Vampirella 111

Warren reaches a new low with this all reprint issue of Vampirella from January 1983. The cover, by Pujolar, is actually a reprinted cover from the magazine Devilina, a competitor to Warren! Unbelievable that they'd take a competitor's cover to use for one of their issues.

First is "Vampirella and the Curse of the Macdaemons" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from issue 28. The Macdaemons of the title are a family who lives in Scotland. As the son of the family comes of age he is forced to watch over the family secret. Vampi and Pendragon come there on vacation and meet Alastair, who tells Vampi of how an ancestor of his was forced to mate with a sea monster. Alastair plans to feed Pendragon to the creature, but when he lets it go, it instead attacks him, jealous over the attention he's paid to Vampirella. Vampirella then bites it in her bat form, killing it. This story is continued with the next story.

Second is "Vampirella and the Undead of the Deep!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from issue 29. Vampi witnesses the burial of Alastair, who is being carried into the water. Vampi goes under water where she sees many dead bodies at a ball. She also finds Tristan down there, but he soon transforms into a watery beast after tricking her into getting rid of her blood substitute. Vampi escapes and bites the dead bodies down there to get the blood she needs.

Third is "The Time Eater" by Paul Neary (art) and Jack Butterworth (story), from issue 40. A sci-fi themed story that is very interesting and unique. One of Warren's most unique stories in fact. The Time Eater of the title is an entity that exists out in space, consuming time. As the story begins, the time eater is quickly reaching the point where it has consumed all future time. As a result, it has to start eating the past. We see the Time Eater consumer the past, causing time to go back further and further. A spaceship that approached the Time Eater lands back on Earth, then is deassembled. People who have died come back to life, then grow young, and eventually return to their mother's womb. Humankind de-evolves as does all other life. Eventually the Earth itself ceases to exist and the universe slowly shrinks until it too is gone. At this point the time eater has eaten all time that has ever existed and soon starves to death. A gaseous particle breaks off the time eater, causing the universe to slowly start reforming again. Time once again starts to pass by, the universe slowly returns to normal and the time eater eventually comes back to life to start the process all over again.

Fourth is "The Munificent Ali Addan and Son!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay & Maroto (story), from issue 68. The art on this story is printed sideways. This story features the son of Ali Addan, who encounters a beautiful woman who has set up a trap for him. He battles a warrior and defeats him, and the woman is revealed to be Ali Addan's daughter. Her mother, a monster appears and kills Ali's son.

Fifth is "Force Feed" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Cary Bates (story), from issue 59. A killer who is on the run from the police finds a scientist who is able to transport him to someone else's body in another time. He proves it by letting him tempoorarily be in Jack the Ripper. But when they go ahead with transporting him to someone else's body, the scientist, knowing the killer is a vegitarian, has him turned into a Tyranosaurus Rex.

Sixth is "Fog" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from issue 62. This story features a dangerous fog that chases a couple. They are able to escape from it, but it adapts by turning into a liquid, and getting at them that way.

Last is "The French Coagulation" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story), from issue 39. Bermejo's first Warren story in its original appearance, his art here is simply amazing, arguably the best job he ever did for Warren. In Paris law enforcement investigate the death of a woman at the hand of the "Loup Garou" which is essentially a werewolf. Due to a key in the victim's hands, they are able to pintpoint the creature down to one of six people. They lock them up in jail cells and the night of the full moon one of them, a woman, turns into the werewolf and kills her husband, who is in the cell with her. It ends up the husband was sleeping with the wife of one of the cops which is why he locked him in the cell with her.

Eerie 81

Frank Frazetta provides the famous cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring a giant naked woman on the top of the Empire State Building, holding a gorilla in her hands (an obvious parody of King Kong). This cover was originally produced six years earlier when Warren was planning on publishing an adult magazine called "POW!". That magazine never came to be, so Warren held onto the cover for years, eventually using it here in February 1977. All of the stories in this issue are based on this cover.

First is "Goodbye, Bambi Boone" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Cary Bates (story). Bambi Boone is a giant sized actress who grew to a great size after an experiment to increase the size of her breasts went horribly wrong. Bambi is upset at people not taking her seriously in her roles, and when she takes part in a movie similar to King Kong she asks her manager to assist her in feeling actual pain when she is fired upon by planes during the shooting. The manager loads the planes with real bullets however and she is killed during the shooting. The manager knew that she was dying due to her great size, so he set up this up to have her killed.

Second is "Taking of Queen Bovine" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Queen Bovine of the title is a secret agent who takes responsibility for helping Gnik Gnok, a member of a chimp race that is planning on invading Earth. Thinking they are going to be wiped out, he defects to the human race to prevent the invasion from taking place. Bovine assists him and in order to protect him climbs a skyscraper where she is killed by the chimp invaders.

Third is "The Bride of Congo: The Untold Story" by Carmine Infantino & Gonzalo Mayo (story) and Bill Dubay (story). This story takes place after the original King Kong story. Amy, the woman captured by him is still obsessed with Kong, even after her death and even after getting married to a human man. She eventually finds out that King Kong didn't actually die, but is wounded and needs a blood transfusion. She volunteers but it ends up turning her into a giant size as well. She leaves and grabs onto her husband, who is dressed in an ape suit, heading to the Empire State Building. King Kong comes after her and the two leave to his home, to be happily ever after.

Fourth is "You're A Big Girl Now" by Richard Corben (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Except for the first and last pages, this story is in color. This story features Rachel, a girl who is born at a huge size and continues to grow larger and larger as she gets older. Lowery, a newspaper reporter befriends her when she is still a child. When she grows up she gets upset when she finds out he doesn't love her like she loves him. Fearful of her continuously growing size the military tries to destroy her and she goes on a rampage in New York city, looking for the Statue of Liberty, which she believes to be her mother. Many years later aliens find her body and realize that she grew so large that she ended up destroying the Earth.

Fifth is "Starchild" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Louise Jones & David Micheline (story). The 'Starchild' of the title is an artificially created giant woman who is sent to another planet with her normal sized brother to build a city. There she meets some apes that live nearby and befriends them. Her brother is ordered to either retrieve her or destroy her. Not wanting to harm her, he leaves her there, deciding to lie about her being destroyed.

Sixth is "The Giant Ape Suit" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). In this story it is revealed that King Kong was actually a giant robot. The brother of the man who controlled the robot seeks to build another one years later by finding the lab where it was built. He is betrayed by a pair of criminals that he was going to work with, and they head to the lab, where they find a robot of a giant naked woman. One of the criminals betrays the other and takes control of the robot, heading through the city and climbing a building before being knocked off and destroyed.

Last is "Golden Girl" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A company inspector arrives on a planet but quickly forgets her mission when she hears that there is a city of gold nearby. The men there bring her there, where the city is revealed to be a miniature version of New York City. When she heads into the city she is attacked by the miniature locals, sprayed with gold, and turned into their own version of the Statue of Liberty.

Vampirella 58

A holiday themed issue of Vampirella, featuring a very good cover by Enrich. Seven stories here, a rarity for an issue from this era of Warren.

First is Vampirella in "Lenore" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Vampirella, Pendragon and Adam arrive at a castle where a crazy old man is storing the corpse of his dead wife Lenore in a tank. The old man had gone crazy after Lenore passed away many years ago. Since then he has performed experiments, allowing him to remain alive, and also enabling his ape pet, Rocco to talk. Rocco ends up freeing Vampirella and Pendragon, but the old man transfers Adam's youth to himself. When Vampi arrives they get into a struggle and the man ends up dying after he falls into the tank with his dead wife. When he dies, his youth returns back to Adam. Rocco bids farewell to Vampi and co, choosing to go down with the castle when it collapses.

Next is this issue's first Christmas themed story, "A Matchstick Angel" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features a sick rich little boy whose set to die right around Christmas time. His only friend is a poor girl, Taddie Openshoes. When Death comes to claim him on Christmas Eve, Taddie convinces him to take her instead, and he recovers.

My number one Warren story of all time is third, "Yellow Heat" by Russ Heath (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Heath's art is some of the best to ever appear in a Warren story. This story takes place in Africa before World War I and surrounds Uthu, a young warrior in an African tribe. When a beautiful woman from an opposing tribe is captured, Uthu desires her for himself and challenges the chief when he claims her. In order to obtain her, the chief orders Uthu to accomplish a warrior's quest where he singlehandedly must kill a full grown lion with only a spear within 3 days. A near impossible task, things get even tougher for Uthu when a lion ambushes him unprepared. He gets very lucky however when a large snake attacks the lion, killing it. Uthu kills the snake and drags the lion back to his tribe, victorious. He enters the hut where the captured woman is waiting for him... and thats as far as I'm going to go. This story is memorable largely for having one of the biggest shock endings in Warren history and I'm not going to spoil it for my readers. Let me just say that the final panel is extremely horrific and startling, but ultimately makes sense within the confines of the story once you read it again. Just a fantastic, fantastic story that on its own makes this issue worth having.

Another Christmas themed story is next, "The Christmas Flower" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a poor black neighborhood where a young boy finds a flower growing out of the pavement. He views this as a miracle, but some gang members step on it soon afterwards. With the help of some women passing by, he is able to prop it up, and keep it alive. A huge crowd soon gathers around it. Later, the gang member who stepped on it swerves away from it while on a motorcycle and ends up killing himself when he hits a car.

Fifth is "The Wambaugh" by Auraleon (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A Hollywood star who just got his big break meets in the wintery Canadian wilderness with a producer friend and his wife. While there they read a story about the Wambaugh, a beast that appears in Canada taking the form of corpses that searches for a mate. The producer's wife convinces the star to kill her husband since he is finished in Hollywood. The star is too nervous to do so, so she does it herself away from him. She soon starts freaking out about seeing the Wambaugh however and when they see the corpse of her husband, the star has a heart attack and dies. It ends up all being a trick to kill him so the producer can get his role instead. But in actuality the Wambaugh has taken the producer's form and claims the wife for himself. Not a bad story, but some odd narrative lapses at time that make it seem as if captions on certain panels were left off completely.

Sixth is "Little Monster" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an old bus driver, Leroy, who views children as monsters. He remembers a teacher he had when he was a child who shared this opinion, who died when the 'little monsters' called her to fall out of a window. Eventually he ends up getting into an accident when his bus hits a moving train. All the kids live, but he dies.

Last is "The Sleeping Beauty" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story). Some extremely good, exotic art by Maroto here, which appears sideways. As told in the captions, years before a prince married a beautiful peasent girl, Aurora. After their marriage she revealed to him that she had made a deal with a demon in order to be able to marry him, where she gave up both her soul and their first born son. When the son is born, the father fights off the demon. The demon instead curses the prince, taking his castle and wife, making him a peasant. The artwork shows the present day, as the son, now all grown up heads through the demon possessed castle, encountering a winged maiden, dragons and finally the demon itself, which appears as a nine headed serpent. Successfully making it past them, he comes across his mother, who remains as youthful and beautiful as she was when he was born. But upon kissing her it is revealed that she too has become a demon and kills him. A similar narrative style here to stories that Dubay wrote in 1984/1994, where the captions tell a story which isn't really seen in the artwork at all.

Vampirella 62

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella.

First is "Starpatch, Quark & Mother Blitz" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story continues from the previous issue's story, where Vampirella had her eyes stolen by the Blood Red Queen of Hearts. Suddenly a group of aliens arrive, those listed in the title, and save her, giving her her eyes back. They also restore Pendragon's heart, which had been stolen by the Queen.

Next is "U.F.O." by Ramon Torrents (art) and Josep Toutain (story). Toutain was the head of Seleciones Illustrada, the art agency that managed the majority of the spanish artists that worked for Warren. This story was meant to appear in the magazine "Yesterday, Today... Tomorrow" but since that magazine was never published, it ended up here. This story is about a man who searches for U.F.O.s with a newspaper reporter and finds them in a winter landscape. They go to the Air Force, which doesn't believe them, discreding them. In the epilogue it ends up that the aliens are real, as they attack humanity.

Third is "Beautiful Screamer" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Some very nice art by Sanchez on this story. It features a handyman and a maid who are after an old man's money, trying to get put in his will. They convince him to do so by tricking him into thinking he's dreaming when he actually is drugged. When it is revealed that the old man has a nephew, they rush to poison him before they are removed from the will. The handyman however only dreams that he switched the old man's wine with poison, and both him and the maid end up drinking the poison by mistake instead of the old man.

Fourth is "Time Ticket" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features a sorceress who is able to grant anyone's wish as long as they give her 7 minutes of her life. Multiple people in this story ask her for the wish, but each time disastrous results happen. An interesting concept, although not the strongest ending.

Fifth is "Fog" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a dangerous fog that chases a couple. They are able to escape from it, but it adapts by turning into a liquid, and getting at them that way.

Last is "By Treason's Knife", written by Gerry Boudreau. While the art is credited to Leopold Sanchez, this art looks to me to be done by Jose Ortiz. The story takes place in World War 2, where a soldier is recruited by his commanding officer to go on a secret mission to kill Rommel, getting close to him by betraying his allies. He betrays his allies, but the commanding officer set him up, as the gun he's been given has no bullets and he fails to kill Rommel, dying instead.

Creepy 87

This issue is a special issue dedicated to the planet Mars. Nicola Cuti is credited as an editor (below Louise Jones and Bill Dubay) for this issue only. The cover is by Berni Wrightson; it is not an original cover but rather colored reprinted panels from art he did within the magazine. Wrightson was reportedly rather upset when he found Warren had done this; its a practice they used occasionally throughout the years, although mostly on reprint issues such as Creepy 82 and Eerie 78. An excellent issue, with only one poor story.

First is a one page feature titled "Four Classic Martians", drawn by Berni Wrightson. It features four panels of various martians. Two of these panels would be used on the cover.

Next is "A Warped Tale" by Gray Morrow (art) and Al Sirois (story). This was Morrow's first Warren appearance since the cover of Eerie 10 in 1967, and his first interior story since Creepy 10 in 1966. Unfortunately it would also be his final Warren appearance. The story features two astronauts who end up going through a timewarp, and find themselves on Mars, thousands of years ago. Mars at this time is a beautiful planet, very similar to Earth. From two of its inhabitants who they meet, they find that Mars is battling a planet that exists between Mars and Jupiter. The aliens from that planet can't breathe on Mars, and vice versa. Eventually these aliens attack, pumping their atmosphere into Mars. When our heroes retaliate, its sets the entire planet on fire. The enemy's planet is destroyed, creating, the asteroid belt that exists today. A very interesting and well drawn story to start the issue.

Third is "A Martian Saga" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Rather than an actual story, this is a 6 page poem, told with three panels per page. It features a man coming to Mars who meets a tribe there, confronts a monster, and meets a beautiful woman. Alas, its not a happy ending for him as he suffocated when he takes off his oxygen mask while with the woman.

Fourth is "Those 'Orrible Passions of '78" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This issue's best story, it features a retiring detective being interviewed about the most mysterious case of his career. It involved multiple events occuring within a short period of time where parents murdered their children, then died themselves shortly after. At the same time an old man off in the wilderness just lied down in his yard during a snowstorm and died. Throughout the story we are shown similar events occuring on Mars involving a martian and its dead children. The detective wonders if the death of an alien race somewhere in the universe occuring at the same time as these murders influenced them in some way. As an epilogue we are shown the mysterious face on Mars. A very interesting story.

Fifth is "The Last" by John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a humanoid Martin who lives on Mars all alone with a robot. The martian is very depressed over the fact that the humans that used to be there are now all dead. The robot starts playing a movie for him, but the martian, trying to get him to stop, electrocutes himself. Ironically, the movie reveals that he wasn't a martian at all, but a mutated human, effected by radiation from the war on Earth that forced humanity to flee to Mars. All alone, the robot kills himself.

Sixth is "They Come Out at Night" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Some astronauts arrive at Mars and find a prior expedition wiped out, with just corpses there. The story then flashes back to the past where one of the astronauts arrives at Mars, finding that his wife is sleeping with another man. When learning of her infidelity he tries to leave her, but it ends up that she is actually possessed by roach like creatures who infect the other crew members when she kisses them. He kills her, but her corpse still comes after him as its still possessed by the roaches. In the present time, our protagonists are confronted by her corpse, which is still possessed by them!

Last is "Warmonger of Mars" by Ralph Reese (art) and Wally Wood (story). This story was reportedly created a long time before this issue, but not printed until now. The issue's sole poor story, it is a comedic effort featuring a man and creature on Mars. Yawn. Reese's art appears heavily inspired by Wood here.

Creepy 98

The cover for this issue is by Atilla Heije. This is an all media horror issue.
First is "The Alien Factor" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about some reporters investigating an alien presence. They face some people trying to cover things up, and government forces evenutally arrive and investigate, telling everyone that the presense was nothing more than fungus.

Second is "Helen Horror Hollywood" by Leo Duranona (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story tells the tale of a girl who was interested in nothing but movies growing up, who eventually went to Hollywood and became famous. The theatre she stayed in however housed a monster that killed a former lover of hers, and eventually her as well when she returns to it.

Third is "Graveyard Shift" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story features a radio DJ on the graveyard shift who receives threatening calls from a man who tried to kill him and his fiance. His fiance is attacked and the DJ finds that it is actually his enemy's brother, as his enemy died in prison. Luckily, the attacker is electocuted when he steps in a puddle, saving our protagonist.

Fourth is "Starlet, Starlet, Burning Bright" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art, miscredited to Ramon Torrents) and Gerry Boudreau (story). The issue's best story, this is about a woman who meets a former soldier who starts stalking her. He is the son of a famous man in Hollywood, so she is unable to do anything about him. She recruits an old lover to help him, but when the stalker tries to blow him up, she ends up dying instead.

Last is "The Image Makers" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about a pair of men working on a device that projects a person's image. They try to get money for it by swindling an old woman, convincing her through a seance that her dead daughter has come back to life. They do this by getting a friend of there's who looks like the dead daughter to pretend to be her. One of the men wants her to kill the old woman because she'll inherit the money, but instead he is done in when someone projects a bridge to appear over a gap. It ends up being set up by the old woman, who knew of their scheme all along, having been the funder for their device.

Eerie 88

A sports themed cover by Don Maitz starts this issue of Eerie.

First is the Rook in "Future Shock" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook appears once again, in the devestated future. Meanwhile Gat Hawkins finds a way to come to the present, where he battles Bishop Dane and Manners. The Rook meets a robot who brings him to the last living human on Earth, who thinks the Rook is evil and attacks him. The Rook battles him and defeats the man, who is revealed to be a machine man as well. A very good story, the best Rook story so far!

Next is the latest story in the Scallywag series, now retitled The Black Demon's Sword. This story is called "The Key", but Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The ninja captured in the prior part escapes. Lubus heads after her and encounters more enemies while Sullivan encounters a sea creature.

Third is "Deathball 2100 AD" by Dick Giordano (art), in a rare solo story for him, and the team of Bill Mohalley & Nicola Cuti (story). This story is about a basketball game between humans and humanoid fish men. One of the human players, told that he is being forced into retirement after this game, goes on a rampage and kills many of the opposing players during the game.

Fourth is the first of a two part story, "Boiling Point" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story tells of a mysterious killer in the subway who has pushed an old woman into an oncoming subway car. The story focuses on one of the cops investigating the case and one of the witnesses, whom he starts a relationship with.

Last is "Junkyard Battles or Never Trust an Electric Shaver" by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Plutonium has caused machines to come alive and fight humanity. This story focuses on a soldier who battles the machines who is done in when his gun is exposed to plutonium and fires on him.

Eerie 83

Another cover featuring the Rook starts off this issue, painted by Enrich, a rare Eerie cover for him.

First is the Rook in "The Day Before Tomorrow" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The Rook accidently brings the outlaw Gat Hawkins with him from the 1830's to the 1870's, where he is forced to chase after a bird that steals part of his time machine. The bird leads him underground where he finds a robot and a lab he can use for himself. Hawkins meanwhile plots to both steal the Rook's time machine and destroy his grandfather Bishop Dane as well through a woman, Kate McCall that ends up double crossing him when she turns out liking Dane. The Rook manages to rescue his grandfather despite the attacks from Hawkins. A somewhat better part than the last Rook story, although you would think that all of the Rook's tampering with history would really screw things up.

Second is Hard John's Nuclear Hit Parade, with the story "Kansas City Bomber". Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Jim Stenstrum. Hard John Apple is a character that was originally introduced in Creepy 64 in the story "An Angel Shy of Hell", the very first issue I covered on this blog. For those who haven't caught that original story, this story takes place in the post-apocalyptic future where 'Catlicks' and 'Protstnts' fight each other. Hard John Apple has fooled the Prot leaders into giving him the state of Kansas, which is filled with nuclear weapons which he plans to use with the help of an orangutan. This story introduces Tarara, a woman who captures John and discovers his plans.

Third is another new series, Gaffer in "Temptation" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This was a very good four part series that was spread out over a number of issues. Gaffer is a poor old black man who befriends a young boy, Jaime. They go to a carnival where Gaffer is quite successful at a wheel of chance, resulting in the carnival barker inviting him to another event at midnight. There it is revealed that the barker is actually the devil himself. The Gaffer continues to lose against him until he bets Jaime's soul, and manages to win, which results in him getting three wishes.

Last is "Presto the Besto" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Presto is a famous escape artist who manages to escape from many near deaths. His latest however appears to be his last as he's bandaged up, tied up and put in a chained case that is filled with cement and dumped into a body of water. While he dies from this, no one aside from his family believes he's actually dead given his past.

Creepy 93

This is Creepy's second special issue dedicated entirely to sports. The first, previously reviewed by me was issue 84. The cover is by Don Maitz, his first for Warren. Like the first sports special, this issue contains a lot of Carmine Infantino and Roger McKenzie.

First is "The Replacement" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of a baseball player who suddenly vanishes in the middle of a game, replaced by a weird looking creature. The creature takes his place and is very successful, but faces discrimination from the human players. He eventually vanishes, replaced by the original player when they are close to winning it all, resulting in them losing.

Next is "The Return of Rah" by Carmine Infantino & John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is a sequel to "The Mummy's Victory" from the previous sports special. Rah the mummy is once again brought into the game of football, this time by a scout who was impressed by his prior performance. Once again Rah is a big football star, winning many games.

Third is "The Great Black Cheese" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about an old black boxer who never got his big chance due to his mother getting sick. He takes part in a boxing match which causes a heart attack. With his death he has a vision of finally getting his big shot.

Fourth is "Elixer" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is about a veteran hockey goalie who takes a magical elixer that makes him young again. It succeeds, making the team very successful, but each time he takes the elixer its effects aren't as powerful and he eventually ages to death in the middle of a game.

Fifth is "Running Wild" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of siamese twins, who when seperated causes one to be paralyzed, but he has psychic powers to control his other brother. He forces him to do things he doesn't want to do, so the brother eventually causes him to die of exhaustion by running too hard.

Last is "Cold Blooded Murder" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bill Mohalley & Nicola Cuti (story). A young boy paralyzes another boy in a hockey game after being inspired by his favorite hockey player. The boy's life is pretty much ruined by this event, and he tries to kill himself by drowning, but his body won't let him kill himself and he is saved by a priest.

Creepy 94

A special issue of Creepy featuring 'Weird Children' as advertised on the cover, done by Don Maitz. This is quite a good issue across the board, not a bad story here, although there is some negative aspects to the final story which I'll reveal when I get there.

First story is "Etran to Fulsing" by Dick Giordano (art) in a rare solo job, and Nicola Cuti (story). This seems like the typical medieval story of a prince savings a princess from a sorceror. The interesting twist this time is that the entire medieval setting is actually a delusion, and the reality is that everyone's in a war torn post apocalypic world.

Second is "Bad Tommy" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie & Nicola Cuti (story). The story tells of a young boy, Tommy, who creates an imaginary friend that kills both his parents. The boy goes to see a psychiatrist to tell her about it and it is revealed that Bad tommy is real, who promptly appears and stabs her. Not only that, but Bad Tommy is the real person, and the 'good' version of him is actually a robot created by him. Luckily the psychiatrist is able to kill him.

Third is "Ada" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Pearson (story). The Ada of the title is a girl who was born as an old woman then reverts in age as she gets older. The story surrounds a man who meets her and ends up staying with her til she turns into a baby then passes away.

Fourth is "Bessie" by Leo Duranona (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A woman comes to a detective to help her look for her daughter Bessie while he's working on a murder case. To make a long story short, it ends up that the woman is Bessie herself, as she had gone insane after a miscarriage and became convinced that she had a daughter as well who was actually just a second personality of her's.

Fifth is "Sacrifice" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Four boys sacrifice a cat which gives them eternal life. Every 100 years they have to sacrifice another person to retain their eternal life or they'll immediately die. One of them decides to start using the others as his sacrifice. He heads after the last one only to find that he's committed suicide, which will result in his death.

Last is "Backwater and Timing Circles" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A boy takes a trip to the past to go fishing in the prehistoric era through the company Timing Circles. His guide warns him that they can't take anything back with them and must not kill anything, but when the guide gets in trouble, the boy stabs the dinosaur attacking him. This changes the present such that everyone becomes bizarre looking monsters. This story is blatant plagarism of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder". Luckily for Warren, they never got in trouble with this as they did with Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog.

Creepy 84

An all sports issue! Like the Christmas specials, was never a big fan of these, even though I am a sports fan. The cover is by Ken Kelly.

First up is "Hitter's Wind!" by Carmine Infantino & Walt Simonson (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story takes place in the negro leagues just before the great depression, and is about a ball player who sacrifices his life to win the pennant, dying just after he hits the game winning hit.

The issue's best story is next, "The Mummy's Victory" by Richard Corben (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). A mummy in museum comes back to life and takes the place of an injured player in a football game, winning the game for them! Funny art by Corben on the mummy. A sequel would be done in the next all sports issue, Creepy 93.

Third is "Till Hell Freezes Over!" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Steve Englehart (story). When a hockey player dies during a game due to a hit by an opponent, an angry woman fires a gun into the scoreboard that ends up shorting out the electricity for the whole building. With everyone trapped in the building and the temperature getting lower and lower, everyone eventually freezes to death.

Fourth is "Home Stretch" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Roger McKenzie (art), about a horse and the hunchback taking care of it who are burned to death when the owner hires a jockey to burn the stable down for the insurance money on the horse. Both the horse and hunchback die, but come back from the dead to take revenge.

Fifth is "Menace, Anyone?" by Carmine Infantino & Al Milgrom (art) and David Micheline (story). A black tennis player is very successful in a tournament, so the racist governor kills him. The player's friend brings him back to life so he can win the tournanment, and also sacrifices his life for him so he can remain alive.

Last is "Relic" by Carmine Infanino & John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), which features baseball in the future, where robots are all the players. The story focuses on an old human manager, the last one in the game, and his friendship with the first robot to ever play the game, Jackie-7, who is now quite out of date. Despite Jackie-7's destruction, they are able to win their final game together.

Stories for the most part aren't badly written, but having 4 of 6 stories written by the same writer and 4 of 6 stories pencilled by the same artist certainly result in a lot of repetiveness here, at least in my opinion.

Vampirella 57

My first ever issue of Vampirella is the one I cover today, and its a pretty damn good issue. The cover is by who else, but Enrich.

First up is "City of Ghosts" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Vampirella is stranded in the desert and comes across a deserted town where she meets her husband from Drakulon, Tristan. Adam arrives but is shot by him. Eventually it ends up that it was all an illusion and Vampi is reunited with Pendragon and Adam.

Second is "Rusty Bucklers" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story is about an old man, Dete, who joins a young knight on his trip to defeat a nearby sorceror and rescue the lady trapped there. It is revealed that many years have passed, the sorceror's dragon has died of old age, the sorceror himself is gone, and the lady is old too. Dete sleeps with her and is killed by the young knight, who overreacts.

Third is "Stand-In" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story takes place in the future, where people's deaths can be predicted. A company, Surgo Inc offers to replace the victim with an employee in whatever accident may occur. The story surrounds one of these employees and his relationship with a reporter he meets.

Fourth is one of my top 5 Warren stories of all time, "Magnificent Ephemeral" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The story is about a newspaper reporter, Scott Westly, working on a story about the mysterious Gloria Winsome, a Marilyn Monroe-esque actress who vanished off the face of the Earth after a single movie. Scott becomes completely obsessed with her and spends months trying to research what become of her. Eventually he discovers the truth and is able to meet with her and she shows him a video which reveals the truth, that she's actually a man! Wanting to preserve the secret forever, he asks Scott to kill him and he does so, then hangs himself. Amazing story with one of Warren's biggest shock endings and terrific art by Torrents.

Last is "An Insult to Science" by Jose Miralles (art, in his sole story) and Fernando Fernandez (story). The story is about a disbeliever in the spirit world who has an experience with a woman whose been dead 25 years that changes his opinions about the subject for good. Miralles's art is fairly good, kind of like Fernandez's.