Recently I came across a run of very high grade, raw, Eerie Magazines. I remember when I discovered the Warren Magazines in the tail end of the 60s, that I really wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. I never really got into Vampirella, or even Uncle Creepy or Cousin Eerie, but one thing I did get into was the artwork.
There were quite a few artists that I hadn’t heard of that were really good. Like Esteban Marotto, Sanjulian and of course the fantastic covers by Frank Frazetta!
With the recent passing of another great Silver Age artist, Herb Trimpe, I took a look through this early run of Eerie I picked up, and it struck me just how much talent Jim Warren was able to attract, especially early on.
Here is the list of artists from issue 3 for example: Gene Colan, Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Rocco Mastroserio, Gray Morrow, Joe Orlando, John Severin, Jay Tacee, Angelo Torres, Alex Toth and Al Williamson! With scripts by Archie Goodwin!
Seriously, that is a heck of an honour roll! I mean, take another look at that list! Gene Colan, Reed Crandall, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Rocco Mastroserio, Gray Morrow, Joe Orlando, John Severin, Jay Tacee, Angelo Torres, Alex Toth and Al Williamson! With scripts by Archie Goodwin!
Wow! That list contains some of the greatest talent ever in the comic book industry and all in the same issue. These artists were in virtually all of the first 10-15 issues of Eerie. These weren’t just throw away artistic entries in their respective catalogues. These were some stellar examples of the individual’s work.
Some of my favorites are the wash work done by Gene Colan and Steve Ditko. Absolutely beautiful examples of the art form and really showcasing their respective talents. You could see that the stories, which were unrestricted by the comics code, allowed the artists to really let loose, and it showed in their work.
Frank Frazetta and Gray Morrow handled the covers on the first dozen or so issues, which were worth the price of the magazine, $0.35 cents, alone.
So if you ever get the chance and find these issues in decent shape, pick them up, as they are quite reasonable and definitely worth the price of admission.
Warren also published a war magazine called Blazing Combat which also contains some fantastic art by the masters mentioned above. I have been after some artwork by Gene Colan from Blazing Combat # 3 called U-Boat for years. Another fantastic piece that Gene pencilled and inked and added his signature ink wash to. I am ecstatic to say that I will have the complete 7 page story in about a week! I can’t wait to see this twice up artwork in the flesh and will certainly share some high resolution scans with you all.
Until then, …continued happy collecting!
Then, decade(s) later, came Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Esteban Maroto, Jaime Brocal, Rafael Aura Leon, Martin Salvador, Luis Garcia, Jose Gonzalez, Jose Bea, Isidro Mones, Sanjulián, Enrich TorresJosé Ortiz, Luis Bermejo, Leopold Sánchez, Alex Niño, Alfredo Alcala and Rudy Nebres, etc. All simply incredible!
Ah yes, Blazing Combat! series was and still an absolutely and unequaled masterpieces, to date.
I knew someone would bring up the great list of artists that came along a little later Nicholas. I was planning on doing a post about Bernie Wrightson at a later date. Some of the masterpieces that came from his hand , as well as the others you mentioned really expanded the comic artist landscape. Keep a look out for the artwork from Uboat coming soon.
Dennis, Bernie’s Muck Monster story was his best ever printed in either Creepy or Eerie. No thought or word balloon, just dialogue boxes.
I just picked up a new hardcover anthology of Bernis’ contributions to Creepy Magazine.The Muck Monster is included!
Dennis, I’m jealous. Angelo Torres is my favorite from the Warren days. Do you want to sell any ?
Dennis, i remember first discovering Marotos art in the early 60’s in some batches of Philipino comic books, and was disappointed that so little of this mans work was used in comics over here by u.s. publishers! And especially Jose Salinas artistic genuis! These were the best of the “foreign artistic talent”, yet very little of their work appeared here!
Send me a note to my email address and we will see what we can come up with Ed.
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When I was recently in Europe , I was struck by just how much exceptional art there was there by people I had never heard from before, and the interesting thing was that they were all non digital.I definitely find a much more organic storytelling , using actual pen and brush work, so much more alive than the over the top(boring) digital stuff available today.I certainly don’t mean it’s all bad but I prefer work done on a paper art board rather than the oversaturated digital colour palette.
Michael Lark does a great job of incorporating both worlds with the way he drops in backgrounds on his penciled and inked work.
Ed, I had trouble with my email address that you sent me a note to, and lost your email.My apologies, please send me another note and hopefully the email gods won’t mess up this time.Thanks.