Vampirella 41

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, dated April 1975. One of Enrich's best and most praised covers. Jose Gonzalez provides a one page intro from Jose Gonzalez.

First is "The Malignant Morticians!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampirella adopts a new puppy. Feeding him dogfood she and Pendragon find a ring in it that belonged to his deceased Uncle. They investigate, finding a conspiracy surrounding morticians who have been turning dead people into dog food.

Second is Dracula in "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is the finale in the Dracula series, although it has an open ended ending. This is the only story in the series to not appear in color. It features a woman who becomes pregant from a black man in the early 1900s in Georgia. Her lover is killed and she is forced to go on the run, pursued by her father and a racist sheriff. She comes across the Carnival that Dracula is in and is helped by Dracula and the birdman when her pursuers arrive.

Third is the 20 page "The House on the Sea" by Auraleon (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A ship about to be taken over by a mutiny from pirates who are hired hands on the ship suddenly crashes into a large house in the middle of the sea. The captain and some of his colleagues suddenly find themselves inside the house and find other people inside, with no explanation whatsoever of whats going on there. Eventually they find out that they are dead and that various dead people are appearing and reappearing in the house. An odd, but very good story.

Fourth is "The Wickford Witches" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in a village where many people have been burned for being accused witches. A woman's father ends up dying after his daughter wishes it so because of the arranged marriage she is in. She breaks off the marriage with her fiance so he accuses her and her actual lover of being witches. Suddenly the ghost of her father appears, revealing that the fiance was responsible for his death due to the inheritance he would receive over it and kills the man.

Last is "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Fernandez would win the Warren Award for best artist/writer for 1975 for this story. It features a man in the future (well, not anymore, it took place in 1992!) where people are able to have artificial lovers. A man starts being dissatisfied with his artificial lover and ends her existence, destroying her so she can not be revived. He soon longs for another lover and finds Sonja, an artificial woman who is the embodiment of his fantasies. Eventually he feels the same way about her however, particularly upon finding she has a secret. He goes through with terminating her existence as well, only to find out afterwords that her secret was that she had a human soul.

Vampirella 111

Warren reaches a new low with this all reprint issue of Vampirella from January 1983. The cover, by Pujolar, is actually a reprinted cover from the magazine Devilina, a competitor to Warren! Unbelievable that they'd take a competitor's cover to use for one of their issues.

First is "Vampirella and the Curse of the Macdaemons" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from issue 28. The Macdaemons of the title are a family who lives in Scotland. As the son of the family comes of age he is forced to watch over the family secret. Vampi and Pendragon come there on vacation and meet Alastair, who tells Vampi of how an ancestor of his was forced to mate with a sea monster. Alastair plans to feed Pendragon to the creature, but when he lets it go, it instead attacks him, jealous over the attention he's paid to Vampirella. Vampirella then bites it in her bat form, killing it. This story is continued with the next story.

Second is "Vampirella and the Undead of the Deep!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from issue 29. Vampi witnesses the burial of Alastair, who is being carried into the water. Vampi goes under water where she sees many dead bodies at a ball. She also finds Tristan down there, but he soon transforms into a watery beast after tricking her into getting rid of her blood substitute. Vampi escapes and bites the dead bodies down there to get the blood she needs.

Third is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story), from issue 40. A sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Fourth is "The Munificent Ali Addan and Son!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay & Maroto (story), from issue 68. The art on this story is printed sideways. This story features the son of Ali Addan, who encounters a beautiful woman who has set up a trap for him. He battles a warrior and defeats him, and the woman is revealed to be Ali Addan's daughter. Her mother, a monster appears and kills Ali's son.

Fifth is "Force Feed" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Cary Bates (story), from issue 59. A killer who is on the run from the police finds a scientist who is able to transport him to someone else's body in another time. He proves it by letting him tempoorarily be in Jack the Ripper. But when they go ahead with transporting him to someone else's body, the scientist, knowing the killer is a vegitarian, has him turned into a Tyranosaurus Rex.

Sixth is "Fog" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from issue 62. This story features a dangerous fog that chases a couple. They are able to escape from it, but it adapts by turning into a liquid, and getting at them that way.

Last is "The French Coagulation" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story), from issue 39. Bermejo's first Warren story in its original appearance, his art here is simply amazing, arguably the best job he ever did for Warren. In Paris law enforcement investigate the death of a woman at the hand of the "Loup Garou" which is essentially a werewolf. Due to a key in the victim's hands, they are able to pintpoint the creature down to one of six people. They lock them up in jail cells and the night of the full moon one of them, a woman, turns into the werewolf and kills her husband, who is in the cell with her. It ends up the husband was sleeping with the wife of one of the cops which is why he locked him in the cell with her.

Vampirella 63

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, one somewhat similar in vein to his cover for issue 29. Although usual practice had been for the annual Vampirella reprint issue to contain a new Vampirella story, that practice stopped starting with this issue. This issue is dated September 1977.

First is "Vampirella and the Sultana's Revenge!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from Vampirella 33. Vampirella and Pendragon are invited by a Sultana to perform. It ends up the Sultana is Droga, Kruger's girlfriend from issue 34's story. She is cheating on her husband, but he has agreed to never harm her no matter what she does. She plans to have Vampirella thrown to the beast that lives in their castle, but Vampirella ends up killing it. The Sultana is caught cheating, so her husband punishes her by force feeding her until she becomes grotesquely fat. Some amazing, sexy artwork on this story.

Second is "Jenifer" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 63. A man hunting in the woods one day rescues a girl from being killed. The girl, called Jenifer has the ugliest face imaginable, but he becomes obsessed with her, and adopts her. His family hates her and eventually leave him after she scares them off. He then does what he can to get rid of her, such as having a freak show owner come to take her, but Jenifer simply kills the man and shoves his corpse in the fridge. Eventually he brings her out into the woods to kill her, only to be killed by someone wandering by, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Third is "Ground Round" by Auraleon (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), from Vampirella 50, A butcher kills his wife and puts her body in the freezer, grounding up her body and selling it at the store. As a cover he says she's sick and that they'll be movign to Florida. When her nosy friend arrives, he has to kill her too and heads to the freezer, but gets locked in, with the remains of his wife, who takes revenge on him.

Fourth is "As Ye Sow..." by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 79. This story takes place in a post apocalyptic society featuring a family of cannibals. The daughter of the family finds a man hiding in the woods. They fall in love with each other and she hides him from the others. When her family finds him and tries to eat him, she tries to scare them off with a cross but they shoot her in the face. They force her to have babies with the man, which they then proceed to eat.

Fifth is "The Parable of the Hermits of Glastonbury Tor" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 45. Bertrand, a scholar, comes to the town of Glastonbury. He heads to the Hermit's abbey where he meets a beautiful woman to whom he makes love. The woman tells him she is life, and introduces him to the seven hermits of Glastonbury Tor. She tells him that he can have eternal life, that others who have come eventually chose death, but he can avoid that by choosing to marry her and always remaining faithful to her. He gladly does so, and the hermits also give him a gift of whatever he wants, so he tells them that no matter what they can never inflict death upon him. The years go by. He is happy for a while, but eventually becomes bored and leaves the abbey to sleep with women from the outside world. While his wife cannot kill him due to the deal with the hermits, she does cause him to fade from existence entirely.

Sixth is "The Professional" by Zesar Lopez (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Vampirella 53. This story features a man who moves into a new town and seduces a number of housewives by playing up a story about how they resemble his dead wife. He secretly takes pictures of their affairs then blackmails him. Eventually he is undone by the one women he failed to seduce, who gangs up on him along with the others and kills him. In the end it ends up that she is doing the same thing with the various men of the town.

Seventh is "Wings of Vengeance" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 81. This story is about a prince whose father comes back from the war with a beautiful young woman who is to be his bride. The prince embraces her however and is caught by the King, who has her whipped to death, and has him beaten so bad that his eyes, nose and mouth are all destroyed. The king meets his end soon after however when birds that the maimed prince conversed with peck him to death.

Vampirella 28

A very good issue of Vampirella, featuring a usual Enrich cover, although at least here Vampi is without her trademark costume; instead topless in her underwear in a swamp, pursued by a strange creature. This issue is cover dated October 1973.

First is "Vampirella and the Curse of the Macdaemons" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story was Butterworth's first work for Warren. The Macdaemons of the title are a family who lives in Scotland. As the son of the family comes of age he is forced to watch over the family secret. Vampi and Pendragon come there on vacation and meet Alastair, who tells Vampi of how an ancestor of his was forced to mate with a sea monster. Alastair plans to feed Pendragon to the creature, but when he lets it go, it instead attacks him, jealous over the attention he's paid to Vampirella. Vampirella then bites it in her bat form, killing it. This story would be continued into the next issue, revealing the creature's monster parent.

Second is "The Clash of the Leviathons" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story has an odd protagonist, a Tyranosaurus Rex! The first half of the story features the T-Rex's life and all he thinks about, getting more food for himself. Soon a spaceship of three large humanoid aliens arrive, seeking to take over the planet. One of them fights with the T-Rex, but is defeated and killed by it. The other two return to their ship and leave the planet. The T-Rex has unwittingly saved the planet from the aliens, but by eating the corpse of the alien he killed he causes an virus outbreak that results in the death of all the dinosaurs.

Third is "Blind Man's Guide" by Fernande Fernandez (story & art). This story was Fernandez's first Warren appearance. A blind man convinces townfolks to give him money by quoting poetry. One day the boy who accompanies him tries to steal a gold coin he was given, so the blind man beats him. The boy swears revenge and one day as they head through the woods he gets a pack of wolves to kill him. The boy is in an accident soon after and becomes blind himself. He takes on a seeing eye dog, but it ends up being one of the wolves who attacked his master, and eventually turns on him as well.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "The Power and the Gory!" by Auraleon (art) and W. Eaton (story). A British Governor in the American colonies has a brutish son who commits horrendous deeds including committing scientific experiments on a local boy's dog and trying to rape a blind woman he sees from out her window. The repeated calls for punishment from the townfolk cause the governor to agree to let him be punished the next time he does something, but only by what he decrees. The son later rapes and murders one of the townfolk's daughters. The governor decides to punish him only by putting him in the stocks for 8 hours, but leaves it up to the townfolk to carry it out. They put him in the stocks and drop it underwater, resulting in his death. When they pull him up they find the corpse of the woman he killed grabbing on to him.

Fifth is "Eye Don't Want to Die!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Doug Moench (story). A thief kills an old tailor in her boarding house who spooks her with his glass eye. She steals all his money and plans to leave the next day. As she leaves however she finds the glass eye following behind her. No matter what she does it still follows her. After she dies, it is revealed that the eye was actually sewed to her clothing which was why it appeared to be following her around.

Sixth is "The Other Side of Heaven" by Jose Bea (story & art). A man wonders by the beach one day and finds a bizarre octopus-like creature that looks like its been smuthered with peanut butter and jelly. The man feels a close connection with the creature and decides to carry it to his house. The creature starts talking to him, telling him that it is God, but is dying. It offers to let him become God himself. It tells him how to find a pain killing liquid then merges with him, making him God. Best story in a terrific issue, one of Warren's most unique (and bizarre) stories ever.

Last is "Old Texas Road" by Isidro Mones (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story was Bezaire's Warren premiere. This story is based on an urban legend, and features a couple in a car that runs out of gas. The man leaves the car and tells his paranoid girlfriend to stay there and not open the car door. She hears scratches, but chooses to ignore them and eventually falls asleep. The next day policemen pick her up and take her away, and it is revealed that the boyfriend was hanging from a tree bleeding to death, scratching on the car roof but she was too scared to go outside and save him.

Vampirella 38

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated November 1974.

First is "The Mummy's Revenge" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the Vampirella story in issue 36. Vampirella and Pendragon are in Egypt and visit the mummy of Ptolemy, who was killed by Vampi in ancient times in the previous story. Vampi meets Professor Bruno who brings her on a tour of an underground labyrinth. He abandons her there and the mummy of Ptolemy along with other ghouls pursue her. The spirit of Amun-Ra arrives and tells her that Ptolemy's mummy is alive due to Bruno. Vampirella goes and kills him, resulting in the destruction of the mummy.

Second is "Gypsy Curse" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A gypsy woman is attacked by her husband when he comes back from the war. The story flashes back to before they were married, when he had to kill her father because the gypsies didn't approve. As he dies, her father tells him that should he ever harm his daughter, he will be destroyed by demons. While the husband is away from the war an ugly servant threatens to tell her husband she's having an affair (which is untrue). Her husband then attacks her when he returns home because of this, but the gypsy curse comes true and he is torn to shreds by unseen demons.

Third is "Lucky Stiff" by Ramon Torrents (art) and once again Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A very cautious man ignores a beautiful young woman who starts at the place where he works. At the end of the day she invites him to come to her home at the other side of town. The story shows what would happen if he went. He arrives there, only to be attacked by cats. She tells him he doesn't deserve to live and that he is going to be fed to them. The narrative then reveals that he actually didn't go there, as he was hit by a car along the way. This story is a rewrite from a story Carl Wessler did for EC comics in the Haunt of Fear 26, published in 1954.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story). A rather complicated tale influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. During a play a man, Dennis, reads some strange language on a prop coffin. He and a friend, Vaughn go to visit Vaughn's uncle, an archaeologist and find that it tells of elder Gods resting for eternity. Dennis remembers his youth where he was taught of these mysterious things by his uncle Abner. The uncle later shows up, telling him he was raised to bring the elder gods back to life. Vaughn kills Dennis after finding that he killed his uncle. He later kills his girlfriend too after finding that she is pregnant with Dennis's child, Abner's last hope at reviving the elder Gods.

Fifth is "On Little Cat Feet!" by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story). A much lighter toned story than the other stories in this issue, a very good one though, the best story of the issue. A witch, Kitty, lives in a rooming house with her artist friend Eulalia. Kitty is kicked out of the place by the landlady and plots revenge by turning into a cat and poisoning her claws. She kills the landlady's cat, taking its place, then kills the landlady as well soon after. Eulalia meanwhile recruits an actor as a model for her latest work, a statue of Nero. Kitty, still in her cat form, wanders by and Eulalia has the actor hold her in his arms. Eulalia reveals herself to be Medusa, and when she reveals herself ends up turning both the actor and Kitty into a statue.

Last is "Trick of the Tide" by Isidro Mones (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A man, Gabriel, finds the corpse of a man in the water and steals the money on him. When his wife arrives to claim the body he refuses to admit it was there. When she confronts him later, he clubs her head in and dumps her in the river. When a reward is offered for her, he goes to fish her out, only for her to kill him.

Vampirella 40

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring Vampi and a dark, caped figure. This issue is cover dated March 1975. Ken Kelly provides another cover on the back of the issue, and Jose Gonzalez provides his usual one page Vampirella intro in the front inside cover. This issue was one of the first issues of Vampirella I ever read, so still remains somewhat memorable to me for that reason.

First is Vampirella in "The Nameless Ravisher!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the previous one, where a man who hunted human heads wanted to take Vampirella's head. He was killed at the end of the story, being decapitated. In this story we meet his two sisters, a pair of crazy old women who want revenge on Vampirella. They summon a demon, the Nameless Ravisher, which takes the shape of various entities, mostly those based in nature. The Nameless Ravisher attacks Vampi, first by flooding the room she is in, then taking the shape of a tree that attacks her. Eventually Vampirella defeats it, and the two old women are done in by the corpse of their brother. An odd Vampirella story, but Sanchez's art is a nice, rare alternative to the usual artwork on this series (not to say the usual artwork is bad, Gonzalez and Mayo were usually great. Just enjoyed someone else drawing Vampi for a change).

Second is the second part of the three part Dracula series, "The Winged Shaft of Fate" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Color is provided by Michelle Brand. This story continues from the previous one, with Dracula now having a female vampire companion. Similar to the previous story however, this story primarily focuses on another couple that becomes involved when the carnival stops by. A man steals a large sum of money and plans to meet his lover, but the lover ends up getting bitten by Dracula. The man ends up leaving with another woman instead when his lover doesn't show up, only she does, as a vampire, killing them both.

Third is "The Face of Death!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Carl Wessler (story). A man is angry at a former lover who has moved on and married someone else. He seeks to get back at her by attacking her during a halloween party. When he realizes that the party is only for people who bring children, he finds a boy alone on the street, Mort, and they go in togehter. Mort keeps trying to hang out with the man, who finally finds his former lover upstairs. When he is about to attack her however, he trips on her kid's blocks and falls out the window. Mort comes to see him, and reveals that he is death.

Fourth is "The Man Who Never Was" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Fernandez turns out a very interesting sci-fi themed story here, but his art is absolutely horrible compared to his normal work. Quite a dissappointment from someone who is usually so good. Not that its horrible compared to some other artists seen over the years in Warren publications, but for him, a big dissappointment. Anyway, on to the story, which is quite good. A man awakes after some sort of coma or unconscious state to find himself in a society that doesn't recognize him. His cash is worthless and those he talks to refer to society rules that he has no familiarity with. Further investigation by the police and doctors realize that the man has no record of existing. At least that's what they tell him. In actuality, they realize that the man existed in society nearly 200 years ago and must have been in some state of suspended animation. Rather than accept him into their society, fearing he may cause others to believe in the freedoms that no longer exist, they inject him with a substance that causes him to go unconscious for another 50 years, so those in the future can deal with him instead.

Fifth is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Another sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Last is "Home For the Holidays" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This is a Christmas themed story. It is told in two parts, very similar in fashion to the story "Bless Us Father" from Creepy 59. On the left side of each page we see a little girl and her nanny, who get ready for Christmas day and the return of her parents. On the right side of the page we see the parents boarding a plane to head home. The wife seems quite upset with the husband, who appears to have been recently released from prison. The husband realizes that a fellow passenger has a gun and tries to stop him. This results in a confrontation in the cockpit which results in the plane crashing... right into the home where the daughter and nanny are. Quite a bleak and depressing ending compared to many of the other Christmas themed stories that appeared in the Christmas issue of Creepy that came out the same time as this issue (issue 68).

Vampirella 91

This issue of Vampirella, from October 1980 is an all reprint issue featuring various Vampirella stories. The cover is a montage of various past Warren covers (featuring artist Enrich and Sanjulian, from Creepy 51, 58 and 60, Eerie 41, and Vampirella 40 and 57) with new artwork from Enrich.

First is "The Carnival of Death" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from Vampirella 34. Traveling in Venice, Vampirella and Pendragon meet the Zymer, a cruel man who Vampirella gets upset at after he forces participation in a russian roulette type game. Meanwhile a rich couple invites many old friends to a ball they are having, and an invitation ends up going to Zymer too. A large group heads to the ball, where they find that the other guests are actually corpses! Vampirella finally snaps, killing Zymer by draining his blood. They depart, leaving the rich couple with their dead friends.

Second is "The Human Marketplace" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 53. Vampi is caught with her forged passport on the US border and agrees to work undercover in order to get off the hook. She is used to go undercover to thwart Algernon Silver, a man who plans to sell women to various world leaders and use them to kill them all at once. As usual, Vampi is able to save the day while Silver's own men also end up 'screwing' up his plans. Pretty good story with gorgeous art by Gonzalez.

Third is "City of Ghosts" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), from Vampirella 57. Vampirella is stranded in the desert and comes across a deserted town where she meets her husband from Drakulon, Tristan. Adam arrives but is shot by him. Eventually it ends up that it was all an illusion and Vampi is reunited with Pendragon and Adam.

Fourth is "The Headless Horseman of All-Hallow's Eve!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story) from Vampirella 56. Some extremely good art by Gonzalez here, one of his best Vampirella stories ever. Vampirella and Adam try to solve the mystery of a headless horsemen who is kidnapping young woman. Using Vampi as bait they find the truth, it is actually some men who are trying to sell the women into slavery. Vampi and Adam are able to stop their operations.
Fifth is "Pendragon's Last Bow" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story) from Vampirella 59. Vampi and Pendragon come to a new town where some murders have been taking place. Pendragon meets a beautiful woman Rosie, the owner of an antique shop directly above the place where the corpses have been found. The Van Helsings arrive and find that Rosie is a succubus, who along with her brother is responsible for the murders. Rosie and her brother are killed, but she saves Adam, who had been attacked by her brother before she dies.

Vampirella 29

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring Vampirella pursued by an underwater monster. This issue is dated November 1973. Quite a good cover. Bill Dubay provides the two page "A History of Vampires" on the inside front and back covers.

First is "Vampirella and the Undead of the Deep!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampi witnesses the burial of Alastair, who she met in the previous issue's story, who is being carried into the water. Vampi goes under water where she sees many dead bodies at a ball. She also finds Tristan down there, but he soon transforms into a watery beast after tricking her into getting rid of her blood substitute. Vampi escapes and bites the dead bodies down there to get the blood she needs.

Second is "The Evil Eye" by Ramon Torrents (art) and W. Eaton (story). Hundreds of years ago Ezekiel Lanier testifies against a witch, lying, causing her to be burned at the stake. The witch curses him, saying that he and ten generations of descendents will lose what they cherish most. This is done through an evil eye kept in a box of hers. Whenever someone opens the box they suffer the effects of the curse. It starts with Ezekiel, whose eyes and tongue rot away, and continue throughout the years through various descendents until modern times.

Third is "Stairway to Heaven!" by Fernando Fernandez (story). A man finds himself in limbo, not remembering who he is or what he's doing there. Slowly he remembers where he is, that he's in limbo between life and death after being in a car accident. Realizing where he is, he decides to accept his death and die. Some insanely good artwork by Fernandez here, arguably his best. Only downside is one very obvious swipe from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Fourth is "Last Lunch For Rats!" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). A young boy named Harold is picked on from some other neighborhood kids who poison his pet rats. Later Harold ends up vanishing when he holds his breath under water, and is never seen again. Years go bye, and the kids grow up and start a business. Soon they start dying under mysterious circumstances. Eventually only two are left, with one, a judge, sentencing the other, who was Harold's only friend, to jail. The judge is found dead himself soon after however, from Harold.

Last is "The Vampires are Coming! The Vampires are Coming!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place during the revolutionary war. A young drummer boy sees a vampire sucking the blood from dead bodies. He tells some adult soldiers of what he saw but they don't believe him. He later is confronted by the vampire again, but is able to kill him with his drum sticks. Unknown to him, the vampire's victims will soon rise themselves...

Vampirella 34

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated June 1974. Jeff Jones provides the frontis "Extraordinary Verse" based on the William Blake poem "Tyger Tyger". Quite a good issue, with only one poor story.

First is "The Carnival of Death" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Traveling in Venice, Vampirella and Pendragon meet Zymer, a cruel man who Vampirella gets upset at after he forces participation in a russian roulette type game. Meanwhile a rich couple invites many old friends to a ball they are having, and an invitation ends up going to Zymer too. A large group heads to the ball with Zymer, where they find that the other guests are actually corpses! Vampirella finally snaps, killing Zymer by draining his blood. They depart, leaving the rich couple with their dead friends.

Second is "Miranda" by Felix Mas (art) and Fred Ott (story). A rich man obsessed with marrying women with deformities visits an old woman, wanting to meet and marry her niece, Miranda. The old woman allows him to meet Miranda, who is a freak with praying mantis arms, but the old woman refuses to let him take her, even with him offering a million dollars for her. When the old woman sleeps, the rich man and Miranda run off together however. The old woman heads to their house, but it is too late. As part praying mantis, Miranda has already killed and eaten him.

Third is "From the Spain of Legend" featuring the character Fleur, in her first of four appearances. Art is by Ramon Torrents while story is by John Jacobson. Richard, a traveling Earl visits a fellow noble, Chelidonius, seeking lodging while he returns home from the Crusades. Chelidonius tricks the Earl, having him locked up as an accussed witch so he can take over his property. Within the prison Richard meets Fleur, a woman who claims to actually be a witch. When it is time for the 'witches' to be burned at the stake, Fleur kills their captors and escapes with Richard. Richard however attacks her since she is a real witch, and Fleur kills him.

Fourth is "Black and White Vacuum to Blues" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). Bill Dubay provides the color. Despite some very good art and coloring, this is a poor, very confusing story about a clown being pursued through the old west, space, and other places. It ends up that the clown is just a character on television.

Fifth is "Recurrence!" by Jose Bea (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young woman murders her husband by pushing him down an elevator shaft. After collecting the insurance money from his death she starts having strange dreams of being pushed off a cliff by a small dwarf like creature. Eventually she sees him for real while driving and drives off a cliff, which results in her falling to her death.

Last is "Cold Cuts" by Jeff Jones (art) and Berni Wrightson (story). Terrific contributions from these two, with Wrightson providing his only writing credit for a story he didn't draw as well. The story features a man in a winter wilderness who shoots a deer and carries it with him. Meanwhile his wife is snowbound in a cabin with a colleague of his who attacks her. While the hunter thinks about providing for his wife, the colleague's body is mutilated, as if he was being prepared to eat.

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.

Vampirella 39

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring a freak woman sitting on a skull. This issue is cover dated January 1975. Jose Gonzalez provides both a one page Vampi intro on the inside front cover and a one page Vampi farewell on the inside back cover, an image that was soon reworked into the cover of Vampirella 42 by Enrich.

First is Vampirella in "The Head-Hunter of London" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This is the first of three straight Vampi stories from Sanchez, whose style is a stark contrast from Gonzalez's art. Still a pretty good job from Sanchez though. Vampi and Pendragon meet Jack D'Arcy, who offers to tour them around London. D'Arcy is a hunter, who secretly collects human heads as well and becomes obsessed with obtaining Vampirella's head. They struggle, and by the end it is D'Arcy who ends up being decapitated.

Second is "The Sultan of 42nd Street" by Felix Mas (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story). A poor artist buys a canvas from a pawnshop. It ends up that whatever he paints on the canvas comes to life, and a beautiful woman appears when he paints her on it. He gets the idea to paint multiple women and turn them into whores to make him money. Alas, when another painter buys one of the canvases and paints his face, his entire face vanishes from his home, and appears in hers!

Third is "Snow White and the Deadly Dwarfs" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates & Gerry Boudreau (story). A young woman lives in a large mansion all by herself, well except for dwarves that live with her and call her snow white. Her boyfriend doesn't believe her about them, and when he comes over they stab him to death to 'protect her'. Only it ends up that there dwarves weren't after all and she did it all the stabbing herself. Some extremely good art by Maroto on this story, one of his best.

Fourth is the start of a new three part series featuring Dracula. This first story is titled "The Circus of King Carnival". Art is by Esteban Maroto and story is by Gerry Boudreau. This story is in color. Despite being the title of the series, Dracula barely appears at all here. Instead the story focuses on a couple who come by a freak show that Dracula is a part of. The husband visits a shaman as he wants to save his dying wife, but the shaman tells him he'll have to bring him a human heart. The husband attacks a thief who is captivated by the butterfly lady in the freak show, and kills him to take the heart. Only the butterfly lady kills him. Meanwhile, Dracula bites the neck of the wife, preventing her from dying by turning her into a vampire.

Fifth is "The Curse of Castle Vlad!" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in Translyania where a movie shoot takes place in a cursed castle. Soon members of the cast start appearing dead, but the director declares that they have to continue. Eventually all are gone except for the director and his wife, the star of the film, who ends up being revealed as a vampire. Naturally, she ends up biting him.

Last is "The French Coagulation" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story). Bermejo's first Warren story, his art here is simply amazing, arguably the best job he ever did for Warren. Its quite unfortunate that he couldn't stay this good his entire Warren career. In Paris law enforcement investigate the death of a woman at the hand of the "Loup Garou" which is essentially a werewolf. Due to a key in the victim's hands, they are able to pintpoint the creature down to one of six people. They lock them up in jail cells and the night of the full moon one of them, a woman, turns into the werewolf and kills her husband, who is in the cell with her. It ends up the husband was sleeping with the wife of one of the cops which is why he locked him in the cell with her.

Vampirella 83

Jose Gonzalez and Kim McQuaite provide the cover for this all reprint issue of Vampirella, cover dated December 1979. Alas, by this point even the Vampirella reprint issues didn't have the usual new Vampi story they used to have.

First is "The God of Blood" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from Vampirella 30. In this story Vampirella meets a fellow illusionist who wears a mask and was actually given power from Chaos, which he chooses to abuse. The illusionist captures Vampirella and dresses as the sun god, but the actual sun god shows up and kills him, then kisses Vampirella as the story ends. This story is continued with the next story.

Second is "The Betrothed of the Sun-God!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from Vampirella 31. In this story Vampi is the lover of a Sun God that can only appear once a month, but kills anyone who even appears to be attracted to Vampirella. At the same time Pendragon receives a message from a long lost relative and the two of them travel to Paris. The 'relative' is actually a con artist who cons people into putting her in their will, killing them soon afterwards. When handsome poet writes a poem for Vampi the Sun God desires to burn the entire city of Paris to the ground, but Vampi convinces him instead to simply strike the con artist's house with lightning, which kills her and her entire group of henchmen. Vampi then decides to break things off with the Sun God. Gonzalez's art here is very impressive.

Third is "Second Childhood" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 88. This story is about a man, nicknamed Knobby and his rich friend, Chadwick. Chadwick, who with his wealth can have any woman he wants becomes enamored with a priestess in a small African village. Forbidden to be with her, he burns down the village and brings her back to the US. She refuses to sleep with him until drunk one night he rapes her. After their baby is born, Chadwick ends up going into an institution, being unable to write or talk anymore. Knobby goes to his home where he finds Chadwick's baby, which is revealed to actually have Chadwick's mind.

My number one warren story of all time is fourth, "Yellow Heat" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Vampirella 58. Heath's art is some of the best to ever appear in a Warren story. This story takes place in Africa before World War I and surrounds Uthu, a young warrior in an African tribe. When a beautiful woman from an opposing tribe is captured, Uthu desires her for himself and challenges the chief when he claims her. In order to obtain her, the chief orders Uthu to accomplish a warrior's quest where he singlehandedly must kill a full grown lion with only a spear within 3 days. A near impossible task, things get even tougher for Uthu when a lion ambushes him unprepared. He gets very lucky however when a large snake attacks the lion, killing it. Uthu kills the snake and drags the lion back to his tribe, victorious. He enters the hut where the captured woman is waiting for him... and thats as far as I'm going to go. This story is memorable largely for having one of the biggest shock endings in Warren history and I'm not going to spoil it for my readers. Let me just say that the final panel is extremely horrific and startling, but ultimately makes sense within the confines of the story once you read it again. Just a fantastic, fantastic story.

Last is "Harry" by Jeff Jones (story & art), from Vampirella 32. This story was originally printed in color, but is black and white here. A very fast paced story at only 6 pages, it features a little girl walking around with her stuffed bunny rabbit Harry. Talking to herself, it becomes clear that her parents were killed in a fire because they didn't like him. Her head starts hurting and she collapses; someone else later finding Harry.

Vampirella 42

This issue of Vampirella is dated May 1975. The cover is by Enrich, based on a Jose Gonzalez drawing on the inside cover for one of the earlier issues. Jose Gonzalez provides a one page intro from Vampi on the inside front cover.

First is "The Mountain of Skulls" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Butterworth's long run as Vampi's writer ends with this story, with Dubay taking over the reigns as writer in the next issue. In this story a plane that Vampi and Pendragon are on crashes on an island where they and the survivors are locked up by savages. Vampirella escapes and comes across some other men on the island who aren't really interesting in saving anyone. When they find a pile of golden skulls, Vampi takes the opportunity to attack them. Everyone is released soon after.

Second is "Around the Corner... Just Beyond Eternity!" by Luis Garcia (art) and Victor Mora & Gerry Boudreau (story, Mora uncredited). As I discussed in my review of issue 43, this story was originally printed in Europe and was reprinted here. This story features an englishman who crashes during the war near a mansion. He is brought inside and held there by an old german woman, but a young woman helps him escape. He returns years later and finds that she had died years before and that she must have helped him out since he looked just like her brother, who also died in the war. A very good story that I'm probably not doing enough justice to with this quick summary.

Third is "Laugh, Clown, Laugh!" by Ramon Torrents (art, miscredited to Esteban Maroto) and Shelly Leferman (story). Leferman worked as a letterer for Warren and only ended up writing this single story. It is about an extremely popular clown who refuses to take off his makeup. When a senator gets involved, he is finally forced to do so, revealing that he is a hideous monster. His career as a clown is finished, but he ends up helping the circus in another way by becoming part of the freak show.

Fourth is "Straw on the Wind", the start of Pantha's second series. Pantha had been absent since her first series ended in issue 33. She returns for a second series, although it only lasted 2 parts. Art is by Auraleon, while Budd Lewis takes over the script from Pantha's original writer, Steve Skeates. In this story Pantha is fired from her job as a stripper but immediately gets hired at a rival strip club. When a fellow stipper harasses her, Pantha naturally turns into her panther self and attacks her. She later meets Jack Kimble, an older man whom she falls in love with and lives with. John is assaulted by a mugger as this part ends. This series would skip an issue and come back in issue 44.

Last is "The Whitfield Contract" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). A black assassin, John Gamble, has some personal turmoil over having to kill Whitfield, a good friend of his. Gamble has the special ability to kill people simply by willing it to happen. He is upset enough over the assassination to consider quitting the business, particularly after being ordered to kill a doctor that investigated his death. When he confronts his superiors to quit, he reveals the truth, that he is actually an alien being and that he'll be returning to his home planet, to come at a later time and kill them. What was a very good story descends into total lunacy on the final two pages with the alien twist.

Vampirella 33

The cover to this issue by Enrich features Vampirella under attack by a giant spider. This issue is cover dated May 1974.The two page feature "The Believer" by Jeff Jones & Berni Wrightson is on the front and back inside covers.

First is "Vampirella and the Sultana's Revenge!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampirella and Pendragon are invited by a Sultana to perform. It ends up the Sultana is Droga, Kruger's girlfriend from the previous issue's story. She is cheating on her husband, but he has agreed to never harm her no matter what she does. She plans to have Vampirella thrown to the beast that lives in their castle, but Vampirella ends up killing it. The Sultana is caught cheating, so her husband punishes her by force feeding her until she becomes grotesquely fat. Some amazing, sexy artwork on this story, earning Gonzalez a Warren award for best art on a story for 1974.

Second is the finale to the first Pantha series, "Childhood Haunt!" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Pantha heads to an orphanage to find information on her past. Before, she meets a man, Jason whom she has sex with. When the head of the orphanage refuses to give her the info she wants, she breaks in and sees him abusing the children. She attacks him in her panther form, but when Jason comes to protect the children, she ends up killing him too. A sad end, but a good one to Pantha's first series.

Third is "Top to Bottom" by Richard Corben (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A very good story reminiscent of the Hellraiser movies. A man finds a mysterious blue cube in a pawn shop with lights inside that travel from the top to bottom. He suddenly finds himself inside the cube, and time starts traveling very quickly when he dozes off. Eventually the cube starts talking to him, telling him its a game. He plays for years and years, never winning, until he is an old man. The cube then tells him that his behavior shaped the entire world while playing it, and that he could have brought peace to mankind, but his greed brought about different events. Just then he is killed by a pair of crooks who plan to use the cubes themselves, while on drugs. A very good story, one thats quite unique compared to the other ones published by Warren.

Fourth is "...Number 37 is Missing!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story surrounds a murder mystery where painting with monsters start appearing. Other paintings show up without the monsters at the murder scenes. It ends up that the monsters in the paintings are alive, and causing the murders. This results in a terrifying end for the newspaper reporter investigating the case.

The issue concludes with "Barfly!" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Jacobson (story). This issue surrounds a man who comes back from Asia with a new wife. It soon becomes apparant that she is a vampire, and her husband soon dies. She came to America in the first place for her husband's friend, whom she wants to become a vampire with him. While he refuses, at the end of the story he ends up attacking a friend of his in the bar and fleeing. Abellan's sole appearance in Vampirella (he appeared predominantly in Creepy) isn't any better than his usual work, which always paled compared to the other Spanish artists working for Warren.

Vampirella 32

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated April 1974. Quite a different looking cover than Enrich's usual fare, making me wonder if it was painted in acrylic rather than oil.

First is Vampirella in "The Running Red" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampi and Pendragon are called to perform for Kruger, a wealthy, evil weapons magnate. Vampi gets upset when Kruger causes another to kill himself after losing all his money to him. Vampi also meets the handsome 'Traveler', who bet his soul when gambling, but was permitted eternal life. Traveler takes on Kruger in a high stakes game of roulette and Kruger loses everything, including his life after his angry mistress pushes him into a spiked fence. Traveler however quickly ages to death, it appears that he broke the pact that gave him eternal life when he helped take down Kruger for Vampi. Kruger's mistress would reappear in the next issue.

Next is the third Pantha story, "Black on White" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A man becomes obsessed with Pantha after recalling an old man he had met being killed by her. He investigates and eventually comes upon her, only for her to change into a panther and kill him. The darkness of this series continues, a stark contrast to the silliness of Pantha's later appearances.

Third is the color story "Harry" by Jeff Jones (story & art). A very fast paced story at only 6 pages, it features a little girl walking around with her stuffed bunny rabbit Harry. Talking to herself, it becomes clear that her parents were killed in a fire because they didn't like him. Her head starts hurting and she collapses; someone else later finds Harry.

An even shorter color story from Jones is next, "Dead Run", at a mere 2 pages long. This very quick story features a man with an oxygen mask who is first in some woods, then in space, encountering death itself.

Fifth is "The Man Whose Soul Was Spoiling!" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). A top assassin, Dino, kills a lover of his and a friend whom he thinks is having an affair with her. He then seeks to topple his own superiors. His henchmen however start noticing a very odd stench coming out of him. It ends up that he is so evil that his soul is actually rotting. This causes all his allies to leave him, and he has to go on the run, eventually becoming a bum that even the homeless avoid. This results in the only solution he has to the problem, suicide.

Last is "Just Like Old Times" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story tells two stories, one featuring a man who discovers that his wife and best friend are having an affair. He kills the wife, then brings the friend on a hunting trip where he kills him two. The other story tells of a long sleeping demon. The demon ends up waking up just as our protagonist kills his friends in the woods. Some very good art by Torrents here, the demon is extremely scary looking.

Vampirella 31

This issue was publicized as Frank Frazetta's return to Warren, although in actuality it was simply a reprinting of a cover that had been used for the movie "Luana", which is adapted inside. I've seen images on the web before of what was supposedly the original cover for this issue (see below), which is by Enrich and features Vampi by the Eiffel Tower. For whatever reason that cover was never used, although Vampi's face from that cover was used in the top left hand corner of the cover for Vampi's portrait for the next half a dozen issues or so starting with issue 32.

First is "The Betrothed of the Sun-God!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the prior one, where Vampi is the lover of a Sun God that can only appear once a month, but kills anyone who even appears to be attracted to Vampirella. At the same time Pendragon receives a message from a long lost relative and the two of them travel to Paris. The 'relative' is actually a con artist who cons people into putting her in their will, killing them soon afterwards. When a handsome poet writes a poem for Vampi the Sun God desires to burn the entire city of Paris to the ground, but Vampi convinces him instead to simply strike the con artist's house with lightning, which kills her and her entire group of henchmen. Vampi then decides to break things off with the Sun God. A very good story to start off the issue with. Gonzalez's art is very impressive.

Next is Pantha in her second story, "Family Ties" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In this story Pantha goes home to see her boyfriend but he could care less what she has to say and after slapping her she turns into a panther and kills him. She then goes home to see her 'parents', asking them who her real parents are so she can find out what is happening to her. They instead beat her, so she once again turns into her panther form and kills the both of them.

Third is "The Truth!" by Fernando Fernandez (art & story). In Spain a captain in the military is brought before a group of judges, accused of Satanism and the murder of his wife and her lover. The captain tells of how he returned from the war to find his wife acting strangely, his sons sent away and only two mysterious servants there. That night while sleeping with his wife he is drugged, but wakes up hours later to find her gone. He heads to the basement where he thinks he'll find her with a lover, but instead finds her and her two servants eating a corpse. Shocked by what he sees, he kills the two servants and chases his wife through the woods, but she escapes in a flying saucer which flies away. None of the judges believe him and sentence him to death in the bonfire. The strongest story of the issue, with amazing art by Fernandez and a very spooky atmosphere. Whether the story the captain is telling is the truth or not is unknown. The inclusion of the alien aspect on the second to last page is quite odd though, something Fernandez would do again in the story 'The Whitfield Contract' in issue 42.

Fourth is "The Woodlik Inheritance!" by Richard Corben (art & story). A woman returns to the home she grew up in in Maine, where she finds that her mother has passed away. Her brother is acting very strange, telling her that the father they never knew is alive and that he has been eating only raw meat the last few weeks. They head to the basement, where they find their father, a horrific monster, who is eating the corpse of their mother. The brother battles the father and they both end up dying. The sister departs the house, which burns to the ground, eating what is left of her brother. A pretty good, odd, story, although the color is a little too dark at times.

Yet another solo story is up next, this time by Jose Bea, with "The Strange, Incurable Phobia of Mad Pierre Langlois!". 'Mad' Pierre is a man who is both afraid of and absolutely despises flowers. This is due to his youth, where his step mother showed him no love, instead paying all attention to her flowers. She then told him that her flowers would curse him until the day he dies. The curse finally comes to fruition when his son is born and ends up being a half human, half plant freak.

Last is "Luana" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), an adaption of the film of the same name. 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.

Vampirella 30

This issue starts off with one of my favorite Vampirella covers, by Enrich.

First is "The God of Blood" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampirella meets a fellow illusionist who wears a mask and was actually given power from Chaos, which he chooses to abuse. The illusionist captures Vampirella and dresses as the sun god, but the actual sun god shows up and kills him, then kisses Vampirella as the story ends. This story would be continued in the next issue.

Second is Pantha's first appearance in "Re-Birth!" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). I've covered Pantha's later adventures with Vampirella extensively already on this blog, now I finally have a chance to review her original series. Her original series is a stark contrast to the appearances I've already covered; it is much darker and she kills many innocent people. In this intro story we meet Pantha, a young woman at a strip club who mysteriously turns into a panther multiple times with no knowledge of doing so.

Third is this issue's color feature, "As Though They Were Living" by Richard Corben (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in Salem in the late 1700's. A witch, who is spurned by a man she likes gathers her allies and summons a demon known as a Sidhe. Seconds later however the town ministers arrive and kill her and all her allies. The Sidhe transforms into a human and seeks out the man she liked and kills him. He then goes after the man's girlfriend, but she realizes who he is and manages to burn him alive in her wine cellar.

Fourth is "Memoirs" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). This story is told from the perspective of a serial killer, who has written his memoirs in a book written with his cell mate's blood. His horrific murders are detailed and the entire city fears him. Eventually he is caught and after writing his memoirs himself on fire since anything else that can happen in his life will be a dissappointment after what he's accomplished. Terrific story and art from Fernandez, the best story in the issue.

The issue concludes with "Captain Death" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited as Munes) and Carl Wessler (story). A comic strip artist lives with his sister, who controls all the wealth given to them by their parents. Secretly housing his girlfriend and her brother, the artist asks for money from his sister then kills her when she won't give him any. He finds soon after however that his girlfriend and brother have disappeared, and stolen comic strips he had drawn that need to be handed in. He goes to the police in order to help find them and confesses to his sister's murder. Digging her up, they uncover her months old corpse with the comic strips in hand. It appears that the girlfriend and brother never existed and were merely part of the artist's imagination.

Vampirella 51

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, which is miscredited to Sanjulian.

First is "Rise of the Undead" by Howard Chaykin & Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, credited as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampirella and Pendragon visit a town where each year corpses start plauging the town. It incidently ends up being the night that they are there. It ends up that the corpses have come out due to a curse a man placed on the town. Vampi tries to get the man's descendant to end the curse. While he refuses, eventually things work out okay. This was Chaykin's sole Vampirella story, but his artwork is barely noticable here.

Second is "The Edge of Tomorrow" by Zesar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in a future where the communists have taken away and stripped humans of pretty much all their rights. Children are manufactured in a facility run by humanoid robots. A man and woman try to have a baby the natural way, which is now outlawed. They try to steal a drug that will cease them from being sterilized so they can have a kid, but the robots there simply activate a device implanted in their head that kills them instantly. Years later all humans revolt against the robot government until all of humanity is wiped out.

Third is "Uncle Wiggly's Magic Box" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a kid's book author nicknamed Uncle Wiggly who passes away. At his funeral he comes out of his coffin awake. While he has died, he refuses to be dead and through will alone keeps himself alive. Since he's really dead however he starts to decompose, and is eventually required to spend all his time in bed, dictating his book to his assistant.

Fourth is "Whitechapel" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). In a town where a jack the ripper style killer is running amok, a man is hired by a woman to find her sister. The man investigates a local doctor, thinking he's a lead, and finds the sister, dead. When he goes to tell this to the woman who hired him however, the dead sister suddenly turns up alive again. Our protagonist eventually finds out that the doctor is bringing dead people back to life, but is forced to kill them since the experiment isn't perfected yet. Our protagonist is killed by the doctor, and brought back to life, hoping for him to be the first successful experiment.

Fifth is "The Castle, the Dungeon and All by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features some knights and magicians battling each other in the woods. One ends up being victorious and continues on, finding a modern looking building. An odd ending, but some extremely good art by Alcazar, channeling Luis Garcia's style here.