Eerie 122

Romas Kukalis provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated July 1981.

First is the stand alone story "The Beast Of Sarnadd-Doom!" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Good story and art, quite a contrast to the usual fare from Eerie from this time period. The story features a warrior, Behk-Bagahn returning to the city Sarnadd Doom which he had taken over at an earlier time. An evil lizard giant lives in the city which Behk-Bagahn fights. By destroying the creature however, he transforms into a smaller one himself, and is slain by his fellow men who are hunting, soon afterwards.

The latest Zud Kamish story is next, "The Chameleon Stands Revealed!" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Nothing all that new here; both the art and story continue to be an extreme dissappointment. Zud tries to figure out who the traitor in his group of friends is. Cole Saxon, another friend of his tells him that his enemies, the Desperados want to meet with him. He does so, then escapes from them. Zud then steals Cole's ship and takes off with it.

The latest story in 'The Mist' series is next, "Victoria Rode the Subway Last Night!". Val Mayerik takes over with the art starting with this story, while Don McGregor continues to be the writer. Lucifer and Victoria meet on the subway again, this time due to Lucifer setting it up. Minions of his accompany him on the subway. She is helped from being harmed by a man on he subway, and they escape.

"Haggarth Book II' is next, the latest in the Haggarth series. Art and story continue to be by Victor de la Fuente. A group of priests pray to their God, 'Khost', and the head priest is killed by their king, a very short individual named Thall. The friend that Haggarth made earlier gets in trouble when he takes a vest off a dead man, then gets caught by the man's allies. Haggarth meanwhile meets the old man who helped him in the first few stories of the series, who fills him in on whats going on with Thall. Haggarth runs into his friend again and they wander towards a large stone obelisk. Haggarth heads inside where he encounters a priest.

Creepy 47

Ron Cobb provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated September 1972. The cover was originally to have been done by Sanjulian, featuring the interior story The Land of Bone (and that cover actually appears on the preview page), but it failed to meet the deadline and wouldn't be used until Eerie 123. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Not Sherlock by a Long Shot" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story).

First is "The Land of Bone" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story features a warrior Costan who finds himself in a world where every person he meets is a skeleton. He is joined by a skeleton wizard, Wikkander, who tells him that his lover Aruna has been captured by the Wizard Poxxalt. The two of them fight off various creatures and then defeat Poxxalt. Costan is shocked to find Aruna a skeleton herself, and gives Wikkander a ring on her finger. Once he gets the ring, the truth is revealed. Costan was a skeleton himself, and only thought that he was human and everyone else was a skeleton. Wikkander, a descendent of his brought him to life to free Aruna from Poxxalt.

Second is "Mark of the Phoenix" by Reed Crandall (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story features a student drug dealer who finds that he is dying of cancer. In order to live forever, he makes a deal with a Phoenix which will enable him to live forever, unless his body is completely destroyed. The Phoenix tells him that he will have to be set ablaze and reborn every 10 years however, and this frightens him terribly. He gets so nervous of a pigeon following him that he ends up killing himself for good.

Third is "The Law and Disorder" by Luis Garcia (art, his final Creepy appearance) and Dennis P. Junot (story). This story features a man who is angry at the board of trustees of a college, thinking they are responsible for his father's death. He creates a disintegration ray which he lets into their hands, and they die of radiation once using it. The protagonist then dies suddenly at the end of the story, with little explanation.

Fourth is "The Eternity Curse" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Thraxis (story). This story features an enemy of the pharoah who is cursed to live forever. His corpse lies in the ground for thousands of years, getting out in present times, when he starts attacking some victims of a plane crash, absorbing their life force until he is restored to a normal appearance. A similar theme as to what takes place in the modern version of the Mummy movie.

Fifth is "Point of View" by Luis Dominguez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features a number of stories all converging into one. A man is fearful of a powerful being that he suspects is after him. In another a woman leaves her boyfriend very frantically. In the third, an older man drives drunk despite his wife's warnings. All converge when the car is about to hit the woman, and our protagonist notices a caped woman distracting her, who is actually the person he is fearful of. A rather confusing summary? Probably cause this is a rather confusing story that ends rather abrubtly.

Sixth is "This Burden, This Responsibility" by Jerry Grandenetti (art, his final Creepy appearance) and Steve Skeates (story). Another odd story by Skeates, featuring a man in a future where computers run almost everything. He gets a bigger office for his good work, then gets in trouble when he comes in late, being killed by his computerized superiors.

Seventh is "Futurization Computation!" by Bill Dubay (story & art). This short three page story tells of a modernized computer device, which ends up robotic teachers for a school.

Last is "The Beginning!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Seve Skeates (story). In contrast to Skeates's two earlier odd stories, this one is quite good. It takes place in a future Earth where normal humans are fighting mutants who have mutated due to contaminated food. One of the human soldiers sees a beautiful woman whom he becomes obsessed with seeing. He finds her, then fights off a superior who calls her Queenie. She brings him through a wall where he finds out the truth, that she's a mutant and she's lured him to other ones who seize him.

1994 24

Skipping issue 23 of 1994 as it is an all reprint issue (the magazine's only one, thankfully). The cover for this issue, dated April 1982, is by Steve Fastner & Rich Larson. There are no credits on the stories in this issue, so I've based the writing credits here on the ones posted in Richard Arndt's wonderful Warren analysis.

First is "The Ugliest Woman in Creation!" by Vic Catan (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Rumors are abound about the "Cosmo Girls", Amazon women that are the ugliest one could ever imagine. By having sex with them, a man will become as ugly as them and spread this 'disease' to anyone he sleeps with. Anyway, this story features a woman who is hired by a Sultan to find him an extremely ugly woman, and she turns to a friend of hers, who manages to find one of the Cosmo Girls. While the woman is provided to the sultan, it is not before she has sex with him, and he soon has sex with our heroine, spreading the disease of ugliness...

Second is "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Diana is now on another planet, looking for the second of the seven escaped convicts. She travels through a wintery landscape that nonetheless feels rather warm. The man she is after takes off his boots and heads back to her ship, trying to steal it, but he dies as the snow they have been traveling on is instead tiny, but deadly white little worms that manage to kill him.

Third is "The Star Queen" by Delando Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story features a humanoid woman who lives with some ape creatures after being born there when her mother's ship crashed. Some evil humans arrive which she is able to defeat.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Rahmuz continues to come after Ghita, this time 'killing' Thenef and Dahib and being able to kidnap Ghita by taking Thenef's form. Rahmuz plans on the wedding he hopes for himself and Ghita while Dakini, the four breasted harem member of his wonders what will become of her then. Luckily at the end it is revealed that Thenef and Dahib survived after all.

Last is "Coming of Age!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An interesting story featuring mankind from their very beginnings through the present and apocalypse. A nice way to end the issue.

Eerie 121

The cover for this issue of Eerie is a reprint from issue 26, by Vaughn Bode and Basil Gogos. A reprint cover that does not feature Frank Frazetta, a rarity for warren. This issue is cover dated June 1981.

First is the second story in the Mist series, "Blood Cycles" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Don McGregor (story). Not as strong a story as the previous one, featuring the same characters, Victoria Westgate and her husband Philip, and the mysterious Lucifer de Montalban who is up to no good, including using a voodoo doll and henchmen within the Westgate's building.

Second is a new series, "Born of Ancient Vision" by Bob Morallo (art) and Morallo & Budd Lewis (story). In contrast to the garbage that populated much of Eerie during this time period, this is an interesting new series, featuring arguably the most bizarre looking art in Warren's history. Unfortunately Morallo did only three stories for Warren, those in this series. This story features a six eyed baby born named Mah 'Sess, that is part of a prophecy of doom. He is disposed of in the desert, but is raised by those who live there, then starts a battle between his people and his father Sh Hahd 'Ahn's kingdom. Towards the end of the story demons come out of his eyes, causing havoc.

Third is "Ashes to Ashes" by Al Sanchez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features two heroes from Eerie's heydey, Darklon and Hunter. This story continues a practice started by Margopoulos in the previous issue, urinating all over the legacy of Eerie's recurring characters from its peak in the mid 1970's. I suppose one could argue he had more right to do so here since Hunter was his own creation, but that doesn't absolve the fact that Margopoulos continues to completely destroy characters and storylines that made this magazine so good years before. In this story Darklon fights the Acolyte, who is successor to the Nameless One in his own storyline. Darklon for some nonscensical reason brings Hunter back to life shortly after his death and they defeat him. Darklon then explains that Hunter didn't really kill his father Oephal at the end of his serial, but another demon. Blasphemy! Completely embarressing and a stain on Warren's history, thats for sure.

Fourth is the latest Haggarth story, "Fall of the Death Head!" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth talks with the woman revealed in the previous story, and some of his back story is explained. He makes his way to the castle of Sombra, whom he confronted in the previous story and after some fights with his minions is able to defeat Sombra, who suffers from some sort of disease that gives him an ugly skull like face.

Creepy 77

This issue of Creepy is a special Christmas issue from February 1976. The cover is by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides the frontis, featuring Uncle Creepy dressed up as Santa Claus. A whopping 8 stories are contained in this issue, one of the very few all original issues containing this many stories.

First is "Once Upon a Miracle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a pair of priests in a church witnessing an old lady who each year steals a statue of baby Jesus, something she's done each year since her own baby died due to the cold. While they're not watching a group of tiny demons arrive, but tiny cherubs arrive and stop them, then turn the baby Jesus statue to a real baby. Over 5 pages in a row in this story with no dialogue at all, quite an oddity for a Warren story. This story was originally intended for the prior Christmas special, issue 68, but missed the deadline and was not printed until this issue.

Second is "Tibor Miko" by Alex Toth (story & art). I believe this to be the only story in Warren history where no title appeared at all anywhere in the story. The story title is provided on the contents page though. This story doesn't really have much of a Christmas theme outside of taking place on Christmas Eve. It features a pilot who encounters a UFO while in the sky. When the UFO lands he approaches it and is seized by the creatures inside. The UFO takes off, never to be seen again.

Third is "The Final Christmas of Friar Steel" by John Severin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a monastery where many evil things start happening. An eye falls out of a statue of Jesus, which starts bleeding. The eye then appears in a wine cup they are drinking from. Corpses appear in the basement. It ends up a demon is behind the whole thing. The demon battles with the head of the monastery and the whole place burns to the ground.

Fourth is "Clarice" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story is a poem about a man longing for his dead wife, who died by accident when she was locked outside in the cold one night while he slept and froze to death. His wife comes back to life as a corpse and returns to the cabin, where they are reunited. One significant screw up occurs however (not sure whether it was Jones or Wrightson's fault) when the artwork shows an uncovered window that the wife could have broken and got inside through.

Fifth is this issue's color story, "The Believer" by Richard Corben (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a world where Santa Claus is dead and Christmas as it was no longer occurs. Shinny Upatree, the last elf left however decides to keep Christmas alive and goes out himself, although he can't visit every house each year. He visits an orphanage with a cruel housemaster, who Shinny smuthers with a pillow. He doesn't end up dying though and the housemaster kills Shinny. A boy who Shinny who witnesses it happen kills the housemaster, then takes over for Shinny as the one keeping Christmas alive.

Sixth is "First Snow, Magic Snow" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about an old man who sells threads and buttons on the street to make enough money to buy a candle for his dead wife each year. This year he meets a young girl whom he reads to. It ends up being a ghost of his dead wife. He dies soon afterwards.

Seventh is "Final Gift" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a trio of men in a wintery future. They are unable to find much salvagable food due to poachers that have ravaged any stores they are able to find. Eventually one kills himself so the others can eat him, but it ends up happening when they finally find a town with other people that they can stay with.
Last is "The Final Christmas" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Within a church in Brooklyn the devil arrives. He tells the sole priest left at the church, which no one visits, even on Christmas that it is time for him to take over the world. He makes a bet with the priest that he'll let the Earth be if he can find many righteous people, telling off anyone who the priest tries to name. Very arrogant, he lowers the bet down to a single person, then loses out when a boy enters the church to pay his respects to Jesus.

Vampirella 44

This issue of Vampirella features the rarist of rarities, a Vampi cover that does not feature Vampirella. This issue is cover dated August 1975. Neal Adams provides the frontis, featuring Vampi and an entity known as the 'Sandman'.

First is "Blood for the Dancing Sorcerer" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay & Gerry Boudreau (story). This story continues from the epic prior issue story only slightly, with most of the story told in flashbacks. While Adam helps out the severly injured Vampi, she flashes back to a time where she and Pendragon did some traveling near the border and got involved with some men who stole some blood from a blood bank as part of a ceremony. Eventually things go all wrong for the culprits and Vampi goes on one of her bloodthirsty rampages.

Second is "Love Strip" by Luis Garcia and Carlos Giminez (art, Giminzez uncredited) and Victor Mora & Gerry Boudreau (story). An interesting story by Mora and Boudreau that was ranked as one of Warren's top 25 stories of all time in the Warren Companion. Garcia provides the majority of the artwork while the uncredited Giminez provides the comic strip art done by the main character. The story features a romance comic artist who is driven to despair by his hatred of the work, and things get even worse for him when he realizes that his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend, the writer of the strip. The artist decides to end it all and poison himself. Mora and Garcia would create a similar themed work, "Nova II" years later, which would be printed in Heavy Metal magazine. The main character of the strip bears a striking resemblence to a character named 'Slaughter' that appeared in the series Exterminator One in Eerie around roughly the same time, including multiple panels that are obvious swipes of whichever was the original. Because this story is a reprint and I'm not aware of when it was originally printed, I'm not sure who ripped off who.

Third is "Troll" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story features a man who was interested in gymnastings and acting while growing up rather than more manly things. When he grows up and is cut off by his parents, he decides to don a costume and become a troll that lives on a bridge, requesting tolls from the drivers who pass by. Although it is taken in jest at first, eventually someone gets hurt and the police get involved, and he ends up getting shot the day that he is about to stop.

Last is Pantha in "Changeling" by Auraleon (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Pantha is raped by a mysterious black man, then heads to Egypt to get away from things, where she becomes the assistant of an archaeologist. When they head to the dig site, they are betrayed by one of their comrades and most are killed, Pantha turns into her panther form to save herself and her colleague, and comes across a buried flying saucer. This would be Pantha's last solo story for many years until her script was brought back towards the end of Warren's life. That said, this storyline would be resolved in the issue length Vampi/Pantha crossover in issue 50.

1994 22

This issue of 1994 features a cover by Steve Fastner & Rich Larson. Quite a poor issue with little memorable here except Nino's art on the first story.

First is the latest segment of "Young Sigmond Pavlov" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). As with the other Pavlov stories, this features a nonscensical story where Pavlov sees a lunatic, this time a bizarre looking monster. As usual this story has many two page spreads, and in fact the pages can all be combined horizontally to becomes a single giant image. Very interesting art, but a story thats not interesting at all.

Second is "Love Among the Ruins!" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay & Tim Moriarty (story). This story takes place in a future where Earth has been attacked by tentacled monsters. Years pass and the monsters are barely seen, so few believe they are still around. A man dreaming of a beautiful woman heads underground where he sees her for real. He brings his friends down as well, but it is all a trap as she is one of the monsters and summons other ones to eat all of them. The best story of the issue.

Third is "Bringing Up Baby", part of a new series, Ariel Hart. Art is by Peter Hsu and story is by Bill Dubay. A horrible story with little to no story to it, featuring Ariel under pursuit from some evil doers.

Fourth is the second "Angel" story by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features Angel kidnapped by a large beast similar in appearance to her friend Ape. A man arrives and saves her, but she tells him that the creatures are just lonely and he shouldn't have done that. Yawn.

Last is "Mike Marauder: Knight Errant of the Spaceways!" by Rueben Yandoc (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Mike attacks an evil villain who *gasp* uses robots to let women have sex. After Mike interrupts things time and time again, the women cut off his penis, and it is he who is now in the position where the story's villain is helping him out. Margopoulos rips this story off from one he did in Eerie 118, making this an extremely lame way to end the issue.

Creepy 63

Not that good an issue of Creepy, quite a disappointment considering the era its from. This issue is dated July 1974. The cover is by Ken Kelly featuring murderous dolls attacking a man. A rather bad job of perspective by Kelly, as the man's legs appear far too big for a normal human.

First is "Jenifer" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). One of Warren's best ever stories, and notable for being Bruce Jones's only story during Bill Dubay's era. He would eventually become a very prolific writer for Warren while Louise Jones was editor. A man hunting in the woods one day rescues a girl from being killed. The girl, called Jenifer has the ugliest face imaginable, but he becomes obsessed with her, and adopts her. His family hates her and eventually leave him after she scares them off. He then does what he can to get rid of her, such as having a freak show owner come to take her, but Jenifer simply kills the man and shoves his corpse in the fridge. Eventually he brings her out into the woods to kill her, only to be killed by someone wandering by, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Second is the cover story "A Touch of Terror" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features an investigation of a security guard at a warehouse. The owner of the place is in argument with the person conducting the investigation, as the guard was hired without his consent. The owner is in charge of little toy dolls called Nymatoids, which he uses to kill the investigator. He thinks he'll be able to rule the world with them, but the Nymatoids aren't actually controlled by him, but act on their own, and eventually kill him too.

Third is "...A Ghost of A Chance" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). Brennan's final Warren story is pretty good, mostly thanks to some good Alcazar art. A man heads into a haunted mansion because it is rumored a treasure is inside. In the mansion he is confronted by the ghost of the man who lived there, who gives him his treasure, a coffin. It ends up that the man is turned into a vampire, so that certainly was a sensical gift for him.

Fourth is "Demon in the Cockpit", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The United States government works on their latest weapon to defeat the communists - summoning a demon from hell which they successfully are able to do. Unfortunately for them, the communists have the same idea and use their own demon to attack.

Fifth is "Fishbait" by Leo Summers (art) and Larry Herndon (story). A man on a yacht is very jealous of a competitor who won over a woman he liked. When the ship mysteriously crashes into something, they find themselves in shark infested water. Eventually it is just our protagonist and his competitor left, using some drift wood. When a ship approaches, our protagonist fights off his competitor to make it to it... but it is not a ship but actually a giant shark, the entity which destroyed the yacht in the first place.

Last is "The Clones!" by Jose Gual (art) and Martin Pasko (story). Probably the single worst story of Bill Dubay's first run as editor (although Gual's art is good). This story features a hospital where clones of criminals have been developed that are used so that their organs can be used to give to other people. One of the clones comes to life and goes on a rampage, taking back his organs that were taken from him. He then returns to the hospital, including a ridiculous sequence where he runs amok with a machine gun, and takes back his final organ from the doctor that developed him. In a nonsensical final twist, the clone reveals he is a cannibal, and that he has been eating all the organs he took back.

Vampirella 42

This issue of Vampirella is dated May 1975. The cover is by Enrich, based on a Jose Gonzalez drawing on the inside cover for one of the earlier issues. Jose Gonzalez provides a one page intro from Vampi on the inside front cover.

First is "The Mountain of Skulls" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Butterworth's long run as Vampi's writer ends with this story, with Dubay taking over the reigns as writer in the next issue. In this story a plane that Vampi and Pendragon are on crashes on an island where they and the survivors are locked up by savages. Vampirella escapes and comes across some other men on the island who aren't really interesting in saving anyone. When they find a pile of golden skulls, Vampi takes the opportunity to attack them. Everyone is released soon after.

Second is "Around the Corner... Just Beyond Eternity!" by Luis Garcia (art) and Victor Mora & Gerry Boudreau (story, Mora uncredited). As I discussed in my review of issue 43, this story was originally printed in Europe and was reprinted here. This story features an englishman who crashes during the war near a mansion. He is brought inside and held there by an old german woman, but a young woman helps him escape. He returns years later and finds that she had died years before and that she must have helped him out since he looked just like her brother, who also died in the war. A very good story that I'm probably not doing enough justice to with this quick summary.

Third is "Laugh, Clown, Laugh!" by Ramon Torrents (art, miscredited to Esteban Maroto) and Shelly Leferman (story). Leferman worked as a letterer for Warren and only ended up writing this single story. It is about an extremely popular clown who refuses to take off his makeup. When a senator gets involved, he is finally forced to do so, revealing that he is a hideous monster. His career as a clown is finished, but he ends up helping the circus in another way by becoming part of the freak show.

Fourth is "Straw on the Wind", the start of Pantha's second series. Pantha had been absent since her first series ended in issue 33. She returns for a second series, although it only lasted 2 parts. Art is by Auraleon, while Budd Lewis takes over the script from Pantha's original writer, Steve Skeates. In this story Pantha is fired from her job as a stripper but immediately gets hired at a rival strip club. When a fellow stipper harasses her, Pantha naturally turns into her panther self and attacks her. She later meets Jack Kimble, an older man whom she falls in love with and lives with. John is assaulted by a mugger as this part ends. This series would skip an issue and come back in issue 44.

Last is "The Whitfield Contract" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). A black assassin, John Gamble, has some personal turmoil over having to kill Whitfield, a good friend of his. Gamble has the special ability to kill people simply by willing it to happen. He is upset enough over the assassination to consider quitting the business, particularly after being ordered to kill a doctor that investigated his death. When he confronts his superiors to quit, he reveals the truth, that he is actually an alien being and that he'll be returning to his home planet, to come at a later time and kill them. What was a very good story descends into total lunacy on the final two pages with the alien twist.

Eerie 120

This issue of Eerie from April 1981 features a cover by Jim Laurier.

First is Zud Kamish in "Death of a Cometeer" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Another horrible, horrible Zud story. This time his ex-wife has tied up all his assets in a lawsuit, and he joints an ally of his in transporting some material, during which time his ally dies. Another really bad story with a really bad art job by Cruz.

Second is "The Warrior and the Gunfighter!" by Al Sanchez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Eerie gets worse and worse as Margopoulos starts bringing back old Eerie stars (many of which are dead), starting with Dax the Warrior. In this issue Bishop Dane from the Rook misses a dentist appointment and trying to go back in time in order to make it, instead goes to a medieval era where he meets Dax. The king thinks that Dane is a sorceror due to his gun, and has him and Dax fight an enemy of theirs. Margopoulos clearly has no understanding of Dax nor any respect for the character and its creator Esteban Maroto as Dax in this story acts nothing like the Dax in his original series.

Third is a new series, The Mist, with "A Public and Private Surveillance" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Don McGregor (story). In contrast to the previous two horrific stories, this one isn't bad. The story surrounds a normal woman having issues with the phone company and an evil man calling himself Lucifer de Montalban who also has some problems with them.

Last is the latest story in the Haggarth series, "Sombra the Damned!" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). In this story Haggarth battles the sorceror who hired his troops to take the skull of three snakes. Haggarth defeats his underlings, then fights the sorceror himself, who escapes. He is then confronted by the monks from the temple who possessed it, who take it back, but bless his sword beforehand. He then meets a fellow traveler and they are confronted by a large stone monolith, which then transforms into a woman as the story ends.

Creepy 78

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, Bill Dubay's last during his original run as editor. It is cover dated March 1976.

First is "The Horseman" by Miguel Quesada (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). Quesada was an artist who worked with the Valencia studio with Jose Ortiz, Luis Bermejo and Leopold Sanchez. While those three became very prolific artists for Warren, this ended up being Quesada's only story. It features a centaur like horseman who encounters a Canadian soldier who is afraid of the battlefield. When other soldiers come and try to kill him, the horseman kills them all. The two say their farewells soon after.

Second is "Unreal!" by Alex Toth (story & art). This story features an actor named 'Baba' Boone who does a lot of stunts, but is extremely quiet. As the story ends it ends up that is the case because he is a robot. A good story, though a tad predictable.

Third is "Creeps" by John Severin & Wally Wood (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features an accountant who is bugged by homeless people and the more destitute in society, calling them "Creeps". Eventually it becomes an obsession to him and he starts killing them. It goes even further when he thinks his mother is a Creep herself and kills her. Only this time someone sees it, so he has to flee and hide on the streets. As the days go by he takes on the appearance of a homeless person himself, then ends up killing himself when he sees his reflection. Very good story from Goodwin and an interesting art job from Wood and Severin.

Fourth is "Lord of Lazarus Castle" by Jorge Moliterni (art, miscredited to Claude Moliterni) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). This story features a couple that kills people who visit an old castle they occupy. They then take the corpses and provide it to a cannibal, who pays them for them. When summer comes however it is too popular a place and they can't kill anyone. This angers the cannibal, who ends up eating one of them.

Fifth is "The Nature of the Beast" by Martin Salvador (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This odd story features a man with visions of the past long ago, as a caveman. Years pass into the present and we witness the future as well. An odd story, although a fairly good art job by Salvador.

Last is "God of Fear" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). Very good art by Alcazar, resembling Luis Garcia's work. An archeologist of the Smithsonian discovers ancient artifacts referencing a God, Uturuncu. When he returns, he gets upset when his colleague tries to take all the credit and utters a chant that turns him into Uturuncu. He then goes on a rampage around the Washington Monument. He eventually turns back into his human self, at which point the story ends very abruptly.

Vampirella 33

The cover to this issue by Enrich features Vampirella under attack by a giant spider. This issue is cover dated May 1974.The two page feature "The Believer" by Jeff Jones & Berni Wrightson is on the front and back inside covers.

First is "Vampirella and the Sultana's Revenge!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampirella and Pendragon are invited by a Sultana to perform. It ends up the Sultana is Droga, Kruger's girlfriend from the previous issue's story. She is cheating on her husband, but he has agreed to never harm her no matter what she does. She plans to have Vampirella thrown to the beast that lives in their castle, but Vampirella ends up killing it. The Sultana is caught cheating, so her husband punishes her by force feeding her until she becomes grotesquely fat. Some amazing, sexy artwork on this story, earning Gonzalez a Warren award for best art on a story for 1974.

Second is the finale to the first Pantha series, "Childhood Haunt!" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Pantha heads to an orphanage to find information on her past. Before, she meets a man, Jason whom she has sex with. When the head of the orphanage refuses to give her the info she wants, she breaks in and sees him abusing the children. She attacks him in her panther form, but when Jason comes to protect the children, she ends up killing him too. A sad end, but a good one to Pantha's first series.

Third is "Top to Bottom" by Richard Corben (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A very good story reminiscent of the Hellraiser movies. A man finds a mysterious blue cube in a pawn shop with lights inside that travel from the top to bottom. He suddenly finds himself inside the cube, and time starts traveling very quickly when he dozes off. Eventually the cube starts talking to him, telling him its a game. He plays for years and years, never winning, until he is an old man. The cube then tells him that his behavior shaped the entire world while playing it, and that he could have brought peace to mankind, but his greed brought about different events. Just then he is killed by a pair of crooks who plan to use the cubes themselves, while on drugs. A very good story, one thats quite unique compared to the other ones published by Warren.

Fourth is "...Number 37 is Missing!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story surrounds a murder mystery where painting with monsters start appearing. Other paintings show up without the monsters at the murder scenes. It ends up that the monsters in the paintings are alive, and causing the murders. This results in a terrifying end for the newspaper reporter investigating the case.

The issue concludes with "Barfly!" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Jacobson (story). This issue surrounds a man who comes back from Asia with a new wife. It soon becomes apparant that she is a vampire, and her husband soon dies. She came to America in the first place for her husband's friend, whom she wants to become a vampire with him. While he refuses, at the end of the story he ends up attacking a friend of his in the bar and fleeing. Abellan's sole appearance in Vampirella (he appeared predominantly in Creepy) isn't any better than his usual work, which always paled compared to the other Spanish artists working for Warren.

Creepy 46

Running low on Eerie's in my backlog for the moment, so I'll be tackling another Creepy today.

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated July 1972. Two segments of Creepy's Loathsome Lore in this issue. The first, "The Undertaker's Model" by Luis Garcia (art) and Jack Butterworth (story) is in the inside front cover, while "Monsters of the Id!" by Clif Jackson (story & art) is in the inside back cover.

First is "Cross of Blood" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story is about a vampire, how he became one, and the many deaths he encounters. He is able to survive death by being staked multiple times due to followers and others that end up pulling stakes out of him. Eventually however he is done in by his latest lover when the shadow of a cross becomes his doom.

Second is "Behold the Cybernite!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Margopoulos's first Warren story is pretty good, too bad he didn't stay this good throughout his career. This story features an alien that exists solely as a brain; it is from a planet where all the lifeforms have given up their human bodies in exchange for robot ones controlled by their brains. He is told by his leader to take over Earth so they can use its resources. But his ship is damaged and he arrives in a junk yard where the entire ship, including him and his robot body are crushed.

Third is "On the Ninth Day of Satan" by Felix Mas (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). This story features a man that comes to a village in search of a friend, finding that the villagers are wary of him because they are said to be in the clutch of Satan. This includes Cerberus, an agent of Satan that appears in the village as a human. A so-so story that isn't that good compared to what else is here, but Mas's art is his usual good quality.

Fourth is "I Invisible" by Jose Bea (story & art). A very fun to read story, featuring a scientist who creates a formula that can make a person invisible. He uses it on himself then goes to sleep. He awakens later to find that it only partially worked; his skin is now invisible, but his organs are clearly visible! He goes to the lab to try and find a solution and passes out. An intern responsible for disposing of bodies then thinks he is one, and puts him in the furnace! Bea was an expert at extremely bizarre looking stories and this is certainly one of them.

Fifth is the cover story "Spellbound" by Luis Garcia (art) and Lynn Marron (story). A powerful knight, Delmar is recruited by an old crone to obtain a magical box from a neighboring kingdom for her. In exchange, he will rule the country by her side. He travels to the neighboring country where he rescues a beautiful woman, Eileen from a pack of wolves. She brings him to her home where she lives with Flavin, a scholar. When Delmar follows Flavin to the basement to find where the box he is looking for is he is imprisoned. Eileen frees him, under the assumption that he'll depart with her. But he instead takes the box and leaves on his own. As soon as he leaves with the box the entire castle and its inhabitants, including Eileen and Flavin decay and die. Delmar returns the box to the crone, who immediately becomes young and beautiful. He passes on his reward however and leaves. Fairly good story, certainly helped a lot by Luis Garcia's tremendous artwork. It was the first story of his I'd ever read so it certainly is a memorable one to me.

Sixth is "Night Watch" by Jorge Galvez (art) and E.A. Fedory (story). This story was originally a fan page submission that got turned into an actual official Warren story. It features a pair of night watchmen who for fun go hunting for bats during their shift. One of the men comes across a vampire during his hunt and is bitten by it. Later the other man goes hunting and ends up killing his former colleague, who is now a vampire himself.

Last is "Friedhelm the Magnificent" by Richard Corben (art) and Greg Potter (story). A daredevil is famous for his ability to jump from high heights and survive the fall. In actuality he only survives the falls because of a deal he has with two men who have the power to keep him alive. When they request he uphold his part of the bargain by killing himself however, he refuses and instead kills one of the men. The next day he goes on his latest jump however and falls straight down to hell, into the hands of their master, Satan.

Creepy 83

This issue of Creepy is cover dated October 1976. It features the first instance in Warren history where a reprint cover was used, originally from Creepy 15. Apparantely what happened was that Richard Corben was working on a cover for his interior story "In Deep", but it didn't get finished in time, so this reprint was used instead. That cover would eventually be used for Creepy 101. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Strange, Incurable Haunting of Phineas Boggs" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an author who moves into a house that appears to be haunted by the ghost of an old actor, Phineas Boggs. Boggs was a star in the silent era, but the talking era forced him to because a stuntman. His ghost causes robin hood, a knight and a horseman to appear, but none end up actually harming our protagonist and it actually ends up helping the author with his work.

Next is "Process of Elimination" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man comes home to see his family, appearing quite nervous about what he's soon going to do. After dinner, he murders his wife, then kills his two young children too. He then sleeps with a coworker of his, and kills her when she asks him too. The final page reveals why he was doing this, as a nuclear holocaust occurs. Certainly one of the biggest shock endings in Warren history, worthy enough of an entry in the Warren companion's top 25 stories list.

Third is "Country Pie" by Berni Wrightson & Carmine Infantino (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This was Infantino's first Warren story. He had been publisher over at DC, but was fired, and came here to Warren afterwards. Warren's fastest artist, he very quickly turned out a ton of stories, although it should be noted that he generally did the pencils only which is part of the reason why he finished things so fast. This story features a psychic who assists the police in catching a killer. At the same time a middle aged man picks up a teenage girl and her younger brother, who ends up being the killer. They are able to save the man before the two of them kill him.

Fourth is "In Deep" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story tells of a husband and wife whose yacht sinks. The two of them are stranded in the water with just an inner tube to keep them afloat. Over the night the wife drowns, leaving the husband on his own. To his horror seagulls and soon sharks arrive trying to eat her corpse. He fights them off as best he can, but can't stop them all. When he's finally rescued all thats left is her heart, which he grasps tightly in his hands. An extremely good story, one of Creepy's best ever, with some extremely good color artwork.

Fifth is "Harvey Was a Sharp Cookie" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an old man who loves only two things in love, the amusement park he owns and his daughter. When he refuses to sell, the prospective buyer brutally mutilates his daughter. He then tries to take over the amusement park through a quirk in the fire code law. Our protagonist decides to boobey trap the amusement park with razor blades and when the prospective buyer arrives he ends up dying because of it.

Sixth is "Now You See It..." by Al Williamson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story was originally intended for the Marvel science fiction magazine "Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction" but ended up appearing here instead since that magazine was cancelled. It features a man who constantly brings himself and his wife to fake prehistoric realms using a virtual reality device. She dislikes it intensely, so he brings her some place for real which still fails to convince her, and that ends up being fake too. She's happy enough with it being a fake that she finally grows warm to using the device. The main character's appearance is quite obviously based on Williamson himself.

Last is "The Last Superhero" by Carmine Infantino (art) and Cary Bates (story). This story is unique in that it was the sole story Infantino drew for Warren where there wasn't an inking job by someone else. Its kind of hard to be able to tell for sure, but I believe that this story is pencil only. It features a superhero in a society where being a superhero is illegal. Eventually he is surrounded in the sky and apparantely destroyed. Yes, Infantino was a hero expert with his experience at DC, but I question why this completely non-horror story appears here in Creepy.

Vampirella 24

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated May 1973.

First is "Into the Inferno!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). In this issue Vampirella and Pendragon are captured, incidently enough by his own son in law. Pendragon's wife, Rosie is introduced, as is their daughter. Both are quite upset at him for abandoning them, which happened when he was away during the war and heard that Rosie had found another man. This new husband however was quite cruel to them and was eventually killed off. They plan on taking revenge by turning Vampirella into a junkie, injecting her with cocain. Vampi later wakes up, and without her blood serum, attacks Pendragon. This is where the story ends, to be continued in the next issue.

Second is "Middle-Am!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The first of two rather odd Skeates stories in this issue, it features a young man who battles some other men. He is captured, then brought to their leader, who orders his death merely because he's young. He is then hung along with some other people. Quite an odd story.

Third is "Homo Superior" by Ramon Torrents (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A group of five scientists who are working on a major project meet. One of them reveals that he has discovered through an anonymous test that one of them is a super human. He is soon killed off, as is another one who is investigating who it could be. The leader of them brings an outside expert to help. One of them finishes their experiment, which will make the super human invinsible if he gets his hands on it. He kills himself to protect it, but the 'expert' finds it out and uses it to bait the super human, who he traps in a sticky substance that traps him for good. An interesting story, albeit one without any horror element to it.

Fourth is "The Choice" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a man who is a werewolf, and his wife discovers that fact when she witnesses him kill someone one night. Each full moon she locks him up in a cell to keep him from killing anyone else. He finds her slowly becoming colder and colder towards him. He realizes its because of a friend of theirs who is actually a vampire and has turned her into one. He eventually breaks out of his cell and kills her. A rather abrupt ending to this story; also Auraleon blatantly swipes one of his panels from Lon Chaney Jr.'s portrayal of the werewolf, an image that appears in the Captain Company ads in the back. Not a bad story though.

Last is "Changes" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A man comes home one day to find his wife laying dead on the floor, with a knife sticking out of her forehead. Oddly enough he doesn't seem that upset about it, neither do his kids. He then gets her replaced, then heads out and stabs some random middle aged woman in the forehead himself. Quite the odd story, thats for sure.

Eerie 119

Bob Larkin provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated February 1981. A mere three stories in this issue, quite a disappointment.
First is a new character, Zud Kamish in "Accept No Substitute" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). The usually dependable Stenstrum provides a very long, drawn out, boring story featuring the outer space cowboy Zud. Some of the plots in this story include an ex wife suing Zud for more alimony and robots planning a rebellion against mankind that frame other robots. 27 pages long, and not one that is interesting or has good art.

Next is "Sindy Starfire" by Reuben Yandoc (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Sindy is a girl whose parents, sister and boyfriend are all killed by outlaws within mere minutes of one another. Sindy herself has her eye torn out, her hand destroyed, and is bound to the ground, left for dead. Sindy is helped by an old native american who gives her a robotic hand. She then gets revenge on the leader of the outlaws. This would be the only Sindy Starfire story.

Last is "Haggarth" in "Eyes of the Dead!" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). The old man, Mathias brings the injured Haggarth and young blind man meet up with Arnia the witch. Unfortunately Haggarth dies before she can do anything. The blind young man she cannot help, but then she comes up with a plan to pull of Haggarth's face and place it over the young man's, which works, giving back his sight, but also partially giving him Haggarth's personality too. Meanwhile one of the warriors who has the stolen tribal idol opens it, which reveals a ray of light. He is soon killed by some ape like creatures that take the idol with them. Nothing great yet, but still far, far better than the other two stories here.

Creepy 97

This issue is a "Monsters!" special issue from May 1978. The cover is a reprint of Frazetta's cover for Eerie 3.

First is "Momma is a Vampire" by Leo Duranona (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A woman becomes a vampire thanks to her cousin, who is one herself. After she kills her cousin and beheads her, she is told by a doctor that she can be made human again through a blood transfusion from her husband. Alas, it doesn't work, and he is forced to kill her. Duranona and Cuti would reunite for the excellent vampire series 'Honor & Blood' in Eerie roughly around the same time as this issue.

Next is "The Wax Werewolf" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A detective investigating a werewolf is dating the local librarian. In order to defeat the werewolf, he is assisted by a witch who creates a wax version of the creature, which he'll be able to kill by stabbing the wax figure. He does so, but the werewolf ends up being his girlfriend. Upset, he throws the wax figure in the fire, but that causes her corpse to burst aflame and the fire ends up killing him too.

Third is "Black Death" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (sotry). This story is a murder mystery surrounding black people dying in a southern town. The local KKK leader is suspected, but ends up dying as well. It ends up that the murders were caused in order to summon an army of zombies, and the story's protagonist is set to become one himself as the story ends.

Fourth is "Snaegl or How I Conquered the Snail that Ate Tokyo" by Martin Salvador (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a giant snail that comes out of the Ocean near Tokyo and wreaks havoc. Various people, such as a stripper who claims to be a princess from an island that worships the snail to a boy possessing uranium think they are responsible for its arrival and being able to drive it away. In the final panel a bunch of snails arrive in other countries and this time destroy everything.

Fifth is "Dragon Lady" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An old man tells of a story of a princess whose mother got her turned into a dragon because she was jealous of the attention given to her by the Emperor. The old man tells a warrior that a reward is offered for defeating the dragon, and gives the warrior magic powder he can use to change it back into the princess. The warrior does so, and makes love to her, but she turns back into the dragon and kills him. In actuality, the powder caused him to hallucinate; as the story was all a lie, all made up to feed the dragon, the old man's pet.

Last is "Sisters" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story contains two parallel stories featuring a human girl and alien girl facing extreme mental anguish. It ends up that both had twin sisters that were stillborn, and that the two are connected to each other as the alien is the human girl's dead sister and vice versa. Both girls end up killing themselves, reunited when reincarnated as twins on yet another alien planet.

Vampirella 32

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated April 1974. Quite a different looking cover than Enrich's usual fare, making me wonder if it was painted in acrylic rather than oil.

First is Vampirella in "The Running Red" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampi and Pendragon are called to perform for Kruger, a wealthy, evil weapons magnate. Vampi gets upset when Kruger causes another to kill himself after losing all his money to him. Vampi also meets the handsome 'Traveler', who bet his soul when gambling, but was permitted eternal life. Traveler takes on Kruger in a high stakes game of roulette and Kruger loses everything, including his life after his angry mistress pushes him into a spiked fence. Traveler however quickly ages to death, it appears that he broke the pact that gave him eternal life when he helped take down Kruger for Vampi. Kruger's mistress would reappear in the next issue.

Next is the third Pantha story, "Black on White" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A man becomes obsessed with Pantha after recalling an old man he had met being killed by her. He investigates and eventually comes upon her, only for her to change into a panther and kill him. The darkness of this series continues, a stark contrast to the silliness of Pantha's later appearances.

Third is the color story "Harry" by Jeff Jones (story & art). A very fast paced story at only 6 pages, it features a little girl walking around with her stuffed bunny rabbit Harry. Talking to herself, it becomes clear that her parents were killed in a fire because they didn't like him. Her head starts hurting and she collapses; someone else later finds Harry.

An even shorter color story from Jones is next, "Dead Run", at a mere 2 pages long. This very quick story features a man with an oxygen mask who is first in some woods, then in space, encountering death itself.

Fifth is "The Man Whose Soul Was Spoiling!" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). A top assassin, Dino, kills a lover of his and a friend whom he thinks is having an affair with her. He then seeks to topple his own superiors. His henchmen however start noticing a very odd stench coming out of him. It ends up that he is so evil that his soul is actually rotting. This causes all his allies to leave him, and he has to go on the run, eventually becoming a bum that even the homeless avoid. This results in the only solution he has to the problem, suicide.

Last is "Just Like Old Times" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story tells two stories, one featuring a man who discovers that his wife and best friend are having an affair. He kills the wife, then brings the friend on a hunting trip where he kills him two. The other story tells of a long sleeping demon. The demon ends up waking up just as our protagonist kills his friends in the woods. Some very good art by Torrents here, the demon is extremely scary looking.

Eerie 8

For the first time in a while I'll be covering an older issue of Eerie, this one from March 1967. The cover is by Frank Frazetta, featuring the interior story Demon Sword. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery No. 7 - Demon!" by Angelo Torres.

First is "Oversight!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Like many of the Colan/Goodwin stories in early Eerie, probably the best story in the issue. A man being given glasses for the first time realizes that it gives him the ability to see monsters that are masquerading as humans. He follows his doctor to a graveyard where he witnesses a group of the monsters plotting to kill him since they know he has the magic glasses. After they kill the doctor for screwing up, our hero hides there, only to be confronted by one of the creatures, which he kills. He returns to his apartment where he hides out, and lets some police in when they come by. Only it ends up the police are monsters themselves, as he accidently mixed up his glasses with those of his dead doctor's during the struggle and isn't able to tell who they are.

Second is "Dark Rider" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A trio 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.

Third is "Type Cast" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A stage actor gets upset with being typecast into the role of a killer or monster in many horror movies. In order to draw inspiration, he becomes a killer. Eventually he goes really crazy and kills his agent too. Years later he is let out of the looney bin accidently and returns to his crazy ways.

Fourth is "The Day After Doomsday!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world, and confronts multiple mutated beasts which he fights off. Eventually he finds normal humans whom he stays with, only to find that they are cannibals, who eat him! Some very nice art by Adkins here, perhaps his best work for Warren.

Fifth is "The Covered Bridge!" by Bob Jenney (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Set in colonial times, a farmer is hung by some soldiers, who ignore his recommendation that they not go through a nearby covered bridge. The soldiers ignore his advice and send some men there, but each who goes through the bridge dissappears. Eventually the leader goes in, with a rope around him so his subordinate can pull him out. He discovers the truth, that the bridge actually goes to another dimension, where the dead are. The dead farmer himself is discovered to be grabbing on to his body.

Sixth is "Wolf Bait!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin & Buddy Saunders(story, the credits say based on a story written by Saunders). A series of werewolf murders occur in a small town. The local sheriff is upset at a girl he likes, as she instead plans to be wed to a chemist. The chemist tries to create a formula which can kill the werewolf. The sheriff, who ends up being the werewolf kills him, but it ends up that he ingested a poison, which results in him dying soon afterwards.

Last is the cover story "Demon Sword!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A demon sword is recovered as part of an archeological find. Soon after however murders start occuring. Two of the archeologists witness a battle between the demon using the sword and a warrior, and when the demon is defeated so too is one of the archeologists. The other ponders whether to destroy the powerful but dangerous demon sword.