Highlights of Warren Publishing (Part 1)

After a lengthy writing absence, I’ve decided to revive this blog and focus on its original purpose, highlighting my love for Warren’s horror comics. This has been primarily inspired by my trip back through Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella for the first time in years as I follow the Bare Bones Ezine which I highly recommend checking out for Peter Enfantino and Jack Seabrook’s journey through Warren which is currently featuring Warren’s publications in 1975.

My new focus is to analyze particular story highlights of Warren’s nearly 20 year run of horror comics. Years back I had a post on my favorite Warren stories and I would consider this a sort of enhancement of that, providing a particular focus on stories that either are among what I consider Warren’s best, or at least ones that are historically significant. My ranking of Warren’s top stories has changed somewhat since I originally posted it years back (see here), and while I do plan on including in this series posts on those stories that I had included in my top 10, there are also many others I have interest in featuring as well. The frequency of posts or how many particular stories I will cover in a given post I cannot say at this time, and I do overall consider it a rather open ended initiative; Warren had such a large output that there should be enough to keep this series going for quite a while.

With that said, my first feature is going to be on a story that I reread for the first time in years just within the past few days.

The Wolves at War’s End (Originally published in Vampirella #43, June 1975)

Art by Luis Garcia

Story by Victor Mora and Budd Lewis

Taking place in the aftermath of the Crusades, this story features a wary soldier who returns to his home village after a lengthy absence. The village is far different than what he remembers; he faces jeers from the villagers, the streets absent of children and the plague having ravished things. Eventually the soldier comes upon his home, boarded up. His family is mostly dead, with only his sister still alive, accused by the local villagers as being a sorceress as she was the only one to survive the plague unscathed. The soldier attacks the villagers, taking off with his sister into the woods, with the holy men left behind proclaiming they will pursue them. The soldier and his sister make their way towards the castle occupied by the family of his lover Elenore. As they sleep in a tree that night he dreams of seeing Elenore again, only to find her as a skeleton. Wolves have gathered below the tree, although his sister claims he had simply conjured them up in his head. Eventually they come across the castle and the soldier heads inside, finding Elenore alive and unharmed, exactly as he remembered her. The soldier embraces her lovingly but she soon vanishes; their pursuers have found them and killed his sister. His sister truly was a sorceress and created the vision of Elenore, revealed to be long dead as he comes across her grave. The soldier leaves the castle, and his sister’s body, returning to the woods where the wolves eventually come upon him again.

The soldier returns to his home village

The Wolves at War’s End has a rather interesting history and back story behind it. The story was not a Warren original, but rather was originally published in the French magazine Pilote under the title “The Winter of the Last Combat”. The story was part of a series called “The Chronicles of the Nameless” as written by Victor Mora and drawn by Luis Garcia. The series, across 7 stories told of a being that explored the lives of different individuals across various times and places. Other stories in the series featured a contemporary comic book artist, a woman in an old west brothel, a downed World War I pilot and others. Warren would purchase the rights to 4 of these stories (along with one additional Garcia/Mora collaboration) and publish them in Vampirella in 1975. In all cases the stories were rewritten by regular Warren writers including Budd Lewis, Gerry Boudreau and editor Bill Dubay.

The soldier and Elenore

“The Winter of the Last Combat” appears to be the most well regarded of the stories in this series, and ended up also being reprinted in Heavy Metal magazine in issues published in February and March 1978. This version appears to be a more accurate translation of the original story and is properly credited (it should be noted that when Warren published the story, Victor Mora was not credited at all and Garcia was miscredited as Jose instead of Luis). Reading this version identifies several key differences with the version published in Vampirella. In particular the sorceress character was not actually the soldier’s sister. Also the wolves were not simply imagined up by the soldier but were real, and originally attracted to the area by the men pursuing him. We also get a better explanation of why these men disappear at the end of the story, they were only pursuing the “sorceress”, and they ended up getting killed by the wolves, the fate that the soldier suffers himself as the story comes to a close. Budd Lewis also adds in a lot of musings about war which wasn’t in the original story. In a way this reminds me much of the series he had written shortly beforehand for Eerie, “Apocalypse” which examines the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, Famine, Plague and Death. In fact it comes off as if The Wolves at War’s End is building on themes explored in the first three stories of that series and I think in a way is a good companion piece to it.

Effective forest shot

Warren evidently liked this story quite a bit, as a mere two issues later in Vampirella #45 we get an extremely similar story titled “The Winter of Their Discontent” as written by Gerry Boudreau and drawn by Isidro Mones. This story also features a soldier returning home to find his village ravished by the plague and the villagers showing no respect or appreciation for him. His parent dead, he searches for his sister, eventually finding that too she has died from the plague. Unlike the Wolves at War’s End, his lover is still alive and in good health, but feels so devastated by what has happened that she has no desire to live any longer. She requests he kill her, which he reluctantly does before committing suicide himself.  

From the Spanish version

This story is considerably acclaimed by David Roach, one of the co-writers of the Warren Companion, who rated it as his #2 Warren story of all time, behind only “Thrillkill” which by general consensus is the most acclaimed story Warren would publish. Richard Arndt also expressed praise of the story in his book “Horror Comics in Black and White”. I personally rated this as my #3 Warren story back when I rated my top 10 stories. It possesses arguably the strongest artwork to appear in a Warren story, at least for my tastes (as one who considers Garcia his favorite Warren artist). Garcia provides a dark and frightening atmosphere that really fits the nature of the story well, particularly after the soldier escapes into the woods. Lewis enhances what was already a strong story with his changes and dialogue. I particularly enjoy the final lines, “In my search for justice I created war. In my search for war, I created death. In my search for death… I have lost my soul.”

The soldier meets his fate

The Various Sources for Warren Publishing

After another extended absence I'm happy to return with another article on Warren, this time on the various instances in the Company's history where they drew upon outside sources for stories. This article focuses on already produced material, and does not discuss stories that were simply adaptations, such as the various Edgar Allen Poe stories that appeared along the years. Three primary references utilized for this article are the Warren Companion by Jon Cooke and David Roach, Gathering Horror by David Horne and Richard Arndt's Warren bibliography from Enjorals World.

Warren's magazines drew source material from many different external outlets over the years, and this article highlights many of such instances. The reasons for drawing on outside material to fill the contents of Warren's magazines varies at times, but it typically occurred in those periods of time where finances were running low and it became necessary to draw on some other outlets to ensure that magazines had sufficient material to be published.

The first such instance where Warren drew on outside material occurred during the first down period of Warren, in 1968. At the time, Warren faced the crippling blow of the loss of editor/main writer Archie Goodwin, as well as the vast majority of all freelance artists who worked for the company due to a reduction in funds to pay such contributors. In order to bide time until the company could get back on its feet, Warren started using a number of reprinted stories from the first 17 issues of Creepy and first 12 issues of Eerie. Warren also reprinted the entire contents of Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror, a book published in 1966. Each of the stories in this book, which were done in comic form, was based on stories by well known writers such as H.P Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Ambrose Bierce. The five stories, including the Warren issue that they appeared in, are as follows: Creepy #19 - The Mark of the Beast!; Eerie #12 - The Past Master; Eerie #13 - Wentworth's Day; Eerie #16 - Dracula's Guest; and Eerie #17 - The Death of Halpin Frayser. Surprisingly enough, the editor of the book was Russ Jones, the original editor for Creepy, who had a falling out with Warren and had left the company several years earlier, and any involvement he had with these stories was left out entirely when they appeared in the Warren magazines. A sixth story, which was intended for a second, never published volume of the book, "Carmilla", also appeared in Creepy #19.

Following the usage of these stories, the usage of outside source material for Warren ceased for the next few years. Starting in 1971, when Warren began a relationship with Josep Toutain's Spanish artist agency, Selecciones Illustrada, it resulted in not only the addition of a great many Spanish artists to the Warren line for new stories, but also started the beginning of the usage of many stories by these artists that appeared originally elsewhere. The most notable example of this in these first few years of their involvement with Warren was the inclusion of two series by Esteban Maroto, “Dax the Warrior” and “Tomb of the Gods”. Dax the Warrior originally appeared in Spain under the name "Manly el Guerrero". Dax first appeared in his self named story "Dax the Warrior" in Eerie #39, and had an appearance in every non-reprint issue of Eerie through issue 52, marking 12 total appearances. Each of the original Dax stories had been written by Esteban Maroto but were translated and rewritten by various Warren writers who were never credited. The majority of the Dax stories were later compiled and rewritten as "Dax the Damned" in Eerie #59, the 1975 Eerie Yearbook. "Tomb of the Gods" had originally been published in Spain and was featured in five straight non-reprint issues of Vampirella starting with issue 17. Similar to Dax, these stories had also been rewritten and rearranged at times; for example the stories "Gender Bender" from issue 20 and "Orpheus" from issue 22 feature a page of identical artwork although the written content is different. "Tomb of the Gods" was rather unpopular compared to Dax and there may have been other segments that never appeared in the Warren magazines.

“Dracula”, a magazine originally published in Spain by Buru Lan, and in England by New English Library, was probably most notable for the "Dracula Book 1" that was featured heavily in advertisements for Warren for many years following the joining of the Spanish artists at Warren. Esteban Maroto and Jose Bea were two of the principal artists of this publication and each had a story from it published in the main Warren magazines. "The Viyi", written and drawn by Esteban Maroto is notable for being the first full color story published in Warren's horror magazines and was featured simultaneously in Creepy #51 and Vampirella #22. Surprisingly enough it took Warren quite a bit of time to be able to match the color quality appearing in this story after they started using color on their own original stories a few issues later. "Invasion", drawn by Bea and written by Maroto appeared in 1976 in Eerie #75, this time with the color removed. Surprisingly enough Warren also used the final panel of the story as the central part of the pink colored cover to the issue, resulting in one of the most bizarre looking Warren covers of all time.

The next notable outside material that Warren utilized was five stories from the French Magazine "Pilote" that were written by Victor Mora and drawn by Luis Garcia (with collaboration in one instance by Carlos Giminez). The first such story appeared in Vampirella #42, with one additional story appearing in each non-reprint issue through #47. As with the earlier Dax and Tomb of the Gods stories, each of these stories were rewritten or rearranged in some form, including at times, the moving of pages from one story to another, removing of panels or the addition of color. Unfortunately this resulted in the dropping of writing credits from the story entirely for Victor Mora for some of the stories. I've written about these stories in my earlier article on Luis Garcia and found each to be very strong and a highlight of Warren publishing, it’s just unfortunate that they didn't include more of them, as Mora and Garcia later had additional collaborations that never saw print in a Warren magazine. These five stories included the following: Vampirella #42 - Around the Corner… …Just Beyond Eternity!; Vampirella #43 - The Wolves At War's End; Vampirella #44 - Love Strip; Vampirella #45 - Janis!; and Vampirella #47 - The Secret Legacy of Gaslight Lil!

"Tales of Peter Hypnos", a short lived series that appeared in Eerie #72, 73 and 76 also had outside origins and was originally produced by Jose Bea as part of a larger series of at least 7 stories. The first story in the series had originally appeared in Spain in the Spirit, and the entire series had been printed in a single compilation in Australia in 1976 as well. As with the previously discussed stories, this appears to be another set of stories that was largely rewritten, although Jose Bea was the only one credited.

There were various one-shot usages of source materials through the mid to late 1970s in the Warren magazines. "Now You See It" in Creepy #83 featured the return of Al Williamson to Warren after an absence of nearly 10 years, but it wasn't due to a commissioned story, as the story was originally intended for the magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction that had been cancelled by Marvel before it could see publication. "Warmonger of Mars" by Ralph Reese (art) and Wally Wood (story) appeared a few issues later in the all Mars issue of Creepy #87, but was apparently originally intended for an underground comic. "Scheherazade" by Esteban Maroto, the color story in Vampirella #72 was supposed to be the first part of a series, "Thousand and One Nights" as published in Cuando el Comic es Arte: Esteban Maroto in Spain, but this was the only story of the series to see print, at least in the Warren magazines.

Jose Gonzalez was most notably Warren's Vampirella artist and was featured almost exclusively on her stories. He did have a 3 part non-Vampirella story, "Herma", although the story was originally published in Spain in 1974 in Cuando El Comic es Arte: Pepe Gonzalez". All 3 of the stories were rewritten by Bill Dubay and resized to fit the magazine format. Leo Duranona had a trio of stories under the title "Fallen Angels" appear in Eerie #96 as well as an additional story titled "A Nightmare for Mrs. Agatha" in Vampirella #72 that appear to have been originally published in South America, with a 1976 date and Guillermo Saccomanno storyline. Saccomanno never wrote any other stories that appeared in a Warren magazine which lends credence to the theory that these stories were not originally commissioned by Warren.

Towards the end of Warren's run in the early 1980's, the usage of source material from previously published works in Europe picked up steam in a big way. By this point in time that Warren's finances were quite strained was very apparent, with reprint issues appearing with increasing intensity. Victor de la Fuente drew only a single story directly for Warren, appearing in Eerie #35, but the 1980's saw him appear in over 20 issues of 1984/1994 and Eerie. Seven stories from the "Haxtur" series appeared in 1984/1994 #10 and 11 and Eerie #111, 113, 114, 116 and 117. Haxtur originally appeared in the Spanish magazine Trinca and was approximately 10 years old by the time it appeared in Warren. As with most stories there was some rewriting and the original color had been removed. Haggarth was a bit more recent than Haxtur and had a longer run of 14 appearances in Eerie starting with issue #118. Warren also went back even further than Haxtur, to the 1960s, where the strip "Spacewrecked" by Paul Gillon (art) and Jean Claude Forest (writing) appeared. Four stories from this series appeared in Eerie issues #129, 132, 134 and 136. More work from Paul Gillon, "Jeremie: Les Dieux Barbares" which was originally published in France in 1971 appeared in Vampirella issues #104, 106, 108 and 110. Unfortunately both series never saw their conclusion appear due to the bankruptcy of Warren publishing in 1983. The series "Torpedo 1936" saw print in the last 3 non-reprint issues of Vampirella, with writing by Sanchez Abuli and art by Abuli or Alex Toth. These stories originally appeared in the Spanish version of Creepy and as with some of the other series discussed here never saw a conclusion due to Warren's bankruptcy.

Various other stories or series that were shorter in scope also appeared during the waning days of Warren. "Pyramid of the Black Sun", which appeared in two parts in Eerie #124 and 126 originally appeared in Europe in the late 1970s, with story by Antonio Segura and art by Luis Bermejo. The story originally appeared in one part in its original publication, but was split in two for its Warren appearance and was rewritten by Jim Stenstrum, under the pseudonym "Alabaster Redzone". "Korsar", another series spearheaded by Esteban Maroto originally appeared in the magazine Cimoc in Spain in 1979 and was featured in Eerie #126, rewritten again by Stenstrum. Although there were other parts to the series, this was the only one that saw print in a Warren magazine. Two stories from Fernando Fernandez's Bruce Bloodletter educational series appeared rather far apart in Eerie #94 and #117, both originally appearing in the Spanish publication Space and Adventure. The following issue saw another Fernando Fernandez story, "Space Kids" which first saw print in 1978 in Italy in the magazine Alter Ego. That said, I've also heard that this story was originally created around the time of Fernandez's other stories for Warren which appeared in the early to mid-1970s and that it sat around for many years. It may have originally been intended for a Warren magazine but due to its more science fiction related nature (and poor quality compared to other Fernandez stories) was held off on until the time it saw print, which was a time when many old inventory stories saw use by Warren.

Many additional Warren stories that saw print through the years, particularly the late 1970s and early 1980s likely appeared elsewhere, although the true source is unknown (or at the very least I haven't found an English-language source mentioning it!). Warren was notorious for rewriting stories that had been drawn previously. While oftentimes there was no way to tell this for sure simply by reading the Warren magazines, two writers, Bob Toomey and Jim Stenstrum made this known by using aliases for stories that they had rewritten based on already created artwork. Bob Toomey used the name "Gary Null" while Jim Stenstrum used the name "Alabaster Redzone". Both rewrote some Jesus Blasco-drawn stories that appeared in Creepy #110, 120 and 123. The first of these stories, "The Clockmaker" was about as obvious a rewrite as possible as the art makes it very clear that it’s an adaption of the Telltale Heart, while the writing goes in a completely different direction. That Jesus Blasco was miscredited in all 3 stories lends credence to the theory that none of these stories were originally created for Warren. A pair of Leo Duranona stories in Creepy #117 and 118 was also rewritten by Toomey, although they don't feature his Gary Null alias. Whether these were originally commissioned for Warren, or like previously mentioned Duranona stories saw print in Europe or South America earlier, I am not sure. The "Alabaster Redzone" stories by Stenstrum are typically a lot harder to pin point about whether they were originally commissioned for Warren or came from elsewhere. "Lullaby" by Jose Gonzalez in 1984 #4 is one such story, and given that Gonzalez drew only one other non-Vampirella story for Warren that was commissioned by them makes me think this could have been a story originally done in Europe. Much of the "Mac Tavish" series by Pepe Moreno Casares features Alabaster Redzone as the writer, although I cannot say whether these were Warren commissions or not. Most of his other "Alabaster Redzone" stories appeared in 1984, which frequently saw rewrites, so most may have been originally commissioned stories. 1984/1994 features so many stories where the story and artwork differ greatly (the entire Idi Amin series comes to mind) that many of these stories may have been originally done for Warren. Three stories by Carlos Giminez, who has been mentioned previously regarding his collaboration with Luis Garcia in Pilote, appeared late in Warren, in Eerie #114 and 1994 #15 and 16. All three were both strongly drawn and written, and it’s unfortunate that Warren did not utilize more stories by him in the waning years of the company.

Warren's hero-themed magazine "The Rook" hasn't been featured much on this blog due to my lack of interest in the subject matter, but is notable for featuring a large amount of outsourced material. Issues 2 through 9 featured "Voltar", as drawn by Alfredo Alcala. The barbarian themed series originally appeared in the Philippines and had actually been printed in America previously in Magic Carpet. Bill Dubay rewrote the story for the entire series. "Viking Prince" as drawn and written by Jose Ortiz originally appeared as "Sigur the Viking" in Spain, and first appeared in the late 1950s. Two of these stories appeared in issues 5 and 6 of the Rook. "Kronos" by Lee Elias originally appeared in the Joe Kubert publication "Sojourn" and first appeared in The Rook #8. This series was unique in that its appearance in Warren resulted in the creation of new stories which appeared for several more issues. "Eagle" by John Severin (art) and Colin Dawkins (story), who had worked together back at EC comics, also originated from "Sojourn" and appeared in the final 3 issues of the Rook.

This article has focused primarily on the interior stories, but Warren also had a number of covers that originated from outside sources. Patrick Woodroffe had a series of covers that appeared in Warren's magazines, particularly for the early issues of 1984, each of which had been originally painted for paperback books. Vampirella #31 heralded the return of famous cover artist Frank Frazetta, but the cover had actually been originally commissioned for the book adaption of the movie Luana. Interestingly enough, each of Richard Corben's late Warren covers had originally appeared elsewhere, including from the book "A Feast Unknown" (used for Creepy #141), the cover to the 1975 Annual World's Best Science Fiction (used for Creepy #140), and an painting that had been originally commissioned by Selecciones Illustrada (used for 1984 #26). Many other paintings originally commissioned by S.I. as painted by Richard Courtney (Creepy #136, 142) and Sanjulian (Eerie #129, 132, 133 and 135) also were used in the late days of Warren. Creepy #120 featured a cover painting from Jeff Jones, his sole that appeared for Warren, although it was originally intended for the magazine Weird Tales of Macabre but never saw print. In what must have been humiliating for Warren, towards the very end they even used covers that had been used by their competition back in the mid-1970's, including the covers for Vampirella #111 by Pujolar (originally used as the cover for Devilina #1) and Creepy #145 by Jose Miralles (originally used as the cover for Nightmare #9).

Artist Spotlight: Luis Garcia Mozos

As part of a new feature on this recently revived blog, I will be writing articles on some of my various favorite Warren artists. While my principal discussion of such articles will typically be their work for Warren, I shall also where I can discuss their pre- and post-Warren work as well. I figured no person better to start with than my personal favorite Warren artist, Luis Garcia Mozos.



Much of Garcia's pre- and post- Warren history within this blog entry could not have been written without the writings of David A. Roach, from whom I've been able to learn a lot about Garcia from his book The Warren Companion as well as a wonderful multi-part article I've found on the web at the following site: http://theartofluisgarciamozos.blogspot.com/. For those interested in more about the artist I strongly recommend checking out both.



While Luis Garcia Mozos (credited in the Warren magazines as just Luis Garcia) had a relatively small profile compared to many other Warren artists, his work is unquestionably that which I enjoy the most and I consider him my personal favorite Warren artist, if not one of my favorite comic book artists ever. Garcia was one of many Spanish artists who worked for Warren in the early 1970s due to the company's affiliation with Selecciones Illustrada. Garcia worked for Warren only for a year, 1972, producing 9 stories and 3 frontispieces. Then, just like that, he was gone, never to work for them again, although 5 additional stories of his were reprinted in 1975.


Garcia was born in Puertollano, Spain in 1946 and was interested in drawing from an early age. At the mere age of 14, Garcia joined the publishing house Bruguera. Like many of the S.I. artists who appeared in Warren magazines during the 1970s and 1980s, he did a lot of romance comics that were published in Britain, including Love Story, Romeo and Mirabelle. By the age of 17, Garcia had left Bruguera and joined S.I., where he remained until after his work for Warren. While at S.I., Garcia befriended many artists that also ended up working for Warren at some point, including Esteban Maroto, Jose Gonzales, Adolfo Usero (Abellan), Ramon Torrents and Carlos Giminez. Garcia's early influences appeared to be Gonzales and Jordi Longaron, an artist that never did any work for Warren. By the late 1960's Garcia's work started showing the style that he would do for Warren, albeit it without the fine, realistic detail that made him so distinctive.


In addition to his art, Garcia acted as a model for romance novels published throughout Europe along with Carol de Haro, his girlfriend. de Haro is notable as being the model for characters in the Garcia-drawn stories "The Men Who Called Him Monster", "Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress" and "Love Strip", but more significantly, Vampirella in paintings done by Jose Gonzalez and Enrich Torres. In 1967 he temporarily was part of a commune with some of the various artists mentioned earlier and they worked on the comic "5 x Infinity". He then returned to his work on British romance strips.


In 1971 Jose Toutain, head of S.I., was able to arrange for his artists to appear in Warren magazines and Garcia was one of many S.I. artists who soon started appearing in the pages of Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Garcia's first work for Warren was "The Men Who Called Him Monster", published in Creepy #43, a so-so story from a script standpoint (written by Don McGregor), but displaying beautiful Garcia artwork. The influences on Garcia for this strip were quite apparant, the main character was based on actor Sidney Poitier while the werewolf villain was based on the Lon Chaney Jr. portrayal of the werewolf in 1941's The Wolf Man. Carol de Haro appeared as a witness that appeared on a couple of pages. A kiss between her and the Sidney Poitier character became the first inter-racial kiss in main stream comics. Incidently enough, the kiss made no sense storywise, and was all due to a misunderstanding of a descriptive line "this is the clincher" which was misunderstood either by Garcia, or the S.I. translator for the story. Right around this time Garcia also drew the story "Welcome to the Witches Coven", which was also written by McGregor, and published in Vampirella #15, the same month as Creepy #43. While there were no firsts with this story, it was appreciated enough to win Garcia the Warren award for best art in a story for 1972. The 1972 Warren awards were, oddly enough, not given the special feature that the annual Warren awards usually received, but this was referenced in a later year article on past winners.


Garcia's work continued throughout 1972. Some stories like "Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress" (Vampirella #18) and "Love is No Game" (Vampirella #20) brought back memories of his romance comics past. Others like "Spellbound" (Creepy #46) and "The Caterpillars" (Eerie #41) permitted him to do some more bizarre subject matter. Garcia's final Warren story, "Paranoia" (Vampirella #21) was somewhat of a dissappointment, with a rather nonscensical story and short running length.




In 1973 Garcia started work for the French magazine Pilote and teamed up with writer Victor Mora. They stared a series called "Les Chronicles Des Sin Nombres" which told a variety of stories from different time periods. The first five stories from this series were reprinted in Vampirella in 1975, although they were rewritten by Bill Dubay, Budd Lewis or Gerry Boudreau and the credits were often screwed up in some fashion (with Luis being called Jose multiple times and Mora frequently being left out entirely from the credits). "The Last Legacy of Gaslight Lil" in particular has a succubus storyline overlayed over the western outlaw story that the drawings show that I would not be surprised one bit if it had nothing to do with the original story. All five of these stories are amazing to look at, and with maybe the exception of some stories done by Val Lakey in the late 1970s/early 1980s are the most realistic artwork to appear in a Warren magazine. One of the stories, "Janis" (printed in Vampirella 45) was colored by Warren and features in my opinion the most beautiful artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. Its the only color comics artwork of Garcia's that I have been able to see, and may be all that is out there by him in color from a comic standpoint.


Warren clearly had a lot of respect for these stories, maybe a little too much as some obvious swipes would appear soon after. In particular, Paul Neary's "Exterminator One" story from Eerie 63 blatantly copies several panels featuring the main character of "Love Strip" (printed in Vampirella 44), while "The Winter of Their Discontent" from Vampirella 45, written by Gerry Boudreau, is for arguably a ripoff of "The Wolves at War's End" (printed in Vampirella 43). All five of these stories were excellent from all aspects; "The Wolves at War's End" was declared the second best story in the history of Warren in the Warren Companion book, and "Love Strip" appeared further below in tenth place. The Wolves at War's End would later be reprinted in Heavy Metal as well, although I've never been able to acquire myself a copy.




Following "The Last Legacy of Gaslight Lil" in Vampirella 47, Garcia was to never appear in a Warren magazine again. His next work following Pilote was "Chicharras", which appeared in the French magazine Scop, and portrayed his return to his childhood village. Following Chicharras Garcia did a variety of politically influenced stories which appeared in various magazines. He also founded the magazine Trocha around this time.


Aside from his Warren work, Garcia's most well known work that appeared in America was probably "Nova 2" which he began around 1980. The story began in the Sahara desert by changed focus to feature a comic book artist who buys a gun and tries to kill himself. Aspects of the story are similar to "Love Strip", which incidently is the name of a comic that the main character works on during the story. Nova 2 was eventually printed in America in Heavy Metal. To this point I've only been able to track down one of the multiple issues that features it, but hope to find them all at some point.




After Nova 2 Garcia founded the magazine Rambla with friend and fellow former Warren artist Jose Bea. Rambla went bankrupt in the mid 1980's due to economic problems in Spain at the time. Following this, Garcia moved more into commercial art and fine art.



Garcia's Warren work was the following:


Regular Stories:

The Men Who Called Him Monster (Creepy 43)

Spellbound! (Creepy 46)

The Law and Disorder (Creepy 47)

The Caterpillars (Eerie 41)

Welcome to the Witches' Coven! (Vampirella 15)

Death in the Shadows (Vampirella 17)

Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress (Vampirella 18)

Love is No Game (Vampirella 20)

Paranoia (Vampirella 21)




Frontispieces:

Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Undertaker's Model (Creepy 46)

Eerie's Monster Gallery - Quetzalcoatal, Monster God! (Eerie 43)

Vampi's Feary Tales: Nymphs! (Vampirella 18)




The 5 stories Garcia did for Pilote that were reprinted in Warren magazines were:

Around the Corner… …Just Beyond Eternity! (Vampirella 42)

The Wolves At War's End (Vampirella 43)

Love Strip (Vampirella 44)

Janis! (Vampirella 45)

The Secret Legacy of Gaslight Lil! (Vampirella 47)

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 47

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, dated December 1975.

First is "Mother's Coming Home" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Taking place during the period of time while Pendragon and Conrad are supposedly dead (found out not to be the case two issues later), Vampirella is away on her out trying to avoid the authorities. She comes across Barbara, a young woman who acts as if her dead mother is still alive. It is later revealed that Barbara was in a mental institution and was the one who murdered her mother. Vampirella sucks the blood from her, killing her, the first time she does so without any guilt.

Second is "The Secret Legacy of Gaslight Lil'" by Luis Garcia (art, miscredited as Jose Garcia) and Bill Dubay & Victor Mora (story, Mora uncredited). This story was originally printed in Europe in the publication Pilote and appears rewritten here. It features a woman who works as a prostitue under Gaslight Lil of the title and gains the powers of a succubus. She partially drains the life of two men who come by and also controls their minds, causing them to head out with her and become outlaws. A fairly good story, enhanced much by Garcia's terrific art. Unfortunately this would be his last story published in a Warren magazine. One of the characters in this story is visually based on the actor Paul Newman.

Third is "Children of Wrath" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A wealthy man leaves his job and fiance to join the Brandon Abbey monastery, having to pay $1 million dollars to join. His fiance Elizabeth, very upset, heads there himself and sneaks in, being captured. There she finds that the abbey is actually some sort of bordello where men live out their every whim, particularly with the women they have captured there. She is kept there herself and raped by those there. Eventually she is able to escape when her fiance tries to kill her, taking his knife and killing him. Then she and the other woman kill all those there. In the epilogue we find the opposite occur, as a woman heads there to join the Convent of St. Elizabeth.

Fourth is "Gamal and the Cockatrice" by Auraleon (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). A terrific story, one of the best Warren stories of all time. It is included within the top 25 stories in the Warren companion. A tribe in the dessert is told by one of their members, Gamal, that he has killed the cockatrice, the half chicken/half snake creature that kills anyone who looks at it. Using a complex story he tells them how he killed it. When the man offering a reward for the death of the creature refuses to pay, Gamal admits that he also kidnapped another cockatrice and that he will unleash it unless they give him a third of the tribe's wealth and three of their women. They relent to his demands, and it is never really revealed whether he actually killed or captured a cockatrice.

Last is "The January Man" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a group of boys who meet the January Man, a mysterious man who brings them to another world. He claims to be the guardian of January, and that when he dies he will have to choose another guardian. Back in the real world everyone gets worried over the missing children. The children defeat the evil Summer Guardians, but two vanish while doing so. The January Man helps the remaining children bring them back to life. Afterwards they return to the real world , with one of them made the guardian for next January. The light hearted nature makes one wonder whether this story was originally intended for a Christmas issue.

Vampirella 44

This issue of Vampirella features the rarist of rarities, a Vampi cover that does not feature Vampirella. This issue is cover dated August 1975. Neal Adams provides the frontis, featuring Vampi and an entity known as the 'Sandman'.

First is "Blood for the Dancing Sorcerer" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay & Gerry Boudreau (story). This story continues from the epic prior issue story only slightly, with most of the story told in flashbacks. While Adam helps out the severly injured Vampi, she flashes back to a time where she and Pendragon did some traveling near the border and got involved with some men who stole some blood from a blood bank as part of a ceremony. Eventually things go all wrong for the culprits and Vampi goes on one of her bloodthirsty rampages.

Second is "Love Strip" by Luis Garcia and Carlos Giminez (art, Giminzez uncredited) and Victor Mora & Gerry Boudreau (story). An interesting story by Mora and Boudreau that was ranked as one of Warren's top 25 stories of all time in the Warren Companion. Garcia provides the majority of the artwork while the uncredited Giminez provides the comic strip art done by the main character. The story features a romance comic artist who is driven to despair by his hatred of the work, and things get even worse for him when he realizes that his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend, the writer of the strip. The artist decides to end it all and poison himself. Mora and Garcia would create a similar themed work, "Nova II" years later, which would be printed in Heavy Metal magazine. The main character of the strip bears a striking resemblence to a character named 'Slaughter' that appeared in the series Exterminator One in Eerie around roughly the same time, including multiple panels that are obvious swipes of whichever was the original. Because this story is a reprint and I'm not aware of when it was originally printed, I'm not sure who ripped off who.

Third is "Troll" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story features a man who was interested in gymnastings and acting while growing up rather than more manly things. When he grows up and is cut off by his parents, he decides to don a costume and become a troll that lives on a bridge, requesting tolls from the drivers who pass by. Although it is taken in jest at first, eventually someone gets hurt and the police get involved, and he ends up getting shot the day that he is about to stop.

Last is Pantha in "Changeling" by Auraleon (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Pantha is raped by a mysterious black man, then heads to Egypt to get away from things, where she becomes the assistant of an archaeologist. When they head to the dig site, they are betrayed by one of their comrades and most are killed, Pantha turns into her panther form to save herself and her colleague, and comes across a buried flying saucer. This would be Pantha's last solo story for many years until her script was brought back towards the end of Warren's life. That said, this storyline would be resolved in the issue length Vampi/Pantha crossover in issue 50.

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 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.