Thursday, October 09, 2008

Hidden Gems: Creepy #91

Warren Publishing was rather notorious for reprinting stories not too long after their initial appearance. That surely would have bugged the crap out of me as a monthly reader, but as a back issue bargain hunter, I've got no problem with it at all. Creepy #91 is such a wonderful issue, it collects some of the best mid-70s horror stories by a who's who of talent and it can be found for next to nothing. If you like a good sniper story (and who doesn't), this mag has two. The infamous "ThrillKill" with luscious Neal Adams artwork is partnered with the Phantom of Pleasure Island with Toth in top form. For the same low price, you also get Wrightson, Severin, Wood and Heath. Can you even try to beat that team. Creepy, like Eerie, can be pretty hit or miss, but this is a very strong issue. One story that I found to be particularly compelling is 'Cold Cuts' written by Wrightson with Jeff Jones art. It's very atmospheric and really stands out from your typical Bronze Age horror tale. If you see this one - do not pass it up.

3 comments:

MDG14450 said...

Sounds like a good issue--but it does make me wonder about how Dark Horse will handle the archive series of Creepy and Eerie. You don't have to get too far into both series before reprints start appearing--especially stories from Creepy showing up in Eerie.

Scott M said...

You're right, it will get confusing. I haven't seen these volumes yet. I'm interested in seeing how well they reproduce the art, especially the 'wash' stuff.

Unknown said...

I know I read an interview about that very issue...

in fact, here it is!

NRAMA: Warren’s financial difficulties forced the line to resort to running a lot reprints throughout the 60s and 70s. Will that affect how to handle future Creepy Archives?

SG: You’re right, there are a lot of reprinted stories, starting fairly early in the double digits of the issues. And some stories ran a few times. We don’t want to print unnecessary material in these collections—we know we’re going to have fans who buy every single volume of this series, and nobody liked the idea of reprinting stories once they were already collected in an earlier volume. So we’re collecting all of the original material from each issue, but when stories are reprinted, we’ll refer the reader to the earlier volume for continuity.

here's the link

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080815-CreepyArchives.html

Thanks for the great blog!

Jeff