Attempting to find a new direction for narrative art and a point of departure from commercial comic book stories, this journal of criticism and artwork evolved from Spicer's previous magazine, Fantasy Illustrated.

Gary Groth, editor-publisher of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, wrote in 2009, By the late 1960s, Graphic Story Magazine evolved into the most literate “fanzine.” I remember thinking, at the time, that GSM looked like it was put together by grown-ups, whereas most fanzines, mine included, were cobbled together by my peers — precocious but essentially clueless high school kids.

GSM pioneered long, probing interviews ... which was mostly a matter of asking intelligently conceived questions — or at least of avoiding the usual cretinous fanboy idolatry that wasted so many opportunities.

As writer and historian Steven Grant describes the magazine's roots: Out in California, Bill Spicer created a truly wonderful fanzine with no specific orientation, Fantasy Illustrated, that had as much in common with the nascent underground comics as with the mainstream.

The final issue, #16 (Summer 1974), included "The Wishing World" by Mark Evanier and John Pound, "Routine" by George Metzger, a story by Bob Powell (Colorama) and Bhob Stewart's interview with artist Howard Nostrand (later reprinted in The Comics Journal).