Monday 20 March 2017

1985: SPEAKEASY FANZINE ISSUE 55

From September 1985: SPEAKEASY, the UK comics fanzine, issue 55.

I have, somewhat to my surprise, a long run of this 'zine stuffed into various boxes.  But ths is the earliest one that I have in my (obviously very incomplete) collection.  Back issues don't generally seem to come to light very often, especially compared with some of the higher profile 1970s and '80s titles like FANTASY ADVERTISER.  I imagine this is everything to do with how widely these were sold in comic book stores rather than via Marts and Mail Order.


It evolved, over the next few years, into the leading British news title for comicbookdom, even going tabloid for a while to emphasise its news credentials.  It then switched back to a magazine format, initially still on crappy newsprint, before settling down as a glossy mag.

It then went all professionals and became BLAST magazine, riding the coat tails of the brief boom in 'mature' comics early in the next decade.  Copies of that incarnation can still be found, without too much trouble, stuffed into dealer's mag boxes across the land.

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