Book Review: James Warren: Empire of Monsters

Book Review: 'James Warren: Empire of Monsters' by Bill Schelly

5 / 5 Stars

'James Warren: Empire of Monsters' (352 pp) was published by Fantagraphics Books in March, 2019. It contains lots of black-and-white photographs, and an eight-page, full-color insert of the covers of various Warren magazines.

Born the only child into a Russian-Jewish family in Philadelphia in 1930, James Warren Taubman grew up with an ambition to make a name for himself. And despite some early setbacks, he indeed did make a name for himself, as the founder and publisher of an empire of magazines that just about every Baby Boomer holds near and dear to his (and her) hearts.

(As of early 2019, Warren had retired from the publishing business, and was rumored to be working on an autobiography.)

‘James Warren, Empire of Monsters: The Man Behind Creepy, Vampirella, And Famous Monsters’ is not only a very readable biography of the founder of those magazines near and dear to the hearts of all Baby Boomers, but also an informative account of the magazine publishing business in the postwar era.

Author Bill Schelly provides plenty of anecdotes and interviews that help illustrate the world that Warren worked in, where a hard-edged business sense was necessary for survival due to the nature of magazine sales and distribution in the era when the Mob controlled the industry, and only the major publishers, like ‘Time’ and ‘Life’, could afford to send out auditors to collect accurate statistics on sales and returns.

The book is not a hagiography; Schelly presents both good and bad opinions of Warren. To some he was a generous man who mentored their careers and aspirations, while to others, he was a devious and unscrupulous individual. Whether the truth lies in between these two points of view is for the reader to decide.

Schelly is particularly good at detailing the last days of Warren Communications, Inc. in 1982, when Warren mysteriously removed himself from the day-to-day operations of his company and the staff struggled with the ensuing nightmare of declining sales, declining revenue, and angry phone calls from unpaid artists and writers. Schelly's account of the auctioning of a warehouse full of Warren content is a sad and depressing coda to the collapse of Warren's empire.

[One thing I recommend is to peruse the Endnotes, where Schelly provides further little insights that will bring some surprises even to dedicated Warren fans.......for example, I had no idea that Ben DuBay, the nephew of since-deceased Warren editor Bill Dubay, is suing Stephen King...........?! ]

The verdict ? If you're a fan of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and Famous Monsters of Filmland, then you will want to have this book in your library. Even those who are not Warren fans, but retain and interest in magazine publishing and the history of postwar American pop culture, will find the book engrossing.