Axe Elf

Once again, the "Monster Gallery" is more of a Loathsome Lore/Feary Tales kind of thing than a monster per se, but thanks to @OtherEric for linking to the background information from which this piece was embellished; it made the whole thing more interesting. "Dear Cousin Eerie" was largely unremarkable this issue, other than a lot of the letter writers seemed a little dim--complaining that the werewolves were drawn with fangs on both their top and bottom jaws (when regular wolves clearly have both upper and lower fangs), and not knowing what the "cube" was that the teenagers ate in "The Drop" back in EERIE #31 (it was LSD, duh). Cousin Eerie replied to one letter complaining about how stupid "Ice World" was in EERIE #32, with it's little universe taking place inside a freezer, noting that Shakespeare had written, "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." That may be true of heaven and earth, but I'm not sure it is true of the kitchen refrigerator. "EERIE Fan Fare" featured a nice encore illustration from a previously-published fan, and a competent drawing from an enlisted private whose letter requesting information on breaking into the art world was published on the letters pages. The fan fiction, however, was as dumb as ever. And I really hate it when @OtherEric has a lot of praise for a story that fell flat for me, because I don't want to feel like I'm arguing with him, but the lead-off story, "Parting is Such Sweet Horror," is one such story. Sutton's art was as good as ever, but it felt like we were just dropped into the final chapter of a story that needed more set-up than what we got through the story itself. It wasn't really clear why one twin killed the other, just that it was over "money." The psychic connection they shared wasn't explained very well either, or why it needed to be severed for the living couple to receive the money. There's no explanation for why the "house" was more like a spiderweb of claustrophobic tunnels, instead of the normal rooms, doors, hallways and windows. And no particular reason given for the murdered twin to have turned into a tub of sentient acid jelly. It was just kind of a bizarre little tale that probably would have been more engaging if it was twice as long and explained better--at least that's how it struck me. I enjoyed "Eye of the Cyclops" more, especially as it turned out to be tied to the original Ulysses epic. Upon learning the twist, I went back and noted that Brocal had been careful to draw the eye always staring straight ahead, so it fits the "glass eye" description in that sense, but I'm not sure that "seeing" through the little monkey pet really explains things like the cyclops' ability to punch the boulder that was falling on him to smithereens; it seems like that kind of precision couldn't be achieved by proxy sight. The end where the guy gets squished in the fist of the cyclops is one of the more brutal and gruesome panels in recent memory--kudos to Brocal for that! Ewww! I don't really get the title of "He Who Laughs Last... is Grotesque." The story itself was a lot of fun--seeing the people in "hell" (like the Nazi and the Playboy bunny) and having Satan and Cousin Eerie team up as part of the story itself was a cute idea--but I just don't get what the title has to do with anything. It was kind of refreshing reading one of these "curses from beyond the grave" stories where the curse was never actually able to be executed--you know, just like in real life! @OtherEric wasn't kidding about the "Williamsune" art for "Food for Thought" channeling Grandenetti--it's almost so Grandenetti as to be a cariacature of Grandenetti. But in both senses, it's quite visually engaging. The story itself is kind of lightweight, but it does provide, well, food for thought. After not one but two stories in last week's CREEPY #40 in which the hero unwittingly kills the heroine due to the villain making the hero think he is killing a monster, a third such story was deemed appropriate for the concurrent issue of EERIE. As with many of the distinct styles in this issue, the art for "The Vow of the Wizard" was very unique--ink over pencil drawings--and while it was kind of simplistic in that way, and in places almost comical (the rattlesnake is very cartoonish and the "wild jackals" look like cute lil puppies)... ...it also managed to be layered, detailed and provocative in places. "Lovecraftian" was a good descriptor for "The Sound of Wings," and I would even add "Hitchcockian," in that the "monster" was never directly revealed, only the suspense of its arrivals and the aftermaths of its visits. It wasn't an important story or anything, but it was solidly written and drawn and quite at home in a Warren magazine. I do think it's kind of cool that Warren made an effort at "diversity" by including supernatural stories from various cultural backgrounds, as with the Native American theme of "Lair of the Horned Man." (It probably could have been "Lair of the Horny Man," but that would have been a different magazine.) Trying to depict Cousin Eerie as a Native American, though, might have been a bit over the line of respect. It was a solid story with solid art for a newcomer, though, and it was nice that the issue ended on a happy note--villain vanquished, hero and heroine survive and live happily ever after! We don't get much of that from Warren, for some reason... This issue had some warts, but for the familiar art (Sutton and Williamsune/Grandenetti) and all the various styles of the newcomers, I think I would still say it was a good issue. I'm certainly not taking for granted that the Warren team is cranking out 20+ brand new stories every couple of months now, rather than all the recycled reprints we had to trudge through during the Dark Ages. In that sense, any all-original issue is a good issue.

Well, within about an hour they had updated the status to reflect delivery on the 22nd--today--which gave me some hope that maybe at least the book hadn't been lost or destroyed; they may have just had too many deliveries scheduled for that day and had to push it to the next day or something. Still, I didn't want to get my hopes up; even when it was "Out for Delivery" again today, there was always the possibility of another, indeed, of ongoing "exceptions" occurring. So I was pretty happy when it was leaned up against the door when I got back from lunch! The trilogy is complete!

"Masterpieces of Fantasy Art," the third giant book in my triune order of fantasy tomes, was "Out For Delivery" today (YAY!), when suddenly... DOH! pleasebeokpleasepleasepleasebeok...

Yeah, with that big of a piece missing, I doubt if you can improve the grade much through a C&P.

I believe most guides allow some sun shadow/discoloration in the Fine range; "how much" is always the question.

Tanks for the mammaries.

Ok, I finally landed a Dracula Book 1, and I can kind of see why it's not typically mentioned among the other Warren magazines--it seems like it's kind of a "tweener." For one thing, it's quite a bit larger than the other Warren mags--too wide for my scanner, and way too large for a standard magazine-sized bag and board. And for another, it was printed in Spain, so it kind of falls into the "foreign editions" category of Warrens that I have been excluding from my collection--but then it also says "Published in the US and Canada by Warren Publishing, Inc." so that makes it a domestic book as well (?). Now that I have one, I'm not sure I needed it, given the parameters of my collection, but at least I feel like I got a pretty good deal on it. I had been watching some copies for sale on daBay for $200, $300, even $400, but those copies weren't moving. The only copies that were selling were going between $60 and $100--but all of them had some pretty significant flaw; the pages were detached from the binding, there was a big tear on the front cover, or stains/water damage on the book, etc. So I was starting to resign myself to the idea that I was probably going to have to spend something north of $100 if I wanted a nice copy... and then I stumbled across that which we all desire--a seller who didn't know what he had. I say that for two reasons--first, the seller's screen name suggests that he is primarily a video game dealer, and secondly, because the book was shipped without any kind of cardboard backing or packing, just wrapped in a single layer of bubble wrap and slid into a large plastic envelope--which makes me think this is not a vendor who deals in many valuable books. It was even a little folded over in my mailbox, but I happened to see the mailman arrive, so it was only in the box for a minute or two--and fortunately, it seems to have arrived without any serious damage. But the pages are all attached, there are no major flaws to the cover outside of a few small non-color breaking bends (that which kind of looks like a stain in the pic is just the plastic envelope it's in). And that's a third reason I don't think the seller knew what he had--I got it for $52 + free shipping, so I really couldn't be happier! I need to post some CREEPY upgrades too, but this means I'm back down to an EERIE #1 (if I ever decide it's enough of a "magazine" to try to obtain an original copy) and the third variant of HELP! #12 (with both date stamps) to complete the collection. Has anyone ever actually seen a copy of the two-date HELP! #12? GCD has a pic of one, so I guess they do actually exist, but has anyone ever seen one in person? It must be the rarest of all Warren magazines; I have been watching for it for more than a year now, and I've never even seen one come up for sale on any site. ETA: MCS doesn't even have an "out of stock" listing for the third variant--only listings for the first two--which suggests to me that they have never listed a copy of the third variant on their site in the past, either.

I wonder if maybe that's just because you already associate him with Skywald more than Warren? I mean, I could see that Nightmare cover being an EERIE cover, and the bottom Psycho cover would have matched up pretty well with Sanho Kim's "Dragon Woman" story in VAMPIRELLA #11--the gal turning into a snake, with her little leprous/undead minions.

What?? I assumed he was just getting started! Before the Reading Club, I wasn't aware of too many fantasy artists, but Frazetta, Sanjulian and Vallejo were names I would have recognized. I don't know where I would know him from if not from Warren mags.

EERIE #34 - July 1971 According to the Warren Magazine Index... 34. cover: Boris Vallejo (July 1971) 1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Man Who Played God! [Tom Sutton] 1p [frontis] 2) Parting Is Such Sweet Horror! [Tom Sutton] 7p 3) Eye Of Cyclops! [Buddy Saunders/Jaime Brocal] 7p 4) He Who Laughs Last…Is Grotesque! [Al Hewetson/Mike Royer] 7p 5) Food For Thought [Steve Skeates/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 5p 6) The Vow Of The Wizard… [Ernie Colon/Ernie Colon & Frank McLaughlin] 7p 7) The Sound Of Wings [F. Paul Wilson/Carlos Garzon] 6p 8) Eerie Fanfare: Oh, To Be A Bat/The Mutant!/The Face Of Death! [Edgar Ellington, Robert J. Hurris, Josheph Wiltz/Pat Broderick, Joseph Wiltz, Mitchell Brown & Tony Desensi] 2p [text poem/stories] 9) Lair Of The Horned Man [Alan Weiss] 9p Notes: Vallejo’s second Warren cover got a good deal more respect than his first had when it appeared in Vampirella, even though his barbarian swordsman looked somewhat disjointed. His harpy was quite terrifying. The fullscale Spanish Invasion of artists began in Eerie with the debut of Spanish artist Jaime Brocal. Al Hewetson delivered a story that would have fit right at home in the Horror-Mood of Skywald. SF writer F. Paul Wilson made his comics (and perhaps his professional) debut with ‘The Sound Of Wings’. Pat Broderick made his second appearance on the fan page. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Spanish invasion begins! "The Man Who Played God" sounds more like a Loathsome Lore or a Feary Tales than a Monster Gallery, but I guess we'll see. I'm kind of intrigued by the titles in this one; I hope the stories themselves are as interesting!

Kinda looks like Batman is trying to poke the guy with the camera in the eye.

I thought maybe he had his underwear on his head, like in a panty raid or something. These are freaking hilarious! "How You Can Spot Nymphomaniacs Who Are Working In Your Office!"

Well, something is worth what someone will pay for it, I suppose.

Seems to be a little aggressively priced to me, but then I'm not well-versed on any recent sales.

Yeah, there's that too.

The Loch Ness Monster was a good topic for the "Loathsome Lore" feature in this issue, but calling Nessie a "sea beast" and a "sea monster" kind of suggests that Clif Jackson didn't know what the "loch" in "Loch Ness Monster" meant--it's a landlocked, freshwater LAKE. It was kind of nice to see "Dear Uncle Creepy" held to a single page again; I like reading some letters, but two pages of them can become kind of tedious. It seemed like most of the letters this time were less about past issues and stories, and more about the competitive relationship between Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie--which got me to thinking about their relationship in general. I guess I had always considered the "uncle" and "cousin" designations to be relative to us, the readers--OUR uncle, Creepy, and OUR cousin, Eerie, which means that Eerie could in fact be Creepy's son, but more likely a nephew of Uncle Creepy sired by a sibling of Creepy's. But in response to one of the letters here, Creepy refers to Eerie as HIS cousin a couple of times. If Eerie is Creepy's cousin, then they are BOTH cousins to each other, and Creepy is not Eerie's uncle. And then there was that whole confusing "origin" story in Vampirella a while back where they were all siblings from outer space or something. And now there's Aunt Shudder, who is probably Creepy's sister and Eerie's mother--but that's getting WAY ahead of ourselves... The "Creepy Fan Club" was actually pretty good this time--maybe the best I've seen--including several competent sketches and a single fan story that was perhaps a little too bloated with it's own idea, but conceived and written well enough that it probably could have been developed into an actual illustrated feature story. The report on the "The Annual Warren Awards at the New York Comicon" was interesting, but the Index's spoilers pretty much removed the suspense of reading them. One thing that strikes me is that here we are in July of 1971 by the cover date, and we're just now getting a report on the 1970 Comicon? Contrast this with today's email that the 2025 Vampiress Carmilla Fearbook is now available--in February of 2024--and it's striking how far we have come to live in the future these days. The "featured" story this issue was "The Fade-Away Walk," which joins a couple of other recent stories to draw on the horror of human nature for its content--our own capacity for hatred and division ultimately leading to the demise of our race. Some of these type stories could have potentially been included in the Blazing Combat title, if it hadn't died after four issues, as they deal with the horrors of human enmity. This piece stands on its own as a cautionary tale, however. They've really kept Tom Sutton busy the last couple of issues, but I don't think the quality of his art has suffered at all from the quantity. He probably enjoyed getting to do this kind of a sci-fi monster story; it seems right up his alley. "The Impersonation" was one of the more ridiculous stories we've ever been served, even if you buy the idea that ghosts are indistinguishable from regular flesh and blood humans. All that fuss to bury them inside some giant steel orb that must have cost tens of thousands of dollars doesn't seem like a prudent business decision. And what was the ghost's end game if the boss had NOT left them to die--just keep showing up for work day after day? The little incident where our hero snubs the hawt secretary only seems to be there to fill up space, or maybe just to make him seem all the more a scoundrel--but most scoundrels don't snub hotties (at least not until AFTER the date). I was pretty impressed by "Swamp Demon," being both scripted and illustrated by Dave Cockrum, of whom I first became aware from his biography in one of our recent issues, but who I am rapidly coming to enoy quite a bit--right up until the ending. It was said that the beast could "enthrall" it's victims, but unless that also includes controlling its victims' actions, there's no reason that the girl being made to appear as the beast would actually ATTACK our hero--you'd think she would just pick him up in her talons and race them both off to safety while the monster remained tied to a tree. And then there's that--just who exactly tied the monster to the tree? So we have a pretty good story completely ruined by a ludicrous twist; at least Cockrum gave us one of this issue's only real "monsters." "The Disintegrator" was fair, but it made me wonder what he thought the gun that he had ordered custom-made was going to do in the first place. He seemed awfully surprised that it would distintegrate stuff; what had he designed it to do? Turns out he could have just used a stick all along, but I guess it took the gun itself to help him discover and unleash his powers? The idea for "Lost and Found" is kind of fun, even though there's no explanation given for how a power could randomly travel across time from one individual to another. If you don't think too much about that, it's a light and entertaining piece with Roussos' heavily washed art adding to the visual appeal. And finally, "Dual Dragon" was the visual treat of the issue for me, with Gary Kaufman's art adding to the "duality," being both minimalistic in places and lavish in others. And you can never have too many stories where the hero accidentally kills the heroine while thinking he is slaying a giant lizard; this would be the second such story in this issue. So this was kind of a weird CREEPY, with not a werewolf, vampire, or ghoul in sight, and other than a couple of witches and BEMs, most of the horror in this issue springs from the human psyche, rather than the supernatural. It wasn't my favorite issue by a long shot, but it was a change of pace that hit a few high notes. And this is one of those covers where having a large black border around the art itself actually works for me!

Looks kind of sixish to me.

In the case of Vampirella, I'm not sure that the rear view would discourage sales...

That would explain what comes out of there.

Down to $3399 now...

Well, sorry Frank, but the "History of EC Comics" arrived today, and now IT is the largest book I have ever owned (same length and width, but thicker--more pages). At least you owned your birthday.

Not for my purposes, anyway. From the start, I ruled out foreign variants and paperback publications, limiting myself to the U.S. magazines only. That gives me some measure of comfort in the face of the fact that I will probably never have an actual EERIE #1 (because it's not REALLY a magazine, anyway)...

CREEPY #40 - July 1971 According to the Warren Magazine Index... 40. cover: Larry Todd & Vaughn Bode (July 1971) 1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Loch Ness Monster [Al Hewetson/Clif Jackson] 1p [frontis] 2) The Fade-Away Walk [Don McGregor/Tom Sutton] 12p 3) The Impersonation! [Steve Skeates/Pablo Marcos] 6p 4) Swamp Demon [Dave Cockrum] 7p 5) Disintegrator [Nicola Cuti/Ken Barr] 7p 6) Lost And Found [Steve Skeates/George Roussos] 5p 7) The Creepy Fan Page: The Last Tomorrow [?/?, Scott Rogers, Kenneth Tutton, Tony DeSensi & R. Goodwin] 2p [text story, author/artist for the story didn’t sign his name] 8) Annual Warren Awards At The New York Comicon… [Martin Greim/Ernie Colon] 2p [text article] reprinted from Martin Greim’s Comic Crusader #10 (1970) 9) Dual Dragon [Gary Kaufman] 7p Notes: Billy Graham became the editor and turned in a pretty solid issue. In an artistic slight-of-hand, the muzzle of the gun on the cover seems to follow you no matter where you are in the room, which is, well—let’s fact it, pretty creepy. Don McGregor made his professional debut with a strong story. Nice art & story work also appeared from Dave Cockrum and Gary Kaufman. The first Warren Awards gave ‘The Ray Bradbury Award’ for best story to Tom Sutton for ‘Snowman’ from Creepy #31, ‘The Frank Frazetta Cup’ for best illustrated story to Neal Adams for ‘Rock God’ from Creepy #32, ‘The Jack Davis Cup’ to Frank Frazetta for best cover from Eerie #23, a special award to Harlan Ellison for ‘Rock God’, best all-around artist to Ernie Colon, best all-around writer to Nicola Cuti and an honorable mention for artwork to Billy Graham. There was a bizarre mention in the Award article where James Warren says he wrote his anti-war editorial of the previous year for business reasons! Seems every time there was a riot or violent anti-war demonstration in an area, sales in surrounding stores plunged, including Warren magazines sales! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, so much for any suspense as to who the winners of the Warren awards are. I'm a little surprised to see Ernie Colon win the best all-around artist award; his stuff is good, but I'd have gone with the honorable mention winner Billy Graham over Colon myself. In fact, for best "all-around" artist, I probably would have gone with Tom Sutton, as he seems more versatile than most of the other artists in the stable. He's certainly been busy, with the 14-page story last week AND a 12-pager this week--and the Feary Tales last week, too! It's kind of cool that Graham got to be the CREEPY editor so quickly, though. The cover isn't really all that magical; anything in a picture that points directly at the viewer will "follow them around the room." It would be weirder if it didn't; if you moved to the left, and suddenly it appeared that the muzzle of the gun was pointing to your right--now THAT would be creepy. The actual illustrated part of the cover seems to be too small to be shared by two artists, but somehow they got both Todd and Bode squeezed into the circle of that scope (or the scope of that circle?). Not sure what to expect from this one; looks like kind of a mixed bag...

I don't think it's the Asian flavor that is putting me off, it's more that it looks like her hair is parted on the left in the pic above, and in the "Conan" one it's like she lost the part entirely, at least in her bangs. They just look awkward to me. But I'm just one opinion.

Those are pretty cool. I assume this Vampirella appearance was after those? I think maybe he does monsters/fantasy better than he does human faces. On a more appreciative note, his dragon was pretty cool...