Eerie 127

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

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

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

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

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

Vampirella 51

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, which is miscredited to Sanjulian.

First is "Rise of the Undead" by Howard Chaykin & Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, credited as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampirella and Pendragon visit a town where each year corpses start plauging the town. It incidently ends up being the night that they are there. It ends up that the corpses have come out due to a curse a man placed on the town. Vampi tries to get the man's descendant to end the curse. While he refuses, eventually things work out okay. This was Chaykin's sole Vampirella story, but his artwork is barely noticable here.

Second is "The Edge of Tomorrow" by Zesar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in a future where the communists have taken away and stripped humans of pretty much all their rights. Children are manufactured in a facility run by humanoid robots. A man and woman try to have a baby the natural way, which is now outlawed. They try to steal a drug that will cease them from being sterilized so they can have a kid, but the robots there simply activate a device implanted in their head that kills them instantly. Years later all humans revolt against the robot government until all of humanity is wiped out.

Third is "Uncle Wiggly's Magic Box" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a kid's book author nicknamed Uncle Wiggly who passes away. At his funeral he comes out of his coffin awake. While he has died, he refuses to be dead and through will alone keeps himself alive. Since he's really dead however he starts to decompose, and is eventually required to spend all his time in bed, dictating his book to his assistant.

Fourth is "Whitechapel" by Auraleon (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). In a town where a jack the ripper style killer is running amok, a man is hired by a woman to find her sister. The man investigates a local doctor, thinking he's a lead, and finds the sister, dead. When he goes to tell this to the woman who hired him however, the dead sister suddenly turns up alive again. Our protagonist eventually finds out that the doctor is bringing dead people back to life, but is forced to kill them since the experiment isn't perfected yet. Our protagonist is killed by the doctor, and brought back to life, hoping for him to be the first successful experiment.

Fifth is "The Castle, the Dungeon and All by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features some knights and magicians battling each other in the woods. One ends up being victorious and continues on, finding a modern looking building. An odd ending, but some extremely good art by Alcazar, channeling Luis Garcia's style here.

Eerie 72

Another Hunter II and Exterminator cover for the latest issue of Eerie, by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Cousin Eerie. After having only a couple of series features in the last issue, this issue is all series.

First is "Daddy Was a Demon Man", carrying the series title "The Demons of Jeremiah Cold". This series would feature a number of different names over the next 6 issues. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Bill Dubay. This story features Jedediah Pan, a demon worshipper who owns two bracelets that can summon demons. His family killed, he swears revenge and takes back one of his bracelets from the mayor of the town, killing him afterwards. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Cold of the title reveals to his son that he is actually Jedediah's son, and he goes to see Jedediah, who lets him keep the other bracelet, apparantely not aware that he's his son.

Next is "Valley of Armageddon", the latest story in the Hunter II serial. Art is by Paul Neary and story is by Budd Lewis. Karas and the Exterminator head towards the mountains where Yaust's castle is. There they find a huge amount of Goblins being fought by other Goblins, making it apparent that the Goblins are not all in Yaust's employ. Karas is severely injured, and the Exterminator finds Yaust himself willing to help him out. This series will be concluded in the next issue.

Third is a new series, Reuben Youngblood, in "Beware the Scarlet Combine" by Howard Chaykin & Berni Wrightson (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Youngblood is a private eye who is hired by a German woman who brings him aboard a zeppelin, where it soon becomes apparent that she is of a group of vampires. Youngblood escapes from the zeppelin and blows it up. The next Youngblood story wouldn't appear for a number of years until near the end of Eerie's life.

Fourth is another new series, The Freaks, in "A Thin Dime of Pain". This is this issue's color story. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Doug Moench. This series had been discussed for years in the feature pages and previews, as early as three years prior to this issue, but didn't make its appearance until now. This first story was probably written around that time, as Doug Moench had left Warren by this point. This story features some mistreated Freaks who get revenge on their master by turning him and his son into one of them.

Fifth is "The Pie and I" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A sequel to the very popular "Daddy and the Pie" from Eerie 64, this story is a rather poor one, featuring the son from the first story, now grown up. He and his family continue to be treated badly, and when he is beat up by the townfolk, the father heads out with a gun and is killed. The son plans to blow up the entire town using the device Pie left behind, but Pie's spirit, contained within the device, convinces him not to.

The issue concludes with yet another new series, Tales of Peter Hypnos, in "The Incredible People-Making Machines" by Jose Bea (story & art). This was Bea's first appearance in Eerie since issue 41 in 1972. A very strange and surreal story, this features Peter, a young boy who finds himself suddenly in a bizarre world which features mutated and deformed people who show him the various devices they use to enlarge people's bodies and heads, and switch human heads with animal heads. They want to use a device on Peter, but he escapes from them and back to the real world.

Creepy 64

For my first issue, I'm going to cover one of my favorite issues, Creepy #64.

This issue came at what was probably the peak of Warren's operations in the 1970's, the summer of 1974. The cover, by Vaughn Bode and Larry Todd featured a rotting man in what appears to be an astronaut's suit. The cover was the basis for the stories contained in the issue, the first of many themed issues for Warren. This issue's also notable for being Archie Goodwin's final issue as editor in his Warren career. This was Goodwin's third stint at Warren as editor, which lasted only for 4 issues of Creepy and 2 issues of Vampirella before he left due to not getting along with Bill Dubay. While he would write some additional stories for Warren later in the 70's and 80's, this was it for him at Warren in terms of being editor.




The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is the sole story in the issue to not feature the rotting man on the cover. Originally, all seven stories in the issue were to feature the rotting man, but the story "Avenger" was unable to be finished in time, which resulted in this story being run in its place. Oddly enough, rather than print "Avenger" in the next issue, Warren waited 8 years to publish it, in Eerie #128 in 1982. "Forgotten Flesh" takes place in a graveyard, where a group of rotting corpses get out of their graves in order to switch grave sites with some more well to do deceased people. Along the way they come across a duo of grave robbers who they mistake as being among them and bury them too, alive.

"Mates" by Esteban Maroto (art), Bill Dubay (color) and Doug Moench (story) is next. The story features an astronaut who heads to a planet that has been rumored to be a sex paradise. When he gets there he fights off countless rotting hulks and finally encounters a city full of beautiful women. After a night full of sex his entire body proceeds to rot away, making him just like one of the creatures he had encountered along the way. A good story with typical great art by Maroto. The story reminds me of the Wally Wood story "Rescued" from Weird Fantasy #6.

Next up is "High Time" by Paul Neary (art) and Steve Skeates (story), about a pilot who's plane is destroyed during battle, leaving him stranded in a radioactive wasteland. As he lies dying, he suddenly finds himself in a paradise like landscape, where he encounters a beautiful woman. The vision soon fades and he meets his demise. While Neary's art is great, this story just did not make much sense to me at all.

Fourth is "Only Losers Win" by Howard Chaykin (art), in his first Warren story, and Rich Margopoulos (story). In the future, Earth is extremely overpopulated, but a race filled with numerous death traps held once a year allows the winner to spend a year in the only sanctuary left on Earth. A man takes a drug that increases his metabolism a hundred fold and wins the race, only to find that the increase in metabolism also severly increased the aging process. An okay story with fine art by Chaykin that fits the story perfectly.

"One Autumn at Arkham" is the next story, and is both drawn and written by Tom Sutton. This would be Tom Sutton's final story for Warren. It features a researcher who learns of a 'power suit' which gives a man immortality. He digs up one of the suit's inventor's, who was buried alive with it, only to find that he's still alive! Having been been buried alive for 20 years however, the man's body has been almost entirely eaten by worms, leaving him a rotting mess. Great story and art by Sutton, its a shame that this was it for him at Warren.

Sixth is "To Sleepy Hollow... Returned" by Larry Summers (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). A photographer comes to the small town where the story of the headless horseman originated. There he starts dating a waitress and is confronted by her bitter former boyrfriend/boss. Riding home one night from a costume part, he encounters the headless horseman himself, who kills him with a flaming pumpkin, burning his face away in the process. A pretty good story and very good art job from Summers, who unfortunately wasn't around at Warren as long as he should have been.


Wrapping up the issue is another colored story, "An Angel Shy of Hell", by Richard Corben (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). It starts Hard John Apple, a bounty hunter hired by "Protstns' in the far future, who goes about the state of Kansas, killing as many 'Catlicks' as he can, including an injured helicopter pilot with a burned face (see image). A terrific story, although probably somewhat offensive with the parodies of various relgious groups. Stenstrum would eventually write three more stories starring Hard John Apple in Eerie in 1977.


Overall, a terrific issue, one of Creepy's bests. Outside of the rather confusing "High Time" no bad stories, and the art is terrific across the board. Unfortunately this would be Creepy's only issue with two color stories.