With the exception of convention sketches, Fantucchio rarely sold his original artwork outright. He preferred to trade artwork for golden age/silver age comics, and that is exactly how Charles Oliver (a collector who lived near Fantucchio's Arlington VA home) originally obtained this piece. The illustration uses mixed media, including spray paint, and was like painted in the mid to late 70's.

For more on the fantastic fanzine art of John G. Fantucchio, see my tribute website at http://www.fantucchio.com.

About John G. Fantucchio

That signature. Autographed on each illustration. It was a work of art in itself. When I first saw it, I couldn’t read it … it was completely cryptic. Fans used to joke that his eccentric signature was more detailed and took longer to draw than his paintings.

Yet nothing could be more distinctive than John G. Fantucchio’s (with the “G” as he preferred) fanzine artwork of the 1960’s and early 70’s. Instantly recognizable and utterly unique, his unmistakable style added a huge measure of professionalism and sophistication to those comic fanzines of yesteryear. His exception sense of design, spectacular inking ability, use of zip-a-tone, typography … all these elements combined into something unforgettable.

Ultimately, Fantucchio simply became too busy and was forced to take a breather from fandom. John founded his own commercial art business, MTTS Studio, and in 1973 established the Fantucchio School of Art, which was very successful and ran classes two nights a week plus one on Saturday. And John still was working full-time at his day job! And what a day job. Unbeknownst to fandom at the time, John was working as an illustrator for the Central Intelligence Agency. That's right, the CIA! He was an illustrator/art director, and he worked there from 1963 until 1988.

Many comic fans only remember Fantucchio as the artist of the iconic and oft-reprinted cover of The Buyer's Guide for Comic's Fandom (TBG) #1. Yet he was a prolific contributor to the top fanzines of the day, including Rocket's Blast Comicollector (RBCC), Fantastic Fanzine, Sense of Wonder and Comic Crusader. Between 1964 and 1975, he contributed artwork to over 170 separate fandom publications!

Up until his death on August 4th 2016 at age 78, John Guy Fantucchio worked from his studio, constantly challenging himself to explore new artistic horizons. His work was executed from a wide variety of media on various surfaces. It consisted of realistically rendered portraits, paintings and murals; comic book oriented illustrations and pen & ink drawings; or even three dimensional abstracts. This gallery room will focus on John's fandom artwork and paintings from the 1960's through early 70's.