Amateur publications were a major creative outlet for me between
1984 and 1997. These ranged from the conventional format to APAs.
Don't knock the amateur press. It's where artists and writers
hone their skills. It's also where professional artists and
writers can kick back and do what they want (to the delight or
chagrin of others). Outputting a barrage of parodies during the
first half of the 90's allowed me to fine tune my embellishment
techniques enough to land an assortment of assignment with
various comic book publishers.
I became a writer by default, when procrastinating contributors
of my Zine in the mid-1980s required me to fill the gaps under a
pseudonym. Before then, I was very bad with words, and relied on
my art to communicate with precision.
The APA - or Amateur Press Alliance - has been around since the
late 19th century. Its format is distinguished by the fact that
each participant is responsible for printing up their
contribution. Everyone's zine copies are sent to an elected
Central Mailer who collates them into volumes and sents the
compilations back to the membership. There are APAs geared toward
a variety of subjects. My focus of course was on comic book
related APAs, often drawing a comic parody to include with
written reviews.
My first APA membership was with something called "Thwack!" which
came and went fairly quickly. Marvel Zombie Society (MZS) and
Capa Alpha (K-a) were pursued contiguously. K-a is reputed for
being the oldest comic book APA. It spawned several industry
professionals, and boasts of several in its membership to this
day. (psst: it's all overrated)
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