Creepy 120

This issue features a rare Jeff Jones cover, originally done back in 1975. Rudy Nebres contributes a one page Uncle Creepy intro.

First story is "Deathwatch" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). An old woman keeps alive by refusing Death each time the Grim Reaper comes for her. She befriends a sick young boy in the hospital and finds that he's soon going to die. To save the boy's life, she finally offers herself to the Reaper in order to take the boy's place. A terrific story to start the issue, the best stuff here.

Next is "Hell house" by Jesus Blasco (art, miscredited to Jaime Brocal) and Jim Stenstrum (story, credited to Alabaster Redzone). This story features a hippie and three beautiful women with him who sneak into a seemingly deserted house which is actually occupied by a small impish monster that rapes and kills them all.

Third is "Black Rainbow" by Rueben Yandoc (art, his Warren debut) and Budd Lewis (story). Men in a submarine find a mechanical device deep below the ocean. Soon after finding it a black ring surrounds the Earth and starts blasting the surface with fire, killing all of humanity. The last survivors, who escaped by being out in space think that an alien race planted the device to destroy humanity once they became too advanced.

Fourth is "One Mind, Closed for Alterations!" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The mafia is suspicious of a senator running for president, so they plot to manipulate a mentally unstable man to get him to kill them through subliminal messages. It works and the senator is killed, and the assassin is killed immediately afterwards, making it looks like he was on his own. The mob boss soon is manipulated in the same way to kill himself however by the man who created the subliminal messages. This man then kills himself over fear that it could happen to him as well.

Fifth is "A Taste for Heroes" by Carmine Infantino & Pablo Marcos (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is about a kayak race on a river rumored to be where Ulysses blinded a cyclops. Along the river are numerous traps that kill all of the kayakers except one, who believes that the cyclops is still out there.

"Winterbeast" by Val Mayerik (art) and Budd Lewis (story) is next. This story is told from the perspective of a wolf being chased by french hunters. While the wolf is shot by them a giant indian woman appears and saves him, freezing the men.

Last is "Black Snow" by Herb Arnold (art, his Creepy debut) and Jeff Rovin (story). This story surrounds an author working on a book who sees black snow falling from the sky. Thinking its the apocalypse, he goes out to see if a lady friend is okay but finds her dead. With her dog he wanders around looking to see if anyone else is around.

Overall a so-so issue. No real terrible stories, but aside from the first one, nothing that great either. The art is for the most part quite good here though.

Creepy 110

After a cover by Patrick Woodroffe, a closeup of a monster's face, we have "Snapper" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bill Kelly (story), about a group of plunderers who come across a giant turle that they destroy, only for its mate to survive and attack.

"Sunset Farms" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story) features a mobster and a well appreciated underling being sent to what is essentially a futuristic prison where everyone is heavily drugged. The mobster eventually finds a way for him and his underling to escape.

"Take Your Child, Please!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Cary Bates (story) is next. The story features an orphan boy with an onion like head who is very violent with his foster family. Eventually he ends up trashing their house and even killing them. At the end his real parents, with similar features to him, start looking for him.

"The Demon Hater" follows, by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), which features a man who finds a demon's corpse. Other demons try to take it from him. With the help of a woman whom he has an important connection with, he's able to defeat them.

A very good story, "Horror is a Highrise" is next, by Leo Duranona (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a haunted skyscraper where lots of ghosts and horrific events occur. Eventually it is revealed that it was a warning for everyone to get out, as the skyscraper, built with crappy material, collapses and falls down.

"A Knightmare to Remember" by Buz Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story) features a monster fighting a princess, who turns into a knight. It ends up being a dream, but a knight lurks around the corner... Not too good a story.

Last is "The Clockmaker" by Jesus Blasco (art, miscredit to Joaquin Blazquez) and Bob Toomey (credited to Gary Null). This is essentially Poe's the Telltale Heart, rewritten to talk about the old man having clock body parts, which are never seen. Not that good a rewrite, it would be best just to keep the original story here.

Creepy 123

This issue of Creepy came during Bill Dubay's second period of editorship, while he was under the alias "Will Richardson". During this time period the quality of Warren's magazines were steadily going down, although overall this is a fairly good issue. The sexy cover is by Ken Kelly, one of his better ones.

First story is "Kiss of the Plague!" by Leo Summers & Alex Toth (art) and Doug Moench (story). Given that Summers stopped working for Warren around 1975, and Moench likewise vanished from the pages of Warren around that period (outside of the 3 part series 'Blood on Black Satin' published in Eerie towards the end of Louise Jones's time as editor) one wonders if this story wasn't prepared years before and just sat around for a few years. Anyway, any story with Alex Toth art is something easy to enjoy and this story is no exception. The Summers/Toth combo provides an interesting art style, although this would be their only work together at Warren. The story surrounds a woman who dies of the plague. Her family and husband's family slowly start being murdered. Suspecting it was the husband, the last 2 remaining relatives kill him, only to find out that it was her all along, and that she was never actually dead, just horrifically disfigured from the plague. Very good story here.

Up next is "Hands of Fate" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). Wessler is another writer who was prominent at Warren in the mid 1970's, but by this point had left the company, making me wonder if this is another story that was held in reserves for a while. The story is about a murderer held in an institution who killed three different people with his hands. One night he finds his cell door unlocked and he takes the opportunity to escape. He hitchhikes and ends up getting picked up by the ghost of one of his victims. The other two victims soon arrive and chop off his hands. Although the whole experience ended up being a dream, it frightens him so much that he loses the use of his hands permanently.

Third is "They Don't Make Movies" by Carmine Infantiono & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Except for a single story in Creepy #83, Infantino never inked his own artwork at Warren and was often paired with one of many different inkers including Alex Nino, Walt Simonson, Dick Giordano and Alacala. The result was a somewhat unique style of art each time. Although admittingly here Alcala's inks are so strong that the Infantino influence is hard to notice. The story is about a newspaper reporter investigating the death of a prostitute who was killed in a porn movie. Not a bad story, although there's no horror element whatsoever to it.

The cover story, "The Slave" is fourth, with art by Jesus Blasco (miscredited to Jaime Brocal) and story by Jim Stenstrum (credited to his pseudonym, Alabaster Redzone). Blasco, a well known spanish artist, did three stories for Creepy around this period but all were miscredited to Jaime Brocal or Joaquin Blazquez, artists whose style looked nothing like his. In medieval England a War Lord's slave/lover convinces him to refrain from imposing taxes for a full year if she can ride through town on a horse with no one looking at her. One man tries to look but ends up being struck by lightning, horrifically scarring his face. The slave befriends the man, admitting to him that she used her magic to strike him with lightning so the town wouldn't be punished for his deed. She then transforms his deformity to the War Lord. Short, but good story, the best one in the issue.

"Harriman's Monsters!" is next, with art by Dan Adkins and story by Greg Potter. Potter was another writer who left Warren years ago. It's been said that in the last few years of Warren's existence, they used up a lot of inventory & rejected stories as well as reprints of stories done in other countries (like the prior story, The Slave), and this issue is ample proof of that with so many stories by writers that were long gone from Warren at this point. A special effects expert is jealous of another special effects guy who does even better than he by making his models look extremely realistic when moving. He confronts the man only to find out that the models look so realistic because his adversery can use telekinesis, which he uses to kill him.

The issue's worst story is "Always Leave Them Laughing" by Rudy Nebres & Val Mayerik (art) and Michael Fleischer (story). This story surrounds a depressed old clown whose about to die. Yawn. Did not like this one at all.

Last up is "Jelly" by Herb Arnold (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Arnold's art looks kind of like Richard Corben's, but his skill isn't anywhere as good as Corben's is. The story is about blob-like creatures called jelly which are accidently mixed with the food of that name. A very short story at only 4 pages, but it is at least somewhat better than the previous one.

Overall, a fairly good issue considering when it came out. Although that likely has to do with having multiple stories that were probably drawn 3-4 years earlier.