Psycho #8

Enrich Torres, the famed Warren cover artist provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated September 1972. With this issue Al Hewetson becomes the editor of Skywald's horror magazines for the rest of their run. This is the first Psycho issue in quite a while to feature no Heap story, although we do start a new series here.

The frontispiece for this issue is "The Theater of Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). Starting with this issue, the frontispieces move from a one page pin-up into more of a one page mini-story, similar to what Warren would do. This one features the haunted theater on Dury Lane London where a ghost of a man in gray keeps appearing, Eventually his body is found and he never appears again.

The first story of this issue is "A Gargoyle - A Man" by Al Hewetswon (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). The story begins showing the origin of two gargoyles, who were put on the Cathedral of Menze in Germany. They stay there for many centuries, eventually being removed in 1972 and moved to a graveyard where there are some Satanists. After some chanting, the gargoyles come to life, scaring away the Satanists. They flee, being pursued, and stay in the home of a blind man in the city, calling themselves Edward and Mina. Eventually the Satanists find them and the blind man is killed. The Satanists summon a tentacled monster who Edward fights and defeats. Mina stops Edward from killing the Satanists as the story ends. This story kicks off a lengthy series, although Dela Rosa will soon be replaced as artist by Maelo Cintron.

First appearance of the Gargoyles characters

Next story is "Devil's Woman" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Ross Andru/Mike Esposito (art). A party is held in a Vermont mansion on New Years Eve, hosted by a woman named Marta who is blind. Suddenly there is a scream and a dying man is found, claiming a creature has broke loose. Some of the guests talk of how Marta's parents were part of a witch cult and summoned a creature that killed them, exactly 20 years ago today. Marta was eventually able to marry a European count. He tells of how in his country Satanists would worship him on the new year and virgins would be sacrificed to him. Twenty years ago Satan was summoned here by Marta's parents and there was an accident altering his form and causing him to be beneath this house. He demands sacrifices and the party guests are sacrificed to him, who is now looking like a tentacled monster. The count wants Marta to go to Satan and produce a child with him as her mother did but she instead flees and the mansion burns down. She is eventually found by the count and her aunt who bring her before Satan. I was a bit surprised to see Andru and Esposito back after being dropped as the artists from The Heap. I wonder if this is an inventory story held on for a little while before publication since it would have made more sense to keep them on as the artists for that series.

"Have You Ever Seen the Black Rain?"

Third story is "Have You Ever Seen the Black Rain?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art), in his Skywald debut. The beautiful queen Anne has her subjects invade her neighboring land, ruled by a man named Walter as they need fertile land. Her forces lose and she is exiled by Walter, after refusing his hand in marriage. Her men transport and rebuild her castle on an island and there she starts to dabble in black magic. Two years pass and Walter's kingdom has been defeated by another country. His men are able to rescue him and get him on a ship which travels through the rain, eventually making it to Anne's castle where she is waiting for him, her face covered by a veil. She says she will marry him now and they do so, but when she pulls off her veil she reveals a horrifically ugly face, claiming she sacrificed her beauty to Lucifer to get her revenge. Walter pulls off his shirt, revealing that his body is horrifically deformed and rotted as well. The ending of this story reminds me somewhat of the "Plague of Jewels" story by Bruce Jones in issue 4. Xirinius has a pretty good debut here. His art reminds me somewhat of Martin Salvador, although a bit scarier.


Fourth is "The Filthy Little House of Voodoo" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ramon Torrents (art). Two women travel through the Australian badlands and come across a town filled with lots of old people who are silent and have blank expressions on their face. They eventually head to a house on the top of a hill, finding a painting of an evil looking bald man on the wall. Soon people start coming in and going downstairs and our protagonists follow. Suddenly the man in the painting comes out of it and attacks them, asking them to join them. The man says he is part of a race of parasites and the people there attack them. This story has some very impressive and scary art from Ramon Torrents but the story itself is a bit confusing.

Next up is "Bad Choke" by Don Glut (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). Two men head to a graveyard and dig up the grave of a strangling killer named Mad Kirk, seeking to steal the diamond ring from his finger and gold from his teeth. When police arrive though they are forced to flee. One of the men has put the diamond ring on his finger but finds that it can't come off. Suddenly the ghost of Kirk arrives and causing the man to strangle his colleague. Kirk then starts strangling him, and the man trying to pull his hands off his neck causes him to in reality strangle himself. Some bystanders soon arrive and comes across the odd sight of the two dead men.

Some good art by Torrents with "The Filthy Little House of Voodoo"

Last story is "City of Crypts" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art), also making his Skywald debut. A group of archaeologists, Jacob, his wife Berenice and assistant Basil investigate the tomb of Pharaoh Ramanken in Egypt. A tablet indicates that there is a curse; any man who enters will die. The workers start going mad and trap the 3 of them inside. Basil is in love with Berenice and pushes Jacob down a chasm to his death, although she is not really that into him. Suddenly a group of sub-human monsters (looking kind of like the Heap) attack them and drag them down to a lower part of the tomb. Basil is killed, but thinking Berenice is a princess due to a birthmark, they bring her before the skeleton of the Pharaoh. Berenice flees, eventually making her way out, but her face and body have become deformed, much like that of the sub-humans. How exactly Berenice became like them isn't really explained, giving us a rather odd ending, but otherwise this is a fairly good tale. Berenice I assume is named after the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name.

Pablo Marcos provides a one-page pin-up of a ghoul to conclude the issue.

Vampirella 2

Bill Hughes provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, dated November 1969. Tom Sutton provides the story and art for the frontispiece "Vampi's Feary Tales".

First is "Evily" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Bill Parente (story). Evily is a sorceress who is Vampirella's cousin, living in a castle in the Black Forest of Vaalgania. She invites a number of guests to her castle for a party who are revealed to be monsters. She also brings back a number of people to the dead from her basement. The monsters bring her a cloaked figure which ends up being Vampirella in a cameo role. Vampirella demands Evily's throne and a spell of Evily is bounced back at her by her mirror, turning her into a cat. Some good art by Grandenetti, but a rather weak start to the issue.

Next is "Montezuma's Monster" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Don Glut (story). A trio of men head to Mexico to search for Montezuma's treasure. They eventually find it in a cave where they also find some mummified corpses and a drawing of Quetzalcoatl, a flying serprent that is said can turn any winged thing into itself. The men take the treasure and start heading back to the U.S. Along the way a buzzard turns into Quetzalcoatl and kills one of the men. The other men try to kill any bird they find along the way to prevent it from happening again. One of them plots to kill the other, but is killed by Quetzalcoatl, who had transformed from a mosquito, at the last second. The final man gets back to civilization and thinks he's made it back safely at the airport, but the airplane turns into Quetzalcoatl and kills him.

Third is "Down to Earth!", this issue's Vampirella story, by Mike Royer (art) and Forrest Ackerman (story). This story is notable for being the only instance where an issue had a Vampirella story but it did not lead off the issue. The story also features Vampirella's twin sister Draculina, in her sole appearance, who acts as host. This story features Vampirella trying out for a Monsterella contest at the Warren offices where she is selected the winner by James Warren and Forrest Ackerman, giving her the name Bambi Aurora. Traveling on a plane to Hollywood, a bolt of lightning strikes it, blowing it up. An absolutely horrific story with a ridiculous ending, this is probably the worst Vampirella story of all time. Thankfully this would be the last time Royer or Ackerman did a Vampirella story and she wouldn't start in a story again until issue 8.

Fourth is "Queen of Horror!" by Dick Piscopo (art) and Don Glut (story). Similar themed to the previous story, it is about a monster movie director, Katzman who is looking for a new hot theme since his movies haven't done well lately. His assistant, with the help of a "Gorry Hackerman" (an obvious nod to Forrest Ackerman) comes up with the idea of having a female monster. Their actress is found in a bar, a woman named Mildred who is soon renamed to Adriana. Adriana does very well in a series of hit monster movies. One night Katzman invites her to his home, telling her he is in love with her. Adriana tells him no man could be happy with her and reveals that she actually is a monster, transforming into a werewolf who kills him. Adriana looks enough like Vampirella that I half expected it to end up being her while reading the story.

Next is "The Octopus" by William Barry (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A man named Gary is invited to his brother Carl's home along with his two children where he is shown a large octopus in the well. Carl brings Gary underwater with him to investigate where he kills him in order to get his inheritance. He later tries to kill Gary's children by pushing them into the well but falls in when they move out of the way and is killed by the Octopus. Carl later returns in Octopus form to kill the children but is killed by the corpse of Gary, who has returned to protect his childen.

Sixth is "One, Two, Three" by Ernie Colon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A pair of androids, Kleet and Lia are brought in front of a trio of robot judges, on trial for showing emotion. Flashbacks show how they got to this point, with Lia reading fairy tales to the children she takes care of. She becomes obsessed with being rescued by a hero and is thrown out of her master's home when a man comes to the door and she asks him to take her with him. She is pursued by robot searchers and is found by Kleet when she is found playing with flowers in a field. Kleet brings her to an abandoned post but they are eventually caught and brought before the judges. The two are found guilty and brought out to a home in the desert. They are destroyed soon after however when it is revealed that the home is on a nuclear bomb testing site.

The issue concludes with "Rhapsody in Red!" by Billy Graham (art) and Don Glut (story). A husband and wife are caught in a big rainstorm in Transylvania and come across a large castle. Inside the castle they meet the mysterious Countess Margat Sinovitz who lets them stay there. The two of them suspect the Countess is a vampire due to the lack of electricity and mirrors in the castle as well as her strong, bat-like hearing. She attacks the husband, turning him into a vampire. She wants him to become her husband but he instead bites his wife, making her a vampire as well and kills the Countess with a sword.

Vampirella 4

Today I'm covering issue 4 of Vampirella, published in April 1970 (the same month as yesterday's Creepy 32). The cover is a collaberative effort from Vaughn Bode and Jeff Jones. Tom Sutton provides the story and art for the frontispiece "Vampi's Feary Tales: Burned at the Stake!". As with many early issues of Vampirella, this issue doesn't feature a Vampirella
story, although she hosts each of the individual stories within.

First is "Forgotten Kingdom" by Ernie Colon (art, credited as David St. Clair) 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.

Second is "Closer than Sisters" by Mike Royer (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A young girl, Olivegard, is staying with her aunt and uncle after her parents were killed in a car crash. The aunt and uncle hire a new governess, June, to take care of her, and wonder if she is Olivegard's long lost older sister. The two want to kill Olivegard so they can get her inheritance. The aunt tries to do so but is killed at the beach. The uncle plans to kill both Olivegard and June and digs a pair of graves at the beach for them. They get the better of him however and bury him up to his head in the sand, which results in him drowning. June reveals that she is not Olivegard's sister, but rather the future version of Olivegard, come back in the past to get revenge. As the story ends however it is revealed that these are actually the delusions of the present day Olivegard who has gone insane after murdering her aunt and uncle. The death of the uncle in this story is very reminiscent of a sequence from the movie Creepshow, making me wonder if this was inspiration for that part of the movie.

Third is "Moonshine!" by William Barry (art) and Don Glut (story). A salesman from the city has a flat tire in the Ozarks where he is told off by a pair of locals. The salesman is enamored with their attractive sister. While driving he comes across a black cat who hypnotizes him and he follows it, finding the sister. She convinces him to stay with her and become one of them, feeding him some moonshine. The moonshine transforms him into a monster, making him like her and her brothers who are a witch and warlocks.

Next is "For the Love of Frankenstein!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Bill Warren (story). Dr. Hedvig Krolleck, a descendent of Dr. Frankenstein continues his experiments with the help of her hunchbacked assistant, Eric. Eric is in love with her which is the only reason he continues to assist her. Eventually they succeed in their experiments, but a new brain is needed for the body. Eric has a change of heart and destroys it, so Hedvig kills him and uses his brain. In his new body, Eric kills her in revenge then blows up the entire laboratory.

Fifth is "Come into my Parlor!" by Dick Piscopo (art) and R. Michael Rosen (Story). A man is impressed by a daredevil at a circus, Miss Arachna. He convinces her to see him and wants to start a relationship, but she tries to avoid it. Eventually she submits to him and reveals that she has spider hands from an experiment on spiders she performed in the past and used herself as a test subject for. He wants to marry her and she tries to say no but gives in. When they move into their new home she reveals that she has taken on the mating habits of spiders as well and devours him.

The issue concludes with "Run for your Wife!" by Jack Sparling (art), Richard Carnell and Jack Erman (story). A mysterious Count Tsarov invites seven couples who his castle in Slovania. There, Tsavarov is revealed to be a woman in disguise and has the husbands killed by vicious dogs, snakes, aligators, ants and other creatures. One of the wives is revealed to be a man who is part of 'Investigators International' however and kills the count.

Creepy 32

Frank Frazetta provides the cover to this issue of Creepy, which is dated April 1970. This issue is the first since issue 17 to feature entirely new stories. Tom Sutton provides the art and story for this issue's "Creepy's Loathsome Lore", titled "Androids".

The issue begins with "Rock God". This story was inspired by the Frank Frazetta cover. Per the introductory page to the story, Harlan Ellison was loking to write a story for Warren based on a Frank Frazetta cover and this story was the result. Neal Adams provides the artwork. This was Ellison's first and only story for Warren, and he would later be involved in a lawsuit against Warren when one of his stories was plagirized in 1984. At 13 pages this story is far longer than most Warren stories of this era and at the time only another Neal Adams drawn story from Creepy 15 had been longer. The beginning of the story features the summoning of the Rock God "Dis" who has left various stones each time he was summoned. This time the stone he left was stolen and passed down through the years, ultimately ending up in a skyscraper in present times that was built using substandard materials to enrich several corrupt men. One of the men attacks his lover when she says she is going to leave him and she falls out of the skyscraper to her death, resulting in the summoning of Dis. A so-so story, although Adams' art is quite good.

Next is "Death is a Lonely Place" by Bill Black (art) and Bill Warren (story). This story stars a vampire named Miklos Sokolos. The first half of the story shows his life as a vampire, living in a tomb and showing both how he became a vampire and how he finds his victims. Miklos meets a woman named Gwen at the movie theater to whom he becomes romantically involved. He refuses to drink her blood and refuses to marry her because of being a vampire. He eventually decides he will turn her into a vampire so they can marry, but has second thoughts when he considers how she will have to attack others for their blood. He instead leaves her note that lies about him being married and decides to commit suicide by dragging his coffin into the sunlight of the graveyard where he sleeps.

Third is "I... Executioner" by Mike Royer (art) and Don Glut (story). A newspaper reporter watches an execution take place and is interested by the calm manner in which the Executioner does his job. He requests an interview with the Executioner and is granted it. The Executioner tells him the role of executioners throughout time and claims he was present for them. This confuses the reporter until the Executioner removes his hood, revealing him to be Death himself. As the story ends it is revealed that the reporter has passed away of a cough he had and that his story will never be read.

Next is "A Wall of Privacy" by Ernie Colon (art, credited as David St. Clair) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is hosted by Cousin Eerie so it was likely originally meant for an issue of Eerie. The story stars a man named Dannon with telepathic powers who lives in a 1984-esque future where everything he does is watched by cameras operated by the government. He desires to escape to a place known as the free zone where the cameras don't operate. He meets a woman who has telepathic powers as well and they plot to destroy a power plant which will enable them to escape to the free zone. The night comes when they destroy the power plant and all of Dannon's colleagues, including the women are killed. He is able to escape to the free zone, only to find that it is only 5 feet wide! I really enjoyed the ending to this one.

Next is "V.A.M.P.I.R.E." by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Warren (story). A giant computer called S.A.L.O. is being created which will require a fluid to run. One of the doctors on the project, Dr. Vindemuk determines that blood would be the best fluid to use but is fired by the head of the project when he suggests it. Vindemuk kills him and uses his blood to feed to the computer, which renames itself V.A.M.P.I.R.E. The computer demands more and more blood, which Vindemuk kills people to provide. He is put into a hypnotic trance when he refuses to do it anymore. Eventually the computer, which has now developed hands and legs releases Vandemuk from the hypnosis and kills him when he tries to shut off the computer's power. The computer tries to get up and walk away but this results in pulling its plug out of the wall and it dies from a lack of energy. A rather goofy ending for this story.

"Movie Dissector" is the sixth story and is notable for having the first appearance of Bill Dubay in a Warren magazine, where he provides the artwork. R. Michael Rosen provides the story. Two friends are dissappointed in a horror movie so they decide to make their own. The boys fight over parts of it and break off on their own, each creating their own movie. When the movies are finished, they show the movies in one of the boy's garages. A number of boys come by to be the audience. The audience enjoys the first movie because it shows respect to the monsters, but dislike the second movie because it doesn't. The audience reveals themselves to be monsters and attack the director of the second movie.

The issue concludes with "The 3:14 is Right on Time" by Billy Graham (art) and Ken Dixon (story). This story features an old man who bought a train car when he was younger and finds passengers by killing people and putting their corpses in the seat. In the story he kills his final victim and drives the train car, which stops at the cemetary. Nearby he finds a trolley station where death is waiting for him.

Vampirella 1

Today I cover the first issue of Vampirella, which after years of failing to obtain a copy I've finally been able to check out due to Dynamite's Vampirella Archives series. Frank Frazetta provides the cover, one of my personal favorites. He also supplies a one page intro from Vampi on the inside front cover.

First is Vampirella's first ever appearance in "Vampirella of Draculon", with art by Tom Sutton and story by Forrest Ackerman, who was editor for Famous Monsters of Filmland for the majority of its run. This story's much more light hearted than the usual Vampirella story and features her on her home planet of Draculon, where blood is the equivalent of water. A spaceship of humans crashes on their planet and Vampirella sucks their blood, then finds a "smorgasblood" as she puts it inside the ship when she finds a room full of men in hibernation.

Second is "Death Boat!" by Billy Graham (art) and Don Glut (story). Six people are stranded on a life boat in the middle of the ocean after the ship they are on sinks. One night they awaken to find one of the people dead, with two holes in his throat. One of the men is convinced that it is a vampire on board the boat and attacks the man he think is the vampire, killing him. He is then killed by another man shortly afterwards. Another death occurs soon afterwards, and convinced that her companion is the vampire, being the only one left, the last person standing kills him. But then the boat itself is revealed by the the vampire and transforms in order to kill her.

Next is "Two Silver Bullets!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Don Glut (story). A man and his daughter are hunting in the woods and the daughter is attacked by a wolf that runs off unharmed after the man shoots it. Because the full moon was out, the man is convinced that it was a werewolf and procures himself two silver bullets. The daughter meanwhile has dreams about the wolf and calls it her love. The man returns to his cottage to find his daughter gone and wolf tracks in the snow. He follows them and finds two wolves this time. He shoots both of them, only realizing at the last minute that the second one was his daughter, transformed.

Fourth is "Goddess from the Sea" by Neal Adams (art) and Don Glut (story). Adams' art is pencils only, which unfortunately makes things hard to make out in some of the panels. 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.

Fifth is "Last Act: October!" by Mike Royer (art) and Don Glut (story). A woman is burned at the stake and curses her accuser, such that him and his descendents will die in October. The accuser dies shortly afterwards. Throughout history many of his descendents die in October. The last descendent left is an elderly woman who is babysitting on the night of Halloween. She avoids numerous accidental ways to die, but meets her end mere minutes before midnight when the child she is babysitting is revealed to be a vampire and bites her on the neck.

Next is "Spaced-Out Girls!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Don Glut (story). Kenne Barcroft is a skilled womanizer, who one night finds a flying saucer appear from the sky and land in front of him. Out from the flying saucer walks a series of beautiful women who claim to be from another planet that has no men. Kenne anxiously agrees to head with them to ensure they don't go extinct. His advances on the women on the way there fail, as they claim he is reserved for their Queen only. Upon arriving at the planet, Kenne finds out that all the women are robots, and he is locked in a room with the Queen, who is about as beastly as you can imagine.

The issue concludes with "A Room Full of Changes" with art by Ernie Colon and story by Nicola Cuti. This story's a rather weak effort, featuring a man who buys a home featuring a room where an old man was murdered. He meets the two daughters of the man who sold him the house and starts a romantic relationship with one of them. The room where the old man was murdered seems to have a different appearance based on who enters it. The father attempts to destroy the room but a number of monsters appear and kill him.

Eerie 51

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, featuring none other than Cousin Eerie himself. This issue is dated September 1973.

Up first is "A Stranger in Hell" by Esteban Maroto (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Eerie 38. The majority of Brennan's stories were nonscensical garbage and this is one of them. A man in hell is unable to die. I think thats what it means. While Maroto's art is great, as usual, this story just makes no sense whatsoever. It would get a sequel in Creepy #61 not too long after this issue.

Second is "Pity the Grave Digger" by Auraleon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story), from Eerie 40. An old grave digger warns his young colleague of the dangers of the graveyard including a vampire he destroyed and corpses being found completely devoured. The colleague doesn't believe him, but the old gravedigger is soon found consumed by a group of tiny demons.

Third is "The Caterpillers" by Luis Garcia (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Eerie 41. A professor from a government research facility passes away during a meeting, resulting in an investigation. It is revealed that caterpillers created in the facility had been taking over the minds of people and eating their brains. Quickly the entire lab is wiped out by them and when our protagonist reports to his superiors, it is revealed that they have been taken over as well. Terrific art as always from Garcia, but the story is extremely similar to the story "Spiders are Revolting" from Eerie 26.

"Evil Spirits" is fourth, by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 16. The story features a woman who is in a haunted castle and is confronted by bad dreams and perhaps even ghosts. Her husband is cheating on her and the lover shows up, and they both kill each other. The husband, now with yet another lover, comes to the castle, where their ghosts remain waiting for revenge.

Fifth is "Head Shop" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story), from Eerie 39. 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.

Sixth is "Vision of Evil" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 2. This story features a rich man who becomes obsessed with the art of a madman living in an asylum. He heads to the asylum to see the artist, who is a usually comatose man except when he's painting. It soon becomes clear however that the monsters in his paintings are real, and they come for the rich man after he is featured in one of the madman's paintings.

"The Curse of Kali" is last, with art by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is from Eerie 6. The story, taking place in the Middle East, features a man who stops a woman from being sacrificed to the god Kali, so he is cursed, which ends up turning him into a vampire.

Vampirella 109

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Vampirella, from October 1982. Aside from the Vampirella story and intro page from Vampirella, both by Jose Gonzalez, this is an all Felix Mas special.

First is this issue's Vampirella story, "The Corpse With the Missing Mind" by Jose Gonzalez(art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Vampirella 55. Vampirella and Pendragon attend the funeral of a rich old friend of his, Hunt, who he hasn't seen in decades. Another friend of Hunt's arrives, Charlie, who knocks out both of them. When they awaken, they find themselves in what appears to be Alice in Wonderland. It ends up that Hunt is alive after all, by preserving his brain and eyes in a tank. He hoped to do something good for once which is why he created the Wonderland, which he plans to allow people in for free.

Second is "The Sultan of 42nd Street" by Felix Mas (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 39. A poor artist buys a canvas from a pawnshop. It ends up that whatever he paints on the canvas comes to life, and a beautiful woman appears when he paints her on it. He gets the idea to paint multiple women and turn them into whores to make him money. Alas, when another painter buys one of the canvases and paints his face, his entire face vanishes from his home, and appears in hers!

Third is "Dungeons of the Soul" by Felix Mas (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story), from Creepy 45. One of Brennan's psychotic hippie stories, featuring a king of a castle, Modrius, who acts cold towards his lover, Adrianne. A prisoner with a mask is held in the dungeon, who has been there since Modrius got a sorceror to cast a spell on him that would keep him from suffering. Adrienne lets the prisoner go, and when Modrius removes the prisoner's mask, it is revealed that it is him. He then turns back to normal again.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story), from Vampirella 38. A rather complicated tale influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. During a play a man, Dennis, reads some strange language on a prop coffin. He and a friend, Vaughn go to visit Vaughn's uncle, an archaeologist and find that it tells of elder Gods resting for eternity. Dennis remembers his youth where he was taught of these mysterious things by his uncle Abner. The uncle later shows up, telling him he was raised to bring the elder gods back to life. Vaughn kills him after finding that he killed his uncle. He later kills his girlfriend too after finding that she is pregnant with Dennis's child, Abner's last hope at reviving the elder Gods.

Fifth is "The Climbers of the Tower" by Felix Mas (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Creepy 50. The story surrounds two men, Druin and Tarran, who have spent their entire lives climbing a tower. When they approach the top, Druin gets greedy, wanting the glory of being the first to reach the top and loses his life in a confrontation with Tarran. Tarran reaches the top only to realize that he never knew why he wanted to reach the top of the tower, and goes crazy. A compeltely pointless and piss poor story that wastes Mas's talented artwork.

Sixth is "Miranda" by Felix Mas (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Vampirella 34. A rich man obsessed with marrying women with deformities visits an old woman, wanting to meet and marry her niece, Miranda. The old woman allows him to meet Miranda, who is a freak with praying mantis arms, but the old woman refuses to let him take her, even with him offering a million dollars for her. When the old woman sleeps, the rich man and Miranda run off together however. The old woman heads to their house, but it is too late. As part praying mantis, Miranda has already killed and eaten him.

Seventh is "The Dorian Gray Syndrome" by Felix Mas (art) and Don Glut (story), from Vampirella 18. A newspaper reporter seeks information on a young man who appears to have the same powers as the Dorian Gray of the well known Oscar Wilde story where a painting of the man ages in his place. Only it is revealed here that the painting was actually redone by the man himself, and he appears eternally young because he is a vampire! By stabbing the painting however, our hero miraculously is able to save herself and kill him.

Next is "The Killer" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Creepy 52. The story is about a man who gets married but does little to distinguish himself in life. This upsets his wife, whom he suspects is having an affair. One day he finds his wife stabbed to death and suspects he did it. He runs off and ends up getting hit by a car and killed. It ends up however that it was a burgler who killed his wife and he was innocent all along.

My favorite story of the issue is "Minra" by Felix Mas (art) and Ed Newsome (story), from Vampirella 22. A psychic explosion of hate suspected to have come from another dimension wipes out 3/4 of humanity. Psychic mutants start appearing among the population, who have the ability to set off incidents of hate and violence, so people band together and take them out. The story focuses on a pair of men heading after a teenage girl, Minra, who is accused of being one of the psychic mutants and causing an incident. One of the men does come across her, who explains that there never were any psychic mutants, hatred among humanity reached a boiling point and they accused people of being mutants as a scapegoat. Alas, the other man comes along and kills her and the story ends. Definately one of Mas's high points and a terrific story from Newsome in his sole Warren appearance.

Last is "Changes" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Vampirella 24. A man comes home one day to find his wife laying dead on the floor, with a knife sticking out of her forehead. Oddly enough he doesn't seem that upset about it, neither do his kids. He then gets her replaced, then heads out and stabs some random middle aged woman in the forehead himself. Quite the odd story, thats for sure.

Eerie 40

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated June 1972. The two page feature "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Dracula's Castle" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story) is on the inside front and back cover.

First is "The Brain of Frankenstein" by Mike Ploog (art) and Fred Ott (story). This story features a story within a story, told by the son of Dr. Frankenstein. The son revives his father by putting his brain in a corpse's body. At the same time a friend of his, Hans, plots to kill him because of the rampage from his father's monster. Hans's attempts to destroy Frankenstein and the monster his father become fail however, and the father's brain is put into Hans's body.

Second is "The Once Powerful Prince" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features Targo, the prince of Atlantis, who had previously appeared in Eerie 37. In this story a ring that Targo wears that permits him to breathe underwater has been stolen, so he goes after the man that took it and after a long confrontation is able to take it back.

Third is Dax the Warrior in "The Paradise Tree" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). Dax finds himself seized by a tree when he tries to cut it apart for firewood. The tree carries him down into an abyss and he finds a palace with an entrance in the shape of a snake. Inside he finds Astartea, a beautiful woman, as well as many other women. Astartea can have anything she wants, but is a prisoner there, forced to remain there by a demon. When Dax rebels against this, the demon appears, and she is turned back into her true form, a snake.

Fourth is "Deathfall" by Sanho Kim (story & art). This is a rather surrealistic story featuring a man on death row and him recalling why he was put away. Eventually he is put to death. Not much to say on this one.

Fifth is "The Prodigy Son" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story). The "son" of the title is a man at a freak show whose twin brother's body (all but the head) hangs out of his chest. A woman in the crowd gets him to marry her, thinking its all fake. When she realizes once and for all that its real, she starts sleeping with other men. Her husband meanwhile starts having horrible pains in his chest. He comes across her sleeping with another man, but before he can kill her his twin brother finally breaks free of his body.

Sixth is "Pity the Grave Digger" by Auraleon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). An old grave digger warns his young colleague of the dangers of the graveyard including a vampire he destroyed and corpses being found completely devoured. The colleague doesn't believe him, but the old gravedigger is soon found consumed by a group of tiny demons.

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 125

This issue of Eerie is an all Neal Adams special, aside from the reprinted Richard Corben cover from Eerie 77. This issue is dated October 1981.

First is "Curse of the Vampire!" by Neal Adams (art, his Warren debut in this story's original appearance) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 14. The story features a family curse where every member of the vampire is supposedly supposed to turn into a vampire after death. A doctor who has fallen in love with a young woman who is part of the family refuses to let the family servent drive a stake through her since he believes she is just in a coma. It ends up that the servant is the true vampire, and has been able to blame everything on the family due to the curse. The doctor kills him and the girl awakens. However it ends up that the doctor is a vampire, and now knowing that she's human, he makes her his next victim!

Second is "The Terror Beyond Time!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 15. Searching for a professor, a man heads deep into a cavern where he had dissappeared. Inside he finds a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. In addition various other people throughout time have been summoned here including a beatiful woman from England. The professor is found, but it ends up that he's working for an evil being who is responsible for summoning everyone there as well as controlling people's thoughts. Our hero refuses to work under his control and instead kills the professor and the evil being. Afterwards he awakens in the modern age, with the woman there with him. A fairly good story although as discussed by Neal Adams in the Warren companion, the evil being ends up looking like an ice cream sundae rather than something supremely evil.

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 "Thrillkill" by Neal Adams (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story), from Creepy 75. A truly great story, and arguably the most famous Warren story of all time, being ranked #1 overall as best Warren story in the Warren Companion. A young man with a sniper rifle shoots random people from the top of a building and is eventually killed by the police. While the artwork shows these events taking place a priest who knew the young man as a boy talks to a reporter, trying to explain why this happened.

Fifth is "A Curse of Claws!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 16. This story features a man in the jungle who encounters a woman who says she is Lillith, Goddess of Cats. The man fights her and kills her, but turns into a panether like creature and ends up scratching himself to death.

Sixth is "Voodoo Drum!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 10. The story, which is done in pencils only, is about a plantation owner who finds workers difficult to obtain, so a native brings him zombies in exchange for payment. The man kills him, seeking to use the zombies for free, but they come after him and turn his skin into a drum.

Last is "Fair Exchange" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 9. An old man whose soon to die plots to steal a young man's body when he discovers of a ridiculed doctor who has experimented on switching bodies. The switch is performed successfully and the old man now in his new body kills the doctor so he doesn't have to pay him. Only he soon discovers that he is a vampire when he is destroyed by the sun.

Vampirella 37

This issue of Vampirella is a special summer reprint issue, containing 7 reprint stories and 1 new one. Although my standard practice is to not cover reprint issues on this blog, I will be doing it for those issues of Vampirella that contain a new story, which this one does. The front cover is by Sanjulian. Vampi's face from this cover would be used in the top left hand corner of the cover for every issue for the remainder of the magazine's run. The back cover is by Enrich. That painting would eventually be used for the cover of Eerie 117 as well, a great many years after this issue's publication. (see previous day's post)

First is "Cobra Queen" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Don Glut (story), from issue 23. A trio of men head through the woods in search of a Cobra Queen that rules over a society of amazonesses. Along the way they keep seeing a large cobra. One of the men is soon killed by one. They finally reach the society, and meet the Cobra Queen who transforms into a giant cobra. One of the men however reveals that he too is a giant cobra, and transforms into one. The Cobra Queen and King then feast on the last remaining man.

Next is this issue's sole new story, "She Who Waits" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is in color. This is a continuation of the prior story, starring Vampirella and the usual cast of characters. Conrad tries to kill Vampi after seeing two holes on Adam's neck. It seems that Adam has not been attacked by Vampi though, but rather a cobra snake who brings him to the Cobra Queen. It seems that Adam killed the Cobra King, so she captures him and desires him for her new mate, planning to mutate him so he'll turn into a cobra too. Vampi and the others arrive though and are able to rescue Adam, setting the Cobra Queen aflame.

Third is "Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story), from issue 18. McGregor's story is somewhat better than usual, helped tremendously by Garcia's extremely good art, but still contains his usual political nonsense. It surrounds a young woman who summons a sorceress after being dumped by a man she was seeing. The sorceress takes over her body, changes form and takes out revenge on the man by transforming into a giant snake and killing him. Only the sorceress decides to retain her body and won't give it back after the deed is done.

Fourth is "Cry of the Dhampir", a terrific vampire story by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story) from issue 22. The story features a pair of vampires on the run from a 'Dhampir', a human with vampire blood who has the power to easily destroy vampires. Although the Dhampir ends up being killed when mistaken for a vampire by a mob, his twin sister, also a Dhampir gets to defeat the vampire once and for all.

Fifth is "Demon Child" by Ramon Torrents (art) and James Crawford (story), from issue 26. An old man whose an expert on the paranormal suspects that his granddaughter is actually a demon known as a Changeling, who took her place shortly after her birth. His wife passed away soon after, which he suspects is because of the demon. His daughter and son in law don't believe him, thinking that they will have him committed due to this, although he is right after all as the ending shows.

Sixth is "The Vampiress Stalks the Castle This Night" by Felix Mas (art) and Don McGregor (story), from issue 21. A fairly good story about a pair of 17 year olds who have gotten pregnant who come across a large castle occupied by a vampiress. They are luckily able to stop her and escape. Some very nice art by Mas, much of which was used within the inside covers of the Warren companion.

Seventh is "Blood Brothers" by Isidro Mones (art) and Lynn Marron (story) from issue 26. Revolutionaries in Guatemala find a religious cult which they believe possesses gold that they can use to fund the revolution. One of the revolutionaries tries to join the cult and does so by replacing a member which he had killed. Yet when he is officially brought into the cult he is eaten by the others, which is what their plans were for the man he had killed.

Last is "The Accursed!" by Jose Bea (art) and Kevin Pagan (story), from issue 23. A man wanders through a graveyard, fighting off various creatures like a werewolf, vampire bats and rats. He is here to dig up and destroy the corpse of an evil man that has been buried in the graveyard. He digs up the man and destroys it, then collapses before his father's grave.

Vampirella 23

Sanjulian's cover of the Cobra Queen starts off this issue of Vampirella.

First is Vampirella in "The Blood Queen of Bayou Parish!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Steve Englehart (story). Vampirella and company head to New Orleans where it is rumored that a cult led by Father Jonas (from the prior issue) is. When they head there, Pendragon meets Sally, a woman who looks just like his ex wife Rosie. In actuality, Sally is a woman brought back from the dead after she killed herself and is able to look like any woman. She also happens to be working under Father Jonas, who wasn't defeated after all. Vampirella and company are able to defeat them once and for all.

Next is "Cobra Queen" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Don Glut (story). A trio of men head through the woods in search of a Cobra Queen that rules over a society of amazonesses. Along the way they keep seeing a large cobra. One of the men is soon killed by one. They finally reach the society, and meet the Cobra Queen who transforms into a giant cobra. One of the men however reveals that he too is a giant cobra, and transforms into one. The Cobra Queen and King then feast on the last remaining man. This story would get a sequel in issue 37.

Third is "Call it Companionship" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young woman buys a cat and soon starts acting like it, eating rats and angering her boyfriend, whom she ends up killing when he threatens to kill the cat.

Fourth is "The Accursed!" by Jose Bea (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A man wanders through a graveyard, fighting off various creatures like a werewolf, vampire bats and rats. He is here to dig up and destroy the corpse of an evil man that has been buried in the graveyard. He digs up the man and destroys it, then collapses before his father's grave.

Fifth is "The Witch's Promise" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A woman is accused as a witch and is hanged. Years later a soldier meets her daughter in the woods and they sleep together. He abandons her the next day but is captured and killed by a tree controlled by her when he passes by in a carriage later on.

Last is "Won't Eddie Ever Learn?" by Felix Mas (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A young thief heads to a farm, seeking to steal the truck there. The farm is owned by an old man and his blind daughter, who invite the thief to dinner. That night he robs the old man, killing him by striking him in the head. He falls to his death into the pig trough however, and ends up getting eaten by the pigs on the farm.

Creepy 42

Sanjulian's first ever Creepy cover starts off this issue, the first of three S.I. artists making their Creepy debut in this issue. The frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is drawn by Ken Kelly (a rare non-cover appearance) and written by T. Casey Brennan.

First up is "The Quaking Horror" by Auraleon (art, his Creepy debut) and Gardner Fox (story). This HP Lovecraft-esque story features a house that has a dark horror underneath it, a bizarre tentacled monster that was summoned hundreds of years ago. The entire house eventually collapses, destroying the demon for good. Some very nice art by Auraleon here.

Next is "A Change of Identity!" by Dave Cockrum (art) and Don Glut (story). A hunchbacked man attepts to get revenge on the townfolk that haven't treated him well by rescuing a killed werewolf, who becomes a vampire. The vampire promises to turn the hunchback into a werewolf so he can get revenge, but decides instead to kill him and turn him into a zombie guard.

Third is "The Amazing Money-Making Wallet" by Joe Staton (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story is about a wallet that generates money on its own, but if you ever get rid of it, you'll dissolve. A thief steals the wallet, causing his victim to dissolve, and eventually he dissolves as well when he gets rid of the wallet.

Fourth is "Spacial Delivery" by Larry Todd (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story is about a shapeshifting alien that crashes to our planet. In order to repair his ship he needs a metallic substance called Argentium. Taking the appearance of a wolf, he is accused of being a werewolf and is shot with a silver bullet, which ends up being the Argentium he needed to repair his ship and leave.

Fifth is "A Chronicle!" by Jorge Galvez (art, his Warren debut) and Steve Skeates (story). This short story at only 4 pages tells of a man who pays little attention to his life, focusing instead on a research project that ends up being meaningless when someone else completes it. He then gets fired from his job and tries to rob a bank but is killed trying to escape. Not much of a point to this story, wasting Galvez's pretty good art.

Sixth is "Escape From Nowhere World" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story is a sequel to Brennan's very poor story "On the Wings of a Bird" from issue 36. A woman, Janeen suddenly appears in the mysterious nowhere world where Ahzid and the statue are. She and Ahzid try to escape, dragging the statue with them. The statue collapses, and using its sword Janeen and Ahzid tear their way out of the world and escape, while the broken statue lies there alone.

Last is "Ice Wolf" by Gary Kaufman (story & art). This would be Kaufman's final Warren appearance. Unfortunate, as he was quite a unique artist and a pretty good writer too. A tribe of wolf hunters in a winter landscape completely run out of wolves to hunt, so they head through the mountains, still to no avail. One of the men on the night of the full moon gains special powers. Tribe members start dying, obviously due to him. Eventually a wolf finally does appear, and kills him.

Creepy 31

An extremely bizarre cover for this issue by Vaughn Bode and Larry Todd, their first for Warren. It features a chicken like creature standing over a torn apart robot man. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story).

First is "In the Face of Death!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Al Hewetson (story). A very short story at four pages featuring a man without a face who goes after a man named Arthur Merlin who stole his face. Only when he reaches Merlin he finds that he has lost track of time and become very old.

Next is "Telephoto Troll!" by Roger Brand (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story is about an astronomer who takes pictures of things on a far away planet only for them to appear when the photos are developed. This results in a monster from the planet appearing. He destroys the photo, saving himself, only for his wife to develop multiple copies, resulting in multiple monsters appearing!

Third is "A Night's Lodging!" by Maurice Whitman (art) and Rhea Dunne (story), originally printed in Creepy 17. This story is about a man who is confronted by vampires after getting into an accident with his carriage. He tells them if they let him live he'll build them a hotel and bring many victims to him. He does so, but is eventually turned into a vampire himself. A very lame rehash of "The Invitation" from Creepy 8, which had Whitman as one of the writes.

Fourth is "Snowmen!" by Tom Sutton (story & art). A rich man gets extremely over the town's failure to catch a child killer. His lonely son meanwhile makes snowmen in the yard when he refuses to let him play with anyone. A vagabond is blamed for the attacks when the rich man's son says he did it, so the vagabond is hung. Only it ends up that the little boy was the killer all along, leaving the corpses in his snowmen. A very good story, which would win the Warren award for best story of the year.

Fifth is "A Wooden Stake for Your Heart!" by Bill Black (art) and Don Glut (story). A local castle dweller is blamed for the populace for recent vampire attacks. Although he looks like a vampire he really isn't one, and when the townfolk stake him to death, they open a nearby door which contains a number of monsters he had locked up, which are now unleashed on the town.

Sixth is "Death of a Stranger" by Ernie Colon (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). A rather bizarre nonscensical story as usual from Brennan, about a man who thinks he's going to die, and that's what happens.

Last is "Laughing Liquid" by William Barry (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). This story is about a man who keeps having visions of alien like creatures and develops a fear of liquid for that's where they come from.

Eerie 25

A whopping eight stories in this issue, six of them new. This issue features a cover by Jim Steranko, his sole one for Warren. The frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Vampire!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story).

Up first is "Isle of the Vrukolakas" by Ernie Colon (art) and Don Glut (story). A town is plagued by a vampire. Zorko, a sheep herder is convinced that the vampire is the corpse of a man recently brought to the town. They consult a priest, who says the vampire's body will not be decayed. They find the corpse of the man brought to the town, but it is completely decayed so they now have no clue who the vampire could be. Yet it ends up that he was the vampire after all as he had leprosy, and he comes to kill Zorko!

Next is "Mistake!" by Bill Black (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). A mob boss plans to hide from the law by faking his death in Italy. There, in his home town he bribes various people to fake his death, declare him dead, and bury him in a maesoleum in a coffin with air holes so he can live. When he awakens he tries to escape the graveyard, only for people to mistake him for a vampire and kill him!

Third is "Hijack to Horror" by Tony Williamsune (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story features a group of vampire like creatures that hijack a plane and bring it to their new Transylvania where they plan on using the plane passengers to be a never ending supply of blood for them.

Fourth is "To Pay the Piper" by Eugene Colan (art) and Larry Ivie (story), originally from Eerie 2.. The story takes place in a town plagued by vampires. A piper offers to rid the town of the vampires by playing a song on his pipe in exchange for money. He does so and rids the town of vampires, but the town refuses to pay, so using his pipe he lures the children away, as in the classic Pied Piper story. Men wait for him in the woods however and kill him with arrows. They soon find however that he lured the children into wolfsbane, turning them all into werewolves!

Fifth is "Southern Exposure" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story). This is the first part of a two part story that would be concluded in the next issue. A woman faints at a family party and an old woman who hasn't spoke in years says she must be destroyed. Her boyfriend refuses to do so, but at the end of the story, it is revealed that she is a vampire!

Sixth is "The Thing in the Cave" by Mike Royer (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). Finally, a story not about vampires! A young man and his wife come to visit his parents. The man, who studies funguses, as investigating a mushroom that transforms anything that touches it into a monster! When he and his wife visit a cave and approach some, he turns into a monster and kills her, exactly what he had done to a friend when he was a kid. His mother meanwhile plans on cooking dinner with the mushrooms, unaware of their power.

Seventh is "House of Evil", with art by Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) & Joe Orlando, and story by Archie Goodwin. This story is originally from Eerie 4. A man comes to a large house where his brother lived but finds only a tape recording there, telling him of how he came to the house, which has an evil past, for inspiration. Suddenly a rotting corpse arrives. The man destroys the corpse, but soon finds that it was his own brother! He then looks at his hands and realizes that he's starting to rot as well.

Last is "Hex Marks the Spot" by Bill Barry (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). An evil man summons demons to attack those that won't sell their farms to him. But anyone who has a 'good hex' symbol at their house will cause the demon to go back and kill the one who summoned it instead of them. Once such man has a new wife who demands he take down the good hex signs as she doensn't believe him. He does so, but creates another hex sign in his wheat field which results in the evil man getting his just desserts.

Eerie 24

This issue came out right around when Warren was starting to rebuild itself from the horrendous state it had fallen into in the late 1960's. Alas, that still means there's some reprinted material here. The cover is by Vic Prezio, featuring a giant ghost near a lighthouse.
This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Perchance to Dream" by Tom Sutton.

Up first is the cover story, "Head For the Lighthouse!" by Mike Royer (art) and Bill Parente (story). A rather disjointed story with a poor narrative at times, it features an old lighthouse keeper who enjoys telling stories of pirates to young kids. The city decides to replace the light in the lighthouse and the old man dies, but comes back as a corpse and turns things back to normal.

Second is a reprint from the very first issue of Creepy, "Pursuit of the Vampire" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a group of townspeople being joined by a stranger who tells them two murder victims are actually going to turn into vampires since a vampire was their killer. He leads them to a house where they are and kill them. The town leader ends up being the vampire that killed them, but the stranger, who is a werewolf kills him to eliminate competition for victims.

Third is "The Immortality Seeker" by Tom Sutton (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). A man overhears another man talking of immortality, so he follows him and kills him. Taking a map from the man, he heads to a planet and kills a monster, and finally finds a computer that will give him immortality. Only the computer ends up freezing him!

The following story is "Checkmate" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Ron Parker (story). A man meets an old friend at his his house, who possesses a chess set made up of demonic pieces. They play and the friend eventually wins. He tells the man that he needs to play someone every night to keep the chess set and if someone beats him they get it. But if he wins, he gets to take their soul, which is exactly what happens to our protagonist.

Fifth is "Scavenger Hunt", with art by Jerry Grandenetti and story by Don Glut. A short fat guy who loves the macabre keeps ruining parties, so the guests come up with a scavenger hunt of part of various monsters to keep him busy and out of their hair. He is able to find all the items however and returns to the party with them... along with the monsters they belong to!

Sixth story is another reprint, "Dracula's Guest" from Eerie 16. The art is by Frank Bolle and the story is by E. Nelson Bridwell. This story is originally from a Christopher Lee book of comic stories. It is an adaption of the events that occur in the novel Dracula prior to the start of the well known story in Translvania.

Last is "Wrong Tennant" by Reed Crandall and Bill Parente. A pair of ghost hunters arrive to help an old woman eliminate a ghost from her house. They initially have difficulty and one of them is killed, but the ghost is able to be stopped using electricity. Only it ends up the ghost was actually a victim of the old woman, who is a vampire and kills the last remaining ghost hunter. This story would be rewritten and published in color in Creepy 74 in 1975.

Vampirella 18

An average issue of Vampi behind a terrific Enrich cover featuring Vampi and Dracula, one of his best covers he ever did for this magazine. The frontis for this issue is "Vampi's Feary Tales: Nymphs" by Luis Garcia (art) and Kevin Pagan (story).

First is Vampi's story, entitled "Dracula Still Lives!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). Continuing from the Dracula appearance in Vampirella 16, Dracula is once again brought to life when another man sits inside his coffin. He summons the conjuress, a powerful woman he had originally summoned when he was on Drakulon. Vampi meanwhile heads after Dracula into a mirror world where she decides to spare his life. Conrad, believing she is going to turn his son into a vampire seeks to destroy the mirror, trapping her in there forever, but Vampi is able to make it out okay.

Next is a segment of Tomb of the Gods, "Kali" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). As usual, this Tomb of the Gods segment is rather incomprehensible. It surrounds a young woman, Kali, who is set to be a sacrifice by her tribe, but instead is given powers and returns to her tribe where she is attacked and killed for real.

After that is "Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story). McGregor's story is somewhat better than usual, helped tremendously by Garcia's extremely good art, but still contains his usual political nonsense. It surrounds a young woman who summons a sorceress after being dumped by a man she was seeing. The sorceress takes over her body, changes form and takes out revenge on the man by transforming into a giant snake and killing him. Only the sorceress decides to retain her body and won't give it back after the deed is done.

Up next is "Won't Get Fooled Again" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). A rather complicated story featuring a woman and lover cooking up a complicated scheme where her husband will believe that she got married by a ghost and kill a rich old man she was having an affair with who shares the name of the ghost, but isn't actually one. As it ends up, the husband does kill the old man and is arrested, but the ghost is real and kills the two lovers.

The issue wraps up with "The Dorian Gray Syndrome" by Felix Mas (art) and Don Glut (story). A newspaper reporter seeks information on a young man who appears to have the same powers as the Dorian Gray of the well known Oscar Wilde story where a painting of the man ages in his place. Only it is revealed here that the painting was actually redone by the man himself, and he appears eternally young because he is a vampire! By stabbing the painting however, our hero miraculously is able to save herself and kill him.

Eerie 36

The cover for this issue is by Enrich, featuring... a hand! The frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery - Atoms" by Pablo Marcos (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story).

First is "Bad Moon on the Rise!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story surrounds a series of murders taking place by a werewolf. The werewolf is suspected as being the killer and is finally confronted on the night of the full moon. But an eclipse causes him to turn into a human and is killed, with the detectives thinking that the werewolf is still out there on the loose.

Next is "The Silence and the Sleep" by Rubio (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A jealous man kills the boyfriend of a woman he likes. She is so shocked that she becomes mute and is put in an institution. The killer, a piano player, hopes to keep the secret, but is eventually found out and arrested.

Third is "Prototype" by Bruce Jones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Bruce Jones was quite a prolific writer for Warren during the late 70's, but did do a couple of art jobs for them around this time. This story, done completely in pencil, features Skeates's recurring character Targos, who is captured by odd looking sea creatures who create a robot clone of him to attack Atlantis. Fairly good story, although the ending, where the creatures abandon their attack was a tad confusing to me.

Fourth is "Look What They've Done!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This unique story breaks the fourth wall, having the lead character argue with the writer and plead to the reader. A hippie, he refuses to go along with the plot, and ends up getting killed by an alien.

After that is "Crocodile", with art by Mascaro and story by Don Glut. Natives kill crocodiles for a scientist experimenting on the natives, trying to turn them into powerful crocodile men. He finally finds the solution, but his former assistant, one of the natives, turns on him and injects it into him. He turns into a crocodile and heads outside, only to be killed by other natives who seek to turn him over to the scientist!

Next is "The Trap" by L.M. Roca (art) and Greg Potter (story). A disgraced detective locks himself in a crypt with another man, telling him he'll only get the key if he kills him. He presses on the man until he finally kills him, only for that man to discover that there is no key, and hence no way out. The detective wanted to solve a crime and punish a criminal so much that he did it by getting himself killed!

Last is "Oh, Brother!" with art by Dave Cockrum and Steve Skeates yet again doing the story. Two monsters arrive in modern time and are promptly killed by the police. The story takes a step back to explain things, that these monsters were actually responsible for the creation of humanity when they tampered with time and screwed up their own history, erasing it and resulting in humans having control of the Earth.

Vampirella 9

Another early issue of Vampirella; this has an odd cover featuring one by Boris Vallejo that is actually shrunken and surrounded by some art from Wally Wood's internal story, in black and white. An odd cover design that was never repeated by Warren. The frontis for this issue is "Vampi's Feary Tales: Lilith" by Jeff Jones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story).

First story is "The Testing!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Vampi in this tale investigates Chaos by finding a book about them at a library. An evil witch there however and a corpse she brought back to life fight Vampi, who luckily is able to defeat them. At the same time, Conrad and Adam Van Helsing continue their pursuit of Vampirella and plan when they'll take her out.

Second up is "Monster Bait!" with art by Joe Wehrle and story by Don Glut. A girl is pursued by a dinosaur like creature in a cave. A hero arrives and saves her and heads to her kingdom with her. Only when he arrives he finds that it was actually a trap to bring him to a group of vampires, which kill him. The art on the female lead in this story is quite dreadful, as she looks rather manly.

Following is "Fate's Cold Finger!" by Ken Barr (art) and Doug Moench (story). A man, Frank, is spurned by a girl he likes, who goes with a much more successful man instead. Frank decides to kill himself, but is always unsuccessful at doing it. The girl meanwhile decides she dislikes the successful man since all he talks about is money, so she calls up Frank and says she'll go out with him. But as he leaves the house, an icicle falls on him, killing him!

Fourth is "The Curse" by Wally Wood (story & art). 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 "Jack the Ripper Strikes Again" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Chris Fellner (story). This story features an investigation of a Jack the Ripper esque murderer. While many suspects are found and executed, they always end up being the wrong person. Eventually it ends up that the secretary to the detectives investigating the case is the killer.

Sixth is "The Boy Who Loved Trees!" by Barry Smith (art) and Barry Smith & Gardner Fox (story). The story features a boy who finds creatures that live in the woods, that only he can see. He heads there to party with them, and the neighborhood bully and friends follow and beat him up. The creatures from the woods save our hero however, and kill all the bullies.

Last story is "The Work Order For the Day" by Alac Justice (story & art). An odd tale told in the future, 1985, where humanity works based on orders from a large machine. A lightning storm destroys the machine, leading to some interesting revelations.

Eerie 32

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Richard Corben of a beautiful woman and a beast like man. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur" by Clif Jackson.

Up first is "Superhero" by Tom Sutton (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features a superhero battling crime in the city. The local mob does all they can to stop him, even sending an expert hit man after him, but he fails as well. At the end of the story it is revealed that the superhero is a vampire. The local cops worry about what will happen if the city runs out of criminals.

Second is "The Waking of the Hawk!" by Clif Jackson & Syd Shores (art) and Gardner Fox (story). A pair of explorers in the mountains find a hidden cave with a hawk-like man, frozen, and various advanced technological devices. One of the men, seeking to get rich off the devices, thaws the hawk-like man, and kills his companions. He nurses the hawk man back to health with the promise that he'll explain the devices. They leave the cave and come across the flying saucer the hawk man came to Earth in. The hawk man kills the explorer however and eats him so he'll be strong enough to fix his ship.

Third is "The Wailing Tower!" by Frank Bolle (art) and Larry Herndon (story). It features a man who is in a plane crash but is rescued by monks who live near a tower they call "The Wailing Tower". Seeing the jewels in their possession, the man steals them, but is caught, and flees from them into the tower. He reaches the top where he discovers that the monks have been worshipping Satan!

Fourth is "Bookworm" with art by Richard Corben and story by Gerald Conway. A man goes to work as an apprentice to an elderly man with a large book collection. The elderly man tells him how he's studying the black arts. One night our hero discovers the old man dragging a corpse with him and follows him. The elderly man is in a crazed state and attacks him, but is killed by the apprentice. Suddenly a giant worm appears, who the elderly man had been finding food for, and forces the apprentice to start supplying him with food from now on.

Fifth is "I Fell For You" by Jack Sparling (art) and John Wooley (story). A girl yearns after a rich singer who she had spurned in her youth. The two get married, but she plots with his agent to have him killed by falling out of a plane. That happens, but his body falls on their car, causing a crash that kills all of them.

Sixth is "Soul Power!" by Mike Royer (art) and Don Glut (story). A man is deathly afraid of dying and rotting away, so he deals with Satan to live forever. He lives forever, but ages as normally and at about 200 years old collapses in the desert because his body is so decrepit. When vultures start attacking him he willingly sumits himself to Satan.

Last is "Ice World" by Bill Barry (story & art). It features astronauts who land on a frozen planet. Before long however, the temperature starts rising tremendously and beasts appear. They try to escape to no avail. It ends up that they landed in a freezer that was being defrosted.
Overall, a pretty good issue! Not a single bad story here.