Monday, June 9, 2008

Eerie 18


A mix of new stories and reprints in this issue of Eerie from 1968. The cover is by Tom Sutton, talking of 6 stories, when there are actually 7 stories in this issue. The frontis is a reprint from Eerie 4, "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Zombies!" by Roy Krenkel.

First is "Hard Luck" by Sal Trapani (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). The story is about three men in search for the fountain of youth in South America, seeking to live forever and become rich. One dies in quicksand along the way and another is killed by his partner when they arrive at the fountain. He drinks from the fountain, only to turn into stone.

Second is "Cry Fear Cry Phantom" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally published in Eerie 7. A man and his fiance go to his home, a large mysterious looking house, where his uncle lives with him. She repeatedly has visions of an odd looking woman with an axe, and suspects the uncle is up to something, particularly when she sees him burying that woman! It ends up however that the fiance is the true maniac, and chops her up with an axe.

Third is "A Change of Pace!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story), featuring two scientists who create a time machine and go back in time to the prehistoric era. There one of them is killed and the other lives there for a long time but is finally able to return to the present, only to turn into an ape.

Next is "The Jungle" by Al Williamson (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally from Eerie 5. It is about a trio of men who slay a witch doctor only for the woods to come alive and kill them all.

Another reprint from Eerie 5 is up next, "Vampire Slayer" with art by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) and story by Goodwin. A vampire slayer meets a beautiful woman whom he suspects is a vampire, but she proves she isn't one by showing herself in a mirror. He sees her again unarmed, only for it to be revealed that she was a vampire all along, and her twin sister, a ghoul was the one seen in the mirror. They both feast upon him.

Yet another reprint is next, "Trial By Fire!" from Eerie 6, with art & story by Johnny Craig (credited as Jay Taycee). A politician's wife is practicing withcraft and causes multiple enemies of his to fall over dead. Eventually the town ties him up and burns him and he falls on top of her, burning them both.

Last is "Sideshow" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story) about a suspected vampire in a freak show who is revealed not to be one when he appears in a mirror. But his brother, hidden underneath his clothes is the true vampire. Very similar to the story Vampire Slayer reprinted in this issue, so certainly a dissappointing way to finish the issue.

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