Throughout the month of October, all the great contributors of Geek Vibes Nation have been submitting Halloween specific content. Just because the COVID pandemic doesn’t respect this spooky time of the year, doesn’t mean we can’t still embrace it. If for no other reason than to attempt to bring back some normalcy to our lives. Well, now it’s the old guys turn.
Warren Publishing
One of the things that speaks to me of haunting, spooky and dare I say, Creepy were the magazines published by Warren. During the late 1960’s and 70’s, Warren Publishing put out a trifecta of black and white comic magazines that told scary, suspenseful, and sometimes titillating tales for those readers who liked those type of stories. One of those readers was your author, although I came to the party late. It was the mid 70’s when I discovered Warren. These were books that my neighbor down the road had, along with a large number of comic books and shall we say, more risqué material. The comic books and the Warren Magazines he would let me borrow. The risqué stuff…not so much. Ok, not at ALL. But I was intrigued by the collections of stories and the great art in Warren that accompanied them.
Published by James Warren, Warren Magazines told tales that, if published in a normal comic book, would have been shanghaied by the Comics Code Authority. You remember them right? The personal censorship organization that comic publishers agreed to create to avoid government regulation. Well, James Warren decided that he did not have to abide by the CCA. Why? Simply put, his books were NOT comic books. They were magazines. Because of this, the rules of the CCA didn’t apply to his publications. Apparently, that worked. One of the first of those publications was called Creepy Magazine.
Creepy Magazine
First published in 1964, Creepy was an anthology, filled with stories by various writers and artists. Each one was hosted by our good friend, Uncle Creepy. He was in the spirit of the former EC Comics Tales from the Crypt host, the Crypt Keeper. In all actuality, it was these EC comics that inspired Creepy’s creation.
The Artists of Creepy
The first cover for Creepy (seen at the beginning) might seem familiar to you fans of Mad Magazine. That’s because it was drawn by Mad Magazine’s Jack Davis. This was done from a sketch from illustrator and Creepy’s first editor Russ Jones. It was Jones who came up with the idea for the Magazine, proposing something similar to the aforementioned EC comic book stories to Warren. At the time, they did not have a title for the new book. Even after he had sent his sketch in to Davis to draw. Jones described this in an interview he had done
I made a sketch of my “host” for the mag, and sent it off to Jack Davis to work up a cover. Still no title. Titles are tough. Ask anyone who ever had to come up with one. One night I was sitting in the studio alone, looking at Woody’s tear-sheets from the EC’s, when Warren called. He was furious, and demanded a name for Project D. I was looking at a balloon over an Ingles ‘Old Witch’ and in her narrative the word CREEPY grabbed out at me. I muttered the name to Jim, and he paused for a long moment “he has it” he said “with excitement, and hung up “We now had a title for our mag…
So Creepy was born and it employed some of the great names in comics to work on the mag. In fact, along with Davis, they employed such talents as Neal Adams, Dan Adkins, Reed Crandall, Johnny Craig, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Gray Morrow, John Severin, Angelo Torres, Alex Toth, Al Williamson and Wally Wood. In the beginning, Creepy was published quarterly, but by the end of 1965, Creepy switched to bi-monthly.
From Jones to Goodwin
It was that same year that Jones and Warren had a falling out and another editor was brought in. A name that was quite familiar to comic fans, Archie Goodwin. Archie had already been writing many of the stories, so he was familiar with the inner workings and worked well with the artists. It was because he wrote many of the early stories, he developed a format that he felt worked best for him and his artists. In order to elicit his artists best work, Goodwin would ask the artist what type of story or setting he would like to work in. By getting this input prior to writing his story, it served to focus Goodwin’s thinking. It also made it easier for him to come up a story to best fit what the artist liked to do. This proved successful as Creepy thrived under Goodwin’s charge.
Eventually, Goodwin also moved on making way for other editors. During the lulls in production, the book would put out reprints of stories or special editions based on a single artist. Through many writers and artists, it lasted until the early 1980’s. By then, facing financial hardship, Warren’s last Creepy (#145) was published in February 1983, and then he went bankrupt. But that was not quite the end.
Creepy, The Archival Editions
Harris Publications bought the rights after Warren’s bankruptcy and published a single issue (#146) in 1985. Fifteen years later, after a protracted legal dispute with Harris Publications, Jim Warren and Warren Publishing finally regained sole ownership of all rights to Creepy and Eerie. And the deal making still wasn’t complete.
In June of 2007, New Comic Company LLC principals Dan Braun, Craig Haffner, Josh Braun and Rick Brookwell bought the rights from Warren. Afterwards, they completed a partnership agreement with Dark Horse Comics and its CEO Mike Richardson. They agreed to republish in archival hardcover form all 285 total issues of the original Creepy and it’s sister publication Eerie. The first Creepy archival volume was published in August 2008, with additional releases made available every four months. That first archival volume of Creepy earned Dan Braun and Shawna Gore the 2009 Eisner Award for best archival project for Creepy Archive #1.
These stories are still considered some of the best examples of the black and white comic Horror genre and the great work that was Warren Magazines. Coming in the next article, Creepy’s sister publication, Eerie Magazine.
Are you familiar with the publications of Warren Magazines? Which were your favorites? Share your thoughts with us at Geek Vibes Nation.
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 60 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove headfirst over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 21-year-old young man with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
