Creepy 46

Running low on Eerie's in my backlog for the moment, so I'll be tackling another Creepy today.

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated July 1972. Two segments of Creepy's Loathsome Lore in this issue. The first, "The Undertaker's Model" by Luis Garcia (art) and Jack Butterworth (story) is in the inside front cover, while "Monsters of the Id!" by Clif Jackson (story & art) is in the inside back cover.

First is "Cross of Blood" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story is about a vampire, how he became one, and the many deaths he encounters. He is able to survive death by being staked multiple times due to followers and others that end up pulling stakes out of him. Eventually however he is done in by his latest lover when the shadow of a cross becomes his doom.

Second is "Behold the Cybernite!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Margopoulos's first Warren story is pretty good, too bad he didn't stay this good throughout his career. This story features an alien that exists solely as a brain; it is from a planet where all the lifeforms have given up their human bodies in exchange for robot ones controlled by their brains. He is told by his leader to take over Earth so they can use its resources. But his ship is damaged and he arrives in a junk yard where the entire ship, including him and his robot body are crushed.

Third is "On the Ninth Day of Satan" by Felix Mas (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). This story features a man that comes to a village in search of a friend, finding that the villagers are wary of him because they are said to be in the clutch of Satan. This includes Cerberus, an agent of Satan that appears in the village as a human. A so-so story that isn't that good compared to what else is here, but Mas's art is his usual good quality.

Fourth is "I Invisible" by Jose Bea (story & art). A very fun to read story, featuring a scientist who creates a formula that can make a person invisible. He uses it on himself then goes to sleep. He awakens later to find that it only partially worked; his skin is now invisible, but his organs are clearly visible! He goes to the lab to try and find a solution and passes out. An intern responsible for disposing of bodies then thinks he is one, and puts him in the furnace! Bea was an expert at extremely bizarre looking stories and this is certainly one of them.

Fifth is the cover story "Spellbound" by Luis Garcia (art) and Lynn Marron (story). A powerful knight, Delmar is recruited by an old crone to obtain a magical box from a neighboring kingdom for her. In exchange, he will rule the country by her side. He travels to the neighboring country where he rescues a beautiful woman, Eileen from a pack of wolves. She brings him to her home where she lives with Flavin, a scholar. When Delmar follows Flavin to the basement to find where the box he is looking for is he is imprisoned. Eileen frees him, under the assumption that he'll depart with her. But he instead takes the box and leaves on his own. As soon as he leaves with the box the entire castle and its inhabitants, including Eileen and Flavin decay and die. Delmar returns the box to the crone, who immediately becomes young and beautiful. He passes on his reward however and leaves. Fairly good story, certainly helped a lot by Luis Garcia's tremendous artwork. It was the first story of his I'd ever read so it certainly is a memorable one to me.

Sixth is "Night Watch" by Jorge Galvez (art) and E.A. Fedory (story). This story was originally a fan page submission that got turned into an actual official Warren story. It features a pair of night watchmen who for fun go hunting for bats during their shift. One of the men comes across a vampire during his hunt and is bitten by it. Later the other man goes hunting and ends up killing his former colleague, who is now a vampire himself.

Last is "Friedhelm the Magnificent" by Richard Corben (art) and Greg Potter (story). A daredevil is famous for his ability to jump from high heights and survive the fall. In actuality he only survives the falls because of a deal he has with two men who have the power to keep him alive. When they request he uphold his part of the bargain by killing himself however, he refuses and instead kills one of the men. The next day he goes on his latest jump however and falls straight down to hell, into the hands of their master, Satan.

Creepy 38

Ken Kelly's cover of an axe wielding maniac starts off this issue. It was Kelly's first cover for Creepy. Clif Jackson provides the frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Killer Plants!"

First story is "Wooden Cross!" by Rich Buckler (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young man is called to a town by his uncle only to find him dead of a 'plague' when he gets there. It ends up that the plague is actually a vampire. The young man suspects the vampire is the head of the town, but it ends up being the son of the town doctor who he manages to kill with a cross after being made a vampire himself. Buckler's art appears very heavily influenced by Angelo Torres in this story.

Next is "The Vengeance of the Hanged!" by Syd Shores (art) and Chris Fellner (story). A corrupt judge sentences innocent people to die by hanging, doing so for some just to show his power to an enemy lawyer. One night he has a dream of being pursued by the corpses of the innocent people he's had hanged over the years. During the dream he is hung by them. He is found dead of a heart attack the next day, with rope burns appearing on his neck.

Next is "Sticks and Stones to Break Their Bones" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Stu Schwartzburg (story). A man finds many ancient carvings of people with modern weapons. This causes him to go to the military, telling them that ancient civilizations must have reached modern levels only to be wiped out, forcing civilization to start over. The military doensn't believe him, choosing to focus on their latest weapon... a primitive catapult. Not much of a sensical ending here.

Fourth is "The Way Home!" by Mike Royer (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). A disoriented man talks to manequins, sits in a bar occupied by skeletons, and has dreams of going home to see his mother, who is with another boy, and kills her. He sees a black haired woman in a trenchcoat who says she'll bring him home... which ends up being a cemetary.

Royer provides the art again for the following story, "Sleepwalker!", with writing by Gerry Conway. A young woman beliees herself to be a vampire and attends therapy to cure herself of it, which she believes is successful. The killings continue however. She soon realizes that her husband is the true culprit, who had it blamed on her. Not only that, but he's a ghoul, who makes her his next victim.

Sixth is "Secret of the Haunted Room!" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Warren (story). A young man is given a house as part of his inheritance, under the condition that he live there for the rest of his days. The house is haunted however, and he soon meets a young woman inside who claims to be from 1910, not the present year, 1970. It ends up that she's a vampire, and makes him her next victim. This story is enhanced by inclusion of some real life shots, a shot of the cover, and some extra detailed drawings from Colon.

The story concludes with "The Cosmic All" by Wally Wood (story & art). Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. They finally find a planet with humanoid people who attack them and are killed, leaving behind a message that their death was clean compared to whats going to happen to the astronauts. They decide to sleep there and the next morning two of the astronauts find everyone else reduced to skeletons. They escape, but one of them sends their ship crashing to Earth. Immediately after the flesh falls off their bodies, turning into the blob seen before, known as the 'Cosmic All' that is bringing peace to the universe by turning everyone to blobs. A very interesting sci-fi story.

Creepy 39

A whopping four artists' Warren debuts highlight this issue of Creepy. The art is by Basil Gogos. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Evil Eye!" by Clif Jackson (art) and Richard Grose (story).

First story is "Where Satan Dwells..." by Sal Trapani (art) and Al Hewetson (story). This story is a rarity, it actually stars Uncle Creepy himself! Uncle Creepy, getting bored of just telling stories seeks to find an adventure of his own. He comes across a bookstore where the bookkeeper gives him a book with the same title as this story. He reads the book and suddenly finds himself in a position where he has to save the bookkepper and his family from the evil spirit Groton. It ends up being a dream, and the bookkeeper ends up being Cousin Eerie!

Second is "C.O.D. - Collect on Death!" by Dave Cockrum (art, his debut) and Dave Wood (story). A man makes a deal with the devil to spurn death, but in exchange he must kill someone each day. If he misses even a single day, he will die himself. This eventually forces him to kill his own fiance when he loses track of time due to her. Her brother leads him to a desert to kill him. He does so, but is told that he's so far away from society there's no way he'll be able to kill someone else within a day, which results in his ultimate demise.

Third is "The Water World", featuring the debut of artist Pablo Marcos. The story is written by Buddy Saunders. A trio of astronauts crash on a water filled world and drift aimlessley on a raft over very clear water. Soon two are dead and the last remaining one fishes using the remains of one of the others. This catches a fish, but one so huge that it ends up eating him!

"Death by the Wizard" with art and story by Pat Boyette is next. Not as good a story as usual from the usually excellent Boyette. It features the Wizard Merlin who is facing his own demise due to a woman he was with. He is turned into a tree by her.

Fifth is "Harvest of Horror!" by Frank Brunner (art) and Phil Seuling (story). This story interestingly enough features three different endings, surrounding a man who is on the run, finding a scarecrow in a field. A rather interesting concept, surprised that Warren didn't use it more often.

Sixth is "The Dragon Prow!" with Richard Bassford (art, his debut) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features a serf who wishes for freedom so he tries to steal a horse and escape, but he is captured and put aboard a boat as a slave. A sea storm causes the ship to crash and he thinks he finally has his freedom only to realize that he died in the crash.

Last is the debut of Gary Kaufman, in "Mad Jack's Girl". The Jack of the title is a gang leader who does a lot of bad deeds. His girlfriend tries to steer him right but can't do it. Eventually she gathers up corpses of his victims then kills him and sets him up in a dinner setting with them.

Creepy 40

A terrific cover for this issue, by Larry Todd & Vaughn Bode. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Loch Ness Monster" by Clif Jackson (art) and Al Hewetson (story).

First up is the cover story, "The Fade-Away Walk" by Tom Sutton (art) and Don McGregor (story, his Warren debut). Taking place after a nuclear holocost, the story features two mutated men fighting around Mt. Rushmore. One of the men falls to his death after what else, but one of McGregor's typical pseudo-political ramblings between the two.

Second is "The Impersonation" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A secret agent who poses as other people tries to get out of the line of work since the real person always shows up. His boss convinces him to go on another mission because the guy he's impersonating is dead, so what happens? The guy comes back from the dead to reveal the truth yet again! They are both put into a trap they must escape from and the dead guy vanishes, trapping the agent in there for good.

"Swamp Demon" by Dave Cockrum (story & art) features a swamp monster that can appear as anything to someone who sees it. The natives sacrifice maidens to it, so one warrior heads into rescue his girl when it ends up being her. He thinks he kills the swamp demon and rescues her, but it ends up that the swamp demon survived and took her place.

"Disintegrator" is fourth, by Ken Barr (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). The story features a man who creates a disintegrator gun to gain back his life after his business partner swindled him. The business partner steals the gun from him, but it ends up that the disintegrator power was within him all along, not within the gun.

Next is "Lost and Found" by George Roussos (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A wizard loses his ability to walk through solid things, which is transferred to a man in the present. The man tries to steal from a bank vault with the power but the wizard gets it back just as he's going through the vault. The last panel is rather confusing, saying he dies because the vault passes through him, shouldn't it be the other way around?

Last is "Dual Dragon" by Gary Kaufman (story & art). Kaufman was a fairly good artist & writer who did about a half a dozen or so stories around this time for Warren. The story features a man who tries to defeat a dragon to impress a girl. A blind old man living in a cave gives him a necklace which enables him to find the dragon, but it results in him killing the girl instead! Afterwards, with the necklace on his neck he looks for her but can't find her, even though her decapitated head is right in front of him.

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.

Eerie 33

Our odd looking cover for this issue is for the interior story Starvisions, both done by Larry Todd. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur" by Clif Jackson.

First up is "A Trip in Time!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A man creates a time machine, thinking that his appearance in the past will have no impact. And it doesn't, because as he arrives in the past, he and his time machine quickly vanish entirely!

Second is "243 Blank Pages" by George Roussos (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A man finds a book which will cause anyone whose name is written in it then consequently burned to vanish. He does so to an enemy of his, but then becomes paranoid that the police are after him and destroys the book in a fire, having forgotten that he wrote his own name in it!

Next is "Whom the Gods Would Destroy" by Ken Barr (art) and Marvin Wolfman (story). A well written story about a battle consuming all who remain on Earth. It is eventually revealed that our heroes are battling only a hospital with self-defense forces, and soon only two are let, who die as well.

Fourth is "Escape Into Chaos" by Ernie Colon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Probably the issue's worst story, it is about a man who keeps being plagued by bugs and other monsters, yet forgets about it and encounters the same fate over and over.

The cover story, "Starvisions" by Larry Todd (story & art) is our next one, a bizarre story about a large funnel like creature that appears to be made up of many stones that encounters a few stranded astronauts which it believes are just a figment of its imagination.

"The Pest" is next, by Richard Corben (art) and Al Hewetson (story). A bug killing device is created that uses toxic gas, and causes problems for ill adults or children. Its creator is getting rich off of it and could care less until he turns into a bug himself, well at least thinks he does, and dies of a heart attack.

Last is "The Painting in the Tower" by Pat Boyette (art) and Gardner Fox (story). An evil baron takes an artist's daughter and has his hands cut off when he refuses payment. The girl hangs herself soon after. The baron sees her corpse come back to life and lead him to a part of his castle where the father's chopped off hands paint a picture of him being tortured, and he slowly vanishes as the painting is completed.