This Month in My Magazine Collection, or "How I Got Most of the Warren Mags in a Month" 1 1

[Axe Elf]

EDIT: After you read the story, click on one or more of my galleries listed here to see the books!

The Po'Boy EERIE Collection

A CREEPY Collection for the Rest of Us

The Lottery Ticket VAMPIRELLA Collection

Down the WARREN Rabbit Hole

Other Warranted Warrenesque Warrenness

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And now, the story...

At 12:01am on February 5, 2022, I owned 7 CREEPYs and 7 EERIEs that I had just rediscovered a couple of months ago in a box that had been in storage for about 14 years.  I had bought a few issues off the newstand as a teen, and always enjoyed reading them--they were kind of lurid for a teenage boy in the Bible belt, after all.  I didn't really take care of them, though; even to my untrained eye, I knew they were in rough condition--but that didn't matter; it made me curious about what the Rook had done in the issues I missed...?  Were there any more installments of Moonshadow or the Fallen Angels?

I decided I was going to get more EERIEs and CREEPYs.

Since CREEPYs remained pretty anthologic throughout their run, while the EERIEs were more episodic, with recurring characters appearing across several issues, it made more sense to try to get the full run of EERIEs first--to get the full story arcs of all the recurring characters--so I started with them.

At first I was mostly interested in watching lot listings on eBay, because that seemed like the most efficient way to reduce shipping costs--as well as landing big chunks of the run at one time--and so at 5:41pm on February 5, I made my first purchase--two 13-issue lots.

After filling in the pieces around another 15-issue lot and a huge 89-issue lot, I placed an order for #24 and hard-to-find EERIE #17 on February 16, and finally, an order through Amazon for #25 on February 17, leaving only #1 and #23 as the only remaining holes in the full run.  My #17 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow (Monday)--the last of my EERIE run to arrive.  I'm kind of resigned to the fact that I will probably NEVER have a #1, but that's ok; close enough for rock and roll, if I can just land a #23.

And it was in the course of searching for #23 that I found this Forum by way of the "EERIE #23 Club" thread and joined up on February 18.

So now I'm hooked...

Over the last week of February, I negotiated with a seller on eBay for a near-full run of CREEPY magazines, including a slabbed CGC 9.0 #1--and finalized the purchase on March 1.  They are also scheduled to arrive tomorrow (Monday).  The guy was so nice, he even threw in four complementary EERIE upgrades as well.

Between those 135 issues, the 2 unique issues that I already had (from lot deals for EERIEs), and the CREEPY #32 I found on Bonanza, I now stand 14 issues short of the full CREEPY run as well.  (I have #19 and #29 on my watch list; tip of the cap to the "Hardest CREEPY Issues to Find" thread.)

So now I'm like what the hell; why stop there?

On March 2, I purchased a full run of The ROOK (14 issues + "Wanted"), and on March 4, I purchased a full run of CREEPS direct from the SHUDDER website.  The ROOK lot should arrive Wednesday; the CREEPS say to allow 3-8 weeks for delivery.

So February 5 to March 4, in the space of exactly four weeks, I came up 16 issues short of acquiring full runs of CREEPY, EERIE, The ROOK, and CREEPS (assuming everything I've ordered actually arrives)--and 48 duplicate issues (8 CREEPY and 40 EERIE) that I hope to re-sell to offset some of the costs of acquiring the collection.

I've also gained a lot of confidence in at least roughly grading comics over the course of the month, thanks in large part to the people here on this board.  And thanks also for the inside information on some of the Warren publications I've been coveting.

I felt like an outsider looking in on February 18 when I joined, but...

I'M A COLLECTOR NOW!

I'M ONE OF YOU!!!

And that full run of Vampirella still sits there on eBay...

Edited July 24, 2022 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

Nice work in such a short time.  I haven't been moving nearly as fast, although I've gotten well over half the Vampi run in roughly the last three months, at least. 

The only full Warren runs I have so far are Help!, The Rook, and The Spirit.  The last two aren't too tricky, but with Help! I'm not sure I've seen anybody else on the forums claim the full run.  Mine is just reading copies, but I've got it, at least.

[Axe Elf]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:29 PM, OtherEric said:

Nice work in such a short time.  I haven't been moving nearly as fast, although I've gotten well over half the Vampi run in roughly the last three months, at least. 

The only full Warren runs I have so far are Help!, The Rook, and The Spirit.  The last two aren't too tricky, but with Help! I'm not sure I've seen anybody else on the forums claim the full run.  Mine is just reading copies, but I've got it, at least.

Thanks!

Yeah, I've never even heard of Help!  I know of The Spirit, but it's not really on my radar.  If I DO get more, it would probly be starting the Vampirellas, but I wouldn't rule out 1984/1994 at some point either.

[OtherEric]

On 3/6/2022 at 4:33 PM, Axe Elf said:

Thanks!

Yeah, I've never even heard of Help!  I know of The Spirit, but it's not really on my radar.  If I DO get more, it would probly be starting the Vampirellas, but I wouldn't rule out 1984/1994 at some point either.

Help! is a bit earlier than the main Warren books, and only has a few comic pages in a given issue.  But some fun stuff from Harvey Kurtzman.  Another nice Warren mini-run I'm looking for is Monster World 1-3, which have some of Warren's earliest horror comics (one story per issue).  The #1 is actually Warren's first horror comic story, I believe.

[Axe Elf]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:36 PM, OtherEric said:

The #1 is actually Warren's first horror comic story, I believe.

I believe I have heard that as well, now that you mention it.

Is there also a "Goblin" mini-run, like 3 issues or something?  I might be interested in that, if it's something I axually saw, and not just dreamed...

...come to think of it, I think it was mentioned on one of those DVD listings on eBay where you can get full runs in PDF or CBR format or whatever.  They always come up when you search "full run," but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. 

[OtherEric]

On 3/6/2022 at 4:40 PM, Axe Elf said:

I believe I have heard that as well, now that you mention it.

Is there also a "Goblin" mini-run, like 3 issues or something?  I might be interested in that, if it's something I axually saw, and not just dreamed...

...come to think of it, I think it was mentioned on one of those DVD listings on eBay where you can get full runs in PDF or CBR format or whatever.  They always come up when you search "full run," but that's not exactly what I'm looking for. 

Goblin is 3 issues, more or less replaced Rook on the schedule, #4 was advertised but never released, I believe.

[Axe Elf]

On 3/6/2022 at 6:52 PM, OtherEric said:

Goblin is 3 issues, more or less replaced Rook on the schedule, #4 was advertised but never released, I believe.

Sounds like a legit target then.

OH!  And I'd probly get the 4 Blazing Combats if I ever get the chance, too.

[wpbooks01]

My Warren full runs:

Help

Monster World

Spirit

Comix International (2)

1984/94

Various One-Shots

[Axe Elf]

On 3/6/2022 at 11:45 PM, wpbooks01 said:

Various One-Shots

Can you call a one-shot a "full run"?

;)

I din't know Comix International was a Warren thing; just another title I'd seen advertised on DVD in PDF/CBR format.  Are there only 2 in that "full run" or does your (2) mean you have 2 full runs?

[wpbooks01]

2 full runs

[wpbooks01]

On 3/6/2022 at 10:31 PM, Axe Elf said:

Can you call a one-shot a "full run"?

 

Can you call The Creeps, Warren?

[Axe Elf]

On 3/7/2022 at 6:12 AM, wpbooks01 said:

Can you call The Creeps, Warren?

Touche'!

Heh.

Well, they almost did...

[wpbooks01]

On 3/7/2022 at 8:28 AM, Axe Elf said:

Touche'!

Heh.

Well, they almost did...

Quite unimaginative of them, eh? Heh, indeed!

[OtherEric]

On 3/7/2022 at 10:13 AM, Pancakes! said:

One of my favorites, collects all the Neal Adams stories.

It's missing "Rock God" from Creepy #32 and "The Sweet, Soft Lips of Hell" from Vampirella #10, I believe.  Would still be a nice issue to have, even if I've got all the originals.

[Axe Elf]

On 3/7/2022 at 12:13 PM, Pancakes! said:

One of my favorites, collects all the Neal Adams stories.

I just got here myself a couple of weeks ago, and like you, it was an EERIE-related post that made me sign up (the "EERIE #23 Club" thread)!

Welcome to the Warren tribe...

[wpbooks01]

On 3/7/2022 at 10:13 AM, Pancakes! said:

One of my favorites, collects all the Neal Adams stories.

And all wrapped up in a classic Richard Corben cover! A reason in itself to own the issue! Neal is the 'bonus plan'!!!

[oakman29]

Congrats on your quest for Warren Horror. I myself have been collecting full runs of Warren mags. Just a great group of runs.

I'm very happy you found my "Hardest Creepy thread" informative .

[This is Who We Are]

Nice grab with that set of Creepy's.  There were a few copies in that collection I was very curious about-grade-wise.  Please consider putting up some of the nicer copies...or heck, post them all

[Axe Elf]

On 3/7/2022 at 2:54 PM, oakman29 said:

Congrats on your quest for Warren Horror. I myself have been collecting full runs of Warren mags. Just a great group of runs.

I'm very happy you found my "Hardest Creepy thread" informative .

Yeah, you directed me to your journals upon my arrival.  You really have the better-looking collection(s), putting together your puzzles slowly and deliberately with individual, high-grade copies, whereas I was just looking to get acceptable/readable copies and buying most of them in lots.  I guess it wouldn't be outside the scope of my own thread to list the distribution of grades I have assigned to the 140 unique EERIEs in my collection--but I'm guessing you don't really have any that would grade out less than 8.0, if that low.

9.0 - 1

8.5 - 6

8.0 - 10

7.5 - 12

7.0 - 12

6.5 - 20

6.0 - 19

5.5 - 16

5.0 - 9

4.5 - 6

4.0 - 5

3.5 - 8

3.0 - 9

2.5 - 2

2.0 - 3

1.8 - 1

1.5 - 1

I do have replacements/upgrades on the way for the 1.5, a 2.0, a 2.5, and a 3.0 (I'd like to eventually get them all at least 4.0 and up)--but I'm not sure how much of an upgrade they will be because I haven't seen them yet.  The guy from whom I bought the CREEPY collection is throwing me four bonus EERIEs from my want list--but they were delayed; they were scheduled to arrive today, but won't arrive until tomorrow now.

The CREEPY collection should be a little higher quality overall, although he had a lot of issues graded as "VF/NM" or "NM" that really don't reach that standard.  One of them even had a big 1 1/2" water stain on the back cover, and listed as "VF/NM"!  But hey, that's why I was able to negotiate the price to some extent, and it's still a pretty nice-looking collection.  Even if they're not Near Mint, they look like they will mostly grade out around 6.0 through 8.5, anyway.  I'll know more after they arrive tomorrow.

The ROOK collection I bought also appears to be largely Fine and up, though nothing in the Near Mint range.  Hopefully the CREEPS run directly from the factory will all be worthy of at least 9.0s upon arrival--but then, you know, I'm going to read them. 

Overall, I bought 363 issues at an average cost of $14.30 per issue, landed (including shipping and tax).  Without shipping and tax, they were $12.33 per issue (although in both cases, the $400 value of the slabbed CGC 9.0 CREEPY #1 drags the cost of every other issue up about a dollar, so really, the other 362 issues were $13.24 each, landed, or $11.26 per issue not counting shipping and tax--but that was still $1.26 per issue more than my original goal of $10 per issue--even after using eBay's "Best Offer" feature to negotiate a total of $817.15 off the listed prices--or an average of $2.25 per issue).

All in a month's work...

Edited March 8, 2022 by Axe Elf

[Axe Elf]

On 3/7/2022 at 7:41 PM, This is Who We Are said:

Nice grab with that set of Creepy's.  There were a few copies in that collection I was very curious about-grade-wise.  Please consider putting up some of the nicer copies...or heck, post them all

I wrote the above response while you were posting, which touches on that grading issue.  He was selling his dad's collection, and he said he took a lot of the grades from the bags that his dad had bought the books in way back when--so I'm guessing that a lot of them were graded using much more lenient pre-2000 standards.

I scrutinized the first 11 issues that he had listed as "VF/NM" or higher, and other than the one with the big waterstain, of course, they were mostly grading out in the 7.0-8.0 range; a couple of them might go a little higher; hard to tell from just a front and back cover.  Anyway, it's a nice-looking collection, but I don't think it's the kind of pristine set that @oakman29 and others have assembled.

I will probly do some PGM posts of a few of them just to see what everyone else thinks.