OtherEric

The last of the books for today, I'm down to 15 Creepys to go. I sometimes think the last Warren issues don't get enough attention... the stray Harris issues of Creepy and Vampirella suck all the air out of the discussion, leaving the end of the Warrens something of an overlooked milestone.

And some Creepys. I find it a vaguely interesting coincidence that I needed the 46 and 58 from both series still, and found them at the same time. In both cases, the 46 was the earliest issue I needed still (discounting the impossible Eerie #1, of course.)

Next, a trio of Eeries. I'm down to 5 issues to go. By which I mean, I'm down to 4 issues to go and one that I will never own:

Quite a few books in today. Let's start with a couple Marvel Graphic Novels. The #8 has a great cover but otherwise has always sounded like an off-brand set of DC underroos:

In today. It's past the range where I'm trying to get all the NatLamps, but the subject matter meant it's been on my "grab it if I find a cheap copy" list for a while now.

Today's FC:

A few Looney Tunes and a couple of Whitman-related books in today.

There's still a couple low hanging fruit out there, but overall it's getting harder and harder to find issues I need:

I think that's just a regular ad? Not positive, I sold my Secret Wars run a couple years back.

Will that include animations and reconstructions? I'm also implausibly optimistic that they may have been holding a missing episode recovery or two for the 60th, given that the last batch was released for the 50th...

Today's new book. Could do without the writing on the cover, but it's a solid reader copy and these days, any Baker addition is a very nice treat.

Living in the US I had been blissfully unaware of them as well. I do NOT thank you for curing me of this particular bit of joyful obliviousness. Now I'm imagining having to clean those on a regular basis.

Checking in the Non-Comics Magazine thread from when I first got my copy, the artist was identified as Dennis Magdich. It's not Vargas for sure.

Thank you, Mike. Let's check: script It works!

@CGC Mike: Do you know why the software insists on adding the - before every use of the word "-script"? And why it adds another one when you quote the word? Thank you for your time.

Creepy #34 thoughts Cover: I like this one quite a bit, but I get why the index feels it's muted, as well. And when we're looking at a series in retrospect, it works better than when it's desperately trying to be noticed on the newsstand. Loathsome Lore: I was a little harsher on this when I first saw it, but when I actually looked up Makara I discovered that no, that's really pretty much what they look like in classic iconography. Fun hitting something that I wasn't previously aware of, which I can't recall happening in the lore/ gallery pages before. (It has happened in the actual stories, with the Vrykolakas.) "X"-tra..."X": The -script borders on gibberish, even by the standards of horror/ SF comics. And that's even if you don't realize they're discussing an actual medical condition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klinefelter_syndrome I do consider the black panel/page borders an interesting touch, but I don't see anything in this story that makes this a particularly good candidate for using them. Lifeboat: Interesting concept, solid art. Minus 1/2 point for the last panel on page 2, it looks like it's trying to say "This sort of manacles", only slightly misspelled. It's absolutely not but it threw me out of the story badly for a moment. The Cool Jazz Ghoul: Definitely some holes in the -script, but it's actually a pretty neat twist even if it's imperfectly set up. Ken Kelly does what I believe is his only full story for Warren, and the art is quite good, in some places looking almost painted- although I think that's just the shading work. Also, leaving this link here for no particular reason... Minanker's Demons: A solid little fantasy from Saunders and Fantuccio, but not one I have much to say about. Forgotten Prisoner of Castlemare: They took the name and picture of the model kit that they had been hawking in the back of the magazines, and worked backwards from there to create a story around it. It's actually surprisingly good for something with such an arbitrary starting point, but it's still a glorified ad. The Swamp in Hell: This seems to be Don Vaughn's only major art credit at the GCD, although he's listed with a few credits on Marvel UK reprint books as well. The story is actually quite good, even as it's an obvious riff on Frankenstein... although a different bit of the story than usually gets ripped of. Ando: Feels a LOT like a story from an Atlas monster book, and that's not just because of the Syd Shores art. It's a solid enough example of the type, brought down by having a plot element almost identical to the Forgotten Prisoner story earlier in the issue. Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: 9 Overall, a good issue; Cool Jazz Ghoul is the highlight. But it definitely highlights Warren's weakness as his own editor: It leasds with the weakest story, and since I assume they wouldn't delay the Castlemare ad they should have moved Ando to another issue.

Well, if we're extending the discussion to paperbacks, this one has to be in the discussion. First publication of the iconic Death Dealer image:

Three more digests, fresh in:

I think in general they print the covers separately because they're on different stock, but that might not be the case with that issue, if it had glossy interiors.

Today's additions to the MMM collection, 12 to go still. I think the seller mishandled the Nobody Lives Forever, it was part of a two book lot with Cain's The Embezzler. They focused on that one, with several pictures, and it was a fairly trashed copy, to the point where I'm genuinely thinking of just throwing it in the garbage because the pages are so brittle. But the Nobody Lives Forever only got one picture, and is in much better shape. My guess is they felt the Cain was the one with the bigger name writer, but in my experience The Embezzler is one of the most common MMM's, while the Burnett doesn't turn up that often.

Might as well mention this: I'm looking for color photocopies of the front cover of Savage Tales #1 and Pussycat #1, I've got stripped copies of both of them and they're both in a price range where finding an upgrade at what I feel like paying is not necessarily going to happen any time soon. So many books, so little time, and high price tags on books I've got low grade copies of keep slipping down the list...

The only one I’ve got.

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