Vampirella 111

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 73

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this sci-fi issue of Creepy, dated August 1975. For years fans on the letter pages requested a sci-fi magazine, and while it would still be a few years before 1984 came out, they at least got their wish temporarily with this issue. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "Playpen of a God!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This three page story features an old man and some wounded children in an apocalyptic world. The old man starts reading them some stories, telling them of how mankind destroyed itself.

Our first full length story for this issue is "The Argo Standing By!" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about an astronaut who is part of a crew in space that is in suspended animation. When he wakes up he reports to Earth, where things are getting worse and worse due to a war. Eventually it gets so bad on Earth that everyone is killed off. Our protagonist decides to go back into suspended animation.

Next is "A Beast Within!" by John Severin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features a man who lives in the wilderness, in an age where people need to wear a device on their chest in order for them to be able to breathe outside. At night bizarre creatures try to break into his cabin again and again but he always fights them off. Eventually he finds a young woman whom he marries but she ends up being killed by the creatures. He has one final confrontation with them outside and ends up being killed.

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

Next is "Purge!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). The color is provided by Bill Dubay. This story takes place in a future society where men called 'Enforcers' enforce the law, often with over the top results. This story features two stories in one, the top of each page features one of these enforcers while the bottom of the page features a fugitive on the run with a suitcase of illegal material. Eventually the two converge and the fugitive is killed. The illegal material he was carrying is revealed to be none other than Warren magazines!

Next is "Last Light of the Universe!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. Aboard a space station in space, a man, Block, argues with the head of the station, Hersey, who refuses to provide help with plague ridden people outside the space station. Space has been infested with a plague and the space station is the only place in the universe not infected. Block recalls the Poe story and gets more upset when he finds there is going to be a celebration later on, similar to what happened in the Poe story. Eventually Hersey has Block killed and torpedoed out of the space station. But by doing this he ends up letting the plague into the space station, and infects everyone else, wiping out humanity once and for all.

The issue concludes with one final page from the Playpen of a God story with the old man wrapping up his stories that he is telling to the children.

Vampirella 40

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eerie 137

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eerie 69

I prefer to cover reprint issues on this blog as little as possible, but for the moment I've run out of my back log of Eerie reviews, so I'll be using one for today. Hopefully by the next time Eerie comes up in the cycle I'll have a new one to cover. Anyway, this issue, from October 1975 is a Hunter special, featuring all six of the original Hunter stories. The cover, a new one, is provided by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson and Paul Neary provide a one page intro from Cousin Eerie and Hunter on the inside front cover.

Paul Neary provides the art for all six stories here. Rich Margopoulos provides the writing for the first three stories, Budd Lewis for the fourth, and Bill Dubay for the last two. The original Hunter stories were simply called "Hunter", here new names have been provided for five of the six stories. In addition, the last story is in color (the original printing was black and white). Hunter was one of Eerie's most popular recurring characters, although in this blogger's opinion a great many of Eerie's other series surpassed it in quality. Nonetheless, the series had very good art throughout, and had a very good conclusion. Unfortunately the series would be cheapened considerably in later years towards the end of Eerie's life (as we've seen in some recent reviews) when they brought him back and tampered with the original storyline. Anyway, lets get on to the content of this issue.

The first story is "Hunter", featuring the character's first appearance. Hunter is a half man half demon in the future who battles demons. This premiere story takes place in a snowy wilderness where Hunter comes across a church and battles three demons within it, which he defeats.

Second is "Demon Spawn". This story tells the origin of Hunter. In the year 2001 (ha! years back for us now, but over 25 years in the future at the time this issue was published) nuclear war resulted in mutating much of humanity into demons. One such demon, General Ophal raped a human woman, producing the offspring Demien, aka our hero Hunter. After her death from Pox he joins a group of human soldiers and is trained on fighting demons.

Third is "Demon Killer" Hunter comes across a village of people being attacked by demons. At first he is quite arrogant, demanding food, and is nearly lynched by them. When the demons arrive he fights them, including a duel on winged creatures. One of the men manages to gun down all the demons, but unfortunately ends up killing his daughter along with them.

Fourth is "Phalmark Phal" Hunter comes across the town of Pharmark Phal, where demons have killed and raped many after finding that Hunter had been there. At the request of a dying friend Hunter fights the demons and saves his daughter.

Fifth is "The Blood Princess". Hunter comes across a castle filled with demons. There he is captured and thrown in a cell with an old man, who reveals himself to be Schreck (see Schreck's storyline in issues 53-55, reviewed previously). The demons had taken over the castle but apparantely now there's only 3 or 4 left because of a ghost, the "Princess of Bathory Castle" who has been killing them off. When a demon guard is killed they escape and find her, a little girl, along with a huge nuclear missile.

Last is "The Unholy Trinity". Hunter, along with Schreck and the Blood Princess arm the nuclear warhead to go off in one hour. Hunter heads off to meet with Ophal and have one last confrontation. Scheck and the Blood Princess meanwhile take out the remaining demons and find some mutants. Hunter tries to kill Ophal but finds he is unable to. The bomb fails to go off however, and Ophal kills Hunter, dying seconds later when Schreck kills him. A depressing end, but at the very least Hunter's quest of eliminating the last remaining mutants comes to fruition.

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.

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.

Creepy 129

Jeff Easely provides the cover for this issue of Creepy. Rudy Nebres draws a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. Like most issues from this period, a boring issue with nothing much here to impress the reader.

First is "The Terrible Truth About Danny" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of a young boy with pyschokenetic powers who can cause objects to do whatever he wants to get revenge on anyone whose done him wrong. A beautiful girl moves in next door but unlike other boys doesn't like her. One night he decides to force himself on her to be like everyone else but instead decides to kill himself by blowing his own head up.

Second is "The Saga of Popeye Jackson!" by Paul Neary (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story tells of a revolution from a robot man who used to be human. Some pretty good art from Neary, but a poor, rather dull story.

Third is "Working Class Hero" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an accountant in his forties who looks much older than that who is bored with life, but is suddenly transported to thousands of years in the past where he helps a woman who escaped from her slave master. They go meet with a wizard, the man who brought him back in time by accident and they defeat the slave master. The wizard tries to transport him back to the present, but he ends up in the revolutionary war period instead. Some good art, but a poor, pointless story.

Fourth is "The Last Voyage of Sinbad" by Fred Carillo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Sinbad of legend is actually a dim-witted man who desires more than anything else to have friends and have the rain stop. Some treasurer hunters recruit him to join them and when they find how dumb he is they instead plan to have him be the fall guy when they discover a genie that will kill whoever summons him. The genie instead grants Sinbad's wishes to have friends and stop the rain.

Fifth is "He Who Lives!" by Danny Bulandi (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A confusing story about a man on a spaceship who goes down to a planet, sees weird visions, and encounters a vampire who he kills, making him a vampire himself.

Last is "Strategic Retreat" by Herb Arnold (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story features a humanoid dinosaur who hires soldiers to kill his old men and help him escape. While escaping however the soldiers sign a new contract with his enemy, giving him only two weeks to live.

Creepy 59

A partially Christmas themed issue of Creepy, with a cover showing a murderous Santa by Sanjulian. Half the stories in this issue have a Christmas theme to them.

First is "Destiny's Witch" by Ramon Torrents (art) and John Jacobson (story). Hundreds of years ago a servant is suspected of being a witch when she tries to remove some leaves from her master's daughter, which is supposed to ward off a vampire that's been plauging the village. In actuality she is a witch, and is betrayed by her boyfriend Oliver multiple times, who reveals her as a witch, then frames her as being a vampire when he is actually the vampire. Hundreds of years later however she gets revenge by getting him fried by the sun.

Second is "A Dark and Violent Place" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story is about a phantom of the opera type masked killer who occupies a theater. A pair of detectives investigate the killer, who repeats acts of violence from the films played there, such as throwing acid in the face of a man in the front row. One of the detectives is killed by the maked killer, and the other one starts going out with one of the witnesses. She is eventually kidnapped by the killer who is revealed to have had acid thrown in his face, making him a freak. The detective fights him and the killer is electrocuted to death.

Third is "Spare That Tree!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is about a rich man who becomes quite ill. One of his servants explains to the doctor that the rich man got sick as a boy and a man helped cure him through some treatment involving a tree. This resulted in the rich man's fate being tied to the tree however, if the tree gets harmed, so will he. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know which tree it is, and he has one of his servants hung for chopping down a tree. The servant's brother however, the man who summoned the doctor, gets revenge by using as firewood the tree tied to him, causing the rich man to die of a fever.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Bless Us, Father..." by Richard Corben (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features two concurring storylines that eventually come together at the end. In the first a crazy man's parents talk about him while he dresses up as Santa Claus and goes on a murderous rampage. In the second a girl talks to her mother about her father, who is a cop in the same city as the killer. The cop and killer eventually meet and while injured, the cop is able to kill him.

Fifth is "Curiosity Killed The Cat" by Paul Neary (art) and Doug Moench (story). This interesting story is about a hippie hitchhiker who comes to a new town only to immediately be suspected for murder when the clerk at a hotel he goes to ends up dead. He is bailed out of prison by a beautiful woman and they investigate some men in black that have been following her. They eventually find the UFO that the men in black came from, but our protagonist figures out the truth, that she's an alien as well, and is able to escape from her.

Last is "Not a Creature Was Stirring" by Tom Sutton (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story features a maniac whose been killing Santa Clauses and the detectives investigating the murders. The detective investigating the murders is Dave Turner, who was previously featured in McGregor's horrificly bad "A Tangible Hatred" from issue 41. Luckily the hippie garbage isn't as bad here. The murder finally explains himself on his last santa victim, he's upset at 'Santa' for lying to him about his brother coming home alive from Vietnam when he was a kid. The killer gets away from the cops but is miraculously found dead on the roof of a building, as if he was run over by a raindeer. This story features arguably Sutton's best art job for Warren, one of his last stories for them.

Eerie 74

Only four stories in this issue of Eerie. The cover is by Ken Kelly, featuring Jedediah Pan and his demons. Auraleon provides the interior front cover feature of Cousin Eerie.

First is "The Demons of Jedediah Pan" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pan is confronted by some bandits in the desert so his uses his bracelet to summon some demons which beat them, tearing out all their teeth. A rather dissappointing second part to this series, which still has a ways to go before its conclusion.

Second is "Father Creator" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story features a massive spaceship that is responsible for bringing saviors to various planets. The current person in charge of the spaceship, known as 'Father' is all on his own. The story surrounds what happens when he revises the latest savior and seeks to end his loneliness. An okay story with some good art by Neary.

Third is "A Secret King", the second Merlin story. Art is by Gonzalo Mayo and story is by Bill Dubay. A rather long, drawn out story at 20 pages long, this story features the well known tale of King Arthur, including his escapades with Merlin and Snivel, the death of his father the King, his time with Ector and Kay and the eventual discovery of the sword in the stone.

Last is "The Expedition" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Two friends go canoeing in the wilderness in Louisiana. Eventually they come across an abandoned cabin where a man has been killed by some creature. It eventually ends up that there is a monster in the river that one of the men is feeding, and gives him his friend to eat. The monster goes out of control however and kills him too.

Eerie 73

This issue of Eerie by Ken Kelly features Hunter II and the Exterminator.

First is the finale of the Hunter II series, "Death of the Phoenix" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Being recovered by Yaust, Karas and Exterminator discover the truth, that Yaust is actually the good guy and that the goblins he created to fight off the evil ones went out of control. Mandragora is the true evil one, and there is no such thing as a time shell which will be used to save the world. Karas returns to Mandragora's home, where he finds the White Council and they are all killed. The world doesn't come to an end after all, and the series ends on a happy note.

Second is "Carnival at Midnight", the second story in the 'Freaks' serial. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis. This story surrounds two young brothers, one of whom is crippled who come across the freaks late at night. The boy's father and then a mob come after them, only to find that the Freaks were actually helping the boy by fixing his legs for him.

Third is "Day of the Vampire 1992: The Tombspawn" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place in a post apocalyptic world where much of the world is in ruins. Two men, Stevie and Biff hunt various creatures and come across a cavern where a beautiful woman lies inside in suspended animation. A hologram appears and tells them that she is a vampire and warns them of reanimating her. Stevie falls in love with her however and brings her back to life. After sleeping with him she escapes however, and the Earth forces blow her up. Stevie finds himself now a vampire after an encounter with her and attacks his friend Biff as the story ends.

Fourth is "A Brave Terror Leads to Death!" the final segment in the 'It' series. Art is provided by Jose Gual, in his final Warren appearance, and story is by Carl Wessler. Thieves attack Jan Foley's house, but It arrives once again to rescue her. The thieves plan to blow up It so it can't bother them anymore. Jan and her fiance however follow them and prevent them from doing it. The thieves sneak into their house but It arrives and saves the day yet again. Although the series ends in an open ended manner, this would be the final appearance of It. I do have a few more It stories to cover which appeared in Creepy, including the original story, which will come some day soon down the line.

Last is "Voyage to the Final Hole", part 2 in the Peter Hypnos series, with art and story by Jose Bea. Peter finds a rose in the field that grows huge and swallows him up. He continues to shrink inside the rose and meets a multitude of bizarre creatures who tell him that he'll make it through a hole back to safety as long as he believes that he'll keep shrinking. He does so and shrinks small enough that he finds the hole in question and jumps into it, bringing him back to the real world.

Eerie 72

Another Hunter II and Exterminator cover for the latest issue of Eerie, by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Cousin Eerie. After having only a couple of series features in the last issue, this issue is all series.

First is "Daddy Was a Demon Man", carrying the series title "The Demons of Jeremiah Cold". This series would feature a number of different names over the next 6 issues. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Bill Dubay. This story features Jedediah Pan, a demon worshipper who owns two bracelets that can summon demons. His family killed, he swears revenge and takes back one of his bracelets from the mayor of the town, killing him afterwards. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Cold of the title reveals to his son that he is actually Jedediah's son, and he goes to see Jedediah, who lets him keep the other bracelet, apparantely not aware that he's his son.

Next is "Valley of Armageddon", the latest story in the Hunter II serial. Art is by Paul Neary and story is by Budd Lewis. Karas and the Exterminator head towards the mountains where Yaust's castle is. There they find a huge amount of Goblins being fought by other Goblins, making it apparent that the Goblins are not all in Yaust's employ. Karas is severely injured, and the Exterminator finds Yaust himself willing to help him out. This series will be concluded in the next issue.

Third is a new series, Reuben Youngblood, in "Beware the Scarlet Combine" by Howard Chaykin & Berni Wrightson (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Youngblood is a private eye who is hired by a German woman who brings him aboard a zeppelin, where it soon becomes apparent that she is of a group of vampires. Youngblood escapes from the zeppelin and blows it up. The next Youngblood story wouldn't appear for a number of years until near the end of Eerie's life.

Fourth is another new series, The Freaks, in "A Thin Dime of Pain". This is this issue's color story. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Doug Moench. This series had been discussed for years in the feature pages and previews, as early as three years prior to this issue, but didn't make its appearance until now. This first story was probably written around that time, as Doug Moench had left Warren by this point. This story features some mistreated Freaks who get revenge on their master by turning him and his son into one of them.

Fifth is "The Pie and I" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A sequel to the very popular "Daddy and the Pie" from Eerie 64, this story is a rather poor one, featuring the son from the first story, now grown up. He and his family continue to be treated badly, and when he is beat up by the townfolk, the father heads out with a gun and is killed. The son plans to blow up the entire town using the device Pie left behind, but Pie's spirit, contained within the device, convinces him not to.

The issue concludes with yet another new series, Tales of Peter Hypnos, in "The Incredible People-Making Machines" by Jose Bea (story & art). This was Bea's first appearance in Eerie since issue 41 in 1972. A very strange and surreal story, this features Peter, a young boy who finds himself suddenly in a bizarre world which features mutated and deformed people who show him the various devices they use to enlarge people's bodies and heads, and switch human heads with animal heads. They want to use a device on Peter, but he escapes from them and back to the real world.

Eerie 71

Quite a good issue of Eerie, featuring mostly stand alone stories. The cover, featuring the character 'Goblin' is by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a Cousin Eerie intro on the front inside cover.

First is "Goblin" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Goblin seeks to return to the magic world he came from, but scares mostly everyone he meets. He does befriend a beautiful woman who helps him, but is shot by policemen coming after the Goblin. Luckily he finds another friendly person who has a portal in his home back to Goblin's world. Although self-contained here, Goblin would become a recurring character and receive his own magazine in the early 1980's.

Next is "Time in Expansion" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story), part of the Hunter II series. Hunter and Exterminator meet a group of people in a fortress who have lost their king. Goblins come to attack, but the King returns, and they are able to defeat the Goblins.

Third is "Irving and the Devil Pie" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Irving is an outlaw who is very famous and thinks he's immortal, only to be killed. He finds himself not going to hell, but a spirit world where he meets Devil Pie, who allows him to return to the real world, where he marries a rich, but ugly woman. He plots on killing her, but becomes scared of the Devil Pie, so he runs off and hides in the woods until his death. The Devil Pie had no intensions of doing anything bad to Irving however, making it all a waste.

Fourth is "Pooter and the Magic Man" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pooter is a failed magician who meets the ghost of a Dr. Sigmond who says he'll let him be a famous magician as long as he assists the poor as well. Pooter becomes rich because of an inheritance and becomes quite famous, but pays no attention to his deal, so Sigmond causes his 'magic' to actually kill his assistants, driving him crazy. Bermejo's art is extremely good here.

Fifth is "Demon's Treasure", by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This would be El Cid's final appearance. The story is about El Cid being sent to help a thief who had gone after treasure rumored to belong to a demon. After passing multiple distractions, he meets the wizard who created the demon, and switches cups with him when the man tries to poison him. Some very detailed, but hard to comprehend art by Mayo.

Last is "Mordecai Moondog" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The issue's best story, this features the character of the title, an exorcist, who is called by an old man to his mansion, which is haunted by seven spirits. The old man goes through the horrific history of the spirits, who were all of the 'Von Daemon' family. The spirits are all actually just part of one spirit, the old man, but Mordecai, who is actually the person who killed the original Von Daemon destroys him. A very interesting story with the horrific, long history of the Von Daemon story providing a lot of interesting and bizarre tales.

Eerie 70

Coffin gets yet another cover dedicated to him for this issue, done by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro by Cousin Eerie.

First story is Coffin's finale, "The Final Sunrise" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Coffin seeks to redeem himself by helping a native american tribe who has been ordered by the government to give up their land. Coffin initially tries to deal peacefully, but after multiple failures, he instead goes to battle with the native americans, who successfully defend their land. Coffin writes to his congressman brother hoping that he can help the native americans keep their land. Having done a good deed, Coffin goes to see the native american that cursed him, hoping that he can die for good. Only he finds the man already dead, leaving him alive for good. Coffin realizes how he can truly die for real, and allows himself to be completely consumed by ants, ending his saga once and for all. A terrific end to yet another terrific series drawn by Ortiz, who drew three of Eerie's best series ever, Night of the Jackass, Apocalypse and Coffin, all within the space of a year or so.

Next is the third part of the Hunter II series, "Goblin Thrust" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Hunter is confronted by a group of men who think he's a Goblin, but thanks to the Exterminator they reveal themselves to be allies. They head to an outpost where the Exterminator replenishes his energy, then helps defeat some Goblins. One of the men ends up being a traitor, summoning a bunch of Goblins, so Hunter and Exterminator head off on their own while the others fight, and unfortunately give up their lives.

Third is "From the Cradle to the Grave" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story carries the series title "Code Name Slaughter Five" but as you'll see by the conclusion, this ended up being a self contained story. In the future overpopulation has plagued the Earth so much that the government has put into steps attempts to control the population, such as forcing abortions on pregnant women, castrating men, and lessening the penalties for murder. They also secretly support revolutions that will cause even more deaths. Our hero, Ames is a government agent sent to work with an activist, Winthrop and infiltrate her organization. He succeeds, but the two of them end up being eaten by cannibals!

Fourth is another appearance by El Cid, "Crooked Mouth" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). El Cid defeats the Moors in battle, but is accused of being a traitor when he decides to let them live. An old enemy of Cid's, Count Ordonez tells this to the king, trying to get Cid in trouble, and summons a demon to kill Cid. Cid defeats the demon however, reveals Ordonez's treachery and kills him. He explains his reasoning to the King, which is accepted. Some very nice art by Mayo, but it does get rather confusing at times, particularly in the battle scenes because it is so complicated.

The issue concludes with "Oogie and the Junkers", the first part of the Oogie series. Art is by Esteban Maroto and story is by Bill Dubay. Not the greatest story, but some very enjoyable Maroto art, reminicent of my favorite art job of his, "Scourge of the Spaceways" from 1984 issue 2. The story is about Leroy, a crewmember on a Junker ship who is a big fan of Buck Blaster and his companion Thelma Starbust. While married, Leroy has a relationship with a female crewmember on his ship, Prunie. The two of them head down to a planet hoping to salvage some supplies, but instead find Oogie, a creature who has the ability to create anything he desires. Oogie, a big fan of Buck Blaster as well, desires for Leroy and Prunie to stay there with him and experience Buck Blaster for real. They end up having no choice as Oogie ends up destroying their ship, causing their allies to think they have died.

From front to back this is quite a good issue, not a single poor story.

Eerie 68

A great issue of Eerie, one of its best issues ever. The cover is by Ken Kelly, featuring Hunter II.

First is "Half Walk", part of the Coffin serial. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. Coffin is found by a traveling caravan run by Halfwalk, a quadruple amputee who sells freaks to various circuses. Coffin is presented as the biggest freak of all, but gets his revenge on Halfwalk, who has the ability to fight even without limbs. Coffin sets him on fire, killing him, and leaves, still hoping for some way to end his own life.

Next is "Goblin", part 2 in the Hunter II series. Art is by Paul Neary and story is by Budd Lewis. Karas fights some Goblins, having trouble, but is helped by an Exterminator robot who joins him in his quest. At the end of the story however the Exterminator robot appears to be 'killed'. With Neary having done the art for the Exterminator One series, it was a natural choice to bring this character into this series.

Third is "Godeye", with art by Leopold Sanchez and story by once again, Budd Lewis. An excellent, very funny stand alone story. A draft dodger on his way to Canada meets a strange long haired man who transfers him to another dimension when he touches them. There, the draft dodger is hailed as a hero, and called 'Godeye' based on a misunderstanding of something he says. While it seems like the good life at first, Godeye discovers he has to battle a cyclops that has been eating people in the village. While initially scared, Godeye manages to outsmart the cyclops and defeat him. All the various funny things in this story are hard to summarize here, but this story is definately a blast to read and was rated in the top 25 stories ever in the Warren Companion.

This issue's color story is fourth, "The Muck Monster" by Berni Wrightson (story & art). Wrightson's version of the Frankentein monster, this is about a scientist who tries to bring a corpse to lie, but the corpse has no desire to live. The scientist in an angry fit destroys the monster in a vat of acid and dumps the remains in the drain. The remains drip down the hill and once reaching a body comes to life. The monster returns to the scientist's lab, driving him crazy, then sits down on the hill, for good. Really good art and color in this story.

The issue concludes with "Deep Brown and Jorum" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This story features two rogues, Jorum and Deep Brown who meet when Jorum purchases Deep Brown. The two go on many adventures, which are summarized across five pages. At the end of the story Deep Brown meets his end at the hands of a giant spider. An okay story with an interesting narrative style.

Eerie 67

Eerie 66 is a self contained issue featuring El Cid. I'm going to save that issue for a later date and will head right into Eerie's next regular issue, 67.

Coffin gets his second cover on this issue for his second appearance, done by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson contributes the frontis, starring Cousin Eerie. A Budd Lewis heavy issue, with four stories.

First is Coffin in "Death's Dark Curse" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Coffin sees a caravan crossing the desert but it ignores his pleases for help and heads off without him. He comes across a town completely empty, apparantely visited by 'The Caravan of Death', and heads off with some supplies. He soon finds the corpses of all town's people in the desert. He comes across the caravan, occupied by caped priests who have a woman captive. They tell Coffin that the woman is actually a demon they mistakenly summoned and have taken years to capture. Coffin ignores them and escapes with her. But it soon becomes aware that she is a demon, in fact the Devil himself, who is unleashed upon the world because of Coffin's meddling. A terrific follow up to the original Coffin story (from all the way back in issue 61), so far this series has been a blast. Now if they can just keep it on a reasonable schedule...

Next is "Hunter II" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). With Hunter being one of Eerie's most popular series ever, it was obvious that a sequel would eventually appear. This story takes place 20 years after Hunter's death. Karas is the star, who was a boy saved by Hunter in the original storyline. Karas lives with Mandragora, a powerful wizard who tells him that the world is soon going to end. He hopes to stop this by halting the Earth's rotation for a minute, which will remove it from the time shell that Earth is fated to be destroyed if it stays in. Mandadragora tells Karas of Yaust, an evil wizard who controls the world's demons, now called Goblins. Karas dons Hunter's helmet and heads out to save the Earth. Hunter II goes in somewhat a different direction than the original series but actually has a better storyline if you ask me.

Third is the finale of the Hacker, "The Hacker's Last Stand!" by Alex Toth (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This was Skeates's final Warren story. He was a very strong writer for the majority of his stories (his Mummy finale certainly was a big dissappointment), so he certainly was missed after this point. Another ten years have passed but the Hacker murders have started occuring again. Smythe heads after who he thinks is the Hacker, but it is only a hired hand and the true Hacker arrives and kills them both, ending the series. A downbeat finale to a fairly good series.

Fourth is Papa Voodoo in "The Man Named Gold". Papa Voodoo is none other than Crackermeyer, from the Spook series. With that series stretching a tad far past its prime, it certainly is dissappointing to see yet another related story here, although luckily things finally ended for good after this story. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis, the Spook series regulars. This story features the aged Crackermeyer telling children about a black cowboy whose wife and kids are captured by Apache warriors. The cowboy, named Gold, heads after them, but it takes years and when he finally finds his wife and children, she no longer remembers him and kills herself after he kills her Apache husband. Gold takes back his kids, but dies at the hands of the Apache years later.

The issue wraps up with Merlin in "The Kingmaker" with art by Esteban Maroto and story by Budd Lewis. Terrific art by Lewis, but not all that interesting a story. It stars Merlin, in a story that takes place before King Arthur's birth. In fact this story heavily features Arthur's parents, King Uther and Ygraine, who are assisted by Merlin and his assistant Snivel.

Eerie 64

This issue's cover is about Exterminator One and is by Ken Kelly. Berni Wrightson provides a cousin Eerie intro on the inside front cover.

First is part three of the Night of the Jackass series, "The Children's Hour", with art by Jose Ortiz and story by Bruce Bezaire. A group of children take the Hyde (25) drug, causing another rampage. Bishop and Garson once again arrive to help stop them and meet Berthe Astruc, a chemist who seeks to create a cure for the drug. During the fighting Garson realizes that Bishop's nearly as bloodthirsty and willing to kill as the Jackassers and is helping more out of a desire to output his rage upon them than save others. As the story ends they decide to help Berthe find a cure.

Second is the third part of Exterminator One, by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Exterminator is chased down by Slaughter, the assassin introduced in the previous part, who seeks to take revenge for his friend's death. Exterminator is hopelessly outmatched until Exterminator Two, a far more powerful Exterminator robot appears. Exterminator One however, willing to die and stop the Exterminator project, destroys Exterminator Two and willfully lets himself be destroyed by Slaughter.

Third is the second and final part of the Butcher, titled "Bye Bye Miss American Dream" by Richard Corben (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The mob war continues, with the youngest Gambino brother wiping out the leaders of both mobs and taking all the power for himself... only for the Butcher to arrive and kill him seconds later. Realizing he enjoys killing however, the Butcher retires.

"Daddy and the Pie" by Alex Toth (art) and Bill Dubay (story) is next. This story tells of an alien creature whose ship crashes to Earth. He is nursed back to health by a farm family, and the story is told from the perspective of the son in the family. Unfortunately the town becomes fearful of the alien and attack the father when he heads to town on his own. The alien saves him, but dies from his wounds. A terrific story which would eventually have a sequel made.

Fifth is "The Caul", part of The Spook series. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis. Crackermeyer and the Spook this time seek to help a group of slaves that are bought by a man and dissappear. It ends up the man is a vampire, buying them so he can drink their blood. Luckily Crackermeyer and the Spook are able to stop him.

Last is part three of The Apocalypse series, "The Plague" with art by Jose Ortiz and story by Budd Lewis. This story surrounds two lovers in a apocalyptic setting where they are fleeing from a plague that has wiped everyone out. Unfortunately even they are unable to escape it and succumb to it, becoming a part of it themselves. Like last issue's "The Famine", an amazing story and amazing art.

Eerie 63

Another terrific issue of Eerie from the peak period of that magazine. The cover, featuring 'Night of the Jackass' is by Sanjulian. The back cover of this issue, which would later be used for Creepy 104, is by Ken Kelly and features Exterminator One. Berni Wrightson provides an intro from Cousin Eerie.

First story is the second part in the 'Night of the Jackass' series, "Storm Before the Calm!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). Garson and Bishop meet up once again at a church that has been taken over by the Jackassers. While no one else wants to go inside and help the victims, Garson and Bishop do so and with the help of people inside are able to defeat all the monsters.

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

Third is the latest segment in 'The Spook' series, titled "Stumpful of Granddaddies!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). After the death of a wealthy white woman, Crackermeyer is accused of the murder and brought to trial. The Spook helps him out by bringing back her dead husband, then eventually her to clear him of the crime.

This issue's color story is next, "Exterminator One", the second part in this series. The art is by Paul Neary and story is by Bill Dubay. The Exterminator works on his latest case, where he has to kill two men and get one of the victims blamed for the murder of the other. He is able to do this successfully, but during the assassination another hit man, Slaughter, who was friends with one of the killed men spots the Exterminator, blowing his cover. Slaughter looks exactly like the main character from the story "Love Strip" which was published in Vampirella 44. Although that issue came out after this one, the story was originally published in Europe prior to that date making me wonder if Neary swiped the character from Luis Garcia's artwork on that story.

Fifth is "Insanity", which finally brings The Mummy series to an end. Art is by Joaquin Blazquez and story is by Steve Skeates. Rather than wrap up the story of Jerome Curry, this story jumps ahead almost a century and features a young woman who becomes obsessed with reviving the mummy because she thinks she is the reincarnation of its lover. She murders a woman who holds the amulet that can revive the mummy, then revives it. The mummy doesn't want to be alive however and strangles herself then shoots himself so he can be dead forever. A very dissappointing conclusion to this series as we never really find out what happened to Jerome Curry. The previous story indicated that they were going to conclude the story in some way but this was hardly a worthy conclusion. This was one of Skeates's last stories for Warren, perhaps he just wanted to get it over with in any way possible. At the very least, Blazquez's art is quite good.

We wrap up the issue with "The Plague" part two in the 'Apocalypse' series. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. This story features what is probably Ortiz's best artwork with Warren. Three friends in France, Louis, Armand and Gaston head off to war to fight Germany. The war drags on and ends in defeat for France. As they head back during the winter the three friends fall hopelessly behind their comrades and stay behind to stay with Armand, who has broken his leg. Louie and Gaston search for food to no avail. Louie soon realizes that Gaston is sneaking out each night. He initially thinks that he is foolishly searching for food that isn't there each night, but after Armand's death he realizes the truth, that Gaston has found food in a nearby abandoned barn and has hid it from them. Louie responds by killing Gaston and eating him, leaving some parts behind to eat on the long way back to France.

Eerie 60

Quite possibly Eerie's best issue ever. The cover is by Ken Kelly, featuring a woman embraced by a tentacled monster. Berni Wrightson contributes a cover on the back of the issue, featuring his interior story.

First is part one of a new series, 'Night of the Jackass', titled "24 Hours of Hell!" by Jose Ortiz (art, his Eerie debut) and Bruce Bezaire (story). A terrific, terrific serial, probably my favorite in Eerie after 'Apocalypse' which will soon appear as well. The story surrounds a drug which when taken causes a person to turn into a monster, but kills them after 24 hours. A group of poor old people head to a hotel, lock it up and take the drug, then go on a rampage, killing and raping everyone inside. A newlywed, Garson, witnesses his wife murdered by them, but is one of only two people to survive, the other being Bishop, a man who planned to kill himself but changed his mind when the jackassers when on their rampage. This series would take a few issues off before returning in issue 63.

Second is "Nightfall" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A young boy is deathly afraid of monsters who live in his room that come out whenever his parents leave him there alone. Each time they turn out the lights and leave the monsters come and try to take him away. His parents don't believe him but eventually decide to let him sleep with them after his bed is nearly taken out of the window.

"Exterminator One" is third, by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Completely unrelated to the Exterminator story in issue 58, this story features a robot that used to be a man, who was jailed and given the opportunity to be let out if he becomes a robot assassin. In the future people are only allowed to have kids if they are genetically perfect and he committed the crime of having a kid anyway. It ends up that the planned victim of his is his own daughter. While he can't do it on his own, the computer overrides him and smuthers her to death with a pillow. After taking a few issues off, this storyline would continue in issue 63.

The finale of "Child" follows, titled "Childhood's End". Art is by Richard Corben and story is by Budd Lewis. As usual, this story is in color. For some reason the art on this segment looks rather mediocre compared to the first two segments. Child, alone once more, finds a shooting star which leaves a multi-colored spherical object behind. Child finds it and becomes convinced that this will make people love him. But when he hides it and heads off to find food, a boy arrives and steals it, only for it to explode, covering him with weird starfish like aliens. Child becomes upset upon realizing the boy stole his star and kidnaps the boy, planning to get revenge on him. A group of men chase him and fire upon him with shotguns. Child decides instead to forgive the boy and the aliens head onto him instead, killing him. Thus ends a pretty good series.

Another color story is next, "The Man Hunters" by Wally Wood (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Apparantly this is one of many Wood stories rewritten based on editor Bill Dubay's request. The story features a woman on a spaceship with two other men, searching for her husband, who had dissappeared months earlier. They arrive on a planet with a tentacled monster, who quickly kill the two men. The monster leads her to a city where it puts a helmet on her which causes her to discover that her husband crashed on this planet and was saved by the monsters, who switched his brain to one of them! She decides to stay on the planet with her husband in his new form.

Another new series is next, "The Unholy Creation" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Another takeoff on the Frankenstein story, this features a man who is about to get married, but cheats on his fiance the night before the wedding. The next day he heads off to the wedding but on the way is beat up and brought to a doctor who transplants his brain into a monster. He takes revenge by killing the doctor and his assistant, but despairs at now being stuck in this form.

Last is "Interlude", part six of the Dr. Archeus series. Art is by Isidro Mones and story is by Gerry Boudreau. Jamaica contacts Sanford about finding where Archeus is, and they are able to break into his apartment and find his ordered list of victims. Archaeus meanwhile remembers that Jamaica is with Sanford, and plots to kill him. He hires a thug to capture Sanford and brings him to a church where he plans to drown him in holy water. Sanford escapes and knocks out the thug, but Archeus is able to kills him with a bow & arrow and hangs his corpse on a crucifix. Quite a shock to see the hero killed off; the series would continue with one final story in the next issue.

Creepy 109

Very bizarre looking spaceships on the cover of this issue of Creepy, done by Jim Laurier.

Up first is "Vampire Dawn" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a vampire found in an outpost in the Arctic. By biting some of the men, they are turned into vampires, and soon all but two of the men are vampires. While a helicopter comes to rescue them, knowing that they will just be attacked as well, the last remaining man blows everything up.

"The Organizer" is next, by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). It features scientists turning prison inmates into bugs so they can use miniature cameras to find information on another criminal. All but two are killed, but they do successfully complete their mission only to find themselves abandoned as there is no way for the scientists to turn them back to normal. They get revenge by amassing a large swarm of bugs to attack them.

Third is "The Ravenscroft Affair" with art by Paul Neary and story by Bill Dubay. It features a man who opens up a hole to another dimension. There he sees a monster that he becomes obsessed with encountering again. He spends a long time building a machine to open up the hole to the other dimension again and builds a sculpture of the creature to provide as a gift. Not having a gift however, the monster tears his head off and tries to use that! This art looks absolutely nothing like Neary's usual stuff.

Next is "Alien Affair" by Val Mayerik (art) and Cary Bates (story). It features an alien organism that starts growing around a ship and eventually transforms the three astronauts within the ship to turn into alien like creatures as well. Two are killed while the last one is captured.

Last is "Heart of Darkness" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Mantlo (story). It features a man in possession of some animals that he crashes on a planet with. Aliens that look like chimps come after him. He eventually is killed by them. Not that good a story and Bermejo's artwork is absolutely dreadful, its hard to even tell that its him.