The EC and Warren Connection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vampirella 111

Warren reaches a new low with this all reprint issue of Vampirella from January 1983. The cover, by Pujolar, is actually a reprinted cover from the magazine Devilina, a competitor to Warren! Unbelievable that they'd take a competitor's cover to use for one of their issues.

First is "Vampirella and the Curse of the Macdaemons" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from issue 28. The Macdaemons of the title are a family who lives in Scotland. As the son of the family comes of age he is forced to watch over the family secret. Vampi and Pendragon come there on vacation and meet Alastair, who tells Vampi of how an ancestor of his was forced to mate with a sea monster. Alastair plans to feed Pendragon to the creature, but when he lets it go, it instead attacks him, jealous over the attention he's paid to Vampirella. Vampirella then bites it in her bat form, killing it. This story is continued with the next story.

Second is "Vampirella and the Undead of the Deep!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from issue 29. Vampi witnesses the burial of Alastair, who is being carried into the water. Vampi goes under water where she sees many dead bodies at a ball. She also finds Tristan down there, but he soon transforms into a watery beast after tricking her into getting rid of her blood substitute. Vampi escapes and bites the dead bodies down there to get the blood she needs.

Third is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story), from issue 40. A sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Fourth is "The Munificent Ali Addan and Son!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay & Maroto (story), from issue 68. The art on this story is printed sideways. This story features the son of Ali Addan, who encounters a beautiful woman who has set up a trap for him. He battles a warrior and defeats him, and the woman is revealed to be Ali Addan's daughter. Her mother, a monster appears and kills Ali's son.

Fifth is "Force Feed" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Cary Bates (story), from issue 59. 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.

Sixth is "Fog" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from issue 62. This story features a dangerous fog that chases a couple. They are able to escape from it, but it adapts by turning into a liquid, and getting at them that way.

Last is "The French Coagulation" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story), from issue 39. Bermejo's first Warren story in its original appearance, his art here is simply amazing, arguably the best job he ever did for Warren. In Paris law enforcement investigate the death of a woman at the hand of the "Loup Garou" which is essentially a werewolf. Due to a key in the victim's hands, they are able to pintpoint the creature down to one of six people. They lock them up in jail cells and the night of the full moon one of them, a woman, turns into the werewolf and kills her husband, who is in the cell with her. It ends up the husband was sleeping with the wife of one of the cops which is why he locked him in the cell with her.

Vampirella 109

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Vampirella, from October 1982. Aside from the Vampirella story and intro page from Vampirella, both by Jose Gonzalez, this is an all Felix Mas special.

First is this issue's Vampirella story, "The Corpse With the Missing Mind" by Jose Gonzalez(art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Vampirella 55. Vampirella and Pendragon attend the funeral of a rich old friend of his, Hunt, who he hasn't seen in decades. Another friend of Hunt's arrives, Charlie, who knocks out both of them. When they awaken, they find themselves in what appears to be Alice in Wonderland. It ends up that Hunt is alive after all, by preserving his brain and eyes in a tank. He hoped to do something good for once which is why he created the Wonderland, which he plans to allow people in for free.

Second is "The Sultan of 42nd Street" by Felix Mas (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 39. A poor artist buys a canvas from a pawnshop. It ends up that whatever he paints on the canvas comes to life, and a beautiful woman appears when he paints her on it. He gets the idea to paint multiple women and turn them into whores to make him money. Alas, when another painter buys one of the canvases and paints his face, his entire face vanishes from his home, and appears in hers!

Third is "Dungeons of the Soul" by Felix Mas (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story), from Creepy 45. One of Brennan's psychotic hippie stories, featuring a king of a castle, Modrius, who acts cold towards his lover, Adrianne. A prisoner with a mask is held in the dungeon, who has been there since Modrius got a sorceror to cast a spell on him that would keep him from suffering. Adrienne lets the prisoner go, and when Modrius removes the prisoner's mask, it is revealed that it is him. He then turns back to normal again.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story), from Vampirella 38. A rather complicated tale influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. During a play a man, Dennis, reads some strange language on a prop coffin. He and a friend, Vaughn go to visit Vaughn's uncle, an archaeologist and find that it tells of elder Gods resting for eternity. Dennis remembers his youth where he was taught of these mysterious things by his uncle Abner. The uncle later shows up, telling him he was raised to bring the elder gods back to life. Vaughn kills him after finding that he killed his uncle. He later kills his girlfriend too after finding that she is pregnant with Dennis's child, Abner's last hope at reviving the elder Gods.

Fifth is "The Climbers of the Tower" by Felix Mas (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Creepy 50. The story surrounds two men, Druin and Tarran, who have spent their entire lives climbing a tower. When they approach the top, Druin gets greedy, wanting the glory of being the first to reach the top and loses his life in a confrontation with Tarran. Tarran reaches the top only to realize that he never knew why he wanted to reach the top of the tower, and goes crazy. A compeltely pointless and piss poor story that wastes Mas's talented artwork.

Sixth is "Miranda" by Felix Mas (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Vampirella 34. A rich man obsessed with marrying women with deformities visits an old woman, wanting to meet and marry her niece, Miranda. The old woman allows him to meet Miranda, who is a freak with praying mantis arms, but the old woman refuses to let him take her, even with him offering a million dollars for her. When the old woman sleeps, the rich man and Miranda run off together however. The old woman heads to their house, but it is too late. As part praying mantis, Miranda has already killed and eaten him.

Seventh is "The Dorian Gray Syndrome" by Felix Mas (art) and Don Glut (story), from Vampirella 18. A newspaper reporter seeks information on a young man who appears to have the same powers as the Dorian Gray of the well known Oscar Wilde story where a painting of the man ages in his place. Only it is revealed here that the painting was actually redone by the man himself, and he appears eternally young because he is a vampire! By stabbing the painting however, our hero miraculously is able to save herself and kill him.

Next is "The Killer" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Creepy 52. The story is about a man who gets married but does little to distinguish himself in life. This upsets his wife, whom he suspects is having an affair. One day he finds his wife stabbed to death and suspects he did it. He runs off and ends up getting hit by a car and killed. It ends up however that it was a burgler who killed his wife and he was innocent all along.

My favorite story of the issue is "Minra" by Felix Mas (art) and Ed Newsome (story), from Vampirella 22. A psychic explosion of hate suspected to have come from another dimension wipes out 3/4 of humanity. Psychic mutants start appearing among the population, who have the ability to set off incidents of hate and violence, so people band together and take them out. The story focuses on a pair of men heading after a teenage girl, Minra, who is accused of being one of the psychic mutants and causing an incident. One of the men does come across her, who explains that there never were any psychic mutants, hatred among humanity reached a boiling point and they accused people of being mutants as a scapegoat. Alas, the other man comes along and kills her and the story ends. Definately one of Mas's high points and a terrific story from Newsome in his sole Warren appearance.

Last is "Changes" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Vampirella 24. A man comes home one day to find his wife laying dead on the floor, with a knife sticking out of her forehead. Oddly enough he doesn't seem that upset about it, neither do his kids. He then gets her replaced, then heads out and stabs some random middle aged woman in the forehead himself. Quite the odd story, thats for sure.

Creepy 103

Walt Simonson and Kim McQuaite provide the animal themed cover for this reprint issue of Creepy, dated November 1978. This reprint issue seems to be animal themed, except for the ridiculous inclusion of "Thumbs Down" which was reprinted numerous times throughout the years.

First is "Angel of Doom!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Goodwin (story), from Creepy 16. This story features Thane the barbarian, a recurring character throughout the years in Creepy. In this story Thane is part of a tribe that continously makes sacrifices to a monster. When his lover is killed, Thane heads out, ignoring the tribe's warnings and battles the monster, a giant insect creature. He defeats the creature, but the tribe decides to continue making sacrifices anyway, so Thane leaves. The tribe is soon plagued by the monster's children and are all killed after Thane leaves.

Second is "Bookworm" with art by Richard Corben and story by Gerald Conway, from Eerie 32. A man goes to work as an apprentice to an elderly man with a large book collection. The elderly man tells him how he's studying the black arts. One night our hero discovers the old man dragging a corpse with him and follows him. The elderly man is in a crazed state and attacks him, but is killed by the apprentice. Suddenly a giant worm appears, who the elderly man had been finding food for, and forces the apprentice to start supplying him with food from now on.

Third is "On Little Cat Feet!" by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story), from Vampirella 38. A witch, Kitty, lives in a rooming house with her artist friend Eulalia. Kitty is kicked out of the place by the landlady and plots revenge by turning into a cat and poisoning her claws. She kills the landlady's cat, taking its place, then kills the landlady as well soon after. Eulalia meanwhile recruits an actor as a model for her latest work, a statue of Nero. Kitty, still in her cat form, wanders by and Eulalia has the actor hold her in his arms. Eulalia reveals herself to be Medusa, and when she reveals herself ends up turning both the actor and Kitty into a statue.

Fourth is "Thumbs Down!" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne T. Murphy (story), from Creepy 6. This story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to com e back from the dead to take revenge. This story would probably be reprinted by Warren over the years more than any other story.

Fifth is "Lucky Stiff" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story), from Vampirella 38. A very cautious man ignores a beautiful young woman who starts at the place where he works. At the end of the day she invites him to come to her home at the other side of town. The story shows what would happen if he went. He arrives there, only to be attacked by cats. She tells him he doesn't deserve to live and that he is going to be fed to him. The narrative then reveals that he actually didn't go there, as he was hit by a car along the way.

Last is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art), from Creepy 62. This story is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man and his wife own a beloved black cat. Eventually the husband grows tired of the cat, then upset at it. After the cat bites him, he cuts out one of its eyes and soon after hangs it. That very night his house burns down. Wandering into a bar, he finds another black cat that has one eye that starts following him. He brings it home and the wife quickly becomes fond of it. The husband loses control and tries to kill the cat. When his wife gets in the way he kills her by slamming an axe into her head. He hides her beneath a brick wall and is confident that the police won't find it when they stop by. The cat however, which was also walled behind the brick wall ends up attracting them to her corpse due to its screams.

Creepy 144

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vampirella 38

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated November 1974.

First is "The Mummy's Revenge" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the Vampirella story in issue 36. Vampirella and Pendragon are in Egypt and visit the mummy of Ptolemy, who was killed by Vampi in ancient times in the previous story. Vampi meets Professor Bruno who brings her on a tour of an underground labyrinth. He abandons her there and the mummy of Ptolemy along with other ghouls pursue her. The spirit of Amun-Ra arrives and tells her that Ptolemy's mummy is alive due to Bruno. Vampirella goes and kills him, resulting in the destruction of the mummy.

Second is "Gypsy Curse" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A gypsy woman is attacked by her husband when he comes back from the war. The story flashes back to before they were married, when he had to kill her father because the gypsies didn't approve. As he dies, her father tells him that should he ever harm his daughter, he will be destroyed by demons. While the husband is away from the war an ugly servant threatens to tell her husband she's having an affair (which is untrue). Her husband then attacks her when he returns home because of this, but the gypsy curse comes true and he is torn to shreds by unseen demons.

Third is "Lucky Stiff" by Ramon Torrents (art) and once again Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A very cautious man ignores a beautiful young woman who starts at the place where he works. At the end of the day she invites him to come to her home at the other side of town. The story shows what would happen if he went. He arrives there, only to be attacked by cats. She tells him he doesn't deserve to live and that he is going to be fed to them. The narrative then reveals that he actually didn't go there, as he was hit by a car along the way. This story is a rewrite from a story Carl Wessler did for EC comics in the Haunt of Fear 26, published in 1954.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story). A rather complicated tale influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. During a play a man, Dennis, reads some strange language on a prop coffin. He and a friend, Vaughn go to visit Vaughn's uncle, an archaeologist and find that it tells of elder Gods resting for eternity. Dennis remembers his youth where he was taught of these mysterious things by his uncle Abner. The uncle later shows up, telling him he was raised to bring the elder gods back to life. Vaughn kills Dennis after finding that he killed his uncle. He later kills his girlfriend too after finding that she is pregnant with Dennis's child, Abner's last hope at reviving the elder Gods.

Fifth is "On Little Cat Feet!" by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story). A much lighter toned story than the other stories in this issue, a very good one though, the best story of the issue. A witch, Kitty, lives in a rooming house with her artist friend Eulalia. Kitty is kicked out of the place by the landlady and plots revenge by turning into a cat and poisoning her claws. She kills the landlady's cat, taking its place, then kills the landlady as well soon after. Eulalia meanwhile recruits an actor as a model for her latest work, a statue of Nero. Kitty, still in her cat form, wanders by and Eulalia has the actor hold her in his arms. Eulalia reveals herself to be Medusa, and when she reveals herself ends up turning both the actor and Kitty into a statue.

Last is "Trick of the Tide" by Isidro Mones (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A man, Gabriel, finds the corpse of a man in the water and steals the money on him. When his wife arrives to claim the body he refuses to admit it was there. When she confronts him later, he clubs her head in and dumps her in the river. When a reward is offered for her, he goes to fish her out, only for her to kill him.

Vampirella 40

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring Vampi and a dark, caped figure. This issue is cover dated March 1975. Ken Kelly provides another cover on the back of the issue, and Jose Gonzalez provides his usual one page Vampirella intro in the front inside cover. This issue was one of the first issues of Vampirella I ever read, so still remains somewhat memorable to me for that reason.

First is Vampirella in "The Nameless Ravisher!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the previous one, where a man who hunted human heads wanted to take Vampirella's head. He was killed at the end of the story, being decapitated. In this story we meet his two sisters, a pair of crazy old women who want revenge on Vampirella. They summon a demon, the Nameless Ravisher, which takes the shape of various entities, mostly those based in nature. The Nameless Ravisher attacks Vampi, first by flooding the room she is in, then taking the shape of a tree that attacks her. Eventually Vampirella defeats it, and the two old women are done in by the corpse of their brother. An odd Vampirella story, but Sanchez's art is a nice, rare alternative to the usual artwork on this series (not to say the usual artwork is bad, Gonzalez and Mayo were usually great. Just enjoyed someone else drawing Vampi for a change).

Second is the second part of the three part Dracula series, "The Winged Shaft of Fate" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Color is provided by Michelle Brand. This story continues from the previous one, with Dracula now having a female vampire companion. Similar to the previous story however, this story primarily focuses on another couple that becomes involved when the carnival stops by. A man steals a large sum of money and plans to meet his lover, but the lover ends up getting bitten by Dracula. The man ends up leaving with another woman instead when his lover doesn't show up, only she does, as a vampire, killing them both.

Third is "The Face of Death!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Carl Wessler (story). A man is angry at a former lover who has moved on and married someone else. He seeks to get back at her by attacking her during a halloween party. When he realizes that the party is only for people who bring children, he finds a boy alone on the street, Mort, and they go in togehter. Mort keeps trying to hang out with the man, who finally finds his former lover upstairs. When he is about to attack her however, he trips on her kid's blocks and falls out the window. Mort comes to see him, and reveals that he is death.

Fourth is "The Man Who Never Was" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Fernandez turns out a very interesting sci-fi themed story here, but his art is absolutely horrible compared to his normal work. Quite a dissappointment from someone who is usually so good. Not that its horrible compared to some other artists seen over the years in Warren publications, but for him, a big dissappointment. Anyway, on to the story, which is quite good. A man awakes after some sort of coma or unconscious state to find himself in a society that doesn't recognize him. His cash is worthless and those he talks to refer to society rules that he has no familiarity with. Further investigation by the police and doctors realize that the man has no record of existing. At least that's what they tell him. In actuality, they realize that the man existed in society nearly 200 years ago and must have been in some state of suspended animation. Rather than accept him into their society, fearing he may cause others to believe in the freedoms that no longer exist, they inject him with a substance that causes him to go unconscious for another 50 years, so those in the future can deal with him instead.

Fifth is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Another sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Last is "Home For the Holidays" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This is a Christmas themed story. It is told in two parts, very similar in fashion to the story "Bless Us Father" from Creepy 59. On the left side of each page we see a little girl and her nanny, who get ready for Christmas day and the return of her parents. On the right side of the page we see the parents boarding a plane to head home. The wife seems quite upset with the husband, who appears to have been recently released from prison. The husband realizes that a fellow passenger has a gun and tries to stop him. This results in a confrontation in the cockpit which results in the plane crashing... right into the home where the daughter and nanny are. Quite a bleak and depressing ending compared to many of the other Christmas themed stories that appeared in the Christmas issue of Creepy that came out the same time as this issue (issue 68).

Creepy 72

Ken Kelly provides a fairly good cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a robot in a misty hallway. This issue is cover dated July 1975, and is an all Jose Gual issue. Jose Gual was a fairly good, but somewhat underrated artist at Warren who also did a lot of work for their chief competitor, Skywald. Wish he had done more for Warren than he did (in fact, Gual did only one more story for Warren after this issue). Not just good art, but fairly good stories throughout the issue too. Berni Wrightson provides a frontis of Uncle Creepy, the only interior art not by Gual.

First is "Vendetta", written by Rich Margopoulos & Gerry Boudreau. Howell Hayes, head of a large company tells an entire factory of employees that they are laid off. One of the laid off workers, a one armed man named Frank Troughton convinces fellow laid off employee Walter Hargrove to transfer his brain to an indestructable robot so he can get revenge on Hayes. Troughton storms into Hayes's mansion, only to find that Hayes is also a robot, who quickly destroys him. Hayes's energy completely runs out however due to contaminated cartridges produced by the closed down factory. Hargrove is found outside and as a mechanic is permitted to go inside to fix Hayes. He instead destroys him, repairs Troughton's robot body and places Hayes's face on him so he can take over his life.

Second is "Malocchi!" written by Don McGregor. This story was originally written and produced a couple of years ago, having been advertised on issues of Creepy as far back as 1972. A man, Troy Rutherford suddenly finds himself on fire and dies as his whole house burns down. It was exactly what he had told some psychic phenomena experts about days earlier, but they didn't believe him. The two experts, regretting that they didn't believe him track down the source of the incident to Madame Swambada, a psychic. When Swambada tries to poison one of them, they are able to prevent the same fate from happening to them and get her arrested.

Third is "Lick the Sky Red", written by Doug Moench. A psychotic arsonist sets a lab ablaze. One of the men is severely burned in the face, which ruins his life as he's laid off from his job and evicted from his apartment because of it. He stays in a shack and gathers some dynamite which he plans to use to get revenge on his boss. He meets a beautiful blind woman outside however and decides to forget the whole thing. The arsonist meanwhile starts a fire in the cabin and ends up getting blown up by the dynamite left there.

Fourth is "The Terror Stalked Heiress", written by Carl Wessler. This story is part of the series 'It' which appeared primarily in Eerie throughout 1974 and 1975. The series stars a corpse named Timothy Foley who comes back from the grave to help his niece Jill. Oddly for some reason in this story the family name of Foley is changed to Redey. Jill gets attacked by some monsters that live in a mirror. It arrives and saves her, and they cover the mirror with a blanket so the monsters can't get out. Later some men come to the house to kill her so they can take over her home, and It arrives once again and saves her, while the monsters from the mirror kill the criminals.

Fifth is "The Bite", written by Jeff Rovin. A city is plauged by a series of murders from a ghoul. A well known football player is suspected of the crimes due to part of his jersey appearing. In actuality he is being framed by two friends of his, who are being paid by the actual killer, a young woman our protagonist met just earlier. The football player is hauled off to jail while the ghoul moves on to another town to consume more victims.

The issue concludes with "Labrynth", written by Gerry Boudreau. A trucker, Sam, stops off at a truck stop he frequents. Inside he meets Dierdre, an emotionless women who joins him on a trip to Mexico. There they visit the catacombs and head deep inside with a guide. Dierdre admits to being in love with him but he has no interest in her so she kills their guide, preventing him from being able to leave her.

Vampirella 39

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring a freak woman sitting on a skull. This issue is cover dated January 1975. Jose Gonzalez provides both a one page Vampi intro on the inside front cover and a one page Vampi farewell on the inside back cover, an image that was soon reworked into the cover of Vampirella 42 by Enrich.

First is Vampirella in "The Head-Hunter of London" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This is the first of three straight Vampi stories from Sanchez, whose style is a stark contrast from Gonzalez's art. Still a pretty good job from Sanchez though. Vampi and Pendragon meet Jack D'Arcy, who offers to tour them around London. D'Arcy is a hunter, who secretly collects human heads as well and becomes obsessed with obtaining Vampirella's head. They struggle, and by the end it is D'Arcy who ends up being decapitated.

Second is "The Sultan of 42nd Street" by Felix Mas (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story). A poor artist buys a canvas from a pawnshop. It ends up that whatever he paints on the canvas comes to life, and a beautiful woman appears when he paints her on it. He gets the idea to paint multiple women and turn them into whores to make him money. Alas, when another painter buys one of the canvases and paints his face, his entire face vanishes from his home, and appears in hers!

Third is "Snow White and the Deadly Dwarfs" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates & Gerry Boudreau (story). A young woman lives in a large mansion all by herself, well except for dwarves that live with her and call her snow white. Her boyfriend doesn't believe her about them, and when he comes over they stab him to death to 'protect her'. Only it ends up that there dwarves weren't after all and she did it all the stabbing herself. Some extremely good art by Maroto on this story, one of his best.

Fourth is the start of a new three part series featuring Dracula. This first story is titled "The Circus of King Carnival". Art is by Esteban Maroto and story is by Gerry Boudreau. This story is in color. Despite being the title of the series, Dracula barely appears at all here. Instead the story focuses on a couple who come by a freak show that Dracula is a part of. The husband visits a shaman as he wants to save his dying wife, but the shaman tells him he'll have to bring him a human heart. The husband attacks a thief who is captivated by the butterfly lady in the freak show, and kills him to take the heart. Only the butterfly lady kills him. Meanwhile, Dracula bites the neck of the wife, preventing her from dying by turning her into a vampire.

Fifth is "The Curse of Castle Vlad!" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in Translyania where a movie shoot takes place in a cursed castle. Soon members of the cast start appearing dead, but the director declares that they have to continue. Eventually all are gone except for the director and his wife, the star of the film, who ends up being revealed as a vampire. Naturally, she ends up biting him.

Last is "The French Coagulation" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story). Bermejo's first Warren story, his art here is simply amazing, arguably the best job he ever did for Warren. Its quite unfortunate that he couldn't stay this good his entire Warren career. In Paris law enforcement investigate the death of a woman at the hand of the "Loup Garou" which is essentially a werewolf. Due to a key in the victim's hands, they are able to pintpoint the creature down to one of six people. They lock them up in jail cells and the night of the full moon one of them, a woman, turns into the werewolf and kills her husband, who is in the cell with her. It ends up the husband was sleeping with the wife of one of the cops which is why he locked him in the cell with her.

Creepy 67

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated December 1974. This cover's quite the oddity, as the story it features, "Bowser", doesn't even appear in this issue due to a printing error. That story was planned to be printed here, but due to an error at the printer, the story "The Raven" appeared instead. "Bowser" would later appear in Vampirella 54 approximately two years later. Berni Wrightson provides the one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover.

First is "Excerpts from the Year Five" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where all the power in the world has vanished. The story focuses on a man, who meets a woman when receiving first aid. They help fellow people and find a young boy eating the remains of his mother. Eventually Satan worshippers kill the boy however, and the woman dies soon afterwards as well.

Second is "The Haunted Abbey" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Lewis (story). This story tells of a couple in Spain who comes across an abbey occupied by monks. Due to the weather they head inside. The monks tell them to stay in a cell, but they sneak out and catch them executing a woman by covering her up in an alcove with bricks. All of a sudden they find themselves years later, and all thats left of the woman is a skeleton. They head up through the Abbey to know find it completely in ruins.

Third is "The Happy Undertaker" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). This story tells of an Undertaker who loves his work and takes a lot of steps to make money for himself. He eventually replaces his employees with homeless kids who work for room and board. They end up turning on him however when it is revealed that they are vampires!

Fourth is "The Raven" by Richard Corben (story & art), an adaption of the classic Poe story. Anyone familiar with horror surely must know this story, featuring a pesty Raven that keeps saying "Nevermore". Some very nice art from Richard Corben. The story was most likely originally intended for two issues later, an all Edgar Allen Poe issue.

Fifth is "Holy War" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Lewis (story). Taking place in the age of the Crusades, the Church learns of a group of pagans that apparentely possess the greatest treasure in the world. When they refuse to hand it over to be used for war, the church sends soldiers which kill them all. They then find the treasure... which ends up being the cross of Jesus Christ.

Last is "Oil of Dog", an adaption of the Ambrose Bierce story. Isidro Mones provides the art while Jack Butterworth provides the adaption. This story tells of a boy whose father creates oil from dead dogs and whose mother performs abortions and has him dispose of the body. One day when the boy is hiding from the cops he disposes of a baby in the oil vat and creates an even more lucrative product. Eventually however his parents get in trouble for all the people they end up killing to create the oil, and end up killing each other when there is no other person they can use for ingredients.

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.

Vampirella 30

This issue starts off with one of my favorite Vampirella covers, by Enrich.

First is "The God of Blood" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampirella meets a fellow illusionist who wears a mask and was actually given power from Chaos, which he chooses to abuse. The illusionist captures Vampirella and dresses as the sun god, but the actual sun god shows up and kills him, then kisses Vampirella as the story ends. This story would be continued in the next issue.

Second is Pantha's first appearance in "Re-Birth!" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). I've covered Pantha's later adventures with Vampirella extensively already on this blog, now I finally have a chance to review her original series. Her original series is a stark contrast to the appearances I've already covered; it is much darker and she kills many innocent people. In this intro story we meet Pantha, a young woman at a strip club who mysteriously turns into a panther multiple times with no knowledge of doing so.

Third is this issue's color feature, "As Though They Were Living" by Richard Corben (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in Salem in the late 1700's. A witch, who is spurned by a man she likes gathers her allies and summons a demon known as a Sidhe. Seconds later however the town ministers arrive and kill her and all her allies. The Sidhe transforms into a human and seeks out the man she liked and kills him. He then goes after the man's girlfriend, but she realizes who he is and manages to burn him alive in her wine cellar.

Fourth is "Memoirs" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). This story is told from the perspective of a serial killer, who has written his memoirs in a book written with his cell mate's blood. His horrific murders are detailed and the entire city fears him. Eventually he is caught and after writing his memoirs himself on fire since anything else that can happen in his life will be a dissappointment after what he's accomplished. Terrific story and art from Fernandez, the best story in the issue.

The issue concludes with "Captain Death" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited as Munes) and Carl Wessler (story). A comic strip artist lives with his sister, who controls all the wealth given to them by their parents. Secretly housing his girlfriend and her brother, the artist asks for money from his sister then kills her when she won't give him any. He finds soon after however that his girlfriend and brother have disappeared, and stolen comic strips he had drawn that need to be handed in. He goes to the police in order to help find them and confesses to his sister's murder. Digging her up, they uncover her months old corpse with the comic strips in hand. It appears that the girlfriend and brother never existed and were merely part of the artist's imagination.

Eerie 73

This issue of Eerie by Ken Kelly features Hunter II and the Exterminator.

First is the finale of the Hunter II series, "Death of the Phoenix" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Being recovered by Yaust, Karas and Exterminator discover the truth, that Yaust is actually the good guy and that the goblins he created to fight off the evil ones went out of control. Mandragora is the true evil one, and there is no such thing as a time shell which will be used to save the world. Karas returns to Mandragora's home, where he finds the White Council and they are all killed. The world doesn't come to an end after all, and the series ends on a happy note.

Second is "Carnival at Midnight", the second story in the 'Freaks' serial. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis. This story surrounds two young brothers, one of whom is crippled who come across the freaks late at night. The boy's father and then a mob come after them, only to find that the Freaks were actually helping the boy by fixing his legs for him.

Third is "Day of the Vampire 1992: The Tombspawn" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place in a post apocalyptic world where much of the world is in ruins. Two men, Stevie and Biff hunt various creatures and come across a cavern where a beautiful woman lies inside in suspended animation. A hologram appears and tells them that she is a vampire and warns them of reanimating her. Stevie falls in love with her however and brings her back to life. After sleeping with him she escapes however, and the Earth forces blow her up. Stevie finds himself now a vampire after an encounter with her and attacks his friend Biff as the story ends.

Fourth is "A Brave Terror Leads to Death!" the final segment in the 'It' series. Art is provided by Jose Gual, in his final Warren appearance, and story is by Carl Wessler. Thieves attack Jan Foley's house, but It arrives once again to rescue her. The thieves plan to blow up It so it can't bother them anymore. Jan and her fiance however follow them and prevent them from doing it. The thieves sneak into their house but It arrives and saves the day yet again. Although the series ends in an open ended manner, this would be the final appearance of It. I do have a few more It stories to cover which appeared in Creepy, including the original story, which will come some day soon down the line.

Last is "Voyage to the Final Hole", part 2 in the Peter Hypnos series, with art and story by Jose Bea. Peter finds a rose in the field that grows huge and swallows him up. He continues to shrink inside the rose and meets a multitude of bizarre creatures who tell him that he'll make it through a hole back to safety as long as he believes that he'll keep shrinking. He does so and shrinks small enough that he finds the hole in question and jumps into it, bringing him back to the real world.

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 102

This issue features a cover by Enrich, a redo of his cover for issue 60. Joze Gonzalez contributes another table of contents with Vampirella.

First is Vampirella in "Return of the Blood-Red Queen" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The sister of the original Blood Red Queen of Hearts (who first appeared in issue 49) collects hearts and seeks revenge on Vampirella for her sister's death. Vampirella also faces trouble when her blood substitute ends up not working. By the end Vampi ends up on top and the Blood Red Queen is killed. A rather lame redo of a storyline which had already been done before in much better fashion with the original Queen. Mayo's art also seems a little down compared to usual at times in this story.

Second is Pantha in "A Night Full of Zombies Part Five" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Pantha escapes from being attacked by alligators. Adam meanwhile is held captive by Munroe and Baron Samedi, but when Pantha arrives they defeat the both of them. They return to see Dr. Rictus, only to be attacked by his son, a Bigfoot! It seems that Samedi plans on stealing Pantha's body...

Third is Cassandra St. Knight in "Kill Quake!" by Auraleon (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Cassandra, trying to prevent a quake that will hit New York is attacked by a druggie who had a vision of Cassandra killing him, which was actually a vision of his past life. Luckily she is able to save herself.

Fourth is The Fox, "Night of the Devildogs!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Sha-Ming and Raven are captured by men from the 'Boxer Revolution' who hold them captive until Sha-Ming summons Kuei demons to destroy their captors. The demons warn her to not let her uncle get the wand of Ch'in Shin Huang. They return to the boat where they plan on stopping him, but are spied upon as they head to the mainland where a festival is taking place. Thats where this segment ends.

Fifth is "Perseus" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Tim Moriarty (story). The story surrounds Perseus who seeks to rescue his mother from King Craccus. To do so, he finds Medusa and beheads her, then uses her face to turn his enemies to stone, including Gorgons and a Serpent beast. He rushes into Craccus's castle and unleashes Medusa's head once again, but this turns both Craccus and his mother to stone. Perseus is cursed with the knowledge that he killed his mother. Amazing artwork by Maroto on Medusa in this story.

Last is "Alicia" by Alphonso Font (art) and Carl Wessler (story). In France during late World War II a thief breaks into a house and finds a picture of the owner, who looks just like him! His wife arrives and mistakes him for her husband, but so does a group of zombie soldiers angry at him for betraying them. Their pursuit results in his death. After its revealed that the husband was around the whole time, hiding from them and helped tremendously by this recent turn of events. This is Font's only Warren appearance. Wessler stopped writing for Warren long before this issue making one wonder if this was a story that was originally intended to run years earlier.

Eerie 57

A very good issue of Eerie, featuring Hunter by Ken Kelly on the cover.

First is "Stridespider Sponge-Rot!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). This is the first of a seven part series entitled 'The Spook' about a black zombie. The term, which is a racist way to refer to black people, had been created by Bill Dubay, who told Doug Moench to write a series featuring a voodoo character. Anyway, this is a fairly good story, featuring the title character encountering a sorceress woman who brings numerous zombies to life. The Spook is able to stop them by throwing her into a fire. Really nice art by Maroto, who'd be replaced with Leopold Sanchez for the remainder of the series after this story.

Second is the last segement in the Hunter series. Art is by Paul Neary and story is by Bill Dubay. Hunter, along with Schreck and the Blood Princess arm the nuclear warhead to go off in one hour. Hunter heads off to meet with Oephal and have one last confrontation. Scheck and the Blood Princess meanwhile take out the remaining demons and find some weapons. Hunter tries to kill Oephal but finds he is unable to. The bomb fails to go off however, and Oephal kills Hunter, dying seconds later when Schreck kills him. A depressing end, but at the very least Hunter's quest of eliminating the last remaining mutants comes to fruition.

Next is "Hide From the Hacker!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This is the first of a three part series which would have a fairly long gap of 8 issues between parts 1 and 2. The story is about the investigation of a serial killer who had been pursued many years before but now seamingly has come back. A pair of detectives search for him to no avail, despite having some suspects. In the end, one of the detectives is decapitated! Fine art from Sutton in his final Eerie appearance.

Next is "Child" by Richard Corben (art) and Greg Potter (story). This retelling of the Frankenstein story using a child-like monster took place in three parts and was a rarity in that the entire series was in color. The first story tells of Child's origin, how he was created by a scientist who wanted a child after his wife died. Child has many good years with his father but he is eventually killed by the son of his former landlord. Child goes on a rampage and kills him.

Fifth is "The Terror of Foley Mansion!" by Jose Gual (art) and Carl Wessler (story). The third segment in the 'It' storyline, this focuses primarily on a group of robbers who try to steal from the Foley mansion. It comes back from the grave yet again and exacts revenge on them.

Last is "A Switch in Time..." by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Sanford thinks he's finally figured out Archaeus's pattern, killing people based on the Twelve Nights of Christmas. Archaeus meanwhile still manages to kill yet another juror under his nose by killing another man, then replacing the juror with his corpse in the coffin at a funeral when everyone else is distracted by a bomb he's planted. The juror is then buried alive with no one knowing of is fate. A pretty ingenious plot!

Eerie 56

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Ken Kelly, with the werewolf battling a wizard.

First up is the return of the Werewolf in part 7 of the Curse of the Werewolf series, "There Was a Were-Mummy" by Martin Salvador (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Arthur Lemming, now trapped in the body of a mummy, is forced to carry his body around with him in search for an amulet that can return him to his original body. Jerome Curry of the Mummy series also makes a brief cameo during this story, looking for the same thing. Along the way a group of men steal his body and bring it to an old man who seeks to switch to Lemming's much younger body. Lemming arrives in the mummy's body however, turns into a werewolf, and goes on a rampage. Throgmore, the old man's hunchbacked assistant however takes the opportunity to take Lemming's body for his own and as the story ends heads off in it as our hero can only watch in horror. This would be the last story in the series until issue 61, where it was officially melded with the Mummy storyline (which had already been happening over the prior two segments).

Second is part 5 of "Hunter", by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Hunter comes across a castle filled with demons. There he is captured and thrown in a cell with an old man, who reveals him to be Schreck (see issues 53-55). The demons had taken over the castle but apparantely now there's only 3 or 4 left because of a ghost, the "Princess of Bathory Castle" who has been killing them off. When a demon guard is killed they escape and find her, a little girl, along with a huge nuclear missile. Hunter's conclusion follows in the next issue.

Next is "Wizard Wagstaff", a color story by Richard Corben (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This humourous tale tells of a man who turns into a werewolf after being bitten by a poodle. He finds the wizard of the title who can help him as long as he isn't doing anything for personal gain. Along the way they meet another werewolf who they help turn human as well.

Fourth is "It Returns!" by Enrique Badia Romero (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Carl Wessler (story). "It" was originally a self contained story in Creepy 53. It is revived here by Wessler and would continue rather inconsistently spread out in four total segments over the next couple of years. I wouldn't necessarily say one needs to read the original story to follow this serial, as this story takes off in a different direction seperate from the original story. The story features a young woman, Jan Foley who is being pursued by a cousin who hopes to take the family fortune from her. Luckily for her, "It", a rotting corpse arrives and saves her. The cousin arrives later however and knocks her out, then gets himself married to her and throw her off a boat to her apparant death. Luckily "It" saves her, then kills him. The ending reveals "It" to be dead relative of hers.

Last is "The Night of the Red Death", part three in the Dr. Archaeus series, with art by Isidro Mones and story by Gerry Boudreau. Sanford continues in his pursuit of Dr. Archaeus, who now sets his site on the third juror, a man who is involved with cock fighting. Sanford thinks that the pattern Archaeus is using is birds, but it ends up being French Henna flowers laced with cholera which kill the juror. This segment also introduces Sanford's lover, Jamaica Jansen who will have more importance in the story a little down the line.

Creepy 124

An average to above average issue of Creepy. It features a pretty good cover by Jordi Penalva. Rudy Nebres takes care of another average at best one page feature of Uncle Creepy.

First up is "Malphisto's Illusion" by Alexis Romeo & Alex Toth (art) and Nicola cuti (story). During this period of time Toth did inking for a number of different artists, creating a rather interesting dynamic. This story features a man trying to discover how a magician, Malphisto, is able to decapitate women and bring them back to life in his act. As it turns out, he's actually decapitating a twin for real and showing her sister to the crowd!

The story's best issue is "Cult" by Martin Salvador (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features four men going after a cult leader who has lured many young people into his cult, including the daughter of one of the men. They reach the cult's compound which results in a blood bath in which many of the cult members and two of the men were killed. It ends up that one of the men actually is the cult leader himself, and seeked this event in order to make his members martyrs. Having impregnated the man's daughter, he tries to get the last remaining man to kill her, but he instead kills the cult leader and lets her live.

"Paydirt" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Roger McKenzie (story) is about a gold prospector who kills his partner in a cave once they find gold. He returns years later to claim the gold only for his partner to be back from the dead, seeking revenge.

Fourth is "Mayhem Museum" by Adolpho Bullya (art) and carl Wessler (story). This was Bullya's sole Warren story. Its about a man who flees his country with a lot of stolen gold and finds a man who plans to hide him and his lover in a museum by freezing him. Only the museum owner has different plans and immediately thaws the woman and plans to take the gold himself. He is eventually found out by a visitor to the museum however, who unfreezes a lot of frozen criminals, who seek revenge.

"The Prometheus" by John Garcia & Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story) is fifth. A rather poor story about a spherical craft that heads to Earth, is almost destroyed, but ends up getting there to deliver various wildlife. Yawn.

Last is "A Slight Case of Madness" by Herb Arnold (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson), about an alien who is going crazy because he's the last one left on his world. As he's about to kill himself, other aliens arrive and save him just in time, and plan to take him away with them to visit other worlds.

Goodwin's, Wessler's and Cuti's stories are fairly good while Dubay and McKenzie's are so so. Margopoulos, who was never that great an author in my opinion was quite boring.

Eerie 5

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

First is "The Mummy Stalks!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel (story), featuring a mummy that turns into a werewolf while being stored in a museum.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 80

A very good issue of Creepy, one of the first ones I ever read. The cover featuring a couple of demon like creatures and their victim is by Ken Kelly.

Up first is "Benjamin Jones and the Imagineers" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story) about a boy whose toy soldiers can summon monsters. Naturally his mother doesn't believe him, until she is confronted by one of them.

Next is "Second Genesis" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). In the distant future a man who grew up not knowing who his parents were seeks to find out by traveling back in time. To make a long story short, it ends up that he was his own father. A pretty good story in my eyes that doesn't seem to be that popular. Maroto's art is nowhere close to its usual beauty though.

Third is "The Fable of Bald Sheba and Montebank the Rouge!" by Jose Bea (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story features a man ignoring warnings about visting the grave of the witch Sheba, and when he arrives at the grave he ends up not being able to escape because she grabs him. Or does she? It ends up that he had merely gotten stuck due to planting his sword in her grave which caught to his cape. Nonetheless, he passes away of a heart attack due to it. This was Jose Bea's first story from Creepy in approximately 2 years, and unfortunately would be his last story in Creepy.

Fourth is "Proof Positive" by Alex Toth (story & art). Taking place in the late 1800s, the story features a man who invents a camera and goes to see patent attorneys who try to steal his idea. He takes revenge by poisoning them. An explosion ends up going in his darkroom however, killing him as well. As always, Toth's art is terrific, and is printed sideways in this story.

Fifth is "Ain't It Just Like the Night" by Martin Salvador (art) and Doug Moench (story). The story features a trench coated man with his face hidden from us by shadows capturing various people and suspending them in glass containers. He reveals that he is here to save humanity, which will soon face a nuclear holocost, by using suspended animation to protect a select number of people who can later repopulate the world. The ending reveals his bug-like face. Really enjoyed this story, with a better than usual job from Salvador and pretty good writing by Moench.

"The Axe-Man Cometh" is next, with art by Jorge Galvez (in his final Warren story) and story by Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler. An axe murderer escapes from jail with the help of his sister and quickly returns to his axe murdering ways. His wife brings him home to meet his husband and then kills her husband, planning to blame it on her brother. Yet he discovers her plans and ends up killing her too. A very abrupt ending, but a pretty good story.

Last is "The Last Chronicle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story), a sequel to the earlier story, "The Escape Chronicle from Creepy #75. The first story dealt with a man, Charlie, seeking escape from a Big Brother-esque future who befriendeded another man Bernie. Charlie was able to escape in a hot air balloon, but Bernie was left behind. This story features Bernie pining for his old friend and wondering what wonders he is experiencing. Eventually Charlie returns and takes him away with him. The first story (which I'll eventually cover when I get to that issue) was terrific, this one just isn't that great, as it seems little more than a postscript to the first, with a happy ending that the original story avoided.

Overall a terrific issue!