The black-and-white Warren horror magazines just didn’t show up on the newsstands where I grew up when I was a kid. The first Warren magazine I remember seeing was VAMPIRELLA #27 in 1973. I picked it up, enjoyed it, learned of the existence of CREEPY and EERIE, and began seeking them out. I enjoyed them all. In fact, one of the first times my writing ever saw print was a fan letter published in an issue of EERIE. But I was very late coming to these magazines and never saw the early issues, although I came across an occasional reprint of a story from them.
Now those early issues are being reprinted in very handsome volumes, so out of
curiosity more than anything else, I picked up Volume One of the CREEPY ARCHIVES, which reprints issues #1-5 of the flagship Warren title. They have
great covers by Frank Frazetta and Jack Davis. The artwork on the stories themselves is by
Reed Crandell, Gray Morrow, Angelo Torres, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, Jack Davis, and Alex
Toth. It’s just magnificent, stunning, however you want to describe it. Just
great stuff, story after story.
Most of the scripts are by Archie Goodwin, who was also the editor of the
magazine. Otto Binder contributes the scripts for two installments of an
adaptation of his pulp series about Adam Link, Robot, and there are a few other
stories by various hands. And here’s where I’m going to annoy some fans. As
much as I love Archie Goodwin’s work (the Manhunter series he and Walt Simonson
did is fantastic, and he wrote a lot of other great comics), I didn’t care much
for the stories in this volume. These short, twist-ending tales are very
formulaic and predictable, and even spacing them out over several months, as I
did, the sameness bothered me. I know, I’m being hypocritical. Anybody who
loves the Spicy pulps as much as I do shouldn’t be complaining about anything
being formulaic. But that’s the way this book came across to me, great art but
mediocre stories. Quite possibly you had to be there, and if I’d been buying
the individual issues at the drugstore and reading them when they were new, I
might feel completely differently about them.
Anyway, if you’re a fan of these magazines, this is a beautiful book and
probably well worth your time and money. Whether I’ll continue picking up these
Archives editions, I don’t know. I might give the second volume a try.
6 comments:
I was fortunate in that the late, lamented Arcade newsstand in Charleston, WV, carried all the Warren magazines. I started reading FAMOUS MONSTERS and SPACEMEN in 1963, followed by CREEPY, EERIE, and BLAZING COMBAT when they debuted a couple of years later. The Frazetta covers are eye-popping.
I was in my early teens when I started buying the Warren mags in 1974. I acquired a few of the early ‘Goodwin Era’ issues soon after, and have a deep nostalgic affection for both eras. So yes, there is something to the ‘Guess you had to be there’ effect. The early CREEPY and EERIE stories were undeniably formulaic and Archie absolutely over-played the ‘Twist Ending’ card. Oh yes, he sure did! The vampire-killing sheriff who turns out to be a werewolf himself, or the ghost-breaker who turns out to be a reanimated corpse (or a ghoul, or a witch, etc etc).
Personally, I can still enjoy even the hokiest of them on the same level that I enjoy ‘B’ Horror Movies like RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and THE MUMMY’S CURSE. Spooky stories with lots of castles and crypts and swamps and graveyards and full moons and bats and skeletons and assorted monsters, beautifully illustrated in lush, atmospheric black and white by some of the best Comics artists of all time.
b.t.
Although he had been a professional writer for a few years by this point, Archie Goodwin was reverting to his earlier incarnation as a Big-Time EC Fan (he's everpresent in the 1950s fanzines)--the only question here being just how much is Goodwin's inclination and how much Jim Warren's orders.
I recall feeling the same way a few years later about the Mike Fleischer Spectre series; what everybody else swooned over as a transgressive anti-hero series bored me as predictable "the pencil sharpener turns around and sharpens you" EC gags.
Still and all, yes, the early CREEPY and EERIE, having decided what they wanted to do, did it so well.
My comments were probably a little too hard on Goodwin's scripts. I wish I hadn't used the word "mediocre" because they really are better than that. And it's certainly a good point that some of this may have been because that's what Jim Warren wanted. I've already ordered the second CREEPY volume and the first EERIE volume, so I'll be reading more.
I enjoyed Fleischer's run on JONAH HEX but didn't care for his Spectre stories. I liked the mid-Sixties Spectre stories by Gardner Fox but never was very fond of the character overall.
From regular reader Keith Chapman comes some comments about Warren artist Martin Salvador, who worked on several stories Keith edited and scripted for the British comic BOY'S WORLD. Keith's posts on the New Zealand Comics group on Facebook are full of great scans and comments, and if you're interested in Salvador's non-Warren work, you really should check them out. (And a lot of other great stuff, too, in Keith's posts there.)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1422197274605540/user/100024019103932/
Thank you for the kind words, James.
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