Warren Magazine Reading Club! 6 6

[Axe Elf]

Oh good grief, I totally forgot what day it was!

Be up in five...

[Axe Elf]

CREEPY #8 - April 1966

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

8. cover: Gray Morrow (Apr. 1966)

1) Creepy’s Loathsome Lore: Vampire Traps! [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 1p   [frontis]

2) The Coffin Of Dracula [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 10p

3) Death Plane [Larry Ivie/George Evans] 6p

4) The Mountain [Johnny Craig] 6p   [story & art credited to Jay Taycee]

5) The Invitation [Larry Englehart, Russ Jones & Maurice Whitman/Manny Stallman] 7p

6) The Creepy Fan Club: Gray Morrow Profile [Archie Goodwin/Kirk Henderson] 1p   [text article w/photo]

7) Adam Link’s Mate! [Otto Binder/Joe Orlando] 8p   from the story by Binder

8) Vested Interest [Ron Parker/George Tuska] 6p

9) Fitting Punishment [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 8p

Notes: With two horror magazines coming out, Frazetta was now too busy to do every cover so Gray Morrow stepped in with a fine cover, highlighting Warren’s new serial, ‘The Coffin Of Dracula’, which takes place directly after the events in Stoker’s novel.  The art highpoint is Johnny Craig’s beautifully shaded pencil art for his own story.  The story highpoints are the Dracula serial & Craig’s work, although none of the stories are bad.  Wish I could say the same about the art.  Stallman’s work is fair, at best, and Tuska’s (generally a pretty good artist) effort is pretty limp.  EC great George Evans does his only horror work for Warren.  It ain’t bad but that’s about the best you could say about it. 

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So kind of doing this in a hurry this week, having forgotten about it last night--but I'm almost more anxious to hear what @OtherEric has to say about Adam Link's Mate than I am about reading the actual story! 

I'm also interested to see more of "Jay Taycee"s artwork--and so this is the first non-Frazetta cover we've seen, is that right?  Oh, I guess not CREEPY #1...  is that the only one?

[Axe Elf]

Just noticed that mine has a date stamp on it from two months before the cover date--so yeah, they were definitely being released a bit early!

[OtherEric]

@Axe Elf: Eerie #1 was a Davis cover, not Frazetta.  But unlike the Creepy #1, you could call that a borderline case.

[Axe Elf]

Also just noticed that this will be our second reprint from EERIE #1, "The Invitation" (the first was "Image of Bluebeard" in CREEPY #7).  The Warren Magazine Index doesn't seem to like the art in it, but I don't remember them saying anything the first time.  In fact, it was me who said this in my review:

"Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of the art for this story (Manny Stallman?).  It seemed kind of, I don't know, just "ugly" in places--especially the people/vampires.  Just my opinion."

But hey...

NOW I CAN FINALLY SEE THE BALD-HEADED MAN!!!

[Axe Elf]

On 7/17/2022 at 7:16 PM, OtherEric said:

@Axe Elf: Eerie #1 was a Davis cover, not Frazetta.  But unlike the Creepy #1, you could call that a borderline case.

True, good catch.

[OtherEric]

Creepy #8 thoughts:

Cover: Gray Morrow gets the unenviable task of following up on Frazetta's amazing run of covers.  He manages to acquit himself quite well, with a nicely moody cover that makes the vampire slayers look completely deranged.  I think this cover would be much more admired if it wasn't for the placement in the still mostly Frazetta era.

Creepy's Loathsome Lore:  Beautifully moody art from Torres.

The Coffin of Dracula:  We get our first continued story other than Adam Link.  I'll refrain from comments until part two shows up.

Death Plane:  Same as I said when it appeared in Eerie #1, I really wish Evans had done more work for Warren.

The Mountain:  Craig starts scripting his own stories here, and as we knew from his EC work he was good at short horror stories.  I think the art may have been shot directly from pencils, it's absolutely spectacular in any case.

The Invitation:  See Eerie #1 for my thoughts.

Adam Link's Mate:  I actually liked this more than the earlier Adam Link pieces, but that's a low bar to clear.

A Vested Interest:  I think this is Tuska's only story for Warren, Ron Parker is a new name who did a few stories for Warren and nothing else that I can see.  A fun double twist at the end, and Tuska is one of those artists where my appreciation for their work has grown over the years.

Fitting Punishment: Goodwin and Colan end the issue on a high note.

I think what this issue shows, more than anything, is that the book has reached the point where it is no longer tied to a few creative minds.  No Frazetta cover, only two Goodwin stories, more creators joining the crew... the book is figuring out how to develop itself going forward.  We know there will be a bit of stumble due to budget constraints in about 10 issues, but we're getting the indications of how it will get past that problem eventually.

[Axe Elf]

On 7/17/2022 at 10:51 PM, OtherEric said:

Death Plane:  Same as I said when it appeared in Eerie #1

Ooo, yeah, good catch.  I noticed the reprint of "The Invitation" but not "Death Plane."  So that's all of EERIE #1 in CREEPY #7 and #8!

On 7/17/2022 at 10:51 PM, OtherEric said:

I think what this issue shows, more than anything, is that the book has reached the point where it is no longer tied to a few creative minds.  No Frazetta cover, only two Goodwin stories, more creators joining the crew... the book is figuring out how to develop itself going forward. 

Good analysis; I think that is the case.  Was Goodwin still tied up with doing almost all of the Blazing Combat stories during this time?  May be part of why he let some of these stories be written by other authors...

[OtherEric]

On 7/18/2022 at 9:58 AM, Blobber said:

This is normal distribution for comics and mags of this era. This is why people collecting their birthday month have to choose between actual sale date or cover date.

Welcome to the forums and the reading club!

[Axe Elf]

On 7/18/2022 at 11:58 AM, Blobber said:

This is normal distribution for comics and mags of this era. This is why people collecting their birthday month have to choose between actual sale date or cover date.

Yeah, you might have missed the start of the thread, but we had a little discussion in the beginning about how to slot the Annuals in the timeline, because they typically say something like "Summer/Fall 1970" or something like that.  I was slotting them in August, as the middle ground between summer and fall, but it was also discussed that they were probably actually released much earlier, like June or something.  So I was just following up on that discussion.

[Axe Elf]

On 7/18/2022 at 12:10 PM, Blobber said:

Just look them up on Mike's:

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/comic.php?comicid=70830

Yeah, that was the suggested resource at the time, but we ended up going with cover dates rather than release dates, just because it's easier than looking up all the release dates when the cover dates are right there.

[Axe Elf]

"Loathsome Lore" -- Agreed @OtherEric!  The Angelo Torres art is superb!

Contents -- See, this is the downside to Warren publications--and what initially turned me off to Famous Monsters of Filmland way back when they were fresh on the newsstand--the crappy editing.  First the Contents page omits the second story, Death Plane, and then in the description for The Mountain a woman "sales" the heights of horror?  Based on the title and without reading the story, I'm guessing that's supposed to be "scales"--although at first read I thought they might be going for "sells."  I guess I'll know when I get there, but ugh--as a former state spelling champion, that kind of stuff in a "professional" publication irritates me.

Letters - Lots of interesting and amusing letters in this issue.  Someone commenting on all the advertising to pay the dungeon rent--"Wouldn't it be cheaper to rent an old castle in Transylvania?"  Uncle Creepy--"No."    Couple of people can't wait for Adam Link, compliments on following the paperback so closely.  The debate over embellishing the endings to their Poe adaptations--one appreciates it, one (like me) thinks they should have left well enough alone.  The teacher who takes things away from her students (like CREEPY magazines) and then sells them back to the highest-bidding student later?  Like isn't that robbery or at least extortion?  Sheesh...  And then the one who wanted CREEPY to run Godzilla stories:  Uncle Creepy:  "Godzilla is too big to fit on our page size." 

The Coffin of Dracula - Obligatory (and slightly gratuitous) "Crandall rat" sighting (also seen in CREEPY #5 & #6, but taking a break from CREEPY #7)--in the space between the two bottom panels on the first page!

I thought the story was really engaging--it was as much like reading actual literature as the other adaptations from actual literature (Stoker, Poe, Bierce) we've seen so far.  I had to re-familiarize myself with the ending of the original Dracula to really connect the dots, but I'm interested to see how this extension of the story concludes.  And of course it was also illustrated beautifully.

No need to say anything further about the reprints, "Death Plane" and "The Invitation," that I didn't already say in my EERIE #1 review--but as I mentioned in a previous post, it's quite a relief to finally clearly see the bald-headed man that separates a second printing from a first printing of EERIE #1!

But speaking of art--Jay Taycee!--blew me away again in "The Mountain."  I can't really comprehend his technique--like I said in the EERIE #2 review, it's as if it was originally colored, and then scanned in grayscale--like everything is drawn with lines but textured with dots.  And it's refreshing for an artist to be illustrating his own story, instead of another Goodwin piece...  But why didn't the devil just possess the girl in the first place?  Then he could have visited the mayor himself...  I guess he wanted to tempt her to do evil--to seek her revenge?  I dunno...  And I still don't know if it's "scales" or "sales"--maybe she "sales" her soul to the devil?

Fan Club - Awesome learning more about Gray Morrow, especially in his own words.  "As for hobbies...  I know CREEPY isn't exactly a family type magazine, but maybe we'd better go on to the next question anyway.  Ambitions?  To have more time to devote to my hobbies." 

Also interesting that Uncle Creepy alludes to Frank Frazetta being hard at work on the cover for EERIE #3, which we know in hindsight to be one of his more iconic efforts.

I may have enjoyed "Adam Link's Mate" least of all entries in the series.  I guess the overall story was ok, but there were just too many stupid things to gloss over before getting to the point where the story of Eve really began.  Okay, Adam was rescued 5 minutes before his battery would have gone dead forever (they couldn't have just charged it again later?), but the moment he decides to create a mate, he's already standing next to a female robot head.  Uh, yeah Adam, you just now thought of a girl robot?  Right...  I think he might have been lengthening the stroke of his alternator on some of those lonely nights already.  ESP helmets?  And like the girl who loved Adam would willingly cooperate in the creation of another woman for him?  Mr. Binder doesn't know women very well, does he...  And anyway, how many terminals are on that car battery of Hillory's?

Kinda made me chuckle when Hillory says, "Adam and Eve Link... Hmmm... The start of a robot race... aiding mankind!"  Um, they're robots.  They don't reproduce--at least not like a "race"...  Maybe like an assembly line...  Imagine if they tried...  "Oil... can..."

"A Vested Interest" was pretty transparent, although I was wondering if there would be a twist to the "vested" term, and it didn't disappoint.  The reporter guy kind of reminded me of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. 

The wronged dead's CLOTHING returns to take its revenge in "Fitting Punishment."  But what, the shrinking clothes just liquefied his body?  You'd think there'd still be body parts, not just a pool of blood.

Between the reprints and the stories, this isn't one of the stronger issues we've read, in my opinion, but there are still some flowers in the snow.

[OtherEric]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:35 PM, Axe Elf said:

Between the reprints and the stories, this isn't one of the stronger issues we've read, in my opinion, but there are still some flowers in the snow.

 

To be fair to the issue, you need to remember that 99.9% of people reading it for decades wouldn't have recognized the reprints as reprints- or, even if they knew they were, wouldn't have had access to them.  I think the first widely available reprint of Eerie #1 was in 2009, with the first volume of the Eerie Archives.  Even my most recent Overstreet describes the stories as reprinted FROM Creepy 7 & 8, not reprinted IN.  So marking it down as having multiple reprints isn't really fair to the issue.

Believe me, I shall not be so kind to later issues and their use of reprints.

[Axe Elf]

On 7/20/2022 at 1:01 AM, OtherEric said:

Even my most recent Overstreet describes the stories as reprinted FROM Creepy 7 & 8, not reprinted IN.

But that wouldn't be chronologically factual.  Even accounting for release dates being earlier than cover dates, the EERIE ashcan came out some five months prior to CREEPY #7.  I've seen the ashcan described as containing stories that were "planned" for CREEPY #7 & #8 (though I wouldn't have remembered what issues if we had not just read them)--but being planned for them or not, they were first printed in EERIE #1, and that makes their later appearances in CREEPY "reprints."  Isn't that how first appearances work?

On 7/20/2022 at 1:01 AM, OtherEric said:

So marking it down as having multiple reprints isn't really fair to the issue.

I was clear that I was expressing my opinion of the issue, rather than an objective assessment.  I didn't particularly LIKE either of the two tales in question, so I would not have considered them to be strengths of the issue even if I was encountering them for the first time.  If I can't mark it down for having multiple reprints, I can't mark it up much for these two stories, either.

I'm perfectly fine with other people enjoying the issue more than I did, and I did enjoy some aspects of it.  I just didn't think it was among the strongest issues we've discussed.  They couldn't even list all the stories on the Contents page properly, for cryin' out loud!

Edited July 20, 2022 by Axe Elf

[OtherEric]

On 7/19/2022 at 11:51 PM, Axe Elf said:

But that wouldn't be chronologically factual.  Even accounting for release dates being earlier than cover dates, the EERIE ashcan came out some five months prior to CREEPY #7.  I've seen the ashcan described as containing stories that were "planned" for CREEPY #7 & #8 (though I wouldn't have remembered what issues if we had not just read them)--but being planned for them or not, they were first printed in EERIE #1, and that makes their later appearances in CREEPY "reprints."  Isn't that how first appearances work?

I was clear that I was expressing my opinion of the issue, rather than an objective assessment.  I didn't particularly LIKE either of the two tales in question, so I would not have considered them to be strengths of the issue even if I was encountering them for the first time.  If I can't mark it down for having multiple reprints, I can't mark it up much for these two stories, either.

I'm perfectly fine with other people enjoying the issue more than I did, and I did enjoy some aspects of it.  I just didn't think it was among the strongest issues we've discussed.  They couldn't even list all the stories on the Contents page properly, for cryin' out loud!

All perfectly fair.  I misunderstood your comment in your summation about the reprints.

Yes, the statement in Overstreet is incorrect... but if you've never seen the issue, and the most readily available source of info about it is the mention in Overstreet, you're going to go for years thinking the sequence is other than what it really is.  Or at least I did.

[The Lions Den]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:35 PM, Axe Elf said:

But speaking of art--Jay Taycee!--blew me away again in "The Mountain."

I'm pretty sure "Jay Taycee" is a pseudonym for Johnny Craig...  

[Axe Elf]

On 7/20/2022 at 3:15 AM, The Lions Den said:

I'm pretty sure "Jay Taycee" is a pseudonym for Johnny Craig...  

@OtherEric first explained the pseudonym in last week's EERIE #2 review.

On 7/10/2022 at 2:18 AM, OtherEric said:

Eye of the Beholder:  And another EC alumnus joins the Warren crew.  For those not familiar with the origin of the pseudonym, Jay Taycee = J. T. C.= Johnny T. Craig.

Just to assign credit where credit is due. 

[Axe Elf]

On 7/20/2022 at 8:55 AM, Blobber said:

Sails.

It's "The Mountain," not "The Ocean," silly.

[Axe Elf]

BLAZING COMBAT #3 - April 1966

(One of my nicer-looking BCs.)

According to the Warren Magazine Index...

3. cover: Frank Frazetta (Apr. 1966)

1) Combat Quiz [Archie Goodwin/Angelo Torres] 1p   [frontis]

2) Special Forces [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti & Joe Orlando] 8p   [art credited solely to Orlando]

3) Foragers [Archie Goodwin/Reed Crandall] 6p

4) U-Boat [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 7p

5) Survival [Alex Toth & Archie Goodwin/Alex Toth] 6p

6) The Battle Of Britain! [Wally Wood/Dan Adkins & Wally Wood] 7p   [art credited solely to Wood]

7) Water Hole! [Archie Goodwin/Gray Morrow] 5p

8) Souvenirs! [Archie Goodwin/John Severin] 6p

Notes: Another great Frazetta cover showed a US soldier standing above a pile of dead Viet Cong.  Best story and art goes to ‘Survival’ but every story here was well written and illustrated.  A fine, fine issue.  Publisher & comic fan Richard Kyle appeared on the letters’ page.

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Hmmm...  Not much information from the Index this time.  I guess we'll just have to assess it for ourselves!

[OtherEric]

Blazing Combat #3 thoughts:

My copy of the issue is from the John G. Fantucchio pedigree.  Fantucchio actually drew a couple stories for Warren later, in Creepy #34 and Vampirella #5.

Cover:  An ugly cover... and I mean that in the most positive sense.  

Combat Quiz:  I got 5 of 6.  The art is a bit abstract compared to most of Torres's work, it almost looks more like Toth than Torres to me.

Special Forces:  A decent story, with some nice combat sequences.  But it seems like it's trying to pull back slightly on the horror we were seeing in earlier issues; I'm not clear how much push back the book was getting by the time this issue was being put together.

Foragers:  Or maybe not, this one just shows how ugly conflict can get, from a different angle than most of the pieces so far.  A very strong entry.

U-Boat: An excellent piece by Goodwin and Colan, once again approaching things from a different angle.

Survival:  A dramatic change of pace even after the last two, this one is outright Science Fiction.  A first rate piece by Toth & Goodwin.

The Battle of Britain:  A masterpiece by Wally Wood, who joins the Warren comic magazines finally after missing Creepy #1.  I've sometimes said the best comic book artist of all time was Wally Wood on a good day... with the caveat that he had quite a few bad days, as well, and could be quite lousy on those. But pretty much all the stories Wood did for Warren were good days, at least art-wise.  (The scripts are a bit more variable, as I recall- I think Wood is very underrated as a writer, but he had good and bad efforts like anybody.)  I'm going with the view that this one was pure Wood, since Adkins's claim of assistance has been contested.  (Details at the GCD entry for the book, if anybody is interested.)  It's worth noting that Wood actually did the first Warren Horror comic story, back in Monster World #1, which we didn't cover in the reading group.  That story will turn up in Eerie #11, and I'll have things to say about it there.

Water Hole:  A bitterly ironic ending sells another incredible art job by Gray Morrow.  I like the full bleed pages effect, Morrow keeps experimenting.

Souvenirs:  Another dark story showcasing great art & the horrors of war and what it does to those stuck in it.

I can't really add much to what the Warren index says:  A fine, fine issue.  I think this issue was starting to show where the book might have gone if it continued, heading in at least slightly different directions.