Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[OtherEric]

Creepy #26 thoughts:

Cover:  It's a better choice of cover to borrow from Famous Monsters than the one they used for Creepy #20, at least.  Although I personally think they should have used it on Eerie, instead... you could almost claim it was a portrait of Cousin Eerie.  Did they deliberately model Cousin Eerie after Lon Chaney in London After Midnight?  It certainly wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think I've ever seen the claim made before.  I think it's our first Gogos cover as well, he didn't do that many for the comic mags even if he's arguably the most famous of the Famous Monsters artists.

Loathsome Lore:  The Patterson-Gimlin film was shot in late 1967, so this is probably inspired in part by that making the rounds, even if they never name-check the film itself.  I still personally believe it was my cousin Bob in the suit.

Stranger in Town:  The story is credited to Crandall but is pretty clearly Sutton, like the index says.  Crandall is not listed on the contents page, and Sutton is.  Nice art, the story probably worked better when it first came out- it predates Swamp Thing and Man-Thing but reads like a partial rip off.

Second Chance:  Still some amazing Ditko art.

Completely Cured:  The story doesn't quite work, but some solid Willamsune art along the way, at least.

Un-Timely Meeting:  Excellent Colon art, the story is a pretty solid Twlight Zone-esque piece.  It does feel like it's a bit padded, though...  The third page, in particular, seems almost completely superfluous.

Backfire: Still an excellent Goodwin/ Morrow story.

Voodoo Doll:  They chose one of the better Grandenetti stories to reprint here, but I'm still not a fan.

Overall, this issue feels like a pretty decent package overall in terms of the individual selections, but the production seems more haphazard than usual, bringing the whole down a notch.  And it takes a lot to get noted for unusually poor production given some of the gaffes we've seen on earlier issues!  But that's the way it's been through the whole of the dark age, in many ways... a lot of three steps forward, two steps back.  Still, disappointing compared to the great issue of Eerie last week.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/23/2023 at 12:02 AM, OtherEric said:

It's a better choice of cover to borrow from Famous Monsters than the one they used for Creepy #20, at least.

Oh yeah, forgot that was also a Famous Monsters reprint.

On 4/23/2023 at 12:02 AM, OtherEric said:

Although I personally think they should have used it on Eerie, instead... you could almost claim it was a portrait of Cousin Eerie.  Did they deliberately model Cousin Eerie after Lon Chaney in London After Midnight?  It certainly wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think I've ever seen the claim made before.

Great points!

On 4/23/2023 at 12:02 AM, OtherEric said:

I still personally believe it was my cousin Bob in the suit.

Heh,

I asked the librarian for a book about Bigfoot; she sent me to the large print section.

[OtherEric]

On 4/22/2023 at 10:11 PM, Axe Elf said:

I asked the librarian for a book about Bigfoot; she sent me to the large print section.

[Jayman]

I’m an old movie fan and fondly remember reading about “London After Midnight” in the pages of FM. This “lost” film was always mentioned by Ackerman, as he remembered seeing it in the theater. What is amazing, is how Lon Chaney Sr. suffered for his art. Often using uncomfortable devices to achieve his desired effects. Case in point. For the vampire’s sunken, baggy eyes, he used clear glass monocles in each eye avoiding the glare from studio lights. For the teeth he used uncomfortable wire to pull his lips back to show the prosthetic fangs. A technique he used again in The Phantom of the Opera. He was a self taught master using his homemade bag of tricks.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Jayman

[Axe Elf]

On 4/23/2023 at 11:02 AM, Jayman said:

I’m an old movie fan and fondly remember reading about “London After Midnight” in the pages of FM. This “lost” film was always mentioned by Ackerman, as he remembered seeing it in the theater. What is amazing, is how Lon Chaney Sr. suffered for his art. Often using uncomfortable devices to achieve his desired effects. Case in point. For the vampire’s sunken, baggy eyes, he used clear glass monocles in each eye avoiding the glare from studio lights. For the teeth he used uncomfortable wire to pull his lips back to show the prosthetic fangs. A technique he used again in The Phantom of the Opera. He was a self taught master using his homemade bag of tricks.

We've already read several Warren stories so far that exploit the concept of the actor who achieves uncanny "special effects" which end up being the result of some supernatural method--but that whole concept does seem to be loosely based in Chaney's legacy of achieving astounding effects.

"You got Bo Diddley, Robert J., Eddie Van Halen; ain't no God-fearin' human that could play that way."  --Teddybears, "Devil's Music"

[Jayman]

On 4/23/2023 at 3:12 PM, Axe Elf said:

 

"You got Bo Diddley, Robert J., Eddie Van Halen; ain't no God-fearin' human that could play that way."  --Teddybears, "Devil's Music"

Yeah, Robert Johnson is the classic “Devil at the Crossroads” story! 

[Jayman]

Another take from Gogos decades later…

[Stevemmg]

Funny you should post the MonsterScene.  I was with Steve Smith much of the weekend, publisher of that magazine. 

[Axe Elf]

On 4/23/2023 at 6:54 PM, Stevemmg said:

Funny you should post the MonsterScene.  I was with Steve Smith much of the weekend, publisher of that magazine. 

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it...

[Jayman]

On 4/23/2023 at 7:54 PM, Stevemmg said:

Funny you should post the MonsterScene.  I was with Steve Smith much of the weekend, publisher of that magazine. 

Nice! Does he own any cover art? Some great covers in that run. This might be my phavorite! 

[Axe Elf]

I think this may be the first "Loathsome Lore" drawn by the "Tony Williamsune" team--and it's a perfect vehicle for them, as their usual weakness of drawing ugly faces actually kind of works for this "Sasquatch" feature.  It's only the Ken-doll/gender-neutral Sasquatch, though.

I'm going to guess that the final story, the Grandenetti reprint of "Voodoo Doll," was added in at the last minute, given the way his name was shoehorned (in a different font) into the list of artists on the "Contents" page:

But as much as we have been applauding the editorial decisions to reprint old CREEPY stories in new EERIEs and old EERIE stories in new CREEPYs, no fewer than 3 letters on the "Dear Uncle Creepy" page actually complained about the cross-printings!  I wonder if that's why all 3 reprints in this issue were reprinted from old CREEPYs--just to pacify the loyalists?

The biggest takeaway from the letters page, though, was Uncle Creepy's announcement of a new Frazetta cover for the next issue!  That is definitely one light at the end of Dark Ages tunnel!

@OtherEric wasn't kidding about "Stranger In Town" reading like a Swamp Thing ripoff; it would be downright plagiaristic if it hadn't been printed before Swamp Thing.  Those words are even emphasized in the captioning:

@OtherEric was also right about the story being miscredited to Reed Crandall.  I was like, "Oh cool, I didn't remember there being a new Crandall piece in this issue!" and then a little bit into it, "Hey, this doesn't look like Reed Crandall!" and what do you know, it's Tom Sutton instead.  But that's ok; it was actually a pretty cool story, even if it was a little farfetched for Mapes to become the whole town, but Sutton's full-page depiction of the beast arising was a minor masterpiece.

I don't think I noticed the first time around that the main character's name in "Second Chance" is "Ed Nugent."  With its original appearance in CREEPY #13 back in February of 1967, and the Amboy Dukes' first album not released until 1967 (although the band had been together since 1964), I have to assume that the similarity to Ted Nugent is purely coincidental.  Still, that's two such plagiaristic "coincidences" in one issue.  Creepy, indeed!

The "Creepy Fan Club" finally featured a reasonable dictionary entry for "D"--Demons!  Now we're talking!  I was afraid it would be on "Dogs" or something...  The fan "art" of Uncle Creepy wasn't much more than a kid's sketch, and the fan story had an interesting twist, but was otherwise implausible.

I'm not sure I totally follow "Completely Cured," but it's one of those engaging psychological horror pieces that I tend to enjoy, even if it's a little clunky or predictable in places.

"Untimely Meeting" is very similar in that sense; I found it engaging, even if I'm not sure all the time-travel stuff makes sense, but I liked how the twist changed the meaning of the title for me--I thought it referred to the original meeting with the man who had the car at first.

And finally, Gray Morrow's "Backfire" looks just as good now as it did the first time.

So the old material was of course quality stuff, and the new material was credible, though not superlative.  All of the minor features were present in this issue as well (Lore/Gallery, Letters, Fan Club)--and a new Frazetta cover is in the works--so the post-Goodwin CREEPY does appear to be gaining a foothold.  It's good to see a little progress, with just a handful of issues left before the commonly-demarcated end of the Warren Dark Ages!

Edited April 28, 2023 by Axe Elf

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #21 - May 1969

(This VF-ish copy really stood out from among some of my more battered "reader" EERIEs that I was getting early in my collecting efforts.  At the time, I was like "OMG, I can't imagine a 50 year old magazine could possibly look any better than this!"  Now, of course, I realize that there was indeed room for improvement, and there's some moderate cover wear on this book that you can't really see in the scan that probably makes it a longshot to actually breach the 8.0 threshold--but this was the book that first gave me the idea that quality could matter too.)

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

21. cover: Vic Prezo (May 1969)

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: Lucifer’s Legions [Tom Sutton] 1p   [frontis]

2) Point Of View [Archie Goodwin/Rocco Mastroserio] 6p   reprinted from Eerie #6 (Nov. 1966)

3) Eerie Fanfare: Cauldron Contest/Once There Was A Planet [Bill Parente & Roger Solberg/Mike Kersey & James King] 1p   [text article/story]

4) Miscalculation [Bill Parente/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 7p

5) Terror In The Tomb! [Archie Goodwin/Rocco Mastroserio] 7p   reprinted from Eerie #9 (May 1967)

6) Fatal Diagnosis [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 6p

7) Warrior Of Death! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #10 (July 1967)

8) House Of Fiends! [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #10 (July 1967)

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

Allrightythen.  I believe this is the first time that the Index has been completely speechless--or completely Noteless, anyway.

It's probably just ashamed, because honestly, it looks like a pretty embarrassing issue at first look, coming as it does on the heels of a CREEPY #26 that felt to me like the Dark Ages were beginning to end, only to dump an extra helping of FOUR reprints on us in the next EERIE--two of which were from the same issue--and yes, all of the reprints are EERIE reprints in keeping with the loyalism that the readers seemed to be demanding on last week's letters page.  As I recall, I wasn't even all that fond of a couple of the reprints the first time around, so I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to revisit them--and now we only get two new stories?  At least it appears to be a new Monster Gallery as well, but it looks like this week is the "one step back" to any forward progress made last week.

And this is our 1 year anniversary week!  We started the Warren Magazine Reading Club on May 1 last year, and we have faithfully explored one issue every week for a full year now!  Only like 8 more years to go!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

(I tried to do it in CREEPY #1 colors, which, coincidentally, are also kind of EERIE #21 colors in reverse.)

[OtherEric]

Eerie #21 thoughts:

Cover:  Funny you should mention condition of your copy, as mine is the Fantucchio Pedigree copy.  A weird cover by Prezio, but it does directly reference a story in the issue, at least.

Monster Gallery:  Nice art by Sutton, and at least this time the writing is coherent.

Point of View:  It's bittersweet seeing the Mastroserio reprint knowing his passing was reported not too long before this in the magazines.  Most of the major Warren creators were still around when the mags went out of business; he's one of the few who we'll see the loss of as we work through the reading club.

Miscalculation:  The cover story.  I'm completely certain the cover was done first, and the story worked the image into the story.  A trick I'm quite used to from other comics, Strange Adventures in particular.  It's a very good but nowhere near great tale by Parente and "Williamsune" that doesn't wear out its welcome.

Terror in the Tomb:  Still a delight from Mastroserio and Goodwin, although I still feel they're generally better off not doing two stories by one artist unless they're doing a deliberate spotlight of some sort.

Fatal Diagnosis:  Nice art by Colon and what could have been a decent story, but there's an absolute howler of a plotting error that destroys the twist at the end.  I won't spoil it since I'm posting so early in the week, but I'll discuss it in a few days after others have weighed in.

Warrior of Death:  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  If you have to reprint earlier stories Ditko is the way to go!

House of Fiends:  This actually read better for me on the return appearance.  Maybe I was just more able to enjoy Grandenetti's good points and gloss over the bits I find annoying, since I had seen it before.  As I've said several times already, I have an enormous respect for Grandenetti's ability... I just don't care much for his stuff personally.  But that's a limitation with me, not him.

If this had been an all-reprint issue I would have been quite happy; the reprints are all quite good.  But with only 14 pages of new material, none of which particularly landed with me, I've got to say this issue would have been a disappointment if I had picked it up new as a regular reader.  Things better get out of the dark age very soon...

Edited April 30, 2023 by OtherEric

[Axe Elf]

On 4/30/2023 at 1:01 AM, OtherEric said:

Cover:  Funny you should mention condition of your copy, as mine is the Fantucchio Pedigree copy.

Yours does look very nice, but I know nothing of pedigrees.

Care to share the backstory?

[OtherEric]

On 4/30/2023 at 12:43 AM, Axe Elf said:

Yours does look very nice, but I know nothing of pedigrees.

Care to share the backstory?

For pedigrees in general:

https://www.cgccomics.com/resources/pedigree/

For the handful of pedigree Warrens I have... after the initial sale, apparently Lone Star Comics got most of what was left of the Fantucchio books, and I've grabbed a few of them.  Most of them that I have have slight flaws that keep them from being bleedingly high grade, but they look amazing and have a brand new feel to them.

A small thread discussing pedigree magazines:

 

[Axe Elf]

On 4/30/2023 at 11:54 AM, OtherEric said:

For pedigrees in general:

https://www.cgccomics.com/resources/pedigree/

For the handful of pedigree Warrens I have... after the initial sale, apparently Lone Star Comics got most of what was left of the Fantucchio books, and I've grabbed a few of them.  Most of them that I have have slight flaws that keep them from being bleedingly high grade, but they look amazing and have a brand new feel to them.

A small thread discussing pedigree magazines:

 

I guess I should have said that I know nothing about the individual pedigrees; I had an idea of what pedigrees are in general (although that thread did help clarify the difference between a "collection" and a "pedigree" for me).  I just thought there might be some back story to the "Fantucchio" pedigree in particular.

[OtherEric]

On 4/30/2023 at 10:51 AM, Axe Elf said:

I guess I should have said that I know nothing about the individual pedigrees; I had an idea of what pedigrees are in general (although that thread did help clarify the difference between a "collection" and a "pedigree" for me).  I just thought there might be some back story to the "Fantucchio" pedigree in particular.

Fantucchio was a big name fan who even had a couple of professional credits.  We’ll run into those later in the reading club, in fact.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/30/2023 at 1:01 AM, OtherEric said:

Fatal Diagnosis:  Nice art by Colon and what could have been a decent story, but there's an absolute howler of a plotting error that destroys the twist at the end.  I won't spoil it since I'm posting so early in the week, but I'll discuss it in a few days after others have weighed in.

Ok, I usually procrastinate on my full book report until later in the week, but you got me curious, so I went ahead and read "Fatal Diagnosis" just so you won't have to wait all week to save me from any spoilers.

I have to admit that it took me a while to notice the error--and I might not have noticed it at all if you hadn't said something to make me look through the story a couple of times--but at least I was looking for the right thing.  I figured the error must be in the doc or his assistant casting a reflection at some point in the story, and sure enough, there in the panel where the doc points out that Finch is not reflecting in the mirror--he is reflecting in the mirror himself!

I noticed a couple of other "inconsistencies"--like "never a dull moment on this shift" (overnight at the morgue?) or why the doc didn't recognize the signs of a vampire attack right away, if he was one himself--but those are just typical of the normal plot weaknesses we see on the reg.

I also noticed what looks like a grainy photograph of some Presidents hanging on the wall of the office...  I like when they mix photos and stills into the illustrations.

I was also struck by the contrast in styles over the course of this piece by Colon.  It's almost like he spent most of the time he had allotted to this story on the opening cityscape, and then he had to do the rest of the piece in a much more minimalistic style, almost just line drawings, to meet the deadline or something.  There's nothing wrong with either style, really; I was just struck by the incredible detail on that opening page, and then by the relative lack of detail through most of the rest of it.

I'll review the rest of the book--er, the other new story, at least--later in the week...

[OtherEric]

@Axe Elf, you have correctly identified the mirror as the plot error that made the story completely fail for me… because it’s not even a plot hole, it’s a complete wall that makes the resolution impossible.

As I said before, nice art, at least!

[wpbooks01]

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