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Cliff Biggers is an American comic book writer and journalist. His first published writing appeared in fanzines in the mid-1960s. He was a founding member of the amateur press alliance (APA) Myriad and was active in the Southern Fandom Press Alliance, a southeastern-based science fiction amateur press association. He was also involved in Galaxy, CAPA-Alpha, Apa-5, and other amateur press alliances. [1] [2]
Biggers' first professional writing was done for Jim Steranko's Mediascene magazine in 1972; he worked intermittently for Steranko for two years. At the same time, he and his wife Susan H. Biggers co-edited and published the science fiction review magazine Future Retrospective. He and Susan Biggers received the 1977 Rebel Award for outstanding Southern science fiction fan achievement for their work with Future Retrospective.
Biggers was a founding member of the Atlanta Science Fiction Club (ASFiC) in 1977. He wrote and edited Atarantes, the ASFiC publication, until 1982, when he cut back his involvement in Atlanta science fiction.
In 1982, Biggers became a co-owner of a comic shop, Dr. No's, for which he began writing a newsletter, The Doctor Knows. That newsletter grew into Comic Shop News , a publication he co-launched with Ward Batty in the spring of 1987. CSN grew to become the largest-circulation weekly in the comic book industry, and still continues as a weekly publication. Biggers also wrote dozens of articles for Krause Publications' Comics Buyer's Guide in the 1980s and 1990s, and acted as their primary price guide adviser for many of those years. Biggers also created and wrote the comic book After Apocalypse, which featured the first published artwork of Mark Bagley (who would later go on to illustrate The Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man ) and Dave Johnson.
In the 1990s, he co-wrote Earth Boys with Brett Brooks; the series was illustrated by co-creator Dave Johnson. The recurring comic book story was featured in several issues of Dark Horse Comics' Dark Horse Presents . He and Brett Brooks also co-wrote the final three issues of I-Bots, the Tekno Comics series based on a concept by Isaac Asimov. In those issues, they introduced the Corp-Bots, a group of characters who were scheduled to appear in their own adventures until Tekno abruptly ceased publishing.
Biggers remains the primary writer for Comic Shop News and is a frequent contributor (with a featured column appearing at least monthly) to the Newsarama website.
A fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and first popularized within science fiction fandom, and from there the term was adopted by other communities.
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices, differentiating fandom-affiliated people from those with only a casual interest.
Rowrbrazzle is an Amateur Press Association magazine devoted to funny animal cartoon illustration.
Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics. Fox was also a science fiction author and wrote many novels and short stories.
James F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
An amateur press association (APA) is a group of people who produce individual pages or zines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.
Chandler: Red Tide is a 1976 illustrated novel, an early form of graphic novel, by writer-artist Jim Steranko.
Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books. He is best known as the co-creator of Supergirl and for his many scripts for Captain Marvel Adventures and other stories involving the entire superhero Marvel Family. He was prolific in the comic book field and is credited with writing over 4,400 stories across a variety of publishers under his own name, as well as more than 160 stories under the pen-name Eando Binder.
Maggie Thompson, is an American longtime editor of the now-defunct comic book industry news magazine Comics Buyer's Guide, science fiction fan, and collector of comics.
Wayne MacDonald, known by his pen name Taral Wayne, is one of Canada's best known science fiction fan artists, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist eleven times, from 1987 to 2012. In October 2008 he received the annual Rotsler Award. In recognition of his contributions to science fiction fandom, particularly Canadian fandom, Taral was named Fan Guest of Honour by the 2009 Worldcon, Anticipation.
The Alley Award was an American annual series of comic book fan awards, first presented in 1962 for comics published in 1961. Officially organized under the aegis of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences, the award shared close ties with the fanzine Alter Ego magazine. The Alley is the first known comic book fan award.
Tower of Shadows is a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published by the American company Marvel Comics under this and a subsequent name from 1969 to 1975. It featured work by writer-artists Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig, and Wally Wood, writer-editor Stan Lee, and artists John Buscema, Gene Colan, Tom Sutton, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson.
Jerry Gwin Bails was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom," he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primary force in establishing 1960s comics fandom.
Supernatural Thrillers was an American horror fiction comic book published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s that adapted classic stories of that genre, including works by Robert Louis Stevenson and H. G. Wells, before becoming a vehicle for a supernatural action series starring an original character, the Living Mummy.
William Carl Schelly was an Eisner Award-winning author who chronicled the history of comic books and comic book fandom, and wrote biographies of comic book creators, including Otto Binder, L.B. Cole, Joe Kubert, Harvey Kurtzman, John Stanley, and James Warren as well as silent film comedian Harry Langdon.
David Anthony Kraft was an American comic book writer, publisher, and critic. He was primarily known for his long-running journal of interviews and criticism, Comics Interview, as well as for work for Marvel Comics in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Tom and Mary Bierbaum are an American husband-and-wife writing team, known for their work on the DC comic book Legion of Super-Heroes.
Chris "C. J." Henderson was an American writer of horror, hardboiled crime fiction and comic books, known for such works as the Piers Knight and Teddy London series. His comics work includes books for Marvel Comics and Valiant Comics.
The Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF) was a multigenre convention generally held annually in Detroit from 1965 to 1977. It is credited for being one of the first comic book conventions in the United States. The Triple Fan Fair also gave balanced coverage to historic film showings and science fiction literature, in a manner that provided a template for many future convention organizers — most of which have yet to attain the same level of equal service to this sort of linked fan base.
Rocket's Blast Comicollector (RBCC) was a comics advertising fanzine published from 1964 to 1983. The result of a merger with a similar publication, RBCC's purpose was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book collections. It also proved to be a launching pad for aspiring comic book creators, many of whom corresponded and exchanged their work through RBCC, and published work in the fanzine as amateurs.