Nightmare 1974 Yearbook

Vicente Segrelles provides the cover for this special issue of Nightmare. For the first time since all the way back with Nightmare 2, a Skywald issue is dominated by reprints. Only the first story is new. The reprints are predominantly from early in Skywald's run, and primarily by American artists, making this issue quite a contrast to those around it.

First is "The God of the Dead" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Martin Sauri (art, credited as Bob Martin). While not labeled as such, this story is part of the Dracula series. His castle destroyed, Dracula swears to teach the nearby peasants a lesson by making their daughters vampires and having them kill their parents. Dracula starts biting the neck of various women, turning them into vampires. He is confronted by a man, but has his daughter, whom he has turned into a vampire, kill him. Eventually he is confronted by a boy with a small cross and finds that it is deadly, killing him. It looks like this story will conclude the Dracula series, with a rather predictable ending. The highlight of this story is easily the art; Sauri's style is really similar to that of Esteban Maroto, one of my favorite Warren artists. It will be a blast seeing the remaining Skywald stories he has for that reason.

"The God of the Dead"

Next is "A Rottin Deal" by Bruce Jones (story and art), using the pseudonym Philip Roland. This story was originally from Nightmare #3. 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 reprint story of the issue.

Third story is "Let the Dreamer Beware" by Jerry Siegel (story) and Ralph Reese (art). This story is originally from Psycho #5. 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.

"A Rotttin "Deal"

Next is "Escape" by Dennis Fujitake (story and art) from Psycho #4. 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.

Next is "Whence Stalks the Werewolf" from Nightmare #5 by Len Brown (story) and Carlos Garzon (art). Dr. Allan Bund has found a way to transport is patient's consciousness to the past. Using this ability, he has him go back further in time, including military battles and even a werewolf appearance! His colleague Dr. Tracy wants this to stop and leaves to get the police. However once he has come back, we find the patient has turned into a werewolf for real and goes on a rampage! Garzon provides some good art here, reminding me somewhat of Eugene Colan, but I didn't particularly care for the story, not its predictable ending.

"Hag of the Blood Basket!"

Next is "Power of the Pen" from Psycho #5, 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 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 it and change the name of his character to someone else. 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 herself trapped in a mirror, and gets trapped there himself, much like in his story.

Last is "Hag of the Blood Basket"!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Tom Sutton (art, credited by Sean Todd). This story was originally published in Nightmare #4. The Hag of the title appears visually inspired by the Old Witch, one of the 3 hosts from EC's 1950s horror comics. Sutton was obviously a fan, and would eventually do a story for Warren that was a tribute to Graham Ingels, the artist primarily responsible for drawing her. Anyway, this lengthy story (16 pages!) tells the journey of the Hag of the title as she is initially executed during the french revolution, with her head chopped off in the guillotine. We witness her lengthy journey into hell, the various creatures and monsters she encounters there and her desire to escape, only for the story to end with her headless body being chained up in an insane asylum. This story didn't always make the most sense, but the journey was worth it, and Sutton does a great job with the art work.

Nightmare 1973 Winter Special

Today I cover the Nightmare 1973 Winter Special, which has a cover date of March 1973 and a cover by Ken Kelly.

First is "Die Mummy!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Duran (art). 74 year old Vanessa is an aged movie actress with no roles for her until her manager finds a man named Scott Henders who is doing cheap horror movies who will take her. Vanessa is cast to be a mummy and as the movie films she is fake stabbed then wrapped up in bandages for real. Vanessa suddenly feels young and strong again and starts going on a rampage, killing many of her costars until they are finally able to take her down. Upon removing the bandages from her face they find just a mummified corpse within! I gotta say, I'm not a fan of mummy stories, but this story was considerably better than I expected going in.

Second is "I Left My Heart in the Burial Pit, I Had No Choice" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jose Gual (art). Mobster Romeo Puccino wants to go straight due to his girlfriend Juliet, but instead his mobster colleagues grab a hold of both of them and stab Romeo. Left alone with him, the distraught Julet then stabs herself. From here the story gets considerably confusing as we see both Romeo and Juliet rise on their own multiple times and cut their own heart out, I'm not sure if they were supposed to be literally alive or this was just supposed to be their ghosts. As the story ends their heartless spirits depart. This story is obviously influenced by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with a more modern twist, and Gual's art is good, but the second half of the story is considerably confusing.

Vanessa goes on a rampage in "Die Mummy!"

Third is "Beyond the Walls!" a one page feature from Ed Fedory (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). It tells how in the city of Bruges an ancient stone house was purchased and it had an unnameable stench. Upon breaking down one of the walls, inside was found the skeleton of a winged humanoid creature.

Fourth is "Mephisto's Brand" another one pager from Ed Fedory (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). The Mephisto Brand is a mark found on an accused witch to prove she is doing the devil's work. It could appear in various forms, such as a hand, bat or spider.  We then are shown how those without any such mark are declared to have invisible marks, so they can be killed anyway.

Fifth is "The Horror Tub" by Al Hewetson (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). Harlan Huck is an obsessed collector of the macabre and seeks to purchase a painting from a man named Anders. Anders refuses to sell at any price, so Huck resorts to some ruffians who set Anders' home on fire, steal the painting and then kill him before Huck. Huck awakens that night to find his own home in flames and is confronted by the rotted corpse of Anders. The next day people find a hole where the home used to be. We are shown that in another place Huck and Anders battle each other in a room showing Huck's collection.

Sixth is "The Event in the Night?" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A man named Henry White is in a car accident on a curving cliff road. A man comes out to attend to him and brings him to his nearby home to stay with him, meeting there his beautiful and far younger wife Mary. When Henry later arrives at the convention he was going to, he is told he was gone an entire year! Believing it to be connected to the house he stayed at, he goes there, finding only ashes in its place. He then starts remembering what happened, in particular Mary attacking him, being brought before Satanists in the basement where Mary is about to sacrifice him, then being able to shove her into a fire and escape. Henry suddenly wakes up, and it being revealed to all be a dream. He then again gets in the car accident and things start anew. I never care for the "it was all a dream" ending, which seems to me to just be the writer running out of ideas. Marcos' art in this story reminds me a lot of that of Jose Gonzalez.

"Beware It... Fear It... It Screams!"

Seventh is "Beware It... Fear It... It Screams!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). Anton Werner is a European immigrant living in a town named Amsterdam ranch. He keeps a mysterious pit on his property and angers the locals when Annabel Lee, the most beautiful woman there falls in love with and marries him. Annabel finds Anton to not be a good husband, he has tremendous self pity and starts accusing her of having relationships with the ranch hands. When she falls off her horse and is saved from a snake by one of the ranch hands, Anton thinks she is having an affair, shoots the man in the face and then ties her up and throws her in the pit. He pours honey over her and the horrific creatures in the pit consume her. Annabel still loves Anton however and rises from the pit to return to him, only a skeleton. The next day the ranch hands find the shredded corpse of Anton handing from the rafters with Annabel nowhere to be seen and the pit is filled in. Some pretty good art here from Borrell and a great story title. The panel when Annabel returns to Anton, now just a skeleton is quite effective. At the same time, Anton is an incredibly unlikable protagonist and it is quite absurd that he killed his wife over his own delusions.

Eight is "The Night of the Mutant-Eaters" by Al Hewetson (story) and Dennis Fujitake (art). A group of astronauts land on a planet in order to repair their ship. While the planet is occupied by humans, they are savages and the planet is incredibly overpopulated. One of the astronauts, Lt. Niw becomes enraptured with a young woman named Ula and the two make love to each other. When the ship is repaired and takes off, he takes Ula with him, who is pregnant. He reveals this to the others which makes them incredibly upset. When Ula gives birth, it is to 43 babies and kills her. The crew desire to kill the children in order to survive, but the children rapidly grow, suck up all the oxygen and then eat the crew, eventually dying themselves of starvation. It was good to see another story from Fujitake, who I presume is yet another artist pushed out by the Selecionnes Illustrada artists.

Perry just can't win. From "Whether Man or Scarecrow"

Ninth is another one page feature, "The Last Witch!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). This brief story tells of how in the Mexican town of Qjinaga, a woman is accused as a witch and is burned at the stake.

Tenth is "Whether Man or Scarecrow" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipa Dela Rosa (art). The protagonist of this story is a scarecrow named Perry. One day an old man appears before him, saying he is his fairy godmother and can grant him 3 wishes. His first wish enables Perry to speak. He tells him he can have two wishes, but should make them soon as he is an old man and can die at any minute. Perry uses his second wish to become human. Unfortunately things soon go south for him. He stumbles into an apple cart, meets up with Judy, the daughter of the local farmer who he is in love with, but when her father sees them together he shoots him and accidentally kills Judy as well. Perry is then stomped on by a cow, hit by a car and repeatedly shot while riding a tractor and trying to escape. Perry tries to make his last wish, that this all never happened, but it is too late, the old man already died. As does Perry, whose tractor crashes and he is impaled on some wooden fencing. This story is hilariously over the top with how unlucky Perry gets once becoming human, and is quite entertaining as a result.

Psycho #7

Vicente Segrelles provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated July 1972, featuring the interior story "The Asylum of Frozen Hell".

We kick things off with the one page frontispiece drawn by Pablo Marcos, "Pit and the Pendulum" featuring the pendulum scene from Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name.

This issue's first story is "Kerene" by David Anthony Kraft (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). A man is sacrificed by some priests. Upon being stabbed he finds himself in another realm, perfectly fine, with a beautiful naked woman named Kerene, who says she was his love and his name is Kying. She tells of how he was a hero but the evil Narhlis seeked to usurp his powers. He convinced Kying to attack some forest dwellers and during the battle slain him, claiming Kerene for himself. Now, his worshipers sacrifice people. Kying awakens, back to reality as he is being dragged along by some of the worshipers, but is still alive, knowing that Kerene has kept him alive. Abrupt ending aside, this is a fairly strong start to the issue. Domingo Gomez, making his Skywald debut here provides some strong art. In fact his style reminds me quite a lot of Luis Garcia, who was my favorite of the S.I. artists who worked for Warren. His story includes some highly detailed, realistic panels and others that are looser in nature for the more romantic scenes, much like what Garcia would do.

Next is another story drawn by Domingo Gomez, "Horror Has 1 Thousand Faces!", written by Al Hewetson. The famous actor Lon August is celebrated at a dinner. August is a famed movie actor who has starred in numerous horror movies, wearing various forms of makeup. In his 50 years as an actor, no one has seen his real face. We find out that even August's wife hasn't seen his real face and when she tears it off, reveals a horrific, skull-like face which causes her to have a heart attack. But even this is revealed to be a mask. At the dinner people grab a hold of August, demanding to see what he really looks like. They tear off the bandages he's wearing, revealing that his face is completely blank! My favorite story of the issue, Domingo provides another strong art job. This story seems like a dedication to Lon Chaney, the silent film-era movie star who played numerous monsters (most notably the Phantom of the Opera), often undergoing a lot of make-up to do so. His attire at the dinner is based on that of the titular character in the movie The Invisible Man.

Gomez's art here on "Kerene" reminds me much of Luis Garcia

Third is "The Family Jewels!" by Dennis Fujitake (story & art). Lester is a wealthy hunter, who in the jungles of India saves a woman and her child by shooting a tiger. She leads him to her village, that of the Rapo, a tribe that is supposed to possess prized "family jewels". He meets Tun, Chief of the village and husband to the woman. He says he is indebted to Lester and will reward him with his most prized possession. Lester thinks he will get jewels and as he eats some food, Tun tells him of how his tribe came from the cold north and due to some radioactive particles in the fish they eat only have one child for every ten couples. Upon finishing his meal, Lester is told that he was given Tun's most valuable possession, that he has eaten his son! Lester feels sick (presumably from the radiation) and dies. Quite a big twist to wrap up this story! Fujitake as usual provides a strong story and art.

Fourth is The Heap in "A Spawn of Satan" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). Ross Andru has now also departed from The Heap, with the writing handed over to Hewetson and Marcos now handling the art solo. The Heap takes on some men in the woods, then makes his way to the chemical plant that was responsible for his mutation. When a lightning bolt strikes a vat of chemicals, the Heap is covered in them, but they actually transform him back into his human form of Jim Roberts. Jim returns to see Laurie, but finds that when night arrives he turns back into a more human-looking version of the Heap. After transforming again in public, he decides to head on a ship that is going out to see, living off of rats for weeks until he is found. He is brought before the captain, but then suddenly a giant squid attacks! The Heap fights the squid and is successful in killing him then is washed ashore as the story ends. Some interesting developments here with the Heap's transformation now somewhat inspired by that of a werewolf (although it doesn't require a full moon, just nighttime). I did prefer the Heap's original design though.

Fifth is "The Terrible Tragedy of the Tormented One!" by Marv Wolfman (story) and Pablo Marcos (art, credited to "Elder"). I wonder if crediting of Marcos was a typo, or intentional, given that he has so much content in this issue (3 stories and 2 frontispieces). A woman named Cheryse runs through a dark mansion as an axe wielding monster pursues her. Suddenly a man arrives, seeking to get some peace and quiet. Our protagonist rescues her and the monster flees. Cheryse reveals to him that the maniac was her fiance Paul, who refused to let her leave him and crashed their car into a river. When Paul came out of the river he was transformed into the monster. Paul returns but our protagonist hits him with an axe to the chest. Paul then turns back to human and claims Cheryse has lied. Cheryse is revealed to be a succubus, and tries to suck the life force out of our protagonist, but is slain by him. A pretty decent story with an interesting twist at the end. There is an error on one of the panels on the last page where a word balloon was included but there is no dialogue in it!

More Gomez in "Horror Has a Thousand Faces"

Sixth is "I Am Demona: The Feastings of Prince Yamm" by Gardner Fox (story) and Steve Englehart/Vince Colletta (art, Colletta uncredited). Demona is the daughter of a human man and a witch alien mother as explained in the prologue. She acts as a kind of sorceress superhero. In this story while about to go on a date with her friend Jim Croft, she feels a ghastly aura and heads to a tower where a woman is being sacrificed to the great Yamm. The High Priest there has her seized by skeletons, but she vanishes, then researches things with Jim, finding that if enough sacrifices are made to Yamm, he can stay on the Earth forever. She returns to the tower to battle the high priest and defeat Yamm. I've never been much of a fan of superhero comics and this comes off much like one, even though it has a supernatural element. In most issues this would be the weakest story, but just wait til what we have later!

Seventh is "The Asylum of Frozen Hell" by Al Hewetson (art) and Pablo Marcos (story). This story has an interesting art structure in that you see things from the eyes of the protagonist. I don't know if I've ever seen this style used before in a comic book story. Anyway, you act as a newspaper reporter, who heads to a weather station in the arctic in pursuit of a story, along with a female colleague. Upon arriving you find many dead bodies and then head to a nearby cave. There you find a ranting humanoid alien monster who appears to be blind. He rants on how he was ordered to come here to dump some mutants, but he never got picked up to return. All around him are men that are tied to stakes in the ground. You battle the priest and your woman colleague stabs him in the back. Upon approaching one of the tied up men it is revealed they truly are mutants and were responsible for the dead people at the weather station, with you joining them!

Eighth is "Forewarned" by Jim Pinkoski (story & art). This extremely confusing two page story features an astronaut coming across a strange object in space. He starts drilling into it and hears voices. Then there is an explosion. The final panel shows what I assume to be some sort of craft floating in space, but I can't really tell what is going on with it as its drawn so small. I got no clue what Pinkoski's point was in this story, both the writing and the art make it very tough to figure out what is going on.

The cover story "The Asylum of Frozen Hell"

Ninth is "The Discombobulated Hand" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to "Wood") and Ramon Torrents (art). Another big disappointment, this is a three page story featuring a television reporter advertising the hand of the title, which can be used to hold jewelry, gloves, ties and many other purposes. He and his colleague complain about things after the TV spot is over. Torrents' art is strong as always, but this is another brief story where I don't understand the point at all. Quite a mediocre last couple of stories to finish out the issue.

The issue concludes with a one page pin-up by Pablo Marcos of a hooded skeleton.

Nightmare #7

With this issue of Nightmare, the Spanish invasion for Skywald truly begins as we get the premiere of several artists from Selecciones Illustrada, the Spanish art agency led by Josep Toutain that also became a mainstay at Warren too. The cover for this issue is by Pujolar, who never did an original cover for Warren, but did have a cover of his reprinted for its second to last issue (eventually we would see a Skywald cover for the last issue of Creepy!). This issue is cover dated June 1972, 6 months after the previous issue.

This issue's frontispiece is "The Haunted Strangler", drawn by Pablo Marcos and showing a scene from the movie of the same name, starring Boris Karloff.

The issue kicks off with "The Penitent" by Ed Fedory (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). This story features an old man named Taylor, who is in a cell contained within the side of a mountain. He is visited by a man on a flying dragon named Nekkron, who tells them there is still hope for him with "the wise one". Later Taylor hears a voice from a glowing sky that calls for him to kneel and when he does so his physical body collapses and his spirit rises out, flying away with Nekkron. The story's final 2 pages reveal that Taylor is a prisoner in the real world on death row, but when a prison guard comes to his cell he finds the odd looking remains of his body. Sostres, making his Skywald debut does a fairly good job here, a suitable style for this type of story. Yet the story itself I feel is just too similar in in its ending to what we got from Fedory in "Sand Castles" from Psycho #6, the previous issue I covered. I'm hoping Fedory can find some variety as he continues to produce more work for Skywald.

Next is "Group Jeopardy" by S.F. Starr (story) and Amador Garcia (art). In a remote mountain resort, Dr. Blaine leads a number of patients of neurotics. One of the women there is killed, every bone in her body broken. Blaine believes one of his patients must be the killer and the sheriff recruits a fitness expert, Dr. Coxe, who says the killer killed her with a bear hug, hugging her with such strength that her bones were battered. They test the muscles and strength of the patients not finding any of them powerful enough. Blaine believes in a great fury, someone could have superhuman strength and kill. Blaine has his patients come to him one at a time and he torments them. Eventually one of them, a young woman named Iris goes on a rampage, killing Blaine (or at least hurting him). In the quite confusing last few panels, it seems like she is held back by the Sheriff and Coxe, but I can't really tell for sure, then she says she loves one of the other patients and the story ends. Amador, also making his Skywald debut provides some strong art but the story itself is a confusing mess, especially the ending.

Gasp's bizarre ending

Third is "The Giant Death Rat" by Al Hewetson (story) and Serg Moren (art). The writing for this story is credited to Howie Anderson, a pseudonym Hewetson would use often over the years, much like say. Will Richardson for Bill Dubay. In contrasts to the several first appearances in this issue, this will be the final appearance of Moren, who has done some decent work in his prior stories. This story opens in the 1700s with a tale of a number of rats trying to make their way to America by climbing aboard ships. We then go back, focusing on the ship Sumatra, where a rat is discovered by someone, but is unable to be caught. The captain fears this will spread disease, and soon one of the crew members gets the plague. The disease spreads, although no one is ever able to find a rat. Eventually the entire ship catches on fire and burns away with only a few people making it out okay. As the story ends, we find the rats talking to each other, happy that none of them ever actually went on board the ship due to the plague.

Next is the 3 page "Gasp!" by Donald Brown (story and art).A man has a nightmare about being dragged along by a number of humanoid monsters. Upon awakening he realizes that this is a perfect plot for a horror story and starts writing it. In his story, his character is a scientist that goes to another dimension where hostile beings grab him, thinking he is instead a spy of their enemies. He is then thrown into the pit of a giant monster. As the story ends, one of the humanoid monsters awakens in his bed, revealing it was a dream of his, and he has his own horror story he's writing! A pretty decent ending here, with some rather average to lousy art from Brown. The third to last panel of the story features a rather obvious swipe of a panel from the Al Williamson drawn story "By George" from E.C.'s Weird Fantasy #15.

The hilarious ending to "Artifacts"

Next is the cover story "The Altar of Blood" by Bob Kirschen (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). The demonic queen, Tonia, calls forth slaves to her in hell. Tonia desires Satan's powers and hopes for him to cringe before her voice. Any slave that speaks up against her is destroyed. Soon Satan himself arrives, but is unable to pass beyond the forces protecting her lair. Tonia requests one of her slaves bring the sword of Lucifer down on her neck. Every 5,000 years, the stars align, leading all to a single moment.  But the slave momentarily hesitates, staring at her beautiful body, and that is enough for the moment to be missed and Tonia meets her end for real as the sword comes down upon her.

Sixth is "A Father's Lament" by Ed Fedory (story) and Francisco Cueto (art, credited here as Frank). A father and son pair of hunters come across a body in the woods with an axe buried in its chest. Along with the body is a journal. The journal tells of how a man hunted a beast attacking the local populace. The writer created his axe, pursued the beast and killed it, even though it was his own son! Back in the present, the father removes the axe from the body, revealing it to be silver. Desiring the money the silver can bring him, he tells his son they are leaving, without even burying the body. This turns out to be quite the mistake, as the beast was a werewolf, and pulling out the axe causes it to return to life! The premiere of yet another S.I. artist, Cueto's work is drawn quite well in some panels, but a lot looser and lower quality in others. He also doesn't do the best job on his werewolf. But the story at least is pretty decent, and Fedory finally leaves behind the gimmick he'd be using on his other stories.

Seventh is "Artifacts" by Dennis Fujitake (story and art). The third world war has hit, and mankind is no longer the dominant species on the Earth. They have left their sacred relics in a cave and head off to meet their final destiny. Many years pass. The Earth becomes covered in ice, which eventually recedes. Eventually a group of lizard-like aliens arrive on the Earth and find a crucial artifact of mankind, a film showing Porky Pig! This is quite a fun story to read in its brief four pages with a hilarious ending. The story as well as the style of the aliens reminds me a bit of an old E.C. story, "The Aliens" from Weird Fantasy #17 where lizard-like aliens land on a part of the destroyed Earth and find one of the few remaining relics of humanity. a comic book.

Ramon Torrents makes his Skywald debut

Our final story is "The Essential Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ramon Torrents (art). It is the year 2056. A pair of mercenaries, dressed in special gear, arrive at the underwater city of Pala. Nearly 80 years before, the founders of Pala, seeking to escape the pollution on the surface, created a civilization underwater, which has now grown to 300,000 people! However a mutated squid has attacked their city, warranting the calling of the mercenaries. The mercenaries are able to defeat the squid, but are unable to stay in the city. As the story concludes and we see what they look like under their gear, we know why; those on the surface are horribly deformed due to all the pollution. A fairly decent story which is all the more impressive with the art from Ramon Torrents. Torrents was quite a prolific artist over at Warren, and one of my favorites, and he is one of the few S.I. artists who contributed to both Warren and Skywald, although he does quite a lot more stories for Warren than Skywald.

The issue concludes with a one page drawing of a mummy by Pablo Marcos.

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.