Enlarge Creepy 2010 New Comic Company Cover to Creepy #1 Enlarge Creepy 2010 New Comic Company Cover to Creepy #2 Enlarge Creepy 2010 New Comic Company Cover to Creepy #3 Enlarge Creepy 2010 New Comic Company Cover to Creepy #4 Enlarge Creepy 2010 New Comic Company Cover to Creepy #16 Do you remember Uncle Creepy? If you do, then you undoubtedly were a fan of Warren Publishing's Creepy magazine in the 1960s, '70s and early '80s. If the name doesn't ring a bell, don't worry, you once again have a chance to make acquaintance with the ghoulish host of the horror comics magazine. PHOTO GALLERY: See a variety of 'Creepy' classic magazine covers For nearly two decades, Creepy set the bar for horror comic anthologies. From 1964 to the early 1980s, the magazine was a must-read guilty pleasure for fans of the macabre. The issue covers were stunning works of art created by famous fantasy illustrators including Ken Kelly, Manuel Sanjulian, and, most notably, Frank Frazetta. These cover illustrations are the main reason why the original Creepy magazines remain such hot collector items. Equally impressive, though, were the interior black-and-white art and stories done by a who's who of international artists and writers. After Creepy (and its sister magazine Eerie) shut down, there was a period of legal wrangling for ownership and rights to the properties. Ultimately those rights came back to original Warren Publishing founder James Warren. In 2007, Warren sold Creepy and Eerie to New Comic Co. LLC — a group that comprises Dan Braun, Craig Haffner, Josh Braun and Rick Brookwell. Haffner explains his first memories of Creepy: "I was a reader of this material growing up. I didn't care what people thought, I loved these types of horror stories. I had fallen in love with the writing of Edgar Allen Poe and this magazine was a carry-over from that love." Dan Braun recalls a specific slumber party when he was a young boy, "I remember a sleep-over at one of my friends' houses. He had the cover to a Creepy magazine pinned up to his wall. It kept me up all night and scared the hell out of me!" That fear soon gave way to fascination. "A few years later, I started buying and reading the magazines. I fell in love with them." In looking at how they acquired the rights to both Creepy and Eerie, Haffner and Braun go back 10 years, to the beginning of a quest. "We were kicking around some project ideas in 2000," Haffner says, "and I said, 'whatever happened to Creepy and Eerie?' That question turned Dan into a detective. He went on the trail to find Jim Warren. Jim wasn't someone who was easily accessible. Trust me, that was absolutely by his own doing." Braun explains the rest: "I was able to get an old address from Creepy to try to track Jim down. I sent a letter to that address, which wasn't where he was living, but he still collected mail from that address. He ended up giving me a call back in response. After I collected myself from the shock of actually talking to him, Jim said he wanted to check into our background. A while later we got notice that we had passed his background check. My twin brother, Josh, Craig and myself made the sojourn to his home in Philly and we eventually got down to the brass tacks of optioning Creepy." The offer that the group presented didn't get quite the response they were hoping for. "He laughed pretty hard when we gave him our offer," Braun says. "I remember him telling us that our offer was so far away from what he would accept, it would be the equivalent of him being on the 100th floor of a 100-story building and us being down in the fifth sub-basement," laughs Haffner. The Creepy founder had entertained offers for years from a number of organizations and individuals who wanted to acquire his magazines. Warren was unwilling to pull the trigger on any of those proposed deals, though. After meeting with the New Comic Co. group, he did his background checks and, after seven years, decided to sell to them. Braun was amazed to finally get the call from Warren, "At a certain point during a seven-year period, everything just lined up," he said. "He called and said meet me in Philadelphia. Our team went to Philly and we honestly didn't know what it was that we were going to review." The group made its way to Warren's lawyer's office and was shocked to find everything they had hoped for laid out in front of them. "We showed up at Jim's lawyer's office and he was there with all of the papers and contracts. We showed up and signed papers and it was all ours. We didn't have a publishing deal in place or a business plan or a real grasp that we would own this thing at the end of the day. That all happened two days before the 2007 New York Comic-Con." It was at that Comic-Con when the group made contact with Dark Horse Comics. "It turns out Mike Richardson at Dark Horse is a huge Creepy fan," Haffner says. "He has every original issue in his basement. One thing led to another and we ended up signing a production and distribution deal with them." In 2008, working with Dark Horse, New Comic released its first hardcover archive collection of the old Creepy magazines. In 2009, an Eerie archive collection was released and the company re-launched Creepy as an all-new quarterly magazine. In 2011, Creepy will move to a bi-monthly printing schedule. Industry and fan reaction to the revived Creepy and Eerie brands has been incredibly positive. The New Comic group hopes to parlay that wave of enthusiasm into new and exciting TV, movie, Web and print opportunities. Braun provides a few examples of how they're ramping up the brand presence of both titles. "We've been working with one of the biggest film producers out there to option one of the characters from Eerie. We've signed with ICM and we have a print and digital strategy." In looking at Creepy's sci-fi adventure sister magazine, Eerie, Haffner and Braun are proud to announce that the publication is going to relaunch at the 2011 Comic-Con in San Diego. Braun provides a few details on the new Eerie magazine: "The plan right now is to do an 80-page Eerie annual that comes out in magazine size, rather than comic-book size. Based on reader reaction, we might increase the publishing frequency." Haffner provides a glimpse at their TV strategy. "We're looking to launch Creepy Presents: Loathsome Lore, a reality-based look at monsters and legends that are rumored to be out there. We're also looking at scripted TV shows, feature films and Web content. We'll have digital vignettes called Creepy Presents between issues of our bi-monthly magazine. We have to face it," he says, "we're living in a world where brand recognition is everything." For the monster, ghoul, slash and scream fans that are out there — those who remember the original runs of these magazines and those who are being newly introduced to the material —Creepy and Eerie are two classic fiction brands that have been sorely missed, and are now welcome returns, to today's horror genre. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more