The Warren Companion

by Jon B. Cooke, Richard Corben, David Roach

The Warren Companion is the ultimate compendium to the great comics of Warren Publishing, examining all the titles including Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, Blazing Combat, Help!, The Spirit, and many more! Including the most cross-indexed artist and writer listing, this tome also features a new painted cover by Alex Horley, reams of unpublished art, archival photos, examinations of Warren's competition, plus exhaustive details on Warren merchandise, conventions, top strips, most prolific contributors, foreign publications, and many other fascinating oddities! Also featuring new articles on Richard Corben, Frank Frazetta, Steve Ditko and others, and interviews with Bernie Wrightson, Jim Warren, Will Eisner, Neal Adams, Gene Colan and many more.

Genres: History, Comics, Horror

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2001

Reviews

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this book years ago and it went "away" in a purge when I had to move and downsize into a smaller apartment ... and it eventually reappeared and I snapped it up. It's largely a collection of interviews expanding on Jon B. Cooke's Comic Book Artist magazine #4. The best part about it is Cooke's interviews with Jim Warren, the almost-reclusive publisher of Famous Monsters, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, and so many other great comics and movie magazines of the 1960s through the 1980s. Cooke goes toe-to-toe with the publisher in long interview, divided up into segments in the book, surrounded by other interviews with artists such as Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, editors like Louise Jones Simonson and Bill Dubay, and more. Warren is a piece of work, but always erudite and entertaining at the very least.

This book was originally published in the early 2000s, almost 20 years ago, and I really wish Cooke and TwoMorrows would reprint it in a new color edition (even though the bulk of Warren's mags were black and white, of course). There are only two books on Jim Warren, this one and the late Bill Schelly's excellent biography, James Warren: Empire of Monsters. Warren was an important figure in pop culture and comics publishing spanning three decades. He deserves more credit and examination.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book on the history and making of the fabulous Warren publishing company. Tons of interviews with the artists, writers, publisher, and editors. Complete checklist, very handy. Very Recommended

[Graham Vingoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am rather staggered to have finished this.if you want a 1 volume history of a single comic company AND a detailed rundown of everything they produced with previously unpublished work as well then you cannot do better. Well-deserved 5 stars.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive history of Warren magazines. A complete checklist of every artist, writer, inker, etc is a great part of this book.