Very sad news: historian, collector, comic art restorer, and author Roger Allen Hill passed away on December 6th, 2023, at the age of 75, after a battle with cancer.
Roger was born in Wichita, Kansas on October 14, 1948, and graduated from Derby Senior High School in 1966. After four years in the Navy, serving 18 months in Vietnam during the late 1960s, Roger returned home where he quickly resumed and expanded his collecting interests.
His primary collecting focus was on EC comics, but he also avidly collected monster magazines, vintage movie posters, trading cards, and much, much more. In 1967, in conjunction with his lifelong friend Jerry Weist, the duo released the first issue of Squa Tront, a groundbreaking fanzine devoted to the artists, writers, and staff of the EC (Entertaining Comics) group. He remained affiliated with Squa Tront for over 40 years, contributing material even after comics historian and critic John Benson became editor. He also contributed to Rich Hauser’s seminal 1960s EC fanzine Spa Fon, as well as the EC fanzines Qua Brot and Horror from the Crypt of Fear. He contributed articles to many other publications over the years, including Gary Carter’s Comic Book Marketplace and Roy Thomas’ Alter Ego.
Hill was the first person to interview EC artist/writer Johnny Craig, back in August 1969 (subsequently published in Squa Tront No. 4, 1970). He was also the first person to commission Craig to do an EC-related painting, depicting the Vault-Keeper and Drusilla with various assorted creatures in the background. (This painting was used on the back cover of Squa Tront No. 5, 1974.) After this, Craig would go on to do many more such commissions for fans over the years. Along with Jerry Weist, Hill very early on befriended EC publisher Bill Gaines, and when visiting New York, Gaines would take the pair out to elaborate dinners where Gaines would regale them with stories about the EC days.
During the early 1990s, Roger worked with Weist as comic art advisor to the Sotheby's Comic Book and Comic Art auctions in New York City.
Beginning in 2004, he edited and published his own fanzine called the EC Fan-Addict Fanzine. The fifth issue was published by Fantagraphics in November 2023, and a sixth, posthumous issue is due out in June 2024 (also from Fantagraphics). He was the art editor for Bhob Stewart’s 2003 book Against the Grain: MAD Artist Wallace Wood, writing several chapters as well. In 2010, Roger contributed an essay called “The Early Years” for the Éditions Déesse edition of the WOODWORK: Wallace Wood 1927-1981 catalog done for the Wally Wood exhibition presented by the Casal Solleric in Palma City, Spain. After Jerry Weist’s passing, in 2012 Roger and Glynn Crain finished assembling his book Frank R. Paul: The Dean of Science Fiction Illustration for IDW Publishing.
Roger’s first book, Wally Wood: Galaxy Art and Beyond, was published by IDW in 2016. His other books include Reed Crandall: Illustrator of the Comics (2017), Mac Raboy: Master of the Comics (2019), and The Chillingly Weird Art of Matt Fox (2023), all for TwoMorrows Publishing.
Roger’s enthusiasm for—and knowledge about—comics and comic art was both massive and infectious, and from 1967 he wrote extensively about the subject. He would leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of tracking down artwork he wanted for his collection, and because of all the required sleuthing involved he became known among his fellow collectors as “The Art Detective.”
One of the nicest people ever to grace fandom, he was always willing to share the discoveries and other minutiae that he relentlessly pursued throughout his collecting life. In spite of failing health, he never lost his passion for collecting, buying and trading material up until just a few weeks before he died. With Roger’s passing goes a lifetime of experience and fascinating stories—not to mention untold secrets never to be told—about collecting, and he is greatly missed. He is survived by his wife, Terry Hill, as well as several siblings, sons, stepsons, and stepdaughters.
Requiescat in pace, Roger.
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Grant Geissman is the author of The History of EC Comics (Taschen), and co-editor of the EC Fan-Addict Fanzine #5 and #6.
