Warren Publishing
Industry | Comics |
---|---|
Founded | 1957 |
Founder | James Warren |
Defunct | 1983 |
Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then New York City, New York |
Warren Publishing was an American magazine company 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, Help!, and Vampirella.
Initially based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the company moved by 1965 to New York City.
Publishing history
Founding
Begun by James Warren, Warren Publishing's initial publications were the
After introducing what he called "Monster Comics" in Monster World, Warren expanded in 1964 with horror-comics stories in the sister magazines Creepy and Eerie – black-and-white publications in a standard magazine format, rather than comic-book size, and selling for 35 cents as opposed to the standard comic-book price of 12 cents. Such a format, Warren explained, averted the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, the comic-book industry's self-censorship body:
The Comics Code saved the industry from turmoil, but at the same time, it had a cleansing kind of effect on comics, making them "clean, proper and family-oriented" ... We would overcome this by saying to the Code Authority, the industry, the printers, and the distributors: 'We are not a comic book; we are a magazine. Creepy is magazine-sized and will be sold on magazine racks, not comic book racks". Creepy's manifesto was brief and direct: First, it was to be a magazine format, 8½" × 11", going to an older audience not subject to the Code Authority."[2]
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 Psycho and other series from Skywald Publications.
Vampirella and international artists
After 17 issues of Creepy and 11 of Eerie, Goodwin resigned as editor in 1967. The movement of Warren's operations from Philadelphia to New York City, combined with a change in distributors and a downturn in the market imposed a cash flow problem on Warren, and Goodwin along with all of the artists except for Tom Sutton and Rocke Mastroserio (who soon died) departed the company.[5]
During the next two-and-a-half years, Warren's publications consisted primarily of reprints from the early issues. During this period, a variety of editors ran the magazines including
In 1971, Warren began using artists from the
In 1973, new editor
Line expansion in the 1970s
In 1974, DuBay oversaw a new black-and-white magazine, The Spirit, which revived acclaimed writer-artist Will Eisner's masked detective of 1940s and early-1950s newspaper Sunday supplements, reprinting the character's seven-page, semi-anthological stories for a new generation. The magazine featured new covers by Eisner and an occasional reprint in color.( The Spirit would later move to Kitchen Sink Press.) The same year, Warren debuted Comix International, a color magazine reprinting earlier Warren stories.
After Dubay's departure, Louise Jones, his former assistant, headed the editorial staff from 1976 to 1980. Toward the end of Dubay's period of editorship many American artists had returned to the magazines, including John Severin, Alex Toth, and Russ Heath and they contributed many stories during Jones' time as editor. Former DC Comics publisher Carmine Infantino would also join the company during this period and pencil over 50 stories. Much like the wave of Spanish artists that dominated throughout the mid-1970s, a number of artists from the Philippines would begin contributing during this period. Dubay returned as editor after Jones' departure, using the alias "Will Richardson".
Toward the end of the 1970s, Warren published two new magazines edited by Dubay: the science-fiction anthology
Decline and bankruptcy
James Warren's bad health, combined with changing tastes and business problems, led to internal turmoil and editorial turnover.[6][7] The company suspended publishing in late 1981,[8] editor Bill Dubay left in 1982,[9] and Warren declared bankruptcy in 1983.[citation needed] In August 1983, Harris Publications acquired company assets at auction,[10] and published new and reprinted Vampirella comics; Creepy #146 (Summer 1985), continuing the numbering of the original series and containing both new and reprinted material,[11] Creepy: The Limited Series, a four-issue miniseries of new stories;[12] and other Warren-related comics. A 1998 lawsuit by James Warren[13] resulted in his reacquisition of the rights to Creepy and Eerie. Dark Horse Comics began issuing reprints with the ongoing licensed series Creepy Archives in 2008,[14] and began publishing new material with Creepy vol. 2 in 2009[15] and Eerie vol. 2 in 2012.[16]
Artists and writers
Illustrators included such established artists as Orlando,
The Spanish artists from
Cover artists for Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella included Adkins, Frazetta, Kelly, Morrow, Sutton,
Writers included Goodwin, Cuti, Dubay, Al Hewetson, Bruce Jones, Doug Moench, Budd Lewis, Gerry Boudreau, Rich Margopoulos, Don McGregor, Steve Skeates, Jim Stenstrum, Lynn Marron, and T. Casey Brennan.
Milestones
The first-known romantic
Chronological list of magazines
Ongoing publications; one-shots not listed
- After Hours (1957, four issues)
- Famous Monsters of Filmland (1958–1983, 191 issues)
- Wildest Westerns (1959, formerly Favorite Westerns Of Filmland, six issues)
- Help! (1960–1965, 26 issues)
- Spacemen (1961, nine issues)
- Screen Thrills Illustrated (1963, ten issues)
- Monster World (1964, ten issues)
- Famous Films (1964)
- Creepy (1964–1983, 145 issues)
- Blazing Combat (1965, four issues)
- Eerie (1966–1983, 139 issues)
- On The Scene / Freak Out USA (1967, two issues)
- Teen Love Stories (1967, three issues)
- Vampirella (1969–1983, 112 issues)
- The Spirit (1974, 17 Warren issues; continued by Kitchen Sink Press with issues #18-41)
- Comix International (1974, five issues)
- 1984 (retitled 1994 in 1980) (1978–1983, 29 issues)
- The Rook(Oct. 1979 - April 1982, 14 issues)
- Warren Comics Presents (1979)
- The Goblin (1982, three issues)
References
- ^ a b The James Warren Interview, Comic Book Artist #4 (Winter 1999).
- ISBN 978-1-893905-08-5.
- ^ Jones, Russ. "Creepy and Eerie Confidential". PopFiction.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2013.
- ^ *Arndt, Richard J. (February 3, 2010). "The Warren Magazines: Interviews". Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Additional . - ^ Roach, Cooke, p. 90
- ^ "Two Warren Editors Quit Within Two Weeks," The Comics Journal #67 (October 1981), p. 12.
- ^ Senstrum, Jim. "New Editor at Warren," The Comics Journal #66 (September 1981), p. 16.
- ^ "Warren Magazines Suspends Publications," The Comics Journal #79 (January 1982), p. 15.
- ^ "Dubay Leaves Editorship," The Comics Journal #76 (October 1982), p. 28.
- ^ "Publisher Buys Up Warren Inventory," The Comics Journal #86 (November 1983), pp. 8–9.
- ^ Creepy, Harris Comics, 1985 series at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Creepy: The Limited Series, Harris Comics, 1992 series at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Spurgeon, Tom. "Warren Case Moves Forward: Publisher Claims Numerous Violations in Case Against Harris Publications," The Comics Journal #210 (February 1999), pp. 11–13.
- ^ Creepy Archives, Dark Horse, 2008 series at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Creepy, Dark Horse, 2009 series at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Eerie, Dark Horse, 2012 series at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Roach, Cooke, p. 14
External links
- Arndt, Richard J. (September 22, 2008). "The Warren Magazines". Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2013. Additional Webcitation archive.
- Swierczynski, Duane, Jim Warren Meets Vampirella Philadelphia City Paper.net, Jan. 6-12, 2005. WebCitation archive Archived 2021-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
- Dean, Michael. "The Vampirella Wars: The Untold Story of James Warren's Custody Battle with Harris Comics" (excerpt), The Comics Journal #253, June 2003. Archive of original. WebCitation archive Archived 2018-11-23 at the Wayback Machine.
- The Warrenverse Website devoted to Warren Publishing and its publications.