Publishing history
Founding
Begun by James Warren, Warren Publishing's initial publications were the horror fiction, horror-fantasy--science fiction movie magazine ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' and ''Monster World'', both edited by Forrest J Ackerman. Warren soon published ''Spacemen (magazine), Spacemen'' magazine and in 1960 ''Help! (magazine), Help!'' magazine, with the first employee of the magazine being Gloria Steinem.The James Warren InterviewVampirella and international artists
After 17 issues of ''Creepy'' and 11 of ''Eerie'', Goodwin resigned as editor in 1967. The movement of Warren's operations from Philadelphia to New York City, combined with a change in distributors and a downturn in the market imposed a cash flow problem on Warren, and Goodwin along with all of the artists except for Tom Sutton and Rocke Mastroserio (who soon died) departed the company.Roach, Cooke, p. 90 During the next two-and-a-half years, Warren's publications consisted primarily of reprints from the early issues. During this period, a variety of editors ran the magazines including Bill Parente, Nicola Cuti, and Warren himself. Things started picking up again for Warren in 1969 with the premiere of its third horror magazine, ''Vampirella''. Many of Warren's original artists returned during this period, as would Goodwin for a period of time in 1970 and 1971. After Goodwin's second departure, editors would J.R. Cochran. The art director was Billy Graham (comics), Billy Graham. In 1971, Warren began using artists from the Barcelona, Spain, Barcelona studio of Spain, Spanish agency Selecciones Illustrada. Over the next few years, Spanish artists would dominate the magazines. Additional Spanish artists from S.I.'s Valencia, Spain, Valencia studio began freelancing for Warren in 1974. In 1973, new editor Bill DuBay (comics), Bill DuBay, who had originally joined the company as an artist early in 1970, transformed Warren's magazines to create a uniform style. The following year, Warren Publishing was dissolved and replaced by Warren Communications, a sister company James Warren had founded in 1972. Dubay was editor for all three of Warren's horror magazines until 1976, except for a short period of time in 1974 where Goodwin returned to edit four issues of ''Creepy'' and two of ''Vampirella''. During this time, the frequency of Warren's magazines was increased to nine issues a year.Line expansion in the 1970s
In 1974, DuBay oversaw a new black-and-white magazine, ''Spirit (comics character), The Spirit'', which revived acclaimed writer-artist Will Eisner's masked detective of 1940s and early-1950s newspaper Sunday supplements, reprinting the character's seven-page, semi-anthological stories for a new generation. The magazine featured new covers by Eisner and an occasional reprint in color.( ''The Spirit'' would later move to Kitchen Sink Press.) The same year, Warren debuted ''Comix International'', a color magazine reprinting earlier Warren stories. After Dubay's departure, Louise Simonson, Louise Jones, his former assistant, headed the editorial staff from 1976 to 1980. Toward the end of Dubay's period of editorship many American artists had returned to the magazines, including John Severin, Alex Toth, and Russ Heath and they contributed many stories during Jones' time as editor. Former DC Comics publisher Carmine Infantino would also join the company during this period and pencil over 50 stories. Much like the wave of Spanish artists that dominated throughout the mid-1970s, a number of artists from the Philippines would begin contributing during this period. Dubay returned as editor after Jones' departure, using the alias "Will Richardson". Toward the end of the 1970s, Warren published two new magazines edited by Dubay: the science-fiction anthology ''1984 (magazine), 1984'', in 1978 (which would change its name to ''1994'' two years later); and, in 1979, ''Rook (comics), The Rook'', starring a time travel, time-traveling adventurer whose stories had appeared in ''Eerie'' since 1977.Decline and bankruptcy
James Warren's bad health, combined with changing tastes and business problems, led to internal turmoil and editorial turnover. The company suspended publishing in late 1981, editor Bill Dubay left in 1982, and Warren declared bankruptcy in 1983. In August 1983, Harris Publications acquired company assets at auction, and published new and reprinted ''Vampirella'' comics; ''Creepy'' #146 (Summer 1985), continuing the numbering of the original series and containing both new and reprinted material, ''Creepy: The Limited Series'', a four-issue miniseries of new stories; and other Warren-related comics. A 1998 lawsuit by James Warren resulted in his reacquisition of the rights to ''Creepy'' and ''Eerie''. Dark Horse Comics began issuing reprints with the ongoing licensed series ''Creepy Archives'' in 2008, and began publishing new material with ''Creepy'' vol. 2 in 2009 and ''Eerie'' vol. 2 in 2012.Artists and writers
Illustrators included such established artists as Orlando, Neal Adams, Gene Colan, Frank Frazetta, Angelo Torres, Roy G. Krenkel, Gray Morrow, Al Williamson, Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, Alex Toth, John Severin, Russ Heath and Wally Wood, plus a newer group of talents, including Dan Adkins, Richard Bassford, Roger Brand, Frank Brunner, Rich Buckler, Dave Cockrum, Nicola Cuti, Richard Corben, Ken Kelly (artist), Ken Kelly, Pepe Moreno (comics), Pepe Moreno, Mike Royer, Tom Sutton, and Berni Wrightson. The Spanish artists from Selecciones Ilustradas included Esteban Maroto, José Ortiz (comics), José Ortiz, Luis Bermejo (illustrator), Luis Bermejo, Rafael Aura Leon, Luis Garcia Mozos, Luis Garcia, Jose Gonzalez (artist), Jose Gonzalez, Isidro Mones, Martin Salvador, Fernando Fernandez (comics), Fernando Fernandez, Leopold Sanchez, Ramon Torrents, Jose Bea, Vicente Alcazar, Jose Gual, Felix Mas and Jaime Brocal. Artists from the Philippines included Alex Niño, Rudy Nebres, Alfredo Alcala and Abel Laxamana. Other international artists who worked for Warren include Gonzalo Mayo (Peru), Pablo Marcos (Peru), Leo Duranona (Argentina) and Paul Neary (U.K.). Cover artists for ''Creepy'', ''Eerie'' and ''Vampirella'' included Adkins, Frazetta, Kelly, Morrow, Sutton, Ken Barr, Vaughn Bodé, Pat Boyette, Ron Cobb, Richard Conway, Jack Davis (cartoonist), Jack Davis, H.R. Giger, Basil Gogos, Bill Hughes, Terrance Lindall, Gutenberg Monteiro, Albert Nuetzell, Vic Prezo, Sanjulián, Vincente Segrelles, Kenneth Smith, Enrich Torres and Boris Vallejo. Writers included Goodwin, Cuti, Dubay, Al Hewetson, Bruce Jones (comics), Bruce Jones, Doug Moench, Budd Lewis, Gerry Boudreau, Rich Margopoulos, Don McGregor, Steve Skeates, Jim Stenstrum, Lynn Marron, and T. Casey Brennan.Milestones
The first-known romantic interracial couple, interracial kiss in mainstream comics (as opposed to underground comix) occurred in Warren's ''Creepy (magazine), Creepy'' #43 (Jan. 1972), in "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by writer Don McGregor and artist Luis Garcia Mozos, Luis Garcia. McGregor said in 2001 that the kiss was actually due to the artist misunderstanding the line "This is the clincher" in the script.Roach, Cooke, p. 14 McGregor would later script color comic books' first known interracial romantic kiss, in the "Killraven, Killraven: Warrior of the Worlds" feature in ''Amazing Adventures'' #31 (July 1975).Chronological list of magazines
''Ongoing publications; one-shot (comics), one-shots not listed'' * ''After Hours'' (1957, four issues) * ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' (1958–1983, 191 issues) * ''Favorite Westerns of Filmland'' (1959, retitled ''Wildest Westerns'', six issues) *''Help! (magazine), Help!'' (1960–1965, 26 issues) *''Spacemen'' (1961, nine issues) *''Screen Thrills Illustrated'' (1963, ten issues) *''Monster World'' (1964, ten issues) *''Famous Films'' (1964) *''Creepy (magazine), Creepy'' (1964–1983, 145 issues) *''Blazing Combat'' (1965, four issues) *''Eerie (magazine), Eerie'' (1966–1983, 139 issues) *''On The Scene / Freak Out USA'' (1967, two issues) *''Teen Love Stories'' (1967, three issues) *''Vampirella'' (1969–1983, 112 issues) *''Spirit (comics character), The Spirit'' (1974, 17 Warren issues; continued by Kitchen Sink Press with issues #18-41) * ''Comix International'' (1974, five issues) *''1984 (magazine), 1984'' (retitled ''1994'' in 1980) (1978–1983, 29 issues) *''Rook (comics), The Rook'' (Oct. 1979 - April 1982, 14 issues) *''Warren Comics Presents'' (1979) *''The Goblin'' (1982, three issues)References
External links
* Additiona