Psycho #22

Prieto Muriana provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated November 1974. This issue is all reprints with the exception of the first story.

Our sole new story for this issue is "Die, Frankenstein's Monster!", a continuation of the new Frankenstein series recently started up in Scream. It is written by Al Hewetson and has art by Cesar Lopez. The monster begins the story with the origins of the term Prometheus, which was used for the subtitle of Mary Shelly's original novel of Frankenstein "The Modern Prometheus". Frankenstein's monster travels through the mountains of Romania, finding an injured goat and bringing it to a cave, where he finds two coffins. He opens one and finds a man inside, Dracula, who immediately attacks him. The monster eventually knocks Dracula out only to be bitten in the neck by his female companion, who finds his blood muccused and disgusting. Dracula and Frankenstein tell each other their stories. Dracula's companion, Leah, comes up with a name for the monster, Damon, and the two kiss. When Dracula heads out in bat form to find some food, Leah reveals to Damon that the story Dracula told him of his origins, about him being a force for good is all lies, and that the power of vampirism is given by Satan. Dracula returns. He and Damon argue, and Dracula puts Leah under a trance, but finds that with the sun coming out, he must rest. He tells Damon to take Leah and go. Upon carrying Leah outside, Damon finds that her body immediately decomposes due to exposure to the sun. The shadow of Damon holding Leah's body forms a cross, which also kills Dracula. This was a fairly good story, with some decent art as well. A good thing we got some quality with our only new story of the issue.

"Die, Frankenstein's Monster!"

Next is "Revolution" by Rick Margopoulos (story) and Tom Sutton/Dan Adkins (art), originally published in Psycho #2. On the Planet Sade slaves are constantly forced to fight in "games", battles in a coliseum against giant monsters. The King upon hearing of a possible rebellion instead desires more slaves to fight in more games to quell the populace. So the games become more and more severe, leading to a revolt by the citizenry, who also release all the monsters. The King and his men are forced to flee the planet on a spaceship, landing on another one where carnivorous plants soon attack them. The men flee towards what appears to be a city sitting atop a lake. The king tosses away all his underlings and his own daughter to save his own hide, only to realize that the lake itself is a blob-like entity that consumes him. Adkins' work is barely noticeable on this story, making it look like a Sutton solo story.

Third is "The Vow!" by Pat Boyette (story & art), originally published in Psycho #6. An aristocrat named Aaron becomes a single father when his wife dies from the plague. The plague ravishing the countryside and the aristocrats being slayed by the common folk, he flees, eventually finding work as an overseer of the disposal of the bodies of those who died from the plague. Aaron soon realizes with horror that his daughter Cassandra thinks dead bodies are real and her friends! Time passes, and Cassandra starts a relationship with a local ruffian named Andrew who is rumored to be the paramour of the Empress. Aaron is scared of what will happen if she finds out about the affair, but Cassandra says she'd rather die than be without him. Aaron comes to a good solution; he rats out Andre to the Emperor, who has Andrew killed, then due to his job collects his body and provides Cassandra his body! Its always a joy to read a Pat Boyette horror story.

"The Vow"

Next is "Birth Announcement" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ramon Torrents (art), originally printed in the Psycho 1972 Annual. In this brief four page story, a man is anxious as his wife is about to give birth. He thinks of how he met his wife when he saw her swimming in the coast of Cape Cod. His wife is soon revealed to be a mermaid, and she has given birth to a large number of eggs which they bring home with them, waiting for them to hatch. A rather predictable ending to this story, but Torrents' art is excellent as usual. The story is said to take place in the town of Winchester by Cape Cod, but as someone who lives in Massachusetts, I can say the town of Winchester is actually nowhere close to Cape Cod.

Next is "Phantom of the Rock Era" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Ralph Reese (art), originally published in Nightmare #4. A young woman, Lala, sees Roddy Skeane, a guitarist and singer perform at a club and decides to hook her ride to his, thinking he will eventually become famous. Lala is rather disgusted by his ugly face, but is convinced he will become famous and loves the lavish lifestyle she is hoping to get for them. Eventually Roddy reveals the rest of his band to Lala, and she finds out they all had died in a witchcraft ceremony and have been resurrected from the dead! Roddy wants her to join them permanently and sacrifices her so she can come back from the dead like them. I wasn't the biggest fan of this story, but Reese does a great job with the art.

Sixth is "The Midnight Slasher" by Doug Moench (story) and Pablo Marcos (art), originally published in Psycho #6. A killer known as the Midnight Slasher haunts the streets, stabbing to death any innocent bystander that comes upon him. A maid, Miss Watts, tends to a young woman she serves, only for her to be the next victim! Watts talks to the local constable, who has raised suspicion for himself due to how quickly he makes it to the murder scenes. He comes across Miss Watts later that night by a bell tower, where Watts is revealed to by the slasher, only for her to be crushed by the bell! This story packs a double twist in the end, with it not being enough for Watts to be revealed as the Slasher (which was pretty predictable anyway).

"Within the Torture Chamber"

Seventh is "Within the Torture Chamber" by Kevin Pagan (story) and Doug Wildey (art), originally published in Nightmare #5. Wildey does a good job here, providing artwork that reminds me of Angelo Torres. The story takes place in Spain in the 16th century, where a woman is executed by torture, after having had her tongue torn out. The judge and executioners leave only for a noble, Don Alexander to come down, and speak to her body, revealing he falsely had her accused because she spurned him, resulting in her execution. The judge, who had heard it all fights Alexander but is slain by his sword. Alexander flees, but goes back for his sword, not wanting evidence left behind. He starts getting quite nervous however, and the judge rises, tearing out his tongue and chaining him to the wall. The ending to this story was somewhat confusing (I have included my interpretation here).

Last is "Vault of a Vampire", featuring Al Hewetson for the story and Serg Moren for the art. This story was originally published in Nightmare #3 and was actually Hewetson's first story for Skywald. A vampire stalks ancient Rome, attacking someone in the Arena, and having previously appeared at other crowded events. A trio of men seek to destroy the vampire. During its latest attack, they follow the vampire to the graveyard and the crypt where it makes its home. They wait outside the blocked entrance, thinking they can wait out the vampire. A couple of weeks pass and they break in, finding that the vampire has started devouring its own flesh. They then kill it with swords. I question Hewetson's knowledge of vampires in this story, it should be seeking to drink blood, not consume flesh...

Gene day provides a one page pin up feature on the back cover.

Psycho #2

Upon opening this magazine I'm surprised to realize that its all new material, and we have already finished the reprint era. A good start! Hector Varella provides the cover for this issue cover dated March 1971.

The issue kicks off with "The Heap", the first appearance of a character who would be one of the longest running in the Skywald magazines and was also featured on the cover. This story is written by Chuck McNaughton and drawn by Ross Andru/Mike Esposito. Jim Roberts is living a wonderful life as a crop duster, about to get married to his fiance Audrey. However while piloting his plane one of the cables doesn't work causing him to crash in a forest where nerve gas is being used. The combination of the fire and gas transforms Jim into the horrifying The Heap. The Heap makes his way through a road and a graveyard, eventually coming across his own funeral where he realizes his friend Ryan set him up, selling him and his fiance a life insurance policy then screwing around with the cables in his plane so Jim would die and he can be with Audrey, collecting the insurance money. The Heap goes on a rampage against Ryan, Audrey and his underlings. As the story ends, The Heap wonders if his friend Monty Elliot may be able to find a cure for him.

Second is "To Laugh Perchance to Live" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Rich Buckler (art). Steve Weston, a man living in Manhattan suddenly finds himself transported to another world. Once there a large group of monsters call for him and start fighting each other over him, claiming they want to bring him to his throne. We see several pages of very bizarre monsters fighting each other and eventually Steve is brought to the throne, which has images in his likeness. He agrees to become their ruler and starts laughing, and we see him back in the real world, laughing maniacally. Was Steve crazy the entire time? Perhaps. In any case I enjoyed this story quite a lot with all the weird monsters in it fighting each other over him.

Third is "Death's Stranger" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Tom Palmer (art). Arthur Ashe has come up with a formula that will allow man to live forever. His scientific colleagues want him to destroy it, but he instead kills all of them, then uses the formula. However, the ghosts of his slain colleagues appear to torment him. Many years go by. Arthur enjoys eternal life at first but eventually comes war and he finds himself the last remaining human. The years continue, Earth reverts to prehistoric times including roaming dinosaurs. Arthur eventually decides to accept death and the ghosts of his slain colleagues bring him into a grave they have dug for him.

Next is the one page "Psycho's Gruesome Gallery: The Vampire" a one page feature drawn by Steve Hickman.

The Heap!

Next is "Revolution" by Rick Margopoulos (story) and Tom Sutton/Dan Adkins (art). Sutton is credited here as Sean Todd. Wary of the wrath of James Warren, who was viciously opposed to any of his artists working for the opposition, we will see several American Warren artists do stories for Skywald under pseudonyms. We'll see that also for this story's writer, Rich Margopoulos, who goes as "Rick Poulos" here, although Margopoulos would not become a mainstay at Warren like Sutton had been for a little while longer. On the Planet Sade slaves are constantly forced to fight in "games", battles in a coliseum against giant monsters. The King, upon hearing of a possible rebellion instead, desires more slaves to fight in more games to quell the populace. So the games become more and more severe, leading to a revolt by the citizenry, who also release all the monsters. The King and his men are forced to flee the planet on a spaceship, landing on another one where carnivorous plants soon attack them. The men flee towards what appears to be a city sitting atop a lake. The king tosses away all his underlings and his own daughter to save his own hide, only to realize that the lake itself is a blob-like entity that consumes him. Adkins' work is barely noticeable on this story, making it look like a Sutton solo story.

Our next story is "The Quest!" by Rich Margopoulos (story) and Chic Stone (art). A man comes across an old man in the park who gives him a painting of a girl tied to a pole as a three headed monster approaches her. That night he looks at it and is suddenly summoned to another world. The same old man says he has summoned him here to rescue his daughter from the vile king Moloch. So begins a lengthy quest where the two of them make it to Moloch's castle, but our protagonist is killed by the three headed beast. The old man returns to the park with his painting, hoping to find someone else. Sword and sorcery tales were never a favorite of mine in Warren and its the same here in Skywald, one of the weaker stories of the issue.

Next is "Dream Planet", written by Phil Seuling and drawn by Serg Moren. A spaceship approaches a planet and its crew has some very weird dreams. One man dreams of being on the planet and being enveloped by a blob-like creature. Another dreams of being attacked by leaves, ferns and fungus. A third dreams of being seized by a giant caterpillar, spun up in a web and has eggs hatch out of him and eat him. The scientists on board the ship believe these are visions that are being used as a defense of the inhabitants of the planet. They believe the inhabitants are physically quite weak. So the ship lands on the planet. The rather confusing last page implies that the monsters on the planet were real after all. At least that's my interpretation of it.

Monsters from To Laugh Perchance to Live

The issue concludes with the rather weak "Valley of Blood" by Chuch McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Frank Giacoia (art). A couple, Bart and Valerie head to a mysterious temple in the Himalayas. On the way they are warned by a man, Dargos, about a vampire castle and find a dead vampire skeleton in the ruins of the temple. After getting into a car accident, Valerie is found to need a blood transfusion and gets one from Dargos. The two of them then disappear. Suddenly vampire attacks from a pair of vampires start occurring. Bart eventually comes across the vampire woman, staking her and Valerie turns back to human, dying. Dargos then appears and attacks him.

Creepy 65

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Creepy, dated September 1974. Albert Michini provides the back cover in his sole Warren appearance.

First is "The Land of Bone" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story features a warrior Costan who finds himself in a world where every person he meets is a skeleton. He is joined by a skeleton wizard, Wikkander, who tells him that his lover Aruna has been captured by the Wizard Poxxalt. The two of them fight off various creatures and then defeat Poxxalt. Costan is surprised to find Aruna a skeleton herself, and gives Wikkander a ring on her finger. Once he gets the ring, the truth is revealed. Costan was a skeleton himself, and only thought that he was human and everyone else was a skeleton. Wikkander, a descendent of his brought him to life to free Aruna from Poxxalt.

Next is "Star-Slaughter" by Ramon Torrents (art, his Warren debut) and Rich Margopoulos (story), from Creepy 51. This futuristic story features humanoid robots battling each other. One of the robots kills one of the other ones, and realizing what he has done, kills himself. He is repaired by his creators, who mention that this is not the first time he has tried to kill himself.

Third is "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story), from Creepy 43. An extremely nice art job, with the werewolf being obviously influenced by the original Wolfman movie starring Lon Chaney Jr. The main character, a black detective, who is hired to find the boy that is the werewolf, was based on Sidney Poitier. This story featured the first inter racial kiss in mainstream comics, although it only occured because Garcia misunderstood McGregor's line "This is the clincher" in his script. As usual, the story features McGregor's nonscensical political ramblings.

Fourth is "The Quaking Horror" by Auraleon (art) and Gardner Fox (story), from Creepy 42. 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.

Fifth is "Bed of Roses" by Felix Mas (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 51. This story is about a seriously deranged young woman, Rose, who works at a flower store and was apparently traumatized by being locked up by her mother as a kid. She goes completely out of control, killing with scissors a man who comes into her store, then later attacking her mother too. As the story ends she is kept in a padded cell at an institution.

Sixth is "The Accursed Flower" by Jose Bea (story & art), from Creepy 49. A farmer, Jordi, is overwhelmed by all the work he has to do on his farm. He hears of the 'Maneiros' who come from a flower and will work endlessly; killing their master if he can't find enough work for him. Jordi finds seeds of the flower and plants them, causing hundreds of Maneiros to appear the next day. He gives them plenty of work to do, but they complete them all with rapid speed. Eventually he can't think of something for them to do and they claw him to death.

Seventh is "A Chronicle!" by Jorge Galvez (art, his Warren debut) and Steve Skeates (story), from Creepy 42. 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.

Last is "The Third Night of Mourning" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story), from Creepy 49. This story takes place during the french revolution and features Jacque, a blacksmith who is framed for treason and executed via the guillotine. His headless corpse raises from beyond and goes after the man who framed him, sending him to a similar fate at the guillotine.

Eerie 86

This issue is an all Richard Corben reprint special, from September 1977. Corben provides the art for the entire issue, including the coer.

First is "Unprovoked Attack On A Hilton Hotel" with story from Jim Stenstrum. This story is from Creepy 73. This story is a comedic parody of World War II. It features the feud between two space hotel companies, the Hiltons and the Waldors. A war is started between the two when the Waldorfs attack a Hilton hotel. The Hiltons find a sculpter/scientist who helps them create a bomb to destroy the Waldorfs, but as the story ends it is revealed that the blast of the bomb will kill them too. Multiple characters here are parodies of World War II era people including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Albert Einstein.

The next story is "The Oval Portrait", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. The adaption is provided by Rich Margopoulos. This story was originally printed in Creepy 69. A man is wounded in a duel so he is brought into a large house nearby. Inside he finds a very realistic oval portrait of a beautiful woman. He reads a diary within the house which reveals the history of the portrait. The woman was the wife of the artist. He showed her little love, and made her be the model for the portrait. As he worked on the portrait, and it became more and more lifelike, she became exhausted and eventually collapsed dead when he finished the portrait.

Third is "Shadow", also an Edgar Allen Poe adaption, once again by Margopoulos. This story is from Creepy 70. Some very surreal artwork in this story by Corben. Pestilence and war plagues the countryside. In the city of Ptolemais a group of men sit to eat dinner next to the body of a fellow warrior, Zoilus. Soon a mysterious shadow appears on the wall. They then all die, due to catching a disease that the corpse had.

Fourth is "Pinball Wizard!" with story by Doug Moench, from Creepy 66. Mobsters pressure the owner of a candy store to put in a pinball machine and when he refuses kills him. A boy who befriended the old man summons a demon who kills the mobster, and brings him to hell where he acts as the ball for a pinball game.

Fifth is "Change... Into Something Comfortable" with story again by Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 58. A werewolf runs around on Halloween, enjoying himself by killing trick or treaters, gang members, and pretty much anyone else who he encounters. He eventually comes across a mansion which he attacks, only to find that the inhabitants are fellow monsters like him, part of the freak show he used to work for. The monsters then make him their dinner!

Sixth is "The Slipped Mickey Click Flip", another story written by Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 54. This is one of the most bizarre and nonscensical stories in Warren's history, but is very good. It features Diment, a crazy old man taking over hosting duties from Uncle Creepy and telling some bizarre tales about a pyschologist and his family. The psychologist is attacked by butterflies, a TV eats his wife, and a bone buries his dog. Very, very bizarre.

Seventh is "Friedhelm the Magnificent" with story by Greg Potter (story), from Creepy 46. 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.

Last is "Frozen Beauty" with story by Corben himself, from Creepy 36. This story was Corben's Warren debut in its original printing. A hideous queen, Maleva, summons Darman, a sorceror, offering him gold in exchange for making her look like her beautiful niece. They head to a cave in the icy mountain where he casts a spell such that Maleva will have her niece's exact appearance. Her niece is left frozen there in the cave so she'll always look the same. Instead of paying the sorceror however, Maleva has him stabbed and left in the cave. Maleva doesn't get to enjoy her beauty for that long, as Darman, still left alive due to the cold starts eating the corpse of Maleva's niece, resulting in her body being torn to shreds.

Creepy 62

Today I'll be covering issue 62 of Creepy, featuring a cover by Ken Kelly. This issue is dated May 1974. This is one of Creepy's best issues, certainly a pleasure to read. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art). This was Berni Wrightson's first appearance in a Warren magazine. A tremendous horror artist whose style was perfect for the black and white format of Warren, Wrightson was one of those artists who usually made an issue worth having even if the rest of the issue was poor. A very talented writer too, in fact his best stories are probably those he wrote as well. This story is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man and his wife own a beloved black cat. Eventually the husband grows tired of the cat, then upset at it. After the cat bites him, he cuts out one of its eyes and soon after hangs it. That very night his house burns down. Wandering into a bar, he finds another black cat that has one eye that starts following him. He brings it home and the wife quickly becomes fond of it. The husband loses control and tries to kill the cat. When his wife gets in the way he kills her by slamming an axe into her head. He hides her beneath a brick wall and is confident that the police won't find it when they stop by. The cat however, which was also walled behind the brick wall ends up attracting them to her corpse due to its screams.

Second is "Buffaloed" by John Severin (art) and Larry Herndon (story). Another western themed story perfectly fitting Severin's style. A buffalo Hunter, Hawkins, is nearly killed by a buffalo stampede. When he comes to he is being taken care of a native american woman, Little Fawn. Little Fawn's father is One Eye, who wants to kill him but is convinced by his daughter to speak to the buffalo spirits to see what he should do. Hawkins eventually recovers and spotting a group of white buffalo nearby starts firing on them, even though Little Fawn tries to stop him. One such buffalo however, one with only one eye, doesn't go down and stampedes him to death.

Third is "Firetrap" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is Vicente Alcazar's Creepy debut (he had appeared for a few issues in Eerie before this). A landlord visits his inner city property to collect rent because his superintendent quit. He refuses to do anything about the terrible condition of the place and is attacked by a woman who blames the death of her baby on him. As he's about to leave he is pushed down into the basement where the tenants lock him into a coffin, dump rats on him, and eventually light him on fire.

Fourth is "Judas", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A group of aliens head throughout the galaxy, destroying worlds. Their next target is Earth. Earth sends a spaceship to stop the invasion that is piloted by St. John, a man who desires fame and fortune above all else, who even killed the original pilot of the ship to be in the position he is in. When his ship approaches the alien fleet, he is contacted by the alien commander who says he'll make him immortal if he permits them to attack Earth. St. John agrees to the deal. He is brought onto the alien ship, where his body is changed to an alien version that lives forever. He convinces the aliens to bring him to their leader so he can thank him; when he arrives there however he beats the leader to death and tells the aliens that he is their new leader and they are going to return to their home. The alien fleet departs, calling off their invasion of Earth.

Fifth is "Survivor or Savior!" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In the future the Earth is a wasteland due to pollution and war that has occurred. A man is sent back in time by a scientist to find a Chester P. Hazel, who he thinks can help prevent the war by doing something about the pollution. Our protagonist heads back in time, meets Chester, who oddly enough ends up being a woman, and saves her from an attempt on her life. Because the time machine can not return him to his present, he ends up dying of radiation poisoning, not knowing if what he did actually saved the future or not.

Sixth is "The Maze" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story). My favorite story of the issue, and one of Warren's odder tales. A man, John, is sick of his worthless life with his low paying job and nagging wife. He decides to start a new life, stealing money from where he works and heading down to the subway to run off. He is attacked by a group of maniacs and wakes up later deep in the subway tunnels, still possessing the money, but having no idea how to get out. He tries to escape from the subway numerous times but the maniacs prevent him from doing so. Eventually he finds their 'king', a grotesquely fat quadruple amputee who is fed the body parts of living people that his maniac 'subjects' bring to him. John continues to fail to escape and decides that by attacking the maniacs he'll be able to escape. He attacks their 'king', chopping his head off with a blade, and is declared by the maniacs their new king. He demands they let him out, but they refuse, and attack him. On the final page we see his fate, he has permanently become their new 'king', and like the previous one has had all his limbs chopped off and gleefully watches his 'subjects' brutally murder people to feed to him.

Last is "The Demon Within" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A woman believes that she is cursed, that a demon lives with in her bringing death to everyone around her. We flash back to her past, where her parents were murdered and her sister was killed in a car accident. Eventually she gets married and has a son, but he too ends up dying. She flips out and stands outside a window on a tall building, about to jump. Her husband arrives to try and stop her, but when he's about to help her off he falls of the ledge to his death. She too jumps off seconds later to her death as well.

Creepy 144

A reprinted Frank Frazetta cover from Creepy 5 is used for the cover of this issue of Creepy, cover dated January 1983.

The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is from Creepy 64. The story takes place in a graveyard where a group of rotting corpses get out of their graves in order to switch grave sites with some more well to do deceased people. Along the way they come across a duo of grave robbers who they mistake as being among them and bury them too, alive.

Second is "For the Sake of Your Children!" by Jaime Brocal (art) and E.A. Fedory (story), from Creepy 45. A group of peasents dislike a nearby Baron, who is revealed to have vampires as ancestors. A mob gathers and goes to the Baron's castle after one of the children is found dead. Inside they kill the Baron, putting a stake through his heart. However a group of female vampires within the castle attack the mob, and when they return to the village, all of them are now vampires themselves.

Third is "It" by Tom Sutton (story & art), from Creepy 53. This story features the corpse of Timothy Foley coming back from the grave and traveling around searching for someone, scaring to death everyone who comes across him. By the end it is revealed that he was simply looking for his lost teddy bear. Some interesting panel design by Tom Sutton here, some pages have as many as 16 panels! It would eventually be used for a recurring series in both Creepy and Eerie, although Timothy Foley (who is actually the corpse of a nine year old boy here) would be made into a much older character in the later installments.

Fourth is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 76. A vampire kills a woman who is a lover of his. Another lover of the woman discovers that he is a vampire and comes after him, and chases him, eventually striking a stake through his heart. Unfortunately hundreds of years later in the modern era someone removes the stake, causing the vampire to rise again.

Fifth is "The Ghouls" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story), from Creepy 61. This story is about a pair of grave robbers who encounter a group of vampires in a graveyard. It ends up that one of the robbers set up the other, making a deal with the vampires to feast on his body, as he's a ghoul who will get the body after the blood is drained from it. Wessler's story here reminds me of his EC work from approximately 20 years earlier.

Sixth is "Berenice" with art by Isidro Mones and adaption by Rich Margoulos. This story, from Creepy 70, is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. This story tells of a man who is obsessed with his cousin Berenice, whom he plans on marrying. Berenice gets sick and the protagonist starts obsessing over her teeth. After her death he digs up her corpse and tears all her teeth out.

Last is "The Terror Stalked Heiress", from Creepy 72, featuring art by Jose Gual and written by Carl Wessler. This story is part of the series 'It', whose original story is referenced earlier in this issue. The series stars a corpse named Timothy Foley who comes back from the grave to help his niece Jill. Oddly for some reason in this story the family name of Foley is changed to Redey. Jill gets attacked by some monsters that live in a mirror. It arrives and saves her, and they cover the mirror with a blanket so the monsters can't get out. Later some men come to the house to kill her so they can take over her home, and It arrives once again and saves her, while the monsters from the mirror kill the criminals.

Eerie 138

Nestor Redondo provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated January 1983.

The first two stories of this issue are "The Mist" a continuation of the series that has appeared on and off again in Eerie for the past few years. Art for both stories is provided by Bill Draut (the third artist for this series!) and story is provided by Don McGregor. A seemingly ordinary woman, Victoria Westgate, is captured by the minions of the mysterious Lucifer de Montalbon, who believes her to actually be Auguste, a voodoo priestess who doesn't remember her actual identity. She is bound as part of a ceremony in the woods, and when lightning strikes, she gains powers that permit her to kill Lucifer and his minions.

Third is "Granny Gutman and the Limbo Men" by Fred Carrillo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story is another one of Eerie's very lame color inserts. Another incredibly lame super hero story, featuring an old woman who orders around three losers who turn into super heros at her beckon. An alien bad guy block up a volcano in order to wreack havoc on California, all so he can mate with one of the super heroes. The heroes defeat him and save the day.

Fourth is "Glythis" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Timothy Moriarty (story). A pair of scientists are working on developing a device that permits them to go to another dimension. Another scientist arrives, trying to steal their technology, and chaos ensues. Access to another dimension is opened, and one of the scientists is sent to that dimension, while Glythis, a humanoid monster that was about to be killed is sent over to Earth. The scientist meanwhile is about to be executed in Glythis' place. This was intended to be a series but due to the end of Warren Publishing the series ended here.

Last is "Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet" by Noly Panaligan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Some very nice art in this story, which is part of a series originally started in the Rook magazine. This story features Sherlock Holmes solving a mystery where a man fell in love with a mormon girl but the mormans captured her and she died of a broken heart. The man seeked revenge and killed those who captured her, but ends up dying in his jail cell due to a heart defect.

Eerie 137

This reprint issue of Eerie is dedicated to the various heroes and characters of Eerie's past. The cover is a montage of various past covers featuring these characters. This issue is dated December 1982.

First is Darklon the Mystic in "The Price" by Jim Starlin (story & art) from Eerie 76. This story tells of Darklon's origin, how his father disliked him because of his peaceful nature. His father finds a new 'son' that Darlon reveals is going to betray him. Darklon goes to see the mysterious 'nameless one' who agrees to give him power, but does so by chopping off his head, killing him. An interesting origin for this Warren superhero.

Second is "Exterminator One" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is from Eerie 60 This story features a robot that used to be a man, who was jailed and given the opportunity to be let out if he becomes a robot assassin. In the future people are only allowed to have kids if they are genetically perfect and he committed the crime of having a kid anyway. It ends up that the planned victim of his is his own daughter. While he can't do it on his own, the computer overrides him and smuthers her to death with a pillow.

Third is the Mummy in "The Mind Within" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Eerie 50. This segment gives us some background info on the mummy, Jerome Curry, about how he found the amulet he used to become the Mummy, and about his desire to kill the various women who have spurned him in the past. When thieves steal the amulet however, Curry might find himself trapped in the Mummy's body forever!

Up next is "Death Wish!" the first part of the series Coffin, from Eerie 61. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. Coffin is a man whose stage coach in the desert is attacked by Indians, resulting in harm to the many aboard. Coffin heads after the Indian tribe and kills them, but the last three capture him and stake him to the ground, where ants ravage his body. He wakes up much later finding his decayed body and seeks revenge on the Indians, killing two of them. The third tells him they had nothing to do with the attack and curses him to live forever in his mutilated form. Coffin is brought to a hospital and while leaving discovers the true culprits, three white men who posed as Indians. Coffin enacts his revenge on them. A nice start to a really good series.

Fifth is the beginning of Eerie's more popular series, "Hunter" by Paul Neary (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), from Eerie 52. Hunter is a half man half demon in the future who battles demons. This first story takes place in a snowy wilderness where Hunter comes across a church and battles three demons within it.

Last is "Stridespider Sponge-Rot!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Eerie 57. This is the first of a seven part series entitled 'The Spook' about a black zombie. The term, which is a racist way to refer to black people, had been created by Bill Dubay, who told Doug MOench to write a series featuring. Anyway, this is a fairly good story, featuring the title character encountering a sorceress woman who brings numerous zombies to life. The Spook is able to stop them by throwing her into a fire. Really nice art by Maroto.

Creepy 72

Ken Kelly provides a fairly good cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a robot in a misty hallway. This issue is cover dated July 1975, and is an all Jose Gual issue. Jose Gual was a fairly good, but somewhat underrated artist at Warren who also did a lot of work for their chief competitor, Skywald. Wish he had done more for Warren than he did (in fact, Gual did only one more story for Warren after this issue). Not just good art, but fairly good stories throughout the issue too. Berni Wrightson provides a frontis of Uncle Creepy, the only interior art not by Gual.

First is "Vendetta", written by Rich Margopoulos & Gerry Boudreau. Howell Hayes, head of a large company tells an entire factory of employees that they are laid off. One of the laid off workers, a one armed man named Frank Troughton convinces fellow laid off employee Walter Hargrove to transfer his brain to an indestructable robot so he can get revenge on Hayes. Troughton storms into Hayes's mansion, only to find that Hayes is also a robot, who quickly destroys him. Hayes's energy completely runs out however due to contaminated cartridges produced by the closed down factory. Hargrove is found outside and as a mechanic is permitted to go inside to fix Hayes. He instead destroys him, repairs Troughton's robot body and places Hayes's face on him so he can take over his life.

Second is "Malocchi!" written by Don McGregor. This story was originally written and produced a couple of years ago, having been advertised on issues of Creepy as far back as 1972. A man, Troy Rutherford suddenly finds himself on fire and dies as his whole house burns down. It was exactly what he had told some psychic phenomena experts about days earlier, but they didn't believe him. The two experts, regretting that they didn't believe him track down the source of the incident to Madame Swambada, a psychic. When Swambada tries to poison one of them, they are able to prevent the same fate from happening to them and get her arrested.

Third is "Lick the Sky Red", written by Doug Moench. A psychotic arsonist sets a lab ablaze. One of the men is severely burned in the face, which ruins his life as he's laid off from his job and evicted from his apartment because of it. He stays in a shack and gathers some dynamite which he plans to use to get revenge on his boss. He meets a beautiful blind woman outside however and decides to forget the whole thing. The arsonist meanwhile starts a fire in the cabin and ends up getting blown up by the dynamite left there.

Fourth is "The Terror Stalked Heiress", written by Carl Wessler. This story is part of the series 'It' which appeared primarily in Eerie throughout 1974 and 1975. The series stars a corpse named Timothy Foley who comes back from the grave to help his niece Jill. Oddly for some reason in this story the family name of Foley is changed to Redey. Jill gets attacked by some monsters that live in a mirror. It arrives and saves her, and they cover the mirror with a blanket so the monsters can't get out. Later some men come to the house to kill her so they can take over her home, and It arrives once again and saves her, while the monsters from the mirror kill the criminals.

Fifth is "The Bite", written by Jeff Rovin. A city is plauged by a series of murders from a ghoul. A well known football player is suspected of the crimes due to part of his jersey appearing. In actuality he is being framed by two friends of his, who are being paid by the actual killer, a young woman our protagonist met just earlier. The football player is hauled off to jail while the ghoul moves on to another town to consume more victims.

The issue concludes with "Labrynth", written by Gerry Boudreau. A trucker, Sam, stops off at a truck stop he frequents. Inside he meets Dierdre, an emotionless women who joins him on a trip to Mexico. There they visit the catacombs and head deep inside with a guide. Dierdre admits to being in love with him but he has no interest in her so she kills their guide, preventing him from being able to leave her.

Creepy 71

A terrific issue of Creepy, dedicated to Luis Bermejo. Five new stories from him in this one, all with extremely good artwork. This issue came out in May 1975, at which point Bermejo was at the top of his game. Unfortunate that he couldn't always stay this good. Some very strong stories too. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy in the frontis.

First is "Room For One More" with story by Doug Moench. A mysterious killer with a skull-like mask collects corpses, sitting them next to each other in a room. The story then changes focus to a young undertaker, who meets the wife of a deceased man, Rita and the two hit it off. It ends up that her deceased husband is alive however, and plotting with his wife's lover, Augie, to fake his death. He demands the undertaker get involved with them and help him continue to fake his death. Instead the mysterious killer shows up and kills him. Later Rita sneaks in and faces a similar fate. As does Augie when he tries to kill the undertaker to keep things a secret. The undertaker ends up being the killer, collecting corpses and talking to the corpse of his dead fiance, whom he is upset at, suspecting she didn't want to marry him. When he mistakenly goes out in public with his mask on he loses it and the police find him shooting at a fiance's body, trying to kill her again like he did before. A little complicated, but a very good story to start the issue.

Second is "But When She Was Bad" with story by Gerry Boudreau. A young woman is in a car crash with her parents, being the only one to survive. Soon afterwards she starts hearing voices in her head, telling her to do bad things. This starts with her killing the family dog, but escalates to her tampering with stop lights, causing a car crash, and beating to death her guidance counselor and another man with a baseball bat. As the police come to collect her it is revealed that this behavior started before the crash and is why her parents were killed.

Third is "His Name Was John!", with story provided by Budd Lewis. This story is told through two perspectives, at the top of the page an alien creature approaching the Earth, and at the bottom a priest named John. The alien being causes John to collapse, sending his consiousness to his ship. There, the alien reveals that he created all life on Earth and that was created himself from another being long since dead. He decides to make John his own 'son', returning him back to Earth where he soon finds tentacled growths appearing on his back. A very similar story to Jose Bea's "The Other Side of Heaven" from Vampirella 28.

Fourth is "The Song of Alan Bane". Story here is by Gerry Boudreau. Alan Bane of the title is knight of darkness who kills many and causes the people of the countryside great fear. Multiple times knights and armies try to defeat him but are all killed. Eventually he is done in however by a young woman and priest who head to his lair. This story is told in the form of a poem. Some very nice art, but easily the weakest story here.

Last is "The Minotaur", an adaption of the Nathanial Hawthorne story. Adaption is by Rich Margopoulos. The minotaur is a half man/half bull creature who is possessed by King Minos and kept in a labyrinth. Every year the King demands fourteen people to be handed over to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Prince Theseus volunteers to head there such that he can defeat the Minotaur. With help from the princess, he is able to defeat it and escape with his people.

Creepy 51

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated March 1973. The two page frontis, "Possessed From Beyond the Grave!" is provided by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story), featuring a possessed child.

First is "Deja Vu" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). A psychologist hypnotizes a young woman, who tells him of a past life where she was a witch who was burned at the stake after being accused by a man who ends up being her ancestor. She curses him, saying that his descendents will be killed by cats. He tries to convince her to stay, but she runs off, and ends up being killed by a cat, just like the curse said. He is revealed to be a descendent of the witch. This story would later be printed in color, with some edits, in Creepy 82.

Next is "Star-Slaughter" by Ramon Torrents (art, his Warren debut) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This futuristic story features humanoid robots battling each other. One of the robots kills one of the other ones, and realizing what he has done, kills himself. He is repaired by his creators, who mention that this is not the first time he has tried to kill himself.

Third is "Death Wish" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Warner (story). This story takes place in Mexico, where a large zombie, Esteban, attacks people for his master, but wishes his own life to end. He eventually kills his master only to find his master was another zombie, brought to life by a witch. This causes him to go on yet another murderous rampage.

Fourth is "Package Deal" by Jose Bea (art) and Martin Pasko (story). A man murders his first wife, then disposes of the body by chopping it up and putting it in a mail box, which in a storm gets blown away. Time goes by and the man is remarried. He starts receiving packages in the mail, which contain his dead wife's body parts and notes from her. This eventually causes him to snap, chopping the head off the mailman. His body is later found crushed under the very mailbox he had put her corpse into.

Fifth is "The Viyi", by Esteban Maroto (story and art). This story, which was originally printed in Europe in the Dracula anthology is the first full color story to be printed in a Warren mag. It was also printed at the same time in Vampirella 22. The story features a man coming to destroy a beautiful woman who has become a vampire. He becomes enamored with her looks however and she awakens and turns him into one too.

Sixth is "His Brother's Grave" by Auraleon (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A man, coming to see his sister runs over a wolf in the road. Further details arise surrounding the wolf's owner, a local handyman and his brother. Soon the man dies himself and is buried alongside the wolf, but he later returns from the grave to attack our protagonist.

Last is "Bed of Roses" by Felix Mas (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story is about a seriously deranged young woman, Rose, who works at a flower store and was apparently traumatized by being locked up by her mother as a kid. She goes completely out of control, killing with scissors a man who comes into her store, then later attacking her mother too. As the story ends she is kept in a padded cell at an institution.

Eerie 130

This issue compromises the single worst issue in the history of Warren publishing. The cover is by Steve Fastner and Richard Larson, and is dated April 1982. The artwork is by E.R. Cruz, with story by Rich Margopulos. This issue is comprised of four stories, titled "Stitches in Time", "Corridors of Doom", "Vortex" and The End of Time". This is an issue long feature about Vampirella and the Time Force, which is actually a number of characters from Eerie's history. Recurring characters in this issue include Vampirella, Pendragon, Conrad, Adam, Pantha, Hunter, Schreck, Exterminator, Dax, Child, Pie, Mac Tavish, the Spook, Coffin, Hunter II, Darklon, the Rook, Bishop Dane and Manners. Very few of which act like they did in their original stories by the way. That Margopoulos would bring back so many characters, many of whom were dead, and make them behave in no manner whatsoever like their original characters reeks of a pathetic attempt to simply increase interest in the quickly declining Eerie magazine by bringing back popular characters from Eerie's past. The problem is that most of these characters were not superheroes, and to act here like they were shows that Margopoulos has no concept of Eerie's history. He even urinates on his own creation, Hunter here. And not just that, Cruz's artwork here is among the worst artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. Vampirella and Pantha look exactly the same, and as unsexy as they ever appeared in their Warren life. Conrad appears with regular glasses in many panels, and sunglasses in others. Adam has blond hair. Some of the characters from Eerie's past look nothing like they did in their original appearance. Just pathetic. No other issue in Warren's publishing history is so embarressing.

Oh, and for those who want to know what the plot is, it features Tenichi, a recurring villain from Vampirella's storyline who comes up with a plan to summon various characters from Eerie's past from the past and future to use them to fight Vampirella. To do this he needs the amulet that belonged to Pie. Eventually these characters realize that they shouldn't fight Vampirella, so they team up with her and Tenichi summons even more characters. Eventually the Rook becomes involved as well. And so on. In all honesty, its just not worth discussing this issue any further.

Vampirella 36

Sanjulian provides the cover for this 5 year anniversary issue of Vampirella, dated September 1974. The back cover is provided by Enrich, a redo of the cover originally intended for issue 31. Jose Gonzalez provides one page features of Vampi on both the inside front cover and inside back cover.

First is "The Vampire of the Nile" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampi and Pendragon suddenly find themselves in ancient Egypt. Vampi is Cleopatra and Pendragon is her slave. Vampi is summoned before her husband, Ptolemy, who is a vampire and bites her. Later she meets Marc Anthony whom she falls in love with, but he kills himself when he learns her true nature. Vampi drives a stake through Ptolemy's heart, then summons Amun Ra, who permits her to be reincarnated after she gets herself bitten by a snake. Vampi awakens back in the modern era, with a Doctor Antonioni tending to her.

Second is "A Wonderful Morning!" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Color is provided by Richard Corben. This story takes place in a world where there are only children. The lone remaining adult left in the world is found by them and killed. Not much of a plot here, but some very nice art and atmosphere from Fernandez.

Third is "The Tiara of Dagon!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and John Jacobson (story). A tribal priest comes to a museum, seeking the tiara of dagon. The curator refuses to give it up, and when provided with gold for it instead pulls out a gun and holds on to it anyway. The priest reveals there is poison on the gold that the curator touched and that he'll only give the antidote if the tiara is handed over. The curator still refuses, flees, and turns into a bizarre scaly creature.

Fourth is "Good to the Last Drop!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Martin Pasko (story). The president of a food company mistakenly kills his wife when he slaps her. He destroys her body in the garbage disposal, then gets an idea and deep freezes her remains, turning it into coffee. Thinking she was having an affair with an employee at the company, he invites him over and puts her remains in his drink. The employee switches cups unknowingly however, and our protagonist drinks her remains. He manages to switch it though and the employee also drinks it. It ends up that she died due to ingesting poison, and as a result the poison kills both of them.

Fifth is "Swordplay" by Felix Mas (art) and Martin Pasko (story). The mysterious Alexander Deroth arrives at a school as a fencing instructor. While fencing with a female student, he strikes her with his sword, and when she starts bleeding he is revealed to be a vampire and bites her. When her corpse is found by some other students, she springs to life and attacks those who found her as well.

Sixth is "Prey For Me!" by Auraleon (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A rich man, Alexander Guileford captures men and has them fight to the death a werewolf like creature. His latest victim is unable to win and dies. Alexander soon finds himself in the same predicament however when his servent, upset at him for letting him be in danger earlier, poisons him then releases the werewolf to come after him.

Last is "Puppet-Player!" by Jose Bea (story & art). Michelle Brand provides the color. This story features a puppet player in the 17th century. When he goes to sleep, his puppets come to life and bring him through a bizarre world, controlling him with puppet strings. He is eventually beaten to death with a club he uses in his act. It ends up that he's been dead along and is revised to act as puppet player to hide suspicions.

Eerie 129

Sanjulian provides the rather cluttered cover for this issue of Eerie, dated February 1982. Like the previous issue, this is actually quite a step up from what Eerie had been providing over the previous few years.

First is "Ode to a Dead Thing!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features Marvin the Dead Thing, who originally appeared back in Eerie 49. While the writer of that story, Al Milgrom, made it a parody of Swamp Thing, this story is anything but a parody, actually quite serious. Marvin and the girl who became a swamp monster as well watch a couple drop a dead baby into the swamp. The father is a man who conspires with an old woman to get women pregnant, then make money off of aborting them. Here, the mother refused to abort the baby, so the old woman strangled it when it was born. The baby comes to life out of the swamp, as does the mother when she dies and is placed there as well. The villain of this story has got to be one of the most detestable people in a Warren story ever.

Second is "Ms. Liberty" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A woman travels throughout a post-apocalyptic world, searching for her husband. The vast majority of humanity has turned into mutant cannibals. As she searches, she comes across some other normal humans, but finds them either crazy, or ends up killing them due to herself going crazy. In the end she finally finds her husband, but ends up killing him, thinking he's one of them.

Third is "Mercenary!" by Pat Boyette (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Quite pleased to see another Boyette story, he's an artist I quite enjoyed during the stories he did with Warren during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This story is an oddity here in that it doesn't feature any supernatural theme to it. It is about Ed Skinner, a Mercenery, and his adventures in various south american countries. Along the way, he learns a president is also the leader of revolutionaries. He takes a large payoff to keep quiet, and escapes the death the president plans for him.

Fourth is a new series, Space Force, with the story "Shipwrecked". This story was originally published in France in 1964. Art is provided by Paul Gillon and story is provided by Jean-Claude Forest. In the future Earth is attacked by alien spores. To ensure humanity stays alive, a man and a woman are put into capsules and sent out into space. The man, Chrisopher, is recovered many years in the future and is resusitated. The man finds that the spores are still around, and bigger than before. He flees, with one of the women who recovered him, in search of the woman who was shipped out to space along with him. A fairly interesting story here and some good art too. One of the panels here is strikingly familiar to one from Esteban Maroto's "Scourge of the Spaceways", one of my favorite art jobs in a Warren story ever. As this story came out first, its obvious Maroto's work was a swipe however.

Last is the latest story in the "Haggarth" story, with story and art provided by Victor de la Fuente. In this story a strange man appears before Haggarth and warns him Desirra and the Amazon warriors in the jungle. Heading through the woods, he comes by an injured man who was hurt by the Amazon warriors. As Haggarth's part in this story ends, he is attacked by the Amazon warrior he met before and her eagle. Ethan meanwhile is captured when some village dwellers find him in the canoe used by their dead comrades. Accusing him of their murder, they are set to execute him but proof of his innocence is found and he is permitted to leave in the canoe.

Creepy 70

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated April 1975. This issue is another all Edgar Allen Poe issue, with Rich Margopoulos providing the adaption for all stories within. Berni Wrightson provides the one page frontis intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is the cover story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", with art by Jose Ortiz. This story surrounds a mysterious murder where a woman is killed in her room, with no motive apparent. It eventually becomes clear that an escaped orangutan is responsible for the murder.

Second is "Man of the Crowd" with art by Luis Bermejo. Bermejo's art is terrific here, as was much of his early stories for Warren. A man sitting in a restaurant spots a mysterious old man walking by. He heads outside and follows the man, who always is staying close to a crowd. He eventually realizes that the old man is some sort of psychic vampire, drawing the energy from the souls of others.

Third is "The Cask of Amontillado!" with art by Martin Salvador. This story, which had already been adapted earlier in Creepy by Archie Goodwin features a man who gets even with a collegue of his who loves wine. Telling him of his favorite wine, Amontillado, he convinces the friend to come down into an underground passageway with him where he bricks up the friend in a passage and bricks it off, trapping him there forever.

Fourth is "Shadow" with art by Richard Corben. Some very surreal artwork in this story by Corben. Pestilence and war plagues the countryside. In the city of Ptolemais a group of men sit to eat dinner next to the body of a fellow warrior, Zoilus. Soon a mysterious shadow appears on the wall. They then all die, due to catching a disease that the corpse had.

Fifth is "A Descent into the Maelstrom!" with art by Adolfo Abellan. This story tells of a ship that travels past a large waterfall, then gets caught in it. One of the men saves himself by tying himself to a barrel.

Last is "Berenice" with art by Isidro Mones. Like the Cask of Amontillado, this story was originally adapted by Archie Goodwin years before, but is adapted anew by Margopoulos here. This story tells of a man who is obsessed with his cousin Berenice, whom he plans on marrying. Berenice gets sick and the protagonist starts obsessing over her teeth. After her death he digs up her corpse and tears all her teeth out.

Creepy 76

Sanjulian provides an interesting cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring the grim reaper on a horse, carrying a headless woman's corpse. This issue is dated January 1976. Berni Wrightson and Walt Simonson provide a one page intro from Uncle creepy

First is "Goodbye, Mr. Lincoln" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A very interesting story surrounding a woman whose son is murdererd. At the police station she explains that her son is actually the reincarnation of a slave boy who had a spell cast on him by an old woman. After the boy's death, he is reincarnated as leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy, but is always assassinated. In the modern era, Satan's forces captured the woman and her son and killed him. While the policeman believes his story, he leaves her in the care of another person, who is actually a demon, who kills her for talking.

Second is "Ensnared" by Alex Toth (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features a man who wakes up and finds himself trapped in an elevator. After much anguish, he finally gets out, but it is revealed to be part of an experiment performed by robots (or perhaps aliens in robot-like suits).

Third is "A Flash of Lightning" by John Severin (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A mysterious man comes across a man's farm and starts working for the farmer. Soon afterwards mysterious deaths start occuring, that appear to be the work of a vampire, which is of course the man who just appeared. The farmer comes across the man with his daughter and they get in a fight, and the man is accidently stabbed by a sharp piece of wood, killing him. As the story ends, it is revealed that the daughter is pregnant.

Fourth is "My Monster... My Dad" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jan Strnad (story). A rather bizarre story about a boy who hates his black stepfather, thinking he's a monster. He has multiple dreams, including one where he stabs his step father, and that occurs in real life. A real odd one here. There is nothing evidencing that the father is a monster, making it come off as simply a story about a very racist and delusional boy.

Fifth is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story). A vampire kills a woman who is a lover of his. Another lover of the woman discovers that he is a vampire and comes after him, and chases him, eventually striking a stake through his heart. Unfortunately hundreds of years later in the modern era someone removes the stake, causing the vampire to rise again.

The issue concludes with "The Imp of the Perverse!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man plans to kill his rich uncle in order to inherit his money. He does it by creating a poison candle which he burns in the old man's bedroom. With no one suspecting things, he keeps muttering "I am safe" to himself over and over again until he suddenly blabs in public about killing his uncle. As a result, he is jailed and hung for murder.

Eerie 128

Kirk Reinert provides a terrific cover for this issue of Eerie, probably the best of its latter day covers. This issue is dated January 1982. Aside from the horrible Zud story, this issue is quite a lot better than those we've been seeing for quite a while now.

First is "Dr. Coven: Ashes to Ashes!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Dr. Coven is a man who comes to the jungle with his wife to study voodoo. A voodoo priestess invites him to a ceremony and captures his wife, he then passes out. When he awakens he finds himself surrounded by zombies, including his wife, who is now one. He dismembers his wife to escape her, then kills the zombies and priestess.

Second is "The Demon Queen" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A professor who has one of his students as a lover is writing a book on demons and soon starts seeing them, suspecting that he is being pursued by a demon queen. He sees the demons more and more and his behavior to get rid of them gets more and more out of hand, resulting in him being fired and his book's publication being suspended. His book's chances of publication finished, his lover reveals that she is the demon queen. He is found later, gone completely insane. The demon queen in this story is modeled after that on the cover of Eerie 41.

Third is the retitled Zud and Son in "Heroes at Large!" by E.R. Cruz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). In this story, it is revealed out of nowhere that Zud has a thirteen year old son, Raz. Raz dissappoints Zud, as he is interested in the ballet and other odd stuff rather than normal boy stuff. While at the ballet Zud is captured by an old enemy of his who tries to kill him. Raz is able to rescue him, then at the end reveals that he is interested in football and other standard male interests after all.

Fourth is "Blackstar and the Nighthuntress" by Peter Hsu (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Jason Blackstar and Rowena, the stars of this story originally appeared back in issue 85. In this story the appearance of a medallion at someone's home means assassins, the Rectifiers (sent by the three Governor who rule the galaxy) will come after them and kill them unless they can stay out of their hands for seven days. Killing a Rectifier is illegal, and when Rowena mistakenly kills one, the Governors send other ones after them. Rowena and Blackstar eventually come across the Governors and convince them to stop coming after them.

Fifth is "Avenger!" by Jim Starlin & Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was originally intended for Creepy 64 back in 1974. Odd enough it was held back for eight years before finally appearing here. A pilot, Thomas Flagg climbs out of the sea, ten years after his death from a plane crash into a body of water. Flagg, now a rotting hulk, has the ability to cause others to succumb to his will and soon gathers an army to go after he whom he finds responsible, his father, who forced him into duty in Vietnam. His army of followers are killed, but he still encounters his father and causes him to succumb to his will as well.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth is attacked by an eagle and its amazoness owner who tries to kill him with a poison spear. Meanwhile a trio of men look for precious stones and come across Ethan and a friend of his who accidently take their canoe. Two of the men take back the canoe and leave, only to be killed by the amazonesses.

Eerie 127

Nestor Redondo gives us the cover for this issue of Eerie, dated December 1981. This cover features Haggarth taking on King Thall and his tiger.

First is "Justin, King of the Jungle" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay & Rich Margopoulos (story, Dubay as Will Richardson). Justin King , who spends much of his time in the jungle gets upset when poachers kill an elephant. They shoot him and leave him for dead, but he survives, then comes after them, killing them one by one until all are dead.

Second is "Reuben Youngblood" by Howard Chaykin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). An uncredited Lee Elias draws the first page. Reuben Youngblood originally appeared back in Eerie 72 in 1976, and makes his second appearance here. One wonders whether this second appearance was meant to appear around back then. In this story Youngblood acts as an undercover bodyguard for a bootlegger during prohibition. Only the bootlegger is actually a vampire! Luckily Youngblood kills him with a grenade.

Third is "Merlin and the Sorcerer from E.R. Cruz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Merlin, from the Cagim series tells this story of his encounter with Harry Houdini during the 1920s. Merlin poses as an archeologist who is an expert on druids, and when he finds a collegue dead, with an object down his throat, he heads to the archaeological site. There he meets Houdini and they head down a long tunnel where they encounter bizarre tentacled monsters.

The issue concludes with the latest "Haggarth" story by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth and Borin confront the priest and Haggarth reveals that he has the manuscript that so many are after. Sensing how power hungry Borin is, Haggarth kills him. He then goes to confront Thall, who has the priest killed when he turns up empty handed without the manuscript. Thall takes it when Haggarth throws it to the ground, but when he flees Haggarth causes the place to collapse, killing Thall. A pretty good conclusion for the story that has been going on here for a number of issues, although the series will continue for a while.

Eerie 112

An all Esteban Maroto issue, quite an issue for a big Maroto fan like me. The cover, featuring the Spook, is by Ken Kelly, the sole non-Maroto artistic contribution of the issue.

First is "Stridespider Sponge-Rot!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Eerie 58. This is the first of a seven part series entitled 'The Spook' about a black zombie. The term, which is a racist way to refer to black people, had been created by Bill Dubay, who told Doug MOench to write a series featuring. Anyway, this is a fairly good story, featuring the title character encountering a sorceress woman who brings numerous zombies to life. The Spook is able to stop them by throwing her into a fire. Really nice art by Maroto, who'd be replaced with Leopold Sanchez for the remainder of the series after this story. Which is probably why no more Spook issues were included in this issue.

Last is "Luana" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), an adaption of the film of the same name. This story is from Vampirella 31. A group of archeologists in Africa are attacked by a group of African tribesmen. Only one of the men, named George, survives, when Luana, a beautiful woman living in the jungle comes and saves him, healing him from the poison arrows that struck him. Returning to civilization, he meets a woman, Isabelle Saxon who is searching for her father, who crashed in the jungle years before with his wife and Isabelle's half-sister (who is actually Luana). An old friend of her fathers, who is involved in drugs with the tribesmen becomes involved, and seeks to kill them, but is outsmarted by Luana, who leads George and Isabelle to the plane crash, where they find a diary that tells the truth about her father's friend, who ends up dying when he struggles with the tribe leader he was allied with.

Third is "Enter: The Exterminator - They Eat Babies... Don't They?" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Like the Spook, another series where Maroto drew the first story, then didn't draw any more. Taking place in a medieval setting, monsters in the woods have been capturing children. A mysterious man who can heal people appears and asks the king to let him help keep the kids safe by putting them in his care. The kingdom instead hires a mysterious knight known as the Exterminator. The Exterminator realizes that the healer is working with the monsters and attacks them, defeating both of them. He finds a spaceship they are from and kills the healer, who tries to tell him that they are actually there to save the children from the cruelties of the world. The Exterminator afterwards finds the children unharmed. He later speaks to someone from the future, revealing him to be a robot. This story would kick off a series of exterminator robot stories by Dubay, although this was the only appearance of this particular Exterminator robot.

Fourth is "Rusty Bucklers" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Vampirella 57. The story is about an old man, Dete, who joins a young knight on his trip to defeat a nearby sorceror and rescue the lady trapped there. It is revealed that many years have passed, the sorceror's dragon has died of old age, the sorceror himself is gone, and the lady is old too. Dete sleeps with her and is killed by the young knight, who overreacts.

Next is an adaption of Nathanial Hawthorne's "Hollow of the Three Hills!", with art by Esteban Maroto and adaption by Rich Margopoulos. This story is from Eerie 63. Absolutely amazing artwork from Maroto in this story. A young woman visits a witch, who shows her two depressed looking old people, a crazy man in an institution and a funeral. It ends up that they were all connected to her, the old people were her parents, upset over her leaving them, the crazy guy was her husband, who went crazy after she had an affair,and the funeral was for her child, who died of the pox after she ran off. The trauma from the visions causes the young woman to become comatose.

The issue concludes with "Fallen Angels" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Vampirella 60. The art for this story is sideways. Some very good, exotic art from Maroto on this story, which comes off as a Warren version of the Little Mermaid. A mermaid princess lives in an ocean paradise. She rescues a human man from a shipwreck and falls in love with him. She begs her father, who always taught her that humans were evil, to turn her into a human so she can be with him and he reluctantly permits it. She reunites with the man who treats her kindly at first, but she soon finds him with another woman. Realizing that men are evil, as her father taught her, she tries to return to the sea, but now a human, she drowns.

Creepy 69

This issue of Creepy is the first of two Edgar Allen Poe specials. Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue, dated February 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover. Rich Margopoulos did the adaptions for all the stories in this issue.

First is "The Pit and the Pendulum" with art by Jose Ortiz. The Warren Companion reveals that Berni Wrightson was originally intended to do the art for this story. A man is sentenced to death and put in prison. Inside, he nearly falls into a giant pit. When he drinks some water, it is poisoned and knocks him out. He awakens tied up on a wooden slab, with a giant pendulum swinging over him. By rubbing meat over the ropes binding him, some rats come and eat the rope, freeing him. He is able to escape to freedom afterwards.

Next is "Premature Burial" with art by Vicente Alcazar. A man is deathly afraid of being buried alive, particularly because he has an illness where he can appear dead when he's still alive. His wife comes up with a plan to install a rope within his coffin so if he is prematurely buried, he can notify her he's still alive. He later wakes up though to find himself in another coffin, with no way to notify her. Luckily for him he is actually on a ship, not in a coffin, and this helps him get over his fear for good.

Third is "The Fall of the House of Usher" featuring art by Martin Salvador. A man goes to see his friend, who is part of the Usher family. The man is worried for his sister, who is quite ill. Eventually the sister passes away and is buried in the basement. Usher is still quite nervous however and one night his sister, who wasn't actually dead appears and attacks him. The two of them die from the ordeal and the house collapses just after our protagonist departs.

Richard Corben provides the art for the next story, "The Oval Portrait". "The Raven", a color story published in issue 67 was originally intended to appear here instead, but got mistakenly published two issues early. A man is wounded in a duel so he is brought into a lare house nearby. Inside he finds a very realistic oval portrait of a beautiful woman. He reads a diary within the house which reveals the history of the portrait. The woman was the wife of the artist. He showed her little love, and made her be the model for the portrait. As he worked on the portrait, and it became more and more lifelike, she became exhausted and eventually collapsed dead when he finished the portrait.

Fifth is "Ms. Found in a Bottle" with art by Leo Summers. This story is told by a man on a ship that faces a huge storm. Eventually there is just him and one other man left. Soon the ship sinks when it comes across another, our protagonist flees onto it. There he sees a number of spectral crew members. He writes down his encounters, putting it in a bottle, and the ship comes across a whirlpool, sinking in it.

Last is "Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" with art by Isidro Mones. This story is about an old man dying who is visited by a hypnotist who hypnotizes him to stay alive. It works, and he lives through the night, then for days and eventually months. The hypnotist, not feeling good about the matter releases the trance, and the man immediately decomposes.