Creepy 121

Jim Laurier provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated September 1980. This story is an all John Severin special.

First is "A Toast to No Man's Memory" by John Severin (art) and Len Wein (story), from Creepy 92. A group of pilots, including a young newbie, Babbit agree to save a bottle of wine for the last one of them that lives. The pilots slowly start dying in battle, much due in part to Babbit's cowardice. Eventually the last one of them is shot by Babbit himself when he threatens getting him court martialled. Babbit drinks the wine, but it ends up that the last of the pilots poisoned it, so it kills him.

Second is "The Star Saga of Sirius Sam" by John Severin (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), from Creepy 95. Two men come to meet Sam of the title to head to an alien planet and steal a gem which they hope to use to keep alive a woman who is the wife of one of them and the sister of the other. They head to the planet, which is ruled by chimps. They find the gem, but discover it is only made of glass, the real one was taken long ago. The glass substitute is destroyed while they are there. They are able to escape safely by using the glass eye of one of the men to replace the destroyed substitute.

Third is "Battle Rot" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 81. A soldier tells another soldier of corpses rising back to life. His fellow soldier doesn't believe him, but when he crashes his plane into a hospital, he comes across just that!

Fourth is "Professor Duffer and the Insuperable Myron Meek!" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 100. Duffer of the title introduces Myron Meek to a top Hollywood agent and he makes it in Hollywood as a comedic actor, although he never speaks. It ends up that Meek is a robot. Meek has fallen in love with the robot from Metropolis, so they are able to find her for him, and he heads off for good with her. A nice comedic story with some good art from Severin.

Fifth is "Angel of Jaipur" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 89. This story features a young pilot flying a plane who goes back in time and manages to save his father from a military assault. Despite there being some sceptics, the gun marks on his plane are proof enough that it really happened.

Sixth is "Visit to a Primitive Planet" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 105. A pair of aliens come to Earth, but find the people in a small town they arrive in not moving at all. It ends up that they arrived at a test site for a bomb and are soon all killed because of it. A nice story with very little dialogue.

Last is "Warrior's Ritual" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 112. Taking place in the 1930's, a group of troops come across a base full of dead people. There they find a diary from a dead man with a missing heart. The diary tells of a young soldier who is obsessed with fighting, sneaking out of the base to kill more people each night. Eventually it is discovered that the young man is obsessed with eating other's hearts, thinking he can get their courage from it. In the present, he meets his end after trying to eat his own heart! Some very good art by Severin here, one of his best looking stories.

Creepy 119

Jim Laurier provides an interesting and somewhat funny cover to this issue of Creepy. This issue is an all Alex Nino reprint special, dated July 1980.

First is "A Boy and His Thing" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 101. A young boy visits a ship captain who is a friend of his. The captain tells him of a giant tentacled creature they fought and killed at sea. He brought back the baby of the creature, which he gives to the boy.

Second is "Keep Kool" by Alex Nino (art) and Bob Toomey (story), from Creepy 104. An old man who is quite wealthy despises humanity so he heads off to another planet where his only companions are robots. He has the robots fight one another, then receives a giant box that he can create monster from to fight one another.

Third is "Always Leave 'Em Laughing!" by Alex Nino (art) and Len Wein (story), from Creepy 105. All clowns are banned from Earth and forced to head to the moon if they want to remain a clown. There they fail to generate any laughs from the robot population and decide to bomb the surface of the moon to turn it into a clown face It is successful, but they are killed by Earth who misunderstand their intensions.

Fourth is "Sisters" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 97. This story contains two parallel stories featuring a human girl and alien girl facing extreme mental anguish. It ends up that both had twin sisters that were stillborn, and that the two are connected to each other as the alien is the human girl's dead sister and vice versa. Both girls end up killing themselves, reunited when reincarnated as twins on yet another alien planet.

Fifth is "Backwater and Timing Circles" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story), from Creepy 94. 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 story 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.

Sixth is "Alien Strain" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Creepy 96. A 'Banggi' and his human friend are attacked by various aliens when they arrive at a planet where they have transported some robots. The mob has good reason to fear him however, as by arriving the Banggi has caused an epidemic where thousand of Banggi larva work their way through various prostitutes, infesting the planet. Very odd looking aliens here by Nino, as usual for him.

Eerie 115

Jim Laurier provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring Night of the Jackass. This issue collects all four stories in the series within this issue.

First is part one of 'Night of the Jackass', titled "24 Hours of Hell!" by Jose Ortiz (art, his Eerie debut) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story is from Eerie 60. A terrific, terrific serial, probably my favorite in Eerie after 'Apocalypse'. The story surrounds a drug which when taken causes a person to turn into a monster, but kills them after 24 hours. A group of poor old people head to a hotel, lock it up and take the drug, then go on a rampage, killing and raping everyone inside. A newlywed, Garson, witnesses his wife murdered by them, but is one of only two people to survive, the other being Bishop, a man who planned to kill himself but changed his mind when the jackassers went on their rampage.

Second story is the second part in the 'Night of the Jackass' series, "Storm Before the Calm!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story), from Eerie 63. Garson and Bishop meet up once again at a church that has been taken over by the Jackassers. While no one else wants to go inside and help the victims, Garson and Bishop do so and with the help of people inside are able to defeat all the monsters.

Third is part three of the Night of the Jackass series, "The Children's Hour", with art by Jose Ortiz and story by Bruce Bezaire, from Eerie 64. A group of children take the Hyde (25) drug, causing another rampage. Bishop and Garson once again arrive to help stop them and meet Berthe Astruc, a chemist who seeks to create a cure for the drug. During the fighting Garson realizes that Bishop's nearly as bloodthirsty and willing to kill as the Jackassers and is helping more out of a desire to output his rage upon them than save others. As the story ends they decide to help Berthe find a cure.

Fourth is the final entry in the Night of the Jackass series, "Endstorm", from Eerie 65. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Bruce Bezaire. Bishop and Garson head to Berthe's lab where she hopes to finish her Bishop reads Berthe's notes and realizes that she was the one responsible for creating the Hyde drug. Berthe forces him out, but Garson gets upset and leaves as well, only to find that Bishop has taken the drug and become a jackasser. Bishop goes out of control and attacks them, but Berthe is able to use her antidote which works, turning him back to normal. The series ends here on an optomistic note, with our heroes now having a way to cure the jackassers. Overall this is certainly one of Eerie's best series ever, with a unique and interesting storyline and great Ortiz art. While the series certainly had an open ended conclusion, Bezaire avoided a lame ending and let it end on a high note.

Last is "Excerpts from the Year Five", from Creepy 67, by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where all the power in the world has vanished. The story focuses on a man, who meets a woman when receiving first aid. They help fellow people and find a young boy eating the remains of his mother. Eventually Satan worshippers kill the boy however, and the woman dies soon afterwards as well.

Eerie 120

This issue of Eerie from April 1981 features a cover by Jim Laurier.

First is Zud Kamish in "Death of a Cometeer" by E.R. Cruz (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Another horrible, horrible Zud story. This time his ex-wife has tied up all his assets in a lawsuit, and he joints an ally of his in transporting some material, during which time his ally dies. Another really bad story with a really bad art job by Cruz.

Second is "The Warrior and the Gunfighter!" by Al Sanchez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Eerie gets worse and worse as Margopoulos starts bringing back old Eerie stars (many of which are dead), starting with Dax the Warrior. In this issue Bishop Dane from the Rook misses a dentist appointment and trying to go back in time in order to make it, instead goes to a medieval era where he meets Dax. The king thinks that Dane is a sorceror due to his gun, and has him and Dax fight an enemy of theirs. Margopoulos clearly has no understanding of Dax nor any respect for the character and its creator Esteban Maroto as Dax in this story acts nothing like the Dax in his original series.

Third is a new series, The Mist, with "A Public and Private Surveillance" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Don McGregor (story). In contrast to the previous two horrific stories, this one isn't bad. The story surrounds a normal woman having issues with the phone company and an evil man calling himself Lucifer de Montalban who also has some problems with them.

Last is the latest story in the Haggarth series, "Sombra the Damned!" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). In this story Haggarth battles the sorceror who hired his troops to take the skull of three snakes. Haggarth defeats his underlings, then fights the sorceror himself, who escapes. He is then confronted by the monks from the temple who possessed it, who take it back, but bless his sword beforehand. He then meets a fellow traveler and they are confronted by a large stone monolith, which then transforms into a woman as the story ends.

Eerie 113

Jim Laurier provides the UFO themed cover of this issue of Eerie, dated August 1980. This issue kicks off a long stretch of very poor issues of Eerie, probably the worst issues of material that Warren ever put out. This is going to be rough.

First is "The Manifestation" by E.R. Cruz (art) and the team of Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story, Dubay as Will Richardson). This story features an encounter in space with a blob like entity that takes over many astronauts. A rather dull story that goes on for far too long. But far worse is Cruz's art. Cruz is probably the worst artist who ever worked for Warren. Every single character he ever drew looked exactly the same. And unfortunately there's lots of him over the rest of Eerie's life.

Second is "Code Name: Nova" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a man taking on mutant revolutionaries. Better art, but poorer story than the previous one.

Last is "Haxtur and the Slow Death God" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haxtur comes to a new village where he is told of the deadly God Mokt, who is keeping people from leaving the village. Haxtur encounters Mokt, which ends up being a radioactive statue. He later encounters the diabolic master "Khut", who wants to take over Haxtur's body, but he is able to kill him and escape.

Eerie 110

Jim Laurier provides the sci-fi themed cover of this issue of Eerie. A very good issue, standing out among those issues of Eerie around this time. In fact given how deeply Eerie declined, this might by the last really good issue of the magazine left. This was Louise Jones's final issue as editor.

First is "Blood on Black Satin" by Paul Gulacy (art) and Doug Moench (story). Our protagonist is attacked after finding the body of Uncle Jock but is saved by Heather. They travel to the basement of an old courthouse where our heroes find the skeletal remains of Whatley's followers. Seconds later Whatley himself appears. This series would be concluded in the next issue.

Second is the finale for "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). In this story Tyler and Thomas have their last confrontation. Ruth falls to her death accidently after being used as bait by Tyler. Tyler and Thomas fight each other and Monica kills Tyler just as he's about to kill Thomas. The series ends with Tyler and Monica sleeping with each other. Overall, this 6 part story probably would have worked better in no more than 2 parts. A big waste of time and a huge dissappointment from Bruce Jones.

Third is "Francois", the finale to "The Open Sky" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story features Francois, the evil assassin that Moonshadow was coming after. Francois travels in a hot air balloon which crashes into the sea. He is saved by some dolphins which bring him to an island where he meets the Grim Reaper, as well as Moonshadow and Arianne. Upon fighting, Francois discovers that both he and Arianne are dead. Moonshadow, still alive, is able to leave. A pretty good finale to this series, which was missing for a while.

Fourth is "Firefly/Starfight" by Auraleon (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features an ordinary man who witnesses spaceships battling for control of Earth. Convinced that the aliens will control the Earth, he decides to kill himself. A slow paced, but okay story.

Last is "The Rainmaker" by Leo Duranona (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). During a heavy drought, a con man fools a town into giving him $500, saying that its for materials to bring rain. While traveling to the next town he comes across a cabin where a man tells him he's a rainmaker as well, and makes it happen by sacrificing the conman to the Gods by chopping his head in with an axe.

Eerie 108

Jim Laurier provides a cover painting of a giant spider in this issue of Eerie.

First is "A Lion in Our Midst" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features an interstellar war between a race of lion-like humanoids and humans. A third group called Gadfly tries to broker peace between the two by taking on the disguise of the leaders of each army. They are able to successfully broker peace, although they are killed while leaving by the leader of the human forces.

Second is "Beastworld" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story continues the series theme of our heroes battling giant insects. Monica is saved from the flood by Thomas, but by the end of the story pretty much the exact same thing happens as she is caught in a waterfall. Little dialogue in this fast paced, poor story. I'm still waiting for something interesting to happen after four parts.

Third is "A Juggler's Tale", the latest Samurai story. Art is by Val Mayerik and story is by Larry Hama. The issue's best story, it features Samurai and the princess joining a carnival as blind performers. The head of the carnival had his daughter kidnapped by the Yagyu clan and plans to kill Samurai to get her back, but the princess helps him kill the man. They escape, with the one eyed head of the Yagyu Clan quickly on their tail.

Fourth is "Race of the Damned" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Norman Mundy & Cary Bates (story). This story features a race taking place in space. Like all of the stories of this type published by Warren, this is an extremely dull and boring story.

Last is "Growing Pains" by Mike Zech (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story features a baby that kills its parents. A rather simple story with not much of a point to it.

Eerie 101

Jim Laurier provides the cover for this issue, featuring a robot in a futuristic city.

First is The Rook in "The Martians Are Coming, The Martians Are Coming!" by Jim Starlin & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The art in this story looks markingly different than the usual art for Starlin and Alcala, an odd combination. Like most of the recent Rook stories, this features a dual storyline of the Rook in the past and Bishop Dane & Manners on an adventure. The Rook goes about a hundred years in the past where he encounters a robot inventor and a rival of his, who ends up being Adolf Hitler's father. In the present Dane and Manners help stop a revolt by members of the US's own government. Somewhat better than the last few Rook stories for the simple fact that its considerably shorter and simpler.

Second is the second part of "Gotterdammerung!" by Isidro Mones (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Our heroes battle the aliens, trying to retake the Earth from them. During the fight Jericho is severly injured, then transported to another human ship where one of our hero's father is aboard. They fight off the aliens and are reunited as the story ends.

Third is the third part of "The Horizon Seekers" by Leo Duranona (art) and Leo Duranona & Cary Bates (story). Our heroes depart the mountain and arrive in a warmer landscape where they are pursued by a group of tribesman. They are chased to a castle filled with knights and a wizard named Merlin. Upon entering its revealed that it is actually just a museum and Merlin is just an old man who like them has lost his memories and is merely hypnotizing people into believing that they are actually in the middle ages. As the story ends the tribesman arrive once more to attack the castle.

The issue concludes with Hunter II in "Three Flames of the Phoenix" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Ten years have passed since the conclusion of the Hunter II saga. Karas is set to be married, but an old wizard arrives and tells him that she has been kidnapped by an evil wizard. Karas, the wizard and the Exterminator head off the fight the evil wizard. During their trip the allied wizard is killed and the Exterminator is trapped under a rock. Karas finally faces the evil wizard, who ends up being Mandragora (who ended up being the main villain in the series) himself. Browne Loe, the wizard who led him there arrives, and reveals that the entire scenario was a set up so he could kill Mandragora himself once and for all, which he does by sacrificing himself. This actually is a pretty good story from both an art and story standpoint, but its quite puzzling why this stand alone Hunter II story appears out of nowhere. It had been nearly 30 issues since the series concluded, and this didn't kick off a new series, but rather ended immediately after this single story. Its also dissappointing to see them use someone other than Paul Neary for the art, who did both the Hunter and Hunter II series.

1984 8

This is the first issue of 1984 I ever owned. The cover is by Jim Laurier. The aliens featured in one of the spaceships on this cover would get a cover dedicated to themselves on Creepy 119 in 1981.

First is "Painters Mountain" by Alex Nino (art) and the team of Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story). The star of the story, Painter is a man who grows a distaste of the tribe he lives with and leaves them. He forms his own society but realizes that his old tribe is in danger. He tries to warn them, but they ignore him and are all killed by a mass flood.

Next is "All You Need is Love" the first part of the 'Herma' series. Art is by Jose Gonzalez and story is by Bill Dubay. The Herma series was originally drawn by Jose Gonzalez about five years before this issue and was published first in Europe. It features a frozen warrior woman, Herma being discovered who is thawed out and comes back to life. This being 1984, naturally Herma is obsessed with sex and sleeps with anyone she sees, man or woman. At the end of the story a sultan captures her to be one of his many wives. Gonzalez's art is quite good here, with lots and lots of naked beautiful women

The finale of "Twilight's End" is third, with art by Rudy Nebres and story by Jim Stenstrum (credited to Alabaster Redzone). Zev heads back to rescue Rena, whose colony of Enlighteneds has been completely destroyed and overtaken by the Throwbacks. A fellow observer suddenly arrives and reveals the truth, that Zev is a human being, and that humans have become so evolved that the Supreme Being of the universe seeked to wipe them out. Zev was used to see if humans could hide themselves in a primitive world. While he succeeded, it is too late and humanity, including Zev and his fellow observer are wiped out. This series ended up being quite a lot better than I originally expected it, particularly this very good final segment.

Fourth is the finale of "Mutant World" by Richard Corben (art) and Jan Strnad (story). Dimento gets tricked once again by a pair of fellow mutants who try to steal his food. He meets his lady friend, Julie (finally named for the first time here), but it ends up that she is actually a clone of the real Julie, who is long gone. Dimento gets to have sex with her, and the series ends once and for all. Overall this was a rather slow moving series, but put all 8 parts together and as a whole it ended up being pretty good. The art was quite nice throughout and featured a vast range of bizarre Corben creatures.

Fifth is part two of "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (art & story). Ghita and Thenef recruit a new ally, a half troll called Dahib. The three of them find some armor for Ghita and using Khan Dagon's sword, battle a number of trolls. Not as good a segment as the first in this series from a story standpoint. Thorne's art continues to be interesting and unique however.

Sixth is "Madmen and Messiahs" by Abel Laxamana and Bill Dubay (story). A so-so story featuring a future Earth where of all people... Ted Kennedy!?!?!? is President. The government has gone out of control and the people have decided to rebel. In the end it ends up that the main character is Kennedy's own nephew, but is killed off by the soldiers.

The issue wraps up with "Once Upon a Holocaust" by Alex Nino (art) and the team of Nicola Cuti & Bill Dubay (story). In a post apocalyptic world a soldier, Zero leads another soldier, Hardtack into a cryogenics lab where the only 3 women left in the world rest in suspended animation. Hardtack screws up on thawing one of the women, killing her, but the other two come out alive. Zero kills Hardtack so the women will be just his, but the truth is soon revealed, that it was all for nothing as they are both androids!

1984 6

The cover of this issue is by Jim Laurier, featuring an alien creature.

"The Warhawks" is up first, by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features an interview with the leader of the Warhawks, a group of killers and mercenaries who go on various adventures.

Second is the last part in the Idi Amin saga, "The Final Days of Idi Amin!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Dogmeat and Idi arrive in America. After making their way to the ground they end up fighting some mutants who imprison them underground. There they meet a crazy guy with multiple personalities, Genghis Khan and Napolean. Dogmeat finally has enough and decides to leave them, ending our story. Not all that good an ending for a series that had insanely beautiful art but not all that great a story.

"Liason Aboard a Skylab" is third, by Alex Nino (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). This story features a newlywed alien couple whose ship approaches Earth. The story also surrounds the scientists and technicians on the Earth researching what is going on. Not too good a story with usual good Nino art though.

Next is the newest segment of "Mutant World" by Richard Corben (art) and Jan Strnad (story). This segment of the story features Dimento being let into the military facility where his lady friend has been taken by a pair of foolish guards. Meanwhile the priest from the second segment returns and makes his way through the facility. There it is revealed by a pair of scientists that he and Dimento are actually clones created in the facility.

"Twilight's End!", a new series is next. It is drawn by Rudy Nebres and written by Jim Stenstrum (under his pseudonym Alabaster Redzone). It features an astronaut being sent down to investigate a primative planet. He is accompanied by a small machine that helps keep him in line. While there he finds a primitive woman who accompanies him. They are unable to understand each other, but she is more intelligent than she seems and appears to dislike his company.

Last is another segment in the Rex Havoc saga, "She Who-Must-Be-Okay!" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). The 'She' of the story is a woman in ancient Egypt who caught her lover Kallikrates cheating on her. She killed him in a rage and was banished. She found the kingdom of Kor where she became their leader and lived for thousands of years. In the present day a man enlists the Asskickers of the Fantastic believing that he is Kallikrates's descendent. They head to Kor and meet 'She', who instead believes that Rex is Kallikrates's descendent. She becomes enraged but our heroes end up beating her by getting lucky when her power of immortality suddenly goes away and she perishes. A long story, but probably best of the issue.

Creepy 109

Very bizarre looking spaceships on the cover of this issue of Creepy, done by Jim Laurier.

Up first is "Vampire Dawn" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a vampire found in an outpost in the Arctic. By biting some of the men, they are turned into vampires, and soon all but two of the men are vampires. While a helicopter comes to rescue them, knowing that they will just be attacked as well, the last remaining man blows everything up.

"The Organizer" is next, by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). It features scientists turning prison inmates into bugs so they can use miniature cameras to find information on another criminal. All but two are killed, but they do successfully complete their mission only to find themselves abandoned as there is no way for the scientists to turn them back to normal. They get revenge by amassing a large swarm of bugs to attack them.

Third is "The Ravenscroft Affair" with art by Paul Neary and story by Bill Dubay. It features a man who opens up a hole to another dimension. There he sees a monster that he becomes obsessed with encountering again. He spends a long time building a machine to open up the hole to the other dimension again and builds a sculpture of the creature to provide as a gift. Not having a gift however, the monster tears his head off and tries to use that! This art looks absolutely nothing like Neary's usual stuff.

Next is "Alien Affair" by Val Mayerik (art) and Cary Bates (story). It features an alien organism that starts growing around a ship and eventually transforms the three astronauts within the ship to turn into alien like creatures as well. Two are killed while the last one is captured.

Last is "Heart of Darkness" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Mantlo (story). It features a man in possession of some animals that he crashes on a planet with. Aliens that look like chimps come after him. He eventually is killed by them. Not that good a story and Bermejo's artwork is absolutely dreadful, its hard to even tell that its him.