OtherEric

And following up on my observation last week that I need to get myself a copy:

Some books, you just have to take the copy you can find, not the copy you want. Great pickup!

And two issues in today:

Today is his 102 birthday, did you forget to send a card? (I know I didn't remember either.)

Actually, I do have one… which a quick search suggests is his only cover art for the main series itself:

I don’t have a handy scan to share showing his work, but the great Al Jaffee is 102 today!

I’m just happy I finished off Shock Suspenstories when I did. Some of Wood’s best work in there.

To be fair, I don’t think any of the EC SF books are particularly rare. But they’re definitely jumping in price recently, and you do need to move quickly when they show. EC’s disappeared almost instantly at Emerald City Comic Con last week, for instance.

Just be glad you have a copy at all. I don’t think people realize how scarce some of the Fox romance books are.

Creepy 23 thoughts: Cover: A gorgeous, underrated cover by Sutton. Possibly the most genuinely Creepy cover we've seen yet. Loathsome Lore: Solid enough for a one-pager, as these things go. But not particularly stand-out, either. Way Out: James Haggenmiller (I believe his name is misspelled here, it has two g's ever other story he did) winds up doing a half-dozen stories for Warren. The story is a bit better than most "Drugs Bad. Hippies Bad." stories of the era, but it still is clearly in that category. Gargoyle: It was a great story the first time. It still is. Jack Knifed: We finally see Barry Rockwell on interiors, after getting a cover from him on Eerie #16. He's got an interesting wash style that doesn't really quite work for me here, although I think it could with some refinement... it reminds me in places of what I would expect early Corben to look like. The --script is more about executing its twists well than actually surprising with the twists, but quite good for all of that. I suspect others may like this more than me. Quick Change: Sutton was an artist I liked even before the reading group, and it's been fascinating watching him develop here in his early career. This is easily his best story yet, the --script allowing him tons of opportunities to shine. The final twist is a bit corny, but this is still an excellent piece of work. Rude Awakening: See my comments on Gargoyle. Cat-Nipped: Would be nice if they could decide if the character was named "Pete" or "John". Pretty good but not nearly as strong as "Quick Change" Probably the best issue of Creepy we've seen in a while, it seems like Eerie has been better recently.

People never seem to include what I've heard is the final part of the quote, though: "Then draw the **** out of what's left!"

I think that one might be safe for the boards, actually. I wouldn't recommend posting The Disneyland Memorial Orgy here, though.

One of my top ten all time favorite comic stories.

Today's Mail Call. I always think of Warren Presents as having mostly reprint covers, but in reality more of them are new than are reprints. They're also the epitome of Warren's "Mockbuster" style of cover design. A legit article on the movie, cover art that skirts design infringement, and a title that partially overlaps with whatever they're doing an article on.

The other Animal Man issues either mention a gorilla in the cover text or have a chimpanzee on the cover instead. Gorilla covers I don't have: 8, 32, 39, 64, 69, 75, and 88. So I'm a bit over half... but not by that much!

I think I've got slightly over half the gorilla covers so far... there were a LOT:

Suit never actually occurred, if you believe Wikipedia. I understand if you don't feel that's an ideal source, though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superduperman I'm pretty sure MAD has, in the end, won all the suits brought against it, even if some of those were on appeal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_v._E.C._Publications,_Inc.

Piracy is up there as well. I'm not sure if the ship has sailed on Impact #1 or if the one sale was on outlier.