Getting the Word Out : Spazz magazine’s eclectic mix of comic art and liberal commentary is gaining readers.

It was late one spring night, two days before deadline, when the creators of the San Fernando Valley-based free fanzine Spazz began to sputter.

The floor of their one-bedroom Van Nuys apartment was covered in two-months worth of paper. Paste-up boards, with the final version of the self-published magazine’s anniversary issue layout, were propped up against each of their walls. The bulk of the magazine’s content, comic strips from hopeful artists throughout Southern California, was strewn onto every available tabletop. And the two computers whirred, awaiting their next entry.

Paula Hess and Brandon Phillips had a choice.

Stay with the only moderately satisfying mix of music reviews, comics and political commentary they had chosen over their two-month production period. Or, for the issue celebrating their unlikely survival into a second year--and expansion from two paid ads in the first issue to more than 10 pages of ads in this 12th issue--rip apart the entire 40-page layout to include a late submission by Sanyika Shakur, a.k.a. “Monster” Kody Scott, author of “Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member.”

They voted to rip. “He had a lot to say,” Hess said.

So in those late hours when the line between “late night” and “early morning” are hopelessly blurred, and with their day jobs only a few hours away, Hess sat at one computer typing in Shakur’s essay on the “New Afrikan Independence Movement,” and Phillips started figuring out how to fit it in.

And it was worth it, they agreed.

“Just the fact that we made it to a year was enough,” Phillips said. “We stuck it out until people noticed us and responded to us.”

Spazz began in April, 1993, with a computer and Hess and Phillips, who are engaged to be married.

Phillips, 33, a graphic designer and longtime comic fan, and Hess, 32, a journalist, had long wanted to put out their own magazine. Like other, although mostly younger, people riding the fanzine wave, the two took advantage of the ease of desktop publishing and the appetite of teen-agers and twentysomethings for alternative media.

Their idea was to have the bulk of the book be comics, and the rest of it filled with record reviews and political-type commentary. And unlike even most of the other home-produced fanzines, theirs would be free.

The two put up ads around Cal State Northridge and at various comic book stores seeking art submissions and hit up a few friends for music reviews. And they canvassed the Valley and rest of Los Angeles for possible advertisers, although all but two wanted proof of staying power before they took out ads. Phillips did the production, Hess the commentary.

“We wanted to do something close to our hearts and something no one else is doing--there are plenty of comic books but they all cost money,” Phillips said. “Spazz isn’t supporting us, but it definitely feels good to control our own project and to put things in print that we think are important.”

Important to them is an eclectic mix of liberal commentary and offbeat art. The non-glossy pamphlet, with covers of brightly colored writing over black-and-white photos, is crammed full of comic strips, book reviews, interviews with local bands and articles on everything from legalizing marijuana to O. J. Simpson to racism.

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The cover of the anniversary issue is classic Spazz. Intended to portray the absurdity of leaf blowers, it features a picture of Phillips with a blower strapped to his back, his face obscured, on a rock in the Santa Susanna Pass. Giant whirlpooling swirls were added later via computer to the area above where Phillips stands; the name “Spazz” and teasers about articles inside, are written in a scrawling, red, handwriting-like type.

“What’s the point of blowing trash all over?” Phillips asked, by way of explaining the image. “So we wanted to take a blower where it didn’t belong, like a park.” With non-traditional typeface and layout, avant-garde photo illustrations and often sexually explicit comics, Spazz is undoubtedly unpalatable to some.

But it is appealing to about 10,000 others who pick up copies in greater Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley (where Hess and Phillips mail copies directly to record stores and cafes), and New York City (where Phillips has his brother deliver copies). When another friend moves to Chicago, the pair hope to have him deliver copies there too.

And although the two had expected to take two years to break even, they began turning a profit with their anniversary issue.

Eventually, Hess would like to put out a different kind of magazine. She envisions trading in the Spazztic style for a glossy cross between the Nation, Spin and Heavy Metal.

And until then?

“We don’t know,” Phillips said. “But stick around.”

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WHERE TO GO:

Subscriptions: Spazz, P.O. Box 754, Reseda, CA 91337.

Price: Six issues, $12.

Also available: Odds & Sods Records, 7033 Reseda Blvd., Reseda; Iguana Cafe 10943 Camarillo St., North Hollywood; Lion’s Lair, 22013 Sherman Way, Canoga Park.

Call: (818) 385-0151.