Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Eerie 21


This issue of Eerie, another one from Warren's dark ages in the late 1960's features one of their most bizarre covers, by Vic Prezio, featuring a weird creature that looks like a pumpkin with legs and a face. Behind the cover is this issue's version of Eerie's Monster Gallery , "Lucifer's Legions" by Tom Sutton.

Up first is "Point of View" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is a reprint from Eerie #6. It features an insane asylum where one of the patients thinks he's Dr. Frankenstein. After the inmates take over the asylum, he transfers the director's brain into one of the other inmates.

"Miscalculation" is next, with art by Tony Williamsune and story by Bill Parente. The story surrounds a war between the US and the USSR based on calculations from a computer. It ends up that the comptuers wanted humanity to wipe itself out and that's exactly what ends up happenening.

Another reprint drawn by Mastroserio and written by Goodwin is up next, "Terror in the Tomb", from Eerie #9. A pair of archeologists encounter a mummy guarding a pharoah's tomb which ends up coming alive. They destroy it, only to later find out that it was guarding them from the evil pharoah, whose still alive and kills them.

"Fatal Diagnosis" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story) is next. Similar to the story "A Stake in the Game" which I reviewed from Eerie 38, this features a vampire in a hospital that has been stealing blood. A doctor manages to kill the vampire, but it ends up he did it because he's a vampire himself and wanted all the blood to himself. Colon's art is quite poor in this story.

Another reprint is next, "Warrior of Death", by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A warrior, Zahran finds himself dying after a long battle and is encountered by Death. Zahran deals with Death to become invulnerable so he can kill many more on the battlefield. As he gets more and more powerful, Zahran becomes drunk with power. He encounters a young boy, Valric on the battlefield but ends up being killed by him, as it ends up that Valric made the same deal with Death that Zahran had. Good story that Ditko's art fits perfectly.

Last up is "House of Fiends" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A new doctor visits a young woman who is chained up by her aunt and uncle, accused as being crazy. She tells the doctor that they are a werewolf and vampire, and that their servant is a ghoul, and he has been brought here for them to kill. The doctor witnesses all three becoming the creatures she stated they were and manages to kill them all. Only it ends up that she is a witch and had tricked him into thinking they were these horrific creatures. Grandenetti's art style was quite different than most of the artists that worked for Warren but I've always enjoyed his work a lot.

Overall can't say I'm too pleased with this issue as 4 out of 6 stories are reprints. Neither of the new stories are all that good. The reprints certainly are good stories, particularly the Ditko and Grandenetti ones, but that 2/3 of the issue is reprints certainly is dissappointing.


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