40 Year Flashback: Comicon '79

Jim Steranko and Mike Conroy at Comicon 79.

IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY, 1st Sept 1979... myself, Nigel Lawrance, Doctor Baz Samways and the late Dave Bird travelled to the Metropole Hotel at the NEC, Birmingham, for Comicon 1979! The very first comics con I attended! The star guest from the USA was Jim Steranko, one of the most creative, and coolest, guys in comics, and the first comics pro I ever met. (He signed my copy of The Illustrated Harlan Ellison which he'd drawn a chapter of). 

Although my ambitions to work in comics were stirring, I had no idea if I'd achieve it. Steranko told me to stick at it, so I did. I've lost count of the cons I've attended since (initially as a fan, then invited as a guest since 1984) but that first one still has a special place in my memories. Seems so long ago now, as indeed it was.

Thanks to Richard Burton for the use of his photo of Steranko and Mike Conroy at the Eagle Awards. The following two images are scans of the ads for the convention. £3.50 for a two day ticket! Daft as it sounds that was a lot in 1979, but for the career it led to... and all the friends I've met through such events... worth every penny a million times over.

When I returned home I set to work writing a review of the event for my fanzine After Image. Here's the result. I cringe at the stories of boozy parties now but I was a naive 20 year old at the time. You'll note that in those days there was an all-night cinema show so that fans who couldn't afford rooms could sleep in the cinema! (Or try to get to sleep anyway. Practically impossible as you'll see from the article.) 

Note the fan art by Adrian Salmon at the end of the piece. Another artist who did well and moved into professional work a few years later. 

I didn't own a camera back then but the memories have stayed fresh in my mind. Great, carefree times! 

Nick Fury in Suspense

I loved Alan Class comics. For those of you who have never heard of them, they were 68 page black and white reprints of American comics. You'd get a mixture of strips from Marvel, Charlton, and ACG packaged into each issue. The selections were mostly random, so you might have a Fantastic Four story in there one month, but a Spider-Man one in the next issue, - regardless of whether the stories were cliffhangers or not. 

Alan Class was the publisher and the comics ran for years, eventually becoming reprints of reprints, and with a publication frequency as random as their content, until one day they stopped altogether.

I wrote about them a few years ago (here) but the reason they're on my mind again today is that I just noticed that the eBay seller phil-comics has an issue of Amazing Stories of Suspense No.94 up for auction, which reprints Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD No.4 from 1968. Yep, the one with that iconic cover by one of my favourtite artists, Jim Steranko, that many artists have since homaged in their own work. (The story inside is drawn by Frank Springer, by the way.)

This is the first time I've seen this issue since it was in the shops around 1969 so I thought I'd post the cover here, and of course acknowledge Phil with a link to his eBay page where you'll find many wonderful old comics:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/philcomics

If you're interested in bidding on this comic, here's the link:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amazing-Stories-of-Suspense-comic-94-1960s-A-Class-JB-FR-GD-phil-comics/273592447466