Terror Tales - June 1974

"Hello! I'm going to tell you about this dream of mine! It is only a dream, of course, but I have it a lot. Night after night, the same dream. And maybe you'll find it interesting, too! And dreams do come true sometimes, don't they? Now about my dream..."  

Eerie Publications, Vol 6 No 3 June 1974
Cover by O.A. Novelle

Back in the early 70's you couldn't help but see these crazy covers littering the magazine racks in the local supermarket. Usually near the MAD and CRACKED magazines. They sprouted like toadstools in a Florida lawn, a new one seemingly every week. Gruesome, gory, bloody and awesome. I used to wonder what kind of person bought stuff like this. Freaks? Psychos? Murderers? I knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that my mom would let me take one of these suckers home.

TERROR TALES, HORROR TALES, TALES of VOODOO, WITCHES TALES. Slobbering ghouls hovering over dismembered bodies, torture, blood-dripping fangs...the worst depravity you could show your friends at in school. Yes, these magazines went there. On the covers, at least. As for the contents, well...

These magazines were put out under the editorship of Myron Fass, who saw an opportunity and jumped on the coattails of the "horror" trends that Warren Publishing was cashing in on with CREEPY and EERIE. The only thing needed was material and a cover that'll grab the kids. The material was filched from the volumes of pre-code horror and crime comics. Covers were courtesy of artists like Bill Alexander, Chic Stone, Vilanova, OA Novelle, to name a few. And these covers have to be seen to be believed! Eerie Publications would pretty much take a story and add some minor touches or changes here and there, and slap that baby out into the stands. Typos and misprints and numbering were an afterthought. What mattered was getting the product out. Titles, stories, art, you name it, was up for grabs with these magazines. And what the hell? it wasn't like a kid my age at the time would know that a story had been ripped off from something twenty years previous. And it's not like the pre-code horror comics didn't "borrow" their stories from other sources as well.

Cheap and fast was the MO with these publications. And thumbing through one now 40 years later you can readily tell it's not the product that Warren Magazines was producing. None of the stories in my issue shown here are credited. Nor is the art, unless you happen to catch a signature on one of the panels.

As for the stories. Well, they're okay. None of them reflect the cover art and likely never did. Nary a single story features a "bigfoot" creature raking its claws into a hot babe in the blue dress. But whose complaining. The kids shelling out 75 cents just wanted the goods, man.

The whole sordid story of Eerie Publications can be found in this terrific book that comes with a high recommendation from me. It's a perfect Halloween gift for that special ghoul in your life.

CREEPY #29 - Sept 1969

Hands down, the best thing about this issue of CREEPY from 1969 is the cover by Vic Prezio.

CREEPY #29 - Warren Magazines, Sept 1969, cover by Vic Prezio

I really like the sexy, sinister with a hint of sleaze vibe going on here with Prezio's cover. I can just imagine plunking down 50 cents for this issue, then trying my best to keep my mom from finding it and throwing it out. Yes, back in the day, mothers had no problem throwing out our prized possessions. I remember finding a couple vintage paperbacks in the garbage that I'd taken from my grandmother's house on one of our trips, but that's another story. Since I was only in 1st grade in 1969 I'm fairly certain I had more interest in Hot Wheels than ghoulish chicks like the one shown here. That would come later.

The table of contents includes the cover story, "The Summer House" by Ernie Colon (art) and Barbara Gelman. Colon's art takes some limited psychedelic (for black & white) turns in a few panels, but nothing as cool as the cover happens in the story. "Angel of Doom" by Jeff Jones (art) and Archie Goodwin is a caveman/fantasy tale that's over and done and forgotten. These and other tales are kind of humdrum, nothing special until "The Devil in the Marsh" which is credited to Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Don Glut (story). I say they're credited in this particular issue, but I'm pretty certain the actual story is by H.B. Marriott Watson. Watson was an obscure Australian writer of mostly adventure and romance tales back in the late nineteenth century. Popular in his day he's pretty much forgotten now. I just happen to own a collection of his supernatural tales, of which "The Devil in the Marsh" is one. It was first published in 1893 and is pretty much the same story appearing almost 70 years later in CREEPY. I didn't see any mention of his name in the credit however.

Art by Keith Minnion (2004) in the Ash-Tree Press colletion

Art by Jerry Grandenetti / story by Don Glut for Warren Magazines 1969

All in all, it's an okay issue for CREEPY, but just okay. I don't think I'm alone in believing they got more daring in later issues, some of which I'll be sure to look at here. Still, there's nothing like opening one of these vintage mags and smelling the paper and digging the work produced for horror fans back in the day. And no pesky mother clucking her tongue at you, telling you how this stuff will turn you into a degenerate perv.

Thrillkiller

Thrillkiller by Howard Chaykin and Dan Brereton was one of the first graphic novels, along with The Killing Joke, that I'd bought since The Dark Night Returns way back in the 1980s. I'd gone on an unintended hiatus from reading comics and graphic novels and was totally oblivious to all the really good stuff I was missing out on.

Art by Dan Brereton

I picked up Thrillkiller purely for the terrific cover, shown above. That fantastic red hair really called out to me from the shelf. A couple of glances through the pages and I knew I had to buy it. It wasn't like any other comic or graphic novel I owned. Then one of the guys at the store explained to me all about the whole Elseworlds concept, about taking taking the DC characters and backgrounds we all know and turning them inside-out, placing them in different times, settings, places. Probably a good thing he gave me the rundown as I would have been a bit confused otherwise.

Briefly, Bruce Wayne isn't quite Batman, yet. At least not as Thrillkiller begins. Instead he's a detective on the Gotham City Police Department and reports directly to Commissioner Gordon. Wayne is one of the only cops left on the force that Gordon can trust, as the GCPD is deeply corrupt. The year is 1961 and society is awakening from the 1950s and entering the 60s with a "giddy optimism" that belies the corruption and rot threatening to overwhelm the city. Wild heiress (as opposed to "playboy") Barbara Gordon and her boyfriend Richard Graustark spend their nights donning costumes as Batgirl and Robin and make it their mission to harass and persecute the corrupt officials of Gotham. Barbara Gordon lives in what's left of Wayne Manor, after Bruce Wayne's family lost their fortunes after the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents.

The villains, in addition to the corrupt police force, include Bianca Steeplechase, a green-haired poison-nailed vixen who likes to call herself The Joker. There is also Detective Duell, who we recognized instantly as  Two-Face. Dr. Edward Nygma makes a cameo as a sleazy psychiatrist. Otto Saunders as a former Nazi who likes to experiment on live victims by freezing them among other deeds. Selena Kyle makes an appearance as an exotic dancer at The Scratching Post who also plays informant to Detective Bruce Wayne.

Howard Chaykin takes the Batman myth and creates an alternative world that is just as fascinating and open to all kinds of possibilities considering the story here ends(?) in 1962 opening a new chapter in Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon's fates. But the real star of the book is the fantastic artwork by Dan Brereton as the panel below shows. There is a wonderful, seedy, noir aspect that really punches you in the eye. Nice!

Art by Dan Brereton

Big Little Books

When I was a kid I had a small collection of these Big Little Books from Whitman Publishing Company, published in the 60's. This one had to be my favorite, since it's the one I have the clearest memory of.

Dick Tracy Encounters Facey - 1967 Whitman Publishing Company

I vaguely remember that Facey was a master of disguises, and that he robbed either banks or jewelry stores. These were cool little hardback books that I'd look at over and over. Each page had a color plate detailing the action, with the text on the opposite page. They were tiny in size, but thick in page count. I had one for Tom & Jerry, The Lone Ranger, Fantastic Four, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, and Major Matt Mason, in addition to some others. By the time I was in the 6th grade my collection of Big Little Books were long gone to that great dust pile of collectibles out of our reach. Later, in the late 70's I remember seeing paperback versions of BLBs, and no longer in color, which I thought sucked. Every now and then I see the hardback BLBs from the 60's in antique stores, usually for inflated prices. Or at least prices higher than I'd be willing to pay. Too bad they don't still make these books for kids. I think they'd still like them.

The Fantastic Four in the House of Horrors - 1968 Whitman Publishing Company

Warren Glory

This was the kind of stuff that always grabbed my eye when I was a kid going to the local convenient market up the street from my house. I rarely bought this stuff, knowing my parents would not approve. These are just a few taken from my collection.



CREEPY #91 August 1977 - Warren Magazines. Cover by Frank Frazetta

I don't think there is a cover yet by Frank Frazetta that isn't great. If there is, I haven't seen it.

Here is one that looks like one of those awesome Black-Light posters we used to have in our bedrooms.



EERIE #77 Sept 1976 - Warren Magazines, Cover by Rich Corben

I also have a couple similar themed coveres below from Sanjulian for EERIE from 1972. I picked these to show because A) I like them, and B) I don't know anything about the cover artist. Perhaps someone seeing these can enlighten me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy them. Any faults you'll find will rest only with my photography and not the artwork. First is EERIE #40.



EERIE #40 June 1977 - Warren Magazines, cover by Sanjulian
 

Also here is EERIE #41 August 1972 - Warren Magazines, cover by Sanjulian

I'll have others to post as we get closer to Halloween. CREEPY and EERIE are back in print thanks to Dark Horse Comic. Also, Dark Horse is reprinting the entire run of EERIE and CREEPY in hardback, with full color reprints of the terrific covers. So if this is your thing, you're in luck.

That Stuff'll Rot Your Brain!

We know all about EC Comics from the early 50's contaminating young baby-boomers' minds with lurid depictions of ghouls and maniacs, and how the government, through pressures from the usual sources (we all know who they are and they never seem to go away) laid the smackdown on the comic industry. And mostly from evidence built on fear and hysteria and flimsy research. But EC wasn't the only game in town. Far from it, as the terrific book, Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950's, edited by Greg Sadowski, shows.

Fantagraphics Books, 2010

Inside this book are collected stories from a wide range of titles including Voodoo, Web of Evil, Weird Mysteries, Strange Mysteries, to name only a few. Artists include Bob Powell, Jack Cole, Joe Kubert, Sid Check & Frank Frazetta among others. Greg Sadowski includes detailed notes on each of the stories selected and, as an added bonus, page after page of some of the coolest covers you've ever splashed your peepers on. If you were a kid in 1952 getting an eyeful of these covers at your local drugstore or newsstand, there was no way that dime was staying in your pocket. Those of us who came along years later missed out, but thanks to reprints and books like this one we can see for ourselves what all the fuss was about. Take that, Grandma!