Bill Spicer

Who is Bill Spicer?

Bill Spicer is an editor and publisher who spearheaded the 1960s movement away from commercial comics, opening the gateway to underground, alternative and independent comics, notably with his publication Graphic Story Magazine.

Born in Los Angeles, Spicer began reading science fiction fanzines in 1951-52. He learned professional lettering techniques while working at an ad agency from 1955 to 1967, and he became a letterer with Western Publishing in 1967. Three years earlier, he had entered the publishing arena himself after placing a want ad in a fanzine seeking contributors. After responses from artist Landon Chesney and others, he launched a 500-copy offset print run of Fantasy Illustrated #1 displaying a cover by Chesney and graphic stories in a variety of genres. This included an adaptation of Eando Binder's 1940s pulp novella "Adam Link's Vengeance", illustrated by D. Bruce Berry, which won the Best Fan Comic Strip award in the 1964 Alley Awards. With the third issue, an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "The End of Bukawai" by Spicer and Harry Habblitz also won an Alley Award.