EERIE ARCHIVES, VOLUME FOUR - graphic novel

Having recently enjoyed The Complete Web of Horror, which collected and reprinted a stunning B&W comic series from a few decades back, I thought I'd go for another book of collected reprints, this time the classic comic magazine, Eerie. Eerie was not a magazine that I ever read, though I'd certainly seen it in the stores and would have admired some of the covers (such as the Frazetta piece used as the cover for this compilation). This seemed like a good opportunity to catch up on what I missed in my youth.

But it turns out I didn't miss much.

While one would want a nice balance between art and story, even in an anthology magazine like Eerie, it's pretty clear that the art takes center stage. This is one of the only comics/graphic novels I've read in which the artist is listed first in the front page credits. (Oddly it isn't consistent, I noticed only one or two instances when the writer was listed first.) So, with an all-star line-up of artists one would expect a really stellar magazine.  Represented here are artists such as Frank Frazetta (covers), Steve Ditko, Angelo Torres, Gray Morrow, Gene Colon, Al Williamson, Roy G Krenkel, and Alex Toth, among others.  With stories by such names as Archie Goodwin and Otto Binder among a plethora of names I didn't recognize.

I had hoped to be wowed - seeing great B&W art from the heyday of this kind of work - but it was really a disappointment.  Neither the stories nor the art made much of an impression.

This collection reprints most of each magazine and I'm almost sad to say that reading the old letters column and the old ads (with the addresses blanked out - probably wisely) was more interesting than the stories. The ads, which were pretty generic among a variety of magazines and comics at the time, brought back a sense of nostalgia for me, and the letters also reflected the mindset and style of letter writing of the day - that casual, we're old friends, in on the gag, vernacular. I'm slightly curious if any of those letter writers (names and hometowns reprinted) have seen these reprinted and what they might think.

Apparently Eerie comics had a 'mascot' of sorts - a schlubby-looking ogre or Igor-like character, Cousin Eerie, whose persona introduced each story and commented at the end of each story. I find it an odd character to be so prominent.  He doesn't look creepy or eerie or scary - he looks comical and stupid, which takes away from the supposed dark stories.

This wasn't a magazine of choice for me back in the day and it still isn't worthy of reading now.

Looking for a good book? Eerie Archives, Volume Four is a graphic novel collection of old Eerie Magazine stories. The magazine struggled to maintain a readership in the late 1960's and through the 1970's and its pretty clear why when you look back through a collection such as this.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

2-1/2 stars

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Eerie Archives, Volume Four

editors: Archie Goodwin, Shawna Gore

publisher: Dark Horse

ISBN: 9781595824295

hardcover, 260 pages