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.

Creepy 103

Walt Simonson and Kim McQuaite provide the animal themed cover for this reprint issue of Creepy, dated November 1978. This reprint issue seems to be animal themed, except for the ridiculous inclusion of "Thumbs Down" which was reprinted numerous times throughout the years.

First is "Angel of Doom!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Goodwin (story), from Creepy 16. This story features Thane the barbarian, a recurring character throughout the years in Creepy. In this story Thane is part of a tribe that continously makes sacrifices to a monster. When his lover is killed, Thane heads out, ignoring the tribe's warnings and battles the monster, a giant insect creature. He defeats the creature, but the tribe decides to continue making sacrifices anyway, so Thane leaves. The tribe is soon plagued by the monster's children and are all killed after Thane leaves.

Second is "Bookworm" with art by Richard Corben and story by Gerald Conway, from Eerie 32. A man goes to work as an apprentice to an elderly man with a large book collection. The elderly man tells him how he's studying the black arts. One night our hero discovers the old man dragging a corpse with him and follows him. The elderly man is in a crazed state and attacks him, but is killed by the apprentice. Suddenly a giant worm appears, who the elderly man had been finding food for, and forces the apprentice to start supplying him with food from now on.

Third is "On Little Cat Feet!" by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story), from Vampirella 38. A witch, Kitty, lives in a rooming house with her artist friend Eulalia. Kitty is kicked out of the place by the landlady and plots revenge by turning into a cat and poisoning her claws. She kills the landlady's cat, taking its place, then kills the landlady as well soon after. Eulalia meanwhile recruits an actor as a model for her latest work, a statue of Nero. Kitty, still in her cat form, wanders by and Eulalia has the actor hold her in his arms. Eulalia reveals herself to be Medusa, and when she reveals herself ends up turning both the actor and Kitty into a statue.

Fourth is "Thumbs Down!" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne T. Murphy (story), from Creepy 6. This story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to com e back from the dead to take revenge. This story would probably be reprinted by Warren over the years more than any other story.

Fifth is "Lucky Stiff" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story), from Vampirella 38. A very cautious man ignores a beautiful young woman who starts at the place where he works. At the end of the day she invites him to come to her home at the other side of town. The story shows what would happen if he went. He arrives there, only to be attacked by cats. She tells him he doesn't deserve to live and that he is going to be fed to him. The narrative then reveals that he actually didn't go there, as he was hit by a car along the way.

Last is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art), from Creepy 62. 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.

Creepy 43

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy.

First is "Three Way Split" by Jorge Galvez (art) and Dennis P. Junot (story). This story features two businessmen who are enemies of each other. A doctor who was fired by one of them goes to the other, with a way to get revenge on the rival by becoming him through a brain transplant. The operations is successful, although the rival convinces the doctor to help him as well. By the end of the story all three have switched bodies with each other, and all three end up dying.

Next is the cover story, "The Mark of Satan's Claw" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Fred Ott (story). A man comes to a small town, curious of some murders of children that are occuring. Law enforcement is unwilling to help him, but a man there admits to him that the town is full of Satan worshippers and that he left them when they started sacrificing children. Satan himself kills the man, but our protagonist is led to his girlfriend, who also left the Satan worshippers. Our protagonist is revealed to be Satan himself, and kills her too for betraying him.

Third is "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story was Luis Garcia's Creepy debut. An extremely nice art job, with the werewolf being obviously influenced by the original Wolfman movie starring Lon Chaney Jr. The main character, a black detective, who is hired to find the boy that is the werewolf, was based on Sidney Poitier. This story featured the first inter racial kiss in mainstream comics, although it only occured because Garcia misunderstood McGregor's line "This is the clincher" in his script. As usual, the story features McGregor's nonscensical political ramblings.

Fourth is "Quest of the Bigfoot" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story features a pair of scientists investigating bigfoot. They eventually come across an Eden occupied by the bigfoots. One of the scientists morphs into bigfoot and attacks the other scientist. But that scientist reveals that he is the abominable snowman and kills him, wanting to take over the bigfoot's realm for his species.

Last is "Mirage" by Felix Mas (art) and Gerry Conway (story). A man and a young boy wander the desert after a plane crash. They eventually come across a group of women that end up eating him. At the end of the story it is revealed that the whole experience was a mirage, caused by the boy because he was upset at the man for hitting him.

Creepy 38

Ken Kelly's cover of an axe wielding maniac starts off this issue. It was Kelly's first cover for Creepy. Clif Jackson provides the frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Killer Plants!"

First story is "Wooden Cross!" by Rich Buckler (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young man is called to a town by his uncle only to find him dead of a 'plague' when he gets there. It ends up that the plague is actually a vampire. The young man suspects the vampire is the head of the town, but it ends up being the son of the town doctor who he manages to kill with a cross after being made a vampire himself. Buckler's art appears very heavily influenced by Angelo Torres in this story.

Next is "The Vengeance of the Hanged!" by Syd Shores (art) and Chris Fellner (story). A corrupt judge sentences innocent people to die by hanging, doing so for some just to show his power to an enemy lawyer. One night he has a dream of being pursued by the corpses of the innocent people he's had hanged over the years. During the dream he is hung by them. He is found dead of a heart attack the next day, with rope burns appearing on his neck.

Next is "Sticks and Stones to Break Their Bones" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Stu Schwartzburg (story). A man finds many ancient carvings of people with modern weapons. This causes him to go to the military, telling them that ancient civilizations must have reached modern levels only to be wiped out, forcing civilization to start over. The military doensn't believe him, choosing to focus on their latest weapon... a primitive catapult. Not much of a sensical ending here.

Fourth is "The Way Home!" by Mike Royer (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). A disoriented man talks to manequins, sits in a bar occupied by skeletons, and has dreams of going home to see his mother, who is with another boy, and kills her. He sees a black haired woman in a trenchcoat who says she'll bring him home... which ends up being a cemetary.

Royer provides the art again for the following story, "Sleepwalker!", with writing by Gerry Conway. A young woman beliees herself to be a vampire and attends therapy to cure herself of it, which she believes is successful. The killings continue however. She soon realizes that her husband is the true culprit, who had it blamed on her. Not only that, but he's a ghoul, who makes her his next victim.

Sixth is "Secret of the Haunted Room!" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Warren (story). A young man is given a house as part of his inheritance, under the condition that he live there for the rest of his days. The house is haunted however, and he soon meets a young woman inside who claims to be from 1910, not the present year, 1970. It ends up that she's a vampire, and makes him her next victim. This story is enhanced by inclusion of some real life shots, a shot of the cover, and some extra detailed drawings from Colon.

The story concludes with "The Cosmic All" by Wally Wood (story & art). Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. 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.

Eerie 32

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Richard Corben of a beautiful woman and a beast like man. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur" by Clif Jackson.

Up first is "Superhero" by Tom Sutton (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features a superhero battling crime in the city. The local mob does all they can to stop him, even sending an expert hit man after him, but he fails as well. At the end of the story it is revealed that the superhero is a vampire. The local cops worry about what will happen if the city runs out of criminals.

Second is "The Waking of the Hawk!" by Clif Jackson & Syd Shores (art) and Gardner Fox (story). A pair of explorers in the mountains find a hidden cave with a hawk-like man, frozen, and various advanced technological devices. One of the men, seeking to get rich off the devices, thaws the hawk-like man, and kills his companions. He nurses the hawk man back to health with the promise that he'll explain the devices. They leave the cave and come across the flying saucer the hawk man came to Earth in. The hawk man kills the explorer however and eats him so he'll be strong enough to fix his ship.

Third is "The Wailing Tower!" by Frank Bolle (art) and Larry Herndon (story). It features a man who is in a plane crash but is rescued by monks who live near a tower they call "The Wailing Tower". Seeing the jewels in their possession, the man steals them, but is caught, and flees from them into the tower. He reaches the top where he discovers that the monks have been worshipping Satan!

Fourth is "Bookworm" with art by Richard Corben and story by Gerald Conway. A man goes to work as an apprentice to an elderly man with a large book collection. The elderly man tells him how he's studying the black arts. One night our hero discovers the old man dragging a corpse with him and follows him. The elderly man is in a crazed state and attacks him, but is killed by the apprentice. Suddenly a giant worm appears, who the elderly man had been finding food for, and forces the apprentice to start supplying him with food from now on.

Fifth is "I Fell For You" by Jack Sparling (art) and John Wooley (story). A girl yearns after a rich singer who she had spurned in her youth. The two get married, but she plots with his agent to have him killed by falling out of a plane. That happens, but his body falls on their car, causing a crash that kills all of them.

Sixth is "Soul Power!" by Mike Royer (art) and Don Glut (story). A man is deathly afraid of dying and rotting away, so he deals with Satan to live forever. He lives forever, but ages as normally and at about 200 years old collapses in the desert because his body is so decrepit. When vultures start attacking him he willingly sumits himself to Satan.

Last is "Ice World" by Bill Barry (story & art). It features astronauts who land on a frozen planet. Before long however, the temperature starts rising tremendously and beasts appear. They try to escape to no avail. It ends up that they landed in a freezer that was being defrosted.
Overall, a pretty good issue! Not a single bad story here.

Vampirella 13

A fairly good issue of Vampirella. It features one of Sanjulian's earliest covers for Warren. The frontis for this issue is "Vampi's Feary Tales: Lamiae" by Gary Kaufman.

Our Vampi story for this issue is "The Lurker in the Deep!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Vampi joins the cruise of a famous playboy named Triton, who in actuality is luring victims to the ocean to be provided to a fish like demon that he has a pact with. Mistakenly thinking that Vampirella worships the evil god Chaos, he falls in love with her, but the jealous fish demon considers this a break of their pact and destroys his ship and him. Sandwiching this tale is short segments featuring Adam and Conrad Van Helsing. Conrad, at this point believing Vampi is responsible for his brother's death wants to kill her while Adam reveals that he's fallen in love with her. A fairly good Vampi story from early in its run.

Next is "From Death's Dark Corner" by Steve Hickman (art) and Gerry Conway (story). It features a mother and son who head to the swamp to feed a beast that lives there. The mother tells the son of how she met his father, who died shortly after his birth. It ends up however that the beast is her real son, and she gives him the boy to eat. Instead the beast, upset at her for abandoning him eats her!

Jose Bea's art debut is next, "The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter", written by Dean Latimer. The story is about a pharoah who orders a vault to be made with all his treasures. The vault architect creates a fault in it so his sons after his death can steal from it. They initially are successful, but one is trapped inside and is killed on purpose. His body is stolen to hide his identity, but the pharoah's daughter is able to uncover things. Ironically however the pharoah rewards the surviving son due to his intelligence, making him an advisor of his.

Next is "The Frog Prince" by Bill Dubay (story & art). A woman meets a talking frog who tells her he's a prince. She kisses him and he turns into a human and agrees to marry her. However it is soon revealed that as a human he can't speak, only croak!

Last is the issue's best story, "Eye of the Beholder" by Gary Kaufman (story & art). The story features an ugly countess who decides that a beautiful peasent girl is her property and hers to use to make herself beautiful. The countess has her doctors transfer the girl's body parts to her, such as her hair, teeth, etc... but each transplant is botched, making the countess even more ugly. By the end of the story she's a freakish blind hunchback, but finally does find a man in her similarly mishappen servant. Kaufman's best work out of the half a dozen or so jobs he did for Warren.

Creepy 25

Despite being from Creepy's dark ages, this is actually a terrific issue, although half of it due to reprinted stories...

The cover for this issue, credited to Richard Conway is arguably the most bizarre in Warren's history. It consists of 12 postage stamp-size pictures of an Uncle Creepy mask, dressed in Santa clothing. Quite an odd one. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" features exorcism and while uncredited, is obviously drawn by Ernie Colon.

Up first is one of this issue's new stories, "Keep Your Spirits Up" by Reed Crandall (art) and Bill Parente (writer). Parente was the editor of Creepy during this era, and wrote all the new stories in this issue. Crandall was one of the first of the original artists to return following Warren's downturn (which started with the previously reviewed issue 18), and his art here is as good as ever. The story surrounds an artist who travels to the spirit world in order to get inspiration. The spirits don't like him being there, and he eventually ends up going there so much that he is killed by them. Best of the new stories in this issue, although all of them are good.

The first of the reprints is "Witch's Tide" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally printed in Eerie #7. The story is about a group of sea beasts that are attacking people in a small town. The townfolks think the daughter of an admitted witch is luring the beasts to the town, so they kill her and burn her corpse. But it ends up that she was actually attemping to keep the beasts away from the town, and with her dead, the beasts are quickly able to overrun the town. A great story, as most of the Goodwin era ones were.

Another new story is up next, "Their Journey's End" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). This story takes place over 1000 years in the future, where people are arrested by a government entity known as 'The Ministry' for having free thoughts. A few people jailed for their free thoughts escape to another dimension where they think things will work out alright for them... ...only it ends up being Nazi Germany. Another top-notch story here.

"It That Lurks!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is another reprint from Eerie #7. A pair of men encounter a dinosaur lurking in quicksand in the deep jungle. They shoot it with tranquilizer darts only for it to submerge under the quicksand. One of the men, seeking glory heads in the quicksand after it and is killed. The other man is about to depart when he sees his wife in the quicksand and also heads in, to his death. It ends up neither the dinosaur or the man's wife were ever truly there, but actually were generated as a trap (that which the victim wanted the most) by the quicksand. Yet another terrific story here.

Another reprint's up next, "Deep Ruby" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man is encountered by a homeless bum who holds a large ruby. Fascinated by the ruby, the man is suddenly drawn into it, where he encounters various demons. Trapped in the ruby, he deals with the bum to be let out, but only by switching places with the bum as the keeper of the ruby, trapped in that role until someone else becomes trapped in it. Good story, although probably the least best of the issue (which still makes it great compared to a lot of other stories from this era).

The issue wraps up with "An Unlikely Visitor" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). A man goes to see his aunt, after not seeing her for fifteen years, having been warned by his father to stay away from the place due to a 'curse'. Years before a woman was murdered and his uncle was accused of the murder. The whole story makes it seem like the main character's relatives are going to kill him, but it ends up that he is revealed as the killer all along after transforming into a hideous beast.

Vampirella 10

After two days away, I'm back with a new issue of Vampirella.

This early issue of Vampirella is a rarity in that there is no Vampirella story. While she hosts the majority of the stories in the issue, her usual own story is strangely absent.

Behind the Bill Hughes cover is the frontis, "Vampi's Feary Tales" The Face of Medusa", by Billy Graham.

First up is "Fiends in the Night!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story was clearly meant for Creepy, as it is hosted by Uncle Creepy instead of Vampirella. The story is about a crook who steals a small chest from an old man, who curses him. Finding only a book in the chest, he tosses it aside. Fleeing from the city in the midst of winter, he is confronted by ghouls, werewolves and a vampire. He goes back to get the book, thinking that it holds spells that he'll be able to use to defend himself, only to find it frozen shut as a bunch of rotting corpses start after him.

Up next is "The Marriage" by Ralph Reese (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Its about a man so obsessed with building a machine that his girlfriend leaves him. He punches the machine and is electrocuted to death, but is brought back to life by the machine which keeps him alive solely to do chores for it. Reese's art kind of looks like Richard Corben's in this story.

"Eye of Newt, Toe of Frog" is third, with art by Frank Brunner and story by Gerald Conway. It's about a woman whose annoyed by her husband so she looks into the black arts. She soon finds things too much for her to handle, and it ends up that her husband was into the stuff the whole time too.

"The Soft, Sweet Lips of Hell!", with art by Steve Englehart & Neal Adams and written by Denny O'Neil is next, about a succubus who falls in love with a boxer being pressured by the mob. The boxer is killed, but she uses her power to bring him back to life, with the price being her life.

"War of the Wizards" is the fifth story, and is both written and drawn by Wally Wood. It's about a pair of rival wizards who use a soldier in their fight between each other. The soldier is able to defeat both wizards, and is revealed to be a wizard himself. As usual, Wood's art is quite good, and the story, while not having a horror theme, is pretty good too.

"A Thing of Beauty" is this issue's cover story, with art by Billy Graham and written by Len Wein. Its about a very beautiful actress who fakes a relationship with a very ugly special effects producer to get publicity. Upon finding out how she really feels about him, he switches her with a dummy of hers that gets set on fire, killing her.

Last up is "Regeneration Gap", once again with art by Tom Sutton and written by Chuck McNaughton. With over-population, food shortages and pollution destroying the Earth, a spaceship departs to space. Returning to Earth 100 years later, a man returns as all that's let of humanity and finds Earth a wasteland except for a single beautiful woman who keeps talking about 'purifying him'. The woman ends up being a blob-like creature and turns him into one too. I'll probably lean towards this one as my favorite story from the issue.

A so-so issue. Sutton and Wood's stories are quite good, while the others are average at best.