CREEPY issue 40, page 1

my wife, Karen, gave this to me for christmas in 2004, and it's the best christmas gift i've ever received (unless you count my son, who arrived Dec. 23, 1991). this page represents one of my earliest comics experiences. i have vivid memories of staring at this particular page for minutes on end. i remember fixing my gaze on the women, staring at the monster's eyes, marveling at the skill it took to draw the monster's hand. when i was a kid, i drew pictures a lot more than i do now (don't we all?), but i remember realizing how good the artist, cockrum, was when i looked at that four-fingered hand. now that i have the original, i can say that this page is truly special. it measures about 13x18, and it's full of color for a black-and-white page that's mostly pen and ink. there's a slight blue tint in the dragon's eyes. the ink wash has a faint sepia tone to it, surely exaggerated by the yellowing of the board. and cockrum used a white, paintlike substance to add various highlights, such as in the foam of the water. i'd say it was liquid paper, if the page weren't published in 1971. uncle creepy is a paste-on, which i think you can notice in the scan. the page was autogrphed at the bottom by cockrum and publisher jim warren. i remember signing the E's in my name for years with three short horizontal lines (and no vertical line to connect them) as a tribute to cockrum, whose M's were three short vertical lines. big thanks to my wife for making this possible!