Tales that go bump in the night

Connoisseurs of horror comics will be only too familiar with the legendary Warren Publishing. Their pioneering 1964 magazine Creepy - notably able to evade comics censorship laws – pierced the medium’s permissible boundaries. Creepy’s stable-mate Eerie followed in 1966 and, as this collection of the first five issues amply shows, it took Warren’s gleeful voyage into the macabre to greater heights, aided by an array of stellar art talents. Frank Frazetta, Alex Toth, Steve Ditko, Joe Orlando, Neal Adams and Wally Wood all provided distinctively moody black-and-white artwork, ensuring that Eerie's spookiness routinely bordered on the spectacular and boldly graphic.