NIghtmare #10

Edit: In hindsight looks like I screwed up on the order of what comes next and mistakenly skipped Nightmare #9 and Psycho #9! Enjoy this for now and I'll be back in a couple of days with the correct issue. One of the down sides of having a back log of a couple of issues.

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Nightmare, featuring the interior story "Princess of Earth". This issue is cover dated December 1972.

The two-page table of contents contains art from Pablo Marcos, featuring characters such as Mr. Pook, the Gargoyles, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and Phantom of the Opera in line for movie tickets!

The first story is "Princess of Earth" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). Eggs come out of a computer terminal in a space ship. One of them hatches, revealing a small, humanoid but furry creature. The narrative turns to a woman named Lisa, a celebrated singer. The creature, now in its adult form departs the swamp where it lives and heads to the theater where Lisa is performing. There, the creature bursts through the place and grabs Lisa, dragging her with him, saying she is a princess who has left them alone far too long. The creature drags her back to the space ship where it is revealed she was a part of the spaceship and had been tasked with taking care of the eggs, much of which had smashed during her absence. She is now forced to remain on the ship, tending to them.

Some great art from Xirinius on "The Funeral Barge"

Next is "The Funeral Barge" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). A detective named Walter Crowd investigates a mysterious barge that travels across the waters, carrying corpses on it. On a rainy night he pretends to be a corpse and is tossed aboard along with other bodies. The barge travels across the water, making its way to a giant castle. Once inside, a crane starts grabbing a hold of the bodies and bringing them in where a series of vampires start feasting on them. Walter uses a lit torch to fight back and make his escape, but he eventually is overwhelmed and is forced to become a pilot for the barge. Xirinius' art is quite strong here. His full page feature where we first see the castle is particularly impressive.

The third story is "Satan's Cellar" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferrer Maitz (art). This is Maitz's sole story for Skywald. A mother gets some meat from the butcher Louis Hokay and the family is disgusted by it. She returns to complain to Hokay who simply gives her back her money and tells her to go some place else. The mother gets the police to raid the place, hoping to find him serving dogs, rats or other rotten meat but they find nothing. She continues to pursue it though, eventually sneaking in and finding a variety of human body parts in a hidden chamber under the floor. Hokay arrives and tries to kill her but she kills him with a cleaver. All of a sudden a pair of many armed beings climb out of the hole in the floor and kill her. The narrator claims it was the meat of these creatures they were eating, and also that these creatures will now be pursuing food themselves. Some so-so art here, but the ending came out of left field, which I enjoyed.

Fourth is "The Proverbial Killer" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Michael Reidy is attacked constantly by his wife Janet, who is convinced he is having an affair because each month he disappears for a short period of time. Michael denies such claims. She seeks to divorce him and get paid alimony. It is soon revealed that she is the one having an affair, with a man named Augie, who also plans on conning her too. When he blabs this to one of his friends, the friend feels guilty and goes to Michael to reveal it. Michael doesn't believe it though. He heads home where he catches Augie and Janet together. He reveals the truth to them, that when he was disappearing he wasn't having an affair, but its because when the full moon comes he turns into a werewolf! Michael is a rather milquetoast character (and modeled after director Woody Allen) but it was good to see him get Janet and Augie in the end.

Things get crazy in "Satan's Cellar"

Next is "A Macabre Fact of Life: Demonic Possession" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A man in public starts flipping out, claiming to be possessed by a demon. We see that this is the case, as another man had summoned Satan and requested the man to be possessed by a demon. Returning to the scene in public, the man grabs an axe and goes on a rampage, eventually being captured and put in an asylum where a exorcism is done on him and the demon leaves him. Not much of a plot to this brief 4 page story.

Next is the one page "Game of Skill" by Joan Cintron (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). I got these credits from Richard Arndt's "Horror Comics in Black and White" as the story itself is just credited as "Cintron and Kinsman". In prehistoric times this page questions what would have happened if the first humans to fight against other beasts lost and baboons instead became the dominant species on Earth. Not much of a story here, but strong art from Cintron. Reminds me a little of Luis Bermejo.

Another entry in the "Nightmare World" series is next with "They Crawled out of the Crater" with Al Hewetson adapting the dream of reader Trisha Hamlin. Lara provides the art. Trisha dreams herself being shown on TV as she departs to space in order to head to the moon. However a hole is ripped into her ship, causing her to be sucked out. She is pulled down to the moon's surface where she must first escape some quicksand then is grabbed by some furry humanoid beings. They seek help as some spider creatures attack them. She then realizes that the furry creatures are in fact aligned with the spiders. She is then suddenly shook awake by a policeman and the story ends. Its too bad, this story ends a little too soon, I was interested at seeing what would happen next! Lara is another artist with his sole Skywald appearance being this story, which is too bad as he did a pretty good job.

Next is "Black Communion" by Ed Fedory (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). Within a monastery, Satan summons a sword wielding corpse to rise and start attacking the monks. Called Don Carlos, the corpse slays many of them with ease. He is eventually done in when a monk trips on the stairs, causing some holy water to spill through the floorboards and fall upon him.

Some good art from Lara in "They Crawled out of the Crater"

The Human Gargoyles series returns with "1 and 1 Equals 3" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art), taking over for Felipa Dela Rosa. The two Gargoyles, Edward and Mina Sartyros give birth to a child, whom they call Andrew. They come across a traveling circus and travel with them. While taking a rest however, Andrew is displayed to the public and kidnapped. Andrew is held by a Satanic cult and brought before Satan himself. Satan claims to have breathed life into each of the gargoyles. Edward attacks him, there is a big explosion and the gargoyles get up and depart with Andrew, thinking about whether they should depart Europe and head to America. A so-so story with fairly strong art; it seems mind boggling to me that the Gargoyles would leave their child with strangers, a rather dumb way to move the plot along.

Creepy 95

This issue is an apes special issue. It is cover dated February 1978. All stories within feature apes in some manner. Doing themed issues like this based on the cover was a very common Warren theme throughout the years. Two stories that were clearly intended to appear in this issue also appeared in Creepy 99 and Eerie 92. Don Maitz provides the cover.

First is "The Star Saga of Sirius Sam" by John Severin (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Two men come to meet Sam of the title to head to an alien planet and steal a gem which they hope to use to keep alive a woman who is the wife of one of them and the sister of the other. They head to the planet, which is ruled by chimps. They find the gem, but discover it is only made of glass, as the real one was taken long ago. The glass substitute is destroyed while they are there. They are able to escape safely by using the glass eye of one of the men to replace the destroyed substitute however.

Second is "The Laughing Man" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The best story of the issue, it features a man found by a doctor in the African jungles laughing maniacally. With some drugs the man calms down and tells how he and his business partner headed to the African jungles in an attempt to find intelligent chimps. They catch one dead, and our protagonist's business partner skins the creature and uses it as a costume to attract another one. He vanishes after a while and turns up later, but it ends up he is actually an ape, wearing the dead partner's skin as a costume! A terrific story, unfortunately it would be Wrightson's last Warren story.

Third is this issue's color story, "Murder on the Vine" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Cary Bates (story). In this story a young woman and a boy kill Tarzan in order to steal his treasure. Meanwhile the animals of the jungle, aware of whats going on, take steps to arm themselves and fight back, led by a chimp friend of Tarzan. The murderers are caught and dumped into a tar pit. Some so-so color on this story, nowhere as good as it has been in previous issues.

Fourth is "The Empire of Chim-Pan-Zee" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). The empire fights neanderthals, but is hopelessly outnumbered and is losing ground fast. A few of the chimps find modern humans nearby who have gone back in time and have powerful rockets and other devices. They hope to use them by taking the button that activates them, but find it useless on its own and are wiped out by the neanderthals.

Fifth is "The Oasis Inn" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This issue's weakest story by far, it features ape soldiers, one of whom is after a woman whose going out with a gorilla officer. They go through various escapades and all end up friends at the end.

Last is "The Old Ways" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story takes place in a post apocalyptic world where talking apes reign supreme. The sole remaining living human fights them off, shooting at them. Eventually one of them finds a gun and confronts him, killing him.

Eerie 94

Don Maitz paints another terrific cover featuring the series Honor & Blood.

First is "The Coming of the Annihilator" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Despite being part of the Rook series, this story actually more heavily features Vampirella and Pantha, in a guest starring role. This story takes place just after their return from Drakulon (which should have taken place between issues 66 and 67 of Vampirella). They encounter a monster known as the Annihilator which absorbs energy, so they hope to go back in time with the Rook's help to prevent it from ever being brought to Earth.

Second is the second story in the "Honor & Blood" series with art by Leo Duranona and story by Nicola Cuti. This story continues with the daughter from the prior story, Sybil, now all grown up. She takes part in a pagan ceremony attempting to give birth to the anti-christ by having sex with a man with an elk mask. She gives birth to a son, Ian, and the doctor, seeing that he will be a vampire himself, tries to stop it by putting dirt from a vampire's grave on him. Sybil interferes, but the sun ends up killing her. Ian grows up to become a well known lawyer, but he is murdered when he tries to help a man who is framed. He comes back to life as a vampire, and while he desires only revenge against the man who killed him, he can't help but take other victims as well. He is eventually killed for good by his step-father the doctor, who is revealed to be his real father. The story ends with his son appearing to display homicidal tendencies as well. This series continues to be extremely good, head and shoulders above anything else in this magazine.

Third is "Dead Man's Ship" by Isidro Mones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A ship heading to China comes across a ship filled with corpses, dead of the plague. The captain, thinking that he sees himself as one of the corpses, orders the ship destroyed. They arrive in China, where they are told that a ship with the same name was there mere months before. The ship departs, and soon the crew start coming down with an illness. Scared of their fate, the captain orders an approaching ship fired upon, thinking it is their ship. But is actually a completed different one, that fires back, killing them all.

Fourth is "Divine Wind" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Louise Jones & Budd Lewis (story). This is a rather poor story, featuring the Mongoloid invasion of Japan hundreds of years ago and the weather which helps the Japanese fight htem off.

Fifth is "Don't Drink the Water" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A group of boys come across a canteen containing an antidote for a sick alien. The antidote has horrific effect on humans however, and a boy who drinks it goes on a murderous rage, killing one of his friends. His brother later kills their mother when he drinks it. The whole town's water supply ends up getting contaminated with the stuff.

Last is "Bruce Bloodletter of the IRS" by Fernando Fernandez (art) and Fernando Fernandez & Bill Dubay (story). This story was originally created by Fernandez in Europe as an educational story and was rewritten by Dubay in its reprinting here. Bloodletter of the title is an IRS agent, coming to a planet of lunatics where he is coming after the tax cheat Silas Mendicant. Despite Fernandez's good art, this is a very lame story and ends right in the middle of things. Bloodletter would return for his final Warren appearance a few years later in Eerie 117.

Eerie 93

A very good Don Maitz cover starts off this issue of Eerie.

First is the Rook in "Strangers in the Strangest Places" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An uncredited Alfredo Alcala draws the first two pages. This story continues on from the previous issue, where the alien fan of the Rook, Organ Lo is in the old west, being forced to rob people to payback the evil Granny Filcher. The Rook & friends interfere, revealing her as the true evil one, and allowing Organ Lo to return to his original time.

Second is "Honor and Blood", a new series by Leo Duranona (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This series was one of Eerie's best series around this time of its existence. This story tells of a pair of brothers who were born from their dying mother and discovered in her coffin, eating her. The boys grow up and mysterious murders start occuring. One of them is obviously a vampire, although he is able to cure his vampiric impulses and eventually go to college, marry and have a daughter. His brother acquires bodies for him, but eventually admits that the brother was blacking out and killing them, and that he's a ghoul. The brothers kill themselves, but the daugher appears to have vampiric tendencies herself...

Third is the finale for Moonshadow, titled "Kingdom of Ash" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). Moonshadow, who quickly recovers from the previous story and is introduced by Suzanna and a tentacled creature to the Changer, which is actually a giant machine storing an epic body of knowledge and possessing magical powers. The Changer transfers its power into Moonshadow, giving him tremendous powers, enough to recreate the desert he is stranded in. A very interesting story to conclude this interesting series. About 10 issues or so later a new series would start starring this character.

Fourth is "The Einstein Factor" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Casares & Nicola Cuti (story). In this story a jet pilot lands his jet in a body of water and gets out, traveling around a bizarre landscape in his raft. He eventually climbs aboard the rocky land around him, finding a weird cushiony ground and large worms chasing him. It ends up that he has shrunk and is wandering around the skull of a dead animal. The letter pages raged with letters about this story for months afterwards.

Last is the latest Abelmar Jones story, "The Slime Creature of Harlem Avenue" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Abelmar and his brother Stanley rob a home where they find an egg, which hatches, causing a blobish creature to come after them.

Eerie 91

A terrific cover by Don Maitz starts this issue of Eerie.

First is the Rook in the absurdly titled "The Incredible Sagas of Sludge the Unconquorable, Helga the Damned, and Marmadrake, the Magnificent!". Its done by the usual team of Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). After a number of good Rook stories, the series starts to lose some of its luster in this rather poor, overcomplicated story. Three stories are going on at once here. In one, the Rook is taken over by an evil alien brain and forced to work towards sending weapons to its homeworld. In the second, Bishop Dane goes back in time and encounters some vikings. In the third, Manners and the ladies encounter a robot monster controlled by a mad scientist. Eventually the stories converge and everything comes out okay.

Second is a much better story, "Elijah Arnold and the Angel's Egg" by Leo Duranona (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). This story takes place a couple of centuries ago, when Elijiah Arnold discovers a UFO that crashed in the woods near his house. Inside the UFO he finds various alien livestock, which he brings to his farm. He breeds one of the alien cows with one of his own, but a horrific monster is born as a result. Eventually the alien owning the livestock returns, and kills Arnold. The alien helps his neighbors bury the creature in one of Arnold's barns using cement. In the present, construction workers attempt to build a highway where the farm is, resulting in releasing the monster.

Third is the second and final part of "Francesca" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Jean's vision of a dead man in Francesca's room appears to be nothing but a dream. She continues to be suspicious of her however, and through some investigating realizes that she is the reincarnation of a woman who died centuries before and has returned from hell. She seeks to get Jean's husband to kill himself, which she'll do as well, resulting in them being together in hell. Luckily a lighting bolt ends up causing a grave to fall on Francesca, killing her.

Last is a new series, Moonshadow, with "Against the Sun". Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Bob Toomey. Moonshadow, an old assassin is confronted by the Grim Reaper. Moonshadow tries whatever he can to get the Reaper to spare his life, and the Reaper decides to allow it by having him kill someone else for him. The victim ends up being a sick little boy. Rather than kill the boy however, Moonshadow outsmarts the Reaper and instead kills all the germs in him, making the boy better. Angered by being outsmarted, the Reaper sends Moonshadow to the middle of a desert.

Eerie 88

A sports themed cover by Don Maitz starts this issue of Eerie.

First is the Rook in "Future Shock" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook appears once again, in the devestated future. Meanwhile Gat Hawkins finds a way to come to the present, where he battles Bishop Dane and Manners. The Rook meets a robot who brings him to the last living human on Earth, who thinks the Rook is evil and attacks him. The Rook battles him and defeats the man, who is revealed to be a machine man as well. A very good story, the best Rook story so far!

Next is the latest story in the Scallywag series, now retitled The Black Demon's Sword. This story is called "The Key", but Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The ninja captured in the prior part escapes. Lubus heads after her and encounters more enemies while Sullivan encounters a sea creature.

Third is "Deathball 2100 AD" by Dick Giordano (art), in a rare solo story for him, and the team of Bill Mohalley & Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about a basketball game between humans and humanoid fish men. One of the human players, told that he is being forced into retirement after this game, goes on a rampage and kills many of the opposing players during the game.

Fourth is the first of a two part story, "Boiling Point" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story tells of a mysterious killer in the subway who has pushed an old woman into an oncoming subway car. The story focuses on one of the cops investigating the case and one of the witnesses, whom he starts a relationship with.

Last is "Junkyard Battles or Never Trust an Electric Shaver" by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Plutonium has caused machines to come alive and fight humanity. This story focuses on a soldier who battles the machines who is done in when his gun is exposed to plutonium and fires on him.

Creepy 93

This is Creepy's second special issue dedicated entirely to sports. The first, previously reviewed by me was issue 84. The cover is by Don Maitz, his first for Warren. Like the first sports special, this issue contains a lot of Carmine Infantino and Roger McKenzie.

First is "The Replacement" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of a baseball player who suddenly vanishes in the middle of a game, replaced by a weird looking creature. The creature takes his place and is very successful, but faces discrimination from the human players. He eventually vanishes, replaced by the original player when they are close to winning it all, resulting in them losing.

Next is "The Return of Rah" by Carmine Infantino & John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is a sequel to "The Mummy's Victory" from the previous sports special. Rah the mummy is once again brought into the game of football, this time by a scout who was impressed by his prior performance. Once again Rah is a big football star, winning many games.

Third is "The Great Black Cheese" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about an old black boxer who never got his big chance due to his mother getting sick. He takes part in a boxing match which causes a heart attack. With his death he has a vision of finally getting his big shot.

Fourth is "Elixer" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is about a veteran hockey goalie who takes a magical elixer that makes him young again. It succeeds, making the team very successful, but each time he takes the elixer its effects aren't as powerful and he eventually ages to death in the middle of a game.

Fifth is "Running Wild" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of siamese twins, who when seperated causes one to be paralyzed, but he has psychic powers to control his other brother. He forces him to do things he doesn't want to do, so the brother eventually causes him to die of exhaustion by running too hard.

Last is "Cold Blooded Murder" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bill Mohalley & Nicola Cuti (story). A young boy paralyzes another boy in a hockey game after being inspired by his favorite hockey player. The boy's life is pretty much ruined by this event, and he tries to kill himself by drowning, but his body won't let him kill himself and he is saved by a priest.

Creepy 94

A special issue of Creepy featuring 'Weird Children' as advertised on the cover, done by Don Maitz. This is quite a good issue across the board, not a bad story here, although there is some negative aspects to the final story which I'll reveal when I get there.

First story is "Etran to Fulsing" by Dick Giordano (art) in a rare solo job, and Nicola Cuti (story). This seems like the typical medieval story of a prince savings a princess from a sorceror. The interesting twist this time is that the entire medieval setting is actually a delusion, and the reality is that everyone's in a war torn post apocalypic world.

Second is "Bad Tommy" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie & Nicola Cuti (story). The story tells of a young boy, Tommy, who creates an imaginary friend that kills both his parents. The boy goes to see a psychiatrist to tell her about it and it is revealed that Bad tommy is real, who promptly appears and stabs her. Not only that, but Bad Tommy is the real person, and the 'good' version of him is actually a robot created by him. Luckily the psychiatrist is able to kill him.

Third is "Ada" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Pearson (story). The Ada of the title is a girl who was born as an old woman then reverts in age as she gets older. The story surrounds a man who meets her and ends up staying with her til she turns into a baby then passes away.

Fourth is "Bessie" by Leo Duranona (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A woman comes to a detective to help her look for her daughter Bessie while he's working on a murder case. To make a long story short, it ends up that the woman is Bessie herself, as she had gone insane after a miscarriage and became convinced that she had a daughter as well who was actually just a second personality of her's.

Fifth is "Sacrifice" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Four boys sacrifice a cat which gives them eternal life. Every 100 years they have to sacrifice another person to retain their eternal life or they'll immediately die. One of them decides to start using the others as his sacrifice. He heads after the last one only to find that he's committed suicide, which will result in his death.

Last is "Backwater and Timing Circles" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A boy takes a trip to the past to go fishing in the prehistoric era through the company Timing Circles. His guide warns him that they can't take anything back with them and must not kill anything, but when the guide gets in trouble, the boy stabs the dinosaur attacking him. This changes the present such that everyone becomes bizarre looking monsters. This story is blatant plagarism of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder". Luckily for Warren, they never got in trouble with this as they did with Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog.