Eerie 109

This issue of Eerie features a Beastworld themed cover by Kirk Reinert.

First is "Blood on Black Satin", a new series by Paul Gulacy (art) and Doug Moench (story). An interesting new series that is one of the most praised of Eerie's latter day series. A man comes to the town of Middlesex where he finds a large celebration of the macabre taking place. Having received a letter from a woman named Heather McKinnon, he visits her and the wheelchair Uncle Jock, who tells him the history of the town, which is filled with Satan worshippers descended from the villanous Simon Whately and demons. They tell him a new Simon Whately is in town and asks him to investigate at the local library. He does so, but the document he finds there bursts aflame. He returns to the McKinnon home, finding Jock dead.

Second is "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Thomas saves Monica from the waterfall and decides that he's going to stop his manic quest to outdo Tyler. Tyler meanwhile defeats a giant praying mantis, and sets up a path for Thomas, but wants to kill him.

Third is "Race of the Damned", the second and final part to this short series. Art is by Joe Vaultz and story is by Norman Mundy and Cary Bates. We get an explanation of the race here, as it is explained that robots took over Earth, but give humans the chance to win it back through a race each year where nine humans face one robot. The robots are able to win the race however, keeping things the same.

Fourth is "Fugue State", the latest story in the Samurai series. Art is by Val Mayerik and story is by Larry Hama. In this story a man offers to help the Samurai and the princess, but instead he plans on attacking them. Samurai goes on a rampage, killing everyone.

Last is "The End of the Steel Gang", the latest Mac Tavish story by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Jim Stenstrum & Alex Southern (story, Stenstrum as "Alabaster Redzone"). Spider Andromeda plots to kill Gorgo and the entire Board of Directors of his corporation during his victory speech. Mac Tavish heads there as a spy but is caught. Spider kills the Board, but not Gorgo, and blames Mac Tavish for him not being completely successful.

Eerie 108

Jim Laurier provides a cover painting of a giant spider in this issue of Eerie.

First is "A Lion in Our Midst" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features an interstellar war between a race of lion-like humanoids and humans. A third group called Gadfly tries to broker peace between the two by taking on the disguise of the leaders of each army. They are able to successfully broker peace, although they are killed while leaving by the leader of the human forces.

Second is "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story continues the series theme of our heroes battling giant insects. Monica is saved from the flood by Thomas, but by the end of the story pretty much the exact same thing happens as she is caught in a waterfall. Little dialogue in this fast paced, poor story. I'm still waiting for something interesting to happen after four parts.

Third is "A Juggler's Tale", the latest Samurai story. Art is by Val Mayerik and story is by Larry Hama. The issue's best story, it features Samurai and the princess joining a carnival as blind performers. The head of the carnival had his daughter kidnapped by the Yagyu clan and plans to kill Samurai to get her back, but the princess helps him kill the man. They escape, with the one eyed head of the Yagyu Clan quickly on their tail.

Fourth is "Race of the Damned" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Norman Mundy & Cary Bates (story). This story features a race taking place in space. Like all of the stories of this type published by Warren, this is an extremely dull and boring story.

Last is "Growing Pains" by Mike Zech (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story features a baby that kills its parents. A rather simple story with not much of a point to it.

Eerie 102

Sanjulian provides an odd cover for this issue. Most of it is okay, but there is no background whatsoever, just white space. A different style for this issue only, featuring mostly stand alone stories.

First is the Rook in "Terror of the Spaceways" by Lee Elias (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story was Elias's Warren debut and its quite impressive, a large improvement over the art in prior Rook stories. Elias would for a while do the Rook's stories once the character got its own magazine. This story, which is continued in the next issue, was originally part of a large story that had been split in two after Jim Warren (thankfully) demanded that Dubay reduce the size of the Rook stories. In this story the Rook, upset over the government cutting funding for NASA heads into the future to find something to impress the government. A battle is occuring however, and at the end of the story he comes across a partially destroyed ship, looking for survivors. Ironically enough Joe Brancatelli's 'The Comic Books 'column discusses this very story (clearly before the decision to publish it had occured), with Bill Dubay talking about how he does not want to split the story in two parts for publication.

Second is "Siege", the latest "Horizon Seekers" story. Art is by Leo Duranona and story is by Duranona & Cary Bates. In this story Allison and Jesse are pursued by the giant throughout the castle. It eventually gets its hand stuck in a tower within the castle. Unfortunately for them, an even larger menace, a huge army of creatures seems to be coming from the horizon.

Third is "The Earthquake Stick" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story tells of a young boy in an orphanage who is abused by the head of the place as well as his fellow orphans. He has a secret friend however, an alien creature that he is able to summon with a small device he has. Eventually he finds that he can use his fellow orphans as food for the creature.

Fourth is "Ophiophobia" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a man who is deathly afraid of snakes. The story flashes back to his childhood and how his fear in snakes got started. Eventually he gets sent to war in Vietnam, where is he is captured by the enemy and thrown into a pit filled with snakes.

Fifth is "Tracks" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story takes place around a winter cabin where a man's wife dies and her corpse is eaten by some unknown menace. He goes outside trying to hunt it and eventually passes out in the snow.

Last is "Neatness Counts" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Jean Michel Martin (story). This short story with no dialogue features aliens coming to the moon, finding what the astronauts left there, and cleaning it all up, thinking it is trash.

Creepy 100

Creepy's 100th issue contains a whopping 8 stories. It starts with a cover by Bob Larkin.

First is "The Pit at the Center of the Earth" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A very poor story with some ugly as usual art from Pablo Marcos about a battle taking place on an oil ring. Yawn.

Second is "Professor Duffer and the Insuperable Myron Meek!" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Duffer of the title introduces Myron Meek to a top Hollywood agent and he makes it in Hollywood as a comedic actor, although he never speaks. It ends up that Meek is a robot. Meek has fallen in love with the robot from Metropolis, so they are able to find her for him, and he heads off for good with her. A nice comedic story with some good art from Severin.

Third is "Tale of a Fox" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about a Chinese princess, Ming Toi, who has the ability to transform herself into a fox. She is captured by her evil uncle Quang, who plans to replace her on the throne with his daughter Sun Li, who looks just like her. Ming Toi transforms into a fox however, and the guards mistake Sun Li for her, leading to her execution. This story would become a series in Vampirella a few years later.

Fourth is "Nobody's Home" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). As usual for Vaultz this story features alien creatures, this time creatures that live on the moon in an enforced enclosure. One alien tries to escape and succeeds, only to crumble to dust when he gets out.

Fifth is this issue's color story, "Winner Take All!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Len Wein (story). A soldier plays cards with an old man and beats him so much that all the man has to offer is his beautiful female slave. The soldier heads through the desert with the slave, who never says a word. Various monsters start appearing and attacking him. Eventually it is revealed that she is the one summoning them, and that she has magic powers. She transforms him into an old man who is soon gambling her away as well.

Sixth is "Hell Hound" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A man finds an injured hound near his house and nurses it back to health. Soon he finds his enemies, such as his ex-wife and a man who fought him in a bar dead. It ends up that the hound is killing any enemies from his past. He goes to see a psychologist who wrote him a bad check in the past, but it ends up that this man has his own 'Hell Hound' too.

Seventh is "Wisper of Dark Eyes" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A meteor crashes into the sea near a small fishing town. A woman watching it is given special powers which she uses to get her husband to kill the woman she's having an affair with. The special powers go away however when the meteor goes away, and the husband tears her eyes out. She jumps off a cliff to her death and he goes crazy.

Last is "They're Going to Be Turning Out the Lights" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of the panic that occurs when there is a massive blackout in a big city and the steps the government takes to keep things under control.

Creepy 107

This issue is an all sci-fi special issue of Creepy. The cover is by Romas Kukalis. All the stories in this issue are uncredited, although the creators would be revealed in later issues.

First is "The Rubicon" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The issue's best story, a legitimately scary one (a rarity for this part of Creepy's life), it features a group of astronauts sent to some ruins where a number of astronauts have dissappeared. There they make a major discovery regarding the origin of mankind.

Second is "Family Ties" by Val Mayerik (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Another very good story, with some really good art from Mayerik, it takes place in a world where animals are able to talk through mental powers. The story stars a dog, who is to be the representation for the animals when humans arrive. He travels around, meeting various animals and creatures, and finally meets the humans, who are astronauts. They are unable to understand his mental communication however, and plan to blow up the whole place due to the radiation that gave the animals these powers.

Third is "The World from Rough Stones" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Jean Michel Martin (story). A group of radioactive aliens arrive at Earth only to be destroyed due to the oxygen there. They leave behind ruins, what we know as Stonehedge. A very short story at only 4 pages long.

Fourth is "Stainless Steel Savior" by Leo Duranona (art) and Len Wein (story). A robot is dumped in the trash by the family that owns him when a newer model comes out. The robot initially stays with some homeless drunks but he has a vision of god and becomes a famous prophet who gets many followers. He is about to broker peace in the middle east when he is shot by one of his friends, who just wants to get drunk. The robot is dumped in the trash, his teachings are forgotten, and everything goes back to normal.

Fifth is "Quirks" by Walt Simonson & Terry Austin (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A group of astronauts come to a planet with a lot of dangerous creatures. They find one small monkey like creature who sleeps through everything, making them wonder how he is able to do this. They are surprised to hear that its not due to any special mental powers that he is able to ignore predators, but because he's inedible. This story would have a sequel in issue 112.

Last is "Mindquake" by Garcia Pizarro (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This issue's poorest effort, it is about a spaceship that has a man on it who has mental powers which cause harm to come to the ship. It is later revealed that the harm is actually from spies who have infiltrated the ship who are defeated. A dissappointing story from the usually dependable Stenstrum.

Creepy 99

This issue is an "Earth Shattering Disasters" special issue featuring stories about the apocalypse or disasters. Bob Larkin paints the cover, featuring people fleeing from a mushroom cloud explosion. The bottom right portion of the cover features a man who looks strikingly similar to Roger Moore, who was playing James Bond at the time.

First is "An Old Game" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art, his Warren debut) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about an old submarine captain who plots to kills his wife and her lover due to her having an affair. He acts towards his fellow soldiers as if there's a nuclear war on the surface and he fires off a torpedo that blows up the city his wife is in. At the same time however her lover is in the air in a plane that blows up the sub.

Second is "Ssshh!" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). Aliens come across Earth, now in ruins. Multiple aliens end up causing large explosions by doing harmless things such as stepping on a horn and firing a toy gun. About to take off one of them discovers that humanity polluted the Earth so much that any slight noise will cause an explosion. Them taking off ends up blowing up the entire earth.

Next is "Brothers" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about two robot children who live with the only normal human left on Earth. The ruins near them are overrun with mutants who try to kill them. While the old man tells the children that the mutants are the deformed remains of humanity, the mutants themselves reveal the truth, that they are aliens and that the old man was actually one of them who was transformed into a human in order to trick humans into destroying themselves. The mutants 'cure' him by destroying him and his robots.

Next is "A Slight Case of Overkill" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story surrounds the last two men on Earth as they try to escape. Due to the arms race a crazy scientist created a gas that de-evolved humans. It worked too good, turning everyone to turn into chimps. This story appears to have been originally intended for issue 95's all apes special.

Fifth is "There Shall Come a Great Darkness" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bob Toomey (story). In this story a great darkness is heading across the universe. On Earth people know they don't have much time left and decide to punish the astronomers who discovered this by hanging them. A friend of the astronaut allows his wife to kill herself then watches the darkness come with her corpse.

Last is "One Hell of a War" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a war between Earth and alien beings. A man on a ship with a robot witnesses the Earth destroyed, but in actuality it is all due to drugs that he is under that will keep him focused on the alien enemy.

Vampirella 82

A cover by Jose Gonzalez begins this issue of Vampirella.

Up first is "The Lost Soul of Adam Van Helsing" by Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Adam's soul is taken control of and Vampi has to head through some Buddhist tasks to save him including encounters with various creatures. Eventually she is successful in saving him.

Next is "Blind Justice" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story, which has both drawings and photographs within it (something common for Duranona around this time period) is about a man on trial for the murder of his new wife. They had headed to another planet for their honeymoon and got seperated after an argument. The husband left only to come back to find her impregnated by a bizarre tentacled creature. She ended up killing herself and blowing up the whole place. While the husband tries to hide this, he eventually reveals it, which proves his innocence.

Third is "Prey For the Wolf" by Brian Lewis (art) and Cary Bates (story). The story features a Wolf mask that actually comes to life and attacks people. Lewis, in his sole Warren appearance provides some fairly good art, but not that great a story.

Fourth is "Fever" by Val Mayerik (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a native american warrior with a sick wife about to give birth who heads out to find a magical buffalo that can save her. He eventually does find the buffalo, but too late to save his wife's life.

Next is "Deep Love" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). The story features a mother & daughter mermaid duo who capture human men underwater and eat them. The mother comes across a man who ends up being an alien creature that captures her and kills her.

Last is "The Night Willa Jane Gornley Went Home" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easley (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). In a rather poor issue this story sticks out like a sore thumb. In fact I'd probably rank it among Warren's 25 best stories, and it was honored as best story of the year during the Warren awards. Willa Jane of the title is a handicapped girl who was discovered in an empty shack. She lives a hard life, but is taken in by an elderly couple, Mr. & Mrs. Gornley. After learning how to read she becomes convinced that she is an alien and goes to the hills where UFOs have been spotted each night hoping for the aliens to come take her away. After Mrs. Gornley's death and learning that she's going to an institution, she heads out for one last time and a UFO actually does appear and land. A skull-faced alien comes out to take her away. In reality, its all in her mind, as she's passed away.

Creepy 110

After a cover by Patrick Woodroffe, a closeup of a monster's face, we have "Snapper" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bill Kelly (story), about a group of plunderers who come across a giant turle that they destroy, only for its mate to survive and attack.

"Sunset Farms" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story) features a mobster and a well appreciated underling being sent to what is essentially a futuristic prison where everyone is heavily drugged. The mobster eventually finds a way for him and his underling to escape.

"Take Your Child, Please!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Cary Bates (story) is next. The story features an orphan boy with an onion like head who is very violent with his foster family. Eventually he ends up trashing their house and even killing them. At the end his real parents, with similar features to him, start looking for him.

"The Demon Hater" follows, by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), which features a man who finds a demon's corpse. Other demons try to take it from him. With the help of a woman whom he has an important connection with, he's able to defeat them.

A very good story, "Horror is a Highrise" is next, by Leo Duranona (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a haunted skyscraper where lots of ghosts and horrific events occur. Eventually it is revealed that it was a warning for everyone to get out, as the skyscraper, built with crappy material, collapses and falls down.

"A Knightmare to Remember" by Buz Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story) features a monster fighting a princess, who turns into a knight. It ends up being a dream, but a knight lurks around the corner... Not too good a story.

Last is "The Clockmaker" by Jesus Blasco (art, miscredit to Joaquin Blazquez) and Bob Toomey (credited to Gary Null). This is essentially Poe's the Telltale Heart, rewritten to talk about the old man having clock body parts, which are never seen. Not that good a rewrite, it would be best just to keep the original story here.

1984 1

Here's the first issue of 1984, Warren's long awaited science fiction magazine which premiered in 1978. Sporting no ads at all, the early issues of this title have as many story pages in them as anything Warren ever published. Unfortunately the content itself was based primarily on editor Bill Dubay's sex fantasies and would feature (in my opinion) the single worst and most offensive story in the history of Warren publishing, which we'll get to eventually. Just not in this issue. As 1984 contained many continuing series, like Eerie, my goal is to complete it in numerical order.
The cover's by Richard Corben, a pretty good one featuring an alien encounter in space. Very good art throughout this issue, but the stories are usually all over the map in terms of quality.

Up first is "Last of the Really Great, All-American Joy Juice" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay. The story takes place in the future, where the communists bombed America with a sterilization bomb that not only sterilized all men, but caused their penises to fall off. The heroes of our tale are on a spaceship with all the sperm that remains. They come across a group of very ugly women who try to have sex with them and end up destroying all the sperm. Good art, but with a story like this, 1984 certainly gets off on the wrong foot.

Luckily the next tale makes up for things somewhat, "The Saga of the Honeydew Melons" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) features a group of miners who get angered at a trader who provides the women at a strip club, as they're usually almost all holograms (since real women are often too scared to come). The trader, Maxwell, manages to escape and finds a professor with a powerful android, expected to replace many real men. He convinces the professor to transform the android into the sexiest stripper imaginable, Honey Dew, who does things too perfect when she finally goes out on stage, stripping off even her artificial skin after all her clothes are off! Naturally the miners are more upset than ever, and Maxwell & company are never heard from again. Absolutely amazing art from Maroto here, probably the sexiest artwork out of any of Warren's stories, at least in my opinion.

Third is "Once Upon Clarissa" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about a woman in a horrible accident who is reconstructed at the hospital in a number of various tubes and robot parts. She falls in love with a man via the mail but fears that the man will be disgusted at her when he finds the truth, so she decides to reveal it to him. He remains in love with her and comes to meet her. Not a bad story, but a weak ending and the fact that over half the story is written in a manner thats very hard to read certainly damages things.

Fourth is "Quick Cut" by Wally Wood (story & art), about a race of short people (called Halves) the evil larger people (called Half Nots). The Half Nots brutalize the Halves when they refuse to pay taxes or give them their women (which are actually eaten by the Half Nots). Two of the last surviving Halves go after the evil tax collector Half Not who caused the death of many. As discussed in Richard Arndt's wonderful Warren bibliography, this story was originally combined with another Wally Wood story in the second story, and was greatly altered by Bill Dubay to focus more on sex, so Wally Wood quit Warren altogether. Since I don't have the original (which was eventually published by Wood elsewhere), can't say how good the actual story was, but I'm sure its better than this drivel.

A one page segment is next, "The Saga of Xatz and Xotz" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story) about aliens who come across a destroyed Earth and think the contents of a comic book is what actually happened to Earth.

"Bugs" is next, by Joe Vaultz (art) and Bill Dubay (story), a short tale about a spaceship which comes across three bug looking spaceships, which actually end up eating it!

Our color story for this issue is "Mutant World", by Richard Corben (art & story). This was the first of an eight part series by Corben, and eventually Jan Strnad. Good art on the series throughout, but I never thought the story was all that great. It surround Dimento, a rather dimwitted mutant and his adventures. In this story he meets a beautiful woman while trying to eat her horse, who eventually saves him from other mutants who try to eat him.

"Faster Than Light Interstallar Travel" is next, by Luis Bermejo (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story), about an old man who discovers a way to pilot ships at an immense speed and brings a group of people on a tour of space, with some mishaps along the way.

Next is "Angel" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story is about a woman named Angel and some men who are looking for her. Very boring story which was supposed to be part of a series, but luckily ended with this segment.

Last is "Momma, Can You Hear Me?" by Alex Nino (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A man tells a prostitute his life story about how he's searching for his mother. He tells the story of how he was sold off when he was a kid and forced to slave away in mines. As the years pass he gets into various experiences which cause him to lose about half his body, which get replaced with mechanical parts. The prostitute reveals the location of his real mother, which ends up just being an artificial insemination machine.

Creepy 102

This issue of Creepy is a monsters special. The cover, by Patrick Woodruff, features a bizarre multi-armed worm sporting machine guns. Quite the odd looking cover.

First story is "Pantomine at Sea" by Buz Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). A stuntman wearing a seamonster costume is pursued underwater by multiple hunters who appear to think that he's a real monster. He's captured and put in a tank, so he removes his mask to prove that he's a person. Only they don't let him out, and remove their own masks, revealing that they are aliens! They depart in a spaceship, taking him back to their own planet.

The issue's best story is "Almost Shangri-la" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story is about two climbers in the himalayas that get lost in the snowy wilderness and come across a paradise. One of the men freaks out and runs off terrified, and turns into a monster.

"The Thing in the Haunted Forest is third, with art and story by Abel Laxamana. The story features a man who kills an old man with an axe and takes all his money. He tries to bury the money in the forest and mark the location by chopping down a tree. Upon chopping at the tree, a spirit comes out and says that she has been cursed to live forever in the tree and that he'll be cursed with eternal life if he chops it down. He goes ahead and does that, releasing her, but the tree falls on him, trapping him under it forever.

"Killer Claw" by Walt Simonson & Klaus Jansen (art) and Mark Lasky (story) features a giant lobster that kills a few people and is attacked, only to release thousands of babies upon its death.

"Night Eyes" with art by Alfredo Alcala and story by Bruce Jones features a man who goes to Africa to head the creation of a railroad in order to earn the respect of his prospective father in law. His team is terrorized by a creature that they are unable to catch. At the end of the story our protagonist is able to escape alive after being concealed in a giant crate. Didn't get the ending of this one.

Last is "Fair Prey" by Isidro Mones (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A derelict ship is spotted, featuring the corpses of multiple people, and a single living person, a woman who tells the story about how their research project on an island was interrupted by giant mosquitoes. At the end of the story, they return.