Eerie 113

Jim Laurier provides the UFO themed cover of this issue of Eerie, dated August 1980. This issue kicks off a long stretch of very poor issues of Eerie, probably the worst issues of material that Warren ever put out. This is going to be rough.

First is "The Manifestation" by E.R. Cruz (art) and the team of Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story, Dubay as Will Richardson). This story features an encounter in space with a blob like entity that takes over many astronauts. A rather dull story that goes on for far too long. But far worse is Cruz's art. Cruz is probably the worst artist who ever worked for Warren. Every single character he ever drew looked exactly the same. And unfortunately there's lots of him over the rest of Eerie's life.

Second is "Code Name: Nova" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a man taking on mutant revolutionaries. Better art, but poorer story than the previous one.

Last is "Haxtur and the Slow Death God" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haxtur comes to a new village where he is told of the deadly God Mokt, who is keeping people from leaving the village. Haxtur encounters Mokt, which ends up being a radioactive statue. He later encounters the diabolic master "Khut", who wants to take over Haxtur's body, but he is able to kill him and escape.

Creepy 129

Jeff Easely provides the cover for this issue of Creepy. Rudy Nebres draws a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. Like most issues from this period, a boring issue with nothing much here to impress the reader.

First is "The Terrible Truth About Danny" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of a young boy with pyschokenetic powers who can cause objects to do whatever he wants to get revenge on anyone whose done him wrong. A beautiful girl moves in next door but unlike other boys doesn't like her. One night he decides to force himself on her to be like everyone else but instead decides to kill himself by blowing his own head up.

Second is "The Saga of Popeye Jackson!" by Paul Neary (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story tells of a revolution from a robot man who used to be human. Some pretty good art from Neary, but a poor, rather dull story.

Third is "Working Class Hero" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an accountant in his forties who looks much older than that who is bored with life, but is suddenly transported to thousands of years in the past where he helps a woman who escaped from her slave master. They go meet with a wizard, the man who brought him back in time by accident and they defeat the slave master. The wizard tries to transport him back to the present, but he ends up in the revolutionary war period instead. Some good art, but a poor, pointless story.

Fourth is "The Last Voyage of Sinbad" by Fred Carillo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Sinbad of legend is actually a dim-witted man who desires more than anything else to have friends and have the rain stop. Some treasurer hunters recruit him to join them and when they find how dumb he is they instead plan to have him be the fall guy when they discover a genie that will kill whoever summons him. The genie instead grants Sinbad's wishes to have friends and stop the rain.

Fifth is "He Who Lives!" by Danny Bulandi (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A confusing story about a man on a spaceship who goes down to a planet, sees weird visions, and encounters a vampire who he kills, making him a vampire himself.

Last is "Strategic Retreat" by Herb Arnold (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story features a humanoid dinosaur who hires soldiers to kill his old men and help him escape. While escaping however the soldiers sign a new contract with his enemy, giving him only two weeks to live.

Eerie 105

Jordi Penalva provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring Mac Tavish and Spider Andromeda.

First is the Rook in "Robot Fighters" by Jim Janes & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook, Dane and Manners help defeat a robot that is a descendent of one the Rook built in different times. The best part of this story is that its a lot shorter than the usual Rook fare, getting it over with quickly. Thankfully the Rook exited the magazine for quite a while after this issue, due to having his own magazine.

Second is the finale for The Trespasser, in "Ruins" by Paul Gulacy (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather short finale to this series at only 6 pages. Dr. Cavanaugh defeats the Cope's last guard, then fights Harris Cope, who shoots his wife Rebecca. Harris falls out the window to his death and Cavanaugh is finally able to leave with Rebecca in his arms.

Third is "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Thomas and Monica find some giant bugs attacking them and Thomas is saved from a deadly spider only when a giant wasp arrives and fights it. Tyler and Ruth meanwhile have some more success and Tyler starts making out with her. The usual extemely dependable Bruce Jones hasn't impressed that much so far with this series.

Fourth is "Demons of the Zodiac", the return of Mac Tavish, unseen for a while. Art is by Pepe Moreno Casares and story is by Jim Stenstrum & Bob Toomey, under their pseudonyms Alabaster Redzone and Gary Null. A so-so continuation of this Star Wars ripoff, featuring Mac Tavish summarizing the history of Spider Andromeda while he sleeps.

Fifth is "Hunger Strike", the latest segment in the Horizon Seekers. Although the prior issue said this would be the conclusion, the story doesn't end here, and ends rather abrubtly. Art is by Leo Duranona and story is by Duranona and Cary Bates. In this story our heroes are confronted by a group of giant bugs but get them to eat each other, similar to the prior story. Also, the cannibal girl who was with them starts her cannibal ways again but is killed by the bugs before she can eat our heroes.

Last is "Lair of the Assassins", the latest story in the Samurai series. Art is by Val Mayerik and story is by Larry Hama. Samurai goes to the castle of Yagyu Ninjas and inside is forced to battle old man Yagyu's son, who has the niece of their lord strapped to him. Samurai easily defeats him and after Yagyu has his minions shoot arrows at him, Samurai grabs them and throws them back, striking him in the eye. Samurai escapes with the niece, who has been blinded, and she helps him escape after his own eyesight is affected by an attack.

Eerie 104

Kirk Reinert provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring the new serial Beastworld.

First is the Rook in "The Trouble With Tin Men". Art is by Jim Janes & Alfredo Alcala while story is from Bill Dubay. Think of the usual cliches in the Rook storyline and this story has it. Rook going into the future for another adventure, telling Dane to stay there, and Dane heading off on another adventure with Manners yet again. Yawn. After the same storyline 15 times this is getting rather dull. Notable is that the Time Castle is destroyed, apparantely stranding Dane and Manners in the time they have gone to.

Second is the second part of "The Trespasser", in "Dusk" by Paul Gulacy (art) and Don McGregor (story). Dr. Cavanaugh is thrown in a prison in the basement where he finds Kelsey, the man he had seen captured before. Kelsey reveals that the Cope's house is built on a site where nuclear waste had been kept, the reason for the family's illness. Rebecca soon arrives and lets them out. As they are crossing a bridge one of the Cope family's guard finds them and a fight ensues in which the bridge is destroyed. Luckily Cavanaugh is able to throw the man into crocodile infested waters, saving himself and Rebecca. A good continuation to this story with some fine art by Gulacy and shockingly enough a good story from McGregor that doesn't go overboard with his usual polical ramblings.

Third is "City of Shadows" by Leo Duranona (art) and Jean Michel Martin (story). This story is told mostly through photographs of clay figures and toys. It features a group of people traveling through a post apocalyptic landscape looking for a mysterious city, which ends up being Manhatten.

Fourth is "Beastworld", a new series from Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man, Tyler, and his friend Monica come across a giant beetle while flying in a ship. They meet Peter Thomas and his wife, Ruth. Peter has an inferiority complex with Tyler from their time in school together. He drugs our two heroes, but then without any explanation Tyler ends up with Ruth and Thomas ends up with Monica, seperated from each other. They fight off some giant bugs while arguing with each other. A rather poor start to a long running serial with Marcos art, an guy whose style I've never been too fond of. A poor site in a mostly good issue.

Fifth is the second part of The Open Sky, "Vladimir" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). Moonshadow and Arianne come across a two headed man who had a hot air balloon stolen from him by Francois, the head assassin that Moonshadow is after. After convincing the two headed man to let them use their hot air balloon, they head through the sky, and are eventually seized by the winged people from the previous story, who drop Moonshadow and Arianne into the ocean.

Last is "Temple of the Ravengers" the latest story in the Horizon Seekers series. Art is by Leo Duranona, while story is by Duranona & Cary Bates. Allison and Jesse travel through the desert with Merlin and find some ruins of a mansion, leaving Merlin behind to rest while they explore. Inside they find a group of women cannibals that capture them. By convincing the cannibals that she is ill, Allison is able to start some infighting, and she and Jesse are able to escape.

Creepy 128

This cover features a reprint of Frank Frazetta's classic Frankenstein monster cover from issue 10. Rudy Nebres provides a one page Uncle Creepy intro. This issue is actually slightly better than the garbage that came out around this period, although there's no really good stories here.

First is "Whatever Happened to Orem?" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story is a sequel to "Orem Ain't God No Head Cheese" from Creepy 85. It featured a cannibal old man and his young female companion who were attacked by a blob creature that was originally a cancer in one of their victims. In this story the cancer continues to plague the woods and when Orem and the Sheriff of the town end up getting killed, their deaths are mistakenly blamed on it. Orem's companion tricks law enforcement into 'killing' a pile of guts that they think is the creature; in actuality she is in love with the real one.

Second is "Outcast of Euthanasia" by Bill Draut (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story features a reporter talking to a woman about her dead son. Her dead son worked in a lab that brought dead people back to life from cloning. The son ended up being one of them too and went on a rampage, killing them all.

Third is "Old Man at the Morgue" by Fred Carillo (art) and Mark Lasky (story). This story features an old man who works at a morgue at night who talks only to the corpses. Heading home one night, he is murdered by some gang members. That's it. A complete waste of a story.

Fourth is "Frankenstein Invades the Universe" by Romeo Tanghal & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Scientists work in a satellite to create energy to transmit to the Earth. When they do so, they reveal a lab under ground where a Frankenstein monster (based on the cover) is found. One of the men becomes convinced that the creature is an advanced being that he must release and he does so. The monster goes on a rampage and is eventually killed. But carnivores eat its corpse, transmitting its evil to them. And when our protagonist eats one of them, he too becomes a monster.

Last is Abelmar Jones in "Lord of the Flies". This series originally ran in Eerie, with its last part appearing in Eerie 95. Its last story appears here, with Luis Bermejo replacing Alex Nino on the art. Bill Dubay (credited here as Will Richardson) continues to write the story. In this story two people in the city pour chemicals on Abelmar by mistake. This results in a blob growing on his head. Initially he wants to get it off but can't, but when it is revealed that the blob makes him irresistable to women, some other people tear it off of him to use themselves.

Eerie 101

Jim Laurier provides the cover for this issue, featuring a robot in a futuristic city.

First is The Rook in "The Martians Are Coming, The Martians Are Coming!" by Jim Starlin & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The art in this story looks markingly different than the usual art for Starlin and Alcala, an odd combination. Like most of the recent Rook stories, this features a dual storyline of the Rook in the past and Bishop Dane & Manners on an adventure. The Rook goes about a hundred years in the past where he encounters a robot inventor and a rival of his, who ends up being Adolf Hitler's father. In the present Dane and Manners help stop a revolt by members of the US's own government. Somewhat better than the last few Rook stories for the simple fact that its considerably shorter and simpler.

Second is the second part of "Gotterdammerung!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Our heroes battle the aliens, trying to retake the Earth from them. During the fight Jericho is severly injured, then transported to another human ship where one of our hero's father is aboard. They fight off the aliens and are reunited as the story ends.

Third is the third part of "The Horizon Seekers" by Leo Duranona (art) and Leo Duranona & Cary Bates (story). Our heroes depart the mountain and arrive in a warmer landscape where they are pursued by a group of tribesman. They are chased to a castle filled with knights and a wizard named Merlin. Upon entering its revealed that it is actually just a museum and Merlin is just an old man who like them has lost his memories and is merely hypnotizing people into believing that they are actually in the middle ages. As the story ends the tribesman arrive once more to attack the castle.

The issue concludes with Hunter II in "Three Flames of the Phoenix" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Ten years have passed since the conclusion of the Hunter II saga. Karas is set to be married, but an old wizard arrives and tells him that she has been kidnapped by an evil wizard. Karas, the wizard and the Exterminator head off the fight the evil wizard. During their trip the allied wizard is killed and the Exterminator is trapped under a rock. Karas finally faces the evil wizard, who ends up being Mandragora (who ended up being the main villain in the series) himself. Browne Loe, the wizard who led him there arrives, and reveals that the entire scenario was a set up so he could kill Mandragora himself once and for all, which he does by sacrificing himself. This actually is a pretty good story from both an art and story standpoint, but its quite puzzling why this stand alone Hunter II story appears out of nowhere. It had been nearly 30 issues since the series concluded, and this didn't kick off a new series, but rather ended immediately after this single story. Its also dissappointing to see them use someone other than Paul Neary for the art, who did both the Hunter and Hunter II series.

Eerie 100

Jordi Penalva paints the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring a number of different Eerie heroes including Hunter, the Spook, Darklon, Dax and others.

First is "Master of Ti Chi" by Jim Janes & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook serial continues to spiral downward in quality while the story length and complexity continues to increase to absurd degrees. This story features the Rook going to a place known as Ti Chi which is nothing like what he expected. This story's sole bright spot is a storyline involving Bishop Dane where an alien comes to Earth peacefully but ends up getting killed by the government.

Second is "Gotterdammerung" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a devastated future. Two slave boys meet Jericho, a robot man, and another man, Juda. The four of them get on a spaceship and escape from the Earth.

Third is the next story of the Horizon Seekers, "In a Strange Land" by Leo Duranona (art) and Leo Duranona & Cary Bates (story). Our heroes try to escape in a hot air balloon, but their enemy, the Sheexa arrives and ends up destroying it. They crash to the Earth and hide in the mountains.

Last is "Duel", the final story in the Darklon saga. Story and art is by Jim Starlin. Darklon and his father have their final conclusive duel. Darklon's father reveals why he was trying to have him assassinated. The two decide to use a device that will kill one of them. Darklon's father ends up being he one dying. The Nameless One arrives, demanding that he will now rule the planet due to his deal with Darklon. Darklon responds by blowing up the entire planet, and narrowly escaping. Throughout the story a parallel story of a father and son in the hospital (representing Darklon and his father) is also told. An interesting and exciting way to end this rather poor issue.

Aside from the Darklon story, a very poor issue, and quite a dissappointment for a 100th issue.

Eerie 99

The Rook is cover featured for the first time in quite a while in this issue, a cover by Jordi Penalva.

First is the Rook in "Hickey and the Pirates" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Bishop Dane is shocked to find out that the Rook has to pay income taxes when he meets the Rook's accountant. Longing for adventure, Dane heads to the past where pirates reigned, and he encounters the accountant's ancestor. Like the last story, a tad long and overcomplicated, although Ortiz fills in nicely with the art.

Second is "The Horizon Seekers", a new series from Leo Duranona (art) and Duranona & Cary Bates (story). This long series was a pretty good one, although this is a weak first story. It takes place in the desert where a woman, Allison, takes a man, Jessie, prisoner. They are then captured themselves and brought to a city which they eventually escape from.

Third is the second and final story in the "The Shining Sea" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Humans arrive from Earth, but they are quite cruel, murdering many of the fish-people in order to take their gold. Our hero is able to fight them off, but at the cost of our hero's lover. Later more friendly humans arrive as well. Some very odd concepts with this series, but it ended up being an okay series.

Fourth is the second and final part of "Harrow House" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Our protagonist discovers that Gretchen is alive after all. Gretchen tells him her aunt has been drugging him and others who have come to the house, and taking their blood because she is a vampire. The aunt arrives and Gretchen runs off outside. The aunt reveals that Gretchen is the actual vampire, and that she has been gathering blood for her. Having made it outside in the sunlight however, Gretchen is killed. A very good conclusion, the strongest story here.

Last is "A Crack in Time" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Louise Jones (story). A couple goes back in time in order to study Cro-Magnon man. There they are confronted by Neanderthals who capture them, and eventually escape. Their time machine is destroyed, stranding them there, making them realize that they themselves are the Cro-Magnons who were the ancestors of modern humanity.

Eerie 96

Jordi Penalva provides the cover for this issue, which features Mac Tavish. This issue is a rarity in that there is no Rook story, most likely due to the fact that the next Rook story was over 30 pages long and took a while to put together.

Up first is "Fallen Angels", three stories by Leo Duranona (art) and Guillermo Saccomano & Cary Bates (story). Given Saccomano's credit here (he was not a regular Warren writer), and the fact that the artwork is dated 1976, one would think that this story was originally printed elsewhere and reprinted here. These stories feature four humanoid characters, Hot Chocolate, Knuckle, Marlene and Toc Toc who were cast out of Heaven and forced to do penance on Earth. They each take the appearance of street dwellers. In the first story, "Revenge", they go after a pimp who has been mistreating his whores. The second story, "The Cutman" features an old assassin who is hired to perform a hit, but he screws up and kills the wrong person, forcing the person who hired him, his own son, to kill him. The final story, "Explosive Issue" is about a pair of crooks who arrange to blow up a building for the insurance money. The Fallen Angels get involved and turn to violence, resulting in criticism from their superior. They work to get the head of the whole scam to end up getting himself killed by running into an exploding building. All three stories are fairly good, with some very good art, as usual from Duranona. Unfortunate that no further stories would ever appear.

Next is "Hero of Zodiac V" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). This story coninues immediately after the last story. Mac Tavish meets with Ida Lizer, a robot lover, then goes to see Spider Andromeda who reveals that Lazard works with Gorgo the Man, a leading candidate for governor on Rara Avis. It is also revealed that they are after Rara Avis due to a raw material there that permits people to live forever. Mac Tavish and Spider lead an attack on a planet breaker factory.

Next is "The Ark" by Carmine Infantino & Walt Simonson (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). In this story an old man builds an ark, causing the rest of the townfolk to ridicule him. He ends up being right though, as rain soon comes. He and his wife hide in the ark and the rest of the town get angry at him for not letting them in. He is killed by the townsfolk when he comes out and they storm in to the ark, where they are trapped, and the rain stops soon after.

Last is "The Shining Sea" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This odd story features a man living in a water filled world where the other people are humanoid except for their dolphin (or other sea creature) faces. He goes searching for his origin, which appears to be from a spaceship that crashed on this world. Another story in this series appeared a few issues later.

Creepy 126

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a boy in a bed airborne over a city. Rudy Nebres provides a one page introduction from Uncle Creepy.

First is "Parasite" by Martin Salvador (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about a parasite from a man's brain that ends up killing anyone who has touched him or his corpse. It ends up that the parasite originated from an experiment he performed to create life where he subjected himself to the experiment. Some people investigate it by going to a pyramid hidden on his property.

Second is "Nevada Moon" by Bill Draut (art) and Steven Grant (story). This story is about a werewolf plauging a town. A man who beats his wife kills a wolf, which ends up turning back into a man once dead. The man is bedridden after being hit by a car, and his wife, who had been having an affair with their assistant becomes a werewolf along with him.

Third is "...And Gus Created Woman!" by Anton Caravana (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Gus is a lonely but smart man who buys a beautiful manniquin that he transforms into someone who acts like a real woman. He becomes more and more successful in his life, but starts ignoring her and everything falls apart. He puts her back together but ends up dying afterwards. A so-so story, but Caravana's art is very good.

Fourth is "Ragged Man" by Romeo Tanghal & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A man and woman return to a concentration camp they were at when they were young. While they were there an old man told them of a Ragged Man that would come save them some day. The evil head of the concentration camp has their sex organs removed and thrown in a well, which eventually comes to life as the Ragged Man and enacts revenge for them.

Fifth is "Dreamer!" by Fred Carillo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A boy lives by himself with his Teddy Bear, which can bring his dreams to life. Eventually some adults arrive, and destroy the teddy bear, which was a device meant to protect him while they were gone. The adults want to hold him hostage from his parents, who rule the galaxy, but he is able to get a wolf to kill them.

Last is "Hot Bob" by Herb Arnold (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Hot Bob is a man returning to Earth from exile, making those on Earth very nervous of what he's going to do. When he arrives it ends up he's there to bring animals and plants to an over industrialized Earth, but what he brings is poisonous to anyone over 30.

Creepy 101

Richard Corben provides the cover for this issue, a 'Jaws of Death' special issue. This cover appears to have been originally intended for issue 83 from 2 years earlier, but didn't make its first and only appearance until this issue. A very strong first story (which is a reprint), but other than that this isn't all that great an issue.

Up first is "In Deep" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story), a reprint of the classic story from Creepy 83. Given that this cover was originally intended for this story, they reprinted it here, and made a sequel story which follows this story. This story tells of a husband and wife whose yacht sinks. The two of them are stranded in the water with just an inner tube to keep them afloat. Over the night the wife drowns, leaving the husband on his own. To his horror seagulls and soon sharks arriving trying to eat her corpse. He fights them off as best he can, but can't stop them all. When he's finally rescued all thats left is her heart, which he grasps tightly in his hands. An extremely good story, one of Creepy's best ever, although this particular version isn't in color, which definately helped it out tremendously in its original printing.

Next is "In Deep II" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The man from the prior story is feeling better, and has dedicated his life to killing sharks. A woman from a museum who is looking for a body of a great white enlists his help. He agrees only because she reminds him of his dead wife. They encounter similar situation when their ship sinks, leaving them in shark infested waters, but this time they both make it out okay.

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

Fourth is "Waterbabies", this issue's color story, by Pablo Marcos (art) and Louise Jones (story). A group of people go after a group of humanoid sea creatures who were bred to be servents, but escaped. They try to capture the creatures but all end up being killed except for one, which is taken captive by them.

Fifth is "The Seven Sisters of the Sea" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A pirate ship attacks another ship including a man on the ship who curses them. They later find seven sisters on a boat who they let aboard until they have their way with them, then send them out. The ship is later destroyed, but the surviving member finds a ship, the very ship they attacked earlier which is filled with ghosts that get their revenge. In modern times a ship ran by a drug maker heads to the same region and disappears.

Last is "Alternate Paths" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Chris Adames (story). In a futuristic society a man invents a time machine, but the council in charge of things refuses to let him use it to avoid him screwing up time. He goes against their wishes and uses it anyway, and while back in time he kills a large manta ray. This results in effecting the future, resulting in the destruction of his society, Atlantis.

Creepy 108

Terrance Lindall provides a fine cover for this issue, his first for Warren. Unfortunately there's not much fine work inside this issue. In fact this may be the single worst issue of Creepy I've reviewed to this point. While there's a few good art jobs here, the stories here are all absolutely dreadful. Please pardon the very short summaries.

First is "Hole in the Head" by Alex Nino (art) and Frank Salvatini (story). This story tells of a man in an insane asylum who claims he's not crazy, but tells a story about monsters he encountered. Some terrific, surreal artwork from Nino but a very confusing nonscenscial story.

Next is "Camelot Crosstime" by Val Mayerik (art) and Jean Michel Marin (story). This very boring story takes place in a medieval setting. That's all I've got to say.

Third is "Sultana" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Another dreadfully boring story, it tells of a battle and the important part that a woman named Sultana takes in it.

Fourth is "Going by the Book" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story is about a fat demon and the wizard that he serves. Despite being credited to Alcala, this looks nothing like his usual work, making me wonder if it was really Alcala who drew it.

Fifth is "House of Magic" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This confusing story tells of a man who moves into a house with a painting of a magician who defied death. Various magical stuff happens, and the house is destroyed.

Last is "Hell's Playground" by Leo Duranona (art) and Jean Michel Martin (story). Devils from hell suddenly arrive in a man's backyard one day. The various things he tries to do, like bringing a priest doesn't help. Eventually he gets them to leave by building a playground.

Creepy 99

This issue is an "Earth Shattering Disasters" special issue featuring stories about the apocalypse or disasters. Bob Larkin paints the cover, featuring people fleeing from a mushroom cloud explosion. The bottom right portion of the cover features a man who looks strikingly similar to Roger Moore, who was playing James Bond at the time.

First is "An Old Game" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art, his Warren debut) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about an old submarine captain who plots to kills his wife and her lover due to her having an affair. He acts towards his fellow soldiers as if there's a nuclear war on the surface and he fires off a torpedo that blows up the city his wife is in. At the same time however her lover is in the air in a plane that blows up the sub.

Second is "Ssshh!" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). Aliens come across Earth, now in ruins. Multiple aliens end up causing large explosions by doing harmless things such as stepping on a horn and firing a toy gun. About to take off one of them discovers that humanity polluted the Earth so much that any slight noise will cause an explosion. Them taking off ends up blowing up the entire earth.

Next is "Brothers" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about two robot children who live with the only normal human left on Earth. The ruins near them are overrun with mutants who try to kill them. While the old man tells the children that the mutants are the deformed remains of humanity, the mutants themselves reveal the truth, that they are aliens and that the old man was actually one of them who was transformed into a human in order to trick humans into destroying themselves. The mutants 'cure' him by destroying him and his robots.

Next is "A Slight Case of Overkill" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story surrounds the last two men on Earth as they try to escape. Due to the arms race a crazy scientist created a gas that de-evolved humans. It worked too good, turning everyone to turn into chimps. This story appears to have been originally intended for issue 95's all apes special.

Fifth is "There Shall Come a Great Darkness" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bob Toomey (story). In this story a great darkness is heading across the universe. On Earth people know they don't have much time left and decide to punish the astronomers who discovered this by hanging them. A friend of the astronaut allows his wife to kill herself then watches the darkness come with her corpse.

Last is "One Hell of a War" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a war between Earth and alien beings. A man on a ship with a robot witnesses the Earth destroyed, but in actuality it is all due to drugs that he is under that will keep him focused on the alien enemy.

Vampirella 78

A photo of Barbara Leigh is on the cover of this issue of Vampirella.

Up first is "Kiss of the Dragon Queen", the latest Vampirella story. Art is by Gonzalo Mayo and story is by Bill Dubay. Our heroes, including Vampi, Pantha, Adam, Conrad and Pendragon are in Hong Kong where a dragon has been appearing. Pantha and Vampi are being set up by a man pretending to be a movie producer. The dragon meanwhile is killed, revealed to be a crocodile, but it is rumored that the real dragon is still out there. Not that good a Vampirella story, unfortunately.

Second is "Little Guy" by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story surrounds a very short man at a circus who a colleague desires to help him in a robbery by hiding in a crate due to his small size. his wife tells him that she'll leave him if it does it, so he refuses, but the collegue murders her to get him to do it. Rather than do what he asks however, the small man instead cuts off his colleague's legs and puts him in the crate.

Third is "Passion" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Steve Englehart (story). A rather confusing story featuring a soldier who calls himself Errol Flynn fighting for the French Legion. He is a very strange man, as discussed by his fellow soldier. He leaves a brothel, passing up sex, and refuses to fight, willing to go to jail instead. When he has no choice but to fight, a Tyranosaurus Rex suddenly appears and eats him. A rather odd, confusing ending which I find a hard time understanding.

Next is "The Service" by Jim Starlin & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story initially starts out with a woman and a lover who comes back to sleep with her every few months, but never can stay that long. It ends up that the man is actually a robot who she pays to come sleep with her, and when he breaks down she asks a repairman to come, who ends up being an actual human man, something which the women had pretty much wiped out from the universe entirely. In order to protect his secret, the woman has him stay and sleep with him, as well as become essentially a slave while he repairs her robot. He is forbidden from leaving when the robot becomes fixed since she has become so used to him. She says that he can't kill him as she files a weekly report that will cause people to come after him if they suddenly stop, but he outsmarts her by killing her and creating a robot copy of her to do the reports instead.

Last is "Zooner or Later" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A terrific, terrific story, probably one of Warren's best 20 stories ever. A man finds out he is dying of cancer, so he tries desperately to find any way to save himself, from experimental drugs to faith healers to even devil worshippers. All attempts fail. He learns of a tribe called the Zooner from a cook who says hold the power to reincarnate someone with the mind that they had before they died. He heads to Africa where he initially finds it a meaningless lead, but a drunk at a bar tells him how to find them. He finally does find the Zooner, who worship the Hippopotomus and they sacrifice him. He awakens as an embryo, very excited to be soon born again, but when he is born, it is as a baby Hippo!

Creepy 93

This is Creepy's second special issue dedicated entirely to sports. The first, previously reviewed by me was issue 84. The cover is by Don Maitz, his first for Warren. Like the first sports special, this issue contains a lot of Carmine Infantino and Roger McKenzie.

First is "The Replacement" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of a baseball player who suddenly vanishes in the middle of a game, replaced by a weird looking creature. The creature takes his place and is very successful, but faces discrimination from the human players. He eventually vanishes, replaced by the original player when they are close to winning it all, resulting in them losing.

Next is "The Return of Rah" by Carmine Infantino & John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is a sequel to "The Mummy's Victory" from the previous sports special. Rah the mummy is once again brought into the game of football, this time by a scout who was impressed by his prior performance. Once again Rah is a big football star, winning many games.

Third is "The Great Black Cheese" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about an old black boxer who never got his big chance due to his mother getting sick. He takes part in a boxing match which causes a heart attack. With his death he has a vision of finally getting his big shot.

Fourth is "Elixer" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is about a veteran hockey goalie who takes a magical elixer that makes him young again. It succeeds, making the team very successful, but each time he takes the elixer its effects aren't as powerful and he eventually ages to death in the middle of a game.

Fifth is "Running Wild" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of siamese twins, who when seperated causes one to be paralyzed, but he has psychic powers to control his other brother. He forces him to do things he doesn't want to do, so the brother eventually causes him to die of exhaustion by running too hard.

Last is "Cold Blooded Murder" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bill Mohalley & Nicola Cuti (story). A young boy paralyzes another boy in a hockey game after being inspired by his favorite hockey player. The boy's life is pretty much ruined by this event, and he tries to kill himself by drowning, but his body won't let him kill himself and he is saved by a priest.

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.

Creepy 104

This issue is an all robots special of Creepy. The cover by Ken Kelly was originally used for the back cover of Eerie 63, although the entire background has been edited out for this reprinting. A so-so issue at best with nothing terrible but nothing that good either.

First is "The Games" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a pair of gladiator 'brothers' who perform very well, but are forced by their masters to be part of a large melee in which they fight various people including themselves. The two of them are the last standing and forced to fight to the death, but the winner is allowed to go free from his masters, who end up being robots who have taken over humanity.

Next is "The Caretaker" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bob Toomey (story). The story features a man on his own accompanied by robots who is allowed to live forever as long as he doesn't head outside. He eventually decides to knowing that he'll die, and ages to death, leaving only the robots left.

Third is "Mother Park" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an oafish man who is chased by cops through an amusement park that talks to him. He is being chased due to causing the death of a young girl. He is haunted by spirits within the park and soon meets his death.

Fourth is "In the City of Gold" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features the character Wolfer O'Connell, who originally appeared in Eerie 76. While traveling through a winter wilderness, Wolfer comes across a city occupied by a giant robot man. The robot man tells him that he is from another planet and calls this a City of God. An interesting story, the best of the issue.

Fifth is "Holocost" by Terry Austin (art) and Steve Englehart (story). This story takes place in the future where there's a great war of men vs. women. Eventually the fighting is reduced to a single man and woman who have a prior relationship with one another, but it ends up that the woman is nothing more than a hologram, as the robots had taken their place a while before.

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

1984 7

This issue features a cover by Patrick Woodroffe of a beastly looking alien creature.

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

Second is "Freeze a Jolly Good Fellow" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story surrounds a rich man who has himself and girlfriend placed into suspended animation in space so he can outlive the war, famine and other things plauging the world. They awaken over 120,000 years later only to get sucked out into space to their deaths when they open an elevator door.

Third is "Kaiser Warduke and the Indespensable Jasper Gemslong!" by Jim Janes & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story is about a mutant man, Kaiser Warduke with a talking gem on his head who saves a woman named Nymph from a monster that wants Kaiser to leave the planet. They encounter another alien which Kaiser kills as well. Only it ends up that the aliens wanted to save him, as Nymph sucks all his power out of him.

Fourth is the latest segment in "Mutant World" by Richard Corben (art) and Jan Strnad (story). The priest mutant goes on a rampage but is killed by one of the lab technicians. The head doctor decides to shut down their entire project. Dimento meanwhile escapes from the lab with the help of the human soldier he met before. He gets upset seeing him and the woman he has a crush on together, but the man simply knocks him out when he objects. One more story in this series which we'll see in the next episode.

Fifth is the second segment in the "Twilight's End" series by Rudy Nebres (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, credited as Alabaster Redzone). Our hero Zev discovers the woman he met, Rena can talk and she tells him that she's part of the enlightened tribe, who is fighting the throwback tribe. They head to a colony of enlighteneds, where Zev is suspected as a devil because of his Snitch Scope companion. He is imprisoned and attacked by a lizard like creature, but manages to escape.

Sixth is the premiere of a new series, "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). This series would appear in most of the remaining issues of 1984/1994. Ghita is a woman who lives in the city of Alizar, which is soon to be under attack by trolls. King of Alizarr, Khalia is severly wounded and asks Ghita's fake wizard friend Thenef to bring back to life Khan Dagon, a great warrior. Using a gem they do so, but Khan goes crazy, killing Khalia and tries to rape Ghita. Luckily Thenef helps Ghita kill him.

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

1984 5

Up first for this issue is "The Greatest Hero of Time and Space!" by Jose Ortiz doing the story and Bill Dubay (as Strontium Whitehead) and Jim Stenstrum (as Alabaster Redzone) doing the story. Standard Dubay sex fantasy story to open up the issue. A young boy's father dies, so he goes to live with his uncle, an old man who lives with about a half a dozen beautiful naked women. He tells the nephew of his various adventures through time with them as they rescue humanity and have other various adventures. It ends up that the women are all actually robots, but that doesn't stop the boy from having an orgy with them all at the end of the story.

Second is part three in the Idi Amen storyline, "Idi and the Ratment of Hunger Hollow" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Dogmeat and Idi head to an area where there is a bunch of rats, in an attempt to find a rocket they can get to use to the US. They are confronted by many real rats and the ratmen, but are able to get to the rocket and take off.

"Timothy Sternback and the Multi-Colored Sunrise" is about a man who experiments with sex with numerous different women. He finds himself transported to another dimension where he's supposed to marry the King's daughter and produce a child to be heir. He does so, but desires to return to Earth so wishes himself back there when the King give him a wish. In actuality, there was no wish, and they had sent him back by their own choice anyway.

"I Wonder Who's Squeezing Her Now? follows, with art by Wally Wood & Ernie Colon and story by Nicola Cuti. Story surrounds a man whose life is falling apart around him. His wife is having an affair, so he leaves her and has an affair with a woman from his office, which becomes public, getting him fired from his job. His lover ends up in the hospital and he gets beat up by his wife's lover. He decides to kill them, but upon seeing the lover beat her up for having an affair with yet someone else, our hero finds a little better and decides to call it off.

"Luke the Nuke Brings It In!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A rather boring story about the Luke of the title piloting a shuttle, smuggling illegal aliens, who makes his way through various enemies traps, etc...

The latest segment of "Mutant World" by the team of Rich Corben (art) and Jan Strnad (story) features Dimento in yet another battle with other mutants over food. He also battles with a wolf-like crerature. Meanwhile a soldier finds Dimento's friend, the woman, and brings her to a nearby compound. Dimento follows but can't get in.

"The Box" by Mike Nassar & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Len Wein (story) is a rather interesting story about a tower which contains a civilization in it serving an entity known as the box. At the end it ends up being a TV show which is cancelled. Not an overly complicated story, but a fairly good one.

Next is "Killman One" by Herb Arnold (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). The story is about an alien woman who hates her husband, a star 'Killman', who fights various competitors in one on one battles to the death. She decides to take him on in one such competition and ends up killing him.

We wrap up with another installment of Rex Havoc, entitled "The Spud from another world! or Who Grows There?". Art is by Abel Laxamana and story is by Jim Stenstrum. This story is a parody of the movie "The Thing From Another World", and the book it was based on, "The Thing From Another World". It features our heroes in the arctic where an alien being is found frozen. It ends up getting thawed and is an alien potato monster that our heroes try to take out by frying him on a frying pan. A sympathetic scientist screws things up, but Rex is able to set the alien on fire in his ship and take him out.

Creepy 125

A fairly good Creepy issue from 1981. The cover is by Ken Kelly. While it has a Christmas themed color, only one story within has a Christmas theme. Rudy Nebres provides a one page introduction from Uncle Creepy.

Up first is "Once Upon a Christmas Eve" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited as Will Richardson). The story features a pair of bums on Christmas who encounter demons trying to trap them in bottles of alcohol. Luckily they are able to escape. It appears to be a dream, but is enough to get them to try and turn their life around.

Next is "His Own Private Demons!" by Anton Caravana (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Story features a grown man recalling his childhood where a demon that was part of him caused him to do bad things. As an adult, the bad deeds continue.

Third is "Top Dog!" by Alex Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a mob boss threatened by new enemies. He recruits a group of leprechauns to help them, by promising them gold. They defeat his enemy, but with no actual gold he is forced to let them be in charge.

Next is "Jacque Couteau's Circus of the Bizarre" by Alex Toth & Carmine Infantino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). A fairly good short story at only 5 pages features a freak show where regular humans are the freaks and the audience are bizarre looking mutants. Toth & Infantino provide an interesting art job in this one time only team up.

"The Tempered Sword" is next, by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Manuel Auad (story). The issue's weakest effort, it features a sword that is able to absorb the emotion of the person that uses it. A slave who finds the sword hears the story of its origin from an old man.

"Living Death Camp!" by Auraleon (art) and Roger McKenzie (story) follows, It takes place in Nazi Germany where a number of jews are brought to a concentration camp. Due to the help of a vampire however, they are able to turn on their captors.

Last is "Knight Errant" by Mike Saenz (art) and Roy Kinnard (story). The story features a knight battling a crab like creature and a dragon, inspired by visions of his beautiful lover. However a vision distracts him during the battle with the Dragon and he is defeated. It is revealed that everything is actually a simulation; the knight is actually a small mutated creature using a robot body who passes away due to his wounds. Very good art in one of Saenz's few Warren appearances.