March 1973 - I love this super-spooky Gothic cover by Sanjulian for this issue of Eerie!The inside-cover story is "Portrait of Dracula" by Fred Ott and Auraleon, which presents some of the grim realities of Vlad the Impaler.
First up is "Dracula", featuring the Prince of Darkness in sort of a spin-off from a storyline in Vampirella, by Bill DuBay and Tom Sutton.
Sutton does a fantastic job on the art, constantly shifting the angle of the shots and the perspective, so you constantly feel off-balance and hence a little queasy, almost. To make things even more unsettling, Sutton of course could put horror and humor right next to each other, like this cartoony yet gruesome depiction of a witch:
Third is "Garganza!" by Bill Warren and Paul Neary, a pretty straightforward giant monster story. Author Bill Warren(no relation to Jim, as far as I know)'s love of old 50's sci-fi is well known, so I imagine this story is the kind of movie he always wanted to see.
Next is "The Root of Evil", a mad scientist tale. Kind of a silly premise, but the art joby by Martin Salvador is so spot-on and real that it sells the piece. I love this detailed splash page:
"Planet of the Werewolves" is by Gerry Boudreau and Reed Crandall about an ill-fated space exploratory mission; not one one Crandall's best art jobs(looks a tad rushed to me).
After fourteen pages of Captain Company ads(hobby kits! hardcover comic strip collections! puzzles! monster pins and patches! a giant pink hand!), the issue wraps up with Dax the Warrior in "The Giant", featuring our titular hero fighting a giant cyclops to save the life of your typical sexy, mostly-undressed sword-and-sorcery babe.
An ok issue, some good stuff, some merely ok stuff. A Tom Sutton is always a joy to behold.
After fourteen pages of Captain Company ads(hobby kits! hardcover comic strip collections! puzzles! monster pins and patches! a giant pink hand!), the issue wraps up with Dax the Warrior in "The Giant", featuring our titular hero fighting a giant cyclops to save the life of your typical sexy, mostly-undressed sword-and-sorcery babe.
An ok issue, some good stuff, some merely ok stuff. A Tom Sutton is always a joy to behold.
3 comments:
EERIE #46 was a pretty darn significant issue in the Warren canon. Although Dax had made his debut a few months earlier, I think this issue, with Dracula as a headliner, was the first real issue that started to feature the series the title became most known (or remembered) for. Soon enough, ongoing sagas of werewolves and mummies and demon-hunters and lots more would fill EERIE's pages. Along with Marvel's four-color horror adventures of Dracula, Frankenstein, werewolves and mummies, the Seventies were a primo time for a monster movie lover who collected comics as well.
I remebember Garganza and the Dax story. One of the few Dax stories where he doesn't end up in in some sort of defeat, if I remember correctly...
I love Tom Sutton's art. I like the work that has some exaggeration to it. it adds some life to it.
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