Creepy #41

History

Published in September 1971, the issue arrived during a period of editorial flux at Warren, when a rotating succession of editors including Nicola Cuti and Billy Graham were steering Creepy back toward original material after years of reprinting Archie Goodwin-era stories had filled the magazine through roughly issue #32. Richard Corben had only begun illustrating for Warren in late 1970, and 'A Tangible Hatred' — scripted by Donald F. McGregor — was one of his earliest stories for the publisher, appearing just as Corben was simultaneously working in underground comics for Last Gasp titles like Slow Death and Skull. Wally Wood's 'Prelude to Armageddon,' written with Nicola Cuti, was a 12-page fantasy set piece that Wood plotted and drew in full; the original rough layouts for the story survive and have since appeared in collector auctions, testifying to the care Wood invested in what admirers regard as among his finest Warren work.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published September 1971 by Warren Publishing as issue #41 of Creepy magazine, a black-and-white horror anthology that operated outside the Comics Code Authority as a newsstand magazine format.
• Contains the second published professional script by Don McGregor — 'A Tangible Hatred,' a 10-page supernatural horror story — paired with art by Richard Corben; McGregor had made his Warren debut just one issue earlier in Creepy #40.
• Marks the Warren Publishing debut of writer/artist Bruce Jones, whose story 'The Thing in Loch Ness' opens the issue's main story run; Jones would become one of the most prolific and celebrated contributors to Creepy and Eerie through the decade.
• Features 'Prelude to Armageddon,' a 12-page fantasy scripted by Nicola Cuti and Wally Wood, with full art by Wood — a story set in a mythological world involving a centaur named Sentor Equinus and regarded by collectors of Wood's work as one of his strongest efforts for Warren.
• Cover art is by Kenneth Smith, one of the distinctive illustrators Warren cycled through during the early 1970s renewal period.
• 'A Tangible Hatred' features Detective Turner, a recurring character Don McGregor used across multiple Warren stories, and depicts a supernatural entity born of human hatred — a theme consistent with McGregor's socially inflected horror writing.
• 'A Tangible Hatred' has been reprinted at least three times: in Creepy #132 (October 1981, an all-Corben special issue), in Dark Horse's Creepy Archives Volume #8 (2011), and in Dark Horse's Creepy Presents Richard Corben collection (2012).
• The letters column includes a fan letter by John D. Warner, later an editor and writer at Marvel Comics.

Full credits

Key issues in Creepy