Warren Publishing

Founded by Jim Warren in 1957, Warren Publishing initially published non-fiction magazines, until, in 1964, it introduced strips adapting famous movie monsters such as the Mummy and Dracula in its horror movie magazine Monster World. Later that year it made a more concerted move into producing horror fiction with the launch of Creepy, soon joined in 1966 by Eerie, and in 1969 when what would prove to be Warren's most enduring character, Vampirella, got her own series, followed in the 1970s by a series of Vampirella prose novels. It also produced Help! (clearly in the vein of EC's Mad Magazine), war fiction in Blazing Combat, and reprinted Will Eisner's The Spirit, said magazine lasting 17 issues before transferring to new licensee Kitchen Sink with #18. Warren also reprinted some of its older stories in Comix International and Warren Presents.

Avoiding the restrictions of the Comics Code by classifying as magazines, Warren's three main horror titles attempted to capture the style of the defunct EC line, both employing several former EC writers and artists, and using "horror hosts" similar to the old EC ones - in this case, Uncle Creepy, Cousin Eerie and (when she wasn't starring in her own stories) Vampirella.

During the lengthy runs of its horror magazines, several popular characters became recurring features, many eventually crossing over with each other via time travel to help establish the "Warrenverse." One of these, the Rook, finally gained his own magazine in 1979. However, after years of successful publication, Warren's finances took a sharp downturn. In 1982, with Warren now struggling to stay afloat, they launched The Goblin, an adventure and super-hero anthology; it lasted only three issues before Warren closed up shop in 1983. However, like many popular characters, the demise of the company that spawned them hasn't seen the Warren characters completely vanish. Harris Comics (founded by Stanley Harris) obtained the rights to many of them, though only Vampirella had a respectable print run under them; Jim Warren appears to have eventually regained the rights to all but her following a legal battle in the late 1990s. As of 2008 Dark Horse began reprinting the early issues of Creepy and Eerie.

There is an excellent site about the Warrenverse and Warren Publishing's characters here.

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