Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[Axe Elf]

So I happily unbagged my undercopy of EERIE #29, happy to be reading the first physical copy of a Warren magazine since EERIE #27 back on Labor Day, but I was about to get a shock.

I didn't really bother to read the anti-war editorial again, but I had just cruised through "Dear Cousin EERIE" (I never thought that girl looked much like Vampirella anyway) and was happily making my way toward the end of the first story, "Loophole," when I found it.  Someone had cut out the rocket and planet panel from the first page of the next story, "The Fiend Planet," leaving a big hole in the final page of the first story!

ARGH!  I mean, it's not a huge blow; I'd graded the undercopy about a 3.5 anyway, but treating it as an interior coupon cut out of a story page, I guess it's about a 1.0 now, although the 0.5 "Incomplete" designation makes some sense too.  Seems like there is a lot better art in this issue to cut out rather than this largely black panel, but I guess someone really liked space or something.  Anyway, I had to go back to a digital version to read what was missing.

Once the girl disappeared in "Loophole," I could kind of see the twist coming, in that they were probably going to do something to make everyone disappear--but I really wasn't expecting the crossover from "science" fiction to "religious" fiction when they prevented the human race from ever existing by killing Adam and Eve!  It's kind of an eye-roller, but at the same time, it's kind of cute, and definitely unexpected!

The EERIE sci-fi theme continues with "The Fiend Planet," but its resolution was even more of an eye-roller.  Maybe the humans wouldn't have been so quick to fear the "aliens" if they had spoken to them in English (as they did on the last page of the story), rather than that "tiki-wik-wik" nonsense.  "Genetically modified" to live in the Gamma quadrant?  Why??  The other humans didn't need to be genetically modified, and they were expecting other non-genetically modified humans to join them, so that's just some kind of silly MacGuffin to make the story work.

"Bloodstaff" on the other hand was a fairly solid piece of sword & sorcery; that it was written and illustrated by the same person--and a new contributor at that--makes it all the more remarkable.  Some of the little touches, like seeing his demon reflection in the water, or the demon footprints that never left the camp, I didn't appreciate until I went back looking for clues, but it's really a very well-told story, and the art was more than competent.

I wasn't nearly as fond of "Gallery of Horror," although the concept for the story was interesting.  I just didn't get the end--was there actually a giant spider living in the house, or was there a painting of a giant spider on the ceiling that he neglected to destroy, or the spider got out of its painting before he destroyed it, or what?

As the "cover story" (?) written by Nick Cuti and illustrated by Tom Sutton, "The Vorpal Sword," was probably the highlight of the issue.  I mean, if you were going to cut some art out of this issue, I would think you would cut THIS out, instead of that relatively barren spacescape:

Magnificent.

Again, the twist is a bit of an eye-roller, but again, it's kind of a cute one--especially after she began apologizing for her "rotundness."  I just have to think that in reproducing with a vorpal sword, one runs a very real risk of adult circumcision or even castration, but I guess love makes one do crazy things.

I thought it was a little weird that the "Fan Fare" pages included a professional artist's illustrations paired with what appeared to be a regular fan fiction--"The Tomb of Ankh-Ra"--although I must admit that this fan fiction was much better written than the usual fare, so if any fan fiction deserved professional illustrations, it was this one.  "The Headsman," paired with Frazetta's CREEPY #17 cover, wasn't as good, but still above par.

"Strange Getaway" seems out of place in a horror magazine.  There's the typical sci-fi/fantasy aspects that EERIE leans toward, but a happy ending??  The mirror actually led them out of their struggling existence into a paradise where they lived happily ever after?  It didn't cost them their firstborn, or condemn them to some horrible dimension-traveling disease?  I think I want my money back...

I thought I could see the ending to "Snow Job" coming--the sherpa guide IS the yeti, right?  Well, close; but surprise!  The guides are all werewolves perpetuating the yeti myth to draw in victims!  Ah-HA!  Ya got me there!

Overall, this was a fairly pleasant issue to read (other than discovering a third of one page cut out of my undercopy)!  It didn't have any real "must-read" stories, but for an issue with several new and newish contributors involved, it also didn't have a lot of major problems, either--and it's the first Ken Kelley EERIE cover!

[The Lions Den]

On 11/10/2023 at 6:39 PM, Axe Elf said:

ARGH!  I mean, it's not a huge blow; I'd graded the undercopy about a 3.5 anyway, but treating it as an interior coupon cut out of a story page, I guess it's about a 1.0 now, although the 0.5 "Incomplete" designation makes some sense too.

It shouldn't be too expensive to find a better copy of this issue, although finding a really nice one may be a bit more difficult. And I always liked the cover of this one...  

[Axe Elf]

On 11/11/2023 at 1:07 PM, The Lions Den said:

It shouldn't be too expensive to find a better copy of this issue, although finding a really nice one may be a bit more difficult. And I always liked the cover of this one...  

Actually the copy that I posted to kick off the week is my upgrade; I found it for $20, and I would grade it around a 6.5. The undercopy with the panel cut out already had a big (2") tear in the bottom of the cover, a small piece out near the top of the spine, and a lot more general wear.

 

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #7 - September 1970

Even among my unexpectedly nice copies of the early Vampirellas, #7 stands out as nearly perfect, with only the tiniest of flaws.  I believe it could be a 9.6 in my humble amateur opinion.

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

7. cover: Frank Frazetti (Sept. 1970)

1) An Editorial To The President Of The United States And All The Members Of Congress [James Warren] 1p   [text article, frontis]

2) Why A Witch Trilogy?  [Archie Goodwin?/Frank Frazetta & Billy Graham] 1p   [text article]

3) Prologue: Three Witches [Nicola Cuti/Tom Sutton] 1p

4) The White Witch! [Nicola Cuti/Tom Sutton] 7p

5) The Mind Witch [Nicola Cuti/Ernie Colon] 7p

6) The Black Witch! [Nicola Cuti/Billy Grahma] 7p

7) Epilogue: Three Witches [Nicola Cuti/Tom Sutton] 1p

8) Plague Of The Wolfe [Doug Moench/Frank Bolle] 7p

9) Terror Test! [R. Michael Rosen/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 7p

10) Vampi’s Flames: Dan Adkins Profile/The Morning Sun/Then Wednesday Afternoon Club [Dan Adkins/Brian Carrick & Ted Dasen/Toby Caputo] 2p   [text article/stories]

11) The Survivor [Buddy Saunders/Ernie Colon] 6p

12) The Collection Creation [R. Michael Rosen/Jerry Grandenetti] 6p   [miscredited to Tony Williamsune]

Notes: An excellent issue!  Archie Goodwin became an Associate Editor.  Frank Frazetta’s corker of a cover showed a witch/shaman with her sabre-tooth cat.  The Three Witches stories by Cuti were all quite good and very well drawn.  Grandenetti’s work on ‘The Collection Creation’ was worthy of note as well.

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Frank Frazetti!  LOL!

I think my favorite thing about this cover is the least interesting thing on it--the rock they're standing on.  The exposed face of the rock has kind of a shiny, oily appearance like the way mica looks when it flakes away (thanks to my 4H Geology experience)--or maybe some other igneous formation that was hewn apart by a cleaving weapon of untold size and power at some point... or something.  I also love how so much of the beast ISN'T drawn, but only imagined in full blackness.

So a witch trilogy, eh?  Sounds like fun, especially given that they were all written by Nick Cuti but illustrated by 3 different but experienced artists.  And speaking of artists, we get a Dan Adkins profile on the Flames pages; those are always my favorite fan features.  Grandenetti, on the other hand, can be hit or miss at times, but the Index seems to like his work here, so we'll see...

[OtherEric]

I thought I had already posted my thoughts on this issue, and I can't find my notes, so let's try and reconstruct my thoughts.  I'll start by noting this is one of the first issues I got, before I had even really begun collecting the title.  I found this and #8 for $10 each at a half price books a few years ago, I doubt many people in the magazine forums would have passed that up.  But it was one of the early finds that started me looking for Warrens beyond the small handful I had.

Vamiprella #7 thoughts:

Cover:  An iconic Frazetta piece of work.  Not much to add.

Why a Witch Trilogy:  I admire the ambition and creativity on this; it's some of Cuti's best work to date and all three artists turn in spectacular work.  But it seems to me like the sum was less than the parts of the individual stories. At least a couple of the characters seemed to be very atypical witches, and it feels like they over-stretched to try and turn it into a thematic trilogy.  It probably would have worked better for me as three separate stories, minus the hype.

Plague of the Wolf:  Serviceable filler with a painfully obvious twist

Terror Test:  Actually a fairly surprising twist, at least to me, but some of the worst "Williamsune" art I've seen yet, to the point I wonder if the credit is wrong.

The Survivor:  A very good story from Saunders & Colon, although I wonder if it was originally intended for one of the other books... the paste-ins of Vampi as narrator are painfully obvious.

The Collection of Creation:  I'm still not a fan of Grandenetti, and this one didn't have the creative tricks that sometimes make me appreciate his work even if I'm not enjoying it as such.

Really, a very solid issue overall, although I think they overplayed there hand on the Witch Trilogy- it would have landed better as three separate stories. Also, with the benefit of foresight, we know that this issue is really the last of the false start before we get the serious Vampirella series.  That's probably coloring my opinion some.

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by OtherEric

[The Lions Den]

I view this issue as an ambitious experiment, and yet another case of Warren trying to match a gorgeous Frazetta cover to a suitable storyline. I remember seeing it on the stands and it certainly stood out in the crowd.

It's still one of my favorite books in the run...  

[Jayman]

Great issue and one of my favorite early Vampis. As a kid though, I used to wonder why he painted a Sabre tooth bear? For years I thought it looked more like a bear than cat mostly due to the coloring and tail I guess. 

[Axe Elf]

On 11/17/2023 at 2:07 AM, OtherEric said:

I'll start by noting this is one of the first issues I got, before I had even really begun collecting the title.  I found this and #8 for $10 each at a half price books a few years ago, I doubt many people in the magazine forums would have passed that up.  But it was one of the early finds that started me looking for Warrens beyond the small handful I had.

Sweet "origin story"!

[Axe Elf]

I already talked about how the rock was my favorite part of the cover, so I'll launch straightaway into "Vampi's Scarlet Letters."  The two most interesting letters were both somewhat critical; one in a softer, more nostalgic vein for the old EC horror comics, but the other was pretty much an in-depth full frontal criticism.  I give credit to the Warren brass for not sweeping the criticisms under the rug, but it seemed like a lot of space devoted to criticism this month!  There were some short notes of praise too, but the two long critical letters are the ones that stuck with me the most.  If you don't like it, don't buy it; why take the time to write and tell them how much it sucks?

The best part of "Vampi's Flames" was of course the bio of Dan Adkins.  I didn't realize his work on EERIE and Blazing Combat was among his first-ever paid art!  It seemed so mature even back then!  As for the fan contributions... well, as usual, the art was better than the fiction--so back to the paid writers...

I was at first enchanted by the opening of "The White Witch," especially the depiction of her as a singer, and her albums, which all spoke of "whiteness" in some way, while still foreshadowing the "child of darkness" theme...

...but as the story developed, it kind of devolved into silliness.  The origin story of a bunch of moths flying from the mother's grave to a tower where a giant caterpillar spun a cocoon from which Zenia emerged, with an extreme sensitivity to sunlight for some reason, was silly enough.  Then she is somehow able to protect herself from the sunlight enough by covering herself in mud--even though it didn't look like there was mud in her hair, and if she saw the sun, then the sunlight must have hit her eyes--but the first rays of light when he opens the curtains in the castle are enough to instantly fry her to a crisp!

I also thought that after the Witch Trilogy intro stated that Tom Sutton preferred doing sci-fi stories, they should have given him "The Mind Witch" instead of "The White Witch," because it was more "spacey."  But again, the plot is just too tortured--the Mind Witch was actually the physical embodiment of a star system come to earth to get souls to populate its planets, until its parent galaxy embodied itself and came to earth to get back the star system and punish it by taking away all the life it had secured through human souls?  This Cuti guy can sure write some bizarre scripts.

"The Black Witch" was the highlight of the trilogy.  The art went along with the title, making extensive use of blackness and contrast--and I'm really starting to enjoy Billy Graham's style in general.  The plot was a lot more cohesive than the first two as well, with the witch's ultimate demise being plausibly tied to her shapeshifting magic.

Overall, I liked the concept of the witch trilogy better than the individual stories themselves, as it kind of foreshadows some of the longer epics in Warren mags to come, as opposed to the typical 6-8 page stories that have gone before--while still being a collection of 6-8 page stories.  So it has some importance here as a milestone, even if I thought two of the three stories didn't really work that well.

I thought "Plague of the Wolf" kind of cheated.  The twist WOULD have been obvious, as @OtherEric pointed out, but when I thought I saw it coming, I discarded the idea because I went back and noticed that the "wolfperson" was wearing decidedly MEN's clothing and shoes, and the hair was different too, in its first appearances.  So it kind of deliberately hid the twist from even discriminating readers, which I think is cheating.  And then that whole business about the sign of the pentagram appearing on the palm of the next victim--where did THAT come from??  I've never heard that as a part of any wolfman legend--it was just a device invented for this story to give the decoy guy a reason to be apprehensive about the full moon.  Seems like it would be easy to hunt werewolves if a pentagram always appeared on the hands of their next victims.

I was at first unimpressed by the twist/ending to "Terror Test"; if he passed the "stress" test with flying colors, why would he fly into a murderous rage upon learning that it had all been a test?  Upon some reflection, I guess that's kind of why it works as psychological horror--finding that "point of no return" at the edge of sanity, but it still left me a little cold.  Mainly I was thinking how much better the panels of interdimensional art would have been if they could have had Ditko do them--he always had a flair for that sort of thing.

I don't have any doubts that the art was Williamsune's though ( @OtherEric ); the faces they draw have a particular look to them, and I think I would recognize them anywhere.

"The Survivor" would have been a pretty nice piece, if not for its own major plot hole.  In the ending, the survivor is doomed to non-existence because the body it was inhabiting was going to be eaten by rats and there would be no body available that was sufficient to contain it.  But in the prologue, we are introduced to an entity that apparently existed indefinitely as "a creature without substance, less than a spectre," before its first encounter with "the erect apes that would one day become humanoid."  So how did it survive before it had bodies to inhabit in the first place?

Ernie Colon did whip up some pretty trippy art for this one himself, though.

And then finally, we have Jerry Grandenetti's art in a story about art, "The Collection of Creation."  The story itself isn't bad, although I'm not sure what "creation" has to do with anything, and trying to portray the heroine as Isis may have been a little unnecessary.  Still I actually really liked Grandenetti's artwork on this one, especially where the stark contrasts of his faces in the foreground create a sense of depth against their softer backgrounds:

Overall, this is a better issue for its art than for its stories, although the scripts were engaging enough if you didn't question them too much.  For having half the book tied up with witches, there was still enough variety to keep this issue from feeling too redundant.

[The Lions Den]

On 11/17/2023 at 6:38 PM, Axe Elf said:

And then that whole business about the sign of the pentagram appearing on the palm of the next victim--where did THAT come from??  I've never heard that as a part of any wolfman legend--it was just a device invented for this story to give the decoy guy a reason to be apprehensive about the full moon. 

I'm pretty sure this was taken from the classic 1941 film "The Wolf Man"...    

[Stevemmg]

https://www.tcm.com/video/410015/wolf-man-the-1941-wolf-gypsy-woman-murder/

 

[Axe Elf]

On 11/17/2023 at 8:13 PM, The Lions Den said:

I'm pretty sure this was taken from the classic 1941 film "The Wolf Man"...    

 

On 11/17/2023 at 8:30 PM, Stevemmg said:

https://www.tcm.com/video/410015/wolf-man-the-1941-wolf-gypsy-woman-murder/

 

Not exactly the same, in that it took a "seer" to see the pentagram (and it was a hollow pentagram with a circle in the clip, not a solid pentagon that anyone could see), but I had never heard of this aspect of the wolfman legend before.

As I said, it seems like it would make hunting werewolves an easy task--just find the person with the pentagram and guard them night and day with silver bullet-loaded weapons.  The werewolf either never takes another victim, or they get slaughtered when they try.  It's probably a good thing that little glitch didn't become a longstanding feature of werewolf legends.

[Jayman]

Only the werewolf can see the pentagram on its victim’s hand. Bela was the werewolf…

[Axe Elf]

On 11/17/2023 at 10:04 PM, Jayman said:

Only the werewolf can see the pentagram on its victim’s hand. Bela was the werewolf…

That makes a little more sense.  The way it was done in this week's issue was silly.

[The Lions Den]

On 11/17/2023 at 11:33 PM, Axe Elf said:

That makes a little more sense.  The way it was done in this week's issue was silly.

In case you've never seen it, I highly recommend "The Wolf Man". It likely influenced Jim Warren and many of the folks that worked for him...     

[Axe Elf]

On 11/18/2023 at 4:03 AM, The Lions Den said:

In case you've never seen it, I highly recommend "The Wolf Man". It likely influenced Jim Warren and many of the folks that worked for him...     

That's probably the case for any of the old monster movies that made it into a Warren magazine at some point.  I just don't find the time to watch many movies any more.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #36 - November 1970

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

36. cover: Kenneth Smith (Nov. 1970)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Body Snatchers Who Stole A Giant! [Tom Sutton] 1p   [frontis]

2) One Way To Break The Boredom [James Haggenmiller/Jack Sparling] 9p

3) Weird World [Nicola Cuti/Tom Sutton] 7p

4) The Creepy Fan Page: Creepy Poems/Tunnel Of Terror/Doomsday Monsters [Harry Balmforth, Paul E. King & Rodney E. Hammack/Larry Dickison] 2p   [poem & text stories]

5) Frankenstein Is A Clown [Bill Warren/Carlos Garzon] 8p

6) On The Wings Of A Bird [T. Casey Brennan/Jerry Grandenetti] 7p

7) Forbidden Journey! [Greg Theakston/Rich Buckler] 7p

8) If A Body Meet A Body [R. Michael Rosen/Jack Sparling] 7p

9) Frozen Beauty [Richard Corben] 6p

Notes: Price decrease to 50 cents. Rich Buckler made his professional art debut while major underground artist Richard Corben delivered a very good story for his mainstream debut.  Best art was by Corben and Jerry Grandenetti.  Best story honors go to Corben, Bill Warren & T. Casey Brennan.

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Wow!  Lots going on here!  Kenneth Smith is back on the cover, with a more restrained usage of his typical green-centric palette.  Richard Corben makes his "mainstream" debut, which is kind of ironic since this cover always reminded me of some of the later Corben covers--although there's something kind of wack about the angles of this triceratops' horns.  And a price decrease?  You don't see that very often.  Kudos to Warren for giving back.

After Cuti's weird witch stories in last week's VAMPIRELLA #7, I can't wait to see how weird his "Weird World" will be, and we have the return of the "Lore" to the frontis after a round of Warren's anti-war editorials.

Just an administrative note here; I will be traveling and spending a week with my mom in rural Kansas over the Thanksgiving weekend.  My goal is to get this week's review posted by Tuesday, but failing that, I will at least make a "placeholder" post later in the week into which I will edit this week's review when I can.

Likewise, I hope to be able to post next week's EERIE #30 kickoff at approximately the usual time in approximately the usual way, but if I'm not right on the dot of midnight, don't fret.  I will at least try to make a "placeholder" post into which I can later edit the kickoff post, allowing you all to post your reviews and comments as usual.

If by the occurrence of the worst case scenario I am completely unable to post next week's kickoff while I am away, just hold on and I will post it at the latest when I return home a week from Tuesday evening.

I hope that makes sense.

[OtherEric]

Creepy # 36 thoughts:

Cover:  I actually do like the Ken Smith covers in isolation, and this one is no exception.  But they're getting repetitive, not so much the art itself as the color palette.  

Loathsome lore:  This is actually pretty fascinating, and largely accurate.  Neurotic Alcoholic is probably an exaggeration, and the plan was actually burial at sea proper, not in the Thames.  I was happy to learn that his skeleton was finally removed from exhibition in the museum.  I was less happy to learn that this only happened earlier this year, and even less so to learn the museum still has his skeleton.

One Way to Break the Boredom:  Decent art, decent story, decent twist, but one of those stories where you know you'll forget the whole thing five minutes after you finish it.  High technical competence but no pizazz.

Weird World:  One of the hoariest SF cliches, but well executed, and a very solid framework for Tom Sutton to cut loose.  I'll give them this one because it's the first time I recall Warren using the plot.

Frankenstein is a Clown:  Some great art by Garzon, and Bill Warren does a good job scripting on both the technical and conceptual levels, but this is another one which I know I'll forget almost instantly.

On the Wings of a Bird:  A very abstract story, with no explanation of the set-up, but it works.  This goes on the short list of Grandenetti stories I actually like.

Forbidden Journey:  Good art by Bucker, an underwhelming story by Theakston, who has over a thousand credits at the GCD... but this is the only actual comic script I can find.  (He's done lots of text features.)

If a Body Meet a Body:  A very well done story, both in script and art, that doesn't quite execute the twist right.

Frozen Beauty:  So, after a cameo on an Eerie fan page, we finally get the Warren debut of Richard Corben, and one of his earliest stories period.  I barely know where to begin with my normal introduction to a new Warren creator, he is probably the single artist most associated with the Warren mags.  The index is right, this is indeed a very good story.

Overall, this was a solid but not spectacular issue, with the work by Sutton, Corben, and so help me, Grandenetti elevating the book to a bit over average.  And it's hard not to be excited about Corben's introduction, it feels weird realizing it's taken him this long to join the party!

[Jayman]

On 11/19/2023 at 1:00 AM, Axe Elf said:

Richard Corben makes his "mainstream" debut, which is kind of ironic since this cover always reminded me of some of the later Corben covers--

Yes. I remember thinking this was Corben’s work years ago before I actually got this issue. I still see from time to time, sellers on eBay listing it as such…

[Jayman]

On 11/19/2023 at 1:04 AM, OtherEric said:

On the Wings of a Bird:  A very abstract story, with no explanation of the set-up, but it works.  This goes on the short list of Grandenetti stories I actually like.

One of my favorite stories! Made me a fan of Grandenetti. The credit has to be shared with T. Casey Brennan of course, but the dialogue on that last panel at the end of the story still gives me chill!