Vampirella 4

Today I'm covering issue 4 of Vampirella, published in April 1970 (the same month as yesterday's Creepy 32). The cover is a collaberative effort from Vaughn Bode and Jeff Jones. Tom Sutton provides the story and art for the frontispiece "Vampi's Feary Tales: Burned at the Stake!". As with many early issues of Vampirella, this issue doesn't feature a Vampirella
story, although she hosts each of the individual stories within.

First is "Forgotten Kingdom" by Ernie Colon (art, credited as David St. Clair) 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.

Second is "Closer than Sisters" by Mike Royer (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A young girl, Olivegard, is staying with her aunt and uncle after her parents were killed in a car crash. The aunt and uncle hire a new governess, June, to take care of her, and wonder if she is Olivegard's long lost older sister. The two want to kill Olivegard so they can get her inheritance. The aunt tries to do so but is killed at the beach. The uncle plans to kill both Olivegard and June and digs a pair of graves at the beach for them. They get the better of him however and bury him up to his head in the sand, which results in him drowning. June reveals that she is not Olivegard's sister, but rather the future version of Olivegard, come back in the past to get revenge. As the story ends however it is revealed that these are actually the delusions of the present day Olivegard who has gone insane after murdering her aunt and uncle. The death of the uncle in this story is very reminiscent of a sequence from the movie Creepshow, making me wonder if this was inspiration for that part of the movie.

Third is "Moonshine!" by William Barry (art) and Don Glut (story). A salesman from the city has a flat tire in the Ozarks where he is told off by a pair of locals. The salesman is enamored with their attractive sister. While driving he comes across a black cat who hypnotizes him and he follows it, finding the sister. She convinces him to stay with her and become one of them, feeding him some moonshine. The moonshine transforms him into a monster, making him like her and her brothers who are a witch and warlocks.

Next is "For the Love of Frankenstein!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Bill Warren (story). Dr. Hedvig Krolleck, a descendent of Dr. Frankenstein continues his experiments with the help of her hunchbacked assistant, Eric. Eric is in love with her which is the only reason he continues to assist her. Eventually they succeed in their experiments, but a new brain is needed for the body. Eric has a change of heart and destroys it, so Hedvig kills him and uses his brain. In his new body, Eric kills her in revenge then blows up the entire laboratory.

Fifth is "Come into my Parlor!" by Dick Piscopo (art) and R. Michael Rosen (Story). A man is impressed by a daredevil at a circus, Miss Arachna. He convinces her to see him and wants to start a relationship, but she tries to avoid it. Eventually she submits to him and reveals that she has spider hands from an experiment on spiders she performed in the past and used herself as a test subject for. He wants to marry her and she tries to say no but gives in. When they move into their new home she reveals that she has taken on the mating habits of spiders as well and devours him.

The issue concludes with "Run for your Wife!" by Jack Sparling (art), Richard Carnell and Jack Erman (story). A mysterious Count Tsarov invites seven couples who his castle in Slovania. There, Tsavarov is revealed to be a woman in disguise and has the husbands killed by vicious dogs, snakes, aligators, ants and other creatures. One of the wives is revealed to be a man who is part of 'Investigators International' however and kills the count.

Eerie 121

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 31

An extremely bizarre cover for this issue by Vaughn Bode and Larry Todd, their first for Warren. It features a chicken like creature standing over a torn apart robot man. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story).

First is "In the Face of Death!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Al Hewetson (story). A very short story at four pages featuring a man without a face who goes after a man named Arthur Merlin who stole his face. Only when he reaches Merlin he finds that he has lost track of time and become very old.

Next is "Telephoto Troll!" by Roger Brand (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story is about an astronomer who takes pictures of things on a far away planet only for them to appear when the photos are developed. This results in a monster from the planet appearing. He destroys the photo, saving himself, only for his wife to develop multiple copies, resulting in multiple monsters appearing!

Third is "A Night's Lodging!" by Maurice Whitman (art) and Rhea Dunne (story), originally printed in Creepy 17. This story is about a man who is confronted by vampires after getting into an accident with his carriage. He tells them if they let him live he'll build them a hotel and bring many victims to him. He does so, but is eventually turned into a vampire himself. A very lame rehash of "The Invitation" from Creepy 8, which had Whitman as one of the writes.

Fourth is "Snowmen!" by Tom Sutton (story & art). A rich man gets extremely over the town's failure to catch a child killer. His lonely son meanwhile makes snowmen in the yard when he refuses to let him play with anyone. A vagabond is blamed for the attacks when the rich man's son says he did it, so the vagabond is hung. Only it ends up that the little boy was the killer all along, leaving the corpses in his snowmen. A very good story, which would win the Warren award for best story of the year.

Fifth is "A Wooden Stake for Your Heart!" by Bill Black (art) and Don Glut (story). A local castle dweller is blamed for the populace for recent vampire attacks. Although he looks like a vampire he really isn't one, and when the townfolk stake him to death, they open a nearby door which contains a number of monsters he had locked up, which are now unleashed on the town.

Sixth is "Death of a Stranger" by Ernie Colon (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). A rather bizarre nonscensical story as usual from Brennan, about a man who thinks he's going to die, and that's what happens.

Last is "Laughing Liquid" by William Barry (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). This story is about a man who keeps having visions of alien like creatures and develops a fear of liquid for that's where they come from.

Creepy 40

A terrific cover for this issue, by Larry Todd & Vaughn Bode. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Loch Ness Monster" by Clif Jackson (art) and Al Hewetson (story).

First up is the cover story, "The Fade-Away Walk" by Tom Sutton (art) and Don McGregor (story, his Warren debut). Taking place after a nuclear holocost, the story features two mutated men fighting around Mt. Rushmore. One of the men falls to his death after what else, but one of McGregor's typical pseudo-political ramblings between the two.

Second is "The Impersonation" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A secret agent who poses as other people tries to get out of the line of work since the real person always shows up. His boss convinces him to go on another mission because the guy he's impersonating is dead, so what happens? The guy comes back from the dead to reveal the truth yet again! They are both put into a trap they must escape from and the dead guy vanishes, trapping the agent in there for good.

"Swamp Demon" by Dave Cockrum (story & art) features a swamp monster that can appear as anything to someone who sees it. The natives sacrifice maidens to it, so one warrior heads into rescue his girl when it ends up being her. He thinks he kills the swamp demon and rescues her, but it ends up that the swamp demon survived and took her place.

"Disintegrator" is fourth, by Ken Barr (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). The story features a man who creates a disintegrator gun to gain back his life after his business partner swindled him. The business partner steals the gun from him, but it ends up that the disintegrator power was within him all along, not within the gun.

Next is "Lost and Found" by George Roussos (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A wizard loses his ability to walk through solid things, which is transferred to a man in the present. The man tries to steal from a bank vault with the power but the wizard gets it back just as he's going through the vault. The last panel is rather confusing, saying he dies because the vault passes through him, shouldn't it be the other way around?

Last is "Dual Dragon" by Gary Kaufman (story & art). Kaufman was a fairly good artist & writer who did about a half a dozen or so stories around this time for Warren. The story features a man who tries to defeat a dragon to impress a girl. A blind old man living in a cave gives him a necklace which enables him to find the dragon, but it results in him killing the girl instead! Afterwards, with the necklace on his neck he looks for her but can't find her, even though her decapitated head is right in front of him.

Eerie 27

A terrific cover for this issue, by Jeff Jones and Vaughn Bode. Unfortunately the contents itself aren't as good. The frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Golem!" by Tom Sutton.

"Journey Into Wonder" with art by Kenn Barr and story by Bill Parente is about a imp like man that asks the king to let him be a knight. The king sends him to defeat a sorceress, who ends up being an innocent woman. he defeats a monster, and then after some questioning upon returning to the castle, wins a fight and transforms into a normal man.

"Amazonia" by Miguel Fernandez (art) and Gardner Fox (story) is yet another in a long line of barbarian/warrior stories set in a medieval setting. Amazonia would get another story, which I've already covered, from an early Vampirella.

"The Machine God's Slave" is this issue's best story, by Ernie Colon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). An astronaut finds a planet with an ancient civilization which he angers by killing a priest. They chain him to a machine which drags him along throughout the planet, and eventually to his death when it goes into a body of water.

"Swallowed in Space" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) features a spaceship of people who keep vanishing until only one man is left, who finds the secret of the universe.

"Enter Dr. Laenru!" by Disck Piscopo (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story) features a man who is able to deflect magic. A princess's younger sister turns her into a werewolf, and after he finds her out, he gets her turned into a pig, who is prompstly eaten by some hungry people! Funny ending to a not that great story.

"All Sewed Up!" by Mike Royer (art) and Buddy Saunders (story) is about a taxidermist who turns into a werewolf. His assistant desires his fiance and steals from him, and eventually kills him while he's in his wolf form. He sews him up for display in his store, only for him to turn back human, revealing the truth to everyone.

Last is "Face It!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) about a hooded man who joins a circus with a robot woman. He hides his face, but a curious girl in the circus keep trying to see it and its eventually revealed that he has a shrunken face and his wife has a shrunked body, hidden inside the robot.

Eerie 26

I figured for my first issue of Eerie to cover on this blog, I'd do the first issue of the magazine I ever read, Eerie #26. This issue, cover dated March 1970, came out just as Warren was getting back into the groove of things, and is actually the first issue of Eerie to feature all new stories since Warren's first golden age came to an end in 1967.

The cover of the issue, featuring a rather ugly looking alien is by Vaughn Bode (again!) and Basil Gogos, who was a common cover artist for Warren's Famous Monsters magazine. The cover is based on the first story in the issue, "I Wouldn't Want to Live There!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Bill Parente (story), who was also the editor at this time. The story features a trio of very ugly looking aliens who arrive on a strange planet only to get killed off due to the harsh weather there. In a plot twist that would be used many times throughout Warren's history in their sci-fi stories, the planet ends up being Earth. Ancient man sees the alien's ship, which looks like a wheel, and that is how that useful device first got introduced to our civilization.

Before I move on to the rest of the stories I want to step back a second to mention the frontis (the feature included in the front inside cover of Warren's mags) for this issue, "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Body Snatchers" which was drawn and written by Tom Sutton. A frontis generally appeared in each of Warren's mags until around 1977 or so. Their content varied from extremely short one page stories, to horror themed true stories (which included this issue's feature) and portraits of Warren's three horror hosts.

The second story of the issue is "Southern Exposure Part II", from Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) which is the continuation of a vampire story started in the previous issue. It's rather hard to cover without the first part of the story here, so I'll take a stab at the overall thing once I cover Eerie #25.

Next is "In the Neck of Time" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Al Hewetson (story). Tony Williamsune was actually the alias for a two artist team, Tony Tallarico and Bill Fraccio. Heweston would later become editor at Warren's biggest rival during the early 1970's, Skywald. The story's about a scientist who goes back in time and quickly becomes rich by stealing with his advanced technology. He eventually gets caught and hung. Nothing all that great here.

The story's best issue is "Spiders Are Revolting" which is drawn and written by Tom Sutton. The story features a couple buying a house at auction only to find it completely infested with spiders. They try to get away from the spiders, who are trying to take over the world by possessing human bodies, but have little luck. The story ends with the protagonist in a mental institution where the spiders are finally able to get to him by infesting the doctors tending to him.

"The Scarecrow" by Frank Bolle (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) is about a crazy girl who returns from a sanitarium years after her step mother's death and meets a boy at a carnival after being brought there by her father. When the boy is killed, the father, thinking the scarecrow is the killer, destroys it. But it ends up that ghost infested crows where the true killer after all, and with the scarecrow no longer around to scare them off...

"Tuned In" by Dick Piscopo (art) and Ken Dixon (story) is up next. The story features an actor playing a serial killer in a movie who goes crazy and starts killing people every time he hears a certain song from the movie. Rather poor story and even more poor artwork.

The issue wraps up with "Cyked-Out" by Jack Sparling (art) and Ken Dixon (story), which features a motorcycle gang of vampires going against a motorcycle gang of werewolves. A rather poor story to wrap up the issue in my opinion.

Not that great of an issue, but then few from this era of Warren's history were. At least there were no reprinted stories!