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.

Vampirella 82

A cover by Jose Gonzalez begins this issue of Vampirella.

Up first is "The Lost Soul of Adam Van Helsing" by Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Adam's soul is taken control of and Vampi has to head through some Buddhist tasks to save him including encounters with various creatures. Eventually she is successful in saving him.

Next is "Blind Justice" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story, which has both drawings and photographs within it (something common for Duranona around this time period) is about a man on trial for the murder of his new wife. They had headed to another planet for their honeymoon and got seperated after an argument. The husband left only to come back to find her impregnated by a bizarre tentacled creature. She ended up killing herself and blowing up the whole place. While the husband tries to hide this, he eventually reveals it, which proves his innocence.

Third is "Prey For the Wolf" by Brian Lewis (art) and Cary Bates (story). The story features a Wolf mask that actually comes to life and attacks people. Lewis, in his sole Warren appearance provides some fairly good art, but not that great a story.

Fourth is "Fever" by Val Mayerik (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a native american warrior with a sick wife about to give birth who heads out to find a magical buffalo that can save her. He eventually does find the buffalo, but too late to save his wife's life.

Next is "Deep Love" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). The story features a mother & daughter mermaid duo who capture human men underwater and eat them. The mother comes across a man who ends up being an alien creature that captures her and kills her.

Last is "The Night Willa Jane Gornley Went Home" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easley (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). In a rather poor issue this story sticks out like a sore thumb. In fact I'd probably rank it among Warren's 25 best stories, and it was honored as best story of the year during the Warren awards. Willa Jane of the title is a handicapped girl who was discovered in an empty shack. She lives a hard life, but is taken in by an elderly couple, Mr. & Mrs. Gornley. After learning how to read she becomes convinced that she is an alien and goes to the hills where UFOs have been spotted each night hoping for the aliens to come take her away. After Mrs. Gornley's death and learning that she's going to an institution, she heads out for one last time and a UFO actually does appear and land. A skull-faced alien comes out to take her away. In reality, its all in her mind, as she's passed away.

Creepy 116

This issue of Creepy was the final one edited by Louise Jones before she left Warren. The bizarre cover is by Terrance Lindall, part of which is reprinted on the table of contents page. The cover has the header "The End of Man!" on the top, although aside from the first story, it does not appear to be a theme of this issue (although all stories here have a sci-fi theme to them).

Up first is "Endangered Species" by Fred Carillo (art, miscredited to Corillo) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This doesn't really look like Carillo's usual art, but then I can't identify it as being anyone else's art, so perhaps it is him after all. Anyway, this story features an outbreak of disease infested creatures at a lab and the woman sent out to destroy them. At the same time, a group of aliens that have targetted humans to be used as clothings arrive and kill a number of people. The disease from the dead humans spreads to the alien races who use them as clothing, and as a result, in an ironic twist, result in saving humanity from being completely wiped out as humans are no longer desirable to them.

Second is "The Highway" by Val Mayerik & Rudy Nebres (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). The story features a futuristic highway and a family that heads across it for vacation. Along the way they figure out that they're going to the wrong place and the stubborn father tries to sidestep the rules imposed on the highway, resulting in them getting stuck there permanently.

Third is "Day of the Locust" by Masanabu Sato (art) and Jordan Black (story). Not too good a story here, featuring robotic humanoids fighting dinosaur like creatures over 6 pages.

Fourth is "Greatest Editor Alive" by Delando & Alex Nino (art, credited as The Nino brothers), and Bill Dubay (story, credited under his pseudonym, Will Richardson). The story features a horror comics editor who has been captured by aliens, but doesn't know it because they keep him brainwashed.

Last is "Graduation Day" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easley (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story features spacemen undergoing a simulation, unknown to one of them, who goes crazy, thinking that there is an alien city nearby. In the end it ends up that he was right after all, that aliens are nearby.

Overall not that good an issue. Nothing outstanding is here.

Vampirella 77

Here's another issue of Vampirella featuring Barbara Leigh on the cover. This issue's Vampi story, "Shadow of the Dragon" is by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This is a rare actionless Vampi story, in which Vampi is barely even featured at all. Our entire group of heroes are in Hong Kong, where some mysterious murders have taken place. While Vampi and Pantha are touring the city, and Pendragon is getting in trouble at a local bar, Adam and Conrad are told of mysterious murders taking place in the city, and how they may be tied into legends of Dragons and events that happen in the year of the Dragon. That's about it from this entry, which continues into the next issue.

First backup for this story is "The Night of the Yeti" by Russ Heath (art) and Michael Fleischer (story). A man falls off a cliff while hiking in the himalyas while his wife and colleague watch. The man survives the fall, but is forced to hike for days to get back to civilization. Along the way he confronts a bear in a cave and has his throat slashed and his winter clothes destroyed. He wears the bear's pelt, making him look like a yeti. He eventually finds his wife and colleague, who desires her, and she is accidently killed when he is shot at. The shots cause an avalanche, burying his collegue. Our protagonist continues the wander the himalayas, becoming the yet if legend. Very good art by Heath, as usual.

Third story is "The Night the Birds Fell" by Moreno Casares (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Casares was a very good Spanish artist whose style was nothing like that of the other Spanish artists who worked at Warren. This story features an air traffic controller terrified of birds who goes on a rampage at an airport, resulting in planes crashing into each other, causing a horrific disaster at the airport.

Fourth is "Siren of the Seekonk" by Auraleon (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A man falls in love with a water woman he finds by a bridge. With his life crumbling around him, the man decides to kill his ex-wife and feed her flesh to the water woman. Upon finding that she already has a mate, he loses it and jumps off the bridge, trying to join them.

Next is "Weird Wolf", with art by Jeff Easley (a rare solo appearance by him, he usually is paired with Val Mayerik) and story by Gerry Boudreau. This short story, at only 3 pages, features a civilized werewolf who is pursued by the sheriff of a small town. The sheriff is able to take out the werewolf by tricking him into using a gun that fires backwards, killing him while not causing the sheriff to turn into a werewolf himself when killing him.

Last is "Futura House is Not a Home" by Isidro Mones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Mones was a terrific artist during his original run with Warren from 1973-1976. After a couple of year absense from Warren he returned for a little while, but his art had declined tremendously. This is one of those stories. Its unfortunate, as he was quite a good artist, with a very realistic style during his original run. Anyway, this story features a family testing a new futuristic home. It ends up that the computer running the house has been creating robot clones of the family member in a plot by the president to replace the entire populace with easy to manipulate robots.

Overall, a slightly above average issue. No particularly great stories (although Thomas's is quite a good one), but at the same time no lousy ones.