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Rare early British fanzine Orpheus, featuring work by Ian Gibson, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse rediscovered

By John Freeman on June 15, 2025

One of the rarest British comic fanzines, Orpheus #2, published in 1973, featuring early work by Ian Gibson, Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse, has just been added to the indispensable FANSCENE online archive.

*Orpheus #2 by Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse, Spring, 1973, with an uncredited cover assumed to be by Ian Gibson by FANSCENE curator David Hathaway-Price*

“The first issue of Orpheus came about as a continuation of Aspect, whose first two issues, had been published by Steve Moore,” FANSCENE curator David Hathaway-Price notes.

(The late Steve Moore’s many credits cover a huge range of works, his first professional work appearing in POW! comic, and included strips for 2000AD, Doctor Who Weekly, Warrior, and many other titles. He passed in 2014).

“Steve Parkhouse, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bob Rickard had been thinking about producing a zine called Orpheus, and they joined forces with Steve Moore to publish #1 (a well printed and presented zine, notable amongst other things, for featuring ‘Paradox Man/Tales of Hyperborea’, by BWS).

“In the second part of his wonderful interview with Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Steve Moore talked about the almost mythical issue 2, which was printed in Spring 1973. However, because Steve Parkhouse and Barry weren’t happy with it, it was never released. The printing and paper aren’t as high quality as with the first issue, so perhaps that was the reason?

“Anyway… here it is. I try not to over egg the pudding, but this is the rarest fanzine I’ve ever been able to add to the FANSCENE archive.”

*Sample pages from the rare British comics fanzine, Orpheus #2, published in 1973*

“In a short chat I had a few years ago with Ian Gibson, he told me that he hadn’t seen the artwork since he had sent it off,” David continues, “and I don’t think a copy of the zine, or the artwork itself, is held in the Steve Moore archive (curated by Alan Moore). Ian didn’t have a copy of the zine himself, and I’ve never seen a copy other than this in over 12 years of archiving. I doubt that this strip work of Ian has been seen by more than a handful of people, in over 50 years.

Orpheus #2 also features “Metamorphosis”, by Steve Moore and Phil Bevan, and “Thong”, by Steve’s Moore and Parkhouse.

FANSCENE is an online, read-only archive of British comic fanzines, published across the last 50 years, including, with the permission of their original editors, titles such as BEM, Comic Media News, Fantasy Trader, Infinity, Speakeasy, and many more. It even includes incredibly rare digital editions of very early zines such as Ka-Pow, published by Phil Clarke and Steve Moore, back in 1967/68.

• You can read Orpheus #2 in full (plus Aspect #1, #2 and Orpheus #1) here on FANSCENE

Head downthetubes for these other gems…

• Strange Attractor: Steve Moore 1949 – 2014

The Hermit of Shooters Hill Interview with Pádraig Ó Méalóid – published on The Beat

• The Hermit of Shooters Hill – An Interview with Steve Moore, Part 1 – published in 2014

• The Hermit of Shooters Hill – An Interview with Steve Moore, Part 2

• The Hermit of Shooters Hill – An Interview with Steve Moore, Part 3

• The Hermit of Shooters Hill – An Interview with Steve Moore, Part 4

• The Hermit of Shooters Hill – An Interview with Steve Moore, Part 5

• The Hermit of Shooters Hill – An Interview with Steve Moore, Part 6

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.