Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[Axe Elf]

When I first read "Prelude to Armageddon," I wasn't sure if they had just misspelled "demon" in this panel, or what.

But they said it a few more times, so I just accepted it as a cheap knock-off of "demon."

But after reflecting for a few days now, I realize that it could be an INGENIOUS knockoff--if Cuti/Wood intentionally used a similar spelling, to explain the basis for "demons" in mankind's mythology--given that the "ogres" eventually evolved into humans!  The "demen" look like the flying devils of human legend!

There are a couple other things like that too--the "dragon" riders are actually riding pterodactyls from Earth's prehistory...  And the planet is "IRITH"... Irth... Earth!

So it took me a couple of days to "get it" all, but I appreciate it all the more now.

[Axe Elf]

EERIE #35 - September 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

35. cover: Enrich Torres (Sept. 1971)

1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: Monster Sightings! [John Cornell] 1p   [frontis]

2) Retribution [Gardner Fox & Steve Englehart/Steve Englehart] 6p

3) The Comet’s Curse! [Buddy Saunders/Frank Brunner] 6p

4) The Tower Of The Demon Dooms! [Gardner Fox/Mike Ploog] 9p

5) I Am Dead, Egypt, Dead [Doug Moench/Victor de la Fuente] 8p

6) Cats And Dogs [Bill DuBay/Jerry Grandenetti] 7p

7) Eerie Fanfare: Sanho Kim Profile/Changing Sands/The Rats/The End [J. R. Cochran, John D. Warner, John Ayella & David McElmurry/Robert Putnam, John Ayella, Ken Kelly & Craig Edelblut] 2p   [text stories]

8) Annual Warren Awards At The New York Comiccn… [Martin Greim] 2p   [text article]   reprinted from Comic Crusader #10 (1970)

9) Money [Sanho Kim] 9p

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

Notes: Editor: Billy Graham.  Enrich Torres made a spectacular cover artist debut with one of the most striking covers of his career.  Although it’s not generally well-known, comic writer Steve Englehart made his debut as an artist and, as is evident from the half dozen or so stories available, wasn’t bad at all.  Mike Ploog began doing regular comics, after a stint as Will Eisner’s assistant on P*S magazine.  The Eisner influence was very apparent in his artwork {and still is today}.  Sanho Kim’s art was impressive, even more so when compared to the often rushed looking artwork he was doing for Charlton at the time.  The Ken Kelly on the fan page (and on the letters’ page) is not the well known cover artist.  A very strong issue.

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

For some reason when I was first familiarizing myself with the EERIE run, I thought this was Vampirella on the cover.  I'd seen her on a few later EERIEs, and so I assumed this was an earlier crossover appearance--and the skull, the bat wings, all the classic Vampi elements are there!  But over time I came to realize that although the artist did eventually go on to render Vampirella on future covers in her own series, this was just some random warrior queen.

Still, it's quite a nice cover for our 101st issue in the Warren Magazine Reading Club, and for the week of my 61st birthday (an age I had absolutely no business reaching)!

I think I mentioned it before, but Easter lands on my birthday 3 times between 1928 and 2086 (1991, 2013 and 2024), and I have lived to see them all--but this will be the last, so it's kind of special and poignant for me personally.

And it could be a rather special issue, with not one nor two but three debuts of new artists this week to kick off our next 100 books... and Frank Frazetta himself pops by once more to kick sand in every smoker's face.

[OtherEric]

Eerie #35 thoughts:

Cover:  The index sums up Enrich's debut quite nicely.  Although I wonder what Tor Johnson did to deserve his fate here.

Monster Gallery:  This seems to be John Cornell's only comic credit, other than a fan page appearance in Creepy a few months earlier.  Extremely good work for a one page wonder, it reminds me a bit of Barry Windsor-Smith's early work.

Retribution:  Nice art by Englehart, an enjoyably pulpy story by him and Fox.

The Comet's Curse:  Beautiful art by Brunner, a solid enough plot by Saunders.  I think the story could have used another page or two to breathe, though... the time jump makes both parts feel slighly rushed.

The Tower of Demon Dooms:  Mike Ploog only does four stories for Warren.  He's one of those creators whose impact in comics is huge relative to how much work he actually did, including co-creating Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, and Weirdworld for Marvel.  His art here is excellent, except... the main character looks like D**k Tracy cosplaying as Conan, and I find it terribly distracting.

I Am Dead, Egypt, Dead:  Victor De La Fuente is going to turn up a lot once we reach the 1980's, largely in translated reprints of work he originally did for international publishers.  But I believe this is his only story for Warren in the 70's.  The story is excellent, with an extremely clever and well executed series of twists at the end.  I also want to note the clever touch of having the site be the tomb of Rameses... there were eleven Pharaohs of that name, giving them any number of choices should somebody complain that some of the details aren't right.

Cats and Dogs:  A clever conceit by Bill DuBay for the plot, and as so often happens I respect Grandenetti's craft on the art without actually enjoying it.

Money:  An excellent story by Kim to finish off the issue.

Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: 14!  But we're getting very near the end, this is the last appearance in EERIE.

Overall, an great issue, starting with a spectacular cover and continuing with a bunch of stories ranging from very good to excellent.  I would have felt my 60 cents were very well spent if I bought this one off the racks.

 

[Axe Elf]

On 3/31/2024 at 12:02 AM, OtherEric said:

Although I wonder what Tor Johnson did to deserve his fate here.

 

 

the main character looks like D**k Tracy cosplaying as Conan, and I find it terribly distracting.

[OtherEric]

On 3/30/2024 at 10:12 PM, Axe Elf said:

When you finally see the story, tell me I'm wrong describing the main character like that!

[The Lions Den]

On 3/31/2024 at 1:02 AM, OtherEric said:

The Tower of Demon Dooms:  Mike Ploog only does four stories for Warren.  He's one of those creators whose impact in comics is huge relative to how much work he actually did, including co-creating Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, and Weirdworld for Marvel.  His art here is excellent, except... the main character looks like D**k Tracy cosplaying as Conan, and I find it terribly distracting.

I do see the resemblance, but I suppose it could be partly because of Ploog's style---very Eisner-like.  

 

On 3/31/2024 at 1:02 AM, OtherEric said:

Overall, a great issue, starting with a spectacular cover and continuing with a bunch of stories ranging from very good to excellent.  I would have felt my 60 cents were very well spent if I bought this one off the racks.

I agree completely. One of the best issues in the run...    

[Axe Elf]

Looks like our cover this week is another of those covers that isn't directly related to any of the stories it encloses, other than sort of a general nod to the Sword & Sorcery genre to which the first three stories kind of belong.  (It does, however, contain a copious amount of teaser text.)

The lead-off story, "Retribution," was probably the best of those three, and one of the highlights of the issue overall.  The Steve Englehart art was precise and meticulous, and the plot was consistent in telling a meaningful story.

Frank Brunner's art lifted "The Comet's Curse" to something more enjoyable than the story itself, although the story wasn't bad, either.  I remember someone once making the comment that Neal Adams incorporated so much "movement" in his art; I get that same feeling from Brunner at times.

And last in the little Sword & Sorcery trilogy is "The Tower of Demon Dooms."  I had kind of forgotten to look for the "D**k Tracy" in the hero when I first read it, and I didn't really get that impression on first read--but then again, I haven't read many Tracy comics, and certainly haven't seen him out of his traditional yellow trenchcoat.  Going back after the fact, I could maybe catch some Tracy in some of his facial expressions--but it wasn't my first impression.

I thought this was a really good story with competent artwork, but the ending seemed a little strained--the dead can't stay in our world, and the living can't stay in the world of the demons, unless the one who doesn't belong drinks the blood of the other?  Yeah, ok...

But catching up to myself a little, it's really interesting that the "EERIE's Monster Gallery" frontispiece is not only the lone contribution the artist made to Warren, but to any comic whatsoever!  And it really IS a Monster Gallery, being devoted to monster sightings and all (although the last one seems to be more of a naked hottie sighting than a monster sighting)!

Feedback on "Starvisions" from EERIE #33 seemed to dominate the "Dear Cousin EERIE" pages this week; both positive and negative.  Most of the negatives were mostly just complaining about publishing sci-fi in a horror magazine, but there were a lot more positive comments than negative.  And then the poor Ken Kelly guy who kept getting confused with Ken Kelley was kind of funny.

He even contributed an illustration to the "EERIE Fan Fare" feature, adding to the confusion.  Cousin Eerie advised him to go by "Kenneth" or "Kin" or something.  Overall, though, the fan fiction was as terrible as usual, and the only redeeming quality of the fan pages was the Sanho Kim biography.  I find it a little hard to believe, though, that Kim "wrote and drew more than one-thousand books, each fifty to one-hundred pages long," over an 8 year period.  50,000 to 100,000 pages in 3,000 days?  Can anyone do 15-30 pages a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for 8 years straight??  That's freaking impressive, if true!

And EERIE finally gets around to reprinting the "Annual Warren Awards at the New York Comicon" feature that we've already seen in CREEPY #40 and VAMPIRELLA #12.

But back to the main features, I didn't think "Cats and Dogs" was Grandenetti's best work--and when Grandenetti isn't at his best, he's almost at his worst it seems.  Still, his cartoonish and highly constrasting work was a good fit for the cartoonish and dualistic subject matter of what I would consider kind of a light-hearted filler piece about a family who will never need pets.

"I Am Dead, Egypt, Dead" brought us yet another new artist in Victor de la Fuente, whose art was at times as meticulous as Englehart had been in the opener, yet he doesn't seem to have as much mastery over facial expressions and such--but his backgrounds are quite detailed.

This story is well-crafted in stacking its twists at the end, and it's kind of unique in that there are no actual "monsters" in the story--just three people double-crossing each other to get the most treasure.

In that sense, it is similar to the last story in this issue, "Money," by Sanho Kim.  I was kind of lukewarm on Kim's "Dragon Woman" piece when we first saw him in VAMPIRELLA #11, but my appreciation for him has grown with this piece, and with his Fan Fare biography.  You can really see both the eastern and western influences in his work.  The trees and mountains especially look like what you see in oriental art, while his human characters look more western to me.

Like "I Am Dead, Egypt, Dead," this piece doesn't really have any monsters in it, it's more of an Aesop's fable about human greed.  (For the people who don't like sci-fi in your horror magazines, how do you feel about morality lessons?)  In that sense, it kind of reminded me of "The King's Ankus" included in Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Books," where Mowgli and his animal friends track some humans who are killing each other over a treasure as they go, until they are all dead because of their greed.

I wasn't sure of the ending of Kim's piece, though; was the guy dead now, guarding his treasure as a ghost?  I don't know.

In any case, this was indeed a pretty good issue--most of its warts were minor spelling and grammatical errors--and it's kind of unique in that the "monsters" featured most prominently in at least two of its stories were nothing more than greedy human beings themselves!  WE are the real monsters!

[OtherEric]

On 4/5/2024 at 3:35 PM, Axe Elf said:

 

And last in the little Sword & Sorcery trilogy is "The Tower of Demon Dooms."  I had kind of forgotten to look for the "D**k Tracy" in the hero when I first read it, and I didn't really get that impression on first read--but then again, I haven't read many Tracy comics, and certainly haven't seen him out of his traditional yellow trenchcoat.  Going back after the fact, I could maybe catch some Tracy in some of his facial expressions--but it wasn't my first impression.

That's as good an example of any as to what I was referring to, @Axe Elf.  I can see it not bugging others as much as it did me.  And it's not so much that my problem was "he looks like Tracy", it was more "he looks off to me" and that was the best way I figured to describe the issue after the fact.

On 4/5/2024 at 3:35 PM, Axe Elf said:

 

This story is well-crafted in stacking its twists at the end, and it's kind of unique in that there are no actual "monsters" in the story--just three people double-crossing each other to get the most treasure.

I tried to avoid spoilers in my comments, but the lack of anything supernatural was what I was trying to hint at with my "well-executed twists" comment.  It's a noir mystery using the fact we expect the supernatural in context to hide the twists.

On 4/5/2024 at 3:35 PM, Axe Elf said:

 

He even contributed an illustration to the "EERIE Fan Fare" feature, adding to the confusion.  Cousin Eerie advised him to go by "Kenneth" or "Kin" or something.  Overall, though, the fan fiction was as terrible as usual, and the only redeeming quality of the fan pages was the Sanho Kim biography.  I find it a little hard to believe, though, that Kim "wrote and drew more than one-thousand books, each fifty to one-hundred pages long," over an 8 year period.  50,000 to 100,000 pages in 3,000 days?  Can anyone do 15-30 pages a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for 8 years straight??  That's freaking impressive, if true!

I think quite a lot of Manga artists manage 20-30 pages a week over long periods of time; but generally they use quite a few assistants to do it.  Not sure how fast Kim would be if he was drawing it entirely on his own.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/5/2024 at 8:42 PM, OtherEric said:

It's a noir mystery using the fact we expect the supernatural in context to hide the twists.

Good point.  It's almost like one of the twists is that there IS no (living) mummy.

On 4/5/2024 at 8:42 PM, OtherEric said:

I think quite a lot of Manga artists manage 20-30 pages a week over long periods of time; but generally they use quite a few assistants to do it.  Not sure how fast Kim would be if he was drawing it entirely on his own.

I suppose, although when they said "he wrote and drew" I just assumed they meant he did it himself.

I could see someone tossing off 30 pages of Calvin & Hobbes in a day, but Kim's work is so much more nuanced that I would think that kind of productivity would be impossible, especially if he had even a HINT of a life outside of writing and drawing books.  Still, a very impressive body of work.

[Axe Elf]

VAMPIRELLA #13 - September 1971

(If you have your welding goggles handy for the upcoming eclipse, you can also safely view my blindingly white copy of VAMPIRELLA #13!  "So white it belongs in a toothpaste commercial!"  It's like there's no difference between that cover and the white space of the forum background!)

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

13. cover: Manuel Sanjulian (Sept. 1971)

1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: Lamiae [Gary Kaufman] 1p   [frontis]

2) Vampirella: The Lurker In The Deep! [Archie Goodwin/Jose Gonzalez] 15p

3) From Death’s Dark Corner! [Gerry Conway/Steve Hickman] 7p

4) The Silver Thief And The Pharaoh’s Daughter [Dean Latimer/Jose Bea] 11p

5) The Frog Prince! [Bill DuBay] 5p

6) Vampi’s Flames: Official Contest/Children Of The Atom/The Leaking Bath Tub!, part 2 [J. R. Cochran, J. G. Barlow, Carl Daigrepont, Jr./Gregg Davidson, Clyde Caldwell & John Ayella] 2p   [contest rules/poem/text story]

7) Eye Of The Beholder [Gary Kaufman] 7p

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

Notes: Sanjulian’s cover was of much higher quality than the previous issue’s.  Some good stories & art here but the real prize was the American debut of Jose Bea.  Future cover artist Clyde Caldwell also debuted his work on the fan page.

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

Well, the Index doesn't actually have much to say.  I'm expecting good things though, because the last couple of issues of CREEPY and EERIE (since the final round of Annuals) have been pretty solid, despite (or perhaps because of?) a large number of new contributors making their debuts--and we get more of the same here.  I still tend to like Gonzalez' Vampi stories, too, despite his art being largely panned by the Index whenever it has appeared up until now, and the Vampi saga is really starting to take shape, with longer stories that get to indulge themselves a little.  So I hope we're in for another quality issue.

Now if only I knew the easy way to a tuff surfboard...  Hey, got a light, mate?

[OtherEric]

Cover:  I absolutely love this cover by Sanjulian, it's firmly on my upgrade list.  But I'm always slow to upgrade...

Feary Tales:  Possibly the best work we've seen by Kaufman yet.  Lamia is a name that has been attached to a lot of myths over the centuries, and this page kind of chooses details at random.

The Lurker in the Deep:  Nice art, and the story is decent enough, but there are so many running subplots going on between the Helsings, Pendragon, and the Cult of Chaos that the actual story for the issue seems to be fighting for space and losing.  It gets rated higher as part of an ongoing serial than as a standalone story by me.

From Death's Dark Corner:  Steve Hickman only has a handful of comic credits, this and the Creepy #88 cover are his only work for Warren.  The art is pretty good, reminding me a bit of Wrightson's work.  I consider it a little unfortunate that we get two issues in a row with titles including "Death's Dark", though... it seems repetitious.

The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter:  Jose Bea makes his debut here, he'll be a fairly major contributor the next few years.  This seems to be Dean Latimer's only work for comic books specifically, although he does have some credits on comic stories in National Lampoon, and on non-comic stories there as well.  This is an amazing debut story; the art is a little stiff and the story a little stilted in places.  But overall it's beautiful looking and brilliantly written, pulling off a pitch-black comedy that lands with a glorious final page that is utterly unexpected yet inevitable.  Another candidate for the all-time Warren Classics list.

The Frog Prince:  Very much in the same vein as the last DuBay story, but a distinct improvement as well.  Still not terribly impressive, and we don't really need the short humorous palette cleanser here either.

Eye of the Beholder:  A rather grim and ugly story, honestly.  A disappointment after Kaufman's solid Feary Tales page, although it's one of those stories I can see others liking a lot more than I did.

Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: The 15th and final appearance in the Reading Club, although there were more appearances in Warren magazines we don't cover here, including two in Teen Love Stories under a different title. Farewell, Tuff Surfboard, you will be missed but never forgotten!

I can't call this a great issue overall, but the Silver Thief cover & story make it a winner all on their own, and there's lots of other stuff to like if not love.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/7/2024 at 12:05 AM, OtherEric said:

Lawdhammercy...

[OtherEric]

On 4/6/2024 at 10:11 PM, Axe Elf said:

Lawdhammercy...

Don't get me started.  The seller sent me the wrong copy, I think they let me keep it free when I complained.

[The Lions Den]

On 4/7/2024 at 1:00 AM, Axe Elf said:

(If you have your welding goggles handy for the upcoming eclipse, you can also safely view my blindingly white copy of VAMPIRELLA #13!  "So white it belongs in a toothpaste commercial!"  It's like there's no difference between that cover and the white space of the forum background!)

Very nice...  

[Axe Elf]

Hoo boy, where do I start with this one?

Did I mention it has a really nice cover?

Didja know you can't judge books by those?

The highlight of the week for me is probably the synchronicity of Trina Robbins' mention as the designer of Vampirella's costume to lead off "Vampi's Scarlet Letters"--in the very same week in which she passed away!  I wasn't really familiar with her before, but it seems like she was a very interesting, accomplished and independent woman.  The same writer said the cover to VAMPIRELLA #11 (Frazetta's classic "Woman with Scythe") "wasn't spectacular, but just 'good'."    I also wish we could have seen the nude photo of Linda, the Vampirella look-alike secretary, but I suppose that Jim Warren had had his fill of publishing nude photos by then.

I also enjoyed the Vampirella installment, "Lurker in the Deep," quite a bit.  I don't care what the Index says, I like Gonzalez' art for her stories, even when it's a little scratchy/scribbly.  The "lurker" itself kind of pushed the limits of that style, being kind of a scribbly "Creature from the Black Lagoon" with octopus arms, but overall I find his art very interesting.  The twist of a jealous female monster was clever, too.

I enjoyed the double-sized Vampirella story so much that I kind of convinced myself that I was liking "From Death's Dark Corner" the first time through as well, but by the time I got to the end and reviewed the story, I was a lot less impressed by it.  @OtherEric was put off by the repetition of "Death's Dark..." in the title, and I don't really see why it was named that in the first place--it should have been something more like "The Changeling in the Swamp" or something--but I thought the story was poorly told and constructed (and ended).  She hated her monster child so much that she killed her husband, faked the kidnapping of the child, and abandoned it in the swamp--but continued to bring it food until it was old enough to kill her?  Unfortunately, it's probably the second-best story in the issue.

And if there was redundancy in the "Death's Dark..." titles, then there was also Egyptian redundancy in multiple recent stories about the Ramses kings that brings us to the piece that @OtherEric called one of the all-time Warren classics--"The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter."  I hate when we disagree so sharply, and I love ya Eric, but I feel like I must be missing something here!  The debut of the Jose Bea art was ok, but it was a long (11 page) story for a small payoff--the thief was so good that the king gave him a job?--and his daughter's hand in marriage?  It seems ridiculous to me, as were some of the plot devices (how did the chopped-off arm get him past the guards in the chamber with the king's daughter?).  And further, this isn't even a horror story--not even a psychological or human nature horror story--it belongs more in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine or something!  I could have gone through all the Warren magazines without reading this bloated historical crime drama.  For me, it just doesn't fit and it's not that great--but I always hate dissing a piece that other people enjoy!  Forgive me!

And speaking of redundancy over the past couple of issues, for some reason they reprinted the same exact "Annual Warren Awards" feature in this issue that was printed in VAMPIRELLA #12 (although for some reason, this escaped listing or mention in the Index).

"The Frog Prince" was the lowlight of the issue, and that's saying something.  It might even be the lowlight of the VAMPIRELLA series thus far.  The whole thing seems like it could have been a Don Martin one-pager in MAD magazine and still delivered the joke.  And the joke might have landed a little more effectively for me if the frog prince's "CROAK" at the end hadn't been so over-the-top.  Like if his throat and upper chest had just puffed out a little--instead of turning him completely into a ball with arms and legs.

And after all that talk about "reversing the spell," "turning him into a man again," and so on, the twist isn't really even that logical--unless of course he was a man who croaked BEFORE the enchantment!

And finally, "Eye of the Beholder" was every bit as grim and ugly as @OtherEric described--and that was even with it reminding me of a darker version of Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree" a little bit.  It's only redeeming feature was the closing line, "...and then her left eye popped out," which broke the darkness of the piece with a little piece of even darker levity.

Kaufman's work on "Vampi's Feary Tales" was indeed better than his work on that last story, even if the narrative was a little fragmented.  I like that they are digging deep for some of these Gallery/Lore/Tales features rather than just rehashing well-known monsters.  I'm learning from some of these, including this one, as I had never heard of the Lamia before.

The "Vampi's Flames" fan pages left me cold as usual, especially the conclusion to the fan fiction epic, "The Leaking Bathtub."

The only reason I can see for ever opening this magazine is the Vampirella feature--worst issue of the series so far, in my opinion.

[OtherEric]

On 4/12/2024 at 3:38 PM, Axe Elf said:

And if there was redundancy in the "Death's Dark..." titles, then there was also Egyptian redundancy in multiple recent stories about the Ramses kings that brings us to the piece that @OtherEric called one of the all-time Warren classics--"The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter."  I hate when we disagree so sharply, and I love ya Eric, but I feel like I must be missing something here!  The debut of the Jose Bea art was ok, but it was a long (11 page) story for a small payoff--the thief was so good that the king gave him a job?--and his daughter's hand in marriage?  It seems ridiculous to me, as were some of the plot devices (how did the chopped-off arm get him past the guards in the chamber with the king's daughter?).  And further, this isn't even a horror story--not even a psychological or human nature horror story--it belongs more in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine or something!  I could have gone through all the Warren magazines without reading this bloated historical crime drama.  For me, it just doesn't fit and it's not that great--but I always hate dissing a piece that other people enjoy!  Forgive me!
 

See, I'm fine when we disagree, as long as we can both explain why we like or dislike it.  I think key to my liking of it is my viewing it as "pitch-black comedy".  And like I said, the last page is just magnificent... ending with a 2/3 page splash of the protagonist and antagonist (and you can decide which is which in context) playing checkers as the princess look on is just glorious, and the last thing I would ever expect as the punch line to a Warren story.  Part of why I like it so much is it keeps looking like it's going to become the horror story we expect, and keeps pulling the rug out from under us.  It's certainly not something I would want to see often, and I can get why you (and others) dislike it as in some ways it's almost an anti-Warren story, deliberately twisting everything.

Does anybody else have thoughts on the piece?  @The Lions Den?  We could use a tiebreaker here.

[Axe Elf]

On 4/12/2024 at 5:51 PM, OtherEric said:

We could use a tiebreaker here.

I cheated and looked ahead to the letters sections of VAMPIRELLA #15 and #16 to see what the fans had to say, and for the most part it looks like they liked it--though there was one dissenting opinion.

That was more about the artwork than the story itself, though.

But this one was more @OtherEric-level of praise:

Me and Randy will just be over here in our corner telling each other how smart we are and laughing at the rest of you.

But seriously, I do feel BETTER about disagreeing, now that we've done it a few times and everyone realizes that there is no "right" or "wrong"; just different opinions on creative works of art.

This reading club is still one of my favorite things in life right now.

[OtherEric]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:20 PM, Axe Elf said:

I cheated and looked ahead to the letters sections of VAMPIRELLA #15 and #16 to see what the fans had to say, and for the most part it looks like they liked it--though there was one dissenting opinion.

That was more about the artwork than the story itself, though.

But this one was more @OtherEric-level of praise:

Me and Randy will just be over here in our corner telling each other how smart we are and laughing at the rest of you.

But seriously, I do feel BETTER about disagreeing, now that we've done it a few times and everyone realizes that there is no "right" or "wrong"; just different opinions on creative works of art.

This reading club is still one of my favorite things in life right now.

I think we have about the right level of agreement here, honestly... enough agreement that we don't go "what the heck are these people thinking?", but enough disagreement that we can see different opinions and have something to talk about.  It makes for a fun discussion.

For what it's worth, while I think it was a great story it's not the best thing they've published... just to name one, "The Curse" was definitely better. 

[The Lions Den]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:51 PM, OtherEric said:

See, I'm fine when we disagree, as long as we can both explain why we like or dislike it.  I think key to my liking of it is my viewing it as "pitch-black comedy".  And like I said, the last page is just magnificent... ending with a 2/3 page splash of the protagonist and antagonist (and you can decide which is which in context) playing checkers as the princess look on is just glorious, and the last thing I would ever expect as the punch line to a Warren story.  Part of why I like it so much is it keeps looking like it's going to become the horror story we expect, and keeps pulling the rug out from under us.  It's certainly not something I would want to see often, and I can get why you (and others) dislike it as in some ways it's almost an anti-Warren story, deliberately twisting everything.

Does anybody else have thoughts on the piece?  @The Lions Den?  We could use a tiebreaker here.

I haven't read it in quite some time, but I remember that story being one of the highlights of this issue. I hope this helps...  

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #42 - November 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

42. cover: Manuel Sanjulian (Nov. 1971)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Captain Kidd! [T. Casey Brennan/Ken Kelly] 1p   [frontis]

2) The Quaking Horror [Gardner Fox/Rafael Auraleon] 6p

3) A Change Of Identity! [Don Glut/Dave Cockrum] 6p

4) The Amazing Money-Making Wallet [Steve Skeates/Joe Staton] 6p

5) Spacial Delivery [R. Michael Rosen/Larry Todd] 7p

6) A Chronicle! [Steve Skeates/Jorge B. Galvez] 4p

7) Escape From Nowhere World [T. Casey Brennan/Jerry Grandenetti] 8p

8) The Creepy Fan Page: Jerry Grandenetti Profile/The Demon/The Old Lady And The Cats/The Problem [Jerry Grandenetti, Jim Fadler, Randy Kirk & Robert Nason/Donald MacDonald] 2p   [text article/stories]

9) Ice Wolf [Gary Kaufman] 10p

Notes: Although it wasn’t completely apparent from this issue, the Spanish invasion of artists had begun a couple of months earlier in Eerie, which would eventually result in most of the American artists being driven from the Warren pages.  The professional artists and writers’ debuts, which had highlighted the previous two years, also began to dry up. The sorceress in Sanjulian’s first Creepy cover was largely naked and while an effort was made to cover up her breasts with a yellow bra overlay, the technique used clearly didn’t work. ‘Escape From Nowhere World’ was a sequel to the earlier ‘On The Wings Of A Bird’ from #36.  Brennan says he wrote the original story but the version here is not that story.  His original script was apparently rewritten by various Warren staffers.  Ernie Colon had a letter reprinted from the New York Times while future writer/artist Frank Miller also contributed to the letters’ page.  ‘Ice Wolf’ was the best story.

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Ah yes, the infamous "yellow bra overlay" cover.  I think this is the first time we've seen illustrated nudity on a Warren cover, isn't it?  Or do you even still consider it "illustrated nudity" after the yellow bra overlay?

I'd always kind of thought of the "Spanish Invasion" as a good thing; an influx of foreign talent--but the Index makes it sound more like a predatory thing--"Those Spanish artists came in and took our jobs!"  I certainly hate to hear that all these new artists and writers are going to be drying up, as I have considered (most of) their appearances to be a welcome influx of talent as well.  So I'm hoping to hear some opinions from our readers about the pros and cons of the "Spanish Invasion."

Lots to look forward to here!

A sequel to "On the Wings of a Bird"?  Yes, please!  I hate to hear it was altered from the author's original version, though; I hope it was only in the details, and that they didn't change his entire vision or something--but then again, I guess we'll never know (unless someone has access to his original script).  At least Grandenetti is still the artist--and I always look forward to the artist profiles in the Fan Pages; his will be no exception!  I would expect Grandenetti to be quite the character, just based on his highly stylized art.

And speaking of artists, we have letters from Ernie Colon and Frank Miller (like "Sin City" Frank Miller??) and Ken Kelly doing the Loathsome Lore!!

So I'm hoping to put the debacle that was VAMPIRELLA #13 behind me and enjoy this Sanjulian-covered issue instead!