Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[OtherEric]

Creepy Annual 1971

I wonder why they changed it from Yearbook to Annual?

Cover:  Easily my favorite of the Creepy Yearbook/ Annual covers.  Admittedly, this is not a high bar to clear at all.

Beast Man:  Ditko was such an amazing artist.

A Curse of Claws:  Adams was such an amazing artist.

The Mountain:  Craig was such an amazing artist.

Grave Undertaking:  Toth was such an amazing artist.

Castle Carrion:  Crandall was such an amazing artist.

Image in Wax:  Sutton was such an amazing artist.

The Rescue of the Morning Maid:  Mastroserio was such an amazing artist.

Skeleton Crew:  Torres IS such an amazing artist.  And I'm glad he's still with us.

Nothing new in this one other than the cover, but it really is an impressively good look at the artists of the early Creepy run, with a selection of better than average stories, mostly written by Goodwin.  The cover is the low point, and even that's pretty good.  A great choice if you wanted to hand somebody one magazine to show them what the early run of Creepy was like.

[Axe Elf]

On 10/15/2023 at 12:01 AM, OtherEric said:

Cover:  Easily my favorite of the Creepy Yearbook/ Annual covers.  Admittedly, this is not a high bar to clear at all.

Heh, my thoughts exactly.

On 10/15/2023 at 12:01 AM, OtherEric said:

A great choice if you wanted to hand somebody one magazine to show them what the early run of Creepy was like.

Good call!

[OtherEric]

And no, I didn't go in planning to do my review of the issue like that.  But I was reduced to nearly identical comments on the Toth and Sutton stories, realized I had said more or less the exact same thing on the earlier stories, only with slightly more words, and decided to lean into it.  Which then worked out perfectly with Torres being the last artist in the issue.

[The Lions Den]

On 10/15/2023 at 1:00 AM, Axe Elf said:

I don't recognize the cover artist's name from any previous issues, but I think this is my favorite cover of the Yearbooks/Annuals overall (although the EERIE 1972 Annual is a close second).

Fan page art in Creepy #32?    

[Axe Elf]

On 10/15/2023 at 5:13 PM, The Lions Den said:

Fan page art in Creepy #32?    

Good catch!

[Stevemmg]

You’ll see several more Kenneth Smith covers over the next year. I think his fanzine and small press material has more to offer than much of what he did for wWarren, but there are a few standouts to come. 

[OtherEric]

A slight variation on something I mentioned a few weeks ago:

A heads up for anybody looking to participate more in the reading club but who doesn't have the books: for the next 17 days, Humble Bundle has the entire run of the CREEPY Archives in digital format available for just $18, and part of that goes to support the Hero Initiative.

Once again, a nice way to get a lot of the books for the reading club, or just to read even if you don't want to participate here.  Who knows, maybe Dynamite will do one with the Vampirella archives after this.  They've done various bundles with Vampirella before this.

I don't believe anybody has done official 1984/1994 omnibus editions, or the Goblin, and the Spirit is obviously completely separate.  I think Dark Horse (or somebody) collected at least some of the Rook, but no idea how completely or if it ever got a digital release.

[Axe Elf]

We already discussed what a cool freaking cover this Annual has--good enough to grace a regular issue, and way better than a montage of past covers!

So right off the bat, I'm reading the frontis, and it refers to the collected reprints as coming from the "FIRST SEVEN" issues of CREEPY:

But only ONE of the eight stories is from the first seven issues of CREEPY ("Grave Undertaking" is from CREEPY #5)!  That's weird; would it be that much harder to say the first eighteen issues?  It made me wonder if the frontis had been recycled from a previous Yearbook or something--and sure enough, the speech balloon copy was lifted directly from the frontis of the CREEPY 1969 Yearbook!

But wait!  There are ZERO stories from the first seven issues of CREEPY in THAT Yearbook (there is only a "Loathsome Lore" lifted from CREEPY #7)!  So it's bad enough that they just copied and pasted verbatim without updating the text (at least they remembered to change the year!), but it wasn't even CLOSE to being correct in the first place!  WTF, Warren??

I actually re-read every story word for word this time, which is something I don't usually do with the reprints--but it was kind of bittersweet to revisit the classic stories and art.  Sweet, because they really were some pretty cool stories--and some damned fine art!  Bitter because of how much the contrast struck me.  It's kind of like the proverb about slowly boiling a frog and what you get used to.  Granted, these are hand-selected as the better stories, but there have been so many really silly plots and sloppy editing lately--even in otherwise enjoyable presentations...

I don't know.  I feel like now I'm going to sound too critical, and I don't mean to be critical of the present so much as nostalgic for the past.  But as I mentioned in a recent review, I kind of miss seeing things like classic horror literature brought to life by classic illustrators--like Crandall's work on Poe's work--and of course I miss looking for Crandall rats.

(Found one this issue, too!)

The other main thing I got out of re-reading all the stories is that I kind of remember being baffled by "The Rescue of the Morning Maid" when I first read it back in CREEPY #18.  I don't think it registered with me that the little girl was the spirit of the witch's rival being kept "alive" against her will, for some reason.  I thought the title just referred to the "rescue" of her china doll or something.  It makes a lot more sense now, and I understand why they didn't focus so much on the "rescuer" himself.

And he might not be a Ditko or an Adams, or even a Crandall or Toth or Torres, but it was nice to be reminded of the astounding Johnny Craig ("Jay Taycee") art on "The Mountain."

Edited October 20, 2023 by Axe Elf

[Axe Elf]

EERIE 1971 Annual - August 1970

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

2. cover: Kenneth Smith plus a montage of previous covers (1970)

1) Hatchet Man [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #4 (July 1966)

2) Wolf Bait! [Archie Goodwin/Rocke Mastroserio] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #8 (Mar. 1967)

3) It! [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #10 (July 1967)

4) The Defense Rests! [Johnny Craig] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #7 (Jan. 1967)

5) Island At World’s End [Archie Goodwin/Gray Morrow] 10p   reprinted from Eerie #4 (July 1966)

6) The Swamp God! [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 6p   reprinted from Eerie #5 (Sept. 1966)

7) The Changeling [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 8p   reprinted from Eerie #6 (Nov. 1966)

Notes: Editor: James Warren.  Title changed to the Eerie Annual.  $.60 for 64 pages.

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There's that Kenneth Smith again; I guess it makes sense that he would do both covers for the Annuals this year.  This one also makes extensive use of the same eerie (no pun intended) green hues that graced the cover of the CREEPY 1971 Annual, and with the contrasting red highlights, it almost looks like it should be viewed through the old red/blue 3D glasses.  It seems like they were experimenting with smaller CREEPY and EERIE logos on this year's Annuals as well.  I'm glad it didn't catch on.

Only 7 stories in the EERIE Annual to 8 for the CREEPY; seems like kind of a gyp, doesn't it?  At least almost all of these are actually from the single-digit issues--but I see no clue that the "first seven issues" copy that I questioned in last week's CREEPY was ever intended for this book, although it's much closer to being accurate in this case.

So again I'm looking forward to the walk down memory lane and revisiting some of the classic stories.  It's nice that they included a Mastroserio piece in both Annuals this year--but I'm not sure they needed two Gene Colan vehicles when they're already going with only 7 stories anyway.

[OtherEric]

Eerie Annual 1971 thoughts:

Cover:  Not really impressed, honestly.  Putting the new art under an enormous banner and a couple of genuinely great earlier covers (the Frazetta and Bode) just underwhelms, and the colors of the reprinted covers and the bright banner just mess up the muted palate the new art uses.  I suspect I would like it quite a bit more as a piece of art on its own.

I'm afraid I have even less to say than I did on the Creepy Annual.  The choices, while not bad, seem to be almost deliberately atypical compared to what the creators did more frequently.  Adkins was in his full blown channel Wally Wood mode, Craig did more an illustrated story than a comic, things like that.  I suppose I appreciate highlighting some of the diversity of the title, and it does give a contrast to the Creepy Annual out at the same time, but it doesn't work nearly as well on its own.

A check with Red/Green 3D glasses didn't have much impact looking at the cover, other than the EERIE logo on the small 26, which had nearly a strobe effect going that was pretty interesting.

Why, yes, I keep two pairs of 3D glasses on my desk at all times, one red/green and one red/blue.  That way I can find them when I want to read a 3D book, particularly a scanned comic.  Doesn't everybody keep them right at the ready?

[Axe Elf]

On 10/22/2023 at 12:05 AM, OtherEric said:

A check with Red/Green 3D glasses didn't have much impact looking at the cover

Yeah, I think the red highlights are supposed to be the glow from the explosion in the background, but it reminded me of that old 3D printing technique.

[The Lions Den]

On 10/22/2023 at 1:05 AM, OtherEric said:

Cover:  Not really impressed, honestly.  Putting the new art under an enormous banner and a couple of genuinely great earlier covers (the Frazetta and Bode) just underwhelms, and the colors of the reprinted covers and the bright banner just mess up the muted palate the new art uses.  I suspect I would like it quite a bit more as a piece of art on its own.

Quite right! The original artwork does look better by itself, IMO... 

[Jayman]

On 10/22/2023 at 8:44 AM, The Lions Den said:

Quite right! The original artwork does look better by itself, IMO... 

is there a link to the original art without the covers and text blocking it all? I would like to see what’s going on in the background! 

[Axe Elf]

I still think it's pretty cool that the same guy did the covers for both of the Annuals this year, and that they were both dominated by the same shades of green.

I don't have a lot to say about this week's collection of reprints which is the EERIE 1971 Annual, other than like the CREEPY 1971 Annual, I enjoyed reading through them again without the usual tedium of the letters page(s) or the eye-rolling fan fiction page(s).  It was also fairly refreshing to not notice a lot of editing/spelling/grammatical errors in this issue--the main offense being that they didn't bother to re-write the outro to "Island at World's End" so that it didn't sound like the last story in the issue, as it was when it first appeared:

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it felt a little like this Annual is starting to acknowledge the differentiation between the "supernatural monsters" focus of CREEPY and the more sci-fi, psychological horror pieces that seem more common in EERIE (like "Hatchet Man," "The Defense Rests," and "It" in this issue).

In revisiting @OtherEric's review, he seems to have noticed the diversity between the two as well, but it didn't work as well for him.  I kind of see it as foreshadowing the paths each title will take in the future, although I realize that interpretation only works in retrospect, and probably wasn't the intent at the time.  But it definitely highlights the difference that I saw in the later issues as a teen.

"Wolfbait" and "The Changeling" seem like kind of middling stories for a "best of" issue, but "Island at World's End" and "Swamp God" are both classics, and that full-page panel where the T-Rex first appears is still as strikingly majestic as ever.

So the last couple of weeks have been a pleasant trip down memory lane, but now we can look forward to a new year of new stories and new art from half a century in the past... thanks to our friends at Warren.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #35 - September 1970

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

35. cover: Kenneth Smith (Sept. 1970)

1) An Editorial To The President Of The United States And All The Members Of Congress [James Warren] 1p   [frontis]

2) Tough Costumers! [R. Michael Rosen/Tom Sutton] 6p

3) Legend In Gold [R. Michael Rosen/Roger Brand] 6p

4) Polly Want A Wizard [Howard Waldrop/Ernie Colon] 6p

5) Army Of The Walking Dead! [R. Michael Rosen/Syd Shores] 7p

6) The Creepy Fan Page: Ken Barr Profile/Rock God/The Littered Trash-Can Of Humanity/The Fool’s March [Archie Goodwin?, Bradley Burke, Jessica Clerk & Ted Dasen/Winsor McNemo] 2p   [poem/text article & stories]

7) Godslayer [Bill Stillwell] 6p

8) It’s Grim… [Al Hewetson/Syd Shores] 7p

9) The Druid’s Curse [Buddy Saunders/the Bros. Ciochetti] 6p

10) Gunsmoke Charly! [Alan Weiss] 8p

11) Justice! [Pat Boyette] 6p

Notes: Archie Goodwin returned, listed as Associate Editor.  Cost of the magazine went up to 60 cents. This issue was a brief experiment with all stories/no ads format, usually suggested as a response to the first issue of Skywald’s rival B&W magazine, Nightmare.  But Nightmare’s first issue is cover dated Dec. 1970 so it was more likely that this was also a  reaction to Major’s Web Of Horror magazine, which had a no ads format (although the magazine itself had been recently cancelled) rather than the upcoming Nightmare or Skywald.  Warren’s anti-war editorial was the first in only two attempts to use his magazine line as a bully pulpit.  The fact that he was confident in being blatantly anti-war in the editorial underscores the massive changes the country had undergone socially and politically in the four years since conservative elements had forced Blazing Combat off the stands.  Future gonzo SF writer Howard Waldrop made his professional writing debut, while fan artists Bill Stillwell and Alan Weiss also make their mainstream debuts.  A good, solid issue.

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Oh cool, a predominantly green Kenneth Smith cover!  We haven't seen one of those in a while!  I mean, I generally like them, but they could have spaced them out a little.

I just now realized that the figure on the cover isn't a hunchbacked Yoda-looking character swathed in robes, as I have thought since first unpacking the run, but a disgusting little spheroid of a creature picking its teeth as it leans against a huge fluorescent ghost skull.  I've learned something about this issue already!

I'm loving the idea of NINE new stories... but no ads?  What if we need a live monkey or a rubber fly?  With 3 CREEPYs, 3 EERIEs, and 2 VAMPIRELLAs all released in the 3 consecutive months of July, August and September of 1970, I'm not sure that this was the most sustainable of ideas, but after the last two Annuals took me down memory lane, having an abundance of new material to drag me back to the (past) present sounds like a good thing in the short term.  Hopefully Goodwin's return means we will start seeing some new scripts from him as well.

I also respect Warren for the stand(s) they (he?) took on social issues, and I look forward to reading the anti-war editorial as the frontis this time.  Congress is probably the next-best thing to a Monster Gallery anyway, and it has certainly generated its share of Loathsome Lore...

EDIT:  P.S.  It's "Customers," not "Costumers," as the Index indicates. 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

I'm in the Bay Area, so my review will be late in the week.

[Axe Elf]

So NINE new stories, plus a Fan Club AND a Letters section AND an anti-war editorial from James Warren himself?  I think this is the biggest issue so far (at least in terms of non-advertising content), and that automatically makes it a GOOD issue--but I think it fell short of being a GREAT issue.

To start with, our third Kenneth Smith cover in a row raises a lot of questions, but none of them seem to be answered by any of the stories in the book; I like it better when the cover relates to something inside the issue.  Still, he sure likes his greens.

The editorial was much more interesting to me; putting each issue into historical perspective is always one of my goals.  It's also interesting that it touches on the Blazing Combat title, kind of foreshadowing "Army of the Walking Dead," which appears later in the issue, and felt to me like it could have been a story in an issue of Blazing Combat.  It had that same feel of a purportedly true war story that simply never got told because of its bizarre supernatural nature.  I'd call it one of the highlights of the issue.

And to further the theme of addressing real-life social issues, Uncle Creepy's response to the featured letter on the "Mail" page assured us that more socially pointed stories are coming in future issues, so I'm looking forward to those for more historical perspective.  Other highlights of the letters included the debate between sci-fi and horror, and a lengthy response by Uncle Creepy regarding what it takes to break into the business as an artist.

As is always the case, the best part of "The CREEPY Fan Club" was the profile of artist Ken Barr.  I generally like reading about the contributors a lot more than I like trudging through the tripe submitted by fans.  It was kind of curious that the main fan story, "The Littered Trashcan of Humanity," apparently also had a fan illustration--by a different fan in another city!?  Maybe they weren't intended to be related and just coincidentally worked well together?  I don't know, but I do know that as a former child care worker, the story itself concerned me.  All those references to "no garden-variety drunken stepfather," as were probably written by a teenage girl, just reeks of unspoken abuse in her real life, now some 50 years ago.  Sometimes horror isn't imaginary.  But back to the world of fantasy...

"Tough Customers" was a good lead story.  It was kind of predictable, but still engaging.  I've always had a bone to pick with the "protection" trope, though.  If the thugs would risk being charged with aggravated battery or even murder to lean on the business owners who won't pay their $150 a week or whatever, why wouldn't the thugs just steal the $150 from them and only risk a misdemeanor theft charge?

After they put two "robber baron" stories so close together in CREEPY #34, I see they haven't learned their lesson, placing two stories based in the alchemist's dream of turning things into gold back-to-back in "Legend in Gold" and "Polly Want a Wizard."  Neither story was all that great, although the storytelling style of "Polly" was more engaging--but it was also more confusing at the end.  I'm not really sure what happened for Mr. Black's spell to go wrong--was it the parrot repeating Osiris' name a couple extra times?

Roger Brand's art was interesting, though; some of the faces reminded me of characters from the old "Adventures of Tintin" strip.

"Godslayer" may have been the highlight of the issue.  The art and story were both engaging, the plot was tight, and I hope it is what it appears to be--the first of three chapters in an epic sword & sorcery tale--and that it doesn't get abandoned after this first chapter.

And that's kind of where the issue should have ended, in my opinion, as I wasn't very fond of any of the remaining four stories.

The title of "It's Grim" doesn't really have anything to do with the story, at least not in any clever way beyond the generic foreshadowing of the word, and its subject matter wasn't particularly credible, either.  Its only redeeming quality was the psychological horror that the protagonist went through as he agonized over his friend's actions.

"The Druid's Curse" wouldn't have been too horrible if they hadn't tortured the ending to make it fit the curse--drowning in blood?  He was dying from his wounds anyway--and he was still talking, so he probably wasn't drowning in his own blood.  And what's up with the druid's forehead at the end?  It looks like he was transforming into a hornet's nest or something.

"Gunsmoke Charly" started out as a credible "deal with the devil" story, but then Charly starts to feel bad about it and chases the devil out into the desert (to do what, exactly?) only to meet his quite uneventful doom.  It was kind of a story without a climax.

And finally, "Justice" is another Pat Boyette story that I don't really get.  The main character seems to be on trial for his crimes, but then suddenly he is back in the sewer contemplating putting his victims back together again (at least what he doesn't eat of them)?  So he imagined the trial, or what?

So overall, while I really did enjoy having to read this jam-packed issue in two sittings because it was so jam-packed, I was a little disappointed that the quality was notably sparser than the quantity.  It had its moments, though.

[OtherEric]

Sorry I'm so late with my thoughts, but I'll get them in under the wire.  I'll try to be quicker with the next issue, but no promises it will be right when the week begins this time.

Creepy #35 thoughts:

Cover: Ken Smith again.  Again, not a bad cover, but some more variety in the color palette would be nice.

Editorial:  @Axe Elf covered the high points here, I'll just note that I am not including it in the "Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard" count, since it's only one panel.

Contents:  It's good to see Archie Goodwin as Associate Editor, even though we know it won't really last long enough to have a major impact on the title.  Vampirella is really the only book that's dramatically impacted by Goodwin's return this time, as far as I know.  But we shall see.

Tough Customers: Nice Sutton art on a story with a very EC feel.

Legend in Gold:  Honestly a fairly so/so story.  Not terrible, but the sort you forget 30 seconds after you turn the last page.

Polly Want a Wizard:  Gorgeous Colon artwork.  Howard Waldrop does his only story for Warren, and indeed the only comic story he has a solo writing credit on at all.  Still, he's won a Nebula Award and World Fantasy Award, so we have grant that it's noteworthy that he's here.  The story is good but not spectacular.

Army of the Walking Dead:  I wasn't as impressed by it as @Axe Elf was, but I'm not normally a huge fan of Syd Shores in general.

Godslayer:  Stillwell only does a couple of stories for Warren.  Extremely nice artwork, it reminds me of Brian Bolland in places, and the story is quite interesting as well.  Unfortunately, I don't believe it was actually continued.

It's Grim:  It really isn't, although as mentioned the psychological horror is a pretty standout idea for Warren at this point.

The Druid's Curse:  This seems to be the only credit at the GCD for the Brothers Ciochetti.  I'm not impressed, personally.

Gunsmoke Charlie:  Alan Weiss only does a couple stories for Warren, but has over 700 entries at the GCD, unlike the Brothers Ciochetti.  I actually liked the ending quite a bit, with Charlie regretting his deal on multiple levels.

Justice:  The ending works if you just kind of blow through it, and figure that he was put in the dungeon with the bodies of his victims to reassemble them to prove he didn't eat them.  But then he thinks about delaying a year, which makes no sense.

This wasn't a bad issue, but the extra material coupled with the lack of standout stories gets it rated lower than it would be otherwise.  It's also interesting for the number of debut creators.

Edited November 4, 2023 by OtherEric

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #29 - September 1970

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

29. cover: Ken Kelly (Sept. 1970)

1) An Editorial To The President Of The United States And All The Members Of Congress [James Warren] 1p   [text article, frontis]

2) Loophole! [Nicola Cuti/Jack Sparling] 7p

3) The Fiend Planet [Buddy Saunders/Dan Adkins] 6p

4) The Bloodstaff [Rich Buckler] 7p

5) Gallery Of Horror [Buddy Saunders/Carlos Garzon] 7p

6) The Vorpal Sword [Nicola Cuti/Tom Sutton] 7p

7) Eerie Fanfare: The Tomb Of Ankh-Ra/Headsman [Virginia Jenkins & Don Allen/Phillippe Druillet & Frank Frazetta] 2p   [text stories]   Frazetta’s art from the cover of Creepy #17

8) Strange Gateway! [T. Casey Brennan/Jack Sparling] 8p

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

10) Snow Job! [Doug Moench/Jack Sparling] 7p

Notes: Archie Goodwin was listed as Associate Editor.  Doug Moench made his professional comics debut.  Famous French artist Phillippe Druillet made his only Warren appearance, but oddly enough it was on the fan page!?!

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I think I always thought this was a Frazetta cover.  I'm a little surprised to see it's a Ken Kelley cover, so quickly after his VAMPIRELLA #6 debut--and especially as the artist to break up the recent trifecta of Kenneth Smith covers!  You can tell he was still heavily influenced by The Man at this point, though, as the cover is certainly reminiscent of Frazetta.

We're back to new EERIE stories again, after a 6-week hiatus, and back to a normal-sized, 7-story issue again after the brief experiment with the 9-story CREEPY #35; I for one will be glad to sacrifice the quantity for quality again (hopefully).

And I'm back to having my first physical undercopy to break out and actually read this week, for the first time since EERIE #27.  I'm thinking after this week I might try to sell my EERIE undercopies up to this point.  I've done enough upgrading to pretty much have a complete full set of reader-quality undercopies from #2 to #19, with a handful here in the #21-#29 range after that as well.  If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll keep you posted.  I'm a little leery of posting my first official "sales thread," but I'd rather offer them here first before I try to go through daBay or whatever.

I also wanted to comment on keeping up over the holidays, as @OtherEric kind of ran into that problem last week when his review was delayed by his travels.  He got his review in on time, but if he hadn't been able to do so, I was going to suggest that when he could get to it, he could go back and edit his review into his original post about his review being late this week.

And I may have to do something like this myself, as I'm going to be at my mom's house in rural Kansas for about a week around Thanksgiving, so I may have to make a "placeholder" post, for the kickoff post for the week, or for my review for that week, or both, and then come back and edit them in later as necessary.  And I would suggest the same strategy for anyone else who might be in danger of missing a week in which they wanted to post--if you can at least make a "placeholder" post sometime during the week in question, then you can come back and edit your review into that post when you get the time later, and all of the current issue's reviews will stay within its own week.

Hope that makes sense...

[OtherEric]

Eerie #29 thoughts:

We've got Goodwin back as associate editor here as well, with just as little impact as he had on Creepy this time around that I can see.

Cover:  It seems like Ken Kelly is trying very hard to imitate his uncle here, and not really succeeding.  The main figure just looks put together oddly.

Loophole:  The story does a decent job of showing how the paradoxes work in this particular story, but then goes for a classic cliche to end it.

The Fiend Planet:  Solid story and art, but nothing particularly outstanding either.  

The Bloodstaff:  And here we have the debut of Rich Buckler, who has a decent number of Warren credits, and over 3000 entries at the GCD.  He turns in some very good work here, as he generally did when allowed to work in his own style.  The catch being, editors often had him do either his Jack Kirby imitation or his Neal Adams imitation, neither of which are as good as the originals, and frequently very swipe heavy.

Gallery of Horror:  Another creator debut:  this appears to be Carlos Garzon's first comic work.  Probably best known for his work with Al Williamson on the comic adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  The story is a nicely moody piece of building horror.

The Vorpal Sword:  Ah, here we finally get the exciting but amusing type of story that Nick Cuti was so good at, after several pieces where he seemed to be learning his craft.  The twist might not work for everybody, but for me it hits a perfect balance of funny yet logical that actually works with the piece.  Add some great Sutton art and we have something that's not a classic, but a great example of two creators working together perfectly.

Strange Gateway:  Another case of them taking the tropes of a horror story to tell what is ultimately not a horror story.  Not something I would want to see every story, or even every issue, but now and then something like this provides a great counterpoint to the rest of the issue.

Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: 10!  We're up to double digits!

Snow Job:  And here we get the comic debut of Doug Moench.  He is one of the major Warren writers, with something around 100 stories to his credit for them.  And that's only a small percentage of his total work, with over 4000 entries at the GCD.  (As a side note, it looks like his major credit with Rich Buckler was Deathlok for Marvel, if we're comparing new creators with large bodies of work in this issue.)  The story itself is pretty well written with a fairly clever twist, but still falls into the solid B+ range, not any higher.

I'm surprised this issue doesn't get more attention, given the number of debuts.  I may have indicated the issue lacked any all time classics, but it's got an incredibly high baseline of quality, particularly given how many people are turning in their first pro work.  Unlike the Creepy last week, the book was better than the sum of its parts, I think.  Not the book I would hand anybody as their first issue, but possibly one I would give them as their second or third to give them an idea of what the title could do at time.