Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[OtherEric]

Eerie #32 thoughts:

Cover:  A solid beauty & the beast type cover by Corben.  I can't say I'm a fan of the inset either, @Axe Elf, but this one doesn't bug me much either.

Monster Gallery:  Clif Jackson seems to be pretty good on the single page illos, going for the Williamson/ Krenkel/ Frazetta style.  Not as good as any of them, but pretty impressive for early efforts.

Superhero:  A fun little story with great art by Sutton.  I particularly like Cousin Eerie introducing the story from a neighboring rooftop.  Minus points to the index for so completely spoiling the twist, though.

The Waking of the Hawk:  A nicely pulpy script by Gardner Fox.  This is Clif Jackson's only full story for Warren, I believe, and at least to my eyes a lot of whatever it was he brought to it was subsumed by what Syd Shores contributed.  Decent art overall, but not useful in figuring out anything about the artist.  Which is too bad, since their single page contributions have been interesting.

The Wailing Tower:  Not impressed with this one.  The art is solid, but the twist sits very wrong with me for some reason.  I may not agree with somebody's faith but I do try to respect everyone's faith, and this one seems to either be suggesting that those of a different faith are either evil or the other faiths are subsumed.  Not a good look either way.

Bookworm:  A solid story with a lot to like about the art, but there are way, way too many panels where the heads or hands seem enormous relative to the bodies.  Which works stylistically with Quesley but not with Galsworth.  But there's still a lot of what we love about Corben's art in small doses, with the close-ups and the last couple pages looking better than the rest of the story.

I Fell For You:  The index misidentifies the writer as "John Wolley", which leads to him getting identified as a new writer in Eerie #41, which has his only other Warren work.  He has about a half page of credits at the GDC, including the comic adaptation of "Plan 9 from Outer Space."  The story has a twist so ludicrous I'm calling this the comedy filler story of the issue, but it works pretty well in that role.  I suppose it's worth noting that we've been getting the comedy change of pace in the middle of the issue for a bit now, and it really does seem to work to round out the issue.  They're rarely very much on their own but they do wonders for the general balance of a book.

Soul Power:  The story is blatantly borrowing from the EC classic "Carrion Death" in Shock Suspenstories #9 for its central image.  But it manages to put its own twist on it and works quite well.

Ice World:  If "Soul Power" borrowed from one of the best EC stories, this one is a bad twist on one of their stock plots that doesn't even manage its own internal logic.  To put it mildly, this one left me cold.

So, a bit of a let-down from the last few issues, but still a decent overall package.

[OtherEric]

Since I brought up the story, here's the cover of Shock Supsenstories #9, featuring "Carrion Death".  Some interior panels are even more obvious riffs on the story, but this gives you an idea:

[Jayman]

On 1/8/2024 at 1:15 AM, OtherEric said:

I Fell For You:  The index misidentifies the writer as "John Wolley", which leads to him getting identified as a new writer in Eerie #41, which has his only other Warren work.  He has about a half page of credits at the GDC, including the comic adaptation of "Plan 9 from Outer Space."

I love this book!

[The Lions Den]

On 1/8/2024 at 1:15 AM, OtherEric said:

Bookworm:  A solid story with a lot to like about the art, but there are way, way too many panels where the heads or hands seem enormous relative to the bodies.  Which works stylistically with Quesley but not with Galsworth.  But there's still a lot of what we love about Corben's art in small doses, with the close-ups and the last couple pages looking better than the rest of the story.

I really like this one, but it does seem that Corben's early Warren art is still in the "underground comics" mode. But I'm fascinated by his work and I'm glad he progressed the way he did... 

[OtherEric]

 

On 1/11/2024 at 4:11 PM, The Lions Den said:

I really like this one, but it does seem that Corben's early Warren art is still in the "underground comics" mode. But I'm fascinated by his work and I'm glad he progressed the way he did... 

Corben was doing underground comix concurrently with his early Warren stuff.  This came out about an year later, for instance:

Edited January 12 by OtherEric

[The Lions Den]

On 1/11/2024 at 7:38 PM, OtherEric said:

 

Corben was doing underground comix concurrently with his early Warren stuff.  This came out about an year later, for instance:

This cover has a lot going on, doesn't it? 

[Axe Elf]

On 1/11/2024 at 6:11 PM, The Lions Den said:

it does seem that Corben's early Warren art is still in the "underground comics" mode

That is such a perfect way to describe it!

I was searching for the words, as his work here seems kind of "cartoonish" but with a lot more heart than a typical cartoon--and I think the comparison to underground comics is entirely apt.

[Axe Elf]

The theme for EERIE #32 seems to be "Fun, But Slight."  Most of the stories are pretty entertaining reads, and most of the art is acceptable at worst, but there are some serious plot holes in some of them, and none of the stories were particularly striking visually or thought-provoking.  In a sense, EERIE #32 was a bit of a letdown for me after some of the great stories we've seen recently, but they can't all be great--and this one is by no means "bad"; it's just a little lighter and more cartoony than usual, it seems.

Maybe that's what they were going for, leading off with "Superhero" and all, intentionally looking more like a comic than a horror magazine--and kind of playing with the "Bat"-man idiom while at the same time giving the term a new meaning.  It was probably a fun project for Sutton, and it's definitely a fun read and maybe the strongest story in this issue--justifying its position as the lead story and a cover story (since the Corben part of the cover doesn't seem to be related to any of the other stories).

As I was reading it, I was expecting a more significant ending to "The Waking of the Hawk" than it delivered, but it was nice to see a more extensive display of Clif Jackson's work than just his single-page galleries--and the story is at least internally consistent.  I did learn something from his "EERIE Monster Gallery" though.  At first I was struck by the contrast between "creatures from the unknown" and "the creature from beyond Ultima Thule."  Whaddya mean "the unknown"; you said they're from beyond Ultima Thule, amirite?  So then I looked up Ultima Thule and found it isn't exactly a place, but more of a theoretical "furthest point"--so to be from beyond Ultima Thule is to be from beyond the furthest known point--makes sense that it would be "the unknown."

It's kind of silly that the man stealing from the monastery would run INTO "The Wailing Tower" if he was trying to escape a mob hot on his heels, but I'm not so much bothered by the fact that it ended up being a monument to Satan.  I don't think it means ALL other faiths are evil; more that there could be evil sects out there right under our noses and we might not be able to tell the difference.

We've already discussed Corben's style on "Bookworm"; the story is ok, but I spent a lot of extra time just examining the art--which is interesting enough for this to be the second-best story of the issue, and a nice pick-me-up halfway through the book.

@OtherEric was right about the twist being absurd enough to make "I Fell for You" more of a laffer than a fright.  Sparling's art was on point for Janet, though; she was a hottie!

Although I am largely ignorant of the basis for comparison to previous EC stories, the last two tales in this issue suffered the most from stupid plots.  In "Soul Power," the deal is that the guy's soul stays in his body forever--despite the fact that his body ages, decays, and presumably decomposes normally.  How is his soul going to stay in his body as his body is broken down over the ages, decomposing into component elements which are then recycled back into the universe?  His soul will be dispersed throughout the ecosystem, a little bit in this tree, a little bit in that duck, etc.  Silliness.

And "Ice World" is just stupid on a lot of levels.  It's an "Earth ship," so the icebox they end up in must belong to a race of giants on some other planet or something, but it seems more like they are tiny aliens who ended up in a human refrigerator, given the "housewife" at the end.  And just how did they end up in a refrigerator anyway, without noticing how they got in there?  Just some nonsense about the computer spitting out the formula for rubber as they were supposedly passing unaware through the rubber lining of the fridge.  A strange shower of meteorites?  Automatic icemaker, maybe?  A barren icy landscape, no sign of a frozen dinner or leftovers from Christmas--this has to be the largest and most empty freezer in the universe.  And hairy creatures running amok in the freezer??  That makes absolutely no sense in light of the twist.  And worst of all, they couldn't even spell Cousin Eerie's name right in the intro:

The best "Dear Cousin Eerie" letter complained about "only" getting 7 stories for 60 cents!  As usual, the fan art was better than the fan fiction in "Eerie Fan Fare," although the short stories "Reversal" and "Your Last Child is Leaving" had decent ideas at their core, but weren't realized particularly well.

So yeah, I could have done without the last couple of stories, and there's nothing other than Corben's work to elevate the rest of the issue beyond the entertainment to be gained by some of the earlier lighthearted pieces.

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #10 - March 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

10. cover: Bill Hughes (Mar. 1971)

1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: The Face Of Medusa [Billy Graham] 1p   [frontis]

2) Fiends In The Night! [Buddy Saunders/Tom Sutton] 8p

3) The Marriage [Steve Skeates/Ralph Reese] 5p

4) Eye Of Newt, Toe Of Frog [Gerry Conway/Frank Brunner] 7p

5) The Soft, Sweet Lips Of Hell! [Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams & Steve Englehart] 10p

6) War Of The Wizards [Wally Wood] 8p

7) A Thing Of Beauty! [Len Wein/Billy Graham] 7p

8) Vampi’s Flames: The Night/The Protective Father/The Telephone Terror!/Results Of The First Miss Vampire Contest! [Diane Reed, henry C. Brennan, Susan Coakley & ?/Bob Garrison & Kevin Richert] 2p   [text stories/article]

9) Regeneration Gap [Chuck McNaughton/Tom Sutton] 7p

Notes: Future comics writer Mike Barr sent in a letter.  The Vampirella story was skipped, presumably due to deadline problems, with two other Tom Sutton drawn stories put in as replacements.  This strong issue led with artistic strength from Sutton, Ralph Reese, Frank Brunner (although the Conway story was noticeably weak), Wally Wood, Billy Graham and Neal Adams.  Top stories came from Len Wein, Steve Skeates, Denny O’Neil & Buddy Saunders.  Steve Englehart made his professional debut here as an artist.  The Conway/Brunner story was originally intended for Warren rival Web Of Horror.

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

As much as the cover for VAMPIRELLA #9 had me anticipating its contents, this one did not; it's not particularly attractive to me.  It's kind of amazing to me that it was done by Bill Hughes--the same guy who did the pretty amazing cover for VAMPIRELLA #2!  I wouldn't have guessed that.  I see more Gogos in it than Hughes, but then my eye is quite untrained.

On this cover in my Gallery, @FoggyNelson commented that the gal looked like Raquel Welch.  She was at the height of her popularity then, so there could definitely be some Raquel Welch in this cover art, especially given this image from the late 60s returned by a Google search:

But perhaps even more apt was the comment from @The Lions Den (on the same gallery post) that it was not his favorite cover either, but that it was a great issue for interior art (and he also foreshadows an unscheduled cameo from Uncle Creepy--looking forward to that)!

And a great issue for interior art it seems to be.  Reading over the list of contributing artists to this issue gives me as much anticipation as the cover to the last issue did--Graham!  Sutton!  Wood!  Adams!  I hope the stories are up to par with the art!

I'm not really sure why Sutton could do TWO stories and not run into "deadline problems," but he didn't have time to do the story for the titular character (Vampirella herself) this month?

I really wouldn't have been upset to see Neal Adams take on "Superhero" from last week's EERIE #32--can you imagine?  A new Batman artist (looks like Adams first did Batman work in early 1970) doing the "Bat"-man superhero for Warren at the same time?--and that would give Sutton the time he needed to do a Vampi story this issue, and everyone would be happy.

Oh well, even with the sputtering start to the reboot of the Vampirella saga, I'm still looking forward to the art in this issue, if nothing else.

[OtherEric]

Vampirella #10 thoughts:

Cover:  Bill Hughes last cover for Warren.  Not quite the classic his Evily cover on Vampi #2 was, but still a very nice piece.

Feary Tales: A stunning piece by Billy Graham.

Table of Contents:  I don't normally comment on the contents page, but let's pause for a moment at the list of artists:  Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Billy Graham, Tom Sutton, Wally Wood.  Holy cow!

Fiends in the Night: Clearly a last minute filler for the not yet ready Vampirella story, right down to Uncle Creepy covering the host duties.  A fairly slight story, but very well done by Saunders & Sutton.

The Marriage:  One of those stories where you need to pay attention to the title for the full impact.  Short but solid script, adequate art but I'm not a huge fan of Reese.

Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog:  After several fan page appearances, Frank Brunner makes his debut on an actual story.  He only has a handful of Warren stories, but several hundred total credits at the GCD.  Gorgeous art, and a clever twist to the story make this one a winner.

The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell:  Lots to cover on this one.  Let's start with Denny O'Neil: Exact numbers can be a little harder than usual to track down, since the GCD splits his listings between Denny O'Neil and Dennis O'Neil.  Suffice to say he's a prolific writer and editor.  This is his only Warren story, I believe.  It's done with his most famous collaborator, Neal Adams, at the peak of their team-up, while their Batman stories and Green Lantern/ Green Arrow stories are appearing over at DC.  It's also the Warren (and possibly comics) debut of Steve Englehart, who has a handful of art credits and thousands of script credits.  He'll be back at Warren as a writer later.  As far as the story itself goes, it's excellent.  It's hard to discern Englehart's style here, it looks very much like Adams' work... which is quite common with Adams and his collaborators, honestly.  Note the subtle shout-out to O'Neil and Adams work on Batman on the last page.

War of the Wizards:  Another Wally Wood masterpiece.  Not much to add to that description.  Do note that the character Thanos in this story predates Iron Man #55 by nearly two years, not that they share anything but a name, really.

A Thing of Beauty:  And we get Len Wein's writing debut at Warren, after an illustration on the fan page back in Eerie #22.  He has about a dozen Warren stories, he's got over 5000 credits at the GCD, he co-created Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Swamp Thing.  In other words, a major creator.  On a more personal note, he's the third creator in this issue I had the chance to meet, along with Adams and O'Neil.  The story is pretty good, with amazing art by Graham, but I found the use of only slightly changed names somewhat distracting... Groucho, Mark is the really bad one, but Rachel Walsh is pretty on the nose too.  It does verify the resemblance on the cover is intentional, though

Regeneration Gap:  A solid story, with nice art by Sutton, but I found the twist too similar to "The Cosmic All" a couple weeks ago.  That's really not the story's fault, it has to have been in preparation at the same time rather than a rip-off.

Overall, this is another excellent issue.  It gets marked down slightly for clearly last minute fixes, most notably the first story trying to cover for the delay in the Vampirella story.  But this is an incredible issue, with one of the most impressive artist line-ups we've seen yet.

[OtherEric]

Also, just for fun, a couple other comics by the Denny O'Neil/ Neal Adams team from around the same time as this issue, roughly:

 

 

[The Lions Den]

On 1/14/2024 at 1:49 AM, OtherEric said:

Vampirella #10 thoughts:

Cover:  Bill Hughes last cover for Warren.  Not quite the classic his Evily cover on Vampi #2 was, but still a very nice piece.

Feary Tales: A stunning piece by Billy Graham.

Table of Contents:  I don't normally comment on the contents page, but let's pause for a moment at the list of artists:  Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, Billy Graham, Tom Sutton, Wally Wood.  Holy cow!

Fiends in the Night: Clearly a last minute filler for the not yet ready Vampirella story, right down to Uncle Creepy covering the host duties.  A fairly slight story, but very well done by Saunders & Sutton.

The Marriage:  One of those stories where you need to pay attention to the title for the full impact.  Short but solid script, adequate art but I'm not a huge fan of Reese.

Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog:  After several fan page appearances, Frank Brunner makes his debut on an actual story.  He only has a handful of Warren stories, but several hundred total credits at the GCD.  Gorgeous art, and a clever twist to the story make this one a winner.

The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell:  Lots to cover on this one.  Let's start with Denny O'Neil: Exact numbers can be a little harder than usual to track down, since the GCD splits his listings between Denny O'Neil and Dennis O'Neil.  Suffice to say he's a prolific writer and editor.  This is his only Warren story, I believe.  It's done with his most famous collaborator, Neal Adams, at the peak of their team-up, while their Batman stories and Green Lantern/ Green Arrow stories are appearing over at DC.  It's also the Warren (and possibly comics) debut of Steve Englehart, who has a handful of art credits and thousands of script credits.  He'll be back at Warren as a writer later.  As far as the story itself goes, it's excellent.  It's hard to discern Englehart's style here, it looks very much like Adams' work... which is quite common with Adams and his collaborators, honestly.  Note the subtle shout-out to O'Neil and Adams work on Batman on the last page.

War of the Wizards:  Another Wally Wood masterpiece.  Not much to add to that description.  Do note that the character Thanos in this story predates Iron Man #55 by nearly two years, not that they share anything but a name, really.

A Thing of Beauty:  And we get Len Wein's writing debut at Warren, after an illustration on the fan page back in Eerie #22.  He has about a dozen Warren stories, he's got over 5000 credits at the GCD, he co-created Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Swamp Thing.  In other words, a major creator.  On a more personal note, he's the third creator in this issue I had the chance to meet, along with Adams and O'Neil.  The story is pretty good, with amazing art by Graham, but I found the use of only slightly changed names somewhat distracting... Groucho, Mark is the really bad one, but Rachel Walsh is pretty on the nose too.  It does verify the resemblance on the cover is intentional, though

Regeneration Gap:  A solid story, with nice art by Sutton, but I found the twist too similar to "The Cosmic All" a couple weeks ago.  That's really not the story's fault, it has to have been in preparation at the same time rather than a rip-off.

Overall, this is another excellent issue.  It gets marked down slightly for clearly last minute fixes, most notably the first story trying to cover for the delay in the Vampirella story.  But this is an incredible issue, with one of the most impressive artist line-ups we've seen yet.

On a purely artistic level, it's one of my favorite issues. I only wish that Neal Adams had been the cover artist as well...  

[Jayman]

On 1/14/2024 at 1:49 AM, OtherEric said:

It's done with his most famous collaborator, Neal Adams, at the peak of their team-up, while their Batman stories and Green Lantern/ Green Arrow stories are appearing over at DC.

It’s probably been answered before, but I’m curious under what reasons DC allowed these creators to do work for Warren at this time. Was it something to do with their individual contracts? Most companies like DC and Marvel would frown upon this practice.

[Jayman]

On 1/14/2024 at 1:49 AM, OtherEric said:

but I'm not a huge fan of Reese.

Also…
 

[OtherEric]

On 1/14/2024 at 7:49 AM, Jayman said:

It’s probably been answered before, but I’m curious under what reasons DC allowed these creators to do work for Warren at this time. Was it something to do with their individual contracts? Most companies like DC and Marvel would frown upon this practice.

Most creators were freelance at this point, and at least some of them (like Adams) were very clear that they would go work wherever they wanted.  The companies didn't like it, but they weren't blackballing people like they would have a few years prior.  I think both companies realized how popular Adams was and weren't about to drive him away.

On 1/14/2024 at 7:52 AM, Jayman said:

Also…
 

I didn't say I hated his work, just that I wasn't a huge fan.  It does the job well enough, and I can get why others would like it more than I do.

[Jayman]

On 1/14/2024 at 12:47 PM, OtherEric said:

On 1/14/2024 at 10:52 AM, Jayman said:

 

I didn't say I hated his work, just that I wasn't a huge fan.  It does the job well enough, and I can get why others would like it more than I do.

It’s all good! That’s why the  was implied. I respect your tastes, I just happen to love his style.

[OtherEric]

On 1/13/2024 at 10:00 PM, Axe Elf said:

I'm not really sure why Sutton could do TWO stories and not run into "deadline problems," but he didn't have time to do the story for the titular character (Vampirella herself) this month?

I really wouldn't have been upset to see Neal Adams take on "Superhero" from last week's EERIE #32--can you imagine?  A new Batman artist (looks like Adams first did Batman work in early 1970) doing the "Bat"-man superhero for Warren at the same time?--and that would give Sutton the time he needed to do a Vampi story this issue, and everyone would be happy.

I thought it was because Sutton wasn't assigned the Vampirella story in this case, but he was.  We'll be getting a new artist in issue #12.

Adams has been doing Batman since at least 1968, on covers as well as his two issues of World's Finest and his longer run on Brave & the Bold. 

I don't think Adams ever did a Batman story for a non-DC magazine, but he did do a "Deadman" story for National Lampoon.  According to him, the writer of that story had actually never heard of DC's Deadman, much less that Adams was the artist most associated with the feature.  It appeared in this issue, with the legendary cover:

Edited January 14 by OtherEric
Factual error

[The Lions Den]

On 1/14/2024 at 12:59 PM, Jayman said:

It’s all good! That’s why the  was implied. I respect your tastes, I just happen to love his style.

I like the work he did for Skywald and Web of Horror, too...  

[Axe Elf]

Seems like there was a lot going on in the more trivial features of this week's issue, so I will start with them...

Once again, the "Vampi's Scarlet Letters" and "Vampi's Flames" features were interconnected, with both (amateurish) sketches published in the latter accompanied by letters appearing in the former.  The shortest letter award goes to John Baumann of Northridge, California, whose signature was longer than his letter, which reads simply, "Vampi, I love you."  And for being even more pedantic than I am sometimes, I have to acknowledge Pete Caroselli for observing that if Drakulonians evolved on a liquid diet, they would have never developed teeth!  There's lots of praise for the Vampi reboot in VAMPIRELLA #8, and future writer Mike Barr's letter was an extensive and literate critique of most of that issue.  I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Thomas Pallant's letter includes a mention of Vampirella being the best thing since Raquel Welch.

The Flames section was cut short to include a feature on the "Results of the First Miss Vampire Contest" (which was interesting, but seemed like it deserved at least one more page), which is ok by me, because the fan fiction was the usual festival of nonsense.  The only story that KIND OF had merit was "The Telephone Terror," but the trope of "the call is coming from inside the house!" goes back to the 50s (though perhaps most popularized by "When a Stranger Calls" in the late 70s), so the idea may not have been entirely original to the author.  Besides, while it's a stretch to learn that the call is coming from inside the house (maybe there is a second land line for an office or a child?), it seems really silly to say, "He's on your extension!"--how could the phone ring for an incoming call on the same extension?

"Vampi's Feary Tales" was well-drawn by Billy Graham, although it's hard to imagine that there would be space on Medusa's head to attach the thick bush of snakes he drew around her.  I had never heard the second part, about the shield later being found with Medusa's image imprinted on it, but it sounds like something he just made up.  "The image was so powerful..."?  An image is just the light reflecting off of something; it doesn't have any extra "power" to realign copper atoms from the Earth into a silver shield.  Still, it's a nice frontis to an issue that delivers on the promise of superior art from superior artists.

As I settled into the first story, "Fiends in the Night," I found myself really enjoying it--not only for Sutton's art, but for the story itself.  By the time our hero was attacked by the vampire, I could see the delicious twist coming--after fighting his way through the night and all kinds of monsters, our hero would find himself alone on an open snowy hillside as the sun was rising, thinking he was safe, only to realize the REAL curse as he began to sizzle in the first rays of dawn--he had become a vampire himself from the attack!  I was even willing to ignore an absurdity similar to the one in "I Fell For You" from EERIE #32 for that payoff (he happened to fall back into the same town when the balloon went down?).

But then that's not how it ended at all--and the actual ending was dumb.  Even if the book of spells had NOT been frozen shut, how was he going to locate and execute the proper spell in an unfamiliar book in the 10-15 seconds he had before the monsters closed in on him?  Bah.  And then there's Uncle Creepy instead of Vampirella to close the story, which isn't necessarily bad, but it just points to more sloppiness from the front office.

"The Marriage" was much more consistent, and a pretty fair story, although it loses some impact in these days of wireless keyboards and such.  After I read the twist, I went back hoping to find some trace of his connecting wire in the previous panels, but I couldn't find any.  His feet weren't visible in a lot of panels, but I think it would have been a nice touch to add an indistinct line unobtrusively attached to his foot in one of the earlier panels, just so there WOULD be something to find for people like me who went back and looked.  Just a little extra line on the floor in one of these panels, for instance...

...probably would have gone unnoticed on the first read, but would have made a great Easter Egg to go back and find.  As it is, he's pretty clearly unwired in that frame, which kind of spoils the continuity.  Still, it's a nice concept that probably played on people's fear of computers taking over (in the early years of computers), much like some people fear AI taking over now.

I was a little confused as to when the events in the Prologue of "Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog" were taking place.  That first part didn't seem very consistent with the ceremony taking place at the end of the story (she didn't recognize her husband was one of the priests?), but ignoring that, it was passable filler--and REALLY interesting to look at.  Brunner really exploited the black and white medium to dazzling effect in some panels.

While there was nothing wrong with the art for "The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell," I had a hard time seeing Neal Adams in it apart from Steve Englehart, but then I know nothing of his work and precious little of Adams' work, so I'm sure it's just me.  I liked the story itself for being as much of a love story as it was a horror story (albeit with the tired trope of the "life energy stealer" front and center).  I was hoping that maybe after she offed the three thugs, she would have enough energy to save our hero AND herself, but then that wouldn't have been as tragic.  This reminded me of a similar story of self-sacrifice that seemed kind of out of place in a horror magazine a while back, but I don't remember what it was called and don't want to go to the trouble of looking it up--but we thought it was also more romance than horror at the time--and like this, kind of a refreshing change of pace in that regard.

Wally Wood's "War of the Wizards" is probably a highlight of the issue, both artistically and narratively, although it seems like Wood can only draw one heroine and one monster--these seem like the same two characters from "The Curse" in VAMPIRELLA #9.  However, they came together for a panel that actually made me laugh out loud when I was reading it:

"The power of my boobs compels you!"

"A Thing of Beauty" is kind of, well, a thing of beauty, both for Billy Graham's stark contrasts, and for the contrast between the lighthearted nature of the tale (with the name parodies and all) and the various forms of ugliness in the tale (both his and hers).  It's a nice little mixture of fun and horror that isn't absurd and it exemplifies the kind of stories I like most in Warren magazines--darkness with a wink.

I agree with @OtherEric that "Regeneration Gap" is too close to Wood's "The Cosmic All" from CREEPY #38--both in content and publishing date--to stand on its own here; although it would probably be ok closing out the issue if we weren't comparing it to its predecessor.

There was one other little bit of continuity from CREEPY #38--having an interior panel that looks like a photograph of the cover.  We see a lot of covers that are similar to interior panels, but it seems like these last two were almost exact duplicates of their respective covers set into the rest of the art.

The stories in this issue aren't bad for the most part, but it's definitely an issue you could give to someone to demonstrate the quality of the Warren artists at this point in time.  Most of my complaints with this issue are in the minor supporting features; overall it's a pretty solid effort.

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #39 - May 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

39. cover: Basil Gogos (May 1971)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Evil Eye! [Richard Grose/Clif Jackson] 1p   [frontis]

2) Uncle Creepy: Where Satan Dwells… [Al Hewetson/Sal Trapani] 8p   [gueststars Cousin Eerie]

3) C.O.D.—Collects On Death! [Dave Wood/Dave Cockrum] 8p

4) The Water World! [Buddy Saunders/Pablo Marcos] 6p

5) Death Of The Wizard [Pat Boyette] 6p

6) Harvest Of Horror! [Phil Seuling/Frank Brunner] 7p

7) The Dragon-Prow! [Steve Skeates/Richard Bassford] 7p

8) Puzzling Monsters: Who Drew What? [?/Carlos Garzon, Pat Boyette, Tom Sutton, Jack Davis, Jerry Grandenetti, Bill Fraccio--Tony Tallarico, Syd Shores, Ernie Colon, Billy Graham, James Warren & William Barry] 2p  [match the artist page]

9) The Creepy Fan Club: The Lesson/The Gravekeeper/The Year 2,000/The Voice Of Death/Little Miss Muffet [Billy Rand, Danuta Kwapisz, Mark Rone, William Buchanan & John Leho/Harry Glienke, Edgar Maggiani, Daniel Smeddy, Sam Park & Randy Williams] 2p  [text stories & poems]

10) Mad Jack’s Girl [Gary Kaufman] 8p

Notes: When the Uncle Creepy story was first announced, Ernie Colon was listed as the artist.  The art there is so much better than Trapani’s usual stuff that it might just be Colon pencils with Trapani inks.  Dave Cockrum made his professional debut while Pablo Marcos made his North American one.  Richard Bassford, a familiar name from 1960s fanzines, also made his professional debut.  Although Dual Dragon’ was supposed to be Kaufman’s professional debut, ‘Mad Jack’s Girl’ actually appeared first. The ‘Who Drew What’ page featured partly new  & partly old illos with the readers encouraged to guess ‘who drew what’.

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Here is another Gogos cover that I'm surprised is a Gogos cover.  The man sure had a wide range of styles.  I guess he was using up some extra red paint on this one.  And those hellhounds... I wonder if it is the male or the female that has the ridge down its back...?  We may need a Monster Gallery to be sure.

As much as the last few issues have been celebrations of celebrated artists, this one promises a package of new and newish artists plying their trade for our perusal (alongside a couple of vets)--so I'm looking forward to making their acquaintance, as well as seeing what Boyette's latest offering holds.

And speaking of the vets, just looking at that list of artists that are featured n the "Puzzling Monsters: Who Drew What?" quiz, I feel like I should do pretty good at it--there are several names there I like a lot--but I guess we'll see...

So Uncle Creepy is in a lot of stories, but I take it he gets an extended role in one here, a la Vampirella in her own stories, or something like that--and a cameo by Uncle Eerie?  That should be fun too...