Eerie 86

This issue is an all Richard Corben reprint special, from September 1977. Corben provides the art for the entire issue, including the coer.

First is "Unprovoked Attack On A Hilton Hotel" with story from Jim Stenstrum. This story is from Creepy 73. This story is a comedic parody of World War II. It features the feud between two space hotel companies, the Hiltons and the Waldors. A war is started between the two when the Waldorfs attack a Hilton hotel. The Hiltons find a sculpter/scientist who helps them create a bomb to destroy the Waldorfs, but as the story ends it is revealed that the blast of the bomb will kill them too. Multiple characters here are parodies of World War II era people including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Albert Einstein.

The next story is "The Oval Portrait", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. The adaption is provided by Rich Margopoulos. This story was originally printed in Creepy 69. A man is wounded in a duel so he is brought into a large house nearby. Inside he finds a very realistic oval portrait of a beautiful woman. He reads a diary within the house which reveals the history of the portrait. The woman was the wife of the artist. He showed her little love, and made her be the model for the portrait. As he worked on the portrait, and it became more and more lifelike, she became exhausted and eventually collapsed dead when he finished the portrait.

Third is "Shadow", also an Edgar Allen Poe adaption, once again by Margopoulos. This story is from Creepy 70. Some very surreal artwork in this story by Corben. Pestilence and war plagues the countryside. In the city of Ptolemais a group of men sit to eat dinner next to the body of a fellow warrior, Zoilus. Soon a mysterious shadow appears on the wall. They then all die, due to catching a disease that the corpse had.

Fourth is "Pinball Wizard!" with story by Doug Moench, from Creepy 66. Mobsters pressure the owner of a candy store to put in a pinball machine and when he refuses kills him. A boy who befriended the old man summons a demon who kills the mobster, and brings him to hell where he acts as the ball for a pinball game.

Fifth is "Change... Into Something Comfortable" with story again by Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 58. A werewolf runs around on Halloween, enjoying himself by killing trick or treaters, gang members, and pretty much anyone else who he encounters. He eventually comes across a mansion which he attacks, only to find that the inhabitants are fellow monsters like him, part of the freak show he used to work for. The monsters then make him their dinner!

Sixth is "The Slipped Mickey Click Flip", another story written by Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 54. This is one of the most bizarre and nonscensical stories in Warren's history, but is very good. It features Diment, a crazy old man taking over hosting duties from Uncle Creepy and telling some bizarre tales about a pyschologist and his family. The psychologist is attacked by butterflies, a TV eats his wife, and a bone buries his dog. Very, very bizarre.

Seventh is "Friedhelm the Magnificent" with story by Greg Potter (story), from Creepy 46. A daredevil is famous for his ability to jump from high heights and survive the fall. In actuality he only survives the falls because of a deal he has with two men who have the power to keep him alive. When they request he uphold his part of the bargain by killing himself however, he refuses and instead kills one of the men. The next day he goes on his latest jump however and falls straight down to hell, into the hands of their master, Satan.

Last is "Frozen Beauty" with story by Corben himself, from Creepy 36. This story was Corben's Warren debut in its original printing. A hideous queen, Maleva, summons Darman, a sorceror, offering him gold in exchange for making her look like her beautiful niece. They head to a cave in the icy mountain where he casts a spell such that Maleva will have her niece's exact appearance. Her niece is left frozen there in the cave so she'll always look the same. Instead of paying the sorceror however, Maleva has him stabbed and left in the cave. Maleva doesn't get to enjoy her beauty for that long, as Darman, still left alive due to the cold starts eating the corpse of Maleva's niece, resulting in her body being torn to shreds.

Creepy 48

This is an all reprint issue of Creepy. Even the cover is a reprint, showing smaller versions of 12 previous Creepy covers. This issue is dated October 1972. This issue is comprised of primarily stories from the original Goodwin era of Creepy.

Up first is "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 8. A man comes into possession of Dracula's coffin and sits in it, becoming Dracula himself. He invites people to his mansion then steals one of the women and runs away with her. The Van Helsings start looking for him and find a monster in a cave.

Second is "The Coffin of Dracula Part 2" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 9. This story continues from the previous one. A man who had sat in Dracula's grave becomes Dracula himself. The story surrounds a number of men pursuing him, who eventually are successful in destroying him.

Third is "The Castle on the Moor" by Johnny Craig (story & art, credited to Jay Taycee), from Creepy 9. A group of tourists in a castle find themselves under attack by a werewolf, the son of the castle's owner. Soon only two are left, but are able to kill the werewolf with a silver bullet. One of the survivors reveals himself a ghoul however, and kills the last remaining person so he can eat her.

Fourth is "Moon City!" by Al McWilliams (art) and Larry Engleheart (story), from Creepy 4. This story tells of a settlement made on the moon. One of the workers who constructs the settlement returns to Earth, gets married, and heads to the moon with his wife. But there they are attacked and killed by hungry dogs who were on the moon all by themselves.

Fifth is "Swamped" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 3. A criminal is under pursuit by law enforcement in the middle of a swamp. He comes across a mansion occupied by three vampires. Rather than be killed by them, he leads them to the men pursuing him who are all killed by the vampires. He is captured by the vampires but kills them with stakes during the daytime and runs back out to the swamp... only to be killed by the vampires that the men pursuing him became.

Sixth is "Thumbs Down!" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne T. Murphy (story), from Creepy 6. Yet another run at the most commonly reprinted story in Warren history. The story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to come back from the dead to take revenge. This story would probably be reprinted by Warren over the years more than any other story.

Seventh is "The Cosmic All" by Wally Wood (story & art), from Creepy 38. Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. When they finally find a planet with humanoid people who attack them and are killed, leaving behind a message that their death was clean compared to whats going to happen to the astronauts. They decide to sleep there and the next morning two of the astronauts find everyone else reduced to skeletons. They escape, but one of them sends their ship crashing to Earth. Immediately after the flesh falls off their bodies, turning into the blob seen before, known as the 'Cosmic All' that is bringing peace to the universe by turning everyone to blobs. A very interesting sci-fi story.

Eighth is "Drink Deep!" by John Severin (art) and Otto Binder (story, as Eando Binder), from Creepy 7. A wealthy ship owner brings people on tours of the sea, telling them of his ancestor who was a pirate. He is very cruel to his crew, causing them all to quit. He soon is able to gain a new crew, but it ends up that they are actually dead, killed by his ancestor, and they cause his ship to sink, leaving him at the bottom of the ocean with his ancestor's victims.

Last is "The Adventure of the German Student" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 15. This is an adaption of a Washington Irving story. A german student staying in Paris meets a beautiful woman by the guillotine and sleeps with her. The next day he wakes up to find her dead! When he summons the authorities, they reveal that she was executed the previous day and her head falls off! The student goes crazy and ends up in an asylum, where he dies.

Creepy 73

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this sci-fi issue of Creepy, dated August 1975. For years fans on the letter pages requested a sci-fi magazine, and while it would still be a few years before 1984 came out, they at least got their wish temporarily with this issue. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "Playpen of a God!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This three page story features an old man and some wounded children in an apocalyptic world. The old man starts reading them some stories, telling them of how mankind destroyed itself.

Our first full length story for this issue is "The Argo Standing By!" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about an astronaut who is part of a crew in space that is in suspended animation. When he wakes up he reports to Earth, where things are getting worse and worse due to a war. Eventually it gets so bad on Earth that everyone is killed off. Our protagonist decides to go back into suspended animation.

Next is "A Beast Within!" by John Severin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features a man who lives in the wilderness, in an age where people need to wear a device on their chest in order for them to be able to breathe outside. At night bizarre creatures try to break into his cabin again and again but he always fights them off. Eventually he finds a young woman whom he marries but she ends up being killed by the creatures. He has one final confrontation with them outside and ends up being killed.

Next is "Unprovoked Attack On A Hilton Hotel" by Richard Corben (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This story is a comedic parody of World War II. It features the feud between two space hotel companies, the Hiltons and the Waldorfs. A war is started between the two when the Waldorfs attack a Hilton hotel. The Hiltons find a sculpter/scientist who helps them create a bomb to destroy the Waldorfs, but as the story ends it is revealed that the blast of the bomb will kill them too. Multiple characters here are parodies of World War II era people including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Albert Einstein.

Next is "Purge!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). The color is provided by Bill Dubay. This story takes place in a future society where men called 'Enforcers' enforce the law, often with over the top results. This story features two stories in one, the top of each page features one of these enforcers while the bottom of the page features a fugitive on the run with a suitcase of illegal material. Eventually the two converge and the fugitive is killed. The illegal material he was carrying is revealed to be none other than Warren magazines!

Next is "Last Light of the Universe!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death. Aboard a space station in space, a man, Block, argues with the head of the station, Hersey, who refuses to provide help with plague ridden people outside the space station. Space has been infested with a plague and the space station is the only place in the universe not infected. Block recalls the Poe story and gets more upset when he finds there is going to be a celebration later on, similar to what happened in the Poe story. Eventually Hersey has Block killed and torpedoed out of the space station. But by doing this he ends up letting the plague into the space station, and infects everyone else, wiping out humanity once and for all.

The issue concludes with one final page from the Playpen of a God story with the old man wrapping up his stories that he is telling to the children.

Vampirella 63

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, one somewhat similar in vein to his cover for issue 29. Although usual practice had been for the annual Vampirella reprint issue to contain a new Vampirella story, that practice stopped starting with this issue. This issue is dated September 1977.

First is "Vampirella and the Sultana's Revenge!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from Vampirella 33. Vampirella and Pendragon are invited by a Sultana to perform. It ends up the Sultana is Droga, Kruger's girlfriend from issue 34's story. She is cheating on her husband, but he has agreed to never harm her no matter what she does. She plans to have Vampirella thrown to the beast that lives in their castle, but Vampirella ends up killing it. The Sultana is caught cheating, so her husband punishes her by force feeding her until she becomes grotesquely fat. Some amazing, sexy artwork on this story.

Second is "Jenifer" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 63. A man hunting in the woods one day rescues a girl from being killed. The girl, called Jenifer has the ugliest face imaginable, but he becomes obsessed with her, and adopts her. His family hates her and eventually leave him after she scares them off. He then does what he can to get rid of her, such as having a freak show owner come to take her, but Jenifer simply kills the man and shoves his corpse in the fridge. Eventually he brings her out into the woods to kill her, only to be killed by someone wandering by, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Third is "Ground Round" by Auraleon (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), from Vampirella 50, A butcher kills his wife and puts her body in the freezer, grounding up her body and selling it at the store. As a cover he says she's sick and that they'll be movign to Florida. When her nosy friend arrives, he has to kill her too and heads to the freezer, but gets locked in, with the remains of his wife, who takes revenge on him.

Fourth is "As Ye Sow..." by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 79. This story takes place in a post apocalyptic society featuring a family of cannibals. The daughter of the family finds a man hiding in the woods. They fall in love with each other and she hides him from the others. When her family finds him and tries to eat him, she tries to scare them off with a cross but they shoot her in the face. They force her to have babies with the man, which they then proceed to eat.

Fifth is "The Parable of the Hermits of Glastonbury Tor" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 45. Bertrand, a scholar, comes to the town of Glastonbury. He heads to the Hermit's abbey where he meets a beautiful woman to whom he makes love. The woman tells him she is life, and introduces him to the seven hermits of Glastonbury Tor. She tells him that he can have eternal life, that others who have come eventually chose death, but he can avoid that by choosing to marry her and always remaining faithful to her. He gladly does so, and the hermits also give him a gift of whatever he wants, so he tells them that no matter what they can never inflict death upon him. The years go by. He is happy for a while, but eventually becomes bored and leaves the abbey to sleep with women from the outside world. While his wife cannot kill him due to the deal with the hermits, she does cause him to fade from existence entirely.

Sixth is "The Professional" by Zesar Lopez (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Vampirella 53. This story features a man who moves into a new town and seduces a number of housewives by playing up a story about how they resemble his dead wife. He secretly takes pictures of their affairs then blackmails him. Eventually he is undone by the one women he failed to seduce, who gangs up on him along with the others and kills him. In the end it ends up that she is doing the same thing with the various men of the town.

Seventh is "Wings of Vengeance" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 81. This story is about a prince whose father comes back from the war with a beautiful young woman who is to be his bride. The prince embraces her however and is caught by the King, who has her whipped to death, and has him beaten so bad that his eyes, nose and mouth are all destroyed. The king meets his end soon after however when birds that the maimed prince conversed with peck him to death.

Eerie 51

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, featuring none other than Cousin Eerie himself. This issue is dated September 1973.

Up first is "A Stranger in Hell" by Esteban Maroto (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Eerie 38. The majority of Brennan's stories were nonscensical garbage and this is one of them. A man in hell is unable to die. I think thats what it means. While Maroto's art is great, as usual, this story just makes no sense whatsoever. It would get a sequel in Creepy #61 not too long after this issue.

Second is "Pity the Grave Digger" by Auraleon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story), from Eerie 40. An old grave digger warns his young colleague of the dangers of the graveyard including a vampire he destroyed and corpses being found completely devoured. The colleague doesn't believe him, but the old gravedigger is soon found consumed by a group of tiny demons.

Third is "The Caterpillers" by Luis Garcia (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Eerie 41. A professor from a government research facility passes away during a meeting, resulting in an investigation. It is revealed that caterpillers created in the facility had been taking over the minds of people and eating their brains. Quickly the entire lab is wiped out by them and when our protagonist reports to his superiors, it is revealed that they have been taken over as well. Terrific art as always from Garcia, but the story is extremely similar to the story "Spiders are Revolting" from Eerie 26.

"Evil Spirits" is fourth, by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 16. The story features a woman who is in a haunted castle and is confronted by bad dreams and perhaps even ghosts. Her husband is cheating on her and the lover shows up, and they both kill each other. The husband, now with yet another lover, comes to the castle, where their ghosts remain waiting for revenge.

Fifth is "Head Shop" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story), from Eerie 39. A man passing a hat shop one day finds a head dummy that looks almost real. The man becomes obsessed with the head and passes it each day as it goes to work. After a while passes though he notices the head decomposing. The man tries to get himself to stop looking, but he can't control himself and the head gets worse and worse looking. Eventually he confronts the owner of the shop, who hadn't realized that the head was rotting and replaces it by chopping off our protagonist's head.

Sixth is "Vision of Evil" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 2. This story features a rich man who becomes obsessed with the art of a madman living in an asylum. He heads to the asylum to see the artist, who is a usually comatose man except when he's painting. It soon becomes clear however that the monsters in his paintings are real, and they come for the rich man after he is featured in one of the madman's paintings.

"The Curse of Kali" is last, with art by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is from Eerie 6. The story, taking place in the Middle East, features a man who stops a woman from being sacrificed to the god Kali, so he is cursed, which ends up turning him into a vampire.

Creepy 62

Today I'll be covering issue 62 of Creepy, featuring a cover by Ken Kelly. This issue is dated May 1974. This is one of Creepy's best issues, certainly a pleasure to read. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art). This was Berni Wrightson's first appearance in a Warren magazine. A tremendous horror artist whose style was perfect for the black and white format of Warren, Wrightson was one of those artists who usually made an issue worth having even if the rest of the issue was poor. A very talented writer too, in fact his best stories are probably those he wrote as well. This story is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man and his wife own a beloved black cat. Eventually the husband grows tired of the cat, then upset at it. After the cat bites him, he cuts out one of its eyes and soon after hangs it. That very night his house burns down. Wandering into a bar, he finds another black cat that has one eye that starts following him. He brings it home and the wife quickly becomes fond of it. The husband loses control and tries to kill the cat. When his wife gets in the way he kills her by slamming an axe into her head. He hides her beneath a brick wall and is confident that the police won't find it when they stop by. The cat however, which was also walled behind the brick wall ends up attracting them to her corpse due to its screams.

Second is "Buffaloed" by John Severin (art) and Larry Herndon (story). Another western themed story perfectly fitting Severin's style. A buffalo Hunter, Hawkins, is nearly killed by a buffalo stampede. When he comes to he is being taken care of a native american woman, Little Fawn. Little Fawn's father is One Eye, who wants to kill him but is convinced by his daughter to speak to the buffalo spirits to see what he should do. Hawkins eventually recovers and spotting a group of white buffalo nearby starts firing on them, even though Little Fawn tries to stop him. One such buffalo however, one with only one eye, doesn't go down and stampedes him to death.

Third is "Firetrap" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is Vicente Alcazar's Creepy debut (he had appeared for a few issues in Eerie before this). A landlord visits his inner city property to collect rent because his superintendent quit. He refuses to do anything about the terrible condition of the place and is attacked by a woman who blames the death of her baby on him. As he's about to leave he is pushed down into the basement where the tenants lock him into a coffin, dump rats on him, and eventually light him on fire.

Fourth is "Judas", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A group of aliens head throughout the galaxy, destroying worlds. Their next target is Earth. Earth sends a spaceship to stop the invasion that is piloted by St. John, a man who desires fame and fortune above all else, who even killed the original pilot of the ship to be in the position he is in. When his ship approaches the alien fleet, he is contacted by the alien commander who says he'll make him immortal if he permits them to attack Earth. St. John agrees to the deal. He is brought onto the alien ship, where his body is changed to an alien version that lives forever. He convinces the aliens to bring him to their leader so he can thank him; when he arrives there however he beats the leader to death and tells the aliens that he is their new leader and they are going to return to their home. The alien fleet departs, calling off their invasion of Earth.

Fifth is "Survivor or Savior!" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In the future the Earth is a wasteland due to pollution and war that has occurred. A man is sent back in time by a scientist to find a Chester P. Hazel, who he thinks can help prevent the war by doing something about the pollution. Our protagonist heads back in time, meets Chester, who oddly enough ends up being a woman, and saves her from an attempt on her life. Because the time machine can not return him to his present, he ends up dying of radiation poisoning, not knowing if what he did actually saved the future or not.

Sixth is "The Maze" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story). My favorite story of the issue, and one of Warren's odder tales. A man, John, is sick of his worthless life with his low paying job and nagging wife. He decides to start a new life, stealing money from where he works and heading down to the subway to run off. He is attacked by a group of maniacs and wakes up later deep in the subway tunnels, still possessing the money, but having no idea how to get out. He tries to escape from the subway numerous times but the maniacs prevent him from doing so. Eventually he finds their 'king', a grotesquely fat quadruple amputee who is fed the body parts of living people that his maniac 'subjects' bring to him. John continues to fail to escape and decides that by attacking the maniacs he'll be able to escape. He attacks their 'king', chopping his head off with a blade, and is declared by the maniacs their new king. He demands they let him out, but they refuse, and attack him. On the final page we see his fate, he has permanently become their new 'king', and like the previous one has had all his limbs chopped off and gleefully watches his 'subjects' brutally murder people to feed to him.

Last is "The Demon Within" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A woman believes that she is cursed, that a demon lives with in her bringing death to everyone around her. We flash back to her past, where her parents were murdered and her sister was killed in a car accident. Eventually she gets married and has a son, but he too ends up dying. She flips out and stands outside a window on a tall building, about to jump. Her husband arrives to try and stop her, but when he's about to help her off he falls of the ledge to his death. She too jumps off seconds later to her death as well.

Vampirella 45

The cover aside, this is a tremendous issue of Vampirella, my pick for the overall best issue of the magazine ever produced. Cover dated September 1975, the cover is a montage of various covers including Enrich's covers for issues 17, 29 and 40, Sanjulian's cover for issue 38, Jose Gonzalez's cover for issue 19 and the background from Frank Frazetta's cover of Creepy 7. Extremely attractive artwork, and strong stories from all concerned make this a must have issue.

First is Vampirella in "Blood Wager" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Len Wein (story). This was Mayo's first story on Vampirella and probably the best art job he ever did for the character. This story takes place in a dream of Pendragon's as he lays in a hospital bed, dying of gunshot wounds (a single panel of him by the artis Zesar, from the next issue is included here). Vampirella and Adam have a fight, causing him to go back to an old lover, who brings him to a casino on an island called Lemondo. Conrad and Pendragon meanwhile think a friend of theirs has a cure for Vampirella's bloodlust, and they head to the same island. In actuality, the friend and the head of the casino are agents of Chaos. Vampirella and Adam's former lover are able to defeat them.

Second is "The Parable of the Hermits of Glastonbury Tor" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Bertrand, a scholar, comes to the town of Glastonbury. He heads to the Hermit's Abbey where he meets a beautiful woman to whom he makes love. The woman tells him she is life, and introduces him to the seven hermits of Glastonbury Tor. She tells him that he'll be given eternal life, that others who have come eventually chose death, but he can avoid that by choosing to marry her and always remaining faithful to her. He gladly does so, and the hermits also give him a gift of whatever he wants, so he tells them that no matter what they can never inflict death upon him. The years go by. He is happy for a while, but eventually becomes bored and leaves the abbey to sleep with women from the outside world. While his wife cannot kill him due to the deal with the hermits, she does cause him to fade from existence entirely.

Third is "Janis!" by Luis Garcia (art) and Victor Mora & Budd Lewis (story). This story appears in color, although the colorist is uncredited. Like many stories done by Garcia during this time period, this story was originally printed in Europe and appears as a reprint here. This story possesses in my opinion the most beautiful artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. A man comes across a statue of a beautiful woman in a Greek harbor. The woman, named Janis, vanished into the sea ten years ago. He sits down to play the guitar, and suddenly she appears. Janis brings her with him into the depths of the sea. All is alright at first until two humanoid monsters appear and carry him off with them.

Fourth is "A Hero Made of Wishes" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A kingdom is treated harshly by their lord, Cervantes. One of the townfolk, Chaucer, talks to the priest of the town, saying that they should summon a champion using the book of Asmodeus, which the priest believes to be evil. Later, when Chaucer's lover and the priest's niece is taken captive by Cervantes, the priest agrees to the plan. The townfolk summon their champion, a powerful looking knight who acts based on the will of the people. Their will to topple Cervantes causes the champion to charge towards Cervantes' castle and kill him and all his men. The townfolk are pleased, but when they start thinking about who will now be leader, their greed to be leader causes the champion to kill them all.

Fifth is "The Winter of Their Discontent" by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is heavily influenced by the story "The Wolves at War's End" from issue 43. An english soldier returns home from the war against Holland in the 1600's to find his hometown heavily in ruin, ravaged by the plague. Being told that his parents have died from the plague, he searches for his sister, but finds her among a pile of corpses being buried by the side of the road. He returns to the town to look for his lover and finds her family being blamed for the plague, with her father being thrown on a fire by a mob. After they escape, she tells him there is nothing worth living for and that he should kill her. He does so, then kills himself.

Last is "There Are No Children in Hungry Hollow, Tennessee" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man comes to the town of the title to write a book. He finds it quite odd that there are no children whatsoever in the town. Everyone he talks to tells him that they are sent away, but their stories contradict one another, causing him to suspect something. He changes his plans to instead write his book about the town, but when he tries to mail it out, the town postman, who inspects all the mail stops it from going out. He is confronted by him, the local store owner and the boarding house host who reveal to him that the town reverted to cannibalism afer the war. After revealing this secret, they make him their next meal.