Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[The Lions Den]

On 8/25/2023 at 10:36 PM, Axe Elf said:

I saw that in the notes, but I don't know who that is--other than the "underground and fanzine artist" description given--so I guess I should have said nothing of substance, "to me."

So... who is it?  I have "some" familiarity with the more well-known underground stuff, but not extensive.

Kenneth Smith is a very interesting person. He's reportedly an artist, author, columnist and retired professor of philosophy. His artwork was used for the covers of Creepy 35, 36 and 41, as well as the Creepy 1971 Annual and the Eerie 1971 Annual. One of his paintings was used for the cover of The Creeps #8, too...

Edited August 26, 2023 by The Lions Den

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #4 - April 1970

(One version has the masthead, text, and price in purple, and the other version has them in orange.  My purple version is in better condition than my orange version.)

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

4. cover: Vaughn Bode & Jeff Jones (Apr. 1970)

1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: Burned At The Stake! [Tom Sutton] 1p   [frontis]

2) Forgotten Kingdom [Bill Parente/Ernie Colon] 10p

3) Closer Than Sisters [Nicola Cuti/Mike Royer] 7p

4) Moonshine! [Don Glut/William Barry] 13p

5) Vampi’s Fan Page: MR. Piscopo Profile [MR. Piscopo/Alan Weiss] 1p   [text article w/photo]

6) Come Into My Parlor! [R. Michael Rosen/MR. Piscopo] 6p

7) Run For Your Wife! [Richard Carnell & Jack Erman/Jack Sparling] 7p

Notes: Nice SF cover from the team of Bode & Jones.  Best art was Mike Royer’s snazzy job.  Future artist Alan Weiss made his first comics appearance as the untitled fan page debuts.  Fans were encouraged to help name that feature.

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After seeing ads in the past few issues for advance mail-order copies of Vampirella #4, @OtherEric suggested the hypothesis that the advance copies might explain the difference between the two variants pictured above--one could be an example of the advance copies, and the other could be an example of the regular issue.  So at his suggestion, I busted both versions out of their bags today, and inspected them as closely as I dared, but I could find no other differences--in the indicia or anything else--that would indicate there was anything to distinguish between the two issues--other than the two different colors for the masthead, text, and price on the front cover.

EDIT:  One other difference I noticed from the scans above is that the orange version also seems to be slightly taller than the purple version.

But it's such a nice hypothesis!  I think I will believe it to be true anyway.  I mean, this doesn't appear to be another problem with the red ink fading, like we saw in the brown/green transformation of unprotected copies of CREEPY #20--if the red inks were fading, the predominantly purple and red shades in the main cover art should be affected too--and they're not.

So anyway, another ALL NEW issue, albeit only 5 actual stories in this one--but two of them a little on the epic side, clocking in at over 10 pages each.  More from some of our favorite new artists, and everything you always wanted to know about MR. Piscopo!

Edited August 27, 2023 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

After that buildup, I really wish I could give the issue a better review, @Axe Elf

Vampirella #4 thoughts:

So, we're entering the year where Vampirella is just a host, not a character in the stories.  Which I believe was always the original intent, but it still seems odd in retrospect.

Cover:  Bode gets another collaborator on this cover, Jeff Jones.  What is there to really say other than it's a stunningly gorgeous piece of art?

Feary Tales:  A nice enough filler page by Sutton, but it seems like they haven't really figured out what the identity of the feature is now that Ackerman isn't doing movie summaries.  

Forgotten Kingdom:  Very nice Colon art, a decent if rather cliched story.

Closer than Sisters:  Some solid ideas, but the story doesn't really mesh as a whole.  It doesn't help that Creepshow took the central image and did it better a decade or so later.

Moonshine:  I'm underwhelmed by Barry's art here, to say the least, and the story isn't nearly strong enough to leave much of an impression in the wake of the art.

For the Love of Frankenstein:  Very good art by Sparling, Bill Warren's underlying story is quite good but the execution is middling.

Fan Page:  It's impressive how quickly Vampirella became a cosplay favorite.  Alan Weiss goes on to do a couple stories for Warren, and hundreds for other publishers.  But my general impression of his career is he was a perennial fill-in artist, I don't really associate him with any specific run or title.  I could be wrong, though.

Come Into My Parlor:  A fairly clever conceit for the story, but Piscopo's art is pretty bad here.

Run for your Wife:  Apparently the adapted by "Jack Erman" credit is just Ackerman barely hiding his work, while Richard Carnell doesn't have any other credits in comics that I can find.  I'm becoming more and more convinced that Ackerman wisely avoided comics, for the most part.  He just doesn't seem to have a feel for them.  The art by Starling is decent but not as good as his other story in the issue, and the story is a mess.

Overall I was very disappointed in this issue after I passed the cover; there's some great art and a couple good scripts but they didn't seem to match up that often.

Edited August 27, 2023 by OtherEric

[Axe Elf]

On 8/27/2023 at 12:42 AM, OtherEric said:

After that buildup, I really wish I could give the issue a better review, @Axe Elf

Vampirella #4 thoughts:

So, we're entering the year where Vampirella is just a host, not a character in the stories.  Which I believe was always the original intent, but it still seems odd in retrospect.

Cover:  Bode gets another collaborator on this cover, Jeff Jones.  What is there to really say other than it's a stunningly gorgeous piece of art?

Feary Tales:  A nice enough filler page by Sutton, but it seems like they haven't really figured out what the identity of the feature is now that Ackerman isn't doing movie summaries.  

Forgotten Kingdom:  Very nice Colon art, a decent if rather cliched story.

Closer than Sisters:  Some solid ideas, but the story doesn't really mesh as a whole.  It doesn't help that Creepshow took the central image and did it better a decade or so later.

Moonshine:  I'm underwhelmed by Barry's art here, to say the least, and the story isn't nearly strong enough to leave much of an impression in the wake of the art.

For the Love of Frankenstein:  Very good art by Sparling, Bill Warren's underlying story is quite good but the execution is middling.

Fan Page:  It's impressive how quickly Vampirella became a cosplay favorite.  Alan Weiss goes on to do a couple stories for Warren, and hundreds for other publishers.  But my general impression of his career is he was a perennial fill-in artist, I don't really associate him with any specific run or title.  I could be wrong, though.

Come Into My Parlor:  A fairly clever conceit for the story, but Piscopo's art is pretty bad here.

Run for your Wife:  Apparently the adapted by "Jack Erman" credit is just Ackerman barely hiding his work, while Richard Carnell doesn't have any other credits in comics that I can find.  I'm becoming more and more convinced that Ackerman wisely avoided comics, for the most part.  He just doesn't seem to have a feel for them.  The art by Starling is decent but not as good as his other story in the issue, and the story is a mess.

Overall I was very disappointed in this issue after I passed the cover; there's some great art and a couple good scripts but they didn't seem to match up that often.

No image this week?

[The Lions Den]

On 8/27/2023 at 1:42 AM, OtherEric said:

Cover:  Bode gets another collaborator on this cover, Jeff Jones.  What is there to really say other than it's a stunningly gorgeous piece of art?

I agree that it's a great cover, but I suspect there's more going on than first meets the eye. Ask yourself why the girl looks so surprised and it may soon become clear... 

On 8/27/2023 at 1:42 AM, OtherEric said:

Forgotten Kingdom:  Very nice Colon art, a decent if rather cliched story.

I believe this was the first story in comics that used a spirograph...  

[The Lions Den]

On 8/27/2023 at 1:00 AM, Axe Elf said:

EDIT:  One other difference I noticed from the scans above is that the orange version also seems to be slightly taller than the purple version.

[Jayman]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:08 AM, The Lions Den said:

I agree that it's a great cover, but I suspect there's more going on than first meets the eye. Ask yourself why the girl looks so surprised and it may soon become clear... 

Do go on…

Here is the original oil on canvas. But couldn’t find a story behind it.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Jayman

[The Lions Den]

On 8/27/2023 at 10:12 AM, Jayman said:

Do go on…

Here is the original oil on canvas. But couldn’t find a story behind it.

Thanks for posting this Jayman, I really like it.  

But with that color scheme, it seems even more apparent that the dinosaur appears to be...excreting something.  

 

[Jayman]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:48 AM, The Lions Den said:

Thanks for posting this Jayman, I really like it.  

But with that color scheme, it seems even more apparent that the dinosaur appears to be...excreting something.  

 

Got it! 💩

[OtherEric]

On 8/27/2023 at 2:09 AM, Axe Elf said:

No image this week?

Fixed.  That's what I get for posting while tired.  Thank you.

[Axe Elf]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:51 AM, OtherEric said:

Fixed.  That's what I get for posting while tired.  Thank you.

I figured it was an oversight, since you've been talking about having all the books for the Reading Club up through the next three years or something like that.

[Axe Elf]

On 8/27/2023 at 10:48 AM, The Lions Den said:

the dinosaur appears to be...excreting something

Is that Jim Carrey?

[OtherEric]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:05 AM, Axe Elf said:

I figured it was an oversight, since you've been talking about having all the books for the Reading Club up through the next three years or something like that.

Not quite, but I'm good for another 10 months or so.  And Vampirella is already complete.

[Axe Elf]

Okay, after reading the prologue to its associated story, "Forgotten Kingdom," I'm not sure I'm buying the idea that the dinosaur on the cover is birthing, or pooping, or otherwise "excreting" something, as @The Lions Den suggested.  I don't know which came first, the cover or the story, but this panel is basically an exact copy of the cover--and it's the screaming astronaut that surprises her, not her excreting steed.

I did really enjoy the Spirograph device in this one, especially once I came to realize that it represented the "god" of their world.  I actually liked Colon's art a lot in general for this one, but using the Spirograph was pretty cool.  (The Spirograph was first licensed to Kenner toys in 1966.)  I actually liked this story a lot too, and the extra space it was afforded to develop, though the ending struck me as a little misogynistic--and then I realized how sexist it was for me to see it as misogynistic.

I mean, if it's a guy stranded on a planet of beautiful nubile women who need a male for their species to continue, we think, "What LUCK!"  But if it's a gal stranded on a planet of young strapping men who need a female for their species to continue, we think, "What HORROR!"

The "Feary Tales" actually seemed an appropriate title for this one, as the personal stories of two witches burned at the stake were probably complete fabrications, but it was a nice balance of text and art from Tom Sutton.

"Vampi's Scarlet Letters" started out with a letter from a guy reading Vampirella from Vietnam--and asking for pinups of her--that was an interesting little historical tidbit to me.  Grinned at the writer who thought Nicola Cuti was a girl--that would be kind of cool, though, with the "Cuti" last name!  And I wanted to refer the writer who said he had never seen a story about a group of musicians back to "Snakes Alive" in CREEPY #14.

It was nice getting another contributor bio on the as yet untitled "Fan Page," as MR. Piscopo is becoming one of my preferred new artists.  And then there was a Heidi Saha precursor showing up at a St. Louis convention already:

"Closer Than Sisters" was kind of a cool little story, but I think it kind of lost its way at the end--or I did, I'm not sure.  Why would the older version of the girl want to have the younger version committed to a mental institution?

"Moonshine" was also kind of fun to read, even though you sort of knew what was going to happen throughout--maybe because of the underlying sexual tension--although I'm not sure Mike Royer was skilled enough to draw a woman that would make me want to give my Corvette to a bunch of hillbillies.

By the way, did you know that if you die and come back as a hillbilly, that's reintarnation?  But I digress...

I thought it was strange that this issue only had five stories listed, even though a couple of them were longer than usual--but it was just an error of the Warren Magazine Index to not include "For the Love of Frankenstein" in its title listing for VAMPIRELLA #4!  This hidden sixth story also makes use of sexual tension to add life to a tired trope (although it might not have been so tired back then).

"Come Into My Parlor" reminded me of the cover story from EERIE #89, which I had as a teen, in which a young girl is kept locked up in the attic, having only spiders as her friends, until a repairman or something discovers her there as a young woman, and they let nature take its course, only to have her kill the guy after mating, just like her friends had done.  So I kind of saw the twist coming--but this gal's spider hand was sooo cool!

I thought it was kind of weird that "Run for Your Wife" used the same illustration of Vampirella in the intro that had been used to sell the advance copies of Vampirella #4 in previous issues.  I thought this was going to be a really interesting story the way it started and developed--and then it just sort of honked B-flat and stopped, leaving us with a whole lot of unanswered questions.  If it could have gone on a few more pages and resolved itself more naturally, a la "The Most Dangerous Game" or something, it could have been a really nice piece, instead of fizzling out like a wet firecracker.

While not all of the stories in this issue were masterpieces, I did enjoy reading this issue quite a bit.  I think maybe the heightened enjoyment comes from the underlying themes of sexual tension that ran through most of the stories in this issue--and which are becoming more typical of the Vampirella issues than in the CREEPY or EERIE issues.

When I was a teen, I didn't buy Vampirella books because I figured they were basically just soft-core porn, or if not porn, at least titillating pinup material for teenage boys.  Now that I can appreciate the contributors' craft, I understand there's a little more to it than that--but I also think that Vampirella gave a lot of these contributors more a chance to be teenage boys in their work than other venues might have.  It's a trend that probably continued up until its fruition in the adult antics of the 1984/1994 series.

So I don't know, there may be some "guilty pleasure" aspects to it, but I generally enjoyed this week's offering.

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #27 - May 1970

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

27. cover: Vaughn Bode & Jeff Jones (May 1970)

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Golem! [Tom Sutton] 1p   [frontis]

2) Journey Into Wonder [Bill Parente/Ken Barr] 10p

3) Amazonia [Gardner Fox/Miguel Fernandez] 7p

4) Eerie Fanfare: Neal Adams Profile/Poetry Corner/Surprise/The Forewarned [Bill Parente, Brad Linaweaver, Gary Schnoebeden, Cathy Hill, Allen Arnold & Susan Wylie/Dale Stuckert & ?] 2p   [text article & stories, poems]

5) The Machine God’s Slave [Buddy Saunders/Ernie Colon] 6p

6) Swallowed In Space! [Bill Parente/Tom Sutton] 7p

7) Enter…Dr. Laernu! [R. Michael Rosen/MR. Piscopo] 6p

8) All Sewed Up! [Buddy Saunders/Mike Royer] 6p

9) Face It! [Nicola Cuti/Jack Sparling] 7p

Notes: In contrast to the previous issue, this Bode/Jones cover was quite lovely.  Gardner Fox’s character Amazonia would reappear in Vampirella, illustrated there by Billy Graham.  The best story here was easily Buddy Saunders’ ‘The Machine God’s Slave’ with art honors shared by Ernie Colon and by Mike Royer for his work on ‘All Sewed Up!’.

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Nice little run of Bode/Jones covers we've had, though in fairness, the one the Index didn't like was a Bode/Gogos collaboration rather than Bode/Jones.

I really like this cover, because the first copy I had sported a wicked spine roll, and the cover was so creased up, it looked like it had been rolled up and used to discipline the dog.  I graded it a 3.0, but I was new to grading, and when I look at it now, I don't know that it's even THAT good; maybe more like a 2.5 or even a 2.0, just due to the pervasiveness of the creasing.

In any case, when I finally got the 7.5ish upgrade pictured above shortly after the end of fantasy football season last year (one hobby finances the other, I like it), I could hardly believe how beautiful it was.  And in contrast to the Bode/Gogos cover, which was intentionally more harsh, depicting a harsh environment, this one looks more friendly, welcoming, magical...  I'm not sure what story it goes with, but "Journey Into Wonder" sounds appropriate.

It looks like an intriguing mix of new contributors is in store for us this week--Sutton, Colon, Piscopo, Royer, Sparling--along with a Neal Adams profile!  Here's hoping I enjoy the book as much as the cover (but of course I would never judge a book by it).

[OtherEric]

Eerie #27 Thoughts:

Cover:  Another Bode/ Jones masterpiece.  Not that my current copy is high grade, but it is an upgrade I grabbed because I felt the cover deserved it.

Monster Gallery:  Oh, hey!  Sutton gives us a Monster Gallery that's actually unambiguously a Monster Gallery, and the text is accurate as far as it goes even if I feel it misses the most interesting bits of the Golem legend.

Journey into Wonder:  I think this is the first time we've seen Ken Barr, he has about a dozen Warren credits including some covers.  It looks like most of his work was done in the UK (assuming it's the same Ken Barr).  He illustrates one of the better scripts from Parente we've gotten in a while.  A charming little fantasy, not an all-time classic but quite enjoyable.

Amazonia:  Miguel Fernandez seems to be a one-time Warren artist, most of their credits on the GCD seem to be for European Disney books.  Which somewhat fits the art we get... it looks fairly well done, but doesn't seem to quite fit the story being told.  Gardner Fox is a legendary comic writer, starting with a story in Action Comics #1, with 6,964 writing credits at the GCD.  (Admittedly including reprints, but still...)  He does about 15 or so stories for Warren.  Here we get one of the earliest continuing Warren characters other than the Vampirella cast, who will go on to star in a couple stories in Vampirella later.  I'll go with the generous description and say the writing here is being done in a deliberately purple prose, pulpy style.  I'm underwhelmed with the end result, but looking forward to seeing what Billy Graham does with the character over in Vampirella in a few months.

The Machine God's Slave:  A solid SF story by Saunders and Colon, nothing spectacular but much better than average filler.  It's worth noting we haven't gotten a horror story yet in this issue, it's been fantasy, sword & sorcery, and SF so far.

Swallowed in Space:  A psychedelic philosophic SF story from Parente with great art by Sutton.  Again, not an all-time classic, but a great story in its own way.

Enter... Dr. Laernu:  This feels like they're trying to introduce a new recurring character, but they never appear again.  It's a solid introduction to an occult detective type character, losing some points because what it introduces never actually gets a followup.

All Sewed Up:  A fairly slight story, but it has a morbidly amusing twist at the end that lands well, and it actually is a change of pace as the first horror story in the issue.

Face It:  Not a bad story as far as it goes, but still the weakest one in the issue.

This was an excellent issue, I don't really have much to say beyond that.  A nice change after my underwhelmed reaction to the Vampirella last week.

[Axe Elf]

On 9/3/2023 at 12:21 AM, OtherEric said:

it is an upgrade I grabbed because I felt the cover deserved it

I only realized how much it deserved the upgrade after I got the upgrade, but you're absolutely right.

On 9/3/2023 at 12:21 AM, OtherEric said:

It's worth noting we haven't gotten a horror story yet in this issue, it's been fantasy, sword & sorcery, and SF so far.

My impression from my teen experiences with both titles is that EERIE tended to veer more into those genres than CREEPY did--of course, that was around the time The Rook was the main running character--but maybe we're starting to see some roots of that even this early.

[OtherEric]

On 9/2/2023 at 10:35 PM, Axe Elf said:

My impression from my teen experiences with both titles is that EERIE tended to veer more into those genres than CREEPY did--of course, that was around the time The Rook was the main running character--but maybe we're starting to see some roots of that even this early.

That's sort of what I was thinking, but I'm not sure at this point how much it's design and how much it's coincidence.  Certainly by the time the Rook shows up Eerie is a book they never would have named Eerie if they were starting from scratch.  No idea what they would have called it, though.

[Axe Elf]

FREAKY?

[Jayman]

Yet again this is a cover that never impressed me as a kid looking at it as a tiny black and white postage stamp on the back issue page. From what I could make out, it always seemed it was a man wearing a bicorn hat similar to Napoleon. 

Imagine my (pleasant) surprise when I finally saw the cover in person! Napoleon turned out to be a captured girl about to embark on an M.C. Escher type walkway, spectacular!