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.

Vampirella 45

The cover aside, this is a tremendous issue of Vampirella, my pick for the overall best issue of the magazine ever produced. Cover dated September 1975, the cover is a montage of various covers including Enrich's covers for issues 17, 29 and 40, Sanjulian's cover for issue 38, Jose Gonzalez's cover for issue 19 and the background from Frank Frazetta's cover of Creepy 7. Extremely attractive artwork, and strong stories from all concerned make this a must have issue.

First is Vampirella in "Blood Wager" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Len Wein (story). This was Mayo's first story on Vampirella and probably the best art job he ever did for the character. This story takes place in a dream of Pendragon's as he lays in a hospital bed, dying of gunshot wounds (a single panel of him by the artis Zesar, from the next issue is included here). Vampirella and Adam have a fight, causing him to go back to an old lover, who brings him to a casino on an island called Lemondo. Conrad and Pendragon meanwhile think a friend of theirs has a cure for Vampirella's bloodlust, and they head to the same island. In actuality, the friend and the head of the casino are agents of Chaos. Vampirella and Adam's former lover are able to defeat them.

Second is "The Parable of the Hermits of Glastonbury Tor" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). 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'll be given 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.

Third is "Janis!" by Luis Garcia (art) and Victor Mora & Budd Lewis (story). This story appears in color, although the colorist is uncredited. Like many stories done by Garcia during this time period, this story was originally printed in Europe and appears as a reprint here. This story possesses in my opinion the most beautiful artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. A man comes across a statue of a beautiful woman in a Greek harbor. The woman, named Janis, vanished into the sea ten years ago. He sits down to play the guitar, and suddenly she appears. Janis brings her with him into the depths of the sea. All is alright at first until two humanoid monsters appear and carry him off with them.

Fourth is "A Hero Made of Wishes" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A kingdom is treated harshly by their lord, Cervantes. One of the townfolk, Chaucer, talks to the priest of the town, saying that they should summon a champion using the book of Asmodeus, which the priest believes to be evil. Later, when Chaucer's lover and the priest's niece is taken captive by Cervantes, the priest agrees to the plan. The townfolk summon their champion, a powerful looking knight who acts based on the will of the people. Their will to topple Cervantes causes the champion to charge towards Cervantes' castle and kill him and all his men. The townfolk are pleased, but when they start thinking about who will now be leader, their greed to be leader causes the champion to kill them all.

Fifth is "The Winter of Their Discontent" by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is heavily influenced by the story "The Wolves at War's End" from issue 43. An english soldier returns home from the war against Holland in the 1600's to find his hometown heavily in ruin, ravaged by the plague. Being told that his parents have died from the plague, he searches for his sister, but finds her among a pile of corpses being buried by the side of the road. He returns to the town to look for his lover and finds her family being blamed for the plague, with her father being thrown on a fire by a mob. After they escape, she tells him there is nothing worth living for and that he should kill her. He does so, then kills himself.

Last is "There Are No Children in Hungry Hollow, Tennessee" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man comes to the town of the title to write a book. He finds it quite odd that there are no children whatsoever in the town. Everyone he talks to tells him that they are sent away, but their stories contradict one another, causing him to suspect something. He changes his plans to instead write his book about the town, but when he tries to mail it out, the town postman, who inspects all the mail stops it from going out. He is confronted by him, the local store owner and the boarding house host who reveal to him that the town reverted to cannibalism afer the war. After revealing this secret, they make him their next meal.

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.

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.

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 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...

Creepy 57

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated November 1973.

First is "The Destructive Image" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather disjointed, odd tale featuring lots of bizarre events occuring as a man and wife sit down watching TV. Repairmen appear to fix it, but this only results in even more bizarre events occuring. Some very nice art from Torrents here.

Second is "The Hope of the Future" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Doug Moench (story). Some very nice art by Brocal in this pencils only story. It features a man barricaded in a house, surrounded by evil children who are trying to get in. He eventually gives in and heads downstairs where the children, including his son, await him.

Third is "The Bloodlock Museum" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Two parents carry a bound man through their own museum, featuring various corpses of people that did them wrong in the past, brutally murdered. The bound man finds a similar fate awaiting him, as he was the military recruiter that convinced their dead son to join the military, resulting in him dying in Vietnam.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "The Low Spark of High Heeled Noise!" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A traveling salesman comes across a house during a storm. The couple inside reluctantly lets him sleep there. The man overhears the couple arguing, apparently they killed the man's former wife, but suspect each other due to them hearing footsteps of the other during the night. Eventually the man kills the woman and the salesman kills him in self defense. He soon dies however when he drinks something that the woman had poisoned. Only then is the one who started the footsteps revealed, the ghost of the man's dead wife.

Fifth is "The Red Badge of Terror" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in the civil war. A pair of soldiers pursue an enemy, eventually coming across an abandoned town. Only the town isn't abandoned after all, but contains a vampire, that attacks them. They then wait for more soldiers to come along who they can attack.

Last is "Sense of Violence" by Isidro Mones (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in a city filled with violence. The first three and a half pages or so come off like a Don McGregor story with lots of various unconnected scenes of violence. We get into an actual story around the fourth page. A nervous man wanders down an alley and when a man approaches him he stabs him in self defense and runs off. Only it ends up that the man who approaches him was actually just a cop asking for ID, and our protagonist is soon arrested.

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 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.

Vampirella 49

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated March 1976. While the cover states that six Christmas chillers are included inside, there's actually only one Christmas story within. A one page color intro of Vampi is drawn by both Jose Gonzalez and Ramon Torrents, appearing as if Torrents did the vast majority of work.

First is "The Blood Red Queen of Hearts" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Probably my favorite single Vampirella story in this magazine's history, although the Blood Red Queen would make many return appearances down the in later issues, each declining in quality. This story introduces the queen, who has slain six people, taking their hearts. With the acquisition of a seventh she believes she'll become the queen of Chaos. She summons a demon which she sends to take the final heart, from Vampirella. Vampi meanwhile returns to the hospital where Pendragon is kept and saves him by giving him a blood transfusion. The demon has hidden himself within Pendragon's body however, and attacks Vampi when the transfusion takes place. Adam meanwhile returns to the hospital, having been cleared due to Sara confessing to the attempted murder. Adam saves Vampirella and shoots out the demon's eyes, forcing it away. Vampirella is cleared of all charges, and Conrad is revealed to be alive, having been in hiding. Alas, the Queen does not have such a happy ending, with the demon tearing her eyes out to replace his. Some extremely good art by Maroto here in his first story featuring Vampirella herself (he'd do his second and last Vampi story in the next issue). The final page, showing the Queen's fate is particularly good.

Second is "The Thing in Jane's Closet" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A young woman, Jane, is deathly afraid of what is in her closet. Her mother doesn't see anything there, and sends her to a psychologist, then a sanitarium. She comes home, only to once again be horrified by whats in her closet. The psychologist thinks another personality of hers is whats responsible, but when her mother goes into the closet, whatever is in there kills her. The psychologist also ends up a victim to whatever's in the closet. Jane meanwhile leaves, and is has a normal life afterwards. Thankfully whatever is in the closet is never actually shown, keeping the story a scary one.

Third is "Then One Foggy Christmas Eve" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man buys his kid a mysterious looking doll for Christmas that looks like a bizarre creature. Soon murders start occuring, and the man is attacked by the doll. It ends up that the doll is just one of many, all of whom are alive and plan to take over the Earth (referencing Nymatoids, from a similarly themed story, 'A Touch of Terror' from Creepy 63). They get our protagonist to pack them up and send them to New York, where they can claim more victims.

Fourth is "Jewel in the Mouth of a Snake" by Jose Bea (story & art). The issue's weakest story, it features a man who seeks a large jewel being carried around in the mouth of a giant snake. The man gets lucky when the snake goes into a lake, and he steals the jewel. The jewel has strange effects on him however, and soon he finds himself trapped within the jewel, for good. A rare, late appearance for Bea, who by this point had pretty much stopped working for Warren.

Fifth is the color story "The Succubus Stone" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Steve Clement (story). This issue was originally advertised to appear in issue 44 but ended up getting held back until this issue. It features a number of young men that suddenly turn old and die after going to a whore house. A detective studying the case eventually tracks down the whore house, finding it occupied by succubuses possessing a mysterious stone. When he shoots the stone, destroying it, they all age and die.

Last is "The Oblong Box" by Isidro Mones (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story appears to have originally be intended for one of the Edgar Allen Poe specials (Creepy 69 & 70). This story features a man on a ship who finds his friend, an artist also boarding, with his wife, two sisters and a large oblong box. Our protagonist appears quite puzzled, as his friend is very quiet and withdrawn, and his friend's wife is ugly and a slob, quite below him. Eventually the ship crashes and sinks, and the artist friend flees away from the escape ship and jumps onto the sinking ship to be with the box, which sinks. The Captain tells our protagonist the truth, that his real wife was within the oblong box, her coffin, which the ship was transporting.

Creepy 67

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated December 1974. This cover's quite the oddity, as the story it features, "Bowser", doesn't even appear in this issue due to a printing error. That story was planned to be printed here, but due to an error at the printer, the story "The Raven" appeared instead. "Bowser" would later appear in Vampirella 54 approximately two years later. Berni Wrightson provides the one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover.

First is "Excerpts from the Year Five" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where all the power in the world has vanished. The story focuses on a man, who meets a woman when receiving first aid. They help fellow people and find a young boy eating the remains of his mother. Eventually Satan worshippers kill the boy however, and the woman dies soon afterwards as well.

Second is "The Haunted Abbey" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Lewis (story). This story tells of a couple in Spain who comes across an abbey occupied by monks. Due to the weather they head inside. The monks tell them to stay in a cell, but they sneak out and catch them executing a woman by covering her up in an alcove with bricks. All of a sudden they find themselves years later, and all thats left of the woman is a skeleton. They head up through the Abbey to know find it completely in ruins.

Third is "The Happy Undertaker" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). This story tells of an Undertaker who loves his work and takes a lot of steps to make money for himself. He eventually replaces his employees with homeless kids who work for room and board. They end up turning on him however when it is revealed that they are vampires!

Fourth is "The Raven" by Richard Corben (story & art), an adaption of the classic Poe story. Anyone familiar with horror surely must know this story, featuring a pesty Raven that keeps saying "Nevermore". Some very nice art from Richard Corben. The story was most likely originally intended for two issues later, an all Edgar Allen Poe issue.

Fifth is "Holy War" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Lewis (story). Taking place in the age of the Crusades, the Church learns of a group of pagans that apparentely possess the greatest treasure in the world. When they refuse to hand it over to be used for war, the church sends soldiers which kill them all. They then find the treasure... which ends up being the cross of Jesus Christ.

Last is "Oil of Dog", an adaption of the Ambrose Bierce story. Isidro Mones provides the art while Jack Butterworth provides the adaption. This story tells of a boy whose father creates oil from dead dogs and whose mother performs abortions and has him dispose of the body. One day when the boy is hiding from the cops he disposes of a baby in the oil vat and creates an even more lucrative product. Eventually however his parents get in trouble for all the people they end up killing to create the oil, and end up killing each other when there is no other person they can use for ingredients.

Creepy 77

This issue of Creepy is a special Christmas issue from February 1976. The cover is by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides the frontis, featuring Uncle Creepy dressed up as Santa Claus. A whopping 8 stories are contained in this issue, one of the very few all original issues containing this many stories.

First is "Once Upon a Miracle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a pair of priests in a church witnessing an old lady who each year steals a statue of baby Jesus, something she's done each year since her own baby died due to the cold. While they're not watching a group of tiny demons arrive, but tiny cherubs arrive and stop them, then turn the baby Jesus statue to a real baby. Over 5 pages in a row in this story with no dialogue at all, quite an oddity for a Warren story. This story was originally intended for the prior Christmas special, issue 68, but missed the deadline and was not printed until this issue.

Second is "Tibor Miko" by Alex Toth (story & art). I believe this to be the only story in Warren history where no title appeared at all anywhere in the story. The story title is provided on the contents page though. This story doesn't really have much of a Christmas theme outside of taking place on Christmas Eve. It features a pilot who encounters a UFO while in the sky. When the UFO lands he approaches it and is seized by the creatures inside. The UFO takes off, never to be seen again.

Third is "The Final Christmas of Friar Steel" by John Severin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a monastery where many evil things start happening. An eye falls out of a statue of Jesus, which starts bleeding. The eye then appears in a wine cup they are drinking from. Corpses appear in the basement. It ends up a demon is behind the whole thing. The demon battles with the head of the monastery and the whole place burns to the ground.

Fourth is "Clarice" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story is a poem about a man longing for his dead wife, who died by accident when she was locked outside in the cold one night while he slept and froze to death. His wife comes back to life as a corpse and returns to the cabin, where they are reunited. One significant screw up occurs however (not sure whether it was Jones or Wrightson's fault) when the artwork shows an uncovered window that the wife could have broken and got inside through.

Fifth is this issue's color story, "The Believer" by Richard Corben (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a world where Santa Claus is dead and Christmas as it was no longer occurs. Shinny Upatree, the last elf left however decides to keep Christmas alive and goes out himself, although he can't visit every house each year. He visits an orphanage with a cruel housemaster, who Shinny smuthers with a pillow. He doesn't end up dying though and the housemaster kills Shinny. A boy who Shinny who witnesses it happen kills the housemaster, then takes over for Shinny as the one keeping Christmas alive.

Sixth is "First Snow, Magic Snow" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about an old man who sells threads and buttons on the street to make enough money to buy a candle for his dead wife each year. This year he meets a young girl whom he reads to. It ends up being a ghost of his dead wife. He dies soon afterwards.

Seventh is "Final Gift" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a trio of men in a wintery future. They are unable to find much salvagable food due to poachers that have ravaged any stores they are able to find. Eventually one kills himself so the others can eat him, but it ends up happening when they finally find a town with other people that they can stay with.
Last is "The Final Christmas" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Within a church in Brooklyn the devil arrives. He tells the sole priest left at the church, which no one visits, even on Christmas that it is time for him to take over the world. He makes a bet with the priest that he'll let the Earth be if he can find many righteous people, telling off anyone who the priest tries to name. Very arrogant, he lowers the bet down to a single person, then loses out when a boy enters the church to pay his respects to Jesus.

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.

Creepy 81

Ken Kelly provides the airborne cover to this issue of Creepy, from July 1976. Only a so-so issue at best, somewhat of a dissappointment for this era of Creepy.

First is "Brannigan's Gremlins" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about an old man reminicing about his time in World War I where he was part of a plane squadron. Gremlins appear on the man's plane and also accompany his co-pilot, Brannigan. The Gremlins are actually good luck for them, and the two survive the war, the only ones in their squadron to do so.

Second is "Wings of Vengeance" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story). 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.

Third is "The War!" by Paul Neary (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a man in armor battling vampires in a devastated landsape. He eventually comes across a large group of them and is taken out not by them, but a woman fighter who was also there, as it ends up this 'war' is between males and females.

Fourth is "Close Shave" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a barber who kills the husband of his lover. After he kills her however a homeless bum arrives, preventing him from being able to hide the corpse easily. He ends up going crazy, cutting off all the skin on the corpse.

Fifth is "Battle Rot" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A soldier tells another soldier of corpses rising back to life. His fellow soldier doesn't believe him, but when he crashes his plane into a hospital, he comes across just that! The second story in this issue featuring planes during World War I. Yawn.

Sixth is "Billicar and the Momblywambles of Glass" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Clement (story). This story is about a boy, Billy Car, who falls through a mirror into another world where he meets a talking sloth who warns him about the Momblywambles, T-Rex like creatures. When his teacher locks him in a closet with the mirror again, he once again falls into that world, but fights the Momblywambles off with a magic wand. This time he leaves the world forever.

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 43

A very memorable issue of Vampirella, as you'll soon find out. It is cover dated June 1975. The cover is by Ribas, which is the only work he ever provided for Warren. An interesting cover, but unfortunately a tad too dark. Vampirella is obviously in anguish, but its hard to tell what exactly is going on. Jose Gonzalez provides a one page intro from Vampi which features not only Vampi, but also Adam, Conrad, Pendragon, Tristan and The Conjuress.

First is "Vampirella", a rare Vampirella story which doesn't have a seperate title. Art is by Jose Gonzalez and story is by Bill Dubay. A very significant Vampirella story that sets the stage for many stories coming up over the next half a dozen issues or so. Vampirella and Pendragon return to America, only to immediately be apprehended by the police, then shot. Adam and Conrad believe that the shooting originates from Pendragon's daughter, and he is correct. Due to the death of her husband by Vampirella (see issue 24 and 25), she is seeking revenge by framing Vampi and killing those she cares about. Adam manages to help Vampirella escape from the hospital while she recovers, but Conrad is promptly shot himself when he goes to see Pendragon. For a series that usually was a complete waste of time, this is quite the good story, which is continued in the next issue.

Second is one of the best Warren stories ever, "The Wolves At Wars End". Art is by Luis Garcia (miscredited to Jose Garcia) and story is by Victor Mora (uncredited) and Budd Lewis. A shame that they screwed up the credits so bad on such a great story. I rank this story as my #3 Warren story of all time, the Warren Companion ranks it as the #2 Warren story of all time. On its own makes this issue worth owning. This story, along with four others printed by Warren in 1975 by Garcia and Mora were originally printed in Europe in the magazine Pilote (and perhaps other magazines?). Warren modified the artwork somewhat and translated/rewrote the stories, frequently missing Mora on the credits entirely. That gaffe aside, these were a tremendous benefit to Warren and marked some of the best stories printed that year. Anyway, on to the story. A soldier returns from the Crusades to find his hometown ravaged by the plague. Returning to his home, he finds it boarded up by a priest. His sister locked inside, the soldier breaks her out and attacks the priest, then flees. The priest, believing his sister to be a sorceress sends men after them. All that keeps the soldier going is his quest to find his lover Eleanor, who he has not seen in many years. He and his sister eventually come upon the castle where her family lived and he finds her alive, exactly as she was before. This is nothing more than a spell cast by his sister however, who actually is a sorceress. When their pursuers catch up to them and kill her, the spell fades, and our protagonist sees the truth, Eleanor's grave, as she too has died. Distraut, the soldier rides back off into the woods where the wolves of war that he has been imagining overcome him. Terrific, terrific story, and Garcia's artwork is absolutely tremendous. I'd rate it the best artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine, but Garcia outdoes himself a couple of issues later with the story "Janis".

Third is "The Easter Bunny Murders" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A rather odd concept in this story, featuring a were-bunny. Experiments involving animal blood are run on a former convict who escapes and uses heroin. When the heroin enters his system it causes a chain reaction that causes him to transform into a murderous bunny man! Has to been seen to be believed, believe me. In the end the police are able to find the bunny man and kill him.

Fourth is "Cult of the Dead" by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a murder investigation where multiple people are discovered with their brains removed. Investigation reveals that years before a cult would eat the brains of others, thinking that they would gain the abilities of that person. It is happening in the modern day, led by a school professor who leads three of his students to eat the brains of a famous actor, artist and politician. The professor then kills them and eats all their brains, but is killed by the police immediately afterward.

Last is "The Last Testament of Angus Crow!" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). A sore dissappointment for what would be Fernandez's last art job in Vampirella (he would write one more story which would appear in issue 57 and had 3 more stories which would appear in Eerie many years later, although all were reprints or unused inventory stories). Angus Crow of the story is a man who has been convinced throughout his entire life that aliens have been talking to him. He also becomes convinced that enemy soldiers faced during the war were aliens as well. Crow eventually ends up in a mental institution where he passes away. Doctors examining his death discover that he was actually half an alien himself. One of many Fernandez stories featuring aliens in some way, it is nice at the very least to know that he didn't bring the alien angle in out of nowhere on the last couple of pages, which he had done in multiple stories before. In any case though this is the weakest story from those Fernandez contributed to Vampirella in the mid 1970s.

The back cover previews multiple upcoming stories, including one titled "1842" which never ended up appearing.

Creepy 58

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated December 1973. Bill Dubay and Vicente Alcazar provide the art for the two page frontis "The Old School" while Steve Skeates provides the script.

First is "Change... Into Something Comfortable" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). 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! A strong way to start off the issue.

Second is "An Excuse for Violence" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story features a vampire on a college campus whose attacks are contributing to a tough racial situation between white and black people. Oddly enough the vampire is a black man who transforms into a white one after becoming a vampire. Not that great a story from a story or art standpoint.

Third is "Shriek Well Before Dying!" by Jose Bea (art) and W. Eaton (story). A con artist marries a young woman because he wants to bump off her father and get his money. He eventually is able to get the father to have a heart attack and die, but the father comes back from the grave to get his revenge. In the end the daughter goes crazy and lives with his corpse, whom she keeps in her house.

Fourth is "Soul and Shadow" by Reed Crandall (art, his final Warren appearance) and Gardner Fox (story). A warrior sneaks into a tomb to find a treasure, finding a sleeping woman there. She awakens and he fights off a group of demons. Soon afterwards however a shadow comes after him and kills him. It ends up the whole thing was a ruse to get him to kill the demons, which the woman could not.

Last is "The Waking Nightmare!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Don McGregor (story). A Gasp! interesting story by McGregor for once, featuring an outbreak that occurs that causes some to go on a murderous rage and others to just pass out. The story does contain McGregor's political ramblings as usual, but not enough to wreck a fairly good story.

Eerie 101

Jim Laurier provides the cover for this issue, featuring a robot in a futuristic city.

First is The Rook in "The Martians Are Coming, The Martians Are Coming!" by Jim Starlin & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The art in this story looks markingly different than the usual art for Starlin and Alcala, an odd combination. Like most of the recent Rook stories, this features a dual storyline of the Rook in the past and Bishop Dane & Manners on an adventure. The Rook goes about a hundred years in the past where he encounters a robot inventor and a rival of his, who ends up being Adolf Hitler's father. In the present Dane and Manners help stop a revolt by members of the US's own government. Somewhat better than the last few Rook stories for the simple fact that its considerably shorter and simpler.

Second is the second part of "Gotterdammerung!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Our heroes battle the aliens, trying to retake the Earth from them. During the fight Jericho is severly injured, then transported to another human ship where one of our hero's father is aboard. They fight off the aliens and are reunited as the story ends.

Third is the third part of "The Horizon Seekers" by Leo Duranona (art) and Leo Duranona & Cary Bates (story). Our heroes depart the mountain and arrive in a warmer landscape where they are pursued by a group of tribesman. They are chased to a castle filled with knights and a wizard named Merlin. Upon entering its revealed that it is actually just a museum and Merlin is just an old man who like them has lost his memories and is merely hypnotizing people into believing that they are actually in the middle ages. As the story ends the tribesman arrive once more to attack the castle.

The issue concludes with Hunter II in "Three Flames of the Phoenix" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Ten years have passed since the conclusion of the Hunter II saga. Karas is set to be married, but an old wizard arrives and tells him that she has been kidnapped by an evil wizard. Karas, the wizard and the Exterminator head off the fight the evil wizard. During their trip the allied wizard is killed and the Exterminator is trapped under a rock. Karas finally faces the evil wizard, who ends up being Mandragora (who ended up being the main villain in the series) himself. Browne Loe, the wizard who led him there arrives, and reveals that the entire scenario was a set up so he could kill Mandragora himself once and for all, which he does by sacrificing himself. This actually is a pretty good story from both an art and story standpoint, but its quite puzzling why this stand alone Hunter II story appears out of nowhere. It had been nearly 30 issues since the series concluded, and this didn't kick off a new series, but rather ended immediately after this single story. Its also dissappointing to see them use someone other than Paul Neary for the art, who did both the Hunter and Hunter II series.

Eerie 100

Jordi Penalva paints the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring a number of different Eerie heroes including Hunter, the Spook, Darklon, Dax and others.

First is "Master of Ti Chi" by Jim Janes & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook serial continues to spiral downward in quality while the story length and complexity continues to increase to absurd degrees. This story features the Rook going to a place known as Ti Chi which is nothing like what he expected. This story's sole bright spot is a storyline involving Bishop Dane where an alien comes to Earth peacefully but ends up getting killed by the government.

Second is "Gotterdammerung" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a devastated future. Two slave boys meet Jericho, a robot man, and another man, Juda. The four of them get on a spaceship and escape from the Earth.

Third is the next story of the Horizon Seekers, "In a Strange Land" by Leo Duranona (art) and Leo Duranona & Cary Bates (story). Our heroes try to escape in a hot air balloon, but their enemy, the Sheexa arrives and ends up destroying it. They crash to the Earth and hide in the mountains.

Last is "Duel", the final story in the Darklon saga. Story and art is by Jim Starlin. Darklon and his father have their final conclusive duel. Darklon's father reveals why he was trying to have him assassinated. The two decide to use a device that will kill one of them. Darklon's father ends up being he one dying. The Nameless One arrives, demanding that he will now rule the planet due to his deal with Darklon. Darklon responds by blowing up the entire planet, and narrowly escaping. Throughout the story a parallel story of a father and son in the hospital (representing Darklon and his father) is also told. An interesting and exciting way to end this rather poor issue.

Aside from the Darklon story, a very poor issue, and quite a dissappointment for a 100th issue.

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.