Career
Bill Spicer began work at an ad agency in 1955. With the agency, he learned professional lettering skills. In 1964 he began publishing a fanzine that was initially called
Fantasy Illustrated, but was retitled
Graphic Story Magazine after eight issues. He wrote for this fanzine, and also adapted stories from other media for it, which he was particularly talented at, notably with his first story
Adam Link's Vengeance. In 1965 he wrote
The Guidebook to Comics Fandom, which provided one of the first standard grading systems for comic book quality. He finally left the ad agency in 1967, and was able to use his lettering skills to obtain work as a letterer with
Western Publishing. He worked for Western for the next fifteen years, and during this period also did lettering work with
Another Rainbow,
Dark Horse, and
Fantagraphics. In 1971 he started the Los Angeles Comic Book Company along with friends Michael Moore and Fred Walker to produce their indie comics. This effort was short-lived, however, only ever producing four issues, one each of four different titles. Soon after, in 1974, he ceased publication of
Graphic Story Magazine. It was followed in 1977 with
Fanfare, a short-lived publication that departed somewhat from the mould of
Graphic Story Magazine in its pop cultural orientation, though still featured comic-related content. In the 1980s he lettered two newspaper comic strips,
Conan the Barbarian and
Rick O'Shay. Beginning in the late 1980s he began lettering manga for
Viz. He continued with this until 2005.
Personal Life
Bill Spicer was born and raised in
Los Angeles in 1937. His work has won two Alley Awards in 1964 and 1965, an Inkpot Award in 1979 and the American Association of Comicbook Collectors Fandom Service Award in 2000.
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