Highlights of Warren Publishing (Part 3)

Mondo Megillah (Originally published in 1984 #4, October 1978)

Art by Alex Nino

Written by Jim Stenstrum (credited to Alabaster Redzone)

Nuclear war ravishes the Earth, with thousands of nuclear bombs detonated in cities across the world. Some of mankind is able to escape to the moon; however when a Bio-Chem lab crashes into their new society a biological agent called Anti-DNA mutates all the men into monsters. Women are completely unaffected. The story begins by introducing us to our heroine Kitten and Lucius, one of her 71 ex-husbands who now is in the form of an anteater-like monster. 15 years after the war a ship heads to Earth in order to scout it. Kitten and Lucius are able to bribe their way on board and return to Earth in the post apocalyptic ruins of Canada. The two of them soon come across a man named Terry. Having been on Earth all this time, he has not been tainted by the Anti-DNA and looks completely normal. Kitten immediately lusts after the first normal looking man she has seen in years and the two soon have sex, to Lucius’ annoyance. Terry claims he lives in the underground Cavern City and worship a god called Megillah. The next morning Kitten finds that Terry is gone. She and Lucius search for him and when Kitten decides to head underground to Cavern City, Lucius refuses and stays above ground. Kitten is soon found by the inhabitants of Cavern City who claim she will be a sexual sacrifice for Megillah, although she is permitted her freedom until it is ready for her. Kitten eventually finds Terry, who reveals that he left her behind on the surface because he felt regret over his mission to lead her here. Kitten decides to flee and Terry goes along with her, although is dismayed when she has to murder numerous people in order to do so. They meet back up with Lucius on the surface who has been hurt by an attack from other inhabitants of the ship that came to Earth. Seeing that Kitten still cares for Lucius, Terry tells her off and returns to Cavern City. Kitten is disappointed to see him go, but is soon consummating things with Lucius instead.

A Boy and His Dog... I mean, A Girl and Her Monster

Mondo Megillah is like much of the content of 1984 in that its overly sexualized and sensationalistic, as well as providing a lot of exposition through its captions that you don’t actually see in the artwork. I certainly do not include the story here for its narrative quality, as it is nothing special on that front. It is overwritten and despite its interesting setting fails to provide the level of excitement that I would hope. Alex Nino’s artwork is fine as usual, although not as ambitiously done as that included in much of his other work for 1984, which is among the most bizarre and elaborate artwork one can find in a Warren magazine. I include the story as part of this series not due to its quality but rather its notoriety. In fact this story was one of the factors that caused Warren Publishing to go out of business!

To understand the full background of this story one must go back to the origins of 1984 magazine. Over the years Warren had several unsuccessful attempts to launch a more adult magazine including ”Pow” via Wally Wood and Nicola Cuit and “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” with Josep Toutain. A sci-fi specific magazine had also been requested for years by the fan base, and Warren had historically refrained, although did periodically include a sci-fi story in Creepy, Eerie or Vampirella. When Heavy Metal magazine premiered in 1977, it quickly became a big hit and Warren finally decided to try its hands at a sci-fi magazine, with Bill Dubay, former editor of Warren’s horror comics line being in charge of it.

Kitten and Lucius on a post apocalyptic Earth

The original intent of 1984 magazine was to provide adaptations of well regarded science fiction stories. With this in mind, Dubay approached several of his writers about stories they would be interested in adapting. Gerry Boudreau, one of Warren’s more prolific horror comic writers expressed interest in adapting “A Boy and His Dog” by Harlan Ellison. Boudreau was confident that he could get permission from Ellison to adapt the story and Dubay told him to go ahead and write it. Ellison had worked with Warren back in 1970 when he wrote the story “Rock God” as inspired by a cover painting by Frank Frazetta (a story which would be published in Creepy #32). Relations between Ellison and Warren had soured however in the years after that story had been published. Ellison refused to let Warren adapt the story, and since Boudreau had already written his adaption, it was thrown in an inventory pile with other bought for, but unusable stories.

Kitten makes her way to Cavern City

Some time had gone by and Bill Dubay was desperate to keep Alex Nino, the star artist for 1984 magazine, busy with work. Low on quality scripts to provide Nino, Dubay went to the inventory pile and took Boudreau’s story and had Nino draw it. Some of the specifics I’ve read on this varies; in an interview, Jim Stenstrum claimed Dubay had changed any references of a boy to a girl and of a dog to a monster prior to the story being drawn. However I’ve also read that Nino had drawn the story as is, then had to go back and make changes to it due to Ellison’s refusal of the adaption. Dubay then sent the story to Stenstrum to redo. Over the years Dubay had often asked Stenstrum to take stories that had originally been written by someone else and completely rewrite them into something else. This practice was quite common at Warren, whether it was trying to use old inventory stories, or using stories that had originally been done in foreign countries. It was especially common in 1984 magazine. Stenstrum, who used the pseudonym “Alabaster Redzone” for such works wrote a new story fitted to Nino’s artwork, including rearranging the panels, and it would finally see print in issue 4 of the magazine.

Kitten escapes from the Megillah fanatics

Mondo Megillah would eventually be raised to Harlan Ellison’s attention by a writer from The Comics Journal who had been doing articles on Warren’s magazines. Ellison sued for plagiarism in 1981. Internally at Warren it caused conflict between Dubay and Stenstrum, with Dubay requesting Stenstrum lie about it and claim it was all a big coincidence. Stenstrum refused which resulted in him departing Warren, despite the fact that he was being groomed to be its new editor at the time. Stenstrum would in fact testify in support of Ellison’s claim. Warren would end up going bankrupt in 1982, with the lawsuit being one of several factors behind it.

If you’re interesting in reading more about this, I’d recommend checking out Jim Stenstrum’s interview in The Warren Companion; there is also a lengthy discussion of it in the book James Warren: Empire of Monsters by Bill Schelly.

1984: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 2)

A scene from Rex Havoc

Today's post is part 2 in a multi-part series about 1984/1994. Find the previous part here.

Issues 5 through 8 of 1984 continues many of the themes of the first 4 issues of the magazine, while also taking it in new directions (sometimes good, sometimes bad). It should be noted that as a whole these next 4 issues are nowhere as controversial or offensive as the first 4 issues, with no story even close to the racism of issue 3's "The Harvest" (although racism would return later on to the pages of the magazine), and no plagiarism scandals either. The nudity and sex, as well as a general misogynist attitude is present as usual however. That said, in general I'd say the quality of these 4 issues is slightly down in comparison to the first 4.

I'll begin with the continuing series, which start to gain a larger presence in these issues. The Rex Havoc series, which premiered in issue 4, continues with several entries in these next 4 issues. The first story in the series, from issue 4, was terrific, and the first story here, issue 5's "The Spud from another World!" is a good one, parodying the movie "The Thing From Another World". By issue 6 however, the drawn out nature of the stories (which are generally around 20 pages each) becomes quite apparent and the series continues to dip precipitously in its final appearance later on (which will be in my next entry). Speaking of disappointing series, Idi Amin has two additional stories here. They are much like those from the first 4 issues; gorgeous artwork but an aimless story with idiotic dialogue. The series ends with Idi and Dogmeat finding a man even crazier than Idi, with multiple personalities, and Dogmeat runs off, being unable to take it anymore. I felt like doing the same as this series drew to a close! I'll miss the beautiful Esteban Maroto artwork, but not the story. Unfortunately Maroto goes on quite a long hiatus from 1984 after this, possibly as mentioned in the previous article because many of these stories may not have been intended for the magazine in the first place and they ran out of them.

On the other hand, Richard Corben and Jan Strnad provide 4 more fine installments of Mutant World. While its never the most in depth and thought provoking series, this series continues to be a blast to read and has typical quality color artwork from Corben. Unfortunately the final segment would be the last interior comic art Corben ever did for Warren. While I've never been a fan of Rudy Nebres' art style, Twilight's End, for which he provides the art and Jim Stenstrum provides the story is a fairly good one, with a rather apocalyptic and unexpected ending in its final part. Certain Warren series, particularly in the latter years could go on a bit too long, but they did a good job here in keeping the series relatively short and to the point.

The final part of Mutant World

Issue 7 premieres "Ghita of Alizarr", with story and art by Frank Thorne. Thorne had worked on Red Sonja for Marvel and produced the similar Ghita for Warren, albeit with an increased level of nudity and sex. While the sexual themes of the series can be a bit over the top at times (Ghita is a whore and is raped by a reanimated corpse in the first story, for starters), it is generally an entertaining series and a fine addition to the Warren line, appearing in the majority of the remaining issues of 1984/1994. Thorne's artwork is also quite good and a nice contrast to the styles of the Warren regulars.

Also beginning in this run, with issue 8 is "Herma", with art by Jose Gonzalez and story by Bill Dubay. This series was originally published in the publication Cunado El Comic es Arte: Pepe Gonzalez, which came out in Spain the same year as this issue of 1984, although the art had actually been done around 5 years earlier. For this appearance, the color was removed, the panels re sized and Dubay almost certainly rewrote the script. A rather light-hearted comedic series, that similar to Twilight's End is thankfully kept short enough such that it ends before it really goes down in quality. Gonzalez's artwork here is absolutely gorgeous and rereading these stories, this is easily the sexiest artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. I'm generally partial to Esteban Maroto's women, but Gonzalez outdoes even him here (and Maroto appears to have swiped several panels from both this initial story and the stories that appear in future issues). Along with the story "Lullaby", mentioned in the previous entry, and some of the latter Vampirella stories, this is the best Jose Gonzalez artwork you'll see in a Warren magazine.

If there's a highlight to these issues, aside from Mutant World, its the Alex Nino stories, of which there are 6 here. Nino's art is ultimately the best thing to come out of the 1984/1994 series as a whole, and he does a good job in all of the stories here. "Teleport 2010" and "Painter's Mountain" are 2 very strong efforts happily lacking the sex-antics that perpetuate throughout much of 1984's stories. "Timothy Sternbach & the Multi-Colored Sunrise!", "Once Upon a Holocaust" and "Zincor and the Fempire" are good efforts as well though, with really only "Liaison Aboard a Skylab" being a weak story where the sex-antics (among aliens in this case) are a bit over the top.

Issue 5's "I Wonder Who's Squeezing Her Now" is unique for having no science fiction or supernatural related themes in any fashion, rather focusing on how a man's life falls apart when his wife starts having an affair and he decides to do the same. The story was originally intended for the never realized magazine "POW" and sat on the shelves for several years before seeing print in 1984. It featured the last Wally Wood art to appear in a Warren magazine, as well as the first work from Ernie Colon to appear in a Warren magazine since Warren's dark ages.

Frank Thorne's Ghita of Alizarr

Among the remaining stories, issue 7's "Freeze A Jolly Good Fellow!" is the highlight, with an unexpected yet funny ending. Issue 5's "The Box" was another interesting story, although criticized a bit in the letter pages. Many of the remaining stand-alone stories come off as filler, and uninteresting filler at that. Issue 6's "The Warhawks" lampoons DC's The Blackhawks, yet is way too long and drawn out. "Issue 8's "Madmen and Messiahs", featuring a future where Ted Kennedy is a crazed President and his own nephew fights against him in a revolution is quite ridiculous. Other stories like "Luke the Nuke Brings It In!" "Kaiser Warduke and the Indispensable Jasper Gemstone" come off as boring drivel, there's little to get interested in with these stories.

Overall, there's definitely some interesting aspects to these issues, even with the controversy and general quality down a bit in comparison to the first 4 issues. We'll see both areas heading in different directions as we enter the next phase of issues, to be covered in my next entry.

1984: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 1)

Today's post is the first in a multi-part series covering 1984/1994 magazine, a part of the Warren publishing family that tends to get a lot less play than the other Warren magazines. This first post mainly focuses on the first 4 issues of the magazine.

1984 is kind of like the black sheep of the Warren publishing family. When one thinks of Warren, they think of Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, but 1984 doesn't get much mention. All 3 of these titles are in the process of being reprinted in fine, hard covered volumes but we don't see that for 1984 and likely won't. 1984 will probably be most remembered for being way too over the top in its presentation and causing controversy after controversy.

1984 premiered in the summer of 1978, during an era when Warren's titles were on a slow decline from their heights during the mid-70s. 1984 ended up being the one concept for an "adult" Warren magazine that actually saw print. Seven years before, there had been plans to publish a magazine called "POW!", and there had even been a cover prepared by Frank Frazetta (which eventually saw print in Eerie #81), but it never came to fruition. In 1976 Josef Toutain of Selecionnes Illustrada attempted to develop an adult science-fiction style magazine called "Yesterday... Today, Tomorrow" which also never saw print. By 1978 however the competitor magazine Heavy Metal had come out and was extremely successful. I think it’s not much of a coincidence that Warren's adult science fiction magazine, edited by Bill Dubay, finally premiered not long afterwards.

Unfortunately for the readers of 1984, "adult" meant not necessarily mature storytelling, but rather a heavy reliance on sex. In fact a letter sent in and published in the fifth issue put it across pretty well, calling it "Bill Dubay's Future Sex Fantasies". Sex acts and misogyny is quite apparent through these early issues of 1984 and would remain so through its run. The very first story published in 1984, "Last of the Really Great, All-American Joy Juice" features a spaceship carrying all the semen left in the world whose pilots are soon come upon by some brutally ugly but sex crazed women. Ludicrous and bizarre plots like these fill the early issues of 1984. You've got men or women knowingly having sex with aliens or monsters ("Momma, Can You Hear Me" from issue 1, "Bring Me the Head of Omar Barsidian" from issue 3 and "Mondo Megillah" from issue 4). Issue 2's "Messiah" features a sex scientist who describes for pages on end the research he has done into the sex of numerous alien worlds. Oversized genitalia caused by radiation (which we thankfully do not see) is featured in both "Quick Cut" from issue 1 and "The Last Of the Red Hot Lovers" from issue 2. Radioactive semen which causes women to explode is also featured in the latter story. "Scourge of the Spaceways" from issue 2 features a plot point where anyone having sex with a woman will have their penis rot away and fall off. The big twist of "Lullaby" from issue 4 is a man having sex with his mother. Need I go on? This is just some of the craziness you get to see in these first 4 issues.

"Idi Amin", gorgeous art, horrible story

To its credit, 1984 has some amazing artwork, and for a while didn't feature any advertisements, so you've got a magazine full of it. Esteban Maroto in particular puts in an amazing job on his stories in these issues, although his story in issue 4 features some notable swipes from Jeff Jones' "Idyll". Richard Corben has 5 color stories in these issues, all of which are impressive. Alex Nino was the most featured 1984 artist throughout its run and he has  five stories here as well, all which look great. Jose Gonzalez's work in issue 4's "The Lullaby" is about as beautiful an art job as you'll ever see from him in a Warren magazine. The one unfortunate thing about this is it shows just how much better 1984 could have been. I think it’s very clear in a lot of these cases that these stories weren't originally supposed to be as over the top sex-centric as they ended up being. Many stories in these issues have plot and dialogue that hardly correspond with the artwork. The already mentioned "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" is a prime offender. None of the written storyline about the "Hungs", brutes with oversized genitalia taking on the "Glows", for whom having sexual intercourse with a woman will cause her to explode appears in the artwork. The art for this story was in all likelihood about a medieval battle between two armies. "Messiah" to a smaller extent comes off the same way. The "Idi Amin" series, which has its first 2 stories here in the first 4 issues comes off as a bit depressing to me as I so much would have liked to see what this story was originally about. The artwork, featuring an Egyptian queen and her brutish companion in a post-apocalyptic Egypt is just gorgeous. Unfortunately it’s overlaid with a story about how Ugandan Dictator Idi Amin was turned into a woman by the US Government's "Department of Dirty Tricks". This is a series where pages go by with the exact same story and concepts being rammed down our throats over and over again. The majority of dialogue from Idi is horrendously stupid. Only a few pages into the story there is blatant contradictions abound where it is said that Idi Amin was too well guarded to assassinate, yet the DDT was still able to gain access to him to change him into a woman? It’s absurd. No official source that I am aware of pegs down where these Idi Amin stories were originally from, but I would suspect they (or at least the first one) were intended for the "Yesterday... Today, Tomorrow" magazine, which was supposed to have a story featuring a Sphinx, which does appear in the first story. "Lullaby" likely was originally from somewhere else as well, as I can't see Warren having Jose Gonzalez do a non-Vampirella story when he was in so much demand on that title (and writer Jim Stenstrum is credited as "Alabaster Redzone" which was done when he would rewrite stories). Speaking of poor storylines, two back to back stories in issue 2 feature one of the most overplayed plot twists in science fiction when it is revealed that the planet where everything bad is happening or is about to happen is... Earth! This is a lame plot twist, but to see it used in back to back stories (both by the same author, Dubay) is quite ridiculous.

Wood's "The End" becomes a nonsensical tale about a TV writer

Continuing to focus on rewritten stories, the first 2 issues of 1984 feature a butchered Wally Wood story titled "The End" which was split up into 2 heavily rewritten stories titled "Quick Cut" and "One Night, Down on the Funny Farm!" Both rewritten stories are idiotic. Dubay's obsession with oversized genitalia is a major plot point of the first story which is pretty brutal in its treatment of women. While the second story is not as offensive, it’s just as stupid, featuring a nonsensical story about a network TV writer that appears in a fantasy world. None of which makes sense when you look at the artwork of course. Wally Wood was so upset at what Dubay did that he'd never do any work for Warren again.

Of course no article about the early issues of 1984 should be told without the story of "Mondo Megillah", the story that arguably caused the end of Warren Publishing. This story goes back to the very beginning of 1984, before it was turned into the sleazy magazine that it became. At one point in its development, 1984 was supposed to feature adaptions of science fiction stories from well-known authors (which unfortunately never came to pass). Writer Gerry Boudreau had convinced Bill Dubay that he could get permission from Harlan Ellison to do a comic book adaption of his story "A Boy and His Dog". Dubay gave him permission to write the story, but Boudreau was never successful in getting permission from Ellison, who refused to allow any such adaption to appear in a Warren magazine. Desperate for stories for the speedy Alex Nino to illustrate however, Dubay gave him the script that Boudreau had written, swapping out "boy" for "girl" and "dog" for
"monster". With the art being finished, there was no way Dubay could simply bury the story and not publish it. He handed it off to Jim Stenstrum, who rewrote the story as best he could and rearranged panels. Despite this, the story still came off as plagiarism and was later discovered by a writer from the Comics Journal, who had tipped off Ellison. Ellison sued Warren and the company went bankrupt not long after a settlement was made.

Sex filled, ruining what could have been fine stories, even committing plagiarism. Could it get any worse? It does! Issue 3 of 1984 features the single most offensive story in Warren history, "The Harvest". This story features a future where the corporations have set up various gaming preserves. A father and his son go to one of these preserves and go hunting where it is revealed that they are hunting black people. In fact all black people in the world have been gathered up and put in these preserves, treated as animals, and are brutally murdered to provide food for the white protagonists. Could it get even worse than that? It does! The ending of the story features the boy shooting a pregnant woman, with the father tearing her baby out of her and talking about serving it as veal. Responses in the letter column published in a later issue tries to explain this story as bringing the problem of racism to its extreme and to teach a lesson. But it truly has no redeemable value to it and is for all intents and purposes just trash. When you consider some other things that would appear in Warren's magazines (some more which will see in later issues of 1984), how does Bill Dubay not come off as a racist?

Richard Corben's "Ogre"

So is 1984 completely bad? I'd say no. I know I've spent a lot of time in this article on the bad things about 1984, but there is some good work here. I've already praised a lot of the artwork earlier. As misogynistic as it comes off, I do think "Scourge of the Spaceways" from issue 2 is a fairly good and unique story. "Mutant World" and "Ogre", the Richard Corben stories are all entertaining. All of the Alex Nino stories are fairly strong, admittingly with sex or gross out humor attached. "Rex Havoc and the Asskickers of the Fantastic" has a good start in issue 4, with a genuinely funny story about the Asskickers of the title and the monsters such as vampires and the like seeking the same rights as humans.

Anyway, that's my views on the first 4 issues of 1984. Please stay tuned for a follow up at some point in the future covering future issues.

Creepy 119

Jim Laurier provides an interesting and somewhat funny cover to this issue of Creepy. This issue is an all Alex Nino reprint special, dated July 1980.

First is "A Boy and His Thing" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 101. A young boy visits a ship captain who is a friend of his. The captain tells him of a giant tentacled creature they fought and killed at sea. He brought back the baby of the creature, which he gives to the boy.

Second is "Keep Kool" by Alex Nino (art) and Bob Toomey (story), from Creepy 104. An old man who is quite wealthy despises humanity so he heads off to another planet where his only companions are robots. He has the robots fight one another, then receives a giant box that he can create monster from to fight one another.

Third is "Always Leave 'Em Laughing!" by Alex Nino (art) and Len Wein (story), from Creepy 105. All clowns are banned from Earth and forced to head to the moon if they want to remain a clown. There they fail to generate any laughs from the robot population and decide to bomb the surface of the moon to turn it into a clown face It is successful, but they are killed by Earth who misunderstand their intensions.

Fourth is "Sisters" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 97. 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.

Fifth is "Backwater and Timing Circles" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story), from Creepy 94. A boy takes a trip to the past to go fishing in the prehistoric era through the company Timing Circles. His guide warns him that they can't take anything back with them and must not kill anything, but when the guide gets in trouble, the boy stabs the dinosaur attacking him. This changes the present such that everyone becomes bizarre looking monsters. This story is blatant plagarism of Ray Bradbury's story A Sound of Thunder. Luckily for Warren, they never got in trouble with this as they did with Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog.

Sixth is "Alien Strain" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 96. A 'Banggi' and his human friend are attacked by various aliens when they arrive at a planet where they have transported some robots. The mob has good reason to fear him however, as by arriving the Banggi has caused an epidemic where thousand of Banggi larva work their way through various prostitutes, infesting the planet. Very odd looking aliens here by Nino, as usual for him.

1994 #23

This issue of 1994, dated February 1982, is the only reprint issue in the magazine's history. Alex Nino provides the cover, credited as A2-120.

First story is "Break Even" from issue 9, by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This is... believe it or not... a well thought out, intelligent story to kick off an issue of 1984 that doesn't feature sex! It features a pair of astronauts hired to scope out the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter who find a very small planet that's actually a shrunk gas giant planet which they end up destroying.

Next is "Painters Mountain" by Alex Nino (art) and the team of Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story). The star of the story, Painter is a man who grows a distaste of the tribe he lives with and leaves them. He forms his own society but realizes that his old tribe is in danger. He tries to warn them, but they ignore him and are all killed by a mass flood.

Third is "Teleport: 2010" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about a madman who hijacks a teleportation shuttle used to transport thousands of people a day. He kills numerous people, demanding the captain transport him to a place out of government jurisdiction. They fight, more people die, and eventually the captain transports him and everyone else, who he hopes to use as hostages... into the middle of space by accident, killing them all.

Last is "Zincor and the Fempire" by Alex Nino (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in the future where women have abandoned men, and are seeking out and destroying any they can. Our hero Zincor along with some of his fellow men spots a Fempire warship which lands near them and attack, spawning a battle between them and the women. Zincor rapes one of the women, Marta, which causes her to betray her allies and join the men. The women's battleship is destroyed by her and only one woman is left. Marta spots her with Zincor however, killing them both, leaving her as the only person left.

1994 #28

Steve Fastner & Rich Larson provide the cover for this issue, published in December 1982.

First is the final "Young Sigmund Pavlov!" story by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pavlov crashes on a planet filled with various robot creatures. He and the robots end up recreating the Wizard of Oz, albeit with various robot creatures in place of the notable characters from that story. This story ends with a to be continued sign, but this would be the last story in the series. This story is very unlike the other stories in this series, as it doesn't contain the usual extremely bizarre Nino art and over the top sex filled story by Dubay.

Second is "Too Many Termarrows" by Vic Catan (art) and Tim Moriarty (story). This story features two men who land on a planet carrying a secret weapon. One of the men has a key robbed by a woman he sleeps with, so they pursue her through the desert and eventually find that she is part of a group of wives of a sultan. Our two protagonists release their weapon, human eating termites that kill everyone but them.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). This story features Ghita taking part in a ceremony with Rahmuz where she is brought underground, where oddly enough, stars start appearing. A mummy which is Khan Dagon appears, then soon varous other corpses and monsters as well.

Next is "Angel" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This dull series finally comes to an end with this story. Angel and Ape find a group of savages that have captured a communist scientist who plans to destroy them. They end up being saved by a Tin Man superhero.

Last is the finale of "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Dan Hallassey & Bruce Jones (story). Lots of revelations in this story, where it is revealed that pretty much the entire quest of Diana to this point has been a lie. Her ally Jason has been the true villain all along, and the convict Frank Branner was actually an engineer named T. L. Hoyt who is a good guy on her side. With his help she returns to Earth and defeats Jason once and for all. A very good end to the strongest series of the latter part of 1994's life.

1994 #26

Richard Corben provides the cover of this issue of 1994, which bears an artwork date of 1977. The actual cover date of this issue is August 1982. One wonders why Warren waited 5 years to use this cover! Sorry, once again, I couldn't track down an image of this cover on the web to show you all (its days like this I wish I had my scanner! :()

First is "Young Sigmund, Sr." by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Not much to say regarding this story, its the latest in a long line of stories by Dubay and Nino where the art from each page can be combined with one another to form a seemingly infinite image. Quite impressive artwork as a result, with a rather poor story which is forced to work around the artwork.

Next is the latest story in "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones & Dan Hallassey (story). Diana and Branner go after the latest criminal, Marella Chryseis, who is currently hiding within a Sargaso. While there Marella seemingly kills Branner, but it is actually just a robot, which goes berserk and kills her. They then head to another planet where Branner takes off, marooning her. The planet contains shape shifters, and she ends up being confronted by Conley, another one of the escaped criminals. He ties her up and tries to escape on a ship, that ends up being a monster which kills him.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Dakini realizes Ghita's plot to deatroy Rahmuz when she attacks her while dreaming. Ghita later meets him for the first time. She also soon finds out that Dahib is alive. Thats it for this issue, a shorter Ghita segment than usual.

Fourth is "Little Beaver" by Vic Catan (art) and Dan Hallassey (story). Similar to the previous story in this series, it features Little Beaver, her grandmother Running Box and Worm, their tentacled monster pet. In this story they meet some revolutionaries who plan to use Little Beaver as a bomb to blow up their Russian enemies by planting it within a certain, ahem, part of her anatomy which will blow up when they try to have sex with her. Luckily Little Beaver makes it out okay.

Fifth is "The Trials and Tribulations of Ariel Hart!" by Peter Hsu (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is somewhat better than the previous Ariel Hart story. The President seeks to kill Ariel, and she ends up falling into a large chasm. The President sends one of his governors to ensure that she is dead. She hasn't actually died however, and has fallen into a pool where a tentacled creature attacks her. She is luckily able to escape.

Last is "Retard" by Alex Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). Aliens take over Earth, and many deformed children are born soon after. The alien overlords require all people to do labor for them, and any child who cannot work by a certain age is disposed of. All the 'retards' are set to be disposed of, but instead they end up destroying the aliens entirely, although they die as a result.

1994 #25

This issue, dated June 1982 features a Ghita of Alizarr themed cover by Lloyd Garrison. Actually not that bad an issue. Everything here is at least somewhat memorable in its own way, rather impressive considering this was an era where Warren's work was very substandard. Sorry, was unable to find an image of the cover for this issue to show you all.

First is "The God of the Month Club" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). Similar to issue 22's Young Sigmond Pavlov segment, this story is pretty much all nonscensical garbage, but Nino pulls off an amazing art job where the art from each page can be combined with the other pages to form a giant image, in this case, the phrase "God of the Month Club". In fact if you own multiple issues, you can expand the art to form a seemingly infinite image. Very bizarre, but very well done.

Second is "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story). In this story Diana heads after Frank Branner, the escaped convict who is reported to have a plague. Diana crashes her ship on the planet he's on, with her only hope to steal the ship he had. Unfortunately for her, she is captured by him, who seems to be completely unaffected by the plague. At gunpoint he forces her to fix the ship for him and she ends up falling for him, even though she may be infected as a result. Looks like the series will start going in a different direction after the events of this story.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). In this story Ghita is brought by her captives to Urd, managing to kill two of them along the way, but stopped by the third. She arrives at Urd where she is paraded in front of the people, who aren't all that impressed with her. She meets Runthar while there, the boy she had met in Urd during her youth.

Fourth is "Angel" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). In this story Angel and Ape are in South Africa, where a conflict has been going on between white and black people. They meet a white hunter, who got caught in a bear trap. After freeing him and healing his wounds, he discusses the conflict, which involved chemical warfare, which resulted in mutations occuring. They meet one such mutation, a baby who was responsible for leaving the bear traps. Although Angel tries to heal him, the mutant instead tries to kill her, and she is saved by the white hunter. The best story thus far in this rather poor series.

Last is "Small World, Isn't It?" by Delando Nino (art) and Timothy Moriarty (story). In this story a man creates a device which permits him to shrink anyone to an extremely small size, albeit it temporarily. Unfortunately for him the government seizes him, with the intent of using his device to defeat their enemies. Eventually enemy forces get their hands on it too and the entire Earth blows up, with only the man and his wife surviving, with him in a shrunken size inside of her space suit.

1994 24

Skipping issue 23 of 1994 as it is an all reprint issue (the magazine's only one, thankfully). The cover for this issue, dated April 1982, is by Steve Fastner & Rich Larson. There are no credits on the stories in this issue, so I've based the writing credits here on the ones posted in Richard Arndt's wonderful Warren analysis.

First is "The Ugliest Woman in Creation!" by Vic Catan (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Rumors are abound about the "Cosmo Girls", Amazon women that are the ugliest one could ever imagine. By having sex with them, a man will become as ugly as them and spread this 'disease' to anyone he sleeps with. Anyway, this story features a woman who is hired by a Sultan to find him an extremely ugly woman, and she turns to a friend of hers, who manages to find one of the Cosmo Girls. While the woman is provided to the sultan, it is not before she has sex with him, and he soon has sex with our heroine, spreading the disease of ugliness...

Second is "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Diana is now on another planet, looking for the second of the seven escaped convicts. She travels through a wintery landscape that nonetheless feels rather warm. The man she is after takes off his boots and heads back to her ship, trying to steal it, but he dies as the snow they have been traveling on is instead tiny, but deadly white little worms that manage to kill him.

Third is "The Star Queen" by Delando Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story features a humanoid woman who lives with some ape creatures after being born there when her mother's ship crashed. Some evil humans arrive which she is able to defeat.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Rahmuz continues to come after Ghita, this time 'killing' Thenef and Dahib and being able to kidnap Ghita by taking Thenef's form. Rahmuz plans on the wedding he hopes for himself and Ghita while Dakini, the four breasted harem member of his wonders what will become of her then. Luckily at the end it is revealed that Thenef and Dahib survived after all.

Last is "Coming of Age!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An interesting story featuring mankind from their very beginnings through the present and apocalypse. A nice way to end the issue.

1994 22

This issue of 1994 features a cover by Steve Fastner & Rich Larson. Quite a poor issue with little memorable here except Nino's art on the first story.

First is the latest segment of "Young Sigmond Pavlov" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). As with the other Pavlov stories, this features a nonscensical story where Pavlov sees a lunatic, this time a bizarre looking monster. As usual this story has many two page spreads, and in fact the pages can all be combined horizontally to becomes a single giant image. Very interesting art, but a story thats not interesting at all.

Second is "Love Among the Ruins!" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay & Tim Moriarty (story). This story takes place in a future where Earth has been attacked by tentacled monsters. Years pass and the monsters are barely seen, so few believe they are still around. A man dreaming of a beautiful woman heads underground where he sees her for real. He brings his friends down as well, but it is all a trap as she is one of the monsters and summons other ones to eat all of them. The best story of the issue.

Third is "Bringing Up Baby", part of a new series, Ariel Hart. Art is by Peter Hsu and story is by Bill Dubay. A horrible story with little to no story to it, featuring Ariel under pursuit from some evil doers.

Fourth is the second "Angel" story by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features Angel kidnapped by a large beast similar in appearance to her friend Ape. A man arrives and saves her, but she tells him that the creatures are just lonely and he shouldn't have done that. Yawn.

Last is "Mike Marauder: Knight Errant of the Spaceways!" by Rueben Yandoc (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Mike attacks an evil villain who *gasp* uses robots to let women have sex. After Mike interrupts things time and time again, the women cut off his penis, and it is he who is now in the position where the story's villain is helping him out. Margopoulos rips this story off from one he did in Eerie 118, making this an extremely lame way to end the issue.

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.

1994 21

An odd looking cover for this issue by Alex Nino. There are no credits on any stories in this issue; credits are based on those included in Richard Arndt's well known Warren listing, and the writer names given on the content page.

First is "Lord Machina!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a new computer device from a company called Futura that needs to be reviewed by a government agent first. The agent soon acquires a huge debt from gambling with the machine and after losing all his money is forced to perform assassinations by the device. Eventually he can't take it anymore and destroys it.

Second is the second part of "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Diana travels along the planet she has crashed on with her companion Jason, who has taken the form of a penis and balls. During her search for the first of the seven escaped criminals, she encounters a creature she lets live, which saves her later on when she encounters the criminal.

Third is "Love is a Many Tentacled Thing" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a planet of tentacled monsters that release nuclear energy when they make love, forcing them to not make love with each other as it'd cause a large explosion. There is a connection between one such beast and a human woman who makes love to it. Eventually the beast transforms to Earth and the woman, who is transforming into one herself makes love with him again, and it results in the Earth blowing up.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). In this story Ghita meets up again with the mute witness from the previous part and engages in some lesbian sex with her in which it is revealed that she is not mute after all. Unfortunately a monster from Urd, masquerading as a human arrives and kills the waitress, attacking Ghita before she is able to save herself.

Fifth is "Angel!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This is the kick off of a new series, starring a young woman named Angel and her companion, a monster called Ape, who rescue a pair of archeologists from some humanoid monsters.

Sixth is "Mars Bar: Tales of the Red Planet Saloon" by Redondo Studio (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A martian creature called Snort convinces a woman he likes, Slut to marry him due to money he'll make by being in the army and patenting inventions. She soon falls in love with his commanding officer Mungo however, and cheats on him, then gets him to kill himself by saying she doesn't love him. He comes back as a robot however and kills both of them.

Last is "Freefall!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an astronaut caught outside of a ship in space, but he screws up while trying to get back to it, ending up blowing up the entire thing.

Creepy 112

Richard Corben's Phantom of the Opera style cover headlines this issue of Creepy, one of the better of their later issues, from October 1979.

First is "The Homecoming" by Al Williamson (art, his final Warren story) and Archie Goodwin (story). A very good sci-fi story features an astronaut on a craft that is responsible for going into other dimensions, trying to find one suitable for humans. When he finally finds it, the computer controlling the craft reveals that an error has caused it to forget where they came from, and the astronaut goes from dimension to dimension, trying to find his home to no avail.

Second is "Warrior's Ritual" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Taking place in the 1930's, a group of troops come across a base full of dead people. There they find a diary from a dead man with a missing heart. The diary tells of a young soldier who is obsessed with fighting, sneaking out of the base to kill more people each night. Eventually it is discovered that the young man is obsessed with eating other's hearts, thinking he can get their courage from it. In the present, he meets his end after trying to eat his own heart! Some very good art by Severin here, one of his best looking stories.

Third is "Nobody's Kid" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A man goes crazy when he finds that his kid isn't really his. He kills the kid's real father, then his mother, then goes on a rampage after the kid, carrying an axe. Most of the story features the man chasing the kid until he climbs a try to hide from him. The father chops the tree down, only for it to fall down on him, killing him.

Fourth is "Relic" by Walt Simonson (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story is a sequel to "Quirks" from issue 107. Some astronauts looking for a planet instead find a humungous craft that looks like a giant fly. They are sucked inside where they are trapped. Our heroes are able to recruit the furry little creature from the previous story to help themselves escape by bargaining with the bugs that control the craft.

Fifth is "Beastslayer" by Val Lakey (art, her Warren debut) and John Lakey (story). Some very beautiful art in this story by Lakey, some of the most realistic seen in a Warren story. A hunter who has shot all there is to hunt. He heads into the mountains, where the native americans claim is the greatest beast of all. He is eventually done in by an avalanche, and the beast is revealed to be the mountain itself.

Sixth is "Sunday Dinner" by Auraleon (art) and Larry Hama (story). The issue's weakest story, it features dual storylines. In the first, a man brings his two kids to dinner at a chinese food restaurant. In the second, a pair of criminals break into that restaurant and battle with its cooks. The criminals are killed, and served as dinner to the family.

Last is "The Last Sorcerer" by Alex Nino (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is the last appearance of Thane, a recurring character done by Goodwin. Thane, now an old man, is searching for the last sorcerer, having defeated all other ones. He is joined by a young warrior and a minstrel. Heading through a wintery landscape, they finally find the sorcerer after fighting off bats and a robot. The young warrior attacks the sorcerer, but his body is just a shell. Thane kills him, then it is revealed that the sorcerer has taken the body of the minstrel. Thane decides to let him live.

1994 20

Given the total ineptitude of Eerie 113, I'll be covering a second issue as well today.

The cover of this issue is by Nestor Redondo. Only a so-so issue at best unfortunately. It is cover dated August 1981.

First is another "Young Sigmond Pavlov" story by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (as Will Richardson, which is how he's referenced throughout the issue). This story is actually a vast improvement over the previous one. It features Pavlov once again talking to a patient, this time a guy who claims that God sent him a giant spaceship-like ark and ordered him to gather bizarre creatures from across the world. He does so only to find out its only a joke being played on him by God. Similar to the previous story, this story is primarily two page spreads by Nino, although the artwork is considerably toned down in terms of content compared to the last story.

Second is "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" a new series by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone, which is how he's credited throughout the issue). The most interesting thing in this issue, it kicks off a pretty long series. Jacklighter is a pilot responsible for what was supposed to be an easy mission, transporting a group of 7 criminals that are in suspended animation. When her ship is struck by a meteor however, the ship crashes and all the criminals, who also happen to be suffering from a plague, escape. Jacklighter is now forced to head out and capture all of them. Some nice art by Maroto although the suspended animation chamber appears to be ripped off from the movie Alien.

Third is "Little Beaver" by Vic Catan (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place in a future where the communists and capitalists have battled, wiping out most of the world. A teenage native american girl and her grandmother Running Box think they are the only humans left and live with a tentacled monster, but some communists still alive arrive and end up getting blown up by a nuclear bomb they possess.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). This story's considerably shorter than the usual Ghita story, at only 8 pages. Ghita and friends come across an inn where they stay. There they witness a mute maid being decapitated as part of a magic trick. During the trick her head tells Ghita not to return to Alizarr.

Last is the return of "Spearchucker Spade: Intergalactic Eye" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The previous story was so-so, this one is rather lousy, although the art is nice. Spade heads out to a space station to help fight against Ronald Reagan's crazy descendent. Thankfully this was it for this particular character.

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.

1994 19

This issue starts off with a good cover by Jordi Penalva.

First is "Young Sigmond Pavlov!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson, which is how he's credited throughout the issue). Its around this point in this magazine's life where you truly start to wonder whether Bill Dubay and Alex Nino have lost their minds. This story kicks off a completely nonscensical series of stories with little to them in terms of plot, but with by far the most bizarre and over the top artwork Warren ever published. Not just extremely bizarre, but also incredibly offensive as well. This story, which has Pavlov, a psychologist, talking to a patient, consists pretty much entirely of two page spreads of incredibly over the top material (much of it sexual in nature). And trust me, its gets even more over the top in the stories to come. You wonder how Nino even thought of much of the stuff he starts drawing with this story. This stuff has to be seen to be believed. Probably on its own makes this issue, and the later ones featuring this stuff a worthwhile purchase.

Second is "Fugue for a Ferrite Fugitive" by Vic Catan (art) and Bill Dubay & Kevin Duane (story). This story features a robot who is accused of murder who is innocent, as another robot who looks just like him committed the murders. Unfortunately things don't go well for the robot; even though he does find the other robot, the both of them end up getting destroyed. A so-so story at best.

Third is "The Holy Warrior!" by Delando Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech & Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place in a future where there are Jesus clones. Our hero, the Holy Warrior, is seeking to rescue one, which is just a child from communist enemies. He is able to do so, but the two of them are so hungry that he ends up killing the clone and eating him! Quite a bizarre and heretical ending for this story.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Rahmuz, leader of Urd, is introduced. He desires for Ghita to join his harem, which already includes a four breasted woman (!). He hopes to make Ghita his Queen and as a result rule over Alizarr as well. Ghita meanwhile meets an old lady who reveals that the unicorn she's traveling with has the spirit of Khan Dagon within it. Sartan arrives and cuts off the horn from the unicorn, hoping to make himself rich with it. Ghita bids farewell to the old woman and meets back up with Thenef and Dahib.

Fifth is "Et Tu Casey!" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story, as one would think from the title, is heavily inspired by the story of Casey, the great baseball player who struck out when his team needed him most. The twist on this story is that first, it takes place on an alien planet, and second, Casey does manage to hit the ball, but it explodes, blowing up the entire ballpark.

Last is "Steele!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story). This story makes a hell of a lot more sense than Dubay and Nino's first story for this issue. It features a man who is severly wounded, losing the bottom half of his body. He is put in suspended animation then later brought back to life to become an assassin, assigned to killing demons. Eventually the original Hunter makes an appearance and after being severly injured, our protagonist is transformed once again, into the Exterminator featured extensively in the Hunter II series. A pretty good prequel story tying in to the Hunter and Hunter II serials from Eerie.

Vampirella 59

Enrich provides a rather comedic cover to this issue of Vampirella.

First is "Pendragon's Last Bow" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi and Pendragon come to a new town where some murders have been taking place. Pendragon meets a beautiful woman Rosie, the owner of an antique shop directly above the place where the corpses have been found. The Van Helsings arrive and find that Rosie is a succubus, who along with her brother is responsible for the murders. Rosie and her brother are killed, but she saves Adam, who had been attacked by her brother before she dies.

Second is "Changes" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a man released from a mental institution who wonders around where he used to live, but everything has changed. A rather weak story

Third is "Funeral Day" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story surrounds a funeral director in a post apocalyptic society where people eat the corpse. Another so-so story at best.

Fourth is "Force Feed" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Cary Bates (story). A killer who is on the run from the police finds a scientist who is able to transport him to someone else's body in another time. He proves it by letting him tempoorarily be in Jack the Ripper. But when they go ahead with transporting him to someone else's body, the scientist, knowing the killer is a vegitarian, has him turned into a Tyranosaurus Rex. The best story of this issue.

Fifth is "The Plot's the Thing" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). A comic book story writer who is an expert at horrific stories decides to inspire himself by killing people. Eventually he kills his wife, then kills his neighbor when he discovers him trying to escape with the body. He drags the bodies to throw over a bridge where he is killed by another man, who just happens to be killing him to inspire himself for his first comic book story.

Last is "The Beast is Yet to Come" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a man on the planet Rego living there with his son. The aliens there tell him of a creature, the "Wilwulf" which he doesn't believe in. After fighting some other aliens on the planet however, he returns home to find that his son is the Wilwulf.

1994 18

This issue of 1994 features a cover by H.R. Giger, most well known for his designs on the Alien movies. Unfortunately this was his sole work for Warren.

First is "The Lost Loves of Cranfranz P. Thitwacker" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). 'Cranfranz' has been a name that I've seen excessively in Alex Nino drawn stories in this issue for a while now. Anyway, Cranfranz is a forty seven year old virgin who buys a 'make your own woman' kit, which he promptly screws up, creating a horrific creature that immediately falls dead. He later tries to creatue another woman, and screws up her even more. By trying to dispose of the remains, he is caught and brought to jail. His neighbor meanwhile decides that she'd like to look into such a kit herself to create a man for her.

Second is "Lone Wolf" by Delando Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story takes place in the future, where much of humanity has moved underground, leaving above ground to mutants. People underground known as Seekers head above ground to kill them. One such Seeker is Lone Wolf, who is generally disliked by all. He goes above ground where he meets a woman taking care of some deformed children. When they are attacked by fellow seekers, he fights them off, and decides to stay above ground for good.

Third is "The Mad Planet" by Vic Catan (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Bill Dubay (story, Dubay is creited as Will Richardson). A prisoner is on a planet that is hit with a plaugue, killing all but him and a guard, a monster whom he falls in love with. Due to the plague, he is quarantined on the planet. Eventually his lover passes away of a heart attack and soon after astronauts arrive with a cure for the plague, wanting to use him to help a candidate be elected president. The prisoner wishes not to leave however, and kills them all. Some pretty good art here by Catan in the best story of the issue.

Fourth is the latest "Ghita of Alizarr" story by Frank Thorne (story & art). Ghita and friends meet an old friend of her, Sartan. They take part in a performance, but trolls interrupt it and they head after them. Along the way they encounter Noads, tiny troll like creatures that take Ghita capture. Ghita is able to escape due to a unicorn.

Last is thankfully the final part of "The Starfire Saga" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). Chris heads back to the base from the first part, but is attacked due to being a suspect in the murder of a character from the first part (about half this story is a recap of the first part of this series). Instead it is revealed that a pedophile man stationed there killed the man, and Chris has a happy reunion with her father. In the end this series ends dissappointing, but then again this entire series has been a poor dissappointment. I can't believe they wasted eight appearances on this boring drivel.

1994 17

Jim Stenstrum is responsible for the cover for this issue of 1994, with Bill Dubay providing the color.

First is "Asshole of the Universe" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). Nino's art is very good here, resembling his brother Delando's art throughout much of the story. This story is about a astronaut who reaches the edge of the universe, destroying his ship, but somehow leaving him alive. He finds himself in a landscape where other living beings start appearing. He gains the power of a God, but alas, all doesn't go well.

Second is "Mad Amy" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Kevin Duane & Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story tells of the future where robots have run amok, resulting in the destruction of most of the world. This story surrounds Mad Amy of the title and her programming friend who encounter a number of robots and eventually are able to outsmart them into being friendly to humans once again.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr", returning after a two issue absense. Art and story is by Frank Thorne. Ghita and Thenef and Dahib are invited to a neighboring land of Urd. Along the way Ghita and Thenef tell Dahib a story of years before when they were recruited to obtain a cup from the queen's bedroom. Naturally there's lots of nudity and sex involved.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Kid Rust" by Jose Ortiz (art). The writer is uncredited. This story is about a robot boxer and his manager. The manager refuses to work with a gambler and fix a fight so the gambler has him killed. The manager is able to resurrect himself in the robot's body however, ensuring he stays alive.

Fifth is "The Big Celebration" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This story, which I would probably rank as the best of the issue tells of aliens asking Earth to send a representative, which ends up being a has been quarterback who had one big game a few years ago. No one is able to figure out why they're asking for him, even the quarterback himself. He heads to the stars where he meets the aliens, who are a few years behind on their TV which is why they like him so much, the last they saw of him he was a star.

Last is "Man is God!" by Alex Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This is a very quick 2 page story about a pair of astronauts arguing over the universe while a giant sneezing interferes with their flight.

Creepy 100

Creepy's 100th issue contains a whopping 8 stories. It starts with a cover by Bob Larkin.

First is "The Pit at the Center of the Earth" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A very poor story with some ugly as usual art from Pablo Marcos about a battle taking place on an oil ring. Yawn.

Second is "Professor Duffer and the Insuperable Myron Meek!" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Duffer of the title introduces Myron Meek to a top Hollywood agent and he makes it in Hollywood as a comedic actor, although he never speaks. It ends up that Meek is a robot. Meek has fallen in love with the robot from Metropolis, so they are able to find her for him, and he heads off for good with her. A nice comedic story with some good art from Severin.

Third is "Tale of a Fox" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about a Chinese princess, Ming Toi, who has the ability to transform herself into a fox. She is captured by her evil uncle Quang, who plans to replace her on the throne with his daughter Sun Li, who looks just like her. Ming Toi transforms into a fox however, and the guards mistake Sun Li for her, leading to her execution. This story would become a series in Vampirella a few years later.

Fourth is "Nobody's Home" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). As usual for Vaultz this story features alien creatures, this time creatures that live on the moon in an enforced enclosure. One alien tries to escape and succeeds, only to crumble to dust when he gets out.

Fifth is this issue's color story, "Winner Take All!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Len Wein (story). A soldier plays cards with an old man and beats him so much that all the man has to offer is his beautiful female slave. The soldier heads through the desert with the slave, who never says a word. Various monsters start appearing and attacking him. Eventually it is revealed that she is the one summoning them, and that she has magic powers. She transforms him into an old man who is soon gambling her away as well.

Sixth is "Hell Hound" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man finds an injured hound near his house and nurses it back to health. Soon he finds his enemies, such as his ex-wife and a man who fought him in a bar dead. It ends up that the hound is killing any enemies from his past. He goes to see a psychologist who wrote him a bad check in the past, but it ends up that this man has his own 'Hell Hound' too.

Seventh is "Wisper of Dark Eyes" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A meteor crashes into the sea near a small fishing town. A woman watching it is given special powers which she uses to get her husband to kill the woman she's having an affair with. The special powers go away however when the meteor goes away, and the husband tears her eyes out. She jumps off a cliff to her death and he goes crazy.

Last is "They're Going to Be Turning Out the Lights" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of the panic that occurs when there is a massive blackout in a big city and the steps the government takes to keep things under control.