NOTE: Blimey! is no longer being updated. Please visit http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com for the latest updates about my comics work.

Monday, October 26, 2015

New site for classic fanzines

For months now, David Hathaway-Price has been scanning covers and pages from old UK fanzines, contacting those of us who published them, and planning his website. Today, it's gone live, with Classic U.K. Comics Zines celebrating the British fanzines of the past.

This is the start of a marvelous repository of old fanzines, some long-forgotten, many fondly remembered. It's a fantastic opportunity for older fans to revisit those 'zines, and for younger fans to discover the sort of publications that existed long before the Internet took over with blogs and forums.
© Lew Stringer 1978

Many of us working in the comics industry today started out publishing our own fanzines, and my very first fanzine, After Image No.1 is available in its entirety on David's site as a free PDF download with my permission. I was 19 years old when I produced it back in 1978, and the artwork is crude, the production of the 'zine is rough around the edges, but it was great experience and one of the early steps on the road to my career so I have a great affection for it. 
© Lew Stringer 1978

Take a journey into history by visiting the Classic U.K. Comics Zines website today:
http://classicukcomicszines.weebly.com/  

© Lew Stringer 1978

3 comments:

Sean Phillips said...

That top cover by Russ Nicholson, he taught me art at school and went on to work for DC Thomson and the Fighting Fantasy gaming books amongst other things.
http://russnicholson.blogspot.co.uk/

Lew Stringer said...

Thanks for that info and the link, Sean. I remember his work in fanzines but never knew what he did afterwards. Very interesting.

There are some gems on David's site, including a PDF of Orpheus fanzine from 1970, with work by Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse. Fascinating stuff.

Richard Williams said...

What a great site! I only had a few zines back in the day - 2 copies of Arken Sword and a copy of Comics Unlimited so its great to finally see some of the others!

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