Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[OtherEric]

Bonus image:  The cover of Shock Suspenstories #17, illustrating "Four-Sided Triangle", since I mentioned it above:

 

[Axe Elf]

On 8/13/2023 at 12:30 AM, OtherEric said:

No need to keep you hanging in suspense, @Axe Elf:  It's NOT a vampire story.

LOL

Thanks, man...!

You've got me psyched up; it sounds like a good issue!

Edited August 13, 2023 by Axe Elf

[Jayman]

On 8/13/2023 at 1:30 AM, OtherEric said:

I must respectfully disagree with the indexer calling it "ugly", although I'll agree it's not Bode's best cover for the Warrens.  You can see another Bode-Gogos cover on the previous page of this thread.

I also “respectively disagree” although I again have to admit, seeing this cover in the back issue listings as a tiny 1x1.5 inch black and white pic never piqued my interest. Seeing it in person, it is grand with its bold use of color! Never knew Gogos and Bode teamed up on a cover before. @OtherEric What was the other cover you mentioned they did on the previous page? Wasn’t that Bode and Todd?

[OtherEric]

On 8/13/2023 at 7:25 AM, Jayman said:

I also “respectively disagree” although I again have to admit, seeing this cover in the back issue listings as a tiny 1x1.5 inch black and white pic never piqued my interest. Seeing it in person, it is grand with its bold use of color! Never knew Gogos and Bode teamed up on a cover before. @OtherEric What was the other cover you mentioned they did on the previous page? Wasn’t that Bode and Todd?

[Axe Elf]

I think I like the cover to EERIE #26 even more now that I've read the story that it foreshadows, "I Wouldn't Want to Live There."  My first impression was that it was probably inspired by "2001: A Space Oddity," which was at the time a recent 1968 release, given the theme of an alien object influencing mankind's evolution on Earth.  But then I got to thinking it might have also been inspired by Erich Von Daniken's controversial "Chariots of the Gods"--which also dealt with the possibility of ancient alien influences on early man--but I didn't think that had been released until the mid-70s.  Sure enough, a little research reveals that it also came out in 1968, so there may have been some of that concept in there as well.

I keep coming back to it, but one of my favorite things about the Warren Magazine Reading Club is putting the issues into their historical perspective, and this really took me back to that time, with the 70s being a new decade, after we had all just watched the moon landing on TV in August of 1969, when we felt like we were on the threshold of breaking the limits of gravity and interplanetary travel seemed like it was within our reach and speculation and imagination ran rampant--before we realized just how hard it would be to get anywhere at all outside of our own solar system.

Anyway, with all of these historical markers and my own personal experiences invoked by this story, I enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed a Warren story in a long time; it was worth the price of admission all by itself.  Even the art was sufficiently detailed, yet sufficiently vague, to express the tone of the tale engagingly.

Got a little ahead of myself in my excitement to review the first story...

"EERIE's Monster Gallery" was again more of a Lore than a Monster--"Body Snatchers."

The "Dear Cousin Eerie" page started with a criticism that hasn't aged well...

The conclusion of "Southern Exposure" wasn't really worth the wait; it does seem like the story could have been handled all in one issue.  I don't know if the theory that Tom Sutton was rushed for time on this one, as we speculated with Part 1, really holds water, though, when you consider that Sutton also did another story for this issue--so he must have caught up, anyway.

We did get one more panel reminiscent of the Stedanko cover on EERIE #25 though:

"In the Neck of Time" was an enjoyable premise (and thankfully not another vampire tale!), though I'm not sure the "double twist" was entirely necessary--either just bring him back dead a little too late, or bring him back "in the nick of time," only to be incinerated in the fire.  It's kind of a stretch to burn down the lab but still have the machine work well enough to bring him home.

The only thing of interest in "EERIE Fan Fare" this month was the pic of someone dressed as the gal on Frazetta's EERIE #23 cover at a convention in St. Louis.  I guess the Al Hewetson bio came in second, but the fan stories--even though there were three of them this time--were all pretty lightweight, as usual.

The second Sutton piece in this issue, "Spiders Are Revolting," is more reminiscent of the kinds of stories I remember from CREEPY/EERIE in the late 70s--though it's still a little monster movie, at least it's not a traditional monster like a vampire or werewolf.  It's not really clear how spiders can take over (and speak through) a human body, but I liked it, and I can see why it became a popular reprint.

I liked "The Scarecrow," too, as the twist wasn't obvious, yet it was well-woven within the story once it came together.  I didn't notice any particular lack of continuity between pages 48 and 49 as noted by @OtherEric; I guess there could be more about how they got to the place where they could be alone, once it was mentioned, but I just assumed their uninteresting trip to the cornfield took place with the turn of the page.

This new artist Piscopo is good with women's bodies; they all seem to have "butterfaces" though ("she's hot, but her face..."):

"Tuned In" brought a little psychological horror to the issue, and I tend to like those stories pretty well.  It's not an all-time great or anything, but it was more than filler.

"Cyked Out" seemed more like filler.  (Tuned IN/Cyked OUT from the same author? Cute.)  But even though it was maybe more cartoon than horror, it was still entertaining enough.  Kinda have to chuckle at @OtherEric's suggestion of playing out the "gang war" after the twist--it could be kind of a monster version of "West Side Story"--and it could even be a musical, given the author's other story, "Tuned In"!  ("When you're a bat you're a bat all the way, from your first jug'lar vein to your last wooden stake...")

All in all this is the best issue I've read in some time, and way better than the last couple of CREEPYs.  I didn't have any strong negative reactions to any of the stories; even though most of them were pretty lightweight, they were still fun and entertaining to read, and I didn't have to work too hard to follow the plots/characters like some of the recent offerings.  And after the highly thought-provoking opener, the lightweight entertainment was especially welcome.

Good job, Cousin Eerie!

[The Lions Den]

On 8/18/2023 at 6:56 PM, Axe Elf said:

My first impression was that it was probably inspired by "2001: A Space Oddity," which was at the time a recent 1968 release,

Didn't know you were a Bowie fan, but that's cool...  

On 8/18/2023 at 6:56 PM, Axe Elf said:

We did get one more panel reminiscent of the Stedanko cover on EERIE #25 though:

 

And a Cheech and Chong fan, too...right on, right on...  

[Axe Elf]

On 8/19/2023 at 5:02 PM, The Lions Den said:

Didn't know you were a Bowie fan, but that's cool...  

And a Cheech and Chong fan, too...right on, right on...  

Too funny.  I was even looking at the cover of #25 when I got the link to it.  That might have been a typo, given the proximity of the d and the r...

But yeah the Oddity/Odyssey one was a crossed wire.

Edited August 20, 2023 by Axe Elf

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #32 - April 1970

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

32. cover: Frank Frazetta (Apr. 1970)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Androids! [Tom Sutton] 1p   [frontis]

2) The Story Behind The Rock God [Bill Parente?/Frank Frazetta & Neal Adams] 1p   [text article]

3) Rock God [Neal Adams] 13p   from the story by Harlan Ellison

4) Death Is A Lonely Place [Bill Warren/Bill Black] 7p

5) I…Executioner [Don Glut/Mike Royer] 6p

6) A Wall Of Privacy [Nicola Cuti/Ernie Colon] 6p   [art credited to David Sinclair]

7) The Creepy Fan Page: To Uncle Creepy/Brief Impulse/The Clock/The Horror At Midnight/News Item [Michael Paumgardhen, Christopher Laube, Paul J. DeBlasio, Steve Casaw, G. S. Boyde & Bill Parente/Kenneth Smith, George Hrycun & Ken Johnson] 2p   [poems & text stories]

8) V.A.M.P.I.R.E. [Bill Warren/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 8p

9) Movie Dissector! [R. Michael Rosen/Bill DuBay] 6p

10) The 3:14 Is Right On Time! [Ken Dixon/Billy Graham] 7p

Notes: The first all-new issue of Creepy since #16 and it was pretty darn good too!  Frazetta’s cover, which was supposed to depict Ellison’s gigantic Rock God, actually appears to be a human-size monster or troll, looking down at a European village.  I’ve heard various reasons for this—both that Frazetta only had a paragraph of Ellison’s prose story to fashion his cover from (which seems likely) or that this was actually an inventory cover from 1967.  I’d normally discount the inventory cover version since it’s hard to imagine Jim Warren leaving a bought and paid for Frazetta cover sitting on the shelf for two years.  Except for one thing.  Warren actually did that with a 1971 Frazetta cover done for a proposed Warren magazine entitled POW!  That cover, depicting ‘Queen Kong’, went unpublished for seven years!  It should also be noted that my giving Neal Adams credit for the adaptation of Ellison’s story is taking into account that Ellison wrote his prose story with the full intent that it be adapted (specifically by Adams) for the Warren line.  Not the usual state of affairs for adaptations at all.  Regardless, it’s a darn fine story.  Adams used Jim Warren himself as the model for the villain of the tale.  Kenneth Smith, an underground & fanzine artist made his mainstream debut on the fan page.  Brant Withers, a fan page artist, suggested on the letters’ page that an artist contest, similar to the previous year’s writer’s contest, take place but it never happened.  Bill DuBay made his professional art debut.  After ‘Rock God’, the best story & art was ‘The 3:14 Is Right On Time!’ by Dixon & Graham.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are those words again--"ALL NEW!"  Be still, my fluttering heart...

And I'm pretty stoked after the last EERIE being pretty good, as this one sounds like it should be pretty good too--the return of Neal Adams!  Adapting Harlan Ellison!  Debut of Bill Dubay?  (Why do I recognize that name--was he on a Fan Page before or something?)  More Billy Graham, whose art I have liked a lot so far.  A cameo from Jim Warren's likeness!  And an article from Adams and Frazetta talking about their work??  Fuhgeddaboudit...

And I think I remember hearing one of my Warren mentors here @oakman29 tell about how he became obsessed with Frazetta after being commissioned to do a rendition of this cover--so I hope we will hear from him this week--about the cover from an artist's point of view, and/or about the issue itself!  Maybe show us his version?

I trust that "Rock God" is not about Gene Simmons... though come to think of it, he would have been right at home in a Warren mag.

And oh look, a V.A.M.P.I.R.E. story--you're not fooling me; I can spell, you know!!

[OtherEric]

Creepy #32 thoughts:

General issue note:  this issue is listed as "scarce" in Overstreet, and it ties for the third most valuable according to the listings.  I'm really not sure why, it's not particularly hard to find, and it doesn't have the excuse the Eerie #17 or Vampirella #3 do of having sold out unusually early in the back issue ads.  They were asking $20 for it near the end of the run, which was even more than the #1, though.  This was actually one of the earliest Warren issues I got when I started picking them up more consistently a few years ago rather than the handful of odd issues I had gotten over the years.  I want to say I got it from @TerrysComics at the Jet City Comic Show (now Grit City) in Tacoma for $10.

Cover:  I agree with the indexer that it looks to me like a more human sized creature staring down on the town, but there really isn't that much to indicate the scale properly and I figure Ellison interpreting it as a giant is equally valid.  More comments further on.

Loathsome Lore:  Sutton is really good at these, which is probably why they keep assigning them to him.  Not his best but still pretty decent.

The Story Behind the Story:  While I'm sure some of this is perhaps exaggerated, it says here... and Ellison repeated it other places... that the cover came first and Ellison based the story on the cover.  So I'm really not sure why the index seems confused on the sequence of events here.  It's also worth noting that this unusual hype page is probably a rare case where a story probably deserved the hype, at least in terms of the creative team.  Ellison was a highly respected writer who had won multiple awards, Neal Adams was probably the hottest artist in comics at this point, compared to his debut in the Warrens a few years earlier, and Frazetta was, well, Frazetta.  Getting them as a team on a story was undeniably a coup for Warren at this point.

Rock God:  Comics were never Ellison's primary writing, but he dipped his toe into the field pretty much throughout his long career.  He's another EC alumnus they got for Warren, with his first professional sale being a story in Weird Science-Fantasy.  His Warren output ties his EC output... one story each per publisher.  The short story version of Rock God appeared at close to the same time as the comic version, in the November 1969 issue of the short-lived digest "Cover 13".  No, I never heard of it before I just looked it up either.  I've never felt this was one of Ellison's better stories, in either text or comic form, honestly.  But the Adams art is magnificent, and lesser Ellison still hits a fairly high minimum level of quality.

Death is a Lonely Place:  A nice, moody, introspective piece.  I almost want to describe it as an un-horror story, taking the trappings of horror to tell a story that really isn't.  Great stuff.

I... Executioner:  I guessed the twist on page three.  Decent filler for the issue, but nothing terribly impressive.

A Wall of Privacy:  A great concept, a very nice twist, and great art by Colon (as David StClair for some reason).

V.A.M.P.I.R.E.:  I can only assume this was meant as a parody and the writer failed at the goal.  "Willamsune"'s art seems rather uninspired by the -script as well.

Movie Dissector:  Amusing but slight, I have almost nothing to say on this one.

The 3:14 is Right on Time:  An excellent conclusion to the issue.  Billy Graham continues to amaze me, and Ken Dixon provided a story worth of his talents, with a surprisingly sympathetic murderer character.  Great stuff.

Overall, a very good issue, but I'm starting to wonder if increasing the page count back up wasn't slightly counterproductive, and we might have a better book if they dropped one or two of the lesser stories.  I'm definitely not sure about that, though, because often you can't tell what will work and what won't until it's actually done, at which point they pretty much need to print it to stay in business.  Never mind the fact that creators get better by making mistakes.

 

[The Lions Den]

On 8/20/2023 at 1:00 AM, Axe Elf said:

Debut of Bill Dubay?  (Why do I recognize that name--was he on a Fan Page before or something?)

Yessir, you are correct...   

[The Lions Den]

On 8/20/2023 at 1:05 AM, OtherEric said:

The Story Behind the Story:  While I'm sure some of this is perhaps exaggerated, it says here... and Ellison repeated it other places... that the cover came first and Ellison based the story on the cover.  So I'm really not sure why the index seems confused on the sequence of events here.  It's also worth noting that this unusual hype page is probably a rare case where a story probably deserved the hype, at least in terms of the creative team.  Ellison was a highly respected writer who had won multiple awards, Neal Adams was probably the hottest artist in comics at this point, compared to his debut in the Warrens a few years earlier, and Frazetta was, well, Frazetta.  Getting them as a team on a story was undeniably a coup for Warren at this point.

Arguably the most important story Warren ever published...fascinating for any number of reasons.  

[oakman29]

On 8/19/2023 at 10:05 PM, OtherEric said:

Creepy #32 thoughts:

General issue note:  this issue is listed as "scarce" in Overstreet, and it ties for the third most valuable according to the listings.  I'm really not sure why, it's not particularly hard to find, and it doesn't have the excuse the Eerie #17 or Vampirella #3 do of having sold out unusually early in the back issue ads.  They were asking $20 for it near the end of the run, which was even more than the #1, though.  This was actually one of the earliest Warren issues I got when I started picking them up more consistently a few years ago rather than the handful of odd issues I had gotten over the years.  I want to say I got it from @TerrysComics at the Jet City Comic Show (now Grit City) in Tacoma for $10.

Cover:  I agree with the indexer that it looks to me like a more human sized creature staring down on the town, but there really isn't that much to indicate the scale properly and I figure Ellison interpreting it as a giant is equally valid.  More comments further on.

Loathsome Lore:  Sutton is really good at these, which is probably why they keep assigning them to him.  Not his best but still pretty decent.

The Story Behind the Story:  While I'm sure some of this is perhaps exaggerated, it says here... and Ellison repeated it other places... that the cover came first and Ellison based the story on the cover.  So I'm really not sure why the index seems confused on the sequence of events here.  It's also worth noting that this unusual hype page is probably a rare case where a story probably deserved the hype, at least in terms of the creative team.  Ellison was a highly respected writer who had won multiple awards, Neal Adams was probably the hottest artist in comics at this point, compared to his debut in the Warrens a few years earlier, and Frazetta was, well, Frazetta.  Getting them as a team on a story was undeniably a coup for Warren at this point.

Rock God:  Comics were never Ellison's primary writing, but he dipped his toe into the field pretty much throughout his long career.  He's another EC alumnus they got for Warren, with his first professional sale being a story in Weird Science-Fantasy.  His Warren output ties his EC output... one story each per publisher.  The short story version of Rock God appeared at close to the same time as the comic version, in the November 1969 issue of the short-lived digest "Cover 13".  No, I never heard of it before I just looked it up either.  I've never felt this was one of Ellison's better stories, in either text or comic form, honestly.  But the Adams art is magnificent, and lesser Ellison still hits a fairly high minimum level of quality.

Death is a Lonely Place:  A nice, moody, introspective piece.  I almost want to describe it as an un-horror story, taking the trappings of horror to tell a story that really isn't.  Great stuff.

I... Executioner:  I guessed the twist on page three.  Decent filler for the issue, but nothing terribly impressive.

A Wall of Privacy:  A great concept, a very nice twist, and great art by Colon (as David StClair for some reason).

V.A.M.P.I.R.E.:  I can only assume this was meant as a parody and the writer failed at the goal.  "Willamsune"'s art seems rather uninspired by the --script as well.

Movie Dissector:  Amusing but slight, I have almost nothing to say on this one.

The 3:14 is Right on Time:  An excellent conclusion to the issue.  Billy Graham continues to amaze me, and Ken Dixon provided a story worth of his talents, with a surprisingly sympathetic murderer character.  Great stuff.

Overall, a very good issue, but I'm starting to wonder if increasing the page count back up wasn't slightly counterproductive, and we might have a better book if they dropped one or two of the lesser stories.  I'm definitely not sure about that, though, because often you can't tell what will work and what won't until it's actually done, at which point they pretty much need to print it to stay in business.  Never mind the fact that creators get better by making mistakes.

 

Thanks for the kudos in your story.

Yes,I drew this on charcoal for a board member, and am obsessed with Frazetta's work ever since. This piece literally took me 6 months to complete.  That's how crazy awesome Frazetta's work is. 

[Axe Elf]

On 8/20/2023 at 10:25 AM, oakman29 said:

Thanks for the kudos in your story.

Yes,I drew this on charcoal for a board member, and am obsessed with Frazetta's work ever since. This piece literally took me 6 months to complete.  That's how crazy awesome Frazetta's work is. 

VERY COOL!  And very good!

I like the way the legs kind of melt into the rock--which signifies to me quite subtly that the creature is a part of the rock, not standing on it--a Rock God.

[oakman29]

On 8/20/2023 at 1:16 PM, Axe Elf said:

VERY COOL!  And very good!

I like the way the legs kind of melt into the rock--which signifies to me quite subtly that the creature is a part of the rock, not standing on it--a Rock God.

Exactly,  part of the Rock.

[OtherEric]

On 8/20/2023 at 4:20 AM, The Lions Den said:

Arguably the most important story Warren ever published...fascinating for any number of reasons.  

I'm curious why you think this is the most important story Warren published.  I can see a case being made for it, but it doesn't strike me as an obvious candidate for the title either.

[The Lions Den]

On 8/21/2023 at 1:56 AM, OtherEric said:

I'm curious why you think this is the most important story Warren published.  I can see a case being made for it, but it doesn't strike me as an obvious candidate for the title either.

Well, I used the word "important" because of the overall historical magnitude of this story. Not only because of the rare combination of talent involved, but also because of the ultimate reversal of fortune that would take place in the future between Warren and Ellison. Not the best story, but historically very significant... 

[Axe Elf]

Obviously, the centerpiece of this issue--and the most intriguing story in many issues--is the confluence of talent that produced "Rock God."  I was near-giddy with excitement, just reading "The Story Behind the Story," and my expectations were understandably quite high--and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed.

It was a pretty wordy piece, but I was ok with that, since the author was Harlan Ellison, and it read pretty easily and provocatively, so I didn't mind having a lot of text, and of course the Neal Adams art was insanely good.  Doesn't it just seem like a couple of months ago that we were celebrating Neal Adams' debut in CREEPY #14, and now he's already a famed contributor?

It really felt like this was going to be an epic, sprawling story that would encompass many of our rock-based myths and legends--I loved how they tied in all the "holy" rocks from various cultures as gifts from the Rock God--and then, just as DIS awakened... it was over!

I thought I was missing a page or something.  "NOW men would know why the Rock God had gone to sleep?"  Ok, why??  I expected a couple more pages of denouement, as the Earth opens up and swallows up the city, or turns the city to stone, or something.  I guess leaving it to the imagination is a valid plot device, but I was really hoping for more of a conclusion to what had been one of the most ballyhooed stories Warren ever ran.  It didn't ruin my enjoyment of the artistry that had gone before, but instead of being awash in horror comic bliss, the abrupt ending left me feeling a little cheated of that.

I did like how the Rock God's feet kind of disappeared into the city streets in the final panel, just like how they did on Frazetta's cover.  It feels like Adams probably transferred that concept from the original art--and of course the "Jim Warren" cameo was a nice touch as well.

And now, for the rest of the magazine.

Once again, we have a "Loathsome Lore" that is more of a Monster Gallery--a single image of an android.  It's a cool drawing, though.

The most surprising thing from the "Mail" pages to me was the number of people who thought CREEPY #30 was really good.

And as usual, the "CREEPY Fan Club" didn't offer anything of any substance, although you don't see an illustration of a hippie army worm every day.  On a personal note, there were contributions from Wichita, Kansas, to both the letters page and the fan club--so a little home-state shout out there.

The simplistic line drawings of Bill Black stood at a contrast to Adams' more nuanced shading, but it was still pretty psychedelic.

I quickly forgot about the art, though, as I enjoyed the mood of "Death is a Lonely Place."  Yeah, ok, it was a vampire story, but one with a twist--the vampires aren't usually suicidal over their human lovers.  I like how @OtherEric described it, as an un-horror piece, taking the trappings of horror to tell a story that really isn't.  Well-said.

"I... Executioner" was a bit of a let-down after the first two pieces.  The history of executioners is some deep, dark secret that "few men have ever heard for untold ages"?  Seems like the reporter could have written his story with a quick trip to the local library, without having to interview an actual executioner.  And would a doctor, in declaring the execution victim dead, actually say, "Heart beat... pulse... both negative"?  The heart beat IS the pulse; duh.  Moving on...

I was really liking "A Wall of Privacy" right up until the end--I thought it was a clever little premise--but if this "free zone" where the Earth's magnetic anomalies prevent the Eyes from functioning turns out to be only five feet wide--why bother walling it off at all?  Even if the Eyes couldn't fly through that five foot zone, they could still SEE through it--it's not like people in the zone would be free from their scrutiny.  Dumb story, but very interesting art.  Some panels are very simplistic, and others almost look like photographs.

Is "David St. Clair" an actual pseudonym for Ernie Colon, or was the art just mis-credited to the wrong person?

"V.A.M.P.I.R.E.," while being dumber than some of the Fan Page contributions, still touched on some things that I find interesting in the historical perspective of computers at that time--and even now.  I mean, here's this huge computer, the size of a room, and it seems to have less computational power than our smartphones of today--and yet even today, we still have this vague fear that the computers and their artificial intelligence may one day become self-aware and rebel against their human creators.  Unfortunately for us, there are battery packs these days, so the rebel computers won't be tethered to their outlets.  And how dumb WAS the computer, anyway, if it didn't realize it needed electrical power?  I guess it was so dumb that it couldn't even spell "mechanized."

"Movie Dissector" gave us a new artist, who apparently had appeared only in the Fan Club previously.  It wasn't Neal Adams, but it was pleasant enough, so I hope Bill DuBay gets more work for Warren.  The story itself was almost as juvenile as the characters IN the story, but since the only far-fetched thing I had to swallow was an audience full of closeted monsters, I actually enjoyed it more than some of the more credibility-stretching earlier stories.  It's nothing I'll remember in ten years, but it didn't bother me to read it.

And with all due respect to the trio of absolute titans that brought us Rock God, "The 3:14 is Right On Time" was frankly the best story and art of the issue, in my opinion.  It was in a sense a love story, but also a ghost story, and both narratives were tightly plotted without any holes to make me roll my eyes.  And Billy Graham's art just made me stop to admire it on several occasions--like when we first meet the hero...

...and his ghost arriving at the station...

...just brilliant work.

So it's not a perfect issue, but it was an ALL-NEW issue, and despite a few lightweight filler pieces and some dumb plot holes, the monumental importance of "Rock God" and the unexpected quality of "The 3:14 is Right On Time"--and even the moody "Death is a Lonely Place"--make this issue a marked improvement over the last couple of CREEPYs.  Hopefully it will be a trend.

[OtherEric]

On 8/25/2023 at 4:24 PM, Axe Elf said:

 I hope Bill DuBay gets more work for Warren.  

A search of the Warren index page gives 560 hits for Bill DuBay.  Most of that is Editor or Writer rather than artist, though, but I think he has the most credits for Warren of anybody, unless you only count each issue once, in which case James Warren probably wins as publisher.

[The Lions Den]

On 8/25/2023 at 7:24 PM, Axe Elf said:

Is "David St. Clair" an actual pseudonym for Ernie Colon, or was the art just mis-credited to the wrong person?

I believe David St. Clair (I've also seen it listed as "Sinclair") is a pseudonym for Ernie Colon. Apparently, he also once used the name "Jack Purcell" for a Skywald story...  

 

On 8/25/2023 at 7:24 PM, Axe Elf said:

And as usual, the "CREEPY Fan Club" didn't offer anything of any substance, although you don't see an illustration of a hippie army worm every day.

I believe this was Kenneth Smith's mainstream debut.   

 

On 8/25/2023 at 7:24 PM, Axe Elf said:

It wasn't Neal Adams, but it was pleasant enough, so I hope Bill DuBay gets more work for Warren. 

It's interesting to note that this issue features his first real work for Warren, since he soon became such an important figure there...   

 

On 8/25/2023 at 7:24 PM, Axe Elf said:

The most surprising thing from the "Mail" pages to me was the number of people who thought CREEPY #30 was really good.

    That's good stuff...

Edited August 26, 2023 by The Lions Den

[Axe Elf]

On 8/25/2023 at 8:12 PM, The Lions Den said:

I believe this was Kenneth Smith's mainstream debut.

I saw that in the notes, but I don't know who that is--other than the "underground and fanzine artist" description given--so I guess I should have said nothing of substance, "to me."

So... who is it?  I have "some" familiarity with the more well-known underground stuff, but not extensive.