OtherEric

Welcome back!

One more from ECCC today:

One last King from ECCC today:

A couple covers from ECCC today that I didn't have. It's an interesting idea, having an artist recreate their earlier cover decades later:

Two more from Harley today:

So, as promised, I went to the Oni Press panel at ECCC today, and did ask a couple questions. They're serious about presenting these as EC books, the issues won't even have an Oni logo on them. They're consciously trying to position themselves as "what sort of comics would EC be doing in 2024 if they hadn't disappeared", which is part of why they're doing new titles rather than just revivals of old ones. They weren't quite ready to announce the third title, but they did say it's in a genre that classic EC never exactly did, but it's adjacent. They are planning to do books that aren't anthologies as they go on. They said the books were going to be definitely R rated, which I didn't consider totally reassuring- more because saying something is R rated can mean too many different things, not all of them good. The elaborated by saying they felt current comics were too often playing it safe, looking for how can this become a movie or TV show or something else other than a comic, and that they wanted to feel a bit dangerous. I can get behind that idea a lot more. They are going to be using a font based directly on the Leroy Lettering, which is good... although I did tell them to make sure to switch to something else if they did wind up doing a war comic. Overall, I came away feeling like the project is being run by people who have a clear idea of what they want to do and a strong urge to be true to the spirit of the EC's, while not doing a simple homage. I'm not sure if they'll succeed, or even if success is possible 70 years later, but I do have the impression that they're coming at the project from a good angle, rather than just relying on people recognizing the names of the books.

How I would love a Haunt 15 to complete the first issues…

I still say, story for story, Frontline Combat is EC’s most consistently excellent book. Nothing less than excellent across the entire run. Every other EC series had at least a few stinkers.

Which brings up the point that what works on the rack isn't always the same as what looks good as a standalone piece of art. I could see Annual cover grabbing somebody's attention on the rack pretty well, actually.

I've got to assume that marketing was at least part of the motive. I'm not saying it won't wind up the winner on personal all time worst cover list. I'm saying that, until we hit EERIE #75, we need to keep the topic open.

So, I'm going to try to get to the Oni Press panel at ECCC tomorrow. If they say anything about the EC revival I'll make sure to let everybody here know.

Sorry if I came across a bit cranky. It's really not a bad mix unless you're in the middle of a crazy project like rereading all of Warren's comic output, but who would be nuts enough to do something like that?

Going through this one a bit lightning round style, since it's all reprints. Creepy Annual 1972 thoughts: Cover: Honestly, possibly my least favorite Warren cover, although I'm sure some others will underwhelm me going forward Intro: The green ink is certainly a bold choice, and it's still a nice illo. No Fair: Still a decent story, but less of a highlight when we're no longer in the dark ages and it doesn't have the striking cover to go with it. Spawn of the Cat People: Still a great story, but I'm not sure it's worthy of a third appearance quite yet. Then again, the earlier two printings were 1965 and 1968, so the timing is probably OK. On the Wings of a Bird: A solid choice, but only a few months old... which is fine if you have a themed issue, even if the theme is "The best stories of the past year." But when you lead with something from issue #2, that's not your theme. Tough Customers: See above, good but recent. Loathsome Lore: And again, good but recent. Pursuit of the Vampire: It's a great story from Creepy #1. And Eerie #14. And Eerie #24. And enough already! The Judge's House: Another 3-peat. Grub: A good choice, a decent story that's neither too new, too old, or too many reprints already. Monster Rally: Another third appearance, and the third story this issue that turned up in Creepy #22... No Fair made its debut there, and The Judge's House and this both were reprinted therein. Overall: I can't see much to recommend this one. A cover that's in the running for Warren's worst ever, and WAY too many re-reprinted stories. If this was somehow your first Warren magazine ever it might be OK once you're past the cover, but otherwise skip this unless you're a completest.

As far as I know, that's the one and only "Pitman" book, and it looks identical to the Pocket version. I'm guessing it was some sort of end run around paper rationing.

Glad we have quite a few of us here, then!

And is it the Pocket or the Pitman version?

I've got my copy, but this is the issue with "Vacation '58" by John Hughes, which was the basis of National Lampoon's Vacation.

It's the ISBN number on the back cover that's weird, that doesn't seem to be on the legit copies.

The bedsheet issues of Amazing Stories were all factory trimmed, as far as I know. The very few I have:

I posted this in the Love & Rockets thread, but figured I would ask here too, since this is a more highly trafficked thread. Does anybody recognize this? I'm 99% certain it's a reprint, given the ISBN on the back cover, but I can't find any info on it online at all. Does anybody recognize where this came from?

A few from ECCC today:

Can anybody tell me what I've got here? I'm 95% sure that it's a reprint... the ISBN on the back cover doesn't seem to be on the original... but I also can't find anything indicating where the book was reprinted like this, rather than with the new cover.

In today. A weird one even by late Dell standards:

A couple from ECCC this weekend. It's cooled down a lot but $25 for the #7 feels like it may be my grab of the weekend nonetheless: