Eerie Archives Volume 8
“As addictive as blood to a vampire, the Eerie and Creepy reprints are fast becoming the must-have compilation for any serious collector of the classic genre in both horror and pulp. Grab them while you can. It would be a damnable sin if you didn’t.”
When publisher Jim Warren created the seminal horror magazine Creepy in 1962, he soon realized he was on to a bloody winner. Alongside the leadership of editor/writer the legendary Archie Goodwin, Warren’s horror-comics magazines produced another bestseller in the frightening form of Eerie in 1964, helping the genre to become an acceptable but more importantly an integral part of modern culture.
Eerie Archives Volume 8 collects issues #37–#41 of the original Eerie magazine series in an oversized super-quality hardcover format. The classic Ken Kelly cover, Snake Killer, hits you right between the eyes in the latest edition beautifully created from Dark Horse. Kelly is one of the foremost exponents and masters of fantasy art, and his work is always a delight to behold. His rather disturbing and appropriately eerie cover sets the tone for this creepy tome of vampires, undead spookiness, merciless bloodfests and mind-bending sci-fi unleashed between the pages.
The legendary Budd Lewis writes the foreword for this edition, waxing nostalgic about a golden era long gone, but thankfully rescued from oblivion by Dark Horse:
“I’m talkin’ about the times. The times we live in, the times we lived in, the best of times, the worse of times, and the times of our lives. And those times, for me, were times of wonder, times of magic, possibilities, and dreams that could come true. Times that shaped our minds, our hearts, and our souls.”
Some of the many outstanding contributions in this edition come from past masters of the genre such as Ernie Colon and Douglas Moench with their bewitching and provocative, “Deathslaker;” Tom Sutton and Donald F. McGregor’s Christmas story, “The Night the Snow Spilled Blood;” skin-crawling “The Caterpillars” from fan favorites the great Luis Garcia and Fred Ott, and the thought-provoking “The Safest Way” by Jose Gaul and Steve Skeates.
This particular excursion into our own worse nightmares also features the work of comic-book luminaries Mike Ploog, Dave Cockrum, Don Glut, Sanjulian and Esteban Maroto, to name but a few. All in all, in Eerie Archives Volume 8 we are spoiled not just for choice but also quality from writers and artists who were/are always willing to push the boundaries of acceptability and help to broaden our understanding of both fantasy and horror.
The letters from fans in The Dear Cousin Eerie pages are both a delight and scream to read. Some serious debates there, about vampires and werewolves, along with those opposed to “too many” sci-fi stories and “not enough” horror! The Eerie Fanfare page, alongside ads for meat-eating plants, and ‘because you demanded it’ a membership card for the new Eerie Fan Club with free color-pin, are all a delight to look back on with a smile of remembrance.
To buy the back issues of these great magazines would cost a small fortune. Thankfully Dark Horse has remedied that with this affordable and beautifully produced series. As addictive as blood to a vampire, the Eerie and Creepy reprints are fast becoming the must-have compilation for any serious collector of the classic genre in both horror and pulp. Grab them while you can. It would be a damnable sin if you didn’t.