Psycho #19

Sebastia Boada provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated July 1974.

The frontispiece is "Old Horrors" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). It features a young woman being pursued from a man coming out of a coffin.

First story is Lady Satan in "The Son of Lord Lucifer" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Edward Farthing) and Pablo Marcos (art). Marcos makes his first appearance for a new story in a while. Lady Satan is now with Satan's child. She knows that once Anne retakes control of her body, she will try to destroy it and has herself bound to a bed. Anne wakes back up and knows that the only way to kill Satan's child is to kill herself. Later Anne awakens again while not bound and tries to kill herself, first by jumping off a cliff, then stabbing herself to no luck. She is able to throw herself into a fire, horrifically burning herself and killing the baby. This part of the series ends here, and this would end up being the final part, either dropped by Skywald or perhaps a victim of the entire line's cancellation that happens later. I never particularly cared for this series, with the same gimmick of Lady Satan and Anne taking control of the same body getting old a long time ago.

"Old Horrors"

Next is "Like a Bat Outta Hell" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Howie Anderson) and Ricardo Villamonte (story). Our protagonist is an older man who has always been interested in inventing things. Unfortunately for him, his devices often stop working or malfunction in key moments, causing him to be shunned. He decides to move to Europe, buy a castle and turn it into an amusement park. One of his inventions though, a giant mechanical bird runs amok and kills a girl. The townsfolk gather, wanting to kill him and take revenge. Upon coming to the castle much of his devices such as robot alligators and knights also run amok, killing many. They finally come up on him and our protagonist says he's had enough. He chops up his own body with an ax, revealing he was a robot! A crazy ending to a rather crazy story!

Third is "The Yeti" by Al Hewetson (story) and Alphonso Font (art). A town in Switzerland is ravaged by the titular Yeti, who is quite strong but not intelligent. It kills person after person, all those standing in its way. A man covered in shadows claims he is the only one who can stop it. He heads into the town and successfully strangles the Yeti, then leaves. The man returns to his home where we discover he's Frankenstein's monster! A rather simple story with a funny and unexpected ending.

"Ligeia"

Fourth is "Ligeia", an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story by Al Hewetson, with art by Jesus Duran. This is a fairly basic story, plot-wise. The protagonist falls in love with the tall brunette Ligeia, but she dies of an illness. He drowns in his sorrows by taking opium, but eventually marries another woman, the blonde haired Rowena, whom he does not love. Then she falls sick and dies too. While at her side all he can think of is Ligeia. Rowena's body rises, but removing its veil reveals it is the corpse of Ligeia instead. He kisses her then rots away himself. The ending is somewhat changed from the original story; while Ligeia is resurrected my recollection was it was not as a corpse, nor does the protagonist rot away himself.

Fifth is "Hell is on Earth!" the second story in the Revenge of Dracula series by Al Hewetson (story) and Emilio Bernardo (art). When we last left this storyline, Vlad had fakes his own death but now finds he must hide out. He finds a shack where he rests, and there lives an old woman who worships Lucifer. She tells him she seeks to give great power and embraces him. We find she is a vampire and she bites him, turning him into the first male vampire. He then heads out, turning into a bat and comes before some people, revealing he has power over them, including convincing a woman to stab herself. Bernardo turns in a really strong first page of artwork here, after that it reverts to his usual level of work.

"And in this Land... A Monster"

We wrap up with the Monster, Monster series with "And in this Land... A Monster" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Our werewolf protagonist, in his human form, has come to America, under the name Vincent Crayne, seeking to find the American woman who took the amulet in the prior stories. While walking down an alley, he is mugged, but changes into a werewolf and slaughters his muggers. He realizes someone saw him and chases him, only to discover another werewolf! He knocks the other werewolf out, lets a hippie who saw it go, and then turns back into human. Realizing what he's done, he brings him to the room he is staying in, waiting for him to wake up. The setting for this series changes and this is at least a little more interesting than the last few parts, but I'd much rather see this series put to rest so we could get something new.