Creepy 8

An early issue of Creepy, featuring Gray Morrow's first cover for Warren's horror magazines. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

Up first is "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man comes into possession of Dracula's coffin and sits in it, becoming Dracula himself. He invites people to his mansion then steals one of the women and runs away with her. The Van Helsings start looking for him and find a monster in a cave. This story would be concluded in the next issue.

Next is "Death Plane" by George Evans (art) and Larry Ivie (story). Evans was a terrific artist at EC but unfortunately did very few Warren stories, just this and a few for Blazing Combat. This story features a mysterious plane that is taking out both American and German planes during the war. One of the American officers is killed and realizes that the ghost of each person killed appears in the plane until they can kill someone else.

Another EC great is next, Johnny Craig, using the pseudonym 'Jay Taycee' in his Warren debut, "The Mountain". This story, like the previous one, is done in pencil only. A woman wandering in the winter wilderness comes across a cabin on a mountain and meets a man inside who asks her to bring the town mayor to him so he can take over his mind. She does so and the young man reveals his true self, the Devil, who is able to wreak havoc on the world now that she has brought him a body he can use to escape the cabin in which he has been trapped.

Fourth is "The Invitation" with art by Manny Stallman (in yet another Warren debut in this issue) and story by Russ Jones, Larry Englehart and Maurice Whitman. A Baron gets in a car accident and comes across a mansion where vampires live. He convinces them to let him live as long as he brings them victims. He does, but eventually they turn him into a vampire as well. Whitman would very lamely repeat this exact same story in issue 17 in the story "A Night Lodging".

"Adam Link's Mate", one of the many Adam Link stories by Warren appears next, with art by Joe Orlando and story by Otto Binder. In this story, a scientist convinces Adam to create a female robot, Eve, which he does. The scientist then manages to manipulate their minds using a helmet he puts on them and gets them to rob banks for him. Adam is freed of the helmet's influence when a friend stops by, but he is attacked by Eve and thrown over a cliff to his apparant demise.

"A Vested Interest" is next, by George Tuska (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Ron Parker (story). A man sees a werewolf and confides in a stranger at a bar about it. He goes with the stranger to find the werewolf and brings a camera with him, and the stranger ends up being the werewolf. He reveals a gun with silver bullets in the camera, but the werewolf, whose wearing a bullet proof vest gets the better of him.

Last is "Fitting Punishment" by Eugene Colan (art, in his Creepy debut) and Goodwin (story). It features a grave digger who gets caught by the police in the act. He hides in a mausoleum and steals a dead man's clothes to escape, but the clothes shrink while he's wearing them, killing him.

Creepy 20

Here's a very reprint heavy issue of Creepy from Warren's dark age. The cover is a reprint from Famous Monster #4 by Albert Nuetzell. It's one of Creepy's bizarrest covers, featuring a green one eyed creature with long arms. No frontis this issue.

First up is "Thumbs Down" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne Murphy (story), originally from Creepy #6. This story may be the most reprinted in Warren's history. Can't count how many times this story ended up being reprinted over the years. The story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to come back from the dead to take revenge.

"The Inheritors of Earth" by Hector Castellon (art & story) is second. The story feaures a chemical company employee creating a spray that kills cochroaches. He is suddenly transported to a world of giant insects where humanoids try to capture the formula. He escapes from the world only for them to get him back in the real world. Not that good of a story and hard to follow as well.

Another new story, "Beauty or the Beast!" by Sal Trapani (art) and Len Brown (story) is next. Four astronauts land upon an Earth like planet. Two are quickly killed. Another heads out and finds a beautiful woman, whom he tries to bring back with him. His colleague refuses, thinking she is probably responsible for the deaths, and brings her outside, only to get killed as well. Our protagonist finally tells her off only to have second thoughts. He heads back out to find her but now finds her killed, and finds what was really killing everyone, the male of the species, a hideous monster. The monster appears to be a swipe from the story "Counter-Clockwise" from the EC comic Weird Fantasy #18.

Another reprint from Creepy #6, "The Cask of Amontillado" is next, with art by Reed Crandall and story by Archie Goodwin. This is obviously an adaption of the classic Edgar Allen Poe story, featuring a man who encloses a colleague of his in a brick tomb. Goodwin adds a new ending to the story, where the protagonist, now an old man, returns to the scene of the crime and is killed when the chamber floods and the corpse of his colleague pulls him under water.

Another reprinted adaption is up next, "The Damned Thing!" from Creepy #4. It features art by Gray Morrow and story by Archie Goodwin. The story features a monster who is of a color that makes it appear invisible to the human eye. Upon being told of the monster, men are skeptical of it, only for the creature to appear and kill them. Very good story with a very scary looking ape-like monster, when it finally is able to be seen at the end.

Last is "A Vested Interest", originally published in Creepy #8. It has art by Geroge Tuska and story by Ron Parker. It featuers a man who sees a werewolf but finds no one believing him except a single man he meets at a bar. The man brings him to an alley at night and reveals himself to be the werewolf. Our hero thinks he's tricked him, shooting silver bullets from his camera, but the werewolf has outsmarted him, wearing a bullet-proof vest! Tuska's art is not too good here, but it is a fun story.