Rarest Warrens pt. 4

An Illustrated History Of
Heidi Saha
Warren Publishing Co.
1973

This Warren mag only interests me (as I'm sure it does you) because it is one of the rarest Warrens. I'm also not terribly interested in the subject of the magazine, other than for the above same reason. (If you are more interested than I, you know where the Google is.) And lastly, I'm not especially interested in posting all 36 pages of this mag. If these thumbnails don't do it for you, go to my Photobucket album for a larger view.

The short version on this mag, is that Heidi was the daughter of sci-fi enthusiasts and friends of Forry Ackerman and enjoyed entering the costume contests at the sci-fi cons. The mag is mostly family photos of Heidi and photos of her in her con costumes. A short bio of Heidi written by Forry is full of his usual bad jokes and worst puns, some of which seem inappropriate, today. After wearing a Vampirella costume to a con, Warren returned the favor by publishing this magazine.

The mag had a print run of 500 and was only sold in the back issue pages. It is extremely rare and commands about 100 times what I'd be willing to pay for it.

Rarest Warrens pt. 3

After Hours No. 4
Jay Publishing Co., 1957
Publisher: James Warren

Warren's first venture into the publishing world was his Playboy knock-off After Hours (4 digest sized issues published in 1957). All issues of AH are rare (I believe #2 is the rarest), but the one most coveted by monster mag collectors is #4. Among the articles in this issue is the template for Famous Monsters of Filmland. Written by Forry Ackerman, Scream-O-Scope is Here! was a five page article on the current state of fantasy films, written in Forry's inimitable style. The mail was very favorable on the Ackerarticle, but this would be the last issue. After successfully defending himself on obscenity charges (it was an election year), AH folded and a new chapter in Warren's (and Ackerman's) life opened.

Rarest Warrens pt. 2

Bestsellers

In June 1964, the publishers trade journal Bestsellers profiled Jim Warren and the monster phenomenon started (in part) by Famous Monsters of Filmland. Naturally, these were never kept and have become quite scarce and are now an FM collector "holy grail".

Rarest Warrens pt. 1

Eerie No. 1

The Eerie "ashcan" edition of no. 1 (5 1/4" x 7 1/4" b/w cover, 24 pgs.) was put together, virtually overnite, to establish Warren's ownership of the title. (Myron Fass was, apparently, going to use the title on a mag, but was left with only the company name, Eerie Publications).

The issue was made up of stories and features from back numbers of Creepy and was dated Sep. 1965. Only 200 copies were printed and the mag was not officially distributed. Some Jack Davis art from Creepy no. 2 was used for the cover. Here are some sample pages:

Pg. 1

Pg. 2

Pg. 3

Pg. 10

Pg. 16

Pg. 23

I like how they used
the Shock Monster
as a substitute Cousin
Eerie, before he was
created.

Pg. 24

In 1978, a bootleg edition of Eerie no. 1 was released into the fan market. Warren ran this ad which offered a $500.00 reward for the arrest of the perpetrators, but they were never caught.

From Creepy No. 81