Eerie Archives HC Collection

Eerie Archives Vol. 1; Cover painted by Frank Frazetta

Warren Publishing Continued ... Part 3

Warren Publishing's second venture in the the horror genre was the sister magazine to Creepy - Eerie.  Like Creepy, Eerie was a large format, black and white horror anthology published on a bi-monthly basis.  First published in early 1966, it's premier issue had a limited run of about 200 copies.  Archie Goodwin and Gasper Saladino virtually created Eerie overnight in order to establish Warren as a serious publishing company.  Publication of Eeire began in earnest with the second issue in March 1966.

Like Creepy, Eerie had an ogre-like host, Cousin Eerie, created by Jack Davis.  Warren likened Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie to Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre.  He felt that Creepy magazine needed a counterpart to play off of.

Cousin Eerie by Jack Davis

Once again, lightening struck and Warren Publishing had another success.  Though Warren was instrumental in the success of his magazines, he took care to make the comic creators the real stars.  Like Creepy, Eerie was equally blessed with great talent, many at the top of their game: Archie Goodwin, Jack Davis, Frank Frazetta, Gene Colon, Gray Morrow, Joe Orlando, Angelo Torres, Alex Toth, Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Neal Adams, Steve Ditko and many, many more.

Eerie lasted until Warren Publishing went into bankruptcy.  The last issue, #139, was published in February 1983.  Fortunately, Eerie and other Warren Publications were acquired in 2007 by New Comic Company LLC, which then merged with Dark Horse.  Dark Horse is currently in the process of reprinting the entire run of Eerie in hardback archive editions.  The first of these editions was published in 2009.  They are absolutely gorgeous and restore the glory that once was Warren Publishing.  See for yourself in a local bookstore near you.