THE COMICS JOURNAL #35 (June 1977)
GUEST EDITORIAL: Doug Fratz details the first in a long, long line of financial troubles for Gary Groth, Mike Catron, and THE COMICS JOURNAL. Fratz reveals TCJ has a circulation of 3,000 with Gary Groth in debt $5,000.00. That seems like a HUGE amount of money for 1977.
INTERVIEW: David Anthony Kraft is a real bear of an interview subject, befitting the future publisher of COMICS INTERVIEW. Kraft has many tales and opinions, but I wanted to focus on a small section where he discusses an underground comic he is putting together (I couldn't find any evidence this was published): "I'm putting together an underground comic, strictly outrageous, bizarre, and surreal stuff all written by me, and illustrated by [George] Perez, [P. Craig Russell, and others of similar superior ability. It won't be the usual so-called underground work by people like Wein and Chaykin, which looks and reads exactly like their commercial 'overground' work. Not at all. I'm not sure it won't leave a lot of regular regressive mentality comics fans bewildered, angry, or just uncomprehending. But sod it, I intend to publish some of the sick stuff I'm really into, straight and warped stuff that's real. Title is tentative, SPACE KRAFT, and I'm accepting advance orders from trusting, experimental, free-thinkers for $2, c/o Mad Genius Associates, 850 Seventh Avenue #806, XXX XXXX XX XXXXX. Adults only."
REVIEW: "Let the Gods Die" brings the intellectual analysis of Gene Phillips to TCJ for the first time, he would be a frequent contributor in early issues. iirc, he wrote on superheroes and mythology often, this essay looks at the evolving (and devolving) mythological perspective of THOR under Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and their successors. He was a natural Journal writer working both Tolkien and William Butler Yeats into a look at the classic THOR comic
BUD PLANT WATCH: 9 out of 24 pages are taken up with a comprehensive catalog of Bud Plant's offerings in 1977. Buried in between a lot of items lost to time, the first two issues of the US HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE are listed for sale. The "New Zines" section further list the third and fourth issues. The cover to the first issue is by Jean-Michel Nicollet, the other three are by Moebius.
ADVERTISEMENT: FANDOM FUNNIES #3 The Buyer's Guide parody issue. Contributors include David Mazzucchelli (Daredevil, Batman Year One, Rubber Blanket, Asterios Polyp) about five years before his first published mainstream work.
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