Creepy #18 - Warren

A nice cover by Vic Prezio, and it occurs to me that, for the most part, you really don't see many horror stories set on the high seas. You'd think just that setting alone would help you in trying to scare the reader, since it hits a little closer to home than, say, vampires or deals with the Devil.

"Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is all about ape-men/missing links and is by Roy Krenkel, and the first story is "Mountain of the Monster Gods!" by Ron White and Roger Brand, about two overeager explorers. It's feet are firmly planted in the Downward Spiral of Warren era, when the stories were silly in the extreme and the art was nowhere near the standards Warren itself had set.

Second is "The Rescue of the Morning Maid!" by Raymond Marais and Rocco Mastroserio, about a group of monstrous, disfigured people living on the margins of a small village. Not as bad as the opening tale, but nothing special, and even at just ten pages it feels like it goes on forever.

Third is "Act, Three!" by Johnny Craig, about a mismatched couple whose marriage goes horribly, murderously wrong. A very fun, black-humor tale, it feels like it was ripped right out of Crime SuspenStories.

Next is "Footsteps of Frankenstein!" by Archie Goodwin and Reed Crandall, yet another gloss on the Frankenstein story, but with a real bang! of an ending.

Last is "Out of Her Head!" by Clark Dimond, Terry Brisson, and Jack Sparling, a very silly horror tale set in the swingin' sixties! There's a reason why most horror tales are either set in olden times or a generic era--trying to mix in hipness and horror rarely works, and doesn't here.

We've definitely taken a few giant steps into Warren's first bad era, when Jim himself, loaded with debt and overworked, was editing the magazines and he just couldn't put the time in that was needed. A lot of the best artists and writers had moved on, and their replacements were scarcely more edgy than the stuff you saw in Charlton horror comics, and in some cases(like "Mountain of the Monster Gods!") even less so.