tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post4684459727700072738..comments2024-03-27T05:54:38.797-07:00Comments on <i>bare</i>•bones e-zine: The Warren Report Issue 51: April 1974John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082147756474762000noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-31255976075756699722021-01-27T17:39:27.857-08:002021-01-27T17:39:27.857-08:00I'm glad to help with that.
And if it can be ...I'm glad to help with that.<br /><br />And if it can be found on YouTube (where I found it once) or elsewhere, that Spirit TV pilot is pretty entertaining. Again, it's entertaining in the Adam West BATMAN tradition (which not everyone goes for).Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09603892208775996594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-26893381189735992102021-01-27T15:43:58.869-08:002021-01-27T15:43:58.869-08:00You're right, Grant, the way the eyes are draw...You're right, Grant, the way the eyes are drawn does make her look like That Girl, though I don't recall Marlo Thomas ever wearing a skimpy one-piece bathing suit quite like that. Thanks for alerting us to the letters page in Spirit 4. I'll keep an eye out for that.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-30309300715502539562021-01-26T21:08:30.931-08:002021-01-26T21:08:30.931-08:00I wonder if I'm the only one, but to me the co...I wonder if I'm the only one, but to me the cover of # 33 makes Vampirella look a lot like Marlo Thomas! I can almost hear her saying "Oh, Donald!"<br /><br />I have a copy of The Spirit # 4, and judging by the letters page, "Ebony" caused a lot of controversy then as well.<br /><br />The first thing I associate The Spirit with is an unsuccessful TV pilot from 1987 with the actor Sam Jones. Like so many superhero movies and shows and pilots, it took the Adam West BATMAN route, and made him a comical straight-laced kind of hero, fighting a lot of witty villains. That might not sound original, but it turned out to be pretty well-done. <br />(They solved the problem of Ebony by making him over into a wisecracking black kid in the Gary Coleman vein.)Granthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09603892208775996594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-90053339920224642212021-01-26T15:57:21.390-08:002021-01-26T15:57:21.390-08:00I had a subscription to Famous Monsters for about ...I had a subscription to Famous Monsters for about three or fours years (woulda been issues 81-125, thereabouts)but in all that time I only ordered once from Captain Company. It was a humdinger though. My mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas circa 1973 and I showed her the back issues page and explained I was missing everything pre-#68. She ordered them all for me! They didn't show up for three months but when I got that big white box (I still have it around here somewhere),full of something like 35 FMs, it was like Indiana Jones reaching for that statue in the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark! Did I mention it took them three months to ship it out? Better track record than Calvin Beck over at Castle of Frankenstein. I'm still waiting for the damn back issues I ordered in 1974.Peter Enfantinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-11490888799017440812021-01-26T15:07:05.085-08:002021-01-26T15:07:05.085-08:00Quiddity : Oh, rub it in, why dont’cha! Well, you’...Quiddity : Oh, rub it in, why dont’cha! Well, you’ve got good taste in comics for a wee tyke ;) And yes, the Stenstrum / Severin ‘S.A.P.S. Kit’ story is a gem. <br /><br />I’d forgotten that Flo was in charge of running the Captain Co. for awhile. For whatever reason, I still have in my possession a typed postcard informing me that the HOUSE OF MYSTERY paperback i ordered from them was out of stock and asking if I could pick a substitute of equal value. Now I’m wondering if Flo herself typed it up — that would be kinda neat, if so. <br /><br />b.t.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-25035292477179070962021-01-26T09:57:01.792-08:002021-01-26T09:57:01.792-08:00Yes, the same Flo Steinberg who worked for Marvel!...Yes, the same Flo Steinberg who worked for Marvel! She was at Warren for around 10 years or so running all the day to day for Captain Company, starting in 1972.<br /><br />It is still a very long way away (not until Louise Jones is editor), but Jim Stenstrum will eventually do a hilarious story drawn by John Severin that is for all intents and purposes a parody of the Captain Company stuff, it is called "The Super-Abnormal Phenomena Survival Kit!". It comes off like the type of story you'd see in Mad (or Cracked, which Severin did a lot of work for). Supposedly Jim Warren wasn't too happy at them making fun of their own stuff but still let it see print.<br /><br />The Captain Company stuff always looked fascinating to me and would be right up my alley but I'm too young to have experienced it, not having been born until Warren was about to go bankrupt.Quiddity99https://www.blogger.com/profile/17809157926893454731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-78854246373027030002021-01-25T14:20:01.339-08:002021-01-25T14:20:01.339-08:00I look forward to the Mondays when the Warren post...I look forward to the Mondays when the Warren posts go live so I can read all of the great comments! Those Captain Company ads are STILL tempting.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-52270987606430552382021-01-25T11:56:17.029-08:002021-01-25T11:56:17.029-08:00Is this the Flo Steinberg of Marvel fame, Stan Lee...Is this the Flo Steinberg of Marvel fame, Stan Lee's secretary? She worked for Warren later? Who would have thought.<br /><br />I have fond memories of the Captain Company. Not one thing was avaiable here in Europe at the time and just browsing the pages was a treat. The goods ranged from ridiculous – Battlestar Galactica bedsheets – to the great, books and posters. I ordered a few paperbacks of the Dracula Horror Series which I still own today and the unforgettable Vampirella poster which I sold a decade later (which was idiotic and I still can't believe I did it). It was the first time I ordered internationally. That was a gamble at the end of the 70s and complicated. You had to send a international money order which took 6 to 8 weeks to arrive at the foreign address. After three months the parcel arrived. (And it still cost less than today's prohibitive postage which killed any foreign ordering as far as I am concerned.) After that nice experience I ordered often in the US, from the Pinnacle Book Service to Mile High Comics or Mark Ziesing. Good times.<br /><br />Flaxman Loew is a cheeky pseudonym. Naming himself after the stuffy occult detektive Flaxman Low of the Heron's from the 1890s, either a novel idea or the finger. I am not a big fan of his work, but compared to many of the later stories it is not great but professional work. But the Vampirella falls in love between two panel borders has become tiresome. Without Gonzalez this would just be terrible.<br /><br />I still like "Pantha" more than you guys. Maybe it is the well-done art again which has this gritty 70s New York feel. One expects Popeye Doyle just lurking behind the next streetcorner. The rest of the art in this issue is excellent as well. Even if the stories are weak.<br /><br />Again I am no fan of this month Eerie. To incorporate Schreck into Hunter makes as much sense as does the were-mummy. Dr.Archileus still does nothing for me. But I had to smile about Corben's story. Seeing him doing a Warner Brother cartoon is fun.andydeckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01312309519462680892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-28461279835333872512021-01-25T09:30:41.562-08:002021-01-25T09:30:41.562-08:00Alas, the Spirit is one of the rare Warren mags I ...Alas, the Spirit is one of the rare Warren mags I never got into and don't own any copy of so I'm unable to offer any commentary!<br /><br />Can never take Vampi's stories that seriously, but this one ain't a bad one; Flaxman Loew continues to write Vampi stories that fit her pretty well even if they aren't great stories. Auraleon's art continues to be great, but Pantha is already starting to run a bit stale with its premise. On the bright side I'm pretty sure next time is its last entry until the series is revived in a year or so. Some great art from Jeff Jones and we're fortunate enough to have some more work from him coming up. "The Man Whose Soul Was Spoiling" is more Fernandez quality work and shows he can pull off comedy as well as seen by a few segments in the story where people start smelling the odd stench coming off our protagonist. A little bit pretentious yes, but still great stuff in my eyes. He takes the next couple of issues off before returning with his best story (one of Warren's best stories, period). "Just Like Old Times" is a rather iffy story, but some great scary artwork from Torrents. A weaker than usual cover for this issue although I think the original painting it was taken from was a lot smaller than Enrich's usual work.<br /><br />The Werewolf series continues to get more and more ridiculous with Arthur's body being stolen and riding away. On the bright side, Skeates has indeed merged the Mummy and Werewolf series at this point and this completely absurd series takes several more issues off before returning. As Hunter starts nearing its conclusion we have a fairly strong story, and what is, along with the Werewolf/Mummy series the earliest attempt at making the various Eerie series part of a shared continuity. "Wizard Wagstaff" is a bit too goofy for my tastes, but great Corben art as always. "It", originally a stand-alone story, gets revived here as a series with not much continuity with the original (where all "It" wanted was its teddy bear!). Romero's art is quite good although I think this is his only Warren story. Dr. Archeus continues to be the best thing in Eerie with another solid story and great art from Mones. The closest I can think of to a discussion of Warren's Captain Company stuff is an interview with Flo Steinberg in The Warren Companion, she was responsible for running the day to day operations of it for a few years. Quiddity99https://www.blogger.com/profile/17809157926893454731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-62358583444746755632021-01-25T08:52:59.449-08:002021-01-25T08:52:59.449-08:00Jack: i agree 100 percent about the Captain Co. ad...Jack: i agree 100 percent about the Captain Co. ads. When I first discovered the Warren mags, the ads in the back pages had nearly as much impact as the art and stories. Unlike the ads in Marvel’s black and white mags (I’d bought an issue or two of PLANET OF THE APES and DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU before stumbling upon a copy of the mighty EERIE #59 at the neighborhood grocery store) the Captain Co. pages were a rich, tantalizing, intoxicating catalog of wonders. It was a stroke of genius on Jim Warren’s part to take a ‘bespoke’ approach to the advertising pages, rightly guessing that fans who liked the creative content in his mags would also be likely be inclined to spend money on similar items featuring monsters and superheroes and pretty girls — monster masks, model kits, books, posters, Super 8 movies, record albums, etc. <br /><br />The reproduction quality was just good enough that the tiny postage-stamp sized images had enough clarity to make a vivid impression. I would spend hours just staring at the Back Issue pages — holy cow, a teensy-weensy little thumbnail of EVERY SINGLE PREVIOUS ISSUE — oh how I coveted them! <br /><br />Even the ads for other Warren mags on the inside and back covers are glorious. I’m looking at the ads in VAMPI #32 announcing the SPIRIT mag. It’s lavishly illustrated with Eisner panels, nicely laid out, and with excellent use of stylish typography and color. Sure beats the crap out of the usual ads for Body-building and Kung Fu/Karate mail-in courses! Whatever other faults Bill Dubay may have had, the man definitely had an eye for upscale graphic design. Marvel’s House Ads usually looked like they were assembled at the eleventh hour by whoever happened to be in the Bullpen that day. <br /><br />b.t.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com