Scream #8

Salvador Faba provides the cover for this issue of Scream, cover dated August 1974. After two reprint dominated issues its great to be back to one that is all new stories.

We kick off with an Edgar Allen Poe adaption, "The Tell-Tale Heart" with adaption by Al Hewetson and art by Ricardo Villamonte. One of Poe's most famous stories, and this adaption is a rather faithful one. Our protagonist obsesses over the eye of the old man that is his employer. One night he spies on the old man while he lays awake in bed, then when the old man notices him rushes at him, causing the old man to have a heart attack and die. Our protagonist cuts up the old man's body and hides it in the floor boards. The next morning the police arrive, having heard our protagonist's scream the night before. He lets them around, growing more and more nervous as a beating sound starts occurring. Eventually this drives our protagonist crazy enough to tear open the floor boards, revealing the body beneath. Poe's story is a good one; although I was a little off put by how over the top and goofy at times Villamonte's art is.

"My Prison in Hell"

Next is the Nosferatu series, with "My Prison in Hell" by Al Hewetson (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). Nosferatu asks for another of his guests to tell his tale, the pig-masked Anton Dubchek, who was commander of a Siberian prison camp. Dubchek is quite tough on his prisoners, for example throwing a prisoner down a pit for calling him a pig. The food served is slop, even for the guards, with the pigs eating better than the humans. Dubchek justifies his horrible treatment of prisoner by claiming they are criminals, lunatics and madmen. One of his prisoners, Zametov comes to him, claiming that a revolt is being planned and some of his guards are traitors. Zametov claims they are having a secret meeting and he can lead him to them, but when they arrive Dubchek realizes it is a trap and he is bound up and fed to the pigs. Back in the present, Dubchek takes off his mask and hood, revealing himself to be just a skeleton. While I continue to love the atmosphere this series brings and Lopez's amazing artwork, we are really getting to a point where the stories are very formulaic. This story has quite a similar ending to a previous story in the series where the protagonist reveals rats ate his body. It may be time to consider putting this series out to pasture. Also, speaking of the art, many panels in this story remind me of art from Fernando Fernandez stories for Vampirella, such as "The Truth". I'm wondering if Lopez either swiped them or they were taken from the same photo reference. Beyond that, Lopez's art also looks a bit more rushed than usual.

"The Slither Slime Man Rises Again"

Third is "The Slither Slime Man Rises Again" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Cardona (art). The titular character, who was called Elias Mund when alive, rises from his grave once more. The narrative turns back to October 1953 in Savannah Georgia. We focus on the solitary life of Elias, still alive at this point, who lives alone in his home, acting as the town undertaker. We are told that Elias is disliked, taunted and shunned by the locals. On the night of Halloween, the hard of hearing Elias doesn't realize some trick or treators are at his door. They decide to play a trick on him, breaking into his home while in their costumes, of a vampire, werewolf and rotting corpse respectively. Elias meanwhile is reading about the supernatural and when they come in believe them to be the real thing. He kills them, only to then realize they are children. Distraught, Elias kills himself. He and the children are buried and ever since he periodically rises from the grave thinking he's got to cleanse the world. This is an origin story of sorts, featuring a character that appeared all the way back in Psycho #9. I'm wondering why we return to him now and if this is Hewetson starting up a series for what appeared to be a one-shot only character in his original appearance. We did see a character who looked a lot like him in a story in Nightmare #18, although he was just acting as a host in said story and called himself by another name.

"I... Am Torment"

Fourth is "The Mechanical Cannibals" by Rich Buckler (story) and Rich Buckler/Chic Stone (art). Stone is uncredited. This story is adapted from the story "From Fanaticism or for Reward" by Harry Harrison. We start the story with our protagonist, Jagen, acting as a sniper and killing a man. He then jumps through a door shaped portal that seems to bring him to another time and destroys any evidence he is carrying. Appearing to be on some mission, he transports to another place and after using another portal finds himself being barely able to breathe until another man brings him a respirator. He is told to ignore his instructions and follows the man, entering a hotel room where masked men pay him for the assassination job he performed. When they try to kill him, Jagen kills one of them and knocks out the other, fleeing. We then have what appears to be a time jump. A humanoid robot is ordered to go after Jagen, who has retired to a backwater planet where he enjoys hunting. The robot arrives and disarms Jagen, but rather than killing him, it shaves his head, scans his brain to learn who gave him orders, then departs. This story is quite an outlier to both the writing and art style we currently are seeing from Skywald, and from doing some research it appears that this story was originally intended for an aborted Skywald sci-fi magazine (from which other stories we've seen in the past were also intended for). I'm surprised they held on to it so long before publishing as I recall any other stories intended for that magazine appearing long ago. Perhaps at this point Skywald, who just had to do 2 nearly all reprint issues, is in a similar spot to what Warren was in at the end where it was publishing old inventory stories of low quality.

Fifth is the latest in the Saga of the Victims series, "I... Am Torment" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). We continue right where we left off, with a pterodactyl swooping down and grabbing our heroines, Josey and Anne. Suddenly another pterodactyl appears and battles it, grabbing a hold of Josey and Anne once it kills its foe. It brings the two of them to a nest to feed its young, but we quickly realize it is on top of a volcano, which blows! Somehow the nest is able to carry our heroines away while the pterodactyls are killed, but it eventually sets on fire until they make it to the open sea. After sleeping, our heroines wake up right before a pirate ship! They are soon found by the captain and crew, all of whom are corpses, and force them to walk the plank. Suddenly a giant whirlpool forms, enveloping the ship and both Josey and Anne fall off into the water, about to be sucked down, until a giant tentacle grabs them! It is here where the story ends. This series continues to be totally bonkers, really putting our two heroines through the ringer. This particularly segment was a bit less interesting to me than the prior two, with the first half of the story in particular being a bit too light on story in order to give us a recap of prior events and the experience with the pterodactyls.

Psycho #13

Today I'm covering Psycho issue 13, cover dated July 1973 and painted by Vicente Segrelles. The cover features the story "The 13 Dead Things", yet that story doesn't appear within! It will appear a couple of issues later in Psycho 15. Is it worth the wait? You'll have to wait until then to find out...

This issue's frontispiece is "Prologue to Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art).

First up is "The Day That Satan Died" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). On a small plane traveling towards Calcutta, captain Jack Boivon goes back to speak to his passengers, the large Bob, photographer Herbert and a young woman named Patti who is quickly revealed to be a radical communist and hijacks the plane. When Jack's co-pilot refuses to purposely crash the plane like she demands, she shoots him in the head and the plane promptly crashes into a mountain. Amazingly enough, all four survive. Patti reveals that she made a deal with Satan for her youth and beauty to last hundreds of years in exchange for her soul, but she's running low on time until the deal is up and needs someone else to give up their soul to retain it. She figures her fellow passengers have no choice but to agree to it or freeze to death. But this soon blows up in her face as Bob reveals he's the abominable snowman, Herbert reveals he's a vampire, and Jack reveals he's Satan himself! Patti's body immediately rots away, but Bob and Herbert, angry at having to live as monsters promptly stomp and tear Satan to shreds! I love this story, in fact may consider it my favorite Skywald story so far. Its the perfect representation of Skywald's drastically different style from Warren, where Hewetson is willing to go so over the top, enough so that one doesn't mind at all that the ending is spoiled by the title. Dela Rosa's characters often come off as quite ugly looking but that is in service to a story filled with monsters and villains like this one. The character Herbert makes a reference to working for Pilote magazine, a real magazine based out of France which would feature work from Selecciones Illustrada artists like Luis Garcia.

"The Day That Satan Died"

Second is "Monster, Monster, in the Grave!" by Augustine "Funnell (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). This story is a sequel to "Monster Monster on the Wall!" from Nightmare #12. Our protagonist, a bullied boy who is now grown up, and a werewolf, has killed a few bullies that had attacked him. He next returns to one of his childhood homes where a couple of more men wait. He breaks through and slaughters them. Afterwards he flees, running into the woods and finds a pistol, which he loads with a bullet and shoots himself in the head! I did not expect that ending at all! I figure that's got to spell the end to this series, right?

Third is "Let's All Drink to the Death of a Clown" by Doug Moench (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). A man, Mr. Cade, is pursued by a knife wielding... clown! Flashbacks reveal Cade, owner of a circus, pursuing one of his employees, a young woman named Beth, who is engaged to the clown, Bob. Bob punches out Cade when he continues to go after her, but thinks he and Beth have a secure spot in the circus and Cade won't get rid of them. Cade eventually does kill Bob, then fires all the other clowns in the circus as well. As we return to the present, he continues to flee, pursued by the killer clown, and is eventually confronted by many of them and is stabbed to death... or is he? We find as the story ends that it was actually a novelty knife, so I'm assuming he died of fright? Clowns were always scary to me as a kid, so they fit being used in a horror story such as this.

A werewolf... killing himself?

Fourth is The Heap in "When Dies a Lunatic... Dies a Heap" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). The Heap continues to go on a rampage in the subway, as we had seen at the conclusion of the previous story including killing a little girl. The Heap wanders off but is shot with some serum-infused shotgun shells which cause him to weaken and he is captured and transported via airplane. The Heap is able to break free of his bonds and jumps from the plane, landing coincidentally enough in the farm of his parents! They bring him in and the story concludes with The Heap at a dinner table with the two of them. And that, believe it or not, is the conclusion of The Heap series. Quite the odd and unexpected ending, that is for sure. I've read that Al Hewetson hated The Heap and wanted to get rid of him, which I assume led to these final two stories which were drastically different than those stories that had come before. The Heap was a recurring character that started up before Hewetson had even joined Skywald and didn't really fit the style of the magazines by this point, so I can get him ending it, although I wish he had done so in a manner that fit better with the stories that made up most of the series. The Heap ended up being largely a mindless monster towards the end, which simply wasn't interesting on a long term basis.

Fifth is the two page "A Taste of Human Flesh..." by Ed Fedory (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). Three men are lost at sea and start getting extremely hungry. They soon arrive at an island, only to discover it is full of cannibals! Two of the men are promptly cooked, but the last manages to escape, killing a native on his canoe and paddling away. Soon the hunger returns. When the man is eventually found, he has become a cannibal himself!

Sixth is "The Horror Within and Without" by Rich Buckler/Chuck McNaughton (story) and Mike Kaluta (art). This story was originally intended for the sci-fi magazine that Skywald cancelled, explaining why we're seeing a few collaborators we haven't seen in a Skywald magazine in a while. A man named J-1001011 (I'll just call him J the rest of the way) awakens in space, ordered to take part in an upcoming attack. J communicates with his ship's computer, which is ordering him to attack a city on a nearby planet. J also questions if there's any news of his parents but doesn't receive any response. J takes part of the attack and is able to successfully destroy the city as ordered, killing its inhabitants. When J returns he is told that his parents were killed in his attack! As the story ends his memory is wiped and he returns to sleep. A rather depressing tale, and I kinda knew from early on what the big twist would be.

The conclusion to "The Heap"

Seventh is the two page feature "The Raven" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Jessica Vogel) and Manuel (art). Even Richard Arndt's Horror Comics in Black and White book doesn't fully identify who "Manuel" is and if that's his first name or last name. This brief story features a man who comes across a raven on a tree branch who can speak! The raven asks him to kiss him and that it is a beautiful woman, transformed by a witch. Once he does so, she actually transforms into a beautiful woman, but he reveals he is a vampire and bites her! She has one last twist though, she has rabies, causing him to die from being unable to breathe. Yet another story in this issue that hammers home twist after twist, this was a pretty good, short feature.

Eighth is "The Taste of Carrion" by Ed Fedory (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). At a funeral, a man bemoans the death of his daughter, Greta, and blames some nearby demons for her death, and the death of other children. When another body is found, a mob gathers, convinced that they will find the monster responsible if they check the local mausoleum and castle. Upon going inside the mausoleum they find millions of flies, which are revealed to be the monster. The townsfolk are soon all killed by them. This story didn't make the most sense to me (It is really hard to follow at times) and also drags on a bit too much towards the end.

We wrap up with "Scream Screen Scene: The Mummy" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). This is the start of a recurring feature in Skywald where they show a brief scene from a famous horror movie, but due to copyright don't exactly adapt the scene but rather use a similar one. In this case its the Mummy and features some archaeologists excavating a mummy, which immediately comes alive and attacks them.

Psycho #5

Boris Vallejo provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, covering the interior story "Dreamer Beware!". This issue is cover dated November 1971.

The frontispiece for this issue is "A Psycho Scene" by Bill Everett. This is a pretty good piece of work, showing a humanoid earth-worm monster!

First story is "Let the Dreamer Beware" by Jerry Siegel (story) and Ralph Reese (art). Alex's wife Florence makes his life absolute hell and refuses a divorce. Alex dreams of being in another realm filled with beautiful people. One of them, Dileeth, says she loves him, but he is suddenly whisked back to reality. Dileeth tells Alex he can return by killing his wife, so he poisons her with rat poison. Upon falling asleep he is back in the realm, but now the facade is gone and all the beautiful people are now demons, including Dileeth! Alex wakes and tries his hardest to not fall asleep, even after being arrested and brought to jail for Florence's murder. Eventually he does fall asleep and the demons throw him in acid, which also affects his body in the real world. Not being able to go to sleep is quite a scary thing! Especially since it is so easy to unintentionally fall asleep when tired.

Next is "Power of the Pen" by Doug Moench (story) and Doug Wildley (art). The author Jeff Dennings is working on a new book, having already written a few characters. Having named his lead character after his friend George, Jeff is shocked to find that what he writes actually happens to George in real life! George is sent to the hospital, having been struck by a car and is investigating a drug ring under cover, but Jeff decides to write things such that he forgets about all of this and decides to change the name of his character to someone else to prevent any future events from occurring. He then smashes his typewriter, thinking it is responsible for this. Jeff soon realizes he named a character in another story of his after his friend Sandy. He goes to her apartment, to find hers trapped in a mirror, and gets trapped there himself, much like in his story.

The Heap returns in "Cavern of Doom" by Ross Andru (story) and Ross Andru/Mike Esposito (art). Having been absorbed by quicksand, the Heap finds himself in an underground cavern with some mutated humans. He fights one of them, beating it to death, then is declared their new leader. This enables him to leave the cavern to recruit others to join them. He returns to his friend Monty Elliot's house where Monty tries an experimental antidote on him. Suddenly the police sheriff and one of his men arrive. They chase the Heap back to the caverns, where the mutated humans are waiting to grab them. As the story ends, we find that the antidote at least partially works as the Heap's hands turn back to human!

"The Unholy Satanists"

Next is "The Unholy Satanists" by Al Hewetson (story) and Serg Moren (art). The story begins with the burying of a woman named Lorna. We flashback to her husband being killed in an accident and Lorna moving to the country with her son. She is approached by some women worshiping Satan who get her to join their cult. She is permitted to ask for something, and asks for her husband back from the dead. Yet, similar to the classic story the Monkey's Paw, her husband returns as a rotting corpse! He attacks her and her brother beats the corpse to bits. Lorna is then mistaken for dead and buried alive! A rather confusing ending, but Moren provides some good art at least.

Next is "Out of Chaos... A New Beginning" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Rich Buckler (art). This is the conclusion of the story started up in the previous issue. This story is more confusing nonsense as we have the convergence of two worlds, a giant battle between the forces of Satan and the Procreators of Eternity, and it ends with a baby named Sage becoming God! Total absurdity.

The issue concludes with the latest story in the Frankenstein Book II series, "The Sewer Tomb of Le Suub!" by Tom Sutton (story) and Tom Sutton/Jack Abel (art). Where we last left off, Frankenstein's monster fell down a bell tower in a fight with Quasimodo in Notre Dame cathedral. The monster finds himself in the sewers, where he is brought before Le Suub, a giant octopus-like monster that tries to take over his mind. The monster instead fights against this and is reunited with Lilith by story's end as they find themselves in a dead end. Meanwhile, Henry Frankenstein's head is convinced by Dr. Pretorius to show him how to bring someone back from the life and he does, but the creation runs amok, attacking him with a cleaver. Yet due to being immortal, Henry is still alive, even with a cleaver in his head! This series continues to get more and more ridiculous, which I love!

Things get crazy in this issue's Frankenstein installment

Aside from the horrible Out of Chaos story, this is a fairly strong issue. The Heap and Frankenstein monster serials continue to be a lot of fun. I hadn't realized that Skywald had successfully utilized the serialized storytelling format a few years before Warren would start using it in Eerie. Although the smart thing Warren did was (for the most part) give these continuing storylines endings and not dragging them out; I do wonder if we will get that here with Skywald.

Psycho #4

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

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

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

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

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

The Heap on a rampage!

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

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

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

"Plague of Jewels"

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

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

Nightmare #3

Boris Vallejo handles the cover for this issue of Nightmare, featuring the interior story When the Dawn Gods War, with a cover date of April 1971.

We kick off with "The Inner Man" featuring story and art by Tom Sutton, with assist on the art by Dan Adkins. Sutton goes under the pseudonyms of Sinclair Rich for the story and Sean Todd for the art. Dr. Wroclaw experiments on the soon to be executed prisoner Varga, shrinking his body considerably. Varga is soon mistakenly swallowed by Wroclaw when he downs a pill and ventures his way through his body, eventually reaching his brain. Being insider Wroclaw, Varga is able to control his actions, causing him to slap, then strangle his wife, then murder a man at a pawn shop and run over people in a car. Eventually Wroclaw is decapitated by a closing elevator door and some subconscious monsters kill Varga. A pretty fun way to kick off the issue, especially when Wroclaw starts going on his rampage.

Second is "The Victims" by Gerry Conway (story) and Rich Buckler (art). Two scientists, Frank and Tad work on creating indestructible clones. Frank jealously kills Tad, thinking back to how they first met and his fear of him taking his fiance Susan. He soon kills Susan as well, but then realizes that he has actually killed their clones and they are still alive. An indestructible clone climbs out of a tank and kills Frank.

Third is "Vault of a Vampire", featuring, in his Skywald debut, Al Hewetson for the story and Serg Moren for the art. A vampire stalks ancient Rome, attacking someone in the Arena, and having previously appeared at other crowded events. A trio of men seek to destroy the vampire. During its latest attack, they follow the vampire to the graveyard and the crypt where it makes its home. They wait outside the blocked entrance, thinking they can wait out the vampire. A couple of weeks pass and they break in, finding that the vampire has started devouring its own flesh. They then kill it with swords. I question Hewetson's knowledge of vampires in this story, it should be seeking to drink blood, not consume flesh. If it was supposed to be a ghoul as well, this was never stated earlier.

Wroclaw goes on a rampage in "Inner Man"

Fourth is "When the Dawn Gods War!" by Gardner Fox (story) and Paul Reinman/Mike Esposito (art). The caveman Kroog is surprised to see several flying saucers land. Out from one comes the octopus-like alien Thropoli, who puts a head band around Kroog's head and tells him to help him find a human who has fled to this planet. Kroog is saved by a dinosaur by the hiding human, then later gives a head band above his mate. The hiding human causes lightning to appear, making himself come off as a god to Kroog, then convincing him to create a poison for the Tropoli via some plants. Kroog gives the poison to the Tropoli, who fly off. The hiding human meanwhile is revealed, having used advanced equipment to fool Kroog into thinking he's a god. He decides to call Kroog Adam and his mate Eve. Rather lame ending aside, the rest of this story is pretty good.

Fifth is "A Rottin Deal" by Bruce Jones (story and art), using the pseudonym Philip Roland. A young man named Peter travels with his uncle Felix, seeking an old mine around five days away. As they travel through the desert wasteland, devoid of water, Peter decides to kill his uncle and take his canteen. He travels from oasis to oasis but finds that Felix's corpse is following him, beating him to the water, contaminating it. Peter rushes ahead of the corpse, making it to the next oasis in time to drink some water. However he soon finds that his uncle had leprosy, and having uses his canteen, he now has it too! Jones' story and art here is quite strong, making this the best story of the issue. Jones would later become one of Warren's most prolific, and best writers during the Louise Jones era.

Sixth is the text story "Horror Man" by Art Stampler. Our protagonist is a doctor helping the movie star Tracy Collins, who is convinced he is a werewolf. The two of them go to the doctor's home where Collins runs amok, although remaining human, getting eventually run over accidentally by a mistake. When the police arrive however, Collins has transformed into a dog!

Following the text story is the one page "Nightmare Pin-Up #2", with art by Chic Stone. This features a number of rotting corpses rising from the ground, including one that looks quite a lot like Warren's Uncle Creepy.

"A Rottin Deal"

Our seventh story is "Soul of the Warlock" by Chic Stone (story & art). Erik Mortus is obsessed with summoning the undead, and when his wife comes across what he is doing falls to her death. Mortus drugs various men, trying to summon the sorcerer Esteban Delgado, but each time he does so, his captive's body catches aflame and burns up. He finally succeeds with summoning Delgado after capturing the fortune-teller Lefarge. Delgado is upset at Mortus for disrupting his rest though, and summons a group of corpses to kill him!

The issue concludes with "Beware Small Evils!" by Jack Katz and Frank Giacoia (story and art). In the polluted future of... 1983 (lol), a motorcycle gang, the Spitfires are running amok. Meanwhile a Senator is visiting a scientist who hopes to use the plant culture mutation #320 to restore oxygen to the atmosphere. When the Spitfires arrive at his lab and cause some of the mutation to fall outside, it quickly spreads, consuming the spitfires, growing and multiplying. Using detergent and oil supplied by the senator, the mutations are destroyed, although this leads to any remaining oxygen running out.

The story features an incredibly lame joke at the end where the scientist has the Senator stabbed, claiming politicians are full of hot air.

Psycho #2

Upon opening this magazine I'm surprised to realize that its all new material, and we have already finished the reprint era. A good start! Hector Varella provides the cover for this issue cover dated March 1971.

The issue kicks off with "The Heap", the first appearance of a character who would be one of the longest running in the Skywald magazines and was also featured on the cover. This story is written by Chuck McNaughton and drawn by Ross Andru/Mike Esposito. Jim Roberts is living a wonderful life as a crop duster, about to get married to his fiance Audrey. However while piloting his plane one of the cables doesn't work causing him to crash in a forest where nerve gas is being used. The combination of the fire and gas transforms Jim into the horrifying The Heap. The Heap makes his way through a road and a graveyard, eventually coming across his own funeral where he realizes his friend Ryan set him up, selling him and his fiance a life insurance policy then screwing around with the cables in his plane so Jim would die and he can be with Audrey, collecting the insurance money. The Heap goes on a rampage against Ryan, Audrey and his underlings. As the story ends, The Heap wonders if his friend Monty Elliot may be able to find a cure for him.

Second is "To Laugh Perchance to Live" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Rich Buckler (art). Steve Weston, a man living in Manhattan suddenly finds himself transported to another world. Once there a large group of monsters call for him and start fighting each other over him, claiming they want to bring him to his throne. We see several pages of very bizarre monsters fighting each other and eventually Steve is brought to the throne, which has images in his likeness. He agrees to become their ruler and starts laughing, and we see him back in the real world, laughing maniacally. Was Steve crazy the entire time? Perhaps. In any case I enjoyed this story quite a lot with all the weird monsters in it fighting each other over him.

Third is "Death's Stranger" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Tom Palmer (art). Arthur Ashe has come up with a formula that will allow man to live forever. His scientific colleagues want him to destroy it, but he instead kills all of them, then uses the formula. However, the ghosts of his slain colleagues appear to torment him. Many years go by. Arthur enjoys eternal life at first but eventually comes war and he finds himself the last remaining human. The years continue, Earth reverts to prehistoric times including roaming dinosaurs. Arthur eventually decides to accept death and the ghosts of his slain colleagues bring him into a grave they have dug for him.

Next is the one page "Psycho's Gruesome Gallery: The Vampire" a one page feature drawn by Steve Hickman.

The Heap!

Next is "Revolution" by Rick Margopoulos (story) and Tom Sutton/Dan Adkins (art). Sutton is credited here as Sean Todd. Wary of the wrath of James Warren, who was viciously opposed to any of his artists working for the opposition, we will see several American Warren artists do stories for Skywald under pseudonyms. We'll see that also for this story's writer, Rich Margopoulos, who goes as "Rick Poulos" here, although Margopoulos would not become a mainstay at Warren like Sutton had been for a little while longer. On the Planet Sade slaves are constantly forced to fight in "games", battles in a coliseum against giant monsters. The King, upon hearing of a possible rebellion instead, desires more slaves to fight in more games to quell the populace. So the games become more and more severe, leading to a revolt by the citizenry, who also release all the monsters. The King and his men are forced to flee the planet on a spaceship, landing on another one where carnivorous plants soon attack them. The men flee towards what appears to be a city sitting atop a lake. The king tosses away all his underlings and his own daughter to save his own hide, only to realize that the lake itself is a blob-like entity that consumes him. Adkins' work is barely noticeable on this story, making it look like a Sutton solo story.

Our next story is "The Quest!" by Rich Margopoulos (story) and Chic Stone (art). A man comes across an old man in the park who gives him a painting of a girl tied to a pole as a three headed monster approaches her. That night he looks at it and is suddenly summoned to another world. The same old man says he has summoned him here to rescue his daughter from the vile king Moloch. So begins a lengthy quest where the two of them make it to Moloch's castle, but our protagonist is killed by the three headed beast. The old man returns to the park with his painting, hoping to find someone else. Sword and sorcery tales were never a favorite of mine in Warren and its the same here in Skywald, one of the weaker stories of the issue.

Next is "Dream Planet", written by Phil Seuling and drawn by Serg Moren. A spaceship approaches a planet and its crew has some very weird dreams. One man dreams of being on the planet and being enveloped by a blob-like creature. Another dreams of being attacked by leaves, ferns and fungus. A third dreams of being seized by a giant caterpillar, spun up in a web and has eggs hatch out of him and eat him. The scientists on board the ship believe these are visions that are being used as a defense of the inhabitants of the planet. They believe the inhabitants are physically quite weak. So the ship lands on the planet. The rather confusing last page implies that the monsters on the planet were real after all. At least that's my interpretation of it.

Monsters from To Laugh Perchance to Live

The issue concludes with the rather weak "Valley of Blood" by Chuch McNaughton (story) and Jack Katz/Frank Giacoia (art). A couple, Bart and Valerie head to a mysterious temple in the Himalayas. On the way they are warned by a man, Dargos, about a vampire castle and find a dead vampire skeleton in the ruins of the temple. After getting into a car accident, Valerie is found to need a blood transfusion and gets one from Dargos. The two of them then disappear. Suddenly vampire attacks from a pair of vampires start occurring. Bart eventually comes across the vampire woman, staking her and Valerie turns back to human, dying. Dargos then appears and attacks him.

Creepy 75

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated November 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. An amazing issue, one of Creepy's best single issues ever.

First is "The Escape Chronicle" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a 1984-esque future. A man, Bernard, meets Charlie, a man who is completely unlike anyone else, refusing to act in the way that society demands. Charlie convinces Bernard to come to his side and they plot to escape using a hot air balloon. The day it finally happens however Bernard is pursued by law enforcement and falls off the balloon just as Charlie is escaping. A fairly good story, that was included in the Warren Companion's top 25 list. A sequel was made in issue 80 that wrapped things up on a happier note.

Second is "Phantom of Pleasure Island" by Alex Toth (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is a murder mystery taking place in an amusement park where a mysterious sniper has killed multiple people. One of the suspect 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.

Third is "Snow" by Rich Buckler & Wally Wood (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story takes place in the ruins of a wintery city. A man meets a boy in an abandoned building whose parents are dead. They are attacked by a man who wants to eat them, but they kill him instead, then plan to use him for food.

Fourth is "Death Expression" by John Severin (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A man in a prison tells a story of a revolution he was part of in South America. His cause was helped by a major who suddenly arrived and took charge, quickly bringing their group to power. Once in power, executions of people continue for weeks and months and a mysterious council appears. When our protagonist refuses to murder the former dictator, the Major plans to have him killed. This results in a struggle between our protagonist and him where he pulls of the Major's mask, revealing that he is an alien cochroach! The aliens started the revolution and are plotting to take over the entire world. Back in the prison, our protagonist thinks one of the guard is an alien as well and attacks him, falling to his death.

The issue concludes with "Thrillkill" by Neal Adams (art, his final Warren appearance) and Jim Stenstrum (story). A truly great story, and arguably the most famous Warren story of all time, being ranked #1 overall as best Warren story in the Warren Companion. A young man with a sniper rifle shoots random people from the top of a building and is eventually killed by the police. While the artwork shows these events taking place a priest who knew the young man as a boy talks to a reporter, trying to explain why this happened.

Creepy 36

An early issue of Creepy featuring a terrific cover by Kenneth Smith. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Body Snatchers Who Stole A Giant!" by Tom Sutton.

First is "One Way to Break the Boredom" by Jack Sparling (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). A rich man is bored with his life, and when the devil arrives he gives him his soul in order to become a vampire, a life that he plans to be very exciting. It is exciting for a while, he travels from place to place, kills many people, and always survives the execution whenever he is captured. Eventually however he arrives at an old city in the country with an old custom for executions, shooting with wooden arrows, something which kills him for real.

Next is "Weird World" by Tom Sutton (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). An astronaut arrives at a bizarre planet where he meets a beautiful woman, but also a talking frog and her father, a bizarre looking alien creature. He soon finds out that the planet is a mental asylum for crazy aliens. He heads into his ship to take off from the planet, but once he goes inside he becomes insane for real.

Third is "Frankenstein is a Clown" by Carlos Garzon (art) and Bill Warren (story). A famous clown later in his career becomes well known as an actor playing a friendly monster on TV. Unfortunately for him he perishes in a car crash. A mad scientist brings him back as a real Frankenstein monster. He heads to a memorial for himself, but realizing how dangerous he is, he decides instead to kill himself for good by jumping out of a window.

Fourth is "On the Wings of a Bird" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and T. Casey Brennan. As good as Grandenetti's art is it can't save this absolutely horrific story which was startling enough awarded by Warren as the best story of the year! A man, Ahzid, is trapped in a desert prison with a talking statue. He dreams of the day that he'll be able to escape due to a bird that sits there, but never takes off. He has a dream of actually leaving on the bird, but when he wakes up he finds that the bird has already left and that he's trapped here due to sleeping in. This story would have a sequel in issue 42.

Fifth is "Forbidden Journey" by Rich Buckler (art, his Warren debut) and Greg Theakston (story). This story tells of four astronauts heading to a world with a natural resource, 'thurium' that will make them rich. One of the astronauts kills the three others, but when he arrives at the planet he finds it is nothing more than a waste dump and his ship falls into quicksand, trapping him there.

Sixth is "If A Body Meets a Body" by Jack Sparling (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A man is in a car crash with his friend. He awakens and heads home only to find his wife crying over his death. His friend arrives and tells him that they're both dead and they should head to the spirit world. At the urging of his friend the man jumps off a cliff. It ends up all being a trick however as the friend and wife are together, and he falls to his death. Only it ends up that the friend truly is dead, something he and the wife soon discover.

Last is "Frozen Beauty" by Richard Corben (story & art). This was Corben's Warren debut. A hideous queen, Maleva, summons Darman, a sorceror, offering him gold in exchange for making her look like her beautiful niece. They head to a cave in the icy mountain where he casts a spell such that Maleva will have her niece's exact appearance. Her niece is left frozen there in the cave so she'll always look the same. Instead of paying the sorceror however, Maleva has him stabbed and left in the cave. Maleva doesn't get to enjoy her beauty for that long, as Darman, still left alive due to the cold starts eating the corpse of Maleva's niece, resulting in her body being torn to shreds. A very nice debut for Corben.

Creepy 38

Ken Kelly's cover of an axe wielding maniac starts off this issue. It was Kelly's first cover for Creepy. Clif Jackson provides the frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Killer Plants!"

First story is "Wooden Cross!" by Rich Buckler (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young man is called to a town by his uncle only to find him dead of a 'plague' when he gets there. It ends up that the plague is actually a vampire. The young man suspects the vampire is the head of the town, but it ends up being the son of the town doctor who he manages to kill with a cross after being made a vampire himself. Buckler's art appears very heavily influenced by Angelo Torres in this story.

Next is "The Vengeance of the Hanged!" by Syd Shores (art) and Chris Fellner (story). A corrupt judge sentences innocent people to die by hanging, doing so for some just to show his power to an enemy lawyer. One night he has a dream of being pursued by the corpses of the innocent people he's had hanged over the years. During the dream he is hung by them. He is found dead of a heart attack the next day, with rope burns appearing on his neck.

Next is "Sticks and Stones to Break Their Bones" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Stu Schwartzburg (story). A man finds many ancient carvings of people with modern weapons. This causes him to go to the military, telling them that ancient civilizations must have reached modern levels only to be wiped out, forcing civilization to start over. The military doensn't believe him, choosing to focus on their latest weapon... a primitive catapult. Not much of a sensical ending here.

Fourth is "The Way Home!" by Mike Royer (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). A disoriented man talks to manequins, sits in a bar occupied by skeletons, and has dreams of going home to see his mother, who is with another boy, and kills her. He sees a black haired woman in a trenchcoat who says she'll bring him home... which ends up being a cemetary.

Royer provides the art again for the following story, "Sleepwalker!", with writing by Gerry Conway. A young woman beliees herself to be a vampire and attends therapy to cure herself of it, which she believes is successful. The killings continue however. She soon realizes that her husband is the true culprit, who had it blamed on her. Not only that, but he's a ghoul, who makes her his next victim.

Sixth is "Secret of the Haunted Room!" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Warren (story). A young man is given a house as part of his inheritance, under the condition that he live there for the rest of his days. The house is haunted however, and he soon meets a young woman inside who claims to be from 1910, not the present year, 1970. It ends up that she's a vampire, and makes him her next victim. This story is enhanced by inclusion of some real life shots, a shot of the cover, and some extra detailed drawings from Colon.

The story concludes with "The Cosmic All" by Wally Wood (story & art). Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. 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.

Eerie 29

Ken Kelly provides this issue's cover, his first for Eerie. A so-so issue; the stories for the most part aren't particularly great, and one artist gets three stories in this issue alone, which takes away some of the variety.

First story is "Loophole". Art is provided by Jack Sparling, his first of three stories this issue. The story is by Nicola Cuti. This story is about a group of time travelers who go throughout time killing people, which of course eventually results in them vanishing after doing away with their ancestors.

Second is "The Fiend Planet" by Dan Adkins (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). Astronauts head through space for a hundred years to reach a colony planet, but when they reach it they find bizarre creatures and many end up getting killed. It later becomes apparant that the creatures are actually humans who came to Earth long before due to advanced technology, changed in appearance due to adapting on the planet.

Third is "The Bloodstaff" by Rich Buckler (story & art). A warrior uses a weapon provided to him by his dying father, the Bloodstaff to fight a woman in the woods who is killing people to feed a vampiric plant. He soon discovers that she didn't kill his allies through, his bloodstaff did. He soon dies himself, appearing in an impish form to those around him.

Fourth is "Gallery of Horror" by Carlos Garzon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). A writer buys a haunted house hoping to draw inspiration from it. He finds horrific paintings inside which were actually the inspiration for classic stories by Poe and other authors. The house is clearly haunted however, and even a dog he obtains ends up dead. He destroys all the paintings, thinking they are responsible, but it is actually a giant spider living on his ceiling that is responsible for the horror within.

Next is "The Vorpal Sword" by Tom Sutton (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A young warrior is given the 'Vorpal Sword' by a wizard and heads off to save the wizard's daughter. He rides a giant slug as he heads through the medieval landscape. It soon becomes apparant that the sword transforms to a beautiful woman, Nina whenever he says her name. When he finally faces his enemy, she saves him by using a dagger... which ends up being their son! A fun ending to this story.

Sixth is "Strange Gateway" by Jack Sparling (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story is about a poor man who buys a mirror for his wife which ends up being a gateway to another dimension; a paradise as long as the person who comes there has a good heart. The man and his wife head there to live the rest of their life. Quite an optimistic ending for a Warren story!

The issue concludes with "Snow Job!" by Jack Sparling (art) and Doug Moench (story, his Warren debut). A group of men head to the snowy mountains where it is rumored the abominable snowman lurks. As they soon discover however, its not a snowman, but rather werewolves that are occupying the mountain.

Eerie 53

A very good all series issue of Eerie. The cover features the Mummy, by Sanjulian. The frontis for this issue is a two page feature, "Wart Monster of Tennessee" by Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler (art) and Doug Moench (story).

Up first is this issue's segment of The Mummy Walks, "Enter Mr. Hyde" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Jerome Curry, in the body of the mummy continues to pursue the woman who holds the amulet that can return him to his human form. During this story he encounters Mr. Hyde, a beast like man who has transformed from a normal human. The mummy defeats him and continues on his way.

Next is "To Save a Witch's Soul", part of the Curse of the Werewolf series, with art by Martin Salvador (art) and Al Milgrom (story). With his memories restored, Arthur Lemming realizes that he was at fault for his wife going astray and decides to save her from being burned at the stake. Although he's initially locked up, he breaks out and rescues her from execution, and the executioner, the supernatural expert from 2 segments earlier. He brings her to the woods, only to turn into the werewolf once more and kill her! This, Milgrom's last contribution to the series would have been a good ending, but alas the series would continue in a new direction for a while after this.

The second part of "Hunter" is third, by Paul Neary (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story tells the origin of Hunter. In the year 2001 (ha! years back for us now, but over 25 years in the future at the time this issue was published) nuclear war resulted in mutating much of humanity into demons. One such demon, General Ophal raped a human woman, producing the offspring Demien, aka our hero Hunter. After her death from Pox he joins a group of human soldiers and is trained on fighting demons.

A new series starts up next, Schreck. The first segment is titled "First Night of Terror!" by Vicente Alcazar & Neal Adams (art) and Doug Moench (story). Schreck is influenced heavily on the Omega Man (recently redone as I Am Legend). In the future, nuclear testing by the Chinese on the moon has caused a chain reaction that causes most humans on Earth to become white-eyes zombies. This story surrounds the title character, Derek Schreck, who flashes back to how everything came to be while fighting off the zombies. By the end of the story his wife Paula has cut off his hand with a cleaver and become a zombie along with his friend Lee. A pretty good start, although this was the only story in the series that Adams contributed to.

Last is "Spawn of the Dead Thing". This story carries the series title "Fathom Haunt" although this ends up being a stand alone story. A rather surreal and incomprehensible story about the title character, who fights the 'Dread Thing' and its Spawn. Terrific art by Sutton in one of his last Eerie appearances.

Eerie 49

A pretty good cover from Enrich here, in a rare non-Vampi cover by him. It features our first story, "Marvin the Dead Thing: One is the Lonliest Number" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Allen Milgrom (story). This story is a parody of the swamp thing, featuring an ignored man who kills himself by jumping in the river, but he comes back to life as a horrific monster. He returns to work, scaring a bunch of people, and eventually befriends a girl who is killed when people try to kill him. He throws her in the river and she becomes a swamp monster just like him! Very funny story.

Up next is "The Death of a Friend!", second part of the series "The Mummy Walks", by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story takes place in Boston, where Jerome Curry (who appeared at the end of the prior story) occupies a mummy using the amulet he found an dkills a couple. His girlfriend's brother is a witness to the murder, but by the end of the story, the mummy walks again and claims him as another victim.

Third is "Midnight Prey" by Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler (art) and Al Milgrom (story), part two of the Curse of the Werewolf serial. In this segment, Arthur Lemming returns to his human self, not knowing that in his werewolf form he had killed his own daughter. He confronts the man his wife has been sleeping with during a meeting, and the man, lying, accuses Lemming's wife of being a witch, which is promptly believed by everyone after Arthur transforms back into a werewolf and attacks them. By the end of the story Lemming has killed his wife's lover, but the questions surrounding his wife still linger on. Another very good story, although it would be the last drawn by Dubay & Buckler. The back cover of this issue mistakenly says that Lemming's wife is dead, which is not true at this point in the storyline.

Next is "Over Population!" by Paul Neary (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), which has the series title 'Alien Nation' (although this was the only story of this series, so it appears to have been cancelled). This is a rather dull story to me, in fact I've feel asleep both times I've read it! It features the government putting into place population control in the future by killing select people. Of course one of the protagonists ends up being chosen as one of the people who has to die. A lot of action here, but not all that memorable a story with me.

Next is "Fear Itself!" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited to Munes) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features an extremely paranoid man who goes so over the edge that he ends up killing his own daughter and her lover when he mistakes them for people stalking him. Really good art by Mones here, who was one of Warren's best artists during his original run with the company.

We wrap up the issue once again with Dax the Warrior by Esteban Maroto. This issue's segment is titled "The Vampire". Dax comes across a large castle and comes across a beautiful woman inside, who as a vampire is accidently killed when she is caught within the shadow of the hilt of Dax's sword (which forms a cross). Her father, also a vampire confronts him over her death and transforms into a creature which Dax fights and eventually beats when he unknowingly lures him outside into the sunlight. Terrific art in this segment, which is one of the two skipped in the Dax compilation in issue 59.

Outside of the Neary/Margopoulos story, a great issue!

Eerie 48

This issue's Wolfman cover is by Sanjulian. For the most part a pretty good cover, except for the werewolf's face, which just doesn't look good to me.

Up first is "The Son of Dracula", credited to Bill Dubay & Rich Buckler for both the story and art. This continues from the last issue's Dracula story, where Dracula was shot by a man with long white hair. This story, told mostly in flashbacks explains about a woman who Dracula met and fell in love with, and who eventually died, but not before giving birth to his son. The end of the story reveals that the white haired man in the present was this son. Unfortunately this is where the series ends, right in the middle of things. It was also odd that after the first two parts where drawn by Tom Sutton, the art was suddenly changed to Dubay and Buckler.

The first part of the series "The Mummy Walks" is next, "...And An End!", with art by Jaime Brocal and story by Steve Skeates. This story is about a man, Michael, who finds an amulet that enables him to occupy the body of a mummy. After an argument with his girlfriend, he occupies the mummy's body and kills both her and his colleague whom she was kissing. Upon returning to his human body, he finds the amulet missing however, and his mummy body is burned, killing him. The epilogue introduces a man, Jerome Curry, who finds the amulet years later, which the remainder of the series is about. This series was a really good one, particularly in the first six parts. The series kind of falls apart in the last three stories for reasons that we'll discuss when I get to those issues.

Third is "Think of Me and I'll Be There" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Unfortunately I can't completely cover this story, as I've only got the first 5 pages of it (the rest are missing in my copy of this issue). From what I have of the story, it surrounds a woman whose lover died in a car crash who is demonstrating telekinetic abilities. Unfortunately that's all I can cover. Luckily there is only one other incomplete story in my Warren collection, so this will only happen once more.

Next is "On A Stalking Moonlit Night!", the first part of the series "Curse of the Werewolf", with story by Al Milgrom and art by Rich Buckler & Bill Dubay. This story features a man, Arthur Lemming, who becomes a werewolf during the full moon. In his human life he argues constantly with her wife and discovers she's having an affair. As the story ends, he becomes a werewolf again, goes on a rampage, and ends up killing his daughter. The artwork isn't that great, but this is a pretty good story. This was a fairly good series for a while although it would eventually fall apart when Steve Skeates took the series over later on.

Fifth is "The Resurrection Man" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is about a man who brings a girl back to life, but she ends up going crazy. His wife tells the story to a reporter who says he's going to make it public, so she kills him, revealing that she was brought back from the dead too.

This issue wraps up with this issue's entry for Dax the Warrior, "The Sacrifice", by Esteban Maroto (story & art). Dax encounters a tribe that sacrifices people to a winged monster. Dax kills the winged monster, but the tribe continues to sacrifice people and he agrees to not tell them of its death since it would damage their religious beliefs.

Overall, quite a good issue. From this point on, Eerie would be heavily focused on continuing series. It is for that reason that (actually starting with issue 46), I'll be covering most issues of Eerie (46 through 138) in order, with the exception of the occasional issue that doesn't have continuing series featured in it (like issue 81's Queen Kong special issue).