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Rating: 
Summary: Superb History
Review: I was fascinated by Creepy magazine when it first came out in 1964. It was actually too scary for me. I was already a big fan of Famous Monsters of Filmland and it's ebullient editor, Forrest j Ackerman. Soon the names Frazetta, Williamson, Crandall, Morrow, Torres and Archie Goodwin would enter my artistic vocabulary as I became aware of the talent behind the greatest horror comic ever published. But the editor, one James Warren, remained an enigma. This book is the best collection of interviews of comic book creators I have ever read. Night after night, I couldn't put it down. The interviewer, Jon B. Cooke, is brilliant, his questions incisive, revealing, but never mean. Boy, that Warren was a genius, but often an eccentric bum! At least he cared. I've heard a lot of rumors over the years, and apparently the interviewer has heard the same ones, because he gently prods the real truth out of his unsuspecting subjects, exposing them for the driven, hardworking, pragmatic, vulnerable, prideful, neurotic (in Wally Wood's case, tragically so), but inspired artists they were. The account of the early years made me feel a part of the birth of Creepy and Eerie, and the ultimate downfall of Warren Publishing was a mind-blower. The whole story is told in the form of interviews, with priceless preliminary sketches and rare photos of the artists and writers. It was like re-examining an important part of my childhood from an adult perspective. Also contains a handy checklist of the contents of each issue of Famous Monsters, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Most of all I admire the restraint and good judgement of interviewer Jon Cooke.
Rating:
Summary: Superb History
Review: I was fascinated by Creepy magazine when it first came out in 1964. It was actually too scary for me. I was already a big fan of Famous Monsters of Filmland and it's ebullient editor, Forrest j Ackerman. Soon the names Frazetta, Williamson, Crandall, Morrow, Torres and Archie Goodwin would enter my artistic vocabulary as I became aware of the talent behind the greatest horror comic ever published. But the editor, one James Warren, remained an enigma. This book is the best collection of interviews of comic book creators I have ever read. Night after night, I couldn't put it down. The interviewer, Jon B. Cooke, is brilliant, his questions incisive, revealing, but never mean. Boy, that Warren was a genius, but often an eccentric bum! At least he cared. I've heard a lot of rumors over the years, and apparently the interviewer has heard the same ones, because he gently prods the real truth out of his unsuspecting subjects, exposing them for the driven, hardworking, pragmatic, vulnerable, prideful, neurotic (in Wally Wood's case, tragically so), but inspired artists they were. The account of the early years made me feel a part of the birth of Creepy and Eerie, and the ultimate downfall of Warren Publishing was a mind-blower. The whole story is told in the form of interviews, with priceless preliminary sketches and rare photos of the artists and writers. It was like re-examining an important part of my childhood from an adult perspective. Also contains a handy checklist of the contents of each issue of Famous Monsters, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Most of all I admire the restraint and good judgement of interviewer Jon Cooke.
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