Marvel Zombie Society

One of the best things about the Golden Age of comic book fandom (1960s) was the fanzines.  They now fetch hundreds of dollars on EBay because of their low print runs and nostalgia factor.

But print fanzines didn't end with the 1960s.  In fact, there were probably more printed in the 1970s than in the 60s and there were of a much higher quality than those ditto zines.  Even with the Internet, there are still printed fanzines.  Ditkomania is one I still get.

In that era just before the World Wide Web, I belonged to one which was one of the better ones, The Marvel Zombie Society.

 Marvel Zombie Monthly #18 (December 1989) [Marvel Zombie Society]

The monthly newsletter was a little different than most as it was a cross between a typical fanzine and an (Amateur Press Association) APA.  It had an extensive feedback (or comment) section.

The more than 6 pages of comments on previous articles, reviews, and previous comments was almost half this 15 page issue.  That was pretty typical.  If you added Readers Replies to the monthly poll, this was a chatty group.

 There wasn't much art in the issues, as this issue only had a graph I included in an article I wrote for the issue.

But that chattiness is what made this group of fans special.  It became a tight group that even went to the San Diego Comicon together a few years latter.  Not surprisingly, there were several well known letterhacks and a few others who became industry professionals like myself and Charles Novinskie.

By this time a year later, it had become the MZS-APA and that is when it really became a tight group.  That's when we went to San Diego Comicon and had a lot of fun.  The membership remained at 30 people even though members came and went.  We even had some artists who went on to do some work for Marvel & DC.

Doing a little Internet search, I discovered it is still hanging on, but there was something about a farewell issue.  So it may be on its last legs.  Something like 270 issues or so.  Has a Facebook page if you are interested.  Not bad for a zine that started in 1988.   No DC Deviants need apply.