Nightmare #15

Happy black Friday, everyone! We've got another Ken Kelly cover for this issue of Nightmare, cover dated October 1973.

The frontispiece for this issue is "How They Killed the Chicago Vampiress" by Ed Fedory (story) and Emilio Bernardo (art). It features a dead young woman having her body burned due to feat of her being a vampire. In what may have been a production error, an image from the story "15 Dead Things" which was originally intended for Psycho #15 appears on the table of contents page, rather than an actual story from this issue. That story will finally appear soon in Psycho #15.

First story is "Dracula Did Not Die!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). The first few pages of this story act as a historical account for the real life Dracula, Vlad the impaler. It was thought he was dead, but when his coffin is dug up only a horse's skeleton is found inside. Vlad/Dracula laughs at being able to fake his own death, but does regret that he'll have to hide himself and not be able to take advantage of his wealth, influence and power. Dracula explains how he was able to fake his death and killed any witnesses. He heads towards his castle, finding it on fire and swears those doing so will pay. The story suddenly stops here, implying that his will be the start of a multi-part series. Some pretty good art from Borrell here, although this is much more of just an introduction than a full story.

"Dracula Did Not Die!"

Next is "The Gargoyle Who Went to War", a two page feature from Al Hewetson (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). This brief story takes place in Paris France where some people gather to look at the gargoyle statue on the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Natzis arrive and take over the city, lining up people to be shot. Then suddenly, the gargoyle comes to life and kills the soldiers. This story is unrelated to the long running Gargoyles series.

Third is another two pager, "The Truth Behind the Myths About Bats... Particularly Vampire Bats" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). Rather than being a typical story, this is rather a two page feature providing factual information about different types of bats.

Following this is "The Kid and the Killer and the Bum Rap" by Al Hewetson (story) and Francisco Cueto (art). A man named Miller is brought to jail, claiming he's been framed. He is put in a cell with a man named Eddie, who claims that he was beat up by him when he was a kid. Miller admits to being a killer, but claims he didn't commit the murder they claimed he did. Eddie and Miller start talking about things that Miller did when he was younger, including some murder he actually committed. Eddie tells Miller that he is in here for killing his wife, and his brother, his father, his landlord, a gay neighbor, many cops, doctors, etc... and says now he's going to kill Miller. We hear the guards laughing as the story ends. A rather abrupt ending to this, and we gotta presume Miller died, although why the guards would be in on it I'm not sure. Cueto's art is at least a little better than usual here.

"THe Kid and the Killer Bum Rap"

Fifth is "Tapestry of Blood" by Ed Fedory (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). A man finds himself shipwrecked on an island in the south Pacific. To his horror, he soon sees a fellow man killed by a giant snail! He beats the snail to its death but it is too late to save the man. Suddenly another man wearing an overcoat, hat and sunglasses appears. Calling himself a doctor, he leads our protagonist into the woods and to his camp. There he tells our protagonist of how his wife lies in the waters beyond the reef and he can never leave. Our protagonist later follows him, and the doctor explains how he died and was resurrected, and how our protagonist killed "Grayson" who is revealed to be the snail he attacked earlier. The doctor removes his sunglasses, revealing himself to be a snail like creature and bites into our protagonist! Quite a fun ending to this story, which I enjoyed.

Snail man!

Sixth is another in the Shoggoths series with "The Grotesque Green Earth" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Hewetson and Zesar are actually characters in this story! They receive a letter from a Howard Hay in Arkham, Massachusetts. Upon arriving he tells them of manuscripts he's found from a woman from approximately a century ago who lived by the river. We then flashback to see the woman as she writes. At her husband's grave she finds a hole that leads her down into a lengthy pit. This eventually leads to a large cavern where she finds an underground city. Inside she finds a library filled with zombies,, writing of man's doom. Suddenly some Shoggoths arrive. They chase her back up to the surface and even after she makes her way there they make it through. Hay, Hewetson and Lopez head to where the papers were found and it leads to an underground tunnel where they find her skeleton, where she's written that they will come to the Earth, in 1973! This story's style is much like the previous Shoggoths story in Scream #1 and reads as if it was a Lovecraft story itself. Zesar's art is strong as well, making this a pretty high quality story.

The Shoggoths return!

Next is "Ravings of the Damned" by Ed Fedory (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). A pair of archaeologists in a temple find a desecrated corpse of one of their men in front of a large statue. One of the men thinks a monstrous snake did it, while the other thinks it is Quontotaz, an Indian legend. Later that night, one of the men hears the other screaming. It is the statue, come to life and crushing him in its arms. Months later another expedition arrives. The remaining man is now worshiping Quontotaz, and is in a beast like form. Just there, the stories stops rather abruptly. A quick ending to an average at best story.

We wrap up with another story in the Gargoyles series, "Once Upon a Time in Alabama: A Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). Edward and Mina, with their child Andrew hitchhike their way to Birmingham, Alabama. Edward is able to get a job on a construction work site and saves a man falling from above. Just then, another, evil gargoyle arrives. He demands Edward fight him, or his wife and child will be killed by being shot by a madman at a riot (how a gargoyle can be killed by mere bullets eludes me...). Edward has had enough, decides to fight the enemy gargoyle and kills him. He then finds Mina and Andrew, safe and sound at a rally. This is standard fare for the Gargoyles series, pretty good art, but a rather uninteresting story. Gargoyles face some discrimination. Edward fights some sort of monster. Rince and repeat.

Psycho #14

This issue of Psycho features a cover by Ken Kelly, including various monster faces like Frankenstein's Monster, the Phantom of the Opera, a vampire and more! It is cover dated September 1973.

The frontispiece for this issue features art by Maelo Cintron of a skeleton, and is more akin to the text stories Skywald used to include, with it taking up approximately half the page. It is titled "The Dead..."

First regular story is "The Classic Creeps" by Al Hewetson (story) and Francisco Cueto (art). the story begins telling us our protagonist is a lunatic, and we watch him watch a Dracula movie. He then decides to bring it to real life, dresses like Dracula and bites the neck of a woman in the park! He is able to escape from the police and the woman lives. He then starts watching other horror movies such as Dr. Phibes, The Mummy and Phantom of the Opera, taking on that guise for another attack, which is successful this time. He then takes on the role of the hunchback of Notre Dame, and then Frankenstein's monster, trying to grab a little girl and drown her but the police are able to kill him, saving her. As the story ends we find that our protagonist had a kid's show on TV where he dressed up as various monsters but it got cancelled. Cueto's art is a bit improved here than some of his past jobs, and although the story is a bit longer than it needed to be, it is pretty good.

"The Classic Creeps"

Second is "The Monstrosity... Strikes!" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). This story begins with a man walking down an alley when suddenly a blob like creature with two glowing eyes rises up and attacks him! The monster completely consumes the man's body then slithers back into hiding, waiting for its next victim. The next night a cop passes by but is able to avoid getting consumed and shoots the monster repeatedly until it dies. In the final panel we realize that the creature had several children who are still alive! A cliche ending drags this story down a bit, making it overall average at best.

Third is "The Artist's Other Hand" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). This story is a blast, and is another one of those Skywald stories that kind of breaks the fourth wall. Our unnamed artist, who is visually modeled after artist Suso works on drawing a horror story about an artist who has a third arm growing out of his chest, is knocked out by a woman when the arm attacks her, but she chops it off him, and he thanks her for releasing him from its control. The artist brings the story to his editor, who is modeled after Al Hewetson, but he hates it! The two of them go through varying scenarios under which the artist can change the story to improve, but the editor hates them all, pointing out The Heap as more legitimate horror (kind of ironic since Hewetson reportedly hated The Heap). Eventually this leads to the editor punching out the artist and in the final panel we see some artists focusing on a new story with some scarier monsters. Much like The Comics Macabre, which just appeared in Scream, it was a lot of fun getting to see actual members of Skywald appear in a horror story.

Skywald staffers star in "The Artist's Other Hand"

Fourth is "The Horror That's Not All It Seems" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). At a mere one page, this is a brief historical telling of how scalping, viewed as something Native Americans would do to colonists and settlers, was actually something the white man was doing first, with Native Americans adopting it only as vengeance. This is something I hadn't even realized was the case, so this was an educational read.

Fifth is "A Man Who Dare Not Sleep!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). This story features a ship captain tied to the helm of the ship, dozing off. He fears a vampire on board the ship and has put crosses around him only for the vampire to toss them aside. The captain hopes for the clouds to part, for the sun to shine through and kill the vampire, and that's exactly what happens. At least as far as I can tell. On the final page the captain shouts out that it is the Southern Cross in the sky, a constellation, but you'd figure that can only be seen at night, so how did the vampire die?

Sixth is "Cassandra... Sorceress of the Seventh Wind" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Don Heck/Mike Esposito (art). I'm assuming this story is an inventory one as none of the men involved in creating it had put out a new Skywald story in a while. This story is also a stark contrast to Hewetson's style and is more the type of story we'd see in an early Skywald issue. It features the titular Cassandra, who asks a minstrel to join her on a quest to battle the evil wizard Morlock. Many pages go by, monsters are fought and Cassandra and the Minstrel finally reach Morlock. There's a body swap temporarily and in the end we find out that Morlock pursued the minstrel because he is the man who sunk Atlantis. I really don't care for these more sword & sorcery type stories unless we're getting some strong art of it and that isn't really the case here.

Nava's Skywald debut looks a lot like Jerry Grandenetti

Seventh is "The Hippy-Critters Are Comin'" by Al Hewetson (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). In this story we see a couple of odd men watching as a couple park their car and go into a restaurant in a small town in Arkansas. The woman in the couple ask the man if it was wise to bring "Peter" with them. A few more scoundrels gather outside and they grab a hold of the couple. But we then realize that Peter is their car, its alive and it starts eating them! This rather brief story has quite the hilarious ending and the man eating car is a sight to see.

We wrap up with "I Battle the Vicious Vampire Bats of Transylvania and I Lived to Tell About It" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maro Nava (art). This story is Nava's Skywald debut. A British man comes to Transylvania and speaks of the descendant of Dracula, having talked about it to a man in another town. He is told by a bartender that Dracula's castle is nearby. Soon another man, wearing a cape comes in. He claims to be an American and offers to bring him to Dracula's castle. When they arrive, the American reveals that he is in fact Dracula's son and attacks, but our protagonist turns the tables on him. It seems like the American is a phony Dracula's descendant, but our protagonist is the real thing and kills him, being a vampire himself. Nava's art here is extremely similar to that of Jerry Grandenetti, enough so that in many panels one could easily think Grandenetti drew this.

Nightmare 1973 Winter Special

Today I cover the Nightmare 1973 Winter Special, which has a cover date of March 1973 and a cover by Ken Kelly.

First is "Die Mummy!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Duran (art). 74 year old Vanessa is an aged movie actress with no roles for her until her manager finds a man named Scott Henders who is doing cheap horror movies who will take her. Vanessa is cast to be a mummy and as the movie films she is fake stabbed then wrapped up in bandages for real. Vanessa suddenly feels young and strong again and starts going on a rampage, killing many of her costars until they are finally able to take her down. Upon removing the bandages from her face they find just a mummified corpse within! I gotta say, I'm not a fan of mummy stories, but this story was considerably better than I expected going in.

Second is "I Left My Heart in the Burial Pit, I Had No Choice" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Gual (art). Mobster Romeo Puccino wants to go straight due to his girlfriend Juliet, but instead his mobster colleagues grab a hold of both of them and stab Romeo. Left alone with him, the distraught Julet then stabs herself. From here the story gets considerably confusing as we see both Romeo and Juliet rise on their own multiple times and cut their own heart out, I'm not sure if they were supposed to be literally alive or this was just supposed to be their ghosts. As the story ends their heartless spirits depart. This story is obviously influenced by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with a more modern twist, and Gual's art is good, but the second half of the story is considerably confusing.

Vanessa goes on a rampage in "Die Mummy!"

Third is "Beyond the Walls!" a one page feature from Ed Fedory (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). It tells how in the city of Bruges an ancient stone house was purchased and it had an unnameable stench. Upon breaking down one of the walls, inside was found the skeleton of a winged humanoid creature.

Fourth is "Mephisto's Brand" another one pager from Ed Fedory (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). The Mephisto Brand is a mark found on an accused witch to prove she is doing the devil's work. It could appear in various forms, such as a hand, bat or spider.  We then are shown how those without any such mark are declared to have invisible marks, so they can be killed anyway.

Fifth is "The Horror Tub" by Al Hewetson (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). Harlan Huck is an obsessed collector of the macabre and seeks to purchase a painting from a man named Anders. Anders refuses to sell at any price, so Huck resorts to some ruffians who set Anders' home on fire, steal the painting and then kill him before Huck. Huck awakens that night to find his own home in flames and is confronted by the rotted corpse of Anders. The next day people find a hole where the home used to be. We are shown that in another place Huck and Anders battle each other in a room showing Huck's collection.

Sixth is "The Event in the Night?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A man named Henry White is in a car accident on a curving cliff road. A man comes out to attend to him and brings him to his nearby home to stay with him, meeting there his beautiful and far younger wife Mary. When Henry later arrives at the convention he was going to, he is told he was gone an entire year! Believing it to be connected to the house he stayed at, he goes there, finding only ashes in its place. He then starts remembering what happened, in particular Mary attacking him, being brought before Satanists in the basement where Mary is about to sacrifice him, then being able to shove her into a fire and escape. Henry suddenly wakes up, and it being revealed to all be a dream. He then again gets in the car accident and things start anew. I never care for the "it was all a dream" ending, which seems to me to just be the writer running out of ideas. Marcos' art in this story reminds me a lot of that of Jose Gonzalez.

"Beware It... Fear It... It Screams!"

Seventh is "Beware It... Fear It... It Screams!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). Anton Werner is a European immigrant living in a town named Amsterdam ranch. He keeps a mysterious pit on his property and angers the locals when Annabel Lee, the most beautiful woman there falls in love with and marries him. Annabel finds Anton to not be a good husband, he has tremendous self pity and starts accusing her of having relationships with the ranch hands. When she falls off her horse and is saved from a snake by one of the ranch hands, Anton thinks she is having an affair, shoots the man in the face and then ties her up and throws her in the pit. He pours honey over her and the horrific creatures in the pit consume her. Annabel still loves Anton however and rises from the pit to return to him, only a skeleton. The next day the ranch hands find the shredded corpse of Anton handing from the rafters with Annabel nowhere to be seen and the pit is filled in. Some pretty good art here from Borrell and a great story title. The panel when Annabel returns to Anton, now just a skeleton is quite effective. At the same time, Anton is an incredibly unlikable protagonist and it is quite absurd that he killed his wife over his own delusions.

Eight is "The Night of the Mutant-Eaters" by Al Hewetson (story) and Dennis Fujitake (art). A group of astronauts land on a planet in order to repair their ship. While the planet is occupied by humans, they are savages and the planet is incredibly overpopulated. One of the astronauts, Lt. Niw becomes enraptured with a young woman named Ula and the two make love to each other. When the ship is repaired and takes off, he takes Ula with him, who is pregnant. He reveals this to the others which makes them incredibly upset. When Ula gives birth, it is to 43 babies and kills her. The crew desire to kill the children in order to survive, but the children rapidly grow, suck up all the oxygen and then eat the crew, eventually dying themselves of starvation. It was good to see another story from Fujitake, who I presume is yet another artist pushed out by the Selecionnes Illustrada artists.

Perry just can't win. From "Whether Man or Scarecrow"

Ninth is another one page feature, "The Last Witch!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). This brief story tells of how in the Mexican town of Qjinaga, a woman is accused as a witch and is burned at the stake.

Tenth is "Whether Man or Scarecrow" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipa Dela Rosa (art). The protagonist of this story is a scarecrow named Perry. One day an old man appears before him, saying he is his fairy godmother and can grant him 3 wishes. His first wish enables Perry to speak. He tells him he can have two wishes, but should make them soon as he is an old man and can die at any minute. Perry uses his second wish to become human. Unfortunately things soon go south for him. He stumbles into an apple cart, meets up with Judy, the daughter of the local farmer who he is in love with, but when her father sees them together he shoots him and accidentally kills Judy as well. Perry is then stomped on by a cow, hit by a car and repeatedly shot while riding a tractor and trying to escape. Perry tries to make his last wish, that this all never happened, but it is too late, the old man already died. As does Perry, whose tractor crashes and he is impaled on some wooden fencing. This story is hilariously over the top with how unlucky Perry gets once becoming human, and is quite entertaining as a result.

NIghtmare #10

Edit: In hindsight looks like I screwed up on the order of what comes next and mistakenly skipped Nightmare #9 and Psycho #9! Enjoy this for now and I'll be back in a couple of days with the correct issue. One of the down sides of having a back log of a couple of issues.

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Nightmare, featuring the interior story "Princess of Earth". This issue is cover dated December 1972.

The two-page table of contents contains art from Pablo Marcos, featuring characters such as Mr. Pook, the Gargoyles, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and Phantom of the Opera in line for movie tickets!

The first story is "Princess of Earth" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). Eggs come out of a computer terminal in a space ship. One of them hatches, revealing a small, humanoid but furry creature. The narrative turns to a woman named Lisa, a celebrated singer. The creature, now in its adult form departs the swamp where it lives and heads to the theater where Lisa is performing. There, the creature bursts through the place and grabs Lisa, dragging her with him, saying she is a princess who has left them alone far too long. The creature drags her back to the space ship where it is revealed she was a part of the spaceship and had been tasked with taking care of the eggs, much of which had smashed during her absence. She is now forced to remain on the ship, tending to them.

Some great art from Xirinius on "The Funeral Barge"

Next is "The Funeral Barge" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). A detective named Walter Crowd investigates a mysterious barge that travels across the waters, carrying corpses on it. On a rainy night he pretends to be a corpse and is tossed aboard along with other bodies. The barge travels across the water, making its way to a giant castle. Once inside, a crane starts grabbing a hold of the bodies and bringing them in where a series of vampires start feasting on them. Walter uses a lit torch to fight back and make his escape, but he eventually is overwhelmed and is forced to become a pilot for the barge. Xirinius' art is quite strong here. His full page feature where we first see the castle is particularly impressive.

The third story is "Satan's Cellar" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferrer Maitz (art). This is Maitz's sole story for Skywald. A mother gets some meat from the butcher Louis Hokay and the family is disgusted by it. She returns to complain to Hokay who simply gives her back her money and tells her to go some place else. The mother gets the police to raid the place, hoping to find him serving dogs, rats or other rotten meat but they find nothing. She continues to pursue it though, eventually sneaking in and finding a variety of human body parts in a hidden chamber under the floor. Hokay arrives and tries to kill her but she kills him with a cleaver. All of a sudden a pair of many armed beings climb out of the hole in the floor and kill her. The narrator claims it was the meat of these creatures they were eating, and also that these creatures will now be pursuing food themselves. Some so-so art here, but the ending came out of left field, which I enjoyed.

Fourth is "The Proverbial Killer" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Michael Reidy is attacked constantly by his wife Janet, who is convinced he is having an affair because each month he disappears for a short period of time. Michael denies such claims. She seeks to divorce him and get paid alimony. It is soon revealed that she is the one having an affair, with a man named Augie, who also plans on conning her too. When he blabs this to one of his friends, the friend feels guilty and goes to Michael to reveal it. Michael doesn't believe it though. He heads home where he catches Augie and Janet together. He reveals the truth to them, that when he was disappearing he wasn't having an affair, but its because when the full moon comes he turns into a werewolf! Michael is a rather milquetoast character (and modeled after director Woody Allen) but it was good to see him get Janet and Augie in the end.

Things get crazy in "Satan's Cellar"

Next is "A Macabre Fact of Life: Demonic Possession" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A man in public starts flipping out, claiming to be possessed by a demon. We see that this is the case, as another man had summoned Satan and requested the man to be possessed by a demon. Returning to the scene in public, the man grabs an axe and goes on a rampage, eventually being captured and put in an asylum where a exorcism is done on him and the demon leaves him. Not much of a plot to this brief 4 page story.

Next is the one page "Game of Skill" by Joan Cintron (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). I got these credits from Richard Arndt's "Horror Comics in Black and White" as the story itself is just credited as "Cintron and Kinsman". In prehistoric times this page questions what would have happened if the first humans to fight against other beasts lost and baboons instead became the dominant species on Earth. Not much of a story here, but strong art from Cintron. Reminds me a little of Luis Bermejo.

Another entry in the "Nightmare World" series is next with "They Crawled out of the Crater" with Al Hewetson adapting the dream of reader Trisha Hamlin. Lara provides the art. Trisha dreams herself being shown on TV as she departs to space in order to head to the moon. However a hole is ripped into her ship, causing her to be sucked out. She is pulled down to the moon's surface where she must first escape some quicksand then is grabbed by some furry humanoid beings. They seek help as some spider creatures attack them. She then realizes that the furry creatures are in fact aligned with the spiders. She is then suddenly shook awake by a policeman and the story ends. Its too bad, this story ends a little too soon, I was interested at seeing what would happen next! Lara is another artist with his sole Skywald appearance being this story, which is too bad as he did a pretty good job.

Next is "Black Communion" by Ed Fedory (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). Within a monastery, Satan summons a sword wielding corpse to rise and start attacking the monks. Called Don Carlos, the corpse slays many of them with ease. He is eventually done in when a monk trips on the stairs, causing some holy water to spill through the floorboards and fall upon him.

Some good art from Lara in "They Crawled out of the Crater"

The Human Gargoyles series returns with "1 and 1 Equals 3" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art), taking over for Felipa Dela Rosa. The two Gargoyles, Edward and Mina Sartyros give birth to a child, whom they call Andrew. They come across a traveling circus and travel with them. While taking a rest however, Andrew is displayed to the public and kidnapped. Andrew is held by a Satanic cult and brought before Satan himself. Satan claims to have breathed life into each of the gargoyles. Edward attacks him, there is a big explosion and the gargoyles get up and depart with Andrew, thinking about whether they should depart Europe and head to America. A so-so story with fairly strong art; it seems mind boggling to me that the Gargoyles would leave their child with strangers, a rather dumb way to move the plot along.

Psycho #4

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

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

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

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

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

The Heap on a rampage!

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

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

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

"Plague of Jewels"

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

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

Creepy 65

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Creepy, dated September 1974. Albert Michini provides the back cover in his sole Warren appearance.

First is "The Land of Bone" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story features a warrior Costan who finds himself in a world where every person he meets is a skeleton. He is joined by a skeleton wizard, Wikkander, who tells him that his lover Aruna has been captured by the Wizard Poxxalt. The two of them fight off various creatures and then defeat Poxxalt. Costan is surprised to find Aruna a skeleton herself, and gives Wikkander a ring on her finger. Once he gets the ring, the truth is revealed. Costan was a skeleton himself, and only thought that he was human and everyone else was a skeleton. Wikkander, a descendent of his brought him to life to free Aruna from Poxxalt.

Next is "Star-Slaughter" by Ramon Torrents (art, his Warren debut) and Rich Margopoulos (story), from Creepy 51. This futuristic story features humanoid robots battling each other. One of the robots kills one of the other ones, and realizing what he has done, kills himself. He is repaired by his creators, who mention that this is not the first time he has tried to kill himself.

Third is "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story), from Creepy 43. 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 "The Quaking Horror" by Auraleon (art) and Gardner Fox (story), from Creepy 42. This HP Lovecraft-esque story features a house that has a dark horror underneath it, a bizarre tentacled monster that was summoned hundreds of years ago. The entire house eventually collapses, destroying the demon for good. Some very nice art by Auraleon here.

Fifth is "Bed of Roses" by Felix Mas (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 51. This story is about a seriously deranged young woman, Rose, who works at a flower store and was apparently traumatized by being locked up by her mother as a kid. She goes completely out of control, killing with scissors a man who comes into her store, then later attacking her mother too. As the story ends she is kept in a padded cell at an institution.

Sixth is "The Accursed Flower" by Jose Bea (story & art), from Creepy 49. A farmer, Jordi, is overwhelmed by all the work he has to do on his farm. He hears of the 'Maneiros' who come from a flower and will work endlessly; killing their master if he can't find enough work for him. Jordi finds seeds of the flower and plants them, causing hundreds of Maneiros to appear the next day. He gives them plenty of work to do, but they complete them all with rapid speed. Eventually he can't think of something for them to do and they claw him to death.

Seventh is "A Chronicle!" by Jorge Galvez (art, his Warren debut) and Steve Skeates (story), from Creepy 42. This short story at only 4 pages tells of a man who pays little attention to his life, focusing instead on a research project that ends up being meaningless when someone else completes it. He then gets fired from his job and tries to rob a bank but is killed trying to escape. Not much of a point to this story, wasting Galvez's pretty good art.

Last is "The Third Night of Mourning" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story), from Creepy 49. This story takes place during the french revolution and features Jacque, a blacksmith who is framed for treason and executed via the guillotine. His headless corpse raises from beyond and goes after the man who framed him, sending him to a similar fate at the guillotine.

Creepy 73

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vampirella 40

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring Vampi and a dark, caped figure. This issue is cover dated March 1975. Ken Kelly provides another cover on the back of the issue, and Jose Gonzalez provides his usual one page Vampirella intro in the front inside cover. This issue was one of the first issues of Vampirella I ever read, so still remains somewhat memorable to me for that reason.

First is Vampirella in "The Nameless Ravisher!" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the previous one, where a man who hunted human heads wanted to take Vampirella's head. He was killed at the end of the story, being decapitated. In this story we meet his two sisters, a pair of crazy old women who want revenge on Vampirella. They summon a demon, the Nameless Ravisher, which takes the shape of various entities, mostly those based in nature. The Nameless Ravisher attacks Vampi, first by flooding the room she is in, then taking the shape of a tree that attacks her. Eventually Vampirella defeats it, and the two old women are done in by the corpse of their brother. An odd Vampirella story, but Sanchez's art is a nice, rare alternative to the usual artwork on this series (not to say the usual artwork is bad, Gonzalez and Mayo were usually great. Just enjoyed someone else drawing Vampi for a change).

Second is the second part of the three part Dracula series, "The Winged Shaft of Fate" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Color is provided by Michelle Brand. This story continues from the previous one, with Dracula now having a female vampire companion. Similar to the previous story however, this story primarily focuses on another couple that becomes involved when the carnival stops by. A man steals a large sum of money and plans to meet his lover, but the lover ends up getting bitten by Dracula. The man ends up leaving with another woman instead when his lover doesn't show up, only she does, as a vampire, killing them both.

Third is "The Face of Death!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Carl Wessler (story). A man is angry at a former lover who has moved on and married someone else. He seeks to get back at her by attacking her during a halloween party. When he realizes that the party is only for people who bring children, he finds a boy alone on the street, Mort, and they go in togehter. Mort keeps trying to hang out with the man, who finally finds his former lover upstairs. When he is about to attack her however, he trips on her kid's blocks and falls out the window. Mort comes to see him, and reveals that he is death.

Fourth is "The Man Who Never Was" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Fernandez turns out a very interesting sci-fi themed story here, but his art is absolutely horrible compared to his normal work. Quite a dissappointment from someone who is usually so good. Not that its horrible compared to some other artists seen over the years in Warren publications, but for him, a big dissappointment. Anyway, on to the story, which is quite good. A man awakes after some sort of coma or unconscious state to find himself in a society that doesn't recognize him. His cash is worthless and those he talks to refer to society rules that he has no familiarity with. Further investigation by the police and doctors realize that the man has no record of existing. At least that's what they tell him. In actuality, they realize that the man existed in society nearly 200 years ago and must have been in some state of suspended animation. Rather than accept him into their society, fearing he may cause others to believe in the freedoms that no longer exist, they inject him with a substance that causes him to go unconscious for another 50 years, so those in the future can deal with him instead.

Fifth is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Another sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Last is "Home For the Holidays" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This is a Christmas themed story. It is told in two parts, very similar in fashion to the story "Bless Us Father" from Creepy 59. On the left side of each page we see a little girl and her nanny, who get ready for Christmas day and the return of her parents. On the right side of the page we see the parents boarding a plane to head home. The wife seems quite upset with the husband, who appears to have been recently released from prison. The husband realizes that a fellow passenger has a gun and tries to stop him. This results in a confrontation in the cockpit which results in the plane crashing... right into the home where the daughter and nanny are. Quite a bleak and depressing ending compared to many of the other Christmas themed stories that appeared in the Christmas issue of Creepy that came out the same time as this issue (issue 68).

Creepy 72

Ken Kelly provides a fairly good cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a robot in a misty hallway. This issue is cover dated July 1975, and is an all Jose Gual issue. Jose Gual was a fairly good, but somewhat underrated artist at Warren who also did a lot of work for their chief competitor, Skywald. Wish he had done more for Warren than he did (in fact, Gual did only one more story for Warren after this issue). Not just good art, but fairly good stories throughout the issue too. Berni Wrightson provides a frontis of Uncle Creepy, the only interior art not by Gual.

First is "Vendetta", written by Rich Margopoulos & Gerry Boudreau. Howell Hayes, head of a large company tells an entire factory of employees that they are laid off. One of the laid off workers, a one armed man named Frank Troughton convinces fellow laid off employee Walter Hargrove to transfer his brain to an indestructable robot so he can get revenge on Hayes. Troughton storms into Hayes's mansion, only to find that Hayes is also a robot, who quickly destroys him. Hayes's energy completely runs out however due to contaminated cartridges produced by the closed down factory. Hargrove is found outside and as a mechanic is permitted to go inside to fix Hayes. He instead destroys him, repairs Troughton's robot body and places Hayes's face on him so he can take over his life.

Second is "Malocchi!" written by Don McGregor. This story was originally written and produced a couple of years ago, having been advertised on issues of Creepy as far back as 1972. A man, Troy Rutherford suddenly finds himself on fire and dies as his whole house burns down. It was exactly what he had told some psychic phenomena experts about days earlier, but they didn't believe him. The two experts, regretting that they didn't believe him track down the source of the incident to Madame Swambada, a psychic. When Swambada tries to poison one of them, they are able to prevent the same fate from happening to them and get her arrested.

Third is "Lick the Sky Red", written by Doug Moench. A psychotic arsonist sets a lab ablaze. One of the men is severely burned in the face, which ruins his life as he's laid off from his job and evicted from his apartment because of it. He stays in a shack and gathers some dynamite which he plans to use to get revenge on his boss. He meets a beautiful blind woman outside however and decides to forget the whole thing. The arsonist meanwhile starts a fire in the cabin and ends up getting blown up by the dynamite left there.

Fourth is "The Terror Stalked Heiress", written by Carl Wessler. This story is part of the series 'It' which appeared primarily in Eerie throughout 1974 and 1975. The series stars a corpse named Timothy Foley who comes back from the grave to help his niece Jill. Oddly for some reason in this story the family name of Foley is changed to Redey. Jill gets attacked by some monsters that live in a mirror. It arrives and saves her, and they cover the mirror with a blanket so the monsters can't get out. Later some men come to the house to kill her so they can take over her home, and It arrives once again and saves her, while the monsters from the mirror kill the criminals.

Fifth is "The Bite", written by Jeff Rovin. A city is plauged by a series of murders from a ghoul. A well known football player is suspected of the crimes due to part of his jersey appearing. In actuality he is being framed by two friends of his, who are being paid by the actual killer, a young woman our protagonist met just earlier. The football player is hauled off to jail while the ghoul moves on to another town to consume more victims.

The issue concludes with "Labrynth", written by Gerry Boudreau. A trucker, Sam, stops off at a truck stop he frequents. Inside he meets Dierdre, an emotionless women who joins him on a trip to Mexico. There they visit the catacombs and head deep inside with a guide. Dierdre admits to being in love with him but he has no interest in her so she kills their guide, preventing him from being able to leave her.

Creepy 71

A terrific issue of Creepy, dedicated to Luis Bermejo. Five new stories from him in this one, all with extremely good artwork. This issue came out in May 1975, at which point Bermejo was at the top of his game. Unfortunate that he couldn't always stay this good. Some very strong stories too. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy in the frontis.

First is "Room For One More" with story by Doug Moench. A mysterious killer with a skull-like mask collects corpses, sitting them next to each other in a room. The story then changes focus to a young undertaker, who meets the wife of a deceased man, Rita and the two hit it off. It ends up that her deceased husband is alive however, and plotting with his wife's lover, Augie, to fake his death. He demands the undertaker get involved with them and help him continue to fake his death. Instead the mysterious killer shows up and kills him. Later Rita sneaks in and faces a similar fate. As does Augie when he tries to kill the undertaker to keep things a secret. The undertaker ends up being the killer, collecting corpses and talking to the corpse of his dead fiance, whom he is upset at, suspecting she didn't want to marry him. When he mistakenly goes out in public with his mask on he loses it and the police find him shooting at a fiance's body, trying to kill her again like he did before. A little complicated, but a very good story to start the issue.

Second is "But When She Was Bad" with story by Gerry Boudreau. A young woman is in a car crash with her parents, being the only one to survive. Soon afterwards she starts hearing voices in her head, telling her to do bad things. This starts with her killing the family dog, but escalates to her tampering with stop lights, causing a car crash, and beating to death her guidance counselor and another man with a baseball bat. As the police come to collect her it is revealed that this behavior started before the crash and is why her parents were killed.

Third is "His Name Was John!", with story provided by Budd Lewis. This story is told through two perspectives, at the top of the page an alien creature approaching the Earth, and at the bottom a priest named John. The alien being causes John to collapse, sending his consiousness to his ship. There, the alien reveals that he created all life on Earth and that was created himself from another being long since dead. He decides to make John his own 'son', returning him back to Earth where he soon finds tentacled growths appearing on his back. A very similar story to Jose Bea's "The Other Side of Heaven" from Vampirella 28.

Fourth is "The Song of Alan Bane". Story here is by Gerry Boudreau. Alan Bane of the title is knight of darkness who kills many and causes the people of the countryside great fear. Multiple times knights and armies try to defeat him but are all killed. Eventually he is done in however by a young woman and priest who head to his lair. This story is told in the form of a poem. Some very nice art, but easily the weakest story here.

Last is "The Minotaur", an adaption of the Nathanial Hawthorne story. Adaption is by Rich Margopoulos. The minotaur is a half man/half bull creature who is possessed by King Minos and kept in a labyrinth. Every year the King demands fourteen people to be handed over to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Prince Theseus volunteers to head there such that he can defeat the Minotaur. With help from the princess, he is able to defeat it and escape with his people.

Creepy 70

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated April 1975. This issue is another all Edgar Allen Poe issue, with Rich Margopoulos providing the adaption for all stories within. Berni Wrightson provides the one page frontis intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is the cover story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", with art by Jose Ortiz. This story surrounds a mysterious murder where a woman is killed in her room, with no motive apparent. It eventually becomes clear that an escaped orangutan is responsible for the murder.

Second is "Man of the Crowd" with art by Luis Bermejo. Bermejo's art is terrific here, as was much of his early stories for Warren. A man sitting in a restaurant spots a mysterious old man walking by. He heads outside and follows the man, who always is staying close to a crowd. He eventually realizes that the old man is some sort of psychic vampire, drawing the energy from the souls of others.

Third is "The Cask of Amontillado!" with art by Martin Salvador. This story, which had already been adapted earlier in Creepy by Archie Goodwin features a man who gets even with a collegue of his who loves wine. Telling him of his favorite wine, Amontillado, he convinces the friend to come down into an underground passageway with him where he bricks up the friend in a passage and bricks it off, trapping him there forever.

Fourth is "Shadow" with art by Richard Corben. Some very surreal artwork in this story by Corben. Pestilence and war plagues the countryside. In the city of Ptolemais a group of men sit to eat dinner next to the body of a fellow warrior, Zoilus. Soon a mysterious shadow appears on the wall. They then all die, due to catching a disease that the corpse had.

Fifth is "A Descent into the Maelstrom!" with art by Adolfo Abellan. This story tells of a ship that travels past a large waterfall, then gets caught in it. One of the men saves himself by tying himself to a barrel.

Last is "Berenice" with art by Isidro Mones. Like the Cask of Amontillado, this story was originally adapted by Archie Goodwin years before, but is adapted anew by Margopoulos here. This story tells of a man who is obsessed with his cousin Berenice, whom he plans on marrying. Berenice gets sick and the protagonist starts obsessing over her teeth. After her death he digs up her corpse and tears all her teeth out.

Eerie 112

An all Esteban Maroto issue, quite an issue for a big Maroto fan like me. The cover, featuring the Spook, is by Ken Kelly, the sole non-Maroto artistic contribution of the issue.

First is "Stridespider Sponge-Rot!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Eerie 58. This is the first of a seven part series entitled 'The Spook' about a black zombie. The term, which is a racist way to refer to black people, had been created by Bill Dubay, who told Doug MOench to write a series featuring. Anyway, this is a fairly good story, featuring the title character encountering a sorceress woman who brings numerous zombies to life. The Spook is able to stop them by throwing her into a fire. Really nice art by Maroto, who'd be replaced with Leopold Sanchez for the remainder of the series after this story. Which is probably why no more Spook issues were included in this issue.

Last is "Luana" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), an adaption of the film of the same name. This story is from Vampirella 31. A group of archeologists in Africa are attacked by a group of African tribesmen. Only one of the men, named George, survives, when Luana, a beautiful woman living in the jungle comes and saves him, healing him from the poison arrows that struck him. Returning to civilization, he meets a woman, Isabelle Saxon who is searching for her father, who crashed in the jungle years before with his wife and Isabelle's half-sister (who is actually Luana). An old friend of her fathers, who is involved in drugs with the tribesmen becomes involved, and seeks to kill them, but is outsmarted by Luana, who leads George and Isabelle to the plane crash, where they find a diary that tells the truth about her father's friend, who ends up dying when he struggles with the tribe leader he was allied with.

Third is "Enter: The Exterminator - They Eat Babies... Don't They?" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Like the Spook, another series where Maroto drew the first story, then didn't draw any more. Taking place in a medieval setting, monsters in the woods have been capturing children. A mysterious man who can heal people appears and asks the king to let him help keep the kids safe by putting them in his care. The kingdom instead hires a mysterious knight known as the Exterminator. The Exterminator realizes that the healer is working with the monsters and attacks them, defeating both of them. He finds a spaceship they are from and kills the healer, who tries to tell him that they are actually there to save the children from the cruelties of the world. The Exterminator afterwards finds the children unharmed. He later speaks to someone from the future, revealing him to be a robot. This story would kick off a series of exterminator robot stories by Dubay, although this was the only appearance of this particular Exterminator robot.

Fourth is "Rusty Bucklers" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Vampirella 57. The story is about an old man, Dete, who joins a young knight on his trip to defeat a nearby sorceror and rescue the lady trapped there. It is revealed that many years have passed, the sorceror's dragon has died of old age, the sorceror himself is gone, and the lady is old too. Dete sleeps with her and is killed by the young knight, who overreacts.

Next is an adaption of Nathanial Hawthorne's "Hollow of the Three Hills!", with art by Esteban Maroto and adaption by Rich Margopoulos. This story is from Eerie 63. Absolutely amazing artwork from Maroto in this story. A young woman visits a witch, who shows her two depressed looking old people, a crazy man in an institution and a funeral. It ends up that they were all connected to her, the old people were her parents, upset over her leaving them, the crazy guy was her husband, who went crazy after she had an affair,and the funeral was for her child, who died of the pox after she ran off. The trauma from the visions causes the young woman to become comatose.

The issue concludes with "Fallen Angels" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Vampirella 60. The art for this story is sideways. Some very good, exotic art from Maroto on this story, which comes off as a Warren version of the Little Mermaid. A mermaid princess lives in an ocean paradise. She rescues a human man from a shipwreck and falls in love with him. She begs her father, who always taught her that humans were evil, to turn her into a human so she can be with him and he reluctantly permits it. She reunites with the man who treats her kindly at first, but she soon finds him with another woman. Realizing that men are evil, as her father taught her, she tries to return to the sea, but now a human, she drowns.

Vampirella 39

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, featuring a freak woman sitting on a skull. This issue is cover dated January 1975. Jose Gonzalez provides both a one page Vampi intro on the inside front cover and a one page Vampi farewell on the inside back cover, an image that was soon reworked into the cover of Vampirella 42 by Enrich.

First is Vampirella in "The Head-Hunter of London" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This is the first of three straight Vampi stories from Sanchez, whose style is a stark contrast from Gonzalez's art. Still a pretty good job from Sanchez though. Vampi and Pendragon meet Jack D'Arcy, who offers to tour them around London. D'Arcy is a hunter, who secretly collects human heads as well and becomes obsessed with obtaining Vampirella's head. They struggle, and by the end it is D'Arcy who ends up being decapitated.

Second is "The Sultan of 42nd Street" by Felix Mas (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story). A poor artist buys a canvas from a pawnshop. It ends up that whatever he paints on the canvas comes to life, and a beautiful woman appears when he paints her on it. He gets the idea to paint multiple women and turn them into whores to make him money. Alas, when another painter buys one of the canvases and paints his face, his entire face vanishes from his home, and appears in hers!

Third is "Snow White and the Deadly Dwarfs" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates & Gerry Boudreau (story). A young woman lives in a large mansion all by herself, well except for dwarves that live with her and call her snow white. Her boyfriend doesn't believe her about them, and when he comes over they stab him to death to 'protect her'. Only it ends up that there dwarves weren't after all and she did it all the stabbing herself. Some extremely good art by Maroto on this story, one of his best.

Fourth is the start of a new three part series featuring Dracula. This first story is titled "The Circus of King Carnival". Art is by Esteban Maroto and story is by Gerry Boudreau. This story is in color. Despite being the title of the series, Dracula barely appears at all here. Instead the story focuses on a couple who come by a freak show that Dracula is a part of. The husband visits a shaman as he wants to save his dying wife, but the shaman tells him he'll have to bring him a human heart. The husband attacks a thief who is captivated by the butterfly lady in the freak show, and kills him to take the heart. Only the butterfly lady kills him. Meanwhile, Dracula bites the neck of the wife, preventing her from dying by turning her into a vampire.

Fifth is "The Curse of Castle Vlad!" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in Translyania where a movie shoot takes place in a cursed castle. Soon members of the cast start appearing dead, but the director declares that they have to continue. Eventually all are gone except for the director and his wife, the star of the film, who ends up being revealed as a vampire. Naturally, she ends up biting him.

Last is "The French Coagulation" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story). Bermejo's first Warren story, his art here is simply amazing, arguably the best job he ever did for Warren. Its quite unfortunate that he couldn't stay this good his entire Warren career. In Paris law enforcement investigate the death of a woman at the hand of the "Loup Garou" which is essentially a werewolf. Due to a key in the victim's hands, they are able to pintpoint the creature down to one of six people. They lock them up in jail cells and the night of the full moon one of them, a woman, turns into the werewolf and kills her husband, who is in the cell with her. It ends up the husband was sleeping with the wife of one of the cops which is why he locked him in the cell with her.

Creepy 69

This issue of Creepy is the first of two Edgar Allen Poe specials. Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue, dated February 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover. Rich Margopoulos did the adaptions for all the stories in this issue.

First is "The Pit and the Pendulum" with art by Jose Ortiz. The Warren Companion reveals that Berni Wrightson was originally intended to do the art for this story. A man is sentenced to death and put in prison. Inside, he nearly falls into a giant pit. When he drinks some water, it is poisoned and knocks him out. He awakens tied up on a wooden slab, with a giant pendulum swinging over him. By rubbing meat over the ropes binding him, some rats come and eat the rope, freeing him. He is able to escape to freedom afterwards.

Next is "Premature Burial" with art by Vicente Alcazar. A man is deathly afraid of being buried alive, particularly because he has an illness where he can appear dead when he's still alive. His wife comes up with a plan to install a rope within his coffin so if he is prematurely buried, he can notify her he's still alive. He later wakes up though to find himself in another coffin, with no way to notify her. Luckily for him he is actually on a ship, not in a coffin, and this helps him get over his fear for good.

Third is "The Fall of the House of Usher" featuring art by Martin Salvador. A man goes to see his friend, who is part of the Usher family. The man is worried for his sister, who is quite ill. Eventually the sister passes away and is buried in the basement. Usher is still quite nervous however and one night his sister, who wasn't actually dead appears and attacks him. The two of them die from the ordeal and the house collapses just after our protagonist departs.

Richard Corben provides the art for the next story, "The Oval Portrait". "The Raven", a color story published in issue 67 was originally intended to appear here instead, but got mistakenly published two issues early. A man is wounded in a duel so he is brought into a lare house nearby. Inside he finds a very realistic oval portrait of a beautiful woman. He reads a diary within the house which reveals the history of the portrait. The woman was the wife of the artist. He showed her little love, and made her be the model for the portrait. As he worked on the portrait, and it became more and more lifelike, she became exhausted and eventually collapsed dead when he finished the portrait.

Fifth is "Ms. Found in a Bottle" with art by Leo Summers. This story is told by a man on a ship that faces a huge storm. Eventually there is just him and one other man left. Soon the ship sinks when it comes across another, our protagonist flees onto it. There he sees a number of spectral crew members. He writes down his encounters, putting it in a bottle, and the ship comes across a whirlpool, sinking in it.

Last is "Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" with art by Isidro Mones. This story is about an old man dying who is visited by a hypnotist who hypnotizes him to stay alive. It works, and he lives through the night, then for days and eventually months. The hypnotist, not feeling good about the matter releases the trance, and the man immediately decomposes.

Creepy 67

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated December 1974. This cover's quite the oddity, as the story it features, "Bowser", doesn't even appear in this issue due to a printing error. That story was planned to be printed here, but due to an error at the printer, the story "The Raven" appeared instead. "Bowser" would later appear in Vampirella 54 approximately two years later. Berni Wrightson provides the one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover.

First is "Excerpts from the Year Five" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where all the power in the world has vanished. The story focuses on a man, who meets a woman when receiving first aid. They help fellow people and find a young boy eating the remains of his mother. Eventually Satan worshippers kill the boy however, and the woman dies soon afterwards as well.

Second is "The Haunted Abbey" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Lewis (story). This story tells of a couple in Spain who comes across an abbey occupied by monks. Due to the weather they head inside. The monks tell them to stay in a cell, but they sneak out and catch them executing a woman by covering her up in an alcove with bricks. All of a sudden they find themselves years later, and all thats left of the woman is a skeleton. They head up through the Abbey to know find it completely in ruins.

Third is "The Happy Undertaker" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). This story tells of an Undertaker who loves his work and takes a lot of steps to make money for himself. He eventually replaces his employees with homeless kids who work for room and board. They end up turning on him however when it is revealed that they are vampires!

Fourth is "The Raven" by Richard Corben (story & art), an adaption of the classic Poe story. Anyone familiar with horror surely must know this story, featuring a pesty Raven that keeps saying "Nevermore". Some very nice art from Richard Corben. The story was most likely originally intended for two issues later, an all Edgar Allen Poe issue.

Fifth is "Holy War" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Lewis (story). Taking place in the age of the Crusades, the Church learns of a group of pagans that apparentely possess the greatest treasure in the world. When they refuse to hand it over to be used for war, the church sends soldiers which kill them all. They then find the treasure... which ends up being the cross of Jesus Christ.

Last is "Oil of Dog", an adaption of the Ambrose Bierce story. Isidro Mones provides the art while Jack Butterworth provides the adaption. This story tells of a boy whose father creates oil from dead dogs and whose mother performs abortions and has him dispose of the body. One day when the boy is hiding from the cops he disposes of a baby in the oil vat and creates an even more lucrative product. Eventually however his parents get in trouble for all the people they end up killing to create the oil, and end up killing each other when there is no other person they can use for ingredients.

Vampirella 46

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, from October 1975. This issue is mostly reprints, with one new story.

First is "The Origin of Vampirella" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story was originally printed in the first Vampirella Annual, and was rewritten here by Budd Lewis. This story features Vampirella on Drakulon with her lover Tristan. The planet is dying and while Vampirella seeks to kill animals for their blood, Tristan doesn't want to do so, nor does anyone else, resulting in the people all dying off. Eventually people from Earth arrive on Drakulon as well and end up killing Tristan, He rises up again however and confronts Vampirella one last time before she heads to Earth.

Second is "Death's Dark Angel" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally printed in issue 12. In its original printing, this story was Jose Gonzalez's first appearance in a Warren magazine. Its an okay art job, but pales greatly in comparison to the stuff he was producing by this point. This story features Vampirella being captured by an old man, W.W. Wade, who also controls a demon called Skaar. Wade wants to cheat death and thinks he can do so by getting Vampirella to bite him. He captures the Van Helsings as well. Vampirella eventually does bite him, but because she's not a traditional vampire, it kills him for good.

Third is "Isle of the Huntress" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally printed in issue 14. This story surrounds Vampi, Pendragon and Adam arriving on an island where a werewolf like beast roams. The werewolf is actually a woman who lives on the island with her husband, who while looking for a cure also procures bait to be hunted by her in her wolf form. Vampi & friends are able to save themselves from being prey and kill the two of them.

Last is this issue's sole new story, "The Monster Called Vampirella" by Zesar (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story was in color. Zesar was a pretty good artist, but only did five stories for Warren, with this being the first of them. I've already covered most of his other stories in other reviews. Unfortunate that he didn't do more Warren stories. This story continues with the storyline from the previous issues, where Pendragon and Vampi have been shot and Conrad has been killed. In this story Adam finds the true culprit behind whats happening, Sara, Pendragon's daughter, and his friend, Paul Girard. Paul is killed and Adam is arrested and questioned by the police. Vampirella meanwhile is attacked by burglers, but kills them and flies off.