The Critical Guide to
the Warren Illustrated Magazines
1964-1983
by Uncle Jack
& Cousin Peter
Tom Sutton |
"Hard Luck"★★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Moe Marcus & Sal Trapani
"Cry Fear, Cry Phantom"
(Reprinted from Eerie #7)
"A Change of Pace!"★★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Tom Sutton
"The Jungle"
(Reprinted from Eerie #5)
"Vampire Slayer!"
(Reprinted from Eerie #5)
"Trial by Fire!"
(Reprinted from Eerie #6)
"Side Show"★1/2
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico
"Hard Luck" |
Huh? What was that ending? Why did Gordon turn into a statue and why should we care? If that was supposed to be a surprise twist or some sort of justice, it was lost on me. Also lost on me was the appeal of the art by Moe Marcus and Sal Trapani. It's passable but that's about all.
"Cry Fear, Cry Phantom" wasn't much good the first time around, and here it is again less than two years since it premiered.
Scientists Raymond and Felix invent a Time Modulator that successfully transports objects back in time. Before you know it, the intrepid scientists go back in time themselves, but Felix is killed. Raymond finds himself reverting to behavior of prehistoric man when the machine fails to bring him back to the present; unexpectedly, he suddenly pops back into 1968 and must tell another scientist all that occurred. It seems Raymond can't avoid transforming into a gorilla!
Grodd? No! Grooch! ("A Change of Pace!") |
At least "The Jungle" is a little older than the first reprint. If the story is weak, we can still enjoy Al Williamson's art. I can't say the same for "Vampire Slayer!," from the same issue of Eerie as "The Jungle." When we read it the first time, I called it bottom of the barrel. It hasn't risen any higher. "Trial By Fire!" is the third reprint in a row in this issue; while I love Johnny Craig's work, I called this one a "stinker."
When a man is murdered at a carnival "Side Show," Sarno and his snake are blamed. The corpse has two puncture wounds on its neck and lost a lot of blood. Bimbo the clown is killed in the same fashion, so the other carnies set fire to Sarno's tent and kill him and his snake. Lt. Novak thinks the real culprit is Magnus, the magician, but when the lieutenant pulls out a mirror, Magnus's reflection is clear as day. But wait! Magnus has a midget twin brother who's a vampire and who rides around on his back and hides under his cape!
Probably the best panel in the new stories this time out. ("Side Show") |
Is this what we have to look forward to at Warren in the near future from writer/editor Bill Parente? This is the third of three new stories he contributed to this issue, and all are awful, with twists that come out of nowhere and make no sense. The art by Fraccio and Tallarico is nothing special, even though there are a few passable panels here and there. This has to be one of the poorest issues of Eerie to date. Eighteen pages of new stories for forty cents. Not a bargain.-Jack
Peter-Bill Parente opens his magic bag and pulls out more cliches... the explorers; the time travelers; and the freak show. Amidst all the swill is a glimmer of quality in "A Change of Pace!" but that is quickly extinguished and we're left with a hopelessly convoluted climax (wait, so Dubarton screwed up time but, unlike in all the Bradbury stories, he didn't screw up the future, only his own evolution,
but the powers-that-be allowed him to come back and be human long enough to tell his story and then turn into a monkey... ooooookay) and more proof that Tom Sutton should stick to eldritch tales of old men who wander through dark hallways and keep shoggoths in their cellars. "Side Show" is a complete disaster and "Hard Luck" shows off even more editorial screw-ups when Uncle Creepy makes an appearance on page 9!
Monteiro |
"Black Magic"
(Reprinted from Eerie #5)
"You Do Something to Me" ★1/2
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Tom Sutton
"The Day After Doomsday"
(Reprinted from Eerie #8)
"Room for a Guest" ★★★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Reed Crandall
"Type Cast!"
(Reprinted from Eerie #8)
"A Silver Dread Among the Gold" ★
Story by George Hagenauer & Bill Parente
Art by Tony Tallarico
Three years after a gruesome car crash that left his wife, Cyndy, paralyzed, Carter is convinced his wife is out for revenge. She's been addicted to black magic since the accident (which, miraculously, Carter walked away from without a scratch) and lately she's been acting really weird. The nervous ninny finds an incantation he believes is meant to bring on his untimely death and burns it in front of his wife. As Carter's skin begins to burn, Cyndy explains that he actually died in the crash and her voodoo spell brought him back from the dead. For "You Do Something to Me," Bill Parente pumps out another predictable script, but that could have been overlooked with some good graphics. Alas, this was an off day for Tom Sutton, whose art here looks rushed and a far cry from his usual drippy, atmospheric Warren work. The whole "Cyndy gets into black magic" time-frame is a bit jumbled as well; it seems as though her obsession only takes hold after the accident but then how did she resurrect hubby and keep his death quiet? I'm so confused.
"Room for a Guest" |
"A Silver Dread Among the Gold" |
Oh boy! I don't know what Jim Warren was more embarrassed about when he sat down in his office to read "A Silver Dread Among the Gold"; was it the awful script, the amateurish scribbles, or the breakdown in the proofreading department? There are fans in every artist's camp, I get that, but can someone out there defend Tony Tallarico? Though we may have softened our stance on Grandenetti, I can lay money down you'll find nothing of the sort in the future when it comes to my appraisal of Tony the T's talent. The artist's idea of scary was bulging eyes and irregular teeth. Of course, he's got nothing to work with when it comes to the confusing and meandering script Hagenauer and Parente have laid on his desk. None of it makes a lick of sense.-Peter
Jack-I'm in full agreement, Peter. The best things about this issue are the cool cover and the six pages of Crandall art. Once again, we get only 18 new pages for our four dimes, way less than we'd get from a DC or Marvel comic in 1968. "Black Magic" and "Type Cast!" are reprints of good stories, while "The Day After Doomsday" is not, and two of the three are from just 21 months earlier, so readers were sure to recall them. I am very concerned about Bill Parente's inability to tell a coherent or interesting story, and his reliance on stupid twist endings is troubling. Sutton seems overworked if "You Do Something to Me" is any indication.
Alan Willow |
"Tomorrow's Reminder"★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico
"Dark Kingdom!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #9)
"Dark House of Dreams"
(Reprinted from Creepy #12)
"Monstrous Mistake"★★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Barry Rockwell
"The Squaw!"
(Reprinted from Creepy #13)
"Unfeeling Heart"★★1/2
Story by James Haggenmiller
Art by Ernie Colon
An uninspired page from "Tomorrow's Reminder" |
A malfunction forces astronauts to land on Atura, an uncharted planet that they explore while their ship's battery recharges. They find a metropolis that seems to have been destroyed recently and a group of what look like prehistoric men destroy their ship. They decide to blow up themselves and the aliens to alter the fate of the universe for the better. But wait! A scientist just died on the operating table from a cerebral hemorrhage. Was the whole thing in his mind? I have absolutely no idea. "Tomorrow's Reminder" makes no sense whatsoever and is perhaps the worst Parente script we've read yet. The art by Fraccio and Tallarico is inexcusable.
Much better is "Dark Kingdom!," but, of course, it's a reprint. "Dark House of Dreams" is not nearly as good, though my rating probably would be higher now in comparison with the new material in these issues.
They all laughed at bald Dr. Spool, didn't they! The idea of keeping a dead body viable so that a brain could be transplanted into it successfully? Poppycock! Forget that successful trial with a monkey--let's see it work on a human! Dr. Spool murdered Professor Von Eron and has kept his brain alive, waiting for a suitable body. He and his hunchbacked assistant, Benjamin, steal a decomposed corpse from the graveyard and plop Von Eron's brain in the skull cavity. Add a little electric juice and bingo! Another grunting, groaning monster that must do Dr. Spool's bidding is created! All goes well at first, as the monster commits murder for Dr. Spool, but here comes the full moon! Something's wrong! The monster no longer obeys! It killed Benjamin and now advances on Dr. Spool! Too bad Dr. Spool dug up a body that turned into a werewolf and no longer had to obey his commands! What a "Monstrous Mistake"!
Groan, just groan ("Monstrous Mistake") |
Hoo boy, this is some Godawful writing. How many doggone times will we read the "surprise" ending where a character is a werewolf or a vampire? At least Barry Rockwell's art is pretty cool, looking like something from underground comix with interesting shading.
The best art in the issue, once again, comes from the great Reed Crandall, who illustrates a reprinted adaptation of "The Squaw" that suffers from Goodwin's dialogue.
A dumpy, middle-aged scientist falls hard for a hot young chick who only has eyes for body builders, so he builds a sexy, male android and installs in it a heart that will transmit every feeling to be shared by his own heart. Lovely Lori really digs Duke Armstrong (the android's moniker), but when the scientist has Duke dump Lori, she reacts badly, drinking poison and stabbing Duke in the heart. Unfortunately for the scientist, the wound kills him as well.
"Unfeeling Heart" |
Peter-"Tomorrow's Reminder" is very similar to "Completely Cured" in Creepy #26. They're both unnecessarily complicated and laden with bad art. The twist is an obvious rip-off of Fantastic Voyage, which had hit screens a couple summers prior to this issue's release. I like Barry Rockwell's art a lot; it's unconventional and has an energy to it that livens up a tale... at least until Parente throws in a "Monstrous Mistake" of a climax. Groan, just Groan. But the trophy for the most inane story of the issue goes to "Unfeeling Heart," in which a lovestruck scientist whips up a handsome android so he'll get Lori's love and then switches gears without warning and decides the robot should be used as revenge for the girl ignoring his advances. Deadly dumb.
Richard Conway |
"Keep Your Spirits Up" ★★★1/2
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Reed Crandall
"Witches' Tide"
(Reprinted from Eerie #7)
"Their Journey's End" ★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Ernie Colon
"It That Lurks"
(Reprinted from Eerie #7)
"Deep Ruby"
(Reprinted from Eerie #6)
"An Unlikely Visitor" ★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Tony Tallarico
"Keep Your Spirits Up" |
For seven pages, it's almost as though Archie never left. Parente finds his muse (even if he is using yet another horror story standby- the starving artist) and Crandall seems invigorated by a script that actually makes some sense (well, I'm a little puzzled by Dante's appearance in that final panel, but...) amidst the jibber-jabber foisted on him lately. Easily the best story to appear in a Warren mag in ages and Parente's most satisfying script yet.
"Their Journey's End" |
"Their Journey's End" reminds me of those cockamamie science fiction stories Marvel would run in their black-and-whites, written by young would-be savants itching to change the world. Problem was, most of those silly yarns came off just like "Journey," as pretentious microwaved Ellison rather than brain food. Ernie Colon's art is just awful; Lanu seems to swerve from Natalie Wood to Carol Burnett (no, seriously, check out the panel reproduced here for the proof) and the panel placement is confusing and just plain boring.
The "Williamsune" trademark |
Jack-I think it was just a paycheck. I enjoyed most of "Keep Your Spirits Up" and love Crandall's pictorial interpretation, but does Bill Parente have a clue how to end a story effectively? And why is Dante nude in the spirit world? No one else is! "Their Journey's End" is weak sci-fi with an "oh brother" ending. I like Colon's art better than you do, Peter; I think it looks like Neal Adams lite. "An Unlikely Visitor" is not only incoherent of plot, it's also ugly to look at. I assumed that creature in the last panel was yet another werewolf, since that seems to be Parente's favorite way to end a tale. As for this issue's reprints, "Witches' Tide" is not among Colan's best, but "It That Lurks" and "Deep Ruby" demonstrate fine efforts by Adkins and Ditko, respectively.
H.B. Harris |
"Round Trip"★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico
"A Cloak of Darkness"★★★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Reed Crandall
"Cave of the Druids!"
(Reprinted from Eerie #6)
"The Fall of the House of Usher"★★★★
Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Adaptation and Art by Tom Sutton
"Dark Rider!"
(Reprinted from Eerie #8)
We didn't! ("Round Trip") |
I think that's a relatively cogent summary of what happens in the six meandering pages that make up Bill Parente's confusing story titled "Round Trip." What does the old woman have to do with anything, much less the priest? The last page makes no sense at all--after Harry's taxi crashes, he wakes up and is driving again, but he's dead? Or his passenger is dead? Or they're both dead? And who's being loaded in an ambulance? I only put this much thought into it because Peter pays so handsomely.
A powerful wizard named Xanthus summons up a demon spirit who tells him that, to rival Satan's power, he must steal Satan's cloak! The demon guides Xanthus to Hell, where the wizard makes his way to Satan's throne room and steals the cloak. Returning to Earth, Xanthus soon is hailed as emperor among sorcerers, wearing "A Cloak of Darkness." When Satan shows up to demand that his cloak be returned, Xanthus kills him, only to learn that he now must take Satan's place as ruler in Hell!
Satanic cheesecake from "A Cloak of Darkness" |
Leave it to Reed Crandall to transform a Bill Parente script into an engaging and beautifully rendered tale. There's nothing complex or surprising in the plot or the ending, but at least it makes sense, and Crandall's art is superb.
Perhaps realizing that he has his hands on at least one great artist, editor Parente follows the new Crandall story with a reprint of a classic Goodwin/Crandall tale from late 1966.
A man visits his old friend, Roderick Usher, at his gloomy home and encounters a sad scene: Usher is overly sensitive and thinks his own house is holding him prisoner! His sister has it worse and soon dies of an unknown disease. Usher buries her in a basement vault but she returns, having been prematurely entombed, and takes him with her beyond the grave. The visitor barely escapes the house before he sees it rent in two!
Wow! Tom Sutton comes through with a stunning, eleven-page tour de force adaptation of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." Each page is a delight to look at and Sutton wisely writes it in Poe-like language that keeps the gloomy, nineteenth century mood intact. This is as good as it gets at this point in Warren's history and I'm thrilled to find this gem among the reprints and often terrible new stories.-Jack
Just one of many beautiful panels from Sutton's adaptation of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"! |
Gogos |
"Stranger in Town" ★★★
Story and Art by Tom Sutton
"Second Chance"
(Reprinted from Creepy #13)
"Completely Cured" ★
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Bill Fraccio & Tony Tallarico
"Untimely Meeting" ★1/2
Story by Bill Parente
Art by Ernie Colon
"Backfire"
(Reprinted from Creepy #10)
"Voodoo Doll"
(Reprinted from Creepy #12)
John Randolph becomes lost on the desolate road to Prides Crossing, a village with an eerie reputation, and must pull his car to the side to wait out the choking fog. A man approaches Randolph from out of the fog to tell him that Pride's Crossing is no more; the town has vanished. He then tells John a strange and fantastic story about a Eliza Mapes and his deformed son, Wilfred. Mapes had been experimenting with "sentient vegetable life" and created a literal monster in his garden. When Wilfred grows up to be a young man, he goes sweet on the local beauty and gives her a bouquet of flowers from his pop's garden. Unfortunately, the plants eat the girl and the townsfolk, in a rage, burn Mapes's house to the ground, with the botanist still inside. Their anger unabated, they shoot Wilfred and dump him in the swamps.
"Stranger in Town" |
No one was fooled by the Bill Parente/Reed Crandall credit on page one. This was a Tom Sutton production all the way! If I had to point to one comic book story where Sutton first displayed that all-out Tom Sutton style he'd become famous for, I'd say it was "Stranger in Town." The wild flourishes, the creepy old men, the detailed backgrounds, the Lovecraft influence... it's all here. Sutton still had problems with delineating "normal folk," but his depiction of other-worldly beasties was without peer. It's as though the entire world in a Sutton story is rotting and oozing nasty secretions. The pay-off isn't the cliche of the stranger exclaiming "I know everything because I'm Wilfred!" but the amazing full-page pin-up of Wilfred-Thing wrapping the villagers in his vegetal tentacles (the first full-pager in a Warren?).
Andrew boards a train to his home, Fallsburg, but the train goes no further than Grimsdale. Leaving the station, Andrew is struck by how desolate the town is. Moving further in, he runs into some creepy characters in robes, who grab the frightened man and take him to a graveyard where he discovers his name etched on a tombstone. The lid falls on his coffin and we discover that Andrew was actually an inmate at Grimsdale Sanitarium, who has died and is en route to his final resting place.
"Untimely Meeting" |
"Completely Cured" and "Untimely Meeting" continue Bill Parente's shameless pillaging of old EC scripts. We've seen both plots umpteen times before (usually done better), but maybe Bill figured no one was paying attention. The only plus to "Completely Cured" is that this is the first instance where Tallarico/Fraccio don't trot out the saber-toothed troglodyte creature they're so fond of. Aside from that, the narrative makes no sense. Is Andrew dead the entire time? Is he dreaming about his trip to Fallsburg? Why is he terrorized by the hooded figures? The same sort of problems sink "Untimely Meeting." One perplexing sequence has the warden falling back once Granger enters the deep part of the swamp and commenting, "One thing's sure, deputy--if our man went in that way--he ain't never comin' out!" after several panels of the guy proclaiming he was gonna get his man no matter what. Didn't the warden know about the highway? Or is this a secret highway only Granger would stumble on? None of this makes sense but I'll give the writer one-half star for an interesting (if cliched) twist. Another cover reprint, by the way, this one from Famous Monsters of Filmland #20.-Peter
Jack-That cover may be a reprint, but I still love it and anything having to do with London After Midnight! As we move through the "dark ages," trends start to pop up. Generally, we're getting three reprints and three new stories per issue, though this time we get 22 new pages, an improvement over the 18 we had been getting. Sutton is doing fine work, as is Crandall, with Colon's art decent and Fraccio/Tallarico's not so hot.
I agree that "Stranger in Town" is a fine piece of work by Tom Sutton, though I don't think it's as impressive as "The Fall of the House of Usher." I like the pun on the last page, where the monster uses "protean" rather than "protein"; I think it's a clever pun and not a misspelling, though we see plenty of those in the Warren mags. "Completely Cured" is not the first Parente tale that seems to be over and then goes on one more page. The art here is passable and reminds me that we saw some pretty bad work by Joe Orlando back in the glory days. Colon is certainly better than Fraccio and Tallarico and his art in "Untimely Meeting" has a kind of Alex Toth feel to it, though not anywhere near as good. The muddled time paradox story is poor. The three reprints are all fair to fairly good; none of them was great the first time out.
H. B. Harris |
"Scream Test!"
(From #13)
"The Doorway!"
(from #11)
"Monster!"
(from #10)
"Overworked!"
(from #9)
"Curse of the Vampire!"
(from #14)
"The Beckoning Beyond!"
(from #14)
"Midnight Sail"
(from #10)
One only has to look at the inside front cover of this "1969 Yearbook" to see just how lazy Warren had gotten. It's an illo of Uncle Creepy hyping the contents of this "Collector's Edition," explaining that it contains the very best in illustrated terror and suspense from the first seven issues. Only problem is that the present volume highlights highlights from #9-14 and, yep, that illo is the exact same one that appeared in the 1968 Yearbook! Uh-oh. One wonders what Warren could possibly do to fill a 1970 Yearbook but we'll find out in good time. The cover is based on a still from an old Mexi-monster movie called Ladrón de Cadáveres. -Peter
Jack-I went back over our coverage of these seven stories and saw that we gave two stars to four of them, 2.5 stars to two of them, and three stars to "The Doorway." Hardly the very best! Still, a mag that collects work by Angelo Torres, Dan Adkins, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, and Johnny Craig can't be all bad!
Next Issue... Can Yandoc succeed where Wildey and Evans failed? |
2 comments:
It isn't a popular opinion, but I think Nazi Germany is such a "go-to" subject in EVERY kind of entertainment, including SF, that it's become a huge cliche. And that includes using it as a TWIST. (And you don't have to be someone who "ignores history" to feel that way, because I'm talking about entertainment.)
Because of that, I don't think I'd be very annoyed by the twist in "Their Journey's End." Not because it's good, but because it probably doesn't do any WORSE a job than so many OTHER stories with Nazi tie-ins. Including well-received ones.
Grant, you make a good point, but I wish the story was better. If it were much good at all we could debate whether the twist is overused! Thanks for your comment.
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