James Warren and co. resurrected the spirit of EC Comics…
By PETER BOSCH
It was 1964 and possibly the greatest era for horror stories and movies since the dawn of the 20th century. All the great horror classics were reissued in paperbacks, great film monsters were brought back anew by studios such as Hammer Films, along with a slew of Edgar Allan Poe adapted stories from American International Pictures. Vampires, werewolves, monsters, and more… all old friends from late night TV were striding the land with their evil once more.
Even horror comics had a bit of a return (from Dell, Marvel, and DC) but always still feeling the restraint of the Comics Code Authority. James Warren was about to make horror comics scary again.
Warren had been publishing Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland since 1958, but nowhere was there a decent line of horror comics since the EC line in the early 1950s. With the combined help of writers Russ Jones, Larry Ivie, and Al Williamson, Warren gathered together many of E.C.’s greatest artists, as well as newer scribes such as Archie Goodwin, for the first issue of Creepy — released Nov. 4, 1964, 60 years ago.
Jack Davis cover.
After this, Warren instigated Eerie and then Vampirella. There were myriad imitators from other publishers, but Warren’s horror magazines remained the best, as you can see from the below 13 IMAGES from Creepy #1:
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Jack Davis interior front cover art
Story: Russ Jones and Bill Pearson. Art: Joe Orlando.
Story: Larry Ivie. Art: Al Williamson and Roy Krenkel.
Story: Archie Goodwin. Art: Reed Crandall.
Story: Larry Ivie. Art: Frank Frazetta.
Story: Larry Ivie. Art: Frank Frazetta.
Larry Ivie. Art: Gray Morrow.
Story: Archie Goodwin. Art: Al Williamson.
Story: Archie Goodwin. Art: Al Williamson.
Story: Archie Goodwin. Art: Angelo Torres.
Story: Archie Goodwin. Art: Angelo Torres.
Interior back cover art: Frank Frazetta
No issue of a Warren magazine would be complete without the merchandise ads.
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MORE
— MATT WAGNER: My 13 Favorite Versions of DRACULA. Click here.
— An INSIDE LOOK at CRYPTOLOGY — TwoMorrows’ Delightfully Ooky New Horror Mag. Click here.
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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. A sequel, about movie comics, is coming in 2025. Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.
November 4, 2024
I looked at Creepy when it was on the stands in its early years. But I was in grade school and it was too creepy for me! 🙂 Thanks for this commemoration!
November 5, 2024
I had turned 10 recently when I found that issue on the newsstand at the local drug store. I imagine it had the same effect on me that the original EC Comics (which I knew nothing about) had on any similar 10-year-olds a decade earlier. I still reread those first 18 or so great issues every couple years.