Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[Axe Elf]

Nice.  I maybe would have zoomed it out just enough to see the top of the stone portal behind the "New Terror" headline, but everyone's an art critic. 

[Axe Elf]

As mentioned, I was able to read my physical undercopy of EERIE #6, which I have personally graded at a 2.0 because it apparently got wet at some point and dried all warped/wavy, with lots of rust migration at the staples and kind of stiff pages--but no particularly foul odor or anything.

Monster Gallery - Some of Severin's art hasn't been as familiar to me, but this looks a lot more recognizable.  In fact, it looks so much like something out of CRACKED that it's hard for me to take the Frankenstein monster seriously--like I almost expect him to say something funny, like, "I told you not to try to carry all those bottles at once!" or something.

Saw a fan letter from Wichita, KS!  So we have evidence of Warren magazines reaching Kansas by late 1966, anyway.

Kind of an interesting aside...  When I first started my Warren collecting back in February, one of the first things I bought was a DVD with PDF versions of all the Famous Monsters of Filmland, since I was pretty sure even then that I wasn't going to try to collect them all physically.  I dove into it randomly the first time I loaded the DVD, and as I was scrolling the issue I opened, I noticed a fan letter from Bonner Springs, Kansas, which is where I have lived for the past 10 years!  Bonner Springs is just a small town on the western edge of the Kansas City Metropolitan area; 50 years ago it was probably just a small town standing alone west of KC--but here the first thing I saw upon opening a random Famous Monsters of Filmland issue was a fan letter from my little town!  I can't even remember what issue it was; I wrote it down but lost the napkin.

So yeah, kinda cool to see letters from Kansas.  At least it wasn't the Kansas guy who wrote that CREEPY and EERIE were beginning "a downward climb."    Usually a climb is upward...

Cave of the Druids - Man, I was scouring the corners of every panel in hopes of locating a Crandall rat, but the Druids are apparently really good housekeepers, and there were none of those cute little vermin to be found.  Rats...  Another nice fantasy tale, though, like "Island at World's End" (EERIE #4) and "Dark Kingdom" (CREEPY #9).

Ditko really had a field day with his fantastic little multidimensional masterpieces in "Deep Ruby."  This story's variation on the "curse that must be passed on to an unsuspecting victim" may be a little tired (as I thought it was in "Death Plane" - EERIE #1/CREEPY #8), but the art was exceptional.

                    

"Running Scared" bears some resemblance to the first story I ever had published in a national magazine, "The Way of Death."  I was 12 years old when I wrote it, and it was published in Young World magazine.  It concerns a man who died in a car accident, but did not know he was dead.  He wasn't running around in a physical body--my guy was purely a ghost--but he experienced some of the same confusion.  The funny part of this one was when he went home to his wife, and she was like, "What are you doing here?  You had no right to come back here!" like it's a commonplace occurrence to have to call the authorities to come get some escaped dead relative off your property. 

I had a little trouble keeping track of who was who in "The Curse of Kali"--all those uniforms and pith helmets look alike--and the dialogue was written with such a heavy accent it was kind of difficult to read at times.  So it wasn't my favorite story, and when it turned out to be just another vampire story, well, ho-hum.

I thought "Trial By Fire" was a much stronger story, but I agree with @OtherEric's assessment that the art was a little minimal in places.  It's a bit of a stretch that the witch got so close to the burning body that it fell on her, but it makes the irony work better.

"Point of View" brings a new twist on the Frankenstein story (to go with "Kali"s new twist on the vampire story) that isn't entirely stale, and also includes the old-fashioned mental institution for its setting--which spawned many real-life tales of horror.

"The Changeling" was a pretty fresh story, or at least I guess it was at the time, before movies like "The Omen" came out later.

And they're STILL advertising Blazing Combat...

Overall a pretty good issue with fairly strong stories, some great art and some weak art, and a couple of personal touches that probably raised the enjoyment for me more than for others.

[OtherEric]

On 9/23/2022 at 3:20 PM, Axe Elf said:

Saw a fan letter from Wichita, KS!  So we have evidence of Warren magazines reaching Kansas by late 1966, anyway.

Whatever else I might have to say about Wichita, Prairie Dog Comics remains one of the best comic book stores I have ever been to in my life.  The only Warren mags I would have gotten there would have been The Spirit, I wasn't looking for the other titles back then.  Got a LOT of other great books from them, though.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #12 - December 1966

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

12. cover: Dan Adkins (Dec. 1966)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Sea Monsters! [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 1p   [frontis]

2) Dark House Of Dreams [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 6p

3) Turncoat! [Archie Goodwin/Bob Jenney] 6p

4) Maximum Effort! [Ron Parker/Rocco Mastroserio] 7p

5) Voodoo Doll! [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti] 6p

6) Blood Of The Werewolf! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 8p

7) The Creepy Fan Club: Joe Orlando Profile/Tropical Twilight [Archie Goodwin & Ty Bizony/MR. Mosso, Bill DuBay, Donna L. Austin & Jim Pinkoski] 2p   [text article/story w/photo] 2p  

8) Idol Hands! [Archie Goodwin/Manny Stallman] 6p

9) Adam Link, Robot Detective [Otto Binder/Joe Orlando] 8p   from the story by Binder

Notes: A rather ho-hum issue, with Adkins’ cover being no match for the covers that Frazetta and Morrow had been delivering.  Grandenetti & Ditko’s art jobs were good and most of the stories were fair.  Bill DuBay made his comics debut on the fan page with a science fiction pin-up that was heavily influenced by Wally Wood.

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This is the first example of my least-favorite kind of Warren covers--the ones with a big block of color, often containing a caption, and a smallish window for the art.  Of course my favorites are the ones with just the logo and corner box emblazoned across a marvelous piece of art--but I can even stomach the collages of interior panels on a front cover more than these color-block covers.

I bet @OtherEric is thrilled to see another installment of the Adam Link saga!

As we close out our virtual journey through the Warrens of 1966, it occurs to me that I am probably approaching, if not passing, a milestone.  I had 7 issues of CREEPY and 7 issues of EERIE saved in storage from my high school years, which spurred me to collect the rest of them earlier this year, and I think I probably had a few more that did not survive the years.  But now 12 CREEPYs in, as well as 6 EERIEs and the 4 Blazing Combats--at 22 Warren magazines read as a result of the Reading Club, I have probably read more Warrens since we started doing this than I had in my entire lifetime until now!

That's kind of cool...

I'm learning so much through this process, too--especially the way so many of these artists who worked for Warren were interwoven throughout other publications in the comic industry as well--like Severin and Ditko.  I didn't know many of their names before starting this adventure, but I'm gradually connecting the dots.  The Bill DuBay debut on this issue's fan page is one such Easter egg...

Edited September 25, 2022 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

Creepy #12 thoughts:

Cover:  I actually think the cover is quite effective for what it is, although as others have noted it's not up to what we had been getting from Frazetta and Morrow.  The oversized border-inset works well, though.

Loathsome Lore:  Incredibly text-heavy, which works against the feature.

Dark House of Dreams:  Torres draws a story that almost feels like it had been written for Ditko, which gives an interesting contrast and opens the issue on a high note.

Turncoat:  The first of a handful of stories for Warren by Bob Jenney.  Not an artist I recognized the name of, but he apparently had a very long career in comics starting in the late 30's and running to the early 70's.  The story has a very nice wash tone effect that works very well.

Maximum Effort:  Parker & Mastroserio have a story that leans into the dark humor style of horror that gives an effective change of pace at this point in the issue.

Voodoo Doll:  I'm not sure; is the first time Grandenetti has been credited for his own work, rather than as ghosting for Orlando?  Goodwin seems to have figured out how to play into Grandenetti's style, at least, making the most of his style.  Still not a fan of said style, but at least it's being used well.

Blood of the Werewolf:  Not the best Goodwin/ Ditko story, but still excellent.  Like I said, it's hard for me to properly critique these because I enjoy them so much.

Fan Club:  We get a drawing by Bill DuBay, who will come to be a VERY important name as we work through the reading club.

Idol Hands: I think this is the best we've seen from Stallman at Warren so far by a fair margin.  Still a few underwhelming panels but it works far better than his other stories.

Adam Link, Robot Detective:  Meh.  As usual.  Sorry to make you wait so long for my thoughts on the story, @Axe Elf

Contrary to the Index's description of this as a ho-hum issue, I actually found it to be a very strong issue... but the letdown of the cover in the midst of the Frazetta and Morrow excellence at the start and the Adam Link at the end make this one start and finish on lower notes that can bring the book down when you reach the last page and try to sum things up.

[Axe Elf]

On 9/25/2022 at 12:03 AM, OtherEric said:

it's hard for me to properly critique these because I enjoy them so much.

Saying that you enjoy them IS a critique!

 

[OtherEric]

On 9/24/2022 at 10:00 PM, Axe Elf said:

This is the first example of my least-favorite kind of Warren covers--the ones with a big block of color, often containing a caption, and a smallish window for the art.  Of course my favorites are the ones with just the logo and corner box emblazoned across a marvelous piece of art--but I can even stomach the collages of interior panels on a front cover more than these color-block covers.

Since I obviously had my post ready to go other than adding a line to the Adam Link review, let me spend a few more words in defense of the cover.  I agree in general with your assessment on the style in most cases.  But here I think it works better than usual.  It helps emphasize the difference in scale between the small man in green and the large man in the background.  The color is also well chosen... the "layers", if you will, giving us a black outer panel followed by the green figure in the middle ground followed by the orange further back create an impressive sense of depth if you take the time to actually look at it.

The problem is the design actually discourages you spending the time to get the effect...

[OtherEric]

On 9/24/2022 at 10:06 PM, Axe Elf said:

Saying that you enjoy them IS a critique!

 

True enough, in a limited sense.  Perhaps hard to analyze is a better turn of phrase?

[Jayman]

On 9/25/2022 at 1:08 AM, OtherEric said:

let me spend a few more words in defense of the cover

While I agree that is a striking break from what we were getting from previous issues, it is actually well done. Plus my personal reasons for liking it so much is the tough black cover aspect and it reminds me of this little ‘ol tv show! 

[Axe Elf]

The "Loathsome Lore" for CREEPY #12 was certainly more text-based than usual, but if the monsters themselves were obscured in a sea of text, maybe that's because much of the horror of sea monsters lies in them being mostly unseen (underwater).  Ok, I'm probably over-analyzing.

Kinda funny that the first entry on the Letters page was an encouragement for more "border" covers, like the ones on Blazing Combat or the one on this issue, which I already singled out as my least-favorite style of Warren covers.  One letter mentions "Hop-Frog" being made into a movie, but I'd never heard of that.  A Google search turned up a couple of amateurish animated shorts based on the story on YouTube, if that's what he meant, but none of the ones I looked at were as good as the Warren adaptation.

I agree that "Dark House of Dreams" is a lot like some of the other tales of fantastical alternate dimensions that Ditko has done, but after at least three such outings, I guess they thought it was time to harvest a different imagination for this issue's alternate dimensions story.  I didn't find Angelo Torres' visions to be as compelling (or as creative) as Ditko's, but one panel did a really good job of portraying that feeling of dream-running from some amorphous danger.

I was kind of buying @OtherEric's explanation of the cover, and if it had been in support of a "Land of the Giants" kind of a story, I think I could have lived with that point of view.  The small window for the artwork would be a restatement of the "hole in the wall" effect in the painting itself.  But after reading the story, it seems that it was supposed to be more of a reflection of the protagonist's dreamland in which he was threatened by the dream image of the warlock, in which case it completely fails to capture that sense of a dreamscape (perhaps in part because the window was too small to include much of the "scape" around the two figures).  It's like he's just sitting on an orange sponge or something.

I thought "Turncoat" was going to be another one of those "dead guy doesn't realize he's dead" stories (since he had just gotten up off the battlefield full of dead soldiers), so it was kind of a pleasant twist that he actually WAS still alive when he "defected" to the army of the dead.  I wonder if this had been a story that was intended for Blazing Combat (which they are STILL advertising in this issue!) which got re-purposed for CREEPY when BC went under...?

I don't really understand how the title "Maximum Effort" relates to its story.  "Maximum Utilization," maybe, but effort?  Just standard vampire/ghoul monster fare.

"Voodoo Doll" was an entertaining yarn, even if you could kind of see the ending coming.

"Blood of the Werewolf" was one of the better werewolf stories (maybe even one of the better stories overall) that we've read so far.  Ironically, it was kind of a happy ending for the original werewolf--the Doc's son--who appears to have been completely cured.  But... when the Doc was performing the original transfusion, he said he was not a killer--but then he killed the guy anyway with his silver bullets.  Might as well have just killed him in the operation and not risk him coming back for revenge--but I guess he was hopeful that he couldn't be found.

I'm finding that I really enjoy the "CREEPY Fan Club" articles a lot too.  Besides learning that Joe Orlando looks a little like Fred Flintstone, it's just incredibly fascinating to read about all the interwoven interconnections among those who became industry giants and the companies with which they worked.  Of course, I was fairly ignorant to all that when I began this project, so I probably have more room to learn than most who are reading this.  But it just adds some texture and color to the environment in which these books were produced.  And here we get a debut illustration from Bill DuBay to boot!

I don't know that I like this Manny Stallman installment any better than I liked "The Invitation" or "The Black Death."  I just can't stand the way he draws faces, and those in "Idol Hands" were no exception.

     

The word "ugly" springs to mind when I see his artwork, which for me so far has been consistently the worst of the Warrens by a sizable margin.  The story, however, was respectable in its plotting.

And there's not much more to say about "Adam Link, Robot Detective," other than that it seems like it's becoming more and more out of place in CREEPY magazine with each new installment.  The whole saga seems more like something we'd see in EERIE later in its run.  Maybe he should go dig up Terry and turn him into a robot too.

And why did they let Eve keep her telepathy helmet in jail?

It's kind of cool seeing ads for back issues of Wildest Westerns and Screen Thrills Illustrated with missing issues--like apparently Wildest Westerns was sold out of issues #1 and #3 by the end of 1966; only the other four issues were available for back order.  Issues #2, #7 and #8 of Screen Thrills Illustrated were unavailable by this time too.

So yeah, kind of a "ho-hum" issue in that there's not a lot of innovative material here--standard topics such as werewolves, vampires, ghouls, voodoo dolls and idols--but the stories themselves were largely entertaining and cohesive with a minimum of eye-roll moments.  Because of that I would agree that it is a stronger than average issue, but not one I'd necessarily recommend to a new reader.

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #7 - January 1967

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

7. cover: Frank Frazetta (Jan. 1967)

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery No. 6: The Hydra! [Archie Goodwin/Gray Morrow] 1p   [frontis]

2) Witches’ Tide [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 8p

3) It That Lurks! [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 6p

4) Hitchhike Horror! [Archie Goodwin/Hector Castellon] 8p

5) The Defense Rests! [Johnny Craig] 8p

6) Fly! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 6p

7) The Quest! [Archie Goodwin/Donald Norman] 6p

8) Cry Fear, Cry Phantom [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti] 7p

Notes: Frazetta’s famous ‘Sea Witch’ painting was the cover here.  Roy Krenkel provided layouts for it.  At this point, simply by not having any mediocre stories or art jobs, Eerie was actually surpassing Creepy in quality.  Craig, Ditko, Grandenetti, Colan & Norman are all well represented here.  Castellon went cross hatch crazy with his art approach!  But the best story and art was Goodwin & Adkins’ dinosaur tale ‘It That Lurks’.

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As we enter the Club's virtual New Year of 1967, I must confess that I have looked ahead and read a couple stories from this week's issue before this week has even begun.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not what I usually do.  But having done so, I can say that the lauded Goodwin & Adkins "dinosaur tale" isn't really a dinosaur tale at all!

I love this cover; it's another Frazetta that I knew more from an album cover than from a Warren magazine up until this spring.  This one ("Sea Witch"!--Now I even know its name!) was used by the awesome Australian rock band Wolfmother for their awesome self-titled 2007 debut album, which I will tribute here:

 

Their 2011 follow-up album "Cosmic Egg" was even more awesome, but I digress...

[OtherEric]

Eerie #7 thoughts

Cover:  I've said before that I can't call every Frazetta cover for the Warren magazines a flawless masterpiece, because that would get boring and repetitive and not single out the fact that some of them simply are better than others, even if the typical Frazetta is better than 99% of what anybody else ever did.

I can still call a few of his covers flawless masterpieces, though.  And this is one of them.

Monster gallery:  Morrow provides one of the better entries in the series.

Witches Tide:  A strong opener from Colan and Goodwin.

It that Lurks:  Adkins seems to be moving away from his Wood clone work, which is a good thing overall.  It does leave this story a bit weaker than some others, but still a solid piece of work.

Hitchhike Horror:  Hector Castellon does his first of three stories for Warren.  If the GCD is right on his birth date this was drawn while he was a teenager.  He doesn't seem to have a huge body of work overall, mostly for Charlton.  His work here is inexperienced but quite effective.

The Defense Rests:  Johnny Craig drops the "Jay Taycee" pseudonym and works under his own name.  This is actually more a lavishly illustrated text story than a comic story, reminiscent of some of the EC Picto-Fiction magazines.  Not something I would want too frequently but here it works wonderfully.

Fly!:  A change of pace for Ditko and Goodwin, short and quite powerful but very different from what I expect from them.

The Quest:  Norman Nodel turns up as "Donald Norman" again for a story that reminds me of some of the non-EC pre-code horror stories I've seen.

Cry Fear, Cry Phantom:  As usual, Grandenetti is an arist I'm not normally a fan of.  Goodwin's -script leans into his strengths somewhat, but still a weak note to end an otherwise strong issue.

My copy of the issue has some ink transfer off the cover and a few storage flaws, but also has a very strong new book feel.  I think there's a good chance it's one of the Warren inventory copies, which were notorious for being low on technical grade.

[Axe Elf]

On 10/2/2022 at 12:08 AM, OtherEric said:

Hector Castellon does his first of three stories for Warren.  If the GCD is right on his birth date this was drawn while he was a teenager.

Interesting!

On 10/2/2022 at 12:08 AM, OtherEric said:

I think there's a good chance it's one of the Warren inventory copies, which were notorious for being low on technical grade.

Tell me more about these "Warren inventory copies"...?

[OtherEric]

On 10/1/2022 at 10:13 PM, Axe Elf said:

Interesting!

Tell me more about these "Warren inventory copies"...?

I don't know much about them, actually.  They're the ones from the Warren back issue adds they always ran.  I'm not sure exactly what happened when Warren went out of business, but I know the stock did get out into the market.  And from what I've heard on these forums (and I cannot recall exactly where), people hoping to find high grade copies were disappointed for the most part because Warren didn't take care of them terribly well. I've got a few Warrens that are like that... they look like they were stored badly but still have the "new book" feel to them.

Can anybody else fill in details?

[The Lions Den]

On 10/2/2022 at 1:20 AM, OtherEric said:

I don't know much about them, actually.  They're the ones from the Warren back issue adds they always ran.  I'm not sure exactly what happened when Warren went out of business, but I know the stock did get out into the market.  And from what I've heard on these forums (and I cannot recall exactly where), people hoping to find high grade copies were disappointed for the most part because Warren didn't take care of them terribly well. I've got a few Warrens that are like that... they look like they were stored badly but still have the "new book" feel to them.

Can anybody else fill in details?

From what I remember, when Warren went out of business the remaining inventory was auctioned off. I believe some of the more well known dealers in the New York area acquired a good chunk of the inventory, and I've heard of other folks that acquired some really nice copies from that event as well...

 

[Mark Sielski]

On 10/3/2022 at 12:26 AM, The Lions Den said:

From what I remember, when Warren went out of business the remaining inventory was auctioned off. I believe some of the more well known dealers in the New York area acquired a good chunk of the inventory, and I've heard of other folks that acquired some really nice copies from that event as well...

 

Locally, we referred to the "inventory copies" as WARREN WAREHOUSE copies.  A few large dealers - that had the capacity to store thousands of copies of an issue - gobbled up much of the Warren Back Issue stock at the Bankruptcy auction.  As I recall, dealers like Joe Koch, and Dolgoff had a big chunk. The big dealers would in turn sell off slices/or strips to smaller dealers.  The Warehouse copies would show up at conventions.  True, these copies weren't of the best high grade caliber.  But they did feel like firm, new, books. In an era before Ebay, many of us Warren fans were thrilled to be able to buy "Back Issue" stock.   Most very nice Warren Warehouse copies could probably only fetch a CGC 8.0 today, and those were the nicest ones.  Storage was an issue, large stacks of mags compressing, some in stacks that were neither vertical or horizonal, hot warehouses, humidity etc.  The warehouse copies were very available in the 1980s and 1990s, but by the early 2000s, I felt they were pretty much dried up and gone.  If you were a favored customer of the warehouse dealers, my understanding is they would let you spend hours cherry picking their inventory, as long as you walked out with a sizeable amount. They really didn't care back then.  There was no CGC.  I was told at time of purchase, that my - then raw copy - of BLAZING COMBAT #1 - came out of the Koch/or Dolgoff Warehouse.  It was hand picked out of dozens of copies of Blazing Combat #1 - yes, more copies than what you typically think there are.   Years later, that raw copy ended up being a CGC 9.4 after I had it graded.  So there were some gems in the Warehouse Warehouse Copies.

Cheers.

[Axe Elf]

On 10/3/2022 at 8:33 PM, Mark Sielski said:

Locally, we referred to the "inventory copies" as WARREN WAREHOUSE copies.  A few large dealers - that had the capacity to store thousands of copies of an issue - gobbled up much of the Warren Back Issue stock at the Bankruptcy auction.  As I recall, dealers like Joe Koch, and Dolgoff had a big chunk. The big dealers would in turn sell off slices/or strips to smaller dealers.  The Warehouse copies would show up at conventions.  True, these copies weren't of the best high grade caliber.  But they did feel like firm, new, books. In an era before Ebay, many of us Warren fans were thrilled to be able to buy "Back Issue" stock.   Most very nice Warren Warehouse copies could probably only fetch a CGC 8.0 today, and those were the nicest ones.  Storage was an issue, large stacks of mags compressing, some in stacks that were neither vertical or horizonal, hot warehouses, humidity etc.  The warehouse copies were very available in the 1980s and 1990s, but by the early 2000s, I felt they were pretty much dried up and gone.  If you were a favored customer of the warehouse dealers, my understanding is they would let you spend hours cherry picking their inventory, as long as you walked out with a sizeable amount. They really didn't care back then.  There was no CGC.  I was told at time of purchase, that my - then raw copy - of BLAZING COMBAT #1 - came out of the Koch/or Dolgoff Warehouse.  It was hand picked out of dozens of copies of Blazing Combat #1 - yes, more copies than what you typically think there are.   Years later, that raw copy ended up being a CGC 9.4 after I had it graded.  So there were some gems in the Warehouse Warehouse Copies.

Cheers.

Whoa!  I presume this is THE Mark Sielski, the Mark Sielski who has had like the highest-rated collections of the major Warren magazine runs in the CGC Registry for like the last 15 years!

I am HONORED to welcome you to the Warren Magazine Reading Club, as I have drooled over what pics you have posted in your registries since shortly after joining this site back in February.  I am humbled that you found my thread worthy of making your ninth post in the past 17 years!

Now, why don't you crack out a couple of those slabs and read some mags with us?

j/k

My wife is like, "What are you 'wowing' about?" and I'm like "This is THE GUY who has the best Warren collections in the world--he posted in my thread!"

[/fanboy]

Edited October 4, 2022 by Axe Elf

[The Lions Den]

On 10/3/2022 at 9:33 PM, Mark Sielski said:

So there were some gems in the Warehouse Copies.

Ah, what fond memories...  

[Axe Elf]

Gray Morrow's depiction of "The Hydra" (Monster Gallery) was pretty solid, as usual.

Not too much of note in the Letters, other than a lot of praise for Ditko's work, some calling his work for Warren the best of his career!  I'm not familiar enough with the body of his work to pass judgment, but I have definitely enjoyed his ethereal dimension art for Warren.

"Witches' Tide" suits the Frazetta cover painting ("Sea Witch") better than the Wolfmother album which also appropriated the image.  Seems like a little better communication among the townspeople and the witch's daughter could have averted much tragedy, but such is the stuff of drama.

"It That Lurks" delivered a nice twist on what started out to be a dinosaur story, but I must say that the pool seems to be working too hard to individually tailor its visions to the person it's trying to lure--the scantily clad hottie would probly work even better than a dinosaur for most men, and for women, I dunno, maybe a pair of shoes would suffice.  Manifesting a 30-ton dinosaur to lure a 180 lb man seems wildly inefficient.

"Hitchhike Horror" was a decent story--although I'm still not quite sure where the drive ended--the cemetery, I guess?  I was thinking it might be the gates of hell--or even back at the asylum he had escaped from at first.  It's interesting that this was drawn by a teenager--but man, it sure LOOKS amateurish.  This art may be even worse than the Manny Stallman art I've criticized in the past.  The only thing I found effective was the way he portrayed the rain in the dark, but overall it's just too notebook-sketchy for me.

As I see the ad for Blazing Combat in this issue, I realize that I have been wondering why Warren was still selling subscriptions to that now-defunct title in every magazine--when in fact they are NOT still selling subscriptions, only back issues.  It turns out that EERIE #4, released the same month as Blazing Combat #4, was the last issue in which the offer of six future issues of Blazing Combat for $2 was extended.  That makes more sense; my bad.

Johnny Craig's precise artwork for "The Defense Rests" stands in damning contrast to the sloppiness of Hector Castellon's work before it, and the story is an engaging departure from the supernatural to a plain old tale of well-deserved revenge.  I see what @OtherEric meant by this being more of a text story than a comic story--instead of the characters having "dialogue balloons," what they are saying is simply described in the captions most times.  So yeah, it had a different feel, like a story being told, rather than like an experience being lived.

The number of different artists drawing Cousin Eerie in this issue is impressive, and I think this is the first time I've seen him rendered by Steve Ditko (although I could be wrong).  "Fly" was otherwise a pretty lightweight diversion, but harmless as a... fly.

"Donald Norman" (Norman Nodel?) is another artist I was not familiar with, but he impressed me with his take on the witch's cauldron full of dark nasties on the very first page of his assignment.

The rest of "The Quest" was just an oblique take on a vampire story; nothing too groundbreaking.

"Cry Fear, Cry Phantom" is kind of an esoteric title for a basic ghost story, but again I found the art the most interesting part of this story--at times it seemed rather amateurish as well, but then some panels were really well done, so I can't criticize it too much.

Overall an engaging issue, both in generally tight plotting and interesting illustration styles, though editing blunders and typos tend to make me cringe, and there were at least 5 minor instances this time around.  So I'd say it's a good issue if you don't look at it too hard, but maybe squint a little.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #13 - February 1967

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

13. cover: Gray Morrow (Feb. 1967)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Becoming A Werewolf! [Archie Goodwin/Gray Morrow] 1p [frontis]

2) The Squaw! [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 8p   from the story by Bram Stoker

3) Early Warning! [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti] 6p

4) Scream Test! [John Benson & Bhob Stewart/Angelo Torres] 7p

5) Madness In The Method! [Carl Wessler/Rocco Mastroserio] 7p

6) The Creepy Fan Club: Angelo Torres Profile/Pipeline [Archie Goodwin & Geoffrey R. Lucier/Danny Chadbourne, Barry Hoffman & Doyle Sharp] 2p   [text article/story w/photo]

8) Fear In Stone [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 8p

9) Adam Link, Gangbuster! [Otto Binder/Joe Orlando] 8p   from the story by Binder

10) Second Chance! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 6p

Notes: Morrow’s cover was just fine although that’s got to be the ugliest & skinniest werewolf I’ve ever seen!  ‘The Squaw’ was the best story here while Crandall & Ditko shared best art honors.  Future artist Leslie Cabarga delivered a letter.

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I wouldn't have recognized the name of "future artist" Leslie Cabarga; he or she?  Future artist for Warren, or in some other capacity?

I noticed that Gray Morrow illustrated both the cover and the "Becoming a Werewolf" frontispiece, so I wasn't sure if the Warren Magazine Index referred to the "skinny" werewolf on the cover or perhaps one inside the cover--and indeed, they both appear to be the same werewolf--kinda skinny, torn jeans and shirt...  although I think the fact that the girl's arm partially obscures the tops of both of the werewolf's legs on the cover adds to the impression of skinny legs there.  I don't see any other story in the Index that overtly suggests a werewolf -based plot, so I guess the cover's interior reference is simply to this issue's Loathsome Lore?

I also see there is no #7 in the Index's list of contents above--and nothing that appears to be missing in comparing that list to the actual Index page of the issue, so I guess the omission of #7 is just a typo.

Looks like a pretty good lineup of artists for this issue--shouldn't be any that don't appeal to me, as there have been a couple of what I considered to be clunker art jobs in the past few issues.  And oh boy, it looks like that CREEPY robot Adam Link finally gets to put away the big bad gangsters in this issue of the world's foremost horror magazine!

Aren't we all excited??