Creepy 32

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Vampirella 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blazing Combat 2

With my first issue summary/review in about 2 years, I'll be covering the second issue of Blazing Combat. This issue's cover, by Frank Frazetta, is among the goriest published by Warren, featuring a soldier impaling another soldier with his bayonet while a corpse with a smoking bullet hole in his head lies in front of them. As typical for Blazing Combat, all stories in this issue are written by Archie Goodwin.

First up is "Landscape", drawn by Joe Orlando. This story is the most controversial story in the history of Warren Publishing and is typically brought up as the main reason why Blazing Combat ended up being cancelled. It takes place in Vietnam and features an old farmer dedicated to his rice fields. The Viet-Cong take charge of the village and his son joins them, but is killed during a battle with the American/South Vietnam forces that fight with the Viet-Cong near his farm, Another battle soon takes place and his wife is killed. More fighting takes place and spreads into his rice fields. As the Viet-Cong run into it, the Americans/South Vietnamese start setting the field ablaze. The farmer tries to stop them from from destroying his fields and is shot, killing him. Believing the story to show American troops killing innocent civilians, rumor has it that the American Legion and military pushed hard to prevent the magazine from reaching retailer's shelves and poor sales forced the cancellation of the magazine a few issues later. This is a very strong story and was enjoyable to read after hearing about it for years. While I would put "Survival" from the following issue ahead of it as the best story from Blazing Combat, this is as close to as good a story as you can get from this magazine.

Next is "Saratoga", with art by Reed Crandall. This story takes place during the revolutionary war, showing a battle between the Americans and the British. A heroic general leads the troops in battle and is revealed to be Benedict Arnold at the end of the story. A so-so story with an interesting twist at the end; overall my least favorite of the issue from a story standpoint (the art is very strong).

Third story is "Mig Alley", with art by Al McWilliams. This story takes place in 1953, during the Korean War. A fighter pilot's wingman, "Pappy" has a very successful career over nearly 100 missions. On their latest mission however Pappy's plane is damaged and he has to eject. This shakes him up enough that he screws up landing on his next mission and crashes his plane in the runway, killing him.

Fourth is "Face to Face", another story with art by Joe Orlando. This story takes place during the Spanish American war in the late 1800's. An American soldier is shot in the shoulder during the battle and then sent to deliver a message to the nearby colonel. He is pleased about the bragging rights he will have for his duty and war wounds. Along the way he captures a Spanish soldier, but is attacked by the soldier and the two fight hand to hand, ending with the American soldier bashing the Spanish soldier's head in with a rock. Following the ordeal, he no longer thinks the fighting to be enjoyable and worthy of glory.

Fifth is "Kasserine Pass", with art by Al Williamson and Angelo Torres. This story takes place in the African Desert during World War II. American soldiers within a Sherman tank are confident of their superiority to the Germans due to their advanced weaponry, but are surrounded by German panzers and are all killed.

Next is "Lone Hawk", with art by Alex Toth. This story acts as a historical account of the World War I Canadian fighter pilot William Bishop. The story discusses his first flight, then shows some of his various successful missions. In addition to his kills, the story points out the rarity of him making it out of the war alive unlike many other well known pilots during this era.

Next is the one page "Combat Quiz", with art by Angelo Torres.

The issue concludes with "Holding Action" by John Severin. This story takes place during the Korean War. A young soldier names Stewart is brought to the front lines and is extremely nervous about firing at the enemy soldiers. He does it after heavy pushing by his commanding officer. Stewart becomes obsessed with firing at the enemy, firing even after the battle is over, and later at Korean medics tagging the dead. When the battle ends he has to be dragged away kicking and screaming about how he needs to remain at his position.

Blazing Combat 1

After a very long wait Fantagraphics has finally released its Blazing Combat reprint book giving me the opportunity to finally read (and review) the remaining 3 issues of Blazing Combat that I don't own original copies of yet. Frank Frazetta provides the cover for this issue, something he'd do for each issue of this magazine. A good issue, but not at the level of issue 3 of this magazine, which I reviewed a while back.

First is "Viet Cong" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story, like the first story of each issue of this magazine was about the Vietnam War. This story focuses on the experiences of a lieutenant while in the war.

Next is "Aftermath!" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Taking place during the civil war, a southern soldier and northern soldier befriend each other while burying one of their fallen comrades. The two soon get in a fight however over who started the war and end up killing each other.

Third is "Flying Tigers!" by George Evans (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a group of pilots working for the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company and their adventures in the sky. One them are upset at the loss of life during their latest mission simply to protect a plane, although it ends up having their leader on it.

Fourth is "Cong View!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).A soldier is ordered to lead his troops through a mortar filled region during World War II to clear the way for another group of soldiers. He is hesitant to do so with his fatigued soldiers, but is forced to do so anyway. All his men end up dying during the mission. While more soldiers arrive and go through with their mission he just sits there and cries.

Fifth is "Cantigny!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a young soldier in World War I who is excited about facing German soldiers in battle but the regiment never comes across one. While heading through an abandoned city he finally comes across one as goes in an abandoned house to write a letter and ends up being killed by him.

Next is the one page Combat Quiz with art by Angelo Torres.

The sixth story is "Mad Anthony!" by Russ Jones, Tex Blaisdell and Maurice Whitman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). In a battle in 1771 an american soldier has one of his eyes stabbed by a british soldier's bayonet. Two years later he takes part in a battle at Stony Point where his side wins. He ends up encountering the very soldier who stabbed him two years earlier and gets his revenge on him by stabbing one of his eyes.

Last is "Enemy!" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). An angry sargeant during World War II kills a German soldier they capture, mistakenly thinking he killed a colleague when he mistakes the soldier's initials on a lighter for the initials of the colleague.

Eerie 81

Frank Frazetta provides the famous cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring a giant naked woman on the top of the Empire State Building, holding a gorilla in her hands (an obvious parody of King Kong). This cover was originally produced six years earlier when Warren was planning on publishing an adult magazine called "POW!". That magazine never came to be, so Warren held onto the cover for years, eventually using it here in February 1977. All of the stories in this issue are based on this cover.

First is "Goodbye, Bambi Boone" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Cary Bates (story). Bambi Boone is a giant sized actress who grew to a great size after an experiment to increase the size of her breasts went horribly wrong. Bambi is upset at people not taking her seriously in her roles, and when she takes part in a movie similar to King Kong she asks her manager to assist her in feeling actual pain when she is fired upon by planes during the shooting. The manager loads the planes with real bullets however and she is killed during the shooting. The manager knew that she was dying due to her great size, so he set up this up to have her killed.

Second is "Taking of Queen Bovine" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Queen Bovine of the title is a secret agent who takes responsibility for helping Gnik Gnok, a member of a chimp race that is planning on invading Earth. Thinking they are going to be wiped out, he defects to the human race to prevent the invasion from taking place. Bovine assists him and in order to protect him climbs a skyscraper where she is killed by the chimp invaders.

Third is "The Bride of Congo: The Untold Story" by Carmine Infantino & Gonzalo Mayo (story) and Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place after the original King Kong story. Amy, the woman captured by him is still obsessed with Kong, even after her death and even after getting married to a human man. She eventually finds out that King Kong didn't actually die, but is wounded and needs a blood transfusion. She volunteers but it ends up turning her into a giant size as well. She leaves and grabs onto her husband, who is dressed in an ape suit, heading to the Empire State Building. King Kong comes after her and the two leave to his home, to be happily ever after.

Fourth is "You're A Big Girl Now" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Except for the first and last pages, this story is in color. This story features Rachel, a girl who is born at a huge size and continues to grow larger and larger as she gets older. Lowery, a newspaper reporter befriends her when she is still a child. When she grows up she gets upset when she finds out he doesn't love her like she loves him. Fearful of her continuously growing size the military tries to destroy her and she goes on a rampage in New York city, looking for the Statue of Liberty, which she believes to be her mother. Many years later aliens find her body and realize that she grew so large that she ended up destroying the Earth.

Fifth is "Starchild" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Louise Jones & David Micheline (story). The 'Starchild' of the title is an artificially created giant woman who is sent to another planet with her normal sized brother to build a city. There she meets some apes that live nearby and befriends them. Her brother is ordered to either retrieve her or destroy her. Not wanting to harm her, he leaves her there, deciding to lie about her being destroyed.

Sixth is "The Giant Ape Suit" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). In this story it is revealed that King Kong was actually a giant robot. The brother of the man who controlled the robot seeks to build another one years later by finding the lab where it was built. He is betrayed by a pair of criminals that he was going to work with, and they head to the lab, where they find a robot of a giant naked woman. One of the criminals betrays the other and takes control of the robot, heading through the city and climbing a building before being knocked off and destroyed.

Last is "Golden Girl" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A company inspector arrives on a planet but quickly forgets her mission when she hears that there is a city of gold nearby. The men there bring her there, where the city is revealed to be a miniature version of New York City. When she heads into the city she is attacked by the miniature locals, sprayed with gold, and turned into their own version of the Statue of Liberty.

Vampirella 45

The cover aside, this is a tremendous issue of Vampirella, my pick for the overall best issue of the magazine ever produced. Cover dated September 1975, the cover is a montage of various covers including Enrich's covers for issues 17, 29 and 40, Sanjulian's cover for issue 38, Jose Gonzalez's cover for issue 19 and the background from Frank Frazetta's cover of Creepy 7. Extremely attractive artwork, and strong stories from all concerned make this a must have issue.

First is Vampirella in "Blood Wager" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Len Wein (story). This was Mayo's first story on Vampirella and probably the best art job he ever did for the character. This story takes place in a dream of Pendragon's as he lays in a hospital bed, dying of gunshot wounds (a single panel of him by the artis Zesar, from the next issue is included here). Vampirella and Adam have a fight, causing him to go back to an old lover, who brings him to a casino on an island called Lemondo. Conrad and Pendragon meanwhile think a friend of theirs has a cure for Vampirella's bloodlust, and they head to the same island. In actuality, the friend and the head of the casino are agents of Chaos. Vampirella and Adam's former lover are able to defeat them.

Second is "The Parable of the Hermits of Glastonbury Tor" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Bertrand, a scholar, comes to the town of Glastonbury. He heads to the Hermit's Abbey where he meets a beautiful woman to whom he makes love. The woman tells him she is life, and introduces him to the seven hermits of Glastonbury Tor. She tells him that he'll be given eternal life, that others who have come eventually chose death, but he can avoid that by choosing to marry her and always remaining faithful to her. He gladly does so, and the hermits also give him a gift of whatever he wants, so he tells them that no matter what they can never inflict death upon him. The years go by. He is happy for a while, but eventually becomes bored and leaves the abbey to sleep with women from the outside world. While his wife cannot kill him due to the deal with the hermits, she does cause him to fade from existence entirely.

Third is "Janis!" by Luis Garcia (art) and Victor Mora & Budd Lewis (story). This story appears in color, although the colorist is uncredited. Like many stories done by Garcia during this time period, this story was originally printed in Europe and appears as a reprint here. This story possesses in my opinion the most beautiful artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. A man comes across a statue of a beautiful woman in a Greek harbor. The woman, named Janis, vanished into the sea ten years ago. He sits down to play the guitar, and suddenly she appears. Janis brings her with him into the depths of the sea. All is alright at first until two humanoid monsters appear and carry him off with them.

Fourth is "A Hero Made of Wishes" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A kingdom is treated harshly by their lord, Cervantes. One of the townfolk, Chaucer, talks to the priest of the town, saying that they should summon a champion using the book of Asmodeus, which the priest believes to be evil. Later, when Chaucer's lover and the priest's niece is taken captive by Cervantes, the priest agrees to the plan. The townfolk summon their champion, a powerful looking knight who acts based on the will of the people. Their will to topple Cervantes causes the champion to charge towards Cervantes' castle and kill him and all his men. The townfolk are pleased, but when they start thinking about who will now be leader, their greed to be leader causes the champion to kill them all.

Fifth is "The Winter of Their Discontent" by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is heavily influenced by the story "The Wolves at War's End" from issue 43. An english soldier returns home from the war against Holland in the 1600's to find his hometown heavily in ruin, ravaged by the plague. Being told that his parents have died from the plague, he searches for his sister, but finds her among a pile of corpses being buried by the side of the road. He returns to the town to look for his lover and finds her family being blamed for the plague, with her father being thrown on a fire by a mob. After they escape, she tells him there is nothing worth living for and that he should kill her. He does so, then kills himself.

Last is "There Are No Children in Hungry Hollow, Tennessee" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man comes to the town of the title to write a book. He finds it quite odd that there are no children whatsoever in the town. Everyone he talks to tells him that they are sent away, but their stories contradict one another, causing him to suspect something. He changes his plans to instead write his book about the town, but when he tries to mail it out, the town postman, who inspects all the mail stops it from going out. He is confronted by him, the local store owner and the boarding house host who reveal to him that the town reverted to cannibalism afer the war. After revealing this secret, they make him their next meal.

Creepy 91

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

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

Second is "Creeps" by John Severin & Wally Wood (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 78. This story features an accountant who is bugged by homeless people and the more destitute in society, calling them "Creeps". Eventually it becomes an obsession to him and he starts killing them. It goes even further when he thinks his mother is a creep herself and kills her. Only this time someone sees it, so he has to flee and hide on the streets. As the days go by he takes on the appearance of a homeless person himself, then ends up killing himself when he sees his reflection. Very good story from Goodwin and an interesting art job from Wood and Severin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 144

A reprinted Frank Frazetta cover from Creepy 5 is used for the cover of this issue of Creepy, cover dated January 1983.

The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is from Creepy 64. The story takes place in a graveyard where a group of rotting corpses get out of their graves in order to switch grave sites with some more well to do deceased people. Along the way they come across a duo of grave robbers who they mistake as being among them and bury them too, alive.

Second is "For the Sake of Your Children!" by Jaime Brocal (art) and E.A. Fedory (story), from Creepy 45. A group of peasents dislike a nearby Baron, who is revealed to have vampires as ancestors. A mob gathers and goes to the Baron's castle after one of the children is found dead. Inside they kill the Baron, putting a stake through his heart. However a group of female vampires within the castle attack the mob, and when they return to the village, all of them are now vampires themselves.

Third is "It" by Tom Sutton (story & art), from Creepy 53. This story features the corpse of Timothy Foley coming back from the grave and traveling around searching for someone, scaring to death everyone who comes across him. By the end it is revealed that he was simply looking for his lost teddy bear. Some interesting panel design by Tom Sutton here, some pages have as many as 16 panels! It would eventually be used for a recurring series in both Creepy and Eerie, although Timothy Foley (who is actually the corpse of a nine year old boy here) would be made into a much older character in the later installments.

Fourth is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 76. A vampire kills a woman who is a lover of his. Another lover of the woman discovers that he is a vampire and comes after him, and chases him, eventually striking a stake through his heart. Unfortunately hundreds of years later in the modern era someone removes the stake, causing the vampire to rise again.

Fifth is "The Ghouls" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story), from Creepy 61. This story is about a pair of grave robbers who encounter a group of vampires in a graveyard. It ends up that one of the robbers set up the other, making a deal with the vampires to feast on his body, as he's a ghoul who will get the body after the blood is drained from it. Wessler's story here reminds me of his EC work from approximately 20 years earlier.

Sixth is "Berenice" with art by Isidro Mones and adaption by Rich Margoulos. This story, from Creepy 70, is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. This story tells of a man who is obsessed with his cousin Berenice, whom he plans on marrying. Berenice gets sick and the protagonist starts obsessing over her teeth. After her death he digs up her corpse and tears all her teeth out.

Last is "The Terror Stalked Heiress", from Creepy 72, featuring art by Jose Gual and written by Carl Wessler. This story is part of the series 'It', whose original story is referenced earlier in this issue. The series stars a corpse named Timothy Foley who comes back from the grave to help his niece Jill. Oddly for some reason in this story the family name of Foley is changed to Redey. Jill gets attacked by some monsters that live in a mirror. It arrives and saves her, and they cover the mirror with a blanket so the monsters can't get out. Later some men come to the house to kill her so they can take over her home, and It arrives once again and saves her, while the monsters from the mirror kill the criminals.

Eerie 124

This issue of Eerie, cover dated September 1981 features a reprint of Frank Frazetta's cover from Creepy 7. Great cover, but alas, its a reprint, one that has nothing whatsoever to do with the sci-fi content of this issue.

First is Cagim in "The Sea of Red" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Cagim finds a chain within Merlin's clothes which directs him to the British Treasury. There he meets Cecily, a woman who is unaffected by the spells of Vivien, but also oddly enough cannot be seen by anyone in society! Despite this, she is convinced that she should report on Cagim to
the news (which makes no sense since how would they know she exists?). Eventually Vivien's minions end up capturing her. Yet again, a rather lame story, and the worst material in this issue.

Next is "Pyramid of the Black Sun: Orka", a new series from Luis Bermejo (art) and Jim
Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). This story was originally printed in Europe, and is
reprinted here. Orka, an ambassador of the United Stellar Republic travels through a desert
on the planet Arkaran in search of a man named Ulzan who is member of a Alliance of Light
that was rebelling. Ulzan ends up being Blekos, the person in charge there, whom Orka is
still searching for at the end of the story. A somewhat interesting story, heavily influenced
by the book Dune, with the desert setting, sand worms that appear in the story, and the name
of the planet, Arkaran (based on the planet Arakis in Dune).

Third is "God of Light", the finale of the Born of Ancient Vision series. Art is still by Bob
Morello, with story by Budd Lewis. The demons summon a large demon, Baligorn, then challenge Mah' Sess to fight him, saying only he will die if he agrees to fight the demon one on one. Mah' Sess does so, after his people prepare their weapons for battle. Mah' Sess defeats
Baligorn, then there is a large battle in which his people destroy the demons for good. Mah'
Sess then ascends into space, to seek his place in the universe. A fairly interesting series,
particularly on the art side of things. Alas, this is it for it, as well as it for Morello,
who'd do no more Warren work.

The issue concludes with Haggarth in "The Sacred Scroll" by Victor de la Fuente (story &
art). Haggarth meets with Borin, the very man whom he was asked to kill. Haggarth doesn't
want to kill him, but a remark causes Borin to attack him. They stop fighting and Haggarth
tells Borin to take responsibility as leader and stand up to King Thall. Haggarth's friend
meanwhile searches for his treasure and finds a jade statue and blade, but is offered very
little for it when they return to town. Not that good a segment this time, luckily this series isn't asked to prop up the entire issue so thats okay, for now.

Creepy 92

Frank Frazetta's cover from Eerie 23 is used for this issue of Creepy. One of his best, if not his best cover for Warren, although its annoying to see it reprinted here instead of having a new one. This issue is cover dated October 1977. Aside from the fact that the cover's a reprint, this is an extremely good issue.

First is "A Toast to No Man's Memory" by John Severin (art) and Len Wein (story). A group of pilots, including a young newbie, Babbit agree to save a bottle of wine for the last one of them that lives. The pilots slowly start dying in battle, much due in part to Babbit's cowardice. Eventually the last one of them is shot by Babbit himself when he threatens getting him court martialed. Babbit drinks the wine, but it ends up that the last of the pilots poisoned it, so it kills him.

Second is "Mrs. Sludge and the Pickled Octopus Raid" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A young man comes across a cabin in the dead of winter, away from civilization. The people inside tell him of Octopus-like aliens whom they found and killed, which they found to taste quite good. The young man runs off to tell someone about the discovery of alien life. It ends up that the people in the cabin are actually the aliens though, and are anxious to find more humans to eat.

Third is "Instinct" by Richard Corben (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A king marries a beautiful young woman from an odd country of people. He desires to have a son greatly, but she bears him only daughters. Years go by and she is pregnant yet again, but starts acting strangely, biting their kids. Her attendant tells the King that in their country, mothers kills their children. When the King tries to stop her, he dies of a heart attack. She is banished from the kingdom as soon as the son is born, who ends up being born as a rat! This story was eventually done back in 1970 and for some unknown reason was held back for seven years.

Fourth is "Towards High Places" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story tells of twin princesses during the Egyptian empire, Euthesus and Tanakus. As the older of the two, Euthesus is set to become queen upon their father's death. Tanakus falls in love with a slave, which Euthesus kills. Euthesus wants her body to be undisturbed forever, and Tanakus helps her set up a chamber in her pyramid to do so using the knowledge taught to her by her former lover. When Euthesus tries to trap her within the pyramid however, Tanakus tricks her and rules Egypt in her place while her sister is buried alive. Some very nice art and a good story that ties in to the reprint cover.

Fifth is "The Executioner" by Russ Heath (art) and Heath & Cary Bates (story). This story features a hitman, Tony Desoto who kills a big time mobster, and quickly rises through the ranks because of it. Eventually he decides to retire and is hired by his boss to do one last hit. It was a set up, but he is still able to get out alive. He goes to a prosecutor to try to get immunity, but that prosecutor is also working for the mob, and kills him.

Sixth is "Goddess in a Kingdom of Trolls" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story tells of a human woman who was brought up by trolls. Seeking a human lover, she wanders away from their kingdom one day and meets a hunter in the woods. Hymie, a troll wizard puts on a magic hat that makes him look like a handsome prince. He casts a spell on the hunter then finds the woman, trying to get her to fall in love with him. Hymie later meets a mysterious beautiful woman in the woods wearing a hat. When the truth is revealed, he helps our heroine find the hunter and discovers that the other woman he met is a fellow troll who was using the same type of spell as he. A very good story and some extremely good art from Maroto.

Seventh is "Everybody and His Sister" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This issue's weakest story, it features a man who finds many people suddenly showing up where ever he goes. This includes at work, in a restaurant and even at his apartment. When they all run in an elevator with him it crashes, but when he awakens in the hospital he is told he was the only one there. When he is about to be operated on though, all the pople suddenly show up again.
Last is "The Generations of Noah" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). An ark-like spaceship starts traveling from planet to planet, saving a male and female from each planet. Its leader is a frog like alien similar to Noah who makes himself appears like an old man. When the ark comes to Earth though and picks up a young couple, everything goes wrong. First 'Noah' is killed by the father of the female human, then the ark is blown up by missiles just as it is about to leave Earth.

Creepy 83

This issue of Creepy is cover dated October 1976. It features the first instance in Warren history where a reprint cover was used, originally from Creepy 15. Apparantely what happened was that Richard Corben was working on a cover for his interior story "In Deep", but it didn't get finished in time, so this reprint was used instead. That cover would eventually be used for Creepy 101. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Strange, Incurable Haunting of Phineas Boggs" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an author who moves into a house that appears to be haunted by the ghost of an old actor, Phineas Boggs. Boggs was a star in the silent era, but the talking era forced him to because a stuntman. His ghost causes robin hood, a knight and a horseman to appear, but none end up actually harming our protagonist and it actually ends up helping the author with his work.

Next is "Process of Elimination" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man comes home to see his family, appearing quite nervous about what he's soon going to do. After dinner, he murders his wife, then kills his two young children too. He then sleeps with a coworker of his, and kills her when she asks him too. The final page reveals why he was doing this, as a nuclear holocaust occurs. Certainly one of the biggest shock endings in Warren history, worthy enough of an entry in the Warren companion's top 25 stories list.

Third is "Country Pie" by Berni Wrightson & Carmine Infantino (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This was Infantino's first Warren story. He had been publisher over at DC, but was fired, and came here to Warren afterwards. Warren's fastest artist, he very quickly turned out a ton of stories, although it should be noted that he generally did the pencils only which is part of the reason why he finished things so fast. This story features a psychic who assists the police in catching a killer. At the same time a middle aged man picks up a teenage girl and her younger brother, who ends up being the killer. They are able to save the man before the two of them kill him.

Fourth is "In Deep" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story tells of a husband and wife whose yacht sinks. The two of them are stranded in the water with just an inner tube to keep them afloat. Over the night the wife drowns, leaving the husband on his own. To his horror seagulls and soon sharks arrive trying to eat her corpse. He fights them off as best he can, but can't stop them all. When he's finally rescued all thats left is her heart, which he grasps tightly in his hands. An extremely good story, one of Creepy's best ever, with some extremely good color artwork.

Fifth is "Harvey Was a Sharp Cookie" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an old man who loves only two things in love, the amusement park he owns and his daughter. When he refuses to sell, the prospective buyer brutally mutilates his daughter. He then tries to take over the amusement park through a quirk in the fire code law. Our protagonist decides to boobey trap the amusement park with razor blades and when the prospective buyer arrives he ends up dying because of it.

Sixth is "Now You See It..." by Al Williamson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story was originally intended for the Marvel science fiction magazine "Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction" but ended up appearing here instead since that magazine was cancelled. It features a man who constantly brings himself and his wife to fake prehistoric realms using a virtual reality device. She dislikes it intensely, so he brings her some place for real which still fails to convince her, and that ends up being fake too. She's happy enough with it being a fake that she finally grows warm to using the device. The main character's appearance is quite obviously based on Williamson himself.

Last is "The Last Superhero" by Carmine Infantino (art) and Cary Bates (story). This story is unique in that it was the sole story Infantino drew for Warren where there wasn't an inking job by someone else. Its kind of hard to be able to tell for sure, but I believe that this story is pencil only. It features a superhero in a society where being a superhero is illegal. Eventually he is surrounded in the sky and apparantely destroyed. Yes, Infantino was a hero expert with his experience at DC, but I question why this completely non-horror story appears here in Creepy.

Creepy 97

This issue is a "Monsters!" special issue from May 1978. The cover is a reprint of Frazetta's cover for Eerie 3.

First is "Momma is a Vampire" by Leo Duranona (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A woman becomes a vampire thanks to her cousin, who is one herself. After she kills her cousin and beheads her, she is told by a doctor that she can be made human again through a blood transfusion from her husband. Alas, it doesn't work, and he is forced to kill her. Duranona and Cuti would reunite for the excellent vampire series 'Honor & Blood' in Eerie roughly around the same time as this issue.

Next is "The Wax Werewolf" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A detective investigating a werewolf is dating the local librarian. In order to defeat the werewolf, he is assisted by a witch who creates a wax version of the creature, which he'll be able to kill by stabbing the wax figure. He does so, but the werewolf ends up being his girlfriend. Upset, he throws the wax figure in the fire, but that causes her corpse to burst aflame and the fire ends up killing him too.

Third is "Black Death" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (sotry). This story is a murder mystery surrounding black people dying in a southern town. The local KKK leader is suspected, but ends up dying as well. It ends up that the murders were caused in order to summon an army of zombies, and the story's protagonist is set to become one himself as the story ends.

Fourth is "Snaegl or How I Conquered the Snail that Ate Tokyo" by Martin Salvador (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a giant snail that comes out of the Ocean near Tokyo and wreaks havoc. Various people, such as a stripper who claims to be a princess from an island that worships the snail to a boy possessing uranium think they are responsible for its arrival and being able to drive it away. In the final panel a bunch of snails arrive in other countries and this time destroy everything.

Fifth is "Dragon Lady" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An old man tells of a story of a princess whose mother got her turned into a dragon because she was jealous of the attention given to her by the Emperor. The old man tells a warrior that a reward is offered for defeating the dragon, and gives the warrior magic powder he can use to change it back into the princess. The warrior does so, and makes love to her, but she turns back into the dragon and kills him. In actuality, the powder caused him to hallucinate; as the story was all a lie, all made up to feed the dragon, the old man's pet.

Last is "Sisters" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story contains two parallel stories featuring a human girl and alien girl facing extreme mental anguish. It ends up that both had twin sisters that were stillborn, and that the two are connected to each other as the alien is the human girl's dead sister and vice versa. Both girls end up killing themselves, reunited when reincarnated as twins on yet another alien planet.

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 6

Frank Frazetta provides a terrific, very dark cover for this issue of Creepy. Roy Krenkel draws the frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore", which features the Mummy's Curse.

First is "The Thing in the Pit!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Larry Ivie (story). An excellent story, this features a man whose car crashes in the woods. He is helped by a pair of blind freaks who bring him to their house and warn him of 'The Thing in the Pit'. Curious, he finds 'The Thing' to be a beautiful, normal looking woman. The freaks throw him in the pit but when he tries to get out using some rope, he realizes its actually the tentacles of the Thing, which strangles him.

Second is "Thumbs Down!" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne T. Murphy (story). Murphy was Archie Goodwin's wife. This is her sole story though for Warren. The story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to come back from the dead to take revenge. This story would probably be reprinted by Warren over the years more than any other story.

Third is "Adam Link in Business!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam is about to be executed for the murder of Dr. Link, but at the last second his friend Jack Hall gets him saved because of a witness changing her story. Adam goes into business as a scientific consultant, making lots of money. He takes on a secretary, Kay, who is Jack's girlfriend. Jack wants to marry her but she refuses, as she's in love with Adam! Adam flees from society to avoid her.

Fourth is "The Cask of Amontillado!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), an adaption of the classic Poe story. The story features a man who encloses a colleague of his in a brick tomb. Goodwin adds a new ending to the story, where the protagonist, now an old man, returns to the scene of the crime and is killed when the chamber floods and the corpse of his colleague pulls him under water.

Fifth is "The Stalkers" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man goes to a psychologist, telling him of these bad dreams he is having where he is confronted by aliens that look like prune faced people. The psychologist reveals that he's an alien himself, and that our protagonist is one as well, who had been on Earth in human form so long that he forgot who he was.

Sixth is "Abominable Snowman!" by John Severin (art) and Bill Pearson (story). A group of four explorers search for adominable snowmen in the himalyas. Soon two of the men are dead. The other two set explosions, which go off as some of the creatures come. One of the men in their tent thinks he's safe, only to find that one is in the tent with him!

Last is "Gargoyle" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel (story). A man seeks to find the power to turn stone into gold. He meets a mysterious dwarf who is the responsible for the deaths of multiple powerful men. He gets the dwarf drunk, who reveals how to make gold out of stone, so he pours it on a stone gargoyle. Only the dwarf actually told him how to turn the stone into life, and the gargoyle kills him!

Creepy 89

This issue of Creepy is an all war special issue. Alas, the stories here aren't at the quality of the Blazing Combat days, which would have made this quite the issue. The cover is a reprint of Frank Frazetta's cover for Blazing Combat 1.

First is "Blood Brothers" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The issue's best story, it is about a soldier who meets another soldier, Voper among the dead of a destroyed fort. Voper travels with him, but constantly dissappears and appears fine after being shot by our protagonist. At the end of the story it is revealed that Voper was dead the entire time and was actually being eaten by our protagonist.

Second is "The Windmill" by Leo Duranona (art) and Lou Rossin (story). This short story, at only 5 pages, features a hunchback in the days before World War II who fights to save his country of Liechenstein from the Nazis.

Third is "Angel of Jaipur" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a young pilot flying a plane who goes back in time and manages to save his father from a military assault. Despite there being some sceptics, the gun marks on his plane are proof enough that it really happened.

Fourth is "The Hungry Dragon" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A soldier comes across a village in Vietnam where he finds some young children which he attempts to care for. He heads out and kills some enemy soldiers to find food for them, but upon returning finds them eating the remains of some dead soldiers, causing them to kill them... in his mind. In actuality, he only harmed one of them, who ended up becoming his wife years later, but in his mind he is convinced he killed them all.

Fifth is "The Door-Gunner" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Larry Hama & Cary Bates (story). This story is drawn in pencil only. It features a veteran back from Vietnam who is convinced that he is still there at the war, resulting in murderous rages from him. In the end it ends up that he's in a mental hospital.

Last is "Coggin's Army" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Similar to the last story, this story takes place in an institution, where an old general, his wheelchair bound friend and others are convinced they are still at war.

Creepy 4

Frank Frazetta tackles the cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a man confronted by a werewolf. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Al Williamson.

First is "Monster Rally" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A mad scientist assembles a large group of monsters, all in order to find a formula that will give him eternal life. Eventually a town mob attacks him when one of his monsters, a vampire, escapes and attacks the town. The scientist frees his monsters, who kill him rather than attack the mob. The entire castle burns to the ground. There is only one survivor, a small baby... Uncle Creepy!

Next is "Blood and Orchids" by Al McWilliams and Archie Goodwin (story). A doctor assists in a murder investigation where multiple people have been found with their blood drained. He suspects it is because of a countess he met who doesn't use mirrors, brought over native soil for her plants, and doesn't go out during the day. He naturally thinks she is a vampire, but it is actually her blood drinking plants that are the culprit.

Third is "The Damned Thing" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), an adaption of the Ambrose Bierce story. A group of men gather around in a cabin due to the death of the cabin's owner. One of the men, a friend of the murder victim, tells a story about how he believes the man was killed by a creature that is a color that the human eye cannot see. None of them believe him, but as they leave, they are attacked by the creature. A very good adaption (with a revised ending) by Goodwin. The 'Damned Thing' is very scary when it finally is seen.

Fourth is "Moon City!" by Al McWilliams (art) and Larry Engleheart (story). This story tells of a settlement made on the moon. One of the workers who constructs the settlement returns to Earth, gets married, and heads to the moon with his wife. But there they are attacked and killed by hungry dogs who were on the moon all by themselves.

Fifth is "Curse of the Full Moon!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A rich man, Henry, has his coach attacked by a wolf, and his driver killed, He encounters an old gypsy woman who tells him that it is a werewolf, and he is to be the creature's next victim. Henry plans to hunt the werewolf with his two hunting buddies and when the werewolf attacks him, he kills it with a silver bladed knife. Because he was bitten however, he becomes a werewolf himself and his killed by his friends.

Last is "The Trial of Adam Link" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam is turned back on by Dr. Link's nephew, who is able to get him put on trial rather than being immediately destroyed. Adam is villified by the masses and torn apart by the press, except for a single writer, Jack Hall. Adam saves multiple peoples lives around the time of and after the trial, but is found guilty and sentenced to death.

Creepy 7

This issue of Creepy features a classic cover by Frank Frazetta of a werewolf fighting a vampire. A very strong issue, not a single bad story from an art or story standpoint here.

First is "The Duel of the Monsters!" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A vampire finds that he has competition in the town he's in, a werewolf. The werewolf knows of him and plants a crucifix in his coffin. The vampire plots to get rid of the werewolf, thinking he knows who he is. He waits at the werewolf's house and kills him, only to find that the werewolf was actually someone else. The man he was suspecting was the werewolf appears, revealing it was a trap to get the two of them to eliminate each other, as he is a ghoul and wants no competition either.

Second is "Image of Bluebeard" by Joe Orlando (art) and Bill Pearson (story). A mysterious assassin plaugues the countryside. Meanwhile a young woman marries an older man who cares for her, but forces her to stay on his estate in the woods. He has a cabin near their house that he refuses her to go into. After finding out that he's married three times before and discovering a book about bluebeard in his library, she becomes convinced that he's the killer and stabs him just as he is about to bring her into the cabin. But it ends up that the killer had already been captured and the cabin was just filled with animals he had gathered to keep her company.

Third is the one page "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Frank Frazetta (art), his final interior artwork for Warren.

Fourth is "Rude Awakening!" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is about a man who keeps having dreams of a glasses wearing man attacking him with a knife. He's so freaked out by them that he falls out a window and is brought to the hospital, where he faces none other than the glassed man!

Fifth is "Drink Deep!" by John Severin (art) and Otto Binder (story, as Eando Binder). A wealthy ship owner brings people on tours of the sea, telling them of his ancestor who was a pirate. He is very cruel to his crew, causing them all to quit. He soon is able to gain a new crew, but it ends up that they are actually dead, killed by his ancestor, and they cause his ship to sink, leaving him at the bottom of the ocean with his ancestor's victims.

Sixth is "The Body-Snatcher!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), an adaption of the story by Robert Louis Stevenson. A young doctor joins another doctor who is responsible for teaching students about autopsies. He soon finds from that they are forced to revert to digging up corpses to get bodies, or buying them from other grave robbers. One such grave robber becomes quite a nuisance and is eventually killed by the older doctor and used as one of their patients. But when they dig up a new corpse to use from the cemetary, it ends up being him, and he comes back to life to get revenge.

Seventh is "Blood of Krylon!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A vampire, who is finding it harder to find victims in a futuristic society decides to head to the colony planet of Krylon, where he thinks that it will be much easier to find victims. On the way there he kills all his fellow ship travelers, using them to feed himself. When he arrives at Krylon however, he soon dies when he finds out that the night is a lot shorter there.

Last is "Hot Spell!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A devil worshipper is captured by the townfolk and set on fire at the stake. Before he dies however, he curses them. Years pass and his descendants all pass away. The town however has multiple people who die due to fire. The townfolk think that an artist from out of town is a descendent of him, so they set his house on fire, killing his wife, then kill him too. But the ghost of the devil worshipper appears, saying that they'be become as evil as he, and sets them aflame.

Vampirella 31

This issue was publicized as Frank Frazetta's return to Warren, although in actuality it was simply a reprinting of a cover that had been used for the movie "Luana", which is adapted inside. I've seen images on the web before of what was supposedly the original cover for this issue (see below), which is by Enrich and features Vampi by the Eiffel Tower. For whatever reason that cover was never used, although Vampi's face from that cover was used in the top left hand corner of the cover for Vampi's portrait for the next half a dozen issues or so starting with issue 32.

First is "The Betrothed of the Sun-God!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the prior one, where Vampi is the lover of a Sun God that can only appear once a month, but kills anyone who even appears to be attracted to Vampirella. At the same time Pendragon receives a message from a long lost relative and the two of them travel to Paris. The 'relative' is actually a con artist who cons people into putting her in their will, killing them soon afterwards. When a handsome poet writes a poem for Vampi the Sun God desires to burn the entire city of Paris to the ground, but Vampi convinces him instead to simply strike the con artist's house with lightning, which kills her and her entire group of henchmen. Vampi then decides to break things off with the Sun God. A very good story to start off the issue with. Gonzalez's art is very impressive.

Next is Pantha in her second story, "Family Ties" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In this story Pantha goes home to see her boyfriend but he could care less what she has to say and after slapping her she turns into a panther and kills him. She then goes home to see her 'parents', asking them who her real parents are so she can find out what is happening to her. They instead beat her, so she once again turns into her panther form and kills the both of them.

Third is "The Truth!" by Fernando Fernandez (art & story). In Spain a captain in the military is brought before a group of judges, accused of Satanism and the murder of his wife and her lover. The captain tells of how he returned from the war to find his wife acting strangely, his sons sent away and only two mysterious servants there. That night while sleeping with his wife he is drugged, but wakes up hours later to find her gone. He heads to the basement where he thinks he'll find her with a lover, but instead finds her and her two servants eating a corpse. Shocked by what he sees, he kills the two servants and chases his wife through the woods, but she escapes in a flying saucer which flies away. None of the judges believe him and sentence him to death in the bonfire. The strongest story of the issue, with amazing art by Fernandez and a very spooky atmosphere. Whether the story the captain is telling is the truth or not is unknown. The inclusion of the alien aspect on the second to last page is quite odd though, something Fernandez would do again in the story 'The Whitfield Contract' in issue 42.

Fourth is "The Woodlik Inheritance!" by Richard Corben (art & story). A woman returns to the home she grew up in in Maine, where she finds that her mother has passed away. Her brother is acting very strange, telling her that the father they never knew is alive and that he has been eating only raw meat the last few weeks. They head to the basement, where they find their father, a horrific monster, who is eating the corpse of their mother. The brother battles the father and they both end up dying. The sister departs the house, which burns to the ground, eating what is left of her brother. A pretty good, odd, story, although the color is a little too dark at times.

Yet another solo story is up next, this time by Jose Bea, with "The Strange, Incurable Phobia of Mad Pierre Langlois!". 'Mad' Pierre is a man who is both afraid of and absolutely despises flowers. This is due to his youth, where his step mother showed him no love, instead paying all attention to her flowers. She then told him that her flowers would curse him until the day he dies. The curse finally comes to fruition when his son is born and ends up being a half human, half plant freak.

Last is "Luana" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), an adaption of the film of the same name. A group of archeologists in Africa are attacked by a group of African tribesmen. Only one of the men, named George, survives, when Luana, a beautiful woman living in the jungle comes and saves him, healing him from the poison arrows that struck him. Returning to civilization, he meets a woman, Isabelle Saxon who is searching for her father, who crashed in the jungle years before with his wife and Isabelle's half-sister (who is actually Luana). An old friend of her fathers, who is involved in drugs with the tribesmen becomes involved, and seeks to kill them, but is outsmarted by Luana, who leads George and Isabelle to the plane crash, where they find a diary that tells the truth about her father's friend, who ends up dying when he struggles with the tribe leader he was allied with.

Creepy 9

Posting another issue today to make up for missing yesterday.

This classic issue of Creepy features a cover by Frank Frazetta featuring a swordsman fighting off 3 vampire creatures. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Roy Krenkel.

First is "Dark Kingdom!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A Spartan, Argo, finds himself in hell, battling various winged creatures, snakes and others. He's able to escape from Hades and live, with a scar on his back as a souvenier. As usual, great art from Morrow.

Second is "The Castle on the Moor" by Johnny Craig (story & art, credited to Jay Taycee). A group of tourists in a castle find themselves under attack by a werewolf, the son of the castle's owner. Soon only two are left, but are able to kill the werewolf with a silver bullet. One of the survivors reveals himself a ghoul however, and kills the last remaining person so he can eat her.

Third is "Adam Link's Vengeance" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). This story continues from the prior one, where Adam was thrown off a cliff by Eve, who was possessed by a helmet she was wearing. Adam makes it to civilization, gets repaired, then takes on Eve in a new robot body. He defeats her, but ends up killing her. The man possessing her falls off a cliff soon afterwards.

Fourth is "Overworked" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story, which was Wood and Adkin's Creepy debut is about a comic book artist who is finds himself plauged by the monsters from the stories he creates. He tries to stop, but keeps getting more jobs and finds himself in horrific situations. Eventually he becomes trapped within his own strip.

Fifth is the second part of "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is a continuation from a story started in the prior issue. A man who had sat in Dracula's grave becomes Dracula himself. The story surrounds a number of men pursuing him, who eventually are successful in destroying him.

Sixth is "Out of Time" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A mugger kills his victim, and is under pursuit from the police. He manages to escape using a portal which brings him to the 1700's. A man there tells him that he created the portal and wants to switch places with him. They do so, but our protagonist finds himself in just as bad a position as he's burned at the stake for witchcraft, which the person he replaced had been performing.

Last is "The Spirit of the Thing" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). It features a professor who hypnotizes a student of his, resulting in his spirit leaving his body. The professor then steals the student's body, as his is about to die. The student's spirit, now bodiless, steals the professor's corpse from the graveyard and uses it to brutally beat to death his own body (with the professor's spirit) until the professor is forced to leave. Outside of Collectors Edition from the next issue, Ditko's best story for Warren.