ANOTHER CREEPY WEEK: ROY G. KRENKEL'S UNPUBLISHED CREEPY COVER ART

In 1977, the 7th issue of John Benson's EC Comics fan publication, SQUA TRONT, contained a jaw-dropping article that showed some of Roy G. Krenkel's proposed artwork intended as covers for CREEPY. For readers who were unaware of this bit of ephemera esoterica at the time, it was a moment of revelation bordering on the religious.

Now, those of you who recognize this name also know that the name "Krenkel" is only spoken of in the same breath as Frazetta, Wrightson, Jones, Willliamson and a very few others. The great Frazetta even said: "Roy Krenkel is a constant source of inspiration to me."

Roy Gerald Krenkel (July 11, 1918 - February 24, 1983) was an American artist and illustrator whose specialty was fantasy and science fiction. He collaborated with Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson on a number of EC horror comics titles. He is noted for his magnificent cover renderings of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs for ACE paperbacks, as well as illustrating many of Robert E. Howard's non-Conan stories and other book covers and illustrations. He received the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist in 1963.

In the early days of Warren's CREEPY, then-Editor Archie Goodwin asked Krenkel about submitting some work to his popular horror comics magazine. He had already collaborated with Frazetta on some layouts and composition pages. Krenkel no doubt knew the affinity of this exciting new horror comics magazine with EC and later brought in a stack of work that, if published, would have promised to be some of the masterworks of CREEPY's entire run.

Following are some examples of the work that he brought in to Goodwin. The article is accompanied by an index of the Warren comics work that Krenkel had published.