Vampirella 48

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, dated January 1976.

First is Vampirella in "The Wonder World of Ambegris, Kato and Tonto Too!" by Zesar (art) and Bill Dubay (story). When Vampi sees a pair of dwarves leading a doctor underground, she follows them and finds a nineteenth century style underground city. The father of the dwarves and other odd people is Ambegris, who is about to die of old age. By giving him some of her blood, Vampi enables him to live a little longer, although he gets too excited and ends up suffering a heart attack, passing away. Some nice art by Zesar here, a bit different than the usual fare.

Second is "The Satan Complex" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A businessman obsessed with being able to fly goes to a company run by Satan. While waiting in the lobby he has a dream about meeting Satan himself, who turns him into a bat. He makes sure that when he signs the contract with Satan that he remains human. But Satan still finds a way out of the contract by taking away his flying ability after a mere minute because the contract didn't specify how long he'd have the ability to fly. As a result, he falls to his death.

Third is "Of Death and Distinction" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). An unemployed man who lives with his girlfriend becomes obsessed with the fact that he's a nobody. Meanwhile a slasher killer plagues the streets, killing many. Thinking that by taking credit for the deaths will make him famous, the man kills his girlfriend and admits to being the slasher. Only the real slasher had already been caught, meaning he killed her for nothing.

Fourth is "The Miracle Hands of Simon Silverstone" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Yet another terrific art performance here by Bermejo. Silvershoe is a man with the ability to heal people and change the faces of people, merely with his hands. He meets a woman who tells hiim that he is actually an alien savior, and that he needs to find a silver shoe to fulfill his destiny. They are caught by disbelievers however, and despite him changing his face to hide himself, he is killed nonetheless.

Last is "Star-Bright Lantern 909" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The lantern of the title is a space lighthouse run by an old man whose been alone for many years. Rebels are seeking an attack on the government, but know that in order to succeed the lighthouse can't identify them. As a result, they send a young woman to the lighthouse to seduce the old man so they can get by without being noticed. Only being alone causes the old man to snap, and he kills her instead. When another rebel goes there and finds what happened, he kills the old man, then tears the mechanics of the place part. Only instead of turning out the light, that causes the whole place to blow up, and the explosion is so big that it lights up the rebel crafts and they are all destroyed by the government.

Creepy 79

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

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

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

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

Fourth is "The Shadow of the Axe!" by Russ Heath (art) and Dave Sim (story). This story was Sim's sole Warren appearance. It features a boy living in a small town who suspects his father is an axe murderer. To stop him, he turns on his father and kills him with an axe. The next day, his mother winks at him, making one wonder if she was responsible for it all.

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

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

Vampirella 49

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated March 1976. While the cover states that six Christmas chillers are included inside, there's actually only one Christmas story within. A one page color intro of Vampi is drawn by both Jose Gonzalez and Ramon Torrents, appearing as if Torrents did the vast majority of work.

First is "The Blood Red Queen of Hearts" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Probably my favorite single Vampirella story in this magazine's history, although the Blood Red Queen would make many return appearances down the in later issues, each declining in quality. This story introduces the queen, who has slain six people, taking their hearts. With the acquisition of a seventh she believes she'll become the queen of Chaos. She summons a demon which she sends to take the final heart, from Vampirella. Vampi meanwhile returns to the hospital where Pendragon is kept and saves him by giving him a blood transfusion. The demon has hidden himself within Pendragon's body however, and attacks Vampi when the transfusion takes place. Adam meanwhile returns to the hospital, having been cleared due to Sara confessing to the attempted murder. Adam saves Vampirella and shoots out the demon's eyes, forcing it away. Vampirella is cleared of all charges, and Conrad is revealed to be alive, having been in hiding. Alas, the Queen does not have such a happy ending, with the demon tearing her eyes out to replace his. Some extremely good art by Maroto here in his first story featuring Vampirella herself (he'd do his second and last Vampi story in the next issue). The final page, showing the Queen's fate is particularly good.

Second is "The Thing in Jane's Closet" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A young woman, Jane, is deathly afraid of what is in her closet. Her mother doesn't see anything there, and sends her to a psychologist, then a sanitarium. She comes home, only to once again be horrified by whats in her closet. The psychologist thinks another personality of hers is whats responsible, but when her mother goes into the closet, whatever is in there kills her. The psychologist also ends up a victim to whatever's in the closet. Jane meanwhile leaves, and is has a normal life afterwards. Thankfully whatever is in the closet is never actually shown, keeping the story a scary one.

Third is "Then One Foggy Christmas Eve" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man buys his kid a mysterious looking doll for Christmas that looks like a bizarre creature. Soon murders start occuring, and the man is attacked by the doll. It ends up that the doll is just one of many, all of whom are alive and plan to take over the Earth (referencing Nymatoids, from a similarly themed story, 'A Touch of Terror' from Creepy 63). They get our protagonist to pack them up and send them to New York, where they can claim more victims.

Fourth is "Jewel in the Mouth of a Snake" by Jose Bea (story & art). The issue's weakest story, it features a man who seeks a large jewel being carried around in the mouth of a giant snake. The man gets lucky when the snake goes into a lake, and he steals the jewel. The jewel has strange effects on him however, and soon he finds himself trapped within the jewel, for good. A rare, late appearance for Bea, who by this point had pretty much stopped working for Warren.

Fifth is the color story "The Succubus Stone" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Steve Clement (story). This issue was originally advertised to appear in issue 44 but ended up getting held back until this issue. It features a number of young men that suddenly turn old and die after going to a whore house. A detective studying the case eventually tracks down the whore house, finding it occupied by succubuses possessing a mysterious stone. When he shoots the stone, destroying it, they all age and die.

Last is "The Oblong Box" by Isidro Mones (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story appears to have originally be intended for one of the Edgar Allen Poe specials (Creepy 69 & 70). This story features a man on a ship who finds his friend, an artist also boarding, with his wife, two sisters and a large oblong box. Our protagonist appears quite puzzled, as his friend is very quiet and withdrawn, and his friend's wife is ugly and a slob, quite below him. Eventually the ship crashes and sinks, and the artist friend flees away from the escape ship and jumps onto the sinking ship to be with the box, which sinks. The Captain tells our protagonist the truth, that his real wife was within the oblong box, her coffin, which the ship was transporting.

Eerie 63

Another terrific issue of Eerie from the peak period of that magazine. The cover, featuring 'Night of the Jackass' is by Sanjulian. The back cover of this issue, which would later be used for Creepy 104, is by Ken Kelly and features Exterminator One. Berni Wrightson provides an intro from Cousin Eerie.

First story is the second part in the 'Night of the Jackass' series, "Storm Before the Calm!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). Garson and Bishop meet up once again at a church that has been taken over by the Jackassers. While no one else wants to go inside and help the victims, Garson and Bishop do so and with the help of people inside are able to defeat all the monsters.

Next is an adaption of Nathanial Hawthorne's "Hollow of the Three Hills!", with art by Esteban Maroto and adaption by Rich Margopoulos. Absolutely amazing artwork from Maroto in this story. A young woman visits a witch, who shows her two depressed looking old people, a crazy man in an institution and a funeral. It ends up that they were all connected to her, the old people were her parents, upset over her leaving them, the crazy guy was her husband, who went crazy after she had an affair, and the funeral was for her child, who died of the pox after she ran off. The trauma from the visions causes the young woman to become comatose.

Third is the latest segment in 'The Spook' series, titled "Stumpful of Granddaddies!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). After the death of a wealthy white woman, Crackermeyer is accused of the murder and brought to trial. The Spook helps him out by bringing back her dead husband, then eventually her to clear him of the crime.

This issue's color story is next, "Exterminator One", the second part in this series. The art is by Paul Neary and story is by Bill Dubay. The Exterminator works on his latest case, where he has to kill two men and get one of the victims blamed for the murder of the other. He is able to do this successfully, but during the assassination another hit man, Slaughter, who was friends with one of the killed men spots the Exterminator, blowing his cover. Slaughter looks exactly like the main character from the story "Love Strip" which was published in Vampirella 44. Although that issue came out after this one, the story was originally published in Europe prior to that date making me wonder if Neary swiped the character from Luis Garcia's artwork on that story.

Fifth is "Insanity", which finally brings The Mummy series to an end. Art is by Joaquin Blazquez and story is by Steve Skeates. Rather than wrap up the story of Jerome Curry, this story jumps ahead almost a century and features a young woman who becomes obsessed with reviving the mummy because she thinks she is the reincarnation of its lover. She murders a woman who holds the amulet that can revive the mummy, then revives it. The mummy doesn't want to be alive however and strangles herself then shoots himself so he can be dead forever. A very dissappointing conclusion to this series as we never really find out what happened to Jerome Curry. The previous story indicated that they were going to conclude the story in some way but this was hardly a worthy conclusion. This was one of Skeates's last stories for Warren, perhaps he just wanted to get it over with in any way possible. At the very least, Blazquez's art is quite good.

We wrap up the issue with "The Plague" part two in the 'Apocalypse' series. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. This story features what is probably Ortiz's best artwork with Warren. Three friends in France, Louis, Armand and Gaston head off to war to fight Germany. The war drags on and ends in defeat for France. As they head back during the winter the three friends fall hopelessly behind their comrades and stay behind to stay with Armand, who has broken his leg. Louie and Gaston search for food to no avail. Louie soon realizes that Gaston is sneaking out each night. He initially thinks that he is foolishly searching for food that isn't there each night, but after Armand's death he realizes the truth, that Gaston has found food in a nearby abandoned barn and has hid it from them. Louie responds by killing Gaston and eating him, leaving some parts behind to eat on the long way back to France.

Eerie 62

The Unholy Creation is cover featured for this issue, by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a frontis with Cousin Eerie.

First is the first part of a new series featuring the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, appropriately titled, 'Apocalypse'. The first part is titled "The War". Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. The weakest of the four stories in this series, this tale chronicles battles from the beginning of man while two chess players compare war to a game. While this is a weak first segment, overall this may be Eerie's greatest series ever, which would continue in the next three issues.

Second is "Cool Air" by Berni Wrightson, adapted from the HP Lovecraft story. This classic tale tells of a man who moves into a new boarding house where he befriends his neighbor who lives upstairs, Dr. Munoz. Munoz suffers from a disease which forces him to keep his apartment at a very cold temperature continuously. One day his machine that keeps the temperature cold breaks, and while the main character brings as much ice as he can Munoz rots away as it ends up he was dead the entire time and looked like a normal person because of the cold.

Third is "Crackermeyer's Churchyard", tha latest segment in 'The Spook' series. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis, who takes over the series from this point forward. The story introduces a new character, Crackermeyer, who takes center stage for this story over the Spook. The story surrounds an evil white man who tries to take away some land that was given to some black people. Crackermeyer and the Spook step in to ensure they get to keep the land.

Fourth is the first part of a new two part series, titled 'The Butcher'. This story's called "Forgive Us Our Tresspasses", with art by Richard Corben and story by Bill Dubay. This gangland melodrama features a crime lord who is killed on his deathbed by assassins hired by one of his sons, hoping to frame a rival crime family. During the murder the priest who was tending the crime lord is mutilated and apparantely killed. After hiding out the assassins are all killed... by the priest, who survived the attack and now swears revenge as 'The Butcher'. A very entertaining, but very short new series.

Fifth is the second and final part of 'The Unholy Creation' serial, "Circus of Pain" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story focuses on Kuzzo, a freak in a circus who is friends with an elephant. The Unholy Creation arrives and does battle with the elephant, killing it. This angers Kuzzo but the two end up becoming frineds. A rather lame ending to a rather lame series.

Last is another segment in 'And the Mummies Walk', "Death be Proud" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Trogmore, in Arthur Lemming's body continues to live the excesses of life, and kills a young boy. Lemming in his Mummy body is finally able to reach him and knock him out, and is able to use a spell to return to his own body. Only mere moments later the father of the killed boy arrives and kills him. A sad end for Arthur Lemming as his part in this series finally comes to an end after 9 segments. Only one more segment in the series remains, to be concluded in the next issue.

Eerie 61

This issue of Eerie kicks off with a cover by Ken Kelly, featuring Coffin, the first of three covers featuring this character. The inside front cover features an intro by Cousin Eerie by Berni Wrightson.

Up first is "Death Wish!" the first part of the series Coffin by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This series had been advertised for quite a long time and was delayed over and over again until it finally premiered here. Coffin is a man whose stage coach in the desert is attacked by Indians, resulting in harm to the many aboard. Coffin heads after the Indian tribe and kills them, but the last three capture him and stake him to the ground, where ants ravage his body. He wakes up much later finding his decayed body and seeks revenge on the Indians, killing two of them. The third tells him they had nothing to do with the attack and curses him to live forever in his mutilated form. Coffin is brought to a hospital and while leaving discovers the true culprits, three white men who posed as Indians. Coffin enacts his revenge on them. A nice start to a really good series, although it'd be a little while before the next segment.

Next is "Killer Hawk" by Wally Wood (art) and Bill Dubay (story). While no official title appears, this is another 'Exterminator' story, this time stand alone in nature. Killer Hawk is a military officer who rises through the ranks and becomes bodyguard for the President of Mars. In actuality, Hawk is an exterminator robot whose mission is to kill the President and take him place. He does exactly that, but is deemed too powerful and is disposed of by his leaders soon afterwards.

Third is "Cotton Boy & Captain Blood" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The Cotton Boy of the title is an old slave who brings back to life Captain Blood, the pirate who originally brought him to America. Using Blood's corpse he enacts revenge on various merchants, including one that has already died by giving him life, resulting in him being trapped in a coffin. Cotton Boy has additional plans, but Captain Blood kills him and heads back into the sea.

Fourth is the return of the Mummy and Werewolf to Eerie, "A Battle of Bandaged Beasts". The two series have been combined into a single one titled "The Mummies Walk". Neither Jaime Brocal nor Martin Salvador are anywhere to be seen, with Joaquin Blazquez now handling the art. The writing continues to be done by Steve Skeates. Arthur Lemming and Jerome Curry in their mummy forms meet and battle it out. Meanwhile the dwarf who stole Lemming's body robs a carriage and takes captive a beautiful woman whom he had met while a dwarf. She incidently has the amulet which is the key to both mummy's regaining their original bodies. She knocks him out however and escapes. Blazquez's art here just doesn't fit that well, particularly his poorly done action scenes and this is a sore dissappointment after Brocal's excellent work a number of issues back.

The issue wraps up with the conclusion of the Dr. Archaeus saga, with three different titles, "Foreplay", "Penetration" and "The Climax". As always art is by Isidro Mones and story is by Gerry Boudreau. Jamaica Jansen puts out a bounty for Archaeus's head. Archaeus, who manages to kill the sixth juror, finds himself on the run and trapped by an expert assassin. Rather than let the assassin win, Archaeus chooses to hang himself, and dies this time for real. So ends a terrific serial.

Creepy 118

A fairly good issue for issue for this era of Warren, where things were quickly collapsing. The cover's a good one by Enrich.

Up first is "Nursery School" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bob Toomey (story, which was a rewrite of Duranona's original story). The story is about a man attached to a bunch of machines that is instructed by his computer 'mother' to fire upon approaching vehicles. Eventually real humans come across him, but he's so far under the machine's control that he fires upon them as well.

Next up is "Epitaph" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Len Wein (story). Blazquez was kind of a poor man's Luis Garcia, with a very detailed art style, although his characters were frequently in odd positions. Still, his art generally was pretty good. This was his first story for Warren in a number of years and he would vanish again for good after this one. The story's about a man who kills his wife due to infidelity. Visiting the graveyard however, she and other corpses come to life and kill him.

Third is "The Curse of the Binder Woods" by Isidro Mones (art) and Mark Laidlaw (story). A man finds that his sister is suddenly pregnant, and a doctor who is actually a monster arrives, saying that a demon baby is gonna be born. In the end however, the baby ends up being born from the man himself. Definately an odd story.

The issue's best story is "Junior Was a Momma's Boy" with art by Carmine Infantino & Jorge Benuy and story by Gerry Boudreau. A young lady, Ida marries a man, Stuart and finds that he's obsessed with his mother, who never speaks. After the mother's death, Ida finds herself rapidly aging, yet oddly enough Stuart likes her even more, and eventually starts calling her mother. She eventually discovers that he's done this to many other women as well using pills discovered by his father. Benuy does a good job inking Infantino's art in his only Warren story, aside from a part of the story that Ida talks about looking old when she looks as young as she did at the start of the story.

Last is "Process of Elimination" by Pablo Marcos & Val Mayerik (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A man finds out that his father is a sorceror and has dissappeared. Eventually his mother vanishes as well. The man is forced to confront Satan himself and pick his transformed parents out of a crowd. He succeeds and leaves hell with his father, leaving his mother behind since she was behind the trouble in the first place.