The Weird World Of Eerie Publications
(2010 - Feral House)

(by Mike Howlett) I'm impressed by this book. It is just a bit too hefty and it gets that way because the seeking mind behind it wasn't just satisfied with a narrowly-focused narrative about a third-tier horror-comics producer, but rather followed additional curious tendrils from there. Those tendrils lead into other areas like the original comics that were 'ripped-off' to form the content for Eerie Publications, the competition that actually trailblazed or just simply did the job better, the market that formed around them all and then collapsed, the processes for so seemingly slap-dashedly getting this stuff onto the newsstand, most of the contributors and their lives before & since, how foreign markets 'were influenced by' Eerie's product, and all the other avenues the 'company' traveled down after folding up their comic tents. That's why there are so many exhibits on display that are *not* from Eerie Publications. I especially want to call out the 80-page section covering the artists, digging up biographical details I've yet to see anywhere else. I see above that I'm a bit dismissive of what Eerie Publications produced, but let me say that Howlett has, through his organization & writing, infectiously communicated the over-the-top, gore-filled, adolescent fun of the whole endeavor. There's a 16-page (nine-to-a-page) cover gallery that colorfully, concisely, and unashamedly, puts it all out there for you to see, but there's plenty more covers, panels and sequential-art ladled liberally throughout. So, out of a 336-page book, you'll find 228 where the art holds its own or better - with 90 of those each featuring a single large reproduction. On the whole, the captioning is well-intentioned and respectful to artists, but it seems the playing around that the publishers (and others) did with much of this art many times makes it not-so-easy to finger exactly who did what. The identifications of the 'well-presented' that can be made looks like: Bill Alexander (7), Dick Ayers, Bob Bean, Behan, Johnny Bruck (3), Carl Burgos (8), Maria Caria, Frank Carin, Walter Casadei (2), Cerchiara, Carlos Clemen, Joe Coleman, Richard Corben, Jack Davis (2), Vincent DiFate, Myron Fass (4), Al Feldstein, Fernando Fernández (2), Hy Fleischman, Arnoldo Franchioni, Frank Frazetta*, Ezra Jackson (3), Michael Kaluta, Kato, Ken Landgraf, Alberto Macagno, Rubčn Marchione, Tony Mortellaro, Oscar Novelle (5), Nestor Olivera, Bob Powell (3), Sawyer, Chic Stone (5), Boris Vallejo (2)**, Xavier Vilanova, Berni Wrightson, Eugenio Zoppi, and UNKNOWN ARTIST (11).

* - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by Frazetta can additionally be found so (better actually) in his own collections up higher on The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Vallejo cannot additionally be found so in his own collections on The List.

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