Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #31 - January 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

31. cover: Richard Corben (Jan. 1971)

1) Point Of View [Buddy Saunders/Tom Sutton] 9p

2) The Drop [Chris Fellner/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 6p

3) The Devil’s Hand! [Bill DuBay] 6p

4) The Alien Plague! [Billy Graham] 10p

5) The Oasis [Buddy Saunders/Carlos Garzon] 8p

6) October Weir: Lady In Ice [Nicola Cuti/Frank Bolle] 7p

7) Eerie Fanfare: I, The Nightwatchman/Poem/The Pact/Down In Cannery Dough [Ed Fedory/Danny Massoni, Michael Darrah & Craig Hill/Jeff Jones, ?, Greg Theakston & Arvell Jones] 2p   [text stories & poem]

8) The Killer Slime [Steve Skeates/Carlos Garzon] 8p

9) Easy Way To A Tuff Surfboard! [Archie Goodwin/Frank Frazetta] ½p   reprinted from Eerie #3 (May 1966)   [on inside back cover]

Notes: Corben’s first Warren cover was quite good, featuring hairy, faceless monsters rising up from a dead body and pointing directly at the reader.  Bill Fraccio’s & Tony Tallarico’s art was also good on the drug story ‘The Drop’.  At the request of future editor J. R. Cochran, Ed Fedory would later rework his text story from the fan page into a comic strip that would appear in Creepy #46.  The final October Weir story appeared.

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Well, after the cover of CREEPY #36, which I would have thought was a Corben but was not, here we have an actual Corben--the Warren debut of Corben, no less--which I had not and would not have thought was a Corben but is!  Although now that I know that it is, I can see Corben in it--but I also see elements I would associate more with later Terrence Lindall covers (like CREEPY #108 or #116).  It doesn't seem like the monster is pointing directly at me, as the reader, either; it seems to be pointing more to my left and behind me.  Maybe it's trying to warn me?  The Index doesn't really give us any clue which story (if any) inspired (or was inspired by) the cover, but hopefully we will find out inside--and the mystery of the monster's intent will be solved.

I love the idea of a fan page story being later reworked into a feature story--I'll have to try to remember when CREEPY #46 rolls around (the week after the 4th of July next year--lol)--and that also gives me reason to expect a piece that rises above the usual fan fare level of drek.

"The Drop" sounds more like another True Crime story than something I'd expect in a Warren mag, and the short-lived October Weir series wraps up with what I'd expect to be another supernatural crime mystery ("I would have gotten out of that mirror, too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids!")--so after "Coffin Cure" last week, we're getting a heavy dose of crime drama with our horror these days.  Not that I'm complaining; I only hope to see another in the string of quality issues we've been enjoying lately!

[OtherEric]

Eerie #31 thoughts:

I suppose it's worth mentioning that, since our last issue of Eerie, I've managed to complete my run of the title other than #1, which we're already passed.  Creepy as well, so other than a couple of 1994's I've got all the books needed for the reading club going forward.

Cover:  Richard Corben's first cover is already starting to show his distinctive use of color to some degree, although it's not as obvious as his later color work, which simply can't be mistaken for anybody else's.

Point of View: One of the joys of this reading group is stumbling across something like this, a simply incredible story that you had never heard of before.  This one is excellent, with the creative use of the comic medium that I just love when done well.

The Drop:  A decent enough story, but not particularly impressive, with a few too many hoops to jump through in the set-up for a fairly minor pay-off.

The Devil's Hand:  Another fairly slight story, but unlike the last one very well structured and presented.  The sort of solid filler I like to call out as sometimes underappreciated as we work through the books.

The Alien Plague:  I've got to put this in the narrow win column:  Excellent art and an interesting, ambitious premise that seems to start with the EC Classic "The Aliens" but then goes its own directions.  But it just doesn't quite cohere as a whole.  But as much as I praised the last story as solid filler, I still prefer stories that aim too high and just miss than the ones that set a low bar and clear it easily.

The Oasis:  A well told story with excellent art by Garzon.  Not a lot to say but probably the second best story in the issue so far.

Lady in Ice:  And thus ends the saga of October Weir.  The story had some neat ideas and good art, but for some reason it just left me cold.  (Sorry for the terrible pun.)

The Killer Slime:  I feel like they slightly missed the target on this one, trying to thread the line between Science Fiction and Horror and not quite falling correctly into either camp.  Nice art by Garzon again, though.

Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count:  13!

A very good issue, like I've said before I think I see Goodwin's influence in selecting the contents to create a more solid book overall rather than grabbing whatever was available in the in pile at random.

[Axe Elf]

On 12/17/2023 at 12:31 AM, OtherEric said:

I suppose it's worth mentioning that, since our last issue of Eerie, I've managed to complete my run of the title other than #1, which we're already passed.  Creepy as well, so other than a couple of 1994's I've got all the books needed for the reading club going forward.

Excellent!

[Axe Elf]

I was kind of pleasantly surprised to see that the "Dear Cousin Eerie" letters section was back down to a single page for EERIE #31.  I like reading some fan feedback, but two pages of it can get a little tedious sometimes.  I was also rewarded to see a letter from a fan in the small Kansas town of Galena--being from a small Kansas town myself, I'm always on the lookout for letters from my cultural peers.  I also liked Cousin Eerie's response to a request for more color--that an EERIE printed in color "would look about as frightful as a box of lollipops"!  They could have stayed in their typical moody black and whites forever, as far as I am concerned.

The "EERIE Fan Fare" section, on the other hand, remained at two full pages.  While two pages of fan fiction usually tend to get more tedious than the same amount of fan feedback, the feature is somewhat salvaged this issue by sampling Jeff Jones for some art (and promising more on the 1970 Comic-Con next issue) and the lead contribution, the one that was later reworked into a full story for CREEPY #46.  I actually enjoyed reading it, as it was told much better than the usual fan fiction (ignoring of course the usual typos), and I could almost picture how the story would be illustrated in my mind's eye--which is also a sign of a well-told story.  It will be interesting to compare my mind's eye with the actual illustrations once we get to CREEPY #46.

The other fan fiction contributions were back to the usual amateurish attempts, so that's quite enough time spent discussing the supporting features--other than that I have to ding them for depriving us of a "Monster Gallery/Loathsome Lore" feature on this week's frontis in favor of an ad for EERIE back issues.

I said the Index didn't really give us an idea of which interior story went with the cover--but the cover itself does (duh); "see page 6."  And I think this is pretty clearly a case of the story inspiring the cover rather than the cover inspiring the story--as "Point of View" would be a pretty elaborate and thoughtful tale to extrapolate from the information given in the cover art.  At least the question of the monster's intent was answered; the monster is not pointing "directly at the reader" as the Index claims, but is pointing at the other group of humans in some rocks behind and to the left of the frame's POV (see what I did there?).

I do agree with @OtherEric that this one is special.  It's drawn very well by Sutton, who probably relished the chance to exercise his "spacy" skills, but more importantly, it's told very well by splitting each page into two parallel stories told from different points of view at the same time, intersecting in page-wide panels that tell both stories at once where the two stories intersect.  It's really a beautiful little interplay of perspectives, given enough room to breathe over 9 pages, and it raises some deeper cosmological questions as well.

I was not nearly as impressed with "The Drop," which I mistakenly interpreted as like a drug deal or something--"making the drop"--but it was about "dropping" acid (or something like it).  It was actually kind of a pleasant surprise in that regard; rather than being what I thought would be a True Crime kind of a story, it was instead a license for the "Williamsune" team to get all psychedelic on us.  They did deliver on that promise for a few panels, but in contrast to the first story, this one felt a little stunted and was over all too soon.

I'm not sure I even get the point of the drug/spell in the first place--the pusher is so mad that the tall guy is quitting drugs that he employs a wizard to create a potion to make the tall guy taller and the short girl shorter--and the effects never wear off?  It would have been a more effective tale, in my opinion, if the dose had delivered them over to the demon plane or something for a romp through psychedelic horrors for a few pages--maybe they somehow encounter the pusher in the nether realm and trap him there or something.  The tale as told just seems a little lightweight and abbreviated.

It did kind of remind me of an old joke about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar going out with Dr. Ruth Westheimer--he was nuts over her.

"The Devil's Hand" was a pretty engaging story--right up until the decided to take the hand out of its cage and carry it around with him like a pet or something.  He had to be a insufficiently_thoughtful_person to think that wouldn't end badly.  And nobody would scream, "It leapt at me with a speed I never dreamed!" as it was leaping at them with a speed they never dreamed.  And then as it chokes off his windpipe, he continues to scream about how strong the hand is--despite having his windpipe choked off.  So good story, dumb ending.

I absolutely love little "Easter Eggs" in the Warren mags, such as when a Warren mag appears in a Warren story such as "The Alien Plague," and even better that it was a recursive Easter Egg, in that most of the story took place in the Warren mag in the story!

So structurally, this one is an A+.  It doesn't hurt that the art is done by Billy Graham, and while it doesn't seem like this piece really gives him room to work his usual fantastical magic, he does pull off some pretty impressive panels that play with reflections and unusual perspectives.  The story itself is a little less stellar, being kind of hard to follow, and ultimately a little silly with the alien plague apparently being "vampiric" staples that feed on the "blood" of paper products and by the way also disintegrate humans.  So great presentation, dumb story.

"The Oasis" grew on me a little.  At first it just seemed like a lightweight chapter out of a larger story, but maybe one of its strengths is the way the narrative places the reader into the larger story, with little clues in the first panel that we're in some alternate universe where humans are battling "spiders" and cute little dinosaurs populate the wasteland.  It kind of gets you wondering about the larger story--how this war came to be in the first place.  Other than that, it's almost a Blazing Combat story with an alien enemy and a supernatural twist.

I did see in this piece that they committed the same error that was seen in CREEPY #34--the same text is presented in two consecutive panels which have different art!

 

As with the first October Weir story, I can see why this character's run was not very long after "Lady in Ice."  Again, it's kind of an interesting idea for a supernatural mystery, but there's just too many things that the reader is asked to accept that don't make a lot of sense--swapping out the body in the ice, for instance--and it's an almost impossible coincidence that October Weir's old friend is the perpetrator of the crime unearthed by his psycho-sensitive girlfriend in dreams about his murdered wife.  There's probably a decent story in here somewhere, if it wasn't forced into the October Weir saga--and I'm not really going to miss the character.

But the issue really dropped off a cliff with "The Killer Slime."  As a lightweight kid's story, maybe, but I found myself actually snorting with laughter more often than being intrigued by the story--like when they were slogging around in the sewers in their suits...  or when they called the cops... for what?  To arrest the slime?  Call a mold abatement company or something!  And destroying the slime by dumping a pack of cigarettes on it and setting them on fire!  You couldn't just use a flaming Kleenex or something?  And the whole idea of telepathic slime is pretty silly to start with, but it might have been pulled off with a more realistic plot.

So this issue really started out strong (despite no Gallery/Lore on the frontis), but it kind of ran out of gas over the course of the issue and was completely forgettable by the last couple of stories.  Still a good issue, but not a great one; remarkable for Corben's Warren cover debut and its associated story.

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #9 - January 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

9. cover: Boris Vallejo & Wally Wood (Jan. 1971)

1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: Lilith [Nicola Cuti/Jeff Jones] 1p   [frontis]

2) Vampirella: The Testing! [Archie Goodwin/Tom Sutton] 12p

3) Monster Bait! [Don Glut/Joe Wehrle] 6p

4) Fate’s Cold Finger! [Doug Moench/Ken Barr] 6p

5) The Curse [Wally Wood] 8p

6) Jack The Ripper Strikes Again [Chris Fellner/Jerry Grandenetti] 8p

7) The Boy Who Loved Trees! [Gardner Fox & Barry Smith/Barry Smith] 6p

8) Vampi’s Flames: Vampi’s Vindication/To Die, To Sleep/The Trap [Archie Goodwin?/Michelle Knight & Charles Collins/Bruce Holroyd, Peter Hsu, Carlos Maria Federici, Ronald A. Stringer & Peter Iasillo] 2p   [text article & stories]

9) The Work Orders For The Day! [Alac Justice] 7p

Notes: Vallejo’s North American debut cover was shrunk to insert size and surrounded by the splash page artwork from Wally Wood’s interior story.  Not sure why this was done since it was a decent enough, if not particularly strong, cover.  This issue was a striking mix between very good and pretty much lousy story and art.  Not surprisingly, the best work was by the pros—Wally Wood, Jeff Jones, Jerry Grandenetti, Archie Goodwin, Tom Sutton, Gardner Fox and Barry Smith {nowadays Barry Windsor-Smith, here making his only Warren appearance}.  The Fox/Windsor-Smith & Wood stories were the best.  Future artist Peter Hsu made his comics debut on the fan page.  Goodwin’s editorial on the fan page regarded a plagiarized story that had appeared on #8’s fan page.

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I have been intrigued by this cover ever since I first unboxed it with the rest of the Vampis last year--I don't remember seeing any other black-and-white covers in the Warrenverse (anyone know of any?), and even if it's not totally black-and-white, the whiteness of this copy was striking in and of itself.  It definitely has made me anxious to read the associated Wally Wood "masterpiece."

I hadn't really paid much attention to the color insert before, but if it truly is Boris Vallejo's North American cover debut, that's not only an important milestone to note this week, but it's almost criminal that it was reduced to an insert on a black-and-white cover!  So I think I can truly say I'm developing a love/hate relationship with this cover--love both masters, but hate that they were forced to share the spotlight!

On the inside, it looks like the two cover stories are designated as the highlights--as cover stories should be--but the list of other "pros" is also impressive, while still leaving room for a few new names and the Peter Hsu debut (which rhymes in my head, but I'm probably mispronouncing it).  The plagiarized fan story sounds interesting, too!

And forgive me, but I really hope Monster Baiting doesn't become a thing...

Although this issue is cover-dated January of 1971, it was probably actually released somewhat earlier--maybe just a few weeks before Christmas 1970?  And here I am, wishing a Merry Christmas exactly 53 years later to people I didn't know 2 years ago who have come together over this thing that I didn't know existed 2 years ago.  Ain't it funny how the night moves...

So Merry Christmas!

[OtherEric]

Vampirella 9 thoughts:

Cover:  It's Wally Wood's only Warren cover and one of only two from Boris Vallejo.  It's an odd but effective juxtaposition.  Is this the first time we've seen a creator credited on the cover of a Warren magazine?

Feary Tales:  Excellent work by Cuti and Jones.

Vampirella: The Testing:  A solid second story from Goodwin & Sutton, starting to show how the character and subplots will work after creating the new setup in the last issue.

Monster Bait:  Joe Wehrle seems to have mostly worked in fanzines or semi-pro zines, other than a couple stories for Warren, one where he writes, and this one where he draws.  I'm not impressed by the artwork at all, honestly.

Fate's Cold Finger: A quite morbid story, but very effective.  A little darker than my personal tastes run to, but I can't deny the quality of both script and art.

The Curse:  The cover promotes this as "a Masterpiece by Wallace Wood".  When a cover calls something a masterpiece the first time it's published, it's wrong at least 99% percent of the time in my experience.  This is one of the rare exceptions, a genuine comic classic showing Wally Wood just knocking it out of the park.  And as I've said more than a few times before, my vote for all time greatest comic artist is Wally Wood on a good day, the problem being he had a few too many bad days.  This is not one of those bad days.

Jack the Ripper Strikes Again: There are frequently stories where I can admire Grandenetti's craft even if I don't actually enjoy it.  This is not one of those stories, unfortunately. 

The Boy Who Loved Trees:  Beautiful art by Barry Windsor-Smith in his only Warren story.  The script by Smith and Fox is a little weak in a couple places but the underlying idea is marvelous and suits the art well.

Vampi's Flames:  Worth noting for the Peter Hsu sketch, he'll go on do to do several stories for Warren in the 1980's.

The Work Orders for the Day:  Alac Justice is a pseudonym for Jack Katz, who only does two stories for Warren but has tons of comic credits going back to the Golden Age.  The story is solid enough science fiction, if a bit in the predictable trope category.

I can't call this issue anything other than excellent, but it would probably rate an excellent from me if it was the cover, "The Curse", and 59 pages of Captain Company ads.  Fortunately it isn't, with several other very good stories creating a very nice package overall.

 

[The Lions Den]

On 12/24/2023 at 11:20 AM, OtherEric said:

The Curse:  The cover promotes this as "a Masterpiece by Wallace Wood".  When a cover calls something a masterpiece the first time it's published, it's wrong at least 99% percent of the time in my experience.  This is one of the rare exceptions, a genuine comic classic showing Wally Wood just knocking it out of the park.  And as I've said more than a few times before, my vote for all time greatest comic artist is Wally Wood on a good day, the problem being he had a few too many bad days.  This is not one of those bad days.

One of the best stories Wood ever did for Warren, with a hint of the whimsical touch that made him so endearing...  

Edited December 28, 2023 by The Lions Den

[Jayman]

On 12/24/2023 at 1:00 AM, Axe Elf said:

Notes: Vallejo’s North American debut cover was shrunk to insert size and surrounded by the splash page artwork from Wally Wood’s interior story.  Not sure why this was done since it was a decent enough, if not particularly strong, cover.

A reimagined "What If" cover to ponder...

[The Lions Den]

On 12/28/2023 at 7:17 PM, Jayman said:

A reimagined "What If" cover to ponder...

I actually like this better than the original...   

[Jayman]

On 12/28/2023 at 7:30 PM, The Lions Den said:

I actually like this better than the original...   

Blowing up this Boris work, I realized that the women’s legs are translucent. They are ghost like spirits, something I never noticed before in the small inset.

[Axe Elf]

On 12/28/2023 at 6:17 PM, Jayman said:

A reimagined "What If" cover to ponder...

I like it!

On 12/28/2023 at 6:48 PM, Jayman said:

Blowing up this Boris work, I realized that the women’s legs are translucent. They are ghost like spirits, something I never noticed before in the small inset.

Yeah, they're the dryads, the spirits of the trees.  I mean, you don't think he just loved trees, do you?

[Axe Elf]

I still totally love/hate this cover.  This is clearly an instance where Vallejo's cover painting was commissioned after the story was written, as the boy on the cover doesn't appear to be enjoying trees very much--but the story explains all.  The story is strong enough and the artist ultimately became prominent enough that the issue would have been just fine if Vallejo's debut had been the full cover, a la @Jayman's reimagining above--but at the time, apparently Vallejo was a relative unknown, while Wally Wood was already a master, and so it's kind of a shame that Vallejo's debut ended up sharing the spotlight with Wood (ironically enough, for a story about trees).  But it's also very understandable--it would be an equal and opposite shame not to pay homage to Wood's significant contribution here; not only on its own terms as an instant classic, but because (I think) this is Wood's first significant work for Warren since the "Golden Days" of the first dozen issues or so.  So I totally understand why the cover is that way that it is; I just hate that both of these milestones couldn't have had their own issues!

Lilith is a good topic for "Vampi's Feary Tales," being kind of an apocryphal prequel to the parable of the Garden of Eden in the Christian tradition--and a symbol for feminine rebellion and independence, much like Vampi herself!

The "Vampi's Scarlet Letters" and "Vampi's Flames" features seem closely interlinked this issue, with one of the fan letters alerting Warren to the plagiarism of a previous fan submission, leading to the "Vampi's Vindication" editorial in the Flames section.  There are also letters by Peter Hsu (critical of the art recently!) and Bruce Holroyd corresponding to their artistic submissions on the fan pages.  Somewhat ironically, I didn't think Hsu's sketch was that good, but I guess he gets better?  In general, the fan fiction was probably better than the fan art this time around, and that's kind of unusual.

The Flames section was seriously marred by misspelling one of their most treasured artists' name, though:

And now, the stories...

Having been impatient to read "The Curse" since first seeing this issue, it was the first thing I read this week, and it really was worth the wait.  As regular readers of the Reading Club know, I tend to take seriously my duty to criticize and find fault with plots and storytelling and to a lesser degree with spelling and grammar--but other than one misspelled word ("focussed") this thing was just about perfect.  The whole piece is a cohesive, charming tale about (as the Contents page puts it) "a being from nowhere."  I actually read this entire story again a day later, just because I was so enchanted by it--and I could go on and on about the little touches, like the lizard watching Zorg when he first meets the girl (omitted from the front cover)--but it seems unnecessary to gush here; everyone realizes this one is a classic.  Between this piece and "Point of View" in EERIE #31 last week, we're hitting the bar set by some of the early classics in the Golden Years, like Ditko's "The Collector."  It's fun, heroic, and tragic all at once.

I then moved on to the other cover story, "The Boy Who Loved Trees."  This one wasn't quite as neat and clean, though Barry Windsor-Smith's British heritage allowed me to learn what "Teddy Boys" are.  Apparently they were what we would call in America "greasers" or just "hooligans," but if I called someone a "Teddy Boy" these days, I would probably have something else in mind.

Anyway, the "dryad party" was a little weak--only four of the little negligee-wearing nymphs bothered to show up?  We're in the middle of the woods here; what are all the other dryads doing that's more important than the dryad party??  And though the ending completes a satisfying "revenge" plot, the trees probably didn't have to be so murderous.  Had the trees just stepped in to lift Eddie up and away from danger, the Teddy Boys probably would have pooped themselves, run off, and treated Eddie like a king from then on.  But hey, it's a horror magazine so whatevs.

Then I went back and started from the beginning of the issue.  I don't have a lot to say about "The Testing," other than that it's good to see the Vampirella saga finally starting to take shape with the Goodwin/Sutton team driving the thing; it will be interesting to see where they take it.  I thought it was also kind of ironic that the denouement of this chapter of the Vampi saga--with the undead son finally able to find peace in death upon the demise of his enchantress mother--closely mirroring the twist of "The Curse," where the daughter was finally able to find peace in death upon the demise of her enchantress mother.

There was some interesting interplay between stark contrasts in "Monster Bait," but for the most part, I didn't like the art much more than the story--and the story was a complete mess.  Even overlooking awkwardness like "Your home is not exceeding pleasance," and the obviousness of the twist, the whole "trap" is just too elaborate--the vampires waste a dragon and put Vespa at risk of being eaten by said dragon every time they hope to lure and trap a new hero to save her?  Just let her act like a rock fell on her ankle or something and he has to carry her home.  This is the absolute clunker of the issue.

The irony of the title, "Fate's Cold Finger," takes on a new meaning at the end, which I thought was kind of clever, but this still never rises above the level of competent filler.

It seems like Grandenetti did another Jack the Ripper based story for us in the past, but I can't find it now, so I may be mistaken.  "Jack the Ripper Strikes Again" also seems like crime-drama filler that probably couldn't stand on its own (or appear in a horror magazine) without being couched as an alternate telling of the Jack the Ripper mythos.

I found the Alac Justice art for the final story, "The Work Orders for the Day," to be competent enough, but the text of the story was almost impenetrably dense and littered with errors, and I'll admit that I wasn't putting a lot of work into it by the end and I didn't really get the point of it all, other than that a generational storm damaged the computer overlord and everything ground to a halt.  Ok, bye.

Like @OtherEric said, this would be a pretty good issue if it was just "The Curse" and a bunch of filler--and as it turns out, that's about what it is.  I was actually a little disappointed by the quality of some of these pieces, and I really didn't see anything that excited me from the newer contributors, but "the pros" contributed enough quality to elevate this issue above its shortcomings.

[Axe Elf]

I can't believe I almost forgot to note that this issue's Vampirella saga takes place just a few hours away from me down I-35 west of Wichita, Kansas--if we can assume that "Chaney, Kanas" refers to the actual town of "Cheney, Kansas."  The last episode apparently took place in Colorado, so it makes sense.

Who knew that sleepy little farm town was such a hotspot for witches, zombies, and alien vampiresses?

And upon further reflection, I felt that this issue of Vampirella was so chock-full of hottie-boom-botties that it deserved its own "Babe Gallery," which may or may not become a semi-regular feature, depending on the offerings of future issues.

First we had Vallejo's frolicking dryads from the cover:

Then Lilith and Eve from Jeff Jones' Feary Tales:

Of course Vampirella herself from Sutton's feature:

Joe Wehrle's poorly drawn Monster Baiter:

Wally Wood's fetching heroine Zara from both the cover splash and later from interior action:

Lyssa and various other assorted negligee-wearing dryads from Barry Windsor-Smith:

I'm pretty sure little Eddie is glad he has "the sight" too.

And finally, a wardrobe malfunction at Monitoring Station #40:

Between the author of "The Curse," the subject matter of trees, and the celebration of the female form, Vampirella #9 could be subtitled, "Got Wood?"

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #38 - March 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

38. cover: Ken Kelly (Mar. 1971)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Killer Plants! [Clif Jackson] 1p   [frontis]

2) Wooden Cross! [Steve Skeates/Rich Buckler] 6p

3) The Vengeance Of The Hanged! [Chris Fellner/Syd Shores] 8p

4) Sticks And Stones To Break Their Bones [Stu Schwartzburg/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 5p

5) The Way Home! [T. Casey Brennan/Mike Royer] 8p

6) Sleepwalker! [Gerry Conway/Mike Royer] 7p

7) Secret Of The Haunted Room [Bill Warren/Ernie Colon] 9p

8) The Creepy Fan Page: Alpha 3 [Dan Thost/John Cornell, Gary Kaufman, Loper Espi, Jim Pinkoski & Steve Leialoha] 2p   [text story]

9) The Cosmic All [Wally Wood] 8p

Notes: Warren published new artist Gary Kaufman’s submission letter on the letters’ page and previewed his art on the fan page.  Future Marvel editor & writer John D. Warner also sent in a letter.  A fine art job by Ernie Colon enhanced ‘Secret Of The Haunted House’.  Mike Royer & Syd Shores also contributed some nice art.  Like Phillipe Druillet, Loper Espi was a professional artist whose submissions, for unknown reasons, were printed on the fan pages next to amateur submissions.  Fan artist Jim Pinkoski also appeared on this issue’s fan page, as did future comic artist Steve Leialoha, making his comics debut.  The big news, though, was the return of Wally Wood with an excellent little SF number.

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Again this week it seems like there's a lot of interrelated action happening on the mail and fan pages, with a littering of letters and a deluge of debuts from future creators of which I've never heard.

In fact, outside of Wally Wood, it seems like much of this issue is populated with "B-list" artists (IMO) like Royer, Colon and "Williamsune," which hopefully won't be too jarring of a break from the recently ubiquitous "A-list" artists (IMO) like Sutton and Graham.  Colon is singled out for his work here, though--and I do always like to see a couple of new guys in the issue too, just to sample something fresh.

I'm curious why the Index would call this "the return" of Wally Wood, though; since VAMPIRELLA #9 was dated January 1971 and this CREEPY is dated March 1971.  I guess they just mean his return to CREEPY, and not to Warren in general?

[OtherEric]

Sorry I'm late, holidays got in the way a bit.

Creepy #38 thoughts:  A charming little bats and axe murderer piece.  For some reason, I keep wanting to assign this to Corben, not Kelly... I think it's the eyes.

Loathsome Lore:  Clif Jackson seems to have about 8 credits at the GCD, all but one for Warren, all but one of those single pages.  This first page seems pretty solid, at least.

Wooden Cross:  Nothing earth shattering, but a solid opener with nice art by Buckler.

The Vengeance of the Hanged:  Again, a solid story with nothing much to actually say about it.

Sticks and Stones to Break their Bones:  Stu Schwartzburg's only full story for Warren, although he had some cartoons in Help! earlier.  Most of his work seems to be in humor books like Crazy, Cracked, and Not Brand Echh.  This story has a horror/ humor mix that feels like it could have fit well in DC's Plop!.  A decent short filler.

The Way Home:  A solid story, but the art by Royer doesn't really work for me... it looks like he drew a super clean cut protagonist and then added stubble in every panel.

Sleepwalker:  I think this is Gerry Conway's first Warren story, he only does a handful for Warren but has over 6000 writing credits as the GCD.  Even with lots of reprints, that's impressive.  Royer's art job is spectacular here, unlike his first story in the issue.

Secret of the Haunted Room:  Ernie Colon is another of the artists I never properly appreciated before the reading group started.  Just stunning work here.

The Cosmic All:  The issue goes out on an absolute stunner by Wally Wood.  It's not quite the classic "The Curse" was, but it's still extraordinary.

This is one of the best issues in quite a while, starting with several solid stories and ending with three absolutely amazing ones.  Maybe even a candidate for best issue we've seen yet.

Oh, I've mentioned it elsewhere, but it's worth nothing here, as well:  I now have all of the issues needed for the Reading Club, barring the already passed Eerie #1.

[Axe Elf]

On 1/3/2024 at 12:11 PM, OtherEric said:

For some reason, I keep wanting to assign this to Corben, not Kelly...

Yeah, it didn't really seem like a Kelly piece to me either.  I guess it's still pretty early in his career here.

[OtherEric]

Something I missed in my write-up on Creepy #38, Steve Leialoha has an illustration on the fan page.  Although he only does one story for Warren, in the early 80's, he's got thousands of credits at the GCD, mostly inking but with a lot of penciling as well.  Definitely worth mentioning.

[Axe Elf]

Let's start with the cover and its associated story, "Secret of the Haunted Room," because that is the highlight of this issue--at least artistically.  I'm sorry I referred to Ernie Colon as a "B-list" artist in this week's introduction, as he is responsible for this artistic masterpiece that I just couldn't stop admiring.  The story is a little murky as to whether the gal in the haunted room was a ghost or a vampiress or a ghost of a vampiress, but my goodness, every page was a visual delight, combining photographs with simplistic line art in places and in other places producing art so good it looks like a photograph.

I could go on and on with this one.  And then you turn a page and there is the cover--appearing almost exactly as it does on the front, seemingly out of place with the story until you read the rest of the page.  So maybe that's why the cover doesn't immediately make us think of Ken Kelly--because it's really a Kelly copy of Colon original panel!

The "Loathsome Lore" feature on Killer Plants probably would have been better if it had just stuck to featuring actual carnivorous plants (which typically feed on small insects), rather than suggesting that carnivorous plants threatened our ancestors at some point.  The writing and art by newcomer (?) Clif Jackson were credible, though.

The "Contents" page still has a 1970 copyright listed.

Again, the "Mail" and "Fan Club" features were connected, this time by the first appearance of new artist Gary Kaufman in the Fan Club, as well as his associated submission letter on the Mail page.  There was also a lot of praise for "On the Wings of a Bird" from CREEPY #36, a long letter pining for the old (original) artists, and one of the more "feral" signatures in a long time, from Wilbur Bearsheart of Porcupine, SD.  The single long story presented in the Fan Club section was one of the better fan stories in recent memory, although that's not a high bar to clear.

And that brings us back to the stories...

"Wooden Cross" was ok, although I'm not sure it was the strongest choice to lead off the issue.  I kind of had trouble keeping the characters straight--all the men looked very similar to me.

I would put "Revenge of the Hanged" in the same category; it's ok, but really just a capable re-telling of several similar "wronged dead put the perpetrator on trial" stories; a familiar story with new clothing.

"Sticks and Stones to Break Their Bones" is this issue's clunker.  Unless I'm reading it wrong, the big twist is that we've already been through a weapon-purging cycle, and we're only just now back to catapults as the cutting edge of military technology.  Yet earlier on in the story, the protagonist is easily able to recognize "modern weapons," "the M-1," a "dogfight" between "two jet planes," and an "atomic explosion" in the background.  If all memory of these weapons has been erased, and none of them have been re-invented yet, HOW WOULD HE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE???  Sheesh, one of the biggest facepalms yet in any Warren, ever.

"The Way Home" turned a corner for the rest of the issue, delivering an interesting psychological horror piece that immerses us in the protagonist's madness as his tragedy unfolds.

"Sleepwalker" opened with an amazing double-page spread centerfold, and added a few other engaging panels in the telling of another largely psychological horror piece that happens to also involve a couple of actual monsters.

And finally, Wally Wood's follow-up to his VAMPIRELLA #9 masterpiece, "The Cosmic All."  I think I was a little too distracted by some of the pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and non-sequiturs at the beginning of the story ("nothing but bones" on this planet, but there's no sign of animal life?) to call this one another "masterpiece" by Wood, but the overall concept is a good one, and the story is engaging and thoughtful, so it's really another very good offering from Wood, despite my pedantic quibbles.  At least the story itself doesn't make the same error as the Contents page, which says that the story takes the reader "four light years into the future," turning a light year into a measure of time instead of distance.

So overall I don't think I liked this issue as much as @OtherEric did, but outside of "Sticks and Stones" it ranges from competent to excellent, with the Colon art on "Haunted Room" being among the best we've seen from Warren.

[OtherEric]

On 1/5/2024 at 3:37 PM, Axe Elf said:

So overall I don't think I liked this issue as much as @OtherEric did, but outside of "Sticks and Stones" it ranges from competent to excellent, with the Colon art on "Haunted Room" being among the best we've seen from Warren.

Well, even I had "Sticks and Stones" as the change of pace filler, reading it as a comedy piece for being so ridiculous.

I realize I want to clarify my comment about this being a candidate for best issue:  I really don't think it is the actual best, just that it's earned a place as an also ran in the discussion.  Since he's not writing many stories, we're not really noticing Goodwin's editing that much.  But I think he's been doing a very impressive job balancing the issues.  You could argue that the issue could have started with one of the stronger stories, but putting the weakest one in the middle and ending with two very strong pieces leaving you wanting the next issue is going a long way to improving the overall reaction one has to the book.

And I really don't want to mark "The Cosmic All" down too much for not being quite as good as "The Curse".  I'm not sure "The Curse" would make my list of 100 all time greatest comic stories if I ever tried to sit down and create such a list... but it's one that I would easily nod and agree with if it turned up on somebody else's all time list.  It's probably my choice for favorite story first published by Warren based on what I've actually read so far.  (If I had to include stories that Warren reprinted, I would probably put "Plaster of Paris" over "The Curse", but we won't get to that one for a long time yet.)

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #32 - March 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

32. cover: Richard Corben & [in insert] Tom Sutton (Mar. 1971)   [Sutton’s art is from an interior story]

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Creature From…Beyond Ultima Thule! [Clif Jackson] 1p   [frontis]

2) Superhero! [Steve Skeates/Tom Sutton] 6p

3) The Warning Of The Hawk! [Gardner Fox/Clif Jackson & Syd Shores] 6p

4) The Wailing Tower [Larry Herndon/Frank Bolle] 7p

5) Bookworm [Gerry Conway/Richard Corben] 7p

6) I Fell For You [John Wolley/Jack Sparling] 7p

7) Eerie Fanfare: The Misunderstanding/Reversal/Ain’t It Not Funky Now Brother/Your Last Child Is Leaving [Clayton Fox, Michael Carlisle, Craig Hill & Ken Haubrock/Kevin Schaffer, Craig Hill, Steve Leialoha & Robert Monahan] 2p   [text stories/poems]

8) Soul Power! [Don Glut/Mike Royer] 6p

9) Ice World [Bill DuBay/William Barry] 7p   [art miscredited to DuBay]

Notes: While a mainstay nowadays of such comics as Astro City, Steve Skeates’ ‘Superhero!’ was the first comic story to link up a night time Batman-like superhero with the vampire mythos.  Pretty good story, too.  Best story and art goes to the Conway/Corben ‘Bookworm’.  Steve Leialoha made his second appearance on a fan page, along with an odd editorial announcement {that was not written by Leialoha} to the effect that he was ready to work for any comic publisher that wants him.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome to our first issue of 2024!

While I'm pretty sure I've never heard of "The Creature from... Beyond Ultima Thule!" before, building my anticipation for this issue's Monster Gallery higher than usual, the big draw appears to be our second helping of Richard Corben, both on the cover, and with the Index's pick for the best art inside the book as well.  It's not one of my favorite covers, but then I tend to dislike inserts and borders and "busy" covers in favor of greater focus on the art itself.

I was kind of hoping that the "Superhero!" would be another recurring character for Sutton--in addition to his Vampirella duties--but I'm thinking this sounds more like a one-shot story about a (vampiric?) superhero rather than the origin of an ongoing character.

Here's to another year of the best horror comics ever printed.  I'm glad I'm still here, and I'm glad you are too!