Creepy #83 - Warren

I've been profiling a lot of the odder moments from Warren the last few posts, so I thought for today I'd just talk about a classic example of what made Warren so great.

Creepy #83 is an awesome collection of talent, creating both story and art that was uniquely Warren. Yeah, some of it is reprinted from previous issues, but Senior Editor Louise Jones sure knew what selections to put together.

Behind a nice Frazetta cover and then a Bernie Wrightson frontspiece is "The Strange Incurable Hauntings of Terrible Phineas Boggs" by Bill DuBay and John Severin, a simultaneously funny and creepy story of hauntings and paranoia. Severin's direct, non-flashy way of storytelling grounds this strange story and makes it real.

Next is the classic "Process of Elimination" by the unbeatable team of Bruce Jones and Russ Heath. A man systematically kills his wife, his kids, and his mistress, before the ending makes you rethink everything you just read. Third is "Country Pie" by Jones again and Carmine Infantino. I've never been a big fan of Mr. Infantino's art past, say, 1970, but his very DC-Marvel-esque style works a nice contrast to the more unusual Bruce Jones type of story. A man picks up some hitchhikers, and things go wrong from there.

The real masterpiece of the issue is "In Deep", a color feature written by (you guessed it) Bruce Jones and art by Richard Corben. A man, a woman, stranded in the ocean surrounded by sharks. As creepy as you'd imagine. Corben was handling the coloring himself, and his unusual use of it makes the story even more effective.

"Harvey Was a Sharp Cookie", by Bill DuBay and Jose Ortiz is a good old-fashioned tale of revenge (no sharks, thankfully). "Now You See It" is by Bruce Jones(!) and Al Williamson, a lighter fantasy tale that allows Williamson to draw some of his favorite stuff--dinosaurs, rocketships, a damsel in distress, and a guy with a raygun.

Carmine Infantino, nothing if not prolific, is back with "The Last Superhero", written by Cary Bates, which to me is the only even-slightly weak moment of the issue. Sure, its still a superhero story filtered through the Warren sensibility, but its still weird to see a superhero of any stripe in a magazine like Creepy. I guess the argument for it is, yeah, its a superhero story, but probably not one you'd ever find in a DC or Marvel comic.

That quibble aside, we finish the issue up with some of those classic Captain Company ads, and you've got one of the finest single issues Warren ever produced!