (see links, below), Dave Sim‘s reasons for scuttling his publishing imprint Aardvark One International on the cusp of publishing Taboo included his certainty that retailers would scapegoat any creator or title he published if they were angry at Dave over something completely unrelated to Aardvark One International‘s projects.

As I explained in my own coda to John Ostrander‘s article, Saunders and the Zeta Beam Sequence documentation was proving Dave absolutely right—and with Taboo 1 just hitting shops in the fall of 1988, I was now on the firing line with retailers and the retail community, and I was among the creators and publishers putting the retailers on the firing lines, too.

I’ve already shared with you my entire serialized “The Politics of Cowardice” essay, which prompted a letter from Jan Strnad in this issue of WaP!

• specifically in reaction to the concluding installment of my serialized “The Politics of Cowardice.”

There was also a letter from Nat Gertler making a couple of salient points about WaP!‘s self-publishing issue, noting (and I am in full agreement with Nat on this, as I was then) that self-publishing wasn’t quite the proper term for those who weren’t exclusively publishing their own work. Nat quite rightly cited Taboo as an example of an anthology that wasn’t per se self-published:

I wanted to be sure Jan got to say his piece here, too, in this context.

Suffice to note I, for one, am a much happier comics creator, comics/comix reader, and film and television viewer now that we’re in 21st century retail environments sans comicbook or graphic novel labels, or the expectation of any like that, and where unrated uncut DVD and Blu-Ray editions of past and current feature films and television series are easily found in a wide range of retail venues (not to mention streaming online and such).

Hell, I’m 58 years old—yes, I have grandchildren, but I know where the children’s book sections are in bookshops and libraries, and for myself, I still prefer the lack of ratings on literature, comics, and graphic novels. Now that the CCA (Comics Code Authority) is gone, too (as of 2011), it’s all history—for the time being.

What else was in WaP! #7 (December 1988-January 1989)? Here’s a sampler, along with a complete contents list:

The above two items are from #7′s “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column (pp. 18-19), and illuminate two things: how the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s in comics was comprised in part by the larger publishers gobbling up significant independent publishers—co-opting those they could, crushing those they couldn’t—and how the cottage comics reprint industry of the 1980s paved the way for the creator abuses and oversights we still have today. 

______________

Contents of WaP! #7: 20 pages, 8 1/2″ x 11,” photocopied on white paper.

Cover by Stephen R. Bissette (above).
Pg. 2: “Good News About Taxes” by Joyce Brabner (on “The Technical Corrections Act” exempting “freelance artists, writers, and photographers from the uniform capitalization provision” discussed earlier in WaP!, and citing the book The Art of Filing by Carla Messman as an invaluable resource).
Pp. 3-4: “The Secret Wars of Buddy Saunders” by John Ostrander with “The Saunders Memos,” and coda (on pg. 4) “A Footnote” by Stephen R. Bissette (all above). 
Pg. 5-6: “A Few Words from Some Tired and Cranky Editors” (uncredited overview in Q&A format of WaP! policies and controversies); “New Deadlines” (short statement of 1989 deadlines for WaP! submissions “due to the restructuring of WaP!’s schedule”).
Pg. 7-11: “An Article on Spec” by Mark Evanier with input from Steven Grant, Nat Gertler, Steve Gerber, Christy Marx (on the issues related to doing any freelance work on spec, discussed in part via excerpts from an online discussion board conversation at the Writers’ Exchange Bulletin Board);  “Back Issues” (ordering info for WaP! back issues, pg. 11).
Pg. 12-16: “Mail” (letters from Alex Krislov, Dennis O’Neil (reacting to Steve Skeates‘s letter in WaP! #6), Terry Echterling, Jack C. Harris, Nat Gertler, Jan Strnad (reprinted above in their entirety), Brent Eric Anderson, John Dennis, and Arnold Drake.
Pg. 17: “Workers Unite!!” WaP! subscription ad (art by Howard Chaykin & Walt Simonson)
Pg. 18-19: “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column; indicia (pg. 19).
Pg. 20: “Lights Out” (below); “Next Issue,” “Pushing the Envelope” (on mailing WaP! in an envelope for mailing).

___________

The final page of this issue bears reprinting, if only to make sense of the Bill Sienkiewicz editorial cartoon (in the next installment) from WaP!‘s final issue, and to provide essential context of interest to Alan Moore scholars out there (I know some of you are reading this!):

___

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images and text pieces are ©1988, 1989 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

For those who want to read and/or know more:

An earlier, in-depth Myrant serialized essay detailing where Taboo came from — which covers in excrutiating detail the events framing and following this 1986-87 DC Comics standards and practices and ratings hubbub — is instantly at your fingertips by clicking the links below. It might answer many questions about what happened next, including the Aardvark/Diamond Comics controversy, WaP!, and what led to the historic Creator’s Summit of November 1988.

• SpiderBaby Archives: Taboo Origins, Part 1 (which covers Dave Sim‘s experimental offering to creators he cherry-picked, and details the events of 1985-1986);
• Taboo Origins Part 2 (horror comics and the birth pangs of Taboo 1, 1985-86);
• Taboo Origins Part 3 (1st draft, the Taboo Manifesto);
• Taboo Origins Part 4 (the Taboo Manifesto);
• Taboo Origins Part 5 — here’s some meat & potatoes concerning the pivotal 1985 Mid Ohio Comics Convention, my meeting Frank Miller, and my departure from Swamp Thing and DC Comics;
• (and this followup post on why I didn’t meet Frank in 1977 — I was to busy heading off to the movies!);

• Taboo Origins Part 6 — “The Learning Curve; Or, How the System Worked, and How It Didn’t” — discussing the events of 1986-87, including Dave Sim‘s battle with Diamond Comics Dist., John and I leaving Swamp Thing, and John and Alan beginning work on their incredible Miracleman arc, which you can now read in the greater context of the DC Ratings Debacle of that same time period (I told you a lot was going on, didn’t I?);
• Taboo Origins Part 7 — detailing Dave Sim‘s publishing experiment of 1987 that spawned a new book format ceiling for all comics publishers, as well as what Aardvark One International was meant to be, and what became of it, and why SpiderBaby Comix & Publications was born;
• Taboo Origins Part 8 — the events of 1987-88, with a focus on Dave Sim vs. Diamond Comics Dist. and the shockwaves in the creative community that spawned;
• SpiderBaby Archives: Taboo Origins, Part 9 (Conclusion) — which covers the events the led from Sim vs. Diamond to the first Creator Summits of 1988, and the first-draft ‘Manifesto for Creators’ — which culminated in the November 1988 Scott McCloud “A Bill of Rights for Comics Creators.”
• Finally, here is Scott McCloud’s page on his own website concerning the November 1988 creator summit and his revised draft of the Bill of Rights for Comics Creators.

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988, 1989 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

Ray Harryhausen, 1920-2013

The Great Stop-Motion Animator & Fantasist Has Passed at Age 92

A great and beloved master of monsters, fantasy, and special effects—and a personal hero and role model—died yesterday.

There are countless eulogies already being shared, so I’ll briefly share just a few memories here. My pal Denis St. John shared the sad news with me just as my last Center for Cartoon Studies session with the Class of 2013 had ended, and I’ve been in a bit of a daze since; all my life, Ray meant more to me than any other filmmaker.

Ray Harryhausen and his work shaped who I am, what I do, the path I chose in life—but then again, he did that for so many, without ever meaning to.

Ray was, after all, just making his movies, his way, as best he could.

* My first vivid movie memory in life is of Ray‘s Rhedosaurus, seemingly alive. I was so young when I first saw The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) on TV that I was trying to convince my Dad to drive us to Coney Island before that great beast was killed, so I could see it, in the flesh—I somehow knew Coney Island was a real place, but little else—but my father had no idea what the hell I was talking about, and before I knew it, that magnificent monster was dead. Too late, Dad!

* The first name on a movie credit that ever mattered to me (the first of many) was Ray Harryhausen‘s, and thereafter I seized every opportunity to see every and any film his hand was in. Mighty Joe Young (1949) and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms were the two films most often broadcast in my area (they were in The Early Show package of vintage films WMTW-TV, Channel 8, Poland Springs, Maine, and were shown at least once a year every year), and they were burned into my brain as a result.

* Magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland (edited by Ray’s lifelong friend Forrest J Ackerman), Castle of Frankenstein, and Modern Monsters helped me learn about and identify those films, and the first-ever “must see” list of movies I ever had written down were Ray‘s. When I first stumbled upon a 16mm film rental catalogue (at the Waterbury, VT public library), a new venue and dim possibility of seeing Ray‘s films emerged, prompting my junior high and high school infiltration and takeover of school film exhibition opportunities—and my first viewing of many of Ray‘s films on the big screen, in color (and in 16mm).

* From First Men “In” The Moon (1964) on, I caught every one of Ray‘s subsequent films in the theater, as they opened locally. These experiences are all caught up with my own family, making all of them even more intimate cinema excursions and experiences. My friends all knew of my weird devotion to Harryhausen’s movies and monsters; my high school sweetheart Jill Chase would sing-song, “Ray Harry-hausen/runs through the town/upstairs, downstairs/in his nightgown…” I still hear her voice in my head from time to time, unbidden, singing that song.

* During my teenage years, I devoured all I could find about Ray and his creative and career paths. I learned and understood how he had done something no other special-effects expert had done: he forged a production team with a producer (Charles H. Schneer) as an associate producer, and shaped his life and creative work in ways no one else in his field ever had, or would (to date). This, coupled with my own father and mother’s entrepreneurial gusto (Dad and Mom founded, owned, and ran a heating oil company and a procession of small grocery stores), boosted my own determination to make my own way in the world, and somehow carve out a living as a creator, if I could.

* The best of all fanzines was Ernest Farino and Sam Calvin‘s FXRH: Special Effects by Ray Harryhausen, which I discovered in its second issue and was a subscriber thereafter. FXRH only lasted four issues, but it provided more information than had ever before been available about Ray‘s work—more, even, than Ray himself shared in his seminal first book (from A.S. Barnes). I kept tabs on Farino and Calvin‘s occasional credits and work after FXRH folded, as best as I could, and most recently signed on, pre-ordered, and purchased the fantastic Harryhausen books they’ve published over the past few years, the best anything ever on Ray‘s creations and career.

• The Archive Editions website is here; good luck tracking down the two out-of-print volumes 2 and 3 of Ray Harryhausen: Master of the Magicks, and don’t miss volume 1, or the exquisite FXRH reprint collection volume (the best-ever overview of any fanzine, ever, period), while you can still get a copy.

* I was fortunate enough to have met Ray and Diana Harryhausen in their home in London, a magical visit I kept short, not wanting to wear out my welcome. Ray spent almost two hours with me, letting me see his original models, his drawings, pulling out from behind a couch (!) two framed original production drawings from the 1933 King Kong. His eyes sparking when I mentioned how the use of light and composition in one of the Kong drawings echoed Paul Gustave Doré—and suddenly, he was way more enthused about my visit, taking me downstairs into their finished basement rooms to share with me his collection of first-edition Doré books and the remarkable original Doré painting on the wall nearby. Diana called us up for tea, and I got to chat with both Ray and Diana on their back patio table over tea, now spoken to as a fellow artist rather than just a fan. I wish I’d stayed longer; they were so generous and comfortable talking with this hairy cartoonist from far-away Vermont.

* Thanks to my pal G. Michael Dobbs, I later got to interview Ray—over two long sessions in San Diego, CA, and a follow-up phone call—for Mike‘s editorial stint on Animato! Ray was, per usual, incredibly generous with his time. For the first installment (it ran in Animato! #24-25), I also painted a special cover image of Winsor McCay‘s Gertie “meeting” Ray‘s incarnation of Willis O’Brien‘s Gwangi.

* I was also fortunate enough to raise my own children—my daughter Maia Rose, my son Daniel—on Ray‘s movies, thanks to videocassettes and laserdiscs, and to drive us all to a nearby Boston, MA convention where Maia and Daniel would meet Ray, in person. To see my own kids talking to Ray, his kind attention—it couldn’t have meant that much to Ray, but for me as a father it was the completion of a life circle that was inexpressibly vital, something truly special.

* I once got to do a secret favor for Ray, one he never knew of or acknowledged. I got a phone call out of the blue from David Del Valle, who was somehow involved with providing archival materials to Columbia Pictures‘ laserdisc editions (to illustrate the sleeve art for their movie releases on laser), and David was really rattled. Our mutual friend Tim Lucas had steered David to me—David and I would later meet briefly at a Chillercon, and had never really talked before—but David launched right into what was pissing him off. “They’ve got the wrong pictures on the wrong sleeves of Ray‘s films,” David told me, “they don’t have any idea what they’ve got here! You’ve got to talk to someone up there, and make them understand what a gold mine they’re sitting on, and how important Ray and Ray‘s films are to the potential audiences out there buying these laserdiscs.” David gave me a few names and phone numbers to call, and the next two afternoon I spent at home, away from my studio and the comics job on the boards, calling each and every number he’d given me, and a few more I was given by those people I talked to (those who would listen, anyway), until I had convinced two folks in Columbia‘s laser division that they really had something extraordinary, worthy of special attention and marketing, with Ray‘s films. Months later, David called and thanked me: “I don’t know what you said, but you really turned this around. They’re handling these films as they should be presented.” Mission accomplished—and, in some small way, my one shot at repaying the debt I can never repay to Ray for all he and his work meant and did for me.

* There’s more, but hell, I could go on for days, but I won’t.

• The only official website established and approved by Ray and Diana is this one,
• and here is the link to the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, dedicated to the archival preservation and restoration of Ray’s body of creative work.

My deepest condolences and well wishes to Diana and to Ray’s family and circle of friends; needless to say, he will be missed. He will be honored.

My own life would have been so different, so much less, without what he created and did.

Thank you, Mr. Harryhausen. Thank you, Ray.

Just… thank you.

_________________

All images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP!: The Self-Publishing Issue

The Forgotten Activist Prozine Continued: Part 15

WaP! #6 was a fat 28-page issue, postdated October 24, 1988 on my copy.

The lead feature was a concise, to-the-point overview of the logistics of self-publishing in principal and practice by none other than Dave Sim. It’s still an essential read, and a call to creative autonomy.

I’ve already shared with you my entire serialized “The Politics of Cowardice” essay, which continued in WaP! #6, and Alan Moore‘s “A Letter from England”—here’s the links:

• here’s Alan‘s 1988 “A Letter from England”
• and the concluding installment of my serialized “The Politics of Cowardice.”

What else was in WaP! #6 (September-October, 1988)? Here’s a sampler, along with a complete contents list:

______________

Contents of WaP! #6: 28 pages, 8 1/2″ x 11,” photocopied on white paper.

Cover-pg. 5: “Self-Publishing & You” by Dave Sim.
Pg. 3: Dave Sim editorial cartoon (above).
Pp. 6-8: “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Success Story; or, The Art of Being in the Right Place at the Right Time” by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird (Kevin Eastman editorial cartoon, pg. 7, above). 
Pg. 9-10: “A Letter from England” by Alan Moore.
Pg. 11-14: “Co-Publishing” by Larry Hancock and Michael Cherkas (on co-publishing The Silent Invasion and Suburban Nightmares with Renegade Press);  editorial cartoon by Michael Zulli (pg. 13, below); “Back Issues” (ordering info for WaP! back issues, pg. 14).
Pg. 15-18: “Mail” (letters from Stephen J. Rock, Joel Thingvall, Dick Ayers, Kay Reynolds (including contents of a letter from Congressman Owen B. Pickett on the Tax Reform Act of 1986), Evan Dorkin, Steve Skeates, Mark Nevelow (very interesting reaction to WaP! and rumors on DC‘s Piranha Press, which Mark was the founding editor of), and Leslie Sternbergher; “WaP! Still Wants You, No Matter What!” (appeal for letters, articles, art, etc..
Pg. 19: “A Brief Story About Respect” by Brent Eric Anderson
Pg. 20-22: “The Politics of Cowardice, Pt. 3: The Ratings Game” by Stephen Bissette (already presented in an earlier Myrant post, linked above).
Pg. 23: “Workers Unite!!” WaP! subscription ad (art by Howard Chaykin & Walt Simonson)
Pg. 24-26: “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column; “No WaP! In October” (pg. 25); “The Comics Freelancer’s Lexicon” (pg. 26, above; cartoon masthead by Frank Miller).
Pg. 27: “Some Random Thoughts on Self-Publishing” (above); indicia (bottom of pg. 27).

___________

This interesting tidbit appeared in the “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column, pg. 26, suggesting an alternative universe to the Disney/Marvel media giant we now have in power:

Then again, Michael Zulli‘s editorial cartoon (above) just about says it all… but remember, this was 1988, and we had yet to see the work of a new generation of self-publishers—Jeff Smith, Paul Pope, David Lapham, etc.—surface and change the playing field yet again.

___

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP! #5 & A Letter from Ditko

The Forgotten Activist Prozine Continued: Part 14

Picking up the chronology of this retrospective:

WaP! #5 was a shorter 20-page issue, postdated September 1, 1988 on my copy.

The lead feature was Mike W. Barr‘s remarkable account of the 1966-67 attempt by a group of National Periodicals/DC freelancer writers to negotiate better page rates and terms for themselves, and their vain attempt to convince fellow DC artists to join their cause after the initial vehement pushback from DC management. It wasn’t a pretty story.

I’ve already shared with you my entire serialized “The Politics of Cowardice” essay, which continued in WaP! #5; here’s a peek at what else was in WaP! #5 (August 1988), and a complete contents list.

I’ll open with just a few excerpts from Mike Barr‘s still-essential article on the DC writers’ strike of 1966-67—these are excerpts only, but I think the full contexts are apparent even in this extremely condensed form:

___

So much for “the old DC Comics“—WaP! was still trying to make sense of “The New DC,” following up on the earlier issues’ ongoing coverage of dramatic new contractual changes at DC Comics circa 1988:

As we have seen over the decades since, from Watchmen to the Vertigo et. al. contracts (and their odious variation on rights reversion, in which freelancers must buy back their rights, whether the completed/accepted work was published or not, a complete subversion and essentially an eternal “option” purchase by DC/Vertigo et. al.), the rights reversion issues were co-opted and corrupted by DC, and an entire generation of creators fell for it. Now that other publishers are adopting similar contract language, the malignant influence of “the New DC” taints much of the wider publishing industries.

______________

Contents of WaP! #5: 20 pages, 8 1/2″ x 11,” photocopied on white paper.

Cover, pp. 4-10: “The Madames and the Girls: How DC Got Rid of the Troublemakers” by Mike W. Barr (Frank Miller editorial cartoons throughout, shared above)
Pg. 2: “Okay, So This Isn’t Our Special Self-Publishing Issue…”; “The New DC Deal Revealed” (above)

Pg. 3: “The New DC Revealed,” cont., “Blackthorne in IRS Thicket” (IRS investigation and prosecution of Blackthorne Publishing under the premise all freelancers are employed under work-for-hire basis).

Pg. 11-14: “The Politics of Cowardice, Pt. 2″  by Stephen Bissette (already presented in an earlier Myrant post; Frank Miller editorial cartoon on pg. 12, below). 
Pg. 14-15: “The Freelancer is Always Wrong” (uncredited); Dave Sim editorial cartoon (pg. 15, shown above).
Pg. 16-17: “Mail” (letters from S.A. Bennett, Steve Leialoha, Donald Simpson, Thomas D. Luth, and Steve Ditko).
Pg. 18-19: “Rumors and Innuendo” gossip column; editorial cartoons by Frank Miller; indicia (bottom of pg. 19).

___________

Oh, and about that letter from Steve Ditko:

___

To be continued!

________

Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

_________

Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

_________________

All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. Original text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.

WaP!: “So-Called Adult Comic Books”

The Forgotten Activist Prozine vs Canada Campaign for Censoring Comics: Part 13

Before we leave the month of April behind, there’s one more anniversary I have to commemmorate that involves comics and WaP!—though it’s not as well-known as Superman‘s anniversary, nor should it be.

Stepping back just one issue further, WaP! #3 featured the most detailed overview of Ontario‘s abbreviated campaign against adult comics in 1988, an excellent article authored by vet comics retailer/creator/television industry pro Mark Askwith. Mark was writing about, and reacting to, an April 1988 CBC news program that attacked comicbooks.

Mark and I go way back, having met in the early 1980s when Mark was still managing Toronto‘s Silver Snail comics shop.

Mark also went on to write for comics and work in television for TVOntario, where he produced and conducted countless interviews for Prisoners of Gravity (which I occasionally appeared on, and still use in my Center for Cartoon Studies classroom today!), and was one of the founding producers of Canada‘s sf channel SPACE.

Mark arguably remains best known in comics circles for having co-scripted The Prisoner: Shattered Visage comics series (with Dean Motter, DC Comics, 4 issues now in collected trade paperback, 1988-89), among others.

Personally, I’m forever in Mark‘s debt—because he’s the man who suggested the title for what became Taboo—which Mark also co-created memorable comics work for (“Sharks” in Taboo 2 and “Davey’s Dream” in Taboo 4, both created with his ink-slinging Wordsmith and Silencers partner-in-crime R.G. Rick Taylor); he kindly granted permission for the reprint of his revealing WaP! #3 article today.

• I covered the contents of WaP! #3 a couple of weeks ago in this retrospective,

but held off on doing anything more than mention Mark‘s article until we had a chance to chat, and my deepest thanks to Mark for granting permission to include his complete essay here today.

• You can watch the complete April 11, 1988 CBC Monitor program discussed in Mark‘s article here, at the CBC Digital Archives (preceded and interrupted by couple of web-ads). As Rob Imes (Ditkomania editor/publisher) noted, “this video is like a time machine back to 1988…”

Give the Monitor installment a viewing, and read on…

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Yummy Fur #5 cover, “in the bullseye” via the Monitor program and other events, cover art ©1988, 2013 Chester Brown. Yummy Fur began as a self-published minicomic that Chester mailed to John Totleben and I in 1983; the series was subsequently published by Vortex (1986-1991) and Drawn and Quarterly (1991-1994).
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As previously noted (and shared, but here we go again, for the sake of completion in the proper context), WaP! accompanied Mark‘s article with a guide to interacting with news media in an environment that was ripe with increasingly sensationalistic reporting on a procession of comics shop busts. This was something no other publication was discussing, much less offering “how to/how not to” tips for dealing with increasing unexpected media scrutiny:

Next: WaP! #5, at last…

To be continued!

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Repeating: This material has never been seen online before, anywhere.

I’ll continue sharing it, as long as the following groundrules are honored.

This serialized essay is ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette. The individual archival images are ©1988 their respective authors and creators.

Note: I have not granted permission for these posts to be shared at Goodreads.com or any other thieving sites that cull blog content from non-participating creators; if this post is appearing anywhere but at the genuine Myrant blog/site (http://srbissette.com), it is stolen and should be immediately shut down and reported.

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Some ground rules: Please respect these rules, and please report to me (via comments thread or email — msbissette@yahoo.com) any breaking of these rules.

If all goes well, I’ll do more of this at Myrant; if the virtual archives are robbed, so to speak, this will be the last and only time I get into these kinds of archival materials at Myrant.

Please:

1. Post links to the relevant Myrant posts; please do NOT lift the graphics to place them on your own blog, journal or website.
2. Please do NOT lift these posts, and my text, verbatim and place them on your blog, journal, flicker pages or whatever.
3. Please note all copyright notices at the end of each post, and respect them. I do not own this copyright material, nor do I claim to; I am sharing it here (with correct copyright ownership noted) to share this material with fans, scholars and researchers.
4. If there are any problems, I’ll just tear this all down and abandon the project.

PS: I have removed subscription info from all images/text; the WaP! address is no longer active, subscriptions/copies are obviously no longer available (and no, I don’t know where/how you can find copies, sorry).

Let’s see where this goes. Thanks!

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All WaP! images, content ©1988 the respective creative contributors and proprietors. All other cover art or comics images © respective year of original publication their original creators and/or proprietors. “The Real Violence on Television” ©1988, 2013 Mark Askwith, reprinted with permission; all original-to-this-blog text material ©2013 Stephen R. Bissette, all rights reserved. Permission to link, post pingbacks granted, but please do not quote excessively or post these essays on your own blogs, websites or venues; it’s not yours to play with. NOTE: All images are posted for archival and educational purposes only, under applicable US Fair Use laws.