Eerie 118

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Jordi Penalva. Unfortunately this issue doesn't live up to the quality of the prior one. It is cover dated January 1981.

First is a new series, 'Haggarth' in "Skull of the Three Snakes" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Similar to Haxtur, this series was originally printed in Europe and was reprinted in Eerie for a very lengthy run. A group of five Tunic warriors, led by Haggarth head to take an artifact, the Skull of Three Snakes from a valley of clansmen. A young man catches them coming and warns his people, who do battle with the Tunic warriors. All the warriors are killed, and the young man is blinded. He is helped out by a local old man, and along the way they find Haggarth, who is actually still alive as well. The old man tells the young man of Arnia, a witch who would be able to heal his eyesight. A so-so start to this new series. Haxtur ended up being a fairly good series so hopefully Fuente does as well with this one too.

Next is Steel Starfire: Tales from the Galactic Inn by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The story features Steel, our hero, who continously rescues women from the clutches of his enemy Cyber, a man who is half man half machine thanks to Steel. Eventually Steel is captured by the women themselves, who never wanted to be rescued in the first place. He then ends up turning to none other than Cyber himself for help. Tremendously dissappointing because this story is exactly the same as the story "Mike Marauder: Knight Errant of the Spaceways!" from 1994 #22. I've never been a big fan of Margopoulos, but this is just pathetic. This story came before the other one though, so I suppose that story receives the bigger criticism.

Third is "The Red Shot" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This is Bezaire's first appearance in quite a while and his last story for Warren as well. It surrounds a competition where many people battle over control of a ball, and after an hour whoever controls it wins. Yes, the story is that lame. Quite a dissappointment for the usually quite good Bezaire.

Last is "Space Kids" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). This story features a group of psychic kids who live off on another planet. A boy starts realizing he has powers too and can hear them talking to him. He is visited by the space kids, who are disguised as adults, and recruited to join them. They next plan to head to a backwater planet called... Earth. Fernandez's last Warren story, it was originally created back in 1975 but for some reason was held by Warren in inventory for 6+ years instead of being published around the time of his other stories. Its much weaker than his other stories, perhaps that is why.

Eerie 108

Jim Laurier provides a cover painting of a giant spider in this issue of Eerie.

First is "A Lion in Our Midst" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features an interstellar war between a race of lion-like humanoids and humans. A third group called Gadfly tries to broker peace between the two by taking on the disguise of the leaders of each army. They are able to successfully broker peace, although they are killed while leaving by the leader of the human forces.

Second is "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story continues the series theme of our heroes battling giant insects. Monica is saved from the flood by Thomas, but by the end of the story pretty much the exact same thing happens as she is caught in a waterfall. Little dialogue in this fast paced, poor story. I'm still waiting for something interesting to happen after four parts.

Third is "A Juggler's Tale", the latest Samurai story. Art is by Val Mayerik and story is by Larry Hama. The issue's best story, it features Samurai and the princess joining a carnival as blind performers. The head of the carnival had his daughter kidnapped by the Yagyu clan and plans to kill Samurai to get her back, but the princess helps him kill the man. They escape, with the one eyed head of the Yagyu Clan quickly on their tail.

Fourth is "Race of the Damned" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Norman Mundy & Cary Bates (story). This story features a race taking place in space. Like all of the stories of this type published by Warren, this is an extremely dull and boring story.

Last is "Growing Pains" by Mike Zech (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story features a baby that kills its parents. A rather simple story with not much of a point to it.

1984 9

A fairly good issue of 1984. The cover for this issue is by Patrick Woodroffe, featuring a spaceship taking off.

First story is "Break Even" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This is... believe it or not... a well thought out, intelligent story to kick off an issue of 1984 that doesn't feature sex! It features a pair of astronauts hired to scope out the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter who find a very small planet that's actually a shrunk gas giant planet which they end up destroying. If only every issue could start off like this.

The second part of "Herma", by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story) is second. Herma, refuses to sleep with the Mexican 'sultan' she's been brought to and actually convinces his entire group of wives to leave him. They head through the Mexican desert where they find some more men, who of course they end up sleeping with. Herma is recruited to a whore house where her first customer is actually a talent scout for his mother's movie studio. That's where the story ends, to be concluded in the next issue. As with the prior part, a rather poor story, but very attractive art by Gonzalez.

Third is the issue's best story, "A Clear and Present Danger!" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man is distraught over the death of his beautiful wife, and agrees to go back in time to prevent the birth of an 'Archbishop' that controls their society and was responsible for her death. In the past he finds the Archbishop's mother, pregnant with him, and pushes her off a cliff, causing a miscarriage. He returns to the present only to find that his actions in the pasts caused his wife to never marry him, and he married a hideous fat woman instead.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Starfire" by Herb Arnold & Frank Springer (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The issue's poorest story, this is about a flying ace who is just a 13 year old boy and a rival who wants to get revenge on him. The rival sneaks up on the boy in the men's locker room showever, where he has suddenly become a woman, he tries to rape 'him', but gets killed. A very odd story that doesn't make much sense. I miss Mutant World already!

Fifth is "Humungus", part of the Rex Havoc series, returning after a multi-issue absense. Art is by Abel Laxamana and story is by Jim Stenstrum. Rex Havoc and the Asskickers of the Fantastic head to Japan, and this story parodies Godzilla. By this point I have had about enough of Rex Havoc and they must have thought the same thing as this was the series's final appearance.

Last is "The Schmoo Connection" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An odd story that is hard to make much sense of due to the poor dialogue and some very exotic, but hard to understand art by Nino. It appears to be about a woman whose husband committed suicide, which is somehow connected to Schmoos, creatures which can change their appearance to satisfy any person's sexual desires. Similar in nature to the story "Snarking Down" from Vampirella 86.

Creepy 120

This issue features a rare Jeff Jones cover, originally done back in 1975. Rudy Nebres contributes a one page Uncle Creepy intro.

First story is "Deathwatch" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). An old woman keeps alive by refusing Death each time the Grim Reaper comes for her. She befriends a sick young boy in the hospital and finds that he's soon going to die. To save the boy's life, she finally offers herself to the Reaper in order to take the boy's place. A terrific story to start the issue, the best stuff here.

Next is "Hell house" by Jesus Blasco (art, miscredited to Jaime Brocal) and Jim Stenstrum (story, credited to Alabaster Redzone). This story features a hippie and three beautiful women with him who sneak into a seemingly deserted house which is actually occupied by a small impish monster that rapes and kills them all.

Third is "Black Rainbow" by Rueben Yandoc (art, his Warren debut) and Budd Lewis (story). Men in a submarine find a mechanical device deep below the ocean. Soon after finding it a black ring surrounds the Earth and starts blasting the surface with fire, killing all of humanity. The last survivors, who escaped by being out in space think that an alien race planted the device to destroy humanity once they became too advanced.

Fourth is "One Mind, Closed for Alterations!" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The mafia is suspicious of a senator running for president, so they plot to manipulate a mentally unstable man to get him to kill them through subliminal messages. It works and the senator is killed, and the assassin is killed immediately afterwards, making it looks like he was on his own. The mob boss soon is manipulated in the same way to kill himself however by the man who created the subliminal messages. This man then kills himself over fear that it could happen to him as well.

Fifth is "A Taste for Heroes" by Carmine Infantino & Pablo Marcos (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is about a kayak race on a river rumored to be where Ulysses blinded a cyclops. Along the river are numerous traps that kill all of the kayakers except one, who believes that the cyclops is still out there.

"Winterbeast" by Val Mayerik (art) and Budd Lewis (story) is next. This story is told from the perspective of a wolf being chased by french hunters. While the wolf is shot by them a giant indian woman appears and saves him, freezing the men.

Last is "Black Snow" by Herb Arnold (art, his Creepy debut) and Jeff Rovin (story). This story surrounds an author working on a book who sees black snow falling from the sky. Thinking its the apocalypse, he goes out to see if a lady friend is okay but finds her dead. With her dog he wanders around looking to see if anyone else is around.

Overall a so-so issue. No real terrible stories, but aside from the first one, nothing that great either. The art is for the most part quite good here though.

Vampirella 71

Here's another issue of Vampirella featuring a photograph of Barbara Leigh, as Vampirella.

First up is "The Case of the Connected Clows and the Collector!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi is in Hollywood with Pantha, working on shooting for a movie. Meanwhile movie stars have been dissappearing including one working on the movie. It ends up that a crazed man at the production studio has been kidnapping them and he does so to Vampi, who is able to escape. A parallel storyline featuring Pantha and her encounter with siamese twins with domineering sexual habits also takes place. In contrast to the recent Vampi stories I've been reviewing, this is a pretty good story, with terrific art by Gonzalez.

"Trial of the Sorceress" is next, by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story). It features a woman accused of being a sorceress by multiple men. She is found guilty and is tortured. At the end it seems that one of the accusers set her up for defying him, but she ends up being an actual sorceress and takes her revenge.

"Night of the Chicken" is third, by Jess Jodloman (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). This is a bizarre story about an old man who feeds real humans to his chickens. The story features multiple women dressing up in a strange chicken outfit. In the end the old man ends up getting eaten by his own chicken. Quite an odd story, but very good art.

Fourth is "Machu Picchu" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Josep Toutain & Nicola Cuti (story). This story was originally intended to be for an additional Warren magazine, 'Yesterday, Today... Tomorrow', but the magazine was never published, so it ended up here in Vampirella. The story features a treasure hunter at an Incan temple to tries to take the treasure there, and instead encounters astronauts, who tell him that its uranium! He doesn't listen to them and is killed along with the woman who has been helping them.

Last is "Australopithicus" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story features two storylines, one taking place with prehistoric man and one taking place with a man in modern times being forced to do things he doesn't want to do. The storylines converge at the end, with disastrous results for our main character. Very good art by Duranona in the prehistoric part of the story.