The Critical Guide to
the Warren Illustrated Magazines
1964-1983
by Uncle Jack
& Cousin Peter
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| Sanjulian |
"The Seven Trials" (parts one and two) ★★★
Plot by Bill DuBay
Dialogue by Budd Lewis
Art by Gonzalo Mayo
"El Cid and the Vision"★★★
Plot by Gerry Boudreau
Dialogue by Budd Lewis
Art by Gonzalo Mayo
"The Lady and the Lie"★★★
Plot by Gerry Boudreau
Dialogue by Budd Lewis
Art by Gonzalo Mayo
"The Emir of Aragon"★★1/2
Plot by Jeff Rovin
Dialogue by Budd Lewis
Art by Gonzalo Mayo
Legendary Spanish warrior El Cid kills a sorcerer/king in war and must face "The Seven Trials" as a result after the king curses him with his dying breath. On their warship, El Cid and his men face the first trial: an attack by a group of beautiful, topless sirens. The attack is repulsed and El Cid spares one of the sirens, whose fighting skills come in handy when a giant dragon/worm attacks in trial number two. When the slimy creature is defeated, El Cid and the siren feel a strange attraction drawing them together.
Part one of the El Cid saga, plotted by DuBay and with dialogue by Lewis, was better than I expected. Mayo's art is impressive, though it's not always easy to tell what's going on in any particular panel. I kept wondering if color would help distinguish some of the characters from the others. These stories where a certain number of trials are spelled out at the start inevitably become a countdown; the first two battles were okay, and all of the gorgeous women reminded me of Maroto's work.
The third trial appears just as El Cid realizes his ship is wrecked and only he, his loyal aide Blazquez, and the siren (who somewhere located a bikini) are left to fight a group of knights on flying horses. El Cid and co. manage to survive this challenge and the rest of the surviving crew recovers as the wrecked ship reaches an island. Dwarf monsters attack and El Cid once again kills everyone who opposes him, but the lovely siren/warrior is nearly killed in battle. El Cid carries her to the village that was abandoned by the dwarves and is beset by a flying ship captained by a magician who can send bolts of fire from the sky. Trial six involves a funeral coach driven by a banshee who resembles yet another beautiful and scantily-clad woman; the banshee steals the final breath from El Cid's beloved siren. Suddenly El Cid awakens and realizes it was all a dream, except for the beautiful nurse who brought him through his fever and her astonishing resemblance to the siren.
Part two was even better than part one! Mayo strives for a Hal Foster effect and, for the most part, succeeds. The various trials are impressive and build in intensity until the (to me) unexpected "It was all a dream" ending. Usually, I would find this disappointing, but for some reason it worked in this context, perhaps because the battles were so engaging.
El Cid discovers that the Moors have ransacked a castle and are on their way to capture Calahorra. As the hero rides, he is challenged by a Moorish knight and, though the battle on horseback is fierce, El Cid is thrown from his horse. He looks up and sees that the knight has vanished; "El Cid and the Vision" were only in his imagination. Making his way to Castille, El Cid is challenged by Don Urraca, who blames El Cid for allowing the castle to be ransacked. They fight and El Cid kills the Don, but the king is angry at the bloodshed in front of him. El Cid begs forgiveness and asks that the fate of Calahorra be decided by a one on one battle between El Cid and a Moorish champion. Lo and behold, it's the knight from the vision! This time, El Cid is ready for him and uses what he learned in the vision to win the battle.
Eight more sharp pages from Mayo make this an exciting and rewarding story. No topless babes this time out, just some solid knight on knight battles. My only minor complaint about the artwork is that El Cid seems to look different from page to page.
Riding home from Andalusia, El Cid encounters "The Lady and the Lie" when two demons, Lie and Lust, try to convince him to murder a young man and rape his lover. El Cid resists, but soon Lie manages to tempt a beautiful young woman into killing her lover and a woman she finds him with, unaware that the woman is a demon in disguise. To win back the girl's soul, El Cid agrees to follow the demons to Hell and fight; his innate goodness convinces them to let the girl go free, but they promise he will see their work wherever he goes.
Like the tales before it, this is a solid three stars for me, with good art and a story that is not overly complicated and reasonably satisfying. I like the use of Lie and Lust as demons who try to tempt the young and innocent, though Mayo's depiction of them as lions or tigers with fangs doesn't succeed in capturing their hellish nature as much as it might.
After armies led by El Cid drive "The Emir of Aragon" out of Aragon, leaving the city to King Alphonso, the emir gives a super-sexy Moorish servant girl as tribute. El Cid falls hard for her, spending every night in her bed. He has a vision of her that bodes ill and she fulfills the vision by trying to trick the king into coming to El Cid's chambers to be killed. King Alphonso suspects a trap and sends a substitute, whom the girl kills, but she cleverly pins the blame on El Cid. King Alphonso smells a rat and sends a fake note to the emir to make him think it's time to attack. When the emir's army advances, Alphonso knows El Cid is innocent and El Cid leads an army to defeat the Moors once again. The beautiful servant girl falls on her dagger and kills herself.
This last effort by Mayo has a decent plot by Jeff Rovin but, at this point in the issue, I think I've had enough of El Cid. The "All El Cid/All-Gonzalo Mayo" issue is above-average, though his art really recalls Maroto's and all of his beautiful wenches essentially look alike. For 54 solid pages of sword and sorcery, which is not my favorite genre, it's not bad.-Jack
But my biggest problem is the art by Mayo, which goes from astonishing to indecipherable, literally from panel to panel. Just look at that splash on page 17 (right), the beginning of the second part of "The Seven Trials." The "sea nymph" is clearly ripped off from the iconic still of Raquel Welch from One Million Years, BC, and Cid looks photoshopped. A lot of Mayo's stuff looks like a cheese enchilada that got left in the microwave too long. It's all melted together. And if I never see a fleet of flying horses again, it'll be too soon. My advice to Dube for future themed-issues: Hold the Mayo!
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| Eisner |
"Sand Saref" (1/8/50)
"Bring In Sand Saref..." (1/15/50)
"Thorne Strand" (1/23/49)
"A Slow Ship to Shanghai" (1/30/49)
Story and Art by Will Eisner
"Assignment: Paris" (5/23/48)
Story by Will Eisner
Art by Will Eisner & Andre LeBlanc
"A Pot of Gold" (4/3/49)
Story by Will Eisner & Jules Feiffer
Art by Will Eisner & Jerry Grandenetti
"Satin" (6/12/49)
Story by Will Eisner & Jules Feiffer
Art by Will Eisner
"Visitor" (2/13/49)
Story and Art by Will Eisner
Peter-A particularly strong batch of stories this issue. The art has never been better, especially that of "Satin" and "Visitor," which has a very creepy vibe to it. As far as scripts go, the double-feature of "Sand Saref" and "Bring in Sand Saref" were TKOs. I liked the flashback into The Spirit's past and Sand herself was a classic femme fatale. As portrayed by Eva Mendes, Sand Saref was just about the only salvageable aspect of the lousy Frank Miller film version of The Spirit (2008). Until this issue, I was thinking I'd had too much of a good thing and the novelty was wearing off. Hopefully, the second half of the Warren era of The Spirit keeps the energy and quality this high.
Jack-It's especially gratifying to read such a strong collection of stories after last issue's misfire with the Ebony special. Some might complain that Eisner objectified women, and perhaps he did, but these beauties are usually complex characters. The flashback to the Spirit's childhood in "Sand Saref" is a great version of the typical 1930s' crime film (e.g., Dead End) where kids grow up on the wrong side of town and follow different paths. I had to wonder about the Spirit's comment that he was working for American intelligence in 1942--I doubt a look back at the weekly Spirit sections of that year would support that. The sequel, "Bring in Sand Saref," is great as well, but I was concerned that the Spirit ran right into Sand's arms without a thought for Ellen. "Thorne Strand" is another hardboiled dame who rates a two-parter, and the beautiful splash page reminds me of when I saw Eisner, right around the time of this issue, give a slideshow at the NYC Comic Con, where he showed one splash page after another and a packed ballroom ate it up.
"Assignment: Paris" makes me wonder all over again just how are we supposed to pronounce P'Gell's name? The color on this story is particularly strong. A beautiful blonde called Wisp O' Smoke is featured in "A Pot of Gold," which has a welcome supernatural element, and "Satin" is another excellent drama with another character's welcome return. Finally, "Visitor" features a gorgeous Martian agent named Cosmek and a classic final page where a nondescript man steps out of a window nonchalantly and floats off into outer space. Add a superb cover and we have a memorable issue of The Spirit.
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| Ribas |
"Vampirella" ★★★
Story by Bill DuBay
Art by Jose Gonzalez
"The Wolves at War's End!" ★★
Story by Budd Lewis
Art by Luis Garcia Mozos
"The Easter Bunny Murders" ★★1/2
Story by Gerry Boudreau
Art by Ramon Torrents
"Cult of the Dead!" ★
Story by Gerry Boudreau
Art by Isidro Mones
"The Last Testament of Angus Crow!" ★★
Story and Art by Fernando Fernandez
Fresh off the plane from their whirlwind world tour, Pendragon and Vampirella are muscled by a pair of cops and told they're being arrested for multiple counts of murder. Before either can protest, shots ring out and our two heroes go down in a heap of blood and, in the case of Pendragon, alcohol. A couple days later, the Van Helsings get the news from their local paper and head to New York to be with their friends. While brainstorming, the VHs concur that the guilty party must be Pen's daughter, the loony Sara Granville, just out of prison and thirsty for revenge.
Essentially, just dozens and dozens of "talking heads" panels, this untitled Vampirella adventure might not be to everyone's taste. There's a heck of a lot of flashbacking going on--some necessary, some superfluous--but I actually liked the story. The return of Sara Granville was unexpected and a welcome change from voodoo chiefs and snake princesses, but I do question her plan. She orders Raven not to kill Vampi and Pen at the airport but then asks him to do the deed in the much more complicated location of a public hospital. Not sure of the motive there other than to stretch out the adventure. I suspect that, even though Dube emphasizes the shot will be to Van Helsing's heart, we'll see a miraculous recovery for everyone involved next issue. Gonzalez is up to his best Mort Drucker impersonation, but that splash is just dopey. In a preview of the action just a few pages later, Pen appears to be in mid-karate pose, Vampi is dancing a la Michael Jackson, and the cop is pulling his gun just as he's been kicked in the balls. What's it all about, Gonzo?
There's some nice, spare work by Luis Garcia Mozos on "The Wolves at War's End," but too much of the script is given over to pretentious pap (no surprise there, given Lewis's output at the time), reminding us over and over that man is his own worst enemy and God is only an image presented as a reason to kill for. I couldn't get "The Raven" out of my mind whenever the soldier would long for his lost Elenore. GCD tells us that the story's original script was written by Victor Mora and presented in the French comic zine, Pilote, in 1973.
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| H.G. Lewis would be so proud! |
Sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane, Angus Crow lives out his final days trying to convince his doctors that there are aliens amongst us. A very simple tale, "The Last Testament of Angus Crow!" is one of those rare Warren stories that could have been presented as a pure prose piece. Most of the dialogue and captions describe what is going on in the panel and the art is not outstanding Fernandez (one entire page is given over to the artist's swipes of film stills). The reveal, that Angus himself might be an alien, is certainly no shocker since so many clues are laid out before us. This is not a bad story but it's nothing to get excited about.-Peter
Jack-I had high hopes for this issue based on the Vampi story, but by the end I was ready to toss it on the trash heap. DuBay reboots the Vampirella saga nicely in an enjoyable story with the usual strong art by Gonzalez. "The Wolves at War's End!" is much too long, at 14 pages, and pompous, with a poor attempt to make words and pictures work together. It's a shame that we read The Spirit and then have to slog through junk like this, created by a writer-artist team who just don't know how to tell a story graphically. I was intrigued by the start of "The Easter Bunny Murders," and the art by Torrents was a relief after the muddy work by Mozos in the prior story, but this one quickly devolves into what seems like a Warren version of a Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode (the show was running at the time). Even worse is "Cult of the Dead," which features a disgusting final page. If Warren goes in this gory direction, I'll have a hard time keeping up. Finally, the Fernandez story is okay at best, only getting a slightly better rating in comparison to the story that precedes it.
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| Next Week... Dick gets randy with Vicki! |
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