The NEW Nostalgia Journal? An Editorial by whom? What's going on?

Sit back. There's a lot to tell you. First, the NEW sandwiched between "The" and "Nostalgia" in our logo is not mere hyperbole thrown in for grandiose effect. It is new. TNJ has a new look. A new editorial team. New artists and writers. New format and graphics. And a new spirit. And that's just for starters.

The Nostalgia Journal has changed hands: Fantagraphics is now in charge of editing and publishing TNJ. You may remember Fantagraphics as the umbrella publishing company that published Fantastic Fanzine, Word Balloons, The Robert Kline Portfolio, Fictional Narratives by Dennis Fujitake, and other fan projects. Or me, Gary Groth, who was, at one time, Fantagraphics. What was Fantagraphics-the-hobby is now Fantagraphics, Incorporated, a legitimate publishing company. In mid-1974, I slowly divorced myself from comics fandom. I disliked the directions it was taking; away from fan activity and the very personal experience of creativity to the more impersonal non-activities of fewer creative efforts, less real participation, and a general apathy among fans.

Even after I had become inactive in comics fandom, I kept abreast of current fanzines, comics, undergrounds and all the rest. I still corresponded with most of my contemporaries. In early 1975, Fantagraphics became less a wish-dream and more a reality. Mike Catron, a long-standing fan friend and collaborator, and I decided to incorporate Fantagraphics and offer professional publishing services. We were involved in several. projects in '75, which included Sounds Fine, a rock music newspaper for fans and collectors of rock & roll.

Still a voyeur in comics fandom by early 1976, I noticed things changing for the better. There seemed to be more fanzines coming out, talent seemed to be flowering, the stagnation that had gripped fandom for two years had relented to fandom's real power: creative energy, enthusiasm, talent, and the want for communication.

In April of this year, we contacted TNJ's founding fathers and asked them if they would be interested in turning TNJ over to Fantagraphics. They were receptive to the idea, and the change-over was consummated in early June. Fantagraphics would assume publishing chores. Before getting into the reasons why Larry Herndon, Gordon Bailey, Joe Bob Williams and Mark Lamberti turned TNJ over to us, let me introduce our staff.

Between September, 1967 and May, 1974, I published over a dozen fanzines, including Fantastic Fanzine, Word Balloons, FF Newsroom, and Fantastic Adzine. I was the Convention Director of two national comicons, Metro Con 70 and 71. It was all a lot of fun, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was an energetic time, and I think all of the writers and artists who contributed their work to my fanzines enjoyed themselves as much as I.

In TNJ, I will be responsible for editorial content and graphic design. In the future, I may offer a column of comics criticism.

Mike Catron is a long-time comics fan and became active in comics fandom in 1969. He was a contributor to Fantastic Fanzine, FF Newsroom, and Word Balloons, in addition to offering fandom the first "tape-recorded" fanzine: an interview with Sal Buscema. He was involved with Metro Con 70 and 71, and an organizer of Metro Con 73 and numerous smaller cons that followed.

Mike is TNJ's copy editor and circulation director. He is directly involved in editorial and advertising policies. Beginning next issue, he will assume the responsibility of TNJ's Ombudsman in a regular column.

Our Contributing Editors are Jim Wilson and Doug Fratz. Jim has written for Fantastic Fanzine (his much acclaimed "The Anderson Incident" appeared in FF Special II) and was involved in the many discussion forums that were a part of comics and SF fandom in the late 60s and eariy 70s. He is now a professional TV writer/producer, and the President of Starlight Productions, Inc., a non-profit television production company. Starlight is currently in preproduction for "The Fire and The Phoenix," a two-hour pilot film for The Planners, a youth-oriented dramatic series to be syndicated independently. He is a graduate student in educational psychology, and director of workshops in creative writing for junior high school age students.

I think you'll find Jim's understanding of "The Creative Experience" to be perceptive and intrigning. His column will appear every issue.

Doug Fratz has been involved in the goings on of comics fandom since 1967, and became artive in SF fandom in 1968. Between then and now he has published a dozen fanzines, such as Comicology, CriFanAc (the first news & reviews zine in comics fandom), Potpourri, and Thrust, in addition to numerous apas. Currently he edits Comicology Fan Review, from whence our fanzine listings are excerpted, and is publishing The Best of Comicology. Doug is our resident fanzine historian and is in charge of our fanzine listings. Doug's articles on fandom and fanzines will appear in each issue of TNJ.

We will try to present a fan or pro interview every issue; this issue we present a sportive conversation with Alan Light and Murray Bishoff and a short, but interesting interview with the comics' consummate storyteller, Jack Kirby. Forthcoming issues will feature interviews with Denny O'Neil, James Warren and Jack Kirby (again).

As to the reasons behind TNJ's change-over, essentially Larry Herndon, Gordon Bailey, Joe Bob Williams, and Mark Lamberti turned TNJ over to us because they were tired of engaging in a daily battle with their competition -- Alan Light's Buyer's Guide. It was simply wearing them out. They had been publishing TNJ for almost two years, and it was a fight every inch of the way. None of them were getting paid a cent for their efforts, and they could not continue without salary forever. Enter Fantagraphics and a whole new ballgame.

They remembered Fantastic Fanzine, Word Balloons, and other quality publications we worked on, and agreed to turn their adzine over to us.

Most of the rest of this editorial will concern itself with disseminating some unpleasant facts that everyone in comics fandom has the right, if not the obligation, to know. It's all about Alan Light, comics fandom, adzines and TNJ. This is the dark side of fandom.

I have known Alan Light for six years; I've corresponded with him, worked with him and even shared some gcod times with him. Our relationship began to deteriorate a year or so after he began publishing TBG. I had the opportunity to watch his business practices first-hand, and didn't like what I saw. Things grew worse, our friendship disintegrated. I couldn't stomach some of the ruthless goings on behind Dynapubs, and was loathe to continue a ftiendship that had replaced true feeling for a money changer. I can honestly say that I have never seen such a frightening transmogrification sweep over a person as I have in Light. In his own words, Light has likened himseff to Richard Nixon and I can't help but do the same. Watching Light's metamorphosis over these last six years has told me as much about the American character as Nixon and the whole Watergate dungheap ever could.

Light has brought to comics fandom the essence of what is wrong in the world of high finance and corporate America. American business is, in some ways, akin to a pool of piranha, devouring anyone or anything that gets in its way. If expansion and profit maximization mean stomping whatever gets in the way or rolling over opponents like a juggernaut, then that is perfectly alright. Corporate abuses are many and varied, in and out of the consumer spectrum: stock raids, swindles, manipulations, unfair influence, intimidation, falsification. It's a world coming closer and closer to merging with our own microcosm of comics fandom. To illustrate, let me detail just some of the incidents involving Alan Light and The Buyer's Guide that have occurred in the past few years.

In late 1969, a dittoed crudzine crept into the fan market with, what can charitably be described as little more than a whimper. It was called Comic Cavaliere and its editor was a kid by the name of Alan Lloyd Light.

In a few years, this young high school student would be the sole owner of three corporations whose gross earnings would total over a quarter of a million dollars annually, pull down a salary of over S1,OOO.O0 a week, and become fandom's most prolific publishing potentate, putting out fanzines, newspaper reprints, full-color book reprints, magazine-style reprints, an anzine, records, and more, thereby propelling him to the very top of fandom's power elite.

But, in December of 1969, the biggest thing to happen to Alan Light was the change from a dittoed Comic Cavadiere to a small-sized, offset All Dynamic. The little fanzine was moving: Two- and three-color covers and an enlarged 8-1/2" x 11" format would become the norm.

The zine's content didn't change much over its offset life span. Light solicited contributions in a scatter-shot manner, soliciting from any Big Name Fan (BNF) whose address he could latch onto; it was a technique used by many faneds of that era, and Light managed to present a few interesting pieces buried amidst the drivel. Dwight Decker (perhaps fandom's best writer at the time) was in issue 5-6 with his pungent comments about Marty Greim's interminable swiping (again), to be followed in issue 7 with Greim's defense team of Don Newton, Ronn Foss, and Dan Adkins. It was good, lively commentary.

Light was virtually unmatched in the construct of hideous graphic nightmares; most of his graphic "experiments," as they were, turned out to be overly clumsy, usually breaking every convention of good typography, composition, and design. His future publications would indicate that practice and hard work could not overcome his pronounced bad taste.

At this time, Light was considered a lightweight in fandom. He seemed as amiable and well-intentioned as every other fanzine editor, writer, and artist. Light just never made much of a splash -- he was just one more kid grinding out a crudzine.

Let me digress here for just a moment to briefly comment upon a lesser known and less salubrious aspect of fandom's sociological structure. Most of fandom's BNF's were split into small contingencies of writers, artists, zine editors & publishers, and fan friends, most of whose members associated as little as possible with members of other tight-knit groups. To mention just a few, there was the G.B. Love contingency in Florida; the Martin Greim contingency that grew up around Comic Crusader; the dissident Dwight Decker group that grew up around an anti-slick, anti-expensive fajizine attitude; the West Coast contingency, consisting of such prominent fans as Bill Spicer and Richard Kyle, all of whom seemed to have a more scholariy interest in comics; and, yes, even the Fantastic Fanzine contingency, which I will refuse to categorize. Earlier on, there were other small armed camps of fans, such as The Yancy Street Gazette contingency, The Marvel Tribune contingency, and the pedantic bunch at Marvel Mirror. Thue was a lot of bickering between these small, tightly knit groups of fans, each one of them believing themselves to be more didactice, perceptive and elitist than the other. (It should be noted that the West coast fans refused to involve themselves with any of this fannish infighting; they seemed to gain the respect of all the disparate groups either because of, or in spite of, this cautious stance) The written onslaughts between the Dwight Decker school of thought and the Martin Greim and G.B. Love contingencies are legend.

This was not an entirely malodorous weakness in fandom, though. All this intellectual bickering kept everyone on their toes, gave fandom some color and depth, and made the game that much more interesting.

I was able to travel freely among most of these fannish cliques. This ability was undoubtedly instrumental in Fantastic Fanzine's success, since I was able to solicit contributions from many different sources. Light, however, never became a past of any of the fannish groups, nor travelled easily among them. He remained aloof, and nobody paid much attention to him. That would all change, and soon, everyone would start paying attention.

The ink had barely dried on his last All Dynamic when Light thought of a brilliant new concept: the free adzine. Actually, he borrowed this concept from The Dalliscon Bulietin, whose existence he has refused to acknowledge for seven years. He proceeded to promote his new adzine in evey fanzine and adzine he could buy space in. He advertised in Fantastic Fanzine, The Collector. Fantastic Adzine, numerous other smaller adzines, culled names from Marvel letters pages, fanzine letter pages, and other sources, but he received a plurality of his initial 36O0-strong mailing list from the ads he placed in the RBCC. Eventually, Light thanked Love for allowing him to advertise his new adzine in the RBCC by putting him out of business. The RBCC was thereafter reduced to an article/artzine, with an infintesmal amount of ads. G.B. Love quit working on the RBCC and moved to Texas.

(Let me mention here, that I don't wish to hide my contempt for G.B. Love's ineptitude in publishing the RBCC. Little did I suspect then, that anyone could strip Love of his role as comics fandom's most illiterate and insensitive publishing mogul; "The Bible of Comic Fandom" loomed right around the corner.)

Light learned a very important lesson when he put the RBCC out to pasture: Don't let the competition advertise in TBG. Light has deviated from this policy only once when he allowed an impecunious crudzine, purporting to be a "new adzine," to place 4 pages of ads in TBG. And no wonder: it was obvious the zine never had a chance to succeed, so wretched were its ads. In the face of such staggering competition, Light decided to take the money and run.

That was the only deviation from Dynapubs' standard policy, though, and Light has refused to print any ads from any competitors since then, thereby denying his audience the opportunity of deciding for themselves which adzine they would prefer. Simply put, once Light amassed enough money to place ads in high-circulation fanzines, adzines, and comic books, he built up an enormous paid subscription list of neos, keeping them blissfully ignorant of ally alternative to TBG.

Light's duplicitous nature was brought to bare shortly after he took over the publishing chores of Fantastic Fanzine Special II, the last issue of FF I edited (the only issue I didn't publish myself), an 84 page monster brimming with a New York Convention report, interviews, articles, and artwork. He published that issue and offered TBG's readers a subscription to FF at the incredibly low rate of 4 issues (consisting of 3 regularly priced $1.25 issues, and the $2.00 Special II) for $5.00. That this offer was financially suicidal didn't seem to bother Light in the least: after accepting several hundred subscriptions to FF, he decided to give the publishing reins back to me. TBG was going bi-weekly at the time, he explained to me in personal correspondence, and he would have to spend his every spare minute hard at work on TBG itself. Indeed, he said, he would have no time for any other fan projects, devoting all his time to TBG. He sent all the remaining copies of if Special II to me as payment for back issues 11, 12 and 13, which he was selling in TBG. In the months to follow, he would keep selling his All Dynamic Special, his recorded interview with Denny O'Neil, his Flashbacks, and his poster-line, in addition to pumping out more tripe.)

There was the minor technicality of refunding everyone's money who had ordered 4 issue/$5.00 subscriptions to FF. Light deigned his responsibility to refund the monies he received for a product that would never exist as unimportant, and decided to send each subscriber (or ex-subscriber) a "Dynapubs package," thereby cancelling their subscription to if. This Dynapubs package consisted of an assortment of slow-selling Dynapubs merchandise: The All Dynamic Special, the Denny O'Neil Record Interview, and the exorbitantly priced FF 10 reprint, a package that Light claimed was worth $3.25. There was only one hitch: since this generous refund policy of Light's was not optional, FF's excommunicated subscribers received this Dynapubs package of goodles whether they wanted it or not. A number of them, it turned out, didn't. Some of FF's ex-subscribers had already ordered some of these Dynapubs products, making these duplications in their fanzine collections; other fans had better taste, never having ordered them and never wanting to own them at all. Several fans took umbrage at this unethical refund policy and wrote to Light demanding a refund in cash. Light was wont to dismiss such crank letters from uppity fans with a wave of his hand.

"It (Light's refund package) was no simple-minded dodge but a costly one that got mixed reaction. If I were to have my way, I would not do it again, because, honestly, I wrongly estimated the reaction," Light wrote in response to an angry letter from Paul Rew, a recipient of Light's generous refund package. Paul had already ordered the All Dynamic Special (he called it the All Dynamic Rip-Off) and did not own a record player on which to play the record Light sent him. Paul wrote Light and demanded a cash refund. Light ended his letter to Paul by hoasting that "TBG is even stronger than ever... Sorry to hear you won't be renewing [your subscription.] But, believe me, you won't be missed."

Guy Molyneux of Delmar, NY, had a similar probiem. He had ordered FF 11, 13, 14 and Special II. Light sent him FF 10, 12, 13 and Special II, thereby cancelling his advance order for FF 14 instead of refunding his money. Since the official publishing chores were back in my lap and Light was only selling available issues, Guy wrote me and wanted to know what was up. I replied and told him that Light apparently made a habit of sending out incorrect orders in the hope of cancelling advance orders for future FF's. Guy forwarded a copy of my reply to Light, whereupon Light sent mr a letter threatening to sue me for "libel" (or, as he so eloquently put it, to "prosecute this case").

Several other fans wrote me along similar lines, but I won't bore you with their individual gripes. It became obvious to me that Light would rather incur the wrath of a few insignificant fans ("you won't be missed") in an attempt to keep their collective monies for the wrong merchandise, than to immediately refund their money for a product that would never come out.

Light began charging a subscription rate of $2.00 for 23 issues with issue #26. (He had actually charged $2.00 a year as early as #19, but only to those who responded to costly ads in commercial comics.) Midst this new subscription hype, Light presents a rationalization for the increase in TBG's sub rates (from a free "lifetime subscription" to $2.00 a year). He cites spiraling postal costs as the biggest financial burden. "Bulk Rate postal costs have gone up FOUR TIMES in the past two years," he tells us; and postal rates are "slated to go up something like 450% in the near future" (they didn't).

What Light conveniently failed to mention was that once TBG was mailed only to paid subscribers, it was eligible for second class: postage rates. This cut his Bulk Rate mailing costs by approximately one third. Postal costs would, in fact, go down, not up.

(If Light had charged 'one dime for a one year's subscription, and 5,000 fans sent in for a subscription, Light would have saved 59,800.00 per year on postal costs in addition to collecting $500 in subscription monies.)

In their "Beautiful Balloons" column, Don & Maggie Thompson commented, not long ago, that we should all be thrilled that Light includes all the editorial material he does in TBG, implying that Light is sacrificing valuable advertising space to give readers costly editorial content. What they failed to mention is that once TBG is mailed second class, Light is required -- not by altruism or benevolence toward his readers -- but by federal law, to include a minimum of 25% non-ad material (read: editorial content) in half the issues published during the year.

Next, Light complains about all the new equipment he was forced to buy to better serve the needs of fandom. "A new $750.00 addressing machine, a (then, brand new) 1973 Ford Van ($4,200.00), bundling machine ($600.00) and sacker ($120.00). Those time payments have to be paid off!" he warned us. This will really help fandom by cutting down his workload, he explains. (He also forgot to mention the fire-proof, water-proof, impact-proof 400 pound cabinet he purchased around TBG 18 for the safekeeping of TBG's files.)

In issue #29 (6 issues after his initial subscription announcement and three issues after everyone's original "lifetime subscription" ended) Light tells us why a paid subscription adzine is better than a free adzine, contradicting what he said in issue 6, when his job was to put the RBCC out of business by convincing fandom that a free adzine was better than a paid subscription adzine. From TBG #6, from a self-serving question-and-answer session with himself: "People pay for paid-subscription adzines and therefore are more interested? FALSE!" In BG 29, in an ad supporting the paid subscription adzine: "IN A FREE ADZINE, as I unfortunately found out with the old TBG, everyone requests a free subscription whether they are interested or not." In issue 6, he tells us that people who pay for an adzine are no more interested in the ads than people who don't pay. In issue 29, he tells us that all kinds of deadbeats and parasites will attach themselves to a free mailing list regardless of whether they're interested in the hobby or not. Even here, he hedges his bets, perhaps realizing that he isn't making a bit of sense. He claims that TBG "has now reached the perfect level between a free circulated adzine and a paid circulation adzine... With the .9 A COPY price, all comic fans WORTH THAT TITLE (will) subscribe." This "perfect balance" Light refers to will be increased twice in the next two years. And I fail to see how TBG can be considered lying "between a free circulated adzine and a paid circulation adzine." Either a zine is paid for or it isn't. TBG is paid for, lying solidly within the category of a paid circulation adzine. The only "perfect balance" Light has found is between public acceptance and profit mazimization.

At about this time (February, 1973), one of Light's more ambitious competitors came out with an adzine. It was called The Mirkwood Times, and, while destined to fail, it made a valiant effort to break Lignt's monopolistic grip on fandom. It also serves as a prime example of just how far Light will go to snuff out any upstart competition.

In their third issue, The Mirkwood Times reprinted two letters that Light had mailed to TMT's advertisers. Both letters' allegations were refuted by TMT. One "letter" was just Light's standard hype sheet on himself and TBG, extolling the virtues of a paid circulation adzine over that of a free adzine; the other was a letter Light wrote specifically to TMT's advertsers.

In TBG's hype sheet, which is simply a variation of running ads in TBG, Light assaults TMT for being audacious enough to imitate TBG: "I see there is a direct copy of TBG coming out, as advertised in RBCC (I rejected the identical ad mysef to preserve TBG's unique and valuable mailing list.)" (It would be interesting to find out just who Light is preserving this unique and valuable mailing list for. Too, I would like to know how many of TBG's readers would object to being placed on a free subscription list to another adzine.) "The ads say 'Free newspaper...' '...free lifetime subscription..' '...Drop us a card...' etc., which is some of the very wording we used and do use in our ads! I don't mind someone coming out with an adzine, but I dislike the fact that it is a direct imitation of TBG."

Light omits the fact that TBG itself was little more than an imitation of The Dallascon Bulletin, a free adzine for science fiction fans. Coincidentally, Larry Herndon, an editor at The Dallascon Bulletin, went on to become a founding editor here at TNJ. The only real difference between The Dallascon Bulletin and TBG was that TBG was tabloid newsprint (as opposed to 8-1/2" x 11" newsprint) and illiterate (as opposed to literate). These two innovations aside, Light copied The Dallascon Bulletin's formula right down the line.

Light closes his letter by telling one and all that fandom can be kept strong and healthy by "showing your support for The Buyer's Guide." In his letters to dealers and advertisers, TMT is attacked more decisively. Light refers to an anonymous advertiser as proof that TMT didn't meet its deadlines, and had a vapid audience. TMT refuted both allegations unequivocably. Then they also mentioned that their subscription to TBG was terminated immediately upon publication of TNT #1. The termination of competitor's subscriptions to TBG is also standard Dynapubs practice, as is the cancellation of TBG subs to "annoyances," like myself, which I'll get to later.

TMT folded with their sixth issue. In addition to coping with Light's endless attacks, TMT failed to successfully deal with its own virulently counterculture image. They obviously had an anti-establishment axe to grind, and comics fans just didn't seem to care. Though it failed to establish the image of down home fannishness, TMT can be admired for its honesty and integrity. The real difference between TMT and TBG was that TMT took their fight to the readers (who they obviously hadn't converted) while Light skulked behind his readers' backs and laid waste to TMT via vindictive letters and hype sheets aimed at turning away potential TMT advertisers.

In their fourth issue, The Murkwood Times printed a letter from Alan Light; they didn't just print it; they pasted up the original letter, shot it intact, letterhead and all, displaying prominently Light's grand illiteracy and arrogance. (Under his title of "Editor and Publisher," of TBG, under the closing, Light included the following trope: "The best damn adzine fandom could hope for.")

The Menomonee Fails Gazette started an adzine at about this same time. It was free (yes, they "stole" from Light, too) and lasted two issues -- May, 1973 to June, 1973. Jerome Sinkovec and Michael Tiefenbacher bought the Marvelmania mailing list. from Robert Bell (of plastic comic hook bag fame), which comprised their adzine's initial, free mailing list. The Marvelmania list was not as potent as they had assumed, though, and the magazine folded because of lack of response from its readers. Sinkovec told me he forgot exactly how much they paid for the list, but that it was a "helluva lot." They later found out that Robert Bell sold the same mailing list to others in comic fandom: Alan Light, G.B. Love, The Journal, to name those that Sinkovec knew of. They didn't know that Bell had sold the mailing list to others, believing they had an "exclusive" mailing list. In a phone conversation, Sinkovec said that they felt it was only logical to assume Bell would not sell the list more than once. At any rate, the list proved impotent, and their relatively high ad rates ($75.00 for a full page) didn't help.

Immediately upon The Gazette Advertiser's debut, Light wrote Sinkovec several indignant letters accusing him of copying his free adzine concept. At this time, Light had started charging for subscriptions to TBG; also, as I have mentioned, the free adzine concept was as original when Light started TBG as the manufacturing of cars when General Motors opened shop.

Shortly after accusing The Menomonee Falls Gazette, publisher of a newspaper strip reprint tabloid, of copying his free adzine concept, Light began publishing a newspaper strip reprint tabloid. Golden Funnies, whose name was changed to Vintage Funnies with issue 16 reprinted such daily newspaper strips as Superman, Batman, Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, all of which were essentially the same strip genre as those strips reprinted in The Gazette. Light charged $4.50 for 12 issues of Vintage Funnies, which was the same price as The Menomonee Falls Gazette charged, with a slight difference: The Menomonee Falls Gazette was almost twice as large as Vintage Funnies, and had higher costs to boot (i.e., they had to pay for advertising).

Light was shocked and dismayed when Sinkovec displayed the same sort of indignance over an obvious copy of the Gazette, that Light displayed over Sinkovec's free adzine. Light just couldn't understand how anybody could find any similarity between The Menomonee Falls Gazette and Vintage Funnies.

Later, The Menomonee Falls Gazette published The Guardian, another reprint tabloid. This one concentrated on humor strips such as Popeye, Krazy Kat, and Alley Oop. After Light's Vintage Funnies expired at issue 100, Light started publishing Favorite Funnies, which reprinted daily strips like Krazy Kat, Bringing Up Father, Little Nemo, Alley Oop, and Brick Bradford. This zine lasted only 12 issues; apparently there wasn't much money to be made in this market.

There was also a case of Light's usual skullduggery buried in the publishing history of Golden/Vintage Funnies. To wit:

In Vintage Funnies #35, Light announced, in an "Important Last-Minute Bulletin," that "King Features Syndicate has taken back all permission for us to print MANDRAKE, TIM TYLER'S LUCK, BRICK BRADFORD, THE PHANTOM, THIMBLE THEATRE. You won't be seeing them in VINTAGE FUNNIES anymore, only in big, expensive hardback books. We are outraged that King Features would do this to us right in the middle of all the stories, but that's the way it is. WE APOLOGIZE -- but we had nothing to do with it; it was a KING FEATURES decision."

Light was outraged that King Features Syndicate would deprive him of the right to reprint their syndicated strips, and he wanted you to be outraged along with him.

That sounds awfully virtuous of Light. After all, he doesn't want fandom to send their bucks to King Features for their "big, expensive hardback books" when fandom could send their bucks to Light for his cheap Vintage Funnies.

But, those damnable facts always seem to have a way of getting in the way of Light's accusations. In a letter to Larry Herndon dated May 15, 1974, Charlotte MacCleary, director of King Features' Special Project Department, stated that the reason King Features withdrew permission for Light to reprint their strips was not because of any planned hardback editions of the same strips, but because Light "would not pay his bills." She explains: "The Vintage Funnies permissions were withdrawn for non-payment of publications rights fees..." Furthermore, she says, "Frankly, I don't believe hard covered books would be in conflict with this type of publication, but we are not planning to produce any hard covered books other than the series of Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant books which are scheduled to go on sale in late June or early July."

What it boiled down to is that Light didn't feel like coughing up the publication rights fees due King Features Syndicate as payment for reprinting their strips. He wanted to reprint them for free. Light deigned his obligation to his readers to print the newspaper strips he had promised worth less than the reprint fees King Features demanded.

I encountered Light at the 1974 New York Comic Art Convention over the July Fourth Holiday. The interview with Light and Bishoff, printed elsewhere in this issue, was conducted at that convention. The interview was conducted by Mike Catron, Jim Wilson and myself. All three of us were convention veterans and by the third day of the con, we were all getting a little bored. As we wandered through the dealers room for the umpteenth time, Jim turned to me and said that conventions seemed to be losing their charm, degenerating into a decadent menagerie of comic lusting teeny-bops. The word decadent triggered a reflex in my mind, and not 20 feet away, as if in answer to an unspoken thought, sat the most decadent dealer of all.

You guessed it. Light was sitting behind his table, smiling at passing fans, hawking a just-published pile of reprints (with more on the way). He sat there with that impish grin of his painted on his face, his fine blonde hair stylishly combed straight down. The publisher of TBG looked reserved, almost innocent sitting next to his henchman, Murray Bishoff, who did most of the talking for the team. Bishoff is quite the opposite of his employer. While Light is quiet, well-dressed, neat, and talks in whispered, oonservative tones, Bishoff always talks as though he's giving orders in a hurricane. He hides a wild, uncombed mane of hair under a silly looking beanie. Bishoff looks like a wildly exaggerated Carl Barks character oome to life. He talks with the same peculiar flair as he writes -- in short, incoherent phrases, and long rambling sentences, often straying from his subject, but never coming up for air. The best way to accurately reproduce an hour of oonversation with Bishoff would be 10 pages of solid copy sans punctuation.

Light skirted most of our questions by putting Bishoff between him and us, and it became obvious early on that the interview would turn out to be nothing more than a good time, a piece of light railery as opposed a penetrating look at Light and Bishoff. Still, all three of us agree that trying to keep one step ahead of Murray Bishofi's razor-sharp mind was the greatest challenge of our lives. We hope we can do it again real soon.

Immediately after our interview with Light and Bishoff, my TBG subscription was terminated. No refund. No explanation. Just terminated. After several written inquiries went unanswered, I called Dynapubs to find out why I had by then missed three months of TBG. Light answered the phone the first time I called, and upon introducing myself, hung up on me. His mother answered my second call. I asked for Alan and she asked me to wait a moment. Three minutes later the phone hung up. On my third call, Light answered the phone, "It's a shame you have to pay for all these calls Gary," and hung up. Light's mother answered my fourth call and said "Alan won't talk to you."

I decided to contact the more talkative member of the duo and see if he might be able to explain the mysterious subscription cancellation. Someone at Murray Bishoff's home told me that Bishoff was at college and could probably be reached by calling the University's Student Union Building, which I did. Asked if Murray Bishoff was there, the student operator who answered the phone said, "Oh no! Murray? God." She explained that Murray was quite a character around there and would probably be there for lunch. I called back shortly after noon and spoke with Bishoff. I immediately asked him why my subscription was cancelled:

BISHOFF: I don't know how your sub went...

GROTH: My sub was cancelled immediately after the interview the three of us conducted wlth you and Alan in New York. I don't think that was sheer colucidence. And what happened to all my inquiries about this? They all have gone unanswered.

Well, y'know, you're a pretty annoying character.

What do you mean by that?

Well, Alan was generally pissed at the collect calls.

So?

We may have just got pissed and cancelled your sub.

Why? As "punishment"?

Could be. Y'know, you were thoroughly annoying.

Is that justification for canceling my subscription without so much as a refund?

Yes. I admit it doesn't make much sense, but that's all we could do to try to get some equilibrium in our relationship. If you're nice to us, we're nice to you. There wasn't any other way we could strike back at you. You understand, none of this is for print.

You've got to be joking.

You give us a straight deal and we'll give you a straight deal.

This sounds like Nlxon's attitude towards The Washington Post. Is that a proper analogy?

Yes.

Why did the Interview with you and him result in my subucription being cancelled?

You approved and cooperated with your buddies. You didn't show the right attitude. If you're willing to shoot straight with us, we'll wipe the slate clean.

Do you mean that you'll reinstate my subscriptlon?

Yes. of course, you could re-subscribe under another name to get around that.

I was stunned. Bishoff had admltted what Light never would: that my subscription was cancelled (without a refund) because I was thought to be an "annoyance." I finally received a refund check for the remainder of my sub, which had ended July first. Note the refund check is dated January 15, 1975, over 6 months after my subscription was terminated. (Figure 1).

Around this time, Light increased his heretofore referred-to "perfect balance" subscription rate between the paid and free adzine concepts to $3.00 a year, which he later increased again to $5.00 a year or $3.00 for six months. He was also publishing other Dynapubs products: Vintage Funnies (12 issues for $5.00), a bi-weekly Flashback (1 for $3.00, or 4 for $10.00), Special Edition Series ($12.95 & $14.95), and the solecistically titled Fandom Spectacular ($5.00), wherein he reprinted a John Fantucchio portfolio originally printed in my 1972 Metro Con Program Book, without getting, or asking, my permission.

The 1974 July Fourth New York Comicon marked the beginning of another new adzine -- The Nostalgia Journal, which signalled the most vicious assault Light would ever wage against a competitor.

TBG's and TNJ's initial squabbling culminated in court action initiated by TNJ; TNJ sued Stan Blair,, then head of a fandom-fraud-headhunting organization, and Alan Light for libel. The outcome is still a little fuzzy. According to Larry Herndon, Stan Blair and Alan Light were sued for libel -- Stan Blair for erroneous statements made in TBG, and Light for an editorial he wrote using erroneous information supplied by Blair. Light appeared in a Texas court with his father. Blair never showed up. He lost by default. Larry Herndon claims that there is still a $1,500.00 judgment outstanding against Blair. Light only had to print a statement saying that all differences between TBG and TNJ were resolved. TNJ had to print the same statement. I'm uncertain whether this order was made by the courts or by an arbitrator. Larry Herndon says it was an order of the court and that, even in printing the statement, Light didn't follow the court's precise instructions. Murray Bishoff says that the incident was resolved "out of court." As far as I could determine, TBG's readers knew nothing of these goings ons.

In early February of 1975, Alan Light initiated negotiations to buy out The Nostalgia Journal. If you viewed this attempted purchase as a member of fandom, it looked as though Light was trying to deprive fandom of the opportunity to subscribe to an adzine not being ground out by the Dynapubs sweatshop, thereby keeping fandom's monarchial adzine market all to himself. The negotiation letters are interesting, and several key paragraphs tell us an awful lot about Light's business perspective and his view of fandom.

In a letter to Larry Herndon dated February 18, 1975, Light continued negotiations to buy out TNJ: "If I owned 51% of the stock or more in Syndicate, Inc. I would have all control over it." He offered to keep Joe Bob Williams or Gordon Bailey on as salaried editor, either full or part time.

"My offer of $5,000.00 for 51% of the stock would of course, double for 100% of the stock to $10,000.00. I would almost prefer owning 100%." Light's obsession with squelching any and all competition was typified in these paragraphs: "If I purchased 100% of the stock, the only agreement I would require from the stockholders would be their promise (in contract form) not to start (either individually or as a group, or to he[p someone else start) a rival adzine. "...If TNJ keeps growing to large sizes (52 pages or more) and I don't purchase stock in it, I may be forced to start my own free adzine in addition to TBG. I can start one hell of an adzine with $10,000.00. So if TBG begins to be visibly hurt by TNT, or if I see there is a profit in a free adzine, there will be one, I guarantee it. Please keep that in mind."

It's interesting to speculate on the campaign Light would have geared up for a new, free adzine, had he chosen to publish one. How could he, even through semantic ambiguities, have convinced fandom that a free adzine is better than a paid circulation adzine, when he was at the time proclaiming, (through slogans like "and one paid subscriber is worth a dozen free ones!") that free adzines aren't worth the paper they're printed on?

In a letter dated March 8, 1975, Light ups the ante to $10,000.00 in cash and $2,000.00 in advertising space in TBG, for complete control of TNJ, making his final offer worth $12,000.00. His proposed contract to buy out TNJ is similarly one-sided and ultimately malodorous to fandom as a whole. Briefly:

"1) None of the current or future employees of Syndicate, Inc. will be denied advertising in TBG or TNJ unless... the ad is to promote any interest that is contrary or competitive to the publisher's (Alan Light).

"2) No current or future employee or stockholders in Syndicate, Inc. will start or cause to start or aid anyone else in starting any publication to carry advertising of any nature to comic book or nostalgia fans, for a period of three years.. Publications of Syndicate, Inc. may carry limited advertising upon the written consent of Alan Light only.

"3) No current or future employee may divulge any facts about the transaction involving the sale of TNJ to Funnies Publishing Co., Inc. without the written permission of Alan L. Light.

"4) All the undersigned former or preseni stockholders of Syndicate, Inc. reoognize that Funnies Pub Co., Inc. and Alan L. Light have full control over the publication TNJ."

TNJ finally decided not to sell out, whereupon they printed notice of the negotiations in TNJ. It became such a hot issue in fandom that Light was forced to publicly address, in TBG, allegations that he was indeed involved in negotiations to buy out TNT. He gave the issue short shrift, neither confirming nor denying the allegations, in a smooth bit of waffling doubletalk. The major questions were: Did Light try to buy out TNJ, thereby trying to deprive fandom of its only alternatlve adzine, and why did Light want all these negotiations kept secret?

TNJ later offered to sell xeroxes of all the negotiations to any readers interested enough to drop a buck on them.

By far, the most duplicitous act of Light's career involved an incident that inolved the two of us last summer. Fantagraphics placed a two page ad in the June 1 issue of TBG. The ad was mailed with a check for $78.00 on May 27. Fantagraphics was given two separate guarantees by Light that our ad would appear in the June 1 issue of TBG. These guarantees were made over the phone to Mike Catron, now an editor here at the new TNT. Our ad did not appear in the June 1 TBG. Since the ad had a cutoff deadline, which Light was told of even before he received the ad, placing the ad in a future issue would be a waste of our money. We didn't have to worry, though; the ad never was printed. The $78.00 check was cashed by late June (Figure 2) and we still had not received a $78.00 refund. Fantagraphics's attorney wrote to Light demanding the return of our $78.00. Still, no answer.

In early July, I began calling Light to find out if I would ever see our $78.00. He would not accept my collect calls, and hung up when I phoned him station-to-station. On July 27, I received a post card from Light (Figure 3). It was sarcastic and arrogant; instead of calling the El Cortez Hotel, Mike and I thought it would be a good idea to drop by the San Diego Comicon and look up Light in person.

We arrived the second day of the convention and immediately set up our dealers table. Light was making the rounds of dealers tables when he stopped in front of ours, smiled, recognized me and nearly dropped dead. He quickly shuffled off, apparently inexperienced in deallng with angry creditors on a personal basis. From that moment on, Light's table was closed, and the Dynapubs representative in the dealers room was Murray Bishoff. Light's poltroonery was epitomized when we cornered him during the masquerade program and poiltely, but firmly, requested the $78.00. He ran to Convention Director Shel Dorf, who admonished us not to frighten Alan any more. I told my story to him and insisted upon the return of the money. Shel found the story downright incredible ("Alan took your money? There must be some misunderstanding.") but agreed to act as arbitrator, talk to Alan, and arrange a meeting between the two of us. Two days later Shel told me that Alan did not, under any circumstances, want to talk to me, but that he would do his best to straighten out the problem. The next day, Shel gave me $78.00 in cash with a receipt from Alan Light. The date of receipt (Figure 3) is August 3rd, while the original check is dated May 27 (Figure 2), a full 3 months having passed before we received a "refund." It was only through Shel Dorf's perseverence and our ebbing patience that we received the money at all.

On October 22, 1975, Light sent a four page package to TNJ #15's advertisers. One page was standard Dynapubs hype, the other three were devoted to attacking TNJ.

In another of Light's illiterate "Bulletins" he accuses TNT of engaging in "vicious assaults that have been printed constantly against me (Light) in The Nostalgia Journal (all of which distorted or false (sic)." He also refuses "to stoop to theor level to attack them (TNJ) in TBG or even justify my positions..." He is right; it would be a waste of his time to justify his positions if he uses the same rationalization/justification/crybaby/apology technique he has so often used in the past to justify TBG subscription rate increases, capricious subscription cancellations, and the like.

The main point of his letter, though, is that TNT #15 was not mailed to the number of fans they claim as their circulation. "2101, NOT 7000!" blazes a crudely lettered banner atop his poorly zeroxed letter. As proof of this discrepancy, he presents three mailing statements for TNT #15, which total 2101 copies. But, those damnable facts are back again: Light fails to mention that he did not acquire all the mailing statements kor that particular issue of TNT. Too, TNJ was distributed at conventions and bookstores.

In late April or early May, Light sent another letter to TNJ's advertisers filled with more unsubstantiated indictments of TNJ. TNJ answered this latest attack in a four page letter to its advertisers. Briefly, TNJ defended itself on the following grounds:

• Light claimed that TNJ had slandered him. TNJ points out that if they had slandered Light, he could sue. He hasn't.

• Light again claimed that TNJ did not distribute the number of copies of TNJ that they claimed. TNJ claims that Light is guilty by omission; he didn't acquim all their mailing statements and doesn't know how many copies of TNJ are distributed at conventions and stores.

• TNJ also claimed that on a random check of Light's mailing statements, TBG #30 was mailed to only 4,693 fans as opposed to Light's guaranteed circulation (printed on page 2 of that issue) of 5500.

At about this time, there were some other verv suspicious goings ons. TNJ advertisers were mailed post cards stating that TNJ was folding and that no more ads should be sent to them. It was signed by Gordon Bailey.

But Gordon Bailey never wrote or signed those postcards. TNJ was not going out of business. The post cards were mailed fiom Tampa, FL.

Shortly thereafter, an "official" Change of Address was mailed to TNJ's post office, changing TNJ's address to an address in Burbank, CA. Gordon Bailey's signature was forged on this spurious change of address. Luckily, Gordon Bailey caught this "change of address', in time to prevent any mail from being forwarded to California.

On the same day that TNJ's post office received the counterfeit TNJ change of address, Fantagraphics's post office received a change of address for Sounds Fine, our rock music collector's newspaper. My signature was forged on the card; it too was mailed from Tampa, FL and stated that our mail should be forwarded to that same Burbank, CA address. Now what does all this mean? Each one of you will have to answer that question for yourselves. But, before I submit my summation of this article, there is a postscript I must add. In the two days before this issue of TNJ went to press, I spoke with Don Thompson, Murray Bishoff, Marty Greim, and Alan Light. Their thoughts deserve mention.

Most importantly, Alan Light virulently denied mailing the above mentioned post cards to TNJ advertisers and the Changes of Address to TNJ and Sounds Fine. Alan said, "I didn't do it. I don't know who did." In a letter dated June 14, 1976, Light wrote to Gordon Bailey, admitting to much of what I discussed in regards to his relationship with TNJ. Most of the letter, though, was an apology for "ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING I'VE DONE." Earlier, he wrote, "I've probably been as vindictive toward you as I, in my mind, thought you were being toward me."

"The 'old' Alan Light is dead, gone, buried... never to return," he says. "(Sounds suspiciously like the old and new Nixon's (sic) doesn't it?.. .1 won't write any more letters, to advertisers or anyone else, tearing anyone down. I won't write any of you sarcastic or mean postcards, letters, or anything, in the heat of anger (or ever again)."

I was unsure what to think of this sudden about-face. There may be an ulterior motive. Six years of questionable, and ocassionally downright treacherous, tactics, cannot be wiped out of my memory in a single letter or phone conversation. Light is not alone in comparing himself to Nixon. The Mirkwood Times did; Murray Bishoff did in a phone conversation the day before I talked to Alan; and I did in my original manuscript of this article, written over a month ago.

I told Alan that this editorial/article would run; that I was, quite frankly, unsure of his "new" position, and that only time would tell whether the "'old' Alan Light is dead, gone, buried.. never to return." Alan said that he felt he knew me well enough to know that I was not the forgiving type. I don't think the question is whether one is forgiving or forgiven. The question is, can a man change overnight? I think we'll fmd out in the coming months.

Marty Greim, a TBG columnist, said that hates to see Light "degrade himself" by engaging in these printed slugfests with TNT. I've known Marty for many years, and for as long as I've known him, he's been very adamant about refusing payment for any of his contributions in fandom. No contributor to TBG gets paid anything. Don Thompson and Marty Greim take pretty much the same stance: neither one gets paid for his column (although both receive whatever free advertising they want), but both of them do it as a hobby, and appreciate the forum to express their thoughts. When fanzines were as much a hobby as contributing to fanzines was, this attitude seemed generous and sane; now it seems less so.I can't help but feel that this attitude is at variance with reality. By his own admission, Light earns, in salary alone, at least $1,000.00 a week (in addition to any corporate dividends, stock, and returns of outside investments he may accrue) for publishing TBG. $52,000.00 a year is a healthy salary for anyone, and I am not suggesting that he doesn't deserve it -- that is an infmitely arguable supposition. But I'm not sure that Light deserves $1,000.00 a week while his contributors deserve nothing. I am fully cognizant of the fact that his contributors are not asking for anything: Don Thompson said the subjcct of payment "never comes up."

TBG's artists never get paid. Contrary to Light's columnists, however, there are at least some artists who would be very willing to accept payment for their toil. While writing fan columns is strictly a hobby for Marty Greim and the Thompsons, most of TBG's artists are struggling to go professional -- in one sense or another; in comics or in another field. When a fanzine is financially unable to pay an artist, that's one thing; when a fan publishing conglomerate grosses a quarter of a million dollars a year, there is little reason not to pay artists who need money.

More ecumenical questions should be brought to the fore, though. TBG's position in comics fandom demands responsibility and rectitude, and is, above all, answerable to fandom. At the 1971 Metro Comic Art Convention in Washington, DC, in his keynote address, Denny O'Neil said that comics, like all folk art, reflect the times we live in. And comics fandom, a microcosm within that folk art, may reflect our America even more precisely.

Consider this: In 1968, the 100 biggest industrial firms owned roughly half the total assets of the nation's 1.5 million corporations. This was the same percentage that the biggest 200 had owned 20 years before. All by themselves, the top 10 corporations on Fortune's list of the 500 largest industrial corporations sold $100 billion in profits. Today, many corporations have incomes larger than the gross national products of some respectable nations. General Motor's annual intake, for example, exceeds the gross national product of Belgium or Switzerland. General Motors took in more money in 1970 than any government in the Western Hemisphere except the US. Standard Oil took in more than Belgium, IBM took in more than Portugal. If IBM continues its rate of growth of the last decade for another two decades, it will become the largest economic entity in the world.

Now consider this: Alan Light is the president of at least three corporations, whose gross earnings exceed a quarter of a million dollars a year. The Buyer's Guide is fandom's widest read newspaper; if Light decides to terminate a fan's subscription that fan has been banished from the mainstream of communication in fandom. He has little recourse. TBG's readership has been barred from subscribing to the competition because TBG's readers have been kept oblivious of the existence of any competition.

Keeping an audience ignorant and in the dark is, to my mind, a supremely irresponsible and downright harmful technique of manipulation. Widespread ignorance of issues and alternatives have helped political hacks gain public office in this country for years and consumer ignorance is just as large a problem. This needn't be the case in fandom.

Light may well be a proponent of the libertarian philosophy of corporate management. Briefly, this philosophy purports that a corporation's only responsibility is to use its resouroes to increase profits and to make as much money for its stockholders as possible. Their only social responsibility is to maximize profits for stockholders. It is presumptuous, they say, for private individuals to decide what is in the public interest, and to lessen profits, thereby taking money away from stockholders, is not to serve those stockholders' interests. Period.

I find this hard to swallow, although Alan Light may not. A corporation in comics fandom, like an individual, has a fundamental responsibility to their public, our public: comics fandom. Question: Does it serve fandom's best interests to keep a large percentage of fans oblivious to other, competing publications? Does it serve fandom's best interests to deprive its members of the opportunity to subscribe to an alternative press? Is it in fandom's best interests to be dominated by one publication, promulgating one side of a story, and omitting other sides entirely? What do you think?

Which brings us to this: Alan Light has worked long and hard for his money and power, and fandom has supported him. Marty Greim said he belleved Light did a lot of good for fandom. Don Thompson believes that Light refined the adzine to the point where it was bringing new fans into fandom that would not, ordinarily, have entered our community. I must agree with this to a certain extent, though it by no means excuses more vile crimes against fandom.

I believe Light has acquired his support by attracting large numbers of neos, keeping them oblivious to the competition and undermining that competition in an irresponsible and fallacious manner. Our free enterprise system, if it is to work, must be entered into in the spirit of free and open competition.

What to do? By now, you should all be waiting for the pitch. Save fandom! Support TNJ! Well, yes, I want everyone reading this to support TNJ. Send in a subscription, buy an ad. Make us financially healthy, editorially independent. But there's more that I would like to speculate about.

In the world of today's multinational corporations, there are a number of organizations who act as watchdogs to the powers that effectively rule this country, both governmental and corporate. While the national press has established an adversary relationship with our government in hopes of exposing governmental excesses, there are several organizations and committees that look over large business entities, and report their findings to the public. There is The Council on Economic Priorities, whose research has brought to public attention much corporate irresponsibility; there is Ralph Nader's Center for the Study of Responsive Law and the Project for Corporate Responsibility (which organized Campaign GM). There are independent publications devoted to reviewing America's press -~ The Columbia Journalism Review and [More].

Has fandom become big enough to require such watchdogs? I would like to think not. But I don't see fandom, as a business, regressing. Don Thompson told me that comic book prices are "accelerating faster and faster." He doesn't like what he sees. He thinks that it's "greed on the part of the dealers," and that "somewhere fandom took a wrong turn." Be that as it may, comics are big business and are getting bigger every day. Fandom may need the services of concerned fans who would bring to fandom's attention abuses, minor and major, of convention promoters, fanzine editors and publishers, and dealers. Members of all three groups -- and I have been active in all three -- are answerable to comics fandom which rewards our efforts and even makes them possible.

Then too, a loosely knit organization of dealers, publishers and con directors may be enough. Could such a group patrol itself? I think it may be worth a try.

I'm very optimistic, as Jim Wilson is, that fandom's greatest potential lies in the area of creative thought and expression. I'm optimistic in the sense that fandom can combine the aspects of business, fanzine publishing, buying, and selling, with the creative experience that is the essence of our world.