Creepy 70

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 53

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated May 1973.

First is "A Scream in the Forest" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Greg Potter (story). An extremely good story with some very beautiful artwork. A society of dwarves is plauged by Fearies, large one eyed beastly creatures that kidnap their women for food. Screams echo throughout the forest, most likely from their victims. One of the dwarves, Ussel, is nearly captured by one, but is saved by Arn, a powerful swordsman. Arn agrees to help Ussel wipe out the Fearies and they head through the woods, fighting off another one along the way. Eventually they come across a large cave, and inside Arn knocks out Ussel, handing him over to the Fearies. Arn is actually working with the Fearies, capturing them prey in exchange for diamonds. Ussel awakens just as they are about to eat him, and there is another scream in the forest.

Second is "The Stone of Power" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features a boy who finds a mysterious stone with power. He brings it to his home, but a witch takes the stone from him and kills his mother. The boy grows up, and plans to take back the stone, managing to do so. But his memory isn't what he thinks it is. The witch is actually his mother, whom he ends up killing. He takes the stone for himself, with an evil look in his eye as the story ends.

Third is "Freedom's Just Another Word" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A black family, the Turners, moves into a town of nothing but white people. One of the young women in the town, Rosie befriends Charles, one of the Turners, and this greatly upsets her father. Her father starts getting the townfolk riled up, claiming that the family are a bunch of witches, and are responsible for ruining their crops and killing their farm animals. A group of the men go to the Turner's house and beat then kill the entire family, except for their paralyzed grandmother, who actually is a witch and summons lightning which kills them all. Winner of the Warren award for best story of 1973, this is in fact a horrible story, particularly with its excessive usage of the N-word. Dubay tries to write a message story here, but ultimately the story teaches no lesson, as the Turners end up being exactly what the racist mob claims they are. Dubay usually is a pretty good writer, but he really missed the mark here.

Fourth is "The Creature at Loch Ness" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). A pair of men, one a believer, one a skeptic go to Loch Ness to search for the Loch Ness monster. Initially they have no success, finding mostly driftwood, but eventually they find one and take some pictures of it. The pictures reveal it to be a fake, as it is actually just an inflatable monster owned by a hotel owner nearby who uses it to bring in tourists. The hotel tourist soon finds himself the prey of the actual Loch Ness monster however.

Fifth is "The Night the Creatures Attacked" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story). This story, based on actual eyewitness accounts, tells of a home in Kentucky attacked by alien creatures. The people in the home are able to frighten them off by shooting at them. At only two pages long, one wonders if this was originally meant to be printed on the inside front and back covers.

Last is the cover story, "It" by Tom Sutton (story & art). This story features the corpse of Timothy Foley coming back from the grave and traveling around searching for someone, scaring to death everyone who comes across him. By the end it is revealed that he was simply looking for his lost teddy bear. Some interesting panel design by Tom Sutton here, some pages have as many as 16 panels! It would eventually be used for a recurring series in both Creepy and Eerie, although Timothy Foley (who is actually the corpse of a nine year old boy here) would be made into a much older character in the later installments.

Creepy 67

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy 63

Not that good an issue of Creepy, quite a disappointment considering the era its from. This issue is dated July 1974. The cover is by Ken Kelly featuring murderous dolls attacking a man. A rather bad job of perspective by Kelly, as the man's legs appear far too big for a normal human.

First is "Jenifer" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). One of Warren's best ever stories, and notable for being Bruce Jones's only story during Bill Dubay's era. He would eventually become a very prolific writer for Warren while Louise Jones was editor. A man hunting in the woods one day rescues a girl from being killed. The girl, called Jenifer has the ugliest face imaginable, but he becomes obsessed with her, and adopts her. His family hates her and eventually leave him after she scares them off. He then does what he can to get rid of her, such as having a freak show owner come to take her, but Jenifer simply kills the man and shoves his corpse in the fridge. Eventually he brings her out into the woods to kill her, only to be killed by someone wandering by, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Second is the cover story "A Touch of Terror" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features an investigation of a security guard at a warehouse. The owner of the place is in argument with the person conducting the investigation, as the guard was hired without his consent. The owner is in charge of little toy dolls called Nymatoids, which he uses to kill the investigator. He thinks he'll be able to rule the world with them, but the Nymatoids aren't actually controlled by him, but act on their own, and eventually kill him too.

Third is "...A Ghost of A Chance" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). Brennan's final Warren story is pretty good, mostly thanks to some good Alcazar art. A man heads into a haunted mansion because it is rumored a treasure is inside. In the mansion he is confronted by the ghost of the man who lived there, who gives him his treasure, a coffin. It ends up that the man is turned into a vampire, so that certainly was a sensical gift for him.

Fourth is "Demon in the Cockpit", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The United States government works on their latest weapon to defeat the communists - summoning a demon from hell which they successfully are able to do. Unfortunately for them, the communists have the same idea and use their own demon to attack.

Fifth is "Fishbait" by Leo Summers (art) and Larry Herndon (story). A man on a yacht is very jealous of a competitor who won over a woman he liked. When the ship mysteriously crashes into something, they find themselves in shark infested water. Eventually it is just our protagonist and his competitor left, using some drift wood. When a ship approaches, our protagonist fights off his competitor to make it to it... but it is not a ship but actually a giant shark, the entity which destroyed the yacht in the first place.

Last is "The Clones!" by Jose Gual (art) and Martin Pasko (story). Probably the single worst story of Bill Dubay's first run as editor (although Gual's art is good). This story features a hospital where clones of criminals have been developed that are used so that their organs can be used to give to other people. One of the clones comes to life and goes on a rampage, taking back his organs that were taken from him. He then returns to the hospital, including a ridiculous sequence where he runs amok with a machine gun, and takes back his final organ from the doctor that developed him. In a nonsensical final twist, the clone reveals he is a cannibal, and that he has been eating all the organs he took back.

Vampirella 33

The cover to this issue by Enrich features Vampirella under attack by a giant spider. This issue is cover dated May 1974.The two page feature "The Believer" by Jeff Jones & Berni Wrightson is on the front and back inside covers.

First is "Vampirella and the Sultana's Revenge!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Vampirella and Pendragon are invited by a Sultana to perform. It ends up the Sultana is Droga, Kruger's girlfriend from the previous issue's story. She is cheating on her husband, but he has agreed to never harm her no matter what she does. She plans to have Vampirella thrown to the beast that lives in their castle, but Vampirella ends up killing it. The Sultana is caught cheating, so her husband punishes her by force feeding her until she becomes grotesquely fat. Some amazing, sexy artwork on this story, earning Gonzalez a Warren award for best art on a story for 1974.

Second is the finale to the first Pantha series, "Childhood Haunt!" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Pantha heads to an orphanage to find information on her past. Before, she meets a man, Jason whom she has sex with. When the head of the orphanage refuses to give her the info she wants, she breaks in and sees him abusing the children. She attacks him in her panther form, but when Jason comes to protect the children, she ends up killing him too. A sad end, but a good one to Pantha's first series.

Third is "Top to Bottom" by Richard Corben (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A very good story reminiscent of the Hellraiser movies. A man finds a mysterious blue cube in a pawn shop with lights inside that travel from the top to bottom. He suddenly finds himself inside the cube, and time starts traveling very quickly when he dozes off. Eventually the cube starts talking to him, telling him its a game. He plays for years and years, never winning, until he is an old man. The cube then tells him that his behavior shaped the entire world while playing it, and that he could have brought peace to mankind, but his greed brought about different events. Just then he is killed by a pair of crooks who plan to use the cubes themselves, while on drugs. A very good story, one thats quite unique compared to the other ones published by Warren.

Fourth is "...Number 37 is Missing!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story surrounds a murder mystery where painting with monsters start appearing. Other paintings show up without the monsters at the murder scenes. It ends up that the monsters in the paintings are alive, and causing the murders. This results in a terrifying end for the newspaper reporter investigating the case.

The issue concludes with "Barfly!" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Jacobson (story). This issue surrounds a man who comes back from Asia with a new wife. It soon becomes apparant that she is a vampire, and her husband soon dies. She came to America in the first place for her husband's friend, whom she wants to become a vampire with him. While he refuses, at the end of the story he ends up attacking a friend of his in the bar and fleeing. Abellan's sole appearance in Vampirella (he appeared predominantly in Creepy) isn't any better than his usual work, which always paled compared to the other Spanish artists working for Warren.

Creepy 58

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated December 1973. Bill Dubay and Vicente Alcazar provide the art for the two page frontis "The Old School" while Steve Skeates provides the script.

First is "Change... Into Something Comfortable" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A werewolf runs around on Halloween, enjoying himself by killing trick or treaters, gang members, and pretty much anyone else who he encounters. He eventually comes across a mansion which he attacks, only to find that the inhabitants are fellow monsters like him, part of the freak show he used to work for. The monsters then make him their dinner! A strong way to start off the issue.

Second is "An Excuse for Violence" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story features a vampire on a college campus whose attacks are contributing to a tough racial situation between white and black people. Oddly enough the vampire is a black man who transforms into a white one after becoming a vampire. Not that great a story from a story or art standpoint.

Third is "Shriek Well Before Dying!" by Jose Bea (art) and W. Eaton (story). A con artist marries a young woman because he wants to bump off her father and get his money. He eventually is able to get the father to have a heart attack and die, but the father comes back from the grave to get his revenge. In the end the daughter goes crazy and lives with his corpse, whom she keeps in her house.

Fourth is "Soul and Shadow" by Reed Crandall (art, his final Warren appearance) and Gardner Fox (story). A warrior sneaks into a tomb to find a treasure, finding a sleeping woman there. She awakens and he fights off a group of demons. Soon afterwards however a shadow comes after him and kills him. It ends up the whole thing was a ruse to get him to kill the demons, which the woman could not.

Last is "The Waking Nightmare!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Don McGregor (story). A Gasp! interesting story by McGregor for once, featuring an outbreak that occurs that causes some to go on a murderous rage and others to just pass out. The story does contain McGregor's political ramblings as usual, but not enough to wreck a fairly good story.

Creepy 68

This issue is a Christmas themed issue of Creepy, featuring a cover of an evil Santa with various body parts around the fire place. Another rather horrific back cover by Sanjulian, featuring a man with a nail through his neck. Some very good stories here and some rather dull ones as well.

First is the issue's only non-Christmas themed story, "The Stars My Salvation" by John Severin (art) and Doug Moench (story). As explained in later issues, one of the stories, "Once Upon a Miracle" missed the deadline and got replaced with this story. That story would be reprinted in Creepy 77, the next year's Christmas special. This story takes place in the Civil War where some union soldiers come across a hospital which the leading officer wants to attack. One of his soldiers doesn't want to attack a hospital, so the officer kills him. A similar scenario takes place in space, where an alien hospital ship carrying a device which can heal people heads after a damaged ship, hoping to destroy it. The alien captain attacks the doctor on the ship who doesn't want to attack. In both cases it ends up being an ambush, and the aggressive attackers are totally wiped out. The alien doctor manages to escape and heads down to the Earth where he is going to heal the head officer, but the officer instead kills him, and dies seconds later.

Second is "Christmas Eve Can Kill You" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A number of different stories occuring around christmas time in this one, including a man trying to kill himself being saved by another person and a shootout among crooks and cops.

Third is "Reflections in a Golden Spike" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). An old man who is a retired train engineer befriends a young orphan runaway who passes out near the abandoned train that he lives in. Eventually however a pair of thieves arrive. When the boy kills one of the thieves he is killed, so the engineer kills the other with a golden railroad spike he had given to the boy.

Fourth is "Anti-Christmas", this issue's color story, by Rich Corben (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a young couple where the husband is actually a satanist, and they give birth to the anti-christ. Meanwhile her father, a priest, goes on a rampage, doing all he can to stop the anti-christ, including innocent babies and people. They eventually converge, and the priest kills his own daughter, then is killed by her husband who proclaims that the priest did the work of Satan a lot better than he could.

Fifth is "A Gentle Takeover" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where Christmas is outlawed. An older man, Oliver Cubbins, who looks like Santa Claus organizes a peaceful march of believers in Christmas.

Sixth is "Christmas Visit" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). An old diner owner, Archie, has a rather bad attitude about christmas. He is visited by a mysterious stranger who arrives at his diner right around closing time. While walking around talking to the stranger, who tries to get him to get a better attitude about Christmas, the man causes various miracles to happen, like curing a crippled boy and talking a suicidal man from not killing himself. While the stranger is able to convince Archie that Christmas is good after all. Unfortunately for him, the stranger is murdered by muggers minutes later.

Last is "The Christmas Gnome of Timothy Brayle!" by Leopold Sanchez (art, his Creepy debut) and Budd Lewis (story). The poorest story in this issue, it is about a man who dislikes his wife who encountersa gnome that gives him the christmas present of his wife's now dead remains.

Creepy 56

Today we're gonna take a look at the first issue of Creepy I ever read. The cover is by Sanjulian.

First is "In My Father's House" by Auraleon (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a detective investigating the death of a man tied to a stone angel in a graveyard. While investigating multiple attempts are made on his life and he meets various crazy women that used to know him. Eventually he finds that the murdered man was the leader of a Satanic cult who became too greedy with power. Satan himself appears and recruits the detective to be the new leader, but he too becomes too greedy and is eventually killed because of it.

Second is "Innsmouth Festival" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Jacobson (story). This story is heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's 'A Shadow Over Insmouth". An editor for a magazine about (usually fake) supernatural events is summoned to Innsmouth by a letter from two women, who incidently end up being the only normal looking people in the town, which is controlled by hideous looking creatures that worship Ctulhu. They capture the women, hoping to sacrifice them to their watery God, and the editor tries to help them. They are able to kill the 'God' and the various mutants using a laser gun given to the editor by an old woman. At the end of the story it is revealed that the women aren't really human themselves, as they have wings.

Third is "Consumed by Ambition" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A count from Europe heads to Venezuela where it is revealed that he is a vampire. A young man he meets is attacked by him, but he has ambition of being a vampire and lets him join him. Eventually the young man becomes too ambitious however, and puts a stake in his master's heart. He demands a daily sacrifice from a nearby tribe, but is soon done in by man eating ants. His skeleton remains alive for many year after however as a stake wasn't used on him.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Lycanklutz" by Richard Corben (story & art). Warren's first good looking color story (the first 3 attempts, that appeared in Creepy 54, and Vampirella 25 & 26 looked absolutely horrific, usually due to the overly bright colors overwhelming the artwork), although Corben would turn out a much better color job merely a single issue later. The story takes place in a kingdom plagued by a werewolf. An old man offers to rid them of the werewolf with fleas, which cost $500. The king agrees to use them, but betrays the old man, tying him up as bait so he doesn't have to pay him. The werewolf arrives, but the old man bargains with him for a flea collar and the werewolf instead attacks the king. This story would win Corben the best story written by an artist for 1973.

Fifth is "The Way of All Flesh" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story features a blind old vicar who has no one attending his church any longer. A friend tells him to give up, then returns home where he finds his wife dead. Many other deaths have occured around this time as well. By investigating, our protagonist eventually finds the vicar, preaching to the corpses of all the murdered people. The vicar then passes away, and all their corpses crumble to dust.

The issue concludes with "The Bell of Kuang Sai" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited as Munes) and George Henderson (story, an adaption, but not stated who of). This story features a bell maker, Kuang Sai, who is hired by his lord to make him a bell. When he makes the bell however it has a large crack in it. He tries again and again, but each time it has a crack. The lord offers him three more chances, after failing on the first two he sacrifices his daughter, pushing her into the bell's liquid material before it is poured into the mold. This results in it finally working. This causes the bell to emit a strange shriek from her whenever it is rung however.

Creepy 59

A partially Christmas themed issue of Creepy, with a cover showing a murderous Santa by Sanjulian. Half the stories in this issue have a Christmas theme to them.

First is "Destiny's Witch" by Ramon Torrents (art) and John Jacobson (story). Hundreds of years ago a servant is suspected of being a witch when she tries to remove some leaves from her master's daughter, which is supposed to ward off a vampire that's been plauging the village. In actuality she is a witch, and is betrayed by her boyfriend Oliver multiple times, who reveals her as a witch, then frames her as being a vampire when he is actually the vampire. Hundreds of years later however she gets revenge by getting him fried by the sun.

Second is "A Dark and Violent Place" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story is about a phantom of the opera type masked killer who occupies a theater. A pair of detectives investigate the killer, who repeats acts of violence from the films played there, such as throwing acid in the face of a man in the front row. One of the detectives is killed by the maked killer, and the other one starts going out with one of the witnesses. She is eventually kidnapped by the killer who is revealed to have had acid thrown in his face, making him a freak. The detective fights him and the killer is electrocuted to death.

Third is "Spare That Tree!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is about a rich man who becomes quite ill. One of his servants explains to the doctor that the rich man got sick as a boy and a man helped cure him through some treatment involving a tree. This resulted in the rich man's fate being tied to the tree however, if the tree gets harmed, so will he. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know which tree it is, and he has one of his servants hung for chopping down a tree. The servant's brother however, the man who summoned the doctor, gets revenge by using as firewood the tree tied to him, causing the rich man to die of a fever.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Bless Us, Father..." by Richard Corben (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features two concurring storylines that eventually come together at the end. In the first a crazy man's parents talk about him while he dresses up as Santa Claus and goes on a murderous rampage. In the second a girl talks to her mother about her father, who is a cop in the same city as the killer. The cop and killer eventually meet and while injured, the cop is able to kill him.

Fifth is "Curiosity Killed The Cat" by Paul Neary (art) and Doug Moench (story). This interesting story is about a hippie hitchhiker who comes to a new town only to immediately be suspected for murder when the clerk at a hotel he goes to ends up dead. He is bailed out of prison by a beautiful woman and they investigate some men in black that have been following her. They eventually find the UFO that the men in black came from, but our protagonist figures out the truth, that she's an alien as well, and is able to escape from her.

Last is "Not a Creature Was Stirring" by Tom Sutton (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story features a maniac whose been killing Santa Clauses and the detectives investigating the murders. The detective investigating the murders is Dave Turner, who was previously featured in McGregor's horrificly bad "A Tangible Hatred" from issue 41. Luckily the hippie garbage isn't as bad here. The murder finally explains himself on his last santa victim, he's upset at 'Santa' for lying to him about his brother coming home alive from Vietnam when he was a kid. The killer gets away from the cops but is miraculously found dead on the roof of a building, as if he was run over by a raindeer. This story features arguably Sutton's best art job for Warren, one of his last stories for them.

Creepy 60

This issue features a cover by Sanjulian. The frontis for this issue is "Child of Hell" by Bill Dubay.
First story is "Slaughter House" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). At 16 pages this is one of the longest stories in Creepy during this period. Unfortunately its not that great a story. A couple with a new baby move into a house that has been rumored to be haunted by a dwarf-like creature. They summon a good spirit and when the dwarf creature arrives it is able to save them and rid the house of the creature for good.

Next is "A Most Precious Secret" by Jose Gual (art) and Margopoulos (story). A man's wife discovers the horrible truth, that he's a vampire! To keep his secret, the man kills her and drinks her blood. The story brings us back in time, telling how they got married and how he was able to keep his secret from her. Back in the present the man receives a call from his lawyer telling him that his wife was seeing him to draft a will, because she has leukemia, cancer of the blood!

Third is cover story, "The Hero Within" by Richard Corben (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features an orphan with a wild imagination whose brought to a new foster home where his foster mother and sister treat him horribly, subjecting him to the wrath of their dangerous dog. The boy, locked in the basement finds a magic donut shaped rock on the ground and uses it to imagine himself in a prehistoric world, where he's a powerful monster warrior battling the dog, who has now changed into a Tyranosaurus Rex. While he succeeds in his battle with the beast, he loses the magic rock and reverts to the real world, where the wounded dog gets his revenge.

Fourth is "Monsieur Fortran's Houx" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Jacobson (story). An alien race plans on infiltrating Earth and has an agent in France approximately 200 years ago. The alien agent, Fortran, publishes a book revealing all the alien's plans, thinking that it is so crazy that everyone will think he's crazy and ignore the true danger. His plan initially works, but one drunk who does believe him ends up destroying his entire house, killing the both of them, when Fortran's superiors check in on him.

The issue concludes with "The Other Side of Hell" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is Mayo's Warren debut. The story features a town drunk who has died and finds himself in hell. He desires to get away and suddenly finds himself in an Egyptian-esque realm where he kills the king and takes his Queen. He becomes power hungry and eventually kills her as well. But he soon realizes that he never left hell...

Creepy 117

Only a so-so issue at best. The cover, by Ken Kelly is a reprint of a design used years earlier for tshirts sold by Warren. This issue features a new Creepy logo which wouldn't last that long.

First is "Scream" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bob Toomey (story). A very long, drawn out story about a couple that awakens from suspended animation and finds everyone else gone and the world apparantly destroyed. They head out for a while and are confronted by some beast men who they are able to escape from. A rather long, drawn out and non-interesting story including a four and a half page stretch with no dialogue or captions whatsoever. Art by Duranona is okay.

Second is "A Noble Gesture" by Adolfo Abellan (art). The writer is uncredited. Abellan makes his first Warren appearance in a number of years and would vanish for good after this story. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a man finds himself the only one left alive. His body is covered with boils that end up containing minuature people inside of them.

Third is the cover story, "The Beast" by Isidro Mones (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). A rich man is convinced that he is a werewolf who has been committing murders. His doctor tells him that's not so and ups his medication. In actuality the doctor is drugging him to convince him that he is the werewolf, so he can steal his wife and money. He screws up and is arrested, but it ends up that the rich guy is the werewolf after all.

Fourth is "Nightmare Highway" by Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The story is a mystery about a number of murders taking place on the highway of the title. It is thought that a young woman is committing the murders but it ends up instead being a man wearing women's shoes.

Last is "The Silkie" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easley (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A man catches a bizarre dolphin-like creature that ends up transforming into a beautiful woman. She remains as a woman out of water, but turns into the dolphin-like creature due to a trigger in her body that occurs when she is in the water. He has surgery done for her so she'll stay human forever, but they botch it and she must stay in the dolphin-like form forever. Years later her daughter shows up. An okay story, best of the issue considering its competition here.

Creepy 52

This issue's cover is by Sanjulian, featuring the interior tale "A Most Private Terror". The opening story is drawn by Esteban Maroto and written by Budd Lewis (miscredited to Doug Moench). This story takes place in a winter setting, featuring a man hiding in a cave from a snow beast. He thinks to a past encounter with such a beast, which was a beautiful woman who turned into a werewolf that he had killed. Realizing he's going to freeze to death, he sets himself on fire, then once putting the fire out heads out of the cave. He becomes so frightened however that he falls off a cliff to his death. It is revealed at the end however that all that was following him was a little white rabbit.

Second is "The Last Hero" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Steve Skeates (story). It takes place in a future where robots run society and man's life is full of leisure. A cult of bald headed men rebel against this and destroy as many robots and factories as they can. The hero of the title decides to become a superhero and fight against them, but they capture him and brainwash him such that he becomes another one of them.

Third is "Halve Your Cake and Eat It Two" with art by Adolfo Abellan and story by Doug Moench. This story takes place in a post apocalyptic world where a man finds himself seemingly alone. He eventually meets a woman and a dog and they stay together. They are attacked by a bizarre looking mutant but make it out okay. He eventually heads out to find some uncontaminated food and when he returns, finds a mutant that has seemingly killed the girl and dog. He kills the mutant then eats it. He wanders off, coming across other normal people, only to find out that he is now a mutant, as he actually ate her, she mutated after eating the dog. The normal people, seeing him as a mutant, kill him and eat him, staring the cycle all over again.

Fourth is "Them Thar Flyin' Things!" by Jose Bea (art) and Greg Potter (story). A sheriff heads home to see his family. He sees his mother, but his younger sister is off trying to hook up with a man, Ronald who does nothing but fish. Heading through the woods, she spots a flying saucer with aliens coming out of it. She tells Ronald, but he ends up being an alien scout himself and kills her to keep things a secret.

Fifth is "The Man With the Brain of Gold" by Reed Crandall (art) and George Henderson (story). This is an adaption of a story that originally appeared elsewhere, but the actual origins are not mentioned, so the original source is unknown. It is about a boy born with an extremely large head. One day it is discovered that his brain is actually made of gold. When his parents ask him for some of the gold from his head, he does so, then goes off on his own, spending for things by taking some of his brain out. He eventually gets married to a woman who causes him to spend even more money, but she soon passes away. At her funeral he sees some shoes that he likes and tries to take more gold out of his head, but by this time he's taken all of it and he dies.

The issue finishes up with "The Killer" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story is about a man who gets married but does little to distinguish himself in life. This upsets his wife, whom he suspects is having an affair. One day he finds his wife stabbed to death and suspects he did it. He runs off and ends up getting hit by a car and killed. It ends up however that it was a burgler who killed his wife and he was innocent all along.

Across the board a fine issue. Got little to complain about here.

Creepy 66

This issue features a cover by Ken Kelly, featuring a axeman chopping at a man's decapitated head. Berni Wrightson handles the frontis, which features Uncle Creepy.

Up first is "Desecration" by Jose Ortiz (art, his first job for Creepy) and Doug Moench (story). A man goes to a pyramid in Egypt and finds out about how it belonged to a pharoah who dismissed the gods. A god actually came down and cursed him forever, locking him in the pyramid. The man heads inside the pyramid and finds the god, which is actually an alien, which brings him to his planet as punishment.

Next is "Portrait of Death" with art by Vicente Alcazar and story by Budd Lewis. An artist digs up a corpse to use in a painting and is blackmailed by a fellow grave digger, whom he kills and also uses in his painting. The painting comes to life however, and kills him, bringing him into the painting as well. Terrific art by Alcazar here.

Third is "Solitude!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A group of outlaws takes over a desolate town in the desert. When they decide to stay though, it is revealed that the townfolk are actually werewolves, and they kill the outlaws.

Next is "Pinball Wizard!" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A rare non-color story by Corben for this era of Warren. Mobsters pressure the owner of a candy store to put in a pinball machine and when he refuses kills him. A boy who befriended the old man summons a demon who kills the mobster, and brings him to hell where he acts as the ball for a pinball game.

"Relatively Axe-Cidental" is fifth, with art by Adolfo Abellan and story by Greg Potter. An executioner sets up his brother in law, who knows his true identity, by accusing him of being a sorceror. Only the same thing ends up happening to him when his angry wife accuses him of the same. Her brother's decapitated corpse ends up being the executioner.

The issue wraps up with "Nightmare!, featuring art by Isidro Mones and story by Mones & Gerry Boudreau. The story features a man having a recurring dream about encountering bizarre looking cloaked monsters. At the end of the story when life goes just like the dream, the man ends up going crazy.

Creepy 61

A pretty good issue of Creepy from 1974. This was the first of 4 issues edited by Archie Goodwin during his short return to Warren as editor. A pretty good issue which would preview some of the terrific stuff that would be coming in Creepy over the next year.

Behind the Sanjulian cover of a mummy's tomb is the frontis, "Child of Hell", with art and story by Bill Dubay. This was the last of the frontis stories, they would be replaced with portraits of Uncle Creepy starting with the next issue.

First up is "A Stranger in Eternity" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story is a sequel to the story "A Stranger in Hell" from Eerie #38, which I have reviewed earlier in this blog. This story features the main character of that story in long rambling conversations with the cloaked female character he had encountered before. Like the first story, this story makes little to no sense and is quite poor. That said, Abellan's art is somewhat better than usual here.

Second is "Advent of the Scrap-Heap!" by Jose Gual (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). When a group of mobsters kill a monk mistakenly, his spirit causes a conglomoration of trash and junk to form a humanoid giant that goes on a rampage in order to take revenge. A rather odd premise, but not that bad of a story.

Third is "The Ghouls" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story), about a pair of grave robbers who encounter a group of vampires in a graveyard. It ends up that one of the robbers set up the other, making a deal with the vampires to feast on his body, as he's a ghoul who will get the body after the blood is drained from it. Wessler's story here reminds me of his EC work from approximately 20 years earlier.

This issue's color story is "Terror Tomb" with both story and art by who else, but Richard Corben, who did the color story in Creepy for about 10 straight issues during this period. This is a very fun comedic story about a group of archaeologists who go into a mummy's tomb where some of the locals are setting them up by bringing the mummy back to life. Only things don't exactly go as planned for all involved.

"The Blood Colored Bike" is next, which like the previous story is handled by a single person, this time Jose Bea. The story's about a pair of factory owners who clash over the idea of purchasing a motor bike. The owner desiring the bike ends up killing the other one with an axe and buys his bike, only for the ghost of his dead partner to haunt him while riding it until he rides off a cliff. The lead character's desire for a bike is rather goofy, but overall not that bad a story.

"Twisted Medicine" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story) is the issue's best story, about a one armed hunchback who plans revenge on the witch he works for only for his plans to go up in smoke when she uses him as one of her ingredients for a spell. Intersperced throughout the story is the path of a boy growing up and joining the military. In the end it ends up the entire story was a hallucination of a blind, deaf and handless veteran laying in a hospital bed. This story would end up being one of Warren's most controversial stories ever (although not the most, that title would almost certainly go to "Landscape" from Blazing Combat #2) due to the ending, and was the centerpiece of an attack on Warren in a page long letter published in issue 64, which resulted in months of debate in the letter page.

Last up is "Encore Ghastly" which is written and drawn by Tom Sutton. One of Sutton's last jobs for Warren, the art here is one of his best. The story is about an old man based on Dr. Frederick Werthem (whose unfounded attacks on comics almost destroyed the entire industry in the 1950's and led to the creation of the Comics Code) who has been the subject of attempted murder. In the end it ends up the killer after him is an artist based on horror artist "Ghastly" Graham Ingels whose upset over the impact his work had on his job prospects. With horror comics popular again, he's happy to attempt a comeback, using Werthem's blood as ink in his story. Terrific tribute to EC great Ingels, who was one of the very few EC artists who never worked for Warren (having left the medium altogether by that time).

Creepy 50

Today I'm going to tackle Creepy #50, a landmark issue for Warren that unfortunately failed to meet expectations. A very dissappointing issue in my opinion, an opinion that is shared by fellow internet Warren commentator Richard Arndt as well as Stephen Sennit's book Ghastly Terror. The cover of the issue, by Sanjulian, features various Warren characters such as Uncle Creepy, Cousin Eerie, Vampirella and Dracula. Sanjulian was one of Warren's most prolific cover artists and was with them for over a decade. The frontis for this issue is "Odd Worm" by Auraleon (art) and Al Hewetson (story).

First up is the issue's best story, "Forgive Us Our Debts" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). The story is about a pair of drug smugglers whose plane crashes in the jungle. One of the smugglers, Manning, escapes while the other, Hunter, loses one of his arms to a crocodile. He gets his revenge by later taking Manning captive and forcing him along with his collegue Sharon in the jungle to recover their lost drugs. Along the way they encounter a bizarre group of humanoid creatures who are guarding the drugs along with a large amount of treasure. When Hunter goes to get the drugs, Manning shoots him in the back. He goes to claim the treasure himself, but when Sharon is unable to cover him due to going insane from fright, the creatures kill him. Pretty good story with very good Maroto art, although its a tad long and drags a bit in the middle.

Up next is "Frog God" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and E.A. Fedory (story). The story is about an archaeologist who discovers an ancient temple of a civilization that worshipped a 'Frog God'. He finds a monument which he thinks will give him magical power, but it ends up turning him into a frog instead. Fedory's narrative quality is quite poor and Abellan's artwork is extemely ugly, like his artwork in pretty much all of his Warren stories.

"Side-Show", drawn by Jose Bea and written by Fred Ott is about a jealous husband who thinks his wife is cheating on him when he catches buying a ring in a store with another man. He meets a sideshow magician who shrinks both of them for him, but when he realizes that the gift was for him, he tries to renege on the deal with the magician and suffers the same fate himself. While Bea's artwork is good, the main character is a complete and utter idiot, completely forgetting that his wife may be buying him a birthday present. That lapse of logic is enough to ruin the story for me.

"The Sum of Its Parts" by Reed Crandall (art) and Doug Moench (story) is fourth. The story is about a bunch of dismembered body parts that suddenly start appearing in various places. Each person who finds them ends up losing various limbs themselves. Eventually all the dismembered parts, sans a head, come together and run amock with an axe until they can find one. Moench's story is pretty good, but Crandall's art is quite poor, which was unfortunate considering how good of an artist he was with EC and just a few years earlier at Warren.

Last up is "The Climbers of the Tower" by Felix Mas (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story). The story surrounds two friends, Druin and Tarran, who have spent their entire lives climbing a tower. When they approach the top, Druin gets greedy, wanting the glory of being the first to reach the top and loses his life in a confrontation with Tarran. Tarran reaches the top only to realize that he never knew why he wanted to reach the top of the tower, and goes crazy. As I mentioned in my review for Eerie #38, Brennan's stories were usually quite nonscensical and this is definately one of them. A compeltely pointless and piss poor story that wastes Mas's talented artwork.