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MAN OF ROCK: A Biography of Joe Kubert
By Bill Schelly
Joe Kubert’s career literally spans the history of the comic book in America. He began drawing comics in 1938, the same year Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1, and he continues to be one of the most vital artists working today.
Kubert has created comics for virtually every major publisher over an incredible 70 years in the business, including Marvel, DC, and EC. He is best known for his work for DC Comics on series starring Sgt. Rock, Hawkman and Tarzan, as well as his work on their most commercially successful properties such as Superman and Batman.
His multifaceted career includes illustrating the Tales of the Green Beret newspaper strip in the 1960s, founding the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in the 1970s, and creating graphic novels touching on adult themes such as the Holocaust in recent years.
Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert provides an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at every facet of Kubert’s creative life as artist, writer, innovator and educator. It abounds in heretofore unknown details about Joe’s life and work, and is rich in telling anecdotes drawn from exclusive interviews with Kubert’s colleagues, friends and family. Man of Rock is a full-bodied biography that can be read and enjoyed by anyone interested in the history of American popular culture.
Trade paperback; 304 pages plus covers; 6” X 9” - $19.99.
Postage included. Copies signed by author upon request.
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ALTER EGO: The Graphic Novel
by Roy Thomas and Ron Harris
Collected for the first time as a trade paperback, Roy Thomas and Ron Harris present their classic tribute to the Golden Age of Comics. When Rob Lindsay dons the mystic mask of Alter Ego, he's drawn into a fabulous world of four-color adventure, where he soon finds himself the only hero who can stand against an ancient and evil power that threatens not only that world, but ultimately his own! Dazzling new cover by Ron Harris with colors by Mike Estlick Story by Roy Thomas, Artwork by Ron Harris and Rick Burchett, Coloring by Alex Wald and Wendy Fiore, Lettering by Steve Haynie and David C. Weiss. [Original comics mini-series published by First Comics.]
Trade paperback; 128 pages plus covers; 6.625" x 10.25" – Full Color
WAS: $18.00 US, DISCOUNTED TO $7.00!
Postage included.
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The six members of the Liberty Legion: The Defender, Doctor Weird, Astral Man; below, Mercury, Changling & Powerman.
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The Best of Star-Studded Comics
Trade paperback book, 256 pages, $25.00 postpaid.
Available directly from Hamster Press and nowhere else!
This 256-page trade paperback book collects 21 of the best comic strips (complete) published in Star-Studded Comics, the classic fan magazine of the 1960s and 1970s. A small press pioneer, Star-Studded was the first publication entirely dedicated to offering alternative comics to fans of the medium—mostly super hero strips, at first, and then branching out into other genres in their later issues.
Originally published by the Texas Trio (Larry Herndon, Buddy Saunders and Howard Keltner) from 1963 to 1972, Star-Studded spanned 18 great issues, all very difficult and expensive to acquire these days. With the permission and support of all involved, I have carefully selected the best strips, starring celebrated ama-heroes The Eye, the Human Cat, Dr. Weird, Powerman, the Blade, White Dragon and many more to give you the “cream” of the fanzine, in this unique 260-page archival collection. In addition, the book includes the “Warrior of Llarn” adaptation of Gardner Fox’s novel, by Roy Thomas and Sam Grainger, as well as complete annotations on every feature by Bill Schelly. There is also “The Star-Studded Checklist” detailing the contents of every issue, and a never-before-published fabulous13-page strip by Biljo White and Howard Keltner called “The Interceptor.”
All told, 60 pages of new material, 21 complete comic strips, ONE EXCITING BOOK!! Copies will be back from the printer a few days into 2005, and then will be mailed out immediately. If it’s mid-January by the time you happen to be reading this, you can be assured the book is “out” and ready-to-mail. For more art from this book, click here.
Available from Hamster Press ONLY… not your local comics store, or Bud Plant Comic Art, or Barnes and Noble. This is a special 500 copy Limited Edition, which is being published for a select group of discriminating readers—YOU!! As such, we can’t afford to sell it at a discount. ’Nuff said.
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Words of Wonder:
The Life and Times of Otto Binder
By Bill Schelly
SOLD OUT!
This all-new major biography of Otto Binder, one of the most talented and prolific writers in the history of comics, tells a story of soaring success and terrible tragedy. In the Golden Age of comics, Binder wrote Captain Marvel, Blackhawk, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Black Hood and dozens of other characters. After a stint at EC comics, he moved to DC where he scripted many of the Superman family of comics in the 1950s and 1960s, co-creating Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Krypto, Brainiac, Kandor, and Bizarro. Bill Schelly interviewed Binder’s family and colleagues, including Julius Schwartz, Roy Thomas and Al Feldstein. Learn how the death of his daughter caused Binder to abandon the comics field, and much more in this fascinating 80,000-word biography accompanied by dozens of photos and artwork by J. Michael Kaluta, C. C. Beck, Jerry Ordway and more. Cover & photo gallery in full color, with an introduction by SF and mystery writer Richard A. Lupoff. 264 pages, all copies in hardback (6” x 9”),
Why did Schelly write about Otto Binder?
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Sold out from TwoMorrows Publishing;
now available ONLY from Hamster Press!
Sense of Wonder: A Life In Comic Fandom
1st Edition - WAS $18.00 ... DISCOUNTED TO $12.00!
By Bill Schelly
Introduction by Roy Thomas (Click here to read!)
If you're thinking of "passing" on this memoir of the early days of comic fandom, check out these reactions to the book:
"Charmingly nostalgic, intimate and heart-warming! Bill Schelly’s trip through the wilderness years of fandom echoes what so many of us felt when we made a magic connection with other comics fans." -- Paul Levitz, DC Comics
"Like Schelly’s earlier books, SENSE OF WONDER allows old-timers to reminisce about the early days of fandom, because they’ve been there-and allows all newcomers to experience what they missed. I loved every word of it!"
--Gary Carter, Former editor Comic Book Marketplace
"Anyone with memories of being a kid with a seemingly oddball enthusiasm will identify with Bill Schelly’s tale of how he found in comics fandom a network of widely scattered new friends and a wealth of ways to grow creatively."
--Howard Cruse, Author, Stuck Rubber Baby & Wendel All Together
"Writing with an earnest intensity in clear, colloquial English, Bill Schelly recreates in a pleasant novelistic manner those times in a young comic book fan's life when all the world that matters is comic books. His autobiographical narrative displays a storyteller's sensibility and ends tidily with an epiphany that signals that the fan has grown up but remembers fondly-as do we all, all of us who have survived our youth and adolescence because we had comic books to sustain us and cartooning to aspire to.
-- R.C. Harvey, The Art of the Comic Strip
"Excellent-Bill Schelly’s best yet! Far from being an exercise in egotism, SENSE OF WONDER represents a sharing of a comics fan’s intensely personal-yet universal-experience." -- Ronn Foss, Editor emeritus of Alter Ego
Note: A 2-hour (abridged) audio version of Sense of Wonder is available in our "merchandise" category. It's available exclusively from Hamster Press.
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The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, Revised Edition--
180 pages - WAS $20.00 ... DISCOUNTED TO $14.00!
By Bill Schelly.
Introduction by Roy Thomas.
This edition, with its striking cover by Michael T. Gilbert, is the second edition of this book, which is the first (and so far, only) attempt to chronicle the history of comic book fandom. Starting as far back as the SF fanzines of the 1930s, and then the EC fanzines of the 1950s, the book traces the frustrating lot of comic art enthusiasts who had no way to find back issues, or to coordinate the compiling of information about comics of the past. Schelly focuses on the period he calls comicdom's Golden Age: from the birth of Alter Ego in 1961 through the discontinuation of Star-Studded Comics in 1972. His informative and authoritative text, fully footnoted and with a complete index, is accompanied by a plethora of rare art from the old fanzines, by the likes of Dave Stevens, Jeffrey Jones, Steve Ditko, R. Crumb, Vaughn Bode, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, Bernie Wrightson and more. Nominated for an Eisner award.
"A Wonderful Book!" -- Stan Lee
"Insanely well-researched!" -- The Comics Journal
"Accurate and entertainingly anecdotal. Devotees of the field of comic collecting: You've got to have this." -- Maggie Thompson, Comics Buyer's Guide
Sample Chapter: "The Birth of Alter Ego"
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The Eye Collection--50% OFF!
144 pages - $8.00
By Bill Schelly, Ron Frenz, Joe Rubinstein & Company
The Eye is back in a big way in this 148-page collection gathering all his new adventures by Roy Thomas, Bill Schelly, Bill Black and Dick Giordano, including the Heroes Vs. Hitler comic book complete. Leading off the book is the all-new 26-page "Untold Origin of The Eye!" with fabulous art by Frenz and Rubinstein, followed by "Mr. Monster meets The Eye" by Michael T. Gilbert! Also included is the new strip "Injury to The Eye!" where The Eye squares off against the crazed psychiatrist known as the Psycho-Shrink, a complete Hero History of the Ocular Operative by Schelly, plus bonus art by Terry Beatty, Batton Lash, Fred Fredericks, Grass Green and more. Also: A classic tale of the Underworld Executioner by his creator Biljo White from the Golden Age of Comic Fandom. Makes a perfect introduction to The Eye, and a superb collection that his long-time fans won’t want to miss!
Soft cover trade paperback book.
Sample Chapter: "Inside The Eye"
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Xal-Kor, The Human Cat
100 pages - NOW $7.00!
By Grass Green, Angel Gabriele, Ron Fontes
[No longer available from TwoMorrows Publishing.]
Grass Green's classic character returns, awakened from suspended animation to find arch-energy Queen Roda and her rat legions on the brink of conquering Earth. Is there time for even Xal-Kor--the intrepid soldier from the cat-planet Felis--to stop Roda from turning Earth into a slave planet? This new comic story features inks by Angel Gabriele and Ron Fontes; introductory remarks by Roy Thomas and Jeff Gelb; background on the Xal-Kor series by editor Bill Schelly to get new readers "up to speed"! This is the last work Grass Green did before his untimely passing on August 5th, 2002. All profits will go to his wife Janice.
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 Sold Out!
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Comic Fandom Reader--Sold Out!
224 pages - $19.95
Compiled and edited by Bill Schelly
Comic Fandom Reader is really FIVE books in one:
Book 1: BEST OF THE CLASSIC FANZINES
By popular demand, we are reprinting some of the best articles, text features and stories from the incredibly rare comics fanzines of the 1960s and 1970s. Included are "Re-Birth" by Dick Lupoff, "I Remember Comic Books" by Jim Harmon, "The Education of Victor Fox!" by Richard Kyle, "When Hawkhood was in Flower!" by Derrill Rothermich and Roy Thomas, "The Big Parade" by Tom Fagan, "Model T to T-Bird" by Russ Manning and more. Represented fanzines are Comic Art, Batmania, Alter Ego and Xero, among others.
Book 2: BEST OF SENSE OF WONDER
A "companion" to Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom from TwoMorrows Publishing, this section reprints some of the best features from Bill Schelly’s fanzine of the 1960s and 1970s. Includes "Eisner: A Man and His Work" by Raymond Miller and Thomas Fisher, "1968 Scarp Con Report" by Dave Bibby (with tons of photos), "Heisenberg Alley" re-drawn from Schelly’s original by Mike Worley, plus "The Immortal Corpse" by Dick Trageser, and a new piece called "The Sense of Wonder Story" by Bill. Accompanied by art by Landon Chesney, Don Newton, Alan Hanley, more.
Book 3: THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN AGE OF COMIC FANDOM INTERVIEWS
While researching The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, Bill interviewed many old-time comics fans, but was only able to include a few brief quotes in the actual book. Here are the best interviews complete with new art and photos: Jerry Bails, Richard Lupoff, Bill Thailing, David Kaler, Bill DuBay and Marty Arbunich together, and more.
Book 4: RONN FOSS RETROSPECTIVE
Features the only substantial interview legendary fandom artist Ronn Foss gave-a long and revealing one-conducted by Schelly for the out-of-print Ronn Foss Retrospective (1992). Lots of rare, little seen Foss art and photos accompany it.
Book 5: FANZINE INDEX (1947-1975)
A listing by year of every fanzine in Bill’s "Comic Fandom Archive", including all the EC fanzines of the 1950s, and nearly all of the best and most collectible comics zines of the era. An invaluable tool for all indexers and lovers of the great fanzines from comicdom’s formative years. Accompanied by cover repros of fanmags that haven’t appeared in other Hamster books.
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Giant Labors of Love
112 pages - $12.00
Compiled and edited by Bill Schelly
Giant Labors of Love features eleven strips (complete) that I feel are the best of the ones done for ditto fanzines. Art and stories by Ronn Foss (Dimension Man, The Viper), Biljo White (The Eye, The Lion), Grass Green (Speed Marvel, the Defender), plus Buddy Saunders, Richard Buckler, Howard Keltner and more. Reprints "The O’Brian Gang Freak Out!!!" from Comique #8 (1972), the best of the two O’Brian Gang strips by Schelly.
These are fascinating artifacts of the earliest days of fandom, yet so skillfully done that you will marvel at the talents of these pioneers in amateur publishing. If you were to try to find the fanzines that contained these wonderful strips, they would cost you hundreds of dollars. But Bill has brought them all together for your enjoyment. Don't miss this very special book. Limited Edition.
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Alter Ego: Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine
--Sold Out!
192 pages - $20.00
Edited by Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly
Introductions by Julius Schwartz & Jerry Bails
The best of Alter Ego, the legendary publication that Comic Book Marketplace deems "one of the most important fanzines in hobby history" is still available--though copies are in short supply. Features ground-breaking articles on Golden and Silver Age comics heroes by Jerry Bails, Roy Thomas, Ronn Foss and a host of others, as well as art, humor & more by Otto Binder, C. C. Beck, and many more, plus fabulous artwork done in the 1960s and 1970s especially for Alter Ego by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantino, John Buscema, Gil Kane, Russ Manning, Curt Swan and Wally Wood. Over 50 photographs, 125 illustrations, and 3 complete comic strips. Fully annotated by editors Thomas and Schelly, including special features that had been intended for the fanzine in the 1960s and 1970s but never saw print. Put together with loving care by Thomas and Schelly.
"The history of the American comic book began in the pages of Alter Ego. It was the first, the best and the most important fan magazine ever done on the costumed super-heroes."
-- Mike Benton, comic book historian and author of The Comic Book in America
"Alter Ego was the first publication to recognize the importance of studying the history of the super-hero genre … and its relationship to American pop culture."
-- Peter Sanderson, author of Marvel Universe
"Alter Ego remains one of the most important fanzines in hobby history."
-- Comic Book Marketplace
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Fandom's Finest Comics, Vol. 1
256 pages - was $17.95, reduced to $12.00
Compiled and edited by Bill Schelly
For the first time, an anthology that collects the best "lost comic strips" from the fabulous comics fanzines of the 1960's and 1970's. It contains never-before-reprinted work by R. Crumb, Jerry Ordway, Wendy Pini, Jeffrey Jones, Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas, Dave Cockrum, Jim Shooter, John Byrne and more. Includes 21 complete strips, a spectacular graphic story adaptation from Burrough's Jungle Tales of Tarzan, photos of the creators, work by fan favorites, and an introduction annotating each strip.
Praise for FANDOM’S FINEST COMICS from Hamster Press:
"Fandom’s Finest is a treasure chest full of historical firsts that shouldn’t be missed.
I loved it!" --Michael Allred, X-Statics, Madman
"Bill Schelly has assembled a wonderful Wayback Machine to a time when great comics inspired impassioned young writers and artists to tackle the art form on their own. I was bowled over by the sheer explosion of talent between its covers. This is a book to treasure - a splendidly-produced volume!" -- Mark Evanier, Comics Buyer’s Guide
"Quite magnificent! Fandom’s Finest Comics is a tremendous amount of fun. I can’t compliment you highly enough!" -- Gary Carlson, Big Bang Comics (Image)
"The new book is fantastic, really unbelievable. I wish we could be publishing this."
-- Patrick Lozito, Pocket Books
"It’s 3:45 a.m. but I’ve just got to tell you how tremendously impressed I am with Fandom’s Finest, which came today from Westfield. I honestly didn’t believe it could look or be that good. You did a super-professional job with the loving touch of a fan. Your annotation is perfect. This is a work every true comics fan must have!"
-- Jerry Bails, comics fandom founder
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Fandom's Finest Comics, Vol. 2--Sold Out!
Published at $14.95
Compiled and edited by Bill Schelly
This is the second collection of the best amateur comic strips from the classic fanzines. Some of our readers felt this was an even better group of strips than the first one. For example, it presents the complete adaptation of Eando Binder's "Adam Link's Vengeance" by Bill Spicer and D. Bruce Berry, "Call It Karma" by Frank Miller, an adaptation of Robert E. Howard's "Gods of the North" by Larry Herndon, Steve Kelez and Alan Hutchinson, "The Demon of the Dark Glass" by Martin Greim and Dan Adkins, "The Prize -- America!" by Jim Starlin and Howard Keltner (a fantastic super hero strip that had somehow never been published!), plus really fine material by Grass Green, Biljo White, Ronn Foss, and a host of others. This book didn't sell as well as we anticipated, probably because some folks felt they didn't need "more of the same." But this volume has a different focus than the first one, with lots of excellent yet early work by writers and artists who went on to become very successful in pro comics. Plus there are special profiles of Biljo White, Bill Black and Grass Green. No collection of Hamster Press books is complete without it!
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The Argosy Price Guide - First Historical Edition
$6.00
Published by Quasar Comics
Introduction by Bill Schelly
If you think the first comic book price guide was published by Robert Overstreet in 1970, think again. That honor belongs to The Argosy Price Guide, which was produced by two young fans named Michael Cohen and Tom Horsky in 1965, at the behest of the owners of the Argosy Book Store in Hollywood, California. Bruce Edwards of Quasar Comics produced this nifty little historical edition when an original (exceedingly rare) sold for almost $200 in one of his auctions. There's no getting around the fact that this is an oddity, but with the special introduction by Schelly, and an article about the genesis of the guide by its authors, it's a nicely-produced piece of fan history that preserves what will always be a footnote in comicdom's collective past.
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The Golden Age of Comic Fandom
1st Edition - SOLD OUT!
By Bill Schelly
Introduction by Roy Thomas
A small number of copies of the first edition of Golden Age were discovered in the Hamster warehouse not too long ago, and are now being made available as an HP fundraiser. We've seen these offered for triple the price on the Internet, though we couldn't in all good conscience go that high. Still, it's an important piece of our history, and it was nominated for an Eisner award.... so, while they last, this is your opportunity to see what most consider Schelly's most important book in its earlier form. These won't last long.
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PLUS A NON-COMICS-RELATED BOOK:
Come With Me
165 pages - $9.95
By Bill Schelly
Here's something completely different: a novel I wrote as a teenager, and revised after the publication of Harry Langdon in 1982 for the Young Adult Market. It was inspired by true events in my life, when I ran away from home at 16. In the book, the main character doesn't return home when I did, but instead goes on a series of adventures, both amorous and humorous. While age-appropriate for teen readers, with a strong anti-drug message, adults who have read it have found it engaging and maybe you will too. For those "Bill Schelly completists" (there are a few of them!) ... this is an important adjunct to your collection. It was produced as a Limited Edition trade paperback book from Hamster Press, but has never been made available until now. |
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