There is a persistent misconception among many people that the 1970s in West Germany were a great time to be young.
A country on the move under a cloud of hash, people in bell bottoms and mini skirts – and every week David Bowie or the Sex Pistols come to the concert. In reality, the decade was excruciatingly boring for children and young people.
A “Magazine for Boys”
Especially in small towns. Only three TV programs, one of which was shut down for the holidays. The telephone had a rotary dial and was often shared between siblings. But once a week a motley world came into the house in DIN A4 format, in which real guys traveled through time, cavalry fought against angry Sioux and pilots saved precious atomic bombs from pimply super villains: It was called “Zack” – a lively comic Magazine that hasn’t existed here before. 50 years ago, on April 13, 1972, the self-declared “magazine for boys” was published for the first time.
Even the cover picture was a promise of happiness every week. Under the dynamic “Zack” logo racing cars raced, jet planes thundered or astronauts drove in a moon car. Be it the daredevil racing driver Michel Vaillant, the weather-beaten sailor Andy Morgan or the melancholy cowboy Blueberry: “Zack” offered outstanding European comics the first big stage – drawn with images like from a feature film and mostly with captivating dramaturgy. Many of these series would be called graphic novels today. The trick: at the climax, the story was postponed to the following week. Sequel follows. There was space for a good half dozen comic formats on 50 pages.
“With the takeover of many top-class series, especially from France and Belgium, ‘Zack’ opened the window to a comic world that was largely unknown in Germany at the time,” says comics expert Andreas C. Knigge half a century later. Back then, booklets “based on recipes from the day before yesterday” dominated the market. “‘Zack’ presented itself as a large-format magazine with a bouquet of different topics from Western to science fiction.” The new and fresh appealed to the younger generation. The “young generation” were the baby boomers born up to 1970.
Beginning of comic modernism in Germany
In addition to bone-hard hero stories, “Zack” also offered the funny Lucky Luke or the time travelers Valerian and Laureline. There was a story from the legendary “Tintin and Struppi” series. And they drew the TV series “Enterprise” into the paper. The 1972 Olympics were explained on special pages. “Zack” marks the beginning of a comic modern age in Germany, says Knigge. “Most of the series are still around, now in album form or as collector’s editions.” 50 years after the first issue, “Zack” is still appearing, monthly and in a smaller edition – but still, according to Knigge. What could better illustrate the enormous impact of the once legendary magazine?
“In 1972, the magazine was a high-quality alternative to the market leaders “Micky Maus” and “Fix & Foxi”, which tended to appeal to younger readers,” says today’s publisher Georg FW Tempel (Blattgold) in retrospect. “Zack” was intended for male readers over ten years of age. “This concentrated load of Franco-Belgian adventure comics has never existed in German-speaking countries.”
But the old “Zack” also attached great importance to reader loyalty and a certain bourgeois smear. Nerdy letters to the editor were answered on the last page. Markus from Lienz wanted to know: “Which Indian tribe first introduced scalping?” (Epic answer summarized: It was not the natives, but the whites.) Hermann from Leutkirch was interested in the inventor of the cannon (The short version: It was the French Colonel Charles Valérand Ragon de Bange.). Another big topic on the last page: records. Like “The American President Nixon drives the most expensive car.”
Well, it wasn’t just for Nixon that things got more uncomfortable. “Zack” had long published francophone heroes of the 1960s. Finding new stories with class became harder by the late 1970s. In 1980 Koralle Verlag discontinued the magazine after 291 issues.
Fashion has changed, and the editors have tried to hire their own illustrators too late, observers say today. “The concept had had its day, also in other European countries,” says Knigge. In 1999, the scene cheered the revival, and “Zack” was published by Mosaik in Berlin until autumn 2020, before the Blattgold editorial office in Bad Dürkheim took over the magazine. The people from the Palatinate are celebrating the anniversary with a 100-page edition and a limited box.
Today we are a long way from the 450,000 copies of the first issue, according to Tempel. “The circulation is around 8,000 copies. It is primarily read by today’s older boys who discovered their love for the magazine between 1972 and 1980. But there are also younger ones.”
In order for Zack to have a future, the magazine must retain its mixture of a pinch of nostalgia in the form of well-known comic series and great new content, says publisher Tempel. At the same time, the new should not be too modern or avant-garde, but must follow certain visual and content-related rules. “I’m in good spirits that we’ll be celebrating our next milestone birthday in ten years.” (dpa)