Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[OtherEric]

 No problem waiting for the opening post.  I was just slightly worried something had happened given how consistent you've been.  Thank you again for running the club!

[The Lions Den]

On 6/18/2023 at 12:26 PM, OtherEric said:

Overall, I think this issue isn't quite as impressive as the Creepy #29 from last week.  But the cover is incredible, and there is still the definite sense that things are getting on track for Warren.

You are being so incredibly kind.

The cover is a classic, but at this point Warren should have been sending Archie Goodwin roses and chocolates...  

[OtherEric]

On 6/19/2023 at 4:50 AM, The Lions Den said:

You are being so incredibly kind.

The cover is a classic, but at this point Warren should have been sending Archie Goodwin roses and chocolates...  

I think they were.   Goodwin had a story in Creepy #29, and there's some indication he helped edit Vampi #1, uncredited.

[The Lions Den]

On 6/19/2023 at 12:31 PM, OtherEric said:

I think they were.   Goodwin had a story in Creepy #29, and there's some indication he helped edit Vampi #1, uncredited.

Yet another noteworthy event in the summer of '69...  

[Axe Elf]

It's kind of interesting that Warren still has an ad for back issues of Blazing Combat inside the front cover (rather than the usual Gallery or Lore feature).  I mean the last issue of Blazing Combat came out over three years ago, at this point, and its full run was less than a year when it was being published in the first place.

I'm fully on board with the notion that EERIE #23 was released before CREEPY #29, not only because of the apparent chronology of the Vampirella teasers, but also because of the indicia on the "Contents" page.  For this issue of EERIE #23, the indicia looks like it was "marked up" from the previous version, with the issue number, the price, and the subscription prices all looking like they were literally pasted over the old copy:

Whereas the indicia for CREEPY #29 looks like it was actually typeset properly with the new information:

"Dear Cousin Eerie" highlighted the polarizing effect of the cover to EERIE #21--some liked it, but most hated it--and others noted my concern that it doesn't "really" go with its associated story.  Cousin Eerie said that the cover was done before the story was written to go with it, but if that's the case, then it REALLY seems contrived to have included the cover image in what was a highly superficial facet of the story itself.  It seems like one would write an entirely different story if they were truly inspired by the cover.

Cousin Eerie also replied to a couple of people who also caught the mistake in "Fatal Diagnosis" of one vampire reflecting in a mirror while the other did not:

The story of "Beyond Nefera's Tomb" did a really good job of capturing the spirit of Frazetta's gorgeous cover--even writing in the leopards as her lycanthropic servants!  But while I agree with @OtherEric that the storytelling isn't as tight as it probably should be, I find that in looking back on the story, which I first read a couple of days ago, I am remembering it more as it "should" have been, rather than as it is.  It's like the story idea itself is stronger than the way it was actually written, and raises a lot of cool questions about spacetime and causality that have captured my attention more than some awkward phrasings.  So I think this was a solid offering to match a peerless cover, though not at all perfect.

As far as the nudity goes, yeah, Colon's style was minimal enough to reduce the impact of what was largely incidental nudity (and most often, just "near-nudity"), although I suppose I should probably put the most blatant example, from the most striking illustration, behind a spoiler.

I wasn't as put off by the silly names in "The Dragon's Tail" as @OtherEric was.  I remember the Warrens having a few silly tongue-in-cheek moments later on (like "Rex Havoc and the Asskickers of the Fantastic") so I'm ok with Bloodyax and Azsmasher.  I'm just not sure I understand the twist--the last ruler was a giant... AND a dragon's son?  And the skeleton of the years-dead dragon just moved on its own to kill Vlackmar?  I wasn't too impressed with the simplistic "Tony Williamsune" art, either; although I did appreciate some of the sprawling, multi-panel sequences.

Another piece of evidence that EERIE #23 should have preceded CREEPY #29 is that while there was no "dictionary" entry on the CREEPY #29 fan page, we get the entry for "H"--"Hades"--in "EERIE Fan Fare" this month.  So I'm assuming Hades is the last entry, and there were no more dictionary entries from CREEPY #29 onward.

Neat that Bruce Jones (making his 2nd appearance on the fan page) is from my home state of Kansas.

Also neat that the Cauldron Contest winner is a descendent of the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial (and the Minuteman at Lexington)--but I agree with @OtherEric; the story itself--"Soul Pool"--is not as strong as the one from the CREEPY winner.  It has some thought-provoking aspects, and the three main characters are strong, but I think the concept needs a little more explanation--why would the dead frog become a living human?--and did it become another Shoat, or did it became the person it had been before it was turned into a frog?

"Space Age Vampire" brought some smiles--the police robots firing stakes!--but overall it was a harmless and forgettable end to the issue.  In the future, we've destroyed all our technology and civilization through nuclear war, but the trees are sentient?  Meh.

At least it goes well with the arrival of Vampirella on the "Gasp" page; one vampire into another...

The two reprints, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "Fair Exchange" are a good representation of typical Warren fare, both in adapting popular literature and in original fiction, although neither are among my favorites.  I really liked the Ambrose Bierce story when I read it in high school, but I wasn't as absorbed by the illustrated version--maybe because I already knew the twist.

So overall this is a solid issue, but not a great one; the cover and its associated story are definitely the highlights.  In a sense, I'm kind of relieved that EERIE #23 was released before CREEPY #29, because I would have actually seen it as a step backward from the promise and glory that was CREEPY #29.  But I can accept it a lot more easily as a transitional issue between Warren's Dark Ages and the auspicious new beginnings of CREEPY #29 and VAMPIRELLA #1 yet to come.

[Axe Elf]

Well, I guess I don't know how to do spoilers here.

The whole second half of my review is now behind a spoiler.

Sorry.

[The Lions Den]

On 6/23/2023 at 6:59 PM, Axe Elf said:

Well, I guess I don't know how to do spoilers here.

The whole second half of my review is now behind a spoiler.

Sorry.

Well sir, I had no problem reading it and I thought you made some good points in your review...  

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #1 - September 1969

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

1. cover: Frank Frazetta (Oct. 1969)

1) Vampirella’s Welcome [Bill Parente/Frank Frazetta] 1p   [frontis]   art reprinted from Creepy #29 (Sept. 1969)

2) Vampirella Of Draculon [Forrest J. Ackerman/Tom Sutton] 7p

3) Death Boat! [Don Glut/Billy Graham] 6p

4) Two Silver Bullets! [Don Glut/Reed Crandall] 6p

5) Goddess From The Sea [Don Glut/Neal Adams] 6p

6) Last Act: October! [Don Glut/Mike Royer] 8p

7) Spaced-Out Girls! [Don Glut/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 6p

8) Room Full Of Changes [Nicola Cuti/Ernie Colon] 6p

Notes: Publisher: James Warren.  Editor: Bill Parente.  64 page issue.  This was the first all original Warren issue since Eerie #11 (Sept. 1967).  Frazetta’s cover of Vampirella was a substitute for the original cover by European artist Aslan.  That cover also featured Vampirella, but was rejected over fears that Vampi looked rather anemic (not good for a vampire, one would guess).  That cover was eventually used as the cover for the Vampirella 1972 Annual.  Vampirella’s costume and hair style was designed by artist Trina Robbins.  The first Vampirella story was a horror spoof rather than a straight horror tale, as was made obvious by the first two pages being taken up with a sequence of a nude Vampirella taking a shower for no particular reason, except for good clean fun.  Several years later, this origin tale was greatly rewritten to fit the more horrific manner of her later tales.  Best stories are the Graham, Crandall & Adams’ stories, all written by Don Glut.  Adams’ story was in pencils only.  The question arises of exactly who edited this first issue?  Bill Parente is listed on the masthead but he doesn’t appear with a single written story.  Unusual for an issue edited by him.  Forrest Ackerman created, or at least had a strong hand in creating, Vampirella and he clearly had a major influence in shaping the light-hearted bad girl story style of this issue as well.  Neal Adams remembered that Archie Goodwin was the person calling up artists for this issue and that this was the main reason a very busy Adams agreed to do his story.  That makes sense.  Goodwin & Warren had a close relationship and only months later, Goodwin would be back on the masthead as a contributing editor.   It’s even possible that all three, along with publisher Jim Warren, had an editorial hand in shaping this issue.  Regardless, this was a pretty good start.  Not up to the later Warren issues from the Goodwin Era but a giant step up from the previous two years.

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FINALLY!

For the first time in over a year, we begin our first new Warren title since we started Blazing Combat on June 12, 2022!  I'm so excited I don't really know what to say.  Or I have a lot to say, and I don't really know where to begin.  And I'm already confused regarding the date on this book, as the Index dates usually match the cover dates, but this time the book says September and the Index says October.  Right now I'm calling it by its cover date of September, as has been my tradition, but who really knows at this point--and I realize the ACTUAL release date seems to have been sometime back in July.

Anyway, if anyone has been following along with the Warren Magazine Reading Club, but hasn't really joined in because they weren't in at the beginning, here's a chance to get in on the beginning of a new title--the most titillating title 'til the debut of 1984 in 1978--VAMPIRELLA!!  I hope everyone takes this opportunity to crack open this beauty (digitally, if not literally) to enjoy the inside of one of the most sought-after of all Warren outsides--and share their experiences with us here.  It doesn't seem to be particularly rare or hard-to-find, but good copies sell for thousands of dollars, probably on the strength of the intersection of Frazetta, Adams and Crandall, with Ackerman and even Goodwin likely having a hand too.  Really looking forward to the Adams' piece done in pencil!

So even if you don't feel like writing a review, I know many of you have some gorgeous copies you could share with us this week.  I would love to see them.  My #1 isn't the prettiest of the prom, but I'm looking forward to sharing some really nice copies of the early Vampirellas over the weeks to come!

I feel like I should include a scan of the 1972 Annual as well, since the Index indicates that it was originally intended to be the cover of Vampi #1; I guess that was where they rewrote her origin story "years later."  Still, I don't think a backstory that originates in her shower was a poor choice either...

Anemic?  I'm not seeing "anemic"...  She looks more anemic in Frazetta's work, if you ask me.

And NO REPRINTS this month--7 new stories!!!

We are out of the Dark Ages indeed...

[OtherEric]

Vampirella #1 thoughts:

Cover:  I've seen a fair bit of criticism of the cover, actually, saying it looks rushed or is excessively simple, neither of which is exactly wrong.  But none of it matters, because the image has become so iconic.  

Inside front cover:  Warren will use and re-use the handful of sketches Frazetta did of Vampi a lot.

Vampirella is Coming: One of Ackerman's only full-length comic stories, in execution it's a series of bad puns around a minimal framework of cheesecake designed as a throwaway introduction to the horror host of the book.  Vampirella isn't even in her classic costume.  What's amazing about it is just how much of the story is actually kept and still part of Vampi's lore even fifty years on, even as the creators very early on try to recast the events in a very different light.  The art by Sutton isn't his best, either; although part of that may be he doesn't seem to get Vampi's face right... which is very much not a fair complaint given that it's the first story.  This story just has too much weight of history on it to really look at it fairly as what it was when it first came out.

Death Boat:  Billy Graham is a major Warren creator making his debut here.  A nicely claustrophobic story, despite being on the open water with endless vistas.

Two Silver Bullets:  A fairly predictable story, but well told and with excellent Reed Crandall art.

Goddess from the Sea:  Utterly gorgeous Neal Adams art, shot directly from pencils.

Last Act: October:  This one didn't really work for me, honestly.

Spaced-Out Girls: A framework for more cheesecake with a fairly predictable twist, but well executed.  I think the story would have benefited from the last page being on a page turn, honestly.

Room Full of Changes:  Colon's art seems rushed here, which is at least interesting in showing us how meticulous his simple seeming work on other stories really is.

This is, overall, a very difficult issue to fairly assess.  I find it hard to describe it as anything other than the most important comic Warren ever published, introducing a character who has been more or less continually in print (barring some ownership issues in the 80's) for over fifty years now.  But assessing the book on its own, I will say they probably front-loaded the good stuff a little too much to the front of the book.  The Graham, Crandall, and Adams stories are all extremely impressive, while the last three left me feeling cold and thinking they maybe shouldn't have gone for the expanded page count/ no reprints quite so soon.

[Jayman]

Manitoba copy from Doug Sulipa.

[The Lions Den]

Well boys, this would seem to be the time for a little show and tell. 

This isn't the nicest copy I've ever owned, but it is the most interesting one...  

 

 

[Axe Elf]

Seems like we saw that July 23 date stamped on another copy recently (although I can't find it right now), so that was probably the date that Vampi #1 actually hit the shelves.

Now I want to see a picture of someone at Woodstock with a Vampirella #1...

[Axe Elf]

Well, whaddya know...

[Axe Elf]

[Axe Elf]

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #1 was a pretty quick read this week, with no letters page and no fan page--each of those take about as much time to read in a CREEPY or EERIE as do any of the illustrated stories--and no "Gallery" or "Lore, either.  I was so excited for the new title, I had read the book by Tuesday, but I was so lazy, I didn't write the review until today.  That's probably a productive thing, though, since I've had a couple of days to let the stories percolate through my brain, and while I haven't significantly changed my opinion of any of them, I may be able to express the joy I found in reading them a little better now.  And it really was an experience of pure joy.

Still one of my favorite things about the Warren Magazine Reading Club is putting the books in historical perspective.  While I had fun putting together the mashups of VAMPIRELLA #1 in my pictorial parade of contemporary events, the "Come With Me" introduction inside the front cover hints at another contemporary event by including the phrase "you get half a dozen other sock-it-to-you shockers..."  I'm pretty sure that phrase originated on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In television program, which ran on NBC from 1968 to 1973, so "sock-it-to-me" had only been a thing for about a year by this time.

And then, there she is, "Vampirella of Draculon," in what may be the greatest first appearance of all time...

I spent way too much time trying to figure out what was being reflected in that mirror.  Wait a minute, I thought vampires don't cast reflections?  But then why would she have a little face mirror like that in her vanity area in the first place?  Maybe the whole mirror quirk is just for terran vampires...

I kind of like Vampi's first outfit, too--or at least I like what Tom Sutton did with her butt in the black yoga pants.  I thought the "H2O" analogy was cute, too (water on Drakulon is "hemoglobin doubled with oxygen"), even though that's not how molecular notation works.  The story itself was definitely a lightweight excuse for the eye candy, but I guess it does its job of setting the stage for the Vampirella saga to follow.

I absolutely LOVED the "Death Boat" story--right up until the end.  I loved the art by a new artist, I loved that the vampire-looking guy was the first to go in an egregious example of profiling, I loved all the illustrations of another scantily-clad hawt chick, and I loved the building suspense over whether the vampire would be the girl or the guy--I really didn't know who it was going to be!--and then...  it was the boat itself??  C'mon man...  Now vampires not only reflect, but they can turn into inanimate objects?  Why don't vampires just turn themselves into walk-in closets, and spit out the bones?  How would it even turn itself back into a vampire long enough to bite people's necks without sinking them all?  GREAT art, GOOD story that would have been great if not for a POOR ending!

"Two Silver Bullets" was indeed predictable, but at least a werewolf story breaks the vampire monotony.  And it had another hawt chick running around in her nightgown--but no rats.  C'mon Reed, you're slipping.

One thing I did want to point out about Crandall's typically fine art, though, and that was how the shadow of her hand on the windowpane in this panel indicates that it is darker outside the window than it is inside, making the white landscape seem more moonlit than daylit, even in contrast to the paradoxically black interior.  That shadow is just a small touch, but it changes the whole perception of the lighting in the panel.  It's genius, if intentional.

Artistically, I consider "Goddess of the Sea" to be the highlight of the issue.  Neal Adams' gorgeous pencils would seem incapable of producing such realistic surfscapes--and yet another scantily-clad hottie--yet there they are.  I found myself scrutinizing many of the effects closely, just to see how they were done.  We're not too far removed from Neal Adams' debut (at least it doesn't seem that long here in the accelerated timeframe of the Reading Club), and already Adams has demonstrated a remarkable mastery.

The story itself isn't too remarkable, but the theme of using a hottie to lure a man to his doom will be repeated later in the issue.  I was just surprised to see that the sea goddess' victim appears to be none other than J. Jonah Jameson, editor of the Daily Bugle--although he's going by the thinly-veiled pseudonym of "Jim Judson" here.

Does anyone know if Neal Adams ever drew the Spiderman comics? 

It was nice to see another new artist, but "Last Act: October" was probably the weakest story of the issue.  It took me a while to realize that the curse was playing out over several years, and not just in one October, for one thing--and then the ending makes no sense.  Ostensibly the spirit of the witch possessed the little boy to kill her last victim, but the changeling looked more like a demon than the witch--and why wait until the very last minute of October if the curse can do something as contrived as that?  It kind of makes all the other near-accident teasers along the way even more superficial.  And the old witch wasn't even a hottie...

We get plenty more hotties in "Spaced-Out Girls," even if they all turn out to be robot hotties, once again luring a man to his doom (or at least to his great disgust, as the case may be).  I thought the artists could have gone even more disgusting--rather than just a fat, ugly, but still largely humanoid queen, they could have gone with something that looked more like a tardigrade, for instance...

I thought there were going to be like 40 pages of advertisements to end the issue, but the most thought-provoking story, "A Room Full of Changes," was tucked in there near the end.  It has no particular hotties, but I found it interesting that the house's occupants were basically at peace with the fact that one of the rooms in their house would change to reflect the souls of its visitors.  (Try putting THAT in a real estate listing!)  Just the number of ways that kind of a set-up could play out has occupied a lot of my thoughts over the past couple of days.  It's a really intriguing concept that probably deserves to be explored even more than there was space to do so here.

So while I agree to some extent with @OtherEric that the issue starts out very strong but kind of runs out of steam later, I don't think it ever really dropped off of a cliff, either.  It's just that the early pieces by the classic artists are so darn good that the later pieces dim in comparison--but there's still some good work done in the later stories.  And so much for the "significant amount of nudity" in EERIE #23; this issue had enough naked and near-naked hotties to have had my teenage self scrambling to send in my $3 for a subscription post-haste!  In fact, I have to wonder if this turn toward the more overtly erotic overtones helped to fuel the Warren renaissance as much as the influx of new writers and artists, with scantily-clad women now appearing on the covers of EERIE #23, CREEPY #29, and VAMPIRELLA #1.  They at least have the teenage boy market cornered.

Don Glut appears to have written most of the scripts, and for the most part, I think he did a good job of storytelling--but I would like to see him try a little harder to avoid the obvious and the ridiculous endings that detract from otherwise strong stories.  I also had to struggle through more spelling and grammar errors than I would have liked, but I'm starting to realize that's just something I'm going to have to ignore if I'm going to enjoy my Warrens.

It's a strong debut, if not masterful throughout, but I definitely look forward to exploring the series and the character of Vampirella in greater depth in the weeks to come!

Edited June 30, 2023 by Axe Elf

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #30 - November 1969

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

30. cover: Bill Hughes (Nov. 1969)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Exorcism! [Tom Sutton] 1p   [frontis]

2) The Mind Of The Monster! [R. Michael Rosen/Ernie Colon] 6p

3) Drop In! [Don Glut/Tom Sutton] 6p

4) The Haunted Sky! [Archie Goodwin/Roger Brand] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #17 (Oct. 1967)

5) The River! [Johnny Craig] 6p   reprinted from Creepy #15 (June 1967)

6) To Be Or Not To Be A Witch [Bill Parente/Carlos Prunes] 7p

7) The Creepy Fan Club: The Man In The Monkey Suit [Sam Bellotto, Jr./Brant Withers & Bill Black] 2p   [text story, Black’s art is credited to Bill Schwartz, his real name?]

8) Piece By Piece [Archie Goodwin/Joe Orlando] 8p   reprinted from Creepy #14 (Apr. 1967)

9) Dr. Jekyll’s Jest [R. Michael Rosen/Mike Royer] 6p

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

Notes: Bill Hughes’ cover featured one of the stupidest looking Frankenstein’s monsters I’ve ever seen!  The Loathsome Lore section was always at its best when Sutton wrote & illoed it, and this example is no exceptation.  The letters’ page featured an explanation by Jim Warren about the recent price hike.  The future Spanish invasion of artists is previewed here by S.I. artist Carlos Prunes’ appearance.  Future comic artist & publisher Bill Black {aka Bill Schwartz} made his comics debut on the fan page.  Mike Royer, best known in comics as the inker for Jack Kirby’s 1970s & 1980s artwork, delivered a great art job for his official Warren debut {see #29 for his unofficial debut}.  While his figures were occasionally somewhat stiff, his women were among the most beautiful to ever appear in the Warren magazines.

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More hawt chicks?  I'm beginning to see a trend...

Is Bill Hughes a new cover artist, or have we seen his work before?  It is one of the goofier CREEPY covers--and what's with the extra human hand on the tray??

I appreciate the coining of the word "illoed" (in reference to Sutton's work on the Lore), but I'm not as hopeful for the future of "exceptation."

If my late-night eyes are not deceiving me again, I believe I DO see three reprints this ish, plus another notch on the Surfboard--but with four new stories (and a new "Lore") featuring many new artists, the reprint volume can be forgiveable behind some quality new work.  Now, to see the quality of the new work...

Here's hoping for some literary "fireworks"!

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July holiday, everyone!

[OtherEric]

Creepy 30 thoughts:

Cover: Bill Hughes only does three covers for the Warren comics.  This is easily the least of his three efforts, although I actually suspect editorial meddling of some sort may have been involved.  If you look closely, it appears the monster is wearing a helmet, and if that's not actually part of the monster the image works better.  But it's colored to match the monster, and I wonder if Hughes was required to change it from a more silver shade that makes its nature more obvious.

Loathsome Lore: Is this Sutton's first -script, as well as art?  I can't remember for sure.  It's definitely one of the better lore pages we've had in a while.

Letters:  They discuss the price jump; given the increase in new content I have to believe them here that they were actually pumping most of the extra money right back into the books.

The Mind of the Monster:  R. Michael Rosen is a new writer who's around for a while; he doesn't seem to have comics for publishers other than Warren.  This is a very good debut, with Colon back on track art-wise after the rushed seeming job on the Vampi #1.

Drop In:  A nicely moody story by Glut & Sutton; but the twist at the end comes rather out of nowhere.  They mention LA by name plenty in the story; if they had just dropped its nickname once or twice before Uncle Creepy's outro the twist would have played much better.

To Be or Not To Be a Witch:  One of the best scripts we've seen from Parente, actually.  Solid plotting without the gaps at the scripting level typical of his work, with extremely good art by Carlos Prunes, making what seems to be his only Warren appearance here.

Fan Club:  Bill Black (credited here as Bill Schwartz) makes his Warren debut; he'll turn up a few more times very soon now.

Dr. Jekyll's Jest:  I decline to review this story; naming a villain after a major religion for no clear reason is simply unacceptable.  I'm prepared to grant that the writer and editor did it out of ignorance, but this isn't getting my time otherwise.

Reprints:  They're all good pieces, but 3 in one issue is pushing it in the rebuilding era.

Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: 7

Similar to the Vampirella 1 last week, this is an issue of two parts.  There's a trio of excellent new stories here, but the high number of reprints and the unforced error on the last story make it hard to give the issue as a whole that high a grade.

Edited July 2, 2023 by OtherEric

[The Lions Den]

On 6/30/2023 at 6:50 PM, Axe Elf said:

Does anyone know if Neal Adams ever drew the Spiderman comics? 

 

[Axe Elf]

So it looks like this kinda goofy cover is indeed the first we have seen from Bill Hughes, but he apparently contributes a very nice cover for Vampirella #2 coming up in a couple of weeks as well, so it's not the last we will see of him--nor the best.

Tom Sutton's "Loathsome Lore" really looks more like a Monster Gallery than a Loathsome Lore, as it's primarily one large 3/4 page illustration, rather than a series of panels like the usual Lores.  Is it just me, or does that "exorcist" look like Dr. Strange (a character Ditko had been doing at Marvel since 1963)?

And always remember to tip your exorcist...  or you could be repossessed.

The most notable thing about the expanded "Dear Uncle Creepy" section was the box about justifying the price increase.  It seems kind of silly to us now, that a 10 cent increase could be such a big deal, but really, no justification was necessary.  Just judging from all the letters throughout the Dark Ages clamoring to "bring back Frazetta!" or "bring back Morrow!" or whoever, there should be no pushback on raising the price of the magazine to cover the costs of those premium artists--money well spent!

"The Mind of the Monster" kicks off the issue with a lightweight but amusing imagination teaser about monsters on Mars and monsters of our own creation--but the thing that stood out to me the most about it was Uncle Creepy's appearance in the middle of the story!  I don't think we have ever seen him doing anything other than an intro or an outro to a story, have we?  So is he just filling in some extra space, or was that appearance written in?  We may never know...

I don't get "Drop In" at all.  Someone predicted an earthquake, and it happened, just as predicted.  Is that it, or am I missing something?  That has to be the worst "horror" story ever.

"To Be or Not To Be a Witch" is probably the best-plotted story in this issue, although I may have enjoyed "The Mind of the Monster" more, just because it was more fun to read (and to look at).  The idea of witch hunts being orchestrated by demons to keep rogue witches in line is kind of intriguing, though.

I didn't much care for the fan story in the "CREEPY Fan Club," but the debut illustration from Bill Schwartz/Black was a solid full-pager (horizontally):

I'm not sure I understand @OtherEric's objection to naming the villain in "Dr. Jekyll's Jest" after a major religion "for no clear reason"; the clear reason is to make the "Hyde and Sikh" joke work.  It's not a strong story, but I get the joke, and I don't have any more negative feelings about a villain named "Dr. Sikh" than I would about a villain named "Dr. Christian."

Overall, I felt that the four new pieces, and even the three reprints, were all fairly innocuous; entertaining to some degree, but none that were particularly striking visually or thought-provoking mentally--and "Drop In" in particular was a complete dud (although the full-page illustrations of the earthquake happening were kind of cool).  So after the last month of CREEPY #29, EERIE #23, and VAMPIRELLA #1, I have to say that CREEPY #30 was a bit of a let-down... but then a let-down was inevitable at some point.  Hopefully this was it, and EERIE #24 will be better.

Although I think this is another example of my system getting the actual order of the books wrong, since we have two more EERIEs and a VAMPIRELLA before we get to another CREEPY, so it seems likely that next week's EERIE #24 probably came out before CREEPY #30.  But we should get back on track once they are no longer both being released in the same month.