Creepy 66

This issue features a cover by Ken Kelly, featuring a axeman chopping at a man's decapitated head. Berni Wrightson handles the frontis, which features Uncle Creepy.

Up first is "Desecration" by Jose Ortiz (art, his first job for Creepy) and Doug Moench (story). A man goes to a pyramid in Egypt and finds out about how it belonged to a pharoah who dismissed the gods. A god actually came down and cursed him forever, locking him in the pyramid. The man heads inside the pyramid and finds the god, which is actually an alien, which brings him to his planet as punishment.

Next is "Portrait of Death" with art by Vicente Alcazar and story by Budd Lewis. An artist digs up a corpse to use in a painting and is blackmailed by a fellow grave digger, whom he kills and also uses in his painting. The painting comes to life however, and kills him, bringing him into the painting as well. Terrific art by Alcazar here.

Third is "Solitude!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A group of outlaws takes over a desolate town in the desert. When they decide to stay though, it is revealed that the townfolk are actually werewolves, and they kill the outlaws.

Next is "Pinball Wizard!" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A rare non-color story by Corben for this era of Warren. Mobsters pressure the owner of a candy store to put in a pinball machine and when he refuses kills him. A boy who befriended the old man summons a demon who kills the mobster, and brings him to hell where he acts as the ball for a pinball game.

"Relatively Axe-Cidental" is fifth, with art by Adolfo Abellan and story by Greg Potter. An executioner sets up his brother in law, who knows his true identity, by accusing him of being a sorceror. Only the same thing ends up happening to him when his angry wife accuses him of the same. Her brother's decapitated corpse ends up being the executioner.

The issue wraps up with "Nightmare!, featuring art by Isidro Mones and story by Mones & Gerry Boudreau. The story features a man having a recurring dream about encountering bizarre looking cloaked monsters. At the end of the story when life goes just like the dream, the man ends up going crazy.

Vampirella 57

My first ever issue of Vampirella is the one I cover today, and its a pretty damn good issue. The cover is by who else, but Enrich.

First up is "City of Ghosts" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Vampirella is stranded in the desert and comes across a deserted town where she meets her husband from Drakulon, Tristan. Adam arrives but is shot by him. Eventually it ends up that it was all an illusion and Vampi is reunited with Pendragon and Adam.

Second is "Rusty Bucklers" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story is about an old man, Dete, who joins a young knight on his trip to defeat a nearby sorceror and rescue the lady trapped there. It is revealed that many years have passed, the sorceror's dragon has died of old age, the sorceror himself is gone, and the lady is old too. Dete sleeps with her and is killed by the young knight, who overreacts.

Third is "Stand-In" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story takes place in the future, where people's deaths can be predicted. A company, Surgo Inc offers to replace the victim with an employee in whatever accident may occur. The story surrounds one of these employees and his relationship with a reporter he meets.

Fourth is one of my top 5 Warren stories of all time, "Magnificent Ephemeral" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story is about a newspaper reporter, Scott Westly, working on a story about the mysterious Gloria Winsome, a Marilyn Monroe-esque actress who vanished off the face of the Earth after a single movie. Scott becomes completely obsessed with her and spends months trying to research what become of her. Eventually he discovers the truth and is able to meet with her and she shows him a video which reveals the truth, that she's actually a man! Wanting to preserve the secret forever, he asks Scott to kill him and he does so, then hangs himself. Amazing story with one of Warren's biggest shock endings and terrific art by Torrents.

Last is "An Insult to Science" by Jose Miralles (art, in his sole story) and Fernando Fernandez (story). The story is about a disbeliever in the spirit world who has an experience with a woman whose been dead 25 years that changes his opinions about the subject for good. Miralles's art is fairly good, kind of like Fernandez's.

Eerie 30

A funny cover for this issue, by Basil Gogos, featuring a stalking mummy being pulled apart by a boy behind him! This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: BEM!" by Dan Adkins. The art for this story is an obvious swipe from Adkin's mentor, Wally Wood, from the cover of the EC comic Weird Fantasy #27.

First up is "The Entail" by Pat Boyette (story & art). A young man is invited to a town run by a Baron, who offers him eternal life if he becomes a king, working under his influence. The young man refuses since the drink the Baron gave him already gave him eternal life and he has no reason to be loyal to him. The Baron has his minions eat him, and he is turned into a scarecrow! Pat Boyette was a consistently good artist and writer, and this story is no exception to that trend.

Next is "Mirror, Mirror" by Frank Bolle (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story stars 'October Weir', a recurring character that appeared in this issue and the next one. It features him solving a case regarding a man who was killed by a demon. His travels bring him and his wife into a mirror to a seperate world where things are backwards. An okay story, but not great.

Third is "Life Species" by Bill Dubay (story & art). This is a very short story about astronauts arriving at a destroyed planet and piecing together a habitant of the planet. It ends up the planet is Earth, but the interesting twist is that put together a car and think it was the dominant species of the planet! Very short, but good story by Dubay.

Next is "I, Werewolf" by Ken Barr (story & art). The story features a man picked up by gypsies who was turned into a werewolf by a vampire. He battles the vampire while he's a werewolf and manages to defeat him. A segment of this story seems highly influenced by Frank Frazetta's cover to issue 7 of Creepy.

"In Close Pursuit" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Gordon Matthews (story) is about a man who made a lot of money using cheap material to build a skyscraper and got it blamed on his partner, resulting in him getting off scott free. However he ends up being pursued by someone after getting off a bus and falls to his death while running from him. Only it ends up that the man meant no harm in the first place.

The cover story is "The Return of Amen-Tut!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Don Glut (story). A mummy is excavated and brought into a museum. He comes back to life and seeks to commit murder, but the boy of one of his prospective victims pulls the wrappings off of him, reducing him to dust! Hilarious ending to this story.

Last is "The Creation" by Carlos Garzon (art) and Doug Moench (story). Yet another one of Warren's countless Frankenstein-influenced stories, this one isn't any more original then the others. A doctor seeks to create life, has a hunchbacked minion kill a former assistant, only for the assistant's brain to end up in his creation and kill him. Nothing special here, although the art is nice.

Creepy 35

This issue is a rarity in that its Creepy's only non-ad issue ever. From what I've heard, a competitor of theis was putting out a no ad horror magazine, so Warren decided to do the same thing. Unfortunately the experiment only lasted for a single issue (although 1984 would be no ads in the early days of its existence as well). As a result, this has more stories than any other Creepy issue with new content (I believe some of the all reprint issues may have more). The cover, by Kenneth Smith features a small green creature on a skull.

Our first story is "Tough Customers" by Tom Sutton (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story) about a group of mobsters that hustle a butcher for protection money who always refuses. Each hit man sent to kill him never comes back, so finally the boss himself arrives, and realizes that the butcher has killed all his men and served them to ghouls, which quickly arrive for him as well.

Next is "Legend in Gold" with art by Roger Brand and writing again by Rosen. This story features a pair of men searching for a rock that can turn things into gold. One of the men gets too greedy and touches it, turning himself into gold. Somewhat of a fantasy story which seems out of place with all the horror stuff here.

Third is "Polly Want a Wizard?" by Ernie Colon (art) and Howard Waldrop (story). A man tells the police about what happened to a magician he was working for, Mr. Black. Mr. Black was a talented magician who was teaching our protagonist various tricks, some of which involved the killing of birds. As our protagonist is about to kill a parrot for Mr. Black, demons suddenly arrive while he's working on his magic and kill him. Not a good story, but Colon's art is very nice here.

Fourth is "Army of the Walking Dead!" by Syd Shores (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story, yet again!). In Germany during World War II, a doctor finds a way to bring dead soldiers to life as zombies. The zombies initially result in things turning out quite well for the nazis, but the zombies go out of control and the doctor, the only one who can control them, ends up getting killed. Hitler orders the zombies and anyone who knows about them to be wiped out, erasing the story from the history books.

"Godslayer" is next, with art and story by Bill Stillwell. A swords & sorcery tale with nice art, but a just horribly boring story, as many in this genre were.

"It's Grim" features art by Syd Shores and story by Al Hewetson. A businessman who owns a taxidermy store fears that his business partner and wife are going to kill him. He gets all worked up over his partner's bizarre behavior, only for it to end up that he was simply working on stuffing a puma. Or was he? Uncle Creepy explains in the ending that he actually just coated the puma with a substance that would temporarily freeze it and as soon as it wears off, the puma will kill him. None of this is ever shown though, making this an odd way to finish the story.

Next is "The Druids Curse" by The Ciochetti Brothers (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). Its about a crucified druid who curses the soldiers who killed him, saying that they will all drown. Soon all but one have died from drowning. The last survives a shipwreck and heads to the desert, thinking he's beaten the druid's curse, only to drown in his own blood when he's mortally wounded. Rather odd and unique looking art by the Ciochetti Brothers in their only Warren appearance.

"Gunsmoke Charly" by Alan Weiss (art and story) is our next tale, about a gunfighter who makes a deal with the devil such that he'll never be harmed by a bullet. It works and he becomes a great gunfighter, but eventually is done in by something other than a gun, the heat of the desert.

Last is "Justice!" by Pat Boyette. An accountant whose boss catches him leering at his wife can't resist doing it again, but goes overboard and kills her when she screams. He then kills his boss as well and tries to get away with their dismembered bodies, but is chased by the police. He hides in the sewers but is eventually put on trial for being a ghoul. He tries to prove himself innocent by putting their bodies back together, but isn't that successful.

Vampirella 71

Here's another issue of Vampirella featuring a photograph of Barbara Leigh, as Vampirella.

First up is "The Case of the Connected Clows and the Collector!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi is in Hollywood with Pantha, working on shooting for a movie. Meanwhile movie stars have been dissappearing including one working on the movie. It ends up that a crazed man at the production studio has been kidnapping them and he does so to Vampi, who is able to escape. A parallel storyline featuring Pantha and her encounter with siamese twins with domineering sexual habits also takes place. In contrast to the recent Vampi stories I've been reviewing, this is a pretty good story, with terrific art by Gonzalez.

"Trial of the Sorceress" is next, by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story). It features a woman accused of being a sorceress by multiple men. She is found guilty and is tortured. At the end it seems that one of the accusers set her up for defying him, but she ends up being an actual sorceress and takes her revenge.

"Night of the Chicken" is third, by Jess Jodloman (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). This is a bizarre story about an old man who feeds real humans to his chickens. The story features multiple women dressing up in a strange chicken outfit. In the end the old man ends up getting eaten by his own chicken. Quite an odd story, but very good art.

Fourth is "Machu Picchu" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Josep Toutain & Nicola Cuti (story). This story was originally intended to be for an additional Warren magazine, 'Yesterday, Today... Tomorrow', but the magazine was never published, so it ended up here in Vampirella. The story features a treasure hunter at an Incan temple to tries to take the treasure there, and instead encounters astronauts, who tell him that its uranium! He doesn't listen to them and is killed along with the woman who has been helping them.

Last is "Australopithicus" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story features two storylines, one taking place with prehistoric man and one taking place with a man in modern times being forced to do things he doesn't want to do. The storylines converge at the end, with disastrous results for our main character. Very good art by Duranona in the prehistoric part of the story.

Eerie 41

A very good, well known cover by Sanjulian, based on a panel in this issue's Dax story. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Ghouls of Scotland" by Ken Barr (art) and Fred Ott (story).

First story is "Warped" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A college student discovers of an 'infinity gland' which will prevent him from dying, which he obtains from the mysterious Cahill. He soon finds that the gland speeds up how he views time tremendously however, and before he knows it he's aged over half a century. He meets Cahill again, who reveals that he is one of many mutants who are seeking punishment on normal people. The end of the story features another young man approaching Cahill about eternal life.

Next is "West Coast Turnaround" by Tom Sutton (art) and John Wooley (story). Mike Harris, a young man with a wife and young child takes a temporary job as a truck driver in order to raise money to move to California. In order to stay up all night he is given a drug called "West Coast Turnaround" which results in bizarre hallucinations. At the end of the story he returns with the truck, having dug up a bunch of corpses that he thought were alive.

Third is "Heir Pollution" with art by Jose Bea and story by John Wooley again. A man, Norman Mayo, inherits his father's fertilizer factory and quickly increases production tremendously, which results in a lot of pollution. A college professor warns him of the pollution he's causing, so Norman kills him and throws him in the polluted river. The professor's deformed corpse comes back to life and seeks revenge, pulling him back into the river with him.

Next up is "The Caterpillers" by Luis Garcia (art) and Fred Ott (story). A professor from a government research facility passes away during a meeting, resulting in an investigation. It is revealed that caterpillers created in the facility had been taking over the minds of people and eating their brains. Quickly the entire lab is wiped out by them and when our protagonist reports to his superiors, it is revealed that they have been taken over as well. Terrific art as always from Garcia, but the story is extremely similar to the story "Spiders are Revolting" from Eerie 26.

Fifth is "Derelict" by Paul Neary (art) and John Thraxis (story). This was Neary's Warren debut, and looks nothing as good as his usual work. The story features a spaceship coming across a derelict ship. A number of astronauts head aboard to find it deserted, but a mysterious vapor lingers in the ship and soon all the men are dying off. At the end of the story only one astronaut is alive, with everyone else dead.

Sixth is "The Safest Way" with art by Jose Gual (art) and story by Steve Skeates (story). The story features two men, one a General under a lot of pressure to keep down revolts and the other a man talking to the revolutionaries trying to get them to work towards a peaceful solution. The general panics due to pressure and orders the other man killed. A very abrupt ending to this story right in the middle of things.

Last is "Chess", this issue's segment of Dax the Warrior, by Esteban Maroto. Dax is summoned by a sorceror who simulates a chess game where Dax's dead family and friends are brought back to life as chess pieces and are killed once again as their pieces are taken out. Dax performs quite poorly and when his last piece, his father, is about to be taken out, he snaps and attacks the sorceror's queen. Dax is sent back to reality with a souvenier, his father's decapitated head. This story would be reprinted in color in issue 59.

Overall quite a good issue, with strong stories and art for the most part throughout the issue.

Creepy 102

This issue of Creepy is a monsters special. The cover, by Patrick Woodruff, features a bizarre multi-armed worm sporting machine guns. Quite the odd looking cover.

First story is "Pantomine at Sea" by Buz Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). A stuntman wearing a seamonster costume is pursued underwater by multiple hunters who appear to think that he's a real monster. He's captured and put in a tank, so he removes his mask to prove that he's a person. Only they don't let him out, and remove their own masks, revealing that they are aliens! They depart in a spaceship, taking him back to their own planet.

The issue's best story is "Almost Shangri-la" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story is about two climbers in the himalayas that get lost in the snowy wilderness and come across a paradise. One of the men freaks out and runs off terrified, and turns into a monster.

"The Thing in the Haunted Forest is third, with art and story by Abel Laxamana. The story features a man who kills an old man with an axe and takes all his money. He tries to bury the money in the forest and mark the location by chopping down a tree. Upon chopping at the tree, a spirit comes out and says that she has been cursed to live forever in the tree and that he'll be cursed with eternal life if he chops it down. He goes ahead and does that, releasing her, but the tree falls on him, trapping him under it forever.

"Killer Claw" by Walt Simonson & Klaus Jansen (art) and Mark Lasky (story) features a giant lobster that kills a few people and is attacked, only to release thousands of babies upon its death.

"Night Eyes" with art by Alfredo Alcala and story by Bruce Jones features a man who goes to Africa to head the creation of a railroad in order to earn the respect of his prospective father in law. His team is terrorized by a creature that they are unable to catch. At the end of the story our protagonist is able to escape alive after being concealed in a giant crate. Didn't get the ending of this one.

Last is "Fair Prey" by Isidro Mones (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A derelict ship is spotted, featuring the corpses of multiple people, and a single living person, a woman who tells the story about how their research project on an island was interrupted by giant mosquitoes. At the end of the story, they return.

Vampirella 86

Here's the final Vampirella issue from the Louise Jones era. Only four stories, but aside from the Vampi story its not that bad an issue. The cover is by Terrance Lindall.

First up is "Revenge of the Renegade Wizard" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story, under the name Will Richardson). Vampi, Adam and Pantha fight Tenichi, an evil wizard they had originally fought in issue 73. An action filled story that just is not that interesting to me, like most of Vampi's later stories.

Next up is "Snarking Down" by Auraleon (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Its about a man going to see a woman and her husband who he hasn't seen in years. While working on another planet, the husband got as a pet a 'snark', an ugly tentacled creature that has the ability to hypnotize people into thinking its their lover. Naturally his wife wants to get rid of the thing, but there are unintended consequences and it is she who ends up dying.

"Brain Food" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Michael Fleisher (story) is third, about a man who discovers the healing powers of a tribe living deep within a jungle. He also finds out their favorite meal, monkey brains. He kills one of them and steals what he thinks is a magic blanket, only for them to catch him, cause two new heads to grow on his body, and eat the brains of all of them.

Last up is the "Pygalion Effect" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easely (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). The story's about a girl who can make inanimate objects alive. Her father tells her to stop, but when she's kidnapped, she uses her powers to rescue herself.

My personal fave is 'Snarking Down' although the last 2 stories are fairly good too.

Eerie 22

Another Eerie issue from Warren's dark ages. The cover, by Vic Prezio, is for the story H20 World. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur" from Eerie 11 by Neal Adams.

First up is H20 World, originally published in the first issue of Creepy. The art is by Al Williamson & Roy Krenkel and the story is by Larry Ivie. It is about a pair of divers who come across an underground civilization. There they meet the mutated people who live there, who force them to forget that they ever encountered them. Very beautiful artwork here, particularly Krenkel's backgrounds.

Our first new story this issue is "Family Curse" by Tony Williamsune (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story, his first). A newlywed couple visits the castle owned by the bride's ancestors, who were rumored to be monsters. While there, she encounters an old woman as well as a book detailing the horrific family history. The bride decides to kill herself to prevent herself from being a burden on her husband and the world, only the husband finds out that she actually wasn't part of the family after all, but rather related to the old woman they met.

"The Devil To Pay", originally from Creepy 11 is next, with art by Donald Norman and story by Archie Goodwin. A duke summons a demon, seeking more power for himself. The demon refuses, instead telling him that he'll die within a year and his soul will belong to hell. He can prevent that if he finds someone wiling to give up their soul, but if he fails, he'll die within a day. The duke finds a man and hypnotizes him into doing his deed, only for the man to end up being Satan himself!

"Permanent Members" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) is fourth, featuring an initiation into a kid's gang that takes place in a cemetary. One of the boys becomes a vampire, but it ends up all the other boys are werewolves and they kill him.

Fifth is "Scooped" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). A reporter discovers two men that are actually cochroach-like aliens. He and his supervisor confront them, who say they're actually peaceful, and want to help mankind. This results in the reporter and his supervisor killing them, for they are also aliens, of a different race, who want to take over Earth.

Last is "The Spirit of the Thing!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), probably their best collaberation aside from the well known "Collectors Edition" story. This story was originally printed in Creepy 9. It features a professor who hypnotizes a student of his, resulting in his spirit leaving his body. The professor then steals the student's body, as his is about to die. The student's spirit, now bodiless, steals the professor's corpse from the graveyard and uses it to brutally beat to death his own body (with the professor's spirit) until the professor is forced to leave.

A very good issue, mostly on the strength of the reprinted stories, although the new stuff is fairly good too.

Eerie 49

A pretty good cover from Enrich here, in a rare non-Vampi cover by him. It features our first story, "Marvin the Dead Thing: One is the Lonliest Number" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Allen Milgrom (story). This story is a parody of the swamp thing, featuring an ignored man who kills himself by jumping in the river, but he comes back to life as a horrific monster. He returns to work, scaring a bunch of people, and eventually befriends a girl who is killed when people try to kill him. He throws her in the river and she becomes a swamp monster just like him! Very funny story.

Up next is "The Death of a Friend!", second part of the series "The Mummy Walks", by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story takes place in Boston, where Jerome Curry (who appeared at the end of the prior story) occupies a mummy using the amulet he found an dkills a couple. His girlfriend's brother is a witness to the murder, but by the end of the story, the mummy walks again and claims him as another victim.

Third is "Midnight Prey" by Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler (art) and Al Milgrom (story), part two of the Curse of the Werewolf serial. In this segment, Arthur Lemming returns to his human self, not knowing that in his werewolf form he had killed his own daughter. He confronts the man his wife has been sleeping with during a meeting, and the man, lying, accuses Lemming's wife of being a witch, which is promptly believed by everyone after Arthur transforms back into a werewolf and attacks them. By the end of the story Lemming has killed his wife's lover, but the questions surrounding his wife still linger on. Another very good story, although it would be the last drawn by Dubay & Buckler. The back cover of this issue mistakenly says that Lemming's wife is dead, which is not true at this point in the storyline.

Next is "Over Population!" by Paul Neary (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), which has the series title 'Alien Nation' (although this was the only story of this series, so it appears to have been cancelled). This is a rather dull story to me, in fact I've feel asleep both times I've read it! It features the government putting into place population control in the future by killing select people. Of course one of the protagonists ends up being chosen as one of the people who has to die. A lot of action here, but not all that memorable a story with me.

Next is "Fear Itself!" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited to Munes) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features an extremely paranoid man who goes so over the edge that he ends up killing his own daughter and her lover when he mistakes them for people stalking him. Really good art by Mones here, who was one of Warren's best artists during his original run with the company.

We wrap up the issue once again with Dax the Warrior by Esteban Maroto. This issue's segment is titled "The Vampire". Dax comes across a large castle and comes across a beautiful woman inside, who as a vampire is accidently killed when she is caught within the shadow of the hilt of Dax's sword (which forms a cross). Her father, also a vampire confronts him over her death and transforms into a creature which Dax fights and eventually beats when he unknowingly lures him outside into the sunlight. Terrific art in this segment, which is one of the two skipped in the Dax compilation in issue 59.

Outside of the Neary/Margopoulos story, a great issue!

Creepy 118

A fairly good issue for issue for this era of Warren, where things were quickly collapsing. The cover's a good one by Enrich.

Up first is "Nursery School" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bob Toomey (story, which was a rewrite of Duranona's original story). The story is about a man attached to a bunch of machines that is instructed by his computer 'mother' to fire upon approaching vehicles. Eventually real humans come across him, but he's so far under the machine's control that he fires upon them as well.

Next up is "Epitaph" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Len Wein (story). Blazquez was kind of a poor man's Luis Garcia, with a very detailed art style, although his characters were frequently in odd positions. Still, his art generally was pretty good. This was his first story for Warren in a number of years and he would vanish again for good after this one. The story's about a man who kills his wife due to infidelity. Visiting the graveyard however, she and other corpses come to life and kill him.

Third is "The Curse of the Binder Woods" by Isidro Mones (art) and Mark Laidlaw (story). A man finds that his sister is suddenly pregnant, and a doctor who is actually a monster arrives, saying that a demon baby is gonna be born. In the end however, the baby ends up being born from the man himself. Definately an odd story.

The issue's best story is "Junior Was a Momma's Boy" with art by Carmine Infantino & Jorge Benuy and story by Gerry Boudreau. A young lady, Ida marries a man, Stuart and finds that he's obsessed with his mother, who never speaks. After the mother's death, Ida finds herself rapidly aging, yet oddly enough Stuart likes her even more, and eventually starts calling her mother. She eventually discovers that he's done this to many other women as well using pills discovered by his father. Benuy does a good job inking Infantino's art in his only Warren story, aside from a part of the story that Ida talks about looking old when she looks as young as she did at the start of the story.

Last is "Process of Elimination" by Pablo Marcos & Val Mayerik (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A man finds out that his father is a sorceror and has dissappeared. Eventually his mother vanishes as well. The man is forced to confront Satan himself and pick his transformed parents out of a crowd. He succeeds and leaves hell with his father, leaving his mother behind since she was behind the trouble in the first place.

Creepy 33

TWO issues of Creepy today to make up for the all the recent days I've missed. Pat Boyette handles the cover duties for this issue, featuring his own story, which I'll cover soon. This issue's frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Mermaids!" by Tom Sutton.

Up first is "One Too Many!" by William Barry (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). A man leaves a planet killing all of the zoo animals he possesses except for one, which escapes. A year later he comes back with colleagues to retrieve his property, only for the creature who have escaped to have breeded into thousands within the year, which completely overwhelm them.

"Royal Guest" with art and story by Pat Boyette is second. It tells the story of a boy whose grandfather kept a woman locked up in a golden mask. When the grandfather became sick and passed away, the boy brings her food. Years go by and the plague follows him everywhere he goes. Thinking she's actually the Queen, he returns to where the masked woman is, and finds that she had died of the plague long ago and that he was a carrier of the disease and was responsible for spreading it around Europe. Knowing this, he kills himself. Really good story, best of the issue.

"Blue Mum Day" by Reed Crandall (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story) is next. A group of archeologists find an egyptian tomb of a cursed mummy. Inside they also find a glowing meteorite and the mummy, which is an odd blue color. The mummy becomes alive then turns into a blob like creature. While it is trapped in the tomb with the use of dynamite, our heroine ends up turning into a blob like creature as well.

"Dr. Jekyll Was Right" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Warren (story) is our next story. It features a descendent of Dr. Jekyll who pays scientists to create a formula that will bring out the good Mr. Hyde in people. While the formula works, one of the scientists kills him after he uses it. Didn't get that ending.

"I'm Only In It For the Money" by Juan Lopez Ramon (art) and Al Hewetson (story) is fifth, featuring a tv host who travels to see a voodoo tribe. Although they initially let him video tape them, they eventually chop off his head and shrink it.

"The Full Service" by Jack Sparling (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) is next. A man mourning the death of his wife in a car crash is given the opportunity to bring her back to life by the funeral home. He is brought back in time and is given the opportunity to save her. A rare Warren story with a happy ending.

This issue wraps up with "Boxed In" with art and story by Tom Sutton. A boy playing with friends is forced to play a corpse and is buried alive. When adults come, his friends are forced to run off without rescuing him. One of the friends sees the coffin crushed and then sees the boy's ghost. While it ended up being a joke, he ends up trapped in a refridgerator that falls into a body of water, such that he is essentially buried alive.

Overall, a so-so issue. Boyette's story is terrific, and Sutton and Rosen's stories are okay. Nothing particularly special from the remaining stories.

Vampirella 84

No two ways about it, this is quite a poor issue. The cover is by Steve Harris, in his only Warren cover. Vampi's story for this issue is "Phantasmagoria of Terror" by Jim Janes & Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story features Vampi, Pantha and Adam confronting a man with psychic powers and a motorcycle gang. Just horrid, horrid story.

The issue's only real quality story, "Vampire Bite" by Auraleon (miscredited to Jose Ortiz) and Nicola Cuti (story). A man seeks a real vampire to bite his wife since she is sick and going to die soon. Eventually he gets his wish, but she ends up being cremated without his knowledge!

Third is "Steak-Out" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Jean Michelle Martin (story). The story is about a guy who goes on a planet of vegetable people and his encounter with a vegetable vampire, which he kills by driving an actual steak into its heart.

Fourth is "Final Act" by Pizarro (art) and Pierce Askegren (story), about an actor whose consciousness is put into the movie, where he is repeatedly killed. He gets so sick of it that he kills himself.

Last is "Native Strain" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easely (art) and Marc Laidlaw (story) about vampires plotting to use a blood blank and blood transfusion of their own blood to take over the world.

With four out of five stories featuring vampires in some form or another, this issue is just painfully repetitive. In addition, the final three stories are all done by writers that did very little for Warren; its not hard to see why as none of the stories were that good.

Eerie 44

This issue of Eerie is from the beginning of Bill Dubay's first run at editor of the Warren line. The cover is by Luis Dominguez, featuring various monsters watching a ship from the cliffs above. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Werewolf - Fact or Fantasy?" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Fred Ott (story).

First story is "Crazy Mazie" by Tom Sutton (art) and J.R. Cochran (story, his last for Warren) featuring an aged western movie star whose gone a little crazy in his old age. By the end of the story he's killed his wife, a fan, and even himself.

Next is "Everlasting Mortality" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Doug Moench (story). A man seeks to live forever, so he willingly lets a vampire drink his blood. After beign buried, he rises from his grave, only to die because his gravestone creates the shadow of a cross.

Third is "The Thrill of the Hunt" by Martin Salvador (art) and Doug Moench (story). The story is about a man being hunted through the woods after killing an agent from the electric company who wanted the trees trimmed near the electric lines. Although he kills many of his pursuers, the wilderness eventually wears on him and he ends up getting electrocuted when he jumps into an electric line from out of a tree.

"Hand of the Discarnate" is next, from Bill Dubay (art) and Doug Moench (story), about two brothers who go to see a medium who ends up summoning their father's spirit, who gets them to fight and kill each other.

Fifth is "Mervin's Dead Ringer!" a short story by Luis Dominguez (art) and Greg Potter (story) about a man who thinks his alarm clock, Alan, is alive, and goes crazy when he accidently breaks it.

Next is "Tiller of the Soul" with art by Rubio and story by Greg Potter. An old farmer who is a loner comes across a dead man buried in his farm that talks to him. The dead man befriends him, but when he digs him up, he discovers that the dead man is himself!

Last is this issue's entry for Dax the Warrior, "The Lake of Gold" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). A group of slave traders come across an island occupied by Dax and a number of beautiful women. Dax tells the slave traders of riches in the nearby lake. They head there, where Dax destroys the bottom of their ship and the women all turn into fish like demons that kill all the slave traders.

A so-so issue, with nothing particularly great, but most of the stories are okay ones.

Creepy 80

A very good issue of Creepy, one of the first ones I ever read. The cover featuring a couple of demon like creatures and their victim is by Ken Kelly.

Up first is "Benjamin Jones and the Imagineers" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story) about a boy whose toy soldiers can summon monsters. Naturally his mother doesn't believe him, until she is confronted by one of them.

Next is "Second Genesis" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). In the distant future a man who grew up not knowing who his parents were seeks to find out by traveling back in time. To make a long story short, it ends up that he was his own father. A pretty good story in my eyes that doesn't seem to be that popular. Maroto's art is nowhere close to its usual beauty though.

Third is "The Fable of Bald Sheba and Montebank the Rouge!" by Jose Bea (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story features a man ignoring warnings about visting the grave of the witch Sheba, and when he arrives at the grave he ends up not being able to escape because she grabs him. Or does she? It ends up that he had merely gotten stuck due to planting his sword in her grave which caught to his cape. Nonetheless, he passes away of a heart attack due to it. This was Jose Bea's first story from Creepy in approximately 2 years, and unfortunately would be his last story in Creepy.

Fourth is "Proof Positive" by Alex Toth (story & art). Taking place in the late 1800s, the story features a man who invents a camera and goes to see patent attorneys who try to steal his idea. He takes revenge by poisoning them. An explosion ends up going in his darkroom however, killing him as well. As always, Toth's art is terrific, and is printed sideways in this story.

Fifth is "Ain't It Just Like the Night" by Martin Salvador (art) and Doug Moench (story). The story features a trench coated man with his face hidden from us by shadows capturing various people and suspending them in glass containers. He reveals that he is here to save humanity, which will soon face a nuclear holocost, by using suspended animation to protect a select number of people who can later repopulate the world. The ending reveals his bug-like face. Really enjoyed this story, with a better than usual job from Salvador and pretty good writing by Moench.

"The Axe-Man Cometh" is next, with art by Jorge Galvez (in his final Warren story) and story by Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler. An axe murderer escapes from jail with the help of his sister and quickly returns to his axe murdering ways. His wife brings him home to meet his husband and then kills her husband, planning to blame it on her brother. Yet he discovers her plans and ends up killing her too. A very abrupt ending, but a pretty good story.

Last is "The Last Chronicle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story), a sequel to the earlier story, "The Escape Chronicle from Creepy #75. The first story dealt with a man, Charlie, seeking escape from a Big Brother-esque future who befriendeded another man Bernie. Charlie was able to escape in a hot air balloon, but Bernie was left behind. This story features Bernie pining for his old friend and wondering what wonders he is experiencing. Eventually Charlie returns and takes him away with him. The first story (which I'll eventually cover when I get to that issue) was terrific, this one just isn't that great, as it seems little more than a postscript to the first, with a happy ending that the original story avoided.

Overall a terrific issue!

Vampirella 90

Vampirella starts to move towards a series based magazine starting with this issue. The cover by Enrich features Vampirella in a very strange (and impossible to make) pose, but otherwise is quite good.

First up is "The Insane Alchemist" by Pablo Marcos & Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). An alchemist named McMather seeks to create a monster with human blood, but has no success so he tries to use Vampirella's blood instead. He lures her and her allies to his castle due to his prior relationship with Conrad Ven Helsing, and drugs them all. Vampirella's blood does cause the monster to come to life, but Vampi battles it and defeats both it and McMather.

Second is Pantha's return to her own series, "The Eye of Anubis" with art by Leo Duranona & Alex Toth (credited as Atoz) and story by Rich Margopoulos. Pantha moves in with Adam Van Helsing, but a thief breaks in and steals a necklace which transforms him into an alien creature whose race had battled Drakulon in the past. Eventually the creature is defeated when Adam removes the necklace from him.

Third is "Devil Woman" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Don Glut (story). The letters page implied that this would be the start of a series, but this was its only entry. In the prehistoric era, a woman whose mate has been killed by a dinosaur is accused of being a devil after killing the chief, who tried to rape her. She is driven out of her tribe, and eventually kills the dinosaur that killed her mate.

Fourth is "Dead Ringer" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). An out of work actor is approached by a man who wants him to pretend to be his son, who was recently murdered, so he can discover his killer. Our protagonist gets plastic surgery to look like the son, then through his work discovers that he was killed because he witnessed a mob hit. Only it ends up that the son was alive all along, having had surgery to look like the actor, and our protagonist was set up to be killed in his place. Luckily everything works out in the end as the true son is killed by the mob and our protagonist returns to his old life.

Last is "Revenge Inc." by Anton Caravana (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Caravana was a pretty good artist whose style was quite similar to Alcala's. Unfortunately he'd pass away around 1982, cutting his Warren career short after only a few stories. After being rejected by a doctor, a woman hires Revenge Inc. to destroy his life. They succeed, but when she meets up with him again he tricks her into thinking she's been poisoned and she ends up dying in a car crash. Revenge Inc. then approaches him with a job offer since he's now got nothing to lose.

Overall, a so-so issue. The stand alone stories are pretty good, but none of the series based ones have all that much to offer.

Eerie 20

Another Eerie from Warren's dark age, although the cover, by H.B. Harris ain't a bad one. Only five stories in this issue, making it a rather short one.

Up first is "Round Trip" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). The story features a cab driver who picks up Death itself, and gets in a car accident, dying.

Next is "A Cloak of Darkness" by Reed Crandall (art) and Bill Parente (story). A powerful magician is brought to hell where he steals Satan's cloak, making him the most powerful magician in the world, and ruler of the Earth. Satan comes to reclaim his cloak, but is defeated. Upon his defeat however, the magician is forced to become ruler of Hell in his place.

Another Crandall story is up next, "Cave of the Druids", with story by Archie Goodwin. It was originally published in Eerie 6. A gladiator comes across dead soldiers in the woods with their hearts cut out. He discovers that they were removed by a group of druids seeking to resurrect their dead king. By burning the staff possessed by a druid sorcerress, the gladiator is able to save himself and leave.

Tom Sutton's adaption of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is fourth, featuring an adaption of the classic tale about a man visiting an old friend and the mysterious events that occur surrounding him and his ill sister.

Last is yet another reprint, "Dark Rider" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally published in Eerie 8. A group of horsemen in the snowy mountains are followed by a mysterious rider in the distance. They die one by one until only one remains. He shoots at the rider, which causes an avalanche that kills him. The rider reveals himself to be Death.

Sorry for the sparse posting lately, I'll try to make it up this weekend!

Creepy 26

This issue features one of the first reprinted covers by Warren (a practice which would become very common in the early 1980s), Basil Gogos's cover of Famous Monsters #20, featuring Lon Chaney from London After Midnight. As with all issues from this era, this is about half reprints, half new stories. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is by an uncredited Tony Williamsune.

Up first is "Stranger in Town" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story). The art is miscredited to Reed Crandall. This was one of the first issues of Creepy I ever owned, and when I saw this story credited to Reed Crandall I initially was quite shocked at how much his art had changed since his EC days! A few minutes later through the contents page was able to easily tell that it was not him. Anyway, this is a pretty good story, about a stranger coming to a town and meeting a mysterious man who tells him about a freak who was shunned by the town. A mob burns down his home, kills his parents, and seemingly kills him. His body ends up in a swamp where it merges with various sludge and other stuff to become a large blob-like creature that takes revenge. The storyteller ends up being the blob, who kills the stranger introduced at the start of our story.

"Second Chance!" is second, with art by Steve Ditko and story by Archie Goodwin. This story was originally printed in Creepy #13. Its about a man who makes a deal with the devil to stay alive longer. The devil brings him back to life, but he ends up being stuck in a coffin! Luckily for him a gravedigger digs him out, but upon seeing this 'corpse' come to life, he kills him, which finishes him off for good. Pretty good story here by the strong team of Ditko and Goodwin.

"Completely Cured" is next, by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). A man on a train comes across a strange town where everyone appears to be dead. It ends up that the man was dead the entire time and didn't know it. Very similar to a Vampirella story I covered in Vampirella #6.

"Untimely Meeting" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story) follows, about a man who escapes through jail and head out through a swamp, then a desert. There he meets a man with a mysterious car on a mysterious road, who he kills. As he drives down the road in the car he quickly ages. Realizing that by driving forward, he's going forward in time, he drives the other direction, only to end up driving right into his past self.

Another reprint is next, "Backfire!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy #10. A gunfight veteran arrives in a deserted town and meets an old man in the bar, who tells him of a jury thats forming. After the gunfighter tells the old man about his most previous gunfight it is revealed that the 'jury' is actually the ghosts of the men he's killed, who fire upon him. He wakes up, finding its a dream, but soon ends up in the exact same scenario all over again.

Last is "Voodoo Doll" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Goodwin (story). This was originally printed in Creepy #12. An older man gets a voodoo doll to keep his young wife from leaving him. However, it ends up that it is all a trick by her and her lover. She shows him a voodoo doll of himself, which causes him to die of a heart attack. However, when she disposes of both dolls, it ends up that they worked after all. By throwing the two of them in a fire, she is burned up herself.

Like Creepy #25, which I've already covered, this is actually a pretty good issue, despite the era its from. Even the new stuff by lesser artists and a lesser writer are pretty good.

Vampirella 53

Here's an issue of Vampirella from early in the Louise Jones era. The cover features who else, Vampirella, reclining on a tiger skin.

First up is "The Human Marketplace" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Vampi is caught with her forged passport on the US border and agrees to work undercover in order to get off the hook. She is used to go undercover to thwart Algernon Silver, a man who plans to sell women to various world leaders and use them to kill them all at once. As usual, Vampi is able to save the day while Silver's own men also end up 'screwing' up his plans. Pretty good story with gorgeous art by Gonzalez.

Second is "Opium is the Religion of the People" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), featuring a man who goes after the drug dealer who was partially responsible for his sister's death. The man eventually tracks down the drug dealer, known as "the snowman" and with the help of his sister's former lover is able to take revenge.

Third is "The Professional" by Zesar Lopez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Zesar only did five stories for Warren which is unfortunate, as I enjoyed his art. From what I hear he did do a lot of stories for skywald though. This story features a man who moves into a new town and seduces a number of housewives by playing up a story about how they resemble his dead wife. He secretly takes pictures of their affairs then blackmails him. Eventually he is undone by the one women he failed to seduce, who gangs up on him along with the others and kills him. In the end it ends up that she is doing the same thing with the various men of the town. Very good story, best of the issue; my only complaint is that Zesar has a few Fernando Fernandez swipes in his artwork from "Goodbye My Love Goodbye" (Vampi 41) and "The Last Testement of Angus Crow" (Vampi 43).

Fourth is "The Last Man Syndrome" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Roger McKenzie. A man finds himself in a town, deserted. Eventually he comes across cloaked skeletons whom he rescues a beautiful woman from. She soon turns into a skeleton and kills him. It is then revealed that the man was actually suffering from a mental condition. Good art as usual here, although according to Richard Arndt's great Warren bibliography Torrents swiped some art from Pablo Marcos (a much lesser artist in my opinion) towards the end of the story.

Last is "Jackie and the Leprechaun King" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A boy who spends much of his time daydreaming, Jackie, runs away from home into the forest where he meets Bubba, a lying dwarf. The two become friends and Jackie spends all his time in the dwarf's town. His father and the townfolk meanwhile think the dwarves are demons and rush in and kill them all. A pretty good story with very pretty art from Maroto, as usual for him when he did these types of stories.

Little to complain about this issue, with the exception of the Auraleon/Boudreau story, this is a terrific issue.

Eerie 48

This issue's Wolfman cover is by Sanjulian. For the most part a pretty good cover, except for the werewolf's face, which just doesn't look good to me.

Up first is "The Son of Dracula", credited to Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler for both the story and art. This continues from the last issue's Dracula story, where Dracula was shot by a man with long white hair. This story, told mostly in flashbacks explains about a woman who Dracula met and fell in love with, and who eventually died, but not before giving birth to his son. The end of the story reveals that the white haired man in the present was this son. Unfortunately this is where the series ends, right in the middle of things. It was also odd that after the first two parts where drawn by Tom Sutton, the art was suddenly changed to Dubay and Buckler.

The first part of the series "The Mummy Walks" is next, "...And An End!", with art by Jaime Brocal and story by Steve Skeates. This story is about a man, Michael, who finds an amulet that enables him to occupy the body of a mummy. After an argument with his girlfriend, he occupies the mummy's body and kills both her and his colleague whom she was kissing. Upon returning to his human body, he finds the amulet missing however, and his mummy body is burned, killing him. The epilogue introduces a man, Jerome Curry, who finds the amulet years later, which the remainder of the series is about. This series was a really good one, particularly in the first six parts. The series kind of falls apart in the last three stories for reasons that we'll discuss when I get to those issues.

Third is "Think of Me and I'll Be There" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Unfortunately I can't completely cover this story, as I've only got the first 5 pages of it (the rest are missing in my copy of this issue). From what I have of the story, it surrounds a woman whose lover died in a car crash who is demonstrating telekinetic abilities. Unfortunately that's all I can cover. Luckily there is only one other incomplete story in my Warren collection, so this will only happen once more.

Next is "On A Stalking Moonlit Night!", the first part of the series "Curse of the Werewolf", with story by Al Milgrom and art by Rich Buckler & Bill Dubay. This story features a man, Arthur Lemming, who becomes a werewolf during the full moon. In his human life he argues constantly with her wife and discovers she's having an affair. As the story ends, he becomes a werewolf again, goes on a rampage, and ends up killing his daughter. The artwork isn't that great, but this is a pretty good story. This was a fairly good series for a while although it would eventually fall apart when Steve Skeates took the series over later on.

Fifth is "The Resurrection Man" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is about a man who brings a girl back to life, but she ends up going crazy. His wife tells the story to a reporter who says he's going to make it public, so she kills him, revealing that she was brought back from the dead too.

This issue wraps up with this issue's entry for Dax the Warrior, "The Sacrifice", by Esteban Maroto (story & art). Dax encounters a tribe that sacrifices people to a winged monster. Dax kills the winged monster, but the tribe continues to sacrifice people and he agrees to not tell them of its death since it would damage their religious beliefs.

Overall, quite a good issue. From this point on, Eerie would be heavily focused on continuing series. It is for that reason that (actually starting with issue 46), I'll be covering most issues of Eerie (46 through 138) in order, with the exception of the occasional issue that doesn't have continuing series featured in it (like issue 81's Queen Kong special issue).

Creepy 130

Here's a late issue of Creepy from the summer of 1981. The cover is a good one, by Richard Courtney, featuring the partially dug out skeleton of a giant. This issue features a one page Uncle Creepy intro drawn by Rudy Nebres.

First story is "The Vampire on the Hill" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). The story features a writer in a new town who is attacked by a vampire and eventually becomes one himself. Not that impressive of a story.

Second is "Duel Nature" with is written & illustrated by Laura Buscemi, John Lakey and Artifact (Val Lakey). This story features an alien creature that crashes to Earth and battles a wheelchair bound taxidermist. By the end of the battle both are dead, although the man is able to successfully stuff and display the alien. As usual, Lakey's artwork here is terrific.

Third is "Screaming in the Rain" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Don McGregor (story). At some future point in time, acid rain has devestated the Earth such that is becoming uninhabitable. The industrial firm whose pollution caused this disaster try to depart the Earth in a rocket ship, only for the acid rain to destroy it!

"Mythologia" by Fred Carrillo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) is fourth. A ship reaches an uncharted island where they find various scary and beautiful creatures who are the last of their kind. One of the men kills one of the creatures, believing he'll obtain immortality, but he ends up being turned into a centaur who is killed by his companions.

Next is "Missing Love" by Moreno Casares (art) and Brian Jacobs (story). This story takes place in space, featuring an astronaut who is approached by an old man to rescue his beautiful daughter. The astronaut finds the daughter, who ends up being a beast woman.

Last is "Small Dreams" by Herb Arnold (art) and Maggie Pierce (story). The story is about a midget who tries to become a superhero. Although his first quest is successful, when he fights his landlord, he ends up getting killed.

A so-so issue. most of the stories are good, with the exception of the last one.

Vampirella 5

Missing the last two days, I'll be covering two issues today, here's the second one. This is another early issue of Vampirella, with a Frank Frazetta cover featuring a couple confronted by a dinosaur. The frontis for this issue is "Vampi's Feary Tales: The Satanic Sisterhood of Stonehenge!" by Tom Sutton.

First story is "The Craft of A Cat's Eye" by Tony Williamsune (miscredited to John Fantucchio) and story by Don Glut. This story features a man who goes to live with his aunt with plans to murder her once he is put in her will. Once that happens, he does kill her, only for her cats to kill him. Not much of an ending here.

Second is the cover story, "Scaly Death" by Billy Graham (art) and Don Glut (story). This story features a couple that is on the run from dinosaurs in 1 million BC. Eventually they find a cave which they go into... which ends up being a dinosaur's mouth! A hilarious ending that saves what is otherwise not that great a story.

"An Axe to Grind" by Jeff Jones (story & art) is third. It features a saleswoman who tries to sell a lightning rod to a man only for him to chase after her with an axe. In the end, he is struck by lightning. Another pretty good ending here and fairly good art by Jones.

Fourth is "Avenged by Aurora" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story). A wizard takes in a boy being attacked by the Duke. The boy falls in love with a girl, whom the Duke demands marry him. The boy tries to escape with her, but she is killed and he is executed. A lion appears and kills the duke, and the boy appears in the sky along with the girl as a constellation.

Next is "Ghoul Girl" by John Fantucchio (art, credited properly this time) and Don Glut (story). In Germany, a girl is falsely accused of being a ghoul and is chased by a mob. She is protected by a man visiting from the US, but eventually both are taken by the mob and are burned alive by the mob, who are ghouls and don't want competition.

"Escape Route" is sixth, by Mike Royer (art) and T. Casey Brennan. A man whose wife died in a fire appears to him when a restaurant he is in catches ablaze. Rather than save himself, the man stays in the fire and dies. Royer's art is quite poor, as is Brennan's story, not that I expected much from him.

The issue concludes with "Luna" by Jack Sparling (art) and Don Glut (story). Astronauts take rock samples from the moon and bring them back to Earth. When exposed to water, one of the pebbles turns into a woman, who tells the geologists that the people on the moon turned themselves into tiny rocks which would regenerate when exposed to water. However, monsters on the moon were also similarly turned into rocks and appear when some water is spilt on the remaining samples.

A rather poor issue, particularly from a story standpoint.

Eerie 11

Here's an early issue of Eerie, which came out shortly before the collapse of the Warren line in 1967. The cover is done by Joe Orlando, his only cover for Warren. The frontis is by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), entitled "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur". With a whopping 8 stories, we've got quite a lot of stuff here.

Up first is the cover story, "Witch Hunt!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (script). A group of men head through a swamp, fighting a witch as well as the monsters she creates. Eventually the witch is defeated by one of the men, who reveals that he is a warlock and will now take over her territory.

Up next is "To Slay a Dragon!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A knight and his squire search for a dragon, with the Knight believing that bathing in Dragon blood will make him invinsible. They defeat the dragon, but the squire then kills the Knight and bathes in the blood himself. The blood does make him invinsible, but also transforms him into a dragon.

Third is "The Mummy" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art, Adkins is uncredited) and Russ Jones (story, miscredited to Wood). This is a reprint of a story that originally appeared in Famous Monsters, regarding the Mummy from the Hollywood movie of the same name.

Next is "Berenice!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story, featuring a man who obsesses over his cousin who passes away, eventually digging her up and pulling out her teeth. This story would later be adapted again by Warren in Creepy #70.

Our fifth story is "The Blood Fruit" by Johnny Craig (art & story). A group of four students and a professor arrive on an island where the professor discovers 'The Blood Fruit', which when eaten causes whatever he wants to occur. He uses this to kill two of the students and summon a lizard like monster. But when one of his colleagues eats the fruit and wishes him dead, he finds the tables turned.

Sixth is "The Monster From One Billion B.C. by Tom Sutton (art & story). A movie monster maker who actually creates real monsters to use in the movies is confronted by the studio owner who knows his secret. Our hero responds by turning him into a monster.

Seventh is "Big Change!" by Larry Woromay (art) and Ron Whyte (story) about a pair of con artists who con an old man into marrying one of them and kill him by taking away his medication. Only it ends up that the medication wasn't keeping him from dying, but keeping him from turning into a werewolf, and he kills them. This is Woromay's only Warren appearance and it isn't too good.

Last is "First Blood" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) about a man who awakens as a vampire and plans to attack his girlfriend, only it ends up that she was a vampire all along and the one who bit him in the first place.

Overall a fairly good issue!

Creepy 116

This issue of Creepy was the final one edited by Louise Jones before she left Warren. The bizarre cover is by Terrance Lindall, part of which is reprinted on the table of contents page. The cover has the header "The End of Man!" on the top, although aside from the first story, it does not appear to be a theme of this issue (although all stories here have a sci-fi theme to them).

Up first is "Endangered Species" by Fred Carillo (art, miscredited to Corillo) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This doesn't really look like Carillo's usual art, but then I can't identify it as being anyone else's art, so perhaps it is him after all. Anyway, this story features an outbreak of disease infested creatures at a lab and the woman sent out to destroy them. At the same time, a group of aliens that have targetted humans to be used as clothings arrive and kill a number of people. The disease from the dead humans spreads to the alien races who use them as clothing, and as a result, in an ironic twist, result in saving humanity from being completely wiped out as humans are no longer desirable to them.

Second is "The Highway" by Val Mayerik & Rudy Nebres (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). The story features a futuristic highway and a family that heads across it for vacation. Along the way they figure out that they're going to the wrong place and the stubborn father tries to sidestep the rules imposed on the highway, resulting in them getting stuck there permanently.

Third is "Day of the Locust" by Masanabu Sato (art) and Jordan Black (story). Not too good a story here, featuring robotic humanoids fighting dinosaur like creatures over 6 pages.

Fourth is "Greatest Editor Alive" by Delando & Alex Nino (art, credited as The Nino brothers), and Bill Dubay (story, credited under his pseudonym, Will Richardson). The story features a horror comics editor who has been captured by aliens, but doesn't know it because they keep him brainwashed.

Last is "Graduation Day" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easley (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story features spacemen undergoing a simulation, unknown to one of them, who goes crazy, thinking that there is an alien city nearby. In the end it ends up that he was right after all, that aliens are nearby.

Overall not that good an issue. Nothing outstanding is here.

Vampirella 77

Here's another issue of Vampirella featuring Barbara Leigh on the cover. This issue's Vampi story, "Shadow of the Dragon" is by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This is a rare actionless Vampi story, in which Vampi is barely even featured at all. Our entire group of heroes are in Hong Kong, where some mysterious murders have taken place. While Vampi and Pantha are touring the city, and Pendragon is getting in trouble at a local bar, Adam and Conrad are told of mysterious murders taking place in the city, and how they may be tied into legends of Dragons and events that happen in the year of the Dragon. That's about it from this entry, which continues into the next issue.

First backup for this story is "The Night of the Yeti" by Russ Heath (art) and Michael Fleischer (story). A man falls off a cliff while hiking in the himalyas while his wife and colleague watch. The man survives the fall, but is forced to hike for days to get back to civilization. Along the way he confronts a bear in a cave and has his throat slashed and his winter clothes destroyed. He wears the bear's pelt, making him look like a yeti. He eventually finds his wife and colleague, who desires her, and she is accidently killed when he is shot at. The shots cause an avalanche, burying his collegue. Our protagonist continues the wander the himalayas, becoming the yet if legend. Very good art by Heath, as usual.

Third story is "The Night the Birds Fell" by Moreno Casares (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Casares was a very good Spanish artist whose style was nothing like that of the other Spanish artists who worked at Warren. This story features an air traffic controller terrified of birds who goes on a rampage at an airport, resulting in planes crashing into each other, causing a horrific disaster at the airport.

Fourth is "Siren of the Seekonk" by Auraleon (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A man falls in love with a water woman he finds by a bridge. With his life crumbling around him, the man decides to kill his ex-wife and feed her flesh to the water woman. Upon finding that she already has a mate, he loses it and jumps off the bridge, trying to join them.

Next is "Weird Wolf", with art by Jeff Easley (a rare solo appearance by him, he usually is paired with Val Mayerik) and story by Gerry Boudreau. This short story, at only 3 pages, features a civilized werewolf who is pursued by the sheriff of a small town. The sheriff is able to take out the werewolf by tricking him into using a gun that fires backwards, killing him while not causing the sheriff to turn into a werewolf himself when killing him.

Last is "Futura House is Not a Home" by Isidro Mones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Mones was a terrific artist during his original run with Warren from 1973-1976. After a couple of year absense from Warren he returned for a little while, but his art had declined tremendously. This is one of those stories. Its unfortunate, as he was quite a good artist, with a very realistic style during his original run. Anyway, this story features a family testing a new futuristic home. It ends up that the computer running the house has been creating robot clones of the family member in a plot by the president to replace the entire populace with easy to manipulate robots.

Overall, a slightly above average issue. No particularly great stories (although Thomas's is quite a good one), but at the same time no lousy ones.

Eerie 19

Another issue of Eerie from Warren's down period, featuring half new stories and half reprints. The cover is by Alan Willow and the frontis, "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Castle of the Frankenstein!" is written and drawn by Tom Sutton.

Up first is "Tomorrow's Reminder" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). A group of spacemen arrive on a planet and are overrun by savages. They have no use but to use a disintegration device which wipes out both them and the savages. They end up being inside the body of a sick man, who dies due to their use of the device. An ending similar to "The Last Train of Orion", covered earlier in issue 28 of this title.

Next is "Dark Kingdom" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), which was originally published in Creepy #9. A Spartan, Argo, finds himself in hell, battling various winged creatures, snakes and others. He's able to escape from Hades and live, with a scar on his back as a souvenier. As usual, great art from Morrow.

Another reprint follows, "Dark House of Dreams" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy #12. An artist moves into the house of Matthew Gaunt, an evil man who was killed by a mob almost 200 years earlier. The artist has a number of dreams where he encounters Gaunt, and other evil beings, which become worse and worse with each one. Eventually he dies and turns into Gaunt, resurrected. Another very good story, as usual for Torres and Goodwin.

Another new story is up next, "Monstrous Mistake" by Barry Rockwell (art) and Bill Parente (story). A scientist creates a Frankenstein like monster by taking the brain of a colleague who had rejected him, and putting him in the body of a rotting corpse. He uses the beast to take revenge on other colleagues, until it is revealed that the body he dug up belonged to a werewolf, who kills him the night of the full moon.

"The Squaw" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is next, and is a reprint from Creepy #13. They forgot to replace Uncle Creepy with Cousin Eerie on this story, as they had done on the prior two reprints from this issue. This story, which is an adaption of a Bram Stoker story features a man who kills a kitten by accidently dropping a rock on it. The mother of the cat follows him as he goes to see a torture chamber and steps into an Iron Maiden. The cat jumps at the tour guide holding the iron maiden open, resulting in it shutting on the man, killing him.

Last up is "Unfeeling Heart..." by Ernie Colon (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). Another rather poor art job by Colon on this story. An older gentlemen creates a cyborg whose feelings he is able to emulate and uses him to go out with a woman he likes, but was never able to obtain. He plans revenge by dumping her, but she over reacts and stabs the cyborg, which results in his death as well since he feels everything the cyborg does.

Not that great an issue with the new stuff, although the reprints, as usual, are quite good.