Vampirella 69

Another issue of Vampirella featuring Barbara Leigh on the cover.

Up first is "The Saga of Frick and Frack Freckles and the Phantom of Hollywood" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This title appears to have been originally intended for the story that ended up in issue 71 of Vampirella, previously covered by me. The story features Vampirella in Hollywood, being pursued by an old lady inventor to obtain her for her colleague, an old man. By using robots, she is able to capture Vampi, and the story ends, to be continued in the next issue.

Next is "Hit Six", with art by Luis Bermejo and story by Bruce Jones. The story is about a hit man who tries to quit the business but to pay off a debt is forced to go on one last hit, to kill a beautiful woman. They end up going out for a while since he's got a while before he has to kill her, but eventually the people who hired him come after him.

Third is "Off the Beaten Empath" by Luis Duranona (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The lead character of the story is an "Empath", a person whose emotions are heavily influenced by the emotions of those around them. It gets so bad for our main character though that he actually transforms if the emotions of someone nearby is too great. This result in him getting fired from his job, fighting a mugger, and eventually fighting his wife until they kill each other.

Fourth is "Reagan Redux" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story features a man who suddenly ends up in the desert with amnesia, and meets a woman and her son who live out there. While wandering in the desert, the man suddenly vanishes, only to appear again with the boy, very sick. With a blood transfusion he's able to save the boy's life. It ends up that the man is the boy, from the future, all grown up. Jones points this story out as one he was dissappointed in the artwork for in the Warren Companion when the artist, Ortiz drew a poodle as the boy's pet in the storyline instead of a more typical american dog.

Last is "Jessie's Friend" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Jessie dumps her boyfriend and heads off to get a new apartment to avoid him. Across the street she sees an old man in another building always staring at her. In fact she never sees him not staring at her and eventually realizes that he's dead. At the same time, her boyfriend has been calling her, trying to get her back. Nervous due to the old man's body, she tells him to come over, but it ends up it was the old man she was talking to the whole time!