Eerie 15

My first issue coverage in a while, featuring an issue I've recently been able to acquire. This issue came out shortly after Warren's first collapse at the end of 1967 and features approximately a third reprinted material and two thirds new material. The cover by Vic Prezio is an okay one, but quite unscary.

First is "The Graves of Oconoco" by Pat Boyette & Rocco Mastroserio (art) and John Benson (story). A pair of friends, Frank and Mitchell work in Brazil near a gravesite. Mitchell is a scientist working on making edible material from soil while Frank is an archeologist, who discovers a crypt of dead warriors and a wolf. Mitchell's work on the soil finally is successful but ends up bringing the wolf back to life, which Mitchell klls. Yet it wasn't Mitchell's work that actually brought it back to life, as all the corpses from the crypt soon spring to life themselves.

Second is "Wardrobe of Monsters" by Gray Morrow (art) and Otto Binder (story). For some unknown reason Angelo Torres, who is uncredited on the story (but included in the table of contents page) handles the final page. This story is a reprint from Creepy #2. Five men find a number of sacrophoguses in a pharoah's Egyptian tomb that house various monsters including a vampire, wolf man, devil and Frankenstein monster. One of the men, a translator finds the ability to transfer himself into these monsters. He does so, killing his various partners in monster form so he can get all the credit. He also destroys the mummy of the pharoah, fearing that he also has the ability to transfer into the bodies. However when he occupies a monster to kill his last partner, the pharoah's spirit, released by the destruction of his physical body, seizes the man's own body, trapping him in monster form for good.

Third is "The Demon Wakes" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story by Goodwin was likely left over from when Goodwin departed Warren, as this issue was printed over 6 months after he departed Warren. In the prologue we meet Harry Willet, an accountant entering a bar. The majority of the story features a bizarre monster, Moloch, who awakens chained up in a pit. Moloch breaks free of his chains and climbs out of the pit, killing the guards and breaking free. In real life Harry goes crazy and kills three people before being killed himself. Moloch apparantaly was a representation of the evil within Harry getting out.

"Under the Skin" is next, with art by Joe Orlando and Jerry Grandenetti (who is uncredited) and story by Goodwin. This story was originally printed in Eerie #3. 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.

Fifth is the cover story, "The Doll Collector" by Gutenberg Montiero (art) and Dave Kahler (story). A gold digging woman has a vast collection of dolls. She heads to a theater with her latest lover who uses a number of "living" dolls in his act. She demands that the owner sell her one but he refuses. That night she tries to steal one but is attacked by the dolls. She is then shrunk and forced to become a doll-like participant in the show herself.

Last is "A Change in the Moon!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Clark Dimond (story). This story takes place in the late 1800's. A man tries to drown his wife by knocking her off a boat, only for her to be saved by a bizarre bald man. The two return to land, where it is explained that the wife was attacked by a wolf. The husband visits an occultist to see if something can be done for a werewolf, and all she can provide him with is silver bullets. He tries to kill his wife again by pushing her into a train but the bald man appears again to save her. The two confrotnt the husband on the roof and the bald man is revealed to be a werewolf himself. The husband kills him, but finds he can't shoot his wife, now in wolf form, so he lets her attack him such that they'll both be wolves on the next full moon.

Creepy 13

Gray Morrow provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, from February 1967.

First is "The Squaw" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story, which is an adaption of a Bram Stoker story features a man who kills a kitten by accidently dropping a rock on it. The mother of the cat follows him as he goes to see a torture chamber and steps into an Iron Maiden. The cat jumps at the tour guide holding the iron maiden open, resulting in it shutting on the man, killing him.

Second is "Early Warning!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man gets off a bus in a town late at night and is unable to get into a hotel. In an alley he finds a dead woman's body and is blamed by a crowd as being a vampire. They plunge a stake into his heart, killing him. Suddenly the man wakes up, revealing this to all be a dream. He gets off the bus he was on into the town and everything happens exactly as it did in the dream up until when he finds the woman's body. He tells them he's not a vampire and that if they get a mirror he can prove it. But it doesn't do him any good, as the crowd is all vampires, and they kill him.

Third is "Scream Test" by Angelo Torres (art, his final Warren appearance) and Bhob Stewart & John Benson (story). A young reporter goes to see the owner of an old theater, who tells her of how he rised through the ranks from usher to owner of the theater. The owner is obsessed with Lon Chaney and also speaks of something that happened to him in his past. When he starts playing the organ the reporter removes a mask he was wearing, revealing his horribly burned face. Some very nice art here, including some photographs from Lon Chaney movies as well.

Next is "Madness in the Method" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Our protagonist, Henry, murders his wife and convinces everyone, including the court that he is insane. He finds the insane asylum he's put in unbearable though, and admits to the murder, wanting to be sent to prison instead. The doctors there refuse though, only permitting him to take part in a test to see if he's normal. Unfortunately for him, that results in them taking his brain out of his body.

Fifth is "Fear in Stone" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A sculptor is upset at the fact that he isn't successful. A critic tells him of a fellow sculptor who is very successful. Our protagonist goes to see his work and finds his sculptures to show people in absolute terror. After witnessing a homeless man he sees the sculptor with become the next sculpture, our protagonist breaks into his home where he finds how he does it, he possesses the head of Medusa! Our protagonist is turned to stone and becomes just another sculpture.

Sixth is "Adam Link, Gangbuster!", the latest Adam Link story by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). In this story Adam is disguised as a human and eavesdrops some mobster who have framed Eve for murder. He also finds that a local councilor is involved. While he is caught, he fakes death and makes it out of there. He records the councillor incriminating himself, but the tape is destroyed. He then confronts the councillor, making him confess in writing, but a grenade destroys his legs and his body is destroyed. Is this the end for Adam Link? You'll need to check out his next story, in Creepy 15 to find out.

Last is "Second Chance!", with art by Steve Ditko and story by Archie Goodwin. This story is about a man who makes a deal with the devil to stay alive longer. The devil brings him back to life, but he ends up being stuck in a coffin! Luckily for him a gravedigger digs him out, but upon seeing this 'corpse' come to life, he kills him, which finishes him off for good.

Creepy 28

Our cover for this issue is by Vic Prezio, featuring the interior reprint story "The Doorway". This issue is from August 1969.

First is "Madness in the Method" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Our protagonist, Henry, murders his wife and convinces everyone, including the court that he is insane. He finds the insane asylum he's put in unbearable though, and admits to the murder, wanting to be sent to prison instead. The doctors there refuse though, only permitting him to take part in a test to see if he's normal. Unfortunately for him, that results in them taking his brain out of his body.

Our first original story this issue is "In the Subway" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Reuben Reid (story). Reid was the winner of an amateur writer contest Warren held. The story is about a shapeshifter who eats people in the subway. He confronts a man who confounds him, who ends up being another shapeshifter that eats him! Williamsune's monsters are pretty cool looking here.

Next is "The Worm is Turning" by Ernie Colon (art) and Kim Ball (story). A sorceror summons a worm like creature and promises him 5 servents in exchange for eternal life, but dies when his house collapses. The five men scheme over obtaining him money, but all end up dying due to tapeworms.

"Grub" with art by Tom Sutton and story by Nicola Cuti (his Warren debut) is next. The story is about a derelict ship found in space that contains an odd monster and a number of beautiful women. The women are actually there as bait for the monster, who kills everyone but two, and tells them they have to have children in order to feed him!

"Valley of the Vampires" by Bhob Stewart & Steve Stiles (art) and Arnold Hayes (story) features a vampire society discovered in the jungle. The vampire expert there is convinced that they need holy water and says they don't need guns to protect themselves, but when the vampires capture them, its the opposite that is true and they are all killed.

The cover story, "The Doorway" is by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally from Creepy #11. A security guard comes across a destroyed lab with an odd doorway. He goes through and finds himself in another world, where a large bat like creature with a skull face takes over a man's body. Another creature arrives and takes over our protagonist, who destroys the doorway and kills himself in order to stop it from taking over Earth. Only the creature takes over a nearby person upon his death, enabling him to restore the doorway.

The issue wraps up with "The Adventure of the German Student" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally published in 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 8

For the first time in a while I'll be covering an older issue of Eerie, this one from March 1967. The cover is by Frank Frazetta, featuring the interior story Demon Sword. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery No. 7 - Demon!" by Angelo Torres.

First is "Oversight!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Like many of the Colan/Goodwin stories in early Eerie, probably the best story in the issue. A man being given glasses for the first time realizes that it gives him the ability to see monsters that are masquerading as humans. He follows his doctor to a graveyard where he witnesses a group of the monsters plotting to kill him since they know he has the magic glasses. After they kill the doctor for screwing up, our hero hides there, only to be confronted by one of the creatures, which he kills. He returns to his apartment where he hides out, and lets some police in when they come by. Only it ends up the police are monsters themselves, as he accidently mixed up his glasses with those of his dead doctor's during the struggle and isn't able to tell who they are.

Second is "Dark Rider" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

Third is "Type Cast" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A stage actor gets upset with being typecast into the role of a killer or monster in many horror movies. In order to draw inspiration, he becomes a killer. Eventually he goes really crazy and kills his agent too. Years later he is let out of the looney bin accidently and returns to his crazy ways.

Fourth is "The Day After Doomsday!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world, and confronts multiple mutated beasts which he fights off. Eventually he finds normal humans whom he stays with, only to find that they are cannibals, who eat him! Some very nice art by Adkins here, perhaps his best work for Warren.

Fifth is "The Covered Bridge!" by Bob Jenney (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). Set in colonial times, a farmer is hung by some soldiers, who ignore his recommendation that they not go through a nearby covered bridge. The soldiers ignore his advice and send some men there, but each who goes through the bridge dissappears. Eventually the leader goes in, with a rope around him so his subordinate can pull him out. He discovers the truth, that the bridge actually goes to another dimension, where the dead are. The dead farmer himself is discovered to be grabbing on to his body.

Sixth is "Wolf Bait!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin & Buddy Saunders(story, the credits say based on a story written by Saunders). A series of werewolf murders occur in a small town. The local sheriff is upset at a girl he likes, as she instead plans to be wed to a chemist. The chemist tries to create a formula which can kill the werewolf. The sheriff, who ends up being the werewolf kills him, but it ends up that he ingested a poison, which results in him dying soon afterwards.

Last is the cover story "Demon Sword!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A demon sword is recovered as part of an archeological find. Soon after however murders start occuring. Two of the archeologists witness a battle between the demon using the sword and a warrior, and when the demon is defeated so too is one of the archeologists. The other ponders whether to destroy the powerful but dangerous demon sword.

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 12

Dan Adkins provides the cover to this issue of Creepy, although it is miscredited to Frank Frazetta. The frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is provided by Dan Adkins as well.

First is "Dark House of Dreams" by Angelo Torres and Archie Goodwin (story). An artist moves into the house of Matthew Gaunt, an evil man who was killed by a mob almost 200 years earlier. The artist has a number of dreams where he encounters Gaunt, and other evil beings, which become worse and worse with each one. Eventually he dies and turns into Gaunt, resurrected. Another very good story, as usual from Torres and Goodwin.

Second is "Turncoat!" by Bob Jenney (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a member of the Union army in the Civil War, who, hoping to escape from battle, puts on the uniform of a dead confederate soldier when he spots some confederate soldiers. The soldiers end up being dead however, and force him to die as well.

Third is "Maximum Effort!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Ron Parker (story). A pair of men open a funeral business and find a lot of success with it. A skeptic thinks he realizes whats going on when he finds that they're grounding the bones of the dead to sell for fertilizer, but find that they also find other uses for the corpse, as they are a vampire and ghoul!

Fourth is "Voodoo Doll!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). An older man gets a voodoo doll to keep his young wife from leaving him. However, it ends up that it is all a trick by her and her lover. She shows him a voodoo doll of himself, which causes him to die of a heart attack. However, when she disposes of both dolls, it ends up that they worked after all. By throwing the two of them in a fire, she is burned up herself.

Fifth is "Blood of the Werewolf!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man wandering the city in a drunken stupor is found by a psychologist who has a werewolf for a son. The psychologist manages to transfer the werewolf curse onto our protagonist, who soon becomes a werewolf himself. He ends up going to a psychologist to tell him whats going on, but it ends up that the man is actually the son who was originally a werewolf, and shoots him dead with a silver bullet.

Sixth is "Idol Hands!" by Manny Stallman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is about a large idol statue that is discovered and brought to a museum. It is soon discovered however that it isn't just a statue, and is alive. A so-so story, the weakest in this issue.

Last is "Adam Link, Robot Detective" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam dons a human disguise in order to investigate some murders that have been accused as having been committed by his robot mate, Eve. A rather interesting twist in this story, with Adam looking like a normal human being for most of it.

Creepy 17

The last Creepy issue of the original Goodwin error before things completely fell apart. Even so things start to fall apart here as this is an average issue, but clearly not as good as the ones that had been coming before this. Frank Frazetta provides the cover for this issue as well as the frontis art for "Creepy's Loathsome Lore", which was originally published in Creepy 2.

First is "Zombie!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of men watch a voodoo ritual, but one of the men takes a picture, which causes them to realize their present. His companion is killed, but he manages to escape. When zombies start coming after him, he jumps into what he thinks is salt water, thinking the salt will stop them. Alas, he actually jumped into a river, which is fresh water, and the zombies are able to get him.

Second is "Thundering Terror!" by John Severin (art) and Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story). This story 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.

Third is "Mummy's Hand" by Joe Orlando (art) and Russ Jones (story, miscredited to Orlando). This story was originally published in Monster World 2 in 1965. It features the mummy coming back to life, going on a rampage, and eventually being defeated. A rather boring mummy story which had a companion story run around this same time in Eerie.

Fourth is "Heritage of Horror" by Donald Norman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A young woman has horrific visions of her husband as an axe murderer. She finds out the truth, that he isn't one, but it ends up he's a hangman instead, and makes her his next victim.

Fifth is "Image in Wax!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This was Sutton's Warren debut. A man is jealous of a competitor's ability to create realistic, but horrific wax creatures. He decides to murder the man by setting the place on fire, and kills him, but the man melts, revealing him to be a skeleton covered in wax. The competitor was actually brought back from the dead to watch over the wax figures, who are actually real monsters, and with him dying the monsters force the killer to take over taking care of them, making him a wax man too.

Sixth is "A Night's Lodging!" by Maurice Whitman (art) and Rhea Dunne (story). This story is about a man who is confronted by vampires after getting into an accident with his carriage. He tells them if they let him live he'll build them a hotel and bring many victims to him. He does so, but is eventually turned into a vampire himself. A very lame rehash of "The Invitation" from Creepy 8, which had Whitman as one of the writers.

Last is "The Haunted Sky!" by Roger Brand (art, his Warren debut) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

Creepy 16

One of Creepy's last good issues before collapsing into a rut for much of the late 1960s, this issue has a Frank Frazetta cover which is miscredited inside to Gray Morrow. The frontis for this issue is Creepy's Loathsome Lore by Gil Kane.

First story is "A Curse of Claws!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a man in the jungle who encounters a woman who says she is Lillith, Goddess of Cats. The man fights her and kills her, but turns into a panther like creature and ends up scratching himself to death.

Next is "Frozen Fear!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A team of explorers find a frozen warrior. One of the explorers is after the wife of another. It ends up that he is the descendent of someone known to the frozen warrior, who comes alive and kills him.

Third is "Angel of Doom!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Goodwin (story). This story is Jeff Jones's first Warren work. This is another story featuring Thane the Barbarian, who I have previously discussed in my coverage of issue 27. In this story Thane is part of a tribe that continously makes sacrifices to a monster. When his lover is killed, Thane heads out, ignoring the tribe's warnings and battles the monster, a giant insect creature. He defeats the creature, but the tribe decides to continue making sacrifices anyway, so Thane leaves. The tribe is soon plagued by the monster's children and are all killed after Thane leaves.

Fourth is "The Frankenstein Tradition!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Goodwin (story). A doctor blackmails a top student of his to join him in his quest to bring Frankenstein's work to real life when he catches him cheating. The doctor has the student kill numerous people so he can use the fresh corpses to work on bringing his dead wife to death. He eventually succeeds, but the student rebels and the house is burned down. At the end it is revealed that the student ends up being known as Jack the Ripper due to all of the murders he committed.

Fifth is "There Was An Old Lady" by Sal Trapani (art) and the team of Daniel Bubacz & Archie Goodwin (story). A poor story with poor art in what was Trapani's Warren debut. A man decides to rob from an old woman who is rumored to be a witch. He tricks her into letting him in her house then attacks her, demanding her money. But she gets him to drink some poisoned wine which enables her to turn the tables on him, revealing herself to truly be a witch.

Sixth is "Haunted Castle!" by Donald Norman (art) and Goodwin (story). This story surrounds a leader of a castle who is haunted by various ghosts, led by the woman who used to run it. Eventually he is chased out of the castle and hit... by a car! It ends up that he was in modern times, and was running around as a corpse, not knowing that he was dead.

The issue concludes with "The Sands That Change!" by Steve Ditko (art) and the team of Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story). A dissappointing finish to this issue, it is about a comic book artist in the desert with his wife who draws a monster on a piece of paper, which comes to life! Whatever he draws on the paper comes to life. He climbs a rock that was drawn on the paper for safety, then burns the paper, hoping to burn the monster. But that ends up burning him too since he's on the rock. Even Ditko's artwork isn't as good as usual here.

Even though this issue is from Creepy's original golden age, it is for the most part a rather poor issue, with a number of mediocre stories and the art not as good as usual.

Eerie 9

A very good early issue of Eerie, featuring a cover by Dan Adkins. This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery - The Cyclopses" by Roy Krenkel. Across the board this is a very good issue, with the first and last stories being the best.

First is "Fair Exchange" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). An old man whose soon to die plots to steal a young man's body when he discovers of a ridiculed doctor who has experimented on switching bodies. The switch is performed successfully and the old man now in his new body kills the doctor so he doesn't have to pay him. Only he soon discovers that the man whose body he stole is a vampire when he is destroyed by the sun's rays.

Second is "Rub the Lamp!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Allan Jadro (story). A man purchases a magic lamp at an auction and wishes for riches, only to get it when his wife dies and he gets insurance money. He then wishes to live forever which happens when he becomes a vampire! He wishes to be reunited with his wife, and soon is when he trips on a wooden stake, killing himself.

Third is "Terror in the Tomb" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Goodwin (story). A pair of archeologists encounter a mummy guarding a pharoah's tomb which ends up coming alive. They destroy it, only to later find out that it was guarding them from the evil pharoah, whose still alive and kills them.

Fourth is "The Wanderer" by Dan Adkins (art) and Goodwin (story). A man appears in a hospital due to a heart attack and is saved by the doctors. The man tells of how he was in a car wreck and found himself wandering a strange realm where demons were after him. He demands to be let go but the doctor refuses, and the demons come for him, leaving only a skeleton behind.

Fifth is "Isle of the Beast!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Goodwin (story). Influenced by the well known story 'The Most Dangerous Game', this features a man shipwrecked on a deserted island with a madman who hunts human beings. The twist is that the man turns himself into a beast in order to heighten the intensity. Only this time the hunted ends up being a werewolf, who attacks his captor during the full moon.

Sixth is "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge!" by Bob Jenney (art) and Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of a story by Ambrose Bierce. A man is sentenced to be hanged, and it is done on a bridge. However, during the hanging the rope breaks and he falls into the river below. He swims away and returns home, to be reunited with his wife. Only it ends up that it all was a dream and he was hung after all. An adaption of this story was also used in the final season of the Twilight Zone, resulting in ripoff claims being made in later letter pages.

The issue wraps up with "Experiment in Fear!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Goodwin (story). A nazi concentration camp doctor experiments on jews by locking them in a gas chamber, studying their fear as he experiments with harmless gas that they only think is poisonous, killing them for real once he has sufficient data on the jew's fears. During one of his experiments however the captor escapes and imprisons him in the chamber where he is subjected to the same experiment. The leaders of the camp eventually rescue him but find that the data on his fears are exactly that of the jews. Rather than find the experiments worthless, they instead are convinced that he's a jew, and throws him in the concentration camp, where the captive jews are quite eager to get their hands on him...

Eerie 4

The fourth issue of Eerie, featuring a cover by Gray Morrow.

Our first story is "House of Evil", with art by Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) & Joe Orlando, and story by Archie Goodwin. A man comes to a large house where his brother lived but finds only a tape recording there, telling him of how he came to the house, which has an evil past, for inspiration. Suddenly a rotting corpse arrives. The man destroys the corpse, but soon finds that it was his own brother! He then looks at his hands and realizes that he's starting to rot as well.

Next is "Hatchet Man" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story is about a hatchet killer who has killed a number of woman with a hatchet. A night watchman plots to kill his wife with a hatchet and blame it on the hatchet killer. Only when the police arrive and find evidence of other murders, it becomes clear that he is the hatchet killer himself, possessing another personality who commit the murders.

Next is "Gnawing Fear" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Ron Parker (story). A pair of doctors are working on a poison for killing rats. One of them ends up dying when the rats attack him. The other doctor follows them into a large maze of tunnels. When he finds a number of rats coming after him he shoots at them with a gun, but that caves in the cavern and the rats completely overrun him.

Fourth story is "Shrieking Man!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The man of the title is in a mental institution, a man who does nothing but scream like crazy and act like a maniac. An employee at the institution becomes fascinated with him and ends up letting him out by accident when he can't control him. The screaming man goes crazy and ends up killing our hero's boss, for whom he was originally his boss, who was killed by him and brought back to life.

Next up is "Undying Love!" by Donald Norman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man seeks to make a woman fall in love with her, so he has a sorceror cast a spell so that will happen. Only when he returns to see her, he finds that she has died! Soon afterwards however she comes back to life as a vampire, and being in love with him stays by his side. While he initially likes it, he is troubled by what she is doing, so he uses a stake on her and chops off her head. But even that isn't enough to stop her from coming back to him!

Last is the cover story, "Island At World's End!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man lost at sea, Sturgis is found by a boat and tells his story. His ship was taken over by a mutiny and he escaped on a lifeboat. Eventually he is on his own and he comes across an island where he encounters beast men. They carry him to a large pit where sacrifices are made. A beautiful woman, Cythlla, who tells him she is the last of an elder race appears and rather than killing him she wants him to be her mate. She worships 'Shoggoth', a mysterious giant entity that appears. Seeing how evil she is, he runs off and shoots her. Eventually however Shoggoth returns to claim him on the boat.

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.

Eerie 5

An early issue of Eerie, featuring a cover of a Tyranosaurus Rex by Frank Frazetta. This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Mummy" by Dan Adkins & Wally Wood.

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.

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

Third is "Black Magic" by Steve Ditko (art) and goodwin (story). A sorceror summons a woman from the dead, despite the warnings of his old master. When she ends up being crazy, he casts a spell that makes her dead again, only to suffer the same fate himself, since he was raised from the dead by his master!

Fourth is "A Matter of Routine!" by Eugene Colan (art) and Goodwin (story), featuring a man coming home from work one day who enters his house and suddenly finds himself in the land of the dead, being tortured by demons. The demons realize that he isn't really dead yet and shouldn't be there, so he returns to his own life, forever fearful of what will happen when he comes home.

Fifth is "Dr. Griswold's File!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Carl Wessler (story), about a doctor who brings a criminal back from the dead to steal from his patients at random so he can afford expensive things for his wife. Only she ends up becoming one of his victims!

Sixth is "The Swamp God" by Angelo Torres (art) and Goodwin (story), about a pair of hunters that go to a swamp to hunt 'The Swamp God', that the natives had been sacrificing their people to. Their guide summons the God, a giant Tyranosaurus Rex, whom he gets to eat both of the hunters, as he's now getting all outsiders to sacrifice to the God.

Last is "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.

Eerie 21

This issue of Eerie, another one from Warren's dark ages in the late 1960's features one of their most bizarre covers, by Vic Prezio, featuring a weird creature that looks like a pumpkin with legs and a face. Behind the cover is this issue's version of Eerie's Monster Gallery , "Lucifer's Legions" by Tom Sutton.

Up first is "Point of View" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is a reprint from Eerie #6. It features an insane 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.

"Miscalculation" is next, with art by Tony Williamsune and story by Bill Parente. The story surrounds a war between the US and the USSR based on calculations from a computer. It ends up that the comptuers wanted humanity to wipe itself out and that's exactly what ends up happenening.

Another reprint drawn by Mastroserio and written by Goodwin is up next, "Terror in the Tomb", from Eerie #9. A pair of archeologists encounter a mummy guarding a pharoah's tomb which ends up coming alive. They destroy it, only to later find out that it was guarding them from the evil pharoah, whose still alive and kills them.

"Fatal Diagnosis" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story) is next. Similar to the story "A Stake in the Game" which I reviewed from Eerie 38, this features a vampire in a hospital that has been stealing blood. A doctor manages to kill the vampire, but it ends up he did it because he's a vampire himself and wanted all the blood to himself. Colon's art is quite poor in this story.

Another reprint is next, "Warrior of Death", by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A warrior, Zahran finds himself dying after a long battle and is encountered by Death. Zahran deals with Death to become invulnerable so he can kill many more on the battlefield. As he gets more and more powerful, Zahran becomes drunk with power. He encounters a young boy, Valric on the battlefield but ends up being killed by him, as it ends up that Valric made the same deal with Death that Zahran had. Good story that Ditko's art fits perfectly.

Last up is "House of Fiends" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A new doctor visits a young woman who is chained up by her aunt and uncle, accused as being crazy. She tells the doctor that they are a werewolf and vampire, and that their servant is a ghoul, and he has been brought here for them to kill. The doctor witnesses all three becoming the creatures she stated they were and manages to kill them all. Only it ends up that she is a witch and had tricked him into thinking they were these horrific creatures. Grandenetti's art style was quite different than most of the artists that worked for Warren but I've always enjoyed his work a lot.

Overall can't say I'm too pleased with this issue as 4 out of 6 stories are reprints. Neither of the new stories are all that good. The reprints certainly are good stories, particularly the Ditko and Grandenetti ones, but that 2/3 of the issue is reprints certainly is dissappointing.

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.