Eerie 137

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eerie 128

Kirk Reinert provides a terrific cover for this issue of Eerie, probably the best of its latter day covers. This issue is dated January 1982. Aside from the horrible Zud story, this issue is quite a lot better than those we've been seeing for quite a while now.

First is "Dr. Coven: Ashes to Ashes!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Dr. Coven is a man who comes to the jungle with his wife to study voodoo. A voodoo priestess invites him to a ceremony and captures his wife, he then passes out. When he awakens he finds himself surrounded by zombies, including his wife, who is now one. He dismembers his wife to escape her, then kills the zombies and priestess.

Second is "The Demon Queen" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A professor who has one of his students as a lover is writing a book on demons and soon starts seeing them, suspecting that he is being pursued by a demon queen. He sees the demons more and more and his behavior to get rid of them gets more and more out of hand, resulting in him being fired and his book's publication being suspended. His book's chances of publication finished, his lover reveals that she is the demon queen. He is found later, gone completely insane. The demon queen in this story is modeled after that on the cover of Eerie 41.

Third is the retitled Zud and Son in "Heroes at Large!" by E.R. Cruz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). In this story, it is revealed out of nowhere that Zud has a thirteen year old son, Raz. Raz dissappoints Zud, as he is interested in the ballet and other odd stuff rather than normal boy stuff. While at the ballet Zud is captured by an old enemy of his who tries to kill him. Raz is able to rescue him, then at the end reveals that he is interested in football and other standard male interests after all.

Fourth is "Blackstar and the Nighthuntress" by Peter Hsu (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Jason Blackstar and Rowena, the stars of this story originally appeared back in issue 85. In this story the appearance of a medallion at someone's home means assassins, the Rectifiers (sent by the three Governor who rule the galaxy) will come after them and kill them unless they can stay out of their hands for seven days. Killing a Rectifier is illegal, and when Rowena mistakenly kills one, the Governors send other ones after them. Rowena and Blackstar eventually come across the Governors and convince them to stop coming after them.

Fifth is "Avenger!" by Jim Starlin & Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was originally intended for Creepy 64 back in 1974. Odd enough it was held back for eight years before finally appearing here. A pilot, Thomas Flagg climbs out of the sea, ten years after his death from a plane crash into a body of water. Flagg, now a rotting hulk, has the ability to cause others to succumb to his will and soon gathers an army to go after he whom he finds responsible, his father, who forced him into duty in Vietnam. His army of followers are killed, but he still encounters his father and causes him to succumb to his will as well.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth is attacked by an eagle and its amazoness owner who tries to kill him with a poison spear. Meanwhile a trio of men look for precious stones and come across Ethan and a friend of his who accidently take their canoe. Two of the men take back the canoe and leave, only to be killed by the amazonesses.

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.

Creepy 106

Romas Kukalis provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, his Warren debut. This issue is called a swords and sorcery special, although as you'll see within, only half the stories have the swords/sorcery theme.

First is "Quimby the Barbarian" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story tells of a man who uses a dream device to become a barbarian, battling other dreaming people. He battles a powerful sorceress who manages to defeat him, and upon returning to the waking world realizes that its his wife!

Second is "Fangs" by Leo Duranona (art) and Laurie Sutton (story). Duranona uses both real photos and his own drawn artwork in this story. A group of mermaids are brought to be entered into 'the shark cult', but upon arriving there realize that it is actually a den of vampires that kill all of them and feed their corpses to sharks. One of the mermaids survives, but is made a vampire herself. She convinces her fellow mermaids to kill all the remaining vampires. She then flees to above the water to escape, where she is soon found by a human.

Third is "Swords in the World Series" by Jim Starlin & Joe Rubenstein (art) and Ken Gale (story). Two sorcerors battle each other and one of them is victorious. The loser tries to escape by going back in time to the present. There he learns about baseball and becomes a player on the Yankees, making them very successful, within one win of the championship. At that time however the winning sorceror arrives on the scene, to have a one on one battle with him this time. Both are transported away, with one of the henchmen recruited for baseball as well.

Fourth is "Primal Equation" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis & Jon Sinsky (story). Two soldiers from opposing sides of a large scale war, the only survivors, discover a space ship collecting bodies. Thinking this must be occupied by aliens, responsible for the fighting, they board the ship and inside find a giant embryo, being fed the corpses. One of the soldiers destroys it, but the scientists there, who are fellow humans, reveal that the creature was to be a new breed of human, one that would have kept the world peaceful.

Fifth is "Sudden Death Playoff" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story tells of a one on one golf game between a human and alien, with the survival of the Earth at stake. The human is able to beat him in golf and in a duel when the alien pulls out a sword.

Last is "The Art of Killing" by Val Mayerik (art) and Larry Hama (story). A samurai is trained by his elderly father and three uncles. One day a notice from their lord arrives, resulting in the samurai having to kill his uncles to keep his life. He then battles his father and kills him as well. This story would become a new series in Eerie titled "Samurai" shortly after this issue.

Eerie 84

This issue of Eerie features a reprinted cover by Frank Frazetta originally used for issue 8. This was the first ever reprint cover for Eerie, which would become quite common over the next few years.

First up is the latest Rook story, "Yesterday, the Final Day" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook, after bringing his great great grandfather Bishop Dane to the present (which originally happened in the first Rook story) goes back in time to get his revenge on Gat Hawkins. Gat Hawkins gets the better of him however, shooting him and leaving him for dead. Luckily the Rook isn't dead, and is nursed back to health by Kate, introduced in the prior story, and her friend Jan. Jan manages to sneak into Hawkin's home and make it to the Rook's Time Castle and bring it back to the present. Bishop Dane then heads back into the past and helps the Rook get revenge on Hawkins. Heavily injured, the two are nursed back to health by Kate and Jan, who decide to come to the present themselves for good. The best of the Rook stories so far, with Bermejo's art also quite good on this story.

Second is "Brass Monkey", the latest Hard John Apple story by Jose Ortiz (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Ortiz uses a new art style in this story, which results in his art looking a lot like Alfredo Alcala's. John and Tarara go to a Catlick base in order to get plans to assist in John's attack on the world. There it is discovered that Zinger, the man who originally told John about the nukes in Kansas is a member of the Catlicks, Protstnts and Tarara's group. He plans to finish off our heroes, but the General (the orangutan introduced in the prior part) arrives and helps our heroes escape.

Third is a sequel to issue 68's Godeye, "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road" by Carmine Infantino & Dan Green (art) and Budd Lewis (story). I wonder why they didn't use Leopold Sanchez for this story, the artist for the original story, as he was at Warren at this time. Godeye is recruited to be a hero again, this time on the world Elton where he is there to rescue a princess from the Rhode, a large sphere which is controlled by a powerful giant. Godeye outsmarts the giant by challenging him to a digging contest, which is filled with water due to hitting a well. Godeye then manages to drown the giant by throwing a rope around his neck and dragging him into the water. His reward is the Rhode itself, which is made out of gold. This story would be Godeye's final appearance.

Last is "He Who Waits in Shadow" by Jim Starlin (story & art). This is a very surrealistic 6 page story that features Darklon making a guest appearance on the final page.

Vampirella 78

A photo of Barbara Leigh is on the cover of this issue of Vampirella.

Up first is "Kiss of the Dragon Queen", the latest Vampirella story. Art is by Gonzalo Mayo and story is by Bill Dubay. Our heroes, including Vampi, Pantha, Adam, Conrad and Pendragon are in Hong Kong where a dragon has been appearing. Pantha and Vampi are being set up by a man pretending to be a movie producer. The dragon meanwhile is killed, revealed to be a crocodile, but it is rumored that the real dragon is still out there. Not that good a Vampirella story, unfortunately.

Second is "Little Guy" by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story surrounds a very short man at a circus who a colleague desires to help him in a robbery by hiding in a crate due to his small size. his wife tells him that she'll leave him if it does it, so he refuses, but the collegue murders her to get him to do it. Rather than do what he asks however, the small man instead cuts off his colleague's legs and puts him in the crate.

Third is "Passion" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Steve Englehart (story). A rather confusing story featuring a soldier who calls himself Errol Flynn fighting for the French Legion. He is a very strange man, as discussed by his fellow soldier. He leaves a brothel, passing up sex, and refuses to fight, willing to go to jail instead. When he has no choice but to fight, a Tyranosaurus Rex suddenly appears and eats him. A rather odd, confusing ending which I find a hard time understanding.

Next is "The Service" by Jim Starlin & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story initially starts out with a woman and a lover who comes back to sleep with her every few months, but never can stay that long. It ends up that the man is actually a robot who she pays to come sleep with her, and when he breaks down she asks a repairman to come, who ends up being an actual human man, something which the women had pretty much wiped out from the universe entirely. In order to protect his secret, the woman has him stay and sleep with him, as well as become essentially a slave while he repairs her robot. He is forbidden from leaving when the robot becomes fixed since she has become so used to him. She says that he can't kill him as she files a weekly report that will cause people to come after him if they suddenly stop, but he outsmarts her by killing her and creating a robot copy of her to do the reports instead.

Last is "Zooner or Later" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A terrific, terrific story, probably one of Warren's best 20 stories ever. A man finds out he is dying of cancer, so he tries desperately to find any way to save himself, from experimental drugs to faith healers to even devil worshippers. All attempts fail. He learns of a tribe called the Zooner from a cook who says hold the power to reincarnate someone with the mind that they had before they died. He heads to Africa where he initially finds it a meaningless lead, but a drunk at a bar tells him how to find them. He finally does find the Zooner, who worship the Hippopotomus and they sacrifice him. He awakens as an embryo, very excited to be soon born again, but when he is born, it is as a baby Hippo!

Eerie 80

A Sanjulian cover featuring Tombspawn leads off this issue of Eerie.

First is "The Invisible One", the first of a new series, Scallywag. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. An old American man in Japan, Sullivan is attacked by Samurais but easily defeats him. He befriends a friendly samurai, Konishi, who goes with him to his ship, where he lives with a number of women. That night the women are killed by ninjas. A so-so start to this new series.

Second is "Retribution", the latest Darklon story. Story and art are by Jim Starlin. This story continues the origin of Darklon from the previous story. After having been decapitated by the nameless one's minions, Darklon is brought back to life with great power that comes from his eye. Darklon easily kills Blacklore and frees his father.

Third is "On Moonlight Bay", the second Pea Green Boat story. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis. Eric and Al sail across the sea in their boat and come across a harbor where they are fired upon, by people who think they are instead a monster that kidnapped babies. Al and Green head to the boat where the captured kids were, finding out that a radiation burned cannibal had been capturing the children and eating them, having gone mad from his burns.

Fourth is "Pieces of Hate", the next story in the Tombspawn series (originally titled Day of the Vampire in issue 73). Gonzalo Mayo once again provides the art while Gerry Boudreau provides the story. Our heroes can kill whoever they want to satisfy their thirst for blood but are concerned about creating too many vampires that will be competition for them. Meanwhile Russians in a space shuttle head down to the surface and reveal that they were responsible for the war that ruined the world. Our heroes and the Russians decide to hunt for each other to determine who will control the Earth in its current state.

Fifth is the second and final story of the "Third Person Singular" storyline. Art is by Luis Bermejo and story is by Bruce Jones. Our hero encounters the women from the previous part and she brings him to a society of women only. The government raids their society, so the two of them escape.

The issue concludes with "Queen of the Purple Range", the second Cronk story. Art is by Carmine Infantino & Al Milgrom and story is by Nicola Cuti. Cronk is responsible for transporting a group of eggs, one of which cracks open, revealing a spotted women who immediately destroys all the other ones. She is actually the new queen of the planet Gagoian. She battles the sole survivor from the eggs and Cronk brings her to her planet where they won't accept her.

Eerie 79

A football themed cover by Ken Kelly on this issue of Eerie.

First is "Time and Time Again" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story), a continuation of the "Within You Without You" story from Eerie 77. Karen is requested to go back in time to retrieve a gun that had been left behind. While there she seeks revenge on the Tyranosaurus that killed Lydecker. She gets her timing mixed up however, and ends up killing the dinosaur before it killed him, so she encounters the past version of him and herself. The scientists bring her out of it, but Lydecker ends up occupying her mind when they do that.

Second is "The Pea-Green Boat", a new series from Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Two men work on a boat, which they paint Pea Green. Eventually the apocalypse occurs and the two escape to the ocean on the boat, fighting off anyone who tries to come aboard.

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

Fourth is "Third Person Singular" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story), the first of two part story. An odd story that takes place in a world where everyone (well almost everyone) is a male homosexual. The hero of our story is one of the very few heterosexuals in the world, who are under seige by caped agents called Snuffers. At the end of our story a snuffer raid is stopped by our hero, who discovers the snuffer to be a woman.

Last is "Sam's Son and Delilah" by Carmine Infantino & Al Milgrom (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story tells of a boy, Bubber who is born deaf and mute. He becomes quite good at painting and playing football. His career continues at his father's urging even though he'd rather paint. He is so famous that a stadium is built for him. Eventually however a tumor that his father ignored causes him to go crazy. At a commemorative event for him he ends up destroying the entire stadium, killing himself and his father.

Eerie 76

This issue of Eerie features an Oogie cover by Sanjulian.

First is "Deliver the Child", the first of a two part spinoff series from the Freaks, titled The Moonweavers. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis. This series stars Gerome and Jason, the sons of the boys who appeared in the second Freaks story. Gerome has a special power where he can sense supernatural things occuring. One such thing happens in their town, so they go to investigate and find the local hardware store owner summoning a demon, Jahnte. Jahnte is shocked to find out that the man wants him to protect his baby daughter rather than make him powerful or commit some other deed. Jahnte loses his hands when he tries to attack the man, and retaliates by chewing off the hands of the man's baby. Sanchez's art is quite good, and this story is a vast improvement over the three part Freaks series.

Second is "Highsong", starring Wolfer O'Connell. Art is by Luis Bermejo and story is by Budd Lewis. Wolfer is confronted by some native americans who want to kill him because of a monster that they think arrived due to the white man. Wolfer outsmarts them then confronts the beast, which is killed when they come across a pack of wolves.

Third is the latest Oogie story, "Oogie and the Scroungers" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Leroy and Prunnie are confronted by the IRS, who fly a ship to their planet and are seeking not only taxes not paid while they were a part of human society, but also taxes for their time on Oogie's planet. Prunie, with her godlike powers transports Leroy away and blows up the IRS agents. While Leroy thinks she has died, she comes back, completely unharmed. Maroto's art is unfortunately quite inconsistent and poor in this story. The head IRS guy's head fluctuates in size in pretty much every panel.

Fourth is "The Silver Key" the final Peter Hypnos story. Art and story is by Jose Bea. Peter once again finds himself in a bizarre world, this time after being sucked into a painting. He uses a key to enter a door, where he is put on trial, has his key taken away, then meets others who lost their key. He eventually finds a large pile of keys, and using the first one he finds opens yet another door and returns to the real world.

The issue concludes with the premiere story of "Darklon the Mystic" by Jim Starlin in his Warren debut. An eyepatched man meets an assassin in a bar who tells him how he and three fellow assassins went after a man named Darklon, who lives in a giant castle. They sneak through the castle and blast away in his bedroom only to find that he's not there. Soon all are dead except the assassin at the bar. The eyepatched man ends up being Darklon himself, and kills the assassin after finding out that the person who hired the assassin was none other than Kavar Darkhold, his father.

Creepy 114

Back after a week off! The cover to this issue featuring an astronaut being overrun by demons is by Kirk Reinhart.

Up first is "Rats" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Bob Toomey (story). The story surrounds an old man who sells liquor who has befriended a number of rats. During his travels through the streets he kills someone to provide as food for them!

Next is "Charnal Combat" by Danny Talerno (art) and Pierce Askegren (story). Another in a long line of very boring swords & sorcery stories. Not much to talk about here.

After that is the cover story, "Heat" by Leo Duranona (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). In contrast to the dull first two stories, this is quite an interesting one surrounding three astronauts, all of whom have done some bad deed in the past, coming upon a civilization on Venus that includes Hitler, Jack the Ripper and other various evil well known men. The astronauts eventually realize they are in hell. The last one is able to escape from there by doing a good deed, telling Hitler that he loves him.

"Small War" follows that story, with art by Jim Starlin & Pablo Marcos. Story is by Roger McKenzie. Another boring story, featuring a war between regular humans and very tiny people. Particular focus is on a young boy who had befriended them but finds himself caught up in the conflict as well.

Fifth is "The Reaper" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Quite a good story, featuring dual storylines. In one, an old man curses the world upon finding he has cancer and gets quite upset that insignicant people who haven't done as much as him to help others will continue living. The second storyline focuses a government scientist in a small pox lab being visited by an agent, who explains the guards they have against preventing an outbreak. The stories come together towards the end as its revealed that the old man works in the lab and is able to escape with a sample that he plans to unleash upon the world.

Last is "An Android Affair" by Auraleon (art) and Mark Laskey (story). A man with severe social problems in an institution is provided with a female android to be his companion. Her companionship helps him become more of a normal person but he loses it when finding out she's gonna leave him to help another man. When his doctor threatens to destroy her, he stops his tantrum and submits to the institution's custody once more.