Review by Frank Plowright

Web of Horror was an obscure late 1960s horror anthology featuring some of the earliest published work of several creators who would progress to become greats. Michael Wm. Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson (sample art) are well represented in the three issues that saw print, and in the work gathered for a never actually published fourth issue and beyond. Also notable are Roger Brand, Frank Brunner, Bruce Jones – under-rated as an artist – and Ralph Reese, while Jeff Jones supplies the covers. The relative obscurity and the talent on show means the original comics command premium prices, making this hardcover an absolute bargain for enthusiasts even before taking into account the art for the fourth issue was long thought to be forever lost before resurfacing in 2014.

However, while delighting enthusiasts, collections of such obscurities lavishly annotated also hold a danger of building monuments to mediocrity, and while that’s not the case here, it’s heading in that direction. There’s no doubting the raw talent and enthusiasm of the named artists, but they’re works in progress, and progress was considerable when their art began filtering into DC mystery titles under the guidance of an art editor, although Wrightson’s development is rapid and noticeable.

Primary writers Terry Bisson and Clark Dimond supply twist in the tail fantasy, horror and SF stories to the template of primary influence Creepy, but they’re frequently predictable in spotlighting people who get what they want, but not in the form they expected. When the writers left after three issues, the artists began writing their own stories, while later DC and Marvel mainstays Gerry Conway, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman each contribute a single story, as does veteran writer Otto Binder.

Enthusiastic curator Dana Marie Andra is definitely right about the quality improving as the creators worked more regularly, but Web of Horror never transcends an intention to be a slightly racier copy of Creepy.