The Warren Report Issue 5: March/April 1966

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Frazetta

Eerie #2 (March 1966)

"Footsteps of Frankenstein!"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"One for De-Money"★★1/2
Story by E. Nelson Bridwell
Art by Angelo Torres

"Eye of the Beholder!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Johnny Craig (as Jay Taycee)

"Flame Fiend!"★★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Gray Morrow

"To Pay the Piper!"★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by Gene Colan

"Vision of Evil"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"Ahead of the Game!"★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut

"Footsteps of Frankenstein!"

Dr. Byron King has second thoughts about his trip to the town of Low Kilburn in the north of England after the locals react poorly to his questions about where to find Dr. Amos Sebastian. After he is beaten unconscious in the street, he awakens in the doctor's lab and finds that Sebastian has created a huge, lumbering monster that lacks a high quality brain. Amos begs Byron to transplant Amos's brain from his aging body into that of his creation and, after some studying, Byron succeeds in doing just that. Nosy villagers see lights at the doctor's castle and head up there, with intent to destroy the new creation, but Dr. Sebastian, now in a large and powerful body, pushes Dr. King and the angry villagers aside and strides out into a thunderstorm, where a lighting bolt finds his electrodes and vaporizes him.

I have to admit I enjoyed this story right up to the disappointing ending, mainly because of Reed Crandall's art, which illustrates the parade of cliches perfectly. The creature (don't call it a monster!) looks just like Karloff in Frankenstein, but the idea of transplanting the doctor's brain into the creature's head made me think more of Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein. It may not be a classic story, but it's fun!

"One for De-Money"

Vernon is a young dandy who never has any dough. When he visits his Uncle Cornelius and asks for a handout, the old man tells him he can stay for free but he's not getting one red cent. Vernon witnesses his uncle summon a demon in the basement; the demon must give Cornelius money and can't step outside the pentagram where he stands. Vernon murders his uncle and summons up the demon but neglects to notice that he accidentally rubbed off some of the pentagram's chalk outline, allowing the demon to step outside it and kill the greedy young man.

"One for De-Money" has (here we go again) gorgeous art by Angelo Torres and a weak, poorly-executed script by DC stalwart E. Nelson Bridwell. Speaking of DC, the demon looks like one of the Demons Three trio drawn by Mike Sekowsky for early Justice League of America stories.

The horror of dark socks, dark shorts, and dark shoes
is revealed in "Eye of the Beholder!"

Gerald's beautiful wife is dead, and he can't stand it! Seeking magical help, he finds an old man and gives him a lot of money to bring Eve back, "beautiful and alive as I remember her." Gerald goes home and finds Eve there, but soon bad things start to happen: the family dog dies of fright and the flower delivery man runs screaming out the door. Only when Gerald embraces Eve before a mirror does he discover the horrible truth: everyone but he can see that she is a rotting corpse!

I was so excited for the return of Johnny Craig to our reading list, and "Eye of the Beholder!" certainly looks like his work, both as we recall it from the EC Comics and as we saw it change in the EC Picto-Fiction series. There are some weak sections, sure, but overall it's good to have the old boy back. The end prefigures the horrific scene in The Shining where the beautiful woman in the bathtub turns out to be a rotting old hag. Not a great story, but good to see Craig back at the drawing board.

"Flame Fiend!"

After John Murdock kills his business partner, Henry Todd, by planting an explosive device in his car, Henry's image appears as a "Flame Fiend!" rising out of John's fireplace and warning John that he will die in flames. Murdock vows to avoid fire of any type, and this leads to one awkward moment after another, as he keeps away from cigars, birthday cakes, and the like. Out hunting on a cold winter's day, Murdock encounters an out of control campfire and jumps in a freezing brook to avoid the flames. He comes down with pneumonia and thinks he's beaten the curse, until Henry's flaming, spectral image tells John that he's "burning up" with fever!

Otto Binder runs a bad idea into the ground with this story, and it gets laughable as John freaks out every time he sees a little flame. Gray Morrow's art, as always, is impressive, especially in his use of blacks and shadows, but he deserves better material.

"To Pay the Piper!"

In 17th-century Germany, the village of Meingott has a vampire problem. A stranger named Sandor offers to get rid of the foul fiends for 1000 gold marks and does so by playing his flute that night, luring the vampires out into the open where they all (I think) die when the sun comes up. The town burgermeister stiffs the piper of the 1000 marks, so the piper, like his namesake in Hamelin, pipes another tune and all the town's children follow him outside the village. The burgermeister set a trap and the piper is killed by three arrows to the chest. The children return, but that night they all turn into werewolves, since the field outside of town was full of wolfbane and they got scratched by it and ... you get the picture.

Our first exposure to the great Gene (or Eugene, as the credit reads) Colan at Warren is, sadly, on a rather idiotic story called "To Pay the Piper!" by Larry Ivie. Acknowledging that you're copying the classic tale of the Pied Piper in your story doesn't excuse it, and how many times in the few issues of Warren horror comics we've read so far have we seen the old switcheroo of one monster menace to another? Too many for my liking. At this point, Colan was also drawing romance comics for DC and superhero comics for Marvel--a true pro.

"Vision of Evil"

Art collector Simon Norton is so entranced by a ghoulish painting by obscure artist Conrad Archer that he tracks the painter down at his residence, which happens to be the Kingsford Asylum for the Insane! Norton finds Archer sitting in a trance in front of his latest painting, which depicts the artist in the clutches of a demon. Dr. Young then shows Norton Archer's other painting, a mural on the rec room wall depicting a "Vision of Evil" in which ghouls and ghosts attack poor souls. They hear Archer scream and rush to his cellar studio, only to find Archer gone, a burning smell, a finished painting, and red "paint" dripping on the floor. Norton goes back to the rec room to study the mural, but now he notices figures of himself and Dr. Young painted in the claws of a demon! There is a loud booming on the door ...

Okay, I'll admit it doesn't make a lot of sense, and we've seen similar stories before, but I am in such an Alex Toth phase that just about anything he does appeals to me. It's funny how one can get hooked on an artist, especially one with such an individual style. I used to think his work was juvenile but now I really like it.

Big game hunter Harry Black kills an albino gorilla and cuts off its head as a trophy, ignoring warnings from a native about the animal's sacred status. On the ship heading back to the states, mayhem ensures in the luggage room where Harry's trophy is kept, and his wife insists on flying home. Harry gets home and displays the gorilla's head on his trophy wall, but soon trouble follows as the groundskeeper is killed. Harry's wife flees the scene and Harry sits alone, rifle on lap, until he sees the gorilla's headless corpse coming toward him. His wife returns with the cops; they hear shots from inside and enter to find Harry decapitated and his head now in place of the gorilla's on the trophy wall.

The guy in the middle is pure Grandenetti
("Ahead of the Game!")

"Ahead of the Game!" is the pits! I won't bother commenting on the terrible, incomprehensible story. Rather, I have to ask why Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut are ghosting for Joe Orlando. Does this mean some of the bad Orlando art we've been complaining about was not his work at all? And how about the good Orlando art in the late '60s (Cain, I'm looking at you!)--was it not Orlando's work either? My world is rocked! Grandenetti's worst instincts are tamped down by Draut's inks, but I can still see signs of the artist we loved to make fun of on our DC War Comics blog shining through here and there.-Jack

Peter- The first official issue of Eerie is jam-packed with mediocre material. From the big-game hunter who ends up with his head mounted on a wall to the village that gets rid of its vampire plague only to be infested with werewolves (notice how the two monsters seem to mingle in stories so frequently?) to the Universal Monsters reboot with little or no feeling. On and on and on. Again, the major asset to the Warren books, so far, is the insanely good artwork. Well, yes, I know we also get Grandenetti and Draut but I'm trying to be a bit positive. I love Craig's shift from one medium to another halfway through "Eye of the Beholder!" (a rare non-Johnny written story) and Crandall's detailed penciling elevates "Footsteps of Frankenstein!" to at least "readable" status.

Frazetta

Blazing Combat #3 (April 1966)

"Special Forces!" ★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Jerry Grandenetti and Joe Orlando

"Foragers" ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"U-Boat" ★★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gene Colan

"Survival!" ★★1/2
Story by Alex Toth and Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"The Battle of Britain!" ★★
Story by Wally Wood
Art by Dan Adkins and Wally Wood

"Water Hole!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow

"Souvenirs!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by John Severin

"Foragers"

Captain Curtis Bradford leads his "Special Forces!" team through the jungles of Viet Nam on a suicide mission. Their job is to provide themselves as bait for ambush, pulling the Viet Cong out of hiding. Bradford does his job well and the men plow through a multitude of enemy soldiers, "all in a day's work." "Special Forces!" is another disappointing Blazing Combat story; I almost feel guilty saying that, given this title's place upon a mantle of greatness. But there it is, just another story about grunts doing grunt work, sacrificing themselves and their bodies for the men who sit in offices a world away.  War s Hell. I get it. Joe Orlando continues to be the weakest link in the Warren bullpen, laying down sub-par doodles and panels almost too muddy to wade through. But Joe will be around for a while so I better get used to him.

"U-Boat"

During the Civil War, one of General Sherman's tactics was to send out "Foragers" to harass civilians, burn their homes, and loot their belongings. This would, he believed, lead to disenchantment and, eventually, utter surrender. Our protagonists, a band of "Foragers," are picking Georgian households clean of food and then leaving the families homeless and having a real good time doing it. When the soldiers come across an old man who won't give up his shack, they fire on him and the gunfire is returned, killing all but two of the Union soldiers. When the old man runs out of ammo, a corporal is about to execute him when he's shot by one of his own soldiers. "Foragers" has a powerful climax and some gorgeous Reed Crandall work. Jack often says the best stories send him off to do more research and that's exactly what this one did for me. In fact, you can read a very good summary of role the foragers (or "bummers") played in the Civil War here.

A transport ship is torpedoed and sunk with only two sailors, Dawes and Ramsey, left alive. The "U-Boat" that sunk her takes the two mariners aboard as POWs and then has to dive quickly as a destroyer looms on the horizon. Dawes becomes enamored of the efficiency the German captain displays, but Ramsey's only thought is that he must warn the destroyer above them before the U-Boat has a chance to add another notch to its periscope. When Ramsey explains his plan to make noise, Dawes warns the U-Boat commander and a struggle ensues. The racket warns the destroyer above, which launches its depth charges and destroys the German killer. Thought its plot twist owes quite a debt to The Bridge Over the River Kwai, "U-Boat" is masterful in both script and art departments. Colan is at the top of his game here (and about a half year away from his classic stint on Marvel's Daredevil), and the black and white only enhances his talents. Archie's script reads like a one-hour noir film that happens to be set aboard a submarine.

"Survival!"

"Survival!" is a change of pace for this title, a post-apocalyptic tale about a scavenger who fights off mad packs of dogs and hunts for tinned food in the wastelands of a burned-out city. As far as he's concerned, he's the last man on Earth, until he comes across a raft on the beach and several sets of footprints. His excitement turns to rage when he comes across one of the new immigrants digging up one of his caches of food and he beats the man's skull in. Now driven to find the rest of the newbies and kill them before they can steal more of his hard-earned grub, the man inherits an assault weapon from his victim and heads out into the night. It's not long before he finds them and, yep, they're eating his vittles, so he mows them down. A single survivor crawls from the wreckage and the scavenger strangles him to death. Only upon inspection does he discover his latest victim was a woman. He screams in the night. That final panel is a bit of a head-scratcher. Is our violent lead character upset because he just saw a more exciting Friday night go down the tubes or was he thinking "there goes repopulating the Earth?" Like Colan, Alex Toth's work is much more powerful when delivered sans color, possibly because so many of Toth's scenes are built around the blackness. Archie stretches the parameters of blazing combat, but that's okay as long as he can pump out strong stories such as this. Life after the apocalypse will be a favorite subject of future Warren writers (DC and Marvel will try their hands as well and, for the most part, fail miserably).

"The Battle of Britain!"

The Jerrys are fast eliminating the R.A.F. It's up to a handful of brave men to stanch the bleeding and save England from the clutches of Der Führer. "The Battle of Britain!" is gorgeously rendered by Wally Wood's ward, Dan Adkins (despite the Wally Wood sole credit on the splash page, Adkins claimed it was 90% his work), who had just as sharp an eye for aerial battles as Wood himself. The script is one part Encyclopedia Britannica and a heaping helping of late night Hollywood reruns (something with Van Johnson or Rod Taylor, I would think), nothing particularly original. "Water Hole!" concerns a cavalry troop attacked by Apaches in the desert. The water hole becomes a last stand for both sides. A clever twist and some decent Morrow art. Finally, in "Souvenirs!," American G.I. Holloway finds a fortune in the mouths of the dead Japanese soldiers lying stacked like cords of wood all around him. His CO orders him to halt his ghoulish practice but Holloway's greed finds him slithering back to the carnage after his comrades have bedded down that night. Bad idea. About as close to EC as BC is gonna get, "Souvenirs" is a bit slow, but Severin's art keeps us interested until we get to the startling reveal. -Peter

"Souvenirs!"

Jack-I know I've said this before, but when you  have such a great lineup of artists, why lead off with a story drawn by Joe Orlando--or in this case, Jerry Grandenetti? I recognized Joe's work right away from the way he draws the shading over soldiers' eyes from the bill of their caps as if they're wearing domino masks. "Special Forces!" is unusually dull for a Vietnam War story. Things perk right up with "Foragers," in which the unexpected ending elevates the whole story and Reed Crandall's work sparkles. Gene Colan conveys a real sense of excitement and danger in "U-Boat" and I love his use of unusual panel shapes and layouts. In contrast to the story before it, empathy with the enemy's professionalism leads to disaster.

"Survival" seems like a sped-up version of A Canticle for Leibowitz, but the end is disappointing. There's too much "I say" and "old chap" in "The Battle of Britain!" and the story ends up being more historically interesting than engaging. "Water Hole!" starts well and features gorgeous art but fizzles at the finale and seems anticlimactic. Finally, in "Souvenirs!," John Severin again shows how he can say so much with just the look on a character's face. I wonder if his scripts were less verbose than others in order to leave room for his silent panels.

Morrow

Creepy #8 (April 1966)

"The Coffin of Dracula!" 
Part I  ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Death Plane" ★★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by George Evans
(see Eerie #1 for review)

"The Mountain" ★★1/2
Story and Art by Johnny Craig (as Jay Taycee)

"The Invitation" ★★
Story by Larry Engleheart, Russ Jones, & Maurice Whitman
Art by Manny Stallman
(see Eerie #1 for review)

"Adam Link's Mate!" ★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Joe Orlando

"A Vested Interest" ★
Story by Ron Parker
Art by George Tuska, Don Heck, Frank Giacoia, & Mike Esposito

"Fitting Punishment" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gene Colan

"The Coffin of Dracula!"

Lord Adrian Varney has inherited a warehouse full of junk from his recently-deceased uncle, but one piece catches the young Lord's eye: a casket with the Dracula crest. He and one of his workers crack "The Coffin of Dracula!" open and Varney can't help himself as he tries the box on for size. An immediate change comes over Varney, one that proves fatal for his assistant. Meanwhile, across London at Varney's mansion, several guests are partying and awaiting Varney's arrival. These guests include Jonathan Harker and his bride, Mina, recently returned from a vampire-staking exercise in Transylvania. At last, Varney arrives and is immediately taken with Mina's beauty, asking her to dance. She becomes nervous and asks to cut their dance short but the lights go out and the pair disappear from sight. Jonathan catches a glimpse of Varney, carrying Mina, as he escapes down the back steps. Varney assaults Parker and flees in a coach with the unconscious Mina. Knowing he has nowhere else to turn, Harker hoofs it to the asylum where Dr. John Seward works. Not coincidentally, Dr. Van Helsing is also at the asylum and informs Seward and Harker that a vampire has been spotted in "the seacoast village of Whitby" and that the three of them must destroy the bloodsucker if Mina is to live. Van Helsing believes that Dracula's spirit has possessed Lord Varney and is luring him to Whitby for a bite from the vampire.

"The Mountain"

For some strange reason, "The Coffin of Dracula!" was chopped into two pieces (the second part will be unveiled in #9), despite the fact that "a bonus-length chiller" is advertised right on the cover. Even weirder is the fact that the story's length is listed as sixteen pages on the contents page (omitting "Death Plane" in the process), rather than the presented ten. Enough of my trivia, you say, does the story work as a sequel to Stoker's original novel? Yes and no. It's a fast-moving and exciting little vampire story (actually lacking a true vampire until the final page) but it feels way too compressed, as if we're missing out on a few pages (in addition to the six we won't get until next issue) and some necessary expository. We get a flashback of Dracula's demise, a page we probably didn't need, and some annoying head-scratchers (if Varney is not really a vampire until he's bitten, why does he have fangs when he attacks his assistant?) but, overall, "The Coffin of Dracula!" is enjoyable.

"The Mountain"

"Death Plane" and "The Invitation" were reviewed in our last issue as part of the contents of the Eerie #1 ashcan edition. I'll just repeat that the versions printed here are immeasurably cleaner and less murky than those that ran in the ashcan issue. In fact, I've rated "The Invitation" slightly higher here because of the nicer art reproduction). One of our favorite EC writer/artists returns to horror in the same capacity with "The Mountain." A gorgeous woman trudges up a snow-covered mountain, chased by a torch-bearing mob for sins undisclosed to us. She's a "brazen hussy" and they're "narrow-minded" and "sanctimonious," and that's all we know. At the top of the mountain, she collapses on the porch of a secluded cabin and awakens hours later in front of a blazing fire. A man introduces himself to her as Luke (hmmmm ...), and explains that he stays in the desolate cabin to research the black arts. The babe says the dark arts may come in handy against her enemies in the town below; Luke tells her to bring him the mayor and everything will work out exactly as she wants. At gunpoint, the mayor is forced to slog through the snow and enter the cabin, where Luke touches the man's forehead. A blank look comes over the mayor's forehead and our lass, pleased with what she sees, cries out her intention to take over the politician's mansion. A change comes over Luke, telling the woman she's a fool for setting her sights so low. He grows horns and a tail, revealing his true identity, and explains that he needed a body to possess to walk the Earth. Our gal with a 'tude is lifted and hurled into the fireplace, a gateway to ... (surprise, surprise, surprise) Hell!

Well, "The Mountain" certainly began on an intriguing note. Just who is this woman and why are the townspeople intent on killing her? We never find out, but that's not my major complaint with the story. In fact, I think the secrecy adds to the intrigue. No, the fault is in the pat climax, a supreme cop-out. Why is the devil wasting his time with a no-place town and why does he need this woman to draw the mayor up the hill? Did it have to be the mayor? Again, this is Satan, who can open fireplaces and raise Hell. Why such small stakes? Any problems I have with Johnny Craig's writing do not extend to his penciling, which is just as exquisite as it was when we last encountered Craig in the final issues of the EC Illustrated zines. So what was Craig up to between the years of EC's collapse and his startling resurrection at Warren? Craig did a couple of stories for Atlas in the late 1950s (Battle and Wyatt Earp), then hoofed it to an ad agency, before returning to the comics field, working briefly for ACG (Unknown Worlds and Adventures Into the Unknown) before Archie recruited him for Creepy and Eerie. I've seen all six stories he did for Atlas and ACG and none of them come across as stylish or innovative, two adjectives that adhere to Craig's work for EC and Warren. Flotsam like "Treasure of Bad Luck Point" (under Craig's pseudonym of Jay Taycee and found in Unknown Worlds #47) is barely recognizable as Craig's work; rushed and lacking any imagination.

"Adam Link's Mate!"

Fully intent on committing robotic suicide (by letting his battery run down), Adam Link wants nothing to do with mankind after his romance with human Kay Temple went chest plates up. His solace is interrupted by the entrance of Professor Hillory (who happens to own a cabin nearby), a scientist who convinces Adam that all he needs is a companion to fulfill his robotic existence. The two get to work on crafting a female robot and Kay Temple arrives to invest the automaton with female traits (you know, like enjoying flowers, charging clothes on a Macy's card, cleaning the kitchen, etc.). The transformation from a bucket of bolts to gorgeous, gleaming, stainless steel chick is complete, and Adam and his new bride, Eve, enjoy a life of wedded bliss, until Hillory returns and unveils his true motive: he wants to compel Adam and Eve to do his evil bidding by placing mind-controlling skull caps atop their heads, leaving them helpless to defy his orders. Under Hillory's spell, Eve begins a dastardly campaign of evil, robbing the local banks and completely ignoring the household chores. Only a chance visit by Kay Temple can break the spell Hillory has over the metallic pair; Kay knocks the antennaed hat off Hillory's head and Adam can think on his own again. Unfortunately, Hillory regains control over Eve and forces her to shove Adam over a cliff to the rocks below. Is this the end of Adam Link? We can only hope so!

"A Vested Interest"

Alas, being the Monday Morning Quarterback I am, I know this wretched series is far from over. "Adam Link's Mate!" could very well be the dumbest chapter yet, filled with dopey cliches and some really awful art. I love that the first female trait Kay imparts upon Eve is"flowers freshen up a home" (and you thought I was being sarcastic!) and that Professor Hillory might just as well have shown up with a Snidely Whiplash mustache; there's absolutely no doubt that from the first we know this guy will be up to no good. The final page deals with the "exciting" hand-to-hand battle between Eve and Adam and all I could think was "just knock the damn hat off her head, you tin dimwit!" Whenever these big brain deviates get it in their minds to use their smarts to rob banks, I wonder why it is they never set their sights higher. Binder doesn't bother explaining what the nutty professor intends to do with all the wealth. I almost want to say I'm looking forward to reading the next chapter to see if it's even worse.

Huh?
("Fitting Punishment")

A drunk sees a werewolf attacking a man in a dark alley but the cops won't take the word of a booze-hound, but a chance meeting with a stranger convinces the bum to return to the scene of the crime with a camera for proof. This guy's no dummy, so he tricks out his camera with a gun that shoots silver bullets (no, really!) and heads for the alley. Turns out (surprise, surprise, surprise!), once they're alone, his new buddy reveals himself to be the lycanthrope. Our hero shoots the monster, but nothing happens. The werewolf strips down, revealing a bullet-proof vest (no, really!). Oh boy. Marvel mainstay George Tuska (mercifully, his only Warren appearance) contributed some decent work to the Atlas horror titles I'm currently dissecting, but his art here clearly shows he was already past his prime and pumping out the dreary stuff he'd become "famous" for at Marvel in the early 1970s. Ron Parker's debut for Warren is, hopefully, the worst of the seven stories he wrote for the company; it's silly and predictable. We'll see a variation on the werewolf vest twist in a mid-70s issue of Creepy but you'll have to wait a while before we get to it. Just as dumb is the finale, "Fitting Punishment," about Max Troy, a grave robber who gets caught red-handed and, to make his escape, exchanges suits with the corpse he's just robbed. For some reason (don't ask me why and I'm not sure Archie would have been able to tell you), the suit shrinks on Max and cuts him "to ribbons," leaving only a huge bloodstain oozing over the well-cared for cemetery lawn." The WTF? climax really ruins whatever suspense was built up, but at least we have some very nice art from "Gentleman" Gene to waste our time with.

The inaugural "Creepy Fan Club" page offers up a detailed bio of artist Gray Morrow and our first look at fan art. Send that money in, boys and girls, and you too can contribute! -Peter

Jack-Despite a stunning cover by Gray Morrow, this is a poor issue of Creepy. "The Coffin of Dracula!" is oddly dull for a Reed Crandall story about the reincarnation of the vampire; ten pages is too long and there's more to come! The two reprints from Eerie #1 don't improve much in my eyes and the Evans entry seems unfinished. Of course, I'm happy to see a story by Johnny Craig but, as you note, the ending is a stinker. Then we have the last three stories, each of which rated one or one and a half stars in my notebook. Enough of Adam Link already! As if Orlando isn't bad enough, we then get saddled with George Tuska--it seems like the stable of top artists is getting less selective. The Colan story is wonderful to look at but I agree that the last page is incomprehensible.

Next Week...
Big Bob gets deep again,
but does it work?

In Two Weeks...
Oh, yeah, you
remember
this one!

The Warren Report Issue 4: Eerie Debuts! September 1965-February 1966

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Jack Davis

Eerie #1 (September 1965)
(Ashcan Edition)

"Image of Bluebeard!"★★
Story by Bill Pearson
Art by Joe Orlando

"Death Plane" ★★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by George Evans

"The Invitation" ★1/2
Story by Larry Engleheart
Art by Manny Stallman



So, what exactly is an ashcan edition? Well, I'm glad you asked. Back in 1965, James Warren decided Creepy was doing well enough to introduce a companion title. An ad was run in Creepy #6  (see way below) and Eerie #1 was scheduled for a late 1965 release, but James Warren got word that an upstart company was about to release an Eerie #1 as well. In order to convince his distributor (which was also the distributor for the new publisher) that Warren had claim to the title Eerie, he had Archie Goodwin cobble together three stories that were scheduled to drop in the next couple of Creepys and print 200 copies (in an odd digest size), to be dumped at the newsstand just outside the distributor's office (a better worded and more detailed synopsis can be found in The Warren Companion).

"Image of Bluebeard!"

That rival publisher became Eerie Publications, which flooded the stands with titles such as Tales from the Tomb, Witches' Tales, and Tales of Voodoo, filled with gorier versions of 1950s' pre-code horror comics (and, yes, I'd love to cover those one of these days before I die). The "ashcan" became a highly-prized and over-priced "collector's item" over the years (I've seen "legit" copies selling for over a grand) and pirated several times (if you look on eBay right now, there's one of those pirates selling a photocopy for about twenty a pop) but, luckily for all of us, the insides were reprinted very quickly (especially since the printing job was rushed and the reproduction was ugly!).

So, what did this "ashcan" serve up?

"Death Plane"

Mousy and homely Monica knows no man will come within spitting distance of her and time is growing short. She'll be an old maid before she knows it. Therefore, accepting a proposal from a man she doesn't love seems to be the smartest thing to do. That man happens to be Brian Cerulean, a brutish and elderly bearded gentleman who proposes to Monica and, after the wedding, brings her back to his isolated home in the forest. After only a few weeks, Monica begins complaining that she has nothing to do and too much time to do it. Brian promises she'll have company soon. Bored, Monica wanders into Brian's library and finds a book on Bluebeard. Reading a few chapters, the girl comes to the conclusion that her new husband is the one and only Bluebeard! When Brian begins spending a lot of time in his workshop, Monica spies him using a giant ax and naturally fears the worst. The next day, after a long drive into town, Brian comes back home and is greeted with a blade in the gut from his petrified wife. Calling the police, Monica confesses her fears but, once the workshop is opened, she discovers that Brian had been making cages for the forest animals he'd trapped to be her companions.

Stallman splash
Eerie #1

"Image of Bluebeard!" is nothing special, merely another variation on the "paranoid wife" hook. Orlando's art is muddy and amateurish. Interestingly enough, no effort is made to cover up the identity of Uncle Creepy in the pro- and epi-logues of "Image of Bluebeard!" but in the other stories, his profile is whited out. Also, I assume the production for the ashcan was based on photocopies rather than original art, as this story is very dark and "Death Plane" is very light.

During World War I, a "mystery ace" is shooting down planes from both sides, evading any attempts to shoot it down. In a rare moment of cooperation between the Allies and the Germans, both sides team up to exterminate the threat. One American pilot gets close enough to the enemy's cockpit before he's shot down in flames and discovers the eerie secret behind the "mystery ace."

As noted above, "Death Plane" has a very light printing tone and that doesn't help George Evans's delicate penciling one bit. If you take a look at the Eerie #1 version and then the version printed in Creepy #8, there's no comparison in quality. Evans's wonderful pencil strokes disappear in a shock of white. As far as the script goes, Larry Ivie generates healthy suspense before laying an egg with a head-scratching expository in the climax. An interesting concept but one not played out to a satisfactory conclusion.

Stallman splash
Creepy #8

Baron von Renfield's coach loses a wheel on his way home to his remote chateau and he comes face to face with a merry band of vampires. About to become dinner, von Renfield promises the blood-suckers he'll deliver four of his friends for their dining pleasure if they'll spare him. The vampires agree and the Baron heads back to his chateau, where he quickly sends out invitations to people who have wronged him in the past. Three entrees are served up to the vampires but von Renfield finds it hard to find a fourth. The vampires are not happy. A very confusing finale and a really dumb and predictable twist sink this one but I must say that Manny Stallman's pencils are a delight. His splash for "The Invitation" is exquisitely detailed (but most of that detail is, again, lost in the muddy photocopying) and his vampires very Bernie Krigstein-esque (a good thing). Stallman was a heavy-hitter in the Atlas horror title bullpen in the 1950s but only contributed to three stories for Warren.-Peter

Jack: I enjoyed this short magazine! Too bad Monica never looked in a dictionary for the definition of her husband's surname. I actually thought the poor reproduction improved the look of Joe Orlando's art and I enjoyed the surprise ending to 'Image of Bluebeard!" If it's a story about WWI planes, call George Evans! "Death Plane" has an unfinished look and a weak ending. That full-page splash on "The Invitation" is impressive and I thought the art, and especially the layouts, were reminiscent of Alex Toth. Midway through the story, though, the words overwhelm the pictures and the conclusion was just silly.

Frazetta

Blazing Combat #2 (January 1966)

"Landscape!"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Joe Orlando

"Saratoga"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"MiG Alley"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Al McWilliams

"Face to Face!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Joe Orlando

"Kasserine Pass!"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres & Al Williamson

"Lone Hawk"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"Holding Action"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by John Severin

"Landscape!"

An old Vietnamese rice paddy farmer named Luong watches as guerrillas free his village and murder the former leaders. Luong's son is recruited as a guerrilla, but the old man just wants to be left alone to farm. American soldiers take the village from the Viet-Cong, then the North Vietnamese recapture it; each time, there is bloodshed and Luong doesn't see any improvement in his daily life. In the final attack, he is shot through the heart and his rice paddies are torched. The troops march off, unaware of the personal tragedy they leave behind.

Perhaps this anti-war tale was more effective when it hit the stands in late 1965, but today "Landscape!" seems trite and obvious. Joe Orlando does nothing special to elevate the narrative and Archie Goodwin's script tells a story that's been told many times before. War is futile and the little guy gets hurt. We get it. I suppose it was more surprising in the early days of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, when anti-war sentiment was not yet widespread. Still, it's nothing we didn't see at EC during the Korean War.

"Saratoga"

It's October 1777, and the colonial forces under General Gates are bored and restless until battle erupts at "Saratoga." Gates has his men stuck in a position and they're getting hammered until a different general rides up and urges them on to attack the British. The frontal assault is a success and, ten days later, the British surrender. Who was the brash young general who changed the tide of battle? None other than Benedict Arnold, future traitor to the American cause!

It's not enough to have Reed Crandall's gorgeous, almost woodcut-like art to enjoy, but this story is a pip! I had no idea the young general was Benedict Arnold and now want to learn more about him and the Battle of Saratoga. This is what a good war comic story should do!

"MiG Alley"

"Pappy" Rice and his wingman had flown numerous missions in "MiG Alley" over Korea when Pappy was finally shot down, though he was able to eject safely before the plane hit the ground. Once he's back in the air on his next mission, Pappy is much more cautious than he used to be, and his wingman is worried. Pappy's landing gear is damaged from an enemy attack, and when he tries to land his jet too quickly it blows up and he is killed.

Al McWilliams does a terrific job with this fast-moving piece about jet fighting in Korea, and both story and art reminded me of classic DC War comic stories from the late '50s and early '60s, when MiG battles were a regular feature. I am really impressed by McWilliams's mastery of faces and planes and look forward to seeing more of his art.

The men who flocked to Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American War in 1898 did not have much experience in combat, and when Trooper Halpern is complimented for continuing up the hill after being shot in the arm, he thinks war is pretty cool. Sent back down the hill to deliver a message, he encounters a lone Spanish soldier, who tries to take his gun away. Vicious, hand to hand combat ensues and, after Halpern kills the enemy soldier with repeated blows to the head from a rock, he suddenly does not think war is quite so cool anymore.

"Face to Face!"

If I thought "Landscape!" was heavy-handed, the second story this issue by Goodwin and Orlando lands with an obvious thud. I don't understand why we have to put up with two stories by Joe Orlando when there were so many other great artists working for Warren. I also find it hard to work up much enthusiasm about the Spanish-American War.

"Kasserine Pass!"

A Sherman Tank operated by confident American soldiers rumbles across the North African desert, looking for any remnants of Rommel's Afrika Corps. At the "Kasserine Pass!" they are attacked by a German tank but return fire and make a direct hit--or so they think. Riding up to investigate, they come upon two German tanks in an ambush. The American tank is caught in a crossfire and everyone on board is killed.

The story's not bad and the art is above average, but I've seen better from both McWilliams and Torres. One thing is for sure: it beats the Haunted Tank!

Here's the WWI Flying Ace, "Lone Hawk" William A. "Billy" Bishop in his Sopwith Camel Nieuport, zooming through the skies above France and Germany, shooting enemy planes out of the clouds while other pilots are dropping like flies. In the course of the war, he shoots down 72 planes and, to everyone's surprise, lives to tell the tale.

"Lone Hawk"

What starts out as a bit of a boring story about WWI fighter planes gradually sneaks up on you and delivers a surprisingly effective ending, in which the hero does not die on his last day out! Alex Toth's draftsmanship is excellent, but so many of the panels just feature planes in flight that he's not able to do as much as usual. Still, it's an unusual story and a pleasure to read.

The Korean War is nearly at an end, but new replacement soldiers arrive, including Stewart, who is scared and tries to run the first time he's fired upon. His tough sergeant insists that he grab his gun and start shooting enemy soldiers, but Stewart gets a little too wrapped up in his job. When a cease fire is declared, he is at loose ends and has to be dragged away from the battlefield.

"Holding Action" ends this issue on a strong note, as Goodwin's script is brought vividly to life by the great John Severin, an artist I've grown to appreciate more and more as we've worked our way through these blogs. Some of his individual tricks are on display here, including the wordless panel with one character glaring at another, and the multi-panel sequence where only small details change but have a big effect. He was an extraordinary comic artist and he seems to have excelled at war stories.-Jack

Severin's wordless glare
("Holding Action")

Peter: I've never read any of the Blazing Combat stories prior to working on this blog and if I hadn't just absorbed all of Harvey Kurtzman's EC war stories recently, I might have thought some of these were pretty powerful. "MiG Alley" and "Landscape" certainly have their powerful moments but, overall, I have to say I'm disappointed in the title so far. Yep, most of the art is top-notch, but a lot of the scripting is obvious and Goodwin seems to be going for the easy moral. "Holding Action," in particular, seems cliched and predictable. But that may be due to my Kurtzman overload. Archie was influenced by Harvey's writing, that's clear to see, but most of his scripts are reading like homage rather than building on any inspiration. "Landscape" is the infamous anti-war story that pretty much killed Blazing Combat, as detailed in an interview with Archie Goodwin's widow, Anne T. Murphy (who would also contribute to Warren Publishing), in The Warren Companion. Milton Caniff, creator of the "Steve Canyon" comic strip, writes in to praise issue #1. Archie blushes with pride but the gremlins misspell Caniff's first name!

Frazetta

Creepy #7 (February 1966)

"The Duel of the Monsters!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres

"Image of Bluebeard!"
(see Eerie #1 above)

"Rude Awakening!"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"Drink Deep!"★★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by John Severin

"The Body-Snatcher!"★★★1/2
Story by Robert Louis Stevenson
Adapted by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Blood of Krylon!"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow

"Hot Spell!"★★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"The Duel of the Monsters!"

Murder! In a small village in Spain in the Year of Our Lord 1811, Sgt. Vega's reaction to the bloody murder of one of the town's residents is unexpected--he is frustrated that the violent deed will have an adverse effect on his way of life! Vega realizes right away that this is the work of a werewolf, and he discovers that the hairy beast also found Vega's sleeping coffin and ruined it by placing a cross inside. Vega, you see, is a vampire, and he does not like the idea of another monster eating up the tasty local populace. The sergeant suspects Alphonso, the night watchman at the cemetery, of being the werewolf, and goes to his home one night to confront him. The werewolf attacks and "The Duel of the Monsters!" ensues but, once both vampire and werewolf have inflicted fatal wounds on each other, the werewolf turns out to be Vega's colleague, Corporal Ruiz, and Alphonso turns out to be a ghoul who set up the battle in order to feed his own unholy appetite.

"Rude Awakening!"

Whew! That's a lot of plot for such a lousy story. The "old Spain" setting never interests me much and the final showdown is a real letdown. Having the night watchman turn out to be a ghoul is the corny icing on the cake. The Torres art is okay but can't hold a candle to Frazetta's cover, which purports to illustrate a scene from this story.

"Image of Bluebeard!" follows, with much better reproduction quality than we saw in Eerie #1. The art by Orlando isn't half bad, for Orlando, but I kind of liked the xerox-quality heavy blacks in the Eerie version.

Mr. Asher has a recurring nightmare in which he is held down by hooded figures while a man in glasses plunges a knife into his chest. He wakes up in the morning from the dream, has it again on the subway on his way to work, and still again in the elevator at work. Lying down at the office, he has the nightmare again, but this time he wakes up and falls backwards out of a third-story window. He is rushed by ambulance to the hospital and the last thing he sees in the operating room is the man with glasses approaching him with a scalpel.

"Drink Deep!"

"Rude Awakening!" reminds me of a DC horror comic story in that the writing is lamebrained but the art (and layout) is excellent. I wonder if Archie Goodwin was recalling the "Perchance to Dream" episode of The Twilight Zone from back in 1959. Toth's work continues to impress me.

Reggie Beardsley may be rich and have his own yacht, The Golden Galleon, but he treats its crew terribly. The Beardsley family fortune can be traced back to pirate Black Beardsley who, two centuries before, scuttled ships across the Caribbean in order to build up his own pile of gold. Reggie's crew quits in disgust, so he hires new men and sails off to the spot where his ancestor had scuttled his last ship. Late one night, his crew deteriorates into rotting corpses or skeletons that drag him onto the wreck of the old ship that had risen up for the occasion; once Reggie is aboard, it sinks again and he dies, after having to "Drink Deep!" of the briny water.

Not one of Severin's best efforts, but passably good, this waterlogged tale is dragged toward the bottom of the Creepy ocean by a predictable plot.

"The Body-Snatcher!"

Dr. MacFarlane, professor of anatomy at the Edinburgh Medical School, depends on the services of "The Body-Snatcher!" named Gray, who provides fresh corpses for the students to dissect. His new assistant, Fettes, is aghast when Gray brings in the body of a young flower girl, since Fettes realizes she must have been murdered rather than taken from her grave. MacFarlane is content to look the other way until Gray becomes too much trouble; at that point, MacFarlane kills Gray and the former body snatcher becomes the latest body to be cut up. One rainy night, Gray and Fettes head off to the graveyard and dig up the corpse of a young woman. They transport the body back in the front seat of the carriage between them, but when the horse bolts, a flash of lightning appears to reveal that the corpse is actually that of Gray!

"Blood of Krylon!"

The end doesn't seem to make sense, so I looked up the plot of the short story on Wikipedia and it seems to be the same as that of the comic adaptation. I vaguely recall the wonderful film with Karloff and Lugosi and the classic horror scene in the coach, but for some reason I thought it was a guilty imagination at work. Whatever the point of it all, Crandall's art is again superb and the mid-nineteenth century London setting really fits his style.

Frustrated by the poor prospects on Earth, a vampire named Remick rides a spaceship to a planet named Krylon, where he hopes to feast on the inhabitants. Arriving and anxious to taste the "Blood of Krylon!," Remick flies toward a city and sees a yummy fellow below. Just as he's about to start dining, the sun comes up and fries him; it seems night are shorter on this planet and poor Remick did not account for that.

Sometimes the dumbest stories are the most fun! Gray Morrow's art looks like he used some kind of wash or water color technique, if not paint, and it's really cool. The concept reminds me of the Atlas comic series from the '70s, Planet of the Vampires, though that was kind of the opposite situation.


Tied to the stake and burned as a warlock in 17th-century New England, Rapher Grundy curses the people of Warrenville and their descendants. Three hundred years later, a series of folks have died in accidental burnings and suspicion falls on an artist, new to the village and a dead-ringer for Frank Frazetta. The dimwitted townsfolk burn down his house with his young wife inside, then beat him to death. Just then, the spirit of Rapher Grundy rises and drags the four evil townsfolk down to Hell!

As Creepy develops issue by issue, we're seeing flashes of brilliance along with selective instances of increased gore and violence. "Hot Spell!" is outstanding in story and art, but it makes me wonder why editor Goodwin saved the best story in the magazine for the last position? Why not lead off with this?-Jack

Peter: The two high points here are "Hot Spell!" and "The Body-Snatcher!" Archie's adaptation is the best one thus far (and I'm not the biggest fan of these "Creepy Classics") and Crandall's art on both stories is as great as it was in the EC days, with that "Hot Spell!" splash a stunner. "The Duel of the Monsters!" is a silly monster mash-up that contains not one iota of the excitement promised by Frazetta's cover. Overall, it's still the art that makes us turn those pages as most of the the scripts seem like warmed-over EC but, ohhhhh, that art!

Next Week...
Jack and Peter decide that, yes,
they'll see this through to December 1976

The Warren Report Issue 3: Blazing Combat! Creepy! October-December 1965

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Frazetta

Creepy #5 (October 1965)

"Family Reunion!" ★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Joe Orlando

"Untimely Tomb!" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres

"Sand Doom" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Al Williamson

"The Judge's House!" ★★
Story by Bram Stoker
Adapted by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Grave Undertaking" ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"Revenge of the Beast!" ★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow

"Family Reunion!"

When Pa passes, the three Cartwright boys (not Hoss, Little Joe, and Adam... the other Cartwright boys) find themselves with a heapin' helpin' of farm land to take care of. Aaron and Horace want to continue in the footsteps of their father, who made the land pay off for him, but third brother Jack wants to dump the dump as quick as possible. When Old Man Fisk makes the three brothers an offer, a seed is planted in Jack's diseased brain and Jack murders his brother via wheat thresher. Aaron and Horace are so mangled that their remains are buried together in one casket and Jack wastes no time selling the farm to Fisk. On the night Fisk is to drive out to the farm, Jack is visited by the two-headed remains of his brothers, both understandably upset by their brother's betrayal. When Fisk arrives at the farm, he finds what remains of Jack (the brothers are a trio once again!) in the well. "Family Reunion!" is a run-of-the-mill revenge tale, the gist of which we've seen countless times before in EC, Harvey, and Atlas horror funny books. Joe Orlando does the rote script no favors, though; this is just about the weakest Orlando we've seen yet (the only exception being Joe's spooky two-headed man intro). The whole thing smacks of the Myron Fass Eerie Publications rags that were introduced (and would multiply half a decade later, thanks to the success of Warren) not too long after this issue went on sale. Cliched plots and ugly art.

"Untimely Tomb!"

Dr. Beamish has a trigger-finger when it comes to pronouncing Stanford's sister dead. When Stanford hears moaning from the family crypt, he calls Beamish and the two enter the mausoleum, only to find the girl risen from her casket and dead on the floor... this time really dead. Stanford wigs out and swears he'll ruin the good Doctor's name and, after a heated discussion, Beamish conks Stanford on the noggin, killing him. But Stanford must have been prescient since his last wishes are that he be buried in the graveyard next to the Doctor's home. Now it's time for Beamish to wig out. When he imagines hearing noises from Stanford's crypt, he investigates. Bad idea.

Though Archie may have dipped a little too much into the Poe bag for "Untimely Tomb!," it does have its share of creeps (the final panel is a keeper). It also has its share of head-scratchers. When Beamish and Stanford enter the tomb, the Doctor remarks that he certified the girl was dead so breaking the lock on the casket will do them no good. Stanford then points at the casket and remarks, "Look at the lock, doctor! It's already broken!" How the heck did little Sis manage to pick a lock that was on the outside of her coffin? Good trick, that! Angelo Torres's art is atmospheric and typifies how good the old EC artists can look, even in black and white, a decade later.

"Sand Doom"

"Sand Doom" has some incredible art by Al Williamson, but the script (about a double-crossing arms dealer who stumbles into a sand storm and the treasures of the Goddess Nepthy) is hum-drum and meandering. The same can be said about Archie's adaptation of Bram Stoker's "The Judge's House!," a quaint chiller about a man who moves into the estate of a long-dead hanging judge. The story will never be accused of being Stoker's best (there's no reasoning given for the resurrection of the Judge--it just happens), but at least Reed Crandall was assigned the job of distracting us while we turn pages. Crandall might be the one EC artist who actually got better as the decades passed.

Peach and Thwackum, two very English undertakers, are experiencing a bit of a lull in business. People have stopped dying. Enter Dr. Ryder, a surgeon who needs fresh corpses to dissect and study, with a rich proposition for the two morticians: ten pounds for each body delivered, the fresher the better. With no one coming in the door, Thwackum and Peach must visit the local graveyard for stiffs and, when a grave-digger interrupts their work, they find that murder can fill a coach just as well.

"Grave Undertaking"

When the boys get wind of a village nearby where folks are dropping like flies, they sneak into town only to discover all the residents hidden behind boarded-up windows. The graveyard is theirs to pilfer. That night, they bring their booty to Dr. Ryder, who enthusiastically gives thumbs-up until he discovers the origin of the bodies, and only has time to squeak out the word "Vampires!" before he and the two grave-robbers are surrounded. Of all the stories presented so far, "Grave Undertaking" has the closest feel to an EC story, with its grave-robbing premise, its clever twist and, most of all, its exquisite art. Toth's design, shading, and angles are all top-notch, giving the story the kind of flair found in noir films.

If "Grave Undertaking" reminds one of EC, then the silly Native-American-revenge/monster-thriller, "Revenge of the Beast!," brings to mind the softer, code-approved pablum found in the Charlton horror titles. I appreciated the wild west setting but Gray Morrow's work almost seems lost in too much whites (though his final panel of battling werewolves is a stunner). On the letters page, a 17-year-old Bernie Wrightson begs for more full-length Frazetta just a few years before he'd start down a path that would see him become just as respected and imitated as Frazetta himself. And, for the first time, readers could join the Uncle Creepy Fan Club for the princely sum of a buck. That pittance would grant you a lifetime membership and you would receive a pin, membership card, and a portrait of Uncle Creepy, painted by Frank Frazetta. Sign me up! -Peter

Jack: I'm a bit worried that Creepy is already this bad after only five issues. "The Judge's House!" is the only story that was even close to interesting, and it was an adaptation from Stoker. Poor Archie Goodwin was overworked and underpaid and the repetitive tales bear that out. One question: with all this great art, why put the Joe Orlando story first in the issue? It's easily the worst drawn. I'm with Peter on loving the pages by Toth, but the surrounding stories feature some pretty fine art as well. If only the writing held up.

Frazetta

Blazing Combat #1 (October 1965)

"Viet-Cong!"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Joe Orlando

"Aftermath!"★★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres

"Flying Tigers!"★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by George Evans

"Long View!"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Gray Morrow

"Cantigny!"★★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Mad Anthony!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Tex Blaisdell, Russ Jones, & Maurice Whitman

"Enemy!"★★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by John Severin

"Viet Cong!"

First Lieutenant Dave Crew is in Vietnam as a U.S. Army advisor to a South Vietnamese infantry battalion. They retaliate for a "Viet-Cong!" attack by raiding a village controlled by the enemy; though they find two men hiding and the South Vietnamese torture them, nothing is learned. It's hot and smelly in the jungle and Dave is not happy about having to stand by and witness torture, but all he can do is advise. He avoids mortars, bamboo spikes, a mine, and a charge by enemy soldiers and realizes that this is a new kid of war, unlike any the U.S. has fought before. He hopes we learn from our mistakes before it's too late.

In October 1965, the U.S. was getting bogged down in Vietnam but it was still early days, and the population as a whole had not yet started to engage in mass resistance and protests. DC War Comics were focused on WWII and, while the comics that month were very good (see our review here), they were not taking the same anti-war perspective that this first story in Blazing Combat asserts. Goodwin is no Harvey Kurtzman, and Joe Orlando is still not my first choice for anything, but the story is ahead of its time.

"Aftermath!"

During the Civil War, a rebel sharpshooter picks off a Union soldier and then helps the dead man's comrade bury the body so wild pigs don't feast on it. The two enemies become friends temporarily in the "Aftermath!" of violence, but it's not long before an argument breaks out and they end up killing each other, providing plenty of food for the marauding animals.

Torres is just right for this very EC-like story of the foolishness of war. At first, it seems to be going down one path, with the soldiers getting along, but I liked how the disagreement between them sprang almost from nothing and escalated quickly to a fatal finish. So far, Goodwin's war stories are impressing me more than his horror stories.

"Flying Tigers!"

The "Flying Tigers!" were a group of star American pilots recruited to defend the Chinese against the invading Japanese on the eve of WWII. The brainchild of General Claire Chennault, the Tigers engage the enemy successfully in air battle, but a pilot named Dallas complains that the people in charge are more concerned with shipping supplies than with sending spare parts to fix damaged aircraft. When Dallas is killed in a battle whose goal is to protect a supply plane, his friend Rick complains about the futility of war, but it turns out the supply plane that was saved carried none other than General Chennault!

I do like when a comic book story inspires me to go online and learn a little bit more about history, as this one did. George Evans's art is flawless, and he is the go-to guy for stories involving air battle, whether they are in the 1950s at EC, the 1960s at Warren, or the 1970s at DC. I'm happy to report that the decline in his work we are seeing in the '70s is not apparent as of 1965.

"Long View!"

It's hard to take the "Long View!" of war when you're on the front lines of battle. During WWII, the battle for the Marianas comes down to Hill 208, which a tired company of Marines is ordered to take on its own, despite heavy Japanese resistance. This hill is the key to breaking through enemy lines and, when battle comes, all of the Marines in the company are killed except for one, who sits alone on the hill, mumbling the names of his dead comrades, unable to see how this senseless slaughter helped advance the Allied cause.

More so than "Viet-Cong!," this story reminds me of something Kurtzman might have written at EC during the Korean War. Gray Morrow's art doesn't feel exactly right for a war story, but the narrative is strong and the message is clear. The fighting is depicted more violently than it was at DC in the fall of 1965.

American soldiers like George and Kansas arrived in France in June 1917 but didn't see combat for almost a year. While digging trenches outside "Cantigny!" they are summoned to attack Germans in the village. They make their way through fog and smoke, following a French tank into Cantigny, but all they find is a town that has been destroyed by shelling. Looking for a quiet spot to write a letter home, Kansas wanders into a gutted building and comes face to face with an injured German soldier. The two trade fatal gunshots and, later, George takes Kansas's letter book in order to complete the letter his dead friend never got to write.

"Cantigny!"

Every story Reed Crandall draws is a treat, and this is no exception. There is a wonderful sequence where Kansas is nearly buried under a pile of dirt after an explosion that foreshadows his death a few pages later. Once again, Goodwin successfully conveys the futility of war and the way it never seems to go as planned.

"Mad Anthony!"

A 1771 battle between the Colonists and the British at Paoli, Pennsylvania, turns into a rout when the British massacre the Colonists. The young general in charge of the losing side was none other than "Mad Anthony!" Wayne who, two years later, is summoned to New York by General Washington to attack the British at Stony Point. One of the soldiers on patrol comments that a British soldier attacked him after the Colonists had surrendered and cost him his right eye. The Colonists attack the British and this time are successful. The soldier who lost his eye at Paoli happens to come face to face with the British soldier who took out his eye; General Wayne insists that prisoners be taken alive, and is lauded for that, but no one said anything about foregoing an eye for an eye!

The art by the trio of Blaisdell, Jones, and Whitman looks out of place in this issue next to the work of Torres, Evans, Morrow, and Crandall, but somehow by the end of the story it works, perhaps because we've grown used to tales of the American Revolution being told in an old-fashioned way. The story is entertaining and the revenge carefully measured out. At five pages, it's the shortest story in the magazine ("Viet-Cong!" and "Enemy!" are seven pages and the others all run six), and the length seems just right for the content.

"Enemy!"

It's 1943, and the American Army is working its way up through Italy as the Nazis retreat. In one village, G.I.s find that Germans massacred an American patrol by herding them into a ditch and shooting them where they stood. As the G.I.s search the village, sniper fire opens up and soldiers are shot. A sergeant and another soldier locate the German sniper and the sergeant beats him to death, thinking the German was involved in the earlier massacre of American soldiers. The other soldier tells the sergeant he's as guilty as the Germans, but the sergeant is unrepentant and says that no one cares what happens to the "Enemy!" The Americans leave the German's corpse behind, and atop its chest is a wallet, open to a photo of the man's wife and baby.

That last panel really got me in the gut! John Severin is certainly among the best artists at drawing war stories--he can draw battle action and pathos equally well. I thought this gritty tale was the best of the bunch in an excellent issue and I'm looking forward to reading more Blazing Combat!-Jack

Peter: In the Jon Cooke/David Roach-edited The Warren Companion (TwoMorrows, 2001, page 40), Jim Warren declares that he was prouder of Blazing Combat than anything else he had ever published. It was ground-breaking; the first comics title to tackle the Vietnam war when it was a big no-no to do so. Warren also reveals that the short run of the title had to do with distributors cutting the title out due to its controversial view that our involvement in the war was wrong. Given that it's the pride of the publisher and under the watchful eye of super-editor Archie Goodwin, I'm surprised at how cold it left me. Archie does his best to get the "War is Hell" message across in each and every one of the seven tales but, to me, it comes off as preachy, something that Harvey avoided most of the time in Frontline and Two-Fisted. Only "Aftermath!" and, to a lesser extent, "Enemy!" come across as well-told tales that just happen to be about the horror and futility of war. It's nice to see that Archie was able to round up several of the Two-Fisted/Frontline gang, but perhaps what's needed is a bit of a helping hand in the script department. Don't get me wrong; my disappointment comes in comparing Blazing to the earlier EC titles. It's still miles above most of the pablum that was being presented by DC and the other code-approved publishers. Let's see how things shape up next issue.

Frazetta

Creepy #6 (December 1965)

"The Thing in the Pit!" ★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by Gray Morrow

"Thumbs Down!" ★★★
Story by Anne T. Murphy
Art by Al Williamson

"Adam Link in Business!" ★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Joe Orlando

"The Cask of Amontillado!" ★★★
Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Adapted by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"The Stalkers" ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Alex Toth

"Abominable Snowman!" ★★★
Story by Bill Pearson
Art by John Severin

"Gargoyle" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel
Art by Angelo Torres

"The Thing in the Pit!"

Ted White is on the run; he's just stolen a bag of cash from the boss's safe and he's speeding down a Tennessee backwoods road when he loses control of his car and crashes. Someone (or something) lifts him out of the car and carries Ted back to its lair. There, Ted is introduced to his saviors, a grotesquely mutated woman and her equally-skewed son, who invite the frazzled man to stay the night. Once he gets settled into his room, Ted hears a piercing scream emanating from the basement and is told by the woman that the sound came from her daughter, a girl so frighteningly ugly she's been kept in a pit in the cellar. Obsessed with viewing this unspeakable sight, Ted follows the woman's son down into the basement and is startled to see that "The Thing in the Pit" is a gorgeous (though obviously insane) dame. With visions of romance in his mind, Ted overpowers the son but is pushed into the pit by "Maw." Luckily, Ted is not hurt in the fall and he quickly locates a rope in the dark hole. Unluckily, Ted discovers the rope is actually a tentacle attached to his dream girl. We've seen dozens of variations on this plot and Larry Ivie's take is certainly nothing special. He takes the set-up from Psycho and then adds a dash of The Munsters for flavoring but no one's fooled. We all saw the reveal coming a mile away. The tentacles are a nice touch, though. Morrow's art is supremely Creepy, with his "Maw and son" looking like they'd just risen from the grave. Our hero's name is a tip of the cap from Larry to his buddy, Ted White, a head honcho in 1950s' science fiction fandom and, later, editor of Fantastic digest.

"Thumbs Down!"

In the ancient Roman city of Mithras, Cassius is the champion gladiator of ruler Bracchus, but Cassius has grown weary of the fight and asks his master to grant him freedom. Instead of freedom, the ruler gives his prize fighter a match in the arena with a bull. Cassius is gored and killed and Bracchus pays him no mind, already moving on to his next grand match: the Christians versus the lions. Drunken and wandering the arena one night, Bracchus hears a commotion and looks up to see the cage doors being lifted and the lions entering the pit. The doomed ruler looks up into his box and is terrified to see the decaying corpse of Cassius, who gives the classic "Thumbs Down!" sign when his former master begs his help. As with "Grave Undertaking" last issue, "Thumbs Down!" just vibrates with EC atmosphere; had Valor allowed horror stories, this one would have fit very comfortably between its covers. Yep, it's another simple revenge story, and perhaps it would not have had the requisite effect had it not been for the exquisite work of Valor vet Al Williamson, who penciled gladiators and their bloodsport better than any other artist of the era.

Reed Crandall's insanely detailed splash
for "Amontillado"

One of the easiest (and most boring) gigs in comic history, the re-re-telling of the Adam Link series by author Otto Binder and artist Joe Orlando (the same pair responsible for the EC "Link" series a decade before), continues with Chapter 3: "Adam Link in Business!," wherein the titular man of steel is saved from the electric chair and finds love in the form of the gorgeous Kay Temple. Adam thinks better before consummating his passion with Kay and, at story's end, he's a lonely robot again. The script, aside from a few minor tweaks, is the same as that of its first incarnation back in Weird Science-Fantasy #29 (June 1955). I didn't like the EC version (though at least it was presented in color) and I really don't like the Warren version. It's a downright dirty shame I'll have to read five more of these things before the editor wises up and pulls the plug. Yeccch.

The adaptations continue, but Reed Crandall's "The Cask of Amontillado!" is fine wine compared to Adam Link's Dr. Pepper. It's the classic tale of Montresor and Fortunato and the shenanigans they get up to over family pride and a fine wine. Of the handful of artists who would visualize Poe's terrors for us in the pages of Creepy and Eerie, none were as detailed and painstaking as Reed Crandall (though Bernie Wrightson may be "1B" to Reed's "1A"). Just gaze upon his splashes for evidence. The story would be dusted off and re-imagined by Martin Salvador in #70 (the second-part of a two-issue "All Edgar Allan Poe" special), but there's no comparison in quality.

Alex Colby imagines that a squad of alien beings is stalking him, showing up at the most inopportune times to ruin his social life. Alex finally decides to see a psychiatrist but it doesn't go well when the shrink transforms into one of "The Stalkers" midway through the session. Colby awakens from the madness to discover he's actually one of the aliens who's been on Earth too long and can't mentally shirk his human guise. A nice twist in the tail and some fabulous Toth art. Alex Toth was a lot like Will Eisner in that he wasn't comfortable with the typical six- to eight-panel page layout and always managed to pull off something memorable. In fact, the splash for "The Stalkers" reminds one of Eisner's classic Spirit intros, with the title almost becoming part of the scene.

John Severin joins his old company-mates at last with "Abominable Snowman!," a literally chilling adventure with a nifty twist in its finale. A group of Yeti-hunters are picked off one by one by what most perceive as "dumb apes," but the furry creatures are proving they may be more intelligent than their human stalkers. Severin still applies that strong, square chin to every character he draws, which is appropriate here since the group is made up of machismo-oozing dolts. So, what had "Jovial" John been up to in the decade since EC closed its doors? Like Joe Maneely and Russ Heath, Severin bounced back and forth between Atlas/Marvel and a heck of a lot of work for the chief MAD rip-off, Cracked (a magazine which begs a second look, if only for the quality of its contributors).

The last story this issue, "Gargoyle," is a lackluster affair, with a boring script and so-so art by Angelo Torres. Gerba, the dwarf, seems to know the power of turning stone into gold. He can also bring gargoyles to life to do his evil bidding. But the latter is not as important as the former to alchemist, Valdeux, who ingratiates himself into the dwarf's life and then betrays the little guy, only to discover the true secret of the gargoyle. A limp climax to a strong issue. On the letters page, future Warren contributor Frank Brunner weighs in on issue #5.  -Peter

More Crandall...
just because we can!

Jack: Now, that's more like it! I liked "The Thing in the Pit!" though I would have been hightailing it out of there as soon as Maw and Sonny Boy were out of sight. I always enjoy an Ancient Roman setting, so "Thumbs Down!" worked for me, especially with the fine art by Al Williamson. The Adam Link story was the best yet and Orlando's art didn't bother me as much as usual, though I think the story would've fit better in a DC Comic of the era. "The Cask of Amontillado!" is the best piece in this issue, in my opinion, with Reed Crandall at the top of his game. Goodwin's story in "The Stalkers" is weak but Alex Toth's art is amazing, as are his layouts and lettering. He may be the most unique creator working in the Warren line. "Abominable Snowman!" bored me, even though I like John Severin's work and think he was equally strong in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, unlike, say, George Evans. Finally, despite impressive art by Angelo Torres, "Gargoyle" was only so-so. Creepy #6 was a big improvement over #5.

Next Week...
The Boys are Back in Town
But can they recapture the old magic?

And in two weeks...