45 years after Fershid Bharucha's Flights into Fantasy, a deep dive into Richard Corben's early career is finally coming to light.
A comprehensive journey through Richard Corben's early career. Featuring rare or unpublished material, as well as raw scans of original art. More than 300 pages of images, story excerpts, back stories, historic letters, and interviews with early publishers.
The third chapter is dedicated to Rudi Franke's fanzine, Voice of Comicdom. Voice of Comicdom featured "Monsters Rule," the very first Corben story to be published, in 1968. Issues 16 and 17 saw the publication of Corben's early masterpiece Rowlf.
We were able to reach out to Rudi in 2021; he very kindly opened his archives and gave a great interview about his beginnings in fandom and working with Richard Corben. Rudi provided the "Smoking Orc" illustration, which was initially intended to be published alongside Corben's interview in Voice of Comicdom 16. It was eventually discarded and will now be published for the first time in Corben Legacy —having since become the icon of the project!
Rudi also talks about "Field Battle", the painting he commissioned from Corben, and "Star Beat", for which he published the first two pages in his legendary The 13th Floor.
This book will unveil many unpublished works unknown to even hardcore Corben fans, as well as numerous scans of rare early pieces.
Since the beginning of this project five years ago, our Master of Archives Luc has supplied dozens of high-quality scans. This book would not exist without his invaluable collections and sharp expertise. Mike Shields, Richard Corben's long-time friend and occasional collaborator, has offered incredible help with his deep knowledge and top-level English proofreading. The Angoulême exhibition was also a great source of material, thanks to curator Frédéric Manzano. Other major contributors include collectors such as Frédéric George, Santiago Segura, and John Kelly. Early fanzine editors have shared their memories and archives, including Dennis Cunningham and Bill Leach (Weirdom), Rudi Franke(Voice of Comicdom), Mark Frank (Photon), Rod Heather (Lore), John Ellis (RBCC), as well as Corben's long-time friend and collaborator Jan Strnad (Anomaly). Corben Library Art Director José Villarrubia and Writer Stanley Wiater have blessed this book with stunning raw scans of art. The deeply missed Robert R. Barrett has also been a strong support and an amazing source of backstories since the very beginning of this project.
Last but not least, the Corben Estate has contributed several remarkable pieces including many college works unknown to this day.
