The EC and Warren Connection

EC comics were an obvious influence on Warren's comic magazines and with this article I shall point out the connections between the two. It is well known that during Warren's original golden age of 1964 to 1967 that the comics came off as EC resurrected, with many of the stories drawn by the same artists that had originally appeared in EC comics. In fact Warren's horror comics came about in the first place due to original Creepy editor Russ Jones wanting to recreate EC-style horror comics in the early to mid 1960s. By 1967 all of the original EC artists had departed Warren due to the money problems that plagued Warren that resulted in a reduction in the stories commissioned, and the rates paid. Some of these artists, like Joe Orlando, Johnny Craig and Angelo Torres would never return, but a fair number, like Reed Crandall and Al Williamson eventually did. Others, like John Severin, Alex Toth and Russ Heath actually outpaced themselves in later years, during eras that are principally known at Warren as being dominated by Spanish and Phillipino artists.

An early force in Warren comics was a group of artists who were known as the Fleagles gang at EC in the 1950s, Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Angelo Torres (Nick Meglin and George Woodridge were also part of this group but never actually worked for Warren). This group of artists frequently collaborated at EC on stories that were often credited just to Williamson. Only occasionally would a credit appear for Frazetta, Krenkel or Torres, although they had a big part in a great many more. Each non-Williamson artist including Frazetta only did one solo story, and Torres' wasn't even published during EC's original run due to being rejected by the Comics Code. Frazetta also contributed a solo cover for Weird Science-Fantasy #29, which was a rejected cover for Famous Funnies. This cover is frequently credited as the best cover from an EC comic.

Aside from Krenkel, each of these artists had a high level of contribution to Warren, particularly Frazetta and Torres. Frazetta did only one actual comics story for Warren ("Werewolf", appearing in Creepy #1) and a couple of frontis one page features, but did numerous covers, principally on the early issues. Some of these covers are quite famous, in particular Eerie #23 and Vampirella #1, but for the most part each one is a classic. Like much of the original Warren artists, Frazetta stopped contributing in late 1967 as Warren went into a dark age, but later returned and contributed work in 1969 and 1970. His last Warren cover was used for Eerie #81, but had actually been painted several years earlier, intended for a magazine called "POW!" that was never actually published. Frazetta was extremely popular with readers, and Warren reprinted his covers numerous times starting in the mid to late 1970s. Krenkel never did an actual full Warren story on his own, although he contributed to a story with Al Williamson in the first issue of Creepy, had a few frontis one-page features and had a couple of writing credits. He has also been credited as assisting with drafts for Frazetta's covers to Creepy 6 and 7 (which can be seen in EC fanzine Squa Tront #7).

Williamson contributed early stories to Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat before departing Warren for almost 10 years, returning for 2 stories in Creepy #86 and Creepy #112 respectively. An additional story that he originally drew for Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction appeared in Creepy #83. Torres was prolific in the early issues of Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, contributing 19 solo stories, a collaboration with Al Williamson for one story, a single page ending to a Gray Morrow (to whom he had stylistic similarities) story from Creepy #2 and 6 single page frontispieces. Torres' art was typically a high point for me in the early issues of Creepy and Eerie. He departed Warren for good in early 1967.

Williamson's work for EC was primarily their sci-fi work, which was also the case for Joe Orlando and Wally Wood who also made many contributions to Warren. At EC, Orlando's work appeared heavily influenced by Wood at first but slowly grew into his own unique style, one that was more so apparent by the time he worked at Warren. Orlando provided art for approximately 30 stories in Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat, including the infamous "Landscape" story from Blazing Combat #2 that is oftentimes cited as a primary reason for that comic's demise. Eight of his stories were part of the Adam Link series, Warren's first recurring series. The first 3 stories had also been adapted by EC in Weird Science-Fantasy in 1954/1955, drawn that time by Orlando as well. Although it should be noted that stylistically Orlando handled things differently, particularly the Adam Link character in both series. Orlando's work for Warren ceased in 1967, when he moved on to join DC Comics.

Wally Wood was EC's most well known sci-fi artist and also was a heavy contributor to Harvey Kurtzman's war comics. Wood, unlike many of the other EC artists discussed here did very little work during Warren's original golden age when Archie Goodwin was editor, his output limited to a single horror story he did with Dan Adkins in Creepy #9 and a pair of stories for Blazing Combat. He had earlier done a story for Famous Monsters which was also reprinted in Eerie in 1967. Wood did a variety of stories for Warren in the early to mid 70s, most of which were sci-fi or fantasy based. Wood departed Warren for good after a controversial incident when Bill Dubay took a 12 page stories of his, split it in two, and heavily rewrote it to focus on sexual aspects of the story as published in the first 2 issues of 1984. Dubay had reportedly ordered rewritten a story of Wood's from Eerie #60, which was published a few years earlier, as well. A joint story of Wood’s with Ernie Colon appeared a few issues later in 1984, but this story was originally done several years earlier, intended for the previously mentioned POW! magazine which never saw the light of day.

Jack Davis was one of the most prolific artists at EC, appearing in practically every horror and war comic that EC issued. He never did any actual stories for Warren, but contributed one frontispiece from Creepy #3 and did the original drawings for Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie that appeared throughout Warren's comics for years to come. He also did the covers for the first issues of both Creepy and Eerie, although the Eerie cover was actually a reprint of a subscription advertisement that had appeared in an earlier issue of Creepy.

Reed Crandall and George Evans joined EC midway through its run and contributed a variety of stories for EC's horror and crime comics. Crandall was a prolific contributor to Warren in its early days and as with the other EC artists departed for a few years towards the end of 1967. Crandall returned to Warren in 1969 for another approximate half dozen stories then departed again, only to return once more for a final batch of stories that appeared 1972 and 1973. By this point however the quality of his work had deteriorated quite a bit and I believe this was his last actual comics work. Evans did a variety of types of stories for EC, but planes was his true love and his Warren work reflected this as all 3 of these stories featured this theme, which appeared in Creepy and Blazing Combat.

Johnny Craig was my personal favorite EC artist, where he was principally responsible for the Vault of Horror and Crime Suspenstories comics. He had a very clean style which was a stark contrast to EC's other notable horror artists like Jack David and Graham Ingels. Craig was a strong writer as well and wrote the majority of his EC and Warren stories. Much of his work was under the alias "Jay Taycee" which he used due such that the advertising clients he worked for didn't know he was doing comics work as well. Craig was yet another artist that departed Warren for good in 1967 although a couple of stories of his didn't see print until 1968.

John Severin appeared principally in EC's war comics, and actually edited Two-Fisted Tales for a period of time before its cancellation. His early work during Warren golden age was a mixture of this type of work for Blazing Combat, as well as several stories for Creepy and Eerie. Severin departed along with the other EC artists in 1967 but returned in 1974 and contributed Warren work for many years after, through 1979. Severin was never a favorite of mine during his EC days but he always was a strong contributor for Warren with the approximate 30 or so stories he did for them.

Russ Heath, Alex Toth and Eugene Colan aren't artists one usually thinks of when they think of EC, but all 3 had done stories for EC's war comics. Heath only did a single story during Warren's original golden age, "Give and Take" from Blazing Combat #4, but did approximately a dozen stories for Warren in the late 1970s, including some extremely memorable stories like "Yellow Heat" (my personal favorite Warren story), "Process of Elimination" and "Zooner or Later". Heath's Warren work was always exceptionally strong, particularly the aforementioned Yellow Heat. Toth did a number of stories during Warren's original golden age, best among them "Survival" from Blazing Combat #3. Toth departed Warren over a year before the other artists did, but returned to Warren multiple times and his artwork appeared in Warren magazines far longer than any other former EC artist. In the mid 70s he did a number of solo stories, most of which he wrote himself, along with the well known "Daddy and the Pie" story from Eerie #64 and the final two stories in the "Hacker" series. His latest batch of original Warren stories were done in the early 1980s and featured him inking stories for a variety of artists such as Leo Summers, Leo Duranona and Carmine Infantino, producing an interesting result each time. The Rook printed his "Bravo For Adventure" two part series, which was rated as the #1 Warren series of all time in the book The Warren Companion. Toth's last Warren work was a couple of stories from the Torpedo series that he had originally done for the Spanish version of Creepy that were reprinted in some of the last issues of Vampirella. Colan's work appeared exclusively during Warren's original golden age, totaling approximately 15 stories that mostly appeared in Eerie. His work was principally done in wash-style and was always of exceptionally high quality.

The two big omissions from this article to this point from EC's side have been Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder. Kurtzman acted as editor for EC's two war comics and was the founding editor of Mad in its comics form and the first few issues of its magazine form. Elder appeared within EC's war comics, primarily teamed with John Severin. Once Mad came out, Elder's true calling as a humor artist became apparent and he was among EC's strongest comedic artists in Mad and its sanctioned imitation comic, Panic. Neither artist ever did work for Warren's horror comics, but both worked on the magazine Help!, which Warren published from 1960 through 1965. Kurtzman acted as editor and a primary writer for the magazine while Elder did art for various stories throughout the magazine's run.

Most of the focus of this article has been on EC's artists, but what about their writers? With the vast, vast majority of EC's stories being written by Al Feldstein, there was only a few other EC writers, although two of them, Otto Binder and Carl Wessler did work for Warren. Both of these writers came on board with EC around 1954 towards the end of its original run of horror comics. Binder did approximately a dozen stories for Warren, all during its original golden age. Most of these stories were from the Adam Link series which he originally developed with his brother Earl Binder. As mentioned earlier, the first 3 of these stories had also appeared in EC comics as well. Wessler contributed only 2 stories to Warren's original golden age, but rejoined Warren during Bill Dubay's run as editor, contributing approximately 20 stories. Four of his stories later appeared in the early 1980s although I suspect all four of them were originally done during the Dubay era and just held off for printing until this point. One story, "Lucky Stiff", was a redo of a story he had done called "Out Cold" from the Haunt of Fear #25.

So who from EC never actually contributed to Warren? The most notable is "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, the lead artist of the Haunt of Fear and probably the most liked of the EC horror artists. Ingels' style would have fit Warren perfectly, but the criticism of the subject matter that he contributed to EC greatly bothered him and he left the comics field entirely. That said, Warren eventually did a tribute story to him, "Encore Ghastly" in Creepy #61 which featured a horror comics artist who had been driven from comics, but returned, this time drawing the stories with blood. Bernard Krigstein, who did groundbreaking work for EC, particularly with his art on the famous story "Master Race" had also departed comics entirely by the time Warren started doing comics. Al Feldstein was the principal editor from EC throughout its run, but working as editor for Mad during the entire period that Warren was publishing comics was obviously never even available. Jack Kamen was a very prolific EC artist and was EC's best artist at drawing women, but was generally weak from a horror standpoint and never did any Warren work.

Creepy 13

Gray Morrow provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, from February 1967.

First is "The Squaw" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story, which is an adaption of a Bram Stoker story features a man who kills a kitten by accidently dropping a rock on it. The mother of the cat follows him as he goes to see a torture chamber and steps into an Iron Maiden. The cat jumps at the tour guide holding the iron maiden open, resulting in it shutting on the man, killing him.

Second is "Early Warning!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man gets off a bus in a town late at night and is unable to get into a hotel. In an alley he finds a dead woman's body and is blamed by a crowd as being a vampire. They plunge a stake into his heart, killing him. Suddenly the man wakes up, revealing this to all be a dream. He gets off the bus he was on into the town and everything happens exactly as it did in the dream up until when he finds the woman's body. He tells them he's not a vampire and that if they get a mirror he can prove it. But it doesn't do him any good, as the crowd is all vampires, and they kill him.

Third is "Scream Test" by Angelo Torres (art, his final Warren appearance) and Bhob Stewart & John Benson (story). A young reporter goes to see the owner of an old theater, who tells her of how he rised through the ranks from usher to owner of the theater. The owner is obsessed with Lon Chaney and also speaks of something that happened to him in his past. When he starts playing the organ the reporter removes a mask he was wearing, revealing his horribly burned face. Some very nice art here, including some photographs from Lon Chaney movies as well.

Next is "Madness in the Method" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Our protagonist, Henry, murders his wife and convinces everyone, including the court that he is insane. He finds the insane asylum he's put in unbearable though, and admits to the murder, wanting to be sent to prison instead. The doctors there refuse though, only permitting him to take part in a test to see if he's normal. Unfortunately for him, that results in them taking his brain out of his body.

Fifth is "Fear in Stone" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A sculptor is upset at the fact that he isn't successful. A critic tells him of a fellow sculptor who is very successful. Our protagonist goes to see his work and finds his sculptures to show people in absolute terror. After witnessing a homeless man he sees the sculptor with become the next sculpture, our protagonist breaks into his home where he finds how he does it, he possesses the head of Medusa! Our protagonist is turned to stone and becomes just another sculpture.

Sixth is "Adam Link, Gangbuster!", the latest Adam Link story by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). In this story Adam is disguised as a human and eavesdrops some mobster who have framed Eve for murder. He also finds that a local councilor is involved. While he is caught, he fakes death and makes it out of there. He records the councillor incriminating himself, but the tape is destroyed. He then confronts the councillor, making him confess in writing, but a grenade destroys his legs and his body is destroyed. Is this the end for Adam Link? You'll need to check out his next story, in Creepy 15 to find out.

Last is "Second Chance!", with art by Steve Ditko and story by Archie Goodwin. This story is about a man who makes a deal with the devil to stay alive longer. The devil brings him back to life, but he ends up being stuck in a coffin! Luckily for him a gravedigger digs him out, but upon seeing this 'corpse' come to life, he kills him, which finishes him off for good.

Eerie 8

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

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

Second is "Dark Rider" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A trio of horsemen in the snowy mountains are followed by a mysterious rider in the distance. They die one by one until only one remains. He shoots at the rider, which causes an avalanche that kills him. The rider reveals himself to be Death.

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 10

A classic Frank Frazetta cover starts off this issue of Creepy, featuring a green Frankenstein's monster before a mob.

First is "Brain Trust" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A new doctor in town is perplexed by the town eccentric, a large man who doesn't show up in public often, and smells like shaving cream. Eventually the grocery store owner refuses his business and he dissappears. The doctor finds out that the man was one of a set of mutated twins. Having died in a car crash, his other brother used his brain to control his actions. When the doctor comes upon him, the living twin uses the dead one's body to kill himself.

Second is "Into the Tomb!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A group of archaeologists discovers a mummy's tomb, complete with one mummy of a servant and one of a pharoah. One of the archeologists reveals himself to be the pharoah, reincarnated, and destroys the mummy of his original body. The mummy of the servant arrives and the pharoah orders him to kill the others, but it instead wraps him up in wrappings and puts him back in the sarcophagus where his original body had been.

Third is "Monster!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art, his Warren debut) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man awakens in the body of a Frankenstein like monster. He becomes enraged at the scientist who did this to him and grabs him and walks into quicksand, just as the scientist reveals that he needed to do this to save him from a car wreck. A printer mistake causes the 6th and final pages in this story to be switched with one another.

Fourth is "Midnight Sail" by Johnny Craig (story & art, credited as Jay Taycee). Four young men and women go onto a sailboat and are helped by a friendly old captain who tells them a tale of the ship, which was occupied by a vampire which killed most of the crew and was obsessed with piloting the boat himself. In the present day the old captain pilots the boat over a waterfall to his death when a stake goes through his heart. Two of the young people are able to escape unharmed. The narrative of this story is very confusing, making it hard to tell when we depart the past and come back to the present.

Next is "Backfire!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A gunfight veteran arrives in a deserted town and meets an old man in the bar, who tells him of a jury thats forming. After the gunfighter tells the old man about his most previous gunfight it is revealed that the 'jury' is actually the ghosts of the men he's killed, who fire upon him. He wakes up, finding its a dream, but soon ends up in the exact same scenario all over again.

Sixth is "Thing of Darkness" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man working in the subway encounters a monster in the darkness which is afraid of the light. He is able to escape from the creature when the light of a subway car arrives, but his hair goes white from the fright. The monster still pursues him, but as long as he remains in the light he is okay. Unfortunately for him, the city has a great blackout, and all he has is a single candle which doesn't stay lit for that long...

Last is one of Warren's all time most famous stories, "Collectors Edition" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features Danforth, a man obsessed with the occult who hears of a book, 'Dark Visions' that he becomes obsessed with obtaining. Seeking to spend all of his wife's money on the book, he eventually murders the bookstore owner who told him of it in the first place, who had also committed murder to obtain the book. Reading the book, Danforth finds that it goes long past the time of the author, all the way to the present, and even the future, showing his own death, which shortly comes when his wife buries an axe in his head. Terrific art, terrific story, this is certainly up there among Goodwin's best stories. Ditko's drawing of Danforth's eyes slowly closing across the bottom of each page is also a nice touch.

Eerie 7

This issue's cover is by Frank Frazetta. Its rather different than his usual fare, dominated by a dark sky and dark sea with a woman in white beckoning whatever is in the sea. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery No 6: The Hydra" by Gray Morrow.

First story is "Witch's Tide" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story is about a group of sea beasts that are attacking people in a small town. The townfolks think the daughter of an admitted witch is luring the beasts to the town, so they kill her and burn her corpse. But it ends up that she was actually attemping to keep the beasts away from the town, and with her dead, the beasts are quickly able to overrun the town. A great story to start off the issue with.

Next is "It That Lurks!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of men encounter a dinosaur lurking in quicksand in the deep jungle. They shoot it with tranquilizer darts only for it to submerge under the quicksand. One of the men, seeking glory heads in the quicksand after it and is killed. The other man is about to depart when he sees his wife in the quicksand and also heads in, to his death. It ends up neither the dinosaur or the man's wife were ever truly there, but actually were generated as a trap (that which the victim wanted the most) by the quicksand. Yet another terrific story here.

Third is "Hitchhike Horror!" by Hector Castellon (art) and Goodwin (story). This is Castellon's Warren debut. His art, as usual is just way too ugly and has too many lines if you ask me. Anyway, this story is about a man who picks up a hitchhiker and soon after hears news on the radio about a maniac being loose. It seems as if the hitchhiker is the maniac, but in actuality he is after the driver, who is the real maniac. It ends up that the hitchhiker is a ghost of one of the driver's past victims and kills him by burying him alive.

Fourth is "The Defense Rests!" by Johnny Craig (story & art). A terrifically drawn and written story, featuring no dialogue at all. It is about a young lawyer who goes after the same woman as the very powerful mayor. When the town maniac kills the girl, the mayor blames it all on the lawyer and puts him on trial, where he stacks the jury with his allies and declares him guilty. The lawyer breaks loose and captures them all and unleashes the maniac on them, who was, like him, framed years before.

Fifth is "Fly!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Goodwin (story). This story is about a man covered in bandages who has had surgery to change his face. Only he keeps being bothered by a fly and falls out a window to his death. It ends up that the fly was attached to his head bandages near his ears which is why it bothered him so much.

Sixth is "The Quest!" by Donald Norman (art) and Goodwin (story). A powerful duke seeks eternal life, but every attempt at it fails. His advisor, an old man, tells him that he'll be able to give him eternal life if he will do good things for the town. The duke agrees so the old advisor brings him to a place occupied by vampires, who promptly turn him into one of their own.

The issue concludes with "Cry Fear Cry Phantom" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man and his fiance go to his home, a large mysterious looking house, where his uncle lives with him. She repeatedly has visions of an odd looking woman with an axe, and suspects the uncle is up to something, particularly when she sees him burying that woman! It ends up however that the fiance is the true maniac, and chops her up with an axe.

Eerie 25

A whopping eight stories in this issue, six of them new. This issue features a cover by Jim Steranko, his sole one for Warren. The frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Vampire!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story).

Up first is "Isle of the Vrukolakas" by Ernie Colon (art) and Don Glut (story). A town is plagued by a vampire. Zorko, a sheep herder is convinced that the vampire is the corpse of a man recently brought to the town. They consult a priest, who says the vampire's body will not be decayed. They find the corpse of the man brought to the town, but it is completely decayed so they now have no clue who the vampire could be. Yet it ends up that he was the vampire after all as he had leprosy, and he comes to kill Zorko!

Next is "Mistake!" by Bill Black (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). A mob boss plans to hide from the law by faking his death in Italy. There, in his home town he bribes various people to fake his death, declare him dead, and bury him in a maesoleum in a coffin with air holes so he can live. When he awakens he tries to escape the graveyard, only for people to mistake him for a vampire and kill him!

Third is "Hijack to Horror" by Tony Williamsune (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story features a group of vampire like creatures that hijack a plane and bring it to their new Transylvania where they plan on using the plane passengers to be a never ending supply of blood for them.

Fourth is "To Pay the Piper" by Eugene Colan (art) and Larry Ivie (story), originally from Eerie 2.. The story takes place in a town plagued by vampires. A piper offers to rid the town of the vampires by playing a song on his pipe in exchange for money. He does so and rids the town of vampires, but the town refuses to pay, so using his pipe he lures the children away, as in the classic Pied Piper story. Men wait for him in the woods however and kill him with arrows. They soon find however that he lured the children into wolfsbane, turning them all into werewolves!

Fifth is "Southern Exposure" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story). This is the first part of a two part story that would be concluded in the next issue. A woman faints at a family party and an old woman who hasn't spoke in years says she must be destroyed. Her boyfriend refuses to do so, but at the end of the story, it is revealed that she is a vampire!

Sixth is "The Thing in the Cave" by Mike Royer (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). Finally, a story not about vampires! A young man and his wife come to visit his parents. The man, who studies funguses, as investigating a mushroom that transforms anything that touches it into a monster! When he and his wife visit a cave and approach some, he turns into a monster and kills her, exactly what he had done to a friend when he was a kid. His mother meanwhile plans on cooking dinner with the mushrooms, unaware of their power.

Seventh is "House of Evil", with art by Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) & Joe Orlando, and story by Archie Goodwin. This story is originally from Eerie 4. A man comes to a large house where his brother lived but finds only a tape recording there, telling him of how he came to the house, which has an evil past, for inspiration. Suddenly a rotting corpse arrives. The man destroys the corpse, but soon finds that it was his own brother! He then looks at his hands and realizes that he's starting to rot as well.

Last is "Hex Marks the Spot" by Bill Barry (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). An evil man summons demons to attack those that won't sell their farms to him. But anyone who has a 'good hex' symbol at their house will cause the demon to go back and kill the one who summoned it instead of them. Once such man has a new wife who demands he take down the good hex signs as she doensn't believe him. He does so, but creates another hex sign in his wheat field which results in the evil man getting his just desserts.

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...

Creepy 8

An early issue of Creepy, featuring Gray Morrow's first cover for Warren's horror magazines. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

Up first is "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man comes into possession of Dracula's coffin and sits in it, becoming Dracula himself. He invites people to his mansion then steals one of the women and runs away with her. The Van Helsings start looking for him and find a monster in a cave. This story would be concluded in the next issue.

Next is "Death Plane" by George Evans (art) and Larry Ivie (story). Evans was a terrific artist at EC but unfortunately did very few Warren stories, just this and a few for Blazing Combat. This story features a mysterious plane that is taking out both American and German planes during the war. One of the American officers is killed and realizes that the ghost of each person killed appears in the plane until they can kill someone else.

Another EC great is next, Johnny Craig, using the pseudonym 'Jay Taycee' in his Warren debut, "The Mountain". This story, like the previous one, is done in pencil only. A woman wandering in the winter wilderness comes across a cabin on a mountain and meets a man inside who asks her to bring the town mayor to him so he can take over his mind. She does so and the young man reveals his true self, the Devil, who is able to wreak havoc on the world now that she has brought him a body he can use to escape the cabin in which he has been trapped.

Fourth is "The Invitation" with art by Manny Stallman (in yet another Warren debut in this issue) and story by Russ Jones, Larry Englehart and Maurice Whitman. A Baron gets in a car accident and comes across a mansion where vampires live. He convinces them to let him live as long as he brings them victims. He does, but eventually they turn him into a vampire as well. Whitman would very lamely repeat this exact same story in issue 17 in the story "A Night Lodging".

"Adam Link's Mate", one of the many Adam Link stories by Warren appears next, with art by Joe Orlando and story by Otto Binder. In this story, a scientist convinces Adam to create a female robot, Eve, which he does. The scientist then manages to manipulate their minds using a helmet he puts on them and gets them to rob banks for him. Adam is freed of the helmet's influence when a friend stops by, but he is attacked by Eve and thrown over a cliff to his apparant demise.

"A Vested Interest" is next, by George Tuska (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Ron Parker (story). A man sees a werewolf and confides in a stranger at a bar about it. He goes with the stranger to find the werewolf and brings a camera with him, and the stranger ends up being the werewolf. He reveals a gun with silver bullets in the camera, but the werewolf, whose wearing a bullet proof vest gets the better of him.

Last is "Fitting Punishment" by Eugene Colan (art, in his Creepy debut) and Goodwin (story). It features a grave digger who gets caught by the police in the act. He hides in a mausoleum and steals a dead man's clothes to escape, but the clothes shrink while he's wearing them, killing him.

Eerie 2

This is the first real issue of Eerie. It was intended to be the first issue, but when Warren realized that another company was attempting to use the name 'Eerie' prior to them, they rushed out a single 'ashcan' edition issue of Eerie containing three stories meant for Creepy to secure the copyright. A number of months later, the first real issue, this issue, came out. The cover is by Frank Frazetta featuring a wizard summoning monsters. Cousin Eerie and Uncle Creepy, drawn by Jack Davis are included as the frontis.

First is "Footsteps of Frankenstein" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A doctor heads to a town to visit an old friend, who the entire town hates. The friend is working on creating his own Frankenstein-like monster, which he plans to put his own brain into since he is so old. The doctor goes ahead and does it, and the friend plans to go on a rampage against the town. He is struck by lightning however, and turns into dust.

Second is "One for De-Money" by Angelo Torres (art) and E. Nelson Bridwell (story). A man discovers his rich old uncle summoning a demon, who is trapped in a pentagram drawn on the ground in chalk. The uncle demands the demon give him money, which he does. The nephew, upset at the way his uncle has treated him, kills him, then summons the demon so he can get even more money. However, having smudged off the chalk line when killing the uncle, the demon quickly kills him.

Third is "Eye of the Beholder" by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man becomes obsessed with bringing his dead wife back to life and finds a man who is able to do it. His wife returns exactly as she had before, but strange things start happening. The dog is frightened of her and dies of fright soon after. A man paid to deliver flowers to her runs off in terror. The man soon discovers the truth when he looks into a mirror, that she returned as a rotting corpse and she only appears normal when he looks at her.

Fourth is "Flame Fiend" by Gray Morrow (art) and Otto Binder (story). A man kills his business partner in a car explosion, but is visited by his ghost, in the guise of a humanoid flame monster soon after, who says he'll die by fire. The man avoids fire as much as he can, eventually heading to the woods during the winter, where he jumps into an ice-filled lake, causing him to die of a fever.

Fifth is "To Pay the Piper" by Eugene Colan (art, his Warren debut) and Larry Ivie (story). The story takes place in a town plagued by vampires. A piper offers to rid the town of the vampires by playing a song on his pipe in exchange for money. He does so and rids the town of vampires, but the town refuses to pay, so using his pipe he lures the children away, as in the classic Pied Piper story. Men wait for him in the woods however and kill him with arrows. They soon find however that he lured the children into wolfsbane, turning them all into werewolves!

Sixth is "Vision of Evil" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a rich man who becomes obsessed with the art of a madman living in an asylum. He heads to the asylum to see the artist, who is a usually comatose man except when he's painting. It soon becomes clear however that the monsters in his paintings are real, and they come for the rich man after he is featured in one of the madman's paintings.

Final story is "Ahead of the Game". The art is by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (credited only to Orlando) and the story is by Archie Goodwin. It features a hunter who kills a white gorilla whose headless ghost continues to haunt him afterwards. Eventually he shows up for real and the hunter's head is cut off and put on a plaque!

Blazing Combat 3

My first issue of Blazing Combat covered on this blog, and it will be my last for a while as this is the only issue that I own at this time. The cover is by Frank Frazetta, who did all the covers for this magazine.

First is "Special Forces" with art by Joe Orlando & Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) and story by Archie Goodwin. The story, occuring in Vietnam surrounds a group of soldiers in their battle with the Viet Cong.

Second is "Foragers" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features soldiers from the North, 'Foragers' heading through towns in the South during the civil war era. They ravage the towns they head through until they come across a cabin manned by a single old man with a rifle, who kills most of the soldiers. He finally runs out of bullers and the lead forager is about to kill him but is killed by his own man, who wants the killing to stop.

Third is "U-Boat" by Eugene Colan (art) and Goodwin (story). During World War 2 in the Atlantic a US boat is sunk by a German submarine. Two survivors are brought on board, one who is bloodthirsty and desires to be on the offensive for once. When his collegue plans to give away their position, he sells him out, but is killed by the Germans anyway when the allied forces spot the submarine and attack.

Fourth is "Survival" by Alex Toth (art) and Toth & Goodwin (story). An old man in a post-war landscape ravages for food found from small cans, and has to fight of wild dogs. He gets excited upon realizing that there is other people nearby when he finds a raft, but upon finding out that they have taken some of his food he goes on a rampage and kills them all. He is shocked to find a woman among the people he killed. My favorite story of what is already a superb issue. I love the final lines of the story "Suddenly, the air filled with a taut, shrill, horrible cry of pain and rage... Animal-like in pitch and quality, it rose higher into the night, ripping, tearing my head apart! I tried to shut it out... out... but it wouldn't! ...and couldn't stop it... for in a while, I realized the truth... and knew that the raw, shrill scream... was MINE!"

Fifth is "The Battle of Britain!" featuring art by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (uncredited) and story by Wood. My least favorite story of the issue, it takes place in 1940 featuring allied planes facing off against Nazi planes. The hero of the story fails miserably his first time in the air and narrowly survives the second, but they call off the fighting in order to bomb the German cities instead, sparing him future combat.

Sixth is "Water Hole!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Goodwin (story). The story takes place in the late 1800's where US troops pusue Apache warriors. The story surrounds a single soldier who finds himself the last living soldier on the battlefield. He is willing to die and finds an Apache warrior, who surrenders to him, driving him crazy.

Last is "Souvenirs!" by John Severin (art) and Goodwin (story). The story occurs in Japan during World War 2. A soldier becomes obsessed with taking the gold fillings out of the teeth of dead japanese soldiers. His superiors tell him to leave a field of dead soldiers alone, but he returns that night to take the gold, only to find out that the soldiers were all playing dead. He is killed, but manages to break up the planned Japanese ambush because of it.

Eerie 4

The fourth issue of Eerie, featuring a cover by Gray Morrow.

Our first story is "House of Evil", with art by Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) & Joe Orlando, and story by Archie Goodwin. A man comes to a large house where his brother lived but finds only a tape recording there, telling him of how he came to the house, which has an evil past, for inspiration. Suddenly a rotting corpse arrives. The man destroys the corpse, but soon finds that it was his own brother! He then looks at his hands and realizes that he's starting to rot as well.

Next is "Hatchet Man" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story is about a hatchet killer who has killed a number of woman with a hatchet. A night watchman plots to kill his wife with a hatchet and blame it on the hatchet killer. Only when the police arrive and find evidence of other murders, it becomes clear that he is the hatchet killer himself, possessing another personality who commit the murders.

Next is "Gnawing Fear" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Ron Parker (story). A pair of doctors are working on a poison for killing rats. One of them ends up dying when the rats attack him. The other doctor follows them into a large maze of tunnels. When he finds a number of rats coming after him he shoots at them with a gun, but that caves in the cavern and the rats completely overrun him.

Fourth story is "Shrieking Man!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The man of the title is in a mental institution, a man who does nothing but scream like crazy and act like a maniac. An employee at the institution becomes fascinated with him and ends up letting him out by accident when he can't control him. The screaming man goes crazy and ends up killing our hero's boss, for whom he was originally his boss, who was killed by him and brought back to life.

Next up is "Undying Love!" by Donald Norman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man seeks to make a woman fall in love with her, so he has a sorceror cast a spell so that will happen. Only when he returns to see her, he finds that she has died! Soon afterwards however she comes back to life as a vampire, and being in love with him stays by his side. While he initially likes it, he is troubled by what she is doing, so he uses a stake on her and chops off her head. But even that isn't enough to stop her from coming back to him!

Last is the cover story, "Island At World's End!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man lost at sea, Sturgis is found by a boat and tells his story. His ship was taken over by a mutiny and he escaped on a lifeboat. Eventually he is on his own and he comes across an island where he encounters beast men. They carry him to a large pit where sacrifices are made. A beautiful woman, Cythlla, who tells him she is the last of an elder race appears and rather than killing him she wants him to be her mate. She worships 'Shoggoth', a mysterious giant entity that appears. Seeing how evil she is, he runs off and shoots her. Eventually however Shoggoth returns to claim him on the boat.

Eerie 6

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Gray Morrow. Up first is the cover story, "Cave of the Druids", with story by Archie Goodwin and art by Reed Crandall. A gladiator comes across dead soldiers in the woods with their hearts cut out. He discovers that they were removed by a group of druids seeking to resurrect their dead king. By burning the staff possessed by a druid sorcerress, the gladiator is able to save himself and leave.

Next is "Deep Ruby" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a bum with a ruby who traps a businessman inside the ruby. The businessman makes a deal to escape, but now must take the bum's place.

Third is "Running Scared" by Mark Ricton (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a man on the run from a pair of odd men. Eventually it is revealed that he is dead and they are the undertakers.

"The Curse of Kali" follows, with art by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story, taking place in the middle east features a man who stops a woman from being sacrificed to the god Kali, so he is cursed, which ends up turning him into a vampire.

"Trial By Fire!" is next, with art & story by Johnny Craig (credited as Jay Taycee). A politician's wife is practicing withcraft and causes multiple enemies of his to fall over dead. Eventually the town ties him up and burns him and he falls on top of her, burning them both.

Next is "Point of View" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). It features an insance asylum where one of the patients thinks he's Dr. Frankenstein. After the inmates take over the asylum, he transfers the director's brain into one of the other inmates.

Last is "The Changeling!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a woman who comes to a mansion to be governess, taking care of a young boy whose father is always busy with research. It ends up that the boy is a Changeling, a demon who replaced the true son and the father spends all his time researching a way to destroy him. A monster, the boy's mother appears, and kills the father, and the house burns to the ground.

Eerie 5

An early issue of Eerie, featuring a cover of a Tyranosaurus Rex by Frank Frazetta. This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Mummy" by Dan Adkins & Wally Wood.

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.

Next is "The Jungle" by Al Williamson (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), about a trio of men who slay a witch doctor only for the woods to come alive and kill them all.

Third is "Black Magic" by Steve Ditko (art) and goodwin (story). A sorceror summons a woman from the dead, despite the warnings of his old master. When she ends up being crazy, he casts a spell that makes her dead again, only to suffer the same fate himself, since he was raised from the dead by his master!

Fourth is "A Matter of Routine!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Goodwin (story), featuring a man coming home from work one day who enters his house and suddenly finds himself in the land of the dead, being tortured by demons. The demons realize that he isn't really dead yet and shouldn't be there, so he returns to his own life, forever fearful of what will happen when he comes home.

Fifth is "Dr. Griswold's File!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Carl Wessler (story), about a doctor who brings a criminal back from the dead to steal from his patients at random so he can afford expensive things for his wife. Only she ends up becoming one of his victims!

Sixth is "The Swamp God" by Angelo Torres (art) and Goodwin (story), about a pair of hunters that go to a swamp to hunt 'The Swamp God', that the natives had been sacrificing their people to. Their guide summons the God, a giant Tyranosaurus Rex, whom he gets to eat both of the hunters, as he's now getting all outsiders to sacrifice to the God.

Last is "Vampire Slayer" with art by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) and story by Goodwin. A vampire slayer meets a beautiful woman whom he suspects is a vampire, but she proves she isn't one by showing herself in a mirror. He sees her again unarmed, only for it to be revealed that she was a vampire all along, and her twin sister, a ghoul was the one seen in the mirror. They both feast upon him.

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 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!

Creepy 25

Despite being from Creepy's dark ages, this is actually a terrific issue, although half of it due to reprinted stories...

The cover for this issue, credited to Richard Conway is arguably the most bizarre in Warren's history. It consists of 12 postage stamp-size pictures of an Uncle Creepy mask, dressed in Santa clothing. Quite an odd one. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" features exorcism and while uncredited, is obviously drawn by Ernie Colon.

Up first is one of this issue's new stories, "Keep Your Spirits Up" by Reed Crandall (art) and Bill Parente (writer). Parente was the editor of Creepy during this era, and wrote all the new stories in this issue. Crandall was one of the first of the original artists to return following Warren's downturn (which started with the previously reviewed issue 18), and his art here is as good as ever. The story surrounds an artist who travels to the spirit world in order to get inspiration. The spirits don't like him being there, and he eventually ends up going there so much that he is killed by them. Best of the new stories in this issue, although all of them are good.

The first of the reprints is "Witch's Tide" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally printed in Eerie #7. The story is about a group of sea beasts that are attacking people in a small town. The townfolks think the daughter of an admitted witch is luring the beasts to the town, so they kill her and burn her corpse. But it ends up that she was actually attemping to keep the beasts away from the town, and with her dead, the beasts are quickly able to overrun the town. A great story, as most of the Goodwin era ones were.

Another new story is up next, "Their Journey's End" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). This story takes place over 1000 years in the future, where people are arrested by a government entity known as 'The Ministry' for having free thoughts. A few people jailed for their free thoughts escape to another dimension where they think things will work out alright for them... ...only it ends up being Nazi Germany. Another top-notch story here.

"It That Lurks!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is another reprint from Eerie #7. A pair of men encounter a dinosaur lurking in quicksand in the deep jungle. They shoot it with tranquilizer darts only for it to submerge under the quicksand. One of the men, seeking glory heads in the quicksand after it and is killed. The other man is about to depart when he sees his wife in the quicksand and also heads in, to his death. It ends up neither the dinosaur or the man's wife were ever truly there, but actually were generated as a trap (that which the victim wanted the most) by the quicksand. Yet another terrific story here.

Another reprint's up next, "Deep Ruby" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man is encountered by a homeless bum who holds a large ruby. Fascinated by the ruby, the man is suddenly drawn into it, where he encounters various demons. Trapped in the ruby, he deals with the bum to be let out, but only by switching places with the bum as the keeper of the ruby, trapped in that role until someone else becomes trapped in it. Good story, although probably the least best of the issue (which still makes it great compared to a lot of other stories from this era).

The issue wraps up with "An Unlikely Visitor" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). A man goes to see his aunt, after not seeing her for fifteen years, having been warned by his father to stay away from the place due to a 'curse'. Years before a woman was murdered and his uncle was accused of the murder. The whole story makes it seem like the main character's relatives are going to kill him, but it ends up that he is revealed as the killer all along after transforming into a hideous beast.

Eerie 3

For my first original Goodwin era issue, I'm going to take a look at Eerie #3. This was during the first golden era of Warren, where Goodwin edited both Creepy and Eerie (and for its short run, Blazing Combat) and also wrote the majority of the stories. The original roster of artists, many of which had worked for EC were just terrific. Unfortuantely things would completely collapse by the end of 1967 with Goodwin and pretty much all of the artists, with rare exception, leaving.

Behind the Frank Frazetta cover of a watery beast coming out of a treasure chest is an introduction by Cousin Eerie on the inside front cover, drawn by Jack Davis. Davis did very little work for Warren outside of the cover of Creepy #1 and some drawings of the horror hosts due to his unhappiness with working with horror comics after what happened with EC.

Up first is "Soul of Horror", by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story's a great one, one of the best of this issue of Warren. Its about a devil worshipper killed by the town folk who is able to reincarnate himself in a newborn baby. By drawing the life out of the baby's father he is able to quickly grow into an adult and take revenge on those who killed him. The town doctor is able to kill him, only for him to be reincarnated once again in the doctor's newborn baby.

"The Lighthouse" by Al Williamson (art) and Goodwin (story) is second. It's about a publisher who goes to see a writer of his who has been staying in a Lighthouse. Along the way he meets a woman who ends up falling off a cliff. He finally meets the writer to find out that he's the one the woman was looking for. Apparantly the writer's grandfather got drunk, resulting in the death of a woman. A ghost of the woman, who was the person the publisher met earlier shows up and kills the writer. Her skeleton is found on top of his corpse the next morning. Another good story. Williamson's art looks quite a lot like Torres, which should not be a surprise as they had worked together in the past.

"Room With A View!" is up third, with art by Steve Ditko, in his first Warren appearance, and story by who else, Goodwin. 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. Yet another extremely good story. Jose Bea would write and illustrate a very similar story years later in Creepy #45.

"Monsterwork" is the next story, with art by Rocco Mastroserio and story by Goodwin yet again. A hunchback helps a mad scientist create a Frankenstein-like monster by stealing corpses. When the creature comes to life the scientist tells it to kill the hunchback, but the monster kills him instead, as the brain implanted in him was the hunchback's brother's.

"Under the Skin" is next, with art by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (who is uncredited) and story by Goodwin. An unsuccesful actor envies another actor whose able to get great roles due to his horrific makeup. By murdering the actor and stealing his technique, he is able to get a great role, but is unable to take off the makeup when he's done. It ends up that he hallucinated the whole thing, and ends up tearing all the skin off his face. Another really good story; its a shame Grandenetti got no credit as he appears to have a lot more influence in the art that Orlando did.

The one page "Eerie's Monster Gallery: No 2 - The Vampire!" appears next, with art by Jay Taycee (actually Johnny Craig, using a pseudonym to hide his identity). This feature usually appeared in the inside front cover of Eerie, and would appear there permanently starting in the next issue.

The sixth story is "The Monument" by Alex Toth (art) and Goodwin (story). This story, which appears to be an unauthorized adaption of Ray Bradbury's "The Coffin" is about a design firm owner who convinces an aged architect build a house for him, by telling him that it will be his house. He kills him when it nears completion. Upon laying in his bed for the first time, he is killed by machinery in the house, which the architect had intended to be his tomb upon completion.

Last story is the cover story, "Full Fathom Fright" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of brothers are hired by an old man to find a treasure chest in the ocean depths and kill the old man once discovering it. Upon opening the chest however, a demon comes out and kills one of them, causing him to transform into a demon himself. One of the brothers survives and is put in an institution, but transforms into one of the demons upon being given a hot and cold bath shock treatment.

Great, great, issue, even for this period in Warren's history. The art is terrific on all these stories and the writing is quite good as well. Goodwin is able to put out 7 unique stories despite writing all 7 stories here. One of Eerie's best issues in my opinion.