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.
