FACTORS UNKNOWN #2
1972 Comic Art Fanzine
This is one of the rarest and most desirable fanzines of the early Bronze Age,
FACTORS UNKNOWN #2 -
featuring the very first comic art of GEORGE PEREZ!
Published in 1972, FACTORS UNKNOWN #2 is a delightful example of the wonderful fanzines that colored the landscape of the late Silver Age and early Bronze Age of comic books. Published and edited by fans James Glenn and Pat O’Neill thirty years ago, it features a great mix of contents by top comic book professionals and devoted comic book fans. It starts off with a spectacular original front cover by comic book giant NEAL ADAMS, providing a vibrant depiction of Doc Savage. Further pro work on the interior includes a GIL KANE sketch of Captain Mar-Vell on the inside front cover, and an unpublished page from Marvel’s Doctor Strange #171 by TOM PALMER on the inside back cover. Editors O’Neill and Glenn, along with fellow fans Thomas Sciacca, John Morrow, Bob Keenan, and Ed Manley, provide several original character comic strips, including “The Symbiod”, “Mission: 500 Fathoms”, and “Hey Leon!” Pretty nice line-up so far, yes?
Well, the topper is yet to come: This volume contains the FIRST PUBLISHED COMIC ART of the legendary GEORGE PEREZ! That’s right, the wildly popular, highly influential artist of The Avengers, New Teen Titans, JLA, Wonder Woman, Crisis On Infinite Earths, and so much more began his career in these very pages. Not only does this zine pre-date all of PEREZ’s professional work: PEREZ has verified (in Focus On George Perez and elsewhere) that this is his very first published fanzine work anywhere! And it is extremely impressive work, full of youthful energy and vigor but also packed with PEREZ’s uniquely vivid detail and dynamics.
FACTORS UNKNOWN #2 contains 20 pages of all-original GEORGE PEREZ comics storytelling! This is not merely a couple of pin-ups or spot illos - this is 20 pages of sequential art, written and illustrated by PEREZ himself! These strips star George’s creations “The Death Squad”, a team of hard-hitting super-powered characters with a sharp, adult-oriented edge. The art is sensual, strikingly designed, and wildly expressive, and the storytelling masterfully demonstrates the themes of characterization, action, and inter-personal relations that mark PEREZ’s work to this day. Thoroughly captivating and exceptionally exciting, this rare treasure will surely thrill any fan or scholar of PEREZ’s career! (Also note: In addition to these 20 pages written and illustrated by him, PEREZ provides the back cover art to this issue - see second scan below -
and John Sciacca’s pencils on “Mission: 500 Fathoms" are inked by PEREZ.)
FACTORS UNKNOWN #2 was published in 1972. It is 44 pages in length, measures 5.5” and 8.5”, and is printed in B&W with some color on the cover. With a stated PRINT RUN of only 250 copies, it is an EXTREMELY RARE, OBSCURE, HARD-TO-FIND FANZINE. It is in absolutely OUTSTANDING condition for its thirty-years age. There is some light scuffing and general wear to the covers due to age, and one interior page is a bit creased, but the interior pages are uniformly white and clean. It is tight, flat, solid and complete - there are NO rips, tears, missing pieces, or loose pages whatsoever!
FACTORS UNKNOWN #3 BACK COVER (1972), art by George Pérez, scan from 
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:25:11 CST
