Creepy 106

Romas Kukalis provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, his Warren debut. This issue is called a swords and sorcery special, although as you'll see within, only half the stories have the swords/sorcery theme.

First is "Quimby the Barbarian" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story tells of a man who uses a dream device to become a barbarian, battling other dreaming people. He battles a powerful sorceress who manages to defeat him, and upon returning to the waking world realizes that its his wife!

Second is "Fangs" by Leo Duranona (art) and Laurie Sutton (story). Duranona uses both real photos and his own drawn artwork in this story. A group of mermaids are brought to be entered into 'the shark cult', but upon arriving there realize that it is actually a den of vampires that kill all of them and feed their corpses to sharks. One of the mermaids survives, but is made a vampire herself. She convinces her fellow mermaids to kill all the remaining vampires. She then flees to above the water to escape, where she is soon found by a human.

Third is "Swords in the World Series" by Jim Starlin & Joe Rubenstein (art) and Ken Gale (story). Two sorcerors battle each other and one of them is victorious. The loser tries to escape by going back in time to the present. There he learns about baseball and becomes a player on the Yankees, making them very successful, within one win of the championship. At that time however the winning sorceror arrives on the scene, to have a one on one battle with him this time. Both are transported away, with one of the henchmen recruited for baseball as well.

Fourth is "Primal Equation" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis & Jon Sinsky (story). Two soldiers from opposing sides of a large scale war, the only survivors, discover a space ship collecting bodies. Thinking this must be occupied by aliens, responsible for the fighting, they board the ship and inside find a giant embryo, being fed the corpses. One of the soldiers destroys it, but the scientists there, who are fellow humans, reveal that the creature was to be a new breed of human, one that would have kept the world peaceful.

Fifth is "Sudden Death Playoff" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story tells of a one on one golf game between a human and alien, with the survival of the Earth at stake. The human is able to beat him in golf and in a duel when the alien pulls out a sword.

Last is "The Art of Killing" by Val Mayerik (art) and Larry Hama (story). A samurai is trained by his elderly father and three uncles. One day a notice from their lord arrives, resulting in the samurai having to kill his uncles to keep his life. He then battles his father and kills him as well. This story would become a new series in Eerie titled "Samurai" shortly after this issue.

Vampirella 85

A rather unique issue of Vampirella with this issue, as Vampi gets drawn by a trio of artists for unfortunately the only time ever.

The cover is by Paul Gulacy, in his only Warren cover. He does a pretty good job although isn't at the same level as Vampi's usual cover artist, Enrich, at least in my opinion. The table of contents page features a Jose Gonzalez drawing of Vampi, something that he would do on nearly every issue of Vampirella over the last three years of the magazine's existence. Unfortunately Gonzalez would vanish almost entirely from Warren except for these one page drawings for about 20 or so issues during this period of time and lesser artists like Rudy Nebres (already discussed in my review for issue 88) would draw many stories in his place.

The Vampi story for this issue is "Flame Spirit" by team of Val & John Lakey (artists) and Bob Toomey (writer). The Lakeys (who were frequently credited under the name "Artifact") were a great artist team who unfortunately only did about half a dozen stories for Warren, mostly in the last few years of Vampirella's existence. This would be their sole story featuring Vampirella herself. Their artwork was arguably as life-like as anything ever published in Warren, although they did have a notable flaw in that the people in their stories always seemed completely detached from the background. Anyway, this story features Vampi on her own in the desert, where she meets a pair of Native Americans and encounters the Flame Spirit, an alien being who has slept on Earth for millions of years but ends up returning to its home planet after its encounter with Vampi. The story's hardly that great although I do like the art a lot.

The next story, "The Conscience of the King" is by Auraleon (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story of a miniature elf going on a quest to rescue a prince along with the animals he befriends is nothing special and is just one of countless instances during Warren's last few years where fantasy based stories crept their way into these 'horror' magazines.

"Curly's Gold" is up next, with art by Leo Duranona and story by Michael Fleisher. Another story with no horror elements whatsoever in it, its about a husband and wife who are after their uncle's treasure. The uncle refuses to tell them anything but instead tells his neighborhood friend, who is followed by the two of them. When the wife shoots her husband, seeking the treasure all to herself, the cavern caves in on them, killing them. Duranona uses a lot of real life photos in this story, something he'd do a number of times during his run at Warren.

Fourth is "A Green Phoenix" by Noly Zamora (art), in his sole Warren appearance, and Laurie Sutton (story). Billions of years in Earth's future, a lizard like man seeks three magic stones which will give him the power to cast a magical spell. He eventually is able to obtain all three after his encounter with a blind man and a female warrior, but becomes a demon like creature under her control once the spell is cast. Nothing all that special here.

Last is Lilywhite and Lavender by Alex Nino (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Nino's artwork is probably about as complex as anything you'd see from Warren, and this story is a prime example of that. His style is not without its flaws though, as its sometimes so complex that its hard to figure out what's going on. This story is about an ugly hunchback named Lavender who kills a beautiful girl, Lilywhite. Lilywhite's Guardian Angel, Wendell, is sent to Earth and shows Lavender heaven and hell. Not a great story, but certainly better than the other non-Vampi stories in this issue.