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. Creepy was a horror-comics magazine launched by Warren Publishing in 1964. ... Look up eerie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Famous Monsters of Filmland #14, October 1961 issue. ... Help! Harvey Kurtzmans longest-running magazine project after leaving Mad Magazine and EC Publications, Help! (1960-1965) was a chronically underfunded but innovative magazine published by James Warren, who was also publishing successful monster-movie and horror comics magazines simultaneously. ... The Rook is a fictional character whose adventures were chronicled in The Rook comic book by Warren Publishing. ... Vampirella is a comic book vampire heroine created by Forrest J. Ackerman for Warren Publishings namesake black-and-white horror-comics magazine, and developed by Archie Goodwin with artists Frank Frazetta and Tom Sutton. ...

Vampirella #1 (Sept. 1969), cover art by Frank Frazetta.

Image File history File links Vampirella1. ... Image File history File links Vampirella1. ...

Birth of the company

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. Forrest J Ackerman (born November 24, 1916 in Los Angeles, California) is a legendary science fiction fan and collector of science fiction-related memorabilia. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ... The seal of the Comics Code Authority, which appears on the covers of approved comic books. ... Jean-Michel Nicollets cover for the first issue. ... It has been suggested that Felicia (pseudonym) be merged into this article or section. ... Epic Illustrated was a bi-monthly large format anthology series published by Marvel Comics for 34 issues between 1980-1986. ...

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. Cover painting by Russ Jones Debut issue of Creepy, edited by Russ Jones in 1963 for Warren Publishing. ... Archie Goodwin (September 9, 1937 – February 28, 1998) was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. ... Joe Orlando was an illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist who was born April 4, 1927, in Bari, Italy, and died December 23, 1998, in Manhattan. ...

Establishing a franchise

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. It has been suggested that Felicia (pseudonym) be merged into this article or section. ... DC Comics (originally called Detective Comics, Inc. ... Big C logo, used from Sept. ...

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. Louise Simonson (born Mary Louise Alexander) is an American comic book writer and editor. ... Harris Publications is the publisher of King magazine, XXL, Guitar World, and Revolver, among other titles. ...

Other magazines

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. Image File history File links Creepy22. ... Image File history File links Creepy22. ... The Rook is a fictional character whose adventures were chronicled in The Rook comic book by Warren Publishing. ...

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. The Spirit (real name Denny Colt) is a fictional masked crime-fighter, created by Will Eisner in 1940, who starred in a Sunday-newspaper comic-book insert. ... William Erwin Eisner (born March 6, 1917, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States; died January 3, 2005, Lauderdale Lakes, Florida) was an acclaimed American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. ... Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publisher in from the late 1960s until the late 1990s when it went out of business. ...

Artists

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. Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (April 1970), the first of a landmark run by artist Neal Adams and writer Denny ONeil. ... Gene Colan (born September 1, 1926) is an American comic book illustrator who sometimes worked under the name Adam Austin. ... Frank Frazetta (born February 9, 1928) is one of the worlds most influential fantasy and science fiction artists. ... Roy G. Krenkel, (1918-1983) was an American illustrator who specialized in fantasy drawings and paintings. ... Gray Morrow (March 7, 1934 - November 6, 2001) was an American illustrator of paperback books and comics. ... Al Williamson Al Williamson (March 21, 1931 - ) is an American cartoonist of partly Colombian descent. ... Wallace Wally Wood (born June 17, 1927, Menahga, Minnesota, United States; died November 2, 1981), was an American writer-artist best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. ... Dan Adkins, born 1937 in East Liverpool, Ohio, United States, is a prolific American illustrator who worked mainly for comic books and science fiction magazines. ... Airbrush illustration by Richard Bassford Richard Bassford is an American illustrator who has worked in both advertising and comic books. ... American comic book artist, particularly known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s. ... Cover to Daredevil #131. ... The cover of Giant-Size X-Men #1 by Gil Kane & Cockrum, featuring characters he (Cockrum) designed. ... Nick Cuti (born as Nicola Cuti on October 29, 1944) is a comic writer, known for his creation of E-Man as well as other contributions to the comics industry. ... Richard Corben (born November 1, 1940) is an American comic book artist best known for his illustrated fantasy stories in Heavy Metal magazine. ... Image:KenKelly. ... Tom Sutton a. ... Vallejo work from the box art of the video game Ecco the Dolphin. ...

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 Vaughn Bodé (July 22, 1941 - July 18, 1975), was an influential artist involved in and inspirational to underground comics, graphic design, and graffiti. ... There are several notable people called Jack Davis. ... Birth machine Hans Ruedi Giger (pronounced: GEE-ger) (born at Chur, Grisons canton, February 5, 1940) is a Swiss painter best known for his design work on the film Alien. ... Terrance Lindall was born in 1944 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States. ...

Milestones

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. An interracial couple is a romantic couple or marriage in which the partners are of differing races. ... Mr. ... Creepy was a horror-comics magazine launched by Warren Publishing in 1964. ... Donald F. McGregor (born June 15, 1945, Rhode Island, United States) is an American comic book writer, and the author of one of the first graphic novels. ... Amazing Adventures is the name of several anthology-format comic book series, all but one published by Marvel Comics. ... Jonathan Raven, better known as Killraven, the Warrior of the Worlds, is a freedom fighter in a post-apocalyptic alternate future (Earth-691) of the fictional Marvel Universe. ...

Misc.

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. Eerie Publications was a publisher of black-and-white, horror-anthology comics magazines. ...

References

• 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