Vampirella 1972 Annual

Today I take a look at the 1972 Vampirella Annual. This issue is supposedly rather rare, but I was lucky enough to get a copy for not that much money a while back. The cover is by Aslan in his only Warren appearance. This cover was originally intended for Vampirella 1, but was instead passed over for the famous cover made by Frank Frazetta for that issue. The inside front cover features "Vampi's Feary Tales: The Bride of Frankenstein" by Tom Sutton.

First is "The Origin of Vampirella" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and J.R. Cochran (story). This story features Vampirella on Drakulon with her lover Tristan. The planet is dying and while Vampirella seeks to kill animals for their blood, Tristan doesn't want to do so, nor does anyone else, resulting in the people all dying off. Eventually people from Earth arrive on Drakulon as well and end up killing Tristan, He rises up again however and confronts Vampirella one last time before she heads to Earth.

Next is "The Curse of Circe" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Gardner Fox (story), from Vampirella 6. A man is lost at sea and ends up landing on an island, populated by beautiful women, the most beautiful of which is named Circe. After a night of passion, he wakes up, to find that he's been turned into a pig! With the help of another woman he is able to return to his human form and the two escape, only to end up dying while at sea.

Third is "Goddess From the Sea" by Neal Adams (art) and Don Glut (story), from Vampirella 1. Adams' art is pencils only. A woman, Lanora, appears outs of the sea and tells a man who lives nearby that she's from Atlantis and is fleeing from those of her kind. Her fellow sea dwellers soon come out after her and grab ahold of her. He heads into the sea after her and ends up drowning.

Fourth is "The Curse" by Wally Wood (story & art), from Vampirella 9. A man has no memory of his past and finds himself in a bizarre reptilian man like form. A beautiful woman, Zara, tells him that he's been transformed into this state by a sorceress that they need to kill using an enchanted sword. Our hero fights off many beasts and eventually the sorceress herself. It ends up however that Zara was the one who transformed him, as she was given eternal life and wanted to die, which could only be done by killing the sorceress. After her death our hero turns back into his true form, a lowly lizard.

Fifth is "Snake Eyes" by Jack Sparling (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from Vampirella 8. It's about a girl who has very snake like features, and she looks more and more like one as she gets older. She gets angry with her boyfriend and kills him when he sells a pendant of hers. It ends up that she is the decendent of royalty. She gets it back and uses it to get to a secret chamber, where she is confronted by a Mongoose man who was responsible for wiping her family out.

Sixth is "Vampi's Feary Tales: Love!", a one page feature from Tom Sutton.

Seventh is "Forgotten Kingdom" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). A woman finds an astronaut from a spaceship that lands on her planet. She brings him to their leader, who tells him that all men on their planet have died and that they need him to help restore their civilization. He refuses, and with the help of the woman that found him they escape. He brings her to his spaceship and they leave the planet. He soon reveals however that it is the exact opposite on his world, that there are no women, and he has similar plans for her as they had for him.

Last is another one pager, "Vampi's Feary Tales: Lilith" by Jeff Jones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from Vampirella 9.

Eerie 44

This issue of Eerie is from the beginning of Bill Dubay's first run at editor of the Warren line. The cover is by Luis Dominguez, featuring various monsters watching a ship from the cliffs above. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Werewolf - Fact or Fantasy?" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Fred Ott (story).

First story is "Crazy Mazie" by Tom Sutton (art) and J.R. Cochran (story, his last for Warren) featuring an aged western movie star whose gone a little crazy in his old age. By the end of the story he's killed his wife, a fan, and even himself.

Next is "Everlasting Mortality" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Doug Moench (story). A man seeks to live forever, so he willingly lets a vampire drink his blood. After beign buried, he rises from his grave, only to die because his gravestone creates the shadow of a cross.

Third is "The Thrill of the Hunt" by Martin Salvador (art) and Doug Moench (story). The story is about a man being hunted through the woods after killing an agent from the electric company who wanted the trees trimmed near the electric lines. Although he kills many of his pursuers, the wilderness eventually wears on him and he ends up getting electrocuted when he jumps into an electric line from out of a tree.

"Hand of the Discarnate" is next, from Bill Dubay (art) and Doug Moench (story), about two brothers who go to see a medium who ends up summoning their father's spirit, who gets them to fight and kill each other.

Fifth is "Mervin's Dead Ringer!" a short story by Luis Dominguez (art) and Greg Potter (story) about a man who thinks his alarm clock, Alan, is alive, and goes crazy when he accidently breaks it.

Next is "Tiller of the Soul" with art by Rubio and story by Greg Potter. An old farmer who is a loner comes across a dead man buried in his farm that talks to him. The dead man befriends him, but when he digs him up, he discovers that the dead man is himself!

Last is this issue's entry for Dax the Warrior, "The Lake of Gold" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). A group of slave traders come across an island occupied by Dax and a number of beautiful women. Dax tells the slave traders of riches in the nearby lake. They head there, where Dax destroys the bottom of their ship and the women all turn into fish like demons that kill all the slave traders.

A so-so issue, with nothing particularly great, but most of the stories are okay ones.

Eerie 39

Here's issue 39 of Eerie, from April 1972. The cover is by Ken Kelly. featuring the interior tale, 'The Disenfranchised'. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Mysterious Men in Black!" by Richard Brassford (art) and Doug Moench (story).

Up first is a terrific story, "Head Shop" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story). A man passing a hat shop one day finds a head dummy that looks almost real. The man becomes obsessed with the head and passes it each day as it goes to work. After a while passes though he notices the head decomposing. The man tries to get himself to stop looking, but he can't control himself and the head gets worse and worse looking. Eventually he confronts the owner of the shop, who hadn't realized that the head was rotting and replaces it by chopping off our protagonist's head.

Up next is "Just Passing Through" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features a gigantic man whose discovered in the hills one day. The giant slowly shrinks until he becomes the size of a normal person and joins society. While there he meets a woman and after having sex he leaves, telling her their child will leave her someday. The man dissappears into the mountains, still shrinking. Years later the son finds himself shrinking too.

Third is "The Disenfranchised" by Tom Sutton (art) and J.R. Cochran (story), who was Associate Editor at the time. The story features a boy whose permanently scarred after his father's butcher shop is closed down, his father dies, and he is evicted from his home. The boy wanders the streets with a huge grin on his face, carrying a cleaver with him that has replaced one of his hands.

The first of a 12 part series "Dax the Warrior" is fourth, a series I already talked about briefly with Eerie #46. This story features Dax meeting a woman, Freya, who is captured by a winged demon. Dax fights the demon and is able to rescue her, but her body becomes ravaged with leprosy. As usual for this series, a lot of terrific, exotic art here.

This issue's weakest effort is "Yesterday is the Day Before Tomorrow" by Dave Cockrum (art) and Doug Moench (story). A thief living in an advanced society steals a time machine and goes 30 years in the future so he can steal invention blueprints and pattent them in his own time. The only problem is the blueprints he steals end up being from his future self, whom he murders, not knowing the truth until he returns to his own time.

Last is "Ortaa!" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). An archaeologist studying the origin of the Aztecs keeps having horrific dreams about a sacrifical ritual and keeps talking about a being called 'Ortaa'. Heading into some ruins, he encounters Ortaa, a giant tentacled heart which he is able to kill. 'Ortaa' representing his own heart however, he passes away after defeating it.

Overall a very good issue, with "Head Shop" and "The Disenfranchised" being the best.