Creepy Archives Volume 5 [Hardcover]

Various (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2010 | Series: Creepy Archives (Book 5)

Enter a world of the finest in scary storytelling and dazzling artwork! Creepy Archives Volume 5 continues the critically acclaimed series that throws back the dusty curtain on a treasure trove of amazing comics art and brilliantly blood-chilling stories. From the gorgeously painted full-color covers to the exquisite black-and-white interiors, this groundbreaking archival series resurrects some of the finest graphic storytelling ever printed. From "The Rats in the Walls" to "It That Lurks," these are infamous tales to chill the blood.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The 1966–67 issues in this volume further attest Creepy’s decline. Editor Archie Goodwin had left the previous year, taking his stable of talented artists with him. While a few of the replacements, notably Tom Sutton and Pat Boyette, weren’t bad, most were substandard, especially compared to the luminaries who had preceded them. Only EC Comics veteran Reed Crandall remained from the original lineup, and the scripts he illustrates here are inferior to those Goodwin had provided. By far the best things this time around are reprints of earlier Creepy stories drawn by Steve Ditko. --Gordon Flagg

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (January 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595823530
• ISBN-13: 978-1595823533
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #643,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy reprints from Eerie, January 25, 2010

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J.S. - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Creepy Archives Volume 5 (Hardcover)

The following stories collected in this volume were already printed in Dark Horse's Eerie Archives. Personally, I like the volumes of both Creepy and Eerie, but I'd rather only pay for the stories once.

Creepy #21: Room With A View! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 6p reprinted from Eerie #3 (May 1966)

Creepy #24: Black Magic [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 8p reprinted from Eerie #5 (Sept. 1966)

The Day After Doomsday! [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 8p reprinted from Eerie #8 (Mar. 1967)

Typecast! [Archie Goodwin/Jerry Grandenetti] 7p reprinted from Eerie #8 (Mar. 1967)

Creepy #25: Witches' Tide [Archie Goodwin/Gene Colan] 8p reprinted from Eerie #7 (Jan. 1967)

It That Lurks! [Archie Goodwin/Dan Adkins] 6p reprinted from Eerie #7 (Jan. 1967)

Deep Ruby! [Archie Goodwin/Steve Ditko] 6p reprinted from Eerie #6 (Nov. 1966)

Information care of Richard J. Arndt's Warren Comics bibliography.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Creepy Dark Ages, April 22, 2010

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creepy Archives Volume 5 (Hardcover)

There was a time when mentioning the words vampire and werewolf would send young girls screaming in fright rather than making them all dreamy-eyed with thoughts of eternal, brooding romance and visions of Edward and Jacob swimming in their heads.

There was a time when these monsters were considered so frightening and dangerous that they were not allowed in regular comics, until the clever James Warren and Russ Jones figured that the way around this rule was to publish them at regular magazine size and thus evade the Comics Code Authority. The result of this bit of ingenuity was the horror comic magazines Creepy and Eerie from Warren Publishing.

Dark Horse continues their archive collection of Warren's Creepy with volume five, which collects issues 21-25 from July 1968 to February 1969. Each issue features six to nine horror-themed short stories that have no continuing plots or characters.

By all accounts, these issues cover a dark period in Creepy history (and not in a good, dark way). Editor Archie Goodwin had left the magazine after issue #17, and he took most of his stable of fantastic writers and artists with him--including cover-artist extraordinaire Frank Frazetta and such regular comics luminaries as Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Alex Toth, and Wally Wood.

The departure of these creative talents, along with the increased costs of the pulp paper used to print the magazine, was a blow to Warren. The company struggled to keep Creepy afloat by combining extensive reprints with whatever talent they could find to create new stories. There was a clear decline in quality that would last until the success of Vampirella rekindled the coffers and the creative fires of Warren Publishing. Additionally, Goodwin returned as editor with issue #35.

Because of this dark part of Warren's history, the stories in Creepy Archives Volume Five are hit-and-miss--with some rough gems tucked in amongst the forgettable whole. One of the prime attractions of this collection is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls." However, at only ten pages, there isn't really enough length for this story to shine.

Artist Tom Sutton was able to come out from under Frank Frazetta's shadow to provide one of Creepy's most classic covers for issue #22, which shows a bunch of fresh-faced schoolboys digging up a rotting corpse from a graveyard. The story that accompanies Sutton's cover, "No Fair," is the best in the book. Sutton would later go one to be the chief artist for Vampirella.

Far too many of the stories feature some predictable twist on the "Shock! I'm a Vampire" or "Shock! I'm a Werewolf!" motif. Sometimes these twists were clever, like what happens to a werewolf astronaut who goes to the Moon, and what happens when a lonely vampire signs up for a computer dating service.

The Devil pops up quite a bit as well in some interesting places, as do Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden.

One of my favorite things about these Dark Horse Creepy Archives is how they preserve the entire comic, advertisements, fan letters, and all. I still can't believe there was a time when you could send away for a "Real Live Monkey" for only $19.95 from the Captain's Club, or that a lifetime membership in the Creepy Fan Club cost only a dollar.

Additionally, the fans of that era were none-to-shy about expressing their displeasure at the decline of Creepy's quality; the letters-of-comment pages are full of complaints. If only they could have seen a few issues into the future and glimpse the return to glory that awaited them!

I shouldn't say that Dark Horse preserved the entire magazine, however. Because this era was so rife with reprints, much of the material originally published has already been presented in an earlier volume of the Creepy Archives series, and so the reprinted stores are not collected here. On the title page, there is a short note next to the stories indicating which Archives edition the reprinted story can be found in.

If you are a collector of both Eerie and Creepy, you will notice some duplicates in the collections as several of the Archie Goodwin reprints in this issue originally appeared in Eerie. Dark Horse had made the policy of presenting each story only once in that respective series, but if a story appeared in both Creepy and Eerie, then it shows up in both Archive editions.

The collected edition retains the original size of the magazine, making it a nice heavy hardback. The dust jacket cover is another lovely Sutton creation from issue #23, although I personally would have gone with the creepier cover from issue #22. Nice glossy paper makes the black-and-white images shine even more than in their original publication.

If you are going to get only one of the Creepy Archives, than this is definitely not the one to get. The earlier volumes were superior under Archie Goodwin, and these issues represent a time when the franchise was struggling. However, if you are a fan of the series in general, you definitely won't want to skip this volume, as there is enough here to make it worth your while.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wading Through The Slump, February 2, 2010

By 

Jason Kerr "shadow" (Pawtucket, RI 02860) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Creepy Archives Volume 5 (Hardcover)

I love what Dark Horse is doing as far as reproducing Creepy and Eerie magazines but with this new volume, there is way too many reprints of material originally published when Archie Goodwin was the editor. Goodwin was truly a legend but his leaving Warren left a major hole that took quite some time to recover from. I guess the only way Warren could keep going at the time was by issuing reprints and publishing some new stories. There are some very good stories in this volume but I'm really looking forward to future volumes when you can get original stories all the time.