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.