The Kanlon Kronicles
In the Beginning:
Robert Kanlon was created in the summer of 1975 by then sixteen-year-old writer Alan Rodgers and “fleshed out” by then twenty-year-old illustrator William Moriaty (pen name: “Wil Mor”).
His introduction was in Rodgers’ third and final edition of the locally produced Tampa, Florida fanzine, "period" in December 1975. The first offering was called "Heavy Concepts". The premise of the story was that of Kanlon, an African-American aerospace engineer with clairvoyant powers, who is, out of a crew of 533 passengers on board the spacecraft “Void One”, one of two to survive the crash of the craft on a planet in the Altair star system.
Moriaty was so enamored of the potential story lines for Kanlon, that once "period" closed its doors after Issue #3, and Rodgers packed up his gear and headed to San Diego, California in the summer of 1976, he scripted and drew four Kanlon tales which comprise these Kronikles.
“Heavy Concepts Part II” was the first such entry in February 1976, followed by “The Celestial River” in March 1976, the two part tale “Stygian Lake” in June 1976, and ending with “The Storm” in August, 1976.
...But This Was Not Yet the End of the Kanlon Saga.
In the summer of 1977, Moriaty collaborated with best friend and Tampa Times newspaper illustrator Denis Lebrun to merge Lebrun’s cartoon-like characters from his daily Times comic strip “Aw Heck!” with Moriaty’s “Kanlon” characters. The result was the story “Go To Heck!” which appeared in the Summer 1978, Issue #2 edition of “Advent”, a fanzine by Tampa-based writer and current PCR columnist Vincent Blesi. The wrap-around red cover of the issue featured artwork from the story.
...It Ended Here.
Due to Lebrun entering into a contract with communications magnate Rupert Murdoch to syndicate his “Aw Heck” comic strip in the June 1978, the final chapter of the “Aw Heck”-“Kanlon” collaboration was put on indefinite hold, as Lebrun could not use the characters as long as the contract was in force.
Syndication of the strip never transpired and grudgingly Lebrun helped Moriaty finish off the final chapter titled “To Heck and Back!” before Lebrun’s relocating to the state of Vermont in 1981. This final story appeared in the Fall 1981 first and only edition of Moriaty’s own Clearwater, Florida based fanzine “Zeta 1 Reticuli”.
Lebrun gave up on his “Aw Heck" creation a few years prior to 1981, but by 1982 found himself being offered a position by Dean Young to provide lettering and background illustration work for the world famous King features Syndicate comic strip, “Blondie”. Twenty-two years later and over a quarter of a century after Lebrun’s forays with the “Aw Heck”-“Kanlon” collaborations, Lebrun is now the head artist of “Blondie”.
“Kanlon”, on the other hand did not persist beyond 1981. Hopefully these Kronicles will give readers an insight into some of what the Tampa Bay areas fanzine script and art consisted of in the pen and ink days of the mid-1970s to early 1980s (the work being so archaic that Moriaty did most of the illustrations you are about to read on the back of WWBA Radio stationary. Moriaty worked at the St. Petersburg, Florida based radio station in the fall of 1973 as an art director).