Scream #9

Time for another issue of Scream! This issue is cover dated September 1974 and has a cover by Salvador Faba.

First is "Down to Hades... To Die!" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Paul Puigagut (art). Our protagonist, Martin, awakes to hear a voice calling to him. The voice tells him to follow and Martin no longer finds himself in New York, but a spooky woods where he is attacked by a werewolf, then a vampire, and then rotting corpses. The corpses lead him to a feast where there are various people including many naked women. He demands to be let go and his mind snaps. The voice then decides to find someone else, calling out to a woman named Brenda. The narrative for this story is a quite confusing. Puigagut, who makes his Skywald debut with this story has some rather inconsistent art, with some panels looking rather shoddy, others having a surrealistic look, kind of like what I've seen in some Esteban Maroto stories and an occasional one, like the final panel, drawn very well with some great detail.

"Down to Hades... To Die!"

Next is "Metzengerstein" an Edgar Allen Poe adaption from Al Hewetson, with art by Luis Collado. The story tells of the conflict between the Berlifitzing and Metzengerstein families. Baron Frederick of the Metzengerstein family burns the stables of the Berlifitzing castle just a few days after coming of age. Frederick sits down to look at a tapestry in his castle and finds the horse within it moving, causing him to flee. In his courtyard, he is told by one of his servants that his enemy Count Berlifitzing died trying to save his horses and they have found a new horse in the area that is rather wild. Frederick starts isolating himself, only spending time with the horse, despite being afraid of its stare. One night Frederick gets up and starts riding on his horse and his entire castle bursts into flame. He then returns, a look of agony on his face as the horse runs into the burning castle. As the story ends we see smoke appear in the shape of a horse over the burning castle and a figure rising from ashes, the corpse of Old Count Berlifitzing. I've never read the original story this is based on, but this was a pretty good one, other than the super elongated and complicated names. Collado's art is fairly decent, with some really nice detailed panels at times.

"Who Killed the Shark?"

Third is the latest in the Nosferatu series, "Who Killed the Shark?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Nosferatu has the man with the shark mask, Senor Ramon Vorse be the next to tell his tale. Vorse was shanghaied and forced to be a crew member on the ship The Ocean Penguin, but is told by the captain of the great riches they will find. Vorse soon falls in love with the beautiful Maria, daughter of the captain. Vorse kisses Maria when they are alone and says after they find the treasure he will be a rich man and they can escape to be married once back on shore. Maria tells Vorse that the captain plans on killing most of the men once they find the treasure so he and other mutiny and kills him, throwing him to the sharks. Maria promptly betrays Vorse, saying he lusted after the treasure and has been threatened by him. This causes the other men to grab Vorse and throw him overboard to be consumed by the sharks. Despite this, his partially eaten corpse somehow still lives. Maria has the men recover the treasure, expecting to have them arrested once they arrive on shore, but in one of the chests they find, Vorse's corpse there hiding. He grabs Maria, screaming in horror. Back in the present Vorse unmasks himself, revealing his partially eaten body but reveals that he hold Maria's heart in his hand. For once the ending of a story in this series is not a character just revealing their partially destroyed body (at least the third time now the teller has been consumed by some sort of animal), but revealing something else as well. The protagonist hiding in a chest is another concept that has been used before in this series. The net result is, while I continue to enjoy the atmosphere and art (which lacks the rushed look the prior story in the series had), it is about time we wrap this up. The narrative at the start implies that we'd have at least 3 more stories in the series before it is done (although Skywald will go out of business before we have enough issues to get there, making me wonder if this series will end mid-way through). This story actually reminds me quite a lot of the story "In Deep" from Warren's Creepy #83, an excellent story drawn by Richard Corben which features a husband and wife pursued by sharks in the open sea and the husband making it out with only his wife's heart in his hand. In fact as this story came out around 2 years or so before that issue was published I wondered if it was an inspiration for that story.

Fourth is "The Asylum" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Howie Anderson) and John Agras (art). A young woman named Mary is kept in a large mansion by a woman named Cynthia, along with many other women. When her parents show up looking for her, Cynthia feigns ignorance of her. One night Mary escapes through the window, hitchhiking. We soon find that Mary is a vampire, having killed the man driving, and that Cynthia is trying to cure her and the other women of their being vampires. As the story ends we see Cynthia carrying away the man's body, revealing her to be a ghoul! This story ended I lot quicker than I was expected. Agras' art is a bit more cartoonish in nature than the other artists in the issue.

"I Am Treachery... I Am Horror"

Fifth is Gothic Fairy Tales with "I never Heard of a Ghost Actually Killing Anyone!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). A husband and wife wonder where their kids are. We soon see the two kids, David and Angie in a nearby house they believe to be occupied by a ghost. After having not seen it for a month, they figure they can force it out by burning down the place. But then suddenly the ghost does appear, an ax wielding maniac and kills them. After their funeral, their parents storm into the house where they are confronted by both the ghost and the ghost of their two children! The parents argue with the kids and say they are going to spank them so the kids, through the help of the ax wielding ghost, kill them too! After the parent's funeral we turn back to the ghost house, now with the entire family of ghosts there, and the parents spanking the kids. The ax wielding ghost has had enough and lunges towards them with his ax as the story ends. This story was quite hilarious, with the kids and parents bickering, even after they were dead and essentially forming a ghost family.

We wrap up with another story in the Saga of the Victims series, "I Am Treachery... I Am Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). We continue where we left off, with our heroines Josey and Anne grabbed by giant tentacles while in a whirlpool. It is revealed to be tentacles of a giant squid! But the two of them soon pass out and find themselves instead in a submarine, which is what the squid actually is. They are greeted by a Nazi dwarf, who claims he was special assistant to Hitler. He claims to be among the last Nazis left and that he travels the sea in his submarine, looking for adventure, which is typically terrorizing people with the squid. By watching him pilot the submarine, our heroines plot their escape and strike him with an ax once they are comfortable piloting it, as it approaches the African coastline. But they find themselves unable to control it properly and it explodes. They are then found and taken by African tribesmen to their warlord, who speaks English and claims he went to Harvard and now manipulates his tribesmen. He claims that they will eventually be eaten as his tribe is made up of cannibals. Anne and Josey break out of their bonds and try escaping, only for the Warlord to grab a hold of them and laugh as the story ends. We get more of the same with this series here; excellent art by Suso and a storyline that continues to be as over the top as possible, pushing our heroines through as many horror story tropes as it can. It continues to be fairly good though, and I look forward to where we go next.

Scream #8

Salvador Faba provides the cover for this issue of Scream, cover dated August 1974. After two reprint dominated issues its great to be back to one that is all new stories.

We kick off with an Edgar Allen Poe adaption, "The Tell-Tale Heart" with adaption by Al Hewetson and art by Ricardo Villamonte. One of Poe's most famous stories, and this adaption is a rather faithful one. Our protagonist obsesses over the eye of the old man that is his employer. One night he spies on the old man while he lays awake in bed, then when the old man notices him rushes at him, causing the old man to have a heart attack and die. Our protagonist cuts up the old man's body and hides it in the floor boards. The next morning the police arrive, having heard our protagonist's scream the night before. He lets them around, growing more and more nervous as a beating sound starts occurring. Eventually this drives our protagonist crazy enough to tear open the floor boards, revealing the body beneath. Poe's story is a good one; although I was a little off put by how over the top and goofy at times Villamonte's art is.

"My Prison in Hell"

Next is the Nosferatu series, with "My Prison in Hell" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Nosferatu asks for another of his guests to tell his tale, the pig-masked Anton Dubchek, who was commander of a Siberian prison camp. Dubchek is quite tough on his prisoners, for example throwing a prisoner down a pit for calling him a pig. The food served is slop, even for the guards, with the pigs eating better than the humans. Dubchek justifies his horrible treatment of prisoner by claiming they are criminals, lunatics and madmen. One of his prisoners, Zametov comes to him, claiming that a revolt is being planned and some of his guards are traitors. Zametov claims they are having a secret meeting and he can lead him to them, but when they arrive Dubchek realizes it is a trap and he is bound up and fed to the pigs. Back in the present, Dubchek takes off his mask and hood, revealing himself to be just a skeleton. While I continue to love the atmosphere this series brings and Lopez's amazing artwork, we are really getting to a point where the stories are very formulaic. This story has quite a similar ending to a previous story in the series where the protagonist reveals rats ate his body. It may be time to consider putting this series out to pasture. Also, speaking of the art, many panels in this story remind me of art from Fernando Fernandez stories for Vampirella, such as "The Truth". I'm wondering if Lopez either swiped them or they were taken from the same photo reference. Beyond that, Lopez's art also looks a bit more rushed than usual.

"The Slither Slime Man Rises Again"

Third is "The Slither Slime Man Rises Again" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Cardona (art). The titular character, who was called Elias Mund when alive, rises from his grave once more. The narrative turns back to October 1953 in Savannah Georgia. We focus on the solitary life of Elias, still alive at this point, who lives alone in his home, acting as the town undertaker. We are told that Elias is disliked, taunted and shunned by the locals. On the night of Halloween, the hard of hearing Elias doesn't realize some trick or treators are at his door. They decide to play a trick on him, breaking into his home while in their costumes, of a vampire, werewolf and rotting corpse respectively. Elias meanwhile is reading about the supernatural and when they come in believe them to be the real thing. He kills them, only to then realize they are children. Distraught, Elias kills himself. He and the children are buried and ever since he periodically rises from the grave thinking he's got to cleanse the world. This is an origin story of sorts, featuring a character that appeared all the way back in Psycho #9. I'm wondering why we return to him now and if this is Hewetson starting up a series for what appeared to be a one-shot only character in his original appearance. We did see a character who looked a lot like him in a story in Nightmare #18, although he was just acting as a host in said story and called himself by another name.

"I... Am Torment"

Fourth is "The Mechanical Cannibals" by Rich Buckler (story) and Rich Buckler/Chic Stone (art). Stone is uncredited. This story is adapted from the story "From Fanaticism or for Reward" by Harry Harrison. We start the story with our protagonist, Jagen, acting as a sniper and killing a man. He then jumps through a door shaped portal that seems to bring him to another time and destroys any evidence he is carrying. Appearing to be on some mission, he transports to another place and after using another portal finds himself being barely able to breathe until another man brings him a respirator. He is told to ignore his instructions and follows the man, entering a hotel room where masked men pay him for the assassination job he performed. When they try to kill him, Jagen kills one of them and knocks out the other, fleeing. We then have what appears to be a time jump. A humanoid robot is ordered to go after Jagen, who has retired to a backwater planet where he enjoys hunting. The robot arrives and disarms Jagen, but rather than killing him, it shaves his head, scans his brain to learn who gave him orders, then departs. This story is quite an outlier to both the writing and art style we currently are seeing from Skywald, and from doing some research it appears that this story was originally intended for an aborted Skywald sci-fi magazine (from which other stories we've seen in the past were also intended for). I'm surprised they held on to it so long before publishing as I recall any other stories intended for that magazine appearing long ago. Perhaps at this point Skywald, who just had to do 2 nearly all reprint issues, is in a similar spot to what Warren was in at the end where it was publishing old inventory stories of low quality.

Fifth is the latest in the Saga of the Victims series, "I... Am Torment" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). We continue right where we left off, with a pterodactyl swooping down and grabbing our heroines, Josey and Anne. Suddenly another pterodactyl appears and battles it, grabbing a hold of Josey and Anne once it kills its foe. It brings the two of them to a nest to feed its young, but we quickly realize it is on top of a volcano, which blows! Somehow the nest is able to carry our heroines away while the pterodactyls are killed, but it eventually sets on fire until they make it to the open sea. After sleeping, our heroines wake up right before a pirate ship! They are soon found by the captain and crew, all of whom are corpses, and force them to walk the plank. Suddenly a giant whirlpool forms, enveloping the ship and both Josey and Anne fall off into the water, about to be sucked down, until a giant tentacle grabs them! It is here where the story ends. This series continues to be totally bonkers, really putting our two heroines through the ringer. This particularly segment was a bit less interesting to me than the prior two, with the first half of the story in particular being a bit too light on story in order to give us a recap of prior events and the experience with the pterodactyls.

Psycho #20

This issue of Psycho features a cover by Salvador Faba, and is cover dated Augsut 1974.

First is "The Dead and the Superdead" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Cardona (art). This story takes place in a future where the Americas have reverted back to prairies and jungles, and Europe is the center of civilization. Other continents/countries are overrun by Shoggoths, mutant apes and other monsters. We focus on the President of Europe who departs his home, and travels with a homeless orphan girl he found on the street. He speaks of how acts of violence started occurring and aliens arrived, with no bodies, so their minds started occupying human bodies. This results in mass deaths, war and the like. For several pages we see how society further collapsed. The President eventually shows the girl a button he can push which will set off nukes and likely destroy the world. The President is stabbed to death by a maniac soon after and as the story ends we see the girl about to push the button. This story goes a bit all over the place, but Cardona's art is good. Usually he reminds me of Jose Gonzales, but he has several images here reminding me of Rafael Auraleon.

"The Dead and the Superdead"

Second is "The Burial Vault of Primal Eld!!!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). This story's style is extremely confusing, switching back and forth between a pair of soldiers in two storylines; I think the intent is they are the same soldiers? In the first storyline a couple of soldiers fighting in Southeast Asia come across a small town and order some peasants to dig them a trench. When complete, they kill all the peasants. In the second storyline, what I am presuming to be the same soldiers fall into a pit, which they discover to be a tomb. They open a door in the tomb where a giant hand grars them, dragging them to hell. Fedory's poor storytelling reminds me of how confusing his early Skywald stories were.

Third is an Edgar Allen Poe adaption, "The Masque of the Red Death" with adaption by Al Hewetson and art by Ricardo Villamonte. The plague ravishes the countryside. Yet Prince Prospero summons his friends to his castle, where they keep away from everyone and are happy in their seclusion. To get over the boredom, Prospero decides to have a great ball, where everyone wears masks. And yet during the party a mysterious figure enters, with the mask of one diseased and rotted from the plague. Prospero tries to unmask him, but dies upon touching him, having contracted the plague from him. The other party goers throw themselves at him and all end up perishing from the plague. A decent adaption of a story I recall being adapted several times by Warren as well.

"Requiem for a Human Being"

Fourth is "Tomorrow the Snowman Will Kill You!" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Luis Collado (art). Two men, Todd Williams and Ben Mathenson have traveled into the wintery wastelands hoping to kill a Yeti. That night a trio of Yeti come upon their tent, but not knowing what it is, do nothing. The next morning they see the footprints and head out, eventually coming across the three Yeti as they are about to turn in for the night. However as they aim to shoot the Yetis, they find they are unable to. They instead, due to the influence of the Yetis, turn their guns on each other and kill each other. As the story ends the narrator reveals that the Yeti are an evolved form of man, what we will eventually become. A pretty decent story although I found it funny how much our two protagonists would go on about how killing Yeti would cause women to be attracted to them. Most panels in this story are small, causing Collado's art to not be as strong as I am used to it being.

Fifth is "Requiem for a Human Being" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). In the jungle of South America, a man named Hawkins leads a rich woman and her two children. She is seeking to find the city of Maa-r, which her husband had searched for a year ago, never returning. Hawkins is killed by a snake, and the tribesmen he hired leave to return to safety, with the woman refusing to go along with them. She and her children eventually find Maa-r, seeing many monstrous bat creatures flying above it. One of the bat creatures fights off the others, and the woman heads to the city, reading a book that says how they will find peace and happiness here, but will never leave. In the final panel we see that she and her children have become bat creatures as well and are reunited with their husband/father. The final panel of this story hints at a sequel; we'll have to wait and see if we get it.

"The Freaks"

Sixth is the latest in the Gargoyles series, "The Freaks" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). Edward sits in jail, awaiting a hearing for his crime of destroying a lion statue. His wife Mina and son Andrew come to visit, telling him they've found a hotel to stay in. While eating out, Mina is approached by a reporter, Paul Hawkins, who has been interested in Edward's story and thinks by writing an autobiography, he can tell his story to the public. Edward agrees and Paul records him as he tells his story so he can write it. When Edward is told by a guard that his wife is not at the hotel, he freaks out, thinking Satan is behind it and breaks out, only to discover that she got a job at a daycare and was there. Edward turns himself back in and returns to jail. The Gargoyle series continues to bore me. Edward is his own worst enemy, getting violent over something that is revealed to not be a big deal at all. Perhaps he should be in jail if he's going to be this out of control. The character Paul is modeled after author Al Hewetson, and an unnamed man he is sitting with is modeled after artist Maelo Cintron.

Scream #6

Salvador Faba provides the cover for this issue of Scream, cover dated June 1974.

First is "The Vampire of the Opera" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). The story begins at a funeral home as our protagonist, Clayton Stokes, a vampire is cremated while in a coffin. We then learn of Clayton's backstory. Grown up in Harlem, he was a bad kid from a young age, a thief, a murderer and by the age of 21 had built himself up quite a bit in the criminal world until a beating from his enemies causes him to lose his reputation. He flees to Switzerland where he falls in love with and marries a beautiful young noble woman, Countess Lugos, after murdering her grandfather. Her uncle comes to stay with them and he soon discovers both are vampires and they turn him into one too. Clayton kills the uncle then his wife and returns to Manhattan where he slays criminals and sleeps in an opera house. He is able to escape from authorities by turning into a bat, but upon returning is confronted by his own father, who is brandishing a cross and ashamed of his son's actions. Clayton eventually kills him before a crowd and is beaten by them, then put in the coffin where he is cremated. A lengthy, but fairly good story to kick off the issue. Villamonte's art is quite inconsistent though, ranging from quite good at times to quite poor at others.

"The Vampire of the Opera"

Next is "Ms. Found in a Bottle", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story, with Al Hewetson doing the adaption and Alphonso Font doing the art. A man comes across a bottle, inside is a manuscript/journal entry written some 20 years prior. It speaks of a man who was on a ship in the ocean, but when it was struck by a great storm everyone else on board died. The man eventually sees another, far larger ship approaching, which destroys his ship. He is able to go on board though, finding it fill of ancient looking men who do not even acknowledge him. The man stays on the ship and writes his journal, believing that he is on a ship of the dead as it seems invulnerable even as icebergs smash through it. As the story ends we see the ship sinking into a whirlpool by the south pole. This story is similar in nature to "Descent into the Maelstrom", another Poe tale, although more macabre in tone.

Third is "Frakenstein 2073: Death of the Monster" by Al Hewetson (story) and Cesar Lopez (art). Frankenstein's monster awakens and finds he is now in the year 2073, an age where nearly all men have died out due to a disease that has come in from space. The few men still alive are in captivity by women, forced to father more children so the species will continue. A woman finds the monster and brings him to her queen. Along the way we have a 2 page recap of the monster's creation (making sense given how sporadically this series appears). The monster reaches the queen, but refuses to be her king or father any children. He lies down and dies, and this series comes to a close. The monster finds himself in a quite an enviable position, yet decides its not for him and dies (although with no explanation how). This is described as the final part to the series although it says if demand is there, it may be brought back. This was a fairly decent series, but that was mostly back in Skywald's early days when Tom Sutton was creating it.

"Nosferatu"

Fourth is the latest story in the Nosferatu series, "... and the Gutters Ran with Blood" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Nosferatu calls for Jacques Dupoin, who wears a rat mask to tell his story next. Jacques was once a detective in Paris, but he fell for a beautiful woman who used information he gave her to blackmail a politician. Jacques is found out, fired and the woman leaves him as well. He is cast from society and reduced to working in the sewers. There he decides that he will become a great criminal. He plots to steal a painting from the Louvre, but once inside he is found out. He flees to the sewers. He is shocked to find out that it was the woman who ratted him out and he is shot, falling back into the sewers where the rats consume his body. Back in the present he takes off his mask and hood, revealing his mostly eaten body. This series continues to be one of the biggest highlights of Scream, providing strong art from Zesar and some interesting and moody anthology tales.

"The Saga of the Victims"

We conclude with the first story in "The Saga of the Victims" series, titled "What is Horror? No, Who is Horror?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). Josey Forster and Anne Adams are students at Scollard Manse in Manhattan. One night upon returning to their dorms from a date they are grabbed by strange looking mutant humanoid creatures who bring them down with them through some tunnels. They eventually bring them to some stocks, where they are bound up and a hooded woman comes out telling them they are on trial for trespassing and will be tortured until dead. They are then brought by the mutants into a padded cell. Anne is able to strangle one of the mutants who comes in the cell and they flee. While watching the hooded figure they realize it is their headmistress, Jaspers. They follow her up some stairs, get into a confrontation and upon fighting over a torch, Jaspers is killed. Upon making it up to the streets of Manhattan they realize that they are the only 2 normal people and everyone now looks like one of the mutants. Suddenly they are grabbed via plastic bags that fall on them from above and are pulled up on top of a building by a normal looking man who says he is a doctor. The man speaks in riddles, saying that Horror is who is behind all of this. He leaves them in a room and soon comes in a man with no skin! This is one of Skywald's more well known series, in particular for Suso's strong art and the rather nonsensical plot, made to be as unpredictable as possible. And this opening story certainly delivers. Suso provides some of the best art we've seen in a Skywald story yet and it is an off the wall story, especially with its ending. I look forward to the several more stories we will be getting in this series.

Psycho #17

Salvador Faba provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated March 1974.

We begin with "The Death Pit", a one page frontispiece by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). Featuring a band of the dead, this reminds me of the story "Phantom of the Rock Era" all the way back in Nightmare #4.

The first full length story is "The Black Sculpture of the Pharaohs" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). A pharaoh obsesses over a cat statue he claims took him 20 years to find. He gets into an argument with his queen and stabs her to death, claiming it was an accident. She is buried in a tomb as a mummy, but soon after the pharaoh realizes the cat statue is gone, as is his wife's mummy! It is shown that this is a plot of his high priest, who seized the statue and the mummy to make it look like the dead queen did it. However the dead queen's mummy is indeed alive and kills the priest, then tosses his body where the pharaoh and others can see it. The pharaoh now knows the high priest was behind things and orders his men to search for his henchmen for the statue. He doesn't realize that the statue is in the tomb with the mummy of his dead queen. A rather weak start to the issue, with all that trouble about a statue and some weak art from Villamonte.

"The Death Pit"

Next is "This is Your Life, Sam Hammer, This is Your Death!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Cardona (art). Police officer Sam Hammer is criticized by his boss for not making enough arrests and to catch some criminals in the act. Through information from a bum, Sam and his partner confront a crew of criminals making fake license plates. While trying to arrest them Sam is forced to kill one of them and his partner is killed in a machine. Suddenly, crazy things start happening. His sandwich is alive! He finds a corpse in the bathroom. The time clock punches him. And so on. He eventually wakes up at his own funeral! He is told that he is on a TV show, This is Your Life, This is Your Death. His partner and everyone else was in on it. They get prizes for their participation, while Sam gets punished by being killed! Quite a ridiculous story, and its a good thing they revealed the big action from the license plate criminals as being an act, as multiple people dying over fake license plates is considerably absurd.

"This is Your Life< Sam Hammer, This is Your Death!"

Third is "This is the Vault of the Living Dead!" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Harvey Lazarus) and Maro Nava (art). A group of drunks in a bar attack a group of mysterious, peaceful hippies that come in and sleep during the day, and go out at night. The drunks try to push them around with no luck, then suspect they are vampires and bring them out in the daylight, but nothing happens to them. The drunks then go even further, murdering all the hippies. The drunks leave, but then the hippies get up and go find them, attacking them. It turns out they are indeed vampires, and that brief exposure to sunlight doesn't kill them after all. They are generally peaceful but the behavior of the drunks have caused them to satiate their hunger and attack them, sucking their blood. A rather weak story with some really over the top action by the characters and some particularly dreadful art by Nava.

Fourth is "These Are the Things That Are Dead" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Howie Anderson) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). A group of guys in Manhattan decide to steal a subway train. They jump inside, knock out the conductors and cause a big crash, jumping out of it mere seconds in advance. They then grab a car and go on a driving spree, hitting a parked car. When the policy arrive and find the car empty, we realize that the three of them have been dead all this time. Some okay art from Dela Rosa here, but the ending to this story I could see from miles away.

"The Narrative of Skut"

Fifth is "The Crime in Satan's Crypt!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). A man takes out a contract hit on a young woman in an alley. Dressed in robes, he hides from the police then finds his hiding place leads to a tom, which he heads into, finding solid gold and a casket with a dead body in it that makes him think it is alive. Soon a group of robed men, led by a naked woman show up, commanding the body, Lothodeus to rise and help guide them for the coming of Satan. The killer tries to flee, with the gold but is seen and chased. As he makes his way out the ceiling of the tomb starts collapsing. He makes it out just in time, only for a statue in the graveyard to fall on and kill him. A rather lame ending, but some good art from Borrell at least.

Next is "The Lunatic Class of '64" by Jane Lynch (story) and Emilio Bernardo (art). Walter Lyman says goodbye to his wife and kids, planning on going to his high school reunion. As he heads there we flashback to Walter being a loser in high school. The girl he liked rejected him due to his pimples. No one would sign his yearbook, he even has a girl who refuses to cheat from his notes when he offers. Walter arrives but surprisingly is treated well by his old classmates. Thinking everyone is in on a secret plot to make fun of him, he knocks over some candles, causing the entire place to burn down. In our final panel we see a classroom filled with skeletons! Lynch does a decent job in her Skywald debut, although I'm not really sure where she was going with the final panel.

Seventh is "The Narrative of Skut" by Al Hewetson (story) and Luis Collado (art). Some mobsters arrive at a local boarding house and shoot up the old lady who runs it. The small sized Skut runs errands for the mobsters including dragging out the body, getting them food and other errands. He decides to rat out the mobsters, revealing their location to another mob who shoot them up. Not wanting to be seen with the bodies, Skut brings them to the basement where the old woman appears, alive, despite the bullets already in her and the more Skut fires into her. She grabs a hold of him and drags him into the grave he dug, trapping him there until he starves to death. Collado's art is very strong here, including a number of very detailed, highly realistic looking panels.

We conclude with "Monster, Monster, Heed Death's Call" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Our werewolf protagonist, now back to a human, the gypsy Kirsten and her daughter Nola travel, fleeing from the group of gypsies after them seeking an amulet Kirsten has. Kirsten decides to leave the werewolf behind but then the other gypsies arrive and attack her. the werewolf, now back in said form, goes on a rampage, slaughtering all of them except a veiled woman who has stayed back and at story's end removes her veil and swears the amulets will be hers. This series continues to be rather mediocre, with a rather dull, repeated plot and often inconsistent or poor art from Villamonte.