When I was 14 years old, I started a comic book fanzine. With an original cover of Cerebus the Aardvark by Dave Sim on the cover of issue #1, I was already more interested in independent comic producers than Marvel and DC. In fact, I was more interested in zines than comics I think. I co-edited four issues of Gratis with Scott Hutchison, now a high-powered lawyer, though I haven't been in touch with him in over 30 years. I think they all came out in 1978, and then I went on to science-fiction zines and something called amateur press alliances. By 1981 I was putting out punk/new wave fanzines, and getting interested in small press poetry and other forms of DIY publishing. 37 years later, I'm still fascinated by small press publishing and continue to be personally involved in that world. Just a reminder that it always starts with rock and roll for me: it was KISS that led to Howard the Duck that led to comic zines, then to science-fiction zines, then punk/new wave zines, then small press poetry, then everything that I'm doing in my life today. I'll return to this theme over the next 494 entries.
