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The Warren Companion
The Warren Companion is the ultimate compendium to the great comics of Warren Publishing! Few publishers throughout history can boast the extraordinary work of as many great artists and writers as Warren, and this book - featuring a complete reprinting of the out-of-print, Eisner Award-winning Comic Book Artist #4, plus dozens of new interviews and features - covers the entire history of the company from 1956 to 1983, examining all the titles including Creepy , Eerie , Vampirella , Blazing Combat , Help! , The Spirit , and many more! Including the most definitive (and indispensable) checklist ever compiled on the company (with cross-indexed artist and writer listings), this tome also features a new painted cover by Alex Horley, reams of unpublished art, archival photos, examinations of Warren's competition, plus exhaustive details on Warren merchandise, conventions, top strips, most prolific contributors,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. This volume is the last word on Warren Publishing! Available as a trade paperback or as a limited edition hardcover that features a full-color dust jacket, a gold embossed cover, printed endleaves, and two tip in pages.
288pg
288pg
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2021
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.
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.
February 15, 2016
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
April 25, 2022
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.
January 17, 2023
The definitive history of Warren magazines. A complete checklist of every artist, writer, inker, etc is a great part of this book.
February 21, 2021
This review is based on my experience of the book. Mileage will vary for readers more familiar with Warren magazines who, perhaps, were expecting something different.
Comics have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, both as a reader and a collector. Although primary a fan of DC these days, I'm interested in the history of comics in general and this is one of a number of books on the subject in my collection. To the best if my knowledge I have never seen a Warren magazine, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in their history.
This book, however, didn't really give that history. It is more a collection of interviews and articles originally published I magazine format. The interviews are all with people linked with Warren - artists, writers, editors, Jim Warren himself - but you have to pick them apart to put together the history. That's not to say the interviews aren't interesting, particularly the Warren one. He comes across as gregarious, funny and committed to his dream. But they often cover the same stories and there's no linkage between them. I would have preferred an article on the history and slightly more edited interviews.
Add to that a number of things that just didn't make sense to me - Neal Adams discussing his processes on pieces of art that aren't reproduced; and unreadable (to me) self-written piece by Alex Toth; the much-lauded artwork being reproduced much smaller than actual size - and this volume was a disappontment to me. In fact, the article on the Spanish artists who worked for Warren contained a much more readable history of British comics than the whole volume did with regards to Warren.
Interesting, but heavily flawed unless you are a fan of the magazines and could reference them while reading the book.
Comics have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, both as a reader and a collector. Although primary a fan of DC these days, I'm interested in the history of comics in general and this is one of a number of books on the subject in my collection. To the best if my knowledge I have never seen a Warren magazine, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in their history.
This book, however, didn't really give that history. It is more a collection of interviews and articles originally published I magazine format. The interviews are all with people linked with Warren - artists, writers, editors, Jim Warren himself - but you have to pick them apart to put together the history. That's not to say the interviews aren't interesting, particularly the Warren one. He comes across as gregarious, funny and committed to his dream. But they often cover the same stories and there's no linkage between them. I would have preferred an article on the history and slightly more edited interviews.
Add to that a number of things that just didn't make sense to me - Neal Adams discussing his processes on pieces of art that aren't reproduced; and unreadable (to me) self-written piece by Alex Toth; the much-lauded artwork being reproduced much smaller than actual size - and this volume was a disappontment to me. In fact, the article on the Spanish artists who worked for Warren contained a much more readable history of British comics than the whole volume did with regards to Warren.
Interesting, but heavily flawed unless you are a fan of the magazines and could reference them while reading the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews