The Comic Fantasy Art - Amateur Press Association is a fanzine for collectors of original art.
CFA-APA #27
Steve Ditko Art issue
July 1992
Circulation 60 copies
Total pages 302 pages
Articles and features include:
Jeff Gelb -MEN OF MYSTERY #2
Rob Stolzer -Ditko's Hands.
Ike Wilson - Recovering Ditko original art
Mike Shields - Steve Ditko: panel by panel comparison
of Amazing Spider-Man #1 w/ Fantastic Four Annual #1
ROGER HILL - article on the entire career of Ditko with repros of original art and a yearbook photo of S.D.
Ken Kaffke - interviews Roy Loney & Cyril Jordan of the Flamin' Groovies on their comic book roots; Kirby's monster-on-the-loose tales compared with the Ditko existential dilemnas; similarities of
pre-hero MARVEL to early '60s TV series WAY OUT (hosted by Roald Dahl), Boris Karloff's THRILLER, TWILIGHT ZONE
Jim Amash - 2 essays by Ditko include "Tools of the Trade" an examination of Kirby's Spiderman
Richard Halegua - critique of the Ditko Charlton Thing issues, repros of Dr. Strange original art.
John Hitchcock: Ditko's exquisite
Warren artwork with a checklist for the '64-'67 Warren mags with all artist and writer credits
David Applegate- Ditko realism.
Ethan Roberts -Ditko's style, with art repro'd from Spiderman #34 and Thunder Agents #12.
Dennis Beaulieu provides legal size foldouts direct from original art: Spiderman #7 (pg. 18), Strange Tales 127 (pg. 19), Tales to Astonish #7 "I Spent The Night On Bald Mountain" -entire story.
Greg Theakston includes Ditko's 1st pub'd comic book art "A HOLE IN HIS HEAD" in it's entirety from Black Magic #27.
Artist
William Stout - an appreciation of Ditko's art.
R.K. Lewis compares Ditko to Kubert.
Wally Harrington - Johnstown, PA schoolmates' memories of the Ditko family.
THA-BUMP!
THA-THUMP!!
THA-BUMP!!!
Dedicated to the heart... the ART of REED CRANDALL
Comic & Fantasy Art APANo. 28 Halloween 1992 212 pages celebrating REED CRANDALL and other Comic and Fantasy Artists including - Johnny Craig
- Windsor McCay
- Steve Ditko
- Mark Shultz
- R. Crumb
- Steve Fabian
- John Belfi
- Dan Smith
- Angelo Torres
- Figatoush
- Jay Jackson
- Joe Shuster
- William Stout
- Roy Krenkel
- Graham Ingels
- Wally Wood
- Jack Davis
- George Evans
- Al Feldstein
- Hal Robins
- Harvey Kurtzman
- Hal Foster
Plenty of digital photostats and several 11" x 17" fold-outs, many scanned direct from valuable original art!
There are actual photos of Steve Ditko (scarce!), a letter from Steve Ditko to the CFA-APA, a letter from Al Williamson on Reed Crandall, and a vintage Warren Magaazine-era letter hand-scrawled by Reed Crandall himself.
Articles by experts such as
- Roger Hill
- Ken Kaffke
- Greg Theakston
- John Hitchcock
- John Kelly
- Etan Roberts
- Rich Halegua
- David Applegate
CFA-APA #29
Dedicated to the Creators of the Golden Age
244 pages, spiral bound edition of 60.
Articles by the leading researchers of original art.
Art illustrations include numerous pages reproduced direct from original art. Several 11 x 17 fold-outs:
Lou Fine's cover to HIT Comics #7 and an awesome BLACK CONDOR splash;
A noirish Eisner POLICE Comics splash page,
Reed Crandall's RAY splash page from SMASH #27
Articles on Ditko, Underground Comix, Guernsey's 1993 Auction highlights, Iain McCaig, Norman Saunders' pulp magazine and comic book covers,
Silver Age DC original art, Jack Cole's PLASTIC MAN,
The real life nymphette who was the original inspiration for Vampirella,
Kurt Schaffenburger interview, Mort Meskin, Jesse Marsh,
Guilty Pleasures of the Golden Age: less celebrated masters such as Irv Novick and Bob Fuje.
COMIC FANTASY ART - APA Issue 34
236 page issue dedicated to the artists who have illustrated the works of EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS April 1994.
Articles and art by William Stout and other leading collectors and researchers of original art.
Includes full color pages and fold-outs, many shot direct from original art.
A series of double-sided 11 x 17 fold-outs showcase the original artwork of the entire JACK KIRBY story featuring SPIDER-MAN from FANTASTIC FOUR Annual #1.
Covers, drawings and sketches- many never seen in print elsewhere - by Steranko, Hogarth, Crandall, Stout, Krenkel, and others.
CFA-APA #35
300 pages (with color inserts) spiral-bound
dedicated to the ART Of UNDERGROUND COMIX
Articles by and art illos from the private collections of leading curators and researchers of original UNDERGROUND COMIX art INCLUDING several 1st generation UNDERGROUND ARTISTS! This King of Comic Art APA zines includes previously unpublished and rare art by R.Crumb, Jim Osborne, Jay Lynch, Art Spiegelman, S.Clay Wilson, Stout, Corben, Trina.
Sample from my article "Going Underground" as it appeared in CFA-APA #35
CFA-APA #36
Jan-Feb 1995
"The Artists of the EC Comics"
Over 300 pages.
60 copies.
Special guests contributing articles to this issue: EC artists John and Marie Severin, George Evans and Jack Kamen.
COLOR pages included feature art by JACK DAVIS, GRAHAM INGELS, JOHNNY CRAIG and AL FELDSTEIN.
Prev. unpublished art by FRAZETTA, WILLIAMSON, and others.
Articles on EC and related topics by: Mark Shultz, Sam Kingston, Bill Leach, Roger Hill, Ken Kaffke, Scott Dunbier, Hal Higdon, John Kelly, Ethan Roberts, Scotty Moore and others.
The Gary Arlington reprint: Though a page for page facsimile, the glossy photo prints pasted inside the original edition are photocopied in the bootleg. An unknown number of unauthorized copies were sold for $50 each at the San Francisco Comic Book Co. in 1995 after the original quickly sold out. Bona-fide 1st printings have sold in rare appearances on eBay for $200-$300.
My article from "Tales from the CFA-APA" #36.
CFA-APA #37
The Artistry of NEAL ADAMS
Spring 1995
250 pages
11 x 17 fold-outs galore from incredible NEAL ADAMS original art.
Many 8 x 11 full page size repros of original Adams comic covers.
In brief, the volume begins with Scott Dunbier's interview with Neal Adams, who comments on artists such as Alex Ross; working at Archie Comics on The Fly with Joe Simon in 1959; Warren with Archie Goodwin; and working at DC.
Patricia Hamm's detailed and technically illustrated guide to original art conservation: what to do about rubber cement, the storage story, etc.
Neal Adams sketchbooks from Richard Martinez in his article on Neal Adams, Comic Book Master.
On the darker side, Ken Kaffke managed to include a few photos of Playland at the Beach Dark Ride exhibits... fantastic, weird stuff! In keeping with this issue's dedication, Ken contributes an 11 X 17 crisp repro of an original ADAMS splash page.
Scotty Moore shares some rare golden age covers and splash pages from the Harvey files:
rarely seen originals from Green Hornet by Jerry Robinson, All-New #8 by Kubert, Speed #26 by Pierce Rice;
and a Forbidden World '50s Al Williamson rough.
Benno Rothschild presents preliminaries and a color repro of Vaughn Bode's Cheech Wizard.
There is a taste of original Kirby art in Glen David Gold's contrib., and
Bill Leach reprints Al Feldstein's hand scrawled letter commenting on the CFA-APA.
John Kelly pants over the many Roy Lichtensteins in his collection, and then brings it all home with fold-outs and pages on Richard Corben; and a Spain fold-out too.
CFA-APA #42
ART OF JIM STERANKO
Winter 1997
210 pages
Spiral bound
60 copies.
11 x 17 fold-outs from original art of CAPTAIN AMERICA, NICK FURY, TOWER OF SHADOWS.
Articles include:
- cover gallery of EC zine Horror from the Crypt of Fear, by Bill Leach
- Cyril Jordan on meeting Steranko in 1970, by Ken Kaffke
- rare illos by Barry Windsor-Smith, Mike Kaluta, Dave Stevens and Steranko from Rich Dannys
- Golden Age Superman pencil sketches on the market attributed to Shuster, by Joseph Latino
- S. Clay Wilson archives, by John Kelly
- Ethan Roberts reviews the 3 volumes of Cartoonists & Illustrators Portfolios.
An aspect of other APA zines (poetry and music) that I've looked through is that some contributions include found objects or random bits tipped-in... an early issue of the posh underground comic zine RAW did it, and CFA-Apa has had articles with numbered prints or even original sketches.
Normally, deliberate efforts to make submissions unique isn't done in CFA-APA, though there are submissions with leaflets, photos and even entire fanzines tipped-in - these are identical to one another within the individual contribution or article (usually consisting of 60 identical photo-copies of each page of the complete article, collated for binding into 60 seperate copies of a particular issue of CFA-APA, which are limited to a single edition with one print run, never more than 60 copies and rarely less than 40).
On occassion my own CFA-APA submissions included actual printed pages and covers from vintage '60s comics such as Creepy #7 and a Robot Fighter by Russ Manning.
Here are examples (close-ups) of CFA-APA pages which are one variant (of 60 total) I submitted to a particular issue...
My submission for the CFA-Apa (Famous Monster artists issue) included random pages cut from original Warren mags. One copy was bound with an actual cover (art by Frank Frazetta) from CREEPY #7.
This post is a work in progress, come back later for more.
GIRLS!
GIRLS!!
GIRLS!!!
Comic & Fantasy Art APA
No. 40 Spring 1996
CFA-APA 40 is built for comfort with 263 pages celebrating GOOD GIRL ARTISTS
including: Dave Stevens Adam Hughes Mark Schultz Al Hartley Rudy Palais Johnny Craig Frank Frazetta Bill Ward Frank Bellamy Ed Watson Dick Giordano Wally Wood John Byrne George Perez Brian Bolland Reed Crandall John Rosenberger and Bob Lubbers.
Profusely illus. with color prints, photostats and fold-outs shot direct from the original artboards.
Spiral-bound. Acetate overlays atop full color front and (b&w) back cover (art by Bill Ward).
Johnny Craig painting
Unpub'd Famous Funnies #217 cover, as it might have looked!
Johnny Craig VOH cover tribute by Cyril Jordan
Recreations by Cyril Jordan.
