Axe Elf

First, get a million dollars...

If they've been read, they probably wouldn't grade high enough to be affected by a date stamp.

EERIE 1972 Annual - August 1971 (This is one of my most recently-upgraded books--so recent I haven't even posted it as an upgrade in my own thread yet! I obtained it as kind of a throw-in among three also-as-yet-unposted CREEPY upgrades purchased from a forum member a few weeks back.) According to the Warren Magazine Index... 3. cover: John Pederson (1971) 1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Golem! [Tom Sutton] 1p [frontis] reprinted from Eerie #27 (May 1970) 2) Fair Exchange [Archie Goodwin/Neal Adams] 8p reprinted from Eerie #9 (May 1967) 3) Deep Ruby! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 6p reprinted from Eerie #6 (Nov. 1966) 4) Spiders Are Revolting! [Bill Warren/Tom Sutton] 9p reprinted from Eerie #26 (Mar. 1970) 5) In Close Pursuit [Gordon Matthews/Jerry Grandenetti] 8p reprinted from Eerie #30 (Nov. 1970) 6) …Nor Custom, Stale… [Johnny Craig] 8p reprinted from Eerie #12 (Nov. 1967) 7) The Monument [Archie Goodwin/Alex Toth] 6p reprinted from Eerie #3 (May 1966) 8) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Number 13 [Bill Parente/Tony Tallarico] 1p reprinted from Eerie #16 (July 1968) 9) Fly! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 6p reprinted from Eerie #7 (Jan. 1967) Notes: Final issue. James Warren was listed as editor & J. R. Cochran was managing editor. $.75 for 64 pages. From this point on the annual was incorporated into Eerie’s regular numbering. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We went from one of the worst Warren covers of all time to one of the best (at least among the annuals), giving readers a clever glimpse inside the Warren studios. The cover artist's name doesn't ring a bell, though; have we seen him before? We've seen the rest of the work before, of course, and it will be nice to see some of the forefathers like Ditko and Adams again--but with more than half of the material coming from EERIE's first 10 issues, this issue has the same problem that the CREEPY 1972 Annual had--we've seen some of these stories reprinted more than once now. I won't say too much here, since I probably won't have much to say in my weekly book report, either--and even less if I start here!

The Album and The Magazine on The Book.

Hardcover is out of my league, but my $41 softcover looks pretty good in a bag (just don't take it out to inspect the back cover).

First world problems.

I haven't done this in a while, but this week, instead of re-commenting on the stories re-printed in the actual CREEPY 1972 Annual (yawn), I thought I would present the collection of stories that I would have reprinted if I were publishing the best pieces from the past year's 6 issues--CREEPY #35 through CREEPY #40. I can appreciate them wanting to go back to the first few issues for a sense of nostalgia--but at the same time, enough is enough. To avoid all the multi-multi-re-re-prints, I think every Annual should be limited to the material published since the previous Annual. Or maybe mostly from the past year, with a "classic" story thrown in to acknowledge their roots. And I guess we're still going to get Annuals; they just won't be called "Annuals"--but we'll still get an all-reprint issue every year, is that the way it works from now on? Anyway, if I was publishing the CREEPY 1972 Annual, I would start by reprinting Jim Warren's "Anti-War Editorial" from CREEPY #35 as the frontispiece again. It probably deserved to be said at least annually. And then the stories... 1. "Where Satan Dwells" (Al Hewetson/Sal Trapani) from CREEPY #39. I love the Uncle Creepy origin story in "Monster Rally" (which was printed in the actual CREEPY 1972 Annual), but even though we haven't seen it in almost 20 issues, I agree--3 reprints is enough; time to move on. Thus, I have "the further adventures of Uncle Creepy" leading off this year's retrospective (in his "comfy sweater"). In-joke frivolity aside, I would then hammer home the anti-war point of the opening editorial with a barrage of war-related stories fit for Blazing Combat: 2. "Army of the Walking Dead" (R. Michael Rosen/Syd Shores) from CREEPY #35. The anti-war editorial and this supernatural war story appeared in the same issue the first time around, but bringing it closer to the front of the issue helps connect it to the mood set by the editorial. It would probably be even more effective to run the war trilogy first, but our host deserves the lead-off dibs (as he did when the story was first published). 3. "The Fade-Away Walk" (Donald F. McGregor/Tom Sutton) from CREEPY #40. Human nature ultimately interacts with itself to determine the consequences of mindless war versus human compassion. @Jayman testified to the impact of this piece with his 7-year-old self's memory of the iconic setting of the epic climactic sequence--almost a "Planet of the Apes" moment (a movie which had been released three years earlier). 4. "On the Wings of a Bird" (T. Casey Brennan/Jerry Grandenetti) from CREEPY #36. This is the only one of the stories actually printed in the CREEPY 1972 Annual that I agree needs to be included. And while it's not strictly a "war story," the statue of the soldier and the despair of loneliness harken back to the sort of sole survivor scenario we were given at the end of "The Fade-Away Walk." It also serves the purpose of acknowledging Grandenetti in the Annual, although this isn't really his best work. (At all.) Still, there are some stories I would include for their art alone; this one I would include for its script alone. This would be a good place to draw a conceptual line under the war trilogy with the first of my two selected "Loathsome Lore" reprints, "I Was Buried Alive" (Tom Sutton) from CREEPY #37. 5. "Secret of the Haunted Room" (Bill Warren/Ernie Colon) from CREEPY #38. I would then make up to readers for Grandenetti's artistic "indiscretions" by slapping them with the best artistic story of the past six issues. I raved about it back when we first read this issue, and it's still amazing. This one really blurred the lines between fantasy and reality. 6. "Harvest of Horror" (Phil Seuling/Frank Brunner) from CREEPY #39. As the only story in which we've been treated to a multiple-choice ending, this fun piece deserves a place in my Annual--and Brunner's art isn't a disappointment, either! 7. "Godslayer" (Bill Stillwell) from CREEPY #35. The high-contrast art was the highlight here as well, being reminiscent of medieval woodcuttings in places--which tends to complement the heroic fantasy subject matter. 8. "Dual Dragon" (Gary Kaufman) from CREEPY #40. Kaufman's eastern-flavored solo piece also featured high-contrast art as the yin-yang subtext to the "duality" inherent in the concept. Here I would insert kind of an extended "Fan Club" feature, reprinting "The Annual Warren Awards" from CREEPY #40, a reprint of the "Artist Biography" of Ken Barr from CREEPY #35, and a new "Puzzling Monsters" feature similar to the one in CREEPY #39, but with a list of the artists provided to match with the sketches, so you don't have to pull their names out of your head. 9. "Death of the Wizard" (Pat Boyette) from CREEPY #39. For the amount of work he has done over the past year, it feels like we need a Pat Boyette story in the Annual, and this was one of his best. I was at first a little put off by the ending, but upon learning that being turned into a tree is actually one of the traditional fates of Merlin, I can live with it--and it's so meticulously drawn, as is Boyette's custom. 10. "Frozen Beauty" (Richard Corben) from CREEPY #36. How could I not include Corben's debut? How could Warren not have included Corben's debut?? I guess I have the advantage of historical perspective now to correct that oversight. And it fits right in here in the witches and wizards section. Time for the second of my "Loathsome Lore" reprints, "The Body Snatchers Who Stole A Giant" (Tom Sutton) from CREEPY #36. Both of my selected Lores crammed a lot of information--and art--into a single page and deserve further recognition for Warren Award winner Tom Sutton. 11. "The Cosmic All" (Wally Wood) from CREEPY #38. It's maybe not his best piece for Warren over the past year, but it's his best piece for CREEPY, and it leaves readers with something to think about, which is good for a penultimate story. 12. "The Cut-Throat Cat Blues" (T. Casey Brennan/Ernie Colon) from CREEPY #37. As the only artist other than Tom Sutton that I have featured more than once in my version of the CREEPY 1972 Annual, I would publish Ernie Colon's second story exactly the way it was published the first time around--ending on the inside of the back cover in color. As the first use of color in a Warren magazine, it deserves to be commemorated in the Annual. So there you have it--likely the biggest issue in Warren history so far, maybe a 96-pager!--but no, I just can't narrow it down any more than that. Sorry... And oh yeah, I'm using a different mask on the cover, too. There's your nostalgia for ya... (promoted to the front cover of my CREEPY 1972 Annual from the back cover of CREEPY #6).

Isn't that what he's doing here?

Relisted today at $2999... I may have to get me a backup set. (j/k)

The "Large Spine Split" is probably a major culprit here: 2.0 GOOD (GD): Back to Top Shows substantial wear; often considered a "reading copy." Cover shows significant wear and may even be detached. Cover reflectivity is low and in some cases completely absent. Book-length creases and dimples may be present. Rounded corners are more common. Moderate soiling, staining, discoloration and foxing may be present. The largest piece allowed missing from the front or back cover is usually a 1/2" triangle or a 1/4" square, although some Silver Age books such as 1960s Marvels have had the price corner box clipped from the top left front cover and may be considered Good if they would otherwise have graded higher. Tape and other forms of amateur repair are common in Silver Age and older books. Spine roll is likely. May have up to a 2" spine split. Staples may be degraded, replaced or missing. Moderate staple tears and stress lines may be present, as well as rust migration. Paper is brown but not brittle. Centerfold may be loose or detached. Moderate interior tears may be present.

That's pretty hilarious. If the grade improves on more than 50% of the resubmissions of an untouched comic, that means that CGC's grades are incorrect (compared to their own grades at a different time) at least half the time!

No, I get it... I hadn't thought about how many times some of these had been reprinted. I LIKE a couple of them, but yeah, 3 and 4 times around is a little much, given the depth of the pool. I'm just glad I don't have to be the cranky one this week!

Heh, good catch! Yeah, the number of three- and four-peats is kind of lazy. I kind of wish they had featured a wider variety of artists. So tell us how you really feel!

CREEPY 1972 Annual - August 1971 According to the Warren Magazine Index... 5. cover: photo of a rubber Zombie mask (1971) 1) Uncle Creepy’s Welcome [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 1p [frontis] reprinted from Creepy #2 (Apr. 1965) 2) No Fair! [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 6p reprinted from Creepy #22 (Aug. 1968) 3) Spawn Of The Cat People [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 6p reprinted from Creepy #2 (Apr. 1965) 4) On The Wings Of A Bird [T. Casey Brennan/Jerry Grandenetti] 7p reprinted from Creepy #36 (Nov. 1970) 5) Tough Customers! [R. Michael Rosen/Tom Sutton] 6p reprinted from Creepy #35 (Sept. 1970) 6) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Body Snatchers Who Stole A Giant! [Tom Sutton] 1p reprinted from Creepy #36 (Nov. 1970) 7) Pursuit Of The Vampire! [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 6p reprinted from Creepy #1 (Jan. 1965) 8) The Judge’s House! [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 8p from the story by Bram Stoker, reprinted from Creepy #5 (Oct. 1965) 9) Grub! [Nicola Cuti/Tom Sutton] 6p reprinted from Creepy #28 (Aug. 1969) 10) Monster Rally! [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 8p reprinted from Creepy #4 (Aug. 1965) Notes: James Warren was listed as editor while J. R. Cochran was listed as the managing editor. The Creepy Spooktacular 1972 Annual. $.75 for 64 pages. Final issue. Following this issue the annual was incorporated into Creepy’s regular numbering. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before officially kicking off the first collection of reprints we've seen in quite some time, I'd like to point out that we are approaching a few dates of significance to both myself and the Reading Club as a whole. We have now read 40 CREEPYs, 34 EERIEs, 12 VAMPIRELLAs, 4 Blazing Combats, and 6 Yearbook/Annuals. This first and last full round of Annuals for all three current titles will thus be our 97th, 98th, and 99th books read in the Warren Magazine Reading Club--making CREEPY #41 our 100th book! And if I make it to our 101st book, EERIE #35, well, that issue kicks off on my 61st birthday, which also happens to fall on Easter this year (for only the third time in my life). The last time my birthday fell on Easter was my 50th birthday, and it was the day that I convinced the Beatrice, NE police department to break into the hotel room of an incoherently drunk, nearly naked woman whom I was meeting for the first time, and to release her into my custody for transport across state lines... but that should probly go in the Men's Magazines thread. ANYWAY... The editing team of Warren and Cochran really hopped into the Wayback Machine for this final "official" CREEPY Annual, drawing stories from 4 of the first 5 issues, including one of my all-time favorites, Uncle Creepy's origin story ("Monster Rally") and an appearance by my treasured Crandall rats ("The Judge's House"). The other half of the material was drawn from the most recent 20 issues, so on paper, this should be a pretty solid mix of CREEPY's offerings to date--although Sutton, Torres, and Crandall hog 9 of the 10 art credits. Hopefully the EERIE and VAMPIRELLA Annuals will feature some of the other giants from their pages.

I don't know what has changed when, but just applying the math... If you consider the height of a comic book constant at 10.25 inches... The decrease in width from 7.75 inches to 7.25 inches would result in a decrease of approximately 6.45% in the total surface area of each wrap. (10.25 x 14.5) / (10.25 x 15.5) 148.625 / 158.875 = 0.93548 93.55% Shaving an additional .375 off of the width would result in a similar calculation... 10.25 x 13.75 = 140.9375 ...resulting in an additional decrease of approximately 5.17% in the total surface area of each wrap... 140.9375 / 148.625 = 0.94828 94.83% ...and a total decrease of approximately 11.29% in the total surface area of each wrap from the original width. 140.9375 / 158.875 = 0.88710 88.71% Assuming costs per square inch are constant (and they would be for paper, maybe not as much for ink), one could assume the costs would be similarly decreased.

You could probably find someone who would be willing to crack it out and scuff it for you.

It's like when you're bragging about how many women you've slept with, and then Wilt Chamberlain walks into the room.

See, that's interesting to me, because @AJD posted a comment on the VAMPIRELLA #9 cover in my Gallery to the effect that he thought the line art on the cover looked like Wally Wood's work, and sure enough, it was--so that led me to believe that THAT was Wood's traditional, recognizable style. And "To Kill a God" is a quite different style. But in any case, I thought it was pretty cool that @AJD recognized Wood from a previously unseen work. And I love learning all this stuff.

I think you're in that 5.5-6.0 ballpark too, but there are enough tears and color-breaking damage that I don't think a clean and press would improve the grade much, if any.

Does that mean that this piece is more like "typical" Wood art than the other pieces we've seen in the Club so far? My pool of experience with him is pretty much limited to those works.

I assume that the cover was commissioned after the Vampirella story was written, so what @Jayman said about artistic composition is true--but the wings are also depicted upward like that in the story itself, from various angles, so it's not purely about composition; the demon just has upward-facing wings. I don't think at this point Sanjulian had much of a reputation--given that they call him "San Julian" on the "Contents" page (in amongst a litany of giants in the field), so he probably just followed Gonzales' lead for the concept of the demon. If it IS a demon. The twist of "Death's Dark Angel" harkened back to "Death Plane" in EERIE #1/CREEPY #8, where the soul of whoever is shot down by the Death Plane becomes its pilot until he shoots down another to take his place. And so this "demon" Skaar, not important enough to be included in the Crimson Chronicles, but still a vessel of the power of Chaos down through the ages, turns out not to really be a demon at all, but more of a "Dread Pirate Roberts" demon that is actually just the soul of our villain's father, at the moment, until he finds another soul blacker than his own to take his place--his son's soul. It's a twist that is at the same time satisfying--the father and son connection--and ridiculous--at what point did the "demon" become just a series of successively blacker human souls? But the Jose Gonzales art! My perception is not skewed by his future work, since I'm not really familiar with it, but I was pretty dazzled by his work here. If it's only going to get better, we must be in for some real treats! I could hardly get past studying the opening splash page, but virtually every page made me stop reading and just admire at some point. I can understand the Index's description of the art as "scratchy," but I thought it worked pretty well in terms of the demon, making its features somewhat indistinct (which would explain why the villain didn't recognize his father) as if it was blurry even in real life or something. Despite the strange nature of the demon's identity, I really enjoyed this piece a lot--it was engaging to read and I love the Gonzales art--and I'm REALLY looking forward to more of the same in future issues. I'm glad to hear Gonzales pretty much has the gig to himself for a while now. And it's also interesting how they introduced the notion that Drakulonnes are "non-infecting" vampires (so that Vampirella doesn't go leaving a whole new generation of Drakulonnes in her wake), as part of the plot twist in this story! "Amazonia and the Eye of Ozirios" was just as gorgeous to look at, with Graham's extensive shadings and contrasts taking center stage in a story that was ok, but definitely overshadowed by the art. It's a little bittersweet that this is the last appearance of a short-lived running character, but on the other hand, she almost didn't seem like a running character--all of her stories could stand alone with a different heroine in each, if necessary--and I'm a little glad that her spoofy sword name of "Excalifer" is being retired. That always seemed too satirical for the mood. The relative simplicity of Jeff Jones' art for "Quest" stands in stark contrast to Graham's art preceding it, and while Jones has a beautiful style, the piece is really more text-based than art-based. It's definitely a unique change of pace, and I can appreciate it as such, but the whole thing seems a little lazy to me--a 7 page story with 2 panels per page is really just a 14-panel story--and further, Jones' style uses a lot of white (and black) space, so it's kind of a sparsely-drawn 14-panel story to boot. I don't mean that as a blanket condemnation, or as any condemnation at all, really; it's fine as it is. I just wouldn't want to see a lot of pieces like this, as it's kind of a departure from the familiar Warren norm. Finally, we have Wally Wood's "To Kill a God." I wouldn't have guessed this was Wood's art, as it doesn't seem all that similar to his last couple of (master) pieces to my eye--but it's still pretty robust. In that sense, it also stands in contrast to Jones' more simplistic art before it, with each page of Wood's work exploding with action and detail, while Jones can make a single flower in a white field captivating. Tacking the story onto the Antony and Cleopatra legend was kind of clever, but moving them to Transylvania on top of it was kind of unnecessary. After all, they supposedly became werewolves, and Transylvania is more vampire country. Maybe they should have moved to London. After those four expressions of artistic genius, it's kind of anticlimactic to talk about the minor features, but Brunner's work for the "Vampi's Feary Tales" about sirens fits right in with the high level of art in this issue, managing to cram three hotties and some fairly extensive text all into a single frontispiece. "Vampi's Flames" brought us the first piece of fan fiction to be continued in a future issue. On the plus side, the continued story is actually kind of worth waiting for--it's one of the better-written fan submissions I can remember (at least so far). And I guess one of the fan art contributions is supposed to be pedo-Vampi? The most interesting of "Vampi's Scarlet Letters" was sent in by the winner of the first "Miss Vampire Contest" reported in a previous issue. Another letter was ABOUT a contestant, outing her as a "real" witch. I'm not sure what he meant by that, because he referred to it as the "old" religion, and most "witches" these days are really Wiccans--but Wicca began in the 1950s, so it really wasn't that "old" in 1971. I'm curious which tradition he meant, if not Wicca. And then of course there was the reprint of the "Warren Awards," but I don't have much more to say about that, other than to wonder if they will ever get around to reprinting it in EERIE, too. So this was just a massively over-the-top strong issue for me in terms of the artwork, and maybe even a little above average in scripting and execution (not too many errors). Oh, and boobs. Lots of boobs. It seems like Warren is really starting to push the limits of their exemption from the Comics Code in that regard. We've had a few issues with some suggestiveness and limited nudity before, but there was a LOT of full-on detailed boobage in this issue, which is only one of the many reasons I could look through this one over and over. Mainly, it's really gotten me excited for the upcoming Gonzales installments of the Vampirella saga! And then there were liberal hints of a new fan contest coming in Vampirella #13...

I guess that's the same Steranko that did the cover to EERIE #25, but man, I never would have guessed they were the same artist--at all!

Right? It's so frustrating. It wouldn't have been that hard to just shuffle them around a little and stick closer to the splash page format for the Monster Galleries and a more narrative style for the Feary Tales and Loathsome Lores. I believe he is the only artist to be featured in the Vampirella Special Edition, right? I don't really have much experience with him, so I can go into his debut pretty unskewed--looking forward to it!

VAMPIRELLA #12 - July 1971 According to the Warren Magazine Index... 12. cover: Manuel Sanjulian (July 1971) 1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: The Sirens! [Frank Brunner] 1p [frontis] 2) Vampirella: Death’s Dark Angel [Archie Goodwin/Jose Gonzalez] 20p 3) Amazonia And The Eye Of Ozirios! [Gardner Fox/Billy Graham] 8p 4) The Quest [Jeff Jones] 7p 5) Annual Warren Awards At The New York Comicon… [Martin Greim/Ernie Colon] 2p [text article] reprinted from Comic Crusader #10 (1970) 6) Vampi’s Flames: Join Me!/The Leaking Bath Tub! [David Reiffal & Carl Daigrepont, Jr./J. Haney, Maria Hearley, Hollis Williams, Carlos Federici, James King & Brian Bunick] 2p [text poem/story] 7) To Kill A God! [Wally Wood] 8p Notes: Editor: Billy Graham. The Spanish invasion began. Jose Gonzalez debuted on Vampirella, and while he was immediately praised, this effort was only so-so, with somewhat scratchy looking art and mediocre storytelling abilities. Same goes for the accompanying cover by Sanjulian. Nice work from Jeff Jones but the real prize here was Wally Wood’s ‘To Kill A God!’ Just superb work! Gardner Fox’s character, Amazonia, made her final appearance. Carlos Federici was a professional artist from South America, stuck side by side with amateur American artists on the fan page. Future comic artist Brian Bunick debuted his work on the fan page. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, just after I commented on how prolific the Warren stable had been lately, we only get four new feature stories this time around. Given that one is the 20-page debut for Jose Gonzalez as he joins Sanjulian in triggering the Spanish invasion, one is a new Amazonia story drawn by new editor Billy Graham, and the other two are new solo pieces by Jeff Jones and Wally Wood, I don't think we will be too disappointed, "scratchy looking art" notwithstanding! I wonder why they reprinted the Warren Awards from CREEPY #40 here, but didn't reprint them in EERIE #34?

The trilogy laid open on a 5' x 3.5' dining room table, with the two CREEPYs pictured in the Frazetta book for scale.