Axe Elf Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 On 2/10/2024 at 9:18 PM, Jayman said: Kim’s style is that of the Korean manhwa. Manga in Japan. I’ve come to appreciate it more and more over the years. Some examples… Those are pretty cool. I assume this Vampirella appearance was after those? I think maybe he does monsters/fantasy better than he does human faces. On a more appreciative note, his dragon was pretty cool... The Lions Den, OtherEric and Jayman 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayman Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 About around the same time I believe. That dragon is very Asian inspired and looks awesome. I guess that’s one reason I like his version of Vampi. She looks a bit Asian and Frazetta’s painted version on the first issue looks that way too. Axe Elf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 On 2/10/2024 at 9:40 PM, Jayman said: I guess that’s one reason I like his version of Vampi. She looks a bit Asian and Frazetta’s painted version on the first issue looks that way too. I don't think it's the Asian flavor that is putting me off, it's more that it looks like her hair is parted on the left in the pic above, and in the "Conan" one it's like she lost the part entirely, at least in her bangs. They just look awkward to me. But I'm just one opinion. The Lions Den and Jayman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 CREEPY #40 - July 1971 According to the Warren Magazine Index... 40. cover: Larry Todd & Vaughn Bode (July 1971) 1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Loch Ness Monster [Al Hewetson/Clif Jackson] 1p [frontis] 2) The Fade-Away Walk [Don McGregor/Tom Sutton] 12p 3) The Impersonation! [Steve Skeates/Pablo Marcos] 6p 4) Swamp Demon [Dave Cockrum] 7p 5) Disintegrator [Nicola Cuti/Ken Barr] 7p 6) Lost And Found [Steve Skeates/George Roussos] 5p 7) The Creepy Fan Page: The Last Tomorrow [?/?, Scott Rogers, Kenneth Tutton, Tony DeSensi & R. Goodwin] 2p [text story, author/artist for the story didn’t sign his name] 8) Annual Warren Awards At The New York Comicon… [Martin Greim/Ernie Colon] 2p [text article] reprinted from Martin Greim’s Comic Crusader #10 (1970) 9) Dual Dragon [Gary Kaufman] 7p Notes: Billy Graham became the editor and turned in a pretty solid issue. In an artistic slight-of-hand, the muzzle of the gun on the cover seems to follow you no matter where you are in the room, which is, well—let’s fact it, pretty creepy. Don McGregor made his professional debut with a strong story. Nice art & story work also appeared from Dave Cockrum and Gary Kaufman. The first Warren Awards gave ‘The Ray Bradbury Award’ for best story to Tom Sutton for ‘Snowman’ from Creepy #31, ‘The Frank Frazetta Cup’ for best illustrated story to Neal Adams for ‘Rock God’ from Creepy #32, ‘The Jack Davis Cup’ to Frank Frazetta for best cover from Eerie #23, a special award to Harlan Ellison for ‘Rock God’, best all-around artist to Ernie Colon, best all-around writer to Nicola Cuti and an honorable mention for artwork to Billy Graham. There was a bizarre mention in the Award article where James Warren says he wrote his anti-war editorial of the previous year for business reasons! Seems every time there was a riot or violent anti-war demonstration in an area, sales in surrounding stores plunged, including Warren magazines sales! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, so much for any suspense as to who the winners of the Warren awards are. I'm a little surprised to see Ernie Colon win the best all-around artist award; his stuff is good, but I'd have gone with the honorable mention winner Billy Graham over Colon myself. In fact, for best "all-around" artist, I probably would have gone with Tom Sutton, as he seems more versatile than most of the other artists in the stable. He's certainly been busy, with the 14-page story last week AND a 12-pager this week--and the Feary Tales last week, too! It's kind of cool that Graham got to be the CREEPY editor so quickly, though. The cover isn't really all that magical; anything in a picture that points directly at the viewer will "follow them around the room." It would be weirder if it didn't; if you moved to the left, and suddenly it appeared that the muzzle of the gun was pointing to your right--now THAT would be creepy. The actual illustrated part of the cover seems to be too small to be shared by two artists, but somehow they got both Todd and Bode squeezed into the circle of that scope (or the scope of that circle?). Not sure what to expect from this one; looks like kind of a mixed bag... OtherEric, Jayman and The Lions Den 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 (edited) Creepy #40 thoughts: Cover: A great cover by Todd & Bode. I find it interesting that they credit the creators of the interior story on the cover, given that this is McGregor's first pro story, so his name probably wouldn't be expected to sell copies. My guess is they hoped Sutton's name would, and it would have been weird to just credit one creator on a specific story. Loathsome Lore: Clif Jackson continues to do nice work on these. Table of Contents: Billy Graham and Nick Cuti are the editors now, with Goodwin having moved on again. The Fade-Away Walk: As mentioned above, we get the debut of Don McGregor. He has over 1000 credits at the GCD, and is probably best known for his work on Black Panther and Killraven. He does several dozen stories for Warren and will be here until the very end, with new stories in the last Warren Creepy and the next to last issue of Eerie. The story itself is very good, with excellent art by Sutton and a fairly high page count so it has some room to breathe. The Impersonation: Marcos turns in some nice art in something of a Neal Adams style. The story, however, is ludicrous, to the point where I almost wonder if Skeates was going for a parody of some sort and missed the mark. Swamp Demon: Nice art & story by Cockrum, undercut by a ridiculous last panel twist. The Disintegrator: A solid story by Barr & Cuti. It's worth noting that we haven't really gotten a straightforward horror story yet this issue. Lost and Found: At 5 pages, this story doesn't really have much room for its multiple time frame plot. Skeates used "Warren Savin" as a pen name once or twice on other stories. Warren Awards: I've always found the Warren Awards to be rather odd and self-congratulatory, but maybe I'm missing something given that this was the period when comic awards were just starting to come into existence. Dual Dragon: A solid bit of work by Kaufman, with nice use of negative space. Ads: I may not have been paying attention and they appeared earlier, but we get an ad for the Best of Creepy paperback on the inside back cover as well as the comic strip format Aurora ad on the back cover. I recognize the Aurora ad from lots of regular comics around this time, and I've actually got a copy of the Best of Creepy paperback. Not sure if @Axe Elf has that one or considers it necessary for the complete Warren collection. Edited February 16 by OtherEric typo Axe Elf and Jayman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 And, since I mentioned the ad for it. I'm not generally a fan of the paperback reprints like this, they always do some real damage to the artwork rearranging it to fit in the paperback format, and reading sideways is a bit annoying. It seemed to work OK for those Mad paperbacks I got as a kid, but for more serious comics it's never been a great fit. (Mad probably had an advantage in that the artists knew the stories had a good chance of being reprinted in the paperbacks and could arrange the art to work both ways.) Jayman, The Lions Den and Axe Elf 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 On 2/11/2024 at 12:17 AM, OtherEric said: Not sure if @Axe Elf has that one or considers it necessary for the complete Warren collection. Not for my purposes, anyway. From the start, I ruled out foreign variants and paperback publications, limiting myself to the U.S. magazines only. That gives me some measure of comfort in the face of the fact that I will probably never have an actual EERIE #1 (because it's not REALLY a magazine, anyway)... OtherEric 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayman Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Regarding The Fade-Away Walk. I was 7 years old when I first got this issue and read that story. Talk about leaving an impression. My young mind couldn’t make out whether he was a man or a monster but the emotions that came across in that story struck a chord with me. I haven’t read that story in probably 40 years or so and can still picture the guy slipping off the nose of George Washington and the other’s face regretting not helping! The Lions Den, OtherEric and Axe Elf 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 The Loch Ness Monster was a good topic for the "Loathsome Lore" feature in this issue, but calling Nessie a "sea beast" and a "sea monster" kind of suggests that Clif Jackson didn't know what the "loch" in "Loch Ness Monster" meant--it's a landlocked, freshwater LAKE. It was kind of nice to see "Dear Uncle Creepy" held to a single page again; I like reading some letters, but two pages of them can become kind of tedious. It seemed like most of the letters this time were less about past issues and stories, and more about the competitive relationship between Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie--which got me to thinking about their relationship in general. I guess I had always considered the "uncle" and "cousin" designations to be relative to us, the readers--OUR uncle, Creepy, and OUR cousin, Eerie, which means that Eerie could in fact be Creepy's son, but more likely a nephew of Uncle Creepy sired by a sibling of Creepy's. But in response to one of the letters here, Creepy refers to Eerie as HIS cousin a couple of times. If Eerie is Creepy's cousin, then they are BOTH cousins to each other, and Creepy is not Eerie's uncle. And then there was that whole confusing "origin" story in Vampirella a while back where they were all siblings from outer space or something. And now there's Aunt Shudder, who is probably Creepy's sister and Eerie's mother--but that's getting WAY ahead of ourselves... The "Creepy Fan Club" was actually pretty good this time--maybe the best I've seen--including several competent sketches and a single fan story that was perhaps a little too bloated with it's own idea, but conceived and written well enough that it probably could have been developed into an actual illustrated feature story. The report on the "The Annual Warren Awards at the New York Comicon" was interesting, but the Index's spoilers pretty much removed the suspense of reading them. One thing that strikes me is that here we are in July of 1971 by the cover date, and we're just now getting a report on the 1970 Comicon? Contrast this with today's email that the 2025 Vampiress Carmilla Fearbook is now available--in February of 2024--and it's striking how far we have come to live in the future these days. The "featured" story this issue was "The Fade-Away Walk," which joins a couple of other recent stories to draw on the horror of human nature for its content--our own capacity for hatred and division ultimately leading to the demise of our race. Some of these type stories could have potentially been included in the Blazing Combat title, if it hadn't died after four issues, as they deal with the horrors of human enmity. This piece stands on its own as a cautionary tale, however. They've really kept Tom Sutton busy the last couple of issues, but I don't think the quality of his art has suffered at all from the quantity. He probably enjoyed getting to do this kind of a sci-fi monster story; it seems right up his alley. "The Impersonation" was one of the more ridiculous stories we've ever been served, even if you buy the idea that ghosts are indistinguishable from regular flesh and blood humans. All that fuss to bury them inside some giant steel orb that must have cost tens of thousands of dollars doesn't seem like a prudent business decision. And what was the ghost's end game if the boss had NOT left them to die--just keep showing up for work day after day? The little incident where our hero snubs the hawt secretary only seems to be there to fill up space, or maybe just to make him seem all the more a scoundrel--but most scoundrels don't snub hotties (at least not until AFTER the date). I was pretty impressed by "Swamp Demon," being both scripted and illustrated by Dave Cockrum, of whom I first became aware from his biography in one of our recent issues, but who I am rapidly coming to enoy quite a bit--right up until the ending. It was said that the beast could "enthrall" it's victims, but unless that also includes controlling its victims' actions, there's no reason that the girl being made to appear as the beast would actually ATTACK our hero--you'd think she would just pick him up in her talons and race them both off to safety while the monster remained tied to a tree. And then there's that--just who exactly tied the monster to the tree? So we have a pretty good story completely ruined by a ludicrous twist; at least Cockrum gave us one of this issue's only real "monsters." "The Disintegrator" was fair, but it made me wonder what he thought the gun that he had ordered custom-made was going to do in the first place. He seemed awfully surprised that it would distintegrate stuff; what had he designed it to do? Turns out he could have just used a stick all along, but I guess it took the gun itself to help him discover and unleash his powers? The idea for "Lost and Found" is kind of fun, even though there's no explanation given for how a power could randomly travel across time from one individual to another. If you don't think too much about that, it's a light and entertaining piece with Roussos' heavily washed art adding to the visual appeal. And finally, "Dual Dragon" was the visual treat of the issue for me, with Gary Kaufman's art adding to the "duality," being both minimalistic in places and lavish in others. And you can never have too many stories where the hero accidentally kills the heroine while thinking he is slaying a giant lizard; this would be the second such story in this issue. So this was kind of a weird CREEPY, with not a werewolf, vampire, or ghoul in sight, and other than a couple of witches and BEMs, most of the horror in this issue springs from the human psyche, rather than the supernatural. It wasn't my favorite issue by a long shot, but it was a change of pace that hit a few high notes. And this is one of those covers where having a large black border around the art itself actually works for me! Jayman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 On 2/16/2024 at 3:24 PM, Axe Elf said: this is one of those covers where having a large black border around the art itself actually works for me! One of the few where the black border is actually part of the art is possibly why. Axe Elf and Jayman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 On 2/16/2024 at 6:29 PM, OtherEric said: One of the few where the black border is actually part of the art is possibly why. Yeah, there's that too. OtherEric 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 EERIE #34 - July 1971 According to the Warren Magazine Index... 34. cover: Boris Vallejo (July 1971) 1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Man Who Played God! [Tom Sutton] 1p [frontis] 2) Parting Is Such Sweet Horror! [Tom Sutton] 7p 3) Eye Of Cyclops! [Buddy Saunders/Jaime Brocal] 7p 4) He Who Laughs Last…Is Grotesque! [Al Hewetson/Mike Royer] 7p 5) Food For Thought [Steve Skeates/Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico] 5p 6) The Vow Of The Wizard… [Ernie Colon/Ernie Colon & Frank McLaughlin] 7p 7) The Sound Of Wings [F. Paul Wilson/Carlos Garzon] 6p 8) Eerie Fanfare: Oh, To Be A Bat/The Mutant!/The Face Of Death! [Edgar Ellington, Robert J. Hurris, Josheph Wiltz/Pat Broderick, Joseph Wiltz, Mitchell Brown & Tony Desensi] 2p [text poem/stories] 9) Lair Of The Horned Man [Alan Weiss] 9p Notes: Vallejo’s second Warren cover got a good deal more respect than his first had when it appeared in Vampirella, even though his barbarian swordsman looked somewhat disjointed. His harpy was quite terrifying. The fullscale Spanish Invasion of artists began in Eerie with the debut of Spanish artist Jaime Brocal. Al Hewetson delivered a story that would have fit right at home in the Horror-Mood of Skywald. SF writer F. Paul Wilson made his comics (and perhaps his professional) debut with ‘The Sound Of Wings’. Pat Broderick made his second appearance on the fan page. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Spanish invasion begins! "The Man Who Played God" sounds more like a Loathsome Lore or a Feary Tales than a Monster Gallery, but I guess we'll see. I'm kind of intrigued by the titles in this one; I hope the stories themselves are as interesting! OtherEric 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Eerie 34 thoughts: Cover: I enjoy Boris's artwork, but a lot of his covers have a pretty generic vibe, and this is one of them. Decent but nothing particularly spectacular for his second and last Warren cover. Monster Gallery: This is an odd one, there's a weird mix of fact and fiction jumbled together. Nice art by Sutton and taken as pure fiction the story is decent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Crosse Parting is Such Sweet Horror: A very EC style plot by Tom Sutton, but with highly creative art conveying mood very well... the couple of pages with a large number of small panels are quite claustrophobic. Not necessarily an all-time classic, but Sutton showing off what he can do puts this well above the average. Eye of Cyclops: The intro of Jaime Brocal and, as noted, the start of the full scale Spanish Invasion of the Warren magazines. If you're trying to figure out the signature, his full name was Jaime Brocal Remohi. It's an impressive artistic debut, with a very solid story by Saunders to go with it. He Who Laughs Last... is Grotesque: An extremely clever conceit for the story and some of the best art from Royer yet, but I personally found it didn't flow very well overall. That might have been to some degree deliberate, but it weakened the story for me. Food for Thought: Silly me, a few weeks ago I thought 34 hits for "Whom the Gods Would Destroy" was a lot. "Food for Thought" returns 322 hits at the GCD as a story title. A decent short story, with "Williamsune" channeling a little bit of Grandenetti's style, which works quite well for the story. The Vow of the Wizard: Frank McLaughlin inks Colon here, his only Warren credit. GCD shows him with over 2700 credits overall, dating back to the early 60's (with one outlier in the 50's). The story is pretty solid fantasy-horror, undercut by having essentially the same ending as "Dual Dragon" in the issue of Creepy that came out the same month. The Sound of Wings: F. Paul Wilson is best known for his prose writing, but has a small handful of comic credits across a wide selection of publishers and a several decade time frame. He does two stories for Warren. The story itself has great art by Carlos Garzon and a very Lovecraftian feel, right down to a conclusion that really should feel ridiculous but just about works despite itself. Despite what the index says, this probably isn't quite his first work, but it's definitely very early. Lair of the Horned Man: Alan Weiss provides a second and final story for Warren. I liked it a lot for what it is, but it also feels very much of its time. Overall, another quite strong issue. The books have been on something of a roll for a while now. The Lions Den, Axe Elf and Jayman 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 On 2/18/2024 at 12:12 AM, OtherEric said: Decent but nothing particularly spectacular for his second and last Warren cover. What?? I assumed he was just getting started! Before the Reading Club, I wasn't aware of too many fantasy artists, but Frazetta, Sanjulian and Vallejo were names I would have recognized. I don't know where I would know him from if not from Warren mags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayman Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 2/18/2024 at 1:39 AM, Axe Elf said: What?? I assumed he was just getting started! Before the Reading Club, I wasn't aware of too many fantasy artists, but Frazetta, Sanjulian and Vallejo were names I would have recognized. I don't know where I would know him from if not from Warren mags. He transitioned over to Skywald. Axe Elf, The Lions Den, This is Who We Are and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lions Den Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 2/18/2024 at 3:12 PM, Jayman said: He transitioned over to Skywald. And for whatever reason, his work for Skywald seems to be a better fit... Jayman, Axe Elf and This is Who We Are 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Elf Posted February 18 Author Share Posted February 18 On 2/18/2024 at 2:29 PM, The Lions Den said: And for whatever reason, his work for Skywald seems to be a better fit... I wonder if maybe that's just because you already associate him with Skywald more than Warren? I mean, I could see that Nightmare cover being an EERIE cover, and the bottom Psycho cover would have matched up pretty well with Sanho Kim's "Dragon Woman" story in VAMPIRELLA #11--the gal turning into a snake, with her little leprous/undead minions. OtherEric and The Lions Den 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayman Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Of course Boris did a number of wonderful covers for Marvel also. Most for Conan which fit his style and subject matter more closely. The Lions Den, Axe Elf, OtherEric and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lions Den Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 On 2/18/2024 at 4:20 PM, Axe Elf said: I wonder if maybe that's just because you already associate him with Skywald more than Warren? You may be right, because the first Skywald mag I remember buying was Nightmare #2... Axe Elf, This is Who We Are and Jayman 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 As stated above, Boris did a lot of covers for the Marvel Magazines as well. The Lions Den, Jayman, Axe Elf and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
