Black and White Wednesday: "Wooden Cross" from Creepy #38

Okay, gals and ghouls! There's no way Ol' Groove can delve any farther into...
...without mentioning Jim Warren's creepy pop culture contributions. Throughout the sixties and seventies, Warren's mags were the "forbidden fruit" for kids like Young Groove. Adult, violent, sexy--everything the comics code wouldn't allow was going on in Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and all the one-shots and specials they produced during the Groovy Age. Of course, it wasn't just the fact that they were grown-up that lured us, but it was the fact they they boasted art by all the greats: Adams, Wood, Ditko, Colan, Colon, Infantino, Corben, Nino... I could go on and on, but you get my drift, don't ya?

I thought about going into a lengthy spiel about Warren and the mark his horror mags made on comicdom, but a few of my fellow bloggers have done such a great job of covering that same material, I'd just be beatin' a dead pumpkin. So, for great articles on Creepy, visit the Fortress Keeper at the Fortress of Fortitude, then check this out at the Uranium Cafe. Joe Bloke, at Grantbride Street & other misadventures has been giving us quite a few far-out articles on Eerie. I touched on Vampirella in this article, and there are tons (TONS, I say!) of sites out there dedicated to Vampi in her various incarnations.

"Okay, then, Groove--where are you headed with this post? Copping out on us?" you might ask. Aw, you know me better than that, Groovester! You know what Ol' Groove's gonna do! I'm gonna lay a classic Warren horror story on ya, baby! This one is from Creepy #38, cover dated March, 1971. This particular tale is by one of my all-time favorite Groovy Age authors, Steve (Plop!, Teen Titans, Hawk & Dove, Aquaman, Lightning, and so much more) ew-with-steve.html">Skeates. Warren fans voted Steve as their favorite Warren writer on more than one occasion, and this creepy comic is just a taste of why he was so deserving of those accolades. The art is by a young Rich Buckler, who is probably most famous for co-creating Deathlok the Demolisher, as well as being a veritable chameleon with the pencil, able to evoke Adams, Kirby, Wood, and others. He's using (pretty much) his own style here, and Ol' Groove thinks it's just far out, man! See if you don't agree...