Review: Creepy Archives Volume 1
Pretty soon, this is going to turn into a review of Dark Horse’s [[[Creepy Archives Volume 1]]]. Hang in there; I’ll get to it, I promise.
I miss Archie Goodwin, particularly this time of year. He died 10 years ago from cancer at the ridiculously young age of 60. He was one of the best writers this medium has ever seen. In a field that sports the talents of Harvey Kurtzman, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and Dennis O’Neil, Archie was of that highest caliber. If Archie ghosted bible tracks for Jack Chick, I would have read them. He was that good.
As a human being, he was even better. A life-long EC Comics fan (you could see it in his work, as well as in those with whom he chose to associate), for a couple years Archie and I had adjoining offices at DC Comics. We used to go out to lunch and talk about, oh, [[[Tales From The Crypt]]] and Ronald Reagan. Did I mention Archie was very politically aware? Read his [[[Blazing Combat]]] stories. Anyway, sometimes our conversations scared the Manhattan businessmen who sat near us.
Archie enjoyed that. I enjoyed those conversations immensely; I wish I could relive them.
So why do miss Archie “particularly this time of year”? This is convention season. No matter where we were, we would run into each other a couple times each year at various airport gates. He could be leaving from New York and I from Chicago and we’d run into each other on connecting flights in Denver. We could both be at a show in, oh, his native Kansas City and we could be flying to two different places, but we’d still share the first leg of our respective flights. At first it was uncanny; quickly, it became another fact of life.
I haven’t met all 6,500,000,000 people on this planet, but based upon my unscientific sampling I can state with complete confidence that there are few people with greater wit, charm, and intelligence. So there.
This brings us to Dark Horse’s Creepy Archives Volume 1. Archie started writing for Jim Warren’s Creepy with the first issue; by issue two he was story editor and issue four he was the sole credited editor. He wrote most of the stories and, therefore, did a lot to define the 1960s horror story while working with a lot of EC greats like Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Alex Toth, George Evans, Joe Orlando, Wally Wood and Frank Frazetta. As time progressed, he added younger talent like Gray Morrow, Neal Adams, and Steve Ditko.
I take a backseat to no one in my admiration for EC Comics, and I’ve spent a fortune over the years on Russ Cochran’s deeply-appreciated efforts to archive the line. But the horror stuff was among my least favorite – I preferred (in order) [[[Mad]]], the war line, the science fiction line, and the SuspenStories. [[[Doc Savage]]] creator Lester Dent is widely known for having said there were only seven plots in all of fiction. If that’s true (and it might be), there are, at best, only three in horror… until Archie came along with [[[Creepy]]] and [[[Eerie]]].
Dark Horse is reprinting all that stuff, starting with Creepy Archives Volume 1. They’ll be doing new stories under those titles next year, but you just can’t go wrong with 250 pages of Crandall, Davis, Williamson, Toth, Evans, Orlando, Wood, Frazetta, Morrow, Adams, Ditko… and Goodwin.
The book is the same size as Cochran’s EC Archives but, of course, in black and white. I don’t think the stuff was shot from the original art like most of Cochran’s work and some of the fine lines and wash tones break up a bit, but actually it looks better than the original Warren Publishing magazines that were printed on good old fashioned pulp wood, the way real comics are printed.
A few of Warren’s “Captain Company” ads round out the tome. I wish they left the prices in; I’d like to track what 45 years of inflation has done to the price of your 10-foot inflatable rubber snake. Jon B. Cooke, of [[[Comic Book Artist]]] magazine fame, contributes his usual first-rate introduction.
One aside. I first saw publisher Jim Warren at Phil Seuling’s 1969 New York Comicon. He delivered the keynote speech where he disclosed how newsstand distribution really works. That was one of the most educational afternoons I had the privilege of enjoying in my life. I told him so a couple weeks ago at the San Diego Comic-Con, which was the first time I had a chance to meet him. We talked at the ComicMix booth for about 20 minutes; I had great fun (we avoided politics) and was honored to meet the man.
Creepy Archives Volume 1 is a fitting tribute to Archie and Jim and all the extraordinarily talented people who joined their effort. It’s available at your friendly neighborhood comics shop and with the usual suspects.
Mike – I miss Archie, too.He had the greatest sense of humor.He always got the best out of his talent.Working with guys like Archie, Denny O'Neil and Joe Orlando at DC made it worth coming into work every day.
I'm looking forward to picking this up today. Having been obsessed with the spinner racks back in the sixties, it was some time before I started looking at the other magazine displays, and finally discovered the Warren stuff. It was an epiphany for me. Remember those ads for the Lancer Conan books? I still get goosebumps when I see one of those.
Reading Creepy and Eerie in my teens, i used to figure that "Archie Goodwin" was a house name – not only was it the name of a well-known fictional character, but it was on so flippin' many stories every month…
The two Archies shared the same cleverness gene. Other than that, Nero Wolfe's assistant was patterned after Gary Cooper, while our Archie Goodwin clearly inspired Gary Oldman's Commissioner Gordon.
All during the Dark Knight movie, I'd see Gordon and think of Archie Goodwin.Archie Goodwin—one of the most important people in comics.
Geeze; you're right – at least that he looke like him; was he actually doing a Goodwin tribute, or was it just coincidence?