Nightmare #15

Happy black Friday, everyone! We've got another Ken Kelly cover for this issue of Nightmare, cover dated October 1973.

The frontispiece for this issue is "How They Killed the Chicago Vampiress" by Ed Fedory (story) and Emilio Bernardo (art). It features a dead young woman having her body burned due to feat of her being a vampire. In what may have been a production error, an image from the story "15 Dead Things" which was originally intended for Psycho #15 appears on the table of contents page, rather than an actual story from this issue. That story will finally appear soon in Psycho #15.

First story is "Dracula Did Not Die!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). The first few pages of this story act as a historical account for the real life Dracula, Vlad the impaler. It was thought he was dead, but when his coffin is dug up only a horse's skeleton is found inside. Vlad/Dracula laughs at being able to fake his own death, but does regret that he'll have to hide himself and not be able to take advantage of his wealth, influence and power. Dracula explains how he was able to fake his death and killed any witnesses. He heads towards his castle, finding it on fire and swears those doing so will pay. The story suddenly stops here, implying that his will be the start of a multi-part series. Some pretty good art from Borrell here, although this is much more of just an introduction than a full story.

"Dracula Did Not Die!"

Next is "The Gargoyle Who Went to War", a two page feature from Al Hewetson (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). This brief story takes place in Paris France where some people gather to look at the gargoyle statue on the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Natzis arrive and take over the city, lining up people to be shot. Then suddenly, the gargoyle comes to life and kills the soldiers. This story is unrelated to the long running Gargoyles series.

Third is another two pager, "The Truth Behind the Myths About Bats... Particularly Vampire Bats" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). Rather than being a typical story, this is rather a two page feature providing factual information about different types of bats.

Following this is "The Kid and the Killer and the Bum Rap" by Al Hewetson (story) and Francisco Cueto (art). A man named Miller is brought to jail, claiming he's been framed. He is put in a cell with a man named Eddie, who claims that he was beat up by him when he was a kid. Miller admits to being a killer, but claims he didn't commit the murder they claimed he did. Eddie and Miller start talking about things that Miller did when he was younger, including some murder he actually committed. Eddie tells Miller that he is in here for killing his wife, and his brother, his father, his landlord, a gay neighbor, many cops, doctors, etc... and says now he's going to kill Miller. We hear the guards laughing as the story ends. A rather abrupt ending to this, and we gotta presume Miller died, although why the guards would be in on it I'm not sure. Cueto's art is at least a little better than usual here.

"THe Kid and the Killer Bum Rap"

Fifth is "Tapestry of Blood" by Ed Fedory (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). A man finds himself shipwrecked on an island in the south Pacific. To his horror, he soon sees a fellow man killed by a giant snail! He beats the snail to its death but it is too late to save the man. Suddenly another man wearing an overcoat, hat and sunglasses appears. Calling himself a doctor, he leads our protagonist into the woods and to his camp. There he tells our protagonist of how his wife lies in the waters beyond the reef and he can never leave. Our protagonist later follows him, and the doctor explains how he died and was resurrected, and how our protagonist killed "Grayson" who is revealed to be the snail he attacked earlier. The doctor removes his sunglasses, revealing himself to be a snail like creature and bites into our protagonist! Quite a fun ending to this story, which I enjoyed.

Snail man!

Sixth is another in the Shoggoths series with "The Grotesque Green Earth" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Hewetson and Zesar are actually characters in this story! They receive a letter from a Howard Hay in Arkham, Massachusetts. Upon arriving he tells them of manuscripts he's found from a woman from approximately a century ago who lived by the river. We then flashback to see the woman as she writes. At her husband's grave she finds a hole that leads her down into a lengthy pit. This eventually leads to a large cavern where she finds an underground city. Inside she finds a library filled with zombies,, writing of man's doom. Suddenly some Shoggoths arrive. They chase her back up to the surface and even after she makes her way there they make it through. Hay, Hewetson and Lopez head to where the papers were found and it leads to an underground tunnel where they find her skeleton, where she's written that they will come to the Earth, in 1973! This story's style is much like the previous Shoggoths story in Scream #1 and reads as if it was a Lovecraft story itself. Zesar's art is strong as well, making this a pretty high quality story.

The Shoggoths return!

Next is "Ravings of the Damned" by Ed Fedory (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). A pair of archaeologists in a temple find a desecrated corpse of one of their men in front of a large statue. One of the men thinks a monstrous snake did it, while the other thinks it is Quontotaz, an Indian legend. Later that night, one of the men hears the other screaming. It is the statue, come to life and crushing him in its arms. Months later another expedition arrives. The remaining man is now worshiping Quontotaz, and is in a beast like form. Just there, the stories stops rather abruptly. A quick ending to an average at best story.

We wrap up with another story in the Gargoyles series, "Once Upon a Time in Alabama: A Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). Edward and Mina, with their child Andrew hitchhike their way to Birmingham, Alabama. Edward is able to get a job on a construction work site and saves a man falling from above. Just then, another, evil gargoyle arrives. He demands Edward fight him, or his wife and child will be killed by being shot by a madman at a riot (how a gargoyle can be killed by mere bullets eludes me...). Edward has had enough, decides to fight the enemy gargoyle and kills him. He then finds Mina and Andrew, safe and sound at a rally. This is standard fare for the Gargoyles series, pretty good art, but a rather uninteresting story. Gargoyles face some discrimination. Edward fights some sort of monster. Rince and repeat.

Nightmare #14

Xavier Villanova, usually an interior artist for Skywald, provides the cover for this issue, cover dated August 1973. This is a hilarious cover, my favorite out of all of Skywald thus far and is its own mini story!

This issue's frontispiece is "The Easter Island Things!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (artist). It features the statues of Easter Island, going on a rampage!

First story is "The Diary of an Absolute Lunatic" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). In the 1920s a madman is brought to a lunatic asylum. The doctor of the asylum starts reading some papers that was along with the man. In them, the madman, whose name is Munro, tells of how he is a time traveler. In the year 1999 the Presidents of Earth gathered to celebrate. One such President however, named Tuckle starts making demands for money and special privileges; if not provided he will blow up the Earth. People ignore his mad ravings and start proceeding to impeach him. Meanwhile Munro starts traveling through time and by doing so sees the Earth explode! He goes back in time, seeing the birth of nature, of humanity, but eventually his craft crashes, leaving him stranded in this time. The doctor decides to burn all the paperwork, considering it the ravings of a madman. When his assistant talks to the doctor about how its funny that the crazy President Tuckle shares the same name as him, he strangles her and blames Munro, as the story ends. A fairly strong effort, my favorite story of the issue. Dela Rosa also provides some pretty strong artwork as we get to the later part of the story and Munro starts traveling through time.

Time traveling in "Diary of an Absolute Madman"

Second is "The Plastic Plague" by Jack Katz (story and art). It had been quite a while since we've seen a Jack Katz story for Skywald, making me wonder if this was an inventory story. A group of prehistoric-like people discover a message, from the past, when Earth's civilization was more advanced. It is from a man named Neal Dennis who created advanced plastic. It becomes extremely popular to use and a massive industry grows. There even become plastic people! But plastic people don't consume, the economy is expected to collapse and Neil is asked to create something that will destroy the plastic. He creates an organism that consumes the plastic. Naturally it escapes, and the organisms quickly grows into large slug-like beings. Society collapses and we see him putting together his message, bringing us back to the people we saw at the start of the story.

Third is "Death of the 80th Victim!" by Doug Moench (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). A serial killer is stalking and killing East Indian women, and chopping off their hand. It is investigated by Inspector James Reston and his assistant Rahib. After Rahib's wife is killed he and Reston head out at night where Reston reveals that he is the killer. As a boy when his father was stationed in India, he was kidnapped and tortured, with his hand being cut off. Despising Indians, he purposely made sure to kill them and cut off a hand. After killing Rahib, Reston returns home, revealing a chest full of hands and writes a suicide note, chopping off his other hand and dying.

Fourth is the one page "...Werewolf..." by Ed Fedory (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). This brief feature is about the werewolf of Le Geaudan, which terrorized France.

Fifth is "...And the Corrupt Shall Dine!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). This is an incredibly confusing mess of a story and it is quite difficult to identify what is going on. Two men dine, one being the guest of the other. Flashbacks show that the host was a vampire, yet the guest either purposely led away a mob someplace else, or to another vampire who looks the exact same and gets killed, with the host leading the attack. The guest, enjoying the meal, ask for the recipe of what they are eating. The host reveals it was blood sucking leeches, then reveals he is a vampire and kills his guest.

"Starchild"

Sixth is "Charles Laughton: Scream Screen Scenes" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). This two page feature is the second part of the Scream Scene series that we just saw premiere in Psycho. It is about Charles Laughton, the silent movie director/actor. We see scenes from movies such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Island of Lost Souls and Les Miserable. Similar to last time the brief scenes included aren't word for word adaptions to avoid copyright issues.

Seventh is "Starchild" by Bruce Jones (story and art). This is an inventory story held onto for a couple of years when Skywald's planned sci-fi magazine never happened. The robot Cyx travels through space with the titular Starchild, a girl who has grown up floating through space and is now 17 years old. Her parents were on board the ship Dori Ann, which was destroyed in a cosmic storm, but Cyx found her, still alive in her mother's womb and has kept her alive all this time. Finding a planet capable of life, she and Cyx go down there where she encounters various forms of wildlife, including a dinosaur! A spaceship eventually arrives and a man comes out. Starchild goes to be with him, leaving Cyx behind and the ship takes off. Jones' art is fairly good here, although a little lower quality than some of the other stories he had provided for Skywald. It was surprising to see a story with a happy ending! Not used to that for Skywald, or Jones personally for that matter.

Eighth is "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Although it isn't under the Scream Scene title, this story appears to be another in the series, being only two pages in length and featuring a short scene from said movie.

"The Butchered at Earth's Core"

Ninth is "The Butchered at Earth's Core!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). While "Death of the 80th Victim!" was about Indians in London, this story literally takes place in India. A man comes across a leper who says he will tell him a story. The man follows the leper to his home where he provides him some water. Upon drinking, the man's head starts spinning. The leper takes off its cloak, revealing it to be wearing some weird uniform. The leper carries him down into a tunnel, revealing a spaceship as he appears to be an alien! On board are many other aliens that look like lepers. Our protagonist wakes up, being surprised to find that he is going to be used as part of a factory with many human victims! A pretty good effort from both Suso and Fedory here.

We wrap up with the latest story in the Gargoyles series, "And they Did Battle with the Thing from Underneath" from Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). Edward gets a job with a Mr. Roanoke who works on a tug boat, the Andy Jackson. He and Mina go through some difficulty and discrimination as they try to find an apartment for themselves. For the fourth time, some Satanists get involved, beating up Roanoke due to his employ of Edward. Suddenly a tentacled monster attacks Edward, who battles and kills it. His fight ends up being front page news in a newspaper! Edward decides that he and his family must leave Manhattan, at least for now and as the story ends they start hitchhiking. While Cintron's art is pretty decent, I'll admit to getting bored with the Gargoyles series at this point. The Gargoyles face discrimination for being gargoyles. Edward battles some monster summoned by or used by the Satanists. Over and over again. Yawn.

Nightmare #13

Today I am covering Nightmare issue 13, cover dated June 1973. The cover is by Vicente Segrelles, and was also used as the cover for Richard Arndt's Horror Comics in Black and White book.

We first have the one page frontispiece "The Corpse Feast!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). It features a military sergeant who goes into the graveyard to feast on a corpse.

First story is "At Mind's Edge" by Ed Fedory (story) and Jesus Duran (art). A man returns to his apartment to find a hooded figure there. The hooded figure says he is a messenger of peace and upon massaging his forehead our protagonist descends into a dream like world, including one where he is thrown off a cliff, and into a weird portal. The hooded figure reveals himself to actually be the Lord of Insanity and our protagonist is eventually found dead in a sewer drainage pipe. Duran's art looks a bit like Adolfo Abellan's here (and I recall Abellan having a Warren story with a similar looking hooded man). The actual plot is a massively confusing mess.

Next is "Curse of the Werewolf", a one page feature from Ed Fedory (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Three panels tell about three different werewolf attacks.

Jesus Duran's art here reminds me of Adolfo Abellan

Second story is "...Die Little Spider!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). A housewife kills some spiders with a knife, and when her husband comes home he reveals he's going to kill her! He bounds and gags her, and puts her in a giant translucent jar, then dumps a number of spiders on her. The spiders consumer her body and he eventually moves the jar to the basement. After fully consuming her, the spiders go hungry and make themselves out of the jar, killing the husband too.After consuming his body they bring his remaining bones to be put in the same jar as his wife.

Next is "The Mad Nightmare World of H.P. Lovecraft", a two page feature from Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). Actually just one giant panel, this shows Lovecraft sleeping and lots of bizarre visions from his dreams.

Third full length story is "...Only the Wretched Die Young..." by Al Hewetson (story, uncredited) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Many centuries ago, Charles seeks to take his brother Doug's wife Brenda and kill him and his son, Jamie. When Doug and Jamie go to an island to fish and hunt, a monster attacks and kills Doug, and then enters into Jamie. Jamie eventually returns to get revenge, but oddly enough the story has moved into the present time. Charles tries to throw him off a skyscraper, but the monster's tentacles save him, then presumably kill Charles and Brenda. Villamonte's art is at times good, at times bad, while again the script is considerably confusing.

"Only the Wretched Die Young"

Next up is "The Corpse" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Howie Anderson) and Francisco Cueto (art). Siegfried is a young man in East Germany and after his lover Anna dies, he works in a graveyard and saves money, seeking to escape, by using cheap material for graves and also killing people to bring in more business. He is eventually found out for his theft of castle material, tries to escape from prison but is killed, then his corpse rises from the dead. He returns to the graveyard where Anna is buried, and the corpses of those he killed also rise. They can't kill him as he's already dead, so they get the corpse of Victor Frankenstein, causing him to become a living corpse! Cueto's art is rather mediocre, but I do like how ridiculous the story gets towards the end.

Following that is "Frankenstein 1973" by Al Hewetson (story, credited as Earle Leroy) and Xavier Villanova (art). This story is a continuation of the long since paused Frankenstein Book II series. Where we last left things off, Frankenstein's Monster and the young woman Lilith got transported far away after an experiment gone bad. They find themselves in the year 1973 and meet a group of rotting corpses that were Nazis when they were alive. The Nazi corpses plan to conquer the world and desire Frankenstein to joint them, but he refuses and destroys all but the leader of them. The leader then gets in a plane and fires at them, killing Lilith before crashing. Frankenstein's head starts spinning and he finds himself transported yet again as the story ends. After this brief return, this series goes on yet another hiatus.

Pretty good splash page for the Gargoyles story

Our issue concludes with the latest story in the Gargoyles series, "Only the Strong Shall Survive" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). The gargoyles, Edward and Mina, with their child Andrew make their way to America as illegal immigrants and get off in Manhattan. At first they steal food to survive, but come across a dwarf who brings them to a place he called The Village where they can stay. Yet when they arrive they find it is the Satanists cult once again, who seize them and Edward fights and kills a giant monster. They are taken and brought before a judge, but rather than deport them, he permits them to stay as long as they prove to be a contribution to society. This series is already starting to get old to me as the Satanists cult shows up as the villains for the third straight story. Hopefully we go in another direction next time.

Nightmare #12

Today I cover Nightmare 12, cover dated April 1973 and featuring a cover by Vicente Segrelles.

First is "Nightmare in the House of Poe" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). Rodney Serle is staying in New Orleans yet finds the partying there out of control. He goes to stay at a local rooming house only to find some small humanoid monsters grabbing him out of his bed and forcing him down some creepy stairways then into another party. Rodney awakens, revealing it to be a dream, but strange things continue to happen to him over and over again as he continues to experience bizarre dreams that come to life. This lengthy story at 15 pages is quite surrealistic and features some strong art by Sostres. It reminds me a lot of the type of stories we'd see from Jose Bea at Warren, such as the "Picture of Death" which also featured a man in a rooming house/inn who gets seized by strange monsters.

Next is "Premature Burial" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). With the last story being named after Edgar Allen Poe, this story is an actual Poe adaption, the first we have seen in Skywald (but not the last by a long shot as it will get quite common eventually). The first few pages of the story tell us of various situations where people were mistakenly buried alive or thought dead but really weren't. Our protagonist is afraid of this happening to him and arranges several ways for him to escape his coffin such as a bell and a way out of the coffin should he be declared dead. Yet when he strikes his head while on a boat, he awakens horrified to find himself in a coffin on said boat, and not his specially made one. After calling out people realize he's alive, although the final panel reveals that he was never in a coffin after all, just a tight bunk bed. A fairly good story here (this is a Poe story I'm not too familiar with so I don't know how faithful it is) and some excellent art from Xirinius.

Things get weird in "Nightmare in the House of Poe"

Third is "Kiss of the Vampires" by Chic Stone (story & art). Chic Stone hadn't done a story for Skywald in a while, having been pushed out by the Selecciones Illustrada artists and I suspect this was an inventory story held onto for a while before publication. Our story begins with Marisa, Priestess of the Undead chopping off the head of a man so she and her followers can drink his blood. The narrative then switches to Philip and Thatcher, a pair of men that have come to the town. Thatcher actually specializes in killing vampires and was called to the town to help with the recent incidents. Meanwhile Philip meets Marissa, not realizing she is a vampire and becomes her latest victim. Thatcher, after slaying a vampire himself is able to find the tomb where Marisa's followers sleep, slaying each of them with a stake. Marisa then arrives and she tries to possess him with her beauty, then stabs him with his own stake. She walks into a bear trap however and when the sun rises it kills her. Story-wise nothing too outstanding here but it was good to see Stone doing another story.

Next is "I am Dead: I Am Buried!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Prisoner Ed Warton travels through the swamps in Arkansas but is captured, then is whipped and thrown in a pit as an example to the other prisoners. To the guard's surprise, he dies. Warton's corpse rises from the pit, slays several guards then escapes into the swamp. From here on the story takes a pretty big left turn as we see the point of view of the writer of the story, trying to figure out how to conclude things. Suddenly Warton's corpse appears for real, demanding him to figure out a way to get him out of the swamps. He then requests a nearby kid to tell him how to end the story. From there the narrative returns to a few days earlier, where Warton is revealed to be dead for good and never rises as a corpse. Although oddly enough the body of a man and kid are now in the pit with him. I quite liked the left turn this story took, which made what would have been otherwise a typical corpse rising from the dead story into something more interesting.

Skywald's first Poe adaption, "Premature Burial"

Fifth is "The Night of the Corpse-Bride" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Frank Tanner is surprised to find that his uncle Phineas has left him five million dollars in his will when he passed away.The will includes a strange requirement though, Frank must get married in three days to get the money! Frank didn't even know his uncle that well, who had been married himself but his wife died on his wedding night. Frank meets a young woman named Barbara and asks her to marry him and she surprisingly accepts! When she discovers the true reason though, she flees from him, even though Frank has fallen in love with her for real. Barbara runs from him in a stormy night, getting struck by a car, but continues going until she reaches a graveyard. There Frank realizes she is just a corpse and was actually the long dead wife of his uncle Phineas! This story had a pretty good twist to wrap things up. Still bewilders me why his dead uncle would care about him getting married that quick though.

Sixth is "The Assassin-Bug" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). We see a giant bug attacking a woman on the splash panel, then go back in time to a soldier in Asia. In exchange for saving a girl, her father gives the soldier an assassin bug, a small bug in a tiny cage that he says has special powers. Our protagonist returns to America where he becomes a hired assassin, and in a difficult jam on how to kill a prisoner, uses the bug on him. He continues to use the bug to kill people, yet finds that the bug is growing while he is shrinking with each successive murder. Eventually the bug turns on him. As the story ends however we see this is all his imagination, he never actually saved the girl and has been laying in a cell having lost his mind. The final panel also reveals that before going to war he was a bug exterminator.

"I Am Dead I Am Buried" completely breaks the fourth wall

The issue concludes with "Monster Monster on the Wall!" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). This story is Funnel's Skywald debut; he would go on to become an oft recurring writer for them. A mere four pages, this story features a kid who is bullied and beat up as a kid for being ugly. Now an adult, he returns to his hometown where some of the bullies find him. Yet it being the full moon, he transforms into a werewolf and kills them! Although originally intended as a stand alone, this story would become a recurring series and we'll see more in the series soon.

Psycho #11

Today I cover Psycho 11, with a cover by Fernando Fernandez, for the interior story "The Thing in Horror-Swamp!". This issue is cover dated March 1973.

First is "...And It Whispered... And It Wept... And it Did Shudder... And it Did Die..." by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe De la Rosa (art). In Greenwich Village a scientist has created life, a large bizarre tentacled monster and in order to feed it has his hunchbacked assistant kill people to feed to it. The monster thinks the doctor is his daddy and happily eats it. The assistant grows angry at the doctor for not changing him to a more attractive form, so he kills him with an ax to the face! But when he brings the doctor's body to the creature, it grows angry and strangles the assistant. It then starts crying over the death of its father and the narrator tells of how it will soon die without food. A fairly decent way to start the issue and a good example of how over the top Skywald story titles can get!

Second is the two pager "...Make Mephisto's Child Burn..." by Ed Fedory (story) and Felipe De la Rosa (art). This is the most horrifying Skywald story yet! In Jersey England, a pregnant woman is burned at the stake, being called bride of the damned by the angry mob. While burning alive she gives birth, being able to push the baby out of herself to safety, just beyond the edge of the flames. One of the women in the crowd promptly grabs the baby and throws it into the flames to die along with its mother.

The horrifying "Make Mephisto's Child Burn"

Third is the latest in The Heap series, "A Ship of Fiends" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). Where we last left Jim Roberts, he was on a n island with no way to make it home. However a pirate ship soon arrives with a number of pirates burying their treasure. They capture Jim and tie him up on the mast of the ship. Jim hopes to turn into The Heap so he can escape, but when night comes, he doesn't transform! Suddenly a giant squid (guessed by Jim to be the one from the story in Psycho #7) appears and destroys the ship. The Heap is tossed ashore in the Everglades where he comes across Darkkos Mansion (which is explained to be the mansion from the story "The Beast Within" from Nightmare #9). There werewolf from that story is still around and does battle with The Heap, with them falling into quicksand and only The Heap making it out. Marcos' art looks considerably weaker in this story, as if he was rushing it.

Fourth is "...Rast Their Evil Bones..." a one pager from Ed Fedory (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). Fedory brings us a second burned at the stake story in the same issue! It features the burning of witches in Sweden and that those killed included children. Considering what we just got earlier in the issue this seems completely pointless to me. Thankfully it is only one page, and Borrell's art is pretty good.

Fifth is another one pager, "Her Majesty - The Corpse" by Ed Fedory (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). It tells of the queen Inez De Castro who was the target of assassins. Her husband Dom Pedro brings her corpse onto the throne where her subjects are still forced to kneel before her and kiss her feet.

Suso's debut in "Don't Die Up There, Stanley"

Sixth is "Hit and Run: Miss and Die" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). A night watchman is knocked out when some mobsters come to steal some drugs from the pharmaceutical company he works for. When they meet up with their boss, he angrily tells them to take out the watchman as he could identify them. They capture him and bring him before their boss, now angry that they have brought the watchman to him , as well as the fact that the drugs stolen were useless. The mobsters create cement shoes and also dump in the drugs into it. Our protagonist is tossed into the water where he drowns and his body starts to decompose. However the drugs are able to somehow revive him. He bites off his feet at the ankles, then pursues the three mobster, tying them up and causing them to drown from their own bootlegged liquor. A typical rising corpse type story, but the incompetence of the mobsters was pretty funny.

Seventh is "Don't Die Up There, Stanley" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). This is Suso's Skywald debut. While he doesn't do the most outstanding job on this story, Suso is quite a strong artist. After having done a couple of stories for Warren he comes to Skywald where he becomes a pretty prolific artist and one of their best. This story features a comedian, Stanley, who comes to a club in Staten Island to perform. He soon discovers from his manager that he is going to be performing in front of freaks, which causes him to panic because that is exactly what his act is about! He tries to get out of it, but is unable to. Rather than hold back, he goes full force and the freaks love it, asking him to joke more and more. Stanley then wakes up and thinking it was all a dream goes on a rampage. In the final panel however we find that his performance was real. He is now in a loony bin, while the freaks look on at him sadly, as he was the one person to treat him like everyone else. Apparently Stanley was based on a real person that Hewetson knew.

Eight is "The Thing in Horror-Swamp!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). This story is described as the origin story for Darkkos Mansion, which was previously utilized in The Heap story from this issue and "The Beast Within" from Nightmare #9. Edwin Gunn comes to the swamps of New Orleans to visit his friend Eldridge Harlowe. Along the way some locals try to stop him, saying he is going towards the house of voodoo. When he arrives at the mansion, Edwin meets up with Eldridge, as well as his wheel chair bound father Register and beautiful sister Mayline. Edwin starts talking about the voodoo and finds out from Eldridge that his father is the local voodoo priest! From here on things take a crazy turn. Mayline runs for some unknown reason and falls into the quicksand to her death. Angry about it, Register is able to cause Edwin to fall in as well. But the voodoo practitioners revive Edwin as a rotting corpse and he attacks the mansion, first strangling Eldridge then attacks Register who is able to drive Edwin back into the quicksand, but the remaining locals are able to throw Eldridge into the quicksand as well, killing him and ending the local voodoo practice. Marcos' art is a lot better here and this story is quite good once it hits the bloodbath of the second half.

Edwin's corpse rises from the swamp in "The Thing in 

Horror Swamp"

Ninth is "A Bag of Fleas" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Gual (art). This is Jose Gual's Skywald debut. He was a pretty good artist who did a fair amount of work for Warren as well, including one issue that was exclusively stories from him. Reggie Whyte is an old custodian who watches as the apartment building he has lived in nearly 30 years is destroyed by a wrecking ball. In flashbacks we see his brief marriage including the conflict with his wife that led to her leaving, and the landlord coming in to tell Reggie that the building is being destroyed to make room for a parking lot. To try and stop this, Reggie kills his landlord with an ax and also arranges it so the wrecking ball falls off and kills several people. Reggie is found in the wreckage near the body of his wife, and we find this is the real reason why he din't want the building destroyed, as he killed her and walled up her body in the wall. But on the final page as he is brought into a police car we find out hat there were several other skeletons in the building. He was not the only murderer! A fairly decent story and debut here for Gual.

Psycho #10

Pablo Marcos and Fernando Fernandez provide the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated January 1973. A rather odd approach, with one cover (Fernandez's) within another cover (Marcos's). Warren would do something similar with the cover for Vampirella #9 (although the outer cover was just pen and ink rather than a painting).

Pablo Marcos provides artwork on the two page table of contents.

First story is "The Suicide Werewolf" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A bearded man in a room is repeatedly told to confess, but refuses. He falls into a pit where a snake attacks him, then is put on a stretch rack, repeatedly told to confess to being a werewolf. He is able to get off the stretch rack only to find a mannequin/skeleton was the one holding him. He escapes to the streets of New York and upon questioning a girl realizes she is not real either. Nonetheless, he is quickly chased by the authorities to the subway where he runs into a subway car and is killed. As the story ends we find out that he was a experimental robot. A mate was created for him, but when she was dismantled he run amok! Only a so-so kick off to the issue for me, with a rather confusing plot although it did at least have an interesting resolution at the end.

Second is "The Legend of the Man-Macabre" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). In New York's Old Greenwich Village, a man named Morris Manning is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe and has created a torture chamber in his basement based on the pendulum from Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum". He stalks the streets trying to find someone to put in it, but is unsuccessful. He later heads to a party where he meets a woman named Melinda who he convinces to come with him to see a "monument" he has built. Upon bringing her to his home Melinda realizes what he's about to do to her and fakes passing out. She then is able to knock him out and put him in the pendulum. She decides to let him out just in time, revealing she has the same types of interests as him. In the final panel we see editor/writer Hewetson discovering the chamber. This one was a rather unique love story and it was good to see the Poe influence.

Peter Piper meets a mysterious creature

Third is "...Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Corpses..." by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). Peter Piper is a mortician in a small town. One night while feeding some of his pets he discovers a tiny humanoid creature that comes out of his floorboards and tries to communicate him in another language. the creature eventually is able to show Peter that he wants him to embalm his dead companion. Peter does so and we see a light shoot off into the stars, presumably the creature leaving the Earth. Peter dies that same night. Skywald has a tendency to occasionally get really over the top with its titles and this is an example of one. The story itself is pretty heartwarming.

The Heap battles dinosaur skeletons!

Fourth is The Heap in "Even A Heap Can Die!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). After a brief absence the Heap returns to Psycho. The story begins with the Heap taking on the skeleton of a pterodactyl! In fact the first five or so pages are the Heap taking on a variety of living dinosaur skeletons, a pretty cool sight to see. The day comes and the Heap returns into his human form, Jim Roberts. He encounters an old man named Johann who claims he created the dinosaur skeletons; they are creations from when he made them as part of his work in movies. Johann knocks Jim out and later they get into a confrontation in a cave and Johann shoots him in the chest! Jim doesn't die though and when he becomes the Heap again that night, attacks Johann, injuring him by breaking his arm. Johann realizes only Jim can get him to medical attention and is able to remove the bullet from him, but ends up dying in the attempt. As the story ends Jim finds himself alive, but stranded in the middle of nowhere. A pretty strong return for the Heap, and I liked both halves of the story, the first with the dinosaur battling and the second, more character themed portion

Fifth is "The Transplant!!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). Rubio makes his Skywald debut with this story; he had also done a few stories for Warren. The bitter, old Gloria Melbourne, former silent film movie star seeks above all else to be young and beautiful again. She seeks out a Doctor Benson who tells her he can perform a transplant on her once they find a donor. Eventually a beautiful young woman who had commit suicide is found and Benson is able to move Gloria's brain from her old body to her new one. Gloria questions why such a lovely girl killed herself, but accepts her new body and leaves. When she doesn't show up for her check in, Benson seeks her out; Gloria has refused to leave her home and has identified why the girl killed herself, she had leprosy! A strong performance here from both Fedory and Rubio.

Rubio's Skywald debut with "The Transplant!"

Sixth is "Tightrope to Nowhere" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). Lawrence is an old man who has worked at a movie theater as a projectionist for decades, yet the owner has passed away and his son decides to have it destroyed and turned into a parking lot. Lawrence refuses to leave then kills the son with an ax. The next morning when the construction workers arrive he tosses the son's body in front of them then tries to flee, being shot and killed by the police. That isn't enough to stop Lawrence however, he rises from his grave and returns to the theater, now condemned, and watches old monster movies, finishing with a Dracula movie. As the light slays Dracula, it does the same to Lawrence and the story ends. This story is a bit over the top and I'm not the biggest fan of Xirinius's artwork, but I did like the fact that it progressively got more and more ridiculous as the story approached its end.

Seventh is "Re-Write: Frankenstein" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). This is a two page comedic story and not related to the previous Frankenstein serial. Frankenstein's monster walks down the city street asking himself why the villagers always hound him, just because he's different. As we turn the page we find out that he lives in a town filled with babies! A fun way to wrap up the issue.

Nightmare 1972 Annual

This time I'll be covering the Nightmare 1972 Special, cover dated November 1972 with a cover by Fernando Fernandez, one of my favorite Warren artists. He never does any interior work for Skywald, but will do more covers.

The frontispiece for this issue is "Behind the Myth of the Bridge of Dracula" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). It tells of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who lived in Hungary in the 16th Century and would murder and bathe in the blood of women she had killed.

First story is "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). This story is an adaption of the famous novel by Robert Lewis Stevenson. The monstrous Mr. Hyde stalks the streets of London, including beating to death a little girl. Meanwhile Dr. Jekyll shocks his colleague by wanting to leave everything in his will to Mr. Hyde. As we soon find out, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person, created via a formula that Jekyll has created to bring out his alter ego. Chaos ensues with Dr. Jekyll eventually killing himself and Hyde by jumping out a window. I have not actually read the original novel so I don't know how faithful an adaption this is, but am at least familiar with the concept. I was a bit surprised that they got through it all so quickly.

Second is "A Macabre Fact of Life: The Indian Rope Trick" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). This two page feature is the Skywald premiere of Ricardo Villamonte, who would go on to become Skywald's most prolific artist. This feature tells of the Indian Rope Trick whereby a rope can raise on its own into the air and someone can climb up it. Yet this has a horrific turn as the boy climbing it goes into a cloud and his dismembered body parts start falling out. The boy is soon revealed to be unharmed though, it being just a hypnotic effect the magician was having on the audience.

Carillo provides some strong art in "Beauty is Only Skin Deep"

Next is "Beauty is Only Skin Deep" by Doug Moench (story) and Fred Carrillo (art). Taking place in the time of the French revolution, a woman named Countessa believes that she can restore her fading youth and beauty by slaying beautiful young women and bathing in their blood. Her servant Morde does the act of killing for her. The viewpoint then shifts to one of the young woman, who awakens, finding herself captured and in the Countessa's castle. We follow her as she makes her way through the castle, eventually coming across some of the slain victims. Morde takes a hold of her and brings her to the Countessa. The Countessa has found that her blood baths have not worked, and believes that the beauty escapes once her victims' blood leaves their bodies. She believes by having this girl killed without marking her skin, it will work. Morde soon brings the Countessa the woman's slain, unmarked body and drinks her blood, only to discover that Morde poisoned her and dies herself! This was a pretty good story with some Gothic art by Carrillo. A Filipino artist, he would do a fair amount of work for Warren, but not until near the end of Warren's life in the early 1980s. The Countessa seems directly inspired by Elizabeth Bathory, who had appeared in the frontispiece for this issue.

Fourth is "Limb From Limb From Death" by Al Hewetson (story) Pablo Marcos (art). Three men are trapped in the Sahara desert after their jeep runs out of gas. As days go by they start getting desperate and one of them, a doctor, says that they have to start eating each other or else they will starve to death. The doctor convinces the other two to have an arm sawed off before him, claiming that if they are saved he too will have an arm taken off. He proceeds to saw an arm off both his comrades which they eat, but they are then saved by a traveling plane. Now back in civilization, the doctor is afraid of the fact that he'll have to have his arm sawed off and decides to fake things, sending his fellow survivors the severed arm from a dead body. Yet pain starts growing in his arm, and he soon finds it rotting away and falling off. As the story ends we find that his arm didn't really fall off, but he's gone crazy and is being brought to the loony bin. Skywald continues to rely a bit too heavily on the last minute twist of things not being real (in fact this story is very reminiscent to Sand Castles from Psycho #6, both with its plot and ending, and both stories were drawn by Marcos), but the story does deserve some points for how over the top gruesome it is.

Marcos' "Limb from Limb from Death"

We next get another segment in the Nightmare World series, "A Grave Beneath the Sea!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Bill Payne (art). This story is based on the nightmare of a reader named Joseph Elliot. Joseph imagines himself on a boat in Scotland where the Loch Ness monster appears and he is pulled underwater, near the monster's offspring. But Joseph is able to ride the monster away, soon realizing however that he is sitting on an octopus! Eventually the monster brings him to the beach where he gets off of him. Like the previous Nightmare World story you need to know going in that based on a dream, the story is going to be a bit nonsensical and that is the case here.

Next is "Alone" by Bruce Jones (story and art). This story features a woman named Karin who walks home from work in New York City only to start receiving phone calls about how she is going to die. The calls continue and the caller eventually reveals that he was a hypnotist at a part she had recently gone to named the Great Konar. He has hypnotized her such that she will commit suicide by jumping off a building, much like his brother did due to her dumping him. Eventually the time comes for her to jump, but it is revealed that Karin had moved to the first floor and is perfectly okay. Bruce Jones is quite good at his twist endings and we have a good one here. His art continues to be really strong, making me feel a bit sad that he eventually turns to being just a writer.

After that is "And If A Fiend Should Come A Callin'" by Al Hewetson (story) and L.M. Roca (art). Roca was actually the first S.I. artist to appear in a Warren magazine and makes a rare appearance here for Skywald. The story features a student getting handed a piece of candy called a Green Gargoyle by an older man. Upon consuming it the boy finds himself pursued by monsters and makes his way to a cave where an actual gargoyle is waiting for him. He tells the gargoyle about the man and how he is providing samples to various other kids for free, and then they can get more by paying for it. The boy confronts the man saying he has some friends that also want the candy, but really brings him to a the gargoyle, who appears as a fluorescent fiend in the woods, and kills him. The candy in this story is quite obvious drugs. The gargoyle featured appears to have no relation to the gargoyles in the several prior Skywald stories.

Bruce Jones with "Alone"

The issue concludes with the cover story "The Day the Earth Will Die!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). We see a film being made where the star is in a fantasy world with skeleton-like robots attacking him while riding flying horses. When the skeletons start running amok though they realize that they are actually real! Chaos ensues and even the military has to get involved! As the story hits its conclusion, we find that even the "reality" of this story was actually a film being made, by a race of ant-like aliens! Quite the bizarre finish to this story, and the issue.

Psycho #9

Domingo Gomez provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, featuring the character Slither-Slime Man. This issue is cover dated November 1972. Skywald continues to hit its stride, giving us a strong issue.

On the 2 page title of contents page we also get an introduction from the Slither-Slime Man drawn by Pablo Marcos.

Its "The Slither-Slime Man" yet again in the first story of the issue, written by Al Hewetson and drawn by Pablo Marcos. We meet him on the first page as he digs up a corpse, strangles it then grabs a hold of the skull. The sheriff gets frustrated with the grave being dug up, something which has happened before and visits the head of the local asylum, Fillius, thinking it is one of his patients. They take a hold of one of them, who likes to pull the heads off of rats, but when another grave is defiled they realize its not him. The sheriff thinks it may be Fillius, and when they come across him shoots him dead. Later than night he comes across an old crippled man in the rain, at his wife's grave and beats him to death with his crutch. He makes the mistake of standing on the grave of the real Slither-Slime Man, who rises up out of it and strangles him, pulling his head off. A fairly decent story with some good art by Marcos, but the character of Fillius looks just like the Slither-Slime Man which led to some confusion on my part.

We meet the "Slither Slime Man"

Second story is "The Ghastly Reunion" by Doug Moench (story) and Ramon Torrents (art). Gene is concerned that his young wife Bonnie is in love with Steve, a hired hand on their farm. He plots to "accidentally" kill Steve while hunting, shooting him with an arrow. He then buries his body. Bonnie, who really was in love with Steve, finds and digs up his grave, causing Gene to bury her alive with him.  Gene soon finds both of them out of their grave and attacking him however. It is revealed that Steve was a vampire, and while the arrow should have killed him, by burying Bonnie alive with him she was able to pull it out and turn her into a vampire as well. Torrents as always provides a really strong art performance, and we get a fairly strong story as well.

Third is "...Suffer the Little Children" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). This story is identified as being a sequel to the 1891 novel Turn of the Screw by Henry James. A new governess arrives at a mansion to take care of two young children, Flora and Miles. She soon finds out from the maid that they are emotionally disturbed children and their brother had died just a few months ago. The governess soon starts seeing ghosts. She is told more by the maid, who reveals that Flora and Miles actually murdered their older brother Thomas because he was their father's favorite. She also claims the former governess, Jessel, and the butler, Peter were evil people. Peter eventually beat Jessel to death and then hung himself. Upon bringing up Thomas to the children, Miles and Flora get upset at the governess, and then the ghost of Peter appears. The governess realizes the children are possessed and brings them to their father. After she leaves, we realize the truth, that Thomas' spirit has possessed their father, and that Miles and Flora are in fact possessed by the spirits of Peter and Jessel. A bit over complicated, but I enjoyed this story quite a lot as well.

Ending of "Suffer the Little Children"

Fourth is "A Plot of Dirt" by Doug Moench (story) and Felipa Dela Rosa (art). Philip Davoren rises from his grave as a rotting corpse and is compelled to go to the home of a man named Craig. Craig is standing in a pentagram and has summoned Philip back from the dead in order to make him suffer. He orders him to go to the home of a woman named Mary. We soon realize that Mary was Philip's lover when he was alive, and her rejection of Craig in favor of Philip caused Craig to kill him. Philip has been ordered to kill Mary, but refuses to do so. He instead returns to Craig's home and by causing a chandelier to fall, crushes and kills Craig. The authorities then arrive and attack Philip with a flame thrower, burning up his body entirely, which holds a rose he held towards the story's beginning. I enjoyed this story quite a lot and consider it my favorite of the issue. Dela Rosa's often ugly looking art suits the story quite well and I enjoyed seeing a story told from the perspective of a revived corpse.

The sympathetic hero of "A Plot of Dirt"... a corpse!

Fifth is "A Question of Identity!!!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). The first five pages or so of this story take place in a dream state as a woman is getting harassed by a pair of spectral like beings, and sees visions of a dark castle and her parents. She awakens, the two spectral beings in fact doctors who were restoring her lost memories. A vampire, she immediately goes on a rampage, biting the neck of one of them and when she is stabbed in the neck by a knife she escapes by jumping out the window. Eventually the sun arrives though, causing her entire body to burn up. While the plot of this story isn't the easiest to follow, Zesar provides a considerably strong art job, as I would expect for him.

Sixth is "Voodoo Initiation", a one page feature from Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art), which I presume was originally intended to be a frontispiece. It covers how to summon a demon and join a voodoo ritual.

Seventh is "The Graveyard Jungle" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). Jay and Skip are a couple of schemers. They have come up with a plot to sell a house to a man, then fake ghosts and evil spirits in it, which will cause the man to get scared and sell it back to them for pennies on the dollar. That night they head to the house, to find it haunted for real! They are pursued by a traditionally hooded ghost, a number of spooky hands, rats and other things, eventually finding the man they sold the house to, with horns! He is revealed to be the devil, having purchased himself a home on Earth.

Some strong art from Zesar in "A Question of Identity!!!"

We wrap up with "All the Ways and Means to Die" by Jeff Jones (art, adapted from All the Myriad Ways by Larry Niven). This story focuses on the concept of alternative timelines, that each and every possible choice that is made opens up new possibilities and hence new timelines. With so many possible ways things can go there are billions of possible time streams. This story focuses in particular on a man named Gene Trimble as he thinks about the various possibilities. As the story ends we see him holding a gun, and the different possible time streams including one in which he shoots himself in the head. This story is a bit convoluted and more focused on the concept than necessarily a plot, but it is an enjoyable one. Jones provides some particularly strong artwork.

NIghtmare #10

Edit: In hindsight looks like I screwed up on the order of what comes next and mistakenly skipped Nightmare #9 and Psycho #9! Enjoy this for now and I'll be back in a couple of days with the correct issue. One of the down sides of having a back log of a couple of issues.

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Nightmare, featuring the interior story "Princess of Earth". This issue is cover dated December 1972.

The two-page table of contents contains art from Pablo Marcos, featuring characters such as Mr. Pook, the Gargoyles, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and Phantom of the Opera in line for movie tickets!

The first story is "Princess of Earth" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). Eggs come out of a computer terminal in a space ship. One of them hatches, revealing a small, humanoid but furry creature. The narrative turns to a woman named Lisa, a celebrated singer. The creature, now in its adult form departs the swamp where it lives and heads to the theater where Lisa is performing. There, the creature bursts through the place and grabs Lisa, dragging her with him, saying she is a princess who has left them alone far too long. The creature drags her back to the space ship where it is revealed she was a part of the spaceship and had been tasked with taking care of the eggs, much of which had smashed during her absence. She is now forced to remain on the ship, tending to them.

Some great art from Xirinius on "The Funeral Barge"

Next is "The Funeral Barge" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). A detective named Walter Crowd investigates a mysterious barge that travels across the waters, carrying corpses on it. On a rainy night he pretends to be a corpse and is tossed aboard along with other bodies. The barge travels across the water, making its way to a giant castle. Once inside, a crane starts grabbing a hold of the bodies and bringing them in where a series of vampires start feasting on them. Walter uses a lit torch to fight back and make his escape, but he eventually is overwhelmed and is forced to become a pilot for the barge. Xirinius' art is quite strong here. His full page feature where we first see the castle is particularly impressive.

The third story is "Satan's Cellar" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferrer Maitz (art). This is Maitz's sole story for Skywald. A mother gets some meat from the butcher Louis Hokay and the family is disgusted by it. She returns to complain to Hokay who simply gives her back her money and tells her to go some place else. The mother gets the police to raid the place, hoping to find him serving dogs, rats or other rotten meat but they find nothing. She continues to pursue it though, eventually sneaking in and finding a variety of human body parts in a hidden chamber under the floor. Hokay arrives and tries to kill her but she kills him with a cleaver. All of a sudden a pair of many armed beings climb out of the hole in the floor and kill her. The narrator claims it was the meat of these creatures they were eating, and also that these creatures will now be pursuing food themselves. Some so-so art here, but the ending came out of left field, which I enjoyed.

Fourth is "The Proverbial Killer" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Michael Reidy is attacked constantly by his wife Janet, who is convinced he is having an affair because each month he disappears for a short period of time. Michael denies such claims. She seeks to divorce him and get paid alimony. It is soon revealed that she is the one having an affair, with a man named Augie, who also plans on conning her too. When he blabs this to one of his friends, the friend feels guilty and goes to Michael to reveal it. Michael doesn't believe it though. He heads home where he catches Augie and Janet together. He reveals the truth to them, that when he was disappearing he wasn't having an affair, but its because when the full moon comes he turns into a werewolf! Michael is a rather milquetoast character (and modeled after director Woody Allen) but it was good to see him get Janet and Augie in the end.

Things get crazy in "Satan's Cellar"

Next is "A Macabre Fact of Life: Demonic Possession" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A man in public starts flipping out, claiming to be possessed by a demon. We see that this is the case, as another man had summoned Satan and requested the man to be possessed by a demon. Returning to the scene in public, the man grabs an axe and goes on a rampage, eventually being captured and put in an asylum where a exorcism is done on him and the demon leaves him. Not much of a plot to this brief 4 page story.

Next is the one page "Game of Skill" by Joan Cintron (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). I got these credits from Richard Arndt's "Horror Comics in Black and White" as the story itself is just credited as "Cintron and Kinsman". In prehistoric times this page questions what would have happened if the first humans to fight against other beasts lost and baboons instead became the dominant species on Earth. Not much of a story here, but strong art from Cintron. Reminds me a little of Luis Bermejo.

Another entry in the "Nightmare World" series is next with "They Crawled out of the Crater" with Al Hewetson adapting the dream of reader Trisha Hamlin. Lara provides the art. Trisha dreams herself being shown on TV as she departs to space in order to head to the moon. However a hole is ripped into her ship, causing her to be sucked out. She is pulled down to the moon's surface where she must first escape some quicksand then is grabbed by some furry humanoid beings. They seek help as some spider creatures attack them. She then realizes that the furry creatures are in fact aligned with the spiders. She is then suddenly shook awake by a policeman and the story ends. Its too bad, this story ends a little too soon, I was interested at seeing what would happen next! Lara is another artist with his sole Skywald appearance being this story, which is too bad as he did a pretty good job.

Next is "Black Communion" by Ed Fedory (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). Within a monastery, Satan summons a sword wielding corpse to rise and start attacking the monks. Called Don Carlos, the corpse slays many of them with ease. He is eventually done in when a monk trips on the stairs, causing some holy water to spill through the floorboards and fall upon him.

Some good art from Lara in "They Crawled out of the Crater"

The Human Gargoyles series returns with "1 and 1 Equals 3" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art), taking over for Felipa Dela Rosa. The two Gargoyles, Edward and Mina Sartyros give birth to a child, whom they call Andrew. They come across a traveling circus and travel with them. While taking a rest however, Andrew is displayed to the public and kidnapped. Andrew is held by a Satanic cult and brought before Satan himself. Satan claims to have breathed life into each of the gargoyles. Edward attacks him, there is a big explosion and the gargoyles get up and depart with Andrew, thinking about whether they should depart Europe and head to America. A so-so story with fairly strong art; it seems mind boggling to me that the Gargoyles would leave their child with strangers, a rather dumb way to move the plot along.

Psycho #8

Enrich Torres, the famed Warren cover artist provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated September 1972. With this issue Al Hewetson becomes the editor of Skywald's horror magazines for the rest of their run. This is the first Psycho issue in quite a while to feature no Heap story, although we do start a new series here.

The frontispiece for this issue is "The Theater of Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). Starting with this issue, the frontispieces move from a one page pin-up into more of a one page mini-story, similar to what Warren would do. This one features the haunted theater on Dury Lane London where a ghost of a man in gray keeps appearing, Eventually his body is found and he never appears again.

The first story of this issue is "A Gargoyle - A Man" by Al Hewetswon (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). The story begins showing the origin of two gargoyles, who were put on the Cathedral of Menze in Germany. They stay there for many centuries, eventually being removed in 1972 and moved to a graveyard where there are some Satanists. After some chanting, the gargoyles come to life, scaring away the Satanists. They flee, being pursued, and stay in the home of a blind man in the city, calling themselves Edward and Mina. Eventually the Satanists find them and the blind man is killed. The Satanists summon a tentacled monster who Edward fights and defeats. Mina stops Edward from killing the Satanists as the story ends. This story kicks off a lengthy series, although Dela Rosa will soon be replaced as artist by Maelo Cintron.

First appearance of the Gargoyles characters

Next story is "Devil's Woman" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Ross Andru/Mike Esposito (art). A party is held in a Vermont mansion on New Years Eve, hosted by a woman named Marta who is blind. Suddenly there is a scream and a dying man is found, claiming a creature has broke loose. Some of the guests talk of how Marta's parents were part of a witch cult and summoned a creature that killed them, exactly 20 years ago today. Marta was eventually able to marry a European count. He tells of how in his country Satanists would worship him on the new year and virgins would be sacrificed to him. Twenty years ago Satan was summoned here by Marta's parents and there was an accident altering his form and causing him to be beneath this house. He demands sacrifices and the party guests are sacrificed to him, who is now looking like a tentacled monster. The count wants Marta to go to Satan and produce a child with him as her mother did but she instead flees and the mansion burns down. She is eventually found by the count and her aunt who bring her before Satan. I was a bit surprised to see Andru and Esposito back after being dropped as the artists from The Heap. I wonder if this is an inventory story held on for a little while before publication since it would have made more sense to keep them on as the artists for that series.

"Have You Ever Seen the Black Rain?"

Third story is "Have You Ever Seen the Black Rain?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art), in his Skywald debut. The beautiful queen Anne has her subjects invade her neighboring land, ruled by a man named Walter as they need fertile land. Her forces lose and she is exiled by Walter, after refusing his hand in marriage. Her men transport and rebuild her castle on an island and there she starts to dabble in black magic. Two years pass and Walter's kingdom has been defeated by another country. His men are able to rescue him and get him on a ship which travels through the rain, eventually making it to Anne's castle where she is waiting for him, her face covered by a veil. She says she will marry him now and they do so, but when she pulls off her veil she reveals a horrifically ugly face, claiming she sacrificed her beauty to Lucifer to get her revenge. Walter pulls off his shirt, revealing that his body is horrifically deformed and rotted as well. The ending of this story reminds me somewhat of the "Plague of Jewels" story by Bruce Jones in issue 4. Xirinius has a pretty good debut here. His art reminds me somewhat of Martin Salvador, although a bit scarier.


Fourth is "The Filthy Little House of Voodoo" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ramon Torrents (art). Two women travel through the Australian badlands and come across a town filled with lots of old people who are silent and have blank expressions on their face. They eventually head to a house on the top of a hill, finding a painting of an evil looking bald man on the wall. Soon people start coming in and going downstairs and our protagonists follow. Suddenly the man in the painting comes out of it and attacks them, asking them to join them. The man says he is part of a race of parasites and the people there attack them. This story has some very impressive and scary art from Ramon Torrents but the story itself is a bit confusing.

Next up is "Bad Choke" by Don Glut (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). Two men head to a graveyard and dig up the grave of a strangling killer named Mad Kirk, seeking to steal the diamond ring from his finger and gold from his teeth. When police arrive though they are forced to flee. One of the men has put the diamond ring on his finger but finds that it can't come off. Suddenly the ghost of Kirk arrives and causing the man to strangle his colleague. Kirk then starts strangling him, and the man trying to pull his hands off his neck causes him to in reality strangle himself. Some bystanders soon arrive and comes across the odd sight of the two dead men.

Some good art by Torrents with "The Filthy Little House of Voodoo"

Last story is "City of Crypts" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art), also making his Skywald debut. A group of archaeologists, Jacob, his wife Berenice and assistant Basil investigate the tomb of Pharaoh Ramanken in Egypt. A tablet indicates that there is a curse; any man who enters will die. The workers start going mad and trap the 3 of them inside. Basil is in love with Berenice and pushes Jacob down a chasm to his death, although she is not really that into him. Suddenly a group of sub-human monsters (looking kind of like the Heap) attack them and drag them down to a lower part of the tomb. Basil is killed, but thinking Berenice is a princess due to a birthmark, they bring her before the skeleton of the Pharaoh. Berenice flees, eventually making her way out, but her face and body have become deformed, much like that of the sub-humans. How exactly Berenice became like them isn't really explained, giving us a rather odd ending, but otherwise this is a fairly good tale. Berenice I assume is named after the Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name.

Pablo Marcos provides a one-page pin-up of a ghoul to conclude the issue.