Welcome back to another episode of Fabulous Finds! This month I’ll be taking a look at Fantagor Number one, dated 1970, from Fatagor Press, with distribution from Last Gasp/Pentagram Press.
Basically, this is a fanzine, but it could also be considered an underground comic, as it was distributed by Last Gasp. It’s pretty much all Richard Corben, with a little help from his friends. Doing a bit more research on this fanzine/comic, I find the that original printing was definitely self published by Corben, and that my copy is the second printing that Last Gasp which was published later in the same year of 1970.
First up is the full color cover drawn by Corben, featuring his character; Razar. Take a look: Okay, due to some technical difficulties on my part, check below for the cover to this fanzine/underground comic.
The insides are made up of four (4) stories in glorious black and white. The first is; “Twilight Of The Dogs”, written and drawn by Corben. It runs ten (10) pages.
Next up is a story featuring the cover character entitled; “Razar The Unhero”. This story is eight (8) pages. The story takes place in the Land of the Blue Lilux and Corben even provides a one (1) page map following the story. The story is by Starr Armitage, possibly an alias for Corben himself and the art is by Corben.
The third story is; “The Devil In The Well”. It is written, again by, Starr Armitage, but this time the art is by Herb Arnold. This story runs nine (9) pages.
And finally, the last story is; “Inna Pit”, written and drawn by Corben again. This one only runs four (4) pages.
There are additional full page Corben artwork on both the front and back inside pages and the back cover is also drawn by Corben and presented in full color.
Here’s those covers, as promised:
All in all, a pretty good first issue. The series itself, actually only lasted three (3) issues. The stories aren’t bad and the art is early Corben, but still extremely well done. My only complaint is that the black and white printing in my copy is a little dark and muddy in some places.
