By: Various By: Various Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 240 Publication Date: September 03, 2008
Product Description: Gather up your wooden stakes, your blood-covered hatchets, and all the skeletons in the darkest depths of your closet, and prepare for a horrifying adventure into the darkest corners of comics history. Dark Horse Comics further corners the market on high-quality horror storytelling with one of the most anticipated releases of the decade - a hardcover archive collection of the legendary Creepy Magazine! This groundbreaking material turned the world of graphic storytelling on its head in the early 1960s, as phenomenal young artists like Bernie Wrightson and Neal Adams reached new artistic heights with their fascinating explorations of classic and modern horror stories.
A pleasure for your senses Creepy and Eerie are the finest and the most graphically sophisticated horror comics since E.C. Comics' stupid cancellation. Although cleary inspired by Gaine's comics, Creepy has a voice of his own, and a lightness of touch, economic elegance and delicacy of style lacking in the "holy trinity" of E.C.' horror line, thanks to the beautifully concise and elegant scripts written by the criminally underrated Archie Goodwin and the exceptionally fine artistic team. The art is a thing of beauty and a pleasure for the eyes. Here you'll find such greats as Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Reed Crandall, among others in top form. The overall quality of the tales is high and some few like Succcess Story, Untimely Tomb! and the masterful adaptations of literary horror tales like The Tell-Tale Heart and Judge's House (the last two magnificently drawn by Crandall) are masterpieces of sequential art. This volume is expensive but worth buying.
Personal ratings:
Creepy Archives Vol.1:
Creepy #1:
Voodoo! =============================== ***1/2 H2O World! ============================ ***1/2 Vampires Fly At Dusk! ================= ****1/2 Werewolf! ============================= ***1/2 Bewitched! ============================ **** The Success Story ===================== ***** Pursuit Of The Vampire! =============== ****1/2
Creepy #2:
Fun And Games! ======================== **** Spawn Of The Cat People =============== **** Wardrobe Of Monsters! ================= ****1/2 Welcome Stranger ====================== ***1/2 I, Robot ============================== **** Ogres Castle ========================= ****
Monster Rally! ======================== ****1/2 Blood And Orchids! ==================== ****1/2 The Damned Thing! ===================== ****1/2 Moon City! ============================ **1/2 Curse Of The Full Moon!================ **** The Trial Of Adam Link! =============== ***1/2
Creepy #5:
Family Reunion!======================= ****1/2 Untimely Tomb!======================== ***** Sand Doom ============================ ****1/2 The Judges House! =================== ***** Grave Undertaking ==================== **** Revenge Of The Beast! ================ ****
Dark Horse Does It Right! Wow! I just can't believe how beautiful this book is. This is no second rate "we'll put it out to cash in on older collectors" book. I have almost all of the original magazine with only a few gaps and while there's just nothing like opening those old pages and getting the feel and smell of the old magazine, I think this will do just fine. The pages are heavy stock, shiny, and the same size as the original mags. The first five covers are reproduced in glorious color. I had forgotten just how good the artwork in those magazines were. This will save me a small fortune hunting down the missing gaps in my Creepy, and hopefully, Eerie and Vampirella collections. I do hope that Dark Horse gives the same treatment to Eerie and Vampirella. I could die a happy man if they do.
Creepy Memories An extremely well produced series by Dark Horse of a great old horror magazine. Great stuff.
Boring Pictures I love monsters and horror artwork (especially vintage monsters) so I bought this on a whim not knowing what it was about. Sadly I was not at all happy with this book. It's mostly in black and white and the few covers that are in color kind of look crappy but I guess that's because they are reprints of older mags/comics (?) I also thought the monsters were quite lacking..there seemed to be more strips with just people. I just wasn't feeling this art at all.
The Greatest Magazine Ever? Will all due respect to Playboy, Creepy may very well be the greatest magazine ever. Premiering in 1964, Creepy filled the huge void for true horror comics that was left when EC Comics was essentially forced out of business over a decade earlier. Because it was a magazine, it did not need to be approved by the Comics Code Authority and thus could showcase stories filled with monsters, ghouls, and gore that regular comics could not.
Warren Publishing, already well known for their Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, put out the magazine. Creepy brought together a collection of artists unparalleled on a single title. These included former EC comics alums Frank Frazetta, Reed Crandall, Al Williamson, Jack Davis, George Evans, Joe Orlando, and Angelo Torres in what was, for all intents and purposes, an EC Comics revival. Creepy was headed by Editor Archie Goodwin, a long time EC fanatic and its stories were in the "EC Style" meaning they were 6 - 8 pages in length and utilized satire and irony,
The first hardcover volume collects the first five issues of Creepy. It's a magazine-sized book so the original aspect of the art has been maintained. However, you not only get the stories and cover art, but also the original letter columns and even original ads with all those great Captain Company products you could mail away for.
The first issue features an incredible rarity as it includes the last illustrated comic story that Frank Frazetta ever did before he would go onto produce primarily covers. For those who only know Frazetta for his covers, it is a rare treat to see just how good he was as a comic artist. Without the conveniences (or need) of modern computer enhancement techniques, Frazetta simply puts most modern artists to shame. There simply is nothing finer than outstanding black & white comic book art. The story "Werewolf" isn't anything special plot-wise, but the power and elegance of Frazetta's art is the attraction. Frazetta would go on to produce the covers for Creepy # 2 - 5, with Jack Davis getting the honor for the first issue.
Like EC's horror comics, the magazine had its own host, Uncle Creepy, who introduced each tale with puns or humorous quips. Beginning with the #3, each issue adapted a famous horror tale. Issue #3 featured "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe; #4 included Ambrose Bierce's "The Damned Thing"; and #5 featured Bram Stoker's "The Judge's House".
There's not a great deal of plot diversity...lots of stories with vampires, werewolves, and zombies and such, but it's the ride that is the thrill. One of the better tales finds a comic creator who pays three creators to do the work for him while he takes all the credit. When the three discover his ruse they are killed but the ghouls will have the last laugh in the end.
Dark Horse has given fans a wonderful gift by obtaining the rights to republish these classic stories. There simply isn't anything else like Creepy Magazine in today's marketplace, at least not yet! Dark Horse will be coming out with an all-new Creepy Magazine in 2009.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
