Creepy 48

This is an all reprint issue of Creepy. Even the cover is a reprint, showing smaller versions of 12 previous Creepy covers. This issue is dated October 1972. This issue is comprised of primarily stories from the original Goodwin era of Creepy.

Up first is "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 8. A man comes into possession of Dracula's coffin and sits in it, becoming Dracula himself. He invites people to his mansion then steals one of the women and runs away with her. The Van Helsings start looking for him and find a monster in a cave.

Second is "The Coffin of Dracula Part 2" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 9. This story continues from the previous one. A man who had sat in Dracula's grave becomes Dracula himself. The story surrounds a number of men pursuing him, who eventually are successful in destroying him.

Third is "The Castle on the Moor" by Johnny Craig (story & art, credited to Jay Taycee), from Creepy 9. A group of tourists in a castle find themselves under attack by a werewolf, the son of the castle's owner. Soon only two are left, but are able to kill the werewolf with a silver bullet. One of the survivors reveals himself a ghoul however, and kills the last remaining person so he can eat her.

Fourth is "Moon City!" by Al McWilliams (art) and Larry Engleheart (story), from Creepy 4. This story tells of a settlement made on the moon. One of the workers who constructs the settlement returns to Earth, gets married, and heads to the moon with his wife. But there they are attacked and killed by hungry dogs who were on the moon all by themselves.

Fifth is "Swamped" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 3. A criminal is under pursuit by law enforcement in the middle of a swamp. He comes across a mansion occupied by three vampires. Rather than be killed by them, he leads them to the men pursuing him who are all killed by the vampires. He is captured by the vampires but kills them with stakes during the daytime and runs back out to the swamp... only to be killed by the vampires that the men pursuing him became.

Sixth is "Thumbs Down!" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne T. Murphy (story), from Creepy 6. Yet another run at the most commonly reprinted story in Warren history. The story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to come back from the dead to take revenge. This story would probably be reprinted by Warren over the years more than any other story.

Seventh is "The Cosmic All" by Wally Wood (story & art), from Creepy 38. Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. When they finally find a planet with humanoid people who attack them and are killed, leaving behind a message that their death was clean compared to whats going to happen to the astronauts. They decide to sleep there and the next morning two of the astronauts find everyone else reduced to skeletons. They escape, but one of them sends their ship crashing to Earth. Immediately after the flesh falls off their bodies, turning into the blob seen before, known as the 'Cosmic All' that is bringing peace to the universe by turning everyone to blobs. A very interesting sci-fi story.

Eighth is "Drink Deep!" by John Severin (art) and Otto Binder (story, as Eando Binder), from Creepy 7. A wealthy ship owner brings people on tours of the sea, telling them of his ancestor who was a pirate. He is very cruel to his crew, causing them all to quit. He soon is able to gain a new crew, but it ends up that they are actually dead, killed by his ancestor, and they cause his ship to sink, leaving him at the bottom of the ocean with his ancestor's victims.

Last is "The Adventure of the German Student" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 15. This is an adaption of a Washington Irving story. A german student staying in Paris meets a beautiful woman by the guillotine and sleeps with her. The next day he wakes up to find her dead! When he summons the authorities, they reveal that she was executed the previous day and her head falls off! The student goes crazy and ends up in an asylum, where he dies.

Eerie 1

Today will be covering the first ever issue of Eerie. I'll start off by saying I don't actually own this issue. I do own all the content in it in some form or another though. This is the rarest Warren magazine of all time, only approximately 200 issues or so actually existed. The story goes that back in September 1965 Warren was planning on creating a companion magazine for Creepy called Eerie, but heard that a rival publisher was planning on using the same title. By rushing this issue to publication with a reprinted cover and all reprinted stories, Warren was able to copyright the name. What was supposed to be the first issue of Eerie became the second issue of Eerie.

The cover for this issue is by Jack Davis, and is a reprint of a subscription ad from the second issue of Creepy.

First story is "Image of Bluebeard" by Joe Orlando (art) and Bill Pearson (story), from Creepy 7. A mysterious assassin plagues the countryside. Meanwhile a young woman marries an older man who cares for her, but forces her to stay on his estate in the woods. He has a cabin near their house that he refuses her to see. After finding out that he's married three times before and discovering a book about bluebeard in his library, she becomes convinced that he's the killer and stabs him just as he is about to bring her into the cabin. But it ends up that the killer had already been captured and the cabin was just filled with animals he had gathered to keep her company.

Second is "Death Plane" by George Evans (art) and Larry Ivie (story), from Creepy 8. Evans was a terrific artist at EC but unfortunately did very few Warren stories, just this and a few for Blazing Combat. This story features a mysterious plane that is taking out both American and German planes during the war. One of the American officers is killed and realizes that the ghost of each person killed appears in the plane until they can kill someone else.

Last is "The Invitation" with art by Manny Stallman and story by Russ Jones, Larry Englehart and Maurice Whitman, from Creepy 8. A Baron gets in a car accident and comes across a mansion where vampires live. He convinces them to let him live as long as he brings them victims. He does, but eventually they turn him into a vampire as well. Whitman would very lamely repeat this exact same story in Creepy 17 in the story "A Night Lodging".

Creepy 8

An early issue of Creepy, featuring Gray Morrow's first cover for Warren's horror magazines. The frontis for this issue, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

Up first is "The Coffin of Dracula" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man comes into possession of Dracula's coffin and sits in it, becoming Dracula himself. He invites people to his mansion then steals one of the women and runs away with her. The Van Helsings start looking for him and find a monster in a cave. This story would be concluded in the next issue.

Next is "Death Plane" by George Evans (art) and Larry Ivie (story). Evans was a terrific artist at EC but unfortunately did very few Warren stories, just this and a few for Blazing Combat. This story features a mysterious plane that is taking out both American and German planes during the war. One of the American officers is killed and realizes that the ghost of each person killed appears in the plane until they can kill someone else.

Another EC great is next, Johnny Craig, using the pseudonym 'Jay Taycee' in his Warren debut, "The Mountain". This story, like the previous one, is done in pencil only. A woman wandering in the winter wilderness comes across a cabin on a mountain and meets a man inside who asks her to bring the town mayor to him so he can take over his mind. She does so and the young man reveals his true self, the Devil, who is able to wreak havoc on the world now that she has brought him a body he can use to escape the cabin in which he has been trapped.

Fourth is "The Invitation" with art by Manny Stallman (in yet another Warren debut in this issue) and story by Russ Jones, Larry Englehart and Maurice Whitman. A Baron gets in a car accident and comes across a mansion where vampires live. He convinces them to let him live as long as he brings them victims. He does, but eventually they turn him into a vampire as well. Whitman would very lamely repeat this exact same story in issue 17 in the story "A Night Lodging".

"Adam Link's Mate", one of the many Adam Link stories by Warren appears next, with art by Joe Orlando and story by Otto Binder. In this story, a scientist convinces Adam to create a female robot, Eve, which he does. The scientist then manages to manipulate their minds using a helmet he puts on them and gets them to rob banks for him. Adam is freed of the helmet's influence when a friend stops by, but he is attacked by Eve and thrown over a cliff to his apparant demise.

"A Vested Interest" is next, by George Tuska (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Ron Parker (story). A man sees a werewolf and confides in a stranger at a bar about it. He goes with the stranger to find the werewolf and brings a camera with him, and the stranger ends up being the werewolf. He reveals a gun with silver bullets in the camera, but the werewolf, whose wearing a bullet proof vest gets the better of him.

Last is "Fitting Punishment" by Eugene Colan (art, in his Creepy debut) and Goodwin (story). It features a grave digger who gets caught by the police in the act. He hides in a mausoleum and steals a dead man's clothes to escape, but the clothes shrink while he's wearing them, killing him.