Showing posts with label creepy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label creepy. Show all posts

Friday, August 30, 2013

Warren Publishing Statistics (Part 3)

Today's feature covers Warren's most prolific cover artists. These stats include Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, 1984/1994, The Rook, Blazing Combat and The Goblin. It also features any annuals of these magazines. These totals do not include any reprints of previous covers (reprints from external sources, which were particularly apparent during Warren's last couple of years are included). Likewise, any covers that were created by reprinting and coloring internal panels are also not included. I have included back covers as well when they were formal covers (as opposed to ads or reprinted material).

Warren's Most Prolific Cover Artists (in aggregate):
1. Manuel sanjulian - 62 covers
1. Enrich Torres - 62
3. Ken Kelly - 52
4. Frank Frazetta - 30
5. Richard Corben - 14
5. Jordi Penalva - 14
7. Bob Larkin - 12
8. Jim Laurier - 10
9. Patrick Woodroffe - 9
10. Gray Morrow - 7
10. Don Maitz - 7
10. Rudy Nebres - 7
10. Vaughn Bode - 7
10. Barbara Leigh (photographs) - 7

Creepy's Most Prolific Cover Artists:
1. Ken Kelly - 25 covers
2. Manuel Sanjulian - 19
3. Frank Frazetta - 14
4. Gray Morrow - 4
4. Vic Prezio - 4
4. Enrich Torres - 4
4. RIchard Corben - 4
4. Kenneth Smith - 4
4. Richard Courtney - 4

Eerie's Most Prolific Cover Artists:
1. Manuel Sanjulian - 26 covers
2. Ken Kelly - 20
3. Frank Frazetta - 7
4. Vic Prezio - 6
4. Richard Corben - 6
4. Jordi Penalva - 6
7. Luis Dominguez - 5
7. Jim Laurier - 5

Vampirella's Most Prolific Cover Artists:
1. Enrich Torres - 52 covers
2. Manuel Sanjulian - 14
3. Ken Kelly - 7
3. Barbara Leigh (photographs) - 7
5. Frank Frazetta - 5
6. Jose Gonzalez - 4
7. Kim McQuaite - 3

1984's Most Prolific Cover Artists:
1. Patrick Woodroffe - 6 covers
2. Alex Nino - 4
3. Richard Corben - 3
3. Steve Fastner - 3
3. Rich Larson - 3
6. Jim Laurier - 2
6. Jordi Penalva - 2
6. Manuel Sanjulian - 2

The Rook's Most Prolific Cover Artists:
1. Bob Larkin - 7 covers
2. Jordi Penalva - 5

Frank Frazetta was responsible for all 4 Blazing Combat covers.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Warren Publishing Statistics (Part 2)

Today I'll be covering the writing side of the Warren stories. Similar to the previous post, this covers Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Blazing Combat, 1984/1994, The Rook and The Goblin. The totals do not include Famous Monsters of Filmland, Help! or The Spirit.

From a writing standpoint, I've taken a similar stance as I have with the art in regards to the 1 page frontispieces and have not included them in these totals. Also note that these may not be as accurate as the art numbers, there were certain instances where credits were not provided in the magazines. For those I have utilized credits from other sources such as The Warren Companion, Gathering Horror or Richard Arndt's Warren bibliography. Also Warren stories were frequently rewritten, and the credits for the stories as a result are not always accurate. For example, all of the Dax stories in Eerie were credited to Esteban Maroto, but were rewritten by various writers who were not credited. There were numerous instances where stories were drawn and then completely rewritten (or an entirely new story was created and put on a story that had been written by someone else) and typically the original author for such stories is unknown.

Warren's Most Prolific Writers (in Aggregate)
1. Bill Dubay - 293 stories
2. Archie Goodwin - 191
3. Budd Lewis - 156
4. Gerry Boudreau - 137
5. Rich Margopoulos - 107
6. Nicola Cuti - 103
7. Bruce Jones - 97
8. Steve Skeates - 72
9. Doug Moench -  70
10. Jim Stenstrum - 64
11. Roger McKenzie - 62
12. Bill Parente - 44
13. Bob Toomey - 35
13. Cary Bates - 35
15. Don McGregor - 34
16. Don Glut - 31
17. Esteban Maroto - 26
17. Robert Michael Rosen - 26
19. John Ellis Sech - 22
19. Victor de la Fuente - 22
19. Buddy Saunders - 22
22. Carl Wessler - 21
22. T. Casey Brennan - 21
24. Frank Thorne - 17
25. Kevin Duane - 16
26. Timothy Moriarty - 15
26. Mike Butterworth - 15
28. Fernando Fernandez - 14
28. John Jacobson - 14
30. Michael Fleischer - 13
30. Jack Butterworth - 13
30. Greg Potter - 13
33. Jan Strnad - 12
33. Gardner Fox - 12
33. Bruce Bezaire - 12
33. Al Hewetson - 12
37. Jose Bea - 11
37. Bill Warren - 11
37. Otto Binder - 11
40. Len Wein - 10
40. Tom Sutton - 10

Creepy's Most Prolific Writers
1. Archie Goodwin - 89
2. Gerry Boudreau - 53
3. Budd Lewis - 49
4. Bill Dubay - 48
5. Roger McKenzie - 41
6. Bruce Jones - 36
7. Nicola Cuti - 35
8. Rich Margopoulos - 30
9. Doug Moench - 29
10. Bob Toomey - 22
11. Steve Skeates - 21
12. Bill Parente - 20
13. Don McGregor - 15
13. Robert Michael Rosen - 15
15. Jim Stenstrum - 12
16. Cary Bates - 11
16. T. Casey Brennan - 11
18. Otto Binder - 10

Eerie's Most Prolific Writers
1. Budd Lewis - 83
2. Bill Dubay - 69
3. Archie Goodwin - 61
4. Steve Skeates - 35
5. Rich Margopoulos - 25
6. Doug Moench - 24
7. Nicola Cuti - 23
8. Gerry Boudreau - 21
8. Bruce Jones - 21
10. Bill Parente - 20
10. Jim Stenstrum - 20
12. Victor de la Fuente - 19
13. Cary Bates - 15
14. Don McGregor - 13
14. Esteban Maroto - 13
16. Buddy Saunders - 12

Vampirella's Most Prolific Writers
1. Bill Dubay - 66
2. Gerry Boudreau - 59
3. Rich Margopoulos - 43
4. Nicola Cuti - 39
5. Bruce Jones - 35
6. Don Glut - 18
7. Doug Moench - 17
8. Steve Skeates - 16
9. Mike Butterworth - 15
10. Budd Lewis - 13
10. Archie Goodwin - 13
12. Esteban Maroto - 12
12. Roger McKenzie - 12
12. Fernando Fernandez - 12

1984/1994's Most Prolific Writers
1. Bill Dubay - 72
2. Jim Stenstrum - 22
3. Frank Thorne - 17
4. Kevin Duane - 12
5. John Ellis Sech - 10
6. Rich Margopoulos - 9
7. Jan Strnad - 7
8. Budd Lewis - 6
8. Nicola Cuti - 6
10. Bruce Jones - 5

For The Rook, Bill Dubay was first with 29 stories, no one else was in double digits. Also, for Blazing Combat, Archie Goodwin was credited with 28 stories, only 2 others were credited with writing, a single story each (Wally Wood and Reed Crandall).

Bill Dubay's dominance over writing in Warren is quite apparant particularly in 1984/1994, for which he has more than three times as many stories as the second placer. Most of these stories appeared in the latter half of Warren's run following his resignation as editor of Creepy/Eerie/Vampirella in 1976.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Warren Publishing Statistics (Part 1)

The first blog post from me in about a year and a half, but I hope to not make this an isolated event. Today will feature the first in a multiple part feature. May not be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope to have some more traditional features in future posts.

The appendix to the Warren Companion offers a section featuring some statistics relating to Warren's staff, in particular focusing on the most prolific story artists, cover artists and story writers in Warren's history. This post is inspired in part based on that feature, largely because I thought providing some more detailed information may be helpful, as well as trying to address some mistakes I found (for example Ididro Mones, a prolific artist was left out entirely). For a self proclaimed stats geek like myself this is something that interests me a lot, and I compiled this data while slowly building up my Warren collection over the years.

This first post focuses on Warren's most prolific story artists. Only full length stories are included (1 page frontispieces are not, althoguh they will be included in a future post). Magazines included when compiling this data included those published in Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Blazing Combat, 1984/1994, The Rook, The Goblin and the occasional comic story included in Famous Monsters/Monsters World (of which there were few). I have not included anything included in Help! or The Spirit since I don't own any issues of those publications. For collaborations, each artist involved was credited for a full story.

I've included the top 40 overall, as well as any artist with double digit figures for individual magazines, except for 1984/1994 which I included the top 10. Note that for The Rook, Lee Elias, with 13 stories was the only one in double digits so a ranking for that title has been omitted.

Warren's Most Prolific Artists (in Aggregate)
1. Jose Ortiz - 116 stories
2. Esteban Maroto - 100
3. Luis Bermejo - 78
4. Rafael Auraleon - 72
5. Leo Duranona - 66
6. Alex Nino - 64
7. Tom Sutton - 60
8. Jose Gonzalez - 59
8. Rudy Nebres - 59
10. Martin Salvador - 58
11. Gonzalo Mayo - 56
12. Leopold Sanchez - 53
13. Richard Corben - 50
14. Carmine Infantino - 46
15. Ramon Torrents - 42
16. Alfredo Alcala - 40
16. Isidro Mones - 40
18. Bill Fraccio (as "Tony Williamsune") - 33
18. Tony Tallarico (as "Tony Williamsune") - 33
18. Paul Neary - 33
18. Reed Crandall  - 33
22. Jose Bea - 32
22. Jerry Grandenetti - 32
24. Ernie Colon - 31
25. John Severin - 30
25. Abel Laxamana - 30
27. Joe Orlando - 29
27. Val Mayerik - 29
29. Alex Toth - 28
30. Pablo Marcos - 23
30. Victor de la Fuente - 23
32. Jack Sparling - 22
33. Pepe Moreno Casares - 21
34. Angelo Torres - 20*
35. Delando Nino - 19
35. E.R. Cruz - 19
37. Lee Elias - 18
38. Frank Thorne - 17
38. Fred Carillo - 17
38. Felix Mas - 17
* Torres provided the last page of the story "Wardrobe of Monsters" in Creepy #2 which has not been included in this total.

Creepy's Most Prolific Artists
1. Martin Salvador - 44 stories
2. Leo Duranona - 29
3. Carmine Infantino - 28
4. Jose Ortiz - 23
4. Richard Corben - 23
6. Luis Bermejo - 22
6. Tom Sutton - 22
6. Reed Crandall - 22
6. John Severin - 22
10. Esteban Maroto - 18
11. Joe Orlando - 17
12. Alfredo Alcala - 16
12. Isidro Mones - 16
12. Val Mayerick - 16
12. Fred Carillo - 16
16. Ernie Colon - 15
16. Alex Toth - 15
16. Adolfo Abellan - 15
19. Auraleon - 14
19. Alex Nino - 14
21. Leopold Sanchez - 13
22. Bill Fraccio (as "Tony Williamsune") - 13
22. Tony Tallarico (as "Tony Williamsune") - 13
22. Jose Bea - 13
22. Angelo Torres - 13
26. Pablo Marcos - 11
26. Grey Morrow - 11
28. Pepe Moreno Casares - 10
29. Jose Gual - 10

Eerie's Most Prolific Artists
1. Jose Ortiz - 40 stories
2. Tom Sutton - 28
2. Esteban Maroto - 28
4. Leopold Sanchez - 27
5. Luis Bermejo - 26
6. Leo Duranona - 24
7. Paul Neary - 23
8. Victor de la Fuente - 20
9. E.R. Cruz - 18
10. Gonzalo Mayo - 17
11. Jerry Grandenetti - 16
12. Richard Corben - 14
12. Bill Fraccio (as "Tony Williamsune") - 14
12. Tony Tallarico (as "Tony Williamsune") - 14
15. Isidro Mones - 13
16. Martin Salvador - 12
16. Jaime Brocal - 12
18. Carmine Infantino - 10
18. Ernie Colon - 10
18. Jack Sparling - 10
18. Eugene Colan - 10

Vampirella's Most Prolific Artists
1. Jose Gonzalez - 54 stories
2. Rafael Auraleon - 52
3. Esteban Maroto - 41
4. Jose Ortiz - 36
5. Gonzalo Mayo - 33
5. Ramon Torrents - 33
7. Luis Bermejo - 19
8. Leopold Sanchez - 13
8. Leo Duranona - 13
10. Jose Bea - 12
11. Rudy Nebres - 11
11. Isidro Mones - 11
11. Fernando Fernandez - 11
11. Felix Mas - 11
15. Tom Sutton - 10
15. Luis Garcia - 10

1984/1994's Most Prolific Artists
1. Alex Nino - 37 stories
2. Rudy Nebres - 19
3. Frank Thorne - 17
4. Abel Laxamana - 16
5. Jose Ortiz - 14
6. Esteban Maroto - 13
7. Delando Nino - 12
8. Richard Corben - 9
8. Vic Catan - 9
10. Jose Gonzalez - 5

Some interesting facts:
-Warren's usage of international artists is particularly apparent, of the top 10 only 1 artist is American (Tom Sutton). Spanish Artists from Seleciones Illustrada make up 6 of the top 10, including the top 4.
-Reed Crandall was the most prolific of the former EC artists to work for the company, appearing near the bottom of the top 20.
-Alex Nino's dominance in 1984/1994 is quite apparant, with him having nearly twice as many stories as the second placer. Numerous issues contain multiple stories from him.
-Jose Gonzalez has a whopping 54 stories in Vampirella, which is more stories in a single magazine than any other artist, although a mere 5 in Warren's other titles, all of which appear in 1984/1994.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Creepy 64

For my first issue, I'm going to cover one of my favorite issues, Creepy #64.

This issue came at what was probably the peak of Warren's operations in the 1970's, the summer of 1974. The cover, by Vaughn Bode and Larry Todd featured a rotting man in what appears to be an astronaut's suit. The cover was the basis for the stories contained in the issue, the first of many themed issues for Warren. This issue's also notable for being Archie Goodwin's final issue as editor in his Warren career. This was Goodwin's third stint at Warren as editor, which lasted only for 4 issues of Creepy and 2 issues of Vampirella before he left due to not getting along with Bill Dubay. While he would write some additional stories for Warren later in the 70's and 80's, this was it for him at Warren in terms of being editor.




The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is the sole story in the issue to not feature the rotting man on the cover. Originally, all seven stories in the issue were to feature the rotting man, but the story "Avenger" was unable to be finished in time, which resulted in this story being run in its place. Oddly enough, rather than print "Avenger" in the next issue, Warren waited 8 years to publish it, in Eerie #128 in 1982. "Forgotten Flesh" takes place in a graveyard, where a group of rotting corpses get out of their graves in order to switch grave sites with some more well to do deceased people. Along the way they come across a duo of grave robbers who they mistake as being among them and bury them too, alive.

"Mates" by Esteban Maroto (art), Bill Dubay (color) and Doug Moench (story) is next. The story features an astronaut who heads to a planet that has been rumored to be a sex paradise. When he gets there he fights off countless rotting hulks and finally encounters a city full of beautiful women. After a night full of sex his entire body proceeds to rot away, making him just like one of the creatures he had encountered along the way. A good story with typical great art by Maroto. The story reminds me of the Wally Wood story "Rescued" from Weird Fantasy #6.

Next up is "High Time" by Paul Neary (art) and Steve Skeates (story), about a pilot who's plane is destroyed during battle, leaving him stranded in a radioactive wasteland. As he lies dying, he suddenly finds himself in a paradise like landscape, where he encounters a beautiful woman. The vision soon fades and he meets his demise. While Neary's art is great, this story just did not make much sense to me at all.

Fourth is "Only Losers Win" by Howard Chaykin (art), in his first Warren story, and Rich Margopoulos (story). In the future, Earth is extremely overpopulated, but a race filled with numerous death traps held once a year allows the winner to spend a year in the only sanctuary left on Earth. A man takes a drug that increases his metabolism a hundred fold and wins the race, only to find that the increase in metabolism also severly increased the aging process. An okay story with fine art by Chaykin that fits the story perfectly.

"One Autumn at Arkham" is the next story, and is both drawn and written by Tom Sutton. This would be Tom Sutton's final story for Warren. It features a researcher who learns of a 'power suit' which gives a man immortality. He digs up one of the suit's inventor's, who was buried alive with it, only to find that he's still alive! Having been been buried alive for 20 years however, the man's body has been almost entirely eaten by worms, leaving him a rotting mess. Great story and art by Sutton, its a shame that this was it for him at Warren.

Sixth is "To Sleepy Hollow... Returned" by Larry Summers (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). A photographer comes to the small town where the story of the headless horseman originated. There he starts dating a waitress and is confronted by her bitter former boyrfriend/boss. Riding home one night from a costume part, he encounters the headless horseman himself, who kills him with a flaming pumpkin, burning his face away in the process. A pretty good story and very good art job from Summers, who unfortunately wasn't around at Warren as long as he should have been.


Wrapping up the issue is another colored story, "An Angel Shy of Hell", by Richard Corben (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). It starts Hard John Apple, a bounty hunter hired by "Protstns' in the far future, who goes about the state of Kansas, killing as many 'Catlicks' as he can, including an injured helicopter pilot with a burned face (see image). A terrific story, although probably somewhat offensive with the parodies of various relgious groups. Stenstrum would eventually write three more stories starring Hard John Apple in Eerie in 1977.


Overall, a terrific issue, one of Creepy's bests. Outside of the rather confusing "High Time" no bad stories, and the art is terrific across the board. Unfortunately this would be Creepy's only issue with two color stories.