Creepy 32

Frank Frazetta provides the cover to this issue of Creepy, which is dated April 1970. This issue is the first since issue 17 to feature entirely new stories. Tom Sutton provides the art and story for this issue's "Creepy's Loathsome Lore", titled "Androids".

The issue begins with "Rock God". This story was inspired by the Frank Frazetta cover. Per the introductory page to the story, Harlan Ellison was loking to write a story for Warren based on a Frank Frazetta cover and this story was the result. Neal Adams provides the artwork. This was Ellison's first and only story for Warren, and he would later be involved in a lawsuit against Warren when one of his stories was plagirized in 1984. At 13 pages this story is far longer than most Warren stories of this era and at the time only another Neal Adams drawn story from Creepy 15 had been longer. The beginning of the story features the summoning of the Rock God "Dis" who has left various stones each time he was summoned. This time the stone he left was stolen and passed down through the years, ultimately ending up in a skyscraper in present times that was built using substandard materials to enrich several corrupt men. One of the men attacks his lover when she says she is going to leave him and she falls out of the skyscraper to her death, resulting in the summoning of Dis. A so-so story, although Adams' art is quite good.

Next is "Death is a Lonely Place" by Bill Black (art) and Bill Warren (story). This story stars a vampire named Miklos Sokolos. The first half of the story shows his life as a vampire, living in a tomb and showing both how he became a vampire and how he finds his victims. Miklos meets a woman named Gwen at the movie theater to whom he becomes romantically involved. He refuses to drink her blood and refuses to marry her because of being a vampire. He eventually decides he will turn her into a vampire so they can marry, but has second thoughts when he considers how she will have to attack others for their blood. He instead leaves her note that lies about him being married and decides to commit suicide by dragging his coffin into the sunlight of the graveyard where he sleeps.

Third is "I... Executioner" by Mike Royer (art) and Don Glut (story). A newspaper reporter watches an execution take place and is interested by the calm manner in which the Executioner does his job. He requests an interview with the Executioner and is granted it. The Executioner tells him the role of executioners throughout time and claims he was present for them. This confuses the reporter until the Executioner removes his hood, revealing him to be Death himself. As the story ends it is revealed that the reporter has passed away of a cough he had and that his story will never be read.

Next is "A Wall of Privacy" by Ernie Colon (art, credited as David St. Clair) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is hosted by Cousin Eerie so it was likely originally meant for an issue of Eerie. The story stars a man named Dannon with telepathic powers who lives in a 1984-esque future where everything he does is watched by cameras operated by the government. He desires to escape to a place known as the free zone where the cameras don't operate. He meets a woman who has telepathic powers as well and they plot to destroy a power plant which will enable them to escape to the free zone. The night comes when they destroy the power plant and all of Dannon's colleagues, including the women are killed. He is able to escape to the free zone, only to find that it is only 5 feet wide! I really enjoyed the ending to this one.

Next is "V.A.M.P.I.R.E." by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Warren (story). A giant computer called S.A.L.O. is being created which will require a fluid to run. One of the doctors on the project, Dr. Vindemuk determines that blood would be the best fluid to use but is fired by the head of the project when he suggests it. Vindemuk kills him and uses his blood to feed to the computer, which renames itself V.A.M.P.I.R.E. The computer demands more and more blood, which Vindemuk kills people to provide. He is put into a hypnotic trance when he refuses to do it anymore. Eventually the computer, which has now developed hands and legs releases Vandemuk from the hypnosis and kills him when he tries to shut off the computer's power. The computer tries to get up and walk away but this results in pulling its plug out of the wall and it dies from a lack of energy. A rather goofy ending for this story.

"Movie Dissector" is the sixth story and is notable for having the first appearance of Bill Dubay in a Warren magazine, where he provides the artwork. R. Michael Rosen provides the story. Two friends are dissappointed in a horror movie so they decide to make their own. The boys fight over parts of it and break off on their own, each creating their own movie. When the movies are finished, they show the movies in one of the boy's garages. A number of boys come by to be the audience. The audience enjoys the first movie because it shows respect to the monsters, but dislike the second movie because it doesn't. The audience reveals themselves to be monsters and attack the director of the second movie.

The issue concludes with "The 3:14 is Right on Time" by Billy Graham (art) and Ken Dixon (story). This story features an old man who bought a train car when he was younger and finds passengers by killing people and putting their corpses in the seat. In the story he kills his final victim and drives the train car, which stops at the cemetary. Nearby he finds a trolley station where death is waiting for him.

Vampirella 1

Today I cover the first issue of Vampirella, which after years of failing to obtain a copy I've finally been able to check out due to Dynamite's Vampirella Archives series. Frank Frazetta provides the cover, one of my personal favorites. He also supplies a one page intro from Vampi on the inside front cover.

First is Vampirella's first ever appearance in "Vampirella of Draculon", with art by Tom Sutton and story by Forrest Ackerman, who was editor for Famous Monsters of Filmland for the majority of its run. This story's much more light hearted than the usual Vampirella story and features her on her home planet of Draculon, where blood is the equivalent of water. A spaceship of humans crashes on their planet and Vampirella sucks their blood, then finds a "smorgasblood" as she puts it inside the ship when she finds a room full of men in hibernation.

Second is "Death Boat!" by Billy Graham (art) and Don Glut (story). Six people are stranded on a life boat in the middle of the ocean after the ship they are on sinks. One night they awaken to find one of the people dead, with two holes in his throat. One of the men is convinced that it is a vampire on board the boat and attacks the man he think is the vampire, killing him. He is then killed by another man shortly afterwards. Another death occurs soon afterwards, and convinced that her companion is the vampire, being the only one left, the last person standing kills him. But then the boat itself is revealed by the the vampire and transforms in order to kill her.

Next is "Two Silver Bullets!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Don Glut (story). A man and his daughter are hunting in the woods and the daughter is attacked by a wolf that runs off unharmed after the man shoots it. Because the full moon was out, the man is convinced that it was a werewolf and procures himself two silver bullets. The daughter meanwhile has dreams about the wolf and calls it her love. The man returns to his cottage to find his daughter gone and wolf tracks in the snow. He follows them and finds two wolves this time. He shoots both of them, only realizing at the last minute that the second one was his daughter, transformed.

Fourth is "Goddess from the Sea" by Neal Adams (art) and Don Glut (story). Adams' art is pencils only, which unfortunately makes things hard to make out in some of the panels. A woman, Lanora, appears outs of the sea and tells a man who lives nearby that she's from Atlantis and is fleeing from those of her kind. Her fellow sea dwellers soon come out after her and grab ahold of her. He heads into the sea after her and ends up drowning.

Fifth is "Last Act: October!" by Mike Royer (art) and Don Glut (story). A woman is burned at the stake and curses her accuser, such that him and his descendents will die in October. The accuser dies shortly afterwards. Throughout history many of his descendents die in October. The last descendent left is an elderly woman who is babysitting on the night of Halloween. She avoids numerous accidental ways to die, but meets her end mere minutes before midnight when the child she is babysitting is revealed to be a vampire and bites her on the neck.

Next is "Spaced-Out Girls!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Don Glut (story). Kenne Barcroft is a skilled womanizer, who one night finds a flying saucer appear from the sky and land in front of him. Out from the flying saucer walks a series of beautiful women who claim to be from another planet that has no men. Kenne anxiously agrees to head with them to ensure they don't go extinct. His advances on the women on the way there fail, as they claim he is reserved for their Queen only. Upon arriving at the planet, Kenne finds out that all the women are robots, and he is locked in a room with the Queen, who is about as beastly as you can imagine.

The issue concludes with "A Room Full of Changes" with art by Ernie Colon and story by Nicola Cuti. This story's a rather weak effort, featuring a man who buys a home featuring a room where an old man was murdered. He meets the two daughters of the man who sold him the house and starts a romantic relationship with one of them. The room where the old man was murdered seems to have a different appearance based on who enters it. The father attempts to destroy the room but a number of monsters appear and kill him.

Vampirella 1972 Annual

Today I take a look at the 1972 Vampirella Annual. This issue is supposedly rather rare, but I was lucky enough to get a copy for not that much money a while back. The cover is by Aslan in his only Warren appearance. This cover was originally intended for Vampirella 1, but was instead passed over for the famous cover made by Frank Frazetta for that issue. The inside front cover features "Vampi's Feary Tales: The Bride of Frankenstein" by Tom Sutton.

First is "The Origin of Vampirella" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and J.R. Cochran (story). This story features Vampirella on Drakulon with her lover Tristan. The planet is dying and while Vampirella seeks to kill animals for their blood, Tristan doesn't want to do so, nor does anyone else, resulting in the people all dying off. Eventually people from Earth arrive on Drakulon as well and end up killing Tristan, He rises up again however and confronts Vampirella one last time before she heads to Earth.

Next is "The Curse of Circe" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Gardner Fox (story), from Vampirella 6. A man is lost at sea and ends up landing on an island, populated by beautiful women, the most beautiful of which is named Circe. After a night of passion, he wakes up, to find that he's been turned into a pig! With the help of another woman he is able to return to his human form and the two escape, only to end up dying while at sea.

Third is "Goddess From the Sea" by Neal Adams (art) and Don Glut (story), from Vampirella 1. Adams' art is pencils only. A woman, Lanora, appears outs of the sea and tells a man who lives nearby that she's from Atlantis and is fleeing from those of her kind. Her fellow sea dwellers soon come out after her and grab ahold of her. He heads into the sea after her and ends up drowning.

Fourth is "The Curse" by Wally Wood (story & art), from Vampirella 9. A man has no memory of his past and finds himself in a bizarre reptilian man like form. A beautiful woman, Zara, tells him that he's been transformed into this state by a sorceress that they need to kill using an enchanted sword. Our hero fights off many beasts and eventually the sorceress herself. It ends up however that Zara was the one who transformed him, as she was given eternal life and wanted to die, which could only be done by killing the sorceress. After her death our hero turns back into his true form, a lowly lizard.

Fifth is "Snake Eyes" by Jack Sparling (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from Vampirella 8. It's about a girl who has very snake like features, and she looks more and more like one as she gets older. She gets angry with her boyfriend and kills him when he sells a pendant of hers. It ends up that she is the decendent of royalty. She gets it back and uses it to get to a secret chamber, where she is confronted by a Mongoose man who was responsible for wiping her family out.

Sixth is "Vampi's Feary Tales: Love!", a one page feature from Tom Sutton.

Seventh is "Forgotten Kingdom" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). A woman finds an astronaut from a spaceship that lands on her planet. She brings him to their leader, who tells him that all men on their planet have died and that they need him to help restore their civilization. He refuses, and with the help of the woman that found him they escape. He brings her to his spaceship and they leave the planet. He soon reveals however that it is the exact opposite on his world, that there are no women, and he has similar plans for her as they had for him.

Last is another one pager, "Vampi's Feary Tales: Lilith" by Jeff Jones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from Vampirella 9.

Eerie 125

This issue of Eerie is an all Neal Adams special, aside from the reprinted Richard Corben cover from Eerie 77. This issue is dated October 1981.

First is "Curse of the Vampire!" by Neal Adams (art, his Warren debut in this story's original appearance) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 14. The story features a family curse where every member of the vampire is supposedly supposed to turn into a vampire after death. A doctor who has fallen in love with a young woman who is part of the family refuses to let the family servent drive a stake through her since he believes she is just in a coma. It ends up that the servant is the true vampire, and has been able to blame everything on the family due to the curse. The doctor kills him and the girl awakens. However it ends up that the doctor is a vampire, and now knowing that she's human, he makes her his next victim!

Second is "The Terror Beyond Time!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 15. Searching for a professor, a man heads deep into a cavern where he had dissappeared. Inside he finds a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. In addition various other people throughout time have been summoned here including a beatiful woman from England. The professor is found, but it ends up that he's working for an evil being who is responsible for summoning everyone there as well as controlling people's thoughts. Our hero refuses to work under his control and instead kills the professor and the evil being. Afterwards he awakens in the modern age, with the woman there with him. A fairly good story although as discussed by Neal Adams in the Warren companion, the evil being ends up looking like an ice cream sundae rather than something supremely evil.

Third is "Goddess From the Sea" by Neal Adams (art) and Don Glut (story), from Vampirella 1. Adams' art is pencils only. A woman, Lanora, appears outs of the sea and tells a man who lives nearby that she's from Atlantis and is fleeing from those of her kind. Her fellow sea dwellers soon come out after her and grab ahold of her. He heads into the sea after her and ends up drowning.

Fourth is "Thrillkill" by Neal Adams (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story), from Creepy 75. A truly great story, and arguably the most famous Warren story of all time, being ranked #1 overall as best Warren story in the Warren Companion. A young man with a sniper rifle shoots random people from the top of a building and is eventually killed by the police. While the artwork shows these events taking place a priest who knew the young man as a boy talks to a reporter, trying to explain why this happened.

Fifth is "A Curse of Claws!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 16. This story features a man in the jungle who encounters a woman who says she is Lillith, Goddess of Cats. The man fights her and kills her, but turns into a panether like creature and ends up scratching himself to death.

Sixth is "Voodoo Drum!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 10. The story, which is done in pencils only, is about a plantation owner who finds workers difficult to obtain, so a native brings him zombies in exchange for payment. The man kills him, seeking to use the zombies for free, but they come after him and turn his skin into a drum.

Last is "Fair Exchange" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 9. An old man whose soon to die plots to steal a young man's body when he discovers of a ridiculed doctor who has experimented on switching bodies. The switch is performed successfully and the old man now in his new body kills the doctor so he doesn't have to pay him. Only he soon discovers that he is a vampire when he is destroyed by the sun.

Creepy 91

This is an all reprint issue of Creepy, dated August 1977. The cover is a reprint of Frank Frazetta's cover for Vampirella 11. Many very good stories are reprinted here.

First is "Nightfall" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Eerie 60. A young boy is deathly afraid of monsters who live in his room that come out whenever his parents leave him there alone. Each time they turn out the lights and leave the monsters come and try to take him away. His parents don't believe him but eventually decide to let him sleep with them after his bed is nearly taken out of the window.

Second is "Creeps" by John Severin & Wally Wood (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 78. 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.

Third is "Phantom of Pleasure Island" by Alex Toth (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), from Creepy 75. This story is a murder mystery taking place in an amusement park where a mysterious sniper has killed multiple people. One of the suspects is killed while the other one agrees to sell his rival amusement park, removing him as a suspect. The killer ends up being the wife of the park owner, who wanted him to pay more attention to her than the park, and thought that her murder spree would accomplish that goal.

Fourth is "Benjamin Jones and the Imagineers" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story, from Creepy 80, is about a boy whose toy soldiers can summon monsters. Naturally his mother doesn't believe him, until she is confronted by one of them and is killed by it. Weakest story here, but only because the other material is so strong.

Fifth is "Cold Cuts" by Jeff Jones (art) and Berni Wrightson (story), from Vampirella 34. Terrific contributions from these two, with Wrightson providing his only writing credit for a story he didn't draw as well. The story features a man in a winter wilderness who shoots a deer and carries it with him. Meanwhile his wife is snowbound in a cabin with a colleague of his who attacks her. While the hunter thinks about providing for his wife, the colleague's body is mutilated, as if he was being prepared to eat.

Sixth is "Thrillkill" by Neal Adams (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story), from Creepy 75. A truly great story, and arguably the most famous Warren story of all time, being ranked #1 overall as best Warren story in the Warren Companion. A young man with a sniper rifle shoots random people from the top of a building and is eventually killed by the police. While the artwork shows these events taking place a priest who knew the young man as a boy talks to a reporter, trying to explain why this happened.

Seventh is "Gamal and the Cockatrice" by Auraleon (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story), from Vampirella 47. A terrific story, one of the best of all time. It is included within the top 25 stories in the Warren companion. A tribe in the dessert is told by one of their members, Gamal, that he has killed the cockatrice, the half chicken/half snake creature that kills anyone who looks at it. Using a complex story he tells them how he killed it. When the man offering a reward for the death of the creature refuses to pay, Gamal admits that he also kidnapped another cockatrice and that he will unleash it unless they give him a third of the tribe's wealth and three of their women. They relent to his demands, and it is never really revealed whether he actually killed or captured a cockatrice.

Last is "The Shadow of the Axe!" by Russ Heath (art) and Dave Sim (story), from Creepy 79. This story was Sim's sole Warren appearance. It features a boy living in a small town who suspects his father is an axe murderer. To stop him, he turns on his father and kills him with an axe. The next day, his mother winks at him, making one wonder if she was responsible for it all.

Eerie 128

Kirk Reinert provides a terrific cover for this issue of Eerie, probably the best of its latter day covers. This issue is dated January 1982. Aside from the horrible Zud story, this issue is quite a lot better than those we've been seeing for quite a while now.

First is "Dr. Coven: Ashes to Ashes!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Dr. Coven is a man who comes to the jungle with his wife to study voodoo. A voodoo priestess invites him to a ceremony and captures his wife, he then passes out. When he awakens he finds himself surrounded by zombies, including his wife, who is now one. He dismembers his wife to escape her, then kills the zombies and priestess.

Second is "The Demon Queen" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A professor who has one of his students as a lover is writing a book on demons and soon starts seeing them, suspecting that he is being pursued by a demon queen. He sees the demons more and more and his behavior to get rid of them gets more and more out of hand, resulting in him being fired and his book's publication being suspended. His book's chances of publication finished, his lover reveals that she is the demon queen. He is found later, gone completely insane. The demon queen in this story is modeled after that on the cover of Eerie 41.

Third is the retitled Zud and Son in "Heroes at Large!" by E.R. Cruz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). In this story, it is revealed out of nowhere that Zud has a thirteen year old son, Raz. Raz dissappoints Zud, as he is interested in the ballet and other odd stuff rather than normal boy stuff. While at the ballet Zud is captured by an old enemy of his who tries to kill him. Raz is able to rescue him, then at the end reveals that he is interested in football and other standard male interests after all.

Fourth is "Blackstar and the Nighthuntress" by Peter Hsu (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Jason Blackstar and Rowena, the stars of this story originally appeared back in issue 85. In this story the appearance of a medallion at someone's home means assassins, the Rectifiers (sent by the three Governor who rule the galaxy) will come after them and kill them unless they can stay out of their hands for seven days. Killing a Rectifier is illegal, and when Rowena mistakenly kills one, the Governors send other ones after them. Rowena and Blackstar eventually come across the Governors and convince them to stop coming after them.

Fifth is "Avenger!" by Jim Starlin & Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was originally intended for Creepy 64 back in 1974. Odd enough it was held back for eight years before finally appearing here. A pilot, Thomas Flagg climbs out of the sea, ten years after his death from a plane crash into a body of water. Flagg, now a rotting hulk, has the ability to cause others to succumb to his will and soon gathers an army to go after he whom he finds responsible, his father, who forced him into duty in Vietnam. His army of followers are killed, but he still encounters his father and causes him to succumb to his will as well.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth is attacked by an eagle and its amazoness owner who tries to kill him with a poison spear. Meanwhile a trio of men look for precious stones and come across Ethan and a friend of his who accidently take their canoe. Two of the men take back the canoe and leave, only to be killed by the amazonesses.

Eerie 97

Val Mayerik provides the dinosaur themed cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring four dinosaur themed stories, three of them from a single series. The issue is dated November 1978.

First is "Within You... Without You" the first part of the series from Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This issue was originally from Eerie 77. A group of scientists manipulate the mind of a telepathic young woman, who happens to be the wife of one of them, such that she thinks she is in prehistoric times, finding dinosaurs. When an Earthquake hits her link to reality gets screwed up, so they recruit Lydecker, a man who has similar telepathic abilities, but he also had a prior relationship with her. When a dinosaur attacks however, Lydecker is eaten, and while its not technically reality, whatever happens in their mind effects his real body, killing him. An interesting story that becomes even more complicated over the next few stories.

Next is "Time and Time Again" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Eerie 79, a continuation of the "Within You Without You" story. Karen is requested to go back in time through her mind to retrieve a gun that had been left behind. While there she seeks revenge on the Tyranosaurus that killed Lydecker. She gets her timing mixed up however, and ends up killing the dinosaur before it killed him, so she encounters the past version of him and herself. The scientists bring her out of it, but Lydecker ends up occupying her mind when they do that.

Third is "Years & Mind Forever", the conclusion to the Within You Without You trilogy. This story is from Eerie 87. Art is by Richard Corben and story is by Bruce Jones. In this story it is revealed that Lydecker has been setting up everyone, and that many of the trips into the past have actually been staged by him and an actress pretending to be Karen. Meanwhile he himself has actually made it to the past where he has found the ancestor of humanity. The scientists send another telepath after him and he finds Lydecker in a lab with the ancient man. During a struggle with 'Karen' however the ancestor is shot by him, wiping out humanity. A terrific end to a terrific trilogy, which would be ranked as one of the top 10 Warren series in the Warren companion.

Last is "The Terror Beyond Time!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 15. Searching for a professor, a man heads deep into a cavern where he had dissappeared. Inside he finds a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. In addition various other people throughout time have been summoned here including a beatiful woman from England. The professor is found, but it ends up that he's working for an evil being who is responsible for summoning everyone there as well as controlling people's thoughts. Our hero refuses to work under his control and instead kills the professor and the evil being. Afterwards he awakens in the modern age, with the woman there with him. A fairly good story although as discussed by Neal Adams in the Warren companion, the evil being ends up looking like an ice cream sundae rather than something supremely evil.

Eerie 42

Luis Dominguez provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, based on the reprinted story inside, 'Ogre's Castle'. This issue is dated October 1972.

First is "The Mummy Stalks!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel (story), featuring a mummy that turns into a werewolf while being stored in a museum. This story, originally published in Eerie #5, is a rather poor effort, despite being a Goodwin story.

Next is "The Blood Fruit" by Johnny Craig (art & story), from Eerie #11. A group of four students and a professor arrive on an island where the professor discovers 'The Blood Fruit', which when eaten causes whatever he wants to occur. He uses this to kill two of the students and summon a lizard like monster. But when one of his colleagues eats the fruit and wishes him dead, he finds the tables turned.

Third is "Dark Rider" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie #8. 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.

Fourth is "Life Species" by Bill Dubay (story & art), from Eerie #30. This is a very short story about astronauts arriving at a destroyed planet and piecing together a habitant of the planet. It ends up the planet is Earth, but the interesting twist is that put together a car and think it was the dominant species of the planet! Very short, but good story by Dubay.

Fifth is "Ogre's Castle" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy #2. An extremely good art job from Torres here, arguably his best job for Warren. A knight heads to a castle that is rumored to be where his younger brother dissappeared. Inside he finds an ogre who has captured a beautiful young woman. He fights off the ogre's various minions, then saves the woman. On his way out the ogre confronts him, and the knight kills the ogre. The ogre's corpse transforms into his younger brother as soon as he is killed however. The woman, now revealed to be a sorceress, transforms the knight into an ogre, to be used to guard the castle like his brother had before.

Sixth is "Room With A View!", with art by Steve Ditko, and story by Archie Goodwin. This story was originally published in Eerie #3. A man arrives at an inn with no rooms available, except for a single one which the innkeeper warns him against staying in. The guest uses it anyway and sees a weird creature in the mirror. Each time he looks in the mirror he sees more creatures appearing until he is completely overtaken by them. Hearing his scream, the innkeeper comes up and finds the room empty, but sees the guest's corpse when he looks in the mirror.

Seventh is "Voodoo Drum!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie #10. The story, which is done in pencils only, is about a plantation owner who finds workers difficult to obtain, so a native brings him zombies in exchange for payment. The man kills him, seeking to use the zombies for free, but they come after him and turn his skin into a drum.

Eighth is "I Am Dead, Egypt, Dead" by Victor De La Fuente (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Eerie #35. The story is about three archaeologists, Jim, Diana and Ray who find a tomb filled with treasure. Jim and Diana conspire to kill Ray and take all the treasure for themself. They do it by inducing a heart attack when Jim dresses up as a mummy. Only when the two of them head into the tomb Ray ends up not being dead after all and dressing up himself as a mummy, kills Jim. Ray and Diana having been together laugh about their plot, but end up dying when they drink water that Jim had poisoned in their canteens.

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.

Creepy 75

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated November 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. An amazing issue, one of Creepy's best single issues ever.

First is "The Escape Chronicle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a 1984-esque future. A man, Bernard, meets Charlie, a man who is completely unlike anyone else, refusing to act in the way that society demands. Charlie convinces Bernard to come to his side and they plot to escape using a hot air balloon. The day it finally happens however Bernard is pursued by law enforcement and falls off the balloon just as Charlie is escaping. A fairly good story, that was included in the Warren Companion's top 25 list. A sequel was made in issue 80 that wrapped things up on a happier note.

Second is "Phantom of Pleasure Island" by Alex Toth (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is a murder mystery taking place in an amusement park where a mysterious sniper has killed multiple people. One of the suspect is killed while the other one agrees to sell his rival amusement park, removing him as a suspect. The killer ends up being the wife of the park owner, who wanted him to pay more attention to her than the park, and thought that her murder spree would accomplish that goal.

Third is "Snow" by Rich Buckler & Wally Wood (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story takes place in the ruins of a wintery city. A man meets a boy in an abandoned building whose parents are dead. They are attacked by a man who wants to eat them, but they kill him instead, then plan to use him for food.

Fourth is "Death Expression" by John Severin (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A man in a prison tells a story of a revolution he was part of in South America. His cause was helped by a major who suddenly arrived and took charge, quickly bringing their group to power. Once in power, executions of people continue for weeks and months and a mysterious council appears. When our protagonist refuses to murder the former dictator, the Major plans to have him killed. This results in a struggle between our protagonist and him where he pulls of the Major's mask, revealing that he is an alien cochroach! The aliens started the revolution and are plotting to take over the entire world. Back in the prison, our protagonist thinks one of the guard is an alien as well and attacks him, falling to his death.

The issue concludes with "Thrillkill" by Neal Adams (art, his final Warren appearance) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A truly great story, and arguably the most famous Warren story of all time, being ranked #1 overall as best Warren story in the Warren Companion. A young man with a sniper rifle shoots random people from the top of a building and is eventually killed by the police. While the artwork shows these events taking place a priest who knew the young man as a boy talks to a reporter, trying to explain why this happened.

Creepy 15

This issue of Creepy features a classic cover of neanderthals by Frank Frazetta. It would eventually be used as the first reprinted cover Warren ever used, on issue 83.

First is "City of Doom!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features the Barbarian Thane in his first appearance, a character that would appear in random stories by Archie Goodwin throughout the years. Thane goes to a city where monsters run amock, including a sorceress who controls a tentacled monster. Thane defeats the sorceress when her own monster ends up turning on her.

Second is "Adam Link, Champion Athlete!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam becomes an athlete on advice in order to improve his public image. He succeeds tremendously in all sports he tries, but that doens't stop a newspaper columnist from criticizing him. This was Adam Link's final appearance, ending his storyline without an ending.

Next is "The Adventure of the German Student" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of a Washington Irving story. A german student staying in Paris meets a beautiful woman by the guillotine and sleeps with her. The next day he wakes up to find her dead! When he summons the authorities, they reveal that she was executed the previous day and her head falls off! The student goes crazy and ends up in an asylum, where he dies.

Next is "The River" with story & art by Johnny Craig. A pair of thieves try to escape using the river, but one has second thoughts and is killed by his colleague. Although he is shot at, he is able to escape and is helped by an old man on a boat. However, it ends up the old man is bringing him to the lake of the dead.

Next is the one page "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Gil Kane.

Last is "The Terror Beyond Time!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). At 16 pages, this is the longest story of the original Goodwin era. Searching for a professor, a man heads deep into a cavern where he had dissappeared. Inside he finds a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. In addition various other people throughout time have been summoned here including a beatiful woman from England. The professor is found, but it ends up that he's working for an evil being who is responsible for summoning everyone there as well as controlling people's thoughts. Our hero refuses to work under his control and instead kills the professor and the evil being. Afterwards he awakens in the modern age, with the woman there with him. A fairly good story although as discussed by Neal Adams in the Warren companion, the evil being ends up looking like an ice cream sundae rather than something supremely evil.

Creepy 16

One of Creepy's last good issues before collapsing into a rut for much of the late 1960s, this issue has a Frank Frazetta cover which is miscredited inside to Gray Morrow. The frontis for this issue is Creepy's Loathsome Lore by Gil Kane.

First story is "A Curse of Claws!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a man in the jungle who encounters a woman who says she is Lillith, Goddess of Cats. The man fights her and kills her, but turns into a panther like creature and ends up scratching himself to death.

Next is "Frozen Fear!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A team of explorers find a frozen warrior. One of the explorers is after the wife of another. It ends up that he is the descendent of someone known to the frozen warrior, who comes alive and kills him.

Third is "Angel of Doom!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Goodwin (story). This story is Jeff Jones's first Warren work. This is another story featuring Thane the Barbarian, who I have previously discussed in my coverage of issue 27. In this story Thane is part of a tribe that continously makes sacrifices to a monster. When his lover is killed, Thane heads out, ignoring the tribe's warnings and battles the monster, a giant insect creature. He defeats the creature, but the tribe decides to continue making sacrifices anyway, so Thane leaves. The tribe is soon plagued by the monster's children and are all killed after Thane leaves.

Fourth is "The Frankenstein Tradition!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Goodwin (story). A doctor blackmails a top student of his to join him in his quest to bring Frankenstein's work to real life when he catches him cheating. The doctor has the student kill numerous people so he can use the fresh corpses to work on bringing his dead wife to death. He eventually succeeds, but the student rebels and the house is burned down. At the end it is revealed that the student ends up being known as Jack the Ripper due to all of the murders he committed.

Fifth is "There Was An Old Lady" by Sal Trapani (art) and the team of Daniel Bubacz & Archie Goodwin (story). A poor story with poor art in what was Trapani's Warren debut. A man decides to rob from an old woman who is rumored to be a witch. He tricks her into letting him in her house then attacks her, demanding her money. But she gets him to drink some poisoned wine which enables her to turn the tables on him, revealing herself to truly be a witch.

Sixth is "Haunted Castle!" by Donald Norman (art) and Goodwin (story). This story surrounds a leader of a castle who is haunted by various ghosts, led by the woman who used to run it. Eventually he is chased out of the castle and hit... by a car! It ends up that he was in modern times, and was running around as a corpse, not knowing that he was dead.

The issue concludes with "The Sands That Change!" by Steve Ditko (art) and the team of Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story). A dissappointing finish to this issue, it is about a comic book artist in the desert with his wife who draws a monster on a piece of paper, which comes to life! Whatever he draws on the paper comes to life. He climbs a rock that was drawn on the paper for safety, then burns the paper, hoping to burn the monster. But that ends up burning him too since he's on the rock. Even Ditko's artwork isn't as good as usual here.

Even though this issue is from Creepy's original golden age, it is for the most part a rather poor issue, with a number of mediocre stories and the art not as good as usual.

Creepy 14

This issue of Creepy features a cover by Gray Morrow of a barbarian fighting a skeleton warrior. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by John Severin.

First up is the cover story, "Where Sorcery Lives" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A warrior, Garth comes after the sorceror Salamand who was responsible for the destruction of his town and capture of his lover. The warrior battles various beasts sent after him by the sorceror and finally comes upon him. The sorceror reveals that he is going to use Garth's body such that the lover will love him, but ends up getting stabbed by her because he let his guard down.

Second is "Art of Horror" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Goodwin (story). The story features a writer who plans to play a trick on his two friends in a haunted mansion by masquerading as a ghost. Only after frightening them he realized that he died when falling down the stairs, and truly is a ghost!

Third is "Snakes Alive!" by Hector Castellon (art) and Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story). The story is about musicians who come across an old musician who sends snakes after them. Eventually they end up turning into snakes themselves. Castellon's art is quite a dissappointment compared to the other artists in this magazine.

Fourth is "The Beckoning Beyond!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Goodwin (story). A man goes to see his friend, who has created a machine that opens up a portal to another dimension. The two head there, where they find bizarre creatures coming after them. They return to the normal world and the man destroys the machine, but his friend dies, as it ends up that he had already died the first time he used the portal and was only kept alive by heading to the other dimension.

Fifth is "Piece By Piece" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A scientist creates a Frankenstein-like monster from five different people and takes the brain from his assistant. The monster takes revenge upon the townfolk who were mean to him when he was still alive, only for the corpses of the five people whom his body is made up of to climb out of their graves and take back all their body parts.

Sixth is "Castle Carrion!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Goodwin (story). This story features a knight who comes across a strange castle where a wizard brings multiple dead soldiers to life to fight. The knight tries to escape the castle with the wizard's daughter, but are pursued by the wizard, who turns into a vulture. The wizard is killed by the knight, but this ends up killing the daughter, who was originally dead but brought back to life.

Last is "Curse of the Vampire!" by Neal Adams (art, his Warren debut) and Goodwin (story). The story features a family curse where every member of the vampire is supposedly supposed to turn into a vampire after death. A doctor who has fallen in love with a young woman who is part of the family refuses to let the family servent drive a stake through her since he believes she is just in a coma. It ends up that the servent is the true vampire, and has been able to blame everything on the family due to the curse. The doctor kills him and the girl awakens. However it ends up that the doctor is a vampire, and now knowing that she's human, he makes her his next victim!

Eerie 9

A very good early issue of Eerie, featuring a cover by Dan Adkins. This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery - The Cyclopses" by Roy Krenkel. Across the board this is a very good issue, with the first and last stories being the best.

First is "Fair Exchange" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). An old man whose soon to die plots to steal a young man's body when he discovers of a ridiculed doctor who has experimented on switching bodies. The switch is performed successfully and the old man now in his new body kills the doctor so he doesn't have to pay him. Only he soon discovers that the man whose body he stole is a vampire when he is destroyed by the sun's rays.

Second is "Rub the Lamp!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Allan Jadro (story). A man purchases a magic lamp at an auction and wishes for riches, only to get it when his wife dies and he gets insurance money. He then wishes to live forever which happens when he becomes a vampire! He wishes to be reunited with his wife, and soon is when he trips on a wooden stake, killing himself.

Third is "Terror in the Tomb" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Goodwin (story). A pair of archeologists encounter a mummy guarding a pharoah's tomb which ends up coming alive. They destroy it, only to later find out that it was guarding them from the evil pharoah, whose still alive and kills them.

Fourth is "The Wanderer" by Dan Adkins (art) and Goodwin (story). A man appears in a hospital due to a heart attack and is saved by the doctors. The man tells of how he was in a car wreck and found himself wandering a strange realm where demons were after him. He demands to be let go but the doctor refuses, and the demons come for him, leaving only a skeleton behind.

Fifth is "Isle of the Beast!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Goodwin (story). Influenced by the well known story 'The Most Dangerous Game', this features a man shipwrecked on a deserted island with a madman who hunts human beings. The twist is that the man turns himself into a beast in order to heighten the intensity. Only this time the hunted ends up being a werewolf, who attacks his captor during the full moon.

Sixth is "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge!" by Bob Jenney (art) and Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of a story by Ambrose Bierce. A man is sentenced to be hanged, and it is done on a bridge. However, during the hanging the rope breaks and he falls into the river below. He swims away and returns home, to be reunited with his wife. Only it ends up that it all was a dream and he was hung after all. An adaption of this story was also used in the final season of the Twilight Zone, resulting in ripoff claims being made in later letter pages.

The issue wraps up with "Experiment in Fear!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Goodwin (story). A nazi concentration camp doctor experiments on jews by locking them in a gas chamber, studying their fear as he experiments with harmless gas that they only think is poisonous, killing them for real once he has sufficient data on the jew's fears. During one of his experiments however the captor escapes and imprisons him in the chamber where he is subjected to the same experiment. The leaders of the camp eventually rescue him but find that the data on his fears are exactly that of the jews. Rather than find the experiments worthless, they instead are convinced that he's a jew, and throws him in the concentration camp, where the captive jews are quite eager to get their hands on him...

Eerie 53

A very good all series issue of Eerie. The cover features the Mummy, by Sanjulian. The frontis for this issue is a two page feature, "Wart Monster of Tennessee" by Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler (art) and Doug Moench (story).

Up first is this issue's segment of The Mummy Walks, "Enter Mr. Hyde" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Jerome Curry, in the body of the mummy continues to pursue the woman who holds the amulet that can return him to his human form. During this story he encounters Mr. Hyde, a beast like man who has transformed from a normal human. The mummy defeats him and continues on his way.

Next is "To Save a Witch's Soul", part of the Curse of the Werewolf series, with art by Martin Salvador (art) and Al Milgrom (story). With his memories restored, Arthur Lemming realizes that he was at fault for his wife going astray and decides to save her from being burned at the stake. Although he's initially locked up, he breaks out and rescues her from execution, and the executioner, the supernatural expert from 2 segments earlier. He brings her to the woods, only to turn into the werewolf once more and kill her! This, Milgrom's last contribution to the series would have been a good ending, but alas the series would continue in a new direction for a while after this.

The second part of "Hunter" is third, by Paul Neary (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story tells the origin of Hunter. In the year 2001 (ha! years back for us now, but over 25 years in the future at the time this issue was published) nuclear war resulted in mutating much of humanity into demons. One such demon, General Ophal raped a human woman, producing the offspring Demien, aka our hero Hunter. After her death from Pox he joins a group of human soldiers and is trained on fighting demons.

A new series starts up next, Schreck. The first segment is titled "First Night of Terror!" by Vicente Alcazar & Neal Adams (art) and Doug Moench (story). Schreck is influenced heavily on the Omega Man (recently redone as I Am Legend). In the future, nuclear testing by the Chinese on the moon has caused a chain reaction that causes most humans on Earth to become white-eyes zombies. This story surrounds the title character, Derek Schreck, who flashes back to how everything came to be while fighting off the zombies. By the end of the story his wife Paula has cut off his hand with a cleaver and become a zombie along with his friend Lee. A pretty good start, although this was the only story in the series that Adams contributed to.

Last is "Spawn of the Dead Thing". This story carries the series title "Fathom Haunt" although this ends up being a stand alone story. A rather surreal and incomprehensible story about the title character, who fights the 'Dread Thing' and its Spawn. Terrific art by Sutton in one of his last Eerie appearances.

Eerie 10

This issue of Eerie features the grim reaper, done by Gray Morrow. The background is completely white though, making it look a little odd.

First story is "Warrior of Death", by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A warrior, Zahran finds himself dying after a long battle and is encountered by Death. Zahran deals with Death to become invulnerable so he can kill many more on the battlefield. As he gets more and more powerful, Zahran becomes drunk with power. He encounters a young boy, Valric on the battlefield but ends up being killed by him, as it ends up that Valric made the same deal with Death that Zahran had. Good story that Ditko's art fits perfectly.

Next is "The Slugs!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Bill Pearson (story). The story, taking place in a swamp is about monsters and their victims, which turn into creatures as well.

Third is "It!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Astronauts in space find a hibernating dinosaur like creature which they bring aboard and wakes up. They eventually defeat it, but it leaves babies aboard the ship.

Fourth is "Voodoo Drum!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story, which is done in pencils only, is about a plantation owner who finds workers difficult to obtain, so a native brings him zombies in exchange for payment. The man kills him, seeking to use the zombies for free, but they come after him and turn his skin into a drum.

Fifth is "House of Fiends" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A new doctor visits a young woman who is chained up by her aunt and uncle, accused as being crazy. She tells the doctor that they are a werewolf and vampire, and that their servant is a ghoul, and he has been brought here for them to kill. The doctor witnesses all three becoming the creatures she stated they were and manages to kill them all. Only it ends up that she is a witch and had tricked him into thinking they were these horrific creatures. Grandenetti's art style was quite different than most of the artists that worked for Warren but I've always enjoyed his work a lot.

Last is "For the Birds!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). An out of work actor finds an old man always in the park feeding the birds. He befriends the old man, with the intention of taking his money at some later point. Eventually he kills him, puts on makeup so he'll look like him, and heads out with the man's money in a paper bag where he usually stores the bird feed, but the birds end up eating him!

Eerie 22

Another Eerie issue from Warren's dark ages. The cover, by Vic Prezio, is for the story H20 World. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur" from Eerie 11 by Neal Adams.

First up is H20 World, originally published in the first issue of Creepy. The art is by Al Williamson & Roy Krenkel and the story is by Larry Ivie. It is about a pair of divers who come across an underground civilization. There they meet the mutated people who live there, who force them to forget that they ever encountered them. Very beautiful artwork here, particularly Krenkel's backgrounds.

Our first new story this issue is "Family Curse" by Tony Williamsune (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story, his first). A newlywed couple visits the castle owned by the bride's ancestors, who were rumored to be monsters. While there, she encounters an old woman as well as a book detailing the horrific family history. The bride decides to kill herself to prevent herself from being a burden on her husband and the world, only the husband finds out that she actually wasn't part of the family after all, but rather related to the old woman they met.

"The Devil To Pay", originally from Creepy 11 is next, with art by Donald Norman and story by Archie Goodwin. A duke summons a demon, seeking more power for himself. The demon refuses, instead telling him that he'll die within a year and his soul will belong to hell. He can prevent that if he finds someone wiling to give up their soul, but if he fails, he'll die within a day. The duke finds a man and hypnotizes him into doing his deed, only for the man to end up being Satan himself!

"Permanent Members" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) is fourth, featuring an initiation into a kid's gang that takes place in a cemetary. One of the boys becomes a vampire, but it ends up all the other boys are werewolves and they kill him.

Fifth is "Scooped" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). A reporter discovers two men that are actually cochroach-like aliens. He and his supervisor confront them, who say they're actually peaceful, and want to help mankind. This results in the reporter and his supervisor killing them, for they are also aliens, of a different race, who want to take over Earth.

Last is "The Spirit of the Thing!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), probably their best collaberation aside from the well known "Collectors Edition" story. This story was originally printed in Creepy 9. It features a professor who hypnotizes a student of his, resulting in his spirit leaving his body. The professor then steals the student's body, as his is about to die. The student's spirit, now bodiless, steals the professor's corpse from the graveyard and uses it to brutally beat to death his own body (with the professor's spirit) until the professor is forced to leave.

A very good issue, mostly on the strength of the reprinted stories, although the new stuff is fairly good too.

Eerie 11

Here's an early issue of Eerie, which came out shortly before the collapse of the Warren line in 1967. The cover is done by Joe Orlando, his only cover for Warren. The frontis is by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), entitled "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur". With a whopping 8 stories, we've got quite a lot of stuff here.

Up first is the cover story, "Witch Hunt!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (script). A group of men head through a swamp, fighting a witch as well as the monsters she creates. Eventually the witch is defeated by one of the men, who reveals that he is a warlock and will now take over her territory.

Up next is "To Slay a Dragon!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A knight and his squire search for a dragon, with the Knight believing that bathing in Dragon blood will make him invinsible. They defeat the dragon, but the squire then kills the Knight and bathes in the blood himself. The blood does make him invinsible, but also transforms him into a dragon.

Third is "The Mummy" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art, Adkins is uncredited) and Russ Jones (story, miscredited to Wood). This is a reprint of a story that originally appeared in Famous Monsters, regarding the Mummy from the Hollywood movie of the same name.

Next is "Berenice!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story, featuring a man who obsesses over his cousin who passes away, eventually digging her up and pulling out her teeth. This story would later be adapted again by Warren in Creepy #70.

Our fifth story is "The Blood Fruit" by Johnny Craig (art & story). A group of four students and a professor arrive on an island where the professor discovers 'The Blood Fruit', which when eaten causes whatever he wants to occur. He uses this to kill two of the students and summon a lizard like monster. But when one of his colleagues eats the fruit and wishes him dead, he finds the tables turned.

Sixth is "The Monster From One Billion B.C. by Tom Sutton (art & story). A movie monster maker who actually creates real monsters to use in the movies is confronted by the studio owner who knows his secret. Our hero responds by turning him into a monster.

Seventh is "Big Change!" by Larry Woromay (art) and Ron Whyte (story) about a pair of con artists who con an old man into marrying one of them and kill him by taking away his medication. Only it ends up that the medication wasn't keeping him from dying, but keeping him from turning into a werewolf, and he kills them. This is Woromay's only Warren appearance and it isn't too good.

Last is "First Blood" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) about a man who awakens as a vampire and plans to attack his girlfriend, only it ends up that she was a vampire all along and the one who bit him in the first place.

Overall a fairly good issue!

Vampirella 10

After two days away, I'm back with a new issue of Vampirella.

This early issue of Vampirella is a rarity in that there is no Vampirella story. While she hosts the majority of the stories in the issue, her usual own story is strangely absent.

Behind the Bill Hughes cover is the frontis, "Vampi's Feary Tales" The Face of Medusa", by Billy Graham.

First up is "Fiends in the Night!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story was clearly meant for Creepy, as it is hosted by Uncle Creepy instead of Vampirella. The story is about a crook who steals a small chest from an old man, who curses him. Finding only a book in the chest, he tosses it aside. Fleeing from the city in the midst of winter, he is confronted by ghouls, werewolves and a vampire. He goes back to get the book, thinking that it holds spells that he'll be able to use to defend himself, only to find it frozen shut as a bunch of rotting corpses start after him.

Up next is "The Marriage" by Ralph Reese (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Its about a man so obsessed with building a machine that his girlfriend leaves him. He punches the machine and is electrocuted to death, but is brought back to life by the machine which keeps him alive solely to do chores for it. Reese's art kind of looks like Richard Corben's in this story.

"Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog" is third, with art by Frank Brunner and story by Gerald Conway. It's about a woman whose annoyed by her husband so she looks into the black arts. She soon finds things too much for her to handle, and it ends up that her husband was into the stuff the whole time too.

"The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell!", with art by Steve Englehart & Neal Adams and written by Denny O'Neil is next, about a succubus who falls in love with a boxer being pressured by the mob. The boxer is killed, but she uses her power to bring him back to life, with the price being her life.

"War of the Wizards" is the fifth story, and is both written and drawn by Wally Wood. It's about a pair of rival wizards who use a soldier in their fight between each other. The soldier is able to defeat both wizards, and is revealed to be a wizard himself. As usual, Wood's art is quite good, and the story, while not having a horror theme, is pretty good too.

"A Thing of Beauty" is this issue's cover story, with art by Billy Graham and written by Len Wein. Its about a very beautiful actress who fakes a relationship with a very ugly special effects producer to get publicity. Upon finding out how she really feels about him, he switches her with a dummy of hers that gets set on fire, killing her.

Last up is "Regeneration Gap", once again with art by Tom Sutton and written by Chuck McNaughton. With over-population, food shortages and pollution destroying the Earth, a spaceship departs to space. Returning to Earth 100 years later, a man returns as all that's let of humanity and finds Earth a wasteland except for a single beautiful woman who keeps talking about 'purifying him'. The woman ends up being a blob-like creature and turns him into one too. I'll probably lean towards this one as my favorite story from the issue.

A so-so issue. Sutton and Wood's stories are quite good, while the others are average at best.