The Critical Guide to
the Warren Illustrated Magazines
1964-1983
by Uncle Jack
& Cousin Peter
Frazetta |
"Swamped!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres
"Tell-Tale Heart!" ★★★
Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Adaptation by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall
"Howling Success!" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres
"Haunted!" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow
"Incident in the Beyond!" ★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow
"Return Trip!" ★
Story by Russ Jones
Art by Joe Orlando
"Swamped!" |
"Tell-Tale Heart!" |
Archie's adaptation of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart," the story of a man who dives headlong into insanity because of his master's "evil eye," is faithful, but the obvious attraction here is Reed Crandall's iconic artwork. Unlike George Evans, Crandall's fellow alumnus at EC, Reed only seems to have gotten better with the passing decade. The black-and-white presentation only makes the shocking reveal that much more effective.
"Howling Success!" |
"Haunted!" |
Despite warnings from his cousin and his lawyer, Mr. George decides to hold on to the "Haunted!" hotel he has inherited from his uncle. George hires an "authority on ghosts," Mr. Ransome, to spend the night with him in the hotel to dispel any fears. Almost immediately, the pair are subject to three separate occurrences of what appear to be ghostly suicides, reenactments of deaths that had taken place in the hotel decades before. Ransome isn't buying it, so he digs a little deeper and discovers George's cousin and lawyer behind a curtain with a film projector. When George asks Ransome how he could be so sure the hotel was not haunted, the supernatural PI disrobes down to his skeleton and exclaims, "It takes one to know one!" Like "Howling Success!," "Haunted!" is a really nice story to look at but don't dare read the words. The climax is inane (not much word of mouth for a ghost PI who gives away his secret and then kills his employer, is there?) and the plot might be as skimpy as the salary Warren had Archie on.
"Incident in the Beyond!" |
"Return Trip!" |
As his decaying corpse shuffles toward his old homestead, the resurrected Arthur Forrest flashes back to how his wife, Gloria, and her lover, Fred, murdered him and inherited his fortune. "Return Trip!" limps along to a cliched and abrupt climax: Arthur gets to his house, strangles Fred, and gives Gloria a great big kiss. The End. Re-reading these stories for the first time in three decades, I'm struck by how weak and pirated these scripts are but, as I recall, the writing got better a little further into the run. At least, I hope it did. -Peter
Jack: Reading these for the first time, I'm enjoying them more than you are! I like how "Swamped!" mixes classic themes, with a convict lost in the swamp finding an old mansion full of vampires. The art is excellent and the finish satisfyingly gruesome. "Tell-Tale Heart!" is a classic story with great art and a nod to EC when one policeman exclaims, "Good Lord! --Choke--" I wasn't too impressed with Goodwin's new frame, though. I was surprised by the ending of "Howling Success!" and the art is good but I had trouble with the scene where Joe has an extended conversation with the werewolf. Since when do werewolves understand English and listen patiently? "Haunted!" is a familiar tale with a silly ending but I love Morrow's shadowy art. I agree with you, Peter, that the sci-fi stories are a disappointment; I knew what was going on in "Incident in the Beyond!" right away. The biggest surprise in this issue was the decent art job by Joe Orlando on "Return Trip!" His rotting corpse is well done and the story's end made me laugh.
Frazetta |
"Monster Rally!"★★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres
"Blood and Orchids!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Al McWilliams
"The Damned Thing!"★★
Story by Ambrose Bierce
Adaptation by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow
"Moon City!"★1/2
Story by Larry Engleheart
Art by Al McWilliams
"Curse of the Full Moon!"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall
"The Trial of Adam Link!"★★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Joe Orlando
"Monster Rally!" |
"Blood and Orchids!" |
When a man is found in the bog with two puncture wounds on his neck and his body drained of blood, the local constable summons the doctor, who wonders if the body is that of a sailor who delivered items from the nearby port to the home of the countess. The doctor visits the countess, who is oddly pale and hates mirrors. She shows him her prized orchids and tells him that they grow at night and only in their native soil. After another corpse is discovered, the doctor checks his handy-dandy book on vampires and puts two and two together. He rushes to the countess's home and finds the constable newly-dead but, to his surprise, the countess is not a vampire--she is using the victim's blood to feed her blood-eating orchids. The tendrils of one of the plants strangle the poor physician.
More terrific art by Al McWilliams does not save "Blood and Orchids!," a story that points the reader squarely in the direction of vampires but then makes an inexplicable left turn at the end and reveals bloodthirsty orchids that strangle their victims. One problem: who killed the sailor in the bog? Did the orchids take a little stroll? And why did he have puncture wounds in his neck? Do the orchids have fangs? What about the second victim? None of it makes any sense. Maybe we're supposed to think the countess is skulking around pretending to be a vampire in order to feed her plants.
"The Damned Thing!" |
Ambrose Bierce was a wonderful writer and Gray Morrow a superb purveyor of sequential art, but Archie Goodwin's adaptation of the classic horror story seems to go nowhere and be over in a flash. There's very little suspense and no surprise when the title monster appears at the end, nor did it make sense that it was suddenly visible, though I guess it was necessary to have the final shock.
Easily the highlight of "Moon City!" |
Yes, that's it. Perhaps the most anticlimactic story we've seen yet in Creepy. It goes without saying that McWilliams's art is excellent, but the story is about as thin as it could be. Moon City is built, they move in, and bang--hungry dogs. The end. Really? These sci-fi stories are not fitting in well.
A Red-Riding-Hood-esque scene in "Curse of the Full Moon!" |
A classic werewolf story, set in Bavaria in the 19th century and featuring an old gypsy woman, this is hard not to like. Throw in some Germans in shorts and suspenders and I'm hooked, especially when Reed Crandall is translating the words into pictures. Funny how quickly the curse works on Sir Henry, though--he turns into a werewolf in no time and stands there talking to the gypsy woman in his new state. Suddenly, the unusually attentive female werewolf in last issue's "Howling Success!" is not so unusual after all.
Doesn't this look like Sekowsky's work? ("The Trial of Adam Link!") |
Some of the panels in this tired retread made me think Mike Sekowsky was doing uncredited inks over Joe Orlando's pencils. Not possible, is it?
In addition to the INCREDIBLE Frazetta cover, the last story is followed by--no lie--13 pages of ads, including the back cover. The ads are fantastic but the best has to be hawking the 8 mm movie projector for $9.98. Did anyone buy this?-Jack
Peter: What a racket Joe Orlando had going with this Adam Link nonsense, illustrating the same stories a decade apart (we covered the equally dreary EC version of "The Trial of Adam Link!" here). Perhaps the then-recently-aired Outer Limits adaptation had convinced Archie that Adam Link was the way to go. "Monster Rally!" comes off as lifeless instead of the fun shindig it should have been. I'd lay blame right at the feet of Angelo Torres's use of monster movie stills (perhaps borrowed from the pages of Famous Monsters), as his images look just like stills instead of depicting movement. The still swipes are random as well. "Moon City!" begins with an intriguing concept, spins its wheels, and then dumps its abrupt and out-of-left-field climax right in our laps. The rest of the issue is equally weak, with the clear highlight being Reed Crandall's fine art for "Curse of the Full Moon!" Nice to have Maria Ouspenskaya show up for a cameo as the gypsy woman. The familiar plots and the predictable climaxes were doubtless down to Goodwin's huge workload (which would triple in a very short time with the coming of Blazing Combat and Eerie!).
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5 comments:
Creepy #3's a fairly strong issue for me, especially from an art standpoint with two stories each from Angelo Torres and Gray Morrow. Torres is my favorite of the early Warren artists and Morrow's style most closely resembles his. I suppose the downside is an issue where the styles are too close to one another. "Haunted" I liked quite a bit more than you if only because I found the ending quite hilarious.
Frazetta's covers at this point, particularly on issue 3 come off a bit disappointing, not because it is bad by any means, but his covers become so memorable later on that these just don't really meet the same muster. We'll fairly soon be getting some really tremendous covers from him.
Issue #4 kicks off quite well with "Monster Rally" which I've always enjoyed a lot (I'd also say the story, the final panel in particular bears close resemblance to "Lower Berth", the Crypt Keeper's origin story). I also like "The Damned Thing", the change to the original ending I don't mind so much if only because Morrow does a great job making the monster really scary.
The rest of the issue on the other hand is disappointing. Nothing particularly wrong with McWilliams' work, but the other artists, sans Joe Orlando I prefer to him. And yikes at the return of Adam Link. This series will soon seem as if it never ends. I'm not familiar with Sekowsky, but given that Orlando has several other artists ghosting him later on, it wouldn't surprise me if it is happening here.
Finally, with respect to Warren's take on sci-fi, I'd agree that it usually isn't up to snuff with their horror work. They really were more suited for horror, both their artists and writers. We occasionally get some good sci-fi stuff, I think of some of the stories drawn by Esteban Maroto, and especially Alex Nino, but I think that's a very, very long way off.
"Return Trip" sounds like it inspired the story "Monster Raid" in the anthology film GALLERY OF HORROR, one of the cheapest horror films ever (even though I'm very fond of it). That story has one of those "iris" endings, the heart-shaped kind, which sounds similar to this story's ending.
It is kind of surprising how many stories are about vampires and other monsters. There is not much innovation at work here, at least not on the writing front. It is the art which is memorable.
I never bothered to check and am surprised how many stories Goodwin contributed.Warren sure had a lot of faith in such a young writer.
Guys!
Thanks for following us over. I've read the Creepys and Eeries at least two to three times over the last forty-plus years and every time I read the really early issues, they get more and more disappointing considering the level of talent. To be fair, it's the scripts that are sub-par for the most part. But, hey, the good news is: here come Johnny Craig and Steve Ditko!
Peter, I'm sorry the older issues have lost their appeal for you over the years. Fortunately, I can still read these early issues and enjoy the heck out of them. Sure, they can be silly or corny, and it's absolutely true that way too many stories end with that "You thought I was the constable (or the Canacki /Van Helsing/ De Grandin stand-in) but actually, I am a ghost (or ghoul or werewolf or whatever), ha ha!" twist. But honestly, it doesn't bother me a bit! Even at their most old-hat or cliche', I can think of the stories simply as Spooky Art Delivery Platforms -- an excuse to look at exquisitely atmospheric renderings of haunted houses, fetid swamps, pretty girls and assorted monsters, and I'm almost never disappointed.
Okay, except for the Adam Link stories, they're god-awful.
- b.t.
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