(Continued from Poe 1968, Pt. 36)
EERIE 20
"THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER"
The real "golden age" of POE comics continues!
Warren, in late 1967, ran into some financial difficulties. While Forry Ackerman's baby "FAMOUS MONSTERS" plowed on with no noticable drop in quality (that would come in the period following Boris Karloff's death), both CREEPY and EERIE lost most of their top talent, as well as their editor & top writer Archie Goodwin. They also began having about 50% of every issue consist of reprints of material that wasn't that old to begin with. And, as someone pointed out to me, they even began having covers appear on the wrong issues, and mis-spelled words on some of those covers. Good grief!
16 months after Tom Sutton's version of "MASQUE", they finally got around to doing another Poe story. In the meantime, Reed Crandall's "TELL-TALE HEART" and "CASK OF AMONTILLADO" had been reprinted, in EERIE #13 (Feb'68) and CREEPY #20 (May'68), respectively.
Which brings us to Warren's 6th POE adaptation:
"THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER".
This was the 9th comics adaptation of the story, following...
Charlton's YELLOWJACKET COMICS #4 (Dec'44),
Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #40 (Aug'47),
Register & Tribune's THE SPIRIT (Aug'48),
EC's THE VAULT OF HORROR #13 (Jun-Jul'50),
Prize's BLACK MAGIC #28 (Jan'Feb'54),
EC's TERROR ILLUSTRATED #1 (Nov'Dec'55),
Taika's ALBUM CLASSICOS DE TERROR #5 (1967), and
Serg's 3 HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES (1968)
...the last one about a year earlier.
The 1st of the Warrens NOT involving Archie Goodwin was adapted by Tom Sutton himself! While Sutton's art in 1967 somewhat resembled a cross between Wally Wood & Jerry Grandenetti, this 1969 work actually reminds me of Craig Russell's more "flowery" stylings-- or the work of Michael T. Gilbert-- albeit, several years before either even started in the business!
Some time after this, Warren's fortunes turned around, in part because of their debuting a 3rd horror comics magazine-- VAMPIRELLA. Sutton became the first regular artist on the lead feature! Some further time after that, most of the lesser talents vanished as far better artists began getting hired again. Sutton was one of the FEW who remained-- for a very long haul! I think that really says it all about him.
This page was originally set up on January 5, 2015. It was then moved on September 17, 2017. For the sake of organization, I've have now MOVED it again, to this new location.
EERIE 20
cover by H.B. HARRIS (Warren / March 1969)
Adaptation & Art by TOM SUTTON / Pages 22-23 (reduced)
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Like many American publishers, Warren stories were reprinted by a wide
variety of publishers overseas, usually in a jumbled, chaotic, haphazard way.
VAMPI-COMIC 7
cover by SANJULIAN (Paben Verlag / Germany / [February] 1975)
After I colored Tom Sutton's "THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH", artist Frank Thorne asked me if I was gonna tackle Sutton's "HOUSE OF USHER".
I didn't think it should be... but clearly, someone in Germany already thought otherwise!
cover by RICHARD HESCOX (Semic / Finland / [April] 1976)
("THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER" / Version 9)
cover by FRANK FRAZETTA / (Dark Horse / October 2010)
Here's a special bonus. I've seen a pile of stand-alone illustrations of various POE stories, but this one seems most appropriate to post here.
THE ROCKET BLAST'S COMIC COLLECTOR 131
(RBCC / October 1976)
"USHER II" / art by TOM SUTTON
This concludes the initial set of Warren POE adaptations. But there would would be many more to come...
Copyright (C) Warren Publishing & Tom Sutton.
Scan of EERIE #20 from the Heritage Auctions site.
Scans of EERIE #20 interiors from The Golden Age blog.
Scans of VAMPI-COMIC #7 supplied by Ernie Laczo
with special thanks!
Scans of SHOKKI #4 / 1976 from the Muuta.Net site.
Scan of EERIE ARCHIVES Volume Four from the GCD site.
Scan of THE ROCKET BLAST'S COMIC COLLECTOR #131 page
from Nicholas Caputo.
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa.
For more:
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at The Poe Museum site.
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at the Biography site.
Read about Tom Sutton at Lambiek Comiclopedia.
Read the Tom Sutton interview at The Comics Journal.
Read about THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER at Spark Notes.
Read the complete story at the Poe Stories site.
See the HOUSE OF USHER Gallery of Illustrations.
Audio:
Hear the Basil Rathbone recording!
Hear the Gladys Thornton WEIRD CIRCLE episode!
Hear the Paul Frees ESCAPE episode!
Hear the Kevin McCarthy CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!
Comics:
Read the Gus Schrotter HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Harley M. Griffiths HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Jerry Grandenetti HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Harry Harrison HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Steve Ditko HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the George Evans HOUSE OF USHER illustrated story!
Read the Osvaldo Talo HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Alexis-Thomas Hinsberger HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Tom Sutton HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Dino Battaglia HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Juan Reyes HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Gino Dauro HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Miguel Gomez Esteban HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Carlos Moro HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Maro Navo HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Cirilo Munoz HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Martin Salvador HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Guido Del Carpio Rivera HOUSE OF USHER illustrated story!
Read the Nestor Redondo HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
(Coming soon:)
Read the Pablo Marcos HOUSE OF USHER illustrated story!
Read the Novelas Inmortales HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Arturo Arnau HOUSE OF USHER illustrated story!
Read the E.C. Nickel HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the Richard Corben HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Read the P.Craig Russell / Jay Geldof HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
Misc.:
Read the Tom Sutton RED DEATH adaptation!
Read the Tom Sutton HOUSE OF USHER adaptation!
See the CHRONOLOGICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
See the ALPHABETICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
(Continued in Poe 1969, Pt. 2)
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