Eerie 119

Bob Larkin provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated February 1981. A mere three stories in this issue, quite a disappointment.
First is a new character, Zud Kamish in "Accept No Substitute" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). The usually dependable Stenstrum provides a very long, drawn out, boring story featuring the outer space cowboy Zud. Some of the plots in this story include an ex wife suing Zud for more alimony and robots planning a rebellion against mankind that frame other robots. 27 pages long, and not one that is interesting or has good art.

Next is "Sindy Starfire" by Reuben Yandoc (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Sindy is a girl whose parents, sister and boyfriend are all killed by outlaws within mere minutes of one another. Sindy herself has her eye torn out, her hand destroyed, and is bound to the ground, left for dead. Sindy is helped by an old native american who gives her a robotic hand. She then gets revenge on the leader of the outlaws. This would be the only Sindy Starfire story.

Last is "Haggarth" in "Eyes of the Dead!" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). The old man, Mathias brings the injured Haggarth and young blind man meet up with Arnia the witch. Unfortunately Haggarth dies before she can do anything. The blind young man she cannot help, but then she comes up with a plan to pull of Haggarth's face and place it over the young man's, which works, giving back his sight, but also partially giving him Haggarth's personality too. Meanwhile one of the warriors who has the stolen tribal idol opens it, which reveals a ray of light. He is soon killed by some ape like creatures that take the idol with them. Nothing great yet, but still far, far better than the other two stories here.

Creepy 100

Creepy's 100th issue contains a whopping 8 stories. It starts with a cover by Bob Larkin.

First is "The Pit at the Center of the Earth" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A very poor story with some ugly as usual art from Pablo Marcos about a battle taking place on an oil ring. Yawn.

Second is "Professor Duffer and the Insuperable Myron Meek!" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Duffer of the title introduces Myron Meek to a top Hollywood agent and he makes it in Hollywood as a comedic actor, although he never speaks. It ends up that Meek is a robot. Meek has fallen in love with the robot from Metropolis, so they are able to find her for him, and he heads off for good with her. A nice comedic story with some good art from Severin.

Third is "Tale of a Fox" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about a Chinese princess, Ming Toi, who has the ability to transform herself into a fox. She is captured by her evil uncle Quang, who plans to replace her on the throne with his daughter Sun Li, who looks just like her. Ming Toi transforms into a fox however, and the guards mistake Sun Li for her, leading to her execution. This story would become a series in Vampirella a few years later.

Fourth is "Nobody's Home" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). As usual for Vaultz this story features alien creatures, this time creatures that live on the moon in an enforced enclosure. One alien tries to escape and succeeds, only to crumble to dust when he gets out.

Fifth is this issue's color story, "Winner Take All!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Len Wein (story). A soldier plays cards with an old man and beats him so much that all the man has to offer is his beautiful female slave. The soldier heads through the desert with the slave, who never says a word. Various monsters start appearing and attacking him. Eventually it is revealed that she is the one summoning them, and that she has magic powers. She transforms him into an old man who is soon gambling her away as well.

Sixth is "Hell Hound" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man finds an injured hound near his house and nurses it back to health. Soon he finds his enemies, such as his ex-wife and a man who fought him in a bar dead. It ends up that the hound is killing any enemies from his past. He goes to see a psychologist who wrote him a bad check in the past, but it ends up that this man has his own 'Hell Hound' too.

Seventh is "Wisper of Dark Eyes" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A meteor crashes into the sea near a small fishing town. A woman watching it is given special powers which she uses to get her husband to kill the woman she's having an affair with. The special powers go away however when the meteor goes away, and the husband tears her eyes out. She jumps off a cliff to her death and he goes crazy.

Last is "They're Going to Be Turning Out the Lights" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of the panic that occurs when there is a massive blackout in a big city and the steps the government takes to keep things under control.

Creepy 99

This issue is an "Earth Shattering Disasters" special issue featuring stories about the apocalypse or disasters. Bob Larkin paints the cover, featuring people fleeing from a mushroom cloud explosion. The bottom right portion of the cover features a man who looks strikingly similar to Roger Moore, who was playing James Bond at the time.

First is "An Old Game" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art, his Warren debut) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about an old submarine captain who plots to kills his wife and her lover due to her having an affair. He acts towards his fellow soldiers as if there's a nuclear war on the surface and he fires off a torpedo that blows up the city his wife is in. At the same time however her lover is in the air in a plane that blows up the sub.

Second is "Ssshh!" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). Aliens come across Earth, now in ruins. Multiple aliens end up causing large explosions by doing harmless things such as stepping on a horn and firing a toy gun. About to take off one of them discovers that humanity polluted the Earth so much that any slight noise will cause an explosion. Them taking off ends up blowing up the entire earth.

Next is "Brothers" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about two robot children who live with the only normal human left on Earth. The ruins near them are overrun with mutants who try to kill them. While the old man tells the children that the mutants are the deformed remains of humanity, the mutants themselves reveal the truth, that they are aliens and that the old man was actually one of them who was transformed into a human in order to trick humans into destroying themselves. The mutants 'cure' him by destroying him and his robots.

Next is "A Slight Case of Overkill" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story surrounds the last two men on Earth as they try to escape. Due to the arms race a crazy scientist created a gas that de-evolved humans. It worked too good, turning everyone to turn into chimps. This story appears to have been originally intended for issue 95's all apes special.

Fifth is "There Shall Come a Great Darkness" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bob Toomey (story). In this story a great darkness is heading across the universe. On Earth people know they don't have much time left and decide to punish the astronomers who discovered this by hanging them. A friend of the astronaut allows his wife to kill herself then watches the darkness come with her corpse.

Last is "One Hell of a War" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a war between Earth and alien beings. A man on a ship with a robot witnesses the Earth destroyed, but in actuality it is all due to drugs that he is under that will keep him focused on the alien enemy.

Vampirella 73

This issue of Vampirella fatures a book length story titled "A Gathering of Demons". The cover is drawn by Bob Larkin, hardly one of his or Vampi's better covers. This issue's art is provided by Gonzalo Mayo while the story is written by Bill Dubay. At 71 pages, this is the single longest story in Warren history and the only instance in which a book length story actually consisted of a single story rather than multiple related stories.

The story itself unfortunately is nothing all that special. It surrounds a series of murders happening each day where a "V' is left on the scene. Conrad initially blames it on Vampi, but it later becomes apparant that the murders are due to a council of wizards who are leaving the "V" because it forms a giant pentagram. Working on selecting a new leader, the Anti-Pope, they kill a person each day that one isn't selected until ten have been killed. In addition the ten council members have each selected a human host to be used in a battle of demons against each other to determine who will become their leader. Vampi and our heroes interfere, resulting in the deaths of the council and their defeat. For now anyway. Many characters from this story including Crissy Collins (one of the human hosts) as well as council member Tenichi would make appearances later in Vampirella's history once Rich Margopoulos became the Vampirella writer. These stories have already been covered on this blog.

Overall this is a rather dissappointing effort. While issue 64's book length Vampirella story was quite a good one, this one drags excessively and even the usually dependable Mayo contributes a less than great effort, probably due to the huge amount of pages drawn.