Eerie 118

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Jordi Penalva. Unfortunately this issue doesn't live up to the quality of the prior one. It is cover dated January 1981.

First is a new series, 'Haggarth' in "Skull of the Three Snakes" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Similar to Haxtur, this series was originally printed in Europe and was reprinted in Eerie for a very lengthy run. A group of five Tunic warriors, led by Haggarth head to take an artifact, the Skull of Three Snakes from a valley of clansmen. A young man catches them coming and warns his people, who do battle with the Tunic warriors. All the warriors are killed, and the young man is blinded. He is helped out by a local old man, and along the way they find Haggarth, who is actually still alive as well. The old man tells the young man of Arnia, a witch who would be able to heal his eyesight. A so-so start to this new series. Haxtur ended up being a fairly good series so hopefully Fuente does as well with this one too.

Next is Steel Starfire: Tales from the Galactic Inn by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The story features Steel, our hero, who continously rescues women from the clutches of his enemy Cyber, a man who is half man half machine thanks to Steel. Eventually Steel is captured by the women themselves, who never wanted to be rescued in the first place. He then ends up turning to none other than Cyber himself for help. Tremendously dissappointing because this story is exactly the same as the story "Mike Marauder: Knight Errant of the Spaceways!" from 1994 #22. I've never been a big fan of Margopoulos, but this is just pathetic. This story came before the other one though, so I suppose that story receives the bigger criticism.

Third is "The Red Shot" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This is Bezaire's first appearance in quite a while and his last story for Warren as well. It surrounds a competition where many people battle over control of a ball, and after an hour whoever controls it wins. Yes, the story is that lame. Quite a dissappointment for the usually quite good Bezaire.

Last is "Space Kids" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). This story features a group of psychic kids who live off on another planet. A boy starts realizing he has powers too and can hear them talking to him. He is visited by the space kids, who are disguised as adults, and recruited to join them. They next plan to head to a backwater planet called... Earth. Fernandez's last Warren story, it was originally created back in 1975 but for some reason was held by Warren in inventory for 6+ years instead of being published around the time of his other stories. Its much weaker than his other stories, perhaps that is why.

1994 19

This issue starts off with a good cover by Jordi Penalva.

First is "Young Sigmond Pavlov!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson, which is how he's credited throughout the issue). Its around this point in this magazine's life where you truly start to wonder whether Bill Dubay and Alex Nino have lost their minds. This story kicks off a completely nonscensical series of stories with little to them in terms of plot, but with by far the most bizarre and over the top artwork Warren ever published. Not just extremely bizarre, but also incredibly offensive as well. This story, which has Pavlov, a psychologist, talking to a patient, consists pretty much entirely of two page spreads of incredibly over the top material (much of it sexual in nature). And trust me, its gets even more over the top in the stories to come. You wonder how Nino even thought of much of the stuff he starts drawing with this story. This stuff has to be seen to be believed. Probably on its own makes this issue, and the later ones featuring this stuff a worthwhile purchase.

Second is "Fugue for a Ferrite Fugitive" by Vic Catan (art) and Bill Dubay & Kevin Duane (story). This story features a robot who is accused of murder who is innocent, as another robot who looks just like him committed the murders. Unfortunately things don't go well for the robot; even though he does find the other robot, the both of them end up getting destroyed. A so-so story at best.

Third is "The Holy Warrior!" by Delando Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech & Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place in a future where there are Jesus clones. Our hero, the Holy Warrior, is seeking to rescue one, which is just a child from communist enemies. He is able to do so, but the two of them are so hungry that he ends up killing the clone and eating him! Quite a bizarre and heretical ending for this story.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Rahmuz, leader of Urd, is introduced. He desires for Ghita to join his harem, which already includes a four breasted woman (!). He hopes to make Ghita his Queen and as a result rule over Alizarr as well. Ghita meanwhile meets an old lady who reveals that the unicorn she's traveling with has the spirit of Khan Dagon within it. Sartan arrives and cuts off the horn from the unicorn, hoping to make himself rich with it. Ghita bids farewell to the old woman and meets back up with Thenef and Dahib.

Fifth is "Et Tu Casey!" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story, as one would think from the title, is heavily inspired by the story of Casey, the great baseball player who struck out when his team needed him most. The twist on this story is that first, it takes place on an alien planet, and second, Casey does manage to hit the ball, but it explodes, blowing up the entire ballpark.

Last is "Steele!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story). This story makes a hell of a lot more sense than Dubay and Nino's first story for this issue. It features a man who is severly wounded, losing the bottom half of his body. He is put in suspended animation then later brought back to life to become an assassin, assigned to killing demons. Eventually the original Hunter makes an appearance and after being severly injured, our protagonist is transformed once again, into the Exterminator featured extensively in the Hunter II series. A pretty good prequel story tying in to the Hunter and Hunter II serials from Eerie.

Eerie 105

Jordi Penalva provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring Mac Tavish and Spider Andromeda.

First is the Rook in "Robot Fighters" by Jim Janes & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook, Dane and Manners help defeat a robot that is a descendent of one the Rook built in different times. The best part of this story is that its a lot shorter than the usual Rook fare, getting it over with quickly. Thankfully the Rook exited the magazine for quite a while after this issue, due to having his own magazine.

Second is the finale for The Trespasser, in "Ruins" by Paul Gulacy (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather short finale to this series at only 6 pages. Dr. Cavanaugh defeats the Cope's last guard, then fights Harris Cope, who shoots his wife Rebecca. Harris falls out the window to his death and Cavanaugh is finally able to leave with Rebecca in his arms.

Third is "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Thomas and Monica find some giant bugs attacking them and Thomas is saved from a deadly spider only when a giant wasp arrives and fights it. Tyler and Ruth meanwhile have some more success and Tyler starts making out with her. The usual extemely dependable Bruce Jones hasn't impressed that much so far with this series.

Fourth is "Demons of the Zodiac", the return of Mac Tavish, unseen for a while. Art is by Pepe Moreno Casares and story is by Jim Stenstrum & Bob Toomey, under their pseudonyms Alabaster Redzone and Gary Null. A so-so continuation of this Star Wars ripoff, featuring Mac Tavish summarizing the history of Spider Andromeda while he sleeps.

Fifth is "Hunger Strike", the latest segment in the Horizon Seekers. Although the prior issue said this would be the conclusion, the story doesn't end here, and ends rather abrubtly. Art is by Leo Duranona and story is by Duranona and Cary Bates. In this story our heroes are confronted by a group of giant bugs but get them to eat each other, similar to the prior story. Also, the cannibal girl who was with them starts her cannibal ways again but is killed by the bugs before she can eat our heroes.

Last is "Lair of the Assassins", the latest story in the Samurai series. Art is by Val Mayerik and story is by Larry Hama. Samurai goes to the castle of Yagyu Ninjas and inside is forced to battle old man Yagyu's son, who has the niece of their lord strapped to him. Samurai easily defeats him and after Yagyu has his minions shoot arrows at him, Samurai grabs them and throws them back, striking him in the eye. Samurai escapes with the niece, who has been blinded, and she helps him escape after his own eyesight is affected by an attack.

Eerie 100

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eerie 99

The Rook is cover featured for the first time in quite a while in this issue, a cover by Jordi Penalva.

First is the Rook in "Hickey and the Pirates" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Bishop Dane is shocked to find out that the Rook has to pay income taxes when he meets the Rook's accountant. Longing for adventure, Dane heads to the past where pirates reigned, and he encounters the accountant's ancestor. Like the last story, a tad long and overcomplicated, although Ortiz fills in nicely with the art.

Second is "The Horizon Seekers", a new series from Leo Duranona (art) and Duranona & Cary Bates (story). This long series was a pretty good one, although this is a weak first story. It takes place in the desert where a woman, Allison, takes a man, Jessie, prisoner. They are then captured themselves and brought to a city which they eventually escape from.

Third is the second and final story in the "The Shining Sea" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Humans arrive from Earth, but they are quite cruel, murdering many of the fish-people in order to take their gold. Our hero is able to fight them off, but at the cost of our hero's lover. Later more friendly humans arrive as well. Some very odd concepts with this series, but it ended up being an okay series.

Fourth is the second and final part of "Harrow House" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Our protagonist discovers that Gretchen is alive after all. Gretchen tells him her aunt has been drugging him and others who have come to the house, and taking their blood because she is a vampire. The aunt arrives and Gretchen runs off outside. The aunt reveals that Gretchen is the actual vampire, and that she has been gathering blood for her. Having made it outside in the sunlight however, Gretchen is killed. A very good conclusion, the strongest story here.

Last is "A Crack in Time" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Louise Jones (story). A couple goes back in time in order to study Cro-Magnon man. There they are confronted by Neanderthals who capture them, and eventually escape. Their time machine is destroyed, stranding them there, making them realize that they themselves are the Cro-Magnons who were the ancestors of modern humanity.

1994 16

Jordi Penalva contributes a very good dinosaur themed cover for this issue of 1994.

First is "Sci-Fi Writer" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story is about a sci-fi writer at a convention who is captured by some aliens that want to use him to take over humanity. He escapes from them and then manages to kill them, or so he thought. They are able to switch themselves with kids wearing costumes at the last second, getting him sent to jail.

Second is "Dog Star" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited as Will Richardson). This story is about a prospector on a planet all alone, except for his dog Nebbie. Thanks to Nebbie's help he is able to fight the dangerous monsters off. But when other prospectors arrive, they tell him that Nebbie is actually a monster, which is true, as the man had deluded himself into thinking it was a dog.

Third is "Agony" by Carlos Giminez (story & art). Like his story in the previous issue, this is a reprint of a story originally published in Europe. A man and a priest traveling arrive at a town and hear horrific screams. They find them coming from a man who is being completely mutiliated by a machine. The machine then oddly enough reconstructs the man, who instructs it to mutilate him all over again. It ends up that the pain the man feels is transfered to ecstacy which is why he is repeating the process.

Fourth is "The Day After Doomsday" by Luis Bermejo (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). Bermejo's art here is absolutely horrific, easily the worst of his Warren career. This story takes place in the future, where pollution has caused devastating results to the Earth, causing most of the populace to have cancer. A space shuttle is presented to the public as a way of calming them down, but its all a ruse and one of the astonauts reveals that fact by blowing it up.

Fifth is the latest story in "The Starfire Saga" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited as Will Richardson). Kris and Cassie find a number of victims killed by the space pirates who have plagued them before. Kris realises that she can communicate with the spirits of Snuffy and others killed by them. They soon encounter the pirates and kill them, and meet the small creature introduced in the prior part, who tells them that Kris's father has already left.

Sixth is the final story in "Baby Makes Three" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Kevin Duane (story). Our hero continues his investigation of the murders taking place on the space station. The murders are the result of a man named McCann who is defeated during a battle taking place next to 'Baby', a giant black hole. At four stories long, this series was quite poor and a waste of a lot of space in this magazine.

Last is "Fruit of the Grape" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story takes place at a party where as part of a bet the host discusses a case he was involved with where a man was brought to court for selling a wine that was announced as being aged many years despite the company only being in existence a few years. Our protagonist announces that he has created a device which can age things, winning the case. The big company that brough the lawsuit to court buys the device from him and uses it to age the wine in their warehouse, but this ages the bottles and the building as well, causing the house warehouse to come crashing down.

Eerie 96

Jordi Penalva provides the cover for this issue, which features Mac Tavish. This issue is a rarity in that there is no Rook story, most likely due to the fact that the next Rook story was over 30 pages long and took a while to put together.

Up first is "Fallen Angels", three stories by Leo Duranona (art) and Guillermo Saccomano & Cary Bates (story). Given Saccomano's credit here (he was not a regular Warren writer), and the fact that the artwork is dated 1976, one would think that this story was originally printed elsewhere and reprinted here. These stories feature four humanoid characters, Hot Chocolate, Knuckle, Marlene and Toc Toc who were cast out of Heaven and forced to do penance on Earth. They each take the appearance of street dwellers. In the first story, "Revenge", they go after a pimp who has been mistreating his whores. The second story, "The Cutman" features an old assassin who is hired to perform a hit, but he screws up and kills the wrong person, forcing the person who hired him, his own son, to kill him. The final story, "Explosive Issue" is about a pair of crooks who arrange to blow up a building for the insurance money. The Fallen Angels get involved and turn to violence, resulting in criticism from their superior. They work to get the head of the whole scam to end up getting himself killed by running into an exploding building. All three stories are fairly good, with some very good art, as usual from Duranona. Unfortunate that no further stories would ever appear.

Next is "Hero of Zodiac V" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). This story coninues immediately after the last story. Mac Tavish meets with Ida Lizer, a robot lover, then goes to see Spider Andromeda who reveals that Lazard works with Gorgo the Man, a leading candidate for governor on Rara Avis. It is also revealed that they are after Rara Avis due to a raw material there that permits people to live forever. Mac Tavish and Spider lead an attack on a planet breaker factory.

Next is "The Ark" by Carmine Infantino & Walt Simonson (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). In this story an old man builds an ark, causing the rest of the townfolk to ridicule him. He ends up being right though, as rain soon comes. He and his wife hide in the ark and the rest of the town get angry at him for not letting them in. He is killed by the townsfolk when he comes out and they storm in to the ark, where they are trapped, and the rain stops soon after.

Last is "The Shining Sea" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This odd story features a man living in a water filled world where the other people are humanoid except for their dolphin (or other sea creature) faces. He goes searching for his origin, which appears to be from a spaceship that crashed on this world. Another story in this series appeared a few issues later.

Eerie 95

Vampirella guest stars with the Rook on the cover of this issue, the first Eerie issue featuring the Rook on the cover in quite a while. The cover is painted by Jordi Penalva, one of S.I.'s artists who was pretty good, but not at the level of Sanjulian and Enrich, the two main spanish cover artists for Warren.

First is "Warriors from the Stars" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). In this story Vampi, the Rook and the others arrive back in time, finding the aliens that originally brought the annihilator here. They are fighting other aliens, and our heroes help them. After the battle, the aliens give them a key enabling them to stop the annihilator and any other ones around the world when they return.

Second is "Willie's Super-Magic Basketball" by Carmine Infantino & Rudy Nebres (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Infantino's contributions appear barely at all here in the final product, one may think Nebres did this alone if it wasn't for the credits. The story is about a boy with a magic basketball that allows him to be good at basketball. The boy later goes to Vietnam, returning after his mother's death. Hooked on drugs, he runs from the cops and a drug dealer and his magic basketball turns him back into a kid, allowing him to escape them.

Third is "Faster Than a Speeding Whozit", the latest story in the Abelmar Jones series. Art is by Alex Nino and story is by Bill Dubay. Abelmar and his brother get into another adventure, looking for a superman in the city, but instead finding a powerful robot. Another very lame story, with some okay art from Nino. This series would conclude in Creepy 128, which came out a number of years after this issue.

Fourth is this issue's color feature, "Nuts!" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Alfredo Alcala also appears on the credit line, but he doesn't appear to have had any input in the artwork for this story, and doesn't appear on the contents page (this was probably a misprint). This story features a pilot transporting a whole army, which has been dehydrated in order to hide themselves. Most of the story is quite lame, with various space action, and our protagonist eating a lot of nuts. The story does have a pretty good ending though, when it is revealed that the nuts he was eating are actually the brains of the soldiers he was transporting! Marcos's art is rather poor here, wasting a color story which would have worked better on many other artists.

Fifth is "Harrow House" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This is the first of a two part story, concluded in issue 99. This is a very good story, featuring an old woman seeking to sell a house of her's that is haunted with the ghost of her dead niece. Multiple people have tried to stay in it, but all went crazy. The man occupies the house where mysterious things start to occur. He does manage to make it out okay though. He returns to the house where he sees a spectral form of the niece on teh stairs, which is where this part ends.

Last is a new series, Mac Tavish, in "Caucus on Rara Avis" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). This new series, which lasted in Eerie for quite a while, is very clearly heavily influenced by Star Wars. It stars Mac Tavish, a space hero, who is brought to Rara Avis to speak on behalf of the Governor, who is running for re-election. The governor is assassinated, and Mac Tavish pursues the assassin and kills him, who ends up being a robot. The murder is suspected to be done by a terrorist, Spider Andromeda, who is actually Mac Tavish's friend. Spider, who looks like a lion man shows up, and refutes that, suggesting Mac Tavish run for governor. While this has some good art, there's nothing here special storywise in this first part of a long series.

Vampirella 79

Jordi Penalva provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring Vampirella and a dragon.

First is "Shanghaied" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampirella and friends are in Hong Kong, where drug dealers have been dying mysteriously. This is part of a long storyline which has already been covered by me in other issues on this blog.

Second is "Edward & Griselda" by Val Mayerik & Joe Rubenstein (art) and Cary Bates (story). This story tells of a woman in medieval times pursued by dinosaur like creatures. Her husband chases after her and threatens to cut off her foot so she can't get away, but thanks to the creatures it is he who loses a foot instead.

Third is "I Think I'll Keep Her" by Auraleon (art) and Cary Bates (story). A man's beautiful wife dies, so he brings her to Haiti where they are able to bring her back as a zombie. The voodoo expert tells the man that she can't have any salt, making him extra paranoid. When he falls into the ocean on their way back to the States however, she jumps in after him, into the salt water.

Fourth is "Night of the Squid" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). This story tells of a pair of scientists who are able to switch the body of one of them with a squid. The other scientist has a heart attack however, trapping the other man in the squid's body. When detectives arrive they take his body to the morgue, thinking he is dead. A fellow scientist figures out whats going on, but when she switches bodies back it ends up that the man's body is already filled with formaldehyde.

Last is "Fungus" by Leo Duranona (art/photos) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is a fumetti story, where instead of drawn artwork there are photographs, with word balloons pasted on. Duranona does do some drawings over the photos on some of the panels. The story surrounds a boarding house where a mysterious fungus starts contaminating one of the guests. The fungus was originally discovered by the creator of the house, who opened a door to another dimension, allowing the fungus to arrive. The fungus soon takes over everyone in the house and starts working on taking over the town as well.

Creepy 124

An average to above average issue of Creepy. It features a pretty good cover by Jordi Penalva. Rudy Nebres takes care of another average at best one page feature of Uncle Creepy.

First up is "Malphisto's Illusion" by Alexis Romeo & Alex Toth (art) and Nicola cuti (story). During this period of time Toth did inking for a number of different artists, creating a rather interesting dynamic. This story features a man trying to discover how a magician, Malphisto, is able to decapitate women and bring them back to life in his act. As it turns out, he's actually decapitating a twin for real and showing her sister to the crowd!

The story's best issue is "Cult" by Martin Salvador (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features four men going after a cult leader who has lured many young people into his cult, including the daughter of one of the men. They reach the cult's compound which results in a blood bath in which many of the cult members and two of the men were killed. It ends up that one of the men actually is the cult leader himself, and seeked this event in order to make his members martyrs. Having impregnated the man's daughter, he tries to get the last remaining man to kill her, but he instead kills the cult leader and lets her live.

"Paydirt" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Roger McKenzie (story) is about a gold prospector who kills his partner in a cave once they find gold. He returns years later to claim the gold only for his partner to be back from the dead, seeking revenge.

Fourth is "Mayhem Museum" by Adolpho Bullya (art) and carl Wessler (story). This was Bullya's sole Warren story. Its about a man who flees his country with a lot of stolen gold and finds a man who plans to hide him and his lover in a museum by freezing him. Only the museum owner has different plans and immediately thaws the woman and plans to take the gold himself. He is eventually found out by a visitor to the museum however, who unfreezes a lot of frozen criminals, who seek revenge.

"The Prometheus" by John Garcia & Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story) is fifth. A rather poor story about a spherical craft that heads to Earth, is almost destroyed, but ends up getting there to deliver various wildlife. Yawn.

Last is "A Slight Case of Madness" by Herb Arnold (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson), about an alien who is going crazy because he's the last one left on his world. As he's about to kill himself, other aliens arrive and save him just in time, and plan to take him away with them to visit other worlds.

Goodwin's, Wessler's and Cuti's stories are fairly good while Dubay and McKenzie's are so so. Margopoulos, who was never that great an author in my opinion was quite boring.