In 2022, Broken Frontier reported on the launch of the Dark Horse Comics Creepy and Eerie paperback collections that reprint the original horror comics magazines from Warren Publishing. For this article, I spent the weekend with my Dad, Tim Egleton, discussing all things Creepy as inspired by Creepy Volume 6, the latest book from the Dark Horse Archives. For context, my Dad taught my sister, Lily, and I everything we know about comics. He started collecting horror comics with the Dracula Lives featuring the Legion of Monsters Marvel Comics UK weeklies.
Art by Frank Frazetta
Creepy Volume 6 collects #26 to #32 of the original magazine, including original letters pages, text features and selected adverts in a format that has been designed to be more affordable than the initial hardcover collection which spanned across 29 volumes. Creepy Volume 6 is a year’s worth of the bimonthly magazine, with #26 dated as April 1969 and #32 dated as April 1970. The book features an introduction by the president of Gemstone Publishing, J. C. Vaughn.
Art by Vic Prezio
Upon first glance of the book, the coloured covers catch the eye. Creepy #27 and #32 are painted by the iconic Frank Frazetta whilst Creepy #28 and #29 are illustrated by the prolific pulp-artist Vic Prezio. Dad particularly likes the skeletal bat-like monster on the cover of #28… a true creature of nightmares! With a talent-pool of legendary artists, the book is worth purchasing just to admire the Creepy covers and their interiors.
Art by Vic Prezio
As far as the stories are concerned, readers are sure to get their fix of the typical horror promised by the Creepy magazine. The comics showcase most of what the Comic Code Authority attempted to ban at the time. One standout story, titled ‘The Rock God’ (pages below) is from #32, and is written by the Hugo Award-winning scribe Harlan Ellison and illustrated by comics legend Neal Adams, who first started on the book with #14. Reportedly, this story was inspired by Ellison’s desire to base his script on Frazetta’s next cover.
Another story, titled ‘A Stranger in Town’ from Creepy #26 is written by Bill Parente with art by the great Tom Sutton. In this story, a lost traveller quickly becomes a monster’s meal. Sometimes, an ending like this is expected. In other Creepy stories, the endings are completely unexpected. Now, when I asked Dad how a reader might differentiate between a typical Warren publication and an EC horror comic, he raised the interesting idea that whilst the stories in Creepy are told in good fun and as a reaction to the Comics Code Authority, the horror stories of an EC comic were often told with a moral to learn. We look forward to seeing if this pattern of storytelling will continue in the Oni Press reboot of the EC horror line.
Overall, there is so much good to say about this archive of stories. We spoke about ‘Summer House’, a story written by Barbara Gelman with art by Ernie Colón from Creepy #29 as I admired seeing a female creator on the book and the fantastic writings of Don Glut and the popular illustrations of Tony Tallarico. When flicking through this book, you can almost imagine what it must have felt like to pick up your copy of Creepy directly from the top shelves of a newsstand at the time of their publication. With great stories by top-tier creators who each had fascinating careers in comics, we think that these Creepy trade paperbacks are an excellent way in which to unlock comic book history and potentially introduce these classic horror comics to a whole new audience.
Further Reading
If you want to know more about the publisher behind Creepy, check out James Warren: Empire of Monsters: The Man Behind Creepy, Vampirella, and Famous. This definitive biography by Bill Schelly, published by Fantagraphics, is heavily illustrated and is a must-have companion to the archives.
Series Editor: Bill Parente • Dark Horse Comics, $24.99
Review by Ellie Egleton with Tim Egleton
