1984: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 2)

A scene from Rex Havoc

Today's post is part 2 in a multi-part series about 1984/1994. Find the previous part here.

Issues 5 through 8 of 1984 continues many of the themes of the first 4 issues of the magazine, while also taking it in new directions (sometimes good, sometimes bad). It should be noted that as a whole these next 4 issues are nowhere as controversial or offensive as the first 4 issues, with no story even close to the racism of issue 3's "The Harvest" (although racism would return later on to the pages of the magazine), and no plagiarism scandals either. The nudity and sex, as well as a general misogynist attitude is present as usual however. That said, in general I'd say the quality of these 4 issues is slightly down in comparison to the first 4.

I'll begin with the continuing series, which start to gain a larger presence in these issues. The Rex Havoc series, which premiered in issue 4, continues with several entries in these next 4 issues. The first story in the series, from issue 4, was terrific, and the first story here, issue 5's "The Spud from another World!" is a good one, parodying the movie "The Thing From Another World". By issue 6 however, the drawn out nature of the stories (which are generally around 20 pages each) becomes quite apparent and the series continues to dip precipitously in its final appearance later on (which will be in my next entry). Speaking of disappointing series, Idi Amin has two additional stories here. They are much like those from the first 4 issues; gorgeous artwork but an aimless story with idiotic dialogue. The series ends with Idi and Dogmeat finding a man even crazier than Idi, with multiple personalities, and Dogmeat runs off, being unable to take it anymore. I felt like doing the same as this series drew to a close! I'll miss the beautiful Esteban Maroto artwork, but not the story. Unfortunately Maroto goes on quite a long hiatus from 1984 after this, possibly as mentioned in the previous article because many of these stories may not have been intended for the magazine in the first place and they ran out of them.

On the other hand, Richard Corben and Jan Strnad provide 4 more fine installments of Mutant World. While its never the most in depth and thought provoking series, this series continues to be a blast to read and has typical quality color artwork from Corben. Unfortunately the final segment would be the last interior comic art Corben ever did for Warren. While I've never been a fan of Rudy Nebres' art style, Twilight's End, for which he provides the art and Jim Stenstrum provides the story is a fairly good one, with a rather apocalyptic and unexpected ending in its final part. Certain Warren series, particularly in the latter years could go on a bit too long, but they did a good job here in keeping the series relatively short and to the point.

The final part of Mutant World

Issue 7 premieres "Ghita of Alizarr", with story and art by Frank Thorne. Thorne had worked on Red Sonja for Marvel and produced the similar Ghita for Warren, albeit with an increased level of nudity and sex. While the sexual themes of the series can be a bit over the top at times (Ghita is a whore and is raped by a reanimated corpse in the first story, for starters), it is generally an entertaining series and a fine addition to the Warren line, appearing in the majority of the remaining issues of 1984/1994. Thorne's artwork is also quite good and a nice contrast to the styles of the Warren regulars.

Also beginning in this run, with issue 8 is "Herma", with art by Jose Gonzalez and story by Bill Dubay. This series was originally published in the publication Cunado El Comic es Arte: Pepe Gonzalez, which came out in Spain the same year as this issue of 1984, although the art had actually been done around 5 years earlier. For this appearance, the color was removed, the panels re sized and Dubay almost certainly rewrote the script. A rather light-hearted comedic series, that similar to Twilight's End is thankfully kept short enough such that it ends before it really goes down in quality. Gonzalez's artwork here is absolutely gorgeous and rereading these stories, this is easily the sexiest artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. I'm generally partial to Esteban Maroto's women, but Gonzalez outdoes even him here (and Maroto appears to have swiped several panels from both this initial story and the stories that appear in future issues). Along with the story "Lullaby", mentioned in the previous entry, and some of the latter Vampirella stories, this is the best Jose Gonzalez artwork you'll see in a Warren magazine.

If there's a highlight to these issues, aside from Mutant World, its the Alex Nino stories, of which there are 6 here. Nino's art is ultimately the best thing to come out of the 1984/1994 series as a whole, and he does a good job in all of the stories here. "Teleport 2010" and "Painter's Mountain" are 2 very strong efforts happily lacking the sex-antics that perpetuate throughout much of 1984's stories. "Timothy Sternbach & the Multi-Colored Sunrise!", "Once Upon a Holocaust" and "Zincor and the Fempire" are good efforts as well though, with really only "Liaison Aboard a Skylab" being a weak story where the sex-antics (among aliens in this case) are a bit over the top.

Issue 5's "I Wonder Who's Squeezing Her Now" is unique for having no science fiction or supernatural related themes in any fashion, rather focusing on how a man's life falls apart when his wife starts having an affair and he decides to do the same. The story was originally intended for the never realized magazine "POW" and sat on the shelves for several years before seeing print in 1984. It featured the last Wally Wood art to appear in a Warren magazine, as well as the first work from Ernie Colon to appear in a Warren magazine since Warren's dark ages.

Frank Thorne's Ghita of Alizarr

Among the remaining stories, issue 7's "Freeze A Jolly Good Fellow!" is the highlight, with an unexpected yet funny ending. Issue 5's "The Box" was another interesting story, although criticized a bit in the letter pages. Many of the remaining stand-alone stories come off as filler, and uninteresting filler at that. Issue 6's "The Warhawks" lampoons DC's The Blackhawks, yet is way too long and drawn out. "Issue 8's "Madmen and Messiahs", featuring a future where Ted Kennedy is a crazed President and his own nephew fights against him in a revolution is quite ridiculous. Other stories like "Luke the Nuke Brings It In!" "Kaiser Warduke and the Indispensable Jasper Gemstone" come off as boring drivel, there's little to get interested in with these stories.

Overall, there's definitely some interesting aspects to these issues, even with the controversy and general quality down a bit in comparison to the first 4 issues. We'll see both areas heading in different directions as we enter the next phase of issues, to be covered in my next entry.

Eerie 134

Rudy Nebres provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated September 1982. The cover features the hero the Fighting Armenian, who makes his first Eerie appearance within.

First is the Rook in "The Fallen" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Rook discovers that the world is going to end in 2011 unless he does something (yet he's traveled further than that in the future many times in stories past). He heads there and arrives at a outpost off the coast of Mexico. There an alien ship crashes, and a sleeping alien is found inside. The story ends just as the creature wakes up and escapes.

Second is "Space Force: Shipwrecked", the third story in this series. Art is by Paul Gillon while story is by John Claude Forest. A ship crashes on the shore, resuling in some refugees fleeing, chased by aliens, which Chris and some others help defeat. Heading inside they find many more robots with the face of Valerie, the woman who was sent out into space along with Chris. Our heroes then travel through the ocean, but are attacked by Lizard Men. Chris is injured and comes down with a disease, but due to Mara kissing him, not his injuries.

Third is "The Fighting Armenian" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is in color, but not the traditional color one is used to seeing in a Warren magazine. Instead its like someone tore 8 pages out of a color comic and put it in the middle of the magazine. Very poorly done. An extremely lame story as well, featuring a dumb Russian super hero who is recruited by a woman to save her husband, but it all ends up being a trap by her in order for some bad guys to get their hands on a scientist. The woman ends up being a man in the end. Oh yeah, and the Rook randomly appears as well. This character originally appeared in the Rook's magazine and thankfully would not appear in Eerie again.

Fourth is "Zud Kamish", the final story for this character. Art is by E.R. Cruz and story is by John Ellis Sech. In this story Zud goes after the assassin from the previous story who killed his son, lover and robot friend (seems like they died for real, something I doubted would be the case when the previous story ended given the rather light hearted nature of the series). The assassin meanwhile also swears revenge on Zud for throwing acid in his face in the previous part. The two do battle, eventually getting blown up by a grenade. Zud survives though, and runs his own adult book store, with no arms and legs left however.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). The man that Haggarth saved a few stories ago works with some of the amazonesses in order to obtain the stones he's looking for. Haggarth, Ethan and Eco run into some more Amazonesses themselves, but do eventually find the stones they are seeking. Haggarth wants to dump them and escape, upsetting Ethan. They do so, although Ethan still keeps one to himself.

Creepy 139

This is an all Alex Toth reprint issue. Toth was a terrific artist, so its nice to see so much good artwork from him here. This issue is cover dated July 1982, with a cover by Rudy Nebres.

First is "Daddy and the Pie" with art by Bill Dubay. This story is from Eerie 64. It tells of an alien creature whose ship crashes to Earth. He is nursed back to health by a farm family, and the story is told from the perspective of the son in the family. Unfortunately the town becomes fearful of the alien and attack the father when he heads to town on his own. The alien saves him, but dies from his wounds. A terrific story which would eventually have a sequel made.

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

Third is "Grave Undertaking" with story by Archie Goodwin, from Creepy 5. This story was Toth's first one for Warren. A pair of undertakers make a deal with a doctor to bring him dead bodies for use in medical classes. They initially dig up graves, then start committing murder to fulfill this task. Upon hearing of a nearby town with a number of deaths, they head there and take all the bodies. What they hadn't realized was that all these people died from a vampire, and thus have become vampires themselves!

Fourth is "Rude Awakening" with story by Archie Goodwin (story). This story, from Creepy 7 is about a man who keeps having dreams of a glasses wearing man attacking him with a knife. He's so freaked out by them that he falls out a window and is brought to the hospital, where he faces none other than the glassed man!

Fifth is "Survival" from Blazing Combat 3. The story is provided by both Toth and Archie Goodwin. An old man in a post-war landscape ravages for food found from small cans, and has to fight of wild dogs. He gets excited upon realizing that there is other people nearby when he finds a raft, but upon finding out that they have taken some of his food he goes on a rampage and kills them all. He is shocked to find a woman among the people he killed. My favorite story from a superb issue of Blazing Combat, the only one I own. I love the final lines of the story "Suddenly, the air filled with a taut, shrill, horrible cry of pain and rage... Animal-like in pitch and quality, it rose higher into the night, ripping, tearing my head apart! I tried to shut it out... out... but it wouldn't! ...and couldn't stop it... for in a while, I realized the truth... and knew that the raw, shrill scream... was MINE!"

Sixth is "Phantom of Pleasure Island" with story by Gerry Boudreau. This story is from Creepy 75. It is a murder mystery taking place in an amusement park where a mysterious sniper has killed multiple people. One of the suspects is killed while the other one agrees to sell his rival amusement park, removing him as a suspect. The killer ends up being the wife of the park owner, who wanted him to pay more attention to her than the park, and thought that her murder spree would accomplish that goal.

Last is "Unreal!" with story by Toth, from Creepy 78. This story features an actor named 'Baba' Boone who does a lot of stunts, but is extremely quiet. As the story ends it ends up that is the case because he is a robot. A good story, though a tad predictable.

Eerie 131

This issue is an all reprint issue covering Wally Wood. Rudy Nebres provides this issue's cover.

First is "Killer Hawk" with story by Bill Dubay, from Eerie 61. While no official title appears, this story is in the 'Exterminator' series, although stand alone in nature. Killer Hawk is a military officer who rises through the ranks and becomes bodyguard for the President of Mars. In actuality, Hawk is an exterminator robot whose mission is to kill the President and take him place. He does exactly that, but is deemed too powerful and is disposed of by his leaders soon afterwards.

Second is "Overworked". Dan Adkins provides art on this story along with Wood. The story is by Archie Goodwin. This story, which was Wood and Adkin's Creepy debut (from issue 8) is about a comic book artist who is finds himself plauged by the monsters from the stories he creates. He tries to stop, but keeps getting more jobs and finds himself in horrific situations. Eventually he becomes trapped within his own strip.

Third is "The Cosmic All" with Wood providing the story. This issue is from Creepy 38. Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. When they finally find a planet with humanoid people who attack them and are killed, leaving behind a message that their death was clean compared to whats going to happen to the astronauts. They decide to sleep there and the next morning two of the astronauts find everyone else reduced to skeletons. They escape, but one of them sends their ship crashing to Earth. Immediately after the flesh falls off their bodies, turning into the blob seen before, known as the 'Cosmic All' that is bringing peace to the universe by turning everyone to blobs. A very interesting sci-fi story.

Fourth is "The Battle of Britain!" with Adkins assisting on art again and story by Wood. This story is from Blazing Combat 3. It takes place in 1940 featuring allied planes facing off against Nazi planes. The hero of the story fails miserably his first time in the air and narrowly survives the second, but they call of the fighting in order to bomb the German cities instead, sparing him future combat.

"War of the Wizards" from Vampirella 10 is the fifth story, and is also written by Wally Wood. It's about a pair of rival wizards who use a soldier in their fight between each other. The soldier is able to defeat both wizards, and is revealed to be a wizard himself. As usual, Wood's art is quite good, and the story, while not having a horror theme, is pretty good too.

Last is "The Man Hunters" with story by Gerry Boudreau, from Eerie 60. Apparantly this is one of many Wood stories rewritten based on editor Bill Dubay's request. The story features a woman on a spaceship with two other men, searching for her husband, who had dissappeared months earlier. They arrive on a planet with a tentacled monster, who quickly kill the two men. The monster leads her to a city where it puts a helmet on her which causes her to discover that her husband crashed on this planet and was saved by the monsters, who switched his brain to one of them! She decides to stay on the planet with her husband in his new form.

Creepy 137

An all Al Williamson issue, except for the cover by Rudy Nebres, the first time in Warren history a pen and ink cover was used instead of a painted version. This issue is dated May 1982.

First is "H20 World". The art is by Al Williamson & Roy Krenkel and the story is by Larry Ivie. This is a reprint from the first issue of Creepy. It is about a pair of divers who come across an underground civilization. There they meet the mutated people who live there, who force them to forget that they ever encountered them. Very beautiful artwork here, particularly Krenkel's backgrounds.

Second is "The Success Story" by Al Williamson (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), also from the first issue of Creepy. This story features a comic strip creator, Baldo Smudge who is actually ripping off three seperate people. He hires a penciller, whom he tells he is doing the inking and writing for. He also hires a writer whom he tells he is doing the pencilling and inking. And so on for the inker. All the while he takes the credit for the strip as a whole. This charade goes on for a long time, but the three of them finally catch on, so Baldo kills them. They come back as rotting corpses however and take revenge. This story is based on a true story (except the corpses part). Williamson drew Smudge based on himself and used Angelo Torres, Archie Goodwin and Al McWilliams as the likenesses for the three employees he was ripping off.

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

"Sand Doom" by Al Williamson (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is fourth. This story is from Creepy 5. A man abandons his partner in the desert and finds a treasure guarded by a woman and snakes. The woman warns him not to take the treasure or he'll be cursed, but he guns her down and takes the treasure anyway. As he continues through the desert he discovers that the treasure has turned into a snake, which bites him and turns him into a snake as well.

Fifth is "Mother Knows Best" by Al Williamson (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 86. A pair of kids celebrate Christmas with the robot that takes care of them. Santa arrives and whispers to them the truth, that they are on a spaceship and that the robots there went berserk. He's been thawed out of hibernation each Christmas to play Santa. One of the kids kills the robot, and they hope to head back to Earth, but they discover that the ship had crashed a while ago.

Sixth is "Now You See It..." by Al Williamson (art) and Bruce Jones (story), from Creepy 83. This story was originally intended for the Marvel science fiction magazine "Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction" but ended up appearing here instead since that magazine was cancelled. It features a man who constantly brings himself and his wife to fake prehistoric realms using a virtual reality device. She dislikes it intensely, so he brings her some place for real which still fails to convince her, and that ends up being fake too. She's happy enough with it being a fake that she finally grows warm to using the device. The main character's appearance is quite obviously based on Williamson himself.

Last is "The Homecoming" by Al Williamson (art, his final Warren story) and Archie Goodwin (story). A very good sci-fi story features an astronaut on a craft that is responsible for going into other dimensions, trying to find one suitable for humans. When he finally finds it, the computer controlling the craft reveals that an error has caused it to forget where they came from, and the astronaut goes from dimension to dimension, trying to find his home to no avail.

Eerie 129

Sanjulian provides the rather cluttered cover for this issue of Eerie, dated February 1982. Like the previous issue, this is actually quite a step up from what Eerie had been providing over the previous few years.

First is "Ode to a Dead Thing!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features Marvin the Dead Thing, who originally appeared back in Eerie 49. While the writer of that story, Al Milgrom, made it a parody of Swamp Thing, this story is anything but a parody, actually quite serious. Marvin and the girl who became a swamp monster as well watch a couple drop a dead baby into the swamp. The father is a man who conspires with an old woman to get women pregnant, then make money off of aborting them. Here, the mother refused to abort the baby, so the old woman strangled it when it was born. The baby comes to life out of the swamp, as does the mother when she dies and is placed there as well. The villain of this story has got to be one of the most detestable people in a Warren story ever.

Second is "Ms. Liberty" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A woman travels throughout a post-apocalyptic world, searching for her husband. The vast majority of humanity has turned into mutant cannibals. As she searches, she comes across some other normal humans, but finds them either crazy, or ends up killing them due to herself going crazy. In the end she finally finds her husband, but ends up killing him, thinking he's one of them.

Third is "Mercenary!" by Pat Boyette (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Quite pleased to see another Boyette story, he's an artist I quite enjoyed during the stories he did with Warren during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This story is an oddity here in that it doesn't feature any supernatural theme to it. It is about Ed Skinner, a Mercenery, and his adventures in various south american countries. Along the way, he learns a president is also the leader of revolutionaries. He takes a large payoff to keep quiet, and escapes the death the president plans for him.

Fourth is a new series, Space Force, with the story "Shipwrecked". This story was originally published in France in 1964. Art is provided by Paul Gillon and story is provided by Jean-Claude Forest. In the future Earth is attacked by alien spores. To ensure humanity stays alive, a man and a woman are put into capsules and sent out into space. The man, Chrisopher, is recovered many years in the future and is resusitated. The man finds that the spores are still around, and bigger than before. He flees, with one of the women who recovered him, in search of the woman who was shipped out to space along with him. A fairly interesting story here and some good art too. One of the panels here is strikingly familiar to one from Esteban Maroto's "Scourge of the Spaceways", one of my favorite art jobs in a Warren story ever. As this story came out first, its obvious Maroto's work was a swipe however.

Last is the latest story in the "Haggarth" story, with story and art provided by Victor de la Fuente. In this story a strange man appears before Haggarth and warns him Desirra and the Amazon warriors in the jungle. Heading through the woods, he comes by an injured man who was hurt by the Amazon warriors. As Haggarth's part in this story ends, he is attacked by the Amazon warrior he met before and her eagle. Ethan meanwhile is captured when some village dwellers find him in the canoe used by their dead comrades. Accusing him of their murder, they are set to execute him but proof of his innocence is found and he is permitted to leave in the canoe.

Eerie 128

Kirk Reinert provides a terrific cover for this issue of Eerie, probably the best of its latter day covers. This issue is dated January 1982. Aside from the horrible Zud story, this issue is quite a lot better than those we've been seeing for quite a while now.

First is "Dr. Coven: Ashes to Ashes!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Dr. Coven is a man who comes to the jungle with his wife to study voodoo. A voodoo priestess invites him to a ceremony and captures his wife, he then passes out. When he awakens he finds himself surrounded by zombies, including his wife, who is now one. He dismembers his wife to escape her, then kills the zombies and priestess.

Second is "The Demon Queen" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A professor who has one of his students as a lover is writing a book on demons and soon starts seeing them, suspecting that he is being pursued by a demon queen. He sees the demons more and more and his behavior to get rid of them gets more and more out of hand, resulting in him being fired and his book's publication being suspended. His book's chances of publication finished, his lover reveals that she is the demon queen. He is found later, gone completely insane. The demon queen in this story is modeled after that on the cover of Eerie 41.

Third is the retitled Zud and Son in "Heroes at Large!" by E.R. Cruz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). In this story, it is revealed out of nowhere that Zud has a thirteen year old son, Raz. Raz dissappoints Zud, as he is interested in the ballet and other odd stuff rather than normal boy stuff. While at the ballet Zud is captured by an old enemy of his who tries to kill him. Raz is able to rescue him, then at the end reveals that he is interested in football and other standard male interests after all.

Fourth is "Blackstar and the Nighthuntress" by Peter Hsu (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Jason Blackstar and Rowena, the stars of this story originally appeared back in issue 85. In this story the appearance of a medallion at someone's home means assassins, the Rectifiers (sent by the three Governor who rule the galaxy) will come after them and kill them unless they can stay out of their hands for seven days. Killing a Rectifier is illegal, and when Rowena mistakenly kills one, the Governors send other ones after them. Rowena and Blackstar eventually come across the Governors and convince them to stop coming after them.

Fifth is "Avenger!" by Jim Starlin & Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was originally intended for Creepy 64 back in 1974. Odd enough it was held back for eight years before finally appearing here. A pilot, Thomas Flagg climbs out of the sea, ten years after his death from a plane crash into a body of water. Flagg, now a rotting hulk, has the ability to cause others to succumb to his will and soon gathers an army to go after he whom he finds responsible, his father, who forced him into duty in Vietnam. His army of followers are killed, but he still encounters his father and causes him to succumb to his will as well.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth is attacked by an eagle and its amazoness owner who tries to kill him with a poison spear. Meanwhile a trio of men look for precious stones and come across Ethan and a friend of his who accidently take their canoe. Two of the men take back the canoe and leave, only to be killed by the amazonesses.

1994 #28

Steve Fastner & Rich Larson provide the cover for this issue, published in December 1982.

First is the final "Young Sigmund Pavlov!" story by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pavlov crashes on a planet filled with various robot creatures. He and the robots end up recreating the Wizard of Oz, albeit with various robot creatures in place of the notable characters from that story. This story ends with a to be continued sign, but this would be the last story in the series. This story is very unlike the other stories in this series, as it doesn't contain the usual extremely bizarre Nino art and over the top sex filled story by Dubay.

Second is "Too Many Termarrows" by Vic Catan (art) and Tim Moriarty (story). This story features two men who land on a planet carrying a secret weapon. One of the men has a key robbed by a woman he sleeps with, so they pursue her through the desert and eventually find that she is part of a group of wives of a sultan. Our two protagonists release their weapon, human eating termites that kill everyone but them.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). This story features Ghita taking part in a ceremony with Rahmuz where she is brought underground, where oddly enough, stars start appearing. A mummy which is Khan Dagon appears, then soon varous other corpses and monsters as well.

Next is "Angel" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This dull series finally comes to an end with this story. Angel and Ape find a group of savages that have captured a communist scientist who plans to destroy them. They end up being saved by a Tin Man superhero.

Last is the finale of "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Dan Hallassey & Bruce Jones (story). Lots of revelations in this story, where it is revealed that pretty much the entire quest of Diana to this point has been a lie. Her ally Jason has been the true villain all along, and the convict Frank Branner was actually an engineer named T. L. Hoyt who is a good guy on her side. With his help she returns to Earth and defeats Jason once and for all. A very good end to the strongest series of the latter part of 1994's life.

Eerie 127

Nestor Redondo gives us the cover for this issue of Eerie, dated December 1981. This cover features Haggarth taking on King Thall and his tiger.

First is "Justin, King of the Jungle" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay & Rich Margopoulos (story, Dubay as Will Richardson). Justin King , who spends much of his time in the jungle gets upset when poachers kill an elephant. They shoot him and leave him for dead, but he survives, then comes after them, killing them one by one until all are dead.

Second is "Reuben Youngblood" by Howard Chaykin (art) and Budd Lewis (story). An uncredited Lee Elias draws the first page. Reuben Youngblood originally appeared back in Eerie 72 in 1976, and makes his second appearance here. One wonders whether this second appearance was meant to appear around back then. In this story Youngblood acts as an undercover bodyguard for a bootlegger during prohibition. Only the bootlegger is actually a vampire! Luckily Youngblood kills him with a grenade.

Third is "Merlin and the Sorcerer from E.R. Cruz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Merlin, from the Cagim series tells this story of his encounter with Harry Houdini during the 1920s. Merlin poses as an archeologist who is an expert on druids, and when he finds a collegue dead, with an object down his throat, he heads to the archaeological site. There he meets Houdini and they head down a long tunnel where they encounter bizarre tentacled monsters.

The issue concludes with the latest "Haggarth" story by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth and Borin confront the priest and Haggarth reveals that he has the manuscript that so many are after. Sensing how power hungry Borin is, Haggarth kills him. He then goes to confront Thall, who has the priest killed when he turns up empty handed without the manuscript. Thall takes it when Haggarth throws it to the ground, but when he flees Haggarth causes the place to collapse, killing Thall. A pretty good conclusion for the story that has been going on here for a number of issues, although the series will continue for a while.

1994 #25

This issue, dated June 1982 features a Ghita of Alizarr themed cover by Lloyd Garrison. Actually not that bad an issue. Everything here is at least somewhat memorable in its own way, rather impressive considering this was an era where Warren's work was very substandard. Sorry, was unable to find an image of the cover for this issue to show you all.

First is "The God of the Month Club" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). Similar to issue 22's Young Sigmond Pavlov segment, this story is pretty much all nonscensical garbage, but Nino pulls off an amazing art job where the art from each page can be combined with the other pages to form a giant image, in this case, the phrase "God of the Month Club". In fact if you own multiple issues, you can expand the art to form a seemingly infinite image. Very bizarre, but very well done.

Second is "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story). In this story Diana heads after Frank Branner, the escaped convict who is reported to have a plague. Diana crashes her ship on the planet he's on, with her only hope to steal the ship he had. Unfortunately for her, she is captured by him, who seems to be completely unaffected by the plague. At gunpoint he forces her to fix the ship for him and she ends up falling for him, even though she may be infected as a result. Looks like the series will start going in a different direction after the events of this story.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). In this story Ghita is brought by her captives to Urd, managing to kill two of them along the way, but stopped by the third. She arrives at Urd where she is paraded in front of the people, who aren't all that impressed with her. She meets Runthar while there, the boy she had met in Urd during her youth.

Fourth is "Angel" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). In this story Angel and Ape are in South Africa, where a conflict has been going on between white and black people. They meet a white hunter, who got caught in a bear trap. After freeing him and healing his wounds, he discusses the conflict, which involved chemical warfare, which resulted in mutations occuring. They meet one such mutation, a baby who was responsible for leaving the bear traps. Although Angel tries to heal him, the mutant instead tries to kill her, and she is saved by the white hunter. The best story thus far in this rather poor series.

Last is "Small World, Isn't It?" by Delando Nino (art) and Timothy Moriarty (story). In this story a man creates a device which permits him to shrink anyone to an extremely small size, albeit it temporarily. Unfortunately for him the government seizes him, with the intent of using his device to defeat their enemies. Eventually enemy forces get their hands on it too and the entire Earth blows up, with only the man and his wife surviving, with him in a shrunken size inside of her space suit.

1994 22

This issue of 1994 features a cover by Steve Fastner & Rich Larson. Quite a poor issue with little memorable here except Nino's art on the first story.

First is the latest segment of "Young Sigmond Pavlov" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). As with the other Pavlov stories, this features a nonscensical story where Pavlov sees a lunatic, this time a bizarre looking monster. As usual this story has many two page spreads, and in fact the pages can all be combined horizontally to becomes a single giant image. Very interesting art, but a story thats not interesting at all.

Second is "Love Among the Ruins!" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay & Tim Moriarty (story). This story takes place in a future where Earth has been attacked by tentacled monsters. Years pass and the monsters are barely seen, so few believe they are still around. A man dreaming of a beautiful woman heads underground where he sees her for real. He brings his friends down as well, but it is all a trap as she is one of the monsters and summons other ones to eat all of them. The best story of the issue.

Third is "Bringing Up Baby", part of a new series, Ariel Hart. Art is by Peter Hsu and story is by Bill Dubay. A horrible story with little to no story to it, featuring Ariel under pursuit from some evil doers.

Fourth is the second "Angel" story by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features Angel kidnapped by a large beast similar in appearance to her friend Ape. A man arrives and saves her, but she tells him that the creatures are just lonely and he shouldn't have done that. Yawn.

Last is "Mike Marauder: Knight Errant of the Spaceways!" by Rueben Yandoc (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Mike attacks an evil villain who *gasp* uses robots to let women have sex. After Mike interrupts things time and time again, the women cut off his penis, and it is he who is now in the position where the story's villain is helping him out. Margopoulos rips this story off from one he did in Eerie 118, making this an extremely lame way to end the issue.

1994 21

An odd looking cover for this issue by Alex Nino. There are no credits on any stories in this issue; credits are based on those included in Richard Arndt's well known Warren listing, and the writer names given on the content page.

First is "Lord Machina!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a new computer device from a company called Futura that needs to be reviewed by a government agent first. The agent soon acquires a huge debt from gambling with the machine and after losing all his money is forced to perform assassinations by the device. Eventually he can't take it anymore and destroys it.

Second is the second part of "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Diana travels along the planet she has crashed on with her companion Jason, who has taken the form of a penis and balls. During her search for the first of the seven escaped criminals, she encounters a creature she lets live, which saves her later on when she encounters the criminal.

Third is "Love is a Many Tentacled Thing" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a planet of tentacled monsters that release nuclear energy when they make love, forcing them to not make love with each other as it'd cause a large explosion. There is a connection between one such beast and a human woman who makes love to it. Eventually the beast transforms to Earth and the woman, who is transforming into one herself makes love with him again, and it results in the Earth blowing up.

Fourth is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). In this story Ghita meets up again with the mute witness from the previous part and engages in some lesbian sex with her in which it is revealed that she is not mute after all. Unfortunately a monster from Urd, masquerading as a human arrives and kills the waitress, attacking Ghita before she is able to save herself.

Fifth is "Angel!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This is the kick off of a new series, starring a young woman named Angel and her companion, a monster called Ape, who rescue a pair of archeologists from some humanoid monsters.

Sixth is "Mars Bar: Tales of the Red Planet Saloon" by Redondo Studio (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A martian creature called Snort convinces a woman he likes, Slut to marry him due to money he'll make by being in the army and patenting inventions. She soon falls in love with his commanding officer Mungo however, and cheats on him, then gets him to kill himself by saying she doesn't love him. He comes back as a robot however and kills both of them.

Last is "Freefall!" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an astronaut caught outside of a ship in space, but he screws up while trying to get back to it, ending up blowing up the entire thing.

Eerie 118

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Jordi Penalva. Unfortunately this issue doesn't live up to the quality of the prior one. It is cover dated January 1981.

First is a new series, 'Haggarth' in "Skull of the Three Snakes" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Similar to Haxtur, this series was originally printed in Europe and was reprinted in Eerie for a very lengthy run. A group of five Tunic warriors, led by Haggarth head to take an artifact, the Skull of Three Snakes from a valley of clansmen. A young man catches them coming and warns his people, who do battle with the Tunic warriors. All the warriors are killed, and the young man is blinded. He is helped out by a local old man, and along the way they find Haggarth, who is actually still alive as well. The old man tells the young man of Arnia, a witch who would be able to heal his eyesight. A so-so start to this new series. Haxtur ended up being a fairly good series so hopefully Fuente does as well with this one too.

Next is Steel Starfire: Tales from the Galactic Inn by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The story features Steel, our hero, who continously rescues women from the clutches of his enemy Cyber, a man who is half man half machine thanks to Steel. Eventually Steel is captured by the women themselves, who never wanted to be rescued in the first place. He then ends up turning to none other than Cyber himself for help. Tremendously dissappointing because this story is exactly the same as the story "Mike Marauder: Knight Errant of the Spaceways!" from 1994 #22. I've never been a big fan of Margopoulos, but this is just pathetic. This story came before the other one though, so I suppose that story receives the bigger criticism.

Third is "The Red Shot" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This is Bezaire's first appearance in quite a while and his last story for Warren as well. It surrounds a competition where many people battle over control of a ball, and after an hour whoever controls it wins. Yes, the story is that lame. Quite a dissappointment for the usually quite good Bezaire.

Last is "Space Kids" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). This story features a group of psychic kids who live off on another planet. A boy starts realizing he has powers too and can hear them talking to him. He is visited by the space kids, who are disguised as adults, and recruited to join them. They next plan to head to a backwater planet called... Earth. Fernandez's last Warren story, it was originally created back in 1975 but for some reason was held by Warren in inventory for 6+ years instead of being published around the time of his other stories. Its much weaker than his other stories, perhaps that is why.

Eerie 111

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Ken Kelly.

First is the finale to "Blood on Black Satin" by Paul Gulacy (art) and Doug Moench (story). Our heroes are caught in a frenzy as Simon Whately and his mob overrun the town. Our protagonist awakens the next day, believing it all ot be a dream. In actuality everything did happen, and Whately is still in control.

Second is "Moto Psycho Cop" by John Garcia & Rudy Nebres (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This stand alone story tells of a 'pyscho cop' and the mind induced experiences he gets in. Eventually he is killed, but another man gets revenge for him on those he had worked for.

Third is "The Messenger", the final Samurai story by Val Mayerik (art) and Larry Hama (story). In this story Samurai is helped by a friend who looks like him to helps take out some Yagyu Clan ninjas who are after him. Unfortunately this would be Samurai's final appearance, despite the fact that the story is nowhere close to a conclusion.

Fourth is the final Mac Tavish story, "50 Million Spacemen Can't Be Wrong" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). In this story Mac Tavish discovers how Gorgo was able to track Spider's attack, and also finds that Gorgo himself is paralyzed now and portrayed in public by one of his men. Spider appears on the scene, now with all his hair shaved off, and angry at Mac Tavish, not knowing the truth, blows up both himself and Mac Tavish's lover, Ida. Mac Tavish, upset, tries to destroy the Earth by plowing a ship into it, but stops at the last minute and decides to spare it.

The issue concludes with "Beware of Glahb", the third story in the Haxtur series by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). This series, which was a reprinting of a series that originally appeared in Europe initially started in 1984/1994 before moving here with this issue. In this story Haxtur saves a sacrifice for a giant lizard creature, Glahb, and is saved by her later on when he becomes the intended sacrifice. He later contends with a priest that forbids people to talk

With the ending of multiple long running series and Louise Jones's departure as editor, Eerie would quickly collapse to ineptitude after this issue.

Creepy 129

Jeff Easely provides the cover for this issue of Creepy. Rudy Nebres draws a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. Like most issues from this period, a boring issue with nothing much here to impress the reader.

First is "The Terrible Truth About Danny" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of a young boy with pyschokenetic powers who can cause objects to do whatever he wants to get revenge on anyone whose done him wrong. A beautiful girl moves in next door but unlike other boys doesn't like her. One night he decides to force himself on her to be like everyone else but instead decides to kill himself by blowing his own head up.

Second is "The Saga of Popeye Jackson!" by Paul Neary (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story tells of a revolution from a robot man who used to be human. Some pretty good art from Neary, but a poor, rather dull story.

Third is "Working Class Hero" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an accountant in his forties who looks much older than that who is bored with life, but is suddenly transported to thousands of years in the past where he helps a woman who escaped from her slave master. They go meet with a wizard, the man who brought him back in time by accident and they defeat the slave master. The wizard tries to transport him back to the present, but he ends up in the revolutionary war period instead. Some good art, but a poor, pointless story.

Fourth is "The Last Voyage of Sinbad" by Fred Carillo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Sinbad of legend is actually a dim-witted man who desires more than anything else to have friends and have the rain stop. Some treasurer hunters recruit him to join them and when they find how dumb he is they instead plan to have him be the fall guy when they discover a genie that will kill whoever summons him. The genie instead grants Sinbad's wishes to have friends and stop the rain.

Fifth is "He Who Lives!" by Danny Bulandi (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A confusing story about a man on a spaceship who goes down to a planet, sees weird visions, and encounters a vampire who he kills, making him a vampire himself.

Last is "Strategic Retreat" by Herb Arnold (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story features a humanoid dinosaur who hires soldiers to kill his old men and help him escape. While escaping however the soldiers sign a new contract with his enemy, giving him only two weeks to live.

1994 18

This issue of 1994 features a cover by H.R. Giger, most well known for his designs on the Alien movies. Unfortunately this was his sole work for Warren.

First is "The Lost Loves of Cranfranz P. Thitwacker" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). 'Cranfranz' has been a name that I've seen excessively in Alex Nino drawn stories in this issue for a while now. Anyway, Cranfranz is a forty seven year old virgin who buys a 'make your own woman' kit, which he promptly screws up, creating a horrific creature that immediately falls dead. He later tries to creatue another woman, and screws up her even more. By trying to dispose of the remains, he is caught and brought to jail. His neighbor meanwhile decides that she'd like to look into such a kit herself to create a man for her.

Second is "Lone Wolf" by Delando Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story takes place in the future, where much of humanity has moved underground, leaving above ground to mutants. People underground known as Seekers head above ground to kill them. One such Seeker is Lone Wolf, who is generally disliked by all. He goes above ground where he meets a woman taking care of some deformed children. When they are attacked by fellow seekers, he fights them off, and decides to stay above ground for good.

Third is "The Mad Planet" by Vic Catan (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Bill Dubay (story, Dubay is creited as Will Richardson). A prisoner is on a planet that is hit with a plaugue, killing all but him and a guard, a monster whom he falls in love with. Due to the plague, he is quarantined on the planet. Eventually his lover passes away of a heart attack and soon after astronauts arrive with a cure for the plague, wanting to use him to help a candidate be elected president. The prisoner wishes not to leave however, and kills them all. Some pretty good art here by Catan in the best story of the issue.

Fourth is the latest "Ghita of Alizarr" story by Frank Thorne (story & art). Ghita and friends meet an old friend of her, Sartan. They take part in a performance, but trolls interrupt it and they head after them. Along the way they encounter Noads, tiny troll like creatures that take Ghita capture. Ghita is able to escape due to a unicorn.

Last is thankfully the final part of "The Starfire Saga" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). Chris heads back to the base from the first part, but is attacked due to being a suspect in the murder of a character from the first part (about half this story is a recap of the first part of this series). Instead it is revealed that a pedophile man stationed there killed the man, and Chris has a happy reunion with her father. In the end this series ends dissappointing, but then again this entire series has been a poor dissappointment. I can't believe they wasted eight appearances on this boring drivel.

Creepy 128

This cover features a reprint of Frank Frazetta's classic Frankenstein monster cover from issue 10. Rudy Nebres provides a one page Uncle Creepy intro. This issue is actually slightly better than the garbage that came out around this period, although there's no really good stories here.

First is "Whatever Happened to Orem?" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story is a sequel to "Orem Ain't God No Head Cheese" from Creepy 85. It featured a cannibal old man and his young female companion who were attacked by a blob creature that was originally a cancer in one of their victims. In this story the cancer continues to plague the woods and when Orem and the Sheriff of the town end up getting killed, their deaths are mistakenly blamed on it. Orem's companion tricks law enforcement into 'killing' a pile of guts that they think is the creature; in actuality she is in love with the real one.

Second is "Outcast of Euthanasia" by Bill Draut (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story features a reporter talking to a woman about her dead son. Her dead son worked in a lab that brought dead people back to life from cloning. The son ended up being one of them too and went on a rampage, killing them all.

Third is "Old Man at the Morgue" by Fred Carillo (art) and Mark Lasky (story). This story features an old man who works at a morgue at night who talks only to the corpses. Heading home one night, he is murdered by some gang members. That's it. A complete waste of a story.

Fourth is "Frankenstein Invades the Universe" by Romeo Tanghal & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Scientists work in a satellite to create energy to transmit to the Earth. When they do so, they reveal a lab under ground where a Frankenstein monster (based on the cover) is found. One of the men becomes convinced that the creature is an advanced being that he must release and he does so. The monster goes on a rampage and is eventually killed. But carnivores eat its corpse, transmitting its evil to them. And when our protagonist eats one of them, he too becomes a monster.

Last is Abelmar Jones in "Lord of the Flies". This series originally ran in Eerie, with its last part appearing in Eerie 95. Its last story appears here, with Luis Bermejo replacing Alex Nino on the art. Bill Dubay (credited here as Will Richardson) continues to write the story. In this story two people in the city pour chemicals on Abelmar by mistake. This results in a blob growing on his head. Initially he wants to get it off but can't, but when it is revealed that the blob makes him irresistable to women, some other people tear it off of him to use themselves.

1994 16

Jordi Penalva contributes a very good dinosaur themed cover for this issue of 1994.

First is "Sci-Fi Writer" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story is about a sci-fi writer at a convention who is captured by some aliens that want to use him to take over humanity. He escapes from them and then manages to kill them, or so he thought. They are able to switch themselves with kids wearing costumes at the last second, getting him sent to jail.

Second is "Dog Star" by Delando Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited as Will Richardson). This story is about a prospector on a planet all alone, except for his dog Nebbie. Thanks to Nebbie's help he is able to fight the dangerous monsters off. But when other prospectors arrive, they tell him that Nebbie is actually a monster, which is true, as the man had deluded himself into thinking it was a dog.

Third is "Agony" by Carlos Giminez (story & art). Like his story in the previous issue, this is a reprint of a story originally published in Europe. A man and a priest traveling arrive at a town and hear horrific screams. They find them coming from a man who is being completely mutiliated by a machine. The machine then oddly enough reconstructs the man, who instructs it to mutilate him all over again. It ends up that the pain the man feels is transfered to ecstacy which is why he is repeating the process.

Fourth is "The Day After Doomsday" by Luis Bermejo (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). Bermejo's art here is absolutely horrific, easily the worst of his Warren career. This story takes place in the future, where pollution has caused devastating results to the Earth, causing most of the populace to have cancer. A space shuttle is presented to the public as a way of calming them down, but its all a ruse and one of the astonauts reveals that fact by blowing it up.

Fifth is the latest story in "The Starfire Saga" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited as Will Richardson). Kris and Cassie find a number of victims killed by the space pirates who have plagued them before. Kris realises that she can communicate with the spirits of Snuffy and others killed by them. They soon encounter the pirates and kill them, and meet the small creature introduced in the prior part, who tells them that Kris's father has already left.

Sixth is the final story in "Baby Makes Three" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Kevin Duane (story). Our hero continues his investigation of the murders taking place on the space station. The murders are the result of a man named McCann who is defeated during a battle taking place next to 'Baby', a giant black hole. At four stories long, this series was quite poor and a waste of a lot of space in this magazine.

Last is "Fruit of the Grape" by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This story takes place at a party where as part of a bet the host discusses a case he was involved with where a man was brought to court for selling a wine that was announced as being aged many years despite the company only being in existence a few years. Our protagonist announces that he has created a device which can age things, winning the case. The big company that brough the lawsuit to court buys the device from him and uses it to age the wine in their warehouse, but this ages the bottles and the building as well, causing the house warehouse to come crashing down.

1994 15

Alex Nino provides the cover for this issue, featuring the Starfire Saga. He is credited as "A2-120".

First is "Spearchucker Spade, Intergalactic Eye" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited to Will Richardson). Spearchucker Spade is an out of work detective who is hired by a woman to help find an assassin going after her father, Goldenrod. Spade fails to rescue him and he is killed. The killer ends up being his harem, which is actually a tentacled monster. The monster is defeated, but Spade ends up actually being an engagement present to the woman's fiance, who wants to beat him up. A rather drawn out, slow moving story. Dubay yet again shows potential racist tendencies by calling the main character 'Spade'.

Second is "Coming Out Party" by Delando Nino (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A tentacled alien tries to get even with a girlfriend who dumped him by summoning a demon. The demon ends up going too far, killing her, then tells the alien that its going to have to become his servant as soon as he leaves the pentagram he's standing in.

Third is "The Missionary" by Carlos Giminez (story & art). This story was originally published in Europe and is reprinted here. Giminez was a terrific artist who unfortunately never actually worked for Warren, although he did have four stories reprinted in Warren magazines. The issue's best story, this is about a missionary who comes to a planet of very friendly, kind, cute aliens. He tells them about religion, eventually getting to the subject of martyrs and their horrible deaths. Thinking they are helping him get to heaven, the aliens brutally torture and murder him in the manner that all the martyrs he talked about died.

Fourth is the sixth story in "The Starfire Saga" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story, credited to Will Richardson). Continuing the very boring storyline, this story is about Chris's father going around killing people with the help of the creature on the cover. Boring, very boring.

Fifth is the third story in "Baby Makes Three!" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This serial continues to go pretty much nowhere, focusing on the astronauts investigating a case and finding someone dead.

Sixth is "1894" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A man finds himself in a bizarre white landscape with lots of little white balls around him. He tries to get out by lighting them on fire. It ends up that he was in a crash which caused him to think that he was in this mysterious landscape. A rather poor story but some very good art by Nino.

Eerie 95

Vampirella guest stars with the Rook on the cover of this issue, the first Eerie issue featuring the Rook on the cover in quite a while. The cover is painted by Jordi Penalva, one of S.I.'s artists who was pretty good, but not at the level of Sanjulian and Enrich, the two main spanish cover artists for Warren.

First is "Warriors from the Stars" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). In this story Vampi, the Rook and the others arrive back in time, finding the aliens that originally brought the annihilator here. They are fighting other aliens, and our heroes help them. After the battle, the aliens give them a key enabling them to stop the annihilator and any other ones around the world when they return.

Second is "Willie's Super-Magic Basketball" by Carmine Infantino & Rudy Nebres (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Infantino's contributions appear barely at all here in the final product, one may think Nebres did this alone if it wasn't for the credits. The story is about a boy with a magic basketball that allows him to be good at basketball. The boy later goes to Vietnam, returning after his mother's death. Hooked on drugs, he runs from the cops and a drug dealer and his magic basketball turns him back into a kid, allowing him to escape them.

Third is "Faster Than a Speeding Whozit", the latest story in the Abelmar Jones series. Art is by Alex Nino and story is by Bill Dubay. Abelmar and his brother get into another adventure, looking for a superman in the city, but instead finding a powerful robot. Another very lame story, with some okay art from Nino. This series would conclude in Creepy 128, which came out a number of years after this issue.

Fourth is this issue's color feature, "Nuts!" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Alfredo Alcala also appears on the credit line, but he doesn't appear to have had any input in the artwork for this story, and doesn't appear on the contents page (this was probably a misprint). This story features a pilot transporting a whole army, which has been dehydrated in order to hide themselves. Most of the story is quite lame, with various space action, and our protagonist eating a lot of nuts. The story does have a pretty good ending though, when it is revealed that the nuts he was eating are actually the brains of the soldiers he was transporting! Marcos's art is rather poor here, wasting a color story which would have worked better on many other artists.

Fifth is "Harrow House" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This is the first of a two part story, concluded in issue 99. This is a very good story, featuring an old woman seeking to sell a house of her's that is haunted with the ghost of her dead niece. Multiple people have tried to stay in it, but all went crazy. The man occupies the house where mysterious things start to occur. He does manage to make it out okay though. He returns to the house where he sees a spectral form of the niece on teh stairs, which is where this part ends.

Last is a new series, Mac Tavish, in "Caucus on Rara Avis" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, as Alabaster Redzone). This new series, which lasted in Eerie for quite a while, is very clearly heavily influenced by Star Wars. It stars Mac Tavish, a space hero, who is brought to Rara Avis to speak on behalf of the Governor, who is running for re-election. The governor is assassinated, and Mac Tavish pursues the assassin and kills him, who ends up being a robot. The murder is suspected to be done by a terrorist, Spider Andromeda, who is actually Mac Tavish's friend. Spider, who looks like a lion man shows up, and refutes that, suggesting Mac Tavish run for governor. While this has some good art, there's nothing here special storywise in this first part of a long series.