Archive for Vampirella

The Unpublished Web of Horror #4 History…

Posted in Did You Know? with tags , , , , , , , on January 24, 2012 by headhuntaz

Was talking with my Uncle Bruce one day sippin’ on one of his famously strong handed Jack n’ Cokes..lol…and he started telling me about the never before published Web of Horror #4.  I went home that next week and started researching this issue and came across the following…

Web of horror #4 (Unpublished—History)

 Following issue 3, Bisson quit as editor to join a commune (well, it was the 1970s) and, later, establish a career as an award-winning SF writer.  Berni Wrightson & Bruce Jones convinced Robert Sproul to let them become the new editors.  They had assembled a 4th issue when one weekend they went out to Long Island to meet with Sproul for a conference, only to discover him gone to Florida {or simply across town} along with a large quantity of the art and stories intended for future issues of Web Of Horror.  Not all of the stories disappeared however, as Frank Brunner bluffed his way into the Sproul’s offices towards the end, claiming that he was the new editor and rescuing a goodly amount of stories which ended up in various fanzines of the time.  The following items were intended for the never published Wrightson/Jones edited Web Of Horror.

  • cover: Berni Wrightson [published in Scream Door #1]
  • 1) Webster’s Welcome [Michael Kaluta] 1p   [published in Reality #2]
  • 2) Quasar! [Steve Hickman] 7p   [published in Reality #1]
  • 3) Death Is The Sailor [Len Wein/Michael Kaluta] 7p [published in Reality #1 & 2]
  • 4) Eye Of Newt, Toe Of Frog [Gerry Conway/Frank Brunner] 7p   [published in Vampirella #10]
  • 5) Outside-In [Bruce Jones] 7p   [published in Reality #2]
  • 6) Rat! [Tom Sutton] 7p   [credited to Sean Todd {see the reference to Warren’s “them or us” letter above}, published in Scream Door #1]
  • 7) Out On A Limb [Berni Wrightson] 6p   [published in I’ll Be Damned #4]
  • 8) Hey, Buddy, Can You Lend Me A…? [Michael Kaluta] 5p   [published in Scream Door #1]
  • 9) Sword Of Dragonus [Chuck Robinson & Frank Brunner/Frank Brunner] 8p   [published in Phase #1]

Stories that vanished included the following:

  • A SF story by Clark Dimond & Ralph Reese featuring pirates & galleons in outer space!
  • a Berni Wrightson story entitled ‘The Monster Jar’
  • Two Michael Kaluta stories

Frank Brunner has long stated that the first Dragonus story, ‘Sword Of Dragonus’ was also intended for a future issue of Web Of Horror.  After Web collapsed, Warren offered to publish it as well, but Brunner wanted to retain the rights to this because he believed Dragonus would make a good continuing series.  Thus, ‘Sword Of Dragonus’ ended up in the only issue of the fanzine Phase.  A second Dragonus story would appear in Star*Reach #3. 

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