Creepy 46

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vampirella 37

This issue of Vampirella is a special summer reprint issue, containing 7 reprint stories and 1 new one. Although my standard practice is to not cover reprint issues on this blog, I will be doing it for those issues of Vampirella that contain a new story, which this one does. The front cover is by Sanjulian. Vampi's face from this cover would be used in the top left hand corner of the cover for every issue for the remainder of the magazine's run. The back cover is by Enrich. That painting would eventually be used for the cover of Eerie 117 as well, a great many years after this issue's publication. (see previous day's post)

First is "Cobra Queen" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Don Glut (story), from issue 23. A trio of men head through the woods in search of a Cobra Queen that rules over a society of amazonesses. Along the way they keep seeing a large cobra. One of the men is soon killed by one. They finally reach the society, and meet the Cobra Queen who transforms into a giant cobra. One of the men however reveals that he too is a giant cobra, and transforms into one. The Cobra Queen and King then feast on the last remaining man.

Next is this issue's sole new story, "She Who Waits" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is in color. This is a continuation of the prior story, starring Vampirella and the usual cast of characters. Conrad tries to kill Vampi after seeing two holes on Adam's neck. It seems that Adam has not been attacked by Vampi though, but rather a cobra snake who brings him to the Cobra Queen. It seems that Adam killed the Cobra King, so she captures him and desires him for her new mate, planning to mutate him so he'll turn into a cobra too. Vampi and the others arrive though and are able to rescue Adam, setting the Cobra Queen aflame.

Third is "Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story), from issue 18. McGregor's story is somewhat better than usual, helped tremendously by Garcia's extremely good art, but still contains his usual political nonsense. It surrounds a young woman who summons a sorceress after being dumped by a man she was seeing. The sorceress takes over her body, changes form and takes out revenge on the man by transforming into a giant snake and killing him. Only the sorceress decides to retain her body and won't give it back after the deed is done.

Fourth is "Cry of the Dhampir", a terrific vampire story by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story) from issue 22. The story features a pair of vampires on the run from a 'Dhampir', a human with vampire blood who has the power to easily destroy vampires. Although the Dhampir ends up being killed when mistaken for a vampire by a mob, his twin sister, also a Dhampir gets to defeat the vampire once and for all.

Fifth is "Demon Child" by Ramon Torrents (art) and James Crawford (story), from issue 26. An old man whose an expert on the paranormal suspects that his granddaughter is actually a demon known as a Changeling, who took her place shortly after her birth. His wife passed away soon after, which he suspects is because of the demon. His daughter and son in law don't believe him, thinking that they will have him committed due to this, although he is right after all as the ending shows.

Sixth is "The Vampiress Stalks the Castle This Night" by Felix Mas (art) and Don McGregor (story), from issue 21. A fairly good story about a pair of 17 year olds who have gotten pregnant who come across a large castle occupied by a vampiress. They are luckily able to stop her and escape. Some very nice art by Mas, much of which was used within the inside covers of the Warren companion.

Seventh is "Blood Brothers" by Isidro Mones (art) and Lynn Marron (story) from issue 26. Revolutionaries in Guatemala find a religious cult which they believe possesses gold that they can use to fund the revolution. One of the revolutionaries tries to join the cult and does so by replacing a member which he had killed. Yet when he is officially brought into the cult he is eaten by the others, which is what their plans were for the man he had killed.

Last is "The Accursed!" by Jose Bea (art) and Kevin Pagan (story), from issue 23. A man wanders through a graveyard, fighting off various creatures like a werewolf, vampire bats and rats. He is here to dig up and destroy the corpse of an evil man that has been buried in the graveyard. He digs up the man and destroys it, then collapses before his father's grave.

Vampirella 26

An odd cover of Vampirella; rather than a painted cover it features colored panel excerpts from four of the stories within. While two of the panels are from the actual story, two other ones are new entirely, uncredited, most likely drawn by Bill Dubay.

First is "Demons in the Fog!" by Escolano & Jose Gonzalez (art) and Len Wein (story). Escolano's sole Warren appearance was reportedly so awful that Dubay had Gonzalez redo the entire story. As a result things are pretty inconsistent here, some very well drawn panels from Gonzalez while there are some very awful ones from Escolano too. The story is a continuation of a storyline that had been running over the past few issues involving Pendragon's family. Here, Pendragon's grandson, having been attacked by Vampirella in the prior issue needs a blood transplant. Since the doctor's refuse to take Pendragon or Vampirella's blood, he receives help from a third party, which ends up working for Chaos. In the end everything works out okay and the boy is able to get a transplant from the Van Helsings. Except for Pendragon that is, who is told off for good by his ex-wife.

Second is "Moonspawn" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). A very quick paced story with not much dialogue, it features the origin of werewolves on Earth, which occurs when a meteor crash mutates a wolf, which attacks a gypsy, turning him into a werewolf. He battles a fellow gypsy who stole his girlfriend and they both end up dying.

Third is "Fringe Benefits" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This is one of Warren's earliest color stories, but the coloring is horrific; so bright that in some panels the art is completely incomprehensible. A masked criminal murders a young woman in her home and starts stealing things from her. Her husband arrives while he's there and he pulls off the mask, but the crook stabs him in the face and runs off. The husband chases him, and the crook ends up getting hit by a car. He awakens in the hospital finding that no one suspects him of anything. He thinks he's going to be able to escape freely, but realizes the doctor operating on him is none other than the husband.

Fourth is "Demon Child" by Ramon Torrents (art) and James Crawford (story). An old man whose an expert on the paranormal suspects that his granddaughter is actually a demon known as a Changeling, who took her place shortly after her birth. His wife passed away soon after, which he suspects it is because of the demon. His daughter and son in law don't believe him, thinking that they will have him committed due to this, although he is right after all as the ending shows.

Last is "Blood Brothers" by Isidro Mones (art) and Lynn Marron (story). Revolutionaries in Guatemala find a religious cult which they believe possesses gold that they can use to fund the revolution. One of the revolutionaries tries to join the cult and does so by replacing a member which he had killed. Yet when he is officially brought into the cult he is eaten by the others, which is what their plans were for the man he had killed.

Eerie 37

This issue of Eerie's from early 1972. The cover is by Enrich, for the story Dethslayer, although the cover and story have nothing in common with each other. Enrich would do a similar cover for Vampirella 41 a few years later. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Air Serpent" by Bill Dubay (story & art).

First up is "The Other Side of Atlantis" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story is about Targo, the prince of Atlantis, who ends up going to a dangerous part of the ocean while his mind's on other subjects. His girlfriend looks for him on the surface to no avail. Targo turns into something, although it's not revealed what as the story ends. A sequel to this story would be done in issue 40.

Second is "Horror at Hamilton House" by Ken Barr (art) and Lynn Marron (story), about a man who marries a woman in order to bump her off and take her money. She tells him that they can't leave the castle they are in because her family has been cursed. He eventually does kill her, but her son kills him, having turned into a werewolf due to the family curse.

Third is "The Ones Who Stole it From You" by Auraleon (art) and Don McGregor (story), about a crook who steals money from a client then makes him appear to have commit suicide. The victim's son tries to find out the truth about what happened to his father. Meanwhile, a cannibal also has a part to play in the story, having eaten the victim's corpse. Aside from McGregor's usual nonscensical political ramblings, a pretty good story.

"A Rush of Wings" is fourth, by Jaime Brocal (art) and Larry Herndon (story). This one's about a entomologist who finds a new species of butterly in Burma by the ruins of a large city. He murders his assistant, wanting all the credit to himself, then heads to the city against a native's warning where a giant butterfly monster kills him.

Last is "Dethslayer" by Ernie Colon (art) and Doug Moench (story), about a man who seeks to kill a sorceror using his sword, 'Dethslayer'. He succeeds, then kills the king, but is killed when he puts the crown on and an angry mob, thinking he's the king, kills him.

Vampirella 14

Here's another fairly early issue of Vampirella. the cover's by Sanjulian, one of his earliest for Warren. Blogger isn't working too good today, so I unfortunately can't seem to upload the cover. Sorry!

As usual, our first story stars Vampirella, this one titled "Isle of the Huntress", drawn by Jose Gonzalez and written by Archie Goodwin. The early Vampirella stories were probably the best of the stories featuring her. As for Gonzalez, he was perfectly suited for drawing Vampirella. This story surrounds Vampi, Pendragon and Adam arriving on an island where a werewolf like
beast roams. The werewolf is actually a woman who lives on the island with her husband, who while looking for a cure also procures bait to be hunted by her in her wolf form. Vampi & friends are able to save themselves from being prey and kill the two of them. A pretty good story, in stark contrast to some of the recent Vampis I've been covering from the later issues.

The cover story, "The Wedding Gift" is up next, with art by Mike Ploog and story by Nicola Cuti. The story features Pandora of the Greek legend who is imprisoned and helped by her husband, in exchange for subjugating herself to him.

The "Sword of Light" by Sam Glanzman (story and art) is third, featuring a Queen's kingdom being taken over by a warrior king, Yekkun. One of her subjects deals with a witch to save her by tranforming him into a rat and carrying a ring to her, which she is able to transform into a sword of light and kill Yekun. This would be Glanzman's sole story for Warren.

Fourth is "Deadman's Treasure!", with art by Tom Sutton and story by Lynn Marron, in her Warren debut. A large oaf of a man named Ernie is revealed to have a past life as a pirate when he is hypnotized at a carnival. A man attending the carnival and the hypnotizer use him to find themselves the treasure, but find him too much in character when they discover it, as in
his pirate persona he kills the both of them.

Last is "Wolf Hunt" with art by Esteban Maroto, in his Warren debut, and story by Joe Wehrle. An old man finds a woman who transforms into a wolf in the moonlight and captures her in his castle. She is eventually able to escape and take revenge. As always, Maroto's art is quite good here, the best of the issue.

Overall not a great issue, but the artwork is pretty good across the board at least.