The Comic Reader reaches 100!

With the 11th Anniversary issue The Comic Reader once again returns to its original name. After years of various permutations (On The Drawing Board; the recent double-name of Etcetera and The Comic Reader), publisher Paul Levitz wisely decided that less is more. 

                     
                       Cover to The Comic Reader # 90, October 1972. Art by fan Marc Bilgrey

Levitz's A Letter From The Editor closes the door on "the double name nonsense". He further explains that Etcetera will become a separate fanzine with many of the ongoing columns appearing therein (which did occur). The really good news? The Comic Reader will REMAIN The Comic Reader for the duration (that doesn't mean there won't be ANY changes, though...)    

The Marvel news section tells of the Marvel Origins book being delayed. That was an understatement, since it wouldn't appear for another two years. Barry Smith leaves Conan, as John Buscema takes over what would be a very long and popular run on the character. Don McGregor joins Marvel as an editorial assistant; coincidentally news of the delayed War of The Worlds strip is mentioned, a strip that McGregor would go on to write, most prominently with Craig Russell, another newcomer who was assigned the Ant-Man strip. One item that sadly did not come to fruition was the Spider-Man/Sub-Mariner story to be drawn by Bill Everett. While Everett inked Spider-Man over Ross Andru and Gene Colan, he never had the opportunity to pencil the character. As will soon be noted, Everett passed before he was able to pencil the story. The FF image is from the T-shirt, with art by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia.

     
In the "news and notes" section Paul Levitz talks of his upcoming visit to the Malachy McCourt program. McCourt had a long-running show on AM Station WMCA in New York which was then a Talk Station that included a range of diverse hosts, including Alex Bennett, Bob Grant, Leon Lewis and late night host Long John Nebel. Paul's teacher, and Malachy's brother Frank McCourt was unknown to the general public at the time, but years later would become celebrated for his best-selling Memoir Angela's Ashes. Frank McCourt died in 2009.   

The Comic Reader # 91, Nov 1972. Cover of Kirby's the Demon by Don Rosa. Rosa has an interesting history in fandom. He wrote the Information Center column for The Rocket's Blast Comicollector for many years, and his comic strip, Pertwillaby Papers, would later appear in The Comic Reader. Rosa was a lifelong fan of Carl Barks, the famous writer/artist of many Donald Duck comics for Western publishing. In later years Rosa would have the opportunity to create his own Duck stories.   

    
 DC news included the return of Joe Simon to editorial duties, although this time he remained largely a solo act, even though ex-partner Jack Kirby was also at DC. Fans were not the only ones who took notice of the two working for DC again. Could that mean a reunion? Stay tuned! The Toth item turned out to be false, though not inaccurate - read my previous blog post for all the sordid details! Secret Origins # 1 cover-repro by Nick Cardy. 

    
A Kirby/Ayers Sub-Mariner illo graces the Marvel news page, which includes news of colorist Glynis Wein joining the staff and Marv Wolfman becoming assistant editor, replacing Steve Gerber who became busy writing stories. Tony Isabella joined the ranks of professionals, assisting on Marvel's British Weeklies! Mad also gets a plug, with its special "comic section" including a pull-out of the original comic version.

The ET AL section posted a variety of popular culture items, including convention news, books on comics and strips and info on newspaper articles. On a personal note I fondly recall listening to WRVR, a Jazz oriented FM radio station in New York that I frequently enjoyed (as a teenager I loved rock and roll, but appreciated all types of music, and really grew to love jazz in the years ahead). WRVR also played old time radio, and along with the Lone Ranger, I particularly recall listening to the Shadow many Saturday nights with my brother John, usually with the lights turned off to create the appropriate mood. One of the sponsors for the show was none other than the Monster Times, a bi-weekly newspaper that featured articles on comics, movies, television...well, why not just read Manny Marris' recap of the 17th and 18th issues in his column:      
    

The Obituary section notes the passing of actor Charles Correll and Animation Pioneer Max Fleischer. A producer and inventor, Fleischer's achievements included Ko Ko the Clown, Betty Boop and most famously, was instrumental in bringing Popeye to the moving screen. Along with his talented studio of animators and voice artists, the Fleischer studio created many unique, decidedly urban and extraordinary cartoons that stand the test of time.  

The one and only ORIGIKANAL! Accept no subskitutes!

I beg your indulgence for a moment, since The Comic Reader # 92 (Dec 1972) was the first fanzine I ever purchased, way back in December of 1972. The cover peered out at me from the little nook of a window of an old bookstore, located in the Ridgewood section of Queens, New York. It was on a Sunday, though, and the store was closed. Neighborhood bookstores were still in evidence in the early 1970's, and this one was known by the proprietors name, Pat. The store sold books, magazines, records and, yes, comics. Since my brother John and I were comics fans and bought them on a regular basis I recognized the character on the cover, Warlock. I was also intrigued by the cryptic copy that dotted the cover: "Dracula Lives, new Marvel B&W"; "In This Issue: EC Comix.  I rushed back the following day and purchased The Comic Reader, discovering it was filled with information on Marvel and DC's line, including reproductions of upcoming covers! What a thrill it was to a kid who only got his news from the companies coming attractions. Plus it had news of other companies! Articles! Ads for other fanzines! The discovery of this small publication led me to an ongoing interest in fanzines; I've collected, studied and enjoyed them ever since that day almost 40 years ago. 

Cover art by Alan Kupperberg. Colors by N. Caputo.

News of the latest paperback releases also appeared in TCR, as seen on the "So What Else Is News?" Column 

Even the ads were exciting! Reprinting of Eisner's The Spirit and EC's Comics. This took place at a time when there were very little early comic books being collected.

  

The Comic Reader # 93, Jan 1973 heralds the return of Simon and Kirby on a new Sandman. The pair would only work on one issue together, and it would not be published for some time, although sales turned out to be very strong. Dreams of further Simon/Kirby collaborations were not to be, though, and the pairs fortunes would remain in separate paths. The proposed Deadman revival never got off the ground; instead the Spectre got the green light. Since horror and weird strips were doing extremely well (note the Swamp Thing's overwhelming success) it might have been worthwhile to try both features. Captain Marvel...excuse me..Shazam # 2 cover by C.C. Beck and Jack Adler.    

ET AL has many interesting tid-bits, not the least of which is Harlan Ellison's unproduced The Dark Forces TV show, which sounded promising, and information and art by Neal Adams on the short lived Warp play.

Howard Chaykin's cover to The Comic Reader # 94 Feb 1973, introduces his new character. IronWolf, who later debuted in Weird Worlds.   

News on Russ Heath's current work, the first German Comiccon, the revival of Weird Tales and old time radio on WRVR. I was glued to my radio every night listening to those old programs, including the comedy Fibber McGee. To show how everything connects, a supporting character that appeared on the show, The Great Gildersleeve, played by character actor Harold Peary, was once mentioned in an essay by Steve Ditko as serving the same function as did his Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man, a character the fans loved to hate. Ditko noted: "I realized that J. Jonah Jameson was Spider-Man's Great Gildersleeve." (A Mini-History 10: "The OO's and JJJ" Robin Snyder's The Comics Vol 14, No 5, May 2003).  And if you ever heard Gildersleeve's laugh on radio and thought of Jameson's leering face from ASM # 18, you'd get the picture.   

DC's apprentice program came on strong with Carl Gafford and Al Milgrom. Gafford was involved in fanzines and went on to become a major colorist, particularly for DC. Milgrom was an artist/inker/editor and writer, producing tons of work for Marvel and DC. Milgrom is also the inker of one of my favorite Kirby covers, Invincible Iron-Man # 80.

The 39 year run of Terry and the Pirates comes to an end and news of Jerry Bails' essential Who's Who of American Comic Books makes this a noteworthy page.

The sad news of Bill Everett's passing, creator of Sub-Mariner, distinctive stylist and a giant of the industry.

Murphy Anderson's expressive Spectre cover announces his return to comics, although Jim Aparo would be drawing the revived version. The Comic Reader # 96 April 1973.

   

Along with Weird horror, Weird war and Weird westerns, DC had Weird humor. Plop debuts, with cover art by the delightfully weird Basil Wolverton. After an absence of many years the Joker returns, reverting to his manically homicidal personality. Neal Adams cover art.   

 News from other companies, including Gold Key and Charlton, begin to filter back into TCR.  E-Man, a new superhero feature by writer Nick Cuti and artist Joe Staton is spotlighted.

No, the X-Men still aren't back, but Al Milgrom awaits their return on the cover of TCR # 97, May 1973

Included in the Marvel news section was the original, unaltered cover art to Savage Tales # 2 by John Buscema.

This Tom Sutton-esque cover to The Comic Reader # 98, June 1973, is actually the work of long-time Marvel editor/current editor-in-chief of Papercutz Jim Salicrup! Jim did a terrific job on this manic cover, but credit for the coloring goes to N. Caputo, who takes the blame for adding a palette to many black and white covers of the period. 

Only a few short months after the news of Everett's passing, another titan of Timely/Atlas dies. Syd Shores was a tremendously talented artist. Versatile and prolific he drew many excellent Captain America stories in the 1940's following Simon and Kirby. He was particularly effective on war and westerns. In later years he was known for distinctive inking. Some of his best was in tandem with Gene Colan on Daredevil. Colan studied under Shores at Timely and was a huge fan of his. Some of Shores last work, appropriately enough, was on the western features Gunhawks and Red Wolf.

DC news includes Paul Levitz filling-in for vacationing Mike Fleischer as a summer temp. Carl Gaffford's Fourth World Nuts panel and cover repos of Mr. Miracle # 16 by Kirby/Royer and Limited Collectors Edition of Tarzan by Joe Kubert.

    

Levitz's editorial states his assisting at DC for the summer is temporary and he has "no desire to make a career for myself in this industry" Why do I get the feeling I'm going to include a different announcement in the 100th issue??

News of  Archie's Red Circle line headed by Gray Morrow as editor sounds promising. Plus news on Warren, Gold Key and Charlton. Cover to E-Man # 1 by Joe Staton.

Walt Simonson's cover to The Comic Reader # 98, July 1973, featuring his new version of the Manhunter, a series that would run in Detective Comics with writer Archie Goodwin. 

  

Gray Morrow's cover to Chilling Adventures in Sorcery # 3 for the short-lived Red Circle line. And news of Fredric Wertham's The World of Fanzines.

A milestone accomplishment deserves a milestone artist. Jack Kirby's wraparound cover to The Comic Reader #100 Aug-Sept 1973, includes Superman, Captain Marvel, Captain America and probably his first depiction of Batman! Colors by Carl Gafford and logo, I believe, by Gaspar Saladino.

News of Kirby's Demon and Mister Miracle cancellations. Omac was the next solo Kirby title, although he would work on Sandman and later a powerful run on The Losers strip in Our Fighting Forces. The Dingbats of Danger Street were featured in one issue of First Issue Special, later episodes have yet to be collected. Other Kirby ideas that only appeared once were Atlas, a new version of Manhunter and Kobra. Rima art by Nestor Redondo.

And, with the 100th issue comes a change of publishers once again. After a three year run Paul Levitz decided to move on. In a short period Levitz would be editorial assistant and soon write stories for DC, particularly noted for the Legion of Super Heroes. He would move up in the editorial ranks until he became publisher from 2002-2009. Levitz wrote the massive 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking published by Taschen. Not too shabby a resume from starting out in fanzines!

  

Following Levitz with issue # 101 would be Mike Tiefenbacher. He, along with Jerome Sinkovec would carry the ball for the remainder of the publications history. 

Etcetera, Etcetera

When Publisher Mark Hanerfeld found work at DC, The Comic Reader vanished for 22 months. Taking up the slack was another fanzine.

Etcetera was published by Paul Levitz and Paul Kupperberg, and later solely by Levitz. Kupperberg would go on to write and edit for DC. You can read some great stories at his blog, including a few about his time working on Etc and meeting Carmine Infantino: http://kupps.malibulist.com/page/7/

Paul Levitz became a writer, editor and publisher at DC. Etcetera followed TCR by concentrating on news about DC and Marvel, listing coming comics and featuring reviews and columns. Etcetera # 3, May 1971

Along with Marvel and DC news, there was info on Skywald. Sol Brodsky (who left Marvel for a while to attempt this venture) and Israel Waldman teamed to produce horror mags such as Nightmare and Psycho, a few 25 cent color comics and Hell-Rider, which did not turn out to "shake up the industry as we know it" (it lasted two issues). Skywald employed many talented creators, including Gary Friedrich, Ross Andru, Syd Shores, Dick Ayers and superlative work by Bill Everett. The announced Science Fiction Odyssey never appeared. 

The Fan column mentioned that Hanerfeld was planning to put out 2 more issues of The Comic Reader and then turn it over to Dave Kaler, but that was not to be. From Etcetera # 3.

      
Etcetera # 4, June 1971, announces Marvel's line becoming 48 page-25 cent titles, which only lasted a few months before reverting to standard size (at 20 cents). The Fan column explains Dave Kaler's plans to turn the Comic Reader into an in-depth article zine, with no news. That didn't happen either.

..however, just four issues later, in Etcetera # 8, Oct 1971, there was no further talk of either Hannerfeld or Kaler returning. Instead Levitz announced a merging of Etcetera with the Comic Reader which occured two months later, after one more issue of solo Etcetera. 

December 1971 marked the return of The Comic Reader, as ETC/TCR, with combined numbering - although there was an error - this issue was supposed to be #78, not #77 (the last published Hanerfeld issue), so, the next issue becomes #79 (figured all that out? They'll be a quiz at the end of the blog!)

Like its predecessor, ETC/TCR included plenty of DC related news. Issue 11/79 (Dec 1971) noted the company moving into the Kinney Building at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, which would later become the Warner Communications building. There was also talk of Steve Ditko possibly working on a strip for DC's Adventure Comics. I wonder if the script was published with another artist? Adventure 422 included a Vigilante back-up; 423 a fantasy filler. Later issues featured Captain Fear and Adventurers Club. Could one of those scripts been offered to Ditko?

Along with news, Levitz included convention info, fanzine reviews and columns, including one by Tony Isabella, who, besides having had many letters of comment printed in comics such as Rawhide Kid, wrote a slew of articles for fanzines before he became a professional comic book writer. 

In this column Tony asks "Where Have All The Heroes Gone?" The Wandering Fan was originally published in ETC/TCR 11/79 and is © 2014 Tony Isabella

Tony was kind enough to share some of his thoughts on his fanzine work, and this particular column: 

I never kept records of my fanzine writing, but I sure did a lot of it.  
I remember that I wrote these articles and reviews quickly...and that I 
am sometimes appalled by them when I reread them decades later.  What 
strikes me when I reread this piece is how incensed I got over comics 
that are mild by the standards of today's super-hero comics.  Batman's 
corpse hanging outside his murderer's window is positively benign when 
compared to the torture porn sensibilities of most DC and too many 
Marvel titles.

Thank Godzilla that today's comics readers - count me in that number - 
have so many choices for entertainment.  In any given week, I'm reading 
a handful of new comics of all kinds, collections of classic and 
not-so-classic comics from the 1940s to present, great newspaper strip 
collections, graphic albums/novels from all over the world, a number of 
manga series and books and magazines of comics history.  I keep telling 
people we're living in the true Golden Age of Comics because I've never 
lived in a time when so many great comics are available to me.  Heck, I 
can even borrow many of them through my library system.

 Issue # 80 Dec 1971 (yes, I said 80! The double numbering was eradicated, thank goodness! And don't ask me why #'s 79 & 80 are both dated December!) Covers featuring artwork began to appear on a regular basis. Rich Buckler provides his interpretation of Conan. Buckler was a relative newcomer to professional comics and some of his earliest work for Marvel showed up in this period.

ETC/TCR 80 included news of Green Lantern/Green Arrow's cancellation. The Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams revamp received critical attention but suffered from poor sales. The Green Lantern title would be revived a few years later with more traditional super-heroics. The announcement of Bat Lash's revival was premature, although apparently very much considered, as noted in the following issue. 

        
The inside back cover of ETC/TCR 80 presented an in house strip from Kinney National, owners of DC, promoting their products and featuring a Superman lookalike, with a final panel guest appearance by Sinatra! Art by Al Plastino. 

ETC/TCR # 81 (Jan 1972) explained that Ditko would NOT be doing any work for DC (it would be three years before Ditko again freelanced for DC, coincidentally around the time that Kirby left). While El Diablo did have the lead spot in a few issues of Weird Western Tales (title changed from All Star Western) Bat Lash never appeared, and Jonah Hex soon became the main feature, taking over the entire book.

Among the Marvel news in ETC/TCR 81 is the announcement of Roy Thomas becoming Editor of the line. Roy and assistant editor Steve Englehart cooperated with Levitz by supplying news items. Marvel's policy in providing info to fanzines was erratic, unlike DC, who always welcomed the fan press.    

   
ETC/TCR # 82 (Feb 1972) reports the news of DC reverting back to a standard 32 page size at 20 cents from its 25 cents/48 page size.

ETC/TCR 82 featured news on Gold Key. Earlier issues of TCR included greater emphasis on companies such as Charlton and Gold Key, but editorial changes at those companies lessened their input. ET AL was an ongoing column that featured a potpourri of items; comic related appearances on TV and radio; Ross Andru and Mike Esposito's short-lived venture and the Monster Times, a bi-weekly newspaper that featured articles and artwork on comics along with horror and sci-fi fare.

      

Rich Buckler was a prolific cover artist for ETC/TCR, here is a Thor/Beast illo from # 83, March 1972

There were always interesting items mixed in with the "hard news", such as E. Nelson Bridwell's system of picking letters for DC's columns.

Even the Ads were exciting! The EC Fan-Addict Convention took place over the Memorial day weekend in New York City. You could attend the four day event and pay in advance for $7.50! And $14.00 a day for a hotel room! As Phil Rizzutto used to say: Holy Cow! 

 

By the time this cover appeared Rich Buckler was drawing the Avengers with writer Roy Thomas. Buckler continued to work for Marvel for many years, drawing strips such as Black Panther, Ka-Zar, Fantastic Four and Deathlok, which he created with Doug Moench. ETC/TCR # 84, April 1972

   

DC news includes Bill Gaines joining DC as a consultant and Kirby's New Gods and Forever People being cancelled. The explanation that the books were "excellent sellers" and "Kirby's time is to be spent on whatever is the most valuable." makes absolutely no sense. No publisher cancels a book that is making money, certainly not to take a chance on an unknown quantity. My guess is that whoever provided this explanation wanted to underplay the lack of sales and not undermine Kirby. The unnamed science-fiction idea turned out to be Kamandi, which became Kirby's longest running DC series.

The acquisition of the rights to the Shadow by Marvel, as reported in ETC/TCR 84 was actually a mix-up, although Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog were apparently set as the creative team. More on the Shadow coming up. Neither Jekyll and Hyde nor Ringo Kid appeared. The former showed up as a one-shot story in Supernatural Thrillers # 4, June 1973, and the Ringo Kid comics was supposed to go from reprint to new material, scripted by none other than Steve Englehart and drawn by Dick Ayers. Unfortunately the powers that be decided to concentrate on other types of comics, so Ayers penciled an issue based on Englehart's plot, but the story was never completed. You can see the splash on Englehart's website:

http://www.steveenglehart.com/Comics/Ringo%20Kid%201.html

  Another double page ad for the 1972 New York Comic Art Convention. Five days for $7.00! Who wouldn't want to go back in time and attend this con!

Fan News appeared in ETC/TCR # 85, May 1972, including items about movies, books and conventions. Some of the movie/TV news didn't occur, such as a Tim Tyler show and a Phantom movie. King Features did produce a cartoon that featured many of their characters. It appeared on the Saturday Superstar Movie, an ABC Saturday morning anthology series following the format of Movie of the Week.

Issue # 85 initiated a column on Underground comics by Bud Plant. 

ETC/TCR # 87, July 1972 had the exciting news of DC publishing Captain Marvel and other Fawcett characters. The new comic was titled Shazam, since Marvel was using the name Captain Marvel. While there was a buzz over the return of the Big Red Cheese, the revival never caught on. C.C. Beck grew frustrated with the scripts he received and sales were not what was expected. Midday was a talk show appearing on WNEW-Channel 5, a local NY station (now Fox-5). The host, if I recall correctly, was Bill Boggs.   

Et Al featured news on paperback books, conventions, Wally Wood's work on Overseas Weekly, Steranko's History of the Comics Volume 2 and Archie's venture in the mystery field.

ETC/TCR # 88, August 1972 showcased a striking Bernie Wrightson image of The Shadow, which was actually a DC house ad, as explained by Levitz in his Etc. editorial. Wrightson was scheduled to draw The Shadow, but realized he couldn't draw both the Shadow and Swamp Thing. When he declined Jim Steranko was the next choice. Steranko was a huge Shadow fan and had painted many exceptional paperback covers featuring the character. His sense of mood and drama was perfect for the Shadow, however he was not enthused with Len Wein's script. Steranko offered to write and drawn the Shadow, but was turned down by Editor Denny O'Neil. The script was then given to Alex Toth; he rewrote the script and O'Neil rejected his changes. O'Neil then decided to write the story himself, with Mike Kaluta drawing. Kaluta did a wonderful job, but I would have loved to see all three interpretations of the Shadow. Imagine what Toth or Steranko would have done with the character. In a recent Alter Ego interview O'Neil said he regretted that he didn't give Steranko a chance to write and draw the Shadow.         

 Marvel news includes the announcement of new staffer Steve Gerber, who would become one of Marvel's quirkier writers of the period on titles such as Man-Thing and Howard the Duck. X-Men returning to new material was premature by a few years, but its an indication on how high fan interest was.

       
The news item on the cover of ETC/TCR # 89, Sept 1972 concerned the rumors of Jack Kirby returning to Marvel. Kirby was reportedly upset over the cancellation of New Gods and Forever People, but his contract with DC was for five years. AS soon as it ended however, he made a deal with Marvel in 1975. What would Kirby have produced for Marvel in 1972? 

So What Else is News? was another interesting column that focused on various facets of popular culture, including books,sci-fi,radio,movies and TV. 

      
Along with monthly news on DC and Marvel, Levitz was attempting to resume ties with Gold Key and Charlton. Eventually more news would find its way into The Comic Reader.

Yes, I said The Comic Reader. With the 11th Anniversary issue Levitz dropped the double name. The Comic Reader would remain a steady title, with only one major change in publisher. Next time out I'll recount the first issue (and fanzine) I ever purchased, way back in December of 1972!  
       

Return of The Comic Reader

After numerous alterations in title, numbering and publishers, On The Drawing Board reverted back to The Comic Reader with issue # 69, July 1968, as publisher Mark Hanerfeld explains:

"There's been some changes made. To begin with, since Bob Schoenfeld is no longer publishing a fanzine using the TCR title, this zine will revert to its old title."

                                    And it will remain stable...at least for THIS post!   

The news section of TCR notes that Charlton will publish the titles and material left over from the defunct King Comics, including some Wally Wood drawn Jungle Jim's. DC news included reports on Steve Ditko continuing to have health issues (as noted in the previous issue -and blog post - Ditko had recently been hospitalized, but was expected to recuperate soon). Gil Kane substituted for him on Hawk and Dove and while Ditko was able to pencil the Creeper story in issue 5, an inker might be needed to complete the work. 

Mike Peppe stepped in to ink The Creeper #5 (Feb 1969), although Ditko's sense of design shines through on the above page. Hanerfeld had close ties to DC and much of his news concerning their activities was usually correct. In the letters page of this issue editor Dick Giordano explained: 

"I'm not now and haven't ever thought of replacing Steve on THE CREEPER. However, Steve has been ailing lately and his assignments have had to be handled by others. As far as I'm concerned, the Creeper is Steve's book."  

Neal Adams was apparently slated to sub for Steve, but the title was cancelled with the sixth issue. Ditko drew 11 penciled pages for issue #6, with Jack Sparling completing the rest and Mike Peppe inking. Hawk and the Dove continued with Gil Kane artwork for four issues until that title was cancelled. Ditko soon returned to comics, although working primarily for Charlton, along with his independent characters and stories appearing in fanzines. He would not produce any work for DC again until 1975.     

Another interesting tid-bit was how Iris West was almost killed off in the Flash. In later years wholesale killing of characters became standard operating procedure, but this was not the case at DC in 1968.

       

The Flash story that wasn't so tragic! Ross Andru/Mike Esposito cover to Flash # 184, December 1968

An attractive sketch of Mary Perkins by Leonard Starr, from the comic strip On Stage. 

A terrific John Romita sketch of Daredevil, one of Romita's favorite characters. Incidentally, Hanerfeld explained that most of the illos were from the collections of Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. 

 The Comic Reader # 70, (Oct 1968) includes an array of goings-on at National, including the departure of Irwin Donenefeld and the return of Alex Toth and John Broome. 

The distinctive art of Kurt Schaffenberger, drawing a character he was long associated with, Lois Lane, from TCR # 70.

Newcomer Herb Trimpe furnishes an excellent drawing of Kid Colt, from The Comic Reader # 71, Dec '68

Along with news of Gold Key management changes, a Pete Costanza drawing of ACG's Magicman enlivens the 71st issue of The Comic Reader (December 1968)  

A traumatic event for many fans was the raise in price from 12 to 15 cents. I was there, kids, and those three extra pennies was a big deal. Little did we know how often prices would rise in the following decades. Hannerfeld's thoughts on the future of comics packaging and pricing was interesting, but the haphazard attempts by publishers leaned less towards experimentation and more with the status quo.

  
Joe Orlando based the visual design of the character Abel, host of the revived mystery title House of Secrets, on publisher Mark Hanerfeld. From TCR # 73, May 1969. A particularly interesting item is the proposed line of slick 75 cent color magazines that Jerry DeFuccio was attempting to publish. It sounded like it would have been an interesting endeavor, although DC apparently bought some of the stories.  

The winners of the 1968 Alley Awards, from TCR # 74, October 1969. At this point the superhero output of Marvel and DC dominated the awards, although war and westerns still had a decent showing. Less so with romance - Millie the Model received a total of 28 votes. Steranko was a big winner in a number of categories and newspaper strips remained popular among fans. 

After a six month gap, The Comic Reader #'s 74 and 75 came out simultaneously. Issue 74 contained the Alley Awards and an ongoing fanzine index, while # 75 featured all news. TCR didn't just handle news of the comics industry, it also included information on comic related books, novels based on TV shows such as Star Trek and the Prisoner, and science fiction and sword and sorcery paperbacks. Along with news of comic cons, articles on comics appearing in newspapers and magazines and ephemera such as toys and games, TCR had a varied and interesting  approach.  

  
TCR often carried reproductions of upcoming DC comics since Hanerfeld had access to the editorial staff. Marvel was less accommodating and would not supply any advance art or previews in this period. Aquaman #50 cover art by Nick Cardy; Hot Wheels # 1, art by Alex Toth and Dick Giordano. From The Comic Reader #76, December 1970.

    News of the debut of the Friday Foster comic strip by creator Jim Lawrence and artist Jorge Longaron. This stylish strip featured the first African-American woman in a continuing series. I recall enjoying the strip as a child when it appeared in the New York Daily News. With all the wonderful collections of comic strips appearing, I hope some publisher will collect the series into book form one day soon. From The Comic Reader # 77, January 1970.

Next Up: Another change in title, publisher and format.