Creepy 62

Today I'll be covering issue 62 of Creepy, featuring a cover by Ken Kelly. This issue is dated May 1974. This is one of Creepy's best issues, certainly a pleasure to read. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art). This was Berni Wrightson's first appearance in a Warren magazine. A tremendous horror artist whose style was perfect for the black and white format of Warren, Wrightson was one of those artists who usually made an issue worth having even if the rest of the issue was poor. A very talented writer too, in fact his best stories are probably those he wrote as well. This story is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man and his wife own a beloved black cat. Eventually the husband grows tired of the cat, then upset at it. After the cat bites him, he cuts out one of its eyes and soon after hangs it. That very night his house burns down. Wandering into a bar, he finds another black cat that has one eye that starts following him. He brings it home and the wife quickly becomes fond of it. The husband loses control and tries to kill the cat. When his wife gets in the way he kills her by slamming an axe into her head. He hides her beneath a brick wall and is confident that the police won't find it when they stop by. The cat however, which was also walled behind the brick wall ends up attracting them to her corpse due to its screams.

Second is "Buffaloed" by John Severin (art) and Larry Herndon (story). Another western themed story perfectly fitting Severin's style. A buffalo Hunter, Hawkins, is nearly killed by a buffalo stampede. When he comes to he is being taken care of a native american woman, Little Fawn. Little Fawn's father is One Eye, who wants to kill him but is convinced by his daughter to speak to the buffalo spirits to see what he should do. Hawkins eventually recovers and spotting a group of white buffalo nearby starts firing on them, even though Little Fawn tries to stop him. One such buffalo however, one with only one eye, doesn't go down and stampedes him to death.

Third is "Firetrap" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is Vicente Alcazar's Creepy debut (he had appeared for a few issues in Eerie before this). A landlord visits his inner city property to collect rent because his superintendent quit. He refuses to do anything about the terrible condition of the place and is attacked by a woman who blames the death of her baby on him. As he's about to leave he is pushed down into the basement where the tenants lock him into a coffin, dump rats on him, and eventually light him on fire.

Fourth is "Judas", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A group of aliens head throughout the galaxy, destroying worlds. Their next target is Earth. Earth sends a spaceship to stop the invasion that is piloted by St. John, a man who desires fame and fortune above all else, who even killed the original pilot of the ship to be in the position he is in. When his ship approaches the alien fleet, he is contacted by the alien commander who says he'll make him immortal if he permits them to attack Earth. St. John agrees to the deal. He is brought onto the alien ship, where his body is changed to an alien version that lives forever. He convinces the aliens to bring him to their leader so he can thank him; when he arrives there however he beats the leader to death and tells the aliens that he is their new leader and they are going to return to their home. The alien fleet departs, calling off their invasion of Earth.

Fifth is "Survivor or Savior!" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In the future the Earth is a wasteland due to pollution and war that has occurred. A man is sent back in time by a scientist to find a Chester P. Hazel, who he thinks can help prevent the war by doing something about the pollution. Our protagonist heads back in time, meets Chester, who oddly enough ends up being a woman, and saves her from an attempt on her life. Because the time machine can not return him to his present, he ends up dying of radiation poisoning, not knowing if what he did actually saved the future or not.

Sixth is "The Maze" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story). My favorite story of the issue, and one of Warren's odder tales. A man, John, is sick of his worthless life with his low paying job and nagging wife. He decides to start a new life, stealing money from where he works and heading down to the subway to run off. He is attacked by a group of maniacs and wakes up later deep in the subway tunnels, still possessing the money, but having no idea how to get out. He tries to escape from the subway numerous times but the maniacs prevent him from doing so. Eventually he finds their 'king', a grotesquely fat quadruple amputee who is fed the body parts of living people that his maniac 'subjects' bring to him. John continues to fail to escape and decides that by attacking the maniacs he'll be able to escape. He attacks their 'king', chopping his head off with a blade, and is declared by the maniacs their new king. He demands they let him out, but they refuse, and attack him. On the final page we see his fate, he has permanently become their new 'king', and like the previous one has had all his limbs chopped off and gleefully watches his 'subjects' brutally murder people to feed to him.

Last is "The Demon Within" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A woman believes that she is cursed, that a demon lives with in her bringing death to everyone around her. We flash back to her past, where her parents were murdered and her sister was killed in a car accident. Eventually she gets married and has a son, but he too ends up dying. She flips out and stands outside a window on a tall building, about to jump. Her husband arrives to try and stop her, but when he's about to help her off he falls of the ledge to his death. She too jumps off seconds later to her death as well.

Vampirella 38

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated November 1974.

First is "The Mummy's Revenge" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the Vampirella story in issue 36. Vampirella and Pendragon are in Egypt and visit the mummy of Ptolemy, who was killed by Vampi in ancient times in the previous story. Vampi meets Professor Bruno who brings her on a tour of an underground labyrinth. He abandons her there and the mummy of Ptolemy along with other ghouls pursue her. The spirit of Amun-Ra arrives and tells her that Ptolemy's mummy is alive due to Bruno. Vampirella goes and kills him, resulting in the destruction of the mummy.

Second is "Gypsy Curse" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A gypsy woman is attacked by her husband when he comes back from the war. The story flashes back to before they were married, when he had to kill her father because the gypsies didn't approve. As he dies, her father tells him that should he ever harm his daughter, he will be destroyed by demons. While the husband is away from the war an ugly servant threatens to tell her husband she's having an affair (which is untrue). Her husband then attacks her when he returns home because of this, but the gypsy curse comes true and he is torn to shreds by unseen demons.

Third is "Lucky Stiff" by Ramon Torrents (art) and once again Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A very cautious man ignores a beautiful young woman who starts at the place where he works. At the end of the day she invites him to come to her home at the other side of town. The story shows what would happen if he went. He arrives there, only to be attacked by cats. She tells him he doesn't deserve to live and that he is going to be fed to them. The narrative then reveals that he actually didn't go there, as he was hit by a car along the way. This story is a rewrite from a story Carl Wessler did for EC comics in the Haunt of Fear 26, published in 1954.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story). A rather complicated tale influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. During a play a man, Dennis, reads some strange language on a prop coffin. He and a friend, Vaughn go to visit Vaughn's uncle, an archaeologist and find that it tells of elder Gods resting for eternity. Dennis remembers his youth where he was taught of these mysterious things by his uncle Abner. The uncle later shows up, telling him he was raised to bring the elder gods back to life. Vaughn kills Dennis after finding that he killed his uncle. He later kills his girlfriend too after finding that she is pregnant with Dennis's child, Abner's last hope at reviving the elder Gods.

Fifth is "On Little Cat Feet!" by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story). A much lighter toned story than the other stories in this issue, a very good one though, the best story of the issue. A witch, Kitty, lives in a rooming house with her artist friend Eulalia. Kitty is kicked out of the place by the landlady and plots revenge by turning into a cat and poisoning her claws. She kills the landlady's cat, taking its place, then kills the landlady as well soon after. Eulalia meanwhile recruits an actor as a model for her latest work, a statue of Nero. Kitty, still in her cat form, wanders by and Eulalia has the actor hold her in his arms. Eulalia reveals herself to be Medusa, and when she reveals herself ends up turning both the actor and Kitty into a statue.

Last is "Trick of the Tide" by Isidro Mones (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A man, Gabriel, finds the corpse of a man in the water and steals the money on him. When his wife arrives to claim the body he refuses to admit it was there. When she confronts him later, he clubs her head in and dumps her in the river. When a reward is offered for her, he goes to fish her out, only for her to kill him.

Vampirella 40

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring Vampi and a dark, caped figure. This issue is cover dated March 1975. Ken Kelly provides another cover on the back of the issue, and Jose Gonzalez provides his usual one page Vampirella intro in the front inside cover. This issue was one of the first issues of Vampirella I ever read, so still remains somewhat memorable to me for that reason.

First is Vampirella in "The Nameless Ravisher!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the previous one, where a man who hunted human heads wanted to take Vampirella's head. He was killed at the end of the story, being decapitated. In this story we meet his two sisters, a pair of crazy old women who want revenge on Vampirella. They summon a demon, the Nameless Ravisher, which takes the shape of various entities, mostly those based in nature. The Nameless Ravisher attacks Vampi, first by flooding the room she is in, then taking the shape of a tree that attacks her. Eventually Vampirella defeats it, and the two old women are done in by the corpse of their brother. An odd Vampirella story, but Sanchez's art is a nice, rare alternative to the usual artwork on this series (not to say the usual artwork is bad, Gonzalez and Mayo were usually great. Just enjoyed someone else drawing Vampi for a change).

Second is the second part of the three part Dracula series, "The Winged Shaft of Fate" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Color is provided by Michelle Brand. This story continues from the previous one, with Dracula now having a female vampire companion. Similar to the previous story however, this story primarily focuses on another couple that becomes involved when the carnival stops by. A man steals a large sum of money and plans to meet his lover, but the lover ends up getting bitten by Dracula. The man ends up leaving with another woman instead when his lover doesn't show up, only she does, as a vampire, killing them both.

Third is "The Face of Death!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Carl Wessler (story). A man is angry at a former lover who has moved on and married someone else. He seeks to get back at her by attacking her during a halloween party. When he realizes that the party is only for people who bring children, he finds a boy alone on the street, Mort, and they go in togehter. Mort keeps trying to hang out with the man, who finally finds his former lover upstairs. When he is about to attack her however, he trips on her kid's blocks and falls out the window. Mort comes to see him, and reveals that he is death.

Fourth is "The Man Who Never Was" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Fernandez turns out a very interesting sci-fi themed story here, but his art is absolutely horrible compared to his normal work. Quite a dissappointment from someone who is usually so good. Not that its horrible compared to some other artists seen over the years in Warren publications, but for him, a big dissappointment. Anyway, on to the story, which is quite good. A man awakes after some sort of coma or unconscious state to find himself in a society that doesn't recognize him. His cash is worthless and those he talks to refer to society rules that he has no familiarity with. Further investigation by the police and doctors realize that the man has no record of existing. At least that's what they tell him. In actuality, they realize that the man existed in society nearly 200 years ago and must have been in some state of suspended animation. Rather than accept him into their society, fearing he may cause others to believe in the freedoms that no longer exist, they inject him with a substance that causes him to go unconscious for another 50 years, so those in the future can deal with him instead.

Fifth is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Another sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Last is "Home For the Holidays" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This is a Christmas themed story. It is told in two parts, very similar in fashion to the story "Bless Us Father" from Creepy 59. On the left side of each page we see a little girl and her nanny, who get ready for Christmas day and the return of her parents. On the right side of the page we see the parents boarding a plane to head home. The wife seems quite upset with the husband, who appears to have been recently released from prison. The husband realizes that a fellow passenger has a gun and tries to stop him. This results in a confrontation in the cockpit which results in the plane crashing... right into the home where the daughter and nanny are. Quite a bleak and depressing ending compared to many of the other Christmas themed stories that appeared in the Christmas issue of Creepy that came out the same time as this issue (issue 68).

Creepy 57

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated November 1973.

First is "The Destructive Image" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather disjointed, odd tale featuring lots of bizarre events occuring as a man and wife sit down watching TV. Repairmen appear to fix it, but this only results in even more bizarre events occuring. Some very nice art from Torrents here.

Second is "The Hope of the Future" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Doug Moench (story). Some very nice art by Brocal in this pencils only story. It features a man barricaded in a house, surrounded by evil children who are trying to get in. He eventually gives in and heads downstairs where the children, including his son, await him.

Third is "The Bloodlock Museum" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Two parents carry a bound man through their own museum, featuring various corpses of people that did them wrong in the past, brutally murdered. The bound man finds a similar fate awaiting him, as he was the military recruiter that convinced their dead son to join the military, resulting in him dying in Vietnam.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "The Low Spark of High Heeled Noise!" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A traveling salesman comes across a house during a storm. The couple inside reluctantly lets him sleep there. The man overhears the couple arguing, apparently they killed the man's former wife, but suspect each other due to them hearing footsteps of the other during the night. Eventually the man kills the woman and the salesman kills him in self defense. He soon dies however when he drinks something that the woman had poisoned. Only then is the one who started the footsteps revealed, the ghost of the man's dead wife.

Fifth is "The Red Badge of Terror" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in the civil war. A pair of soldiers pursue an enemy, eventually coming across an abandoned town. Only the town isn't abandoned after all, but contains a vampire, that attacks them. They then wait for more soldiers to come along who they can attack.

Last is "Sense of Violence" by Isidro Mones (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in a city filled with violence. The first three and a half pages or so come off like a Don McGregor story with lots of various unconnected scenes of violence. We get into an actual story around the fourth page. A nervous man wanders down an alley and when a man approaches him he stabs him in self defense and runs off. Only it ends up that the man who approaches him was actually just a cop asking for ID, and our protagonist is soon arrested.

Creepy 67

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated December 1974. This cover's quite the oddity, as the story it features, "Bowser", doesn't even appear in this issue due to a printing error. That story was planned to be printed here, but due to an error at the printer, the story "The Raven" appeared instead. "Bowser" would later appear in Vampirella 54 approximately two years later. Berni Wrightson provides the one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover.

First is "Excerpts from the Year Five" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where all the power in the world has vanished. The story focuses on a man, who meets a woman when receiving first aid. They help fellow people and find a young boy eating the remains of his mother. Eventually Satan worshippers kill the boy however, and the woman dies soon afterwards as well.

Second is "The Haunted Abbey" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Lewis (story). This story tells of a couple in Spain who comes across an abbey occupied by monks. Due to the weather they head inside. The monks tell them to stay in a cell, but they sneak out and catch them executing a woman by covering her up in an alcove with bricks. All of a sudden they find themselves years later, and all thats left of the woman is a skeleton. They head up through the Abbey to know find it completely in ruins.

Third is "The Happy Undertaker" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). This story tells of an Undertaker who loves his work and takes a lot of steps to make money for himself. He eventually replaces his employees with homeless kids who work for room and board. They end up turning on him however when it is revealed that they are vampires!

Fourth is "The Raven" by Richard Corben (story & art), an adaption of the classic Poe story. Anyone familiar with horror surely must know this story, featuring a pesty Raven that keeps saying "Nevermore". Some very nice art from Richard Corben. The story was most likely originally intended for two issues later, an all Edgar Allen Poe issue.

Fifth is "Holy War" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Lewis (story). Taking place in the age of the Crusades, the Church learns of a group of pagans that apparentely possess the greatest treasure in the world. When they refuse to hand it over to be used for war, the church sends soldiers which kill them all. They then find the treasure... which ends up being the cross of Jesus Christ.

Last is "Oil of Dog", an adaption of the Ambrose Bierce story. Isidro Mones provides the art while Jack Butterworth provides the adaption. This story tells of a boy whose father creates oil from dead dogs and whose mother performs abortions and has him dispose of the body. One day when the boy is hiding from the cops he disposes of a baby in the oil vat and creates an even more lucrative product. Eventually however his parents get in trouble for all the people they end up killing to create the oil, and end up killing each other when there is no other person they can use for ingredients.

Vampirella 33

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 46

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 54

This issue's cover features excerpts from various interior stories by Richard Corben, Reed Crandall and Esteban Maroto. A similar style cover was done on Vampirella 26, which came out around the same time.

First is "The Slipped Mickey Click Flip" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). This is one of the most bizarre and nonscensical stories in Warren's history, but is very good. It features Diment, a crazy old man taking over hosting duties from Uncle Creepy and telling some bizarre tales about a pyschologist and his family. The psychologist is attacked by butterflies, a TV eats his wife, and a bone buries his dog. Very, very bizarre.

Second is "This Graveyard is Not Deserted" by Reed Crandall (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather poor, drawn out western story featuring an outlaw that shoots out a native american boy's eyes; later boy's ghost gets his revenge and tears the outlaw's eyes out.

Third is "Descent into Hell" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). Warren starts their trend of printing color stories regularly here, in a manner that started off quite bad. Some very, very poor coloring here. It is either too bright, or barely colored at all. Luckily Warren had things fixed by the next color story in Creepy in issue 56. Not much of a story either, featuring a God that goes to hell to find a mortal woman he had loved. Finding she is gone forever, he spurns Zeus and becomes Atlas, cursed to hold Earth on his back. This story was previewed as "Descent into Tartarus" in previous issues.

Fourth is "Dead Man's Race" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A wealth man's brother passes away and is set to be buried on the same day as his lover, who also died. The brother fears that if his dead brother is the last buried in the graveyard (it has only two graves remaining) he will be cursed, so he races the hearse as fast as possible to beat the hearse of his brother's lover. He doesn't win, so he kills his driver and has him buried instead of his brother. But the driver comes back from the dead and has him buried, resulting in the man becoming the cursed ghost.

Fifth is "Little Nippers" by Tom Sutton (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A pair of men come across Liliput, the city of miniature people from Gulliver's Travels. They find a book where one of the little people tells how some of them traveled with Gulliver, but became vampires. The last one was possessed and was able to bring the vampires back to Liliput, getting them all killed. In the present day, the explorers leave the island after miniature vampires attack only to come to another island with vampires, giant ones.

Creepy 56

Today we're gonna take a look at the first issue of Creepy I ever read. The cover is by Sanjulian.

First is "In My Father's House" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a detective investigating the death of a man tied to a stone angel in a graveyard. While investigating multiple attempts are made on his life and he meets various crazy women that used to know him. Eventually he finds that the murdered man was the leader of a Satanic cult who became too greedy with power. Satan himself appears and recruits the detective to be the new leader, but he too becomes too greedy and is eventually killed because of it.

Second is "Innsmouth Festival" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Jacobson (story). This story is heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's 'A Shadow Over Insmouth". An editor for a magazine about (usually fake) supernatural events is summoned to Innsmouth by a letter from two women, who incidently end up being the only normal looking people in the town, which is controlled by hideous looking creatures that worship Ctulhu. They capture the women, hoping to sacrifice them to their watery God, and the editor tries to help them. They are able to kill the 'God' and the various mutants using a laser gun given to the editor by an old woman. At the end of the story it is revealed that the women aren't really human themselves, as they have wings.

Third is "Consumed by Ambition" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A count from Europe heads to Venezuela where it is revealed that he is a vampire. A young man he meets is attacked by him, but he has ambition of being a vampire and lets him join him. Eventually the young man becomes too ambitious however, and puts a stake in his master's heart. He demands a daily sacrifice from a nearby tribe, but is soon done in by man eating ants. His skeleton remains alive for many year after however as a stake wasn't used on him.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Lycanklutz" by Richard Corben (story & art). Warren's first good looking color story (the first 3 attempts, that appeared in Creepy 54, and Vampirella 25 & 26 looked absolutely horrific, usually due to the overly bright colors overwhelming the artwork), although Corben would turn out a much better color job merely a single issue later. The story takes place in a kingdom plagued by a werewolf. An old man offers to rid them of the werewolf with fleas, which cost $500. The king agrees to use them, but betrays the old man, tying him up as bait so he doesn't have to pay him. The werewolf arrives, but the old man bargains with him for a flea collar and the werewolf instead attacks the king. This story would win Corben the best story written by an artist for 1973.

Fifth is "The Way of All Flesh" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a blind old vicar who has no one attending his church any longer. A friend tells him to give up, then returns home where he finds his wife dead. Many other deaths have occured around this time as well. By investigating, our protagonist eventually finds the vicar, preaching to the corpses of all the murdered people. The vicar then passes away, and all their corpses crumble to dust.

The issue concludes with "The Bell of Kuang Sai" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited as Munes) and George Henderson (story, an adaption, but not stated who of). This story features a bell maker, Kuang Sai, who is hired by his lord to make him a bell. When he makes the bell however it has a large crack in it. He tries again and again, but each time it has a crack. The lord offers him three more chances, after failing on the first two he sacrifices his daughter, pushing her into the bell's liquid material before it is poured into the mold. This results in it finally working. This causes the bell to emit a strange shriek from her whenever it is rung however.

Eerie 56

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Ken Kelly, with the werewolf battling a wizard.

First up is the return of the Werewolf in part 7 of the Curse of the Werewolf series, "There Was a Were-Mummy" by Martin Salvador (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Arthur Lemming, now trapped in the body of a mummy, is forced to carry his body around with him in search for an amulet that can return him to his original body. Jerome Curry of the Mummy series also makes a brief cameo during this story, looking for the same thing. Along the way a group of men steal his body and bring it to an old man who seeks to switch to Lemming's much younger body. Lemming arrives in the mummy's body however, turns into a werewolf, and goes on a rampage. Throgmore, the old man's hunchbacked assistant however takes the opportunity to take Lemming's body for his own and as the story ends heads off in it as our hero can only watch in horror. This would be the last story in the series until issue 61, where it was officially melded with the Mummy storyline (which had already been happening over the prior two segments).

Second is part 5 of "Hunter", by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Hunter comes across a castle filled with demons. There he is captured and thrown in a cell with an old man, who reveals him to be Schreck (see issues 53-55). The demons had taken over the castle but apparantely now there's only 3 or 4 left because of a ghost, the "Princess of Bathory Castle" who has been killing them off. When a demon guard is killed they escape and find her, a little girl, along with a huge nuclear missile. Hunter's conclusion follows in the next issue.

Next is "Wizard Wagstaff", a color story by Richard Corben (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This humourous tale tells of a man who turns into a werewolf after being bitten by a poodle. He finds the wizard of the title who can help him as long as he isn't doing anything for personal gain. Along the way they meet another werewolf who they help turn human as well.

Fourth is "It Returns!" by Enrique Badia Romero (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Carl Wessler (story). "It" was originally a self contained story in Creepy 53. It is revived here by Wessler and would continue rather inconsistently spread out in four total segments over the next couple of years. I wouldn't necessarily say one needs to read the original story to follow this serial, as this story takes off in a different direction seperate from the original story. The story features a young woman, Jan Foley who is being pursued by a cousin who hopes to take the family fortune from her. Luckily for her, "It", a rotting corpse arrives and saves her. The cousin arrives later however and knocks her out, then gets himself married to her and throw her off a boat to her apparant death. Luckily "It" saves her, then kills him. The ending reveals "It" to be dead relative of hers.

Last is "The Night of the Red Death", part three in the Dr. Archaeus series, with art by Isidro Mones and story by Gerry Boudreau. Sanford continues in his pursuit of Dr. Archaeus, who now sets his site on the third juror, a man who is involved with cock fighting. Sanford thinks that the pattern Archaeus is using is birds, but it ends up being French Henna flowers laced with cholera which kill the juror. This segment also introduces Sanford's lover, Jamaica Jansen who will have more importance in the story a little down the line.

Eerie 48

This issue's Wolfman cover is by Sanjulian. For the most part a pretty good cover, except for the werewolf's face, which just doesn't look good to me.

Up first is "The Son of Dracula", credited to Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler for both the story and art. This continues from the last issue's Dracula story, where Dracula was shot by a man with long white hair. This story, told mostly in flashbacks explains about a woman who Dracula met and fell in love with, and who eventually died, but not before giving birth to his son. The end of the story reveals that the white haired man in the present was this son. Unfortunately this is where the series ends, right in the middle of things. It was also odd that after the first two parts where drawn by Tom Sutton, the art was suddenly changed to Dubay and Buckler.

The first part of the series "The Mummy Walks" is next, "...And An End!", with art by Jaime Brocal and story by Steve Skeates. This story is about a man, Michael, who finds an amulet that enables him to occupy the body of a mummy. After an argument with his girlfriend, he occupies the mummy's body and kills both her and his colleague whom she was kissing. Upon returning to his human body, he finds the amulet missing however, and his mummy body is burned, killing him. The epilogue introduces a man, Jerome Curry, who finds the amulet years later, which the remainder of the series is about. This series was a really good one, particularly in the first six parts. The series kind of falls apart in the last three stories for reasons that we'll discuss when I get to those issues.

Third is "Think of Me and I'll Be There" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Unfortunately I can't completely cover this story, as I've only got the first 5 pages of it (the rest are missing in my copy of this issue). From what I have of the story, it surrounds a woman whose lover died in a car crash who is demonstrating telekinetic abilities. Unfortunately that's all I can cover. Luckily there is only one other incomplete story in my Warren collection, so this will only happen once more.

Next is "On A Stalking Moonlit Night!", the first part of the series "Curse of the Werewolf", with story by Al Milgrom and art by Rich Buckler & Bill Dubay. This story features a man, Arthur Lemming, who becomes a werewolf during the full moon. In his human life he argues constantly with her wife and discovers she's having an affair. As the story ends, he becomes a werewolf again, goes on a rampage, and ends up killing his daughter. The artwork isn't that great, but this is a pretty good story. This was a fairly good series for a while although it would eventually fall apart when Steve Skeates took the series over later on.

Fifth is "The Resurrection Man" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is about a man who brings a girl back to life, but she ends up going crazy. His wife tells the story to a reporter who says he's going to make it public, so she kills him, revealing that she was brought back from the dead too.

This issue wraps up with this issue's entry for Dax the Warrior, "The Sacrifice", by Esteban Maroto (story & art). Dax encounters a tribe that sacrifices people to a winged monster. Dax kills the winged monster, but the tribe continues to sacrifice people and he agrees to not tell them of its death since it would damage their religious beliefs.

Overall, quite a good issue. From this point on, Eerie would be heavily focused on continuing series. It is for that reason that (actually starting with issue 46), I'll be covering most issues of Eerie (46 through 138) in order, with the exception of the occasional issue that doesn't have continuing series featured in it (like issue 81's Queen Kong special issue).

Vampirella 35

For my first issue of Vampirella, I'm going to take a look at issue #35, from August 1974. The sexy cover is by Enrich, who was the most prolific cover artist for this title. This issue, similar to Creepy #64 a few days ago was edited by Archie Goodwin during his short return as editor to Warren in 1974.

The Vampirella story this issue is titled "The Blood Gulper", with art by Jose Ortiz and story by Flaxman Loew. 'Flaxman Loew' was a pseudonym for Mike Butterworth. I never thought his stories were that bad, but they seemed to get criticized frequently in the letters column. Admittingly he would use certain themes repeatedly and pretty much ignored the Van Helsings in all his stories, so I can see where some of the criticism is coming from. This story is about an artificial singer that needs an entire human body's worth of blood a day to continue operating. Naturally when people start appearing with their blood drained, it's all blamed on Vampi. An okay story, with very good art by Ortiz, who made his first Warren appearance with this story.

Next up is Relatives by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story) about a pair of astronauts who encounter a civilization of bizarre looking aliens. One of the astronauts, a deeply religious man, refuses to believe that the aliens are intelligent and kills one of them, only to later find out that they were praying when they met him. A fairly good, although quite short, sci-fi story with some extremely odd looking aliens.

Third is "Our Tarts Were Young and Gay" by Ramon Torrents (art) and John Jacobson (story). This story stars the witch Fleur, who was, for a short time, a backup heroine in Vampirella. This story features her encounter in a brothel with a very odd customer. After this issue Fleur wouldn't have her own story in Vampirella again for years, although she did have a short cameo in a Vampirella story in issue #50. Terrific art by Torrents and the best of the Fleur stories in my opinion.

Fourth is "Pure As Snow" by Felix Mas (art) and Jack Butterworth (story), this issue's color story. This story takes place mostly in a log cabin in the midst of winter, where a man's fiance dies during the night yet her corpse behaves like it is still is alive. While the story ain't bad, the coloring on this story is absolutely dreadful.

"The Night Ran Red With Gore" by Auraleon (art) and Carl Wessler (story) is fifth. It's about a woman and her daughter who flee from a vampire... or do they? As it turns out in the end, the man they were fleeing was a vampire hunter, and the girl was the vampire all along. Auraleon's art perfectly fits this story, although the ending was rather predictable.

The issue wraps up with "Rendezvous", which was both drawn and written by Fernando Fernandez. By far the issue's best story, and one of the top 10 Warren stories ever in my opinion. It was ranked the 18th best Warren story of all time in the Warren companion. The story surrounds a young woman whose husband has gone to war and is being pursued by a jealous suitor in her empty house. On of the best Warren shock endings of all time, so I'll leave it as a surprise. Fernandez was both a terrific artist and writer, and this was the best of his stories.

Quite a good issue of Vampi from Warren's top period of output.