With Eerie #85, we are well on our way into what is considered the last really good period for the Warren magazines. Louise Jones was the editor, and according to TwoMorrows' excellent The Warren Companion, she was very popular to work with by the artists and writers in Warren's stable.Behind a nice cover by Ken Kelly (everytime I look at it, I have to remind myself that the figures are not coming out of a cave), is the opening story starring Warren's ongoing time-traveling character, The Rook, by Bill DuBay and Luis Bermejo. I dunno; he seemed pretty popular by I could never get past what a time-traveling character is doing in a magazine called Eerie.
After the standard one-page slash-and-burn column The Comic Books, by Joe Brancatelli, we have "Hard John's Nuclear Hit Parade" by the always-inventive Jim Stenstrum and art by Jose Ortiz. Stenstrum had the ability to combine grim dystopian settings with a light, jokey touch, and he achieves that again here.
Next is "The Gaffer", by Roger McKenzie and Leo Duranona, a story of a boxer who fights Death itself. After that is "Blackstar and the Night Huntress" by Gerry Boudreau and Estaban Maroto, which, aside from the nice art, left no impression with me whatsoever. Hey, what's with all the damn sci-fi stories?? None of this is eerie in any way!
Finally, we have "The Pea-Green-Boat Dutchman" by Budd Lewis and Leopold Sanchez, which is actually an attempt at a horror story. The art by Sanchez is nice, but I have to admit, after four consecutive stories of virtually the same art style, it all starts to blend together. The last few pages of the magazine had the standard Warren "Captain Company" ad pages, filled with amazing, drool-worthy books, records, posters, and other goodies. In some later Warrens, these would be the best pages of the issue...
1 comment:
Bill DuBay!! Neglected master of illustrated fantasy. You can't read anything Warren put out during this era without being drawn into the Bill DuBay stories, The Rook being the best of all.
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