Creepy 67

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 47

Ron Cobb provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated September 1972. The cover was originally to have been done by Sanjulian, featuring the interior story The Land of Bone (and that cover actually appears on the preview page), but it failed to meet the deadline and wouldn't be used until Eerie 123. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Not Sherlock by a Long Shot" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story).

First is "The Land of Bone" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story features a warrior Costan who finds himself in a world where every person he meets is a skeleton. He is joined by a skeleton wizard, Wikkander, who tells him that his lover Aruna has been captured by the Wizard Poxxalt. The two of them fight off various creatures and then defeat Poxxalt. Costan is shocked to find Aruna a skeleton herself, and gives Wikkander a ring on her finger. Once he gets the ring, the truth is revealed. Costan was a skeleton himself, and only thought that he was human and everyone else was a skeleton. Wikkander, a descendent of his brought him to life to free Aruna from Poxxalt.

Second is "Mark of the Phoenix" by Reed Crandall (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story features a student drug dealer who finds that he is dying of cancer. In order to live forever, he makes a deal with a Phoenix which will enable him to live forever, unless his body is completely destroyed. The Phoenix tells him that he will have to be set ablaze and reborn every 10 years however, and this frightens him terribly. He gets so nervous of a pigeon following him that he ends up killing himself for good.

Third is "The Law and Disorder" by Luis Garcia (art, his final Creepy appearance) and Dennis P. Junot (story). This story features a man who is angry at the board of trustees of a college, thinking they are responsible for his father's death. He creates a disintegration ray which he lets into their hands, and they die of radiation once using it. The protagonist then dies suddenly at the end of the story, with little explanation.

Fourth is "The Eternity Curse" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Thraxis (story). This story features an enemy of the pharoah who is cursed to live forever. His corpse lies in the ground for thousands of years, getting out in present times, when he starts attacking some victims of a plane crash, absorbing their life force until he is restored to a normal appearance. A similar theme as to what takes place in the modern version of the Mummy movie.

Fifth is "Point of View" by Luis Dominguez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features a number of stories all converging into one. A man is fearful of a powerful being that he suspects is after him. In another a woman leaves her boyfriend very frantically. In the third, an older man drives drunk despite his wife's warnings. All converge when the car is about to hit the woman, and our protagonist notices a caped woman distracting her, who is actually the person he is fearful of. A rather confusing summary? Probably cause this is a rather confusing story that ends rather abrubtly.

Sixth is "This Burden, This Responsibility" by Jerry Grandenetti (art, his final Creepy appearance) and Steve Skeates (story). Another odd story by Skeates, featuring a man in a future where computers run almost everything. He gets a bigger office for his good work, then gets in trouble when he comes in late, being killed by his computerized superiors.

Seventh is "Futurization Computation!" by Bill Dubay (story & art). This short three page story tells of a modernized computer device, which ends up robotic teachers for a school.

Last is "The Beginning!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Seve Skeates (story). In contrast to Skeates's two earlier odd stories, this one is quite good. It takes place in a future Earth where normal humans are fighting mutants who have mutated due to contaminated food. One of the human soldiers sees a beautiful woman whom he becomes obsessed with seeing. He finds her, then fights off a superior who calls her Queenie. She brings him through a wall where he finds out the truth, that she's a mutant and she's lured him to other ones who seize him.

Creepy 97

This issue is a "Monsters!" special issue from May 1978. The cover is a reprint of Frazetta's cover for Eerie 3.

First is "Momma is a Vampire" by Leo Duranona (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A woman becomes a vampire thanks to her cousin, who is one herself. After she kills her cousin and beheads her, she is told by a doctor that she can be made human again through a blood transfusion from her husband. Alas, it doesn't work, and he is forced to kill her. Duranona and Cuti would reunite for the excellent vampire series 'Honor & Blood' in Eerie roughly around the same time as this issue.

Next is "The Wax Werewolf" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A detective investigating a werewolf is dating the local librarian. In order to defeat the werewolf, he is assisted by a witch who creates a wax version of the creature, which he'll be able to kill by stabbing the wax figure. He does so, but the werewolf ends up being his girlfriend. Upset, he throws the wax figure in the fire, but that causes her corpse to burst aflame and the fire ends up killing him too.

Third is "Black Death" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (sotry). This story is a murder mystery surrounding black people dying in a southern town. The local KKK leader is suspected, but ends up dying as well. It ends up that the murders were caused in order to summon an army of zombies, and the story's protagonist is set to become one himself as the story ends.

Fourth is "Snaegl or How I Conquered the Snail that Ate Tokyo" by Martin Salvador (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a giant snail that comes out of the Ocean near Tokyo and wreaks havoc. Various people, such as a stripper who claims to be a princess from an island that worships the snail to a boy possessing uranium think they are responsible for its arrival and being able to drive it away. In the final panel a bunch of snails arrive in other countries and this time destroy everything.

Fifth is "Dragon Lady" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An old man tells of a story of a princess whose mother got her turned into a dragon because she was jealous of the attention given to her by the Emperor. The old man tells a warrior that a reward is offered for defeating the dragon, and gives the warrior magic powder he can use to change it back into the princess. The warrior does so, and makes love to her, but she turns back into the dragon and kills him. In actuality, the powder caused him to hallucinate; as the story was all a lie, all made up to feed the dragon, the old man's pet.

Last is "Sisters" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story contains two parallel stories featuring a human girl and alien girl facing extreme mental anguish. It ends up that both had twin sisters that were stillborn, and that the two are connected to each other as the alien is the human girl's dead sister and vice versa. Both girls end up killing themselves, reunited when reincarnated as twins on yet another alien planet.

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 54

This issue's cover features excerpts from various interior stories by Richard Corben, Reed Crandall and Esteban Maroto. A similar style cover was done on Vampirella 26, which came out around the same time.

First is "The Slipped Mickey Click Flip" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). This is one of the most bizarre and nonscensical stories in Warren's history, but is very good. It features Diment, a crazy old man taking over hosting duties from Uncle Creepy and telling some bizarre tales about a pyschologist and his family. The psychologist is attacked by butterflies, a TV eats his wife, and a bone buries his dog. Very, very bizarre.

Second is "This Graveyard is Not Deserted" by Reed Crandall (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather poor, drawn out western story featuring an outlaw that shoots out a native american boy's eyes; later boy's ghost gets his revenge and tears the outlaw's eyes out.

Third is "Descent into Hell" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). Warren starts their trend of printing color stories regularly here, in a manner that started off quite bad. Some very, very poor coloring here. It is either too bright, or barely colored at all. Luckily Warren had things fixed by the next color story in Creepy in issue 56. Not much of a story either, featuring a God that goes to hell to find a mortal woman he had loved. Finding she is gone forever, he spurns Zeus and becomes Atlas, cursed to hold Earth on his back. This story was previewed as "Descent into Tartarus" in previous issues.

Fourth is "Dead Man's Race" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A wealth man's brother passes away and is set to be buried on the same day as his lover, who also died. The brother fears that if his dead brother is the last buried in the graveyard (it has only two graves remaining) he will be cursed, so he races the hearse as fast as possible to beat the hearse of his brother's lover. He doesn't win, so he kills his driver and has him buried instead of his brother. But the driver comes back from the dead and has him buried, resulting in the man becoming the cursed ghost.

Fifth is "Little Nippers" by Tom Sutton (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A pair of men come across Liliput, the city of miniature people from Gulliver's Travels. They find a book where one of the little people tells how some of them traveled with Gulliver, but became vampires. The last one was possessed and was able to bring the vampires back to Liliput, getting them all killed. In the present day, the explorers leave the island after miniature vampires attack only to come to another island with vampires, giant ones.

Creepy 128

This cover features a reprint of Frank Frazetta's classic Frankenstein monster cover from issue 10. Rudy Nebres provides a one page Uncle Creepy intro. This issue is actually slightly better than the garbage that came out around this period, although there's no really good stories here.

First is "Whatever Happened to Orem?" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story is a sequel to "Orem Ain't God No Head Cheese" from Creepy 85. It featured a cannibal old man and his young female companion who were attacked by a blob creature that was originally a cancer in one of their victims. In this story the cancer continues to plague the woods and when Orem and the Sheriff of the town end up getting killed, their deaths are mistakenly blamed on it. Orem's companion tricks law enforcement into 'killing' a pile of guts that they think is the creature; in actuality she is in love with the real one.

Second is "Outcast of Euthanasia" by Bill Draut (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story features a reporter talking to a woman about her dead son. Her dead son worked in a lab that brought dead people back to life from cloning. The son ended up being one of them too and went on a rampage, killing them all.

Third is "Old Man at the Morgue" by Fred Carillo (art) and Mark Lasky (story). This story features an old man who works at a morgue at night who talks only to the corpses. Heading home one night, he is murdered by some gang members. That's it. A complete waste of a story.

Fourth is "Frankenstein Invades the Universe" by Romeo Tanghal & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Scientists work in a satellite to create energy to transmit to the Earth. When they do so, they reveal a lab under ground where a Frankenstein monster (based on the cover) is found. One of the men becomes convinced that the creature is an advanced being that he must release and he does so. The monster goes on a rampage and is eventually killed. But carnivores eat its corpse, transmitting its evil to them. And when our protagonist eats one of them, he too becomes a monster.

Last is Abelmar Jones in "Lord of the Flies". This series originally ran in Eerie, with its last part appearing in Eerie 95. Its last story appears here, with Luis Bermejo replacing Alex Nino on the art. Bill Dubay (credited here as Will Richardson) continues to write the story. In this story two people in the city pour chemicals on Abelmar by mistake. This results in a blob growing on his head. Initially he wants to get it off but can't, but when it is revealed that the blob makes him irresistable to women, some other people tear it off of him to use themselves.

Creepy 90

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, one of his few Creepy covers.

First is "Warrior on the Edge of Forever" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story was originally intended for the war special of the prior issue. Its about a man who has dreams of prior lives as a soldier in important wars and conflicts. This story features photos of Warren production assistant Bill Mohalley as a dictator.

Second is "The Wash Out" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man and an android head out to a planet to find a woman. The man has a lot of disrespect for the android, although they do end up having sex with each other. Eventually they find the woman, who ends up being an android trying to pose as a human, and she's killed by them. Our protagonist ends up being an android after all, the android companion was actually a human all along, and he ends up shorting out his circuits when he drinks some coffee.

Third is "The Search" by Carmine Infantino & Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is about a town's search for a vampire that has been killing many of its occupants. The story is told from a person who lost his lover to a vampire. It ends up that our narrator is the vampire, and he ends up getting killed by his own father.

Fourth is "Please... Save the Children" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of a child killer whose daughter ended up dying after she ran away after being spanked. This causes him to go out and start killing children of parents who he perceives as treating them badly. Even though his father is the President of the US, this doesn't stop the prison from executing him.

Fifth is "The Sacrifice" by Auraleon (art) and Jose Toutain (story). This story tells of a tribe which feels the need to sacrifice its most beautiful virgin each year to its God. Even though the sacrifice this time is the chief's daughter, they go ahead with it anyway. The God they worship ends up being a giant computer. A short story at only four pages long.

Last is "Dollie" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story was originally intended for the previous Christmas special. It features children being given horrific gifts by Santa Claus that cause havoc, such as a rifle that a boy uses to shoot his parents, not knowing it was real and a chemistry set that blows up the entire house. Another girl is given a doll that acts like a vampire. When the mother tears off its head, her daughter's head falls off. It ends up that it isn't Santa, but rather Satan that is giving out these gifts.

Creepy 126

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a boy in a bed airborne over a city. Rudy Nebres provides a one page introduction from Uncle Creepy.

First is "Parasite" by Martin Salvador (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about a parasite from a man's brain that ends up killing anyone who has touched him or his corpse. It ends up that the parasite originated from an experiment he performed to create life where he subjected himself to the experiment. Some people investigate it by going to a pyramid hidden on his property.

Second is "Nevada Moon" by Bill Draut (art) and Steven Grant (story). This story is about a werewolf plauging a town. A man who beats his wife kills a wolf, which ends up turning back into a man once dead. The man is bedridden after being hit by a car, and his wife, who had been having an affair with their assistant becomes a werewolf along with him.

Third is "...And Gus Created Woman!" by Anton Caravana (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Gus is a lonely but smart man who buys a beautiful manniquin that he transforms into someone who acts like a real woman. He becomes more and more successful in his life, but starts ignoring her and everything falls apart. He puts her back together but ends up dying afterwards. A so-so story, but Caravana's art is very good.

Fourth is "Ragged Man" by Romeo Tanghal & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A man and woman return to a concentration camp they were at when they were young. While they were there an old man told them of a Ragged Man that would come save them some day. The evil head of the concentration camp has their sex organs removed and thrown in a well, which eventually comes to life as the Ragged Man and enacts revenge for them.

Fifth is "Dreamer!" by Fred Carillo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A boy lives by himself with his Teddy Bear, which can bring his dreams to life. Eventually some adults arrive, and destroy the teddy bear, which was a device meant to protect him while they were gone. The adults want to hold him hostage from his parents, who rule the galaxy, but he is able to get a wolf to kill them.

Last is "Hot Bob" by Herb Arnold (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Hot Bob is a man returning to Earth from exile, making those on Earth very nervous of what he's going to do. When he arrives it ends up he's there to bring animals and plants to an over industrialized Earth, but what he brings is poisonous to anyone over 30.

Creepy 68

This issue is a Christmas themed issue of Creepy, featuring a cover of an evil Santa with various body parts around the fire place. Another rather horrific back cover by Sanjulian, featuring a man with a nail through his neck. Some very good stories here and some rather dull ones as well.

First is the issue's only non-Christmas themed story, "The Stars My Salvation" by John Severin (art) and Doug Moench (story). As explained in later issues, one of the stories, "Once Upon a Miracle" missed the deadline and got replaced with this story. That story would be reprinted in Creepy 77, the next year's Christmas special. This story takes place in the Civil War where some union soldiers come across a hospital which the leading officer wants to attack. One of his soldiers doesn't want to attack a hospital, so the officer kills him. A similar scenario takes place in space, where an alien hospital ship carrying a device which can heal people heads after a damaged ship, hoping to destroy it. The alien captain attacks the doctor on the ship who doesn't want to attack. In both cases it ends up being an ambush, and the aggressive attackers are totally wiped out. The alien doctor manages to escape and heads down to the Earth where he is going to heal the head officer, but the officer instead kills him, and dies seconds later.

Second is "Christmas Eve Can Kill You" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A number of different stories occuring around christmas time in this one, including a man trying to kill himself being saved by another person and a shootout among crooks and cops.

Third is "Reflections in a Golden Spike" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). An old man who is a retired train engineer befriends a young orphan runaway who passes out near the abandoned train that he lives in. Eventually however a pair of thieves arrive. When the boy kills one of the thieves he is killed, so the engineer kills the other with a golden railroad spike he had given to the boy.

Fourth is "Anti-Christmas", this issue's color story, by Rich Corben (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a young couple where the husband is actually a satanist, and they give birth to the anti-christ. Meanwhile her father, a priest, goes on a rampage, doing all he can to stop the anti-christ, including innocent babies and people. They eventually converge, and the priest kills his own daughter, then is killed by her husband who proclaims that the priest did the work of Satan a lot better than he could.

Fifth is "A Gentle Takeover" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where Christmas is outlawed. An older man, Oliver Cubbins, who looks like Santa Claus organizes a peaceful march of believers in Christmas.

Sixth is "Christmas Visit" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). An old diner owner, Archie, has a rather bad attitude about christmas. He is visited by a mysterious stranger who arrives at his diner right around closing time. While walking around talking to the stranger, who tries to get him to get a better attitude about Christmas, the man causes various miracles to happen, like curing a crippled boy and talking a suicidal man from not killing himself. While the stranger is able to convince Archie that Christmas is good after all. Unfortunately for him, the stranger is murdered by muggers minutes later.

Last is "The Christmas Gnome of Timothy Brayle!" by Leopold Sanchez (art, his Creepy debut) and Budd Lewis (story). The poorest story in this issue, it is about a man who dislikes his wife who encountersa gnome that gives him the christmas present of his wife's now dead remains.

Creepy 56

Today we're gonna take a look at the first issue of Creepy I ever read. The cover is by Sanjulian.

First is "In My Father's House" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a detective investigating the death of a man tied to a stone angel in a graveyard. While investigating multiple attempts are made on his life and he meets various crazy women that used to know him. Eventually he finds that the murdered man was the leader of a Satanic cult who became too greedy with power. Satan himself appears and recruits the detective to be the new leader, but he too becomes too greedy and is eventually killed because of it.

Second is "Innsmouth Festival" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Jacobson (story). This story is heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's 'A Shadow Over Insmouth". An editor for a magazine about (usually fake) supernatural events is summoned to Innsmouth by a letter from two women, who incidently end up being the only normal looking people in the town, which is controlled by hideous looking creatures that worship Ctulhu. They capture the women, hoping to sacrifice them to their watery God, and the editor tries to help them. They are able to kill the 'God' and the various mutants using a laser gun given to the editor by an old woman. At the end of the story it is revealed that the women aren't really human themselves, as they have wings.

Third is "Consumed by Ambition" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A count from Europe heads to Venezuela where it is revealed that he is a vampire. A young man he meets is attacked by him, but he has ambition of being a vampire and lets him join him. Eventually the young man becomes too ambitious however, and puts a stake in his master's heart. He demands a daily sacrifice from a nearby tribe, but is soon done in by man eating ants. His skeleton remains alive for many year after however as a stake wasn't used on him.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Lycanklutz" by Richard Corben (story & art). Warren's first good looking color story (the first 3 attempts, that appeared in Creepy 54, and Vampirella 25 & 26 looked absolutely horrific, usually due to the overly bright colors overwhelming the artwork), although Corben would turn out a much better color job merely a single issue later. The story takes place in a kingdom plagued by a werewolf. An old man offers to rid them of the werewolf with fleas, which cost $500. The king agrees to use them, but betrays the old man, tying him up as bait so he doesn't have to pay him. The werewolf arrives, but the old man bargains with him for a flea collar and the werewolf instead attacks the king. This story would win Corben the best story written by an artist for 1973.

Fifth is "The Way of All Flesh" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a blind old vicar who has no one attending his church any longer. A friend tells him to give up, then returns home where he finds his wife dead. Many other deaths have occured around this time as well. By investigating, our protagonist eventually finds the vicar, preaching to the corpses of all the murdered people. The vicar then passes away, and all their corpses crumble to dust.

The issue concludes with "The Bell of Kuang Sai" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited as Munes) and George Henderson (story, an adaption, but not stated who of). This story features a bell maker, Kuang Sai, who is hired by his lord to make him a bell. When he makes the bell however it has a large crack in it. He tries again and again, but each time it has a crack. The lord offers him three more chances, after failing on the first two he sacrifices his daughter, pushing her into the bell's liquid material before it is poured into the mold. This results in it finally working. This causes the bell to emit a strange shriek from her whenever it is rung however.

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.

Creepy 140

A terrific cover by Richard Corben starts off this late issue of Creepy. Unfortunately the inside of the magazine isn't as good as the cover is.

First is "The Big Itch!" by Delando Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is about a man who tries to punish a city with a secret compound. A detective he kills however ends up causing the potion to be poured on him, killing him. This story homages "Denny Colt" of the Spirit with the detective Benny Dolt.

Next is "The Silver Stallion Conspiracy", told in two stories. The art is by Fred Carillo and the story is by Gerry Boudreau. An overly complicated story about a woman at a help line who ends up getting involved in a complex conspiracy involving a cartel called the Silver Stallion who lie to her about keeping left wing leaders alive in secret when they're actually a right wing group. Unfortunately for them, an even more powerful secret group finds them out and kills them all.

Next is "There is No Werewolf" by Martin Salvador (art) and Mark Willard (story). This story tells of a group of Russians who come to a small town. One of the professors wants to be famous while the other is more caring of other people. They find a man fighting wolves in the woods which they bring to their cabin with them. He ends up being a beast man however, and kills them. The professor gets his wish of being famous... as a victim of the creature.

After that is "Mummy, Jr." by Jun Lofamia (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This is a very short story at only 3 pages long, telling of three archeologists who discover a mummy of a little kid. One of them ends up being a descendent of the Egyptians and kills one of the other archeologists. He plans on stranding the other one there, but she shoots him. Her shots cause the ceiling to collapse however, leaving her with the now awakened mummy.

"One Good Turn" is next, by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). A Lord asks an old sorceress to help him conceive a child. She gives him a potion which he takes and its successful. But when his son is born, he's just a skeleton. It ends up that the sorceress gave him a potion of death instead of a potion of life. As a result, she is executed.

The issue concludes with "Spidership Season" by Peter Hsu (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A very poor, childish story with childish art from Hsu about a pair of kids looking for a firefly. The kids are taken care of by a bizarre octopus like creature. Quite odd.

Creepy 122

A Richard Corben cover starts off this issue of Creepy, featuring an upside down dead asian man. Uncle Creepy is given a one page introduction by Rudy Nebres.

First story is "The Killing" by the team of Alex Toth & Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story, taking place during the civil war features a confederate civilian woman who ends up being forced to take in some Union soldiers. Although she planned on blowing them up, killing herself along with them, she has a change of heart and waits until they leave before killing herself.

Next is "The Watcher" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story is about a censor at the Comics Code who is very over the top with his censorship. He takes home a new comic one night, Mooneyes, featuring a scantily clad heroine. He discovers the real Mooneyes, or rather the model that portrays her and ends up killing her. Having gone crazy by the event, he moves out to the suburbs and becomes a comic writer himself, but his prospective publisher comes to see him and finds her rotting corpse in the house with him.

Third is "The Perfect Specimen" by Steve Gan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features two rather confused aliens who come to Earth and land in an ocean, thinking that fish are the dominant species of the Earth. They capture a great white shark and thinking it friendly, go in a tank to meet it, unaware of how dangerous it actually is.

Fourth is "Midnight in Chinatown" by the team of Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The issue's weakest story, this is a mystery/action story about a man attacked by a mysterious assassin in Chinatown. He investigates and eventually encounters him again, discovering that he is Japanese and manages to kill him.

Fifth is "Routine" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). This story appears to have been originally written years before as Carl Wessler was no longer with Warren by this point and Uncle Creepy hosted the story, which hadn't happened in years. The story surrounds a middle aged man in a rather quiet city in his normal routine, such as going to the Bank where he is president, and having a party for his wife. As we reach the last page and find him dining with all skeletons it becomes apparant that he's the only human left alive, but to keep himself sane he pretends that everyone else is still alive. A short, but interesting story.

Sixth is "Magic Man" by Fred Carillo (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a magic man who stays in a book store who befriends a young woman, but won't let her touch him. He has the ability to create illusions of any real matter, making it appear to be something else. The woman thinks that he's an illusion himself, but when she touches him it is she who dissappears, as she was an illusion, not him.

The issue concludes with "Roomers" by Mike Zeck (art) and Bruce Jones (story, miscredited to Budd Lewis). This story features a nerdy college student who goes through an elaborate plan to tutor a beautiful fellow student. When she refuses his advances however he snaps, killing her and raping her corpse. He succesfully escapes his apartment complex and disposes of the body, but when he returns he discovers that his elderly landlady spied on him and blackmails him into having sex with her! One of the most horrific Warren endings ever, if you're a young guy like me.

Creepy 134

This issue of Creepy features Ken Kelly's final Warren cover. Rudy Nebres provides a one page Uncle Creepy introduction.

First story is "Guardians of the Universe!" by Delando Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features a pair of men on a planet whose ship is destroyed and confronted by a large tentacled monster.

Next is "Hear the Organ Grinder Play" by Martin Salvador (art) and Mark Willard (story) about a group of homeless people who come across an organ grinder who collects real organs!

Third is "Soul Sucker!" by Fred Carillo (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story) about a man at a hotel who faces a soul sucking monster which he is able to kill.

Fourth is "Wreck of the Vendigo Shafter!" by Gene Day & Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), which tells of a ship that is overtaken by vampire rats.

Fifth is "Nefites" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A woman goes to a planet with uncivilized frog like creatures who act very bad. Eventually she is impregnated by one of them.

Sixth is "Orson Who?" by Carmine Infantino & Wayne Howard (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) a futuristic retelling of the Orson Wells incident when people believed his reading of War of the Worlds were real. Only this time there really were aliens!

Seventh is "War is Hell!" by Val Mayerik (art) and Roger McKenzie (story) about a soldier on D-Day who finds bizarre things keep happening to him which he dreams of. It ends up that he is in hell.

Last is the issue's best story, "The City of God" by Steve Gan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Two people in a plane crash come across a giant bald man and a large city, which he says they built for him but passed away, leaving him alone. They die too, as he is radioactive and causes anyone near him to die of poisoning soon after.

Overall a rather lousy and boring issue, which is why my summaries are so short this time.

Creepy 96

An alien encounter special for this issue of Creepy, featuring an alien on the cover by Kim McQuaite.

First story is "Predation" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story would win the Warren award for best art in a story for 1978. The story features a pair or alien lovers who look like humanoid frogs that come to Africa and decide to spend their day in the bodies of a pair of lions. Meanwhile a husband and wife head hunting into this area with a tour guide. While the husband does work, the wife and tour guide head out hunting and she ends up killing one of the lions, and the other soon is killed as well. The aliens however decide to occupy their bodies, and are forced to stay on Earth because their ship gets destroyed.

Next is "Trilby and the Star Rovers" by Luis Bermejo (art) and the team of Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story). A young boy named Toby is spoken to by the Trilby of the title, who comes from another planet. His parents don't believe him however, thinking he's making it up. When Toby is taken for real by Trilby however, his parents soon realize that he wasn't lying after all.

Third is "Bonga and Me" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A young woman named Felci, the last surviving member of her tribe is kicked out of the tribe that destroyed her's. She wanders through the woods where she meets a baby dinosaur which she calls Bonga. When Bonga grows up into a Tyranosaurus Rex like creature, she heads back to the tribe and takes over, declaring herself chief. She works on taking over multiple other tribes, but suddenly Bonga dissappears when aliens, who originally lost him on Earth arrive to get him back. They are forced to seek her help however to keep him under control. This story was clearly originally intended for Eerie 90, which is a girl & lizard monster special issue. Maroto's artwork is quite poor compared to his usual excellence.

Fourth is "Alien!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A depressing story about a pair of men at war with alien creatures that look like giant walking frogs. One of the soldiers decides to leave two orphanned aliens alone, including one which is half human, half alien, but it comes back to haunt him later when they come after him and his friend.

Fifth is "The Green" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A young man, a 'Green', gets assigned for transporting ammunition through space rather than going into battle like he had hoped. As the months pass by on their long mission, his commanding officer tells him of their destination, a planet occupied by beautiful woman who will continuously have sex with them, as well as the fabulous food and exciting battles they will get into there. When they finally arrive, the Green realizes that it was all a lie, and was just a story his commander told him so he wouldn't go crazy on the way there. A fun story that I would rank as my favorite of the issue.

The issue concludes with "Alien Strain" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A 'Banggi' and his human friend are attacked by various aliens when they arrive at a planet where they have transported some robots. The mob has good reason to fear him however, as by arriving the Banggi has caused an epidemic where thousand of Banggi larva work their way through various prostitutes, infesting the planet. Very odd looking aliens here by Nino, as usual for him.

Creepy 127

Terrance Lindall provides the artwork for this issue's cover. Its quite an interesting and funny cover, with various monsters holding (and licking) a very scared looking man. Lindall's five Warren covers were all quite good and unique looking. Rudy Nebres provides a one page Uncle Creepy intro. With this issue Bill Dubay left as editor (once again!) and Chris Adames took over for a little less than a year.

First story is "Hoodoo the Magnificent!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story is about an old magician/daredevil who tells a reporter about his crazy feats when he was younger. This story ends rather abrubtly with not much of a point to it, it seems. A poor way to start off the issue.

Next is "Forbidden Fruit!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story is about a shipwrecked man who is rescued, but when the rescuers arrive they find him calling a baby his wife! He tells them the story of how she ate some fruit on the island, which turned her into a tree which grew fruit, out of which came the baby. He becomes convinced that he must eat the fruit himself so he can turn into a baby as well. An alright story but Bermejo's art is a bit down, making the 'wife' look like a male in her baby form.

Third story is "Prism Second Generation Blues" by Noly Panligan (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This is another story featuring a shipwrecked man, who this time comes across a strange colored meteor which turns into a beautiful woman when he touches it. The woman says her name is Prism, and that she is an alien who can absorb or release light, making it dark around her. They are caught and chased by a Nazi who hopes to overthrow American society, but they are able to stop him. Panligan's art is quite good, with a variety of styles in telling this story.

Fourth is "Daddy is a Werewolf" by Fred Carrillo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a werewolf man with a family who hopes to cure his affliction due to a doctor that thinks he can cure him of his affliction. The doctor hasn't realized however that he should avoid using silver instruments on his patient...

Fifth is "Wind" by Val Mayerik (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Very good art by Mayerik in this story about a native american warrior society and the bad weather that brings their doom.

Last is "Escape" by Herb Arnold (art) and Steven Dietrich (story). A wealthy man seeks to be able to fly, so he visits a voodoo expert who is able to accomplish his goal by turning him into a crow. Once he starts flying though, the man realizes that this isn't as interesting as he thought and he desires to return to his human form. Unfortunately for him, the voodoo expert is murdered, leaving him in the crow form forever.

Vampirella 80

An excellent Esteban Maroto cover headlines this issue of Vampirella. First and last stories are quite poor, but the middle stuff is very good.

First is "Slaves of the Alien Amazon" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi and Pantha are captured by a Lupae warrior (a race that fought with Pantha's race back on Drakulon). Pendragon meanwhile summons a demon to help rescue them, but is immediately overtaken by it. A rather poor story that will be concluded in the next issue. Marcos is a so-so artist, and a sore dissappointment compared with Vampi's two regulars at this point, Jose Gonzalez and Gonzalo Mayo.

Second is "Like Father, Like Son" by Leo Duranona (art) and Cary Bates (story). A successful man finds himself under attack by a mysterious assassin. It ends up the assassin is his own father, upset that he's taken his successes away from him. As the story continues it is revealed that the son is actually a clone of the father. The son, losing a big business deal starts growing paranoid himself of his son, who is also a clone of him.

Third is "Transference" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A superstar body builder finds himself losing muscle mass and weight, and the need to shave quickly goes away too. It soon becomes apparant that he is becoming a woman, a transformation that he finds very hard to cope with. Just about to kill himself, he finds hair growing on his face again, meaning the process has reversed itself. He excitedly goes to tell his girlfriend, only to find that she's turning into a man! Best story of the issue.

Fourth is "The Eternal Triangle" by Martin Salvador (art) and Cary Bates (story). A boy's parents are puzzled with his attitude, dismissing girls his own age and instead spending all his time with his grandmother. It ends up that he is actually controlled by the spirit of his grandfather, who died years before when his son wasn't able to get him snake poison antitode in time. He seeks revenge, but is killed by them. Before his death he raped his 'mother' however, meaning he'll return once again in another form.

The issue concludes with "John Donne and the Asteroid Pirates" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Chris Adames (story). A very poor story about the adventures and misadventures of John of the title, who sleeps with many women, battles monsters, and other assorted stuff.

Creepy 143

Creepy's second to last all original issue, and the last one that I own as I don't own a copy of Creepy's final issue as of this writing.

First is "The Spectator Who Wept" by Isidro Mones(art) and Don McGregor (story). This story marks Mones's return to Warren after a long absence, his second. With his original run at Warren he was one of their best artists. After his first absence his art became quite poor. Here for a third time with Warren his art is fairly good, not as good as his mid 70's stuff, but a hell of a lot better than what he was doing in the late 70's/early 80's. At 28 pages this is the longest self contained story in Warren history. The story features aliens who take all the children on Earth away from their parents because they feel they are being mistreated. Luckily one man is able to convince them that by taking the kids away they are also doing harm to them, so the aliens give them back.

Second is "Moral Blood", a continuation of a story started in issue 141, about monsters in the wild west. Art is by Al Sanchez and story is by Don McGregor. Like the first, a poor, poor story which I'm not gonna bother going in anymore detail about.

Third is "Welcome Home Stranger!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry
Boudreau (story). This story is about a man who returns to the town where his parents were murdered, supposedly by his sister. Through investigation he realizes that his parents were brother and sister and have a freakish monster child that they abandoned. He was eventually killed by town law enforcement. It ended up that a friend of his, a neighbor, killed the parents because she was mad over his death. A fairly good story.

Last is "The Continuing Story of HG Well's The Invisible Man" by Alex Nino (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features the son of the Invisible Man arriving and getting a doctor to help him get into a mental institution where he kills the creator of the invisibility formula, then frames the doctor to take the rap.

Aside from Moral Blood, this an extremely good issue considering it came around a time when Warren was at its absolute worst.

Creepy 60

This issue features a cover by Sanjulian. The frontis for this issue is "Child of Hell" by Bill Dubay.
First story is "Slaughter House" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). At 16 pages this is one of the longest stories in Creepy during this period. Unfortunately its not that great a story. A couple with a new baby move into a house that has been rumored to be haunted by a dwarf-like creature. They summon a good spirit and when the dwarf creature arrives it is able to save them and rid the house of the creature for good.

Next is "A Most Precious Secret" by Jose Gual (art) and Margopoulos (story). A man's wife discovers the horrible truth, that he's a vampire! To keep his secret, the man kills her and drinks her blood. The story brings us back in time, telling how they got married and how he was able to keep his secret from her. Back in the present the man receives a call from his lawyer telling him that his wife was seeing him to draft a will, because she has leukemia, cancer of the blood!

Third is cover story, "The Hero Within" by Richard Corben (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features an orphan with a wild imagination whose brought to a new foster home where his foster mother and sister treat him horribly, subjecting him to the wrath of their dangerous dog. The boy, locked in the basement finds a magic donut shaped rock on the ground and uses it to imagine himself in a prehistoric world, where he's a powerful monster warrior battling the dog, who has now changed into a Tyranosaurus Rex. While he succeeds in his battle with the beast, he loses the magic rock and reverts to the real world, where the wounded dog gets his revenge.

Fourth is "Monsieur Fortran's Houx" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Jacobson (story). An alien race plans on infiltrating Earth and has an agent in France approximately 200 years ago. The alien agent, Fortran, publishes a book revealing all the alien's plans, thinking that it is so crazy that everyone will think he's crazy and ignore the true danger. His plan initially works, but one drunk who does believe him ends up destroying his entire house, killing the both of them, when Fortran's superiors check in on him.

The issue concludes with "The Other Side of Hell" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is Mayo's Warren debut. The story features a town drunk who has died and finds himself in hell. He desires to get away and suddenly finds himself in an Egyptian-esque realm where he kills the king and takes his Queen. He becomes power hungry and eventually kills her as well. But he soon realizes that he never left hell...

Creepy 125

A fairly good Creepy issue from 1981. The cover is by Ken Kelly. While it has a Christmas themed color, only one story within has a Christmas theme. Rudy Nebres provides a one page introduction from Uncle Creepy.

Up first is "Once Upon a Christmas Eve" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited as Will Richardson). The story features a pair of bums on Christmas who encounter demons trying to trap them in bottles of alcohol. Luckily they are able to escape. It appears to be a dream, but is enough to get them to try and turn their life around.

Next is "His Own Private Demons!" by Anton Caravana (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Story features a grown man recalling his childhood where a demon that was part of him caused him to do bad things. As an adult, the bad deeds continue.

Third is "Top Dog!" by Alex Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a mob boss threatened by new enemies. He recruits a group of leprechauns to help them, by promising them gold. They defeat his enemy, but with no actual gold he is forced to let them be in charge.

Next is "Jacque Couteau's Circus of the Bizarre" by Alex Toth & Carmine Infantino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). A fairly good short story at only 5 pages features a freak show where regular humans are the freaks and the audience are bizarre looking mutants. Toth & Infantino provide an interesting art job in this one time only team up.

"The Tempered Sword" is next, by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Manuel Auad (story). The issue's weakest effort, it features a sword that is able to absorb the emotion of the person that uses it. A slave who finds the sword hears the story of its origin from an old man.

"Living Death Camp!" by Auraleon (art) and Roger McKenzie (story) follows, It takes place in Nazi Germany where a number of jews are brought to a concentration camp. Due to the help of a vampire however, they are able to turn on their captors.

Last is "Knight Errant" by Mike Saenz (art) and Roy Kinnard (story). The story features a knight battling a crab like creature and a dragon, inspired by visions of his beautiful lover. However a vision distracts him during the battle with the Dragon and he is defeated. It is revealed that everything is actually a simulation; the knight is actually a small mutated creature using a robot body who passes away due to his wounds. Very good art in one of Saenz's few Warren appearances.