Creepy Archives Volume One
Dark Horse, May 2023
Starting in September 2008, the New Comic Company, an imprint of Dark Horse Books, began printing compilations of James Warren’s Creepy and Eerie black-and-white comic magazines in hardcover format. These ‘Archive’ books, which eventually reproduced all the content of the magazines from their first issues in 1964 / 1966 to their final issues in 1983, were well-produced volumes with state-of-the-art reproductions of the comics (and ancillary features, such as the letters columns and Captain Company advertisements) on heavy stock paper. Unfortunately, each volume had a cover price of $50, which placed them out of reach all but the most affluent of purchasers. For my part, I was able to pick up a couple volumes for around $20, but that's as far as I went. Nowadays, used copies of these hardcover Creepy and Eerie Archives sell for considerably above $50 (some are well over $100).
So, it’s nice to see Dark Horse issuing the entire Creepy and Eerie Archives catalog as trade paperback editions, which are much more affordable at $25 each. The paperbacks are good-quality books, printed on glossy paper stock. These are the editions that are going to bring nostalgia, at a nice price point, to Baby Boomers. Looking through the pages of the Creepy Volume 1 trade paperback, which was released tin May, I can see how impressive was the artwork from such talents as Reed Crandall, Grey Morrow, Angelo Torres, and Al Williamson, among others. Almost all the stories in Volume One were written by Archie Goodwin. Given that the stories are five to eight pages in length, Goodwin didn't have a whole lot of page space in which to tell a story, so he necessarily relied on highly compressed narratives that deliver 'shock' endings in the EC tradition. I'm not sure what sort of reception these reprint editions will receive from the younger generation of comics readers. Right now the top-selling graphic novels in the United States overwhelmingly are the Dog Man and Cat Kid volumes by Dav Pilkey, and manga. Graphic novels from Marvel and DC are very low on the year-end sales charts.
When the kids who now are reading Pilkey and manga look to graduate to something more sophisticated in a few years, they may or may not decide to investigate comics first published in the 1960s......On the other hand, at the end of 2022, sales of vinyl eclipsed those of CDs, for the first time since 1987. This is being driven by newer releases, but the heavy patronage of used LP stores suggests that there is a market for older, 'archaic' media. Whether that will encompass the Creepy and Eerie inventory remains to be seen, but I am optimistic.....?!
