Creepy #39 - Warren

May 1971 - This issue of Creepy is blessed with a gorgeous, intriguing cover by The Man, Basil Gogos. I love that little hunchbacked guy!

The inside cover features an installment of "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" about "The Evil Eye" (pull out an American dollar bill and check the top of the pyramid to see what we're talking about), and then the issue starts proper with "Where Satan Dwells", by Al Hewetson and Sal Trapani, starring Uncle Creepy himself!:

Not a bad story, but it seems weird to have Creepy interacting with "regular" people.

Hewetson, of course, would soon go on to start his own line of horror mags at Skywald, making him persona non grata to Jim Warren.

Next up is "C.O.D.--Collect on Death!" by Dave Wood and Dave Cockrum:

...another interesting story, and it's interesting to see it rendered in Cockrum's uber-clean style. Nice twist ending.

Third is "The Water World" by Buddy Saunders and Pablo Marcos:

...probably the best story in the issue: three guys stuck in a raft in the middle of the unforgiving ocean is a can't-miss setting for a horror story. The ending is a little goofy, but Marcos (another guy who do a lot of work over at Skywald) really pulls off the look of three guys slowly starving to death and getting more dessicated by the hour.

Next is "Death of the Wizard" by Pat Boyette:

The story didn't do that much for me (my eyes tend to glaze over when wizards start showing up), but Boyette turns in a killer art job here.

Next is "Harvest of Horror" by Phil Seuling and Frank Brunner:

...scarecrows, like clowns, are inherently spooky.

Next is "The Dragon Prow!" by Steve Skeates and Richard Bassford:

A typically fun story by Skeates, featuring a Wood-ish art job by Bassford (no wonder; Bassford worked with/for the master on several projects). Great ending.

After a two-page "Who Drew What?" feature (featuring twelve anonymous drawings by Warren regulars--including one by Warren himself!), there's "Creepy's Fan Club", and then the usual assortment of Captain Company products.

But they manage to cram in one more story, "Mad Jack's Girl" by Gary Kaufman:

...sadly, this story is typical of Warren at its low period. Not to pick on a story that's almost forty years old, but the artwork here is barely fanzine level, and its kinda sad to think this was a magazine that, not too long before, was running work by Frazetta, Craig, Ditko, Orlando, etc.

Luckily, for all of us, things got a lot better at Warren not too long after this!