Warren Magazine Reading Club! 7 7

[OtherEric]

Vampirella #15- January 1972

From the Warren Magazine Index:

15. cover: Manuel Sanjulian (Jan. 1972)

                1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: Metifa! [Bill DuBay/Richard Corben] 1p   [frontis]

                2) Vampirella: The Resurrection Of Papa Voudou! [Archie Goodwin/Jose Gonzalez] 20p

                3) Quavering Shadows [Doug Moench/Jose Bea] 11p

                4) A House Is Not A Home [Dave Mitchell/Nebot] 6p

                5) 1971 Comicon Awards Go To Frazetta And Goodwin… [?/?] 3p   [text article]

                6) Vampi’s Flames: Bill DuBay Profile/Return To Nowhere/Revenge/ Demon’s Curse/Final Log [Bill DuBay, Richard Lysaght, Kenneth Leggett, Jr., Paul E. King & Robb Wilson/Tom  Vaughn, T. O. Mears & Andres Bakells] 2p   [text article/stories w/photo]

                7) Welcome To The Witches’ Coven [Don McGregor/Luis Garcia] 12p

Notes: A rather poor issue with ‘Welcome To The Witches’ Coven’ and ‘Quavering Shadows’ being the top stories and art.  Interesting, if somewhat clumsy, airbrush art appeared on Creepy’s Loathsome Lore.  A rather crappy looking Dracula appeared on the last page of the Vampirella strip.  The Vampi story was ok, but the artwork was middling to downright poor there.  Nebot’s poor art here is particularly awful. 

____________________________________________________

Not a lot to add, I haven't really looked at the issue yet.  With Vampi at 20 pages and two others over 10, we only get four stories and a lore here.  I can't recall if that's a record low number of actual stories, but if it it isn't it must tie for it.

 

[Jayman]

I will try to have my review for late Monday night. This seems to work best so far as the weekends have been busy with yard work and I’m just too exhausted to put a decent effort into a proper report. 

[The Lions Den]

On 5/19/2024 at 12:43 AM, OtherEric said:

Vampirella #15- January 1972

From the Warren Magazine Index:

15. cover: Manuel Sanjulian (Jan. 1972)

                1) Vampi’s Feary Tales: Metifa! [Bill DuBay/Richard Corben] 1p   [frontis]

                2) Vampirella: The Resurrection Of Papa Voudou! [Archie Goodwin/Jose Gonzalez] 20p

                3) Quavering Shadows [Doug Moench/Jose Bea] 11p

                4) A House Is Not A Home [Dave Mitchell/Nebot] 6p

                5) 1971 Comicon Awards Go To Frazetta And Goodwin… [?/?] 3p   [text article]

                6) Vampi’s Flames: Bill DuBay Profile/Return To Nowhere/Revenge/ Demon’s Curse/Final Log [Bill DuBay, Richard Lysaght, Kenneth Leggett, Jr., Paul E. King & Robb Wilson/Tom  Vaughn, T. O. Mears & Andres Bakells] 2p   [text article/stories w/photo]

                7) Welcome To The Witches’ Coven [Don McGregor/Luis Garcia] 12p

Notes: A rather poor issue with ‘Welcome To The Witches’ Coven’ and ‘Quavering Shadows’ being the top stories and art.  Interesting, if somewhat clumsy, airbrush art appeared on Creepy’s Loathsome Lore.  A rather crappy looking Dracula appeared on the last page of the Vampirella strip.  The Vampi story was ok, but the artwork was middling to downright poor there.  Nebot’s poor art here is particularly awful. 

____________________________________________________

Not a lot to add, I haven't really looked at the issue yet.  With Vampi at 20 pages and two others over 10, we only get four stories and a lore here.  I can't recall if that's a record low number of actual stories, but if it it isn't it must tie for it.

 

Another great Sanjulian cover, and I really liked "Quavering Shadows". Also noteworthy is the Dracula appearance and the cover story, plus the nice Dubay/Corben frontispiece. This one had the makings of a strong issue, but it did seem to fall short in a few areas. And I believe that Vampi #12 only had four stories as well...  

[Jayman]

On 5/19/2024 at 9:34 PM, The Lions Den said:

Another great Sanjulian cover, and I really liked "Quavering Shadows". Also noteworthy is the Dracula appearance and the cover story, plus the nice Dubay/Corben frontispiece. This one had the makings of a strong issue, but it did seem to fall short in a few areas. And I believe that Vampi #12 only had four stories as well...  

I don’t have a double of this issue so I had to dig out my Vampirella box to get the issue ready to read tomorrow night. But I could not resist reading the Vampi story, and what a great one it was! And as @The Lions Den says, the Dracula appearance was cool despite that the Warren Magazine Index says it was “crappy”! I will post my full review tomorrow. 

[Jayman]

Well I have to disagree with the index tonight. I really enjoyed this issue, maybe more so because the index described it as “a rather poor issue”. As such, I was going into this issue not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised.

This Sanjulian cover is so good! I was surprised to see this certificate in back of my copy. I had forgotten about this collection.

First off, the Corben art I did not see as “clumsy”. A silly tale but the art was nice!

1. Vampirella: The Resurrection Of Papa Voudou!

Now the Vampirella tale was so good that the page count flew by. Goodwin delivers a very well thought out story that stayed with the continuity and worked on every level for me. Gonzales continues to bring it with this opening splash showing the madness of the Carnevale.

The sexy women and voudoo gave me that James Bond vibe.

The sequential art here was top notch in giving motion to these still frames. This I like a lot!

The story had room to breathe and let the characters develop. They even do a good job of keeping the Crimson Chronicles as an ever present threat.

Everything made sense and was the best story in this issue for me.

2. Quavering Shadows

A very moody and atmospheric tale. I thought that the shadowy and under-lit lighting art worked well together with the script.

3. A House Is Not A Home

We get a very basic horror tale here. Not much character or story background to pull you in. Good use of zipatone throughout though!

4. Welcome To The Witches’ Coven

I remember this story from reading it as a kid, most likely because of the womanly parts! The art is quite nice (shot from pencils, maybe?). 

The Woman’s lib. theme certainly feels dated reading this now but I understand that was relevant when this issue was new. Still the story seemed a little confusing why they chose the husband’s coworker as the sacrifice. Nice art, not my favorite story.

All in all, this issue stands out for the excellent Vampi story with some decent back up stories. House is not a Home and Witches Coven were the weakest links to this one.

Edited May 21 by Jayman

[OtherEric]

Vampirella #15 thoughts:

It's going to be a bit speed round this week, I'm pretty busy getting ready for a vacation next week.

Cover:  An excellent piece by Sanjulian.  The shaped border works much, much better than a boring box, even if I remain uncertain that the border is nearly as good an idea as Warren seems to occasionally believe it is.

Feary Tales:  Nice art by Corben, but that almost goes without saying.  It also seems to me that it highlights some of DuBay's weaknesses in storytelling, with an ill defined situation leading to an out of nowhere twist.  To be fair, DuBay does so much for Warren that he's going to wind up all over the board as we work though the club, not infrequently hitting excellent.  Just not as often as he hits "so that happened", at least for me.

Vampirella: The Resurrection of Papa Voudou:  An excellent story by Goodwin & Gonzales.  I generally think the Crimson Chronicles is a fairly weak thread tying together the early Vampirella stories, but it's well used here.

Quavering Shadows:  I actually rather like both the art styles Bea uses here, the near photo-realism, and the more sparse simple line he uses at other points.  But using the two together is insanely distracting to me, and I don't think it particularly serves the story.  It's something I could see being used to enormous effect on other occasions, but here it works against the story.

A House is Not a Home:  Not impressed.  I am generally not a fan where the lone surviving family member is attacked for the sins of their ancestors, although there are a LOT of exceptions where it's done well.  But the basic idea is unpleasant to me, and this one doesn't really do anything to get beyond that.

Welcome to the Witches' Coven:  Absolutely gorgeous art by Garcia, but the story is a mess, as seems close to universal with stories from this time dealing with Women's Lib. 

Overall, a decent issue, with a gorgeous cover, very strong Vampirella story and nice art on the others.  But a lack of strong storytelling on the others keeps it from getting much higher than a "decent" rating.

 

[OtherEric]

Quick bookkeeping note:  I'll be on vacation next week, so @Jayman has agreed to step in and post the starter message Saturday night/ Sunday morning.  We're also in the early stages of working on a plan so that running the club is spread out a bit more.

[Jayman]

Creepy #44

March 1972

From the Warren Magazine Index:

44. cover: Vincente Segrelles (Mar. 1972) 

  1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Stars [T. Casey Brennan/Richard Corben] 1p   [frontis]

2) With Silver Bells, Cockle Shells And… [F. Paul Wilson/Irv Docktor] 6p

3) Something To Remember Me By! [Tom Sutton] 9p

4) A Certain Innocence [Steve Skeates/Nebot] 6p

5) The Last Days Of Hans Bruder [T. Casey Brennan/Frank Bolle] 8p 

6) Like A Phone Booth, Long And Narrow [Jan Strnad/Jose Bea] 8p 

7) The Ultimate High! [Steve Skeates/Martin Salvador] 6p

8) Creepy’s Fan Club: Jan Strnad Profile/A Bullet For The Wolf/The Mausoleum/Nightmare/

 It’s In The Bag! [Jan Strnad, William S. Groginsky, John Ayella, Benjamin Williams & David Michelinie/Gregory R. Suriano] 1p   [text article/stories]

9) Dorian Gray: 2001 [Al Hewetson/William Barry] 8p 

10) Sleep [Kevin Pagan/Mike Ploog] 8p

Notes: Size & price increase to 72 pages & 75 cents. New Uncle Creepy intro faces by Richard Corben appear.  Steve Skeates explained the reasons behind his story ‘A Chronicle’ to a reader on the letters’ page, leading to a short-lived feature, ‘The Story Behind…’, wherein writers explained the origins of their stories.  Future comic writer David Michelinie made his comics debut on the fan page.  Kevin Pagen & Mike Ploog contributed the best story with the excellent ‘Sleep’.  The Strnad/Bea story was quite good too.

————————————————-

Looking forward to reviews on this one. Kind of a gruesome “in your face” cover here that I know they turned into a shirt you could order. Underpants too!!!

[Stevemmg]

The original painting sold at auction last June. 
 

[The Lions Den]

On 5/25/2024 at 11:20 PM, Jayman said:

 

Creepy #44

March 1972

From the Warren Magazine Index:

44. cover: Vincente Segrelles (Mar. 1972) 

  1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: The Stars [T. Casey Brennan/Richard Corben] 1p   [frontis]

2) With Silver Bells, Cockle Shells And… [F. Paul Wilson/Irv Docktor] 6p

3) Something To Remember Me By! [Tom Sutton] 9p

4) A Certain Innocence [Steve Skeates/Nebot] 6p

5) The Last Days Of Hans Bruder [T. Casey Brennan/Frank Bolle] 8p 

6) Like A Phone Booth, Long And Narrow [Jan Strnad/Jose Bea] 8p 

7) The Ultimate High! [Steve Skeates/Martin Salvador] 6p

8) Creepy’s Fan Club: Jan Strnad Profile/A Bullet For The Wolf/The Mausoleum/Nightmare/

 It’s In The Bag! [Jan Strnad, William S. Groginsky, John Ayella, Benjamin Williams & David Michelinie/Gregory R. Suriano] 1p   [text article/stories]

9) Dorian Gray: 2001 [Al Hewetson/William Barry] 8p 

10) Sleep [Kevin Pagan/Mike Ploog] 8p

Notes: Size & price increase to 72 pages & 75 cents. New Uncle Creepy intro faces by Richard Corben appear.  Steve Skeates explained the reasons behind his story ‘A Chronicle’ to a reader on the letters’ page, leading to a short-lived feature, ‘The Story Behind…’, wherein writers explained the origins of their stories.  Future comic writer David Michelinie made his comics debut on the fan page.  Kevin Pagen & Mike Ploog contributed the best story with the excellent ‘Sleep’.  The Strnad/Bea story was quite good too.

————————————————-

Looking forward to reviews on this one. Kind of a gruesome “in your face” cover here that I know they turned into a shirt you could order. Underpants too!!!

This issue does remind me of a Skywald magazine, partly because of the Segrelles cover but also because it has an Al Hewetson story. As mentioned above, "Sleep" is probably my favorite overall story, but I also like "Something to Remember Me By" and "Like A Phone Booth, Long and Narrow." One of my favorite issues from this period---I think I'll read it again tonight... 

[Jayman]

Creepy #44

This cover I would think of as a classic standout in the Creepy run. I love how they didn’t clutter it up with excessive type. I agree with @The Lions Den that this looks more like a Skywald cover. I could totally see Nightmare or Psycho at the top instead of Creepy. And by the way, here are those t-shirt and underwear ads that I remember seeing. 

This issues Loathsome Lore seemed a bit lazy on the topic, research and art. Not an attention grabber.

The index states we get new Uncle Creepy intro faces by Richard Corben. Both are very nice and I hope we see them again. 

We also get the “Creepy Comments” section.

I found this interesting because of the Savory Brown tidbit that I did look for and found the issue of Creepy in the inside photo they mentioned. Also it made me look more closely at the “With Silver Bells, Cockle Shells And…” story that was oil paint. I wish the reproduction quality was a bit better so as to appreciate the oils.

1 With Silver Bells, Cockle Shells And…

Fairly good story but I wish the ending was more reanimated plant monster or multiple body parts and less “Little Shop of Horrors”.

2 Something To Remember Me By!

Tom Sutton does a great job as usual illustrating this tale and the story itself was decent enough. My only critique would be that they shoehorned the cover image into this story for no apparent reason. The guy just died hours ago, he would not have been that rotted yet!

3 A Certain Innocence

Nebot’s art was a bit better in this tale but the story itself was a bit quirky. I could tell where they wanted to go with it, but it didn’t quite get there.

4 The Last Days Of Hans Bruder

Actually a very good story IMO, but very out of place in this magazine. T. Casey Brennan may have been looking for another award for this one.

5  Like A Phone Booth, Long And Narrow

Jose Bea with his dramatic under lighting sets an ominous setting for a premature burial tale. An ok story with an ending that was kind of…meh…

6 The Ultimate High!

This is one I remember reading as an early teen. You would think it would have shunned me away from trying psychedelics, but it didn’t. Still it was a story that impressed me with the “what if” factor. A chilling thought. 

 This part I didn’t remember but had to laugh at this guy’s misguided sensibilities. 

What? Then months, years later he could say “Wait, I found something new I haven’t tried, see you later!”

7 Dorian Gray: 2001

I’m a Hewetson fan, but not sure where he was going with this one. Dorian Gray immortal because of deal with devil? Because he’s a vampire? Just melts at the end for shock value? Too many concepts that don’t come together for a cohesive story.

8 Sleep

Mike Ploog gives us a very nice Hand O’ Glory tale with a decent enough twist at the end to be enjoyable.

An above average issue I would say with no one story standing out way in front of the others. 

[OtherEric]

Creepy 44 thoughts:

Cover:  Segrelles has close to 500 credits at the GCD, but only a couple covers for Warren.  Most of his US work was covers for Skywald, although reprints of work he originally did internationally turned up in Heavy Metal as well.  Agreed that it's an excellent cover, but atypical for Warren.

Loathsome Lore:  I actually like this one a lot.  I actually knew most of the information already, but it's this sort of trivia page that would have taught me about the word origins if I had read this when I was younger, and I find word origins like this fascinating.  The art by Corben is nicely varied as well.

With Silver Bells, Cockle Shells, and... : This is the only credited work for Irv Docktor that I can find in the GCD.  I'm not terribly impressed, either by the art or the script, honestly.  I suspect one of the creators saw an image like the one on Wikipedia when they were young that traumatized them, and they were trying to work that out in this story... only it's not translating terribly well to everybody else.

Something to Remember me by:  Sutton is always a highlight of any issue he's in, but this isn't a terribly standout story compared to much of his work in my opinion.

A Certain Innocence:  Nebot does a handful of stories for Warren.  I think the story is a good effort to write something that actually works with the romance comic art style and turn it into horror, but it doesn't quite land.  A neat idea, at least, and I've said before I prefer too much ambition that doesn't land to not enough ambition that does it perfectly.

The Last Days of Hans Bruder:  I think @Jayman nailed it, actually:  There's the core of a very good story here, but this isn't the place for it.  And having it so far out of whack with the tone of the book is, given the subject matter, a very bad mistake.

Like a Phone Booth, Long and Narrow: They seem to be leaning into long story titles this issue, don't they?  Jan Strnad makes his Warren debut, he's an extremely prolific creator with over 600 credits at the GCD.  He's probably best known for his work with Corben, but that's far from all he's done.  It looks to me like they tried to work a variant of the cover art into this story as well, although not quite as exactly as the Sutton story. 

The Ultimate High:  Martin Salvador is a name I wouldn't have recognized if you had mentioned it to me before today, but he's got over 50 credits at Warren, all the way to Creepy 145.  So we need to consider this a major debut, and he shines with the full page images of the drug trip.  I'll be keeping an eye out for his stuff going forward.

Dorian Grey 2001:  Not impressed.  There's at least one too many ideas fighting for space in this story... vampires, Dorian Grey, and the future date... and they never gel into something particularly cohesive.  It probably doesn't help that the futuristic date is now only slightly closer in the rear view mirror than it was away in the future when the story came out.

Sleep:  Ploog is always a treat, the story is decent but not earth shattering.

Overall, a decent issue, but not one with a lot to really make it stand out in the crowd beyond the cover.  But miles from the worst issue we've seen so far.

 

 

 

Edited June 1 by OtherEric

[OtherEric]

Also, an announcement:  Going forward, @Jayman and I will be alternating posting the starting post for the week in the club, so we're not relying on just one of us to keep things going, and we can cover for each other when we're busy for some reason.  We're interested in adding a third person to the rotation, so we each get one of the three major titles, if anybody else has any interest in joining us.  We want to make sure that things can keep going smoothly, we haven't completely given up hope that @Axe Elf might turn back up but we're not terribly optimistic at this point, sadly.

[Jayman]

@OtherEric nice review! Seems we mostly agreed on the stories. We differed in opinion on the Loathsome Lore. Probably because I also knew the word origins and I truly thought some of Corben’s work was rushed (Mercurial man). Never saw that illustration for the Silver Bells.. poem but I get the connection now. A Certain Innocence had potential but as we agreed, fell short. I’ve read and seen shows that deal with the topic of the unspoken or unseen taboo phrase/image that causes madness or other apocalyptic reactions done much better.

[OtherEric]

Eerie #38- February 1972

cover: Ken Kelly

                1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Mothman Of West Virginia [Doug Moench/Jaime Brocal] 1p [frontis]

                2) Stake In The Game [Doug Moench/Jose Gual] 21p

                3) The Carrier Of The Serpent [T. Casey Brennan/Jerry Grandenetti] 10p

                4) 1971 Comiccon Awards Go To Frazetta And Goodwin… [J. R. Cochran?/?] 3p   [text article]

                5) A Stranger In Hell [T. Casey Brennan/Esteban Maroto] 7p

                6) The Night The Snow Spilled Blood! [Don McGregor/Tom Sutton] 12p

                7) Eerie Fanfare: Esteban Maroto Profile/The Shower!/The Night Desert/See Into The Future!/ The Brothers/The Farmer’s Friend [Bill DuBay, C. D. Stewart, Jim Erskine, Jarry Bradman & M. Joseph Blattberg/Esteban Maroto, Brant Withers, Loper Sepi, Manuel Sanjulian & Stephen Stanley] 2p   [text articles/stories w/photo]

Notes:  Ken Kelly’s cover was one of his best!  A fanged humanoid struggles with a giant green serpent!  Moody and dynamic!  Future artist & letterer John Workman sent in a letter pleading for work!  ‘Stake In The Game’ was one of the longest (thus far) stories in Warren history but, unfortunately, was none too good.  T. Casey Brennan & Jerry Grandenetti turned in another philosophical story {something they were quite good at}.  Esteban Maroto delivered the best art job on the excellent ‘A Stranger In Hell’ while Don McGregor’s ‘The Night The Snow Spilled Blood!’ was the best story.  McGregor’s story also featured the second appearance of police detective Dave Turner. 

_______________________

For some reason, Warren changed up the cover dates around here, this issue is actually dated before the Creepy #44.  It's also the last issue of Eerie before we start getting regular serials.

[The Lions Den]

On 6/2/2024 at 1:09 AM, OtherEric said:

Eerie #38- February 1972

cover: Ken Kelly

                1) Eerie’s Monster Gallery: The Mothman Of West Virginia [Doug Moench/Jaime Brocal] 1p [frontis]

                2) Stake In The Game [Doug Moench/Jose Gual] 21p

                3) The Carrier Of The Serpent [T. Casey Brennan/Jerry Grandenetti] 10p

                4) 1971 Comiccon Awards Go To Frazetta And Goodwin… [J. R. Cochran?/?] 3p   [text article]

                5) A Stranger In Hell [T. Casey Brennan/Esteban Maroto] 7p

                6) The Night The Snow Spilled Blood! [Don McGregor/Tom Sutton] 12p

                7) Eerie Fanfare: Esteban Maroto Profile/The Shower!/The Night Desert/See Into The Future!/ The Brothers/The Farmer’s Friend [Bill DuBay, C. D. Stewart, Jim Erskine, Jarry Bradman & M. Joseph Blattberg/Esteban Maroto, Brant Withers, Loper Sepi, Manuel Sanjulian & Stephen Stanley] 2p   [text articles/stories w/photo]

Notes:  Ken Kelly’s cover was one of his best!  A fanged humanoid struggles with a giant green serpent!  Moody and dynamic!  Future artist & letterer John Workman sent in a letter pleading for work!  ‘Stake In The Game’ was one of the longest (thus far) stories in Warren history but, unfortunately, was none too good.  T. Casey Brennan & Jerry Grandenetti turned in another philosophical story {something they were quite good at}.  Esteban Maroto delivered the best art job on the excellent ‘A Stranger In Hell’ while Don McGregor’s ‘The Night The Snow Spilled Blood!’ was the best story.  McGregor’s story also featured the second appearance of police detective Dave Turner. 

_______________________

For some reason, Warren changed up the cover dates around here, this issue is actually dated before the Creepy #44.  It's also the last issue of Eerie before we start getting regular serials.

This cover freaked me out when I was a kid, and it still gives me a few jitters when I look at it now! A somewhat strange issue, with the "Stake in the Game" story being a two-parter (thankfully, the Eerie Archives edition prints the entire story in the proper order). Still, a cool issue with some great artwork... 

[Jayman]

On 6/2/2024 at 1:09 AM, OtherEric said:

For some reason, Warren changed up the cover dates around here, this issue is actually dated before the Creepy #44.  It's also the last issue of Eerie before we start getting regular serials.

I was wondering about this when I checked the index for this issue. Did I screw up and post the Creepy #44 out of order? 

[This is Who We Are]

A friend of mine has the original oil painting of the Snake Killer.  A remarkable piece. 

Greatly appreciate the wonderful reviews here 👍🏻🔥

 

 

Edited June 2 by This is Who We Are

[Jayman]

Just checked out his site. Wow, that’s some collection! 

[The Lions Den]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:14 AM, This is Who We Are said:

A friend of mine has the original oil painting of the Snake Killer.  A remarkable piece. 
He has other great pieces on his site for those interested.
https://www.nickkatradis.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=260&ArtistId=1345&Type=5

Greatly appreciate the wonderful reviews here 👍🏻🔥

 

 

Thanks for posting this, Matt! (Although it may cause my nightmares to return...)