1994 #28

Steve Fastner & Rich Larson provide the cover for this issue, published in December 1982.

First is the final "Young Sigmund Pavlov!" story by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pavlov crashes on a planet filled with various robot creatures. He and the robots end up recreating the Wizard of Oz, albeit with various robot creatures in place of the notable characters from that story. This story ends with a to be continued sign, but this would be the last story in the series. This story is very unlike the other stories in this series, as it doesn't contain the usual extremely bizarre Nino art and over the top sex filled story by Dubay.

Second is "Too Many Termarrows" by Vic Catan (art) and Tim Moriarty (story). This story features two men who land on a planet carrying a secret weapon. One of the men has a key robbed by a woman he sleeps with, so they pursue her through the desert and eventually find that she is part of a group of wives of a sultan. Our two protagonists release their weapon, human eating termites that kill everyone but them.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). This story features Ghita taking part in a ceremony with Rahmuz where she is brought underground, where oddly enough, stars start appearing. A mummy which is Khan Dagon appears, then soon varous other corpses and monsters as well.

Next is "Angel" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This dull series finally comes to an end with this story. Angel and Ape find a group of savages that have captured a communist scientist who plans to destroy them. They end up being saved by a Tin Man superhero.

Last is the finale of "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Dan Hallassey & Bruce Jones (story). Lots of revelations in this story, where it is revealed that pretty much the entire quest of Diana to this point has been a lie. Her ally Jason has been the true villain all along, and the convict Frank Branner was actually an engineer named T. L. Hoyt who is a good guy on her side. With his help she returns to Earth and defeats Jason once and for all. A very good end to the strongest series of the latter part of 1994's life.

1994 #26

Richard Corben provides the cover of this issue of 1994, which bears an artwork date of 1977. The actual cover date of this issue is August 1982. One wonders why Warren waited 5 years to use this cover! Sorry, once again, I couldn't track down an image of this cover on the web to show you all (its days like this I wish I had my scanner! :()

First is "Young Sigmund, Sr." by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Not much to say regarding this story, its the latest in a long line of stories by Dubay and Nino where the art from each page can be combined with one another to form a seemingly infinite image. Quite impressive artwork as a result, with a rather poor story which is forced to work around the artwork.

Next is the latest story in "Diana Jacklighter, Manhuntress!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bruce Jones & Dan Hallassey (story). Diana and Branner go after the latest criminal, Marella Chryseis, who is currently hiding within a Sargaso. While there Marella seemingly kills Branner, but it is actually just a robot, which goes berserk and kills her. They then head to another planet where Branner takes off, marooning her. The planet contains shape shifters, and she ends up being confronted by Conley, another one of the escaped criminals. He ties her up and tries to escape on a ship, that ends up being a monster which kills him.

Third is "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Dakini realizes Ghita's plot to deatroy Rahmuz when she attacks her while dreaming. Ghita later meets him for the first time. She also soon finds out that Dahib is alive. Thats it for this issue, a shorter Ghita segment than usual.

Fourth is "Little Beaver" by Vic Catan (art) and Dan Hallassey (story). Similar to the previous story in this series, it features Little Beaver, her grandmother Running Box and Worm, their tentacled monster pet. In this story they meet some revolutionaries who plan to use Little Beaver as a bomb to blow up their Russian enemies by planting it within a certain, ahem, part of her anatomy which will blow up when they try to have sex with her. Luckily Little Beaver makes it out okay.

Fifth is "The Trials and Tribulations of Ariel Hart!" by Peter Hsu (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is somewhat better than the previous Ariel Hart story. The President seeks to kill Ariel, and she ends up falling into a large chasm. The President sends one of his governors to ensure that she is dead. She hasn't actually died however, and has fallen into a pool where a tentacled creature attacks her. She is luckily able to escape.

Last is "Retard" by Alex Nino (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). Aliens take over Earth, and many deformed children are born soon after. The alien overlords require all people to do labor for them, and any child who cannot work by a certain age is disposed of. All the 'retards' are set to be disposed of, but instead they end up destroying the aliens entirely, although they die as a result.

Creepy 138

Here's one of the later issues of Creepy, from the summer of 1982. By this point the quality of the Warren magazines were even lower than they had been in the late 1960's, with numerous reprinted covers and pretty much every other issue was all reprints. And the new material? Hardly that good. Anyway, this issue's all new, starting with a cover by Sanjulian, his final for Creepy. Uncle Creepy also has an early one page feature drawn by Berni Wrightson. One of the few good things about the final couple of years of Warren is that they did return the one page intros by the hosts (except for Vampi, who would have a drawing on the table of contents page), although they did include them in the inside of the mags rather than the front inside cover as they had done in the mid 1970's.

First story is "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Delando Nino (art) and John Jacobson (story). The story features a woman, Caroline, who comes under a strange trance due to a connection she has with a newly discovered mummy. At the same time, a colleague of hers, Portia has found the ability to use the mummy's body to commit murder using a medallion she has. Portia tries to get Caroline to kill her father, whom she has a grudge against, but Caroline is able to destroy the mummy instead, and all ends up okay. This story uses similar plot devices from the series "The Mummy Walks", which appeared in Eerie in 1973 and 1974.

Up next is "Derelict!" by Fred Carrillo (art) and Danielle Dubay (story). I would assume Danielle is Bill Dubay's, wife, but I don't know for sure. This story is about a father and son who come across a derelict german ship in the ocean. They head aboard and through the ship's log, find that a werewolf had run loose on the ship. The werewolf eventually is able to kill both the father and son. Yawn.

Third is a fantasy story, "Fools and Kings!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A court jester and his witch friend try to manipulate a king, wizard and barbarian into taking each other out so they can control the thrown. In the end they are successful as the witch is wed to the prince and both the king and wizard are killed. The witch betrays the jester though, as she's truly with the barbarian.

Fourth is "Dreamworld" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A soap opera star quits her role and returns to her hometown and stays with a neighbor and her retarded son when she finds her parents aren't home. The son, obsessed with TV, thinks that she is a real murderer and tries to kill her, taking place in a chase that occurs through the woods. The son eventually ends up accidently killing his mother then is killed by the actress.

Last is "The Cry of the Glipins" by John Garcia & Rudy Nebres (art) and Dan Hallassey (story).
A spaceship comes across a lizard like creature whose race was wiped out by humanity. The creature demands a human as a sacrifice to let them pass. The men initially fight it, but eventually give in and give it the man it desires. The two either merge, or interbreed (the end of the story is kind of confusing) into a new being.

Just not that great an issue. Can't say I'm a big fan of many of the artists here, and even the good ones like Sanjulian and Salvador are hardly in their finest hour. Likewise from a story standpoint, Jacobson and Boudreau, who turned out a bunch of terrific stories in the 1970's have quite dull stuff in this issue. Definately not a recommended issue from me!