Psycho #4

Today I'm covering Psycho #4, cover dated September 1971. This cover is handled by Ken Kelly, the prolific cover illustrator for Warren.

The one page "Innsmouth Apparition" frontispiece is provided by Larry Todd.

First story is The Heap in "Night of Evil" by Ross Andru (story) and Ross Andru/Mike Esposito (art). The Heap watches as the authorities bring bodies of corpses from the last story, including Hitler, to his friend Monty Elliot to investigate. After they leave The Heap reveals itself and through writing to him, Monty realizes it is his friend Jim and agrees to help him try and turn back to human. When Monty's daughter arrives, The Heap hides and leaves. He comes across some thieves who have kidnapped a woman and had witnessed him fighting zombies in the previous story. He attacks them and frees the woman, but falls into quicksand, sinking as the story ends. A big cliffhanger to end the story, but I'm sure the Heap will make it out okay and this storyline will continue.

Next is "Out of Chaos... A New Beginning" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Rich Buckler (art). This story is quite the mess, the weakest of the issue. The universe is being destroyed, and Satan is upset. He summons an Oracle whose face shocks him any time he looks upon it. Satan leads an army to the surface where they battle forces led by a man named Hyperion, who Satan slays. Meanwhile a group calling themselves the Procreators of Eternity are creating a universe in the shape of a fetus. The ending of the story says it will be continued in the next issue, so looks like we'll get at least one more segment for this, which I'm sad to see!

Third is "Museum Piece" by Len Wein (story) and Serg Moren (art). Andre Lamont owns and manages a House of Wax. His son Louis had been in a car accident years before and is quite ugly and a hunchback as a result. At the time of the accident, the doctors thought he was done for, but Andre was able to help him recover through unrevealed means. The arrogant Louis wants to go to America to form his own Wax Museum when the opportunity arrives, but Andrew refuses and Louis attacks him. Louis decides to set the place aflame and start anew in America, but finds he is made of wax himself and melts!

The Heap on a rampage!

Fourth is "Comes the Stalking Monster!" by Tom Sutton (story) and Tom Sutton/Syd Shores (art). The story is credited to Larry Todd, and Sutton goes under the pseudonym David Cook here. Usually Sutton dominates in any collaborative efforts, but not here: I hadn't realized he even worked on this story until I looked up the credits. Dr. Aleister Kohner is obsessed with the occult and along with his girlfriend Erica summons the demon Asmodeus in a pentagram. Asmodeus agrees to teach him the knowledge of the ancients, which he does. However over several weeks Al finds himself growing weaker, his hair losing color and falling out. He summons Asmodeus who reveals that radiation has been emitting from the pentagram. Erica, having worn a pentagram necklace is unharmed and at story end is revealed to be the master of Asmodeus.

Fifth is "Escape" by Dennis Fujitake (story and art). This is a brief 2 page story. The evil Baron Renphrew is captured and chained to a wall in a dungeon. He plans on getting away by having men he paid for dig him out. They are able to dig into the dungeon, but break their way through a stone above the Baron's head, which crushes him! A brief, fun story. Fujitake's art reminds me a lot of Jeff Jones. We'll be getting more quality work from him in the future.

Sixth is "Plague of Jewels" by Bruce Jones (story and art). A pair of men, Gary and Wayne, make their way through the jungle with some jewels they have stolen. They find an Incan idol which upon touching causes them to fall into a chasm. Wayne has broken his leg and needs some help from Gary. They make their way to a massive pile of treasures and the two fight each other, with Gary killing Wayne. Suddenly a group of walking skeletons come before Gary and bring him to a chamber where a beautiful woman awaits, her face masked. She claims to be Princess R-Shann, last of the Incan nobles and wants to marry him, his blonde hair matching that of the legends of those she was to marry. Upon marrying her though, she removes her mask, revealing a rotted face. Gary flees, but trips over Wayne's grave. The Princess tears his eyes out and he remains there beside her. This story kinda goes all over the place, but I particularly liked the last few pages. Jones provides quite a strong art job.

"Plague of Jewels"

Seventh is Frankenstein in "Freaks of Fear!" by Tom Sutton (story) and Tom Sutton/Jack Abel (art). Frankenstein's monster desires to learn about his past before he became a monster. He comes across a group of freaks and stays with them, covering his face. One of them is a beautiful woman, Lilith, who is blind but can see the past and future. The monster has her look into his past, but he is then drugged by the head of the Freak Show, who removes his mask and puts him on display at Notre Dame cathedral. There, Quasimodo the hunchback, steals Lilith, causing the monster to go after them. The monster falls as the story concludes. Meanwhile, Dr. Victor Frankenstein (his name now changed to Henry) finds himself revived by his own teacher, Dr. Pretorius, but only his head! Unlike Sutton's earlier collaboration with Shores, this is quite obviously his story, and it looks a lot like a solo effort, even though Abel is credited for the inks. Henry's face seems totally restored at story's end, which is odd, as he had a freakish appearance in the prior story.

The issue concludes with a one page pin-up of The Heap by Bill Everett.

Nightmare #5

The cover for this issue's story is provided by Boris Vallejo, illustrating the interior story "Creature of the Deep!". This issue is cover dated August 1971. Oddly enough, issue 5 of Nightmare came out before issue 4 of Psycho!

First is "Slime World" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Ralph Reese (art). A couple, Sidney and Susan, make their way into the Parisian sewers after a mysterious man tells them to follow them. Underground they find a race of people who have been mutated by the slime in the sewers. They capture and mutate people, either joining their forces, or serving them as food. Sidney and Susan escape their bonds and split up, and after a few weeks Sidney starts transforming into one of the mutants, both physically and mentally. Eventually he is permitted to become someone who tricks people into following him into the sewers, much like what originally happened to him. A strong way to kick off the issue, Reese also provides some good artwork.

Second is "Whence Stalks the Werewolf" by Len Brown (story) and Carlos Garzon (art). Dr. Allan Bund has found a way to transport is patient's consciousness to the past. Using this ability, he has him go back further in time, including military battles and even a werewolf appearance! His colleague Dr. Tracy wants this to stop and leaves to get the police. However once he has come back, we find the patient has turned into a werewolf for real and goes on a rampage! Garzon provides some good art here, reminding me somewhat of Eugene Colan, but I didn't particularly care for the story, nor its predictable ending.

A strong start to the issue with "Slime World"

Third is "The Doom Star!" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Tom Sutton, Dan Adkins and Ralph Reese (art). It is the year 1000 A.D., and many are in fear of the doom star, a comet that crosses the skies. As chaos reigns supreme, the knight Berthold carries a diplomatic message with him, hoping it will unite Europe. Eventually upon seeing a woman being burned at a stake, he slays those doing it and brings her with her, treating her as his property. Suddenly a bizarre group of humanoid animal-like knights attack him. They eventually reveal they are aliens, and that the doom star comet is actually their spaceship. In the stars, alien races live in peace, but they have found that isn't the case here on Earth. Berthold will need to bring peace among man and animals; Earth can be welcomed into the fold if he succeeds, or destroyed if things get worse. Berthold rides off, eager to spread the message, only to get immediately shot and killed by some burglars. This story took a bizarre turn in the second half, but is quite good, despite the downer ending.

Fourth is Creature of the Deep" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Jack Abel (art). The oceans have become dreadfully polluted, and a Professor Daniels is given grant money to fight said pollution. Daniels' team released radioactive material into the ocean, thinking it may help bring more things to life, but instead it results in horrifying mutations. Mutated sea creatures terrorize the world, forcing military intervention and even the Russians dropping nukes on them! As the story ends, Daniels heads to the hospital where his wife has given birth to his son, who was born a mutant due to the polluted water.

Fifth is "Nazi Death Rattle" by Al Hewetson (story) and Serg Moren (art). A Nazi boot camp in 1943 is plagued with several deaths. The commander, Snookler, brings in an S.S. officer to help them find the person responsible. Said S.S. officer immediately turns on Snookler as he was born in Austria, not Germany, and starts purging the camp of anyone not German. Eventually he tortures a man who claims Snookler is behind it all, and Snookler is executed. The S.S. officer knows this is all a ruse though and demands the man show him where the real killer is. The man leads him to a cabin where hidden rebels kill all the officer's men, then Snookler, revealed to be a vampire, kills him.

Things get weird in "The Doom Star"

Sixth is "Within the Torture Chamber" by Kevin Pagan (story) and Doug Wildey (art). Wildey does a good job here, providing artwork that reminds me of Angelo Torres. The story takes place in Spain in the 16th century, where a woman is executed by torture, after having had her tongue torn out. The judge and executioners leave only for a noble, Don Alexander to come down, and speak to her body, revealing he falsely had her accused because she spurned him, resulting in her execution. The judge, who had heard it all fights Alexander but is slain by his sword. Alexander flees, but goes back for his sword, not wanting evidence left behind. He starts getting quite nervous however, and the judge rises, tearing out his tongue and chaining him to the wall. The ending to this story was somewhat confusing (I have included my interpretation here). I fear that these confusing endings will just get more and more common as I make my way through these Skywald issues...

Nightmare #4

Harry Rosenbaum provides the cover for this issue of Nightmare, cover dated June 1971.

First is "Phantom of the Rock Era" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Ralph Reese (art). A young woman, Lala, sees Roddy Skeane, a guitarist and singer perform at a club and decides to hook her ride to his, thinking he will eventually become famous and she can take advantage of his fame and fortune. Lala is rather disgusted by his ugly face, but is convinced he will become famous and loves the lavish lifestyle she is hoping to get for them. Eventually Roddy reveals the rest of his band to Lala, and she finds out they all had died in a witchcraft ceremony and have been resurrected from the dead! Roddy wants her to join them permanently and sacrifices her so she can come back from the dead like them. I wasn't the biggest fan of this story, but Reese does a great job with the art. I am not the most familiar with him, he did one Warren story from around this time and had another printed many years later, but that was it for him. He'll do some more strong work coming up.

Second is "Shoot-Out in Satan's Coffin" by Mike Jennings (story) and Jack Abel (art). Newlyweds Holly and Keith find themselves in the desert out west on their honeymoon, spotting some ghosts playing a poker game in a tavern. Holly ventures out in the desert where she is captured by some prospectors who have found uranium, as well as a mutated Gila monster lizard who has grown to giant size! Keith had followed Holly and gets captured as well. They eventually flee to an abandoned town where they come across the ghosts playing poker again who save them from the prospectors. But the Gila Monster and other creatures are still around, leading to our protagonist's demise. I didn't particularly care for this story, the weakest of the issue.

Lila meets her end in "Phantom of the Rock Era"

Next is "The Mad Mind Doctor!" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Dick Ayers/Mike Esposito (art). Dr. Streichman is a psychiatrist with a unique method of treatment, beating on his patients, which include a man who thinks he is a werewolf and a woman who thinks she is a vampire. A young colleague of his, Moran, tells him he's going to report him, causing Streichman to kill him and dump his body in the ocean! He soon is confronted by Moran's resurrected corpse, the werewolf, the vampire and another cleaver wielding patient. It was good to see Streichman get what was coming to him, but the structure of this story is rather odd in that the ending is revealed on the splash page!

Next is "A Nightmare Pin-Up #3". After being absent from Psycho #3, the one page feature returns, drawn here by Bill Everett. This features a beast like man with a bat like face attacking several people. Everett's work on these one page features have been quite strong.

Fifth is "Hag of the Blood Basket"!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Tom Sutton (art, credited by Sean Todd). The Hag of the title appears visually inspired by the Old Witch, one of the 3 hosts from EC's 1950s horror comics. Sutton was obviously a fan, and would eventually do a story for Warren that was a tribute to Graham Ingels, the artist primarily responsible for drawing her. Anyway, this lengthy story (a whopping 16 pages!) tells the journey of the Hag of the title as she is initially executed during the french revolution, with her head chopped off in the guillotine. We witness her lengthy journey into hell, the various creatures and monsters she encounters there and her desire to escape, only for the story to end with her headless body being chained up in an insane asylum. This story didn't always make the most sense, but the journey was worth it, and Sutton does a great job with the art work. I also felt kinda bad for the hag, she got a bit of a raw deal.

Next is "A Living Death" by Gary Friedrich (story) and Tom Palmer (art). A woman, Lauren Barker, dies after an encounter with her boyfriend, Derek. Lauren's brother Sam blames Derek for her death and gets upset when he attends the funeral. In reality, Derek is leading several possessed women whom he has brought under his thumb and has doing evil deeds for him like stabbing people or shooting them. Sam gets his lover Sandy to go undercover and try and become Derek's girlfriend, but she puts off his advances long enough for Sam to show up. Derek is revealed to be a vampire and is staked to death. Derek and his group of women kinda remind me of Charles Manson, making me wonder if this story was inspired by the real life events that would have happened not too long before this issue came out. The fact that Derek was a vampire I could see from a mile away.

A page from "Hag of the Blood Basket!"

Last is "The Horror on the Chapel Well" by Gardner Fox (story) and Serg Moren (art). A young man, Orsino, summons the devil due to the Duke seizing his lover, Isabella. Orsino is eventually brought before the duke and finds Isabella has killed herself due to only loving Orsino. The Duke tells Orsino that he will spare his life if he can paint the entire wall of a large wall with holy scenes, in just a single day, believing it to be an impossible task that will give him an excuse to kill him. With the help of the devil, Orsino paints the entire wall, although with monsters and demons. The devil has painted one creature in particular that will come to life if Orsino dies. Orsino is killed on orders of the duke, and the monster comes out of the wall, killing him. Every night there after, the monster comes out of the wall and the screams of the Duke can be heard again. The concept of this story reminds me a lot of the Clive Barker novel "Coldheart Canyon" which involved a painted mural whose monstrous inhabitants would come to life.

Psycho #3

Boris Vallejo provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, featuring Frankenstein's Monster. This issue is cover dated May 1971. Gone are the text story and the one page gallery feature this time, with the Frankenstein and Heap stories being longer than usual.

First is "Frankenstein, Book II: Chapter One by Tom Sutton (story) and Tom Sutton/Dan Adkins (art). Sutton is again credited as Sean Todd. The story continues on from the original Frankeinstein novel, although it uses the famous Frankenstein Universal monster movie look for the monster character. The monster, finding the body of Victor Frankenstein is dedicated to bringing him back to life as had been done to him. He eventually returns to Victor's laboratory and with help from Egor (who if I remember correctly wasn't in the original novel) tries to bring Victor back to life. The castle is struck by lightning, destroying it, but causing Victor to return to life. Upon heading to the village asking for help, he is instead hacked to pieces by the townsfolk! Victor's old teacher, Dr. Pretorius desires to bring him back again, and the story ends with the Frankenstein monster revealed to be still alive under the castle's rubble. A fun kick off to what will become a recurring series; I particularly like the scene when Victor realizes what's happened to him and flees from the townsfolk.

Next is "A Coffin for Captain Cutlass" by Gardner Fox (story) and Serg Moren (art). The captain Don Miguel Fuentes De Cordoba seeks to take down the titular Captain Cutlass, carrying a sealed coffin with him. Upon coming across Cutlass, he binds him, and opens the coffin, revealing a giant monster. Cutlass's lover Marian sets him free and he is able to get the monster back in its cabin. He seeks an alchemist, who enables the monster to speak and tell its tale. Cutlass eventually finds the ship of Don Miguel's and sets the monster loose on him, then sets the ship aflame, destroying the monster for good as well.

Famous corpses in this issue's installment of The Heap

Third is "The Heap Meets the Horror Master!" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Ross Andru/Mike Esposito (art). Where we last left the Heap, he was trying to find his old friend Monty Elliot, hoping he could turn him back human. While traveling through the woods, The Heap frees a deer he was initially thinking of eating, then comes across a cabin where he slobbers down a dead rat and garbage. He is soon found by a man calling himself the Horrormaster, who has found the ability to raise the dead. The Heap is brought into his lair, where the corpses of some of the most famous evil people in history are, such as Attila the Hun, Rasputin, Caligula, Giles de Rais and others. The Heap defeats many of them and breaks free, finding the Horrormaster now resurrecting Hitler! The Horrormaster sends him to grab a family with two corpses, but the Heap rebels, getting into a big battle with numerous corpses and eventually breaking the horrormaster's staff and following him up a mountain where an avalanche crashes on the both of them. The Heap is revealed to be alive and continues on his quest to find Monty.

Fourth is "Gruesome Crewcut!" by Chic Stone (story & art). This hilarious (albeit quite gruesome) 3-page story is my favorite of the issue. A young boy named Jeff has girly long blonde hair. His father is angry at him, demanding he get a haircut. Jeff instead runs away from home. After several hours, he decides to go asleep under a tree. A mysterious pair of ghouls, Arnie and Rufus appear. Arnie has a bald, corpse-like head and desires Jeff's hair. As the story ends, Jeff has returned home, his entire scalp torn off and Arnie happily displays his new hair.

Jeff gets a haircut in "Gruesome Crewcut"

Fifth is "The Man Who Stole Eternity" by Gardner Fox (story) and Bill Everett (art). A thief named Mike kills a man in an alley and steals a pearl necklace from his wife. He hears that he can make a lot of dough by stealing from a Magic Museum. However upon going there he finds a variety of monsters that draw him into a realm of even more monsters! Eventually he sees the woman he stole from, revealed to be a sorceress. She demands he steal her the elixir of life which he agrees to, especially after she sends some monsters after him while he sleeps. He successfully steals the elixir, and wanting eternal life, drinks some before giving it to her. A couple of days later, Mike finds himself completely unable to move. He is declared dead and is buried, alive! While he has eternal life, he has to spend the rest of it in a coffin!

The issue concludes with "The Love Witch" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Ernie Colon (art). Colon, one of Warren's most commonly appearing artists during its down period of the late 60's and early 70's is credited here as Jack Purcell. The titular witch, Burnick kills numerous priests at Stonehedge and rides the giant lizard Friji. She dreams of a warrior killing Friji and sucking up her youth, turning her into an old lady. Eventually the warrior appears for real, killing Friji and she finds herself aged due to fearing his arrival. The warrior reveals himself to be Morpheus, God of Dreams. Then suddenly, in the final page things become a confusing mess, Burnick is young again, Morpheus flies away but she suddenly causes him to burst into flames, or at least that is my interpretation of what happened. I wonder if this is intended to continue into a future story as that would help this make more sense.

Nightmare #3

Boris Vallejo handles the cover for this issue of Nightmare, featuring the interior story When the Dawn Gods War, with a cover date of April 1971.

We kick off with "The Inner Man" featuring story and art by Tom Sutton, with assist on the art by Dan Adkins. Sutton goes under the pseudonyms of Sinclair Rich for the story and Sean Todd for the art. Dr. Wroclaw experiments on the soon to be executed prisoner Varga, shrinking his body considerably. Varga is soon mistakenly swallowed by Wroclaw when he downs a pill and ventures his way through his body, eventually reaching his brain. Being insider Wroclaw, Varga is able to control his actions, causing him to slap, then strangle his wife, then murder a man at a pawn shop and run over people in a car. Eventually Wroclaw is decapitated by a closing elevator door and some subconscious monsters kill Varga. A pretty fun way to kick off the issue, especially when Wroclaw starts going on his rampage.

Second is "The Victims" by Gerry Conway (story) and Rich Buckler (art). Two scientists, Frank and Tad work on creating indestructible clones. Frank jealously kills Tad, thinking back to how they first met and his fear of him taking his fiance Susan. He soon kills Susan as well, but then realizes that he has actually killed their clones and they are still alive. An indestructible clone climbs out of a tank and kills Frank.

Third is "Vault of a Vampire", featuring, in his Skywald debut, Al Hewetson for the story and Serg Moren for the art. A vampire stalks ancient Rome, attacking someone in the Arena, and having previously appeared at other crowded events. A trio of men seek to destroy the vampire. During its latest attack, they follow the vampire to the graveyard and the crypt where it makes its home. They wait outside the blocked entrance, thinking they can wait out the vampire. A couple of weeks pass and they break in, finding that the vampire has started devouring its own flesh. They then kill it with swords. I question Hewetson's knowledge of vampires in this story, it should be seeking to drink blood, not consume flesh. If it was supposed to be a ghoul as well, this was never stated earlier.

Wroclaw goes on a rampage in "Inner Man"

Fourth is "When the Dawn Gods War!" by Gardner Fox (story) and Paul Reinman/Mike Esposito (art). The caveman Kroog is surprised to see several flying saucers land. Out from one comes the octopus-like alien Thropoli, who puts a head band around Kroog's head and tells him to help him find a human who has fled to this planet. Kroog is saved by a dinosaur by the hiding human, then later gives a head band above his mate. The hiding human causes lightning to appear, making himself come off as a god to Kroog, then convincing him to create a poison for the Tropoli via some plants. Kroog gives the poison to the Tropoli, who fly off. The hiding human meanwhile is revealed, having used advanced equipment to fool Kroog into thinking he's a god. He decides to call Kroog Adam and his mate Eve. Rather lame ending aside, the rest of this story is pretty good.

Fifth is "A Rottin Deal" by Bruce Jones (story and art), using the pseudonym Philip Roland. A young man named Peter travels with his uncle Felix, seeking an old mine around five days away. As they travel through the desert wasteland, devoid of water, Peter decides to kill his uncle and take his canteen. He travels from oasis to oasis but finds that Felix's corpse is following him, beating him to the water, contaminating it. Peter rushes ahead of the corpse, making it to the next oasis in time to drink some water. However he soon finds that his uncle had leprosy, and having uses his canteen, he now has it too! Jones' story and art here is quite strong, making this the best story of the issue. Jones would later become one of Warren's most prolific, and best writers during the Louise Jones era.

Sixth is the text story "Horror Man" by Art Stampler. Our protagonist is a doctor helping the movie star Tracy Collins, who is convinced he is a werewolf. The two of them go to the doctor's home where Collins runs amok, although remaining human, getting eventually run over accidentally by a mistake. When the police arrive however, Collins has transformed into a dog!

Following the text story is the one page "Nightmare Pin-Up #2", with art by Chic Stone. This features a number of rotting corpses rising from the ground, including one that looks quite a lot like Warren's Uncle Creepy.

"A Rottin Deal"

Our seventh story is "Soul of the Warlock" by Chic Stone (story & art). Erik Mortus is obsessed with summoning the undead, and when his wife comes across what he is doing falls to her death. Mortus drugs various men, trying to summon the sorcerer Esteban Delgado, but each time he does so, his captive's body catches aflame and burns up. He finally succeeds with summoning Delgado after capturing the fortune-teller Lefarge. Delgado is upset at Mortus for disrupting his rest though, and summons a group of corpses to kill him!

The issue concludes with "Beware Small Evils!" by Jack Katz and Frank Giacoia (story and art). In the polluted future of... 1983 (lol), a motorcycle gang, the Spitfires are running amok. Meanwhile a Senator is visiting a scientist who hopes to use the plant culture mutation #320 to restore oxygen to the atmosphere. When the Spitfires arrive at his lab and cause some of the mutation to fall outside, it quickly spreads, consuming the spitfires, growing and multiplying. Using detergent and oil supplied by the senator, the mutations are destroyed, although this leads to any remaining oxygen running out.

The story features an incredibly lame joke at the end where the scientist has the Senator stabbed, claiming politicians are full of hot air.

Psycho #2

Upon opening this magazine I'm surprised to realize that its all new material, and we have already finished the reprint era. A good start! Hector Varella provides the cover for this issue cover dated March 1971.

The issue kicks off with "The Heap", the first appearance of a character who would be one of the longest running in the Skywald magazines and was also featured on the cover. This story is written by Chuck McNaughton and drawn by Ross Andru/Mike Esposito. Jim Roberts is living a wonderful life as a crop duster, about to get married to his fiance Audrey. However while piloting his plane one of the cables doesn't work causing him to crash in a forest where nerve gas is being used. The combination of the fire and gas transforms Jim into the horrifying The Heap. The Heap makes his way through a road and a graveyard, eventually coming across his own funeral where he realizes his friend Ryan set him up, selling him and his fiance a life insurance policy then screwing around with the cables in his plane so Jim would die and he can be with Audrey, collecting the insurance money. The Heap goes on a rampage against Ryan, Audrey and his underlings. As the story ends, The Heap wonders if his friend Monty Elliot may be able to find a cure for him.

Second is "To Laugh Perchance to Live" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Rich Buckler (art). Steve Weston, a man living in Manhattan suddenly finds himself transported to another world. Once there a large group of monsters call for him and start fighting each other over him, claiming they want to bring him to his throne. We see several pages of very bizarre monsters fighting each other and eventually Steve is brought to the throne, which has images in his likeness. He agrees to become their ruler and starts laughing, and we see him back in the real world, laughing maniacally. Was Steve crazy the entire time? Perhaps. In any case I enjoyed this story quite a lot with all the weird monsters in it fighting each other over him.

Third is "Death's Stranger" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Tom Palmer (art). Arthur Ashe has come up with a formula that will allow man to live forever. His scientific colleagues want him to destroy it, but he instead kills all of them, then uses the formula. However, the ghosts of his slain colleagues appear to torment him. Many years go by. Arthur enjoys eternal life at first but eventually comes war and he finds himself the last remaining human. The years continue, Earth reverts to prehistoric times including roaming dinosaurs. Arthur eventually decides to accept death and the ghosts of his slain colleagues bring him into a grave they have dug for him.

Next is the one page "Psycho's Gruesome Gallery: The Vampire" a one page feature drawn by Steve Hickman.

The Heap!

Next is "Revolution" by Rick Margopoulos (story) and Tom Sutton/Dan Adkins (art). Sutton is credited here as Sean Todd. Wary of the wrath of James Warren, who was viciously opposed to any of his artists working for the opposition, we will see several American Warren artists do stories for Skywald under pseudonyms. We'll see that also for this story's writer, Rich Margopoulos, who goes as "Rick Poulos" here, although Margopoulos would not become a mainstay at Warren like Sutton had been for a little while longer. On the Planet Sade slaves are constantly forced to fight in "games", battles in a coliseum against giant monsters. The King, upon hearing of a possible rebellion instead, desires more slaves to fight in more games to quell the populace. So the games become more and more severe, leading to a revolt by the citizenry, who also release all the monsters. The King and his men are forced to flee the planet on a spaceship, landing on another one where carnivorous plants soon attack them. The men flee towards what appears to be a city sitting atop a lake. The king tosses away all his underlings and his own daughter to save his own hide, only to realize that the lake itself is a blob-like entity that consumes him. Adkins' work is barely noticeable on this story, making it look like a Sutton solo story.

Our next story is "The Quest!" by Rich Margopoulos (story) and Chic Stone (art). A man comes across an old man in the park who gives him a painting of a girl tied to a pole as a three headed monster approaches her. That night he looks at it and is suddenly summoned to another world. The same old man says he has summoned him here to rescue his daughter from the vile king Moloch. So begins a lengthy quest where the two of them make it to Moloch's castle, but our protagonist is killed by the three headed beast. The old man returns to the park with his painting, hoping to find someone else. Sword and sorcery tales were never a favorite of mine in Warren and its the same here in Skywald, one of the weaker stories of the issue.

Next is "Dream Planet", written by Phil Seuling and drawn by Serg Moren. A spaceship approaches a planet and its crew has some very weird dreams. One man dreams of being on the planet and being enveloped by a blob-like creature. Another dreams of being attacked by leaves, ferns and fungus. A third dreams of being seized by a giant caterpillar, spun up in a web and has eggs hatch out of him and eat him. The scientists on board the ship believe these are visions that are being used as a defense of the inhabitants of the planet. They believe the inhabitants are physically quite weak. So the ship lands on the planet. The rather confusing last page implies that the monsters on the planet were real after all. At least that's my interpretation of it.

Monsters from To Laugh Perchance to Live

The issue concludes with the rather weak "Valley of Blood" by Chuch McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Frank Giacoia (art). A couple, Bart and Valerie head to a mysterious temple in the Himalayas. On the way they are warned by a man, Dargos, about a vampire castle and find a dead vampire skeleton in the ruins of the temple. After getting into a car accident, Valerie is found to need a blood transfusion and gets one from Dargos. The two of them then disappear. Suddenly vampire attacks from a pair of vampires start occurring. Bart eventually comes across the vampire woman, staking her and Valerie turns back to human, dying. Dargos then appears and attacks him.

Nightmare #2

Time for Nightmare #2, another issue filled mostly with reprints. The cover for this issue is from Boris Vallejo, who did several covers for Warren and will do a number more here for Skywald.

First is "Children of the Cold Gods" by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito (story and art). With the Earth becoming overpopulated, mankind seeks to cryofreeze people and then colonize other planets. Dr. Bradford is in charge of the procedure, and is woken up to tend to the cryogenic controls which have sunk far past safe temperature levels. Bradford is devastated to see his frozen fiance broken up into many pieces because her body has become so brittle! But the temperature continues to sink further, to a level so cold that a mysterious being that calls itself one of the Gods of the Cold is able to interact with our reality. The "Cold Gods" put back together the body parts of those broken into pieces via cryosleep, causing some monstrous creatures. But by lowering the temperature so far down that air itself becomes a liquid he is able to permanently freeze the monsters.

Our second story is "The Phantom of Philip Hawks" by A.C. Hollingsworth (art). A ship's crew comes across an abandoned ship in the ocean, the Mary Kane. Upon going on board they find various dead bodies including that of a couple. They find the log of the ship as kept by the woman, Mary Kane. The log tells of how she and her husband got married and her father built them the ship. However a man named Philip Hawks desired for Mary, and got killed after being beat up by her husband. He cursed the Mary Kane as he lay dying and it resulted in the death of everyone on the ship. Suddenly Hawks' voice and a spectral image of him appear, forcing the men to flee the Mary Kane on their life boat just in time. The Mary Kane continues to sail the sea, haunted.

Human beings put back together in a horrifying way, in "Children of the Cold Gods"

Third is "The Mirror of Death". The handsome Steve Lajos returns to shore while at sea. He goes to a club where he meets a woman but once alone beats her to death, selling her jewels for money. Upon another stop ashore, Lajos comes across a temple of Mirrors, made to honor the God Struga of the Seven Hands. It is said the mirror reveals the appearance of a man's soul. Lajos goes inside, finding his reflection in the mirror to be extremely ugly and monstrous. This causes him to believe the mirror and temple are phonies. He kills the guide there and smashes the mirror. But when he tries to go outside he realizes he is stuck in the mirror held by Struga. While a rather brief story, I did find the reflection of Lajos to be quite ugly and scary, good job by the uncredited artist.

The following story is "The Circle of Circe!" by Gardner Fox (story) and Syd Shores/Mike Esposito (art). On the Isle of Crete, the slave Ulysses is defeated in a tournament and forced to head to the Isle of Aeaea to find the Golden Tusks of Atlas. Ulysses and 100 of his fellow slaves head there, many dying on the way. When they reach Aeaea, a giant dragon grabs Ulysses and brings him before the beautiful Circe, who wants him for her husband. Ulysses refuses, causing Circe to turn one of his fellow slaves into a wolf, then has a snake attack him. Suddenly Ulysses' mean arrive, leading to a big battle. Circe puts a stop to things and transforms Ulysses and his remaining men into wolves, then she and her fellow women also transform into them. She reveals she is from the Star System Omega, where their males died out many years before in constant warfare. They have searched the universe and are now taking Ulysses and his men to be their mates.

Next is another one-page Nightmare Pin Up, this of the Creature of from the Black Lagoon, as drawn by Bill Everett.

Next is "Time Stop", the text story by Art Stampler. It is quite the rarity for the text story to be the best story of the issue in a comic/magazine, but that's the case here! The story starts off as a cliche mummy story as our protagonist goes to Egypt along with Dr. Vetry and his daughter Vera, digging into the pyramid of a priest of Anubis. Upon coming upon the mummy, they find it alive and our protagonist hits it with an axe, stopping it. All of a sudden things start to go really bonkers. The mummy is revealed to be some sort of robot and Vetry reveals himself to be an alien! He is Wheete Frippe from the planet Freim V, a race that had immortality but whose council decided to impose mortal lives because society became stagnant. Frippe rebelled against this, stealing a teleportation device and heading to Earth to find the secret of immortality from the priest of Anubis. He is attacked by our protagonist, who suddenly finds himself transported to another realm where those of Frippe's race convince him to stop him, giving him the power to absorb Frippe's attacks. Our protagonist returns and kills Frippe. It is then that Vera, revealed to be Frippe's teleportation device reveals yet another big twist, that Frippe was the only sane member of the council that decided to give up immortality. The council had decided to end immortality for all but themselves, robbing their subject's life and Frippe was the righteous one. Our protagonist discovers he has doomed the universe and commits suicide. Wow, this story had several great plot twists; its funny, as I hit this text story and found it to be the longest one yet (unlike previous ones, not even having any images), I pondered skipping it, especially as the prior two were massive busts, but I'm quite happy I didn't. In fact I'd say this is the best story we've had so far as part of my Skywald coverage.

Lajos's reflection is revealed in "The Mirror of Death"

Next is "Blood For the Vampire" with art by Norman Nodel/Vince Alascia (art). The small town of Ravennes in the Alps is haunted by a vampire, Eric Lustveg. The story then brings us into a lengthy flashback as we see how Eric grew up, but was a cruel boy, as if he was possessed by the devil. Upon growing up he kills a guest at the inn he works at and when he's about to be hung instead slits his own throat and rises as a vampire. When people try to put a stake through his heart they find his body missing. Back in the present, a young couple named Rod and Dot Blair head to Ravennes and upon exploring find a vampire's coffin, with Eric inside. They are saved due to the dawn and Rod stakes Eric. But the villagers tell him he should have only staked him once, not several times, so Eric rises again to continue sucking people's blood. Quite a flimsy excuse there at the end to enable Eric to continue his reign of terror. Coming after the best story of the issue is the issue's biggest flop.

Our next story is "The Massacre of Mankind!" This story tells of how mankind got overthrown by its robot slaves. The story takes place in a society where robots are responsible for various menial tasks and are rated based on their performance. It begins with the wedding of Alan and Nara, who are called by Alan's father who is worried about the fact that higher graded robots are responsible for the robot factories. They head to the factory trying to see the robot in charge and Alan's father is let in, only to be killed. The robots refuse to listen to any orders from Alan or Nara, and then the robots start running amok. Humankind is forced to flee into caves and hope they can one day fight back against the robots. Oddly enough this story just ends in the middle of things, making me wonder if we will get a second part in a future issue. Although since this is a reprint story and Skywald is soon to move to all new stories, I doubt that we will get anything further.

The issue concludes with "Pressed for Time" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Dan Adkins (art). Ephram Knowles is killed after having his body crushed by rocks. However he suddenly finds himself in a courtyard, alive again, being accused of witchcraft. As witnesses speak against him, we flash back to how Ephram was obsessed with obtaining eternal life ever since he was a boy. Over time he committed various nefarious acts and eventually is able to summon the devil, who agrees to make it so his days will never end. Back in the present Ephram is sentenced to death by having his body crushed by rocks. He then realizes that while his days will never end, he will be reliving his own execution over and over again. While a rather "eh" story whose ending I saw coming a million miles away, it did have a rather unique method of execution by putting him between two boards and stacking so many rocks on the top one that it crushed him.

This is another story dominated by reprints, with "Children of the Cold Gods!", "The Circle of Circe!", and "Pressed for Time" being new stories along with the one page pin-up and text story. One more issue of reprints to go (Psychos #2) and we can finally move into all new material.