This isn’t my first copy of this magazine, which I read and read until the cover detached and flew off somewhere. Then I read it some more until the interior pages began to peel away from the staples, too. I was probably bringing it to school and even to the beach. Hey, I never claimed to be an archivist.
It was hard to scrape up thirty-five cents that wasn’t already committed to my funnybook-buying habit, but this issue of Castle of Frankenstein promised an interview with Stan Lee, the center of my comic-book universe when this hit the newsstand. I would’ve been ten or eleven. Not only was the interview worth the price, but CoF’s editor, Bhob Stewart, made a point of packing its cheesy newsprint pages full of tiny, informative type covering every aspect of the fantasy and science fiction in film, in prose, on TV and even… comics.
Bhob and his colleagues were inspired by a new breed of film magazines, proponents of the auteur theory: Sure, John Ford and Howard Hawks and Frank Tashlin made Hollywood films, collaborative efforts at best, releasing new product among hundreds of similar films in every genre. Yet they were able to put an undeniable stamp of authorship on their works.
Billy Wilder’s imprint is on each of his movies. Couldn’t you say that of Will Eisner’s comics? The new comics enthusiasts thought: If Jerry Lewis is an auteur, why not Jack Cole? If The Girl Can’t Help It is the work of an auteur, isn’t “Powerhouse Pepper”?
Bhob once wrote, “I was fascinated by the film critic charts rating films in ‘Cahiers du Cinema in English’ (edited by Andrew Sarris), and I ran in CoF a direct imitation called the ‘Comic Book Council,’ a rating chart plus reviews by a half-dozen people…The project rated commercial comics alongside experimental comics.”
It sure did. To an eleven-year-old kid who thought he knew a little something about comics, “The Comic Book Council” opened a window in his head. Adults were taking comics seriously enough to write critiques, and rather pointed ones at that. Bhob had assembled a Murderer’s Row of pundits: John Benson, publisher of the EC fanzine “Squa Tront;” Mike Barrier, animation historian and publisher of “Funnyworld;” underground cartoonist Trina Robbins, and others. And why are they reading “Uncle Scrooge” (I vaguely know who Carl Barks is at this point) and “Little Lulu Summer Camp” (I have no idea who John Stanley is at this point)? If they’re troubling themselves to scrutinize Russ Manning’s “Magnus, Robot Fighter”, is it worth my attention?
But there are comics mentioned to which I wouldn’t be getting access anytime soon. Kim Deitch’s “Sunshine Girl.” Gilbert Shelton’s “Wonder Wart-Hog.” “Phoebe Zeitgeist” was serialized in Evergreen Review by Michael (“Mr. Mike”) O’Donoghue and Frank Springer. Was it a stand-alone publication or is “10” a reference to its chapter heading? There was no chance of encountering Art Spiegelman’s “Play With Your Cells”: he gave it out as a handbill on street corners (underground cartoonists pioneered alternative distribution as well as content).
This sidebar sums up the CoF experience: the West Village art house cinema mashed up against Chiller Theatre. Fan exuberance parallel to the new counterculture. Here’s a plug for a fanzine with a cover by Steve Ditko (Spider-Man co-creator and one of the best friends the fan press ever had), slapped close to Spain Rodriguez’s early work. I couldn’t possibly know “EVO” stood for “East Village Other,” the seminal underground newspaper. Welcome to a wider world, fanboy.
FYI: The interview I bought the magazine for has been anthologized in “Stan Lee: Conversations” by Jeff McLaughlin. It was conducted by Ted White, later editor of Amazing Stories and later still, Heavy Metal.
