Creepy 17

The last Creepy issue of the original Goodwin error before things completely fell apart. Even so things start to fall apart here as this is an average issue, but clearly not as good as the ones that had been coming before this. Frank Frazetta provides the cover for this issue as well as the frontis art for "Creepy's Loathsome Lore", which was originally published in Creepy 2.

First is "Zombie!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of men watch a voodoo ritual, but one of the men takes a picture, which causes them to realize their present. His companion is killed, but he manages to escape. When zombies start coming after him, he jumps into what he thinks is salt water, thinking the salt will stop them. Alas, he actually jumped into a river, which is fresh water, and the zombies are able to get him.

Second is "Thundering Terror!" by John Severin (art) and Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story). This story was clearly originally intended for Eerie, with Cousin Eerie hosting it. This story is about an old man who tells of his brother, who was obsessed with killing buffalos. One such encounter resulted in the death of a man who was trying to stop him. Over the years our narrator becomes successful and grows a family while his brother vanishes and returns from time to time, always doing nothing but hunting buffalos. An old man, our narrator finds his brother dead after he tries to hunt one last buffalo, and sees the ghost of the dead man on a ledge above him. Like any story told in a western setting, Severin was perfectly suited for this story.

Third is "Mummy's Hand" by Joe Orlando (art) and Russ Jones (story, miscredited to Orlando). This story was originally published in Monster World 2 in 1965. It features the mummy coming back to life, going on a rampage, and eventually being defeated. A rather boring mummy story which had a companion story run around this same time in Eerie.

Fourth is "Heritage of Horror" by Donald Norman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A young woman has horrific visions of her husband as an axe murderer. She finds out the truth, that he isn't one, but it ends up he's a hangman instead, and makes her his next victim.

Fifth is "Image in Wax!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This was Sutton's Warren debut. A man is jealous of a competitor's ability to create realistic, but horrific wax creatures. He decides to murder the man by setting the place on fire, and kills him, but the man melts, revealing him to be a skeleton covered in wax. The competitor was actually brought back from the dead to watch over the wax figures, who are actually real monsters, and with him dying the monsters force the killer to take over taking care of them, making him a wax man too.

Sixth is "A Night's Lodging!" by Maurice Whitman (art) and Rhea Dunne (story). This story is about a man who is confronted by vampires after getting into an accident with his carriage. He tells them if they let him live he'll build them a hotel and bring many victims to him. He does so, but is eventually turned into a vampire himself. A very lame rehash of "The Invitation" from Creepy 8, which had Whitman as one of the writers.

Last is "The Haunted Sky!" by Roger Brand (art, his Warren debut) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pilot encounters his dead colleagues while aflight in an experimental airplane. Although the doctors don't initially believe him, there is proof left behind of the ghost's existence.

Eerie 7

This issue's cover is by Frank Frazetta. Its rather different than his usual fare, dominated by a dark sky and dark sea with a woman in white beckoning whatever is in the sea. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery No 6: The Hydra" by Gray Morrow.

First story is "Witch's Tide" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story is about a group of sea beasts that are attacking people in a small town. The townfolks think the daughter of an admitted witch is luring the beasts to the town, so they kill her and burn her corpse. But it ends up that she was actually attemping to keep the beasts away from the town, and with her dead, the beasts are quickly able to overrun the town. A great story to start off the issue with.

Next is "It That Lurks!" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of men encounter a dinosaur lurking in quicksand in the deep jungle. They shoot it with tranquilizer darts only for it to submerge under the quicksand. One of the men, seeking glory heads in the quicksand after it and is killed. The other man is about to depart when he sees his wife in the quicksand and also heads in, to his death. It ends up neither the dinosaur or the man's wife were ever truly there, but actually were generated as a trap (that which the victim wanted the most) by the quicksand. Yet another terrific story here.

Third is "Hitchhike Horror!" by Hector Castellon (art) and Goodwin (story). This is Castellon's Warren debut. His art, as usual is just way too ugly and has too many lines if you ask me. Anyway, this story is about a man who picks up a hitchhiker and soon after hears news on the radio about a maniac being loose. It seems as if the hitchhiker is the maniac, but in actuality he is after the driver, who is the real maniac. It ends up that the hitchhiker is a ghost of one of the driver's past victims and kills him by burying him alive.

Fourth is "The Defense Rests!" by Johnny Craig (story & art). A terrifically drawn and written story, featuring no dialogue at all. It is about a young lawyer who goes after the same woman as the very powerful mayor. When the town maniac kills the girl, the mayor blames it all on the lawyer and puts him on trial, where he stacks the jury with his allies and declares him guilty. The lawyer breaks loose and captures them all and unleashes the maniac on them, who was, like him, framed years before.

Fifth is "Fly!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Goodwin (story). This story is about a man covered in bandages who has had surgery to change his face. Only he keeps being bothered by a fly and falls out a window to his death. It ends up that the fly was attached to his head bandages near his ears which is why it bothered him so much.

Sixth is "The Quest!" by Donald Norman (art) and Goodwin (story). A powerful duke seeks eternal life, but every attempt at it fails. His advisor, an old man, tells him that he'll be able to give him eternal life if he will do good things for the town. The duke agrees so the old advisor brings him to a place occupied by vampires, who promptly turn him into one of their own.

The issue concludes with "Cry Fear Cry Phantom" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man and his fiance go to his home, a large mysterious looking house, where his uncle lives with him. She repeatedly has visions of an odd looking woman with an axe, and suspects the uncle is up to something, particularly when she sees him burying that woman! It ends up however that the fiance is the true maniac, and chops her up with an axe.

Creepy 16

One of Creepy's last good issues before collapsing into a rut for much of the late 1960s, this issue has a Frank Frazetta cover which is miscredited inside to Gray Morrow. The frontis for this issue is Creepy's Loathsome Lore by Gil Kane.

First story is "A Curse of Claws!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a man in the jungle who encounters a woman who says she is Lillith, Goddess of Cats. The man fights her and kills her, but turns into a panther like creature and ends up scratching himself to death.

Next is "Frozen Fear!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A team of explorers find a frozen warrior. One of the explorers is after the wife of another. It ends up that he is the descendent of someone known to the frozen warrior, who comes alive and kills him.

Third is "Angel of Doom!" by Jeff Jones (art) and Goodwin (story). This story is Jeff Jones's first Warren work. This is another story featuring Thane the Barbarian, who I have previously discussed in my coverage of issue 27. In this story Thane is part of a tribe that continously makes sacrifices to a monster. When his lover is killed, Thane heads out, ignoring the tribe's warnings and battles the monster, a giant insect creature. He defeats the creature, but the tribe decides to continue making sacrifices anyway, so Thane leaves. The tribe is soon plagued by the monster's children and are all killed after Thane leaves.

Fourth is "The Frankenstein Tradition!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Goodwin (story). A doctor blackmails a top student of his to join him in his quest to bring Frankenstein's work to real life when he catches him cheating. The doctor has the student kill numerous people so he can use the fresh corpses to work on bringing his dead wife to death. He eventually succeeds, but the student rebels and the house is burned down. At the end it is revealed that the student ends up being known as Jack the Ripper due to all of the murders he committed.

Fifth is "There Was An Old Lady" by Sal Trapani (art) and the team of Daniel Bubacz & Archie Goodwin (story). A poor story with poor art in what was Trapani's Warren debut. A man decides to rob from an old woman who is rumored to be a witch. He tricks her into letting him in her house then attacks her, demanding her money. But she gets him to drink some poisoned wine which enables her to turn the tables on him, revealing herself to truly be a witch.

Sixth is "Haunted Castle!" by Donald Norman (art) and Goodwin (story). This story surrounds a leader of a castle who is haunted by various ghosts, led by the woman who used to run it. Eventually he is chased out of the castle and hit... by a car! It ends up that he was in modern times, and was running around as a corpse, not knowing that he was dead.

The issue concludes with "The Sands That Change!" by Steve Ditko (art) and the team of Clark Dimond & Terry Bisson (story). A dissappointing finish to this issue, it is about a comic book artist in the desert with his wife who draws a monster on a piece of paper, which comes to life! Whatever he draws on the paper comes to life. He climbs a rock that was drawn on the paper for safety, then burns the paper, hoping to burn the monster. But that ends up burning him too since he's on the rock. Even Ditko's artwork isn't as good as usual here.

Even though this issue is from Creepy's original golden age, it is for the most part a rather poor issue, with a number of mediocre stories and the art not as good as usual.

Eerie 4

The fourth issue of Eerie, featuring a cover by Gray Morrow.

Our first story is "House of Evil", with art by Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) & Joe Orlando, and story by Archie Goodwin. A man comes to a large house where his brother lived but finds only a tape recording there, telling him of how he came to the house, which has an evil past, for inspiration. Suddenly a rotting corpse arrives. The man destroys the corpse, but soon finds that it was his own brother! He then looks at his hands and realizes that he's starting to rot as well.

Next is "Hatchet Man" by Eugene Colan (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story is about a hatchet killer who has killed a number of woman with a hatchet. A night watchman plots to kill his wife with a hatchet and blame it on the hatchet killer. Only when the police arrive and find evidence of other murders, it becomes clear that he is the hatchet killer himself, possessing another personality who commit the murders.

Next is "Gnawing Fear" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Ron Parker (story). A pair of doctors are working on a poison for killing rats. One of them ends up dying when the rats attack him. The other doctor follows them into a large maze of tunnels. When he finds a number of rats coming after him he shoots at them with a gun, but that caves in the cavern and the rats completely overrun him.

Fourth story is "Shrieking Man!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The man of the title is in a mental institution, a man who does nothing but scream like crazy and act like a maniac. An employee at the institution becomes fascinated with him and ends up letting him out by accident when he can't control him. The screaming man goes crazy and ends up killing our hero's boss, for whom he was originally his boss, who was killed by him and brought back to life.

Next up is "Undying Love!" by Donald Norman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man seeks to make a woman fall in love with her, so he has a sorceror cast a spell so that will happen. Only when he returns to see her, he finds that she has died! Soon afterwards however she comes back to life as a vampire, and being in love with him stays by his side. While he initially likes it, he is troubled by what she is doing, so he uses a stake on her and chops off her head. But even that isn't enough to stop her from coming back to him!

Last is the cover story, "Island At World's End!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man lost at sea, Sturgis is found by a boat and tells his story. His ship was taken over by a mutiny and he escaped on a lifeboat. Eventually he is on his own and he comes across an island where he encounters beast men. They carry him to a large pit where sacrifices are made. A beautiful woman, Cythlla, who tells him she is the last of an elder race appears and rather than killing him she wants him to be her mate. She worships 'Shoggoth', a mysterious giant entity that appears. Seeing how evil she is, he runs off and shoots her. Eventually however Shoggoth returns to claim him on the boat.

Creepy 23

A pretty good cover for this issue by Tom Sutton, featuring a werewolf and a house on a cliff. This issue's frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story).

Up first is "Way Out!" by Donald Norman (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). Its about a druggie who wants more money, so he decides to do a painting of evil. But he can't think of a model so he steals and gets even more drugs, which brings him to a world where he meets none other than Satan himself.

Second is "Gargoyle", a reprint from Creepy 6. The art is by Angelo Torres and the story is by Archie Goodwin & Roy Krenkel. A man seeks to find the power to turn stone into gold. He meets a mysterious dwarf who is the responsible for the deaths of multiple powerful men. He gets the dwarf drunk, who reveals how to make gold out of stone, so he pours it on a stone gargoyle. Only the dwarf actually told him how to turn the stone into life, and the gargoyle kills him!

"Jack Knifed" is third, by Barry Rockwell (art) and Bill Parente (story). It features a Jack the Ripper style killer whom a man suspects is himself, as he thinks he has multiple personalities. When he reveals this to his wife however, the truth is revealed, it is actually she who is the killer!

The cover story, "Quick Change" is by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) and features a werewolf who discovers that the town is going to kill him by stabbing him with silver. He works on making himself immune to silver, only it ends up turning him back into a human at the full moon, whom they are easily able to kill.

"Rude Awakening" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is next, about a man who keeps having dreams of a glasses wearing man attacking him with a knife. He's so freaked out by them that he falls out a window and is brought to the hospital, where he faces none other than the glassed man! This story is originally from Creepy 7.

Last is "Cat Nipped" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Bill Parente (story). The story features a hunter in pursuit of a white panther, who ends up being a tribal queen. He battles her and manages to win by attacking her with silver teeth.

Creepy 11

A nice cover for this issue by Frank Frazetta, featuring a giant beast man pursuing a beautiful woman. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by John Severin (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

Up first is "Hop Frog" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), an Edgar Allen Poe adaption. It features the title character, who is a midget that is constantly teased and absued by the king and his men. One night Hop Frog convinces the king and two friends to dress up as gorillas to scare some guests. Hop Frog takes this opportunity to bind them then set them all aflame, and leaves the castle for good.

"Sore Spot" by Joe Orlando (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) features an executioner who sets up an innocent man to die for a murder he committed. After the murder a red spot appears on his chest which grows bigger and bigger, and eventually ends up being the executed man's face!

Next is "The Doorway" by Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A security guard comes across a destroyed lab with an odd doorway. He goes through and finds himself in another world, where a large bat like creature with a skull face takes over a man's body. Another creature arrives and takes over our protagonist, who destroys the doorway and kills himself in order to stop it from taking over Earth. Only the creature takes over a nearby person upon his death, enabling him to restore the doorway.

"The Black Death" by Manny Stallman (art) and Ron Parker (story) feature a pair of men who dispose of corpses whose demise was due to the black death. They sell the jewelry of the dead to various people, causing more deaths, which in turn enables them to get even more jewelry to sell. Eventually one of their larger benefactors dies due to them and they go to his house to take all his treasure. They get trapped in the basement when they find it... and unfortunately that's as far as I can go, as my copy of this issue is missing the last page.

"Beast Man" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story) is next, featuring a boxer who has a bad heart, so he gets it replaced with a gorilla's heart! Only he finds himself becoming a monster! Or does he? It ends up everything is in his mind, but that doesn't stop him from going on a rampage anyway.

"The Devil To Pay" is next, with art by Donald Norman and story by Archie Goodwin. A duke summons a demon, seeking more power for himself. The demon refuses, instead telling him that he'll die within a year and his soul will belong to hell. He can prevent that if he finds someone wiling to give up their soul, but if he fails, he'll die within a day. The duke finds a man and hypnotizes him into doing his deed, only for the man to end up being Satan himself!

Last is "Skeleton Crew" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A pair of men come across an abandoned ship where they find only skeletons. The ship's log talks about a coffin they took aboard in order to avoid it being mutilated by natives. Only a mysterious plague engulfs the ship, killiing anyone who come in contact with the coffin, leaving only skeletons behind. Eventually everyone has died from it. In the real time the truth is soon revealed, that warrior ants put in the coffin killed the crew, and attack the two men that found it as well!

Eerie 22

Another Eerie issue from Warren's dark ages. The cover, by Vic Prezio, is for the story H20 World. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Minotaur" from Eerie 11 by Neal Adams.

First up is H20 World, originally published in the first issue of Creepy. The art is by Al Williamson & Roy Krenkel and the story is by Larry Ivie. It is about a pair of divers who come across an underground civilization. There they meet the mutated people who live there, who force them to forget that they ever encountered them. Very beautiful artwork here, particularly Krenkel's backgrounds.

Our first new story this issue is "Family Curse" by Tony Williamsune (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story, his first). A newlywed couple visits the castle owned by the bride's ancestors, who were rumored to be monsters. While there, she encounters an old woman as well as a book detailing the horrific family history. The bride decides to kill herself to prevent herself from being a burden on her husband and the world, only the husband finds out that she actually wasn't part of the family after all, but rather related to the old woman they met.

"The Devil To Pay", originally from Creepy 11 is next, with art by Donald Norman and story by Archie Goodwin. A duke summons a demon, seeking more power for himself. The demon refuses, instead telling him that he'll die within a year and his soul will belong to hell. He can prevent that if he finds someone wiling to give up their soul, but if he fails, he'll die within a day. The duke finds a man and hypnotizes him into doing his deed, only for the man to end up being Satan himself!

"Permanent Members" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story) is fourth, featuring an initiation into a kid's gang that takes place in a cemetary. One of the boys becomes a vampire, but it ends up all the other boys are werewolves and they kill him.

Fifth is "Scooped" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). A reporter discovers two men that are actually cochroach-like aliens. He and his supervisor confront them, who say they're actually peaceful, and want to help mankind. This results in the reporter and his supervisor killing them, for they are also aliens, of a different race, who want to take over Earth.

Last is "The Spirit of the Thing!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), probably their best collaberation aside from the well known "Collectors Edition" story. This story was originally printed in Creepy 9. It features a professor who hypnotizes a student of his, resulting in his spirit leaving his body. The professor then steals the student's body, as his is about to die. The student's spirit, now bodiless, steals the professor's corpse from the graveyard and uses it to brutally beat to death his own body (with the professor's spirit) until the professor is forced to leave.

A very good issue, mostly on the strength of the reprinted stories, although the new stuff is fairly good too.