Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[OtherEric]

Creepy #42 thoughts:

Cover:  Trying to think how to describe my reaction... It looks like it should look better than it actually does?  All the elements are there, but they're fighting each other and the net reaction is somewhat muted.

Loathsome Lore:  A pretty solid piece, with nice art by Kelly.  Captain Kidd is a good source for a lore page, the reality and the stories have become so jumbled, even during his lifetime and shortly after, that "lore" is about as good a word for it as you can get.

Letters:  The letter from Frank Miller (assuming it is THE Frank Miller) is definitely noteworthy.  But, having noted it, there's really nothing else to say there.

The Quaking Horror:  Auraleon is a MAJOR Warren creator, searching his name in the index comes back with over 100 matches... some of which are reprints or comments, but still, a ton of stories by him, and he'll be here all the way to the last issues of Creepy and Vampirella.  The story is pretty good, with Fox going all-out Lovecraft and Auraleon providing nicely bizarre imagery to go with it.

A Change of Identity:  Glut knows he's doing a six-page story and keeps the amount of story well calibrated to the room available, but it does mean it's a rather slight story.  Then Cockrum's art is a bit too clean, for lack of a better word, than is really needed... but, well, that's Cockrum's style and always was.  All of which makes this story a bit of a reversal of a more common result... I like the story more than I think the actual quality warrants, because I love Cockrum's art so much in general.

The Amazing Money-Making Wallet:  Joe Staton only does two stories for Warren, but has over 3000 credits at the GCD.  I'm not even sure where to begin trying to summarize his career, so let's go with co-creator (with Nick Cuti) of E-Man and co-creator of the Huntress for DC.  The story is fairly amusing, although similar to Cockrum I think his work is a bit too clean to fit the story perfectly.

Spacial Delivery:  An amusing story with Todd providing his unusual but effective artwork.  A nice humor-horror balance.

A Chronicle:  GCD says Jorge B. Galvez is a pseudonym for Jorge Badia Romero, I'm not familiar with their work under either name, but they do a handful of stories for Warren.  He illustrates a very odd but extrmely effective little story by Steve Skeates.

Escape from Nowhere World:  We didn't really need a follow-up to "On the Wings of a Bird", honestly.  But they could have done worse than this, with a solid ending and some of the best and most enjoyable art I've seen from Grandenetti yet.

Ice Wolf:  Gary Kaufman's last story, and probably his best work yet.  But I'm not a fan of the cannibalism theme, so while I can recognize the craft here I can't say I like it at all.

This was really a pretty good issue; overall, even if I did wind up damning lots of it with faint praise.

 

[The Lions Den]

Just a couple of random thoughts regarding this issue...

1) I've always liked this cover. It seems to have a certain...creepiness to it. And yellow bra or not, that gal is pretty darn alluring. 

2) Yes, the letter by Frank Miller has been confirmed by noted magazine historian Richard Arndt as being from THE Frank Miller. But for my money, the letter from Ernesto Colon is more interesting. 

3) This issue, for whatever reason, is notoriously difficult to find in high grade. I've rarely seen one above Very Fine, and I'm pretty sure I messed up badly when I sold a Near Mint copy sometime back in the 1990's for around $25. Ah well, hindsight really is 20/20...  

[OtherEric]

Paging @Axe Elf... you haven't posted your thoughts on this week's book and your profile shows you haven't been on since Sunday.  Hoping all is well.

[Jayman]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:22 PM, OtherEric said:

Paging @Axe Elf... you haven't posted your thoughts on this week's book and your profile shows you haven't been on since Sunday.  Hoping all is well.

[The Lions Den]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:22 PM, OtherEric said:

Paging @Axe Elf... you haven't posted your thoughts on this week's book and your profile shows you haven't been on since Sunday.  Hoping all is well.

Me too...   

[OtherEric]

If @Axe Elf doesn't post the intro for the weeks book by 12:01 AM Monday (not Sunday) I'll go ahead and put up the info from the index and post my thoughts, on the assumption that the issue is temporary but serious enough that he won't be able to get to it this week.  If he's not here by next week we can discuss matters.  I don't have any useful contact info for him outside the boards, if anybody else does and can check in it would be appreciated.  I suppose I could post something in the Personal announcements and topics forum if we don't hear anything by about Wednesday.

[The Lions Den]

On 4/20/2024 at 10:25 PM, OtherEric said:

If @Axe Elf doesn't post the intro for the weeks book by 12:01 AM Monday (not Sunday) I'll go ahead and put up the info from the index and post my thoughts, on the assumption that the issue is temporary but serious enough that he won't be able to get to it this week.  If he's not here by next week we can discuss matters.  I don't have any useful contact info for him outside the boards, if anybody else does and can check in it would be appreciated.  I suppose I could post something in the Personal announcements and topics forum if we don't hear anything by about Wednesday.

Thank you! I hope he's OK. 

[OtherEric]

Since we haven't tracked down @Axe Elf yet, I'm going to post the index info for this weeks book, and then my thoughts, so if it's a temporary absence he can come back and find we're still going here.  If we still haven't found out anything near the end of the week we can discuss in more detail how to proceed. 

Eerie #36- November 1971

According to the Warren Magazine Index:

36. cover: Enrich Torres (Nov. 1971)

                1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: Atoms [T. Casey Brennan/Pablo Marcos] 1p   [frontis]

                2) Bad Moon On The Rise [Doug Moench/Tom Sutton] 10p

                3) The Silence And The Sleep [Steve Skeates/Rubio] 7p

                4) Prototype [Steve Skeates/Bruce Jones] 10p

                5) Look What They’ve Done! [Steve Skeates/Esteban Maroto] 6p

                6) Crocodile [Don Glut/Mascaro] 6p

                7) The Trap [Greg Potter/L. M. Roca] 4p

                8) Eerie Fanfare: Steve Skeates Profile/House Of Horror/Occupational Hazard [Steve Skeates, Christopher Wolfe & Billie Fowler/Steve Skeates, Steve Lowe & Steve Cassman] 2p [text article/stories]

               9) Oh, Brother! [Steve Skeates/Dave Cockrum] 7p

Notes: Bruce Jones’ art was reproduced from pencils, something only Warren seemed able to do with any degree of care.

 

[OtherEric]

Eerie 36 thoughts

Cover:  It's one of those covers I don't particularly like, but the fault is all me, not the cover.  It's a valid and effective design for a horror comic, very well done.

Monster Gallery:  Atoms.  The subject of the Monster Gallery is "Atoms".  Moving on...

Bad Moon on the Rise:  We haven't seen Tom Sutton in a bit, it seems, but that's partly the Annuals making it seem longer.  Amazing art, as usual, and Doug Monech turns in a very good story, once he gets the Creedence Clearwater Revival nods out of his system, but there's a lot of them the first couple pages.

The Silence and the Sleep:  Jose Rubio only has three credits for Warren that I can see, and not that many total at the GCD.  Their style works well for the hallucinatory pages in the middle but doesn't land quite as well at the beginning and the end.  But it's the right choice for the more important part, so I'll put this in the win column.

Prototype:  Very nice art by Bruce Jones, shooting from pencils works well for underwater scenes.  The story doesn't quite hold together for me, though.

Look What They've Done:  The Warren Debut of Esteban Maroto.  I'm getting 267 name matches in the index, so clearly one of the major Warren creators, who will be with us all the way to Vampirella 112.  He's also known for having designed Red Sonja's famous chainmail bikini.  The story is beautifully drawn and wonderfully meta; although it seems like it was likely written for a color, code-approved comic and only wound up at Warren after it didn't sell elsewhere.

Crocodile:  This seems to be Jose Mascaro's only work for Warren, and indeed his only work for US comics.  The story is a decent filler but nothing more.

The Trap:  Greg Potter has around 15 Warren stories; overall he has a lot less comic credits that I expected, given that I knew him as the creator of Jemm, Son of Saturn and the co-writer of the early George Perez Wonder Woman issues.  The story is a clever little four pager that promises good things.

Oh, Brother:  And the issue goes out on a high note with a science fiction story by Dave Cockrum.  It's a clever twist on Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" that is better suited to Cockrum's clean style than his story in Creepy last week.

This was an excellent issue; with a good mix of material that hit a very high average of quality, even if there weren't any real standout classics in the mix, and a couple of noteworthy creator debuts (along with a couple of less noteworthy ones.)

 

[OtherEric]

Oh, I did create a topic in the personal announcements forum asking if anybody had contact info for @Axe Elf, as well.

[Jayman]

On 4/22/2024 at 12:03 AM, OtherEric said:

cover: Enrich Torres (Nov. 1971)

 

I never would have thought this was an Enrich cover. 

@OtherEric, thanks for stepping in for this round. Let’s all hope our Elf is ok! 

[The Lions Den]

On 4/22/2024 at 12:07 AM, OtherEric said:

Oh, I did create a topic in the personal announcements forum asking if anybody had contact info for @Axe Elf, as well.

Thanks for doing this. My own search for the Elf (and any contact info) has also been unsuccessful. 

 

[The Lions Den]

On 4/22/2024 at 12:06 AM, OtherEric said:

Eerie 36 thoughts

Cover:  It's one of those covers I don't particularly like, but the fault is all me, not the cover.  It's a valid and effective design for a horror comic, very well done.

Monster Gallery:  Atoms.  The subject of the Monster Gallery is "Atoms".  Moving on...

Bad Moon on the Rise:  We haven't seen Tom Sutton in a bit, it seems, but that's partly the Annuals making it seem longer.  Amazing art, as usual, and Doug Monech turns in a very good story, once he gets the Creedence Clearwater Revival nods out of his system, but there's a lot of them the first couple pages.

The Silence and the Sleep:  Jose Rubio only has three credits for Warren that I can see, and not that many total at the GCD.  Their style works well for the hallucinatory pages in the middle but doesn't land quite as well at the beginning and the end.  But it's the right choice for the more important part, so I'll put this in the win column.

Prototype:  Very nice art by Bruce Jones, shooting from pencils works well for underwater scenes.  The story doesn't quite hold together for me, though.

Look What They've Done:  The Warren Debut of Esteban Maroto.  I'm getting 267 name matches in the index, so clearly one of the major Warren creators, who will be with us all the way to Vampirella 112.  He's also known for having designed Red Sonja's famous chainmail bikini.  The story is beautifully drawn and wonderfully meta; although it seems like it was likely written for a color, code-approved comic and only wound up at Warren after it didn't sell elsewhere.

Crocodile:  This seems to be Jose Mascaro's only work for Warren, and indeed his only work for US comics.  The story is a decent filler but nothing more.

The Trap:  Greg Potter has around 15 Warren stories; overall he has a lot less comic credits that I expected, given that I knew him as the creator of Jemm, Son of Saturn and the co-writer of the early George Perez Wonder Woman issues.  The story is a clever little four pager that promises good things.

Oh, Brother:  And the issue goes out on a high note with a science fiction story by Dave Cockrum.  It's a clever twist on Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" that is better suited to Cockrum's clean style than his story in Creepy last week.

This was an excellent issue; with a good mix of material that hit a very high average of quality, even if there weren't any real standout classics in the mix, and a couple of noteworthy creator debuts (along with a couple of less noteworthy ones.)

 

I always thought this was a pretty cool issue, but for some reason it falls into the "not essential" category for me. Maybe it's the yellow background (which Warren allegedly disliked for his covers) or the fact that the previous issue was such a standout---it just seems that this issue was kind of a letdown. 

Thankfully, it was only temporary...

[Stevemmg]

This is the first time Warren ends up using an Enric preliminary painting for a cover when the finished painting wasn’t in house on time. The finished painting was up for sale at one point. Even finished, not what we expect from Enric. It happens again with Vampirella 32. 

While the Maroto debut is tied to a fairly mediocre script, it’s still exciting to see knowing what is to come. He was pretty well established in Europe at this point in 1971, having done quite a lot of spectacular work with Dracula and Five for Infinity being the most relevant to our crowd. 
 

I am always excited when there is a Bruce Jones art story,as it gets much rarer later as he transitions to writing primarily. I agree, Warren has repeatedly been able to reproduce pencil work brilliantly while few others were able to do it. 

[Stevemmg]

Correction.  Finished version is still available for purchase from Michael Gidwitz. 
 

[The Lions Den]

On 4/22/2024 at 9:34 PM, Stevemmg said:

Correction.  Finished version is still available for purchase from Michael Gidwitz. 
 

Very cool...thanks so much for sharing!  

[The Lions Den]

On 4/22/2024 at 9:29 PM, Stevemmg said:

This is the first time Warren ends up using an Enric preliminary painting for a cover when the finished painting wasn’t in house on time. The finished painting was up for sale at one point. Even finished, not what we expect from Enric. It happens again with Vampirella 32. 

While the Maroto debut is tied to a fairly mediocre script, it’s still exciting to see knowing what is to come. He was pretty well established in Europe at this point in 1971, having done quite a lot of spectacular work with Dracula and Five for Infinity being the most relevant to our crowd. 
 

I am always excited when there is a Bruce Jones art story,as it gets much rarer later as he transitions to writing primarily. I agree, Warren has repeatedly been able to reproduce pencil work brilliantly while few others were able to do it. 

Good information that I wasn't previously aware of...  

[Jayman]

On 4/22/2024 at 9:34 PM, Stevemmg said:

Correction.  Finished version is still available for purchase from Michael Gidwitz. 
 

More info from his page. Very interesting, I did not know about this.

This was the final version of the painting that appeared on Eerie # 36 by Enrich but the preliminary painting was used on the cover instead. I wrote James Warren a letter and asked him about this and received a reply on February 24, 2014. This is a portion of his reply: Dear Mike- After studying both renditions and trying to remember what happened here some 43 years ago, this is my thinking: 1) My guess ( and it is an educated guess ) is that when I was first shown the original painting ( The one you own ) , I rejected it because I didn't think the deformed hand was realistic enough. ( It was more like a claw from an animal or zombie, or whatever.) I wanted more of a human hand at the time. 2) I then asked Enrich to give me another version. 3) Enrich then submitted a comprehensive color rough of a new hand. 4) I liked the comprehensive color rough, and accepted it as the final art that would appear on the cover. - OR- 5) I was forced to accept it, and use it, BECAUSE OF A DEADLINE that had to be made. It's possible that we had already gone ahead with the inside painting of the issue, and this inside contained the story (" The Hand of Kane Kinkaid"),which meant that we had to use a ' Hand" painting for this particular issue;- And there was NO TIME to wait for ENRICH to do another big painting. This was entirely possible but as I said, it was 43 years ago, and my mind is not clear on this. If I had it to do all over again, I WOULD HAVE INDEED USED THE " CLAW " ORIGINAL VERSION THAT YOU HAVE - INSTEAD OF THE COLOR ROUGH. THE ORIGINAL IS FAR SUPERIOR TO THE COLOR ROUGH ARTISTICALLY, AND FROM THE POINT OF VIEW AS A " BETTER COVER". 

[The Lions Den]

On 4/23/2024 at 8:50 AM, Jayman said:

More info from his page. Very interesting, I did not know about this.

This was the final version of the painting that appeared on Eerie # 36 by Enrich but the preliminary painting was used on the cover instead. I wrote James Warren a letter and asked him about this and received a reply on February 24, 2014. This is a portion of his reply: Dear Mike- After studying both renditions and trying to remember what happened here some 43 years ago, this is my thinking: 1) My guess ( and it is an educated guess ) is that when I was first shown the original painting ( The one you own ) , I rejected it because I didn't think the deformed hand was realistic enough. ( It was more like a claw from an animal or zombie, or whatever.) I wanted more of a human hand at the time. 2) I then asked Enrich to give me another version. 3) Enrich then submitted a comprehensive color rough of a new hand. 4) I liked the comprehensive color rough, and accepted it as the final art that would appear on the cover. - OR- 5) I was forced to accept it, and use it, BECAUSE OF A DEADLINE that had to be made. It's possible that we had already gone ahead with the inside painting of the issue, and this inside contained the story (" The Hand of Kane Kinkaid"),which meant that we had to use a ' Hand" painting for this particular issue;- And there was NO TIME to wait for ENRICH to do another big painting. This was entirely possible but as I said, it was 43 years ago, and my mind is not clear on this. If I had it to do all over again, I WOULD HAVE INDEED USED THE " CLAW " ORIGINAL VERSION THAT YOU HAVE - INSTEAD OF THE COLOR ROUGH. THE ORIGINAL IS FAR SUPERIOR TO THE COLOR ROUGH ARTISTICALLY, AND FROM THE POINT OF VIEW AS A " BETTER COVER". 

Very cool, and it actually makes this issue more interesting to me now. 

[Jayman]

On 4/23/2024 at 9:33 AM, The Lions Den said:

Very cool, and it actually makes this issue more interesting to me now. 

Alternative version...