The Rocket's Blast

Rocket's Blast Comicollector

Cover of The Rocket's Blast and the Comicollector #29 (April 1964), the first issue of the merged publication. Art by Don Fowler (a.k.a. Buddy Saunders).
Editor	The Comicollector: Jerry Bails (1961–1962), Ronn Foss (1962–1964); The Rocket's Blast: G. B. Love (1961–1964); RBCC: G. B. Love (1964–1974), James Van Hise (1974–c. 1982; 2002–2003)
Categories	comic book advertising, art, strips, news, reviews, and criticism
Frequency	monthly
Publisher	G. B. Love (1964–1974) James Van Hise (1974–c. 1982, 2002–2003)
Total circulation (Dec. 1979)	3,300
First issue	Apr. 1964
Final issue — Number	1983 153
Company	S.F.C.A.
Country	United States
Language	English

Rocket's Blast Comicollector (RBCC) was a comics advertising fanzine published from 1964 to 1983. The result of a merger with a similar publication, RBCC's purpose was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book collections. It also proved to be a launching pad for aspiring comic book creators, many of whom corresponded and exchanged their work through RBCC, and published work in the fanzine as amateurs.

RBCC featured fan-generated art, original articles, and advertisements from comic book fans and dealers. Debuting in the pre-direct market era (before the proliferation of comics retailers), RBCC was one of the first and largest forums for buying and selling comics through the mail — often, the only way for fans to acquire back issues was through advertisements in RBCC. And, as ComicSource wrote, "RBCC was also an educational forum, with rich articles devoted to comics and creators long absent from the newsstands, such as EC Comics."

Inspired in part by the science-fiction fanzine/"adzine" The Fantasy Collector, in 1961, Jerry Bails, "the father of comics fandom," created The Comicollector as "a publication devoted primarily to the field" rather than the occasional advertisements of comics for sale that appeared in The Fantasy Collector. After publishing The Comicollector for a year, Bails passed it on to Ronn Foss.

Meanwhile, Miami-based comics and science fiction enthusiast G. B. Love had formed the Science Fiction and Comics Association (S.F.C.A.) and begun publishing his own fanzine, The Rocket's Blast (also debuting in 1961). In 1964 The Comicollector and The Rocket's Blast merged to form The Rocket's Blast and the Comicollector. The first issue of the new publication was #29 (continuing the numbering of The Rocket's Blast) and dated April 1964. (By about issue #50 [1966], the fanzine had shortened its title to Rocket's Blast Comicollector, and often just referred to itself as RBCC.)

Cartoonist Grass Green was an early and frequent contributor to RBCC, as was Buddy Saunders (later proprietor of the Lone Star Comics chain of comic book retailers), and Raymond L. Miller. Contributing writers during this era included science fiction author Howard Waldrop.