Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[Axe Elf]

On 5/2/2023 at 9:11 AM, wpbooks01 said:

White House Plumbers (2023 HBO) s01e01

 

For the CREEPY Yearbook on the floor, I presume?

[wpbooks01]

Figured he was an honorary club member because of it.

[Axe Elf]

Man, I may not be remembering all of the "Dark Ages" issues correctly, but EERIE #21 seems like the darkest and the lowest point so far.  I mean this issue is just a mess.  The grammar and spelling errors are more plentiful than usual, the cover gets the name of the story to which it refers wrong--and the cover doesn't even really reflect the story itself, but rather just kind of a weird "what if" part of the story.  On top of all that, we have only two new stories amongst four reprints, and as @OtherEric first pointed out, one of the two new stories faceplants pretty hard.  And like last week's issue, it looks like the final story in the book (one of my favorite Grandenetti pieces) was shoehorned in at the last minute, as Grandenetti's name again appears in a different font from the rest of the Artists on the Contents page.

Most of the fan letters included in "Dear Cousin Eerie" were harshly critical of EERIE #19, so that feature wasn't much fun, either.  The best point was made by the complaint about having to pay for stories that have already been paid for in previous issues--particularly appropriate in an issue with four reprints and two new stories.  There was nothing particularly remarkable on the "EERIE Fan Fare" page, either; just a recap of the Cauldron Contest, and a dumb story about warring factions destroying the Earth (just like in the illustrated story that comes after the Fan Fare page).

Maybe the highlight of the entire issue is the (NEW) Monster Gallery on "Lucifer's Legions"--at least in terms of the art.  Sutton's depiction of the demons being cast out of heaven and swirling down to earth is breathtaking, and the innuendo of showing the White House in the final panel was a great touch.  But even this feature was not immune to the copy errors that plague this issue--"wet [sic] your awful appetites" and "hieachy [sic] of angels" were among the first phrases to appear in this issue, so I was rolling my eyes virtually from the start.

If the Monster Gallery wasn't the highlight, then it would have to be the double dose of Mastroserio reprints that serve as a mini-memorial for his great work.  And I guess there's also a Ditko piece, but it's kind of flying without a plot, as Goodwin didn't seem to understand the meaning of the word "immortal."  So it's not even one of the better Ditko vehicles.

That leaves us with the other new story this issue, "Miscalculation" (not "Slight Miscalculation," as the cover states).  I guess it's a serviceable piece based on the emerging fear of computers at that time--a fear that continues with concerns about emerging AI technology today (thanks in no small part to the "Terminator" movies)--but it was not immune to the copy errors that overrun this issue.

So yeah, not a big fan of EERIE #21--but they can't all be gems.  I would feel like I only got about 15 cents worth out of my 40 cents paid, if I had bought this issue off the newsstand back in the day--and I would hope they would put the other 25 cents toward a competent proofreader!

Edited May 4, 2023 by Axe Elf

[The Lions Den]

On 5/4/2023 at 6:24 PM, Axe Elf said:

Man, I may not be remembering all of the "Dark Ages" issues correctly, but EERIE #21 seems like the darkest and the lowest point so far.  I mean this issue is just a mess.  The grammar and spelling errors are more plentiful than usual, the cover gets the name of the story to which it refers wrong--and the cover doesn't even really reflect the story itself, but rather just kind of a weird "what if" part of the story.  On top of all that, we have only two new stories amongst four reprints, and as @OtherEric first pointed out, one of the two new stories faceplants pretty hard.  And like last week's issue, it looks like the final story in the book (one of my favorite Grandenetti pieces) was shoehorned in at the last minute, as Grandenetti's name again appears in a different font from the rest of the Artists on the Contents page.

Most of the fan letters included in "Dear Cousin Eerie" were harshly critical of EERIE #19, so that feature wasn't much fun, either.  The best point was made by the complaint about having to pay for stories that have already been paid for in previous issues--particularly appropriate in an issue with four reprints and two new stories.  There was nothing particularly remarkable on the "EERIE Fan Fare" page, either; just a recap of the Cauldron Contest, and a dumb story about warring factions destroying the Earth (just like in the illustrated story that comes after the Fan Fare page).

Maybe the highlight of the entire issue is the (NEW) Monster Gallery on "Lucifer's Legions"--at least in terms of the art.  Sutton's depiction of the demons being cast out of heaven and swirling down to earth is breathtaking, and the innuendo of showing the White House in the final panel was a great touch.  But even this feature was not immune to the copy errors that plague this issue--"wet [sic] your awful appetites" and "hieachy [sic] of angels" were among the first phrases to appear in this issue, so I was rolling my eyes virtually from the start.

If the Monster Gallery wasn't the highlight, then it would have to be the double dose of Mastroserio reprints that serve as a mini-memorial for his great work.  And I guess there's also a Ditko piece, but it's kind of flying without a plot, as Goodwin didn't seem to understand the meaning of the word "immortal."  So it's not even one of the better Ditko vehicles.

That leaves us with the other new story this issue, "Miscalculation" (not "Slight Miscalculation," as the cover states).  I guess it's a serviceable piece based on the emerging fear of computers at that time--a fear that continues with concerns about emerging AI technology today (thanks in no small part to the "Terminator" movies)--but it was not immune to the copy errors that overrun this issue.

So yeah, not a big fan of EERIE #21--but they can't all be gems.  I would feel like I only got about 15 cents worth out of my 40 cents paid, if I had bought this issue off the newsstand back in the day--and I would hope they would put the other 25 cents toward a competent proofreader!

This issue isn't one of my favorites...    

[OtherEric]

I've got my review ready to go when you start the issue, @Axe Elf.  But I'm crashing in a few minutes.

[Axe Elf]

Sorry, I fell asleep...  I'll kick it off in a few minutes when I can put it together.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #27 - June 1969

(New Frazetta!)

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

27. cover: Frank Frazetta (June 1969)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Boris Karloff [Forrest J. Ackerman/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico]1p   [frontis]

2) Collector’s Edition [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #10 (Aug. 1966)

3) Make Up Your Mind [Bill Parente/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 6p

4) The Coffin Of Dracula, part 2 [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #9 (June 1966)

5) Thane: Barbarian Of Fear [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 9p

6) The Creepy Fan Club: Embalming [Bill Parente/Ken Kelly] 1p   [text article]

7) Brain Trust! [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #10 (Aug. 1966)

8) Surprise Package [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 7p

Notes: Frazetta’s first cover in two years was a revised version of his ‘Mongul’ painting.  For some reason, the second half of ‘The Coffin Of Dracula’ was reprinted without including the first half!  Future Warren cover artist (and Frank Frazetta’s son-in-law) Ken Kelly made his comics debut on the fan page.  The barbarian Thane made his first appearance in two years.  He wouldn’t appear again for another nine!  Uncle Creepy & Cousin Eerie cameo in the story ‘Surprise Package’.   The back cover features an ad for a 3’ tall monster poster that would border and display a photograph, supposedly depicting a monster, that the readers would send in of themselves, with the surrounding art illustrated by Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico.

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Love the new Frazetta!--and the debut of Ken Kelly does nothing but build the excitement!--but printing the second half of a story without the first half kind of starts this issue out with a faceplant already.  C'mon, man...

We do get a classic reprint with the Ditko "Collector's Edition" piece, and three new stories, including a new Thane, would seem to have us back on the right track.

Fingers crossed...

(I always kind of wanted one of those "Our Leader" posters!)

Edited May 7, 2023 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

Creepy 27 thoughts:

Cover:  It's Frazetta.  And now that Frazetta isn't churning out a cover a month, he's even better.  Not that he didn't have several masterpieces in his initial run, but his average, amazingly, goes even higher when he only occasionally does a cover.

Loathsome Lore:  One of, I believe, only 3 comic pieces Forrest J. Ackerman ever did.  It's much more an illustrated tribute that we could have expected from Famous Monsters than a comic piece, honestly.  We might as well cover Ackerman here, as well, since we'll be busy when we get to his two actual stories in a few months.  He essentially made a career out of being a professional fan; he wrote about 40 SF stories and tons of essays and reviews and articles.  But mostly what he's known for is Famous Monsters, which is essentially a professional version of the fanzine stuff he put out for decades.

Collector's Edition:  I know @Axe Elf didn't care for it as much as the rest of us the first time round, but it's still one of the most famous Warren stories ever, and I won't argue with that assessment.  If anything, this is one of the few stories I think Warren was remarkably restrained with, we won't see it again until 1982.

Make Up Your Mind:  I've finally figured out my issue with Parente.  His stories have a lot of ambition but he's exceeding his grasp at this point.  It's obvious what he's trying to do with this story, and it's a good and ambitious idea.  But he never quite manages to make the scene transitions work, and so the story, as so many of his, winds up being not as good as it could be.  I suspect the problem is he's being overwhelmed with the task of being both editor and primary writer so early in his career; and forced to do more than he's really capable of yet.  He'll disappear from the Warrens, and comics, more or less completely around 1971.  I wonder what he might have done if he hadn't had to do so much, so fast, at the start of his career; he's got enough good ideas that he might have done some incredible stuff if he was given more time to develop.  (The fact that the "overwhelm the new creator" trick actually worked with Archie Goodwin doesn't mean it's a good plan in general, just that Archie was one of the true geniuses of comics.)

The Coffin of Dracula:  It's really weird that they ran part two without part one; made even worse by the editing not taking out the reference to "last issue".  With all that said, it works tolerably on its own... this was the first issue I got with part of the story, so I read it in isolation the first time.  I know from experience that it can work.

Barbarian of Fear:  Gorgeous art by Sutton, decent ideas but often unclear writing in the story.

Fan Club:  Ken Kelly, Frazetta's nephew (not son-in-law, I believe) makes his Warren debut here, roughly a year before becoming a regular contributor.

Brain Trust:  Still a nice, very EC-style story from Goodwin & Torres.

Surprise Package:  Ugh.  We already saw an origin for Uncle Creepy back in #4, we didn't need a new one.  Particularly not this mess.  Nice art as usual from Colon, though

So,  I disagree with the index rather significantly here, because I feel that this, not #29, is the start of the Warren rebuilding and the end of the dark ages. It still needs work, but Frazetta's cover, Kelly's debut, and the increased page count, means we've turned the corner.  To be fair, putting the mark of the new era anywhere on Creepy & Eerie is going to be somewhat arbitrary, other than it has to be no later than when Vampi #1 is on the stands.  But this seems like a good landmark to me.

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by OtherEric

[Axe Elf]

Lotta meat in there, @OtherEric; good thoughts on Forry, Parente and Goodwin as editors--one of your best reviews yet!

In defense of my lukewarm review of "Collector's Edition" the first time around, I think it was mostly because I was already sort of familiar with the plot--or at least an archetype of the plot.  I did think it had some cool elements, such as framing the story within the split-second of the axe attack.

My esteem for it grew significantly, at least in terms of the respect it has in the industry, when you posted the Fred Hembeck strip lampooning it:

[Jayman]

Great reviews as always guys! The one question I have with this Frazetta cover (which I like), is:

Is that supposed to be a sword he is holding? It kind of looks like a bloody sword at one end but it fades away into nothing by the time it reaches his hand. I’m pretty sure it’s a sword but just looks odd to me, any thoughts?

[Axe Elf]

On 5/7/2023 at 5:52 PM, Jayman said:

Great reviews as always guys! The one question I have with this Frazetta cover (which I like), is:

Is that supposed to be a sword he is holding? It kind of looks like a bloody sword at one end but it fades away into nothing by the time it reaches his hand. I’m pretty sure it’s a sword but just looks odd to me, any thoughts?

Yeah, I was going to muse some about the cover when I wrote my review, but there are definitely some indistinct elements to it that add to the otherworldliness, like the scaly snake body that swoops through the scene, sort of in scale with the warrior, but completely dwarfing the humanoids in the mosh pit (and what are THEY doing?).  The scene also seems to be at least partially lit by the lightning in the upper right, but there's an inherent neon glow to the cave (?) as well.  Are those more people back in there, ones who have "jumped the snake," maybe, as one bold troglodyte appears ready to do, as a couple of others are knocked back?

And yeah, that "sword."  I thought it might be like a shaft of light at first, but it appears to be bloodstained--unless that is the shadow of some vines interrupting the sunbeam or something, because neither end of the "sword" seems to have a handle, and it just sort of disappears into that rock or stump or whatever it is.

It's almost like Frazetta was unclear as to what this painting would ultimately be, and a lot of aborted ideas ended up being included in one form or another.

[Jayman]

Jumping the Snake. I like it!

Yeah, years ago before I had an issue in hand, I thought that snake was Thane’s long tail before I noticed it going past him around that rock. My favorite feature however is that facial expression on Thane. What an evil look Frazetta was able to capture! 

[Stevemmg]

 

This might help a little bit. I don’t think that it’s a sword, but then again, I can’t necessarily tell you what it is. The two “legs” coming off of it are confusing. The bright spot behind than is more dynamic in this shot of the painting. 

[Jayman]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:02 PM, Stevemmg said:

This might help a little bit. I don’t think that it’s a sword, but then again, I can’t necessarily tell you what it is. The two “legs” coming off of it are confusing. The bright spot behind than is more dynamic in this shot of the painting. 

Now seeing this a bit clearer, it now looks like a felled tree or a bone maybe…

Edited May 8, 2023 by Jayman

[Axe Elf]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:02 PM, Stevemmg said:

 

This might help a little bit. I don’t think that it’s a sword, but then again, I can’t necessarily tell you what it is. The two “legs” coming off of it are confusing. The bright spot behind than is more dynamic in this shot of the painting. 

That makes those white streaks in the upper right look less like lightning and more like mere wisps from the cauldron or whatever.

But yeah, the blood-stained sunbeam with legs is all the more mysterious.

[The Lions Den]

Early version of this painting. Ellie allegedly thought it was too "demonic"...   

 

[Jayman]

On 5/8/2023 at 6:03 AM, The Lions Den said:

Early version of this painting. Ellie allegedly thought it was too "demonic"...   

 

Now this makes more sense to me. I now get the feeling of a demon overseeing the damned souls enter Hell through some type of portal. I still get the sword feeling though. The white “legs” could be just some ooze dripping off the sides.

[Axe Elf]

Right of the bat, I tip my cap to the "Loathsome Lore" frontispiece dedicated to what must have been the very recent passing of Boris Karloff (he died February 2, 1969, and this is the "June 1969" issue--so it must have gone to press within a month or two at most of his death).  I appreciate that they didn't try to make him somehow mystical or magical or anything, just an honest tribute to his sensational career.  And I was also just saying for EERIE #21 how I liked it when they included stills/photos in the illustrations, so including a photo of Karloff as Frankenstein was a nice touch!

And yes, it was kind of cool to see the "Writers In This Issue" on the "Contents" page listing Goodwin, Parente, and Ackerman--all together as one--even if Ackerman's only contribution was the Karloff obituary.

Apparently I'm not the only one to be irked by all the inked errors, as an astute observer in St. Louis wrote to "Dear Uncle Creepy" to ask:

Fortunately, Uncle Parente must have taken the criticism to heart and given this issue the extra once-over.  I won't swear that there weren't any typos or errors in this issue, but certainly not so many that they had me thinking about them more than the stories themselves.  So we're looking up in the proofreading department.

I thought the three new stories were largely looking up too--largely.

@OtherEric pretty much nailed the review on "Make Up Your Mind"; it's a good idea that is delightful when you realize what's happening, but then it kind of clunks it's way awkwardly through the twist.  Still, it's a serviceable psychological horror story, and I tend to like those in general.

And while I loved both reading Parente's "Barbarian of Fear" and looking at Sutton's illustrations, the ending left me a little cold.  I guess "Batu" was some kind of magical mystical manifestation of the collective consciousness of the mythos of the elders--somehow their legend had taken on a physical presence?--and it was so intimately tied to the king's psyche that when the manifestation of his mythos was "killed," he died with it?  And then the girl was like, "I can leave now?  Oh well, I guess I'll stay, sorry for all the trouble I caused..."

Say what?

I'll just endorse @OtherEric's assessment of the writing as being "often unclear" as an understatement.  Still, for as dumb as the ending might be, I actually enjoyed the experience of reading it quite a lot.  I enjoyed the little touches, like different lettering for the narration and for the dialogue, for instance, as well as the sweeping impressions like Sutton's spectacular "Batu" full pager:

Perhaps the Frazetta cover for this issue could somewhat relate to this image as well--the superhuman Guardian of the Gates of the Valley--although the snake and the "sword" thing still don't really make sense.

I probably liked "Surprise Package" better than @OtherEric did--at least the idea that all monsters are from outer space--but I agree that they shouldn't have tried to make it an alternate "origin story" for Uncle Creepy.  I was trying to make it work in my own head such that Uncle Creepy was still "born" back in CREEPY #4 ("Monster Rally"), but then when he grew up, he and Cousin Eerie took jobs as these mercenary-types "Commander One" and "Commander Two" just to go around the universe collecting monsters to bring to bear on conquering Eart... er... excuse me, "Novella"--but then Uncle Creepy nixes that little workaround by mocking us for thinking that he and his cousin were originally from THIS world in the final panel!

So yeah, it was basically written specifically to pre-empt the original Uncle Creepy's origin story, and so while it was a fun read, it still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth for that reason.

I probably would have had this review posted yesterday, but whatever insufficiently thoughtful person scanned my digital copy of this issue neglected to scan the "Creepy Fan Club" page, so I had to break out my physical copy just to read that feature, and I just didn't feel like doing it until today, after spending a couple of hours yesterday on the rest of this review.  I probably wouldn't have missed the "E" entry in their devilish dictionary ("embalming" was the best they could do, no ectoplasm, no exorcism, no plain ol' evil, just embalming), but I would not have wanted to miss the debut drawing from Ken Kelley (or "K.W. Kelly," as he was credited).  I'd post the image here, but like I said, I have no digital version of it.  They bothered to scan all the pages of advertisements, but not the Fan Club debut of Ken Kelley.  That was kind of a significant omission.

For reprints this issue, we have the all-time Ditko classic, "Collector's Edition," the very serviceable horror story "Brain Trust," and even a Reed Crandall reprint, so no complaints there.  The biggest gaffe of the issue though--and it's a huge one--is printing the 2nd half of "The Coffin of Dracula" without the 1st half!  Lead off the issue with Part 1, close the issue with Part 2, and leave out "Brain Trust" entirely, and we'd have a pretty solid issue top to bottom here.

As it is, we still have a good issue, and while I'm not quite as anxious as @OtherEric to call it the end of the Dark Ages, it is a real and tangible step forward.  I'm still reserving my celebration of the rebirth for another month, after we get through one more EERIE, one more CREEPY, and the 1970 Yearbooks for both CREEPY and EERIE--THEN I will be ready to say it's full steam ahead for the new improved incarnation of Warren with the consecutive releases of CREEPY #29, EERIE #23, and VAMPIRELLA #1.

It's not the complete end of reprints or anything, but those books all seem to be considered high water marks of their respective titles' periods in Warren history.

I can't wait!

[The Lions Den]

On 5/12/2023 at 5:21 PM, Axe Elf said:

It's not the complete end of reprints or anything, but those books all seem to be considered high water marks of their respective titles' periods in Warren history.

I can't wait!

Well, at least the covers are going to get better...  

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #22 - July 1969

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

22. cover: Vic Prezo (July 1969)

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Minotaur [Archie Goodwin/Neal Adams] 1p   [frontis]   reprinted from Eerie #11 (Sept. 1967)

2) H2O World! [Larry Ivie/Al Williamson & Roy G. Krenkel] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #1 (Jan. 1965)

3) Family Curse [T. Casey Brennan/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 8p

4) The Devil To Pay! [Archie Goodwin/Donald Norman] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #11 (Oct. 1966)

5) Permanent Members! [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 7p  

6) Eerie Fanfare: Familiars/The Finish [Bill Parente & Mike Raab/Len Wein] 1p   [text article/story]

7) Scooped! [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 8p

8) The Spirit Of The Thing! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #9 (June 1966)

9) Vampirella Is Coming Ad [Bill Parente/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 1p  

Notes: Size increase to 56 pages.  Prezo’s cover of a bikini clad diver confronted by sea monsters at an undersea wreck was quite good.  The story ‘Permanent Members’ appears to have been intended for, or  perhaps inspired by, the cover to Creepy #22 from a year earlier.  T. Casey Brennan made his professional debut here.  Future comic writer Len Wein had his comics debut on the fan page as an artist.  The Vampirella ad featured both Uncle Creepy & Cousin Eerie, but not Vampirella.

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Page count increase (the cover says 60 and the Index says 56, but whatever)!  Neal Adams Monster Gallery (a reprint, but still)!  Not just one but TWO new creators make their respective debuts!  (T. Casey Brennan and Len Wein, though I would not have recognized either name--anyone care to educate me?)  And...  the first mention of VAMPIRELLA!

It's kind of odd that all the reprints are farmed from rival CREEPY again, but it sure feels like we're building on last week's light at the end of the tunnel, and we're really coming out of the tunnel now!

I'm really curious about this "Permanent Members" story now; I'm not sure how it could have been intended for the cover to CREEPY #22, when that cover is so obviously tied to the "No Fair" story within it--although both are Sutton-inked pieces, so we'll see...  Inspired by it, maybe, but surely not INTENDED for it.

I sure hope this is a good issue; it kind of needs to be, if it wants to be a credible transition out of the Dark Ages and a worthy predecessor to EERIE #23--but then again, it almost can't help but be better than EERIE #21, so there's that.