My Top Skywald Stories

Many years back when I covered Warren I made a post of my favorite Warren stories; now the time has come to do the same for Skywald. For Warren it was fairly easy to determine my top stories, as there were quite a number that really stood out to me just from memory. For Skywald it was a bit harder. Very few stories were as striking to me, especially from an intellectual level. Not that I didn't enjoy going through the Skywald library; I absolutely did, but it unfortunately never hit the heights for me that Warren did. That said, I've spent the time going back over my prior posts and synopsis and have come up with my list of what I considered the highlight of Skywald. While my picks were primarily based on the writing, I will admit that the art at times also came into play, and many of the stories were concentrated from a few artists. Hewetson was the writer for all but one of those included in my top 10 list.

This list is specifically one-time stories; all ongoing series have been excluded. This wouldn't have had that major an impact on the list aside from a few stories that come to mind including one of the stories in the Shoggoths series, one of the stories in the Autobiography of a Vampire series and the Saga of the Victims series as a whole. I'm not sure if all 3 would have made my top 10, but they'd at least rank among my honorable mentions, which I have included below:

Time Stop - Nightmare #2
Gruesome Crewcut - Psycho #3
Slime World - Nightmare #5
Broken Sparrow - Nightmare #6
Horror Has 1 Thousand Faces - Psycho #7
Alone - Nightmare 1972 Special
The Transplant - Psycho #10
The Comics Macabre - Scream #1
What the Hell is Dracula Doing Alive and Well in 1974?! - Nightmare #19
A Tale of Horror -Nightmare #20
I Never Heard of a Ghost Actually Killing Anyone! - Scream #9
Kill, Kill, Kill, and Kill Again - Nightmare #22

My Top 10 Skywald Stories

10. "Whether Man or Scarecrow" - Nightmare 1973 Winter Special; story by Al Hewetson, art by Felipe Dela Rosa

This one is a fun combination of a Pinocchio-type story (with a scarecrow coming to life instead of a puppet) and the concept of having wishes. A scarecrow named Perry is approached by an old man one day who claims he can grand him three wishes. In a traditional tale, Perry would take advantage of this to become human and be with his crush, the farmer's daughter, Judy. And well, while he certainly tries for that, things go spectacularly bad for him in every way possible. Like many stories on this top 10 ranking, Hewetson takes things really over the top here, and its a blast.

9. "...Suffer the Little Children" - Psycho #9; story by Al Hewetson, art by Xavier Villanova

A governess arrives at a mansion to take care of two young children, Flora and Miles, only to find that things are totally not what they seem. Both children are mentally disturbed, impacted by the recent death of their brother. From here the story takes a lot of twists and turns, bringing the reader on an exciting ride up to its surprising ending.

8. "A Plot of Dirt" - Psycho #9; story by Doug Moench, art by Felipe Dela Rosa

Like EC comics, Skywald did a number of stories featuring corpses returning from the dead; this story was one of the best. It features Philip, a corpse summoned from the grave by the evil Craig, who was responsible for his death due to jealousy over a woman. Largely told from Philip's perspective, we have a sympathetic protagonist, despite being a corpse and hope he will be able to come out of Craig's spell and get his revenge.

7. "The Old Vampire Lady" - Psycho #16; story by Al Hewetson, art by Jesus Duran

Every once and a while Hewetson would eschew the typical type of plot and instead provide us a story that acted more as a historical account or biography. This is one of such stories. A young photographer comes across the titular vampire lady, who tells him her horrifying life from her childhood to now. Jesus Duran was one of my favorite Skywald artists and he does an effective job providing a scary atmosphere throughout.

6. "Now... Another Maniac!" - Psycho #18; story by Al Hewetson, art by Maelo Cintron

This story was a rare one drawn by Maelo Cintron that did not feature the human gargoyles characters. It also is unique for a Skywald story in that it has no supernatural element to it. Our protagonist plans to kill a man. While he is able to successfully pull it off, a bike he ran over comes back to haunt him in a big way. The story also is memorable for me as the first Skywald story I ever read, due to coming across it in a collection of horror comic stories years ago.

5. "The Artist's Other Hand" - Psycho #14; story by Al Hewetson, art by Jesus Suso Rego

One of the really fun things about Skywald was their willingness to break the fourth wall, and this story is a perfect example of that. It stars the story's artist, Suso, who gets sick of the ridiculous story his editor, Hewetson, writes for him. The two get into a big conflict over how to improve the story, and neither can come to an agreement resulting in a fist fight between the two. Hewetson loved to put himself in his stories (off the top of my head I think this happened at least 10 times, if not more) and this is the best such example.

4. "Limb from Limb from Death" - Nightmare 1972 Special; story by Al Hewetson, art by Pablo Marcos

One of Skywald's most gory and over the top stories. A trio of men are trapped in the Sahara desert. One of them, a doctor, convinces the other two that the only way they have to survive is to eat each other. Each of the other two men gives up an arm for this, under the promise from the doctor that if they are saved he will have his own arm sawed off. Well, they are saved before that happens, so the big question is whether the doctor will actually go through with it?

3. "Diary of an Absolute Lunatic" - Nightmare #14; story by Al Hewetson, art by Felipe Dela Rosa

A man named Munro appears in the 1920s in an insane asylum, claiming to be a time traveler. Coming from 70 years from the future, he tells of how a madman threatens to destroy the Earth if his demands are not met. Munro makes his way through time, including witnessing the Earth blow up! Is he telling the truth? While we don't know with absolute certainty, the ending to the tale provides a pretty strong indication. Beyond being a fun story to read, this story also boasts some strong artwork from Dela Rosa, particularly during the time travel sequence.

2. "The Day That Satan Died" - Psycho #13; story by Al Hewetson, art by Felipe Dela Rosa

This story proves that Hewetson could turn out a great story even if the ending is literally spoiled in the title. A young woman hijacks a small plane and then purposely causes it to crash into a snowy mountain. Its all part of a plot on her part to get one of the other passengers to sacrifice their soul so she can satisfy a deal with Satan to preserve her youth. Only she soon learns to her dismay that her fellow passengers include the abominable snowman, a vampire and Satan himself! The sheer ridiculousness of this story makes it quite a fun one to read and Dela Rosa's artwork serves the story quite well.

1. "The 13 Dead Things" - Psycho #15; story by Al Hewetson, art by Jesus Duran

An imprisoned count in the 17th century sits in a cell in a tower, and comes up with an idea about how to fake his death so he can escape and take revenge. For pages on end we see our protagonist imagining himself going on a rampage and brutally killing those who have wronged him. When he realizes a possible flaw in his escape plan this doesn't stop him from continuing to plot his revenge, and we see him once again slaying those who have wronged him, but this time as a corpse! The story is topped off by a hilarious, but very fitting ending. This story is so ridiculously over the top it needs to be seen to be believed. Just when you think it can't get any more absurd after seeing our protagonist kill so many people in horrifying ways, we get it repeated with him doing it as a rotting corpse.

Psycho #22

Prieto Muriana provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated November 1974. This issue is all reprints with the exception of the first story.

Our sole new story for this issue is "Die, Frankenstein's Monster!", a continuation of the new Frankenstein series recently started up in Scream. It is written by Al Hewetson and has art by Cesar Lopez. The monster begins the story with the origins of the term Prometheus, which was used for the subtitle of Mary Shelly's original novel of Frankenstein "The Modern Prometheus". Frankenstein's monster travels through the mountains of Romania, finding an injured goat and bringing it to a cave, where he finds two coffins. He opens one and finds a man inside, Dracula, who immediately attacks him. The monster eventually knocks Dracula out only to be bitten in the neck by his female companion, who finds his blood muccused and disgusting. Dracula and Frankenstein tell each other their stories. Dracula's companion, Leah, comes up with a name for the monster, Damon, and the two kiss. When Dracula heads out in bat form to find some food, Leah reveals to Damon that the story Dracula told him of his origins, about him being a force for good is all lies, and that the power of vampirism is given by Satan. Dracula returns. He and Damon argue, and Dracula puts Leah under a trance, but finds that with the sun coming out, he must rest. He tells Damon to take Leah and go. Upon carrying Leah outside, Damon finds that her body immediately decomposes due to exposure to the sun. The shadow of Damon holding Leah's body forms a cross, which also kills Dracula. This was a fairly good story, with some decent art as well. A good thing we got some quality with our only new story of the issue.

"Die, Frankenstein's Monster!"

Next is "Revolution" by Rick Margopoulos (story) and Tom Sutton/Dan Adkins (art), originally published in Psycho #2. On the Planet Sade slaves are constantly forced to fight in "games", battles in a coliseum against giant monsters. The King upon hearing of a possible rebellion instead desires more slaves to fight in more games to quell the populace. So the games become more and more severe, leading to a revolt by the citizenry, who also release all the monsters. The King and his men are forced to flee the planet on a spaceship, landing on another one where carnivorous plants soon attack them. The men flee towards what appears to be a city sitting atop a lake. The king tosses away all his underlings and his own daughter to save his own hide, only to realize that the lake itself is a blob-like entity that consumes him. Adkins' work is barely noticeable on this story, making it look like a Sutton solo story.

Third is "The Vow!" by Pat Boyette (story & art), originally published in Psycho #6. An aristocrat named Aaron becomes a single father when his wife dies from the plague. The plague ravishing the countryside and the aristocrats being slayed by the common folk, he flees, eventually finding work as an overseer of the disposal of the bodies of those who died from the plague. Aaron soon realizes with horror that his daughter Cassandra thinks dead bodies are real and her friends! Time passes, and Cassandra starts a relationship with a local ruffian named Andrew who is rumored to be the paramour of the Empress. Aaron is scared of what will happen if she finds out about the affair, but Cassandra says she'd rather die than be without him. Aaron comes to a good solution; he rats out Andre to the Emperor, who has Andrew killed, then due to his job collects his body and provides Cassandra his body! Its always a joy to read a Pat Boyette horror story.

"The Vow"

Next is "Birth Announcement" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ramon Torrents (art), originally printed in the Psycho 1972 Annual. In this brief four page story, a man is anxious as his wife is about to give birth. He thinks of how he met his wife when he saw her swimming in the coast of Cape Cod. His wife is soon revealed to be a mermaid, and she has given birth to a large number of eggs which they bring home with them, waiting for them to hatch. A rather predictable ending to this story, but Torrents' art is excellent as usual. The story is said to take place in the town of Winchester by Cape Cod, but as someone who lives in Massachusetts, I can say the town of Winchester is actually nowhere close to Cape Cod.

Next is "Phantom of the Rock Era" by Chuck McNaughton (story) and Ralph Reese (art), originally published in Nightmare #4. A young woman, Lala, sees Roddy Skeane, a guitarist and singer perform at a club and decides to hook her ride to his, thinking he will eventually become famous. Lala is rather disgusted by his ugly face, but is convinced he will become famous and loves the lavish lifestyle she is hoping to get for them. Eventually Roddy reveals the rest of his band to Lala, and she finds out they all had died in a witchcraft ceremony and have been resurrected from the dead! Roddy wants her to join them permanently and sacrifices her so she can come back from the dead like them. I wasn't the biggest fan of this story, but Reese does a great job with the art.

Sixth is "The Midnight Slasher" by Doug Moench (story) and Pablo Marcos (art), originally published in Psycho #6. A killer known as the Midnight Slasher haunts the streets, stabbing to death any innocent bystander that comes upon him. A maid, Miss Watts, tends to a young woman she serves, only for her to be the next victim! Watts talks to the local constable, who has raised suspicion for himself due to how quickly he makes it to the murder scenes. He comes across Miss Watts later that night by a bell tower, where Watts is revealed to by the slasher, only for her to be crushed by the bell! This story packs a double twist in the end, with it not being enough for Watts to be revealed as the Slasher (which was pretty predictable anyway).

"Within the Torture Chamber"

Seventh is "Within the Torture Chamber" by Kevin Pagan (story) and Doug Wildey (art), originally published in Nightmare #5. Wildey does a good job here, providing artwork that reminds me of Angelo Torres. The story takes place in Spain in the 16th century, where a woman is executed by torture, after having had her tongue torn out. The judge and executioners leave only for a noble, Don Alexander to come down, and speak to her body, revealing he falsely had her accused because she spurned him, resulting in her execution. The judge, who had heard it all fights Alexander but is slain by his sword. Alexander flees, but goes back for his sword, not wanting evidence left behind. He starts getting quite nervous however, and the judge rises, tearing out his tongue and chaining him to the wall. The ending to this story was somewhat confusing (I have included my interpretation here).

Last is "Vault of a Vampire", featuring Al Hewetson for the story and Serg Moren for the art. This story was originally published in Nightmare #3 and was actually Hewetson's first story for Skywald. A vampire stalks ancient Rome, attacking someone in the Arena, and having previously appeared at other crowded events. A trio of men seek to destroy the vampire. During its latest attack, they follow the vampire to the graveyard and the crypt where it makes its home. They wait outside the blocked entrance, thinking they can wait out the vampire. A couple of weeks pass and they break in, finding that the vampire has started devouring its own flesh. They then kill it with swords. I question Hewetson's knowledge of vampires in this story, it should be seeking to drink blood, not consume flesh...

Gene day provides a one page pin up feature on the back cover.

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.

Psycho #16

Domingo Gomez provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, cover dated January 1974.

First is "The Old Vampire Lady" by Al Hewetson (story) and Jesus Duran (art). A young photographer comes to interview the wretched old vampire lady. She tells him of her past, starting from her childhood and how her headmistress was a vampire. At 10 years old she was bitten and changed into a vampire herself and she would bite classmates and boys. Eventually a man named Baron Meinster who is a vampire comes to see them and they live with him, and our protagonist, now grown up, turns on the headmaster along with Meinster. She and him kill many victims but Meinster is eventually found and killed. Returning home, she finds her mother has died, of a broken heart after finding what came of her daughter. She eventually finds a man who falls in love with and marries her, but upon finding out she is a vampire, his strong religious beliefs cause him to commit suicide by stabbing himself. We return to the present, finding out that the old vampire lady is 175 years old and she brings the photographer to a tomb where she still posses the now rotted body of her husband. Some excellent, macabre art by Duran here and it was a fairly interesting story too, telling us the various events of the titular character's life rather than being focused on just one plot.

"The Old Vampire Lady"

Next is "Monster, Monster Rise from Thy Crypt" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Where we last left this series, our protagonist, a werewolf had shot himself in the head. But it seems like he hasn't died, as it was not a silver bullet. The bullet is still lodged in his head however. An old gypsy woman, Kirsten, finds him and wondering if he is her son brings him out with her while he is unconscious. Soon her daughter Nola approaches, being chased by a man named Dominik. She demands Dominik leave and she, Nola and our protagonist, now in his human form, travel in a wagon to the gypsy village where Dominik declares (without her consent) that Nola is marrying him. Back in his werewolf form, our protagonist attacks Dominik, but the bullet lodged in his head weakens him and he, Kirsten and Nola flee when a plank is thrown at him (quite lame, I know) and Dominik swears revenge as the story ends. This series had an interesting enough start, but now its starting to get dragged out (and now involving gypsies after seeming to be a urban story earlier is odd).

Third is "They Lived in Darkkos Manse!", the latest in the Darkkos Manse series, by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Joe Dentyn) and Maro Nava (art). A fugitive named Paul Muni flees from the authorities into the swamp and comes across Darkkos mansion. He climbs to the top of it as his pursuers arrive and sees a humanoid monster who kills his pursuers and dogs, but then climbs the mansion towards him! Paul jumps off, but into the quicksand, which he sinks into. The monster pulls him out and he is now another monster guarding the swamp. Nava's style comes off a bit cartoonish here, but it overall works for this story.

"The Thing With the Red Ribbon in its Hair"

Fourth is "The Thing with the Red Ribbon in Its Hair", a one page feature by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). Tom marries a woman named Clarice for her money then kills her, revealing to her that he is in it for the money. But she either returns from the dead or doesn't die at all (the narrative is rather confusing) and forces him to live out his life with her. Some okay art by Gomez but a rather confusing story.

Fifth is "The Thing in the Box" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Harvy Lazarus) and Fernando Rubio (art). A rather odd approach in this story in that only the final panel has any dialogue in it. An old man's wife falls asleep while they are on the porch, and he takes the opportunity to kiss another old woman who stops by. His wife wakes up, sees it and goes to the shed where she grabs a box. She leaves it at her rival's front door, who opens it and some tentacles come out and she dies. The old woman then puts it back in the shed. That's about it, a pretty simple story.

Sixth is "Hunger of the Slaughter-Sludge Beasts!" by Doug Moench (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). Detectives Harry and Frank investigate some weird occurrences where bodies are found, reduced to mere skeletons in areas with water or drains such as a bathtub or swimming pool. Meanwhile the wealthy Clinton owns a company that dumps chemicals into the river. Naturally, these chemicals have led to some sludge like creature forming and it is soon revealed that it can take the form of inanimate objects. It turns into a garbage can and then kills a homeless man that goes through it. We then see it traveling through drains and killing various people in their homes and a woman at a laundromat. Harry and Frank discover what is happening when they see the sludge at the lake, but it ends up killing them by taking the form of their car. At the end of the story we see that it even can take the form of a plane and a human being as a man returns home to his wife, who is actually the sludge. A pretty good story here, both horrifying and funny at times and Suso provides his usually strong art performance.

"Hunger of the Slaughter Sludge Beasts"

Seventh is "A Tale in Old Egypt: The Premature Burial" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). This brief two-page feature displays via hieroglyphics someone being mummified, waking up in a tomb and trying to get out but finding themselves locked in.

The issue concludes with "Greed" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Edward Farthing) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). A little girl's parents don't believe her when she tells them of a fish monster. We see that the monster, who is humanoid in form is real and he kidnaps her, telling her he will kill her before their eyes to teach humanity a lesson. He brings her to a cliff and prepares to throw her off in front of the large crowd that gathers to rescue her. The father is able to climb up the cliff and knock the monster off, but in its last moments he shows mercy and tosses the girl onto a cliff so she doesn't die with him. But unfortunately no one sees or hears her, so she dies. Quite a depressing ending here!

Nightmare #14

Xavier Villanova, usually an interior artist for Skywald, provides the cover for this issue, cover dated August 1973. This is a hilarious cover, my favorite out of all of Skywald thus far and is its own mini story!

This issue's frontispiece is "The Easter Island Things!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (artist). It features the statues of Easter Island, going on a rampage!

First story is "The Diary of an Absolute Lunatic" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). In the 1920s a madman is brought to a lunatic asylum. The doctor of the asylum starts reading some papers that was along with the man. In them, the madman, whose name is Munro, tells of how he is a time traveler. In the year 1999 the Presidents of Earth gathered to celebrate. One such President however, named Tuckle starts making demands for money and special privileges; if not provided he will blow up the Earth. People ignore his mad ravings and start proceeding to impeach him. Meanwhile Munro starts traveling through time and by doing so sees the Earth explode! He goes back in time, seeing the birth of nature, of humanity, but eventually his craft crashes, leaving him stranded in this time. The doctor decides to burn all the paperwork, considering it the ravings of a madman. When his assistant talks to the doctor about how its funny that the crazy President Tuckle shares the same name as him, he strangles her and blames Munro, as the story ends. A fairly strong effort, my favorite story of the issue. Dela Rosa also provides some pretty strong artwork as we get to the later part of the story and Munro starts traveling through time.

Time traveling in "Diary of an Absolute Madman"

Second is "The Plastic Plague" by Jack Katz (story and art). It had been quite a while since we've seen a Jack Katz story for Skywald, making me wonder if this was an inventory story. A group of prehistoric-like people discover a message, from the past, when Earth's civilization was more advanced. It is from a man named Neal Dennis who created advanced plastic. It becomes extremely popular to use and a massive industry grows. There even become plastic people! But plastic people don't consume, the economy is expected to collapse and Neil is asked to create something that will destroy the plastic. He creates an organism that consumes the plastic. Naturally it escapes, and the organisms quickly grows into large slug-like beings. Society collapses and we see him putting together his message, bringing us back to the people we saw at the start of the story.

Third is "Death of the 80th Victim!" by Doug Moench (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). A serial killer is stalking and killing East Indian women, and chopping off their hand. It is investigated by Inspector James Reston and his assistant Rahib. After Rahib's wife is killed he and Reston head out at night where Reston reveals that he is the killer. As a boy when his father was stationed in India, he was kidnapped and tortured, with his hand being cut off. Despising Indians, he purposely made sure to kill them and cut off a hand. After killing Rahib, Reston returns home, revealing a chest full of hands and writes a suicide note, chopping off his other hand and dying.

Fourth is the one page "...Werewolf..." by Ed Fedory (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). This brief feature is about the werewolf of Le Geaudan, which terrorized France.

Fifth is "...And the Corrupt Shall Dine!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). This is an incredibly confusing mess of a story and it is quite difficult to identify what is going on. Two men dine, one being the guest of the other. Flashbacks show that the host was a vampire, yet the guest either purposely led away a mob someplace else, or to another vampire who looks the exact same and gets killed, with the host leading the attack. The guest, enjoying the meal, ask for the recipe of what they are eating. The host reveals it was blood sucking leeches, then reveals he is a vampire and kills his guest.

"Starchild"

Sixth is "Charles Laughton: Scream Screen Scenes" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art). This two page feature is the second part of the Scream Scene series that we just saw premiere in Psycho. It is about Charles Laughton, the silent movie director/actor. We see scenes from movies such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Island of Lost Souls and Les Miserable. Similar to last time the brief scenes included aren't word for word adaptions to avoid copyright issues.

Seventh is "Starchild" by Bruce Jones (story and art). This is an inventory story held onto for a couple of years when Skywald's planned sci-fi magazine never happened. The robot Cyx travels through space with the titular Starchild, a girl who has grown up floating through space and is now 17 years old. Her parents were on board the ship Dori Ann, which was destroyed in a cosmic storm, but Cyx found her, still alive in her mother's womb and has kept her alive all this time. Finding a planet capable of life, she and Cyx go down there where she encounters various forms of wildlife, including a dinosaur! A spaceship eventually arrives and a man comes out. Starchild goes to be with him, leaving Cyx behind and the ship takes off. Jones' art is fairly good here, although a little lower quality than some of the other stories he had provided for Skywald. It was surprising to see a story with a happy ending! Not used to that for Skywald, or Jones personally for that matter.

Eighth is "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). Although it isn't under the Scream Scene title, this story appears to be another in the series, being only two pages in length and featuring a short scene from said movie.

"The Butchered at Earth's Core"

Ninth is "The Butchered at Earth's Core!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Jesus Suso Rego (art). While "Death of the 80th Victim!" was about Indians in London, this story literally takes place in India. A man comes across a leper who says he will tell him a story. The man follows the leper to his home where he provides him some water. Upon drinking, the man's head starts spinning. The leper takes off its cloak, revealing it to be wearing some weird uniform. The leper carries him down into a tunnel, revealing a spaceship as he appears to be an alien! On board are many other aliens that look like lepers. Our protagonist wakes up, being surprised to find that he is going to be used as part of a factory with many human victims! A pretty good effort from both Suso and Fedory here.

We wrap up with the latest story in the Gargoyles series, "And they Did Battle with the Thing from Underneath" from Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). Edward gets a job with a Mr. Roanoke who works on a tug boat, the Andy Jackson. He and Mina go through some difficulty and discrimination as they try to find an apartment for themselves. For the fourth time, some Satanists get involved, beating up Roanoke due to his employ of Edward. Suddenly a tentacled monster attacks Edward, who battles and kills it. His fight ends up being front page news in a newspaper! Edward decides that he and his family must leave Manhattan, at least for now and as the story ends they start hitchhiking. While Cintron's art is pretty decent, I'll admit to getting bored with the Gargoyles series at this point. The Gargoyles face discrimination for being gargoyles. Edward battles some monster summoned by or used by the Satanists. Over and over again. Yawn.

Psycho #13

Today I'm covering Psycho issue 13, cover dated July 1973 and painted by Vicente Segrelles. The cover features the story "The 13 Dead Things", yet that story doesn't appear within! It will appear a couple of issues later in Psycho 15. Is it worth the wait? You'll have to wait until then to find out...

This issue's frontispiece is "Prologue to Horror" by Al Hewetson (story) and Domingo Gomez (art).

First up is "The Day That Satan Died" by Al Hewetson (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). On a small plane traveling towards Calcutta, captain Jack Boivon goes back to speak to his passengers, the large Bob, photographer Herbert and a young woman named Patti who is quickly revealed to be a radical communist and hijacks the plane. When Jack's co-pilot refuses to purposely crash the plane like she demands, she shoots him in the head and the plane promptly crashes into a mountain. Amazingly enough, all four survive. Patti reveals that she made a deal with Satan for her youth and beauty to last hundreds of years in exchange for her soul, but she's running low on time until the deal is up and needs someone else to give up their soul to retain it. She figures her fellow passengers have no choice but to agree to it or freeze to death. But this soon blows up in her face as Bob reveals he's the abominable snowman, Herbert reveals he's a vampire, and Jack reveals he's Satan himself! Patti's body immediately rots away, but Bob and Herbert, angry at having to live as monsters promptly stomp and tear Satan to shreds! I love this story, in fact may consider it my favorite Skywald story so far. Its the perfect representation of Skywald's drastically different style from Warren, where Hewetson is willing to go so over the top, enough so that one doesn't mind at all that the ending is spoiled by the title. Dela Rosa's characters often come off as quite ugly looking but that is in service to a story filled with monsters and villains like this one. The character Herbert makes a reference to working for Pilote magazine, a real magazine based out of France which would feature work from Selecciones Illustrada artists like Luis Garcia.

"The Day That Satan Died"

Second is "Monster, Monster, in the Grave!" by Augustine "Funnell (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). This story is a sequel to "Monster Monster on the Wall!" from Nightmare #12. Our protagonist, a bullied boy who is now grown up, and a werewolf, has killed a few bullies that had attacked him. He next returns to one of his childhood homes where a couple of more men wait. He breaks through and slaughters them. Afterwards he flees, running into the woods and finds a pistol, which he loads with a bullet and shoots himself in the head! I did not expect that ending at all! I figure that's got to spell the end to this series, right?

Third is "Let's All Drink to the Death of a Clown" by Doug Moench (story) and Fernando Rubio (art). A man, Mr. Cade, is pursued by a knife wielding... clown! Flashbacks reveal Cade, owner of a circus, pursuing one of his employees, a young woman named Beth, who is engaged to the clown, Bob. Bob punches out Cade when he continues to go after her, but thinks he and Beth have a secure spot in the circus and Cade won't get rid of them. Cade eventually does kill Bob, then fires all the other clowns in the circus as well. As we return to the present, he continues to flee, pursued by the killer clown, and is eventually confronted by many of them and is stabbed to death... or is he? We find as the story ends that it was actually a novelty knife, so I'm assuming he died of fright? Clowns were always scary to me as a kid, so they fit being used in a horror story such as this.

A werewolf... killing himself?

Fourth is The Heap in "When Dies a Lunatic... Dies a Heap" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). The Heap continues to go on a rampage in the subway, as we had seen at the conclusion of the previous story including killing a little girl. The Heap wanders off but is shot with some serum-infused shotgun shells which cause him to weaken and he is captured and transported via airplane. The Heap is able to break free of his bonds and jumps from the plane, landing coincidentally enough in the farm of his parents! They bring him in and the story concludes with The Heap at a dinner table with the two of them. And that, believe it or not, is the conclusion of The Heap series. Quite the odd and unexpected ending, that is for sure. I've read that Al Hewetson hated The Heap and wanted to get rid of him, which I assume led to these final two stories which were drastically different than those stories that had come before. The Heap was a recurring character that started up before Hewetson had even joined Skywald and didn't really fit the style of the magazines by this point, so I can get him ending it, although I wish he had done so in a manner that fit better with the stories that made up most of the series. The Heap ended up being largely a mindless monster towards the end, which simply wasn't interesting on a long term basis.

Fifth is the two page "A Taste of Human Flesh..." by Ed Fedory (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). Three men are lost at sea and start getting extremely hungry. They soon arrive at an island, only to discover it is full of cannibals! Two of the men are promptly cooked, but the last manages to escape, killing a native on his canoe and paddling away. Soon the hunger returns. When the man is eventually found, he has become a cannibal himself!

Sixth is "The Horror Within and Without" by Rich Buckler/Chuck McNaughton (story) and Mike Kaluta (art). This story was originally intended for the sci-fi magazine that Skywald cancelled, explaining why we're seeing a few collaborators we haven't seen in a Skywald magazine in a while. A man named J-1001011 (I'll just call him J the rest of the way) awakens in space, ordered to take part in an upcoming attack. J communicates with his ship's computer, which is ordering him to attack a city on a nearby planet. J also questions if there's any news of his parents but doesn't receive any response. J takes part of the attack and is able to successfully destroy the city as ordered, killing its inhabitants. When J returns he is told that his parents were killed in his attack! As the story ends his memory is wiped and he returns to sleep. A rather depressing tale, and I kinda knew from early on what the big twist would be.

The conclusion to "The Heap"

Seventh is the two page feature "The Raven" by Al Hewetson (story, credited to Jessica Vogel) and Manuel (art). Even Richard Arndt's Horror Comics in Black and White book doesn't fully identify who "Manuel" is and if that's his first name or last name. This brief story features a man who comes across a raven on a tree branch who can speak! The raven asks him to kiss him and that it is a beautiful woman, transformed by a witch. Once he does so, she actually transforms into a beautiful woman, but he reveals he is a vampire and bites her! She has one last twist though, she has rabies, causing him to die from being unable to breathe. Yet another story in this issue that hammers home twist after twist, this was a pretty good, short feature.

Eighth is "The Taste of Carrion" by Ed Fedory (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). At a funeral, a man bemoans the death of his daughter, Greta, and blames some nearby demons for her death, and the death of other children. When another body is found, a mob gathers, convinced that they will find the monster responsible if they check the local mausoleum and castle. Upon going inside the mausoleum they find millions of flies, which are revealed to be the monster. The townsfolk are soon all killed by them. This story didn't make the most sense to me (It is really hard to follow at times) and also drags on a bit too much towards the end.

We wrap up with "Scream Screen Scene: The Mummy" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). This is the start of a recurring feature in Skywald where they show a brief scene from a famous horror movie, but due to copyright don't exactly adapt the scene but rather use a similar one. In this case its the Mummy and features some archaeologists excavating a mummy, which immediately comes alive and attacks them.

Nightmare #12

Today I cover Nightmare 12, cover dated April 1973 and featuring a cover by Vicente Segrelles.

First is "Nightmare in the House of Poe" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). Rodney Serle is staying in New Orleans yet finds the partying there out of control. He goes to stay at a local rooming house only to find some small humanoid monsters grabbing him out of his bed and forcing him down some creepy stairways then into another party. Rodney awakens, revealing it to be a dream, but strange things continue to happen to him over and over again as he continues to experience bizarre dreams that come to life. This lengthy story at 15 pages is quite surrealistic and features some strong art by Sostres. It reminds me a lot of the type of stories we'd see from Jose Bea at Warren, such as the "Picture of Death" which also featured a man in a rooming house/inn who gets seized by strange monsters.

Next is "Premature Burial" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). With the last story being named after Edgar Allen Poe, this story is an actual Poe adaption, the first we have seen in Skywald (but not the last by a long shot as it will get quite common eventually). The first few pages of the story tell us of various situations where people were mistakenly buried alive or thought dead but really weren't. Our protagonist is afraid of this happening to him and arranges several ways for him to escape his coffin such as a bell and a way out of the coffin should he be declared dead. Yet when he strikes his head while on a boat, he awakens horrified to find himself in a coffin on said boat, and not his specially made one. After calling out people realize he's alive, although the final panel reveals that he was never in a coffin after all, just a tight bunk bed. A fairly good story here (this is a Poe story I'm not too familiar with so I don't know how faithful it is) and some excellent art from Xirinius.

Things get weird in "Nightmare in the House of Poe"

Third is "Kiss of the Vampires" by Chic Stone (story & art). Chic Stone hadn't done a story for Skywald in a while, having been pushed out by the Selecciones Illustrada artists and I suspect this was an inventory story held onto for a while before publication. Our story begins with Marisa, Priestess of the Undead chopping off the head of a man so she and her followers can drink his blood. The narrative then switches to Philip and Thatcher, a pair of men that have come to the town. Thatcher actually specializes in killing vampires and was called to the town to help with the recent incidents. Meanwhile Philip meets Marissa, not realizing she is a vampire and becomes her latest victim. Thatcher, after slaying a vampire himself is able to find the tomb where Marisa's followers sleep, slaying each of them with a stake. Marisa then arrives and she tries to possess him with her beauty, then stabs him with his own stake. She walks into a bear trap however and when the sun rises it kills her. Story-wise nothing too outstanding here but it was good to see Stone doing another story.

Next is "I am Dead: I Am Buried!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Prisoner Ed Warton travels through the swamps in Arkansas but is captured, then is whipped and thrown in a pit as an example to the other prisoners. To the guard's surprise, he dies. Warton's corpse rises from the pit, slays several guards then escapes into the swamp. From here on the story takes a pretty big left turn as we see the point of view of the writer of the story, trying to figure out how to conclude things. Suddenly Warton's corpse appears for real, demanding him to figure out a way to get him out of the swamps. He then requests a nearby kid to tell him how to end the story. From there the narrative returns to a few days earlier, where Warton is revealed to be dead for good and never rises as a corpse. Although oddly enough the body of a man and kid are now in the pit with him. I quite liked the left turn this story took, which made what would have been otherwise a typical corpse rising from the dead story into something more interesting.

Skywald's first Poe adaption, "Premature Burial"

Fifth is "The Night of the Corpse-Bride" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Frank Tanner is surprised to find that his uncle Phineas has left him five million dollars in his will when he passed away.The will includes a strange requirement though, Frank must get married in three days to get the money! Frank didn't even know his uncle that well, who had been married himself but his wife died on his wedding night. Frank meets a young woman named Barbara and asks her to marry him and she surprisingly accepts! When she discovers the true reason though, she flees from him, even though Frank has fallen in love with her for real. Barbara runs from him in a stormy night, getting struck by a car, but continues going until she reaches a graveyard. There Frank realizes she is just a corpse and was actually the long dead wife of his uncle Phineas! This story had a pretty good twist to wrap things up. Still bewilders me why his dead uncle would care about him getting married that quick though.

Sixth is "The Assassin-Bug" by Al Hewetson (story) and Antonio Borrell (art). We see a giant bug attacking a woman on the splash panel, then go back in time to a soldier in Asia. In exchange for saving a girl, her father gives the soldier an assassin bug, a small bug in a tiny cage that he says has special powers. Our protagonist returns to America where he becomes a hired assassin, and in a difficult jam on how to kill a prisoner, uses the bug on him. He continues to use the bug to kill people, yet finds that the bug is growing while he is shrinking with each successive murder. Eventually the bug turns on him. As the story ends however we see this is all his imagination, he never actually saved the girl and has been laying in a cell having lost his mind. The final panel also reveals that before going to war he was a bug exterminator.

"I Am Dead I Am Buried" completely breaks the fourth wall

The issue concludes with "Monster Monster on the Wall!" by Augustine Funnell (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). This story is Funnel's Skywald debut; he would go on to become an oft recurring writer for them. A mere four pages, this story features a kid who is bullied and beat up as a kid for being ugly. Now an adult, he returns to his hometown where some of the bullies find him. Yet it being the full moon, he transforms into a werewolf and kills them! Although originally intended as a stand alone, this story would become a recurring series and we'll see more in the series soon.

Nightmare 1972 Annual

This time I'll be covering the Nightmare 1972 Special, cover dated November 1972 with a cover by Fernando Fernandez, one of my favorite Warren artists. He never does any interior work for Skywald, but will do more covers.

The frontispiece for this issue is "Behind the Myth of the Bridge of Dracula" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). It tells of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who lived in Hungary in the 16th Century and would murder and bathe in the blood of women she had killed.

First story is "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). This story is an adaption of the famous novel by Robert Lewis Stevenson. The monstrous Mr. Hyde stalks the streets of London, including beating to death a little girl. Meanwhile Dr. Jekyll shocks his colleague by wanting to leave everything in his will to Mr. Hyde. As we soon find out, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same person, created via a formula that Jekyll has created to bring out his alter ego. Chaos ensues with Dr. Jekyll eventually killing himself and Hyde by jumping out a window. I have not actually read the original novel so I don't know how faithful an adaption this is, but am at least familiar with the concept. I was a bit surprised that they got through it all so quickly.

Second is "A Macabre Fact of Life: The Indian Rope Trick" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ricardo Villamonte (art). This two page feature is the Skywald premiere of Ricardo Villamonte, who would go on to become Skywald's most prolific artist. This feature tells of the Indian Rope Trick whereby a rope can raise on its own into the air and someone can climb up it. Yet this has a horrific turn as the boy climbing it goes into a cloud and his dismembered body parts start falling out. The boy is soon revealed to be unharmed though, it being just a hypnotic effect the magician was having on the audience.

Carillo provides some strong art in "Beauty is Only Skin Deep"

Next is "Beauty is Only Skin Deep" by Doug Moench (story) and Fred Carrillo (art). Taking place in the time of the French revolution, a woman named Countessa believes that she can restore her fading youth and beauty by slaying beautiful young women and bathing in their blood. Her servant Morde does the act of killing for her. The viewpoint then shifts to one of the young woman, who awakens, finding herself captured and in the Countessa's castle. We follow her as she makes her way through the castle, eventually coming across some of the slain victims. Morde takes a hold of her and brings her to the Countessa. The Countessa has found that her blood baths have not worked, and believes that the beauty escapes once her victims' blood leaves their bodies. She believes by having this girl killed without marking her skin, it will work. Morde soon brings the Countessa the woman's slain, unmarked body and drinks her blood, only to discover that Morde poisoned her and dies herself! This was a pretty good story with some Gothic art by Carrillo. A Filipino artist, he would do a fair amount of work for Warren, but not until near the end of Warren's life in the early 1980s. The Countessa seems directly inspired by Elizabeth Bathory, who had appeared in the frontispiece for this issue.

Fourth is "Limb From Limb From Death" by Al Hewetson (story) Pablo Marcos (art). Three men are trapped in the Sahara desert after their jeep runs out of gas. As days go by they start getting desperate and one of them, a doctor, says that they have to start eating each other or else they will starve to death. The doctor convinces the other two to have an arm sawed off before him, claiming that if they are saved he too will have an arm taken off. He proceeds to saw an arm off both his comrades which they eat, but they are then saved by a traveling plane. Now back in civilization, the doctor is afraid of the fact that he'll have to have his arm sawed off and decides to fake things, sending his fellow survivors the severed arm from a dead body. Yet pain starts growing in his arm, and he soon finds it rotting away and falling off. As the story ends we find that his arm didn't really fall off, but he's gone crazy and is being brought to the loony bin. Skywald continues to rely a bit too heavily on the last minute twist of things not being real (in fact this story is very reminiscent to Sand Castles from Psycho #6, both with its plot and ending, and both stories were drawn by Marcos), but the story does deserve some points for how over the top gruesome it is.

Marcos' "Limb from Limb from Death"

We next get another segment in the Nightmare World series, "A Grave Beneath the Sea!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Bill Payne (art). This story is based on the nightmare of a reader named Joseph Elliot. Joseph imagines himself on a boat in Scotland where the Loch Ness monster appears and he is pulled underwater, near the monster's offspring. But Joseph is able to ride the monster away, soon realizing however that he is sitting on an octopus! Eventually the monster brings him to the beach where he gets off of him. Like the previous Nightmare World story you need to know going in that based on a dream, the story is going to be a bit nonsensical and that is the case here.

Next is "Alone" by Bruce Jones (story and art). This story features a woman named Karin who walks home from work in New York City only to start receiving phone calls about how she is going to die. The calls continue and the caller eventually reveals that he was a hypnotist at a part she had recently gone to named the Great Konar. He has hypnotized her such that she will commit suicide by jumping off a building, much like his brother did due to her dumping him. Eventually the time comes for her to jump, but it is revealed that Karin had moved to the first floor and is perfectly okay. Bruce Jones is quite good at his twist endings and we have a good one here. His art continues to be really strong, making me feel a bit sad that he eventually turns to being just a writer.

After that is "And If A Fiend Should Come A Callin'" by Al Hewetson (story) and L.M. Roca (art). Roca was actually the first S.I. artist to appear in a Warren magazine and makes a rare appearance here for Skywald. The story features a student getting handed a piece of candy called a Green Gargoyle by an older man. Upon consuming it the boy finds himself pursued by monsters and makes his way to a cave where an actual gargoyle is waiting for him. He tells the gargoyle about the man and how he is providing samples to various other kids for free, and then they can get more by paying for it. The boy confronts the man saying he has some friends that also want the candy, but really brings him to a the gargoyle, who appears as a fluorescent fiend in the woods, and kills him. The candy in this story is quite obvious drugs. The gargoyle featured appears to have no relation to the gargoyles in the several prior Skywald stories.

Bruce Jones with "Alone"

The issue concludes with the cover story "The Day the Earth Will Die!" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferran Sostres (art). We see a film being made where the star is in a fantasy world with skeleton-like robots attacking him while riding flying horses. When the skeletons start running amok though they realize that they are actually real! Chaos ensues and even the military has to get involved! As the story hits its conclusion, we find that even the "reality" of this story was actually a film being made, by a race of ant-like aliens! Quite the bizarre finish to this story, and the issue.

Psycho #9

Domingo Gomez provides the cover for this issue of Psycho, featuring the character Slither-Slime Man. This issue is cover dated November 1972. Skywald continues to hit its stride, giving us a strong issue.

On the 2 page title of contents page we also get an introduction from the Slither-Slime Man drawn by Pablo Marcos.

Its "The Slither-Slime Man" yet again in the first story of the issue, written by Al Hewetson and drawn by Pablo Marcos. We meet him on the first page as he digs up a corpse, strangles it then grabs a hold of the skull. The sheriff gets frustrated with the grave being dug up, something which has happened before and visits the head of the local asylum, Fillius, thinking it is one of his patients. They take a hold of one of them, who likes to pull the heads off of rats, but when another grave is defiled they realize its not him. The sheriff thinks it may be Fillius, and when they come across him shoots him dead. Later than night he comes across an old crippled man in the rain, at his wife's grave and beats him to death with his crutch. He makes the mistake of standing on the grave of the real Slither-Slime Man, who rises up out of it and strangles him, pulling his head off. A fairly decent story with some good art by Marcos, but the character of Fillius looks just like the Slither-Slime Man which led to some confusion on my part.

We meet the "Slither Slime Man"

Second story is "The Ghastly Reunion" by Doug Moench (story) and Ramon Torrents (art). Gene is concerned that his young wife Bonnie is in love with Steve, a hired hand on their farm. He plots to "accidentally" kill Steve while hunting, shooting him with an arrow. He then buries his body. Bonnie, who really was in love with Steve, finds and digs up his grave, causing Gene to bury her alive with him.  Gene soon finds both of them out of their grave and attacking him however. It is revealed that Steve was a vampire, and while the arrow should have killed him, by burying Bonnie alive with him she was able to pull it out and turn her into a vampire as well. Torrents as always provides a really strong art performance, and we get a fairly strong story as well.

Third is "...Suffer the Little Children" by Al Hewetson (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). This story is identified as being a sequel to the 1891 novel Turn of the Screw by Henry James. A new governess arrives at a mansion to take care of two young children, Flora and Miles. She soon finds out from the maid that they are emotionally disturbed children and their brother had died just a few months ago. The governess soon starts seeing ghosts. She is told more by the maid, who reveals that Flora and Miles actually murdered their older brother Thomas because he was their father's favorite. She also claims the former governess, Jessel, and the butler, Peter were evil people. Peter eventually beat Jessel to death and then hung himself. Upon bringing up Thomas to the children, Miles and Flora get upset at the governess, and then the ghost of Peter appears. The governess realizes the children are possessed and brings them to their father. After she leaves, we realize the truth, that Thomas' spirit has possessed their father, and that Miles and Flora are in fact possessed by the spirits of Peter and Jessel. A bit over complicated, but I enjoyed this story quite a lot as well.

Ending of "Suffer the Little Children"

Fourth is "A Plot of Dirt" by Doug Moench (story) and Felipa Dela Rosa (art). Philip Davoren rises from his grave as a rotting corpse and is compelled to go to the home of a man named Craig. Craig is standing in a pentagram and has summoned Philip back from the dead in order to make him suffer. He orders him to go to the home of a woman named Mary. We soon realize that Mary was Philip's lover when he was alive, and her rejection of Craig in favor of Philip caused Craig to kill him. Philip has been ordered to kill Mary, but refuses to do so. He instead returns to Craig's home and by causing a chandelier to fall, crushes and kills Craig. The authorities then arrive and attack Philip with a flame thrower, burning up his body entirely, which holds a rose he held towards the story's beginning. I enjoyed this story quite a lot and consider it my favorite of the issue. Dela Rosa's often ugly looking art suits the story quite well and I enjoyed seeing a story told from the perspective of a revived corpse.

The sympathetic hero of "A Plot of Dirt"... a corpse!

Fifth is "A Question of Identity!!!" by Ed Fedory (story) and Zesar Lopez (art). The first five pages or so of this story take place in a dream state as a woman is getting harassed by a pair of spectral like beings, and sees visions of a dark castle and her parents. She awakens, the two spectral beings in fact doctors who were restoring her lost memories. A vampire, she immediately goes on a rampage, biting the neck of one of them and when she is stabbed in the neck by a knife she escapes by jumping out the window. Eventually the sun arrives though, causing her entire body to burn up. While the plot of this story isn't the easiest to follow, Zesar provides a considerably strong art job, as I would expect for him.

Sixth is "Voodoo Initiation", a one page feature from Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art), which I presume was originally intended to be a frontispiece. It covers how to summon a demon and join a voodoo ritual.

Seventh is "The Graveyard Jungle" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). Jay and Skip are a couple of schemers. They have come up with a plot to sell a house to a man, then fake ghosts and evil spirits in it, which will cause the man to get scared and sell it back to them for pennies on the dollar. That night they head to the house, to find it haunted for real! They are pursued by a traditionally hooded ghost, a number of spooky hands, rats and other things, eventually finding the man they sold the house to, with horns! He is revealed to be the devil, having purchased himself a home on Earth.

Some strong art from Zesar in "A Question of Identity!!!"

We wrap up with "All the Ways and Means to Die" by Jeff Jones (art, adapted from All the Myriad Ways by Larry Niven). This story focuses on the concept of alternative timelines, that each and every possible choice that is made opens up new possibilities and hence new timelines. With so many possible ways things can go there are billions of possible time streams. This story focuses in particular on a man named Gene Trimble as he thinks about the various possibilities. As the story ends we see him holding a gun, and the different possible time streams including one in which he shoots himself in the head. This story is a bit convoluted and more focused on the concept than necessarily a plot, but it is an enjoyable one. Jones provides some particularly strong artwork.

NIghtmare #10

Edit: In hindsight looks like I screwed up on the order of what comes next and mistakenly skipped Nightmare #9 and Psycho #9! Enjoy this for now and I'll be back in a couple of days with the correct issue. One of the down sides of having a back log of a couple of issues.

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Nightmare, featuring the interior story "Princess of Earth". This issue is cover dated December 1972.

The two-page table of contents contains art from Pablo Marcos, featuring characters such as Mr. Pook, the Gargoyles, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and Phantom of the Opera in line for movie tickets!

The first story is "Princess of Earth" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). Eggs come out of a computer terminal in a space ship. One of them hatches, revealing a small, humanoid but furry creature. The narrative turns to a woman named Lisa, a celebrated singer. The creature, now in its adult form departs the swamp where it lives and heads to the theater where Lisa is performing. There, the creature bursts through the place and grabs Lisa, dragging her with him, saying she is a princess who has left them alone far too long. The creature drags her back to the space ship where it is revealed she was a part of the spaceship and had been tasked with taking care of the eggs, much of which had smashed during her absence. She is now forced to remain on the ship, tending to them.

Some great art from Xirinius on "The Funeral Barge"

Next is "The Funeral Barge" by Al Hewetson (story) and Juez Xirinius (art). A detective named Walter Crowd investigates a mysterious barge that travels across the waters, carrying corpses on it. On a rainy night he pretends to be a corpse and is tossed aboard along with other bodies. The barge travels across the water, making its way to a giant castle. Once inside, a crane starts grabbing a hold of the bodies and bringing them in where a series of vampires start feasting on them. Walter uses a lit torch to fight back and make his escape, but he eventually is overwhelmed and is forced to become a pilot for the barge. Xirinius' art is quite strong here. His full page feature where we first see the castle is particularly impressive.

The third story is "Satan's Cellar" by Al Hewetson (story) and Ferrer Maitz (art). This is Maitz's sole story for Skywald. A mother gets some meat from the butcher Louis Hokay and the family is disgusted by it. She returns to complain to Hokay who simply gives her back her money and tells her to go some place else. The mother gets the police to raid the place, hoping to find him serving dogs, rats or other rotten meat but they find nothing. She continues to pursue it though, eventually sneaking in and finding a variety of human body parts in a hidden chamber under the floor. Hokay arrives and tries to kill her but she kills him with a cleaver. All of a sudden a pair of many armed beings climb out of the hole in the floor and kill her. The narrator claims it was the meat of these creatures they were eating, and also that these creatures will now be pursuing food themselves. Some so-so art here, but the ending came out of left field, which I enjoyed.

Fourth is "The Proverbial Killer" by Doug Moench (story) and Xavier Villanova (art). Michael Reidy is attacked constantly by his wife Janet, who is convinced he is having an affair because each month he disappears for a short period of time. Michael denies such claims. She seeks to divorce him and get paid alimony. It is soon revealed that she is the one having an affair, with a man named Augie, who also plans on conning her too. When he blabs this to one of his friends, the friend feels guilty and goes to Michael to reveal it. Michael doesn't believe it though. He heads home where he catches Augie and Janet together. He reveals the truth to them, that when he was disappearing he wasn't having an affair, but its because when the full moon comes he turns into a werewolf! Michael is a rather milquetoast character (and modeled after director Woody Allen) but it was good to see him get Janet and Augie in the end.

Things get crazy in "Satan's Cellar"

Next is "A Macabre Fact of Life: Demonic Possession" by Al Hewetson (story) and Pablo Marcos (art). A man in public starts flipping out, claiming to be possessed by a demon. We see that this is the case, as another man had summoned Satan and requested the man to be possessed by a demon. Returning to the scene in public, the man grabs an axe and goes on a rampage, eventually being captured and put in an asylum where a exorcism is done on him and the demon leaves him. Not much of a plot to this brief 4 page story.

Next is the one page "Game of Skill" by Joan Cintron (story) and Maelo Cintron (art). I got these credits from Richard Arndt's "Horror Comics in Black and White" as the story itself is just credited as "Cintron and Kinsman". In prehistoric times this page questions what would have happened if the first humans to fight against other beasts lost and baboons instead became the dominant species on Earth. Not much of a story here, but strong art from Cintron. Reminds me a little of Luis Bermejo.

Another entry in the "Nightmare World" series is next with "They Crawled out of the Crater" with Al Hewetson adapting the dream of reader Trisha Hamlin. Lara provides the art. Trisha dreams herself being shown on TV as she departs to space in order to head to the moon. However a hole is ripped into her ship, causing her to be sucked out. She is pulled down to the moon's surface where she must first escape some quicksand then is grabbed by some furry humanoid beings. They seek help as some spider creatures attack them. She then realizes that the furry creatures are in fact aligned with the spiders. She is then suddenly shook awake by a policeman and the story ends. Its too bad, this story ends a little too soon, I was interested at seeing what would happen next! Lara is another artist with his sole Skywald appearance being this story, which is too bad as he did a pretty good job.

Next is "Black Communion" by Ed Fedory (story) and Felipe Dela Rosa (art). Within a monastery, Satan summons a sword wielding corpse to rise and start attacking the monks. Called Don Carlos, the corpse slays many of them with ease. He is eventually done in when a monk trips on the stairs, causing some holy water to spill through the floorboards and fall upon him.

Some good art from Lara in "They Crawled out of the Crater"

The Human Gargoyles series returns with "1 and 1 Equals 3" by Al Hewetson (story) and Maelo Cintron (art), taking over for Felipa Dela Rosa. The two Gargoyles, Edward and Mina Sartyros give birth to a child, whom they call Andrew. They come across a traveling circus and travel with them. While taking a rest however, Andrew is displayed to the public and kidnapped. Andrew is held by a Satanic cult and brought before Satan himself. Satan claims to have breathed life into each of the gargoyles. Edward attacks him, there is a big explosion and the gargoyles get up and depart with Andrew, thinking about whether they should depart Europe and head to America. A so-so story with fairly strong art; it seems mind boggling to me that the Gargoyles would leave their child with strangers, a rather dumb way to move the plot along.