Warren Publishing
Warren Publishing is a magazine firm founded by James Warren, who published his first magazines in 1957 and continued in the business for decades. Magazines published by Warren include
After Hours,
Creepy,
Eerie,
Famous Monsters of Filmland,
Favorite Westerns of Filmland,
The Goblin,
Help!,
Monster World,
The Rook,
Screen Thrills Illustrated,
Spacemen, and
Vampirella.
|
Vampirella #1 (Sept. 1969), cover art by Frank Frazetta. |
Fantasy films were the focus of
Famous Monsters of Filmland and
Monster World, edited by
Forrest J. Ackerman. After first introducing what he called "Monster Comics" in
Monster World, Warren expanded in 1965 with
horror-
comics stories in what would become a highly popular duo of magazines,
Creepy and
Eerie. They were created partly in response to the
Comics Code Authority, established in 1954 to help ensure comics were suitable for parents. By publishing graphic stories in a magazine format to which the Code did not apply, Warren paved the way for such later graphic-story magazines as the
American version of
Heavy Metal,
Marvel Comics'
Epic Illustrated and Warren's own line of magazines.
Russ Jones, the founding editor of
Creepy in 1964, detailed the magazine's origins and his lengthy negotiations with Warren in the memoir
"Creepy & Eerie" at his website. In 1965,
Archie Goodwin joined Warren as the editor of
Creepy, and
Joe Orlando was a behind-the-scenes story editor. Goodwin, who would become one of comics' foremost and most influential writers, helped to establish the company as a major force in its field.
Warren's success eventually gave
Marvel Comics,
DC Comics and
Charlton Comics the impetus to re-enter the horror field, leading to a 1970s revival of horror comics.
In 1973, new editor
Bill DuBay transformed Warren's magazines to create a uniform style. The following year, Warren Publishing was dissolved and replaced by Warren Communications, a sister company James Warren had founded in 1972.
Louise Jones headed the editorial staff from 1976 to 1980, followed by DuBay's return. As the decade progressed, James Warren's bad health combined with changing tastes and business problems led to the company declaring bankruptcy. In August 1983,
Harris Publications acquired company assets at auction, although legal murkiness and a 1998 lawsuit by James Warren resulted in his reacquisition of the rights to
Creepy and
Eerie, though no new material since has been published.
|
Creepy #22 (Aug. 1968), cover art by Tom Sutton. |
Other Warren publications included the short-lived
Pantha and the science-fiction magazines
The Rook (which published the further adventures of a character that first appeared in
Eerie) and
1984 (which changed its name to
1994 after issue #10). An acclaimed anthology of war stories,
Blazing Combat, had a brief, four-issue run.
Goblin had a briefer 3-issue run.
The Spirit revived the classic
Will Eisner character with reprints of the seven-page, Sunday-supplement comic of 1940s and 1950s
newspapers. It featured new covers by Eisner and an occasional color reprint. It would later move to
Kitchen Sink Press.
Illustrators included such established artists as Orlando,
Neal Adams,
Gene Colan,
Frank Frazetta,
Roy G. Krenkel,
Gray Morrow,
Al Williamson and
Wally Wood, plus a newer group of talents, including
Dan Adkins,
Richard Bassford,
Roger Brand,
Frank Brunner,
Rich Buckler,
Dave Cockrum,
Nicola Cuti,
Richard Corben, Al Hewetson,
Ken Kelly,
Mike Royer,
Tom Sutton and
Boris Vallejo.
Cover artists for
Creepy and
Eerie included Adkins, Frazetta, Kelly, Morrow, Sutton,
Ken Barr,
Vaughn Bodé,
Pat Boyette, Ron Cobb, Richard Conway,
Jack Davis,
H.R. Giger, Basil Gogos, Bill Hughes,
Terrance Lindall, Gutenberg Monteiro, Albert Nuetzell, Vic Prezo, Manuel Sanjulian, Vincente Segrelles, Kenneth Smith, and Enrich Torres
The first known
interracial kiss in mainstream comics (as opposed to
underground comix) occurred in Warren's
Creepy #43 (Jan. 1972), in "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by writer
Don McGregor and artist
Luis Garcia. McGregor would later script color comic books' first known interracial kiss, in an issue of
Amazing Adventures, starring
Killraven.
The unrelated
Warren Publishing of Cornelius, North Carolina publishes literary fiction and nonfiction, medical books, poetry and children's books. Also unrelated is the black-and-white horror magazine publisher
Eerie Publications.
*
Philadelphia City Paper, Jan. 6-12,2005: "Jim Warren Meets Vampirella"*
"The Warren Magazines", by Richard J. Arndt (History, bibliography, interviews)
*
The Comics Journal #253: "The Vampirella Wars"*
Creepy and Eerie
