That is one dark cover, courtesy Ken Smith. I like it, though--a little more low-key than usual.Tom Sutton brings us another chapter of "Creepy's Loathsome Lore", this time about body snatchers and the biggest "body" snatching of all!
First up is "One Way To Break The Boredom" by James Haggenmiller and Jack Sparling, about a guy who makes a deal with the Devil to turn into a vampire, and is then surprised it all goes wrong. Goofy fun, though Sparling's art is a just a tad sloppy for my tastes.
"Weird World", by Nicola Cuti and Sutton, about a space explorer that lands on a planet that seems like paradise, featuring dinosaurs and a beautiful woman(like we saw on the cover), but it turns out the planet is not quite what it seems. Another fun tale.
Third is "Frankenstein is A Clown" by Bill Warren and Carlos Garzon, about a kiddie-show host that finds himself becoming a real monster. Really unusual premise, not totally pulled off, but pretty different.
Next is "On the Wings of A Bird" by T.Casey Brennan and Jerry Grandinetti, which means we're in for cool layouts and a kick-ass splash page, and this story is no exception:
A very dark story about a man learning the depths of torment one soul can experience. As always, a nice art job by Grandinetti."Forbidden Journey" is by Greg Theakston and Rich Buckler, about four space explorers who visit another dangerous planet. Didn't they read "Weird World"?
Next is "If A Body Meet A Body" by R.Michael Rosen and Sparling. It's a classic guy-who-doesn't-know-he's-dead story, which always works and does again fairly well here.
Last is "Frozen Beauty", written and drawn by Richard Corben, which I believe is the very first story he ever did for Warren. A grim, gory tale with a real gut-punch of an ending, made only more unsettling by Corben's cartoony style. The first of many distinctive stories he would go on to do for the company.
All in all, not a bad issue--a copy of dull spots, but any issue with contributions by Sutton, Grandinetti, and Corben means you're in for some creepy fun!
4 comments:
I have this one. I got it for fifteen bucks at a comic book convention up here in Seattle. I should get around to reading it, but I spend all my time looking at its wonderful art. I love this blog by the way.
anon-
thank you very much! glad you enjoy it!
Notable issue for two things with me, one good and one bad.
The good is obviously the debut of Richard Corben. Quite possibly the best American artist to ever work for Warren. While his best work is in color, his black & white like this story weren't bad either and he was a fairly good writer too.
The bad is Brennan's heavily overrated "On The Wings of a Bird" which absurdly enough won the Warren Award for best story that year. Sure, Grandenetti as usual does a good job with the art, but Brennan's story is horrifically boring and goes nowhere. So many of his stories, like this story's sequel "Escape From Nowhere World" as well as "The Climbers of the Tower", "Dungeons of the Soul" and others were nonscensical garbage that were a complete waste of time.
-Quiddity99
I would have to say that one of my favorite tales from this issue was "If a Body Meet a Body". It seems like it came right out of EC. They were all pretty creepy, like in that "Twilight Zone" sort of way.
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