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MIDGUARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
P.O. Box 1711, Mena, Arkansas 71953
email: midguard20@aol.com
IT'S A SPECTACULAR EVENT!
Announcing the publication of:
The author is a former Administrator of the now defunct WSA Program (1970-1984), a highly respected trade association with 1500 members scattered about North America and various parts of the world. WSA represented a wide variety of collecting interests: comic books, pulp magazines, science fiction, Star Trek, etc. Such prestigious members as Bob Overstreet, Bud Plant, Harry Hopkins, Alan Light, Meade Frierson, Jerry Bails, Stuart David Schiff, Bruce Hamilton, Richard Minter, Claude Held, Robert Bell, Bill Cole, Buddy Saunders, Jim Ivey, Nils Hardin and Forrest J. Ackerman achieved almost legendary status in their respective fields. Some are still active today.
In his Introduction to FANDOM: Confidential, Robert Sampson writes:
"What follows is Ron's story--and this book. Here is his story of life behind the scenes at the WE-works. He was Administrator of the WSA, meaning that he straddled that prickly hedge of people and problems. He plunged into battles that shocked through collecting. He had daily portions of the wild men and wilder adventures in that hazy world where hobby collides head-on with business."
Some of the highlights include:
*Hugo Gernsback adds a letter department to Amazing Stories magazine in 1927. With Gernsback's encouragement, readers organize fan clubs...beginning what became science fiction fandom.
* Dr. Fredric Wertham writes a book entitled Seduction Of the Innocent. It begins a storm of public fury, culminating in a formal senate investigation of the comic book industry. These events lead to the formation of The Comics Code Authority.
* March 1961, Roy Thomas and Jerry Bails publish the first issue of Alter Ego, the first true comics fanzine.
* 1964. Steve Ditko appears at the first New York comic convention. He is the only professional who accepts the fan's invitation to attend. Ditko is so disenchanted by the experience that he has yet to attend another convention.
* Howard Rogofsky, well-known comic book mail order dealer, is chased from a New York convention by a dissatisfied customer brandishing a knife. It is said to be Rogofsky's last public appearance.
* 1970. Bob Overstreet publishes the first edition of The Official Comic Book Price Guide. As a result of artificial manipulation, comic book values inflate to astronomical proportions over the next several decades.
* A complete collection of Golden Age Captain America comics is stolen from Charles Rice at a 1970 convention in Oklahoma City.
* Stanley R. Blair publishes the first issue of fandom's first weekly advertising journal. Stan's Weekly Express, in 1969. Later known as WE, it is a major step in the evolution of an organized comics fandom. Noted subscribers included Bjo Trimble, Russell Myers, Walter Koenig, and Forrest J. Ackerman.
* The inside story about fandom's first major case of mail fraud...the infamous "Dryden Affair." It leads to the formation of the WE Reporting Bureau (WRB), an entity dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of mail fraud in fandom; and the WE Seal of Approval (WSA), which promoted fair play in the hobby and suggested professional methods of doing business by mail.
* As a result of complaints from various readers, Blair prohibits the advertising or sale of Underground comics in WE. It began a heated controversy that spread to the pages of other publications. Some fans complained that Blair violated the Constitutional rights of sellers and advertisers by his decision.
* Blair ends publication of WE in 1973. He begins operation of the National Central Bureau. WE's place in the market is assumed by The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom, published by 19-year-old Alan Light.
* Blair becomes embroiled in a bitter feud with the publishers of The Nostalgia Journal, an advertising journal later bought by Gary Groth and renamed The Comics Journal.
* Blair retires, appointing a new Board of Directors to manage WSA in the summer of 1974. Ron Frantz becomes Administrator.
* 1975. A teenaged comic book collector is robbed at gun point by a well-known dealer in a Dallas hotel room.
* Three national dealers engage in a public squabble over the sale of plastic bags used by collectors to store collectibles. It soon threatens to blow itself out of proportion to its real importance, inviting an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.
* Frantz investigates multiple mail-fraud complaints against Carlos Johnson, of Bronx, New York. A lack of interest by the Postal Inspection Service leads to action by an Oklahoma Congressman, resulting in an investigation by The Federal Bureau of Investigation and a transfer of the case to the United States Justice Department.
* Frantz receives a "death threat" as a result of an article published in All About Star Trek Fan Club magazine, and a WSA investigation of several prominent Star Trek fan clubs and dealers.
* Jim Steranko causes a heated controversy in the pulp collecting field by publishing an article written by Terry Stroud, listing inflated values. Steranko ignores Richard Minter and other veteran pulp collectors asking for an opportunity to express an opposing viewpoint in Steranko's periodical, Mediascene.
* The WSA Program holds its first Board of Directors meeting at the 1976 Creationcon in New York. Fandom is shocked by an official WSA "endorsement" of Gary Groth and The Comics Journal.
* Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov becomes subject to a hoax orchestrated by a deranged man hoping to seduce a young female Star Trek fan. A national Star Trek fan association attempts to suppress a WSA investigation, fearing adverse publicity. Threats of lawsuit follow.
* Frantz resigns as WSA Administrator on December 31, 1977. He is succeeded by Harry Hopkins. Later, Hopkins engages in a heated imbroglio with Stanley Blair over the publication of The Fandom Directory. Before reaching its conclusion, a number of casual witnesses are dragged through a quagmire of governmental scrutiny, involving charges of conspiracy and an investigation of the principals involved by the FBI.
* Alan Light, publisher of The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom, feuds with various competitors. The most significant was Gary Groth and The Comics Journal. Events lead to a million dollar slander suit, filed by Light in 1984.
And...MUCH more!
FANDOM: Confidential is a deluxe, softcover trade paperback, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2", squarebound with a slick glossy cover. It contains 200 pages of text, photographs, and rare or previously unpublished art by Alex Toth, Frank Hamilton, Don Newton, Russell Myers, Matt Feazell, Dan De Carlo, Richard Corben, and many others.
FANDOM: Confidential is a Limited First Edition of 750. Each copy is individually numbered and signed by the Author.
Introduction by Robert Sampson
Sampson's many articles about pulp magazines qualified him as a world-class expert. These articles appeared in such noteworthy publications as Xenophile, WE, Duende History of The Shadow Magazine, Pulp, Mystery Readers' Newsletter, Armchair Detective, and Marvel Comics b/w Doc Savage magazine. Other credits include fiction for Planet Stories, circa 1952. Sampson authored several books about the history of pulp magazines, including The Night Master for Pulp Press, and a series for Bowling Green University Popular Press, entitled Yesterday's Faces. These books are considered by many to be the definitive work on the subject. Sampson received the prestigious 1986 "Edgar" award for his short mystery "Rain in Pinton County." Sampson's Introduction is published posthumously.Cover illustration by Peter Morisi
Morisi's comic book career spanned four decades, beginning at Fox Comics in 1948. His most prolific work was published by Charlton Comics from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Other credits include comic book work for Marvel, DC, Gilberton, Comic Media, Harvey, Gleason, Quality, Fiction House, and Pines. Morisi is the creator of Johnny Dynamite and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt. At the time of this writing, the Walt Disney Studio has signed an option to produce a Johnny Dynamite feature film.Edited by Michael Ambrose
Mike Ambrose is a professional editor and writer, SF enthusiast, and comic book and pulp magazine collector. Under his Argo Press imprint he published the SF fanzine Argonaut from 1972 to 1995. He now publishes an occasional limited-edition SF trade paperback, most recently -Noctet: Tales of Madonna-Moloch- by Albert J. Manachino. Ambrose can be reached at: mikeargo@flash.net.
About The Author
Ron Frantz having fun with radio favorites "Lum and Abner"
Ron Frantz was born in Oklahoma City in 1953. He graduated high school in Bethany, Oklahoma, and attended Oklahoma City Southwestern Junior College. He served as Administrator of the WSA Program from 1975-77 before entering a career in retail management.A lifelong collector of nostalgia, Frantz has been active in various kind of avocational activities, including the promotion of nostalgia conventions. He has appeared on numerous television and radio talk shows and has lectured about nostalgia at libraries and universities. Frantz has been a columnist for The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom (1975-77) and The Comics Journal (1977), and has published articles in The Fandom Directory, Compass, The Journal, the IFICC Newsletter, and numerous other fan publications. Other writing credits include newspaper advertising copy, television commercials, and gag material for a newspaper comic strip. A recent article about artist Steve Ditko appears at Blake Bell's "Ditko Looked Up" web site.
Frantz was Editor and Publisher of WE, Official Organ of the WSA Program (1975-77). Later, he was Editor and Publisher of ACE Comics (1986-87), producing such comics as What is the FACE, Return of the Skyman, The Adventures of Spencer Spook, Robin Red and the Lutins, and The Cosmic Book, with art by Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette, Alex Toth, Joe Gill, Frank McLaughlin, and many others.
Currently, Frantz resides in the scenic Ouachita Mountains area, near Mena, Arkansas. New books in the works include a biography of former collegiate and professional wrestling legend Dan Hodge and a retrospective study entitled The Many Faces of Ellery Queen.
For more information about ACE Comics, please click on the link below:
Critical praise for FANDOM: Confidential
FANDOM: Confidential is one of those books that has a little bit of everything. Readers find selfless crusaders, ruthless bastards, backroom politics, the FBI, the FTC, and even the Star Trek Welcommittee. Frantz's passionate commitment to the cause of fair play and honesty comes through in every page. And, if nothing else, it provides an interesting look at comics fandom as the hobby went through some painful growth periods. Frantz tries throughout his book to provide a fair accounting of events, but is man enough to admit his own biases and own up to the mistakes he made. Frantz also had a front row seat (and played a small part) in the infamous feud between Alan Light and Gary Groth. (He sides with Light, by the way.) Though the nature of comics fandom has changed since the 1970s and 1980s, the story he tells is a gripping account of how politics and the struggle for power can tear a fandom apart. The scenarios he recounts have played themselves out countless times in other fandoms, but Frantz is the only person I know of who has written a book airing comic fandom's dirty laundry.FANDOM: Confidential is a good book and worth reading if one is interested in the history and evolution of comics fandom.
--Katherine Keller
Sequential Tart
I've never been much for comic books and have seldom impinged on the world of comics fandom. After reading this book, I'm glad to have avoided it. Frantz covers his involvement in this fandom in the 1970s, when comic collecting abruptly went from a quiet network of nostalgia collectors to a shouting mob of greedy speculators interested only in the main chance. I found the book a fascinating read. The microcosmic struggles between comics dealers and collectors in the late 1970s are reported straightforwardly as the titanic struggles of say, bison bulls in rutting time. The book makes the Gulf War seems like an anticlimax (with apologies to Harry Warner Jr.).
--Dale Speirs
Opuntia
"So when are you gonna finish the book?" I must have asked Ron that question at least once a year for a decade. Now it's finished. Whether you know it or not, you've been waiting over 20 years for it. And it's still just the tip of the iceberg. Ron has enough stories in him for several books. He's been featured in a national magazine or two, and not always for the right reasons. At one point, a national Star Trek magazine featured him as a die-hard Trekkie--causing him no end of embarrassment! Get him to talk sometime about his experiences with any of several dozen famous and not-so-famous folk he's worked with, dealt with, or straightened out. Maybe he'll tell you some stories of various times he had to come to the assistance of the defenseless at conventions or elsewhere.
You get the general idea. The guy has had a fascinating life, in and out of fandom. Since you're primarily interested in the fannish side of things, this is the book to start with. Maybe later, you can get him to open up about the other stories. For now, enjoy FANDOM: Confidential, a look into the way fandom was and how it began to change into what it is today. Then come back later, because fandom isn't finished changing. It's a lot different than it was 40 years ago, 30, 20, and even 10 years ago...so it'll be different again before you know it.
Talk about being swept back in time. This is a very literate, very fascinating book. It may be limited in its interest these days when mutants, thong-wearing bimbos, and Liefeld clones are all that interest fandom. But I don't think it was written to fit any market trends. I think these are stories which need to be told. And there are more, so I hope for sequels. The introductory quotes for each chapter not only give it a flavor of respectability (something which anything dealing with comics can use) but are strongly insightful to each situation.
Perhaps the most realistic history of the fans who read and collected comic books, science fiction, movies, books, and just about anything collectable. Nostalgic without candy coating the history, F.C. is - if not the last word on nostalgia history, certainly the next to the last word. This deserves a prominent place on anyone's bookshelf.
--Chester Cox
Former WSA member
Your book may awaken some memories. As a younger fan, I recall receiving material from Stan Blair, the Dallas group, the Houston group, Gary Groth and Alan Light. I was a subscriber to The Nostalgia Journal. I bought copies of Fantastic Fanzine and I subscribed to the Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom. I also subscribed to Bill Spicer's Graphic Story Magazine. I didn't know the particulars behind some of the ads that appeared in some of those publications. I do recall that Bill Spicer had little, if anything, to say about the matter. He and his writers were more concerned with the way stories were told in the comics and how they might be told better in the future.
What you've done in FANDOM: Confidential is provide an objective look at what was a very touchy problem in the early days of fandom. This is a well-written account of what happened with little speculation as to why. This is good straight-forward reporting. Most of all, I think you've written a memoir that allowed you to come to grips with some of the problems you had during this period. It may not be a best-seller, but everyone in fandom today should read this book. There are lessons here for collectors and businessmen alike.
--Gene Reed
Founder, APA-I, Member, GCD; Contributor to Comics Buyer's Guide, Comic Book Marketplace,
Overstreet Price Guide
At last...mysteries are solved! Questions are answered! Darkness is illuminated! During much of the 1970s, one of fandom's growing pains was the sheer amount of money involved in fan/dealer transactions. Perceiving a need for a trade association to settle disputes, an older non-collector named Stan Blair stepped in to found several organizations with important-sounding names. It started with Stan's Weekly Express (WE), a mimeographed adzine intended to get ads in the hands of buyers as soon as possible. Then reliable advertisers got the WE Seal of Approval and thus was born the WSA Program.
Ron Frantz was right in the middle of it all, and even took over as the WSA Administrator after Stan retired. This is Frantz's story of that chapter of comics fandom history, as he saw it at the time. If you were around in the 70s and were a little puzzled by what the WSA was all about, this book will answer your questions. It's also a fascinating character study of Stan Blair, who must rank as one of the all-time great American eccentrics.
Frantz's account includes numerous fan-squables, not to mention internal WSA politics and in-fighting. The WSA did some good along the way, investigating complaints of dishonest dealing and settling disputes, and Frantz tells about some of the cases he handled. Many were just the usual dreary shady dealer/mail-order fraud, though there is one hair-raising story of outright armed robbery of a fan by a dealer. The more interesting stories comes out of Star Trek fandom, with spectacularly mismanaged fan clubs and bitter personal conflicts. One married man was even claiming to be a close personal friend of Isaac Asimov's in order to put the moves on a young aspiring female writer. ("Be nice to me and I'll get your story into an anthology!")
In the end, Stan's slightly nutsoid taste for bureaucracy, titles, organizations, and programs, too many for one man to handle, and unpaid so volunteers couldn't devote full time to them, probably led to the organization's demise. Frantz's description of his tenure as Administrator sounds like a nightmare of too much work to do, not enough time to do it, and no money for doing it. Then, too, comics fandom was growing beyond the folksy, home-based trade association staffed by volunteers. Frequently, dealers and publishers who had simply gotten too big to want to mess with a little fan group dropped out of the WSA. Among them was the Comics Journal. Frantz's tale of the Journal's beginnings is worth the price of the book.
As a diary of one man's experiences in the nutty world of comics and collecting in the 1970s, FANDOM: Confidential is worthwhile as another volume in the history of comics fandom, belonging on the shelf with Schelly's history of 60s fandom and Dr. Wertham's World of Fanzines. Anyone wanting to understand comics fandom in the 70s will need to know about Stan Blair, and this book is the place to start. And if you were there at the time, it might even bring back a few memories.
--Dwight R. Decker
CAPA-Alpha, the Comics Amateur Press Association
I just received my copy today of Ron Frantz's FANDOM: Confidential and I found it a fantastic read. I was blown away by it and, in its own way, found it a perfect continuation of Bill Schelly's work on early comic fandom.
My first contact with comic fandom in any scope did not take place for me until 1983, when I started by subscription to the Comics Buyer's Guide; the same year bought my first Overstreet Price Guide and Steranko's History of Comics Vol. 2.
At the time, I heard the bickering, the rancor between Gary Groth and the Comics Journal and CBG. I read complaints about how the price guide was done by Overstreet. I saw Rogofsky's ads in comics since I was a kid. I knew Ron Frantz only as a person involved in ACE Comics in the 1980s. Alan Light was the former CBG publisher. I saw the WSA logo in some Overstreet ads and had no idea what it was for. Jerry Bails was only a name I saw in places like Overstreet's and Steranko's acknowledges pages and comic letter pages. Bill Cole sold the comics bags which I bought and the mylar which I could never afford. Robert Bell was only I name I saw on old yellowing bags covering comics I bought and that I tossed out in favor of clearer new ones.
I had no idea how they were all connected. But Ron's book gave me, for the first time, the fascinating history of the story behind the stories. I see names that I never knew before how interconnected they were. The big shots, big wigs, and big name fans that I had gotten to know only in the pages of The Comic Reader, CBG, and other assorted publications were now alive to me. And their stories were alive to me as well. Fascinating reading. A fantastic book. If you haven't bought it yet, buy it! Ron Frantz has done wonders and it is worth every penny.
Ray Bottorff, Jr
Member GCD
When I was asked to review the new book, FANDOM: Confidential by Ron Frantz, I looked forward to learning more about a period in the history of Comics Fandom that I had only experienced marginally myself. I've had the good fortune to be around since the earliest days of Comics Fandom; however, by the 1970s, the major period to be covered in Ron's treatise, I had passed the publishing and editing chores of my early fanzines along to others, bowed out of convention activities in Detroit, and even declined an invitation to join the editorial staff at DC Comics. My private and professional lives were full, satisfying and demanding, so I had no interest in the new commercialization phase that was sweeping through Comics Fandom. I decided to pretty much confine my fanac to correspondence with pros in the industry and a few close friends who were assisting me with my microfilming project and research on the Who's Who of American Comic Books.
The time of innocent creativity, generosity and bonding of the 1960s, as described so well by Bill Shelly in his book, The Golden Age of Comics Fandom, was giving way to a growing competition as more entrepreneurial players and speculators entered a field that was once dominated strictly by amateurs. As collecting of rare comics was played up more and more in the national media, some of the adzines were becoming real money-making affairs. Bigger and bigger conventions were springing up across the country and they began drawing in hundreds and then thousands of nostalgia buffs. The time of the casual and congenial amateur was past; the time had come for those who thrived in an atmosphere of profit-making, commercial agreements, and--inevitably--feuds and frauds. Ron's book documents this period very well.
It is hard to recognize that Ron's book is in fact a sequel to the events in Bill's earlier book. Part of the difference is in the respective interests of these historical writers, but there was, nevertheless, a major shift in the tone of Fandom that might best be marked by the appearance of the first Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide in 1970. It heralded of a new age in Fandom and significantly, my editorial contributions to the first Overstreet edition marked my last major public appearance in Fandom for some years to come. With the hindsight that Ron's book provides, I can honestly say that I do not regret my decision to take to the sidelines of Comics Fandom in the 1970s. It was a time for more combative souls. I would rather read about these events than have to live through them.
I knew about the new key players in Fandom from their exchanges in the fanzines, but I didn't know many of them personally. I was an early member of Stan Blair's WSA Program, and I was delighted to see someone as dedicated as Stan rooting out fraud and theft in the hobby that had suddenly been thrust upon a wider public by the spate of articles in the mass media. Stan was a kind of Don Quixote tilting at windmills, except that some of these windmills turned out to be real, flesh-and-blood villains, and Stan's persistence in pursuing them to the ends of the earth soon earned for him a sterling reputation, especially among young and impressionable men like Ron Frantz.
FANDOM: Confidential is Ron's personal story of how he took up the quest of Don Quixote. He was asked by Stan Blair to take over the leadership of the WSA Program when Stan's health began to fail. It is a story of great idealism, dedication, naivete and profound disappointment. All of this might serve up some very important lessons for those contemplating a similar heroic role in life. It certainly tells the story of the recurring themes of human interaction, and except for lack of the appearance of any angels, it might well have become a chapter of the Bible.
The story reminds me of the young man, inspired by the heroism and ideals of his father's generation in World War II, who volunteered to serve his country in Vietnam. He came to discover that war brings out not only great sacrifice in some individuals, but often destroys the very civility and decency one is fighting for. Even the high-minded can turn ugly and brutal, and in the anger and heat of battle, trust is lost, principles are forgotten, judgment becomes skewed, and previous good deeds often go unappreciated. Battle-fatigue finally takes its toll, although some fools persist in re-enlisting in the war when saner men would walk away. In the end, friends are lost, ideals are shattered and the body and mind crave rest from all the bloodshed.
The battled survivor tries to forget the war--to put it out of sight and mind, but at last he realizes that the only way to come to grips with his wartime experience is to write a personal history. FANDOM: Confidential is Ron's personal history, filled with players motivated by idealism, righteous indignation, lust for power and fortune, and paranoia. There are bad guys, but most of the characters are just fallible human beings caught up in a highly alienated, competitive world that doesn't countenance losers.
For Don Quixote, who pushed the war to its ignominious conclusion, he sacrificed so much that one is ultimately lead to question his mental health. One is left wondering at just what point he lost touch with reality. Fortunately, his apprentice was able to pull back and ask, "Is this all there is?"
Ron sums up the lesson of his early career as a crusader by offering a lengthy quotation from the commencement address of William Wister Comfort to the class of 1919 at Guilford College. It seems a strange place to find one extolling the virtues of a man's hobby and the need to keep it separate from the rest of life. You might find yourself agreeing with this sentiment once you see what can happen when you let your hobby take over your life. For students of human behavior, especially those interested in the trials and tribulations of losing innocence, I recommend this book. I warn you though; it could make you a conscientious objector.
--Jerry G. Bails
Who's Who of American Comic Books
I read your book, FANDOM: Confidential, in two sittings. It was an interesting trip to relive those 60s and 70s. My, how nostalgia has blossomed. I'm glad that you documented that period. It was an innocent beginning with pure motives and interests. Your literary style is sometimes very formal, and sometimes looser. You're concerned with popular culture...so, perhaps, a less formal tone overall might have been considered. But I understand how you wanted to document things and contrast the early innocence with the greedy sleaze that came later. You sum up many facets succinctly. You explain things for people with no knowledge of the field. Hey! You're going back 30 to 40 years so background was necessary. Of course, I read it reliving that period in my own mind. You are to be commended for your thankless efforts. Often, the things we do gratis show our best side. They're karma building!
--Jim Ivey
Florida Chapter: National Cartoonist Society
ORDERING INFORMATION
To order FANDOM: Confidential by mail, please send a check or money order in the amount of $14.95 (which includes free shipping and handling) to:
MIDGUARD PUBLISHING CO.
PO Box 1711
Mena, Arkansas 71953
For orders outside of the United States and Canada, please make instruments payable in U.S. funds and include an extra $3 for shipping.
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