The Critical Guide to
the Warren Illustrated Magazines
1964-1983
by Uncle Jack
& Cousin Peter
Frazetta |
"Witches' Tide"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gene Colan
"It That Lurks!"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Dan Adkins
"Hitchhike Horror"★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Hector Castellon
"The Defense Rests!"★★★★
Story and Art by Johnny Craig
"Fly!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Steve Ditko
"The Quest!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Norman Nodel
"Cry Fear, Cry Phantom"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Jerry Grandenetti
As the citizens of Grey Cove watch a woman's body burn, they recall recent events that led up to the fire. Miles Curtis thinks back to when he found three fisherman torn to pieces and then saw Sarah Magnus standing nearby, observing. Newspaper editor Avery Summers recalls making a connection with similar events that happened twenty years before; at that time, Sarah's mother was found to be a witch and killed, but villagers stopped short of burning her corpse. Viola Whitby, in whose home Sarah now lives and for whom the young woman acts as housekeeper, recalls hearing strange sounds coming from Sarah's room and sending her husband Clem to investigate. She then found Clem being attacked by fishlike monsters!
"Witches' Tide" |
"Witches' Tide" is a fairly evocative tale with art by Colan that is a bit more loose in the line work than we're used to. The fine use of blacks and the inventive panel designs are here, as usual, but the whole thing seems a bit washed out and, as a result, some of the panels that are supposed to shock don't quite do the trick.
I have no complaints about Frazetta's stunning cover, though, which looks like nothing that had come before, as if he's ushering in a new style of cover design.
"It That Lurks!" |
"It That Lurks!" is even better than the story that preceded it. The art by Dan Adkins is superb, alternately reminding me of Al Williamson's work (the dinosaur closeups) and Wally Wood's (everything else). Goodwin's script is entertaining but the best part is the ending, which I did not see coming. Even Cousin Eerie gets off a good line!
"Hitchhike Horror!" |
In the German town of Brudenheim, a pretty singer named Lydia Albritton attracts the attention of the wealthy and powerful mayor, who invites her to a ball being thrown in her honor. The mayor is also forced to invite handsome Andrew Prescott, an old friend of the singer's. At the party, Lydia only has eyes for Andrew, but they are being watched from outside a window by Molok-the-Brute. Later that night, Molok breaks in to Lydia's room and kills her. Andrew rushes to the scene but is knocked out by the brute. When Andrew awakens, he is found by the mayor and accused of murder. A kangaroo court is held and the verdict is never in doubt: Andrew is sentenced to die.
"The Defense Rests!" |
Now THIS is more like it! "The Defense Rests" is a lost EC classic. The first few pages look like something Craig would have drawn for the Picto-Fiction line, but the last several pages are done in the classic Craig style and lead to a conclusion based on the sort of revenge narrative we haven't seen since the '50s. Too bad we don't get a panel of carnage to wrap it all up.
Two decades after the end of WWII, the Unknown Soldier has fallen on hard times. ("Fly!") |
Ditko's talents are wasted on this paper-thin story, where six pages fly by and next to nothing happens. At one point, the killer seems to hallucinate that he is the size of a fly and that he is being chased by a giant hand that tries to swat him. It all comes to naught, though.
Things were tough in 15th century Europe, where Baron von Strom was determined to find the secret to eternal life. "The Quest!" for this end consumed him to the point that he ignored the suffering of his people, who fell victim to famine and disease. A witch brews a potion for him, but the baron makes her taste it first and she falls dead. Years pass, and an old man named Fredor begs the baron to help the villagers. The baron promises to do so if Fredor can find a way to grant him eternal life. When Fredor's daughter dies, the old man has had enough. He exacts a promise from the baron to help his people in exchange for the secret he craves. That night, Fredor leads the baron to the graveyard, where he is beset by vampires, thus achieving his goal in a way he never expected.
"The Quest!" |
On a dark and stormy night, Jim brings his girlfriend Edith back to creepy Holloway House, where he lives with his old Uncle Ben. Ben warns Edith to make like a tree and leave, but Jim convinces her to stay. At evening's end, Edith heads up the stairs but is frightened to see the phantom of a blonde woman, horribly mutilated, holding an ax.
Jim tells her to calm down and she goes to bed, but later that night she has to "Cry Fear, Cry Phantom" when the apparition appears again. Edith looks out the window and sees that Ben has dug up the grave of a corpse that looks suspiciously like the phantom Edith has seen twice. Edith races to find her boyfriend, but Jim suddenly appears holding an ax himself! Ben shows up in the nick of time to shoot and kill Jim who, it turns out, had murdered his blonde former girlfriend and was on the verge of repeating the crime.
Jerry Grandenetti lets his hair down in this tepid tale, and I guess you either love or hate his very stylized approach to the art. It's not bad, but I prefer more realistic styles.-Jack
"Cry Fear, Cry Phantom" |
It would seem, if you'd read most of my past comments regarding his art, that I'm standing firmly in the Grandenetti-detractors' camp. You'd be absolutely correct. It's an obvious observation to say that JG's art is a lot like that of Frank Robbins: exaggerated, squiggly and, for the most part, ugly as hell. And yet I'm softening a bit lately when it comes to Jerry's stuff, especially his work on "Cry Fear, Cry Phantom." The script isn't much, an ode to Poe and Gothic horror, but it allows Grandenetti to really open his (admittedly limited) bag of tricks and unleash some wonders here and there. The Eisner-influenced splash, the weird angles of Holloway House (above), the gorgeous shadows, even the melty-faced characters (an aspect I've found negatively distracting in JG's other work). Perhaps it's just that JG found the perfect home for his eccentric visions or maybe I'm just seeing something in his art I've never taken the time to appreciate. Probably the former (see below).
Morrow |
Creepy #13
"The Squaw!" ★★1/2
Story by Bram Stoker
Adaptation by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall
"Early Warning!" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Jerry Grandenetti
"Scream Test!" ★★
Story by John Benson and Bhob Stewart
Art by Angelo Torres
"Madness in the Method!" ★
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by Rocco Mastroserio
"Fear in Stone" ★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gene Colan
"Adam Link, Gangbuster!" ★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Joe Orlando
"Second Chance!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Steve Ditko
"The Squaw!" |
Not a bad adaptation as these things go (for some reason or another, Archie seems to have had a yen for selecting tame "classics" for the Warrens--possibly because these were public domain stories?); the final panel, of the fearful feline lapping up Hutcheson's blood, is pretty grim. Reed Crandall's line work, as usual, is exquisite; every brick and stone at the tower looks as though Crandall spent hours getting them just right. If there's a complaint, it's that Reed's characters suffer an almost Kamen-esque fate in that they all pretty much look alike. The title of "The Squaw!" refers to a story Hutcheson tells of a war-time experience he had involving a half-breed Indian and the fate that befell him.
"Early Warning!" |
"Scream Test!" |
Here's a case of the set-up being very intriguing with the reveal a complete letdown. That final panel makes no sense whatsoever and seems to come right out of the blue, leaving me with a sense of having been cheated. All the atmosphere is simply an excuse for a shock ending. It only occurs to Street right at that moment that Kire is wearing a mask? And what kind of journalist forgets the most important hook of the story? Angelo Torres's mash-up of art and movie stills works very well here (as opposed to the times when Angelo swipes images for his doodles). Benson and Stewart are names familiar to those who followed our EC coverage, as the two were fans who later became leading historians of the company.
"Madness in the Method!" |
"Fear in Stone" |
That bumbling bag of bolts, Adam Link, is still trying to get the goods on bad guy Harvey Brigg, a really nasty chap who's pinned two violent murders on Adam's gleaming gal-pal, Eve, who's rotting away in a Federal pen, on a steady diet of three squirts of oil a day, but Adam can't seem to find the smoking gun to save his silvery bum. But, ho-ho, salvation arrives in the form of Adam's latest invention, a bugging device that will transmit messages from Briggs's den to a recorder in Jack's apartment. But... the best laid plans of mice and robots and all... the messages are received with tons of static and deemed unplayable for the D.A. More importantly, Adam is tipped off to the fact that Briggs's hoods will be murdering a woman at five PM sharp. He puts the kibosh on the murder and traps Briggs in his study, forcing the evil genius to pen a confession. Just as Briggs is about to sign the document, one of his hoods interrupts and chops Adam into a zillion pieces (well, actually only five or six) and commences to burning his chrome dome to melted tin. Adam sends one more "radio-telepathy call" to Eve but resigns himself to an afterlife spent as the roof of a shed. To Be Continued...
"Adam Link, Gangbuster!" |
Edward Nugent (call him Ted for short) makes a deal with the devil for life after death but, as usual, Beelzebub gets a hand up on us mere mortals. After Eddie dies, he pleads with Satan to send him back to Earth and the devil obliges, sending Nugent back into his grave. Fortunately, for our protagonist, a grave robber just happens to be pilfering Nugent's grave but, unfortunately, the grave robber is quickly scared out of his wits and beats Nugent to death in his own grave.
"Second Chance!" |
Jack-I think this is a fair to middling issue of Creepy. I like Crandall's work on "The Squaw!," a story I enjoyed when I read it in an anthology, but Goodwin overdoes it with one character's American speech patterns. "Scream Test!" is also fun, mainly due to the felicitous mix of sharp art by Torres and beloved stills from silent films. I thought Colan's work on "Fear in Stone" was nicely shadowy and Ditko goes full "Dr. Strange" in the wacked-out pages of "Second Chance!," despite a so-so story by Goodwin. Grandenetti is back to his usual poor work in "Early Warning!" and the team of Wessler and Mastroserio don't do much to elevate "Madness in the Method!" Worst of all, of course, is "Adam Link, Gangbuster!" I can't tell any more what is and what is not real art by Joe Orlando, though he did sign the first page--I'd swear Grandenetti was ghosting here and trying to tone down his more surreal impulses.
Next Week... George Evans Whether we like it or not! |
From Creepy 13 |
'I like Crandall's work on "The Squaw!," a story I enjoyed when I read it in an anthology, but Goodwin overdoes it with one character's American speech patterns.'
ReplyDeleteThat's as much Stoker's fault as Goodwin's. Go back and read the dialogue of the token American (Quincy Morris) in Dracula and you'll see...
Thanks for pointing that out! I read the Stoker story long ago but did not pull it out when I read the comic version.
ReplyDeleteThat Frazetta cover on EERIE #7 is one of my all-time favorite paintings. I may still have a poster size print of it that hung on my wall in the 1970s.
ReplyDeleteI frequently enjoyed the artwork of Dan Adkins, but he was criticized by fans in those days for swiping the work of other artists. His swipes were often obvious and recognizable, but they were attractive drawings.
That cover is a beaut, isn't it? I feel the same way about Adkins and remember the same complaints you mention, similar to fan reactions to Rich Buckler.
ReplyDeleteBetter late than never, right?
ReplyDeleteEerie #7's cover is quite an amazing job by Frazetta. Quite minimalistic, yet it works perfectly. I generally agree with the ratings provided for the stories, Craig's story is the best, but the Adkins story is fairly strong as well. Gene Colan's stories are always of high quality as well. The rest, just not as much. Ditko's stories are usually quite good, but not this time.
Creepy #13's highlights for me would be more from an art perspective than the stories, which are rather eh (none more than Adam Link, the eternal disappointment). Scream Test is unique in that I think it is the first time we see photos interspersed with art in a story for Warren. If I'm remembering correctly this technique gets used occasionally by Ernie Colon, who becomes quite a mainstay during the "dark ages" of Warren after Archie Goodwin leaves. It also gets used a ton by Leo Duranona in the late 70s. I'm pretty sure Scream Test is also the final story we get from Angelo Torres, which is very disappointing! He's got several other amazing artists to contend with from this era such as Craig and Colan, but he may be my personal fave. Fear in Stone will essentially get redone many years later in Vampirella 38's "On Little Cat Feet", a fairly strong comedic story that I like quite a bit. Medusa keeps her head on her body in that story. But then, I recall far, far later in one of the final issues of Vampirella a story called "Perseus" where the titular character chops the head off of Medusa and the head is still able to people to stone, so I don't think it was completely dependent on her head still being attached to her body. Or the writer of that story made the same mistake as Goodwin here.
Thanks, Q99! I am fortunate (I guess) in that I've never read any of these comics before, so they're all new to me. I read Famous Monsters and The Spirit but they were the extent of my Warren magazine purchases, and that all happened in the '70s.
ReplyDelete