The EC and Warren Connection

EC comics were an obvious influence on Warren's comic magazines and with this article I shall point out the connections between the two. It is well known that during Warren's original golden age of 1964 to 1967 that the comics came off as EC resurrected, with many of the stories drawn by the same artists that had originally appeared in EC comics. In fact Warren's horror comics came about in the first place due to original Creepy editor Russ Jones wanting to recreate EC-style horror comics in the early to mid 1960s. By 1967 all of the original EC artists had departed Warren due to the money problems that plagued Warren that resulted in a reduction in the stories commissioned, and the rates paid. Some of these artists, like Joe Orlando, Johnny Craig and Angelo Torres would never return, but a fair number, like Reed Crandall and Al Williamson eventually did. Others, like John Severin, Alex Toth and Russ Heath actually outpaced themselves in later years, during eras that are principally known at Warren as being dominated by Spanish and Phillipino artists.

An early force in Warren comics was a group of artists who were known as the Fleagles gang at EC in the 1950s, Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Angelo Torres (Nick Meglin and George Woodridge were also part of this group but never actually worked for Warren). This group of artists frequently collaborated at EC on stories that were often credited just to Williamson. Only occasionally would a credit appear for Frazetta, Krenkel or Torres, although they had a big part in a great many more. Each non-Williamson artist including Frazetta only did one solo story, and Torres' wasn't even published during EC's original run due to being rejected by the Comics Code. Frazetta also contributed a solo cover for Weird Science-Fantasy #29, which was a rejected cover for Famous Funnies. This cover is frequently credited as the best cover from an EC comic.

Aside from Krenkel, each of these artists had a high level of contribution to Warren, particularly Frazetta and Torres. Frazetta did only one actual comics story for Warren ("Werewolf", appearing in Creepy #1) and a couple of frontis one page features, but did numerous covers, principally on the early issues. Some of these covers are quite famous, in particular Eerie #23 and Vampirella #1, but for the most part each one is a classic. Like much of the original Warren artists, Frazetta stopped contributing in late 1967 as Warren went into a dark age, but later returned and contributed work in 1969 and 1970. His last Warren cover was used for Eerie #81, but had actually been painted several years earlier, intended for a magazine called "POW!" that was never actually published. Frazetta was extremely popular with readers, and Warren reprinted his covers numerous times starting in the mid to late 1970s. Krenkel never did an actual full Warren story on his own, although he contributed to a story with Al Williamson in the first issue of Creepy, had a few frontis one-page features and had a couple of writing credits. He has also been credited as assisting with drafts for Frazetta's covers to Creepy 6 and 7 (which can be seen in EC fanzine Squa Tront #7).

Williamson contributed early stories to Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat before departing Warren for almost 10 years, returning for 2 stories in Creepy #86 and Creepy #112 respectively. An additional story that he originally drew for Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction appeared in Creepy #83. Torres was prolific in the early issues of Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, contributing 19 solo stories, a collaboration with Al Williamson for one story, a single page ending to a Gray Morrow (to whom he had stylistic similarities) story from Creepy #2 and 6 single page frontispieces. Torres' art was typically a high point for me in the early issues of Creepy and Eerie. He departed Warren for good in early 1967.

Williamson's work for EC was primarily their sci-fi work, which was also the case for Joe Orlando and Wally Wood who also made many contributions to Warren. At EC, Orlando's work appeared heavily influenced by Wood at first but slowly grew into his own unique style, one that was more so apparent by the time he worked at Warren. Orlando provided art for approximately 30 stories in Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat, including the infamous "Landscape" story from Blazing Combat #2 that is oftentimes cited as a primary reason for that comic's demise. Eight of his stories were part of the Adam Link series, Warren's first recurring series. The first 3 stories had also been adapted by EC in Weird Science-Fantasy in 1954/1955, drawn that time by Orlando as well. Although it should be noted that stylistically Orlando handled things differently, particularly the Adam Link character in both series. Orlando's work for Warren ceased in 1967, when he moved on to join DC Comics.

Wally Wood was EC's most well known sci-fi artist and also was a heavy contributor to Harvey Kurtzman's war comics. Wood, unlike many of the other EC artists discussed here did very little work during Warren's original golden age when Archie Goodwin was editor, his output limited to a single horror story he did with Dan Adkins in Creepy #9 and a pair of stories for Blazing Combat. He had earlier done a story for Famous Monsters which was also reprinted in Eerie in 1967. Wood did a variety of stories for Warren in the early to mid 70s, most of which were sci-fi or fantasy based. Wood departed Warren for good after a controversial incident when Bill Dubay took a 12 page stories of his, split it in two, and heavily rewrote it to focus on sexual aspects of the story as published in the first 2 issues of 1984. Dubay had reportedly ordered rewritten a story of Wood's from Eerie #60, which was published a few years earlier, as well. A joint story of Wood’s with Ernie Colon appeared a few issues later in 1984, but this story was originally done several years earlier, intended for the previously mentioned POW! magazine which never saw the light of day.

Jack Davis was one of the most prolific artists at EC, appearing in practically every horror and war comic that EC issued. He never did any actual stories for Warren, but contributed one frontispiece from Creepy #3 and did the original drawings for Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie that appeared throughout Warren's comics for years to come. He also did the covers for the first issues of both Creepy and Eerie, although the Eerie cover was actually a reprint of a subscription advertisement that had appeared in an earlier issue of Creepy.

Reed Crandall and George Evans joined EC midway through its run and contributed a variety of stories for EC's horror and crime comics. Crandall was a prolific contributor to Warren in its early days and as with the other EC artists departed for a few years towards the end of 1967. Crandall returned to Warren in 1969 for another approximate half dozen stories then departed again, only to return once more for a final batch of stories that appeared 1972 and 1973. By this point however the quality of his work had deteriorated quite a bit and I believe this was his last actual comics work. Evans did a variety of types of stories for EC, but planes was his true love and his Warren work reflected this as all 3 of these stories featured this theme, which appeared in Creepy and Blazing Combat.

Johnny Craig was my personal favorite EC artist, where he was principally responsible for the Vault of Horror and Crime Suspenstories comics. He had a very clean style which was a stark contrast to EC's other notable horror artists like Jack David and Graham Ingels. Craig was a strong writer as well and wrote the majority of his EC and Warren stories. Much of his work was under the alias "Jay Taycee" which he used due such that the advertising clients he worked for didn't know he was doing comics work as well. Craig was yet another artist that departed Warren for good in 1967 although a couple of stories of his didn't see print until 1968.

John Severin appeared principally in EC's war comics, and actually edited Two-Fisted Tales for a period of time before its cancellation. His early work during Warren golden age was a mixture of this type of work for Blazing Combat, as well as several stories for Creepy and Eerie. Severin departed along with the other EC artists in 1967 but returned in 1974 and contributed Warren work for many years after, through 1979. Severin was never a favorite of mine during his EC days but he always was a strong contributor for Warren with the approximate 30 or so stories he did for them.

Russ Heath, Alex Toth and Eugene Colan aren't artists one usually thinks of when they think of EC, but all 3 had done stories for EC's war comics. Heath only did a single story during Warren's original golden age, "Give and Take" from Blazing Combat #4, but did approximately a dozen stories for Warren in the late 1970s, including some extremely memorable stories like "Yellow Heat" (my personal favorite Warren story), "Process of Elimination" and "Zooner or Later". Heath's Warren work was always exceptionally strong, particularly the aforementioned Yellow Heat. Toth did a number of stories during Warren's original golden age, best among them "Survival" from Blazing Combat #3. Toth departed Warren over a year before the other artists did, but returned to Warren multiple times and his artwork appeared in Warren magazines far longer than any other former EC artist. In the mid 70s he did a number of solo stories, most of which he wrote himself, along with the well known "Daddy and the Pie" story from Eerie #64 and the final two stories in the "Hacker" series. His latest batch of original Warren stories were done in the early 1980s and featured him inking stories for a variety of artists such as Leo Summers, Leo Duranona and Carmine Infantino, producing an interesting result each time. The Rook printed his "Bravo For Adventure" two part series, which was rated as the #1 Warren series of all time in the book The Warren Companion. Toth's last Warren work was a couple of stories from the Torpedo series that he had originally done for the Spanish version of Creepy that were reprinted in some of the last issues of Vampirella. Colan's work appeared exclusively during Warren's original golden age, totaling approximately 15 stories that mostly appeared in Eerie. His work was principally done in wash-style and was always of exceptionally high quality.

The two big omissions from this article to this point from EC's side have been Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder. Kurtzman acted as editor for EC's two war comics and was the founding editor of Mad in its comics form and the first few issues of its magazine form. Elder appeared within EC's war comics, primarily teamed with John Severin. Once Mad came out, Elder's true calling as a humor artist became apparent and he was among EC's strongest comedic artists in Mad and its sanctioned imitation comic, Panic. Neither artist ever did work for Warren's horror comics, but both worked on the magazine Help!, which Warren published from 1960 through 1965. Kurtzman acted as editor and a primary writer for the magazine while Elder did art for various stories throughout the magazine's run.

Most of the focus of this article has been on EC's artists, but what about their writers? With the vast, vast majority of EC's stories being written by Al Feldstein, there was only a few other EC writers, although two of them, Otto Binder and Carl Wessler did work for Warren. Both of these writers came on board with EC around 1954 towards the end of its original run of horror comics. Binder did approximately a dozen stories for Warren, all during its original golden age. Most of these stories were from the Adam Link series which he originally developed with his brother Earl Binder. As mentioned earlier, the first 3 of these stories had also appeared in EC comics as well. Wessler contributed only 2 stories to Warren's original golden age, but rejoined Warren during Bill Dubay's run as editor, contributing approximately 20 stories. Four of his stories later appeared in the early 1980s although I suspect all four of them were originally done during the Dubay era and just held off for printing until this point. One story, "Lucky Stiff", was a redo of a story he had done called "Out Cold" from the Haunt of Fear #25.

So who from EC never actually contributed to Warren? The most notable is "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, the lead artist of the Haunt of Fear and probably the most liked of the EC horror artists. Ingels' style would have fit Warren perfectly, but the criticism of the subject matter that he contributed to EC greatly bothered him and he left the comics field entirely. That said, Warren eventually did a tribute story to him, "Encore Ghastly" in Creepy #61 which featured a horror comics artist who had been driven from comics, but returned, this time drawing the stories with blood. Bernard Krigstein, who did groundbreaking work for EC, particularly with his art on the famous story "Master Race" had also departed comics entirely by the time Warren started doing comics. Al Feldstein was the principal editor from EC throughout its run, but working as editor for Mad during the entire period that Warren was publishing comics was obviously never even available. Jack Kamen was a very prolific EC artist and was EC's best artist at drawing women, but was generally weak from a horror standpoint and never did any Warren work.

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.

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 55

An all reprint issue of Creepy, the cover being a montage of many previous covers. This issue is dated August 1973.

First is "Brain Trust" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 10. A new doctor in town is perplexed by the town eccentric, a large man who doesn't show up in public often, and smells like shaving cream. Eventually the grocery store owner refuses his business and he dissappears. The doctor finds out that the man was one of a set of mutated twins. Having died in a car crash, his other brother used his brain to control his actions. When the doctorcomes upon him, the living twin uses the dead one's body to kill himself.

Second is "Welcome Stranger" by Al Williamson (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 2. Two men from Hollywood that work in the movie industry come across a town where they find some strange events occuring. They soon encounter some ghosts. It ends up all being fake, an act by the townfolk who want a movie filmed there, but their work had resulted in frightening the two men to death

Third is "Act Three", which is written and drawn by Johnny Craig. This story, from Creepy 18 is about an actress whose husband has turned into a werewolf. The two of them are able to get a doctor to create a cure, but when he injects both of them with the serum, the actress turns into a werewolf herself.

Fourth is "Thundering Terror!" by John Severin (art) and Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story), from Creepy 17. This issue was clearly originally intended for Eerie, with Cousin Eerie hosting it. This story is about an old man who tells of his brother, who was obsessed with killing buffalos. One such encounter resulted in the death of a man who was trying to stop him. Over the years our narrator becomes successful and grows a family while his brother vanishes and returns from time to time, always doing nothing but hunting buffalos. An old man, our narrator finds his brother dead after he tries to hunt one last buffalo, and sees the ghost of the dead man on a ledge above him. Like any story told in a western setting, Severin was perfectly suited for this story.

Fifth is "Incident in the Beyond!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 3. A ship heads through space, testing a new warp drive to ensure it works. There was one prior try at the warp, which failed before. Along the way they find an apparent alien ship, which they destroy. The warp drive works, but they find that it has not saved them any time, and they find another ship trying the drive thinking they're aliens, so they are destroyed as well, like they had destroyed the original ship.

Sixth is "Prelude to Armageddon" by Wally Wood (art) and Wally Wood & Nicola Cuti (story) from Creepy 41. Some very sexy art by Wood in this story about a medieval war between various creatures such as centaurs, minotaurs and other creatures. The moon explodes during the battle, dealing heavy damage to the Earth and wiping out the battlers, leading to our society many milleniums later.

Last is "The Law and Disorder" by Luis Garcia (art) and Dennis P. Junot (story), from Creepy 47. This story features a man who is angry at the board of trustees of a college, thinking they are responsible for his father's death. He creates a disintegration ray which he lets into their hands, and they die of radiation once using it. The protagonist then dies suddenly at the end of the story, with little explanation.

Eerie 42

Luis Dominguez provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, based on the reprinted story inside, 'Ogre's Castle'. This issue is dated October 1972.

First is "The Mummy Stalks!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel (story), featuring a mummy that turns into a werewolf while being stored in a museum. This story, originally published in Eerie #5, is a rather poor effort, despite being a Goodwin story.

Next is "The Blood Fruit" by Johnny Craig (art & story), from Eerie #11. A group of four students and a professor arrive on an island where the professor discovers 'The Blood Fruit', which when eaten causes whatever he wants to occur. He uses this to kill two of the students and summon a lizard like monster. But when one of his colleagues eats the fruit and wishes him dead, he finds the tables turned.

Third is "Dark Rider" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie #8. A trio of horsemen in the snowy mountains are followed by a mysterious rider in the distance. They die one by one until only one remains. He shoots at the rider, which causes an avalanche that kills him. The rider reveals himself to be Death.

Fourth is "Life Species" by Bill Dubay (story & art), from Eerie #30. This is a very short story about astronauts arriving at a destroyed planet and piecing together a habitant of the planet. It ends up the planet is Earth, but the interesting twist is that put together a car and think it was the dominant species of the planet! Very short, but good story by Dubay.

Fifth is "Ogre's Castle" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy #2. An extremely good art job from Torres here, arguably his best job for Warren. A knight heads to a castle that is rumored to be where his younger brother dissappeared. Inside he finds an ogre who has captured a beautiful young woman. He fights off the ogre's various minions, then saves the woman. On his way out the ogre confronts him, and the knight kills the ogre. The ogre's corpse transforms into his younger brother as soon as he is killed however. The woman, now revealed to be a sorceress, transforms the knight into an ogre, to be used to guard the castle like his brother had before.

Sixth is "Room With A View!", with art by Steve Ditko, and story by Archie Goodwin. This story was originally published in Eerie #3. A man arrives at an inn with no rooms available, except for a single one which the innkeeper warns him against staying in. The guest uses it anyway and sees a weird creature in the mirror. Each time he looks in the mirror he sees more creatures appearing until he is completely overtaken by them. Hearing his scream, the innkeeper comes up and finds the room empty, but sees the guest's corpse when he looks in the mirror.

Seventh is "Voodoo Drum!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie #10. The story, which is done in pencils only, is about a plantation owner who finds workers difficult to obtain, so a native brings him zombies in exchange for payment. The man kills him, seeking to use the zombies for free, but they come after him and turn his skin into a drum.

Eighth is "I Am Dead, Egypt, Dead" by Victor De La Fuente (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Eerie #35. The story is about three archaeologists, Jim, Diana and Ray who find a tomb filled with treasure. Jim and Diana conspire to kill Ray and take all the treasure for themself. They do it by inducing a heart attack when Jim dresses up as a mummy. Only when the two of them head into the tomb Ray ends up not being dead after all and dressing up himself as a mummy, kills Jim. Ray and Diana having been together laugh about their plot, but end up dying when they drink water that Jim had poisoned in their canteens.

Creepy 9

Posting another issue today to make up for missing yesterday.

This classic issue of Creepy features a cover by Frank Frazetta featuring a swordsman fighting off 3 vampire creatures. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Roy Krenkel.

First is "Dark Kingdom!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A Spartan, Argo, finds himself in hell, battling various winged creatures, snakes and others. He's able to escape from Hades and live, with a scar on his back as a souvenier. As usual, great art from Morrow.

Second is "The Castle on the Moor" by Johnny Craig (story & art, credited to Jay Taycee). 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.

Third is "Adam Link's Vengeance" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). This story continues from the prior one, where Adam was thrown off a cliff by Eve, who was possessed by a helmet she was wearing. Adam makes it to civilization, gets repaired, then takes on Eve in a new robot body. He defeats her, but ends up killing her. The man possessing her falls off a cliff soon afterwards.

Fourth is "Overworked" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story, which was Wood and Adkin's Creepy debut is about a comic book artist who is finds himself plauged by the monsters from the stories he creates. He tries to stop, but keeps getting more jobs and finds himself in horrific situations. Eventually he becomes trapped within his own strip.

Fifth is the second part of "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is a continuation from a story started in the prior issue. 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.

Sixth is "Out of Time" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A mugger kills his victim, and is under pursuit from the police. He manages to escape using a portal which brings him to the 1700's. A man there tells him that he created the portal and wants to switch places with him. They do so, but our protagonist finds himself in just as bad a position as he's burned at the stake for witchcraft, which the person he replaced had been performing.

Last is "The Spirit of the Thing" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). It features a professor who hypnotizes a student of his, resulting in his spirit leaving his body. The professor then steals the student's body, as his is about to die. The student's spirit, now bodiless, steals the professor's corpse from the graveyard and uses it to brutally beat to death his own body (with the professor's spirit) until the professor is forced to leave. Outside of Collectors Edition from the next issue, Ditko's best story for Warren.

Creepy 10

A classic Frank Frazetta cover starts off this issue of Creepy, featuring a green Frankenstein's monster before a mob.

First is "Brain Trust" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A new doctor in town is perplexed by the town eccentric, a large man who doesn't show up in public often, and smells like shaving cream. Eventually the grocery store owner refuses his business and he dissappears. The doctor finds out that the man was one of a set of mutated twins. Having died in a car crash, his other brother used his brain to control his actions. When the doctor comes upon him, the living twin uses the dead one's body to kill himself.

Second is "Into the Tomb!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A group of archaeologists discovers a mummy's tomb, complete with one mummy of a servant and one of a pharoah. One of the archeologists reveals himself to be the pharoah, reincarnated, and destroys the mummy of his original body. The mummy of the servant arrives and the pharoah orders him to kill the others, but it instead wraps him up in wrappings and puts him back in the sarcophagus where his original body had been.

Third is "Monster!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art, his Warren debut) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man awakens in the body of a Frankenstein like monster. He becomes enraged at the scientist who did this to him and grabs him and walks into quicksand, just as the scientist reveals that he needed to do this to save him from a car wreck. A printer mistake causes the 6th and final pages in this story to be switched with one another.

Fourth is "Midnight Sail" by Johnny Craig (story & art, credited as Jay Taycee). Four young men and women go onto a sailboat and are helped by a friendly old captain who tells them a tale of the ship, which was occupied by a vampire which killed most of the crew and was obsessed with piloting the boat himself. In the present day the old captain pilots the boat over a waterfall to his death when a stake goes through his heart. Two of the young people are able to escape unharmed. The narrative of this story is very confusing, making it hard to tell when we depart the past and come back to the present.

Next is "Backfire!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A gunfight veteran arrives in a deserted town and meets an old man in the bar, who tells him of a jury thats forming. After the gunfighter tells the old man about his most previous gunfight it is revealed that the 'jury' is actually the ghosts of the men he's killed, who fire upon him. He wakes up, finding its a dream, but soon ends up in the exact same scenario all over again.

Sixth is "Thing of Darkness" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man working in the subway encounters a monster in the darkness which is afraid of the light. He is able to escape from the creature when the light of a subway car arrives, but his hair goes white from the fright. The monster still pursues him, but as long as he remains in the light he is okay. Unfortunately for him, the city has a great blackout, and all he has is a single candle which doesn't stay lit for that long...

Last is one of Warren's all time most famous stories, "Collectors Edition" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features Danforth, a man obsessed with the occult who hears of a book, 'Dark Visions' that he becomes obsessed with obtaining. Seeking to spend all of his wife's money on the book, he eventually murders the bookstore owner who told him of it in the first place, who had also committed murder to obtain the book. Reading the book, Danforth finds that it goes long past the time of the author, all the way to the present, and even the future, showing his own death, which shortly comes when his wife buries an axe in his head. Terrific art, terrific story, this is certainly up there among Goodwin's best stories. Ditko's drawing of Danforth's eyes slowly closing across the bottom of each page is also a nice touch.

Creepy 15

This issue of Creepy features a classic cover of neanderthals by Frank Frazetta. It would eventually be used as the first reprinted cover Warren ever used, on issue 83.

First is "City of Doom!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features the Barbarian Thane in his first appearance, a character that would appear in random stories by Archie Goodwin throughout the years. Thane goes to a city where monsters run amock, including a sorceress who controls a tentacled monster. Thane defeats the sorceress when her own monster ends up turning on her.

Second is "Adam Link, Champion Athlete!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam becomes an athlete on advice in order to improve his public image. He succeeds tremendously in all sports he tries, but that doens't stop a newspaper columnist from criticizing him. This was Adam Link's final appearance, ending his storyline without an ending.

Next is "The Adventure of the German Student" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

Next is "The River" with story & art by Johnny Craig. A pair of thieves try to escape using the river, but one has second thoughts and is killed by his colleague. Although he is shot at, he is able to escape and is helped by an old man on a boat. However, it ends up the old man is bringing him to the lake of the dead.

Next is the one page "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Gil Kane.

Last is "The Terror Beyond Time!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). At 16 pages, this is the longest story of the original Goodwin era. Searching for a professor, a man heads deep into a cavern where he had dissappeared. Inside he finds a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. In addition various other people throughout time have been summoned here including a beatiful woman from England. The professor is found, but it ends up that he's working for an evil being who is responsible for summoning everyone there as well as controlling people's thoughts. Our hero refuses to work under his control and instead kills the professor and the evil being. Afterwards he awakens in the modern age, with the woman there with him. A fairly good story although as discussed by Neal Adams in the Warren companion, the evil being ends up looking like an ice cream sundae rather than something supremely evil.

Eerie 12

This classic issue of Eerie was the first of the non-Goodwin era, although most of the stories contained within were created before Goodwin's departure. Dan Adkins provides the cover, featuring the Mummy, a cover which appears to have been originally intended for the prior issue. The frontis is a reprint from issue 4, "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Zombies!" by Roy Krenkel.

First story is "The Masque of the Red Death" by Tom Sutton (art) and Archie Goodwin (story, uncredited). This story is an adaption of Poe's classic story. It is about a plague that arises, killing many. Prince Prospero and his friends barricade themselves in a castle safe from the plague, and won't let any of the sick people in. They hold a ball where a mysterious caped man arrives who touches them, causing them to all die of the plague themselves.

Second is "Vampyrus" by Jeff Jones (art) and Archie Goodwin (story, uncredited). A pair of men head to a temple in Central America which houses bats as well as a native in the emple who they flee from. One of them is bitten by the bats, turning him into a vampire that attacks his companion.

Third is "...Nor Custom, Stale..." by Johnny Craig (story & art). A man travels to the desert country of Sumaria with his new wife, who he met in a hospital. Because she has amnesia she remembers nothing about her past, but at a travel agency feels something when they see a picture of 'The Temple of Life' in Sumaria. When they arrive there, he falls asleep one night only to find his wife wandering off to the Temple itself, where druids take her and start casting some sort of spell on her. In a rage he rescues her and kills them, running off into the desert where he collapses. When he awakens he finds the man from the travel agency there, who reveals the truth to him, that his wife was dead and brought back in the temple of life. She needed to head back there annually to stay alive, but by interfering, he has killed her forever.

Fourth is "Escape!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story, uncredited). A pair of convicts escape the island they are imprisoned on, being helped by a native. One of the two kills the other so he doesn't have to share a treasure that he is hiding in the woods. Along the way he gleefully chops the head off an anaconda. Upon finding the treasure, he is stung by a scorpion. He asks the native to help keep him alive, so he does so, by transfering his head to the anacanda!

Fifth is "Portrait of Satan!" by Ric Estrada (art) and Archie Goodwin (story, uncredited). An overworked artist says he'd sell his soul to Satan if he could do some reputable, serious art rather than all the commercial art he's churning out. Satan himself arrives, offering that in exchange for his soul. The artist refuses, not wanting to give up his soul, but agrees to do a portrait of Satan as payment instead. He does so, but Satan takes his soul anyway because he said he'd put his "heart and soul" into the art. A rather poor story based on simple word play.

Last is "The Past Master" by Al McWilliams (art) and Craig Tennis (story, uncredited). The best story of the issue, this is an adaption of the Robert Bloch story, and was originally printed in the book Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror. Told from the perspective of many witnesses, this story tells of a mysterious man who comes out of the sea and starts buying or stealing large quantities of artwork. It is revealed that the man is from the future, coming back to save works of art that will be destroyed in an upcoming war. Upon his escape however his craft is destroyed by the US navy, thinking its a soviet craft, which triggers the very war that he was speaking of.

Eerie 7

This issue's cover is by Frank Frazetta. Its rather different than his usual fare, dominated by a dark sky and dark sea with a woman in white beckoning whatever is in the sea. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery No 6: The Hydra" by Gray Morrow.

First story is "Witch's Tide" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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 to start off the issue with.

Next is "It That Lurks!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

Third is "Hitchhike Horror!" by Hector Castellon (art) and Goodwin (story). This is Castellon's Warren debut. His art, as usual is just way too ugly and has too many lines if you ask me. Anyway, this story is about a man who picks up a hitchhiker and soon after hears news on the radio about a maniac being loose. It seems as if the hitchhiker is the maniac, but in actuality he is after the driver, who is the real maniac. It ends up that the hitchhiker is a ghost of one of the driver's past victims and kills him by burying him alive.

Fourth is "The Defense Rests!" by Johnny Craig (story & art). A terrifically drawn and written story, featuring no dialogue at all. It is about a young lawyer who goes after the same woman as the very powerful mayor. When the town maniac kills the girl, the mayor blames it all on the lawyer and puts him on trial, where he stacks the jury with his allies and declares him guilty. The lawyer breaks loose and captures them all and unleashes the maniac on them, who was, like him, framed years before.

Fifth is "Fly!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Goodwin (story). This story is about a man covered in bandages who has had surgery to change his face. Only he keeps being bothered by a fly and falls out a window to his death. It ends up that the fly was attached to his head bandages near his ears which is why it bothered him so much.

Sixth is "The Quest!" by Donald Norman (art) and Goodwin (story). A powerful duke seeks eternal life, but every attempt at it fails. His advisor, an old man, tells him that he'll be able to give him eternal life if he will do good things for the town. The duke agrees so the old advisor brings him to a place occupied by vampires, who promptly turn him into one of their own.

The issue concludes with "Cry Fear Cry Phantom" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man and his fiance go to his home, a large mysterious looking house, where his uncle lives with him. She repeatedly has visions of an odd looking woman with an axe, and suspects the uncle is up to something, particularly when she sees him burying that woman! It ends up however that the fiance is the true maniac, and chops her up with an axe.

Creepy 8

An early issue of Creepy, featuring Gray Morrow's first cover for Warren's horror magazines. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

Up first is "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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. This story would be concluded in the next issue.

Next is "Death Plane" by George Evans (art) and Larry Ivie (story). Evans was a terrific artist at EC but unfortunately did very few Warren stories, just this and a few for Blazing Combat. This story features a mysterious plane that is taking out both American and German planes during the war. One of the American officers is killed and realizes that the ghost of each person killed appears in the plane until they can kill someone else.

Another EC great is next, Johnny Craig, using the pseudonym 'Jay Taycee' in his Warren debut, "The Mountain". This story, like the previous one, is done in pencil only. A woman wandering in the winter wilderness comes across a cabin on a mountain and meets a man inside who asks her to bring the town mayor to him so he can take over his mind. She does so and the young man reveals his true self, the Devil, who is able to wreak havoc on the world now that she has brought him a body he can use to escape the cabin in which he has been trapped.

Fourth is "The Invitation" with art by Manny Stallman (in yet another Warren debut in this issue) and story by Russ Jones, Larry Englehart and Maurice Whitman. A Baron gets in a car accident and comes across a mansion where vampires live. He convinces them to let him live as long as he brings them victims. He does, but eventually they turn him into a vampire as well. Whitman would very lamely repeat this exact same story in issue 17 in the story "A Night Lodging".

"Adam Link's Mate", one of the many Adam Link stories by Warren appears next, with art by Joe Orlando and story by Otto Binder. In this story, a scientist convinces Adam to create a female robot, Eve, which he does. The scientist then manages to manipulate their minds using a helmet he puts on them and gets them to rob banks for him. Adam is freed of the helmet's influence when a friend stops by, but he is attacked by Eve and thrown over a cliff to his apparant demise.

"A Vested Interest" is next, by George Tuska (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Ron Parker (story). A man sees a werewolf and confides in a stranger at a bar about it. He goes with the stranger to find the werewolf and brings a camera with him, and the stranger ends up being the werewolf. He reveals a gun with silver bullets in the camera, but the werewolf, whose wearing a bullet proof vest gets the better of him.

Last is "Fitting Punishment" by Eugene Colan (art, in his Creepy debut) and Goodwin (story). It features a grave digger who gets caught by the police in the act. He hides in a mausoleum and steals a dead man's clothes to escape, but the clothes shrink while he's wearing them, killing him.

Eerie 2

This is the first real issue of Eerie. It was intended to be the first issue, but when Warren realized that another company was attempting to use the name 'Eerie' prior to them, they rushed out a single 'ashcan' edition issue of Eerie containing three stories meant for Creepy to secure the copyright. A number of months later, the first real issue, this issue, came out. The cover is by Frank Frazetta featuring a wizard summoning monsters. Cousin Eerie and Uncle Creepy, drawn by Jack Davis are included as the frontis.

First is "Footsteps of Frankenstein" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A doctor heads to a town to visit an old friend, who the entire town hates. The friend is working on creating his own Frankenstein-like monster, which he plans to put his own brain into since he is so old. The doctor goes ahead and does it, and the friend plans to go on a rampage against the town. He is struck by lightning however, and turns into dust.

Second is "One for De-Money" by Angelo Torres (art) and E. Nelson Bridwell (story). A man discovers his rich old uncle summoning a demon, who is trapped in a pentagram drawn on the ground in chalk. The uncle demands the demon give him money, which he does. The nephew, upset at the way his uncle has treated him, kills him, then summons the demon so he can get even more money. However, having smudged off the chalk line when killing the uncle, the demon quickly kills him.

Third is "Eye of the Beholder" by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man becomes obsessed with bringing his dead wife back to life and finds a man who is able to do it. His wife returns exactly as she had before, but strange things start happening. The dog is frightened of her and dies of fright soon after. A man paid to deliver flowers to her runs off in terror. The man soon discovers the truth when he looks into a mirror, that she returned as a rotting corpse and she only appears normal when he looks at her.

Fourth is "Flame Fiend" by Gray Morrow (art) and Otto Binder (story). A man kills his business partner in a car explosion, but is visited by his ghost, in the guise of a humanoid flame monster soon after, who says he'll die by fire. The man avoids fire as much as he can, eventually heading to the woods during the winter, where he jumps into an ice-filled lake, causing him to die of a fever.

Fifth is "To Pay the Piper" by Eugene Colan (art, his Warren debut) and Larry Ivie (story). The story takes place in a town plagued by vampires. A piper offers to rid the town of the vampires by playing a song on his pipe in exchange for money. He does so and rids the town of vampires, but the town refuses to pay, so using his pipe he lures the children away, as in the classic Pied Piper story. Men wait for him in the woods however and kill him with arrows. They soon find however that he lured the children into wolfsbane, turning them all into werewolves!

Sixth is "Vision of Evil" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The 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.

Final story is "Ahead of the Game". The art is by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (credited only to Orlando) and the story is by Archie Goodwin. It features a hunter who kills a white gorilla whose headless ghost continues to haunt him afterwards. Eventually he shows up for real and the hunter's head is cut off and put on a plaque!

Eerie 16

An issue of Eerie from Warren's dark age. The cover is by Barry Rockwell. The frontis, "Eerie's Monster Gallery", about the Number 13, was originally intended for an earlier issue based on the letter pages. It is by an uncredited Tony Williamsune and Bill Parente.

We start off with "Dracula's Guest" by Frank Bolle (art) and E. Nelson Bridwell (story). This story is originally from a Christopher Lee book of comic stories. It is an adaption of the events that occur in the novel Dracula prior to the start of the well known story in Transalvania.

"Big Time Operator" by Ric Estrada (art) and E. Nelson Bridwell (story) is a story featuring a mad scientist who uses victims of a plane crash to turn into various mythological creatures like the Medusa, Minotaur and others. He uses the creatures to form his own freak show, but they eventually turn on him and turn him into a freak like them.

Third is "Sara's Forest" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Roger Brand (story). It features a girl who lives in the forest on her own. A pair of nomads come and meet her. The man falls in love with Sara and murders his wife. He grows bored of Sara quickly however and tries to leave for the city. She kills him and buries him with an acorn so he'll turn into a tree, apparently what happened to prior visitors of the forest.

"Evil Spirits" is fourth, by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was done back during Warren's golden age, but for some reason was never published until now. 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.

Next is "The Monument" by Alex Toth (art) and Goodwin (story), originally from Eerie 3. This story, which appears to be an unauthorized adaption of Ray Bradbury's "The Coffin" is about a design firm owner who convinces an aged architect build a house for him, by telling him that it will be his house. He kills him when it nears completion. Upon laying in his bed for the first time, he is killed by machinery in the house, which the architect had intended to be his tomb upon completion.

Last is "Ahead of the Game!" from Eerie 2. The art is by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (credited only to Orlando) and the story is by Archie Goodwin. It features a hunter who kills a white gorilla whose headless ghost continues to haunt him afterwards. Eventually he shows up for real and the hunter's head is cut off and put on a plaque!

Eerie 6

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Gray Morrow. Up first is the cover story, "Cave of the Druids", with story by Archie Goodwin and art by Reed Crandall. A gladiator comes across dead soldiers in the woods with their hearts cut out. He discovers that they were removed by a group of druids seeking to resurrect their dead king. By burning the staff possessed by a druid sorcerress, the gladiator is able to save himself and leave.

Next is "Deep Ruby" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a bum with a ruby who traps a businessman inside the ruby. The businessman makes a deal to escape, but now must take the bum's place.

Third is "Running Scared" by Mark Ricton (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a man on the run from a pair of odd men. Eventually it is revealed that he is dead and they are the undertakers.

"The Curse of Kali" follows, with art by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

"Trial By Fire!" is next, with art & story by Johnny Craig (credited as Jay Taycee). A politician's wife is practicing withcraft and causes multiple enemies of his to fall over dead. Eventually the town ties him up and burns him and he falls on top of her, burning them both.

Next is "Point of View" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). It features an insance asylum where one of the patients thinks he's Dr. Frankenstein. After the inmates take over the asylum, he transfers the director's brain into one of the other inmates.

Last is "The Changeling!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a woman who comes to a mansion to be governess, taking care of a young boy whose father is always busy with research. It ends up that the boy is a Changeling, a demon who replaced the true son and the father spends all his time researching a way to destroy him. A monster, the boy's mother appears, and kills the father, and the house burns to the ground.

Creepy 30

Here's Creepy 30, which came out right around the start of Warren's rebuilding period. The cover is by Bill Hughes, featuring a Frankenstein-like monster. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Exorcism!" by Tom Sutton (story & art).

First up is "The Mind of the Monster!" by Ernie Colon (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A scientist creates a bizarre three-headed, three-armed monster to defeat a beast on Mars that has been killing monsters. Only the intelligent monster, who has no reason to kill such a monster, decides to kill the scientists instead.

Next is "Drop In!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Don Glut (story), about an Earthquake thats about to occur in Los Angeles. Eventually the Earthquake does occur, killing everyone left in the city.

Third is "The Haunted Sky!" by Roger Brand (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally from Creepy 17. A pilot encounters his dead colleagues while aflight in an experimental airplane. Although the doctors don't initially believe him, there is proof left behind of the ghost's existence.

Next is "The River", another reprint, from Creepy 15 with story & art by Johnny Craig. A pair of thieves try to escape using the river, but one has second thoughts and is killed by his colleague. Although he is shot at, he is able to escape and is helped by an old man on a boat. However, it ends up the old man is bringing him to the lake of the dead.

Fifth story is "To Be Or Not To Be A Witch" by Carlos Prunes (art) and Bill Parente (story). Prunes was a spanish artist from Selecciones Illustrada who'd make his sole appearance here about a year and a half or so before many other S.I. artists started coming over. A man whose accused many of being witches visits an accused family lying to them about needing help removing a demon from him. Luckily for him it fails, as he truly is a demon, and kills them.

Sixth is "Piece By Piece" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), reprinted from Creepy 14. A scientist creates a Frankenstein-like monster from five different people and takes the brain from his assistant. The monster takes revenge upon the townfolk who were mean to him when he was still alive, only for the corpses of the five people whom is body is made up of to climb out of there graves and take back all their body parts.

Last is "Dr. Jekyll's Jest" by Mike Royer (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A man believes his cruel colleague is abusing patients, and eventually finds that his fiance was experimented on and killed by him. Only it ends up that his colleague, Dr. Jekyll was the true culprit all along.

A so-so issue, nothing to great here, and half the issue's reprints so can't be too pleased about that.

Eerie 18

A mix of new stories and reprints in this issue of Eerie from 1968. The cover is by Tom Sutton, talking of 6 stories, when there are actually 7 stories in this issue. The frontis is a reprint from Eerie 4, "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Zombies!" by Roy Krenkel.

First is "Hard Luck" by Sal Trapani (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). The story is about three men in search for the fountain of youth in South America, seeking to live forever and become rich. One dies in quicksand along the way and another is killed by his partner when they arrive at the fountain. He drinks from the fountain, only to turn into stone.

Second is "Cry Fear Cry Phantom" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally published in Eerie 7. A man and his fiance go to his home, a large mysterious looking house, where his uncle lives with him. She repeatedly has visions of an odd looking woman with an axe, and suspects the uncle is up to something, particularly when she sees him burying that woman! It ends up however that the fiance is the true maniac, and chops her up with an axe.

Third is "A Change of Pace!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story), featuring two scientists who create a time machine and go back in time to the prehistoric era. There one of them is killed and the other lives there for a long time but is finally able to return to the present, only to turn into an ape.

Next is "The Jungle" by Al Williamson (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally from Eerie 5. It is about a trio of men who slay a witch doctor only for the woods to come alive and kill them all.

Another reprint from Eerie 5 is up next, "Vampire Slayer" with art by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) and story by Goodwin. A vampire slayer meets a beautiful woman whom he suspects is a vampire, but she proves she isn't one by showing herself in a mirror. He sees her again unarmed, only for it to be revealed that she was a vampire all along, and her twin sister, a ghoul was the one seen in the mirror. They both feast upon him.

Yet another reprint is next, "Trial By Fire!" from Eerie 6, with art & story by Johnny Craig (credited as Jay Taycee). A politician's wife is practicing withcraft and causes multiple enemies of his to fall over dead. Eventually the town ties him up and burns him and he falls on top of her, burning them both.

Last is "Sideshow" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story) about a suspected vampire in a freak show who is revealed not to be one when he appears in a mirror. But his brother, hidden underneath his clothes is the true vampire. Very similar to the story Vampire Slayer reprinted in this issue, so certainly a dissappointing way to finish the issue.

Eerie 11

Here's an early issue of Eerie, which came out shortly before the collapse of the Warren line in 1967. The cover is done by Joe Orlando, his only cover for Warren. The frontis is by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), entitled "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur". With a whopping 8 stories, we've got quite a lot of stuff here.

Up first is the cover story, "Witch Hunt!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (script). A group of men head through a swamp, fighting a witch as well as the monsters she creates. Eventually the witch is defeated by one of the men, who reveals that he is a warlock and will now take over her territory.

Up next is "To Slay a Dragon!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A knight and his squire search for a dragon, with the Knight believing that bathing in Dragon blood will make him invinsible. They defeat the dragon, but the squire then kills the Knight and bathes in the blood himself. The blood does make him invinsible, but also transforms him into a dragon.

Third is "The Mummy" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art, Adkins is uncredited) and Russ Jones (story, miscredited to Wood). This is a reprint of a story that originally appeared in Famous Monsters, regarding the Mummy from the Hollywood movie of the same name.

Next is "Berenice!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story, featuring a man who obsesses over his cousin who passes away, eventually digging her up and pulling out her teeth. This story would later be adapted again by Warren in Creepy #70.

Our fifth story is "The Blood Fruit" by Johnny Craig (art & story). A group of four students and a professor arrive on an island where the professor discovers 'The Blood Fruit', which when eaten causes whatever he wants to occur. He uses this to kill two of the students and summon a lizard like monster. But when one of his colleagues eats the fruit and wishes him dead, he finds the tables turned.

Sixth is "The Monster From One Billion B.C. by Tom Sutton (art & story). A movie monster maker who actually creates real monsters to use in the movies is confronted by the studio owner who knows his secret. Our hero responds by turning him into a monster.

Seventh is "Big Change!" by Larry Woromay (art) and Ron Whyte (story) about a pair of con artists who con an old man into marrying one of them and kill him by taking away his medication. Only it ends up that the medication wasn't keeping him from dying, but keeping him from turning into a werewolf, and he kills them. This is Woromay's only Warren appearance and it isn't too good.

Last is "First Blood" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) about a man who awakens as a vampire and plans to attack his girlfriend, only it ends up that she was a vampire all along and the one who bit him in the first place.

Overall a fairly good issue!

Eerie 3

For my first original Goodwin era issue, I'm going to take a look at Eerie #3. This was during the first golden era of Warren, where Goodwin edited both Creepy and Eerie (and for its short run, Blazing Combat) and also wrote the majority of the stories. The original roster of artists, many of which had worked for EC were just terrific. Unfortuantely things would completely collapse by the end of 1967 with Goodwin and pretty much all of the artists, with rare exception, leaving.

Behind the Frank Frazetta cover of a watery beast coming out of a treasure chest is an introduction by Cousin Eerie on the inside front cover, drawn by Jack Davis. Davis did very little work for Warren outside of the cover of Creepy #1 and some drawings of the horror hosts due to his unhappiness with working with horror comics after what happened with EC.

Up first is "Soul of Horror", by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story's a great one, one of the best of this issue of Warren. Its about a devil worshipper killed by the town folk who is able to reincarnate himself in a newborn baby. By drawing the life out of the baby's father he is able to quickly grow into an adult and take revenge on those who killed him. The town doctor is able to kill him, only for him to be reincarnated once again in the doctor's newborn baby.

"The Lighthouse" by Al Williamson (art) and Goodwin (story) is second. It's about a publisher who goes to see a writer of his who has been staying in a Lighthouse. Along the way he meets a woman who ends up falling off a cliff. He finally meets the writer to find out that he's the one the woman was looking for. Apparantly the writer's grandfather got drunk, resulting in the death of a woman. A ghost of the woman, who was the person the publisher met earlier shows up and kills the writer. Her skeleton is found on top of his corpse the next morning. Another good story. Williamson's art looks quite a lot like Torres, which should not be a surprise as they had worked together in the past.

"Room With A View!" is up third, with art by Steve Ditko, in his first Warren appearance, and story by who else, Goodwin. A man arrives at an inn with no rooms available, except for a single one which the innkeeper warns him against staying in. The guest uses it anyway and sees a weird creature in the mirror. Each time he looks in the mirror he sees more creatures appearing until he is completely overtaken by them. Hearing his scream, the innkeeper comes up and finds the room empty, but sees the guest's corpse when he looks in the mirror. Yet another extremely good story. Jose Bea would write and illustrate a very similar story years later in Creepy #45.

"Monsterwork" is the next story, with art by Rocco Mastroserio and story by Goodwin yet again. A hunchback helps a mad scientist create a Frankenstein-like monster by stealing corpses. When the creature comes to life the scientist tells it to kill the hunchback, but the monster kills him instead, as the brain implanted in him was the hunchback's brother's.

"Under the Skin" is next, with art by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (who is uncredited) and story by Goodwin. An unsuccesful actor envies another actor whose able to get great roles due to his horrific makeup. By murdering the actor and stealing his technique, he is able to get a great role, but is unable to take off the makeup when he's done. It ends up that he hallucinated the whole thing, and ends up tearing all the skin off his face. Another really good story; its a shame Grandenetti got no credit as he appears to have a lot more influence in the art that Orlando did.

The one page "Eerie's Monster Gallery: No 2 - The Vampire!" appears next, with art by Jay Taycee (actually Johnny Craig, using a pseudonym to hide his identity). This feature usually appeared in the inside front cover of Eerie, and would appear there permanently starting in the next issue.

The sixth story is "The Monument" by Alex Toth (art) and Goodwin (story). This story, which appears to be an unauthorized adaption of Ray Bradbury's "The Coffin" is about a design firm owner who convinces an aged architect build a house for him, by telling him that it will be his house. He kills him when it nears completion. Upon laying in his bed for the first time, he is killed by machinery in the house, which the architect had intended to be his tomb upon completion.

Last story is the cover story, "Full Fathom Fright" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of brothers are hired by an old man to find a treasure chest in the ocean depths and kill the old man once discovering it. Upon opening the chest however, a demon comes out and kills one of them, causing him to transform into a demon himself. One of the brothers survives and is put in an institution, but transforms into one of the demons upon being given a hot and cold bath shock treatment.

Great, great, issue, even for this period in Warren's history. The art is terrific on all these stories and the writing is quite good as well. Goodwin is able to put out 7 unique stories despite writing all 7 stories here. One of Eerie's best issues in my opinion.

Creepy 18

For my second Creepy review, I'm going to tackle issue 18, the first issue of Creepy to come out in the what is generally called the dark age of Warren. After 17 issues of Creepy (and 11 of Eerie), Warren hit some financial difficulty, and as a result editor Archie Goodwin resigned and all the artists except for Tom Sutton and Rocco Mastroserio departed as well. Not only were the issues reduced to far lower quality artists and writers, but reprints started populating the magazines like mad. At the very least, Creepy was lucky in that no issues were all reprint, although some Eerie ones during this time were.

The cover is by Vic Prezio and is of a sea monster attacking a couple on a raft. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore!" which was a continuing feature included on all of the early Creepy issues. This particular one was written by Goodwin, and had art by Roy Krenkel. It was a reprint from issue 9.

Our first story is "Mountain of the Monster Gods" by Roger Brand (artist) and Ron White (writer). The story is about a pair of brothers who climb the mountain named in the title. One of the brother kills the other, only for him to come back from the dead and seek his revenge. Not a bad story although Brand's art is very simple and compared to the excellent artists who were mainstays at Creepy just an issue before, it just isn't on the same level. Brand's ex-wife Michelle would later join Warren herself as a colorer in the mid 1970's.

Next up is "The Rescue of the Morning Maid", the story's best issue. The art is by Rocco Mastroserio and Pat Boyette (who was uncredited) and the story was by Raymond Marais. The story surrounds a monster who finds a sorceress and a young girl who is kept captive by her. The monster is able to kill the sorceress only for the young girl to crumble to dust, having actually been much older and just trapped in the form of a young girl. Very good story, its unfortunate that Marais didn't do more work for Warren.

"Act Three" is written and drawn by Johnny Craig and is about an actress whose husband has turned into a werewolf. The two of them are able to get a doctor to create a cure, but when he injects both of them with the serum, the actress turns into a werewolf herself. Craig was my personal favorite of the EC artists and his Warren work was quite good as well. Unfortunately he would depart Warren for good after only a couple of more stories after this one.

The next story, "Footsteps of Frankenstein" is a reprint from Eerie #2. It is drawn by Reed Crandall and written by Archie Goodwin. The story is about a mad scientist who has created a Frankenstein monster and gets an old collegue to transplant his brain into the creature's body. Just as he's about to wreak havok on the villagers however, he is struck by lightning and is killed. Very good story by Goodwin and great Crandall art, although it is a reprint.

Last is "Out of Her Head!" by Jack Sparling (artist), in his first Warren story, and Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (writers). The rather poor story surrounds a haunted mansion where a headless ghost seeks a head from someone else's body. Not that much special here.

Considering the era its from, this actually isn't that bad an issue. Unfortunately things would go quite downhill even further from here.