Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[Taylor G]

On 2/16/2023 at 7:17 PM, Axe Elf said:

It's kind of sad and yet somehow appropriate that the first EERIE Fan Fare would feature an obituary--that of Rocco Mastroserio. 

I think he's mostly known for inking Ditko on Captain Atom.  Only 40 when he died of a heart attack, very sad.  Carpe diem.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY 1969 Yearbook - August 1968

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

2. cover: H. B. Harris (1968)

1) Scream Test! [John Benson & Bhob Stewart/Angelo Torres] 7p   reprinted from Creepy #13 (Feb. 1967)

2) The Doorway! [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #11 (Oct. 1966)

3) Monster! [Archie Goodwin/Rocke Mastroserio] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #10 (Aug. 1966)

4) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Werebeasts! [Archie Goodwin/Frank Frazetta] 1p   reprinted from Creepy #7 (Feb. 1966)

5) Overworked! [Archie Goodwin/Wally Wood & Dan Adkins] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #9 (June 1966)

6) Curse Of The Vampire! [Archie Goodwin/Neal Adams] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #14 (Apr. 1967)

7) The Beckoning Beyond [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #14 (Apr. 1967)

8) Midnight Sail [Johnny Craig] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #10 (Aug. 1966)

Notes: The Creepy 1969 Yearbook.  Editor: Bill Parente.

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Uh... very informative notes there guys, thanks...

Kind of another vacation week, but I'll probably find something to say about it at some point--and being a "review" issue, I won't feel bad discussing any updates to the CREEPY #20 experiment, which I'm hoping to update again on Thursday.  (I haven't looked at it again since the last update, but I figure a month in the sun ought to tell us something, one way or another.)

On the heels of what I found to be a very solid and forward-looking CREEPY #22, it feels appropriate to look back at some old friends, notably a reprint from the then-recently-departed Rocke Mastroserio, a reprint from the now-recently-departed Neal Adams' comics debut, a lot of Goodwin scripts--but one piece that was fully Johnny Craig--Angelo Torres, a "mini-spotlight" on Dan Adkins, and even a "Loathsome Lore" by the icon himself, Frank Frazetta!

So as reprint issues go, it looks like a pretty solid one.

[OtherEric]

Creepy Yearbook 1969 thoughts:

Cover: H. B. Harris only does a couple covers for the Warren comics.  This one doesn't particularly impress me, it looks more like a left over cover from Famous Monsters than anything else.  And not even one where I recognize the monster.  

Contents:  It starts with what I think is the weakest story in the lot.  It's nice to see "Monster!" printed with the pages in correct order.  And there seems to be an oddly large number of Dan Adkins stories chosen, only they're scattered through the issue so it doesn't really work as a mini-spotlight on the artist.

This is an extremely solid collection of reprints once you get past the first story.  I vaguely wonder if this was to some degree designed to attract Famous Monsters readers... it has a very FM style cover, the first story is the one that integrated film stills that seems to me like it might have been designed to appeal to FM readers, and then it follows up with a lot of good stories.  I could see them offering this as a free giveaway with a FM subscription to get it into the hands of readers who might otherwise not see the title.  I have no idea if they ever did anything like that, though.

Have a great week, everybody!  And wish me luck looking for Warrens at Emerald City Comic Con in a few days!

 

[Axe Elf]

On 2/26/2023 at 11:33 AM, OtherEric said:

It's nice to see "Monster!" printed with the pages in correct order.

Good point #1!

On 2/26/2023 at 11:33 AM, OtherEric said:

I vaguely wonder if this was to some degree designed to attract Famous Monsters readers... it has a very FM style cover, the first story is the one that integrated film stills that seems to me like it might have been designed to appeal to FM readers, and then it follows up with a lot of good stories.  I could see them offering this as a free giveaway with a FM subscription to get it into the hands of readers who might otherwise not see the title.

Good point #2, although I'm not as adverse to including it just on the merit of its uniqueness as you may be.  It's not the strongest story, but it's interestingly-told.

[Axe Elf]

First of all, check out the results of the CREEPY #20 Experiment!

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About the only note I have for the CREEPY 1969 Yearbook is that the frontispiece says the stories are from the "first seven" issues of CREEPY, but they all appear to be from issues #7-14.

I was thinking about doing what I did with the CREEPY 1968 Yearbook, and put together a list of the stories I would have included, if it were up to me--but I started looking at the titles of the stories in these issues, and a great many of them I simply don't remember very well--so if they're not very memorable, then I probably don't care to try to make a list of the best of them.  And honestly, I think it's a pretty good group of stories that were selected, so I can't complain too much.

The first yearbook was too overloaded with vampires and werewolves, whereas this one gets much more mileage out of the "other worlds and dimensions" genre, and the only vampire story is Neal Adams' debut, which would most certainly make my own list as well.  "Scream Test" is probably the weakest story here, but as I mentioned before, I can justify its inclusion by its uniqueness in using actual film stills as part of the art.

One more "year" to Vampirella!

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #17 - September 1968

(This is such a gorgeous cover. This is my "undercopy," but the front cover looks better than on my slightly "better" overall copy.)

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

17. cover: Tom Sutton (Sept. 1968)   [miscredited to Barry Rockwell.]

1) The Final Solution [Raymond Marais/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 8p

2) The Mummy Stalks! [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #5 (Sept. 1965)

3) Eerie Fanfare: Tom Sutton Profile/Back Pay [Bill Parente & Bill Mantlo/Tom Sutton, Dean Sindork & Mike Whelan] 1p   [text article/story]

4) To Save Face [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 6p

5) Dressed To Kill! [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 6p

6) Demon Sword! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #8 (Mar. 1967)

7) The Death Of Halpin Frayser [Craig Tennis/Frank Bolle] 7½p   from the story by Ambrose Bierce, reprinted from Christopher Lee’s Treasury Of Terror (Sept. 1966)

Notes: Eerie #17 is one of the hardest Warren issues to find, apparently due to a James Warren experiment of non-returnable distribution for this issue.  Tony Isabella wrote a letter that revealed that the actual artists behind the Tony Williamsune pen-name were Charlton mainstays Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico.  The fan page featured the debut of future comic writer Bill Mantlo and future SF cover artist Michael Whelan.

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As the Index suggests, it's hard to find a copy of EERIE #17 that ranks high on the quality scale and low on the cost scale at the same time.  I ended up with two that were both under $50, but neither one really crack the 5.0 barrier, either.  Still, my 3.0 copy above looks pretty nice boarded and bagged, even if the back cover is torn and waterstained.

So four new stories!  Colon and Sutton reprise their debuts!  Goodwin/Ditko/Crandall reprints!  Ambrose Bierce adaptation!  The Fan Club debut of Michael Whelan--whose name rings a bell, though I don't know why!  It looks like there's a lot to look forward to again this week--beyond the beautiful cover!

[OtherEric]

Eerie #17 thoughts:

For what it's worth, I don't think at this point the issue is really much scarcer that quite a few other Warrens, despite its reputation.  I think it got the reputation because it was the first issue (not counting #1) to disappear from the back issue ads in the magazines, so for a long time it was harder to find.  But as I write this a quick check of eBay shows lots of copies for sale.  People are asking a premium for it based on reputation, but there are actually more copies of it for sale than many Warrens.

Cover: Extremely good work by Sutton, who was accidentally miscredited.  But I was fascinated by King Tut as a little kid in the 70's, so this is right in my wheelhouse.

The Final Solution:  A good but slight story.  The title is in questionable taste now, but I'm not sure if the phrase had its exclusive meaning back when it was used here.

The Mummy Stalks:  The story seems an appropriate reprint choice given the cover of the issue; there are far worse reasons to pick what to reprint.

Fan Fare:  The debut of Bill Mantlo and Michael Whelan; both of who go on to become major names.  With the exception of one story by Mantlo, they don't do anything else for Warren... but it's fun that they both started out here.

To Save Face:  Nice work by Colon, it reminds me slightly of Toth's style, but not so much that is seems like a rip-off in any way.

Dressed to Kill:  A good story, but it feels cramped.  Maybe Parente didn't want to favor his own -script in his role as editor, but I would have given Final Solution 6 pages and this 8, not the other way around.

Demon Sword:  Never going to complain about seeing Ditko.

The Death of Halpin Frayser:  Another adaptation that just doesn't really work as presented, at least for somebody unfamiliar with the original.

This issue is hard for me to rate... it's got quite a bit of good material, but the package seems to me to be less than the sum of its parts in this case.  Still, I'm thinking more and more that calling this era the "Dark Age" is really far harsher than it deserves.  Although it probably seems less bad when we're considering it issue by issue; taken as a whole there are really a lot of reprints to slog through.

[OtherEric]

On 3/4/2023 at 10:00 PM, Axe Elf said:

The Fan Club debut of Michael Whelan--whose name rings a bell, though I don't know why!

Whelan is a major fantasy artist, without a lot of comic credits specifically.  Here's a few of his covers for Marvel, though:

 

 

[Axe Elf]

On 3/5/2023 at 12:00 AM, OtherEric said:

For what it's worth, I don't think at this point the issue is really much scarcer that quite a few other Warrens, despite its reputation.  I think it got the reputation because it was the first issue (not counting #1) to disappear from the back issue ads in the magazines, so for a long time it was harder to find.  But as I write this a quick check of eBay shows lots of copies for sale.  People are asking a premium for it based on reputation, but there are actually more copies of it for sale than many Warrens.

I've been thinking about this in regard to Vampirella #1.  Even scrubby 4.0 copies are going for around $800, but there's no shortage of them being sold at much higher grades and prices on an almost daily basis on daBay.  So I guess there's a lot of demand to counter what seems to be no shortage in the supply--maybe it's the same for EERIE #17.

[Makmorn]

Personally, I think Eerie #18 is tougher to find than #17, at least in high grade.

[Axe Elf]

I don't have much to say about the "Dear Cousin Eerie" or "Fan Fare" features this week.  The letters were mostly typical praise and criticism for EERIE #15, and then Cousin Eerie apologizing for the wonky subscription distributions over the past few months, and the Tom Sutton biography on the fan page was interesting, but not remarkable.

I'm not sure why they chose to reprint "The Mummy Stalks" in an issue that already featured a mummy-based (or at least Egyptian tomb based) cover story, but the mummy/werewolf twist is solid.  They don't need much more justification than Ditko's art to reprint "The Demon Sword."

As @OtherEric said, it does kind of seem that the whole "Warren Dark Ages" thing was a bit overblown.  There were really only a couple of issues that were fully reprints, but most issues have had a few new stories at least.  Maybe it doesn't seem so bad as we're going through them one per week, rather than one every month or so, so we got through the worst of it faster, but it still seems like it would have been less than a year in real time before things got back on track, at least for the most part, although it appears we will be dealing with some reprints for the foreseeable future.

As for the new material, I think @OtherEric brought up a good discussion point about what the term "Final Solution" evoked at that time.  I would think that, if anything, it would be even more closely tied to its Nazi connotations at that time, only 20 years or so after the war ended, than it is now.  So it probably conveyed the idea of genocide as a "final solution"; the tension in this story is whether the "final solution" gets applied to the forces of evil, as it first appeared, or to all of humanity as it turned out.

I don't remember seeing so many appearances of the "narrator" in the middle of stories as there was in this issue--usually Cousin Eerie and Uncle Creepy only do intros and outros, but there are at least two instances of the narrator appearing in the middle of stories in this issue.  Being an issue of EERIE, it's especially weird seeing Uncle Creepy pop up in the middle of "To Save Face" instead of Cousin Eerie--and it's not even a reprint!  It must have been originally intended to appear in CREEPY or something.

The story itself is probably the weakest of the issue.

I had high hopes for "Dressed to Kill," but it didn't really deliver in the end either, although it was a more entertaining story overall.  I don't know what the title has to do with anything, other than maybe the costumed trick-or-treaters at the end?  But even if he psyched himself out over what he could not recognize as costumed children, we're still left with the mystery of how the girl ended up torn to bits in the museum--did the kids do that, too?

This piece also had an in-story appearance of the narrator, although he was not pictured this time--and he seems to be drunk, the lunatic lush...

"The Death of Halpin Frayser" just made me want to read the actual story, but like @OtherEric said, here it's just another adaptation that loses something in the distillation down to a few comic frames.  It's hard to follow the relationship with his mother and his grandfather the poet--and who is Catherine LaRue?--but Ambrose Bierce seems to have been fascinated by the process of death and dying, and I wouldn't mind reading this story as it was written sometime, as it probably ties all the elements together much more coherently.

P.S.  This does say "flicker," doesn't it?

[OtherEric]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:22 PM, Axe Elf said:

Pretty clearly, yes.  Although I do know some comic companies specifically forbade use of the word for fear that sloppy lettering would render it impolite.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #23 - October 1968

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

23. cover: Tom Sutton (Oct. 1968)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Changeling! [Bill Parente/Tony Tallarico] 1p   [frontis]

2) Way Out! [James Haggenmiller/Donald Norman] 10p

3) Gargoyle [Archie Goodwin & Roy G. Krenkel/Angelo Torres] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #6 (Dec. 1965)

4) Jack Knifed! [Bill Parente/Barry Rockwell] 8p

5) Quick Change! [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 7p

6) Rude Awakening! [Archie Goodwin/Alex Toth] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #7 (Feb. 1966)

7) The Creepy Fan Club: Rendered Helpless [Larry Goldin/Ed Quimby, Frank Brunner & Scott Grenig] 1p   [text story]

8) Cat Nipped [Bill Parente/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 6p

9) Uncle Creepy And Cousin Eerie’s Cauldron Contest [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 1p  [writer’s contest, on back cover]

Notes:  Tom Sutton’s best Warren cover was a beauty.  A huge moon hangs over a house on a cliff so undercut that it threatens to dump the entire dwelling into an abyss.  Meanwhile a werewolf howls in the foggy valley below.  New artist Barry Rockwell & Sutton share the best art honors for this issue.  Frank Brunner’s third appearance on the fan page depicted the head of Universal’s Frankenstein’s Monster.  The Cauldron Contest offered new writers a chance to have their story illustrated and published.

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I wouldn't have known a Tom Sutton cover from any other non-Frazetta cover a few months ago (and at least on my copy, his signature got chopped a bit at the bottom), but I've always thought this was one of the more beautiful CREEPY covers.  It seems so dreamy and perfectly proportioned, as if it's not a real location on the brink of an abyss, but just the inside of a werewolf snow globe or something; a lonely world unto itself.

It will be interesting to see the "Tony Williamsune" duo again, both together for the most intriguing title (to me)--"Cat Nipped" (>^..^<) --and the the "Tony" half of the duo on his own for the "Loathsome Lore" frontispiece.  It will be interesting to compare how one influences the other, if I can even tell.

The neo-usual ratio of 2 reprints to 4 new stories is maintained.

The Cauldron Contest sounds interesting; it's probably something I would have entered, had I been aware of it (and about 10 years older at the time).

And a quick new Brunner on the fan page!

P.S.  If you're summoning any demons at 2am tonight, remember to turn your clocks forward first, and don't erase the circle of pig's blood until well after 4am.  In fact, you probly just shouldn't ever erase it at all, just to be sure.

[OtherEric]

Creepy 23 thoughts:

Cover:  A gorgeous, underrated cover by Sutton.  Possibly the most genuinely Creepy cover we've seen yet.

Loathsome Lore:  Solid enough for a one-pager, as these things go. But not particularly stand-out, either.

Way Out:  James Haggenmiller (I believe his name is misspelled here, it has two g's ever other story he did) winds up doing a half-dozen stories for Warren.  The story is a bit better than most "Drugs Bad.  Hippies Bad." stories of the era, but it still is clearly in that category.

Gargoyle:  It was a great story the first time.  It still is.

Jack Knifed:  We finally see Barry Rockwell on interiors, after getting a cover from him on Eerie #16.  He's got an interesting wash style that doesn't really quite work for me here, although I think it could with some refinement... it reminds me in places of what I would expect early Corben to look like.  The --script is more about executing its twists well than actually surprising with the twists, but quite good for all of that.  I suspect others may like this more than me.

Quick Change:  Sutton was an artist I liked even before the reading group, and it's been fascinating watching him develop here in his early career.  This is easily his best story yet, the --script allowing him tons of opportunities to shine.  The final twist is a bit corny, but this is still an excellent piece of work.

Rude Awakening:  See my comments on Gargoyle.

Cat-Nipped:  Would be nice if they could decide if the character was named "Pete" or "John".  Pretty good but not nearly as strong as "Quick Change"

Probably the best issue of Creepy we've seen in a while, it seems like Eerie has been better recently.

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by OtherEric

[Axe Elf]

I was going to open with a comment about how Tom Sutton's signature was half-cropped on my copy of this gorgeous cover, while it still seems to be largely intact on @OtherEric's copy--and then I saw how badly it was excised from the poor copy that was scanned to create my .CBR file!

It could almost be a Frazetta signature, for as much of it as can be seen!

The "Loathsome Lore" frontispiece covers an interesting topic--"Changelings."  I tend to think that all humans start out selfish (evil), and the "change" is to develop empathy for others and the ability to put others' interests ahead of your own--to act in love (good).  So it's kind of odd to think of the ones who stay evil as the ones who must have been replaced in their sleep!  It was probably just used as an excuse for poor parents to put their "incorrigible" children to death.

The "Dear Uncle Creepy" letter that interested me the most was from a 15 year old who claimed to have been reading both CREEPY and EERIE since "the first issue," which would mean he started reading them at the age of 12.  Nice!  But most everyone hated the cover art on CREEPY #21.

As @OtherEric also noted, "Way Out" read to me like a lot of the ridiculous "Reefer Madness" propaganda, with the protagonist sounding more like an undercover agent than an actual hippie ("You mean after all the 'acid' I took, I didn't get into orbit?  Man, what a drag!").  It's kind of odd that Warren would publish something like this, with their generally hippie-friendly stance on other issues, like the war, and publishing hippie-friendly magazines like "Freak-Out USA" and "Teen Love Stories" about this same time.

It could be argued that the point of the story was not so much to demonize the drug itself--more to portray the drug as the tool that revealed the source of all evil (the "devil" that lives inside of us), but if so, it was done so awkwardly as to indict the whole "scene," man.

It's actually a piece that takes on more significance in that historical context than it does on its own merits, for me.

OMG!  When I first saw the first page of Barry Rockwell's art for "Jack Knifed," I was in love with the originality of the striking contrasts and shading--and then I saw the first word--"PROLOGE."  C'mon, new editor...

...but it got worse...

Sigh.

But that ART!  It seemed to plunge everyone's face into a dance of shadows and light, allegorical of the Jekyll & Hyde theme, and when his mind swirled with these unpleasant thoughts it was such a delightful panel.

On to Uncle Creepy's next "Revolting Recipe of Revulsion" (not to be confused with a Redundant Recipe of Redundancy), "Quick Change."  In contrast, I didn't like Sutton's art for this piece as much as I have enjoyed his work to date, but I nearly gasped out loud when I realized that the cover was an illustration of this story--the cabin over the abyss, with a werewolf howling in the valley below.  So I did enjoy the several panels that were basically re-imaginings of the cover, from different angles.

As lackluster as I felt the art was in general, though, the twist was REALLY stupid--building up an immunity to the physical element silver would make a werewolf immune to the effects of a "silver" moon?  Not only is that patently ridiculous, but he clearly wasn't immune to the effects of the moon--he attacked them AS A WEREWOLF!  So two levels of stupidity there.

I believe Uncle Creepy made not just one but TWO in-story appearances in this piece, though, which I also believe to be a record to date.

I don't have much to say about the CREEPY Fan Club--another Frank Brunner sketch--ok.  I also don't have much to say about the two reprints for this issue, "Gargoyle" and "Rude Awakening"; they are both credible choices that I enjoyed fairly well the first time around--and I still find Toth's lettering style to be instantly recognizable.

My eye is still not skilled enough to separate the "Tony" from the "William," but I enjoyed both their art and the -script for the closing story, "Cat Nipped," as much as I've enjoyed most any Warren story for some time.  The white girl turning into a white panther was cool...

...and the twist of using silver fillings from the skulls' teeth as a weapon against her was both credible and satisfying.  So well done there.

And I DEFINITELY would have entered the "Cauldron Contest" introduced on the back cover!

As I look back on @OtherEric's review, it seems that he liked some things better than I did, and I liked some things better than he did, but I agree with his overall assessment that this is one of the better CREEPY issues in some time--and for me, probably one of the better issues including the EERIEs for some time.  It has a few warts, but it also has some very nice features as well--and being mostly original work this time with all features intact really has the title back on track.

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #18 - November 1968

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

18. cover: Tom Sutton (Nov. 1968)

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: Zombies! [Archie Goodwin/Roy G. Krenkel] 1p   [frontis] reprinted from Eerie #4 (July 1966)

2) Hard Luck [Bill Parente/Sal Trapani] 6p   [story miscredited to James Haggenmiller]

3) Cry Fear, Cry Phantom [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti] 7p   reprinted from Eerie #7 (Jan. 1967)

4) A Change Of Pace! [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 6p

5) Eerie Fanfare: Barry Rockwell Profile/Fish Story [Bill Parente & Thomas Prehoda/Greg Volpert & Gary Meyers] 1p   [text article/story w/photo]

6) The Jungle [Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson] 6p   reprinted from Eerie #5 (Sept. 1966)

7) Vampire Slayer! [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti & Joe Orlando] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #5 (Sept. 1966)

8) Trial By Fire! [Johnny Craig] 6p   reprinted from Eerie #6 (Nov. 1966)

9) Side Show [Bill Parente/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 6p

10) Uncle Creepy And Cousin Eerie’s Cauldron Contest [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 1p   [on back cover]

Notes: See Creepy #23 for Cauldron Contest information.

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As much as the signature on the cover says "Tom Sutton," it's hard for me to see this as Tom Sutton's art, for some reason.  It almost sticks out as much to me as CREEPY #18 stood out for the debut of Vic Prezio covers--and yet, it's just another in a growing line of Tom Sutton covers.

It feels kind of like we have entered the Warren Magazine Index Dark Ages, as they're not giving us much to work with in the way of issue notes lately.  Maybe it's from embarrassment for this issue, because as much as CREEPY #23 felt like a step forward, the FOUR reprints in this issue--including two reprints from the same EERIE #5--BACK-TO-BACK(!)--feels like two steps backward.  Well, FIVE reprints, if you count what is I believe the THIRD appearance of Krenkel's "Zombies" Monster Gallery picture now.

At least there are three new stories too, instead of only two as one might expect from the content of recent issues--so this issue might be a little plumper than the recent norm, even it it's also a little more familiar already.

[OtherEric]

Eerie 18 thoughts:

Cover:  Another very nice Sutton piece, that makes me think of Bradbury's classic "A Sound of Thunder" before even looking at the issue otherwise.

Monster Gallery:  Is this our first three-peat since reprints started?  Not a good omen, since there's still lots that was only seen on the first publication still available.

Hard Luck:  A pretty story, although the title pun is actually pretty brilliant.

Cry Fear, Cry Phantom:  No more of a fan of the story than the first time, although that still may be my dislike of Grandenetti more than the story itself.  Also, the title is just awkwardly laid out... the story title could just as easily be Phantom Cry, Fear Cry.

A Change of Pace: Great art by Sutton, but the story by Parente doesn't really set up the twist at the end properly.

The Jungle:  Still an amazing showcase for Williamson's artwork.

Vampire Slayer:  Still not a fan of the art on this one, either.  And this issue is more reprint heavy than we've seen in a while.

Trial By Fire:  Not only is the issue more than half reprints, the reprint choices are decent but not spectacular.

Side Show:  The issue goes out on a solid story by Parente and Williamsune.

So, the new material in the issue is, if not instant classics, at least all has some solid material that makes for a decent mix.  But the increase in reprints and lack of anything that really nails it makes this one of the issues that makes me understand why the "dark age" reputation lingers over this era.  With steps backward like this it would have been hard to know if they would ever get past this point.

 

[Axe Elf]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:01 AM, OtherEric said:

Cover:  Another very nice Sutton piece, that makes me think of Bradbury's classic "A Sound of Thunder" before even looking at the issue otherwise.

Yes!  Maybe that's why I have trouble seeing it as Sutton art--since the Frazetta cover of EERIE #5 (from which two of these stories are reprints) made me think of that too.

On 3/19/2023 at 12:01 AM, OtherEric said:

But the increase in reprints and lack of anything that really nails it makes this one of the issues that makes me understand why the "dark age" reputation lingers over this era.  With steps backward like this it would have been hard to know if they would ever get past this point.

Well said.

[Jayman]

On 3/19/2023 at 1:01 AM, OtherEric said:

Cover:  Another very nice Sutton piece, that makes me think of Bradbury's classic "A Sound of Thunder" before even looking at the issue otherwise.

Yeah, can not help but to think of this!

Edited March 19, 2023 by Jayman

[OtherEric]

On 3/19/2023 at 10:19 AM, Jayman said:

Yeah, can not think of this!

Your copy is nicer than mine.  Too bad we don't get new Williamson material at Warren until 1976, although we'll get some reprints before then: