Psycho #19

Sebastia Boada provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated July 1974.

The frontispiece is "Old Horrors" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). It features a young woman being pursued from a man coming out of a coffin.

First story is Lady Satan in "The Son of Lord Lucifer" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Edward Farthing) and Pablo Marcos (art). Marcos makes his first appearance for a new story in a while. Lady Satan is now with Satan's child. She knows that once Anne retakes control of her body, she will try to destroy it and has herself bound to a bed. Anne wakes back up and knows that the only way to kill Satan's child is to kill herself. Later Anne awakens again while not bound and tries to kill herself, first by jumping off a cliff, then stabbing herself to no luck. She is able to throw herself into a fire, horrifically burning herself and killing the baby. This part of the series ends here, and this would end up being the final part, either dropped by Skywald or perhaps a victim of the entire line's cancellation that happens later. I never particularly cared for this series, with the same gimmick of Lady Satan and Anne taking control of the same body getting old a long time ago.

"Old Horrors"

Next is "Like a Bat Outta Hell" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Howie Anderson) and Ricardo Villamonte (story). Our protagonist is an older man who has always been interested in inventing things. Unfortunately for him, his devices often stop working or malfunction in key moments, causing him to be shunned. He decides to move to Europe, buy a castle and turn it into an amusement park. One of his inventions though, a giant mechanical bird runs amok and kills a girl. The townsfolk gather, wanting to kill him and take revenge. Upon coming to the castle much of his devices such as robot alligators and knights also run amok, killing many. They finally come up on him and our protagonist says he's had enough. He chops up his own body with an ax, revealing he was a robot! A crazy ending to a rather crazy story!

Third is "The Yeti" by Al Hewetson (story) and Alphonso Font (art). A town in Switzerland is ravaged by the titular Yeti, who is quite strong but not intelligent. It kills person after person, all those standing in its way. A man covered in shadows claims he is the only one who can stop it. He heads into the town and successfully strangles the Yeti, then leaves. The man returns to his home where we discover he's Frankenstein's monster! A rather simple story with a funny and unexpected ending.

"Ligeia"

Fourth is "Ligeia", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story by Al Hewetson, with art by Jesus Duran. This is a fairly basic story, plot-wise. The protagonist falls in love with the tall brunette Ligeia, but she dies of an illness. He drowns in his sorrows by taking opium, but eventually marries another woman, the blonde haired Rowena, whom he does not love. Then she falls sick and dies too. While at her side all he can think of is Ligeia. Rowena's body rises, but removing its veil reveals it is the corpse of Ligeia instead. He kisses her then rots away himself. The ending is somewhat changed from the original story; while Ligeia is resurrected my recollection was it was not as a corpse, nor does the protagonist rot away himself.

Fifth is "Hell is on Earth!" the second story in the Revenge of Dracula series by Al Hewetson (story) and Emilio Bernardo (art). When we last left this storyline, Vlad had fakes his own death but now finds he must hide out. He finds a shack where he rests, and there lives an old woman who worships Lucifer. She tells him she seeks to give great power and embraces him. We find she is a vampire and she bites him, turning him into the first male vampire. He then heads out, turning into a bat and comes before some people, revealing he has power over them, including convincing a woman to stab herself. Bernardo turns in a really strong first page of artwork here, after that it reverts to his usual level of work.

"And in this Land... A Monster"

We wrap up with the Monster, Monster series with "And in this Land... A Monster" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Our werewolf protagonist, in his human form, has come to America, under the name Vincent Crayne, seeking to find the American woman who took the amulet in the prior stories. While walking down an alley, he is mugged, but changes into a werewolf and slaughters his muggers. He realizes someone saw him and chases him, only to discover another werewolf! He knocks the other werewolf out, lets a hippie who saw it go, and then turns back into human. Realizing what he's done, he brings him to the room he is staying in, waiting for him to wake up. The setting for this series changes and this is at least a little more interesting than the last few parts, but I'd much rather see this series put to rest so we could get something new.

Scream #6

Salvador Faba provides the cover for this issue of Scream, cover dated June 1974.

First is "The Vampire of the Opera" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). The story begins at a funeral home as our protagonist, Clayton Stokes, a vampire is cremated while in a coffin. We then learn of Clayton's backstory. Grown up in Harlem, he was a bad kid from a young age, a thief, a murderer and by the age of 21 had built himself up quite a bit in the criminal world until a beating from his enemies causes him to lose his reputation. He flees to Switzerland where he falls in love with and marries a beautiful young noble woman, Countess Lugos, after murdering her grandfather. Her uncle comes to stay with them and he soon discovers both are vampires and they turn him into one too. Clayton kills the uncle then his wife and returns to Manhattan where he slays criminals and sleeps in an opera house. He is able to escape from authorities by turning into a bat, but upon returning is confronted by his own father, who is brandishing a cross and ashamed of his son's actions. Clayton eventually kills him before a crowd and is beaten by them, then put in the coffin where he is cremated. A lengthy, but fairly good story to kick off the issue. Villamonte's art is quite inconsistent though, ranging from quite good at times to quite poor at others.

"The Vampire of the Opera"

Next is "Ms. Found in a Bottle", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story, with Al Hewetson doing the adaption and Alphonso Font doing the art. A man comes across a bottle, inside is a manuscript/journal entry written some 20 years prior. It speaks of a man who was on a ship in the ocean, but when it was struck by a great storm everyone else on board died. The man eventually sees another, far larger ship approaching, which destroys his ship. He is able to go on board though, finding it fill of ancient looking men who do not even acknowledge him. The man stays on the ship and writes his journal, believing that he is on a ship of the dead as it seems invulnerable even as icebergs smash through it. As the story ends we see the ship sinking into a whirlpool by the south pole. This story is similar in nature to "Descent into the Maelstrom", another Poe tale, although more macabre in tone.

Third is "Frakenstein 2073: Death of the Monster" by Al Hewetson (story) and Cesar Lopez (art). Frankenstein's monster awakens and finds he is now in the year 2073, an age where nearly all men have died out due to a disease that has come in from space. The few men still alive are in captivity by women, forced to father more children so the species will continue. A woman finds the monster and brings him to her queen. Along the way we have a 2 page recap of the monster's creation (making sense given how sporadically this series appears). The monster reaches the queen, but refuses to be her king or father any children. He lies down and dies, and this series comes to a close. The monster finds himself in a quite an enviable position, yet decides its not for him and dies (although with no explanation how). This is described as the final part to the series although it says if demand is there, it may be brought back. This was a fairly decent series, but that was mostly back in Skywald's early days when Tom Sutton was creating it.

"Nosferatu"

Fourth is the latest story in the Nosferatu series, "... and the Gutters Ran with Blood" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Nosferatu calls for Jacques Dupoin, who wears a rat mask to tell his story next. Jacques was once a detective in Paris, but he fell for a beautiful woman who used information he gave her to blackmail a politician. Jacques is found out, fired and the woman leaves him as well. He is cast from society and reduced to working in the sewers. There he decides that he will become a great criminal. He plots to steal a painting from the Louvre, but once inside he is found out. He flees to the sewers. He is shocked to find out that it was the woman who ratted him out and he is shot, falling back into the sewers where the rats consume his body. Back in the present he takes off his mask and hood, revealing his mostly eaten body. This series continues to be one of the biggest highlights of Scream, providing strong art from Zesar and some interesting and moody anthology tales.

"The Saga of the Victims"

We conclude with the first story in "The Saga of the Victims" series, titled "What is Horror? No, Who is Horror?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). Josey Forster and Anne Adams are students at Scollard Manse in Manhattan. One night upon returning to their dorms from a date they are grabbed by strange looking mutant humanoid creatures who bring them down with them through some tunnels. They eventually bring them to some stocks, where they are bound up and a hooded woman comes out telling them they are on trial for trespassing and will be tortured until dead. They are then brought by the mutants into a padded cell. Anne is able to strangle one of the mutants who comes in the cell and they flee. While watching the hooded figure they realize it is their headmistress, Jaspers. They follow her up some stairs, get into a confrontation and upon fighting over a torch, Jaspers is killed. Upon making it up to the streets of Manhattan they realize that they are the only 2 normal people and everyone now looks like one of the mutants. Suddenly they are grabbed via plastic bags that fall on them from above and are pulled up on top of a building by a normal looking man who says he is a doctor. The man speaks in riddles, saying that Horror is who is behind all of this. He leaves them in a room and soon comes in a man with no skin! This is one of Skywald's more well known series, in particular for Suso's strong art and the rather nonsensical plot, made to be as unpredictable as possible. And this opening story certainly delivers. Suso provides some of the best art we've seen in a Skywald story yet and it is an off the wall story, especially with its ending. I look forward to the several more stories we will be getting in this series.

Nightmare #19

Been a busy month for me, but I'm back with another issue of Nightmare; Sebastia Boada provides the cover which is dated June 1974.

First is the frontispiece "The Hounds of the Baskervilles" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferran Sostres (art).

Next is the first full length story, "What the Hell is Dracula Doing Alive and Well in 1974?!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art, miscredited to Jesus Duran). The story starts quite absurd, Dracula comes across a man in an alley and tells him he can make him a vampire if he pays him $10,000! The story then moves ahead to a while later. Many rich people have come to Dracula's castle in Romania where he refuses their money, but plans to still make them vampires as they desire. He reveals a new plan however, to establish a society under the sea. He brings them there, saying he has already brought many here to what he will call Transylvania II. When they arrive however, they are shocked to find everyone dead! A part fish part man monster has killed them all. In flashback we find that the creature had hoped to become part of the society but was shunned, so she attacked and killed them all. She kills even Dracula, tearing his head off his body and as the story ends we are told the creature will make the remains of Dracula's body her mate. This story is another one of those really ridiculous, over the top Skywald stories and I loved it quite a bit. Pretty much the whole plot is quite absurd and ridiculous, but I feel that is when Hewetson is at his best.

"What the Hell is Dracula Doing Alive and Well in 1974?!"

Third is "William Wilson", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story by Al Hewetson, with art by Alphonso Font. The titular William is surprised when he finds another student who looks just like him and has the same name, although he is quite evil and even witnesses him stabbing someone. Years pass and upon turning 21, William inherits a vast fortune and starts participating in debaucheries. During this time he doesn't see the other William or even think of him. Eventually the other William appears though to stop him pursuing a woman, then to reveal him as a cheater at gambling, which gets him kicked out of Oxford. The other William continues to appear as he flees throughout many countries, and William decides to kill him. He successfully slays him with a sword, at which point William himself also dies and we realize the other self was his conscience. I have never read this Poe story, so I'm not sure how accurate an adaption it is. I can say the ending was extremely predictable from the start, perhaps that is why it is not as well known as some other Poe stories. Font continues to provide a fairly good art job.

Fourth is another story in the Shoggoths series, "The Vault" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Howie Anderson) and Jose Cardona (art). Hewetson himself is again the star of the story, traveling through the area of Kilmarnock in Scotland. He talks to a man on the train who tells him Shoggoths had lived around there. Along with Jose Cardona, Hewetson returns to the Welloch Gravesite that he had visited before and they dig some graves up at night. A night later they find a Shoggoth in the graveyard, having eaten a body. They flee, making their way into a vault held by Hewetson's family where they are confronted by a Shoggoth and crush it with a coffin. They continue down into a city beneath the ground occupied by the Shoggoths. Hewetson and Cardona go to the police, the government, etc... but no one believes them so they blow up the city with dynamite, having found the Shoggoths have already left. Another fairly good story in this series; Cardona provides some good art and Hewetson continues to be really good at aping Lovecraft's literary style.

"The Kingdom of the Dead"

Fifth is "Tales out of Hell: The Kingdom of the Dead" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Duran (art). The young boy Walter Thurber is caught sleeping in class with fake glasses and we find that he loves to daydream and fantasize. In another lecture the teacher talks about a myth from Crete, where the wind turns into a human form, the God Darbaras Doom. Darbaras seeks to take down the evil queen Melinia, but her guards are able to defeat him and the teacher says that history is less romantic than myth. Walter says however that he actually was there, as Darbaras, and it didn't happen that way. In actuality Darbaras had defeated Melinia, but she told him there was another ruler above her and she could make him her king. This results in him staying with her, but when he realizes it was all a ruse, he kills her by cutting off her head, just as a revolution starts occurring. We head back to the present where Walter goes into some sort of self-induced suspended animation. His doctors believe he is the reincarnated Darbaras Doom. With this the story ends, although it indicates there will be another part. Duran's art is quite good here (I particularly like his job on Melinia), but the story itself is a bit confusing and hard to get at times.

Next is "My Tomb is My Castle", the latest in the Autobiography of a Vampire series by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Judas the vampire tells of how once upon a time he had lived in a house, around 100 years ago in Georgia. Judas watches a funeral, as an old man sadly buries his wife and is left by his children. Judas feels sorry for him and helps him when he falls (as it is revealed the old man is blind). The kindly old man lets Judas stay with him for a while and tells him of various stories of his wife. Eventually Judas grows to dislike him and in an argument over a fire, he ends up burning down the old man's home and leaving. It is here where story reveals that Judas was the one who killed the old man's wife by draining her blood. While I've never been much of a fan of Villamonte's art, the writing in this series continues to be pretty good and this is the best story in it yet. I loved the twist.

"My Tomb is My Castle"

We conclude with the latest in the Gargoyles series, "The Human Gargoyles vs. the United States of America" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). The gargoyles - Edward, Mina and their son Andrew finish traveling the southern states of the US and return to Manhattan where they have their day in immigration court. Judge Wallace permits them to stay in the US and they head outside, stopping by a public library. Edward senses evil from the lion statue there, and fearing it will attack some nearby civilians fights and destroys it. No one else sees the lion move though and Edward is thrown in jail for destroying it. Judge Wallace briefly visits him but he will have to stay in jail for the time being. This series continues to hold little interest for me, and I am surprised at how overboard the punishment is for destroying the statue. I get a fine, but going to jail over it? Seems pretty ridiculous to me. A mediocre end to what is a fairly good issue.

Psycho #18

Xavier Villanova provides the cover for this issue, cover dated May 1974. An interesting concept, in the form of a jigsaw puzzle!

First is "The Macabre" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Movie actor Basil's agent comes up with an idea for him to hype up his role as vampires by having him pretend to be a vampire in real life, carrying around a coffin with him. But this leads to a real vampire encountering him, and when he discovers it is all a gag, the vampire bites him, turning him into a vampire for real! Basil flees from society, living on an island and only succumbing to his urges to bite someone occasionally. He eventually comes up with a cure for vampirism and drinks it, turning himself back into a regular human. Unfortunately for him at that very moment a mob of villagers have come to the village and slay him with an ax! Villamonte's art as often is the case leaves a lot to be desired, but this was a fairly strong story with a hilarious ending.

Next is a one page pin up of Lady Satan as drawn by Pablo Marcos. I'm not sure why we are featuring her in Psycho when she usually appears in Scream.

"The Rats'

Next is "The Rats" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). Our protagonist, Syd, has gone insane and we go to when he became insane, when he is riding a tractor and sees his family's entire home collapse into a fissure in the ground. We then see that he is in an asylum with people watching over him as he proclaims the rats will get him. We cross cut between them talking about him and him thinking back to him driving around, heading to a city but it being flooded and then running into an elevator overrun with rats. Syd eventually admits he is insane. We find that he is one of many individuals, who after being coddled by the government couldn't take it when some natural disasters happened. They head outside revealing that things actually have been flooded and he is obsessed over rats because he ate some when trapped in an elevator for three days. This story comes off as a less successful attempt at a redo of "Diary of an Absolute Madman" from the same creators a number of issues back in Nightmare.

Fourth is "A Descent into the Maelstrom", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story by Al Hewetson, with Cesar Lopez providing the art. Two men look into the sea at a maelstrom, aka a whirlpool far off. The older of the two tells of how he was caught up in one a while ago. His ship was blast into pieces, with only him and his brother left alive. He eventually realized that in order to survive he had to be as light as possible and tied himself to a barrel. Meanwhile his brother refused to leave the much larger remains of the ship and was sucked into the whirlpool while he survived. As the story ends we realize that despite looking old with his white hair, he is a young man and looks that way due to his experience. A rather unconventional Poe story, that isn't macabre as usual and is more of an adventure tale.

"Now... Another Maniac!"

Fifth is "Now... Another Maniac!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). This is actually the first Skywald story I ever read, from a horror comics story collection I read a few years ago. It is a rare appearance for Cintron outside of the Gargoyles series. Our protagonist gets up at night, planning to kill a man. While pulling out of the driveway he runs over a bike. He finds his victim, takes him at gunpoint and forces him to dig his own grave, striking him in the head with it once its done, then buries him. When he arrives home he is shocked to find the police there. But it is not for his murder, rather he had run over a kid and killed him when he hit the bike at the start of the story. A fairly strong story with some effective art as well, this reads a lot more like a Warren story from this era than a Skywald one.

Next is "Uncle Ed's Grave" by Al Hewetson (story) and Alphonso Font (art). The titular Uncle Ed speaks to his nephew Ralph, admitting that he is a vampire. Ralph does not believe him, but Ed claims that most fantastical things related to vampires aren't real and he is nonetheless one. He speaks of how his own uncle made him a vampire when he was a child and once a year he drinks someone's blood, but otherwise lives a normal life. Ed tries to attack Ralph, but he throws him to the ground and he appears dead of a heart attack. We find that Ralph came here to seize his uncle's jewels, but with him now dead he needs to dispose of the body. He plans to bury him in the local graveyard. He talks of how Ed wasn't ever discussed as part of the family and his apparent insanity was the reason why. Yet when about to mark a gravestone for him, Ralph realizes that Ed was born in 1822 and is 150 years old, which explains why he was never spoke of. Suddenly Ed's arms break out of the ground and grab a hold of Ralph. It is here where the story ends, quite abruptly. I wonder if we'll get a second part as this seems like an odd place to end it.

"Uncle Ed's Grave"

Seventh is "The Boutique Macabre" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). This is a brief story at only three pages. A man stops by the store Leah's Boutiques and inside meets Leah, a young woman who has many paintings of her killing people. She reveals how each of them are real. She killed the drunk that was rude and tried to assault her, she poisoned the old women who claimed it was immoral for a woman to operate her own business and then she shows him a blank painting. Leah claims he will be the subject of that painting and stabs him.

Last is "Monster, Monster, Watch Them Die" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). The story begins with our werewolf protagonist going on yet another rampage. Then we see Dominik, prince of the gypsies shoot Kirsten and we find that the veiled woman from the previous story has seized the amulet and restored her beauty. She leaves Nola to Dominik, who takes her at gunpoint and we later find has killed her. Our protagonist, discovering this, becomes enraged, turns back into a werewolf and kills Dominik, then cries over Nola's death. The gypsy storyline finally resolved, this would be the perfect place to end this very mediocre series, but alas, the ending states we will get more chapters...

Scream #5

Fernando Fernandez provides a particularly scary looking cover for this issue of Scream, cover dated April 1974.

First is the second chapter in "The Autobiography of a Vampire", by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Our titular vampire (called Judas in the prior story) continues his tale. Now a young man, he travels to Barcelona where he meets many women, but falls for one, Maria, he finds swimming in a nearby river. Unfortunately when Judas tells Maria's father he has no money or prospects, he throws him out. Judas asks Maria to elope but she too rejects him, so he bites her neck and kills her. These many years later he still regrets it. This is another one of those stories where Villamonte's art is quite inconsistent. On some pages it is really strong, at the quality of someone like Esteban Maroto, while in other pages it looks quite rushed.

Next is another story in the Darkkos Manse story, "Get Up and Die Again" by Al Hewetson (story,credited to Howie Anderson) and Alphonso Font (art). A man who bears a resemblance to Frankenstein's monster is seized and hung. A Dr. Ingels wants his body, but the sheriff will only provide it to him if he agrees to murder his wife for him. Ingels does it; poisoning her. He takes the man's body and is able to successfully resurrect it, a real life Frankenstein's monster. The monster is horrified at being brought to life and demands Ingels create him a mate, so he raises the sheriff's wife back to life. But she knows it is he who murdered her. The monster kills her, then turns on Ingels and kills him, then heads to the swamp. Font did very little work for Warren (only one story if I remember correctly) but will get several stories here at Skywald, with this being his debut. He does quite a good job and I look forward to seeing more from him. A fairly decent story too. Ingels' name has got to be a reference to EC's Ghastly Graham Ingels.

"The Autobiography of a Vampire"

Third is "The Cask of Amontillado" an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story, with adaption by Al Hewetson and art by Maro Nava. This classic Poe tale tells the story of a man who seeks to end the life of a colleague named Fortunato who is a wine connoisseur. Our protagonist claims he has a bottle of the wine Amontillado and Fortunato comes with him down to a vault where he is chained to the wall and then walled up behind some bricks. The overall plot of this story is fairly simple (and this is at least the fourth comics adaption I've read of this story). Nava's artwork this time bears some resemblance to Rafael Auraleon.

Fourth is "The Black Orchids and the Tale of Anne" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Cardona (art). A young woman named Anne is cared for in an asylum. When she is let outside to look at some orchids she grows angry and destroys them. One of the doctors tells Anne's history. She had caught her husband walking with another woman and murdered them both. Further flashbacks shows that the woman was Anne's sister! Anne was quite beautiful while her sister Mary was not. Once Anne married her husband, he spent some time with Mary, who grew in love with him and he cared for her inner beauty. Anne caught them together and killed them. It is explained that Anne hates beautiful things and they can't let her see herself or she'd try to destroy herself. Unfortunately she isn't guarded very well, walks past a mirror and reacts by swinging an axe into her face! This is a fairly strong story, with a good ending and Cardona does a very good job on the art. His style is very reminiscent of Jose Gonzalez at many points in the story.

"The Black Orchids and the Tale of Anne"

Fifth is "The Conqueror Worm and the Haunted Palace" another Poe adaption, by Al Hewetson, with art by Domingo Gomez. This two page feature combines the two Poe poems, The Conqueror Worm and The Haunted Palace. Gomez's art as usual is quite good.

Sixth is "Are You Dead Yet?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). A man named Simon Toubin tells of how a group of four individuals come to visit his asylum. He initially shows them a few patients, but soon they find one of them dead and that there is a killer on the loose. Chaos ensues, more people die and we find that Simon has let many of the inmates run wild! Eventually it is revealed that one of the guests is the killer and he is thrown in an asylum himself. This story is rather confusing with it hard to tell characters apart at times (and part of me wonders if some pages are out of order). Ultimately results in an overall weak effort.

Seventh is "Shift: Vampire" by Augustine Funnell (art) and Emilio Bernardo (art). As with many Skyald stories this one is a bit hard to comprehend. It identifies two vampires, one in 1973 and another in 2073 (at least I think that is the case, when I first read it I thought they were the same character) who have a time machine that can send them back in time or forward in time by 100 years. Both end up getting pursued by people, so they jump in the time machine. Because they both do so at the same time though, they get trapped in some sort of eternal shift and get stuck in time as a result. At least that's the way I interpret how this rather confusing story ends.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray"

We conclude with an adaption of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray", with adaption by Al Hewetson and art by Zesar Lopez. The beautiful young man Dorian Gray acts as model for a portrait by his friend Basil. When the art purchaser Henry Wotton arrives to look at it, he becomes fascinated with Dorian's face. Dorian states that he wishes he could stay young and attractive like he does now forever and that the painting would age in his place. Through the influence of Henry, Dorian starts living a life of hedonism, constantly partying, drinking and sleeping with various women. He notices a change in the painting, with a grimace appearing on his face and decides to hide it in the attic. As time goes by the painting continues to change, with the painting looking meaner, uglier and more decrepit while in reality Dorian remains exactly the way he is. Dorian becomes quite disgusted with the painting, which is showing his true self. Over 30 years goes by and he is visited by Basil, who is shocked to see Dorian still looks the same and grows quite angry when he sees the horrifying state the painting is in. He attacks Dorian, who ends up stabbing him with a sword. Dorian, disgusted by his actions attacks the painting with the sword. His servants find the scene later, with Basil dead, Dorian also dead, now aged and quite horrifying looking and the painting has returned to its original state. Having read the original book I can say that this adaption is quite abbreviated, but does a good job hitting at the high points of what is a pretty well known tale. Zesar's art is quite strong as usual and he is effective at the contrast between Dorian's face and the painting.