Eerie 121

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 39

A whopping four artists' Warren debuts highlight this issue of Creepy. The art is by Basil Gogos. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Evil Eye!" by Clif Jackson (art) and Richard Grose (story).

First story is "Where Satan Dwells..." by Sal Trapani (art) and Al Hewetson (story). This story is a rarity, it actually stars Uncle Creepy himself! Uncle Creepy, getting bored of just telling stories seeks to find an adventure of his own. He comes across a bookstore where the bookkeeper gives him a book with the same title as this story. He reads the book and suddenly finds himself in a position where he has to save the bookkepper and his family from the evil spirit Groton. It ends up being a dream, and the bookkeeper ends up being Cousin Eerie!

Second is "C.O.D. - Collect on Death!" by Dave Cockrum (art, his debut) and Dave Wood (story). A man makes a deal with the devil to spurn death, but in exchange he must kill someone each day. If he misses even a single day, he will die himself. This eventually forces him to kill his own fiance when he loses track of time due to her. Her brother leads him to a desert to kill him. He does so, but is told that he's so far away from society there's no way he'll be able to kill someone else within a day, which results in his ultimate demise.

Third is "The Water World", featuring the debut of artist Pablo Marcos. The story is written by Buddy Saunders. A trio of astronauts crash on a water filled world and drift aimlessley on a raft over very clear water. Soon two are dead and the last remaining one fishes using the remains of one of the others. This catches a fish, but one so huge that it ends up eating him!

"Death by the Wizard" with art and story by Pat Boyette is next. Not as good a story as usual from the usually excellent Boyette. It features the Wizard Merlin who is facing his own demise due to a woman he was with. He is turned into a tree by her.

Fifth is "Harvest of Horror!" by Frank Brunner (art) and Phil Seuling (story). This story interestingly enough features three different endings, surrounding a man who is on the run, finding a scarecrow in a field. A rather interesting concept, surprised that Warren didn't use it more often.

Sixth is "The Dragon Prow!" with Richard Bassford (art, his debut) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features a serf who wishes for freedom so he tries to steal a horse and escape, but he is captured and put aboard a boat as a slave. A sea storm causes the ship to crash and he thinks he finally has his freedom only to realize that he died in the crash.

Last is the debut of Gary Kaufman, in "Mad Jack's Girl". The Jack of the title is a gang leader who does a lot of bad deeds. His girlfriend tries to steer him right but can't do it. Eventually she gathers up corpses of his victims then kills him and sets him up in a dinner setting with them.

Eerie 30

A funny cover for this issue, by Basil Gogos, featuring a stalking mummy being pulled apart by a boy behind him! This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: BEM!" by Dan Adkins. The art for this story is an obvious swipe from Adkin's mentor, Wally Wood, from the cover of the EC comic Weird Fantasy #27.

First up is "The Entail" by Pat Boyette (story & art). A young man is invited to a town run by a Baron, who offers him eternal life if he becomes a king, working under his influence. The young man refuses since the drink the Baron gave him already gave him eternal life and he has no reason to be loyal to him. The Baron has his minions eat him, and he is turned into a scarecrow! Pat Boyette was a consistently good artist and writer, and this story is no exception to that trend.

Next is "Mirror, Mirror" by Frank Bolle (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story stars 'October Weir', a recurring character that appeared in this issue and the next one. It features him solving a case regarding a man who was killed by a demon. His travels bring him and his wife into a mirror to a seperate world where things are backwards. An okay story, but not great.

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

Next is "I, Werewolf" by Ken Barr (story & art). The story features a man picked up by gypsies who was turned into a werewolf by a vampire. He battles the vampire while he's a werewolf and manages to defeat him. A segment of this story seems highly influenced by Frank Frazetta's cover to issue 7 of Creepy.

"In Close Pursuit" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Gordon Matthews (story) is about a man who made a lot of money using cheap material to build a skyscraper and got it blamed on his partner, resulting in him getting off scott free. However he ends up being pursued by someone after getting off a bus and falls to his death while running from him. Only it ends up that the man meant no harm in the first place.

The cover story is "The Return of Amen-Tut!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Don Glut (story). A mummy is excavated and brought into a museum. He comes back to life and seeks to commit murder, but the boy of one of his prospective victims pulls the wrappings off of him, reducing him to dust! Hilarious ending to this story.

Last is "The Creation" by Carlos Garzon (art) and Doug Moench (story). Yet another one of Warren's countless Frankenstein-influenced stories, this one isn't any more original then the others. A doctor seeks to create life, has a hunchbacked minion kill a former assistant, only for the assistant's brain to end up in his creation and kill him. Nothing special here, although the art is nice.

Creepy 26

This issue features one of the first reprinted covers by Warren (a practice which would become very common in the early 1980s), Basil Gogos's cover of Famous Monsters #20, featuring Lon Chaney from London After Midnight. As with all issues from this era, this is about half reprints, half new stories. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is by an uncredited Tony Williamsune.

Up first is "Stranger in Town" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story). The art is miscredited to Reed Crandall. This was one of the first issues of Creepy I ever owned, and when I saw this story credited to Reed Crandall I initially was quite shocked at how much his art had changed since his EC days! A few minutes later through the contents page was able to easily tell that it was not him. Anyway, this is a pretty good story, about a stranger coming to a town and meeting a mysterious man who tells him about a freak who was shunned by the town. A mob burns down his home, kills his parents, and seemingly kills him. His body ends up in a swamp where it merges with various sludge and other stuff to become a large blob-like creature that takes revenge. The storyteller ends up being the blob, who kills the stranger introduced at the start of our story.

"Second Chance!" is second, with art by Steve Ditko and story by Archie Goodwin. This story was originally printed in Creepy #13. Its 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. Pretty good story here by the strong team of Ditko and Goodwin.

"Completely Cured" is next, by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). A man on a train comes across a strange town where everyone appears to be dead. It ends up that the man was dead the entire time and didn't know it. Very similar to a Vampirella story I covered in Vampirella #6.

"Untimely Meeting" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story) follows, about a man who escapes through jail and head out through a swamp, then a desert. There he meets a man with a mysterious car on a mysterious road, who he kills. As he drives down the road in the car he quickly ages. Realizing that by driving forward, he's going forward in time, he drives the other direction, only to end up driving right into his past self.

Another reprint is next, "Backfire!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy #10. 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.

Last is "Voodoo Doll" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Goodwin (story). This was originally printed in Creepy #12. An older man gets a voodoo doll to keep his young wife from leaving him. However, it ends up that it is all a trick by her and her lover. She shows him a voodoo doll of himself, which causes him to die of a heart attack. However, when she disposes of both dolls, it ends up that they worked after all. By throwing the two of them in a fire, she is burned up herself.

Like Creepy #25, which I've already covered, this is actually a pretty good issue, despite the era its from. Even the new stuff by lesser artists and a lesser writer are pretty good.

Eerie 26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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