This is a weird, half-page anti-smoking PSA that Warren ran in early issues, drawn by none other than Frank Frazetta! (click here to see a readable version)As you can see, it's a classic, with that behind-the-woman shot being about as salacious as you could get in a comic book. She makes me want to take up smoking and then give it up.
In The Warren Companion, there's a photo of Frank delivering the original to Jim in his office. In Frank's other hand? A cigarette...
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Warren had a social conscience. He ran those ads free and paid the artist out of his own pocket.
I was in Warren’s office in the early 70s, and I watched as he went orbital on the phone. He had given ad space to the American Cancer Society and their advertising company had sent in an ad featuring Casper, The Friendly Ghost. Warren was livid. He felt that, a) The ad skewed too young for his readers, b) Using a character that is, basically, a dead child, was a stupid idea in a Cancer ad, and c) The cute Friendly Ghost was wildly inappropriate in a magazine that dealt with scary ghosts and monsters.
It was Warren at his best, and I think I learned 2 or 3 new swear words that day.
YOU WERE IN THE WARREN OFFICES??? explain!
There is comic store in Buffalo that has had this hanging on the wall as long as time.
I think this was actually the last "comic" frazetta ever drew. I love the way they used "tuff" in the title--when i was a kid it was "the" word (as opposed to "cool"), but never seemed to make it into the popular culture. Was it just a NY-area thing?
That girl's butt in the second panel helped me through puberty! Just a beautifully drawn strip.
Joe, the girl’s butt in the second panel not only got me through puberty, it’s helped me through my mid-life crisis as well.
Rob, it’s a LONG story, with too many anecdotes, but I’ll give you the bullet points for now. Through the mid-70s, I was starting out as a comic book artist (publishing in Quebec) and I’d travel to New York for Phil Seuling’s Comicon.
- I first visited Jim Warren in July 73. He said “I’ll give you 15 minutes, that’s it.” I went in, we talked, we hit it off, and those 15 minutes turned into 90 minutes of pure joy.
- Later that week, I did a one-hour interview with Warren on videotape. It’s now in the archives at the University of Montreal.
- I saw Warren again in September and, a year later, in July 74, he helicoptered me out to spend an afternoon at his beach house on Long Island. He pointed at me and said I was sitting in a chair where, the day before, a Hammer Films writer had sat working on the Vampirella script.
- One of these days I’ll tell you about the time I recovered a briefcase Warren had lost. Like I said, tons of anecdotes.
By the way, on those same trips, I visited Carmine Infantino, then editor in chief at DC. I once spent an afternoon there in the production department with Jack Abel. An envelope came in, he opened it, and it was a batch of Swamp Thing pencils by Bernie Wrightson. I visited Bill Gaines at Mad, I hung out with Sean Kelly at The National Lampoon, Marv Wolfman gave me a tour of the Marvel Bullpen, and I visited Will Eisner in his studio. I also interviewed Eisner on tape when I got him to come to Montreal for a convention. Oh, and I went up to see Al Hewetson at Skywald, too. More? OK, I once had a spaghetti dinner at Harvey Kurtzman’s home.
One time, I talked a fellow cartoonist into phoning his idol, Steve Ditko, and I listened in while they chatted for half an hour. Then we called Milton Glaser just to ask him where we could get the best hero sandwich in New York. He gave us a choice of 3 addresses.
I used go to New York 3 or 4 times a year, just to charge my creative batteries. I’d go bar hopping with Howard Chaykin, and he’d introduce me to the girls as Pierre, the new Rangers goalie.
I did the rounds again in the 80s when was the inker on the Marvel/Star Comics Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham.
Still more name-dropping? Check my Frankenstein blog this weekend. I’ve got a post going up about the time I met Osamu Tezuka.
Hehe.
holy crap...
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