The Various Sources for Warren Publishing

After another extended absence I'm happy to return with another article on Warren, this time on the various instances in the Company's history where they drew upon outside sources for stories. This article focuses on already produced material, and does not discuss stories that were simply adaptations, such as the various Edgar Allen Poe stories that appeared along the years. Three primary references utilized for this article are the Warren Companion by Jon Cooke and David Roach, Gathering Horror by David Horne and Richard Arndt's Warren bibliography from Enjorals World.

Warren's magazines drew source material from many different external outlets over the years, and this article highlights many of such instances. The reasons for drawing on outside material to fill the contents of Warren's magazines varies at times, but it typically occurred in those periods of time where finances were running low and it became necessary to draw on some other outlets to ensure that magazines had sufficient material to be published.

The first such instance where Warren drew on outside material occurred during the first down period of Warren, in 1968. At the time, Warren faced the crippling blow of the loss of editor/main writer Archie Goodwin, as well as the vast majority of all freelance artists who worked for the company due to a reduction in funds to pay such contributors. In order to bide time until the company could get back on its feet, Warren started using a number of reprinted stories from the first 17 issues of Creepy and first 12 issues of Eerie. Warren also reprinted the entire contents of Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror, a book published in 1966. Each of the stories in this book, which were done in comic form, was based on stories by well known writers such as H.P Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Ambrose Bierce. The five stories, including the Warren issue that they appeared in, are as follows: Creepy #19 - The Mark of the Beast!; Eerie #12 - The Past Master; Eerie #13 - Wentworth's Day; Eerie #16 - Dracula's Guest; and Eerie #17 - The Death of Halpin Frayser. Surprisingly enough, the editor of the book was Russ Jones, the original editor for Creepy, who had a falling out with Warren and had left the company several years earlier, and any involvement he had with these stories was left out entirely when they appeared in the Warren magazines. A sixth story, which was intended for a second, never published volume of the book, "Carmilla", also appeared in Creepy #19.

Following the usage of these stories, the usage of outside source material for Warren ceased for the next few years. Starting in 1971, when Warren began a relationship with Josep Toutain's Spanish artist agency, Selecciones Illustrada, it resulted in not only the addition of a great many Spanish artists to the Warren line for new stories, but also started the beginning of the usage of many stories by these artists that appeared originally elsewhere. The most notable example of this in these first few years of their involvement with Warren was the inclusion of two series by Esteban Maroto, “Dax the Warrior” and “Tomb of the Gods”. Dax the Warrior originally appeared in Spain under the name "Manly el Guerrero". Dax first appeared in his self named story "Dax the Warrior" in Eerie #39, and had an appearance in every non-reprint issue of Eerie through issue 52, marking 12 total appearances. Each of the original Dax stories had been written by Esteban Maroto but were translated and rewritten by various Warren writers who were never credited. The majority of the Dax stories were later compiled and rewritten as "Dax the Damned" in Eerie #59, the 1975 Eerie Yearbook. "Tomb of the Gods" had originally been published in Spain and was featured in five straight non-reprint issues of Vampirella starting with issue 17. Similar to Dax, these stories had also been rewritten and rearranged at times; for example the stories "Gender Bender" from issue 20 and "Orpheus" from issue 22 feature a page of identical artwork although the written content is different. "Tomb of the Gods" was rather unpopular compared to Dax and there may have been other segments that never appeared in the Warren magazines.

“Dracula”, a magazine originally published in Spain by Buru Lan, and in England by New English Library, was probably most notable for the "Dracula Book 1" that was featured heavily in advertisements for Warren for many years following the joining of the Spanish artists at Warren. Esteban Maroto and Jose Bea were two of the principal artists of this publication and each had a story from it published in the main Warren magazines. "The Viyi", written and drawn by Esteban Maroto is notable for being the first full color story published in Warren's horror magazines and was featured simultaneously in Creepy #51 and Vampirella #22. Surprisingly enough it took Warren quite a bit of time to be able to match the color quality appearing in this story after they started using color on their own original stories a few issues later. "Invasion", drawn by Bea and written by Maroto appeared in 1976 in Eerie #75, this time with the color removed. Surprisingly enough Warren also used the final panel of the story as the central part of the pink colored cover to the issue, resulting in one of the most bizarre looking Warren covers of all time.

The next notable outside material that Warren utilized was five stories from the French Magazine "Pilote" that were written by Victor Mora and drawn by Luis Garcia (with collaboration in one instance by Carlos Giminez). The first such story appeared in Vampirella #42, with one additional story appearing in each non-reprint issue through #47. As with the earlier Dax and Tomb of the Gods stories, each of these stories were rewritten or rearranged in some form, including at times, the moving of pages from one story to another, removing of panels or the addition of color. Unfortunately this resulted in the dropping of writing credits from the story entirely for Victor Mora for some of the stories. I've written about these stories in my earlier article on Luis Garcia and found each to be very strong and a highlight of Warren publishing, it’s just unfortunate that they didn't include more of them, as Mora and Garcia later had additional collaborations that never saw print in a Warren magazine. These five stories included the following: Vampirella #42 - Around the Corner… …Just Beyond Eternity!; Vampirella #43 - The Wolves At War's End; Vampirella #44 - Love Strip; Vampirella #45 - Janis!; and Vampirella #47 - The Secret Legacy of Gaslight Lil!

"Tales of Peter Hypnos", a short lived series that appeared in Eerie #72, 73 and 76 also had outside origins and was originally produced by Jose Bea as part of a larger series of at least 7 stories. The first story in the series had originally appeared in Spain in the Spirit, and the entire series had been printed in a single compilation in Australia in 1976 as well. As with the previously discussed stories, this appears to be another set of stories that was largely rewritten, although Jose Bea was the only one credited.

There were various one-shot usages of source materials through the mid to late 1970s in the Warren magazines. "Now You See It" in Creepy #83 featured the return of Al Williamson to Warren after an absence of nearly 10 years, but it wasn't due to a commissioned story, as the story was originally intended for the magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction that had been cancelled by Marvel before it could see publication. "Warmonger of Mars" by Ralph Reese (art) and Wally Wood (story) appeared a few issues later in the all Mars issue of Creepy #87, but was apparently originally intended for an underground comic. "Scheherazade" by Esteban Maroto, the color story in Vampirella #72 was supposed to be the first part of a series, "Thousand and One Nights" as published in Cuando el Comic es Arte: Esteban Maroto in Spain, but this was the only story of the series to see print, at least in the Warren magazines.

Jose Gonzalez was most notably Warren's Vampirella artist and was featured almost exclusively on her stories. He did have a 3 part non-Vampirella story, "Herma", although the story was originally published in Spain in 1974 in Cuando El Comic es Arte: Pepe Gonzalez". All 3 of the stories were rewritten by Bill Dubay and resized to fit the magazine format. Leo Duranona had a trio of stories under the title "Fallen Angels" appear in Eerie #96 as well as an additional story titled "A Nightmare for Mrs. Agatha" in Vampirella #72 that appear to have been originally published in South America, with a 1976 date and Guillermo Saccomanno storyline. Saccomanno never wrote any other stories that appeared in a Warren magazine which lends credence to the theory that these stories were not originally commissioned by Warren.

Towards the end of Warren's run in the early 1980's, the usage of source material from previously published works in Europe picked up steam in a big way. By this point in time that Warren's finances were quite strained was very apparent, with reprint issues appearing with increasing intensity. Victor de la Fuente drew only a single story directly for Warren, appearing in Eerie #35, but the 1980's saw him appear in over 20 issues of 1984/1994 and Eerie. Seven stories from the "Haxtur" series appeared in 1984/1994 #10 and 11 and Eerie #111, 113, 114, 116 and 117. Haxtur originally appeared in the Spanish magazine Trinca and was approximately 10 years old by the time it appeared in Warren. As with most stories there was some rewriting and the original color had been removed. Haggarth was a bit more recent than Haxtur and had a longer run of 14 appearances in Eerie starting with issue #118. Warren also went back even further than Haxtur, to the 1960s, where the strip "Spacewrecked" by Paul Gillon (art) and Jean Claude Forest (writing) appeared. Four stories from this series appeared in Eerie issues #129, 132, 134 and 136. More work from Paul Gillon, "Jeremie: Les Dieux Barbares" which was originally published in France in 1971 appeared in Vampirella issues #104, 106, 108 and 110. Unfortunately both series never saw their conclusion appear due to the bankruptcy of Warren publishing in 1983. The series "Torpedo 1936" saw print in the last 3 non-reprint issues of Vampirella, with writing by Sanchez Abuli and art by Abuli or Alex Toth. These stories originally appeared in the Spanish version of Creepy and as with some of the other series discussed here never saw a conclusion due to Warren's bankruptcy.

Various other stories or series that were shorter in scope also appeared during the waning days of Warren. "Pyramid of the Black Sun", which appeared in two parts in Eerie #124 and 126 originally appeared in Europe in the late 1970s, with story by Antonio Segura and art by Luis Bermejo. The story originally appeared in one part in its original publication, but was split in two for its Warren appearance and was rewritten by Jim Stenstrum, under the pseudonym "Alabaster Redzone". "Korsar", another series spearheaded by Esteban Maroto originally appeared in the magazine Cimoc in Spain in 1979 and was featured in Eerie #126, rewritten again by Stenstrum. Although there were other parts to the series, this was the only one that saw print in a Warren magazine. Two stories from Fernando Fernandez's Bruce Bloodletter educational series appeared rather far apart in Eerie #94 and #117, both originally appearing in the Spanish publication Space and Adventure. The following issue saw another Fernando Fernandez story, "Space Kids" which first saw print in 1978 in Italy in the magazine Alter Ego. That said, I've also heard that this story was originally created around the time of Fernandez's other stories for Warren which appeared in the early to mid-1970s and that it sat around for many years. It may have originally been intended for a Warren magazine but due to its more science fiction related nature (and poor quality compared to other Fernandez stories) was held off on until the time it saw print, which was a time when many old inventory stories saw use by Warren.

Many additional Warren stories that saw print through the years, particularly the late 1970s and early 1980s likely appeared elsewhere, although the true source is unknown (or at the very least I haven't found an English-language source mentioning it!). Warren was notorious for rewriting stories that had been drawn previously. While oftentimes there was no way to tell this for sure simply by reading the Warren magazines, two writers, Bob Toomey and Jim Stenstrum made this known by using aliases for stories that they had rewritten based on already created artwork. Bob Toomey used the name "Gary Null" while Jim Stenstrum used the name "Alabaster Redzone". Both rewrote some Jesus Blasco-drawn stories that appeared in Creepy #110, 120 and 123. The first of these stories, "The Clockmaker" was about as obvious a rewrite as possible as the art makes it very clear that it’s an adaption of the Telltale Heart, while the writing goes in a completely different direction. That Jesus Blasco was miscredited in all 3 stories lends credence to the theory that none of these stories were originally created for Warren. A pair of Leo Duranona stories in Creepy #117 and 118 was also rewritten by Toomey, although they don't feature his Gary Null alias. Whether these were originally commissioned for Warren, or like previously mentioned Duranona stories saw print in Europe or South America earlier, I am not sure. The "Alabaster Redzone" stories by Stenstrum are typically a lot harder to pin point about whether they were originally commissioned for Warren or came from elsewhere. "Lullaby" by Jose Gonzalez in 1984 #4 is one such story, and given that Gonzalez drew only one other non-Vampirella story for Warren that was commissioned by them makes me think this could have been a story originally done in Europe. Much of the "Mac Tavish" series by Pepe Moreno Casares features Alabaster Redzone as the writer, although I cannot say whether these were Warren commissions or not. Most of his other "Alabaster Redzone" stories appeared in 1984, which frequently saw rewrites, so most may have been originally commissioned stories. 1984/1994 features so many stories where the story and artwork differ greatly (the entire Idi Amin series comes to mind) that many of these stories may have been originally done for Warren. Three stories by Carlos Giminez, who has been mentioned previously regarding his collaboration with Luis Garcia in Pilote, appeared late in Warren, in Eerie #114 and 1994 #15 and 16. All three were both strongly drawn and written, and it’s unfortunate that Warren did not utilize more stories by him in the waning years of the company.

Warren's hero-themed magazine "The Rook" hasn't been featured much on this blog due to my lack of interest in the subject matter, but is notable for featuring a large amount of outsourced material. Issues 2 through 9 featured "Voltar", as drawn by Alfredo Alcala. The barbarian themed series originally appeared in the Philippines and had actually been printed in America previously in Magic Carpet. Bill Dubay rewrote the story for the entire series. "Viking Prince" as drawn and written by Jose Ortiz originally appeared as "Sigur the Viking" in Spain, and first appeared in the late 1950s. Two of these stories appeared in issues 5 and 6 of the Rook. "Kronos" by Lee Elias originally appeared in the Joe Kubert publication "Sojourn" and first appeared in The Rook #8. This series was unique in that its appearance in Warren resulted in the creation of new stories which appeared for several more issues. "Eagle" by John Severin (art) and Colin Dawkins (story), who had worked together back at EC comics, also originated from "Sojourn" and appeared in the final 3 issues of the Rook.

This article has focused primarily on the interior stories, but Warren also had a number of covers that originated from outside sources. Patrick Woodroffe had a series of covers that appeared in Warren's magazines, particularly for the early issues of 1984, each of which had been originally painted for paperback books. Vampirella #31 heralded the return of famous cover artist Frank Frazetta, but the cover had actually been originally commissioned for the book adaption of the movie Luana. Interestingly enough, each of Richard Corben's late Warren covers had originally appeared elsewhere, including from the book "A Feast Unknown" (used for Creepy #141), the cover to the 1975 Annual World's Best Science Fiction (used for Creepy #140), and an painting that had been originally commissioned by Selecciones Illustrada (used for 1984 #26). Many other paintings originally commissioned by S.I. as painted by Richard Courtney (Creepy #136, 142) and Sanjulian (Eerie #129, 132, 133 and 135) also were used in the late days of Warren. Creepy #120 featured a cover painting from Jeff Jones, his sole that appeared for Warren, although it was originally intended for the magazine Weird Tales of Macabre but never saw print. In what must have been humiliating for Warren, towards the very end they even used covers that had been used by their competition back in the mid-1970's, including the covers for Vampirella #111 by Pujolar (originally used as the cover for Devilina #1) and Creepy #145 by Jose Miralles (originally used as the cover for Nightmare #9).

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.

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.

Eerie 51

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, featuring none other than Cousin Eerie himself. This issue is dated September 1973.

Up first is "A Stranger in Hell" by Esteban Maroto (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Eerie 38. The majority of Brennan's stories were nonscensical garbage and this is one of them. A man in hell is unable to die. I think thats what it means. While Maroto's art is great, as usual, this story just makes no sense whatsoever. It would get a sequel in Creepy #61 not too long after this issue.

Second is "Pity the Grave Digger" by Auraleon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story), from Eerie 40. An old grave digger warns his young colleague of the dangers of the graveyard including a vampire he destroyed and corpses being found completely devoured. The colleague doesn't believe him, but the old gravedigger is soon found consumed by a group of tiny demons.

Third is "The Caterpillers" by Luis Garcia (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Eerie 41. A professor from a government research facility passes away during a meeting, resulting in an investigation. It is revealed that caterpillers created in the facility had been taking over the minds of people and eating their brains. Quickly the entire lab is wiped out by them and when our protagonist reports to his superiors, it is revealed that they have been taken over as well. Terrific art as always from Garcia, but the story is extremely similar to the story "Spiders are Revolting" from Eerie 26.

"Evil Spirits" is fourth, by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 16. The story features a woman who is in a haunted castle and is confronted by bad dreams and perhaps even ghosts. Her husband is cheating on her and the lover shows up, and they both kill each other. The husband, now with yet another lover, comes to the castle, where their ghosts remain waiting for revenge.

Fifth is "Head Shop" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story), from Eerie 39. A man passing a hat shop one day finds a head dummy that looks almost real. The man becomes obsessed with the head and passes it each day as it goes to work. After a while passes though he notices the head decomposing. The man tries to get himself to stop looking, but he can't control himself and the head gets worse and worse looking. Eventually he confronts the owner of the shop, who hadn't realized that the head was rotting and replaces it by chopping off our protagonist's head.

Sixth is "Vision of Evil" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 2. This story features a rich man who becomes obsessed with the art of a madman living in an asylum. He heads to the asylum to see the artist, who is a usually comatose man except when he's painting. It soon becomes clear however that the monsters in his paintings are real, and they come for the rich man after he is featured in one of the madman's paintings.

"The Curse of Kali" is last, with art by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is from Eerie 6. The story, taking place in the Middle East, features a man who stops a woman from being sacrificed to the god Kali, so he is cursed, which ends up turning him into a vampire.

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 139

This is an all Alex Toth reprint issue. Toth was a terrific artist, so its nice to see so much good artwork from him here. This issue is cover dated July 1982, with a cover by Rudy Nebres.

First is "Daddy and the Pie" with art by Bill Dubay. This story is from Eerie 64. It tells of an alien creature whose ship crashes to Earth. He is nursed back to health by a farm family, and the story is told from the perspective of the son in the family. Unfortunately the town becomes fearful of the alien and attack the father when he heads to town on his own. The alien saves him, but dies from his wounds. A terrific story which would eventually have a sequel made.

Second is "The Monument" with story by Archie Goodwin. This issue is from Eerie 3. This story, which appears to be an unauthorized adaption of Ray Bradbury's "The Coffin" is about a design firm owner who convinces an aged architect build a house for him, by telling him that it will be his house. He kills him when it nears completion. Upon laying in his bed for the first time, he is killed by machinery in the house, which the architect had intended to be his tomb upon completion.

Third is "Grave Undertaking" with story by Archie Goodwin, from Creepy 5. This story was Toth's first one for Warren. A pair of undertakers make a deal with a doctor to bring him dead bodies for use in medical classes. They initially dig up graves, then start committing murder to fulfill this task. Upon hearing of a nearby town with a number of deaths, they head there and take all the bodies. What they hadn't realized was that all these people died from a vampire, and thus have become vampires themselves!

Fourth is "Rude Awakening" with story by Archie Goodwin (story). This story, from Creepy 7 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 "Survival" from Blazing Combat 3. The story is provided by both Toth and Archie Goodwin. An old man in a post-war landscape ravages for food found from small cans, and has to fight of wild dogs. He gets excited upon realizing that there is other people nearby when he finds a raft, but upon finding out that they have taken some of his food he goes on a rampage and kills them all. He is shocked to find a woman among the people he killed. My favorite story from a superb issue of Blazing Combat, the only one I own. I love the final lines of the story "Suddenly, the air filled with a taut, shrill, horrible cry of pain and rage... Animal-like in pitch and quality, it rose higher into the night, ripping, tearing my head apart! I tried to shut it out... out... but it wouldn't! ...and couldn't stop it... for in a while, I realized the truth... and knew that the raw, shrill scream... was MINE!"

Sixth is "Phantom of Pleasure Island" with story by Gerry Boudreau. This story is from Creepy 75. It 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.

Last is "Unreal!" with story by Toth, from Creepy 78. This story features an actor named 'Baba' Boone who does a lot of stunts, but is extremely quiet. As the story ends it ends up that is the case because he is a robot. A good story, though a tad predictable.

Creepy 76

Sanjulian provides an interesting cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring the grim reaper on a horse, carrying a headless woman's corpse. This issue is dated January 1976. Berni Wrightson and Walt Simonson provide a one page intro from Uncle creepy

First is "Goodbye, Mr. Lincoln" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A very interesting story surrounding a woman whose son is murdererd. At the police station she explains that her son is actually the reincarnation of a slave boy who had a spell cast on him by an old woman. After the boy's death, he is reincarnated as leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy, but is always assassinated. In the modern era, Satan's forces captured the woman and her son and killed him. While the policeman believes his story, he leaves her in the care of another person, who is actually a demon, who kills her for talking.

Second is "Ensnared" by Alex Toth (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features a man who wakes up and finds himself trapped in an elevator. After much anguish, he finally gets out, but it is revealed to be part of an experiment performed by robots (or perhaps aliens in robot-like suits).

Third is "A Flash of Lightning" by John Severin (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A mysterious man comes across a man's farm and starts working for the farmer. Soon afterwards mysterious deaths start occuring, that appear to be the work of a vampire, which is of course the man who just appeared. The farmer comes across the man with his daughter and they get in a fight, and the man is accidently stabbed by a sharp piece of wood, killing him. As the story ends, it is revealed that the daughter is pregnant.

Fourth is "My Monster... My Dad" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jan Strnad (story). A rather bizarre story about a boy who hates his black stepfather, thinking he's a monster. He has multiple dreams, including one where he stabs his step father, and that occurs in real life. A real odd one here. There is nothing evidencing that the father is a monster, making it come off as simply a story about a very racist and delusional boy.

Fifth is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story). 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.

The issue concludes with "The Imp of the Perverse!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man plans to kill his rich uncle in order to inherit his money. He does it by creating a poison candle which he burns in the old man's bedroom. With no one suspecting things, he keeps muttering "I am safe" to himself over and over again until he suddenly blabs in public about killing his uncle. As a result, he is jailed and hung for murder.

Eerie 14

Vic Prezio provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, cover dated April 1968. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Mummy" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

First is "The Stalkers" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 6. 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.

Next is "Pursuit of the Vampire" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 1. The story features a group of townspeople being joined by a stranger who tells them two murder victims are actually going to turn into vampires since a vampire was their killer. He leads them to a house where they are and kill them. The town leader ends up being the vampire that killed them, but the stranger, who is a werewolf kills him to eliminate competition for victims.

Third is "Howling Success" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 3. A city is plagued by a werewolf. A man who hates his wife encounters the werewolf but is safely able to hide from it by running through a cemetary fence. He plots to bring his wife to this spot at he next full moon so she can get killed by the werewolf, making him money on insurance. Only when he brings her there he discovers that she's the werewolf and becomes its next victim!

Up next is "Untimely Tomb!" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 5. The title is credited to Anne Murphy, Goodwin's wife. This story features a doctor who is humiliated when a girl whom he pronounced dead is found alive by her brother, only for her to die due to being entombed alive. The brother confronts the doctor, who strikes him down and ends up killing him. When his corpse is put in the doctor's family crypt he fears that it is alive and heads inside, dying of fright after thinking it true. Only it ends up the corpse was stored elsewhere and he was all on his own after all.

Fifth is "Curse of the Full Moon!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 4. 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 "Blood and Orchids" by Al McWilliams and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 4. 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.

Oddly enough, this Eerie reprint issue has all Creepy reprint stories.

Creepy 79

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, which is miscredited to Sanjulian. This issue is cover dated May 1976, and was the first issue during Louise Jones's era as editor. Jose Ortiz provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover.

First is "As Ye Sow..." by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story takes place in a post apocalyptic society featuring a family of cannibals. The daughter of the family finds a man hiding in the woods. They fall in love with each other and she hides him from the others. When her family finds him and tries to eat him, she tries to scare them off with a cross but they shoot her in the face. They force her to have babies with the man, which they then proceed to eat.

Second is "Kui" by Alex Toth (story & art). This story features a man traveling to a South American temple during his vacation with his reluctant wife. They search for an entrance and eventually find it, going inside. They end up trigger a trap however, and are buried alive with sand because of it.

Third is "The Super-Abnormal Phenomena Survival Kit!" by John Severin (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This hilarious story is a parody of the Captain Company ads that appeared in the back of each Warren magazine. Eight pages of parodies and horror movie staples/homages results in a fairly good effort, one of Warren's best humorous stories.

Fourth is "The Shadow of the Axe!" by Russ Heath (art) and Dave Sim (story). 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.

Fifth is "Visitation at Pliny Marsh" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features mysterious events occuring near a swamp including the corpse of a man killed years before by his wife and lover appearing, and a mysterious fish like alien. The corpse attacks the lover of his wife, killing him, then confronts her, but is stopped by the alien, who apologizes for bringing the corpse back to life by his presence there. The alien is shot however by one of the men in the town, and the wife hangs herself soon afterwards.

Last is "The Pit in the Living Room Floor!" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A very good, odd story. A man hears mysterious noises from under the floor in his living room. Eventually a bizarre looking man bursts out of the floor, and our protagonist kills him. Looking at where the man came from, he finds a seemingly never ending pit coming below the floorboards. He decides to head down into it and after a very long time, reaches the bottom. He bangs on the floor of the pit, eventually breaking through, only to be shot by himself, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Creepy 77

This issue of Creepy is a special Christmas issue from February 1976. The cover is by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides the frontis, featuring Uncle Creepy dressed up as Santa Claus. A whopping 8 stories are contained in this issue, one of the very few all original issues containing this many stories.

First is "Once Upon a Miracle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a pair of priests in a church witnessing an old lady who each year steals a statue of baby Jesus, something she's done each year since her own baby died due to the cold. While they're not watching a group of tiny demons arrive, but tiny cherubs arrive and stop them, then turn the baby Jesus statue to a real baby. Over 5 pages in a row in this story with no dialogue at all, quite an oddity for a Warren story. This story was originally intended for the prior Christmas special, issue 68, but missed the deadline and was not printed until this issue.

Second is "Tibor Miko" by Alex Toth (story & art). I believe this to be the only story in Warren history where no title appeared at all anywhere in the story. The story title is provided on the contents page though. This story doesn't really have much of a Christmas theme outside of taking place on Christmas Eve. It features a pilot who encounters a UFO while in the sky. When the UFO lands he approaches it and is seized by the creatures inside. The UFO takes off, never to be seen again.

Third is "The Final Christmas of Friar Steel" by John Severin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a monastery where many evil things start happening. An eye falls out of a statue of Jesus, which starts bleeding. The eye then appears in a wine cup they are drinking from. Corpses appear in the basement. It ends up a demon is behind the whole thing. The demon battles with the head of the monastery and the whole place burns to the ground.

Fourth is "Clarice" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story is a poem about a man longing for his dead wife, who died by accident when she was locked outside in the cold one night while he slept and froze to death. His wife comes back to life as a corpse and returns to the cabin, where they are reunited. One significant screw up occurs however (not sure whether it was Jones or Wrightson's fault) when the artwork shows an uncovered window that the wife could have broken and got inside through.

Fifth is this issue's color story, "The Believer" by Richard Corben (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a world where Santa Claus is dead and Christmas as it was no longer occurs. Shinny Upatree, the last elf left however decides to keep Christmas alive and goes out himself, although he can't visit every house each year. He visits an orphanage with a cruel housemaster, who Shinny smuthers with a pillow. He doesn't end up dying though and the housemaster kills Shinny. A boy who Shinny who witnesses it happen kills the housemaster, then takes over for Shinny as the one keeping Christmas alive.

Sixth is "First Snow, Magic Snow" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about an old man who sells threads and buttons on the street to make enough money to buy a candle for his dead wife each year. This year he meets a young girl whom he reads to. It ends up being a ghost of his dead wife. He dies soon afterwards.

Seventh is "Final Gift" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a trio of men in a wintery future. They are unable to find much salvagable food due to poachers that have ravaged any stores they are able to find. Eventually one kills himself so the others can eat him, but it ends up happening when they finally find a town with other people that they can stay with.
Last is "The Final Christmas" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Within a church in Brooklyn the devil arrives. He tells the sole priest left at the church, which no one visits, even on Christmas that it is time for him to take over the world. He makes a bet with the priest that he'll let the Earth be if he can find many righteous people, telling off anyone who the priest tries to name. Very arrogant, he lowers the bet down to a single person, then loses out when a boy enters the church to pay his respects to Jesus.

Creepy 78

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, Bill Dubay's last during his original run as editor. It is cover dated March 1976.

First is "The Horseman" by Miguel Quesada (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). Quesada was an artist who worked with the Valencia studio with Jose Ortiz, Luis Bermejo and Leopold Sanchez. While those three became very prolific artists for Warren, this ended up being Quesada's only story. It features a centaur like horseman who encounters a Canadian soldier who is afraid of the battlefield. When other soldiers come and try to kill him, the horseman kills them all. The two say their farewells soon after.

Second is "Unreal!" by Alex Toth (story & art). This story features an actor named 'Baba' Boone who does a lot of stunts, but is extremely quiet. As the story ends it ends up that is the case because he is a robot. A good story, though a tad predictable.

Third is "Creeps" by John Severin & Wally Wood (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

Fourth is "Lord of Lazarus Castle" by Jorge Moliterni (art, miscredited to Claude Moliterni) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). This story features a couple that kills people who visit an old castle they occupy. They then take the corpses and provide it to a cannibal, who pays them for them. When summer comes however it is too popular a place and they can't kill anyone. This angers the cannibal, who ends up eating one of them.

Fifth is "The Nature of the Beast" by Martin Salvador (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This odd story features a man with visions of the past long ago, as a caveman. Years pass into the present and we witness the future as well. An odd story, although a fairly good art job by Salvador.

Last is "God of Fear" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). Very good art by Alcazar, resembling Luis Garcia's work. An archeologist of the Smithsonian discovers ancient artifacts referencing a God, Uturuncu. When he returns, he gets upset when his colleague tries to take all the credit and utters a chant that turns him into Uturuncu. He then goes on a rampage around the Washington Monument. He eventually turns back into his human self, at which point the story ends very abruptly.

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 75

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated November 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. An amazing issue, one of Creepy's best single issues ever.

First is "The Escape Chronicle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a 1984-esque future. A man, Bernard, meets Charlie, a man who is completely unlike anyone else, refusing to act in the way that society demands. Charlie convinces Bernard to come to his side and they plot to escape using a hot air balloon. The day it finally happens however Bernard is pursued by law enforcement and falls off the balloon just as Charlie is escaping. A fairly good story, that was included in the Warren Companion's top 25 list. A sequel was made in issue 80 that wrapped things up on a happier note.

Second is "Phantom of Pleasure Island" by Alex Toth (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is a murder mystery taking place in an amusement park where a mysterious sniper has killed multiple people. One of the suspect 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.

Third is "Snow" by Rich Buckler & Wally Wood (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story takes place in the ruins of a wintery city. A man meets a boy in an abandoned building whose parents are dead. They are attacked by a man who wants to eat them, but they kill him instead, then plan to use him for food.

Fourth is "Death Expression" by John Severin (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A man in a prison tells a story of a revolution he was part of in South America. His cause was helped by a major who suddenly arrived and took charge, quickly bringing their group to power. Once in power, executions of people continue for weeks and months and a mysterious council appears. When our protagonist refuses to murder the former dictator, the Major plans to have him killed. This results in a struggle between our protagonist and him where he pulls of the Major's mask, revealing that he is an alien cochroach! The aliens started the revolution and are plotting to take over the entire world. Back in the prison, our protagonist thinks one of the guard is an alien as well and attacks him, falling to his death.

The issue concludes with "Thrillkill" by Neal Adams (art, his final Warren appearance) and Jim Stenstrum (story). 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.

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.

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.

Creepy 122

A Richard Corben cover starts off this issue of Creepy, featuring an upside down dead asian man. Uncle Creepy is given a one page introduction by Rudy Nebres.

First story is "The Killing" by the team of Alex Toth & Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story, taking place during the civil war features a confederate civilian woman who ends up being forced to take in some Union soldiers. Although she planned on blowing them up, killing herself along with them, she has a change of heart and waits until they leave before killing herself.

Next is "The Watcher" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story is about a censor at the Comics Code who is very over the top with his censorship. He takes home a new comic one night, Mooneyes, featuring a scantily clad heroine. He discovers the real Mooneyes, or rather the model that portrays her and ends up killing her. Having gone crazy by the event, he moves out to the suburbs and becomes a comic writer himself, but his prospective publisher comes to see him and finds her rotting corpse in the house with him.

Third is "The Perfect Specimen" by Steve Gan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features two rather confused aliens who come to Earth and land in an ocean, thinking that fish are the dominant species of the Earth. They capture a great white shark and thinking it friendly, go in a tank to meet it, unaware of how dangerous it actually is.

Fourth is "Midnight in Chinatown" by the team of Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The issue's weakest story, this is a mystery/action story about a man attacked by a mysterious assassin in Chinatown. He investigates and eventually encounters him again, discovering that he is Japanese and manages to kill him.

Fifth is "Routine" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). This story appears to have been originally written years before as Carl Wessler was no longer with Warren by this point and Uncle Creepy hosted the story, which hadn't happened in years. The story surrounds a middle aged man in a rather quiet city in his normal routine, such as going to the Bank where he is president, and having a party for his wife. As we reach the last page and find him dining with all skeletons it becomes apparant that he's the only human left alive, but to keep himself sane he pretends that everyone else is still alive. A short, but interesting story.

Sixth is "Magic Man" by Fred Carillo (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a magic man who stays in a book store who befriends a young woman, but won't let her touch him. He has the ability to create illusions of any real matter, making it appear to be something else. The woman thinks that he's an illusion himself, but when she touches him it is she who dissappears, as she was an illusion, not him.

The issue concludes with "Roomers" by Mike Zeck (art) and Bruce Jones (story, miscredited to Budd Lewis). This story features a nerdy college student who goes through an elaborate plan to tutor a beautiful fellow student. When she refuses his advances however he snaps, killing her and raping her corpse. He succesfully escapes his apartment complex and disposes of the body, but when he returns he discovers that his elderly landlady spied on him and blackmails him into having sex with her! One of the most horrific Warren endings ever, if you're a young guy like me.

Vampirella 110

Enrich's final Warren cover kicks off this issue of Vampirella. Jose Gonzalez provides a table of contents image of Vampirella.

First up is "A Feast of Fear" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This issue features a murder mystery where Vampirella and Adam investigate. It ends up that a demon a woman summoned went out of control. Vampi and Adam are able to defeat the demon, but unfortunately for Vampirella she and Adam find it hard to redeem their prior romantic relationship.

Next is "The Masque of the Red Death", an adaption of the classic Poe story by Auraleon (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This classic tale tells of a plague that arises, killing many. Prince Prospero and his friends barricade themselves in a castle safe from the plague, and won't let any of the sick people in. They hold a ball where a mysterious masked man arrives with a skull like face who touches them, causing them to all die of the plague themselves.

Third is "Jeremy" by Paul Gillon (art & story), the latest story in this series. The pirate ship that Jeremy is on heads to an island where they are fought by new enemies. Later Jeremy takes advantage of an internal scuffle to escape along with Dona Aurelia.

Fourth is "Torpedo" by Alex Toth (art) and Sanchez Abuli (story). Luca, our hero from the previous story is attacked by a young boy, the orphaned son of one of his victims. Luca flashes back to how the man, who was a good friend of his was killed by him years ago in order to keep the mob from coming after him. Another pretty good story in this series, which would continue, without Toth in the next issue.

Fifth is another Auraleon drawn story, "Nightwind", featuring a story by Gerry Boudreau. A young man murders one of his father's tenants, a young black woman who he had fallen in love with but was forbidden from being with. His arrest and pleading of guilty due to insanity sparks an uproar that between a mob of black men and the young man and his father, with them all end up perishing.

Sixth is "The Queen of Souls" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). My favorite story of this issue, this story also features some very good art by Maroto. The Queen of the Valley of Souls encounters a handsome man, Tristan, and his lover in the woods. The Queen asks him to become her husband, but he refuses so she kills her lover. He still refuses her demands and decides to kill himself instead. The Queen, desperate to bring him back to life finds her advisors and servants no help, until she finds an old woman who tells her of a boatman in a valley. She heads there and he brings her to 'The Dark Pit of Torment', where she finally finds him. He tells her there is no escape however, that they are in hell, where she is trapped forever and faces an eternity of torment.

The issue concludes with "Tales of Lost Drakulon" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story was to kick of a new sequence of Vampirella stories, featuring Vampirella in her youth. With Vampirella coming to a quick end due to Warren's bankruptcy only this story was made in this serial. The story features Vampirella as a teen (still wearing her usual costume) and Tristan trying to save some lizard creatures on Drakulon. A very short story at only 4 pages long.

Vampirella 108

Yet another Enrich cover starts off this issue of Vampirella. Jose Gonzalez provides artwork for the table of conents.

First is "Spawn of the Star Beast" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Vampi once again fights a star beast who arrives on Earth from a meteor and starts attacking people so it can spread its spawn around the Earth. Vampi and Conrad are able to defeat the monster.

Next is the second part of "Sweetwater Nessie" by Auraleon (art) and Don McGregor (story). Our heroes look for the Loch Ness Monster to photograph it, but instead it ends up being captured and apparantely killed. The series ended abrubtly here and was not concluded in Vampi's two final non-reprint issues.

Third is "Circus Monstrous", which ended up being Pantha's final story. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by David Allikas. Pantha along with Arrowsmith search for a man who can turn into a Panther like her. They arrive at a circus with a freak show with many part animal part human freaks. The freaks are all artificial, products of surgery but end up getting revenge on the owner and turn him into a freak like them.

Fourth is "The Beast Lies Sleeping", the latest 'The Fox' story, by Luis Bermejo (art) and Nicola Cuti. Our heroes continue with their quest, this time heading to an archaeological site. By this point I've grown pretty bored with this series.

Fifth is the third part of "Jeremy" by Paul Gillon (story & art). Rudy Nebres provides an uncredited first page. Jeremy has headed out to sea, only to be picked up by a group of pirates. There he is forced to be a servant for a young girl who is a hostage of theirs. Eventually some man of war ships arrive, there is a big battle and the ship is destroyed, but both Jeremy and the girl, Dona Aurelia make it out okay.

Last story is "Torpedo, 1936" by Alex Toth (art) and Sanchez Abuli (story). This story was originally printed in the spanish version of Creepy. It features a hit man who falls in love with a girl he has been hired to kill, so he lets her live and uses her clothes to claim credit for killing her. Eventually the money runs out and she starts seeing other men behind his back, so he ends up hiring someone to kill her.

Eerie 67

Eerie 66 is a self contained issue featuring El Cid. I'm going to save that issue for a later date and will head right into Eerie's next regular issue, 67.

Coffin gets his second cover on this issue for his second appearance, done by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson contributes the frontis, starring Cousin Eerie. A Budd Lewis heavy issue, with four stories.

First is Coffin in "Death's Dark Curse" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Coffin sees a caravan crossing the desert but it ignores his pleases for help and heads off without him. He comes across a town completely empty, apparantely visited by 'The Caravan of Death', and heads off with some supplies. He soon finds the corpses of all town's people in the desert. He comes across the caravan, occupied by caped priests who have a woman captive. They tell Coffin that the woman is actually a demon they mistakenly summoned and have taken years to capture. Coffin ignores them and escapes with her. But it soon becomes aware that she is a demon, in fact the Devil himself, who is unleashed upon the world because of Coffin's meddling. A terrific follow up to the original Coffin story (from all the way back in issue 61), so far this series has been a blast. Now if they can just keep it on a reasonable schedule...

Next is "Hunter II" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). With Hunter being one of Eerie's most popular series ever, it was obvious that a sequel would eventually appear. This story takes place 20 years after Hunter's death. Karas is the star, who was a boy saved by Hunter in the original storyline. Karas lives with Mandragora, a powerful wizard who tells him that the world is soon going to end. He hopes to stop this by halting the Earth's rotation for a minute, which will remove it from the time shell that Earth is fated to be destroyed if it stays in. Mandadragora tells Karas of Yaust, an evil wizard who controls the world's demons, now called Goblins. Karas dons Hunter's helmet and heads out to save the Earth. Hunter II goes in somewhat a different direction than the original series but actually has a better storyline if you ask me.

Third is the finale of the Hacker, "The Hacker's Last Stand!" by Alex Toth (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This was Skeates's final Warren story. He was a very strong writer for the majority of his stories (his Mummy finale certainly was a big dissappointment), so he certainly was missed after this point. Another ten years have passed but the Hacker murders have started occuring again. Smythe heads after who he thinks is the Hacker, but it is only a hired hand and the true Hacker arrives and kills them both, ending the series. A downbeat finale to a fairly good series.

Fourth is Papa Voodoo in "The Man Named Gold". Papa Voodoo is none other than Crackermeyer, from the Spook series. With that series stretching a tad far past its prime, it certainly is dissappointing to see yet another related story here, although luckily things finally ended for good after this story. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis, the Spook series regulars. This story features the aged Crackermeyer telling children about a black cowboy whose wife and kids are captured by Apache warriors. The cowboy, named Gold, heads after them, but it takes years and when he finally finds his wife and children, she no longer remembers him and kills herself after he kills her Apache husband. Gold takes back his kids, but dies at the hands of the Apache years later.

The issue wraps up with Merlin in "The Kingmaker" with art by Esteban Maroto and story by Budd Lewis. Terrific art by Lewis, but not all that interesting a story. It stars Merlin, in a story that takes place before King Arthur's birth. In fact this story heavily features Arthur's parents, King Uther and Ygraine, who are assisted by Merlin and his assistant Snivel.