Creepy 20

Here's a very reprint heavy issue of Creepy from Warren's dark age. The cover is a reprint from Famous Monster #4 by Albert Nuetzell. It's one of Creepy's bizarrest covers, featuring a green one eyed creature with long arms. No frontis this issue.

First up is "Thumbs Down" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne Murphy (story), originally from Creepy #6. This story may be the most reprinted in Warren's history. Can't count how many times this story ended up being reprinted over the years. The story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to come back from the dead to take revenge.

"The Inheritors of Earth" by Hector Castellon (art & story) is second. The story feaures a chemical company employee creating a spray that kills cochroaches. He is suddenly transported to a world of giant insects where humanoids try to capture the formula. He escapes from the world only for them to get him back in the real world. Not that good of a story and hard to follow as well.

Another new story, "Beauty or the Beast!" by Sal Trapani (art) and Len Brown (story) is next. Four astronauts land upon an Earth like planet. Two are quickly killed. Another heads out and finds a beautiful woman, whom he tries to bring back with him. His colleague refuses, thinking she is probably responsible for the deaths, and brings her outside, only to get killed as well. Our protagonist finally tells her off only to have second thoughts. He heads back out to find her but now finds her killed, and finds what was really killing everyone, the male of the species, a hideous monster. The monster appears to be a swipe from the story "Counter-Clockwise" from the EC comic Weird Fantasy #18.

Another reprint from Creepy #6, "The Cask of Amontillado" is next, with art by Reed Crandall and story by Archie Goodwin. This is obviously an adaption of the classic Edgar Allen Poe story, featuring a man who encloses a colleague of his in a brick tomb. Goodwin adds a new ending to the story, where the protagonist, now an old man, returns to the scene of the crime and is killed when the chamber floods and the corpse of his colleague pulls him under water.

Another reprinted adaption is up next, "The Damned Thing!" from Creepy #4. It features art by Gray Morrow and story by Archie Goodwin. The story features a monster who is of a color that makes it appear invisible to the human eye. Upon being told of the monster, men are skeptical of it, only for the creature to appear and kill them. Very good story with a very scary looking ape-like monster, when it finally is able to be seen at the end.

Last is "A Vested Interest", originally published in Creepy #8. It has art by Geroge Tuska and story by Ron Parker. It featuers a man who sees a werewolf but finds no one believing him except a single man he meets at a bar. The man brings him to an alley at night and reveals himself to be the werewolf. Our hero thinks he's tricked him, shooting silver bullets from his camera, but the werewolf has outsmarted him, wearing a bullet-proof vest! Tuska's art is not too good here, but it is a fun story.