Warren Swipes (Part 2)

Today's post is the second in a series showing some of the swipes that I've spotted in Warren comics over the years. While the first entry (see here) focused on swipes from outside sources, this one focuses on swipes that are completely contained within stories that appeared in Warren's magazines. Note: In all instances the original is posted first, then the swipe.

WARNING - This post contains nudity

Exterminator One/Love Strip
Exterminator One was a continuing series drawn by Paul Neary that appeared in Eerie. The second part of the series (appearing in Eerie #63) introduces a character named Slaughter who acts as an antagonist against the Exterminator. The character's design was a direct copy of the main character of the comic story "Love Strip" as drawn by Luis Garcia that appeared in the french publication Pilote. Several panels are direct swipes from that story, a couple of notable examples I have included here. The character from Love Strip was modeled after Spanish comic book artist Carlos Giminez, a friend of Garcia's who had contributed art on that story. Ironically enough, Warren ended up reprinting Love Strip in Vampirella (in issue 44), and the issue ended up coming out right about the same time as the issue that featured this Exterminator story.



The Castle, The Dungeon and All/The Winter of the Last Combat

Vicente Alcazar, who had a number of stories in Warren's comics (mostly in Creepy) came off as a sort of Luis Garcia-lite, and there were several instances where his stories contained swipes of Garcia's work. The one today is from the story "The Castle the Dungeon and All", from Vampirella 51. This image was a swipe from the Luis Garcia story "The Winter of the Last Combat", which also appeared in Pilote. This was another story reprinted in Vampirella (issue 43) as "The Wolves at War's End".

Three Old Women

This particular image of an old woman was used in three seperate Warren stories, by three seperate artists, making it particularly notable. I am not sure of the original source. Of the three, the Ramon Torrents story was the first published, although that doesn't necessarily mean the other two swiped from him.

These are from the stories:
The Stone of Power (Creepy 53) - art by Ramon Torrents
Return Trip (Vampirella 27) - art by Jose Gonzalez
Memoirs (Vampirella 30) - art by Fernando Fernandez

Herma/The Saga of Honey Dew Melons

"The Saga of Honey Dew Melons", which appears in 1984 #1 features some amazing and sexy Esteban Maroto art, although like his story in the subsequent issue (covered in the prior entry), it contains multiple swipes. This one features multiple panels taken from "Herma" by Jose Gonzalez. Incidentally enough Herma ended up being reprinted in a later issue of 1984 (issues 8 - 10), causing one to believe that Gonzalez may have swiped from Maroto, but Herma was originally done several years earlier.

Creepy 62

Today I'll be covering issue 62 of Creepy, featuring a cover by Ken Kelly. This issue is dated May 1974. This is one of Creepy's best issues, certainly a pleasure to read. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art). This was Berni Wrightson's first appearance in a Warren magazine. A tremendous horror artist whose style was perfect for the black and white format of Warren, Wrightson was one of those artists who usually made an issue worth having even if the rest of the issue was poor. A very talented writer too, in fact his best stories are probably those he wrote as well. 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.

Second is "Buffaloed" by John Severin (art) and Larry Herndon (story). Another western themed story perfectly fitting Severin's style. A buffalo Hunter, Hawkins, is nearly killed by a buffalo stampede. When he comes to he is being taken care of a native american woman, Little Fawn. Little Fawn's father is One Eye, who wants to kill him but is convinced by his daughter to speak to the buffalo spirits to see what he should do. Hawkins eventually recovers and spotting a group of white buffalo nearby starts firing on them, even though Little Fawn tries to stop him. One such buffalo however, one with only one eye, doesn't go down and stampedes him to death.

Third is "Firetrap" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is Vicente Alcazar's Creepy debut (he had appeared for a few issues in Eerie before this). A landlord visits his inner city property to collect rent because his superintendent quit. He refuses to do anything about the terrible condition of the place and is attacked by a woman who blames the death of her baby on him. As he's about to leave he is pushed down into the basement where the tenants lock him into a coffin, dump rats on him, and eventually light him on fire.

Fourth is "Judas", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A group of aliens head throughout the galaxy, destroying worlds. Their next target is Earth. Earth sends a spaceship to stop the invasion that is piloted by St. John, a man who desires fame and fortune above all else, who even killed the original pilot of the ship to be in the position he is in. When his ship approaches the alien fleet, he is contacted by the alien commander who says he'll make him immortal if he permits them to attack Earth. St. John agrees to the deal. He is brought onto the alien ship, where his body is changed to an alien version that lives forever. He convinces the aliens to bring him to their leader so he can thank him; when he arrives there however he beats the leader to death and tells the aliens that he is their new leader and they are going to return to their home. The alien fleet departs, calling off their invasion of Earth.

Fifth is "Survivor or Savior!" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In the future the Earth is a wasteland due to pollution and war that has occurred. A man is sent back in time by a scientist to find a Chester P. Hazel, who he thinks can help prevent the war by doing something about the pollution. Our protagonist heads back in time, meets Chester, who oddly enough ends up being a woman, and saves her from an attempt on her life. Because the time machine can not return him to his present, he ends up dying of radiation poisoning, not knowing if what he did actually saved the future or not.

Sixth is "The Maze" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story). My favorite story of the issue, and one of Warren's odder tales. A man, John, is sick of his worthless life with his low paying job and nagging wife. He decides to start a new life, stealing money from where he works and heading down to the subway to run off. He is attacked by a group of maniacs and wakes up later deep in the subway tunnels, still possessing the money, but having no idea how to get out. He tries to escape from the subway numerous times but the maniacs prevent him from doing so. Eventually he finds their 'king', a grotesquely fat quadruple amputee who is fed the body parts of living people that his maniac 'subjects' bring to him. John continues to fail to escape and decides that by attacking the maniacs he'll be able to escape. He attacks their 'king', chopping his head off with a blade, and is declared by the maniacs their new king. He demands they let him out, but they refuse, and attack him. On the final page we see his fate, he has permanently become their new 'king', and like the previous one has had all his limbs chopped off and gleefully watches his 'subjects' brutally murder people to feed to him.

Last is "The Demon Within" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A woman believes that she is cursed, that a demon lives with in her bringing death to everyone around her. We flash back to her past, where her parents were murdered and her sister was killed in a car accident. Eventually she gets married and has a son, but he too ends up dying. She flips out and stands outside a window on a tall building, about to jump. Her husband arrives to try and stop her, but when he's about to help her off he falls of the ledge to his death. She too jumps off seconds later to her death as well.

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.

Creepy 76

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 69

This issue of Creepy is the first of two Edgar Allen Poe specials. Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue, dated February 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover. Rich Margopoulos did the adaptions for all the stories in this issue.

First is "The Pit and the Pendulum" with art by Jose Ortiz. The Warren Companion reveals that Berni Wrightson was originally intended to do the art for this story. A man is sentenced to death and put in prison. Inside, he nearly falls into a giant pit. When he drinks some water, it is poisoned and knocks him out. He awakens tied up on a wooden slab, with a giant pendulum swinging over him. By rubbing meat over the ropes binding him, some rats come and eat the rope, freeing him. He is able to escape to freedom afterwards.

Next is "Premature Burial" with art by Vicente Alcazar. A man is deathly afraid of being buried alive, particularly because he has an illness where he can appear dead when he's still alive. His wife comes up with a plan to install a rope within his coffin so if he is prematurely buried, he can notify her he's still alive. He later wakes up though to find himself in another coffin, with no way to notify her. Luckily for him he is actually on a ship, not in a coffin, and this helps him get over his fear for good.

Third is "The Fall of the House of Usher" featuring art by Martin Salvador. A man goes to see his friend, who is part of the Usher family. The man is worried for his sister, who is quite ill. Eventually the sister passes away and is buried in the basement. Usher is still quite nervous however and one night his sister, who wasn't actually dead appears and attacks him. The two of them die from the ordeal and the house collapses just after our protagonist departs.

Richard Corben provides the art for the next story, "The Oval Portrait". "The Raven", a color story published in issue 67 was originally intended to appear here instead, but got mistakenly published two issues early. A man is wounded in a duel so he is brought into a lare house nearby. Inside he finds a very realistic oval portrait of a beautiful woman. He reads a diary within the house which reveals the history of the portrait. The woman was the wife of the artist. He showed her little love, and made her be the model for the portrait. As he worked on the portrait, and it became more and more lifelike, she became exhausted and eventually collapsed dead when he finished the portrait.

Fifth is "Ms. Found in a Bottle" with art by Leo Summers. This story is told by a man on a ship that faces a huge storm. Eventually there is just him and one other man left. Soon the ship sinks when it comes across another, our protagonist flees onto it. There he sees a number of spectral crew members. He writes down his encounters, putting it in a bottle, and the ship comes across a whirlpool, sinking in it.

Last is "Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" with art by Isidro Mones. This story is about an old man dying who is visited by a hypnotist who hypnotizes him to stay alive. It works, and he lives through the night, then for days and eventually months. The hypnotist, not feeling good about the matter releases the trance, and the man immediately decomposes.

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 63

Not that good an issue of Creepy, quite a disappointment considering the era its from. This issue is dated July 1974. The cover is by Ken Kelly featuring murderous dolls attacking a man. A rather bad job of perspective by Kelly, as the man's legs appear far too big for a normal human.

First is "Jenifer" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). One of Warren's best ever stories, and notable for being Bruce Jones's only story during Bill Dubay's era. He would eventually become a very prolific writer for Warren while Louise Jones was editor. A man hunting in the woods one day rescues a girl from being killed. The girl, called Jenifer has the ugliest face imaginable, but he becomes obsessed with her, and adopts her. His family hates her and eventually leave him after she scares them off. He then does what he can to get rid of her, such as having a freak show owner come to take her, but Jenifer simply kills the man and shoves his corpse in the fridge. Eventually he brings her out into the woods to kill her, only to be killed by someone wandering by, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Second is the cover story "A Touch of Terror" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features an investigation of a security guard at a warehouse. The owner of the place is in argument with the person conducting the investigation, as the guard was hired without his consent. The owner is in charge of little toy dolls called Nymatoids, which he uses to kill the investigator. He thinks he'll be able to rule the world with them, but the Nymatoids aren't actually controlled by him, but act on their own, and eventually kill him too.

Third is "...A Ghost of A Chance" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). Brennan's final Warren story is pretty good, mostly thanks to some good Alcazar art. A man heads into a haunted mansion because it is rumored a treasure is inside. In the mansion he is confronted by the ghost of the man who lived there, who gives him his treasure, a coffin. It ends up that the man is turned into a vampire, so that certainly was a sensical gift for him.

Fourth is "Demon in the Cockpit", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The United States government works on their latest weapon to defeat the communists - summoning a demon from hell which they successfully are able to do. Unfortunately for them, the communists have the same idea and use their own demon to attack.

Fifth is "Fishbait" by Leo Summers (art) and Larry Herndon (story). A man on a yacht is very jealous of a competitor who won over a woman he liked. When the ship mysteriously crashes into something, they find themselves in shark infested water. Eventually it is just our protagonist and his competitor left, using some drift wood. When a ship approaches, our protagonist fights off his competitor to make it to it... but it is not a ship but actually a giant shark, the entity which destroyed the yacht in the first place.

Last is "The Clones!" by Jose Gual (art) and Martin Pasko (story). Probably the single worst story of Bill Dubay's first run as editor (although Gual's art is good). This story features a hospital where clones of criminals have been developed that are used so that their organs can be used to give to other people. One of the clones comes to life and goes on a rampage, taking back his organs that were taken from him. He then returns to the hospital, including a ridiculous sequence where he runs amok with a machine gun, and takes back his final organ from the doctor that developed him. In a nonsensical final twist, the clone reveals he is a cannibal, and that he has been eating all the organs he took back.

Creepy 78

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

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

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

Third is "Creeps" by John Severin & Wally Wood (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features an accountant who is bugged by homeless people and the more destitute in society, calling them "Creeps". Eventually it becomes an obsession to him and he starts killing them. It goes even further when he thinks his mother is a Creep herself and kills her. Only this time someone sees it, so he has to flee and hide on the streets. As the days go by he takes on the appearance of a homeless person himself, then ends up killing himself when he sees his reflection. Very good story from Goodwin and an interesting art job from Wood and Severin.

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

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

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

Creepy 58

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated December 1973. Bill Dubay and Vicente Alcazar provide the art for the two page frontis "The Old School" while Steve Skeates provides the script.

First is "Change... Into Something Comfortable" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A werewolf runs around on Halloween, enjoying himself by killing trick or treaters, gang members, and pretty much anyone else who he encounters. He eventually comes across a mansion which he attacks, only to find that the inhabitants are fellow monsters like him, part of the freak show he used to work for. The monsters then make him their dinner! A strong way to start off the issue.

Second is "An Excuse for Violence" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story features a vampire on a college campus whose attacks are contributing to a tough racial situation between white and black people. Oddly enough the vampire is a black man who transforms into a white one after becoming a vampire. Not that great a story from a story or art standpoint.

Third is "Shriek Well Before Dying!" by Jose Bea (art) and W. Eaton (story). A con artist marries a young woman because he wants to bump off her father and get his money. He eventually is able to get the father to have a heart attack and die, but the father comes back from the grave to get his revenge. In the end the daughter goes crazy and lives with his corpse, whom she keeps in her house.

Fourth is "Soul and Shadow" by Reed Crandall (art, his final Warren appearance) and Gardner Fox (story). A warrior sneaks into a tomb to find a treasure, finding a sleeping woman there. She awakens and he fights off a group of demons. Soon afterwards however a shadow comes after him and kills him. It ends up the whole thing was a ruse to get him to kill the demons, which the woman could not.

Last is "The Waking Nightmare!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Don McGregor (story). A Gasp! interesting story by McGregor for once, featuring an outbreak that occurs that causes some to go on a murderous rage and others to just pass out. The story does contain McGregor's political ramblings as usual, but not enough to wreck a fairly good story.

Vampirella 51

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, which is miscredited to Sanjulian.

First is "Rise of the Undead" by Howard Chaykin & Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, credited as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampirella and Pendragon visit a town where each year corpses start plauging the town. It incidently ends up being the night that they are there. It ends up that the corpses have come out due to a curse a man placed on the town. Vampi tries to get the man's descendant to end the curse. While he refuses, eventually things work out okay. This was Chaykin's sole Vampirella story, but his artwork is barely noticable here.

Second is "The Edge of Tomorrow" by Zesar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in a future where the communists have taken away and stripped humans of pretty much all their rights. Children are manufactured in a facility run by humanoid robots. A man and woman try to have a baby the natural way, which is now outlawed. They try to steal a drug that will cease them from being sterilized so they can have a kid, but the robots there simply activate a device implanted in their head that kills them instantly. Years later all humans revolt against the robot government until all of humanity is wiped out.

Third is "Uncle Wiggly's Magic Box" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a kid's book author nicknamed Uncle Wiggly who passes away. At his funeral he comes out of his coffin awake. While he has died, he refuses to be dead and through will alone keeps himself alive. Since he's really dead however he starts to decompose, and is eventually required to spend all his time in bed, dictating his book to his assistant.

Fourth is "Whitechapel" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). In a town where a jack the ripper style killer is running amok, a man is hired by a woman to find her sister. The man investigates a local doctor, thinking he's a lead, and finds the sister, dead. When he goes to tell this to the woman who hired him however, the dead sister suddenly turns up alive again. Our protagonist eventually finds out that the doctor is bringing dead people back to life, but is forced to kill them since the experiment isn't perfected yet. Our protagonist is killed by the doctor, and brought back to life, hoping for him to be the first successful experiment.

Fifth is "The Castle, the Dungeon and All by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features some knights and magicians battling each other in the woods. One ends up being victorious and continues on, finding a modern looking building. An odd ending, but some extremely good art by Alcazar, channeling Luis Garcia's style here.

Creepy 68

This issue is a Christmas themed issue of Creepy, featuring a cover of an evil Santa with various body parts around the fire place. Another rather horrific back cover by Sanjulian, featuring a man with a nail through his neck. Some very good stories here and some rather dull ones as well.

First is the issue's only non-Christmas themed story, "The Stars My Salvation" by John Severin (art) and Doug Moench (story). As explained in later issues, one of the stories, "Once Upon a Miracle" missed the deadline and got replaced with this story. That story would be reprinted in Creepy 77, the next year's Christmas special. This story takes place in the Civil War where some union soldiers come across a hospital which the leading officer wants to attack. One of his soldiers doesn't want to attack a hospital, so the officer kills him. A similar scenario takes place in space, where an alien hospital ship carrying a device which can heal people heads after a damaged ship, hoping to destroy it. The alien captain attacks the doctor on the ship who doesn't want to attack. In both cases it ends up being an ambush, and the aggressive attackers are totally wiped out. The alien doctor manages to escape and heads down to the Earth where he is going to heal the head officer, but the officer instead kills him, and dies seconds later.

Second is "Christmas Eve Can Kill You" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A number of different stories occuring around christmas time in this one, including a man trying to kill himself being saved by another person and a shootout among crooks and cops.

Third is "Reflections in a Golden Spike" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). An old man who is a retired train engineer befriends a young orphan runaway who passes out near the abandoned train that he lives in. Eventually however a pair of thieves arrive. When the boy kills one of the thieves he is killed, so the engineer kills the other with a golden railroad spike he had given to the boy.

Fourth is "Anti-Christmas", this issue's color story, by Rich Corben (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a young couple where the husband is actually a satanist, and they give birth to the anti-christ. Meanwhile her father, a priest, goes on a rampage, doing all he can to stop the anti-christ, including innocent babies and people. They eventually converge, and the priest kills his own daughter, then is killed by her husband who proclaims that the priest did the work of Satan a lot better than he could.

Fifth is "A Gentle Takeover" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where Christmas is outlawed. An older man, Oliver Cubbins, who looks like Santa Claus organizes a peaceful march of believers in Christmas.

Sixth is "Christmas Visit" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). An old diner owner, Archie, has a rather bad attitude about christmas. He is visited by a mysterious stranger who arrives at his diner right around closing time. While walking around talking to the stranger, who tries to get him to get a better attitude about Christmas, the man causes various miracles to happen, like curing a crippled boy and talking a suicidal man from not killing himself. While the stranger is able to convince Archie that Christmas is good after all. Unfortunately for him, the stranger is murdered by muggers minutes later.

Last is "The Christmas Gnome of Timothy Brayle!" by Leopold Sanchez (art, his Creepy debut) and Budd Lewis (story). The poorest story in this issue, it is about a man who dislikes his wife who encountersa gnome that gives him the christmas present of his wife's now dead remains.

Eerie 55

After a Hunter cover by Ken Kelly, two stories featuring Schreck start off the issue, "Worms in the Mind" and "No Flies on Schreck!" each by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story). Bright Eyes, the asian woman introduced in the previous story helps turn Schreck back to normal by using a vaccine to cure his moontaint. They are attacked by the 'werewolves' and are on the run. They encounter Paula and Lee again, who is revealed to be Bright Eye's husband. In the second story, Schreck is seperated by Bright Eyes and meets another woman who is still normal. They go back and find that Bright Eyes has suffered from the moon taint. They are able to heal her, but just as she is about to come see them Lee shoots her from afar. Bright Eyes is buried and the story ends. Although things were left somewhat open, with Schreck alive and the 'werewolves' running amock, this would be it for the series.

Part four of the "Hunter" series is next, with art by Paul Neary and story by Budd Lewis (replacing Rich Margopoulos). Hunter comes across the town of Pharmark Phal, where demons have killed and raped many after finding that Hunter had been there. At the request of a dying friend Hunter fights the demons and saves his daughter.

The color feature for this issue is another preview of The Spirit, entitled "Bucket of Blood" by Will Eisner (story & art). Rich Corben provides the coloring.

The issue wraps up with part two in the Dr. Archaeus series, "The Quest of the Golden Dove". Art is by Isidro Mones and story is by Gerry Boudreau. Sanford warns the remaining jurors of Archaeus and one of them heads to Egypt to search for a golden dove statue. Along the way his girlfriend and a guide are killed by Archaeus. He eventually finds the golden dove, but it is actually a fake, a bomb planted by Archaeus that goes off, killing him.

Eerie 54

Another fairly good issue of Eerie, from 1954. The cover by Sanjulian features the Werewolf being turned into a bat, something which never happens in this issue. Thats twice in the last three issues that the Eerie cover has lied to us.

First up is "Stranger in a Village of the Insane!" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story), part 6 in the series "The Mummy Walks". The mummy, traveling on a train, is knocked off after a fight with a man aboard. He arrives in a village in Massachusetts filled with lunatics. In the middle of the town he comes across a large building where a demon lives, which he fights and defeats. The whole place comes crashing down, killing everyone but him. Unfortunately this would be the last segment of the Mummy for a while, and Jaime Brocal departed from Warren for good after this story.

Next is "To Cure This Curse!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Steve Skeates (story), part 6 in the series "Curse of the Werewolf". Al Milgrom, writer of the series, has departed, and Skeates takes over, quickly turning it into a series related to his Mummy series. Arthur Lemming visits a group of witches who offer to pass on his werewolf curse to a corpse. But instead they transfer is entire consciousness to a mummy! With the full moon arriving, he goes on a rampage, now as both a werewolf and a mummy, and kills all of them, after hearing of an amulet that can restore him to his real body.

The third part of the series "Hunter" follows, with art by Paul Neary and story by Rich Margopoulos. Hunter comes across a village of people being attacked by demons. At first he is quite arrogant, demanding food, and is nearly lynched by them. When the demons arrive he fights them, including a duel on winged creatures. One of the men manages to gun down all the demons, but unfortunately ends up killing his daughter along with them.

"The Christmas Spirit" is this issue's color feature, the first ever color story in Eerie. It is a preview of 'The Spirit', which joined the Warren line around this time. It is by of course the great Will Eisner. It features a boy who receives a Christmas gift from Santa Claus, the ability to celebrate Christmas.

"Bright Eyes" is next, part 2 in the series "Schreck". The art is by Vicente Alcazar and the story is by Doug Moench. Where we last left off, Schreck had found both his wife Paula and best friend Lee had turned monsters. The story has Schreck on the run from them and other white eyed 'werewolves' (who are more like zombies). He escapes, and encounters more of them, but is saved by mysterious benefactors. He awakens in an institution where he has been given an apparatus for his chopped off right hand, and meets them, led by an asian woman named Bright Eyes. However Schreck's own eyes have turned white, turning him into a monster, which is where the story ends.

Last is "The Evil That Men Do", the first part of a new series entitled Dr. Archaeus. The art is by Isidro Mones and the story is by Gerry Boudreau. Archaeus is a killer sentenced to death by hanging who somehow survives it. He plots revenge on the jury that condemned him and kills the first, the foreman of the jury, by tying him up in a bush and letting him be accidently shot by hunting friends when fake birds are put around him. The police arrive, led by Miles Sanford and start investigating.

Eerie 53

A very good all series issue of Eerie. The cover features the Mummy, by Sanjulian. The frontis for this issue is a two page feature, "Wart Monster of Tennessee" by Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler (art) and Doug Moench (story).

Up first is this issue's segment of The Mummy Walks, "Enter Mr. Hyde" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Jerome Curry, in the body of the mummy continues to pursue the woman who holds the amulet that can return him to his human form. During this story he encounters Mr. Hyde, a beast like man who has transformed from a normal human. The mummy defeats him and continues on his way.

Next is "To Save a Witch's Soul", part of the Curse of the Werewolf series, with art by Martin Salvador (art) and Al Milgrom (story). With his memories restored, Arthur Lemming realizes that he was at fault for his wife going astray and decides to save her from being burned at the stake. Although he's initially locked up, he breaks out and rescues her from execution, and the executioner, the supernatural expert from 2 segments earlier. He brings her to the woods, only to turn into the werewolf once more and kill her! This, Milgrom's last contribution to the series would have been a good ending, but alas the series would continue in a new direction for a while after this.

The second part of "Hunter" is third, by Paul Neary (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story tells the origin of Hunter. In the year 2001 (ha! years back for us now, but over 25 years in the future at the time this issue was published) nuclear war resulted in mutating much of humanity into demons. One such demon, General Ophal raped a human woman, producing the offspring Demien, aka our hero Hunter. After her death from Pox he joins a group of human soldiers and is trained on fighting demons.

A new series starts up next, Schreck. The first segment is titled "First Night of Terror!" by Vicente Alcazar & Neal Adams (art) and Doug Moench (story). Schreck is influenced heavily on the Omega Man (recently redone as I Am Legend). In the future, nuclear testing by the Chinese on the moon has caused a chain reaction that causes most humans on Earth to become white-eyes zombies. This story surrounds the title character, Derek Schreck, who flashes back to how everything came to be while fighting off the zombies. By the end of the story his wife Paula has cut off his hand with a cleaver and become a zombie along with his friend Lee. A pretty good start, although this was the only story in the series that Adams contributed to.

Last is "Spawn of the Dead Thing". This story carries the series title "Fathom Haunt" although this ends up being a stand alone story. A rather surreal and incomprehensible story about the title character, who fights the 'Dread Thing' and its Spawn. Terrific art by Sutton in one of his last Eerie appearances.

Creepy 66

This issue features a cover by Ken Kelly, featuring a axeman chopping at a man's decapitated head. Berni Wrightson handles the frontis, which features Uncle Creepy.

Up first is "Desecration" by Jose Ortiz (art, his first job for Creepy) and Doug Moench (story). A man goes to a pyramid in Egypt and finds out about how it belonged to a pharoah who dismissed the gods. A god actually came down and cursed him forever, locking him in the pyramid. The man heads inside the pyramid and finds the god, which is actually an alien, which brings him to his planet as punishment.

Next is "Portrait of Death" with art by Vicente Alcazar and story by Budd Lewis. An artist digs up a corpse to use in a painting and is blackmailed by a fellow grave digger, whom he kills and also uses in his painting. The painting comes to life however, and kills him, bringing him into the painting as well. Terrific art by Alcazar here.

Third is "Solitude!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A group of outlaws takes over a desolate town in the desert. When they decide to stay though, it is revealed that the townfolk are actually werewolves, and they kill the outlaws.

Next is "Pinball Wizard!" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A rare non-color story by Corben for this era of Warren. Mobsters pressure the owner of a candy store to put in a pinball machine and when he refuses kills him. A boy who befriended the old man summons a demon who kills the mobster, and brings him to hell where he acts as the ball for a pinball game.

"Relatively Axe-Cidental" is fifth, with art by Adolfo Abellan and story by Greg Potter. An executioner sets up his brother in law, who knows his true identity, by accusing him of being a sorceror. Only the same thing ends up happening to him when his angry wife accuses him of the same. Her brother's decapitated corpse ends up being the executioner.

The issue wraps up with "Nightmare!, featuring art by Isidro Mones and story by Mones & Gerry Boudreau. The story features a man having a recurring dream about encountering bizarre looking cloaked monsters. At the end of the story when life goes just like the dream, the man ends up going crazy.

Creepy 64

For my first issue, I'm going to cover one of my favorite issues, Creepy #64.

This issue came at what was probably the peak of Warren's operations in the 1970's, the summer of 1974. The cover, by Vaughn Bode and Larry Todd featured a rotting man in what appears to be an astronaut's suit. The cover was the basis for the stories contained in the issue, the first of many themed issues for Warren. This issue's also notable for being Archie Goodwin's final issue as editor in his Warren career. This was Goodwin's third stint at Warren as editor, which lasted only for 4 issues of Creepy and 2 issues of Vampirella before he left due to not getting along with Bill Dubay. While he would write some additional stories for Warren later in the 70's and 80's, this was it for him at Warren in terms of being editor.




The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is the sole story in the issue to not feature the rotting man on the cover. Originally, all seven stories in the issue were to feature the rotting man, but the story "Avenger" was unable to be finished in time, which resulted in this story being run in its place. Oddly enough, rather than print "Avenger" in the next issue, Warren waited 8 years to publish it, in Eerie #128 in 1982. "Forgotten Flesh" 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.

"Mates" by Esteban Maroto (art), Bill Dubay (color) and Doug Moench (story) is next. The story features an astronaut who heads to a planet that has been rumored to be a sex paradise. When he gets there he fights off countless rotting hulks and finally encounters a city full of beautiful women. After a night full of sex his entire body proceeds to rot away, making him just like one of the creatures he had encountered along the way. A good story with typical great art by Maroto. The story reminds me of the Wally Wood story "Rescued" from Weird Fantasy #6.

Next up is "High Time" by Paul Neary (art) and Steve Skeates (story), about a pilot who's plane is destroyed during battle, leaving him stranded in a radioactive wasteland. As he lies dying, he suddenly finds himself in a paradise like landscape, where he encounters a beautiful woman. The vision soon fades and he meets his demise. While Neary's art is great, this story just did not make much sense to me at all.

Fourth is "Only Losers Win" by Howard Chaykin (art), in his first Warren story, and Rich Margopoulos (story). In the future, Earth is extremely overpopulated, but a race filled with numerous death traps held once a year allows the winner to spend a year in the only sanctuary left on Earth. A man takes a drug that increases his metabolism a hundred fold and wins the race, only to find that the increase in metabolism also severly increased the aging process. An okay story with fine art by Chaykin that fits the story perfectly.

"One Autumn at Arkham" is the next story, and is both drawn and written by Tom Sutton. This would be Tom Sutton's final story for Warren. It features a researcher who learns of a 'power suit' which gives a man immortality. He digs up one of the suit's inventor's, who was buried alive with it, only to find that he's still alive! Having been been buried alive for 20 years however, the man's body has been almost entirely eaten by worms, leaving him a rotting mess. Great story and art by Sutton, its a shame that this was it for him at Warren.

Sixth is "To Sleepy Hollow... Returned" by Larry Summers (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). A photographer comes to the small town where the story of the headless horseman originated. There he starts dating a waitress and is confronted by her bitter former boyrfriend/boss. Riding home one night from a costume part, he encounters the headless horseman himself, who kills him with a flaming pumpkin, burning his face away in the process. A pretty good story and very good art job from Summers, who unfortunately wasn't around at Warren as long as he should have been.


Wrapping up the issue is another colored story, "An Angel Shy of Hell", by Richard Corben (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). It starts Hard John Apple, a bounty hunter hired by "Protstns' in the far future, who goes about the state of Kansas, killing as many 'Catlicks' as he can, including an injured helicopter pilot with a burned face (see image). A terrific story, although probably somewhat offensive with the parodies of various relgious groups. Stenstrum would eventually write three more stories starring Hard John Apple in Eerie in 1977.


Overall, a terrific issue, one of Creepy's bests. Outside of the rather confusing "High Time" no bad stories, and the art is terrific across the board. Unfortunately this would be Creepy's only issue with two color stories.