AT LONG LAST: WARREN ARCHIVES!!!

THE CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 1.

The other day when I re-ran that old article about the excellence of Warren Publications' classic horror comics such as CREEPY and EERIE, I neglected to add this important piece of supplementary information: Dark Horse is reprinting both CREEPY and EERIE in archival editions, and they are just plain gaw-juss.

THE CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 2.

Each volume reprints five issues of the given series, and thus far there are two volumes of THE CREEPY ARCHIVES available (with a third due in April) and one of THE EERIE ARCHIVES that's due out in March. These books feature some of the finest art and stories ever seen in American comics and these early collections are loaded with work by Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, Frank Frazetta, Gray Morrow, John Severin, Reed Crandall...

Need I go on?

THE CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 3.

It's all a must for any serious collection and certainly cheaper than tracking down mint condition copies of the individual issues, and they can all be had via Amazon for nearly twenty bucks less than the in-shop price, so what the hell are you waiting for? When mine arrive I'll review them in detail ASAP, but I can say this right now: while the material found in the early days of both CREEPY and EERIE is beyond reproach, it's still very much like what if the E.C. line had happened ten years later than it did; it's all very good, but the work that endeared Warren's output to me didn't really surface until the early-1970's, specifically when the former-E.C. crew moved over and made room for a staggering array of South American artists, budding homegrown writers with a seriously unhinged sensibility, and the unmatched artwork of Richard Corben, an artist whose praises I cannot shout enough. Put simply, the early stuff was the old guard laying a groundwork with a very high standard of quality and a respect for an adult (but not pornographic) sensibility, and the latter stuff too up that standard and went gloriously out of control with it for several years-worth of beautifully-illustrated, flat-out fucking sick shit.

It'll take a little while to get to the period of stuff that makes me smile at the mere thought of it, but it's gonna be a hell of a lot of fun getting there!

THE EERIE ARCHIVES VOLUME 1.