In the words of Roy Orbison, I’m lonely and blue on a rainy, cold day in April, when it should be warm and sunny! But it brighten up my day, and hopefully yours, here is this week’s Fabulous Find. Lately I’ve been digging into my fanzine collection and so I’ve unearthed a nice fanzine for this week’s find; Anomaly # 2, dated 1970. This fine publication was the brainchild of writer, Jan Strnad.
It features a wonderful wrap-around cover by Robert Kline. Here is the front:
Anomaly # 2 front cover from 1970
And since I told you that it was a wrap-around cover I darn well better show the reverse side as well, so here you go:
Anomaly # 2 back cover
Certainly one of the coolest fanzine covers of the day. I don’t even think adding color could have made it any better! Kline really outdid himself on this one. The fanzine weighs in at forty-four (44) pages. It has a really nice illustrated table of contents on the inside of the front cover and the fanzine jumps right in with a seven (7) page story entitled; “Sands of Quanam, written by Stanley Waiter, with wonderful illustrations by Richard Corben.
Next up is the one page editorial by Strnad. Following this is a strip entitled; “The Masked Lizard” by the legendary Vaughn Bode. This one also runs seven (7) pages.
As we near the center of the fanzine we get a Robert E Howard inspired portfolio by Robert Kline. This is labeled as part two, so I’m guessing that part one was in the first issue, which unfortunately I do not own. This one features Conan the barbarian. It runs six (6) pages, with the last two spanning the centerfold, with a lovely illustration based on “The Queen of the Black Coast” from the Conan fiction series.
Following this art portfolio is three (3) pages of letters reacting to the first issue. Next is another text story, entitled; “The Gnome written by Strnad with illustrations by Ken Meaux. This is a short three (3) pages.
Next up is ten (10) page barbarian strip entitled; The Magic Sphere”, which features Gorvan the Adventurer. It is written and drawn by Robert Kline. It’s a pretty professional story with great art. Very enjoyable!
And finally things wrap up with a two (2) page prevue section where Strnad discusses the upcoming third issue of Anomaly and other stuff of similar ilk. Which brings us to the inside of the back cover and it sports a full page Bernie Wrightson barbarian pen and ink drawing.
A very nice fanzine for only 75 cents in 1970. I certainly got my monies worth when I bought this one!
Greg:
Fine article on Anomaly #2. One note: the first story was written by Stanley Wiater,
not Waiter. I know this because I’ve read a couple of his books. Dark Dreamers, interviews
with horror writers, and Dark Visions, interviews with horror directors. He also wrote the
Complete Stephen King Universe, so he’s quite well known.
Ron
Thanks Ron, for the correction and update. I was unfamiliar with this author! It’s always great to expand ones knowledge base! Thanks for the support, as well.