This Month in My Magazine Collection, or "How I Got Most of the Warren Mags in a Month" 2 2

[Axe Elf]

Well shoot.  They changed the way that the Galleries display and save.  I used to be able to update the images when I upgraded a magazine without it showing up all over the Forums as a new Gallery post.  But I never got around to posting that last batch of a dozen EERIE upgrades (and a Monster World) before the change, and now it looks like every image I update is going to look like I just posted it.

So I apologize to everyone for making it look like I'm showing off a whole new batch of magazines, when really they are just upgrades to the existing magazines.

I always kind of needed to go through and edit the CREEPY gallery so that the back covers displayed AFTER the front covers, like my other four galleries, rather than BEFORE the front covers, as they do now, but I always detested the idea of making it look like I was posting all my CREEPYs again, but if every little update is going to show as a new post now, I guess maybe it's time to make the attempt.

[Dr. Balls]

On 1/31/2023 at 2:13 PM, Makmorn said:

 

Good Lawd, that Eerie 7!

[Artifiction]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:51 PM, Axe Elf said:

Well shoot.  They changed the way that the Galleries display and save.  I used to be able to update the images when I upgraded a magazine without it showing up all over the Forums as a new Gallery post.  But I never got around to posting that last batch of a dozen EERIE upgrades (and a Monster World) before the change, and now it looks like every image I update is going to look like I just posted it.

So I apologize to everyone for making it look like I'm showing off a whole new batch of magazines, when really they are just upgrades to the existing magazines.

I always kind of needed to go through and edit the CREEPY gallery so that the back covers displayed AFTER the front covers, like my other four galleries, rather than BEFORE the front covers, as they do now, but I always detested the idea of making it look like I was posting all my CREEPYs again, but if every little update is going to show as a new post now, I guess maybe it's time to make the attempt.

Yeah, someone really messed up the Gallery. I keep hoping that it will eventually return to the way it was. It wasn't great, but it was better than it is, now. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Artifiction

[Axe Elf]

It was a dark and stormy day here in KC, so I swept off the stairs to the tower, loaded some new tallow into the candelabra, threw a couple of rats on the fire, and put together my CREEPY puzzle today.

I think this is probably the greatest puzzle piece of all time, parenthetically:

It's a pretty hard puzzle, and it would be even harder if you had no prior knowledge of the covers--just about every other piece has some part of the word "CREEPY" on it.

And this is what it looks like completed:

Each magazine is about 1 3/4" tall in the finished puzzle.

And it's just so cool that not only is every CREEPY pictured, but every CREEPY pictured is MINE!

 

[Dr. Balls]

My Warren magazine collecting process:

6 months ago: "I'm going to buy some nice Vampirellas with black covers in high grade, because they're cool."

3 months ago: "I can't have this many focuses in my collection, I'm going to skip collecting magazines and sell those Vampirellas"

2 months ago: "Man, that Vampirella #15 in 9.2 looks so cool in the slab. I'm buying it!"

1 month and 28 days ago: "Welllllll, maybe I'll just collect *cool* Vampirella covers. Like this #99..."

1 month and 27 days ago: "I guess if I have a couple Vampirellas, maybe I'll try and pick up some Frazetta Eeries and Creepys"

1 month ago: "I guess I have these couple Creepy Magazines with Frazetta covers, maybe I'll pick up a few more - you know, to read..."

28 days ago: "Oh neat, Vampirellas from France. Those are cool, with textured covers, and kind of cheap. Maybe I'll collect those."

21 days ago: "OOOOO a couple auctions for 20 book lots of Creepy, I should bid on those!"

14 days ago: "Man, these look great in Mylites and Fullbacks! So shiny!"

10 days ago: "How the hell did I end up with a stack of 90 Creepy and Vampirella Magazines sitting here?!?"

7 days ago: "Dammit. I'm out of Mylites and Fullbacks to put all these magazines in."

Today: "AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGG WHAT IS WRONG WITH MEEEEEEEE"

[Axe Elf]

On 4/19/2023 at 1:00 PM, Dr. Balls said:

My Warren magazine collecting process:

6 months ago: "I'm going to buy some nice Vampirellas with black covers in high grade, because they're cool."

3 months ago: "I can't have this many focuses in my collection, I'm going to skip collecting magazines and sell those Vampirellas"

2 months ago: "Man, that Vampirella #15 in 9.2 looks so cool in the slab. I'm buying it!"

1 month and 28 days ago: "Welllllll, maybe I'll just collect *cool* Vampirella covers. Like this #99..."

1 month and 27 days ago: "I guess if I have a couple Vampirellas, maybe I'll try and pick up some Frazetta Eeries and Creepys"

1 month ago: "I guess I have these couple Creepy Magazines with Frazetta covers, maybe I'll pick up a few more - you know, to read..."

28 days ago: "Oh neat, Vampirellas from France. Those are cool, with textured covers, and kind of cheap. Maybe I'll collect those."

21 days ago: "OOOOO a couple auctions for 20 book lots of Creepy, I should bid on those!"

14 days ago: "Man, these look great in Mylites and Fullbacks! So shiny!"

10 days ago: "How the hell did I end up with a stack of 90 Creepy and Vampirella Magazines sitting here?!?"

7 days ago: "Dammit. I'm out of Mylites and Fullbacks to put all these magazines in."

Today: "AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGG WHAT IS WRONG WITH MEEEEEEEE"

Yes, I have often quite appropriately referred to Warren collecting as a "rabbit hole," since warrens are literally places where rabbits live--rabbit holes.

The only Warrens I knew about when I started a year and two months ago were CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA, and I was pretty sure I didn't care to collect the VAMPIRELLAs.

And yet here I am at the end of this thread with every Warren known to man, other than an EERIE #1 and a HELP! #12b.

Now the temptation to upgrade is forever on my mind...

[Axe Elf]

So one of my projects for this year is to upgrade my run of Spacemen, because other than issues #1, #8, and the Annual, all of mine have pretty significant spine splits (like 1/3 of the book or more), and issues #6 and #7 have fully split covers that are completely detached on either the front or the back, with the other cover hanging on desperately by one staple.  They look pretty good other than that, and I don't necessarily covet really high quality copies of these books--but I'd at least like to find copies that are fully intact.

But it seems like it is really, REALLY hard to find examples of these books that DON'T show some kind of extreme spine wear--most of them I see for sale are split to some extent, if not at least partially detached as well.  So just out of curiosity, does anyone have any background information that would suggest that the Spacemen magazines started out with weak spines in general?  That would seem really odd to me, but the prevalence of spine damage I see in shopping for upgrades makes me wonder if there was just something about these books that predisposed them to spine wear/damage/splitting.

[OtherEric]

On 4/25/2023 at 11:16 AM, Axe Elf said:

So one of my projects for this year is to upgrade my run of Spacemen, because other than issues #1, #8, and the Annual, all of mine have pretty significant spine splits (like 1/3 of the book or more), and issues #6 and #7 have fully split covers that are completely detached on either the front or the back, with the other cover hanging on desperately by one staple.  They look pretty good other than that, and I don't necessarily covet really high quality copies of these books--but I'd at least like to find copies that are fully intact.

But it seems like it is really, REALLY hard to find examples of these books that DON'T show some kind of extreme spine wear--most of them I see for sale are split to some extent, if not at least partially detached as well.  So just out of curiosity, does anyone have any background information that would suggest that the Spacemen magazines started out with weak spines in general?  That would seem really odd to me, but the prevalence of spine damage I see in shopping for upgrades makes me wonder if there was just something about these books that predisposed them to spine wear/damage/splitting.

All I can add is I find the same problem with weak spines on HELP! as well.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/25/2023 at 3:25 PM, OtherEric said:

All I can add is I find the same problem with weak spines on HELP! as well.

Well, that would be around the same time frame, historically, so maybe Warren was using really cheap materials/printers in those days?

Makes me feel all the more lucky to have landed the HELP! run that I did (from these boards), because the ones I received are all fairly intact.

[Stevemmg]

That period tends to have spine issues generally, but the two white Spacemen covers, 3 and 5, are nearly impossible to find without major splitting. I was bidding on an intact 3 about 8 years ago, and it went from 50’ish dollars with a minute to go up to over $400 in a frenzied bidding war. I haven’t had nearly the trouble with the other issues. 

[The Lions Den]

On 4/25/2023 at 2:16 PM, Axe Elf said:

So one of my projects for this year is to upgrade my run of Spacemen, because other than issues #1, #8, and the Annual, all of mine have pretty significant spine splits (like 1/3 of the book or more), and issues #6 and #7 have fully split covers that are completely detached on either the front or the back, with the other cover hanging on desperately by one staple.  They look pretty good other than that, and I don't necessarily covet really high quality copies of these books--but I'd at least like to find copies that are fully intact.

But it seems like it is really, REALLY hard to find examples of these books that DON'T show some kind of extreme spine wear--most of them I see for sale are split to some extent, if not at least partially detached as well.  So just out of curiosity, does anyone have any background information that would suggest that the Spacemen magazines started out with weak spines in general?  That would seem really odd to me, but the prevalence of spine damage I see in shopping for upgrades makes me wonder if there was just something about these books that predisposed them to spine wear/damage/splitting.

Early issues of Famous Monsters seem to have the same problem. What a friend of mine used to call "clay-coat" covers. Weak spines that will split if you even look at them the wrong way...not recommended for pressing.

[Axe Elf]

Good info, thanks.

I was hoping maybe it wouldn't be too expensive to upgrade the six middle issues in the run, but it's sounding like I should be prepared to pay a premium for even mid-grade copies with nice spines--if I can find them!

[Axe Elf]

I didn't know Harris did anything with their EERIE rights until I saw this pop up on daBay recently, and of course I had to have one.

It's a nifty little compendium of about 20 stories and 3 Monster Galleries all tucked into about 150 pages.  I think they were probably planning to release more of these in a series, since all but one of the reprints is from the first 10 issues of EERIE, so either they felt there were no good EERIE stories after that, or they were more likely planning a series--but I can't find anything about any other issues, so I guess it's just a one-shot.

It was released in 1994, a couple of years after Harris did "CREEPY The Limited Series."

I'll add it to my "Other Warranted Warrenesque Warrenness" Gallery.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

On 5/1/2023 at 2:15 PM, Axe Elf said:

I didn't know Harris did anything with their EERIE rights until I saw this pop up on daBay recently, and of course I had to have one.

It's a nifty little compendium of about 20 stories and 3 Monster Galleries all tucked into about 150 pages.  I think they were probably planning to release more of these in a series, since all but one of the reprints is from the first 10 issues of EERIE, so either they felt there were no good EERIE stories after that, or they were more likely planning a series--but I can't find anything about any other issues, so I guess it's just a one-shot.

It was released in 1994, a couple of years after Harris did "CREEPY The Limited Series."

I'll add it to my "Other Warranted Warrenesque Warrenness" Gallery.

I know Cousin Eerie showed up in the 1993 Creepy Fearbook as well, but beyond that no real clue. 

I have this very vague impression that there was some complication regarding Harris's rights to the Warren material at some point, but I really don't know details.  It may have been an issue later, which explains why Dynamite has Vampi while Dark Horse is doing the other archives.  Or I could be completely mangling the story.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/2/2023 at 6:04 AM, OtherEric said:

Or I could be completely mangling the story.

I doubt it, Eric. You're clearly very experienced 

[Axe Elf]

On 5/2/2023 at 12:04 AM, OtherEric said:

Dynamite has Vampi while Dark Horse is doing the other archives.

I just wish the post-Warren Vampi stuff hadn't exploded in so many different directions; I would love to be the completist who has all of those books too.  But sheesh, between all the variant covers and such, there are probably more post-Warren Vampi books alone than there are magazines in the entire Warren catalog!

I would guess they are probably cheap enough to obtain, for the most part, but it's just a whole mess that's too peripheral to my original CREEPY/EERIE dream.  I'd be more likely to expand into Famous Monsters of Filmland than I am to covet any of the post-Warren Vampi stuff.

[OtherEric]

On 5/2/2023 at 2:55 PM, Axe Elf said:

I just wish the post-Warren Vampi stuff hadn't exploded in so many different directions; I would love to be the completist who has all of those books too.  But sheesh, between all the variant covers and such, there are probably more post-Warren Vampi books alone than there are magazines in the entire Warren catalog!

I would guess they are probably cheap enough to obtain, for the most part, but it's just a whole mess that's too peripheral to my original CREEPY/EERIE dream.  I'd be more likely to expand into Famous Monsters of Filmland than I am to covet any of the post-Warren Vampi stuff.

I tend to focus my post-Warren Vampi interest on specific creators; it's amazing how many impressive names have worked on the character over the years.

[Axe Elf]

On 5/2/2023 at 5:13 PM, OtherEric said:

I tend to focus my post-Warren Vampi interest on specific creators; it's amazing how many impressive names have worked on the character over the years.

I'm sure that's true.  The Reading Club has really opened my eyes to how interconnected the Warren books are with the rest of the comics industry through the artists that worked on them and with other publishers.  It never really occurred to me before that the same people working on Marvel or DC Comics might also be working on Warren books; I just assumed each publisher had their own "employees."  So seeing big names like Ditko and Adams, et al, in Warren mags has really been a pleasant surprise for me.  And it's not so much that I already knew about these other comic artists as it is that I'm learning about Warren artists' work for other publishers as I learn about the Warren books, and learning about the legacy of artists like Crandall and Mastroserio who came to Warren from their precursors.

[Axe Elf]

On 5/1/2023 at 4:15 PM, Axe Elf said:

I didn't know Harris did anything with their EERIE rights until I saw this pop up on daBay recently, and of course I had to have one.

It's a nifty little compendium of about 20 stories and 3 Monster Galleries all tucked into about 150 pages.  I think they were probably planning to release more of these in a series, since all but one of the reprints is from the first 10 issues of EERIE, so either they felt there were no good EERIE stories after that, or they were more likely planning a series--but I can't find anything about any other issues, so I guess it's just a one-shot.

It was released in 1994, a couple of years after Harris did "CREEPY The Limited Series."

I'll add it to my "Other Warranted Warrenesque Warrenness" Gallery.

  

So these things just keep popping up...  Not only did Harris release the EERIE's Greatest Hits volume that I discovered recently, but they also did sort of the same thing for CREEPY:

Like EERIE's Greatest Hits, CREEPY The Classic Years also compiles a score of stories from only the first few issues.  In the case of EERIE, I thought that might be because they were planning a series, but since both of them only reprint stories from the Warren "golden years," I think maybe they were just intended to be a stand-alone tribute to those early Goodwin years, rather than the start(s) of any series.  Besides, the EERIE one was printed in 1994, a couple of years after Harris did "CREEPY The Limited Series," while "CREEPY The Classic Years" was printed in 1991--the year BEFORE The Limited Series.  So the EERIE one was almost more of an afterthought, rather than a planned companion to the CREEPY one, while the CREEPY one was essentially the first thing that Harris did with their Warren properties (other than tacking one issue onto the ends of the CREEPY and VAMPIRELLA runs).  That makes its back cover basically the first re-appearance of Uncle Creepy since his retirement in the mid-80s:

Still, the two books together stand as a comprehensive 300 page, 40 story tribute to the early Goodwin era of Warren magazines.  If you were going to introduce someone to CREEPY and EERIE, these two books would be a solid and inexpensive start (I got both of them for about $32 including shipping & tax).

And also...  I sweated and fretted for the last few weeks over whether or not to purchase that back-up copy of The Best of Blazing Combat Anthology (which wouldn't have been an upgrade to my current copy)...

...when along comes a copy of The Best of Blazing Combat Anthology which IS an upgrade to my current copy--for only $3 more than the other one I was considering (and $16 less than I paid for my current copy)!

Weird thing though...  Where most copies of this book have full color reproductions of the original 4 Blazing Combat issues in the back of the book, this copy has TWO copies of the cover of Blazing Combat #1 (along with the other three as usual)!

A manufacturing defect, I presume?  All other pages appear to be present, and I don't see any other extra pages--it's just like two sheets of the cover for BC1 got swept up into the binding process instead of just one.

Anybody else ever heard/seen of this?  I hope it doesn't kill the value...

And another weird thing, where the original copy just barely fits inside the standard magazine size bags and boards I've been using, apparently that ONE EXTRA SHEET of paper makes this copy almost impossible to squeeze into a standard bag w/ board--I mean, I COULD, but I'm concerned it would damage the book, either shoving it in, or just developing stress lines from the tension over time, or whatever.

So I decided to bag it WITHOUT a board, and that allows it to slide easily into the bag.  It kind of irritates my OCD to have one book without a board, but it's not like this book really NEEDS a board anyway.  It's not some flimsy 16-wrap comic that will develop a spine crease if you blow on it, it's a 3/8th inch thick square-bound compendium with a cardstock cover.  The board can't possibly add a whole lot of rigidity.  I suppose it might help guard against "corner bangs" or something, but the book is just going to be sitting between other boarded books on a bookshelf, so that shouldn't be much of a concern anyway.

So what do you all say, think it's safe to store that book in a bag without a board?  About the only other thing I could try would be to trim a board down by about 1/8th of an inch along one side, since the board is currently about 1/16th wider than the book on each side--that would probably give me enough slack to get it in the bag with a trimmed board.

Thoughts?

 

[Axe Elf]

I decided I didn't have enough CREEPY #1s yet; this makes 3...  the CGC 9.0 in the slab, the one with the barely attached cover, and this passable reader.  The only thing I don't like about it is that it's cut a little high, so there's a wider-than-usual top margin, and you don't really see all of the chain at the bottom, but ce la vie...

I think I'm satisfied now.