CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE NO. 7 (WEREWOLVES)

[From CREEPY #7, February 1966. Art by Frank Frazetta.]

LOATHSOME LORE

[From: CREEPY #6, December, 1965, Art by Roy Krenkel.]

THE BLOODIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!

[From Standard Comics' UNSEEN #12, Nov. 1953]

 

[From CREEPY #5, October 1965. Art by Angelo Torres.]

BEFORE UNCLE CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE

[From NIGHTMARE Vol. 1 No. 1 (Ziff-Davis Summer 1952)]
Art by Everett Raymond Kinstler

[From CREEPY #4 August, 1965. Art by: Al Williamson]

["Loathsome Lore: Ghouls" from CREEPY #3 (June 1963) Note: Where uncredited in Archie Goodwin-edited issues, the "Loathsome Lore" scripts are most likely written by Goodwin or possibly the artist in some cases.]

ANOTHER CREEPY WEEK: CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE

Yesterday I covered for  MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD readers the concept of the one page "filler" feauture that was common to many 'a horror comic from the 1950's and resurrected (a good term, don'cha think?) again in Warren's CREEPY in 1965.

This time around it was titled CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE, and each entry in this wonderful series could be considered a stand-alone work of art, by its design, layout, text placement and fabulous illustration.

LOATHSOME LORE began in Issue #2 and ended in Issue #47. There were a total of 42 installments, including reprints in the CREEPY 1969 YEARBOOK and the CREEPY 1972 ANNUAL. According to David Horne in his essential book on Warren, GATHERING HORROR, it is likely that, unless otherwise credited, all were written by long-time Editor Archie Goodwin.

The first two installments of LOATHSOME LORE are found in CREEPY #2, published in April 1965.



CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE: VAMPIRISM
Script: Archie Goodwin - Art: Bob Lubbers
This is the first appearance of LOATHSOME LORE in CREEPY #2.

CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE: WEREWOLVES
Script: Archie Goodwin - Art: Frank Frazetta
from CREEPY #2

ANOTHER CREEPY WEEK: BEFORE UNCLE CREEPY'S LOATHSOME LORE

Any dedicated reader of the Warren CREEPY years knows that, in the earlier issues ran a series of one-page features entitled, LOATHSOME LORE. Each entry shocased a theme or topic that ranged from vampires to ghouls to -- well, you-name-it.

The idea for LOATHSOME LORE, while a decidedly welcome sight in every issue it appeared, was not, however, wholly original. Many ideas for gimmicks and other attempts at unique additions to a title during the great horror comic craze of the 1950's onward had two basic predecessors that publishers consistently "borrowed" from -- radio and WEIRD TALES magazine.

WEIRD TALES began publishing in 1923 and has continued, albeit with a few fits and starts, to its less-than-weird present-day incarnation. A long-running feature was WEIRDISMS, a one-page spread that described some sort of weird (there's that term again), strange or occult topic accompanied by an illustration drawn by outre artist Lee Brown Coye (b. 1907 - d. 1981).



Outre WEIRD TALES illustraor Lee Brown Coye



Many horror comic books adopted this very same format for use as what they called "filler" in those days, that is, something to fill the gaps in pages between stories, advertising, and text tales (see the currently-running DEADTIME STORIES here every week at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD), but keeping in line with the magazine's overall editorial theme.



From BLACK CAT MYSTERIES #30




From BLACK CAT MYSTERIES #30




From BLACK CAT MYSTERIES #29


It was not surprising then, to see CREEPY use this same concept within its own pages, since it was consciously designed as the modern-day version of the publications from which it derived its inspiration.