Pow! - Warren

We're going to do something a little different today, in that we'll talk about a magazine that never existed.

Pow! is one of most famous of the "lost" Warren projects that, for one reason or another, never saw the light of day. In this case, Pow! got a little closer than some others, in that a cover was commissioned, one story completed, and the others sent out to the artists. It was to be the brainchild of Wally Wood and Nick Cuti, so let's first hear from Nick about it when he was interviewed for TwoMorrows' The Warren Companion:

Unfortunately, Nick and Jim Warren had an argument over the editorship of Pow!, and after the problems with Wood, the whole project collapsed(Cuti and Warren later reconciled and Nick even went on to join Warren's staff).

Frank Frazetta created a painting for the first issue, a mix of the adventure, humor, quasi-horror, and sex-themed kind of material that Pow! would run. When Pow! collapsed, it was repurposed for Eerie #81:

Fun!

Maybe this is what Pow! #1 mighta looked like:

(...well, maybe not, but I had fun doing it.)

Anyway, Nick talked a little more with TwoMorrows about the magazine, about what they were going for:

The one(known) story completed, "Last Train to Levittown"(written by Cuti and drawn by the irresistible combination of Ernie Colon and Wally Wood) was later run in 1984 #5 as "I Wonder Who's Squeezing Her Now?"(definitely NSFW):

Pow! indeed!

It's a real shame this book never quite made it, I think a magazine spearheaded by Wally Wood and Nick would've been a blast, not being limited to a specific genre.

Of course, Pow! could've been a short-lived effort, and it may seem more amazing by the fact that we never got to see it. But going by the talent behind the book, and from the cover and one story meant for it, I think Pow! would've been a fine addition to the Warren stable.