Eerie 16

An issue of Eerie from Warren's dark age. The cover is by Barry Rockwell. The frontis, "Eerie's Monster Gallery", about the Number 13, was originally intended for an earlier issue based on the letter pages. It is by an uncredited Tony Williamsune and Bill Parente.

We start off with "Dracula's Guest" by Frank Bolle (art) and E. Nelson Bridwell (story). This story is originally from a Christopher Lee book of comic stories. It is an adaption of the events that occur in the novel Dracula prior to the start of the well known story in Transalvania.

"Big Time Operator" by Ric Estrada (art) and E. Nelson Bridwell (story) is a story featuring a mad scientist who uses victims of a plane crash to turn into various mythological creatures like the Medusa, Minotaur and others. He uses the creatures to form his own freak show, but they eventually turn on him and turn him into a freak like them.

Third is "Sara's Forest" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Roger Brand (story). It features a girl who lives in the forest on her own. A pair of nomads come and meet her. The man falls in love with Sara and murders his wife. He grows bored of Sara quickly however and tries to leave for the city. She kills him and buries him with an acorn so he'll turn into a tree, apparently what happened to prior visitors of the forest.

"Evil Spirits" is fourth, by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was done back during Warren's golden age, but for some reason was never published until now. The story features a woman who is in a haunted castle and is confronted by bad dreams and perhaps even ghosts. Her husband is cheating on her and the lover shows up, and they both kill each other. The husband, now with yet another lover, comes to the castle, where their ghosts remain waiting for revenge.

Next is "The Monument" by Alex Toth (art) and Goodwin (story), originally from Eerie 3. This story, which appears to be an unauthorized adaption of Ray Bradbury's "The Coffin" is about a design firm owner who convinces an aged architect build a house for him, by telling him that it will be his house. He kills him when it nears completion. Upon laying in his bed for the first time, he is killed by machinery in the house, which the architect had intended to be his tomb upon completion.

Last is "Ahead of the Game!" from Eerie 2. The art is by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (credited only to Orlando) and the story is by Archie Goodwin. It features a hunter who kills a white gorilla whose headless ghost continues to haunt him afterwards. Eventually he shows up for real and the hunter's head is cut off and put on a plaque!

Creepy 23

A pretty good cover for this issue by Tom Sutton, featuring a werewolf and a house on a cliff. This issue's frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story).

Up first is "Way Out!" by Donald Norman (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). Its about a druggie who wants more money, so he decides to do a painting of evil. But he can't think of a model so he steals and gets even more drugs, which brings him to a world where he meets none other than Satan himself.

Second is "Gargoyle", a reprint from Creepy 6. The art is by Angelo Torres and the story is by Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel. A man seeks to find the power to turn stone into gold. He meets a mysterious dwarf who is the responsible for the deaths of multiple powerful men. He gets the dwarf drunk, who reveals how to make gold out of stone, so he pours it on a stone gargoyle. Only the dwarf actually told him how to turn the stone into life, and the gargoyle kills him!

"Jack Knifed" is third, by Barry Rockwell (art) and Bill Parente (story). It features a Jack the Ripper style killer whom a man suspects is himself, as he thinks he has multiple personalities. When he reveals this to his wife however, the truth is revealed, it is actually she who is the killer!

The cover story, "Quick Change" is by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) and features a werewolf who discovers that the town is going to kill him by stabbing him with silver. He works on making himself immune to silver, only it ends up turning him back into a human at the full moon, whom they are easily able to kill.

"Rude Awakening" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is next, about a man who keeps having dreams of a glasses wearing man attacking him with a knife. He's so freaked out by them that he falls out a window and is brought to the hospital, where he faces none other than the glassed man! This story is originally from Creepy 7.

Last is "Cat Nipped" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). The story features a hunter in pursuit of a white panther, who ends up being a tribal queen. He battles her and manages to win by attacking her with silver teeth.

Eerie 19

Another issue of Eerie from Warren's down period, featuring half new stories and half reprints. The cover is by Alan Willow and the frontis, "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Castle of the Frankenstein!" is written and drawn by Tom Sutton.

Up first is "Tomorrow's Reminder" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). A group of spacemen arrive on a planet and are overrun by savages. They have no use but to use a disintegration device which wipes out both them and the savages. They end up being inside the body of a sick man, who dies due to their use of the device. An ending similar to "The Last Train of Orion", covered earlier in issue 28 of this title.

Next is "Dark Kingdom" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), which was originally published in Creepy #9. A Spartan, Argo, finds himself in hell, battling various winged creatures, snakes and others. He's able to escape from Hades and live, with a scar on his back as a souvenier. As usual, great art from Morrow.

Another reprint follows, "Dark House of Dreams" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy #12. An artist moves into the house of Matthew Gaunt, an evil man who was killed by a mob almost 200 years earlier. The artist has a number of dreams where he encounters Gaunt, and other evil beings, which become worse and worse with each one. Eventually he dies and turns into Gaunt, resurrected. Another very good story, as usual for Torres and Goodwin.

Another new story is up next, "Monstrous Mistake" by Barry Rockwell (art) and Bill Parente (story). A scientist creates a Frankenstein like monster by taking the brain of a colleague who had rejected him, and putting him in the body of a rotting corpse. He uses the beast to take revenge on other colleagues, until it is revealed that the body he dug up belonged to a werewolf, who kills him the night of the full moon.

"The Squaw" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is next, and is a reprint from Creepy #13. They forgot to replace Uncle Creepy with Cousin Eerie on this story, as they had done on the prior two reprints from this issue. This story, which is an adaption of a Bram Stoker story features a man who kills a kitten by accidently dropping a rock on it. The mother of the cat follows him as he goes to see a torture chamber and steps into an Iron Maiden. The cat jumps at the tour guide holding the iron maiden open, resulting in it shutting on the man, killing him.

Last up is "Unfeeling Heart..." by Ernie Colon (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). Another rather poor art job by Colon on this story. An older gentlemen creates a cyborg whose feelings he is able to emulate and uses him to go out with a woman he likes, but was never able to obtain. He plans revenge by dumping her, but she over reacts and stabs the cyborg, which results in his death as well since he feels everything the cyborg does.

Not that great an issue with the new stuff, although the reprints, as usual, are quite good.