Eerie 45

Luis Dominguez provides the Dax-themed cover for this issue of Eerie, dated February 1973. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Vlad the Impaler" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story).

First is "The Mound" by Tom Sutton (story & art). In this story a comet crashes into Earth, causing a mysterious mound to appear. At this time humanity is battling an onslaught of bugs that are threatening to destroy mankind. Fearing the mound contains the bugs' savior, mankind has it blown up. But it instead contained mankind's savior, a giant anteater, and by killing it mankind seals its own fate.

Second is "Ri, Master of Men" by Martin Salvador (art) and Hal Turner (story). In the future mankind creates a massive computer, Ri, which is made ruler of the world. Ri also starts taking over people's minds, turning them into zombies. A group of people head off into space to escape Ri, eventually landing on the moon. There they find an advanced group of people... and Ri, who is still in control.

Third is "When Wakes the Dreamer" by Jesus Suso Rego (art) and Don McGregor (story). Yet another nonscensical McGregor story, featuring a man dreaming about a world where cities and people are vanishing and a weird werewolf like monster appears. The dreamer wakes up, finding that the same thing is happening in the real world.

Fourth is "A Blade For the Teacher" by Luis Dominguez (art) and Bill Warren (story). A powerful warrior seeks to fight his old master in battle to prove himself even more than his current elevated status. He recalls the statues of powerful warriors his master taught from when he was a student. He eventually finds the master, who permits him to join the statues by turning him into one.

Fifth is "Maneater" by Rubio (art) and Steve Skeates (story). An artist murders a woman who is trying to blackmail him. When he leaves he finds himself driving in a landscape like one of his paintings. There he sees the woman he killed, who bites his head off. In reality he gets into a car crash and is killed, although the police find his head missing when they come to the crash site.

Last is Dax the Warrior in "The Witch". A witch captures Dax and his men, seeking to steal their hearts and restore her lost youth. She also turns Dax into a ape like creature. Dax in his ape form kills a snake and puts its fangs into the heart of a nearby warrior. When the witch takes the hearts she becomes young again and restores Dax to his normal self. The poison injected into the hearts by the fangs kill her seconds later however.

Eerie 51

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, featuring none other than Cousin Eerie himself. This issue is dated September 1973.

Up first is "A Stranger in Hell" by Esteban Maroto (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Eerie 38. The majority of Brennan's stories were nonscensical garbage and this is one of them. A man in hell is unable to die. I think thats what it means. While Maroto's art is great, as usual, this story just makes no sense whatsoever. It would get a sequel in Creepy #61 not too long after this issue.

Second is "Pity the Grave Digger" by Auraleon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story), from Eerie 40. An old grave digger warns his young colleague of the dangers of the graveyard including a vampire he destroyed and corpses being found completely devoured. The colleague doesn't believe him, but the old gravedigger is soon found consumed by a group of tiny demons.

Third is "The Caterpillers" by Luis Garcia (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Eerie 41. A professor from a government research facility passes away during a meeting, resulting in an investigation. It is revealed that caterpillers created in the facility had been taking over the minds of people and eating their brains. Quickly the entire lab is wiped out by them and when our protagonist reports to his superiors, it is revealed that they have been taken over as well. Terrific art as always from Garcia, but the story is extremely similar to the story "Spiders are Revolting" from Eerie 26.

"Evil Spirits" is fourth, by Johnny Craig (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 16. The story features a woman who is in a haunted castle and is confronted by bad dreams and perhaps even ghosts. Her husband is cheating on her and the lover shows up, and they both kill each other. The husband, now with yet another lover, comes to the castle, where their ghosts remain waiting for revenge.

Fifth is "Head Shop" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story), from Eerie 39. A man passing a hat shop one day finds a head dummy that looks almost real. The man becomes obsessed with the head and passes it each day as it goes to work. After a while passes though he notices the head decomposing. The man tries to get himself to stop looking, but he can't control himself and the head gets worse and worse looking. Eventually he confronts the owner of the shop, who hadn't realized that the head was rotting and replaces it by chopping off our protagonist's head.

Sixth is "Vision of Evil" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 2. This story features a rich man who becomes obsessed with the art of a madman living in an asylum. He heads to the asylum to see the artist, who is a usually comatose man except when he's painting. It soon becomes clear however that the monsters in his paintings are real, and they come for the rich man after he is featured in one of the madman's paintings.

"The Curse of Kali" is last, with art by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is from Eerie 6. The story, taking place in the Middle East, features a man who stops a woman from being sacrificed to the god Kali, so he is cursed, which ends up turning him into a vampire.

Vampirella 109

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Vampirella, from October 1982. Aside from the Vampirella story and intro page from Vampirella, both by Jose Gonzalez, this is an all Felix Mas special.

First is this issue's Vampirella story, "The Corpse With the Missing Mind" by Jose Gonzalez(art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Vampirella 55. Vampirella and Pendragon attend the funeral of a rich old friend of his, Hunt, who he hasn't seen in decades. Another friend of Hunt's arrives, Charlie, who knocks out both of them. When they awaken, they find themselves in what appears to be Alice in Wonderland. It ends up that Hunt is alive after all, by preserving his brain and eyes in a tank. He hoped to do something good for once which is why he created the Wonderland, which he plans to allow people in for free.

Second is "The Sultan of 42nd Street" by Felix Mas (art) and Carl Wessler & Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 39. A poor artist buys a canvas from a pawnshop. It ends up that whatever he paints on the canvas comes to life, and a beautiful woman appears when he paints her on it. He gets the idea to paint multiple women and turn them into whores to make him money. Alas, when another painter buys one of the canvases and paints his face, his entire face vanishes from his home, and appears in hers!

Third is "Dungeons of the Soul" by Felix Mas (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story), from Creepy 45. One of Brennan's psychotic hippie stories, featuring a king of a castle, Modrius, who acts cold towards his lover, Adrianne. A prisoner with a mask is held in the dungeon, who has been there since Modrius got a sorceror to cast a spell on him that would keep him from suffering. Adrienne lets the prisoner go, and when Modrius removes the prisoner's mask, it is revealed that it is him. He then turns back to normal again.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story), from Vampirella 38. A rather complicated tale influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. During a play a man, Dennis, reads some strange language on a prop coffin. He and a friend, Vaughn go to visit Vaughn's uncle, an archaeologist and find that it tells of elder Gods resting for eternity. Dennis remembers his youth where he was taught of these mysterious things by his uncle Abner. The uncle later shows up, telling him he was raised to bring the elder gods back to life. Vaughn kills him after finding that he killed his uncle. He later kills his girlfriend too after finding that she is pregnant with Dennis's child, Abner's last hope at reviving the elder Gods.

Fifth is "The Climbers of the Tower" by Felix Mas (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story), from Creepy 50. The story surrounds two men, Druin and Tarran, who have spent their entire lives climbing a tower. When they approach the top, Druin gets greedy, wanting the glory of being the first to reach the top and loses his life in a confrontation with Tarran. Tarran reaches the top only to realize that he never knew why he wanted to reach the top of the tower, and goes crazy. A compeltely pointless and piss poor story that wastes Mas's talented artwork.

Sixth is "Miranda" by Felix Mas (art) and Fred Ott (story), from Vampirella 34. A rich man obsessed with marrying women with deformities visits an old woman, wanting to meet and marry her niece, Miranda. The old woman allows him to meet Miranda, who is a freak with praying mantis arms, but the old woman refuses to let him take her, even with him offering a million dollars for her. When the old woman sleeps, the rich man and Miranda run off together however. The old woman heads to their house, but it is too late. As part praying mantis, Miranda has already killed and eaten him.

Seventh is "The Dorian Gray Syndrome" by Felix Mas (art) and Don Glut (story), from Vampirella 18. A newspaper reporter seeks information on a young man who appears to have the same powers as the Dorian Gray of the well known Oscar Wilde story where a painting of the man ages in his place. Only it is revealed here that the painting was actually redone by the man himself, and he appears eternally young because he is a vampire! By stabbing the painting however, our hero miraculously is able to save herself and kill him.

Next is "The Killer" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Creepy 52. The story is about a man who gets married but does little to distinguish himself in life. This upsets his wife, whom he suspects is having an affair. One day he finds his wife stabbed to death and suspects he did it. He runs off and ends up getting hit by a car and killed. It ends up however that it was a burgler who killed his wife and he was innocent all along.

My favorite story of the issue is "Minra" by Felix Mas (art) and Ed Newsome (story), from Vampirella 22. A psychic explosion of hate suspected to have come from another dimension wipes out 3/4 of humanity. Psychic mutants start appearing among the population, who have the ability to set off incidents of hate and violence, so people band together and take them out. The story focuses on a pair of men heading after a teenage girl, Minra, who is accused of being one of the psychic mutants and causing an incident. One of the men does come across her, who explains that there never were any psychic mutants, hatred among humanity reached a boiling point and they accused people of being mutants as a scapegoat. Alas, the other man comes along and kills her and the story ends. Definately one of Mas's high points and a terrific story from Newsome in his sole Warren appearance.

Last is "Changes" by Felix Mas (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Vampirella 24. A man comes home one day to find his wife laying dead on the floor, with a knife sticking out of her forehead. Oddly enough he doesn't seem that upset about it, neither do his kids. He then gets her replaced, then heads out and stabs some random middle aged woman in the forehead himself. Quite the odd story, thats for sure.

Eerie 40

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, cover dated June 1972. The two page feature "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Dracula's Castle" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story) is on the inside front and back cover.

First is "The Brain of Frankenstein" by Mike Ploog (art) and Fred Ott (story). This story features a story within a story, told by the son of Dr. Frankenstein. The son revives his father by putting his brain in a corpse's body. At the same time a friend of his, Hans, plots to kill him because of the rampage from his father's monster. Hans's attempts to destroy Frankenstein and the monster his father become fail however, and the father's brain is put into Hans's body.

Second is "The Once Powerful Prince" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features Targo, the prince of Atlantis, who had previously appeared in Eerie 37. In this story a ring that Targo wears that permits him to breathe underwater has been stolen, so he goes after the man that took it and after a long confrontation is able to take it back.

Third is Dax the Warrior in "The Paradise Tree" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). Dax finds himself seized by a tree when he tries to cut it apart for firewood. The tree carries him down into an abyss and he finds a palace with an entrance in the shape of a snake. Inside he finds Astartea, a beautiful woman, as well as many other women. Astartea can have anything she wants, but is a prisoner there, forced to remain there by a demon. When Dax rebels against this, the demon appears, and she is turned back into her true form, a snake.

Fourth is "Deathfall" by Sanho Kim (story & art). This is a rather surrealistic story featuring a man on death row and him recalling why he was put away. Eventually he is put to death. Not much to say on this one.

Fifth is "The Prodigy Son" by Jose Bea (art) and Don Glut (story). The "son" of the title is a man at a freak show whose twin brother's body (all but the head) hangs out of his chest. A woman in the crowd gets him to marry her, thinking its all fake. When she realizes once and for all that its real, she starts sleeping with other men. Her husband meanwhile starts having horrible pains in his chest. He comes across her sleeping with another man, but before he can kill her his twin brother finally breaks free of his body.

Sixth is "Pity the Grave Digger" by Auraleon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). An old grave digger warns his young colleague of the dangers of the graveyard including a vampire he destroyed and corpses being found completely devoured. The colleague doesn't believe him, but the old gravedigger is soon found consumed by a group of tiny demons.

Creepy 49

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring a headless figure at a guillotine. Auraleon and Doug Moench provide "No (Horse) Laughing Matter" on the inside front and back cover.

First is "Buried Pleasure" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). A ship of pirates picks up a bizarre man after hearing that he is looking for something on a beach that he must dig up. The pirates assume he is talking about treasure and take him along. Soon members of the crew start dying. The first mate initially thinks this is the man they have brought aboard, but it ends up actually being the captain, who has killed everyone so only he will get the treasure. Yet when they finally arrive at the beach and dig it up, it is not a treasure but rather a vampiress who kills him.

Second is "The Severed Hand" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story). A successful surgeon feels threatened by a young surgeon who he thinks will take his job and steal his wife from him. The surgeon goes to see a witch who tells him to bring her a hand from a dead body that she curses. She then tells the surgeon to get it on his rival's hand. He accomplishes this by getting them in an accident and amputating his hand. The rival's hand goes out of control and causes him to decapitate the surgeon's wife. The surgeon and rival battle and afterwards the rival chops off the hand. The surgeon is also injured, and when he wakes up he finds that the hand has been attached to him!

Third is "The Third Night of Mourning" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story, his first for Warren). This story takes place during the french revolution and features Jacque, a blacksmith who is framed for treason and executed via the guillotine. His headless corpse raises from beyond and goes after the man who framed him, sending him to a similar fate at the guillotine.

Fourth is "The Accursed Flower" by Jose Bea (story & art). A farmer, Jordi, is overwhelmed by all the work he has to do on his farm. He hears of the 'Maneiros' who come from a flower and will work endlessly; killing their master if he can't find enough work for him. Jordi finds seeds of the flower and plant them, causing hundreds of Maneiros to appear the next day. He gives them plenty of work to do, but they complete them all with rapid speed. Eventually he can't think of something for them to do and they claw him to death.

Last is "Wedding Knells" by Jose Gual (art) and Doug Moench (story). A man goes to a cabin in the woods on his honeymoon, bringing a large dog with them for protection. In the town a werewolf kills a woman. Seeing muddy tracks in the house, the man wonders if his new wife is the werewolf. He soon is convinced of it and kills her. But he quickly finds out that it is actually the dog thats the werewolf as it attacks him.

Creepy 51

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated March 1973. The two page frontis, "Possessed From Beyond the Grave!" is provided by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story), featuring a possessed child.

First is "Deja Vu" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). A psychologist hypnotizes a young woman, who tells him of a past life where she was a witch who was burned at the stake after being accused by a man who ends up being her ancestor. She curses him, saying that his descendents will be killed by cats. He tries to convince her to stay, but she runs off, and ends up being killed by a cat, just like the curse said. He is revealed to be a descendent of the witch. This story would later be printed in color, with some edits, in Creepy 82.

Next is "Star-Slaughter" by Ramon Torrents (art, his Warren debut) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This futuristic story features humanoid robots battling each other. One of the robots kills one of the other ones, and realizing what he has done, kills himself. He is repaired by his creators, who mention that this is not the first time he has tried to kill himself.

Third is "Death Wish" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and John Warner (story). This story takes place in Mexico, where a large zombie, Esteban, attacks people for his master, but wishes his own life to end. He eventually kills his master only to find his master was another zombie, brought to life by a witch. This causes him to go on yet another murderous rampage.

Fourth is "Package Deal" by Jose Bea (art) and Martin Pasko (story). A man murders his first wife, then disposes of the body by chopping it up and putting it in a mail box, which in a storm gets blown away. Time goes by and the man is remarried. He starts receiving packages in the mail, which contain his dead wife's body parts and notes from her. This eventually causes him to snap, chopping the head off the mailman. His body is later found crushed under the very mailbox he had put her corpse into.

Fifth is "The Viyi", by Esteban Maroto (story and art). This story, which was originally printed in Europe in the Dracula anthology is the first full color story to be printed in a Warren mag. It was also printed at the same time in Vampirella 22. The story features a man coming to destroy a beautiful woman who has become a vampire. He becomes enamored with her looks however and she awakens and turns him into one too.

Sixth is "His Brother's Grave" by Auraleon (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A man, coming to see his sister runs over a wolf in the road. Further details arise surrounding the wolf's owner, a local handyman and his brother. Soon the man dies himself and is buried alongside the wolf, but he later returns from the grave to attack our protagonist.

Last is "Bed of Roses" by Felix Mas (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story is about a seriously deranged young woman, Rose, who works at a flower store and was apparently traumatized by being locked up by her mother as a kid. She goes completely out of control, killing with scissors a man who comes into her store, then later attacking her mother too. As the story ends she is kept in a padded cell at an institution.

Vampirella 34

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated June 1974. Jeff Jones provides the frontis "Extraordinary Verse" based on the William Blake poem "Tyger Tyger". Quite a good issue, with only one poor story.

First is "The Carnival of Death" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). Traveling in Venice, Vampirella and Pendragon meet Zymer, a cruel man who Vampirella gets upset at after he forces participation in a russian roulette type game. Meanwhile a rich couple invites many old friends to a ball they are having, and an invitation ends up going to Zymer too. A large group heads to the ball with Zymer, where they find that the other guests are actually corpses! Vampirella finally snaps, killing Zymer by draining his blood. They depart, leaving the rich couple with their dead friends.

Second is "Miranda" by Felix Mas (art) and Fred Ott (story). A rich man obsessed with marrying women with deformities visits an old woman, wanting to meet and marry her niece, Miranda. The old woman allows him to meet Miranda, who is a freak with praying mantis arms, but the old woman refuses to let him take her, even with him offering a million dollars for her. When the old woman sleeps, the rich man and Miranda run off together however. The old woman heads to their house, but it is too late. As part praying mantis, Miranda has already killed and eaten him.

Third is "From the Spain of Legend" featuring the character Fleur, in her first of four appearances. Art is by Ramon Torrents while story is by John Jacobson. Richard, a traveling Earl visits a fellow noble, Chelidonius, seeking lodging while he returns home from the Crusades. Chelidonius tricks the Earl, having him locked up as an accussed witch so he can take over his property. Within the prison Richard meets Fleur, a woman who claims to actually be a witch. When it is time for the 'witches' to be burned at the stake, Fleur kills their captors and escapes with Richard. Richard however attacks her since she is a real witch, and Fleur kills him.

Fourth is "Black and White Vacuum to Blues" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). Bill Dubay provides the color. Despite some very good art and coloring, this is a poor, very confusing story about a clown being pursued through the old west, space, and other places. It ends up that the clown is just a character on television.

Fifth is "Recurrence!" by Jose Bea (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young woman murders her husband by pushing him down an elevator shaft. After collecting the insurance money from his death she starts having strange dreams of being pushed off a cliff by a small dwarf like creature. Eventually she sees him for real while driving and drives off a cliff, which results in her falling to her death.

Last is "Cold Cuts" by Jeff Jones (art) and Berni Wrightson (story). Terrific contributions from these two, with Wrightson providing his only writing credit for a story he didn't draw as well. The story features a man in a winter wilderness who shoots a deer and carries it with him. Meanwhile his wife is snowbound in a cabin with a colleague of his who attacks her. While the hunter thinks about providing for his wife, the colleague's body is mutilated, as if he was being prepared to eat.

Creepy 53

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated May 1973.

First is "A Scream in the Forest" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Greg Potter (story). An extremely good story with some very beautiful artwork. A society of dwarves is plauged by Fearies, large one eyed beastly creatures that kidnap their women for food. Screams echo throughout the forest, most likely from their victims. One of the dwarves, Ussel, is nearly captured by one, but is saved by Arn, a powerful swordsman. Arn agrees to help Ussel wipe out the Fearies and they head through the woods, fighting off another one along the way. Eventually they come across a large cave, and inside Arn knocks out Ussel, handing him over to the Fearies. Arn is actually working with the Fearies, capturing them prey in exchange for diamonds. Ussel awakens just as they are about to eat him, and there is another scream in the forest.

Second is "The Stone of Power" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features a boy who finds a mysterious stone with power. He brings it to his home, but a witch takes the stone from him and kills his mother. The boy grows up, and plans to take back the stone, managing to do so. But his memory isn't what he thinks it is. The witch is actually his mother, whom he ends up killing. He takes the stone for himself, with an evil look in his eye as the story ends.

Third is "Freedom's Just Another Word" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A black family, the Turners, moves into a town of nothing but white people. One of the young women in the town, Rosie befriends Charles, one of the Turners, and this greatly upsets her father. Her father starts getting the townfolk riled up, claiming that the family are a bunch of witches, and are responsible for ruining their crops and killing their farm animals. A group of the men go to the Turner's house and beat then kill the entire family, except for their paralyzed grandmother, who actually is a witch and summons lightning which kills them all. Winner of the Warren award for best story of 1973, this is in fact a horrible story, particularly with its excessive usage of the N-word. Dubay tries to write a message story here, but ultimately the story teaches no lesson, as the Turners end up being exactly what the racist mob claims they are. Dubay usually is a pretty good writer, but he really missed the mark here.

Fourth is "The Creature at Loch Ness" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). A pair of men, one a believer, one a skeptic go to Loch Ness to search for the Loch Ness monster. Initially they have no success, finding mostly driftwood, but eventually they find one and take some pictures of it. The pictures reveal it to be a fake, as it is actually just an inflatable monster owned by a hotel owner nearby who uses it to bring in tourists. The hotel tourist soon finds himself the prey of the actual Loch Ness monster however.

Fifth is "The Night the Creatures Attacked" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story). This story, based on actual eyewitness accounts, tells of a home in Kentucky attacked by alien creatures. The people in the home are able to frighten them off by shooting at them. At only two pages long, one wonders if this was originally meant to be printed on the inside front and back covers.

Last is the cover story, "It" by Tom Sutton (story & art). This story features the corpse of Timothy Foley coming back from the grave and traveling around searching for someone, scaring to death everyone who comes across him. By the end it is revealed that he was simply looking for his lost teddy bear. Some interesting panel design by Tom Sutton here, some pages have as many as 16 panels! It would eventually be used for a recurring series in both Creepy and Eerie, although Timothy Foley (who is actually the corpse of a nine year old boy here) would be made into a much older character in the later installments.

Creepy 43

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy.

First is "Three Way Split" by Jorge Galvez (art) and Dennis P. Junot (story). This story features two businessmen who are enemies of each other. A doctor who was fired by one of them goes to the other, with a way to get revenge on the rival by becoming him through a brain transplant. The operations is successful, although the rival convinces the doctor to help him as well. By the end of the story all three have switched bodies with each other, and all three end up dying.

Next is the cover story, "The Mark of Satan's Claw" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Fred Ott (story). A man comes to a small town, curious of some murders of children that are occuring. Law enforcement is unwilling to help him, but a man there admits to him that the town is full of Satan worshippers and that he left them when they started sacrificing children. Satan himself kills the man, but our protagonist is led to his girlfriend, who also left the Satan worshippers. Our protagonist is revealed to be Satan himself, and kills her too for betraying him.

Third is "The Men Who Called Him Monster" by Luis Garcia (art) and Don McGregor (story). This story was Luis Garcia's Creepy debut. An extremely nice art job, with the werewolf being obviously influenced by the original Wolfman movie starring Lon Chaney Jr. The main character, a black detective, who is hired to find the boy that is the werewolf, was based on Sidney Poitier. This story featured the first inter racial kiss in mainstream comics, although it only occured because Garcia misunderstood McGregor's line "This is the clincher" in his script. As usual, the story features McGregor's nonscensical political ramblings.

Fourth is "Quest of the Bigfoot" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story features a pair of scientists investigating bigfoot. They eventually come across an Eden occupied by the bigfoots. One of the scientists morphs into bigfoot and attacks the other scientist. But that scientist reveals that he is the abominable snowman and kills him, wanting to take over the bigfoot's realm for his species.

Last is "Mirage" by Felix Mas (art) and Gerry Conway (story). A man and a young boy wander the desert after a plane crash. They eventually come across a group of women that end up eating him. At the end of the story it is revealed that the whole experience was a mirage, caused by the boy because he was upset at the man for hitting him.

Eerie 41

A very good, well known cover by Sanjulian, based on a panel in this issue's Dax story. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Ghouls of Scotland" by Ken Barr (art) and Fred Ott (story).

First story is "Warped" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A college student discovers of an 'infinity gland' which will prevent him from dying, which he obtains from the mysterious Cahill. He soon finds that the gland speeds up how he views time tremendously however, and before he knows it he's aged over half a century. He meets Cahill again, who reveals that he is one of many mutants who are seeking punishment on normal people. The end of the story features another young man approaching Cahill about eternal life.

Next is "West Coast Turnaround" by Tom Sutton (art) and John Wooley (story). Mike Harris, a young man with a wife and young child takes a temporary job as a truck driver in order to raise money to move to California. In order to stay up all night he is given a drug called "West Coast Turnaround" which results in bizarre hallucinations. At the end of the story he returns with the truck, having dug up a bunch of corpses that he thought were alive.

Third is "Heir Pollution" with art by Jose Bea and story by John Wooley again. A man, Norman Mayo, inherits his father's fertilizer factory and quickly increases production tremendously, which results in a lot of pollution. A college professor warns him of the pollution he's causing, so Norman kills him and throws him in the polluted river. The professor's deformed corpse comes back to life and seeks revenge, pulling him back into the river with him.

Next up is "The Caterpillers" by Luis Garcia (art) and Fred Ott (story). A professor from a government research facility passes away during a meeting, resulting in an investigation. It is revealed that caterpillers created in the facility had been taking over the minds of people and eating their brains. Quickly the entire lab is wiped out by them and when our protagonist reports to his superiors, it is revealed that they have been taken over as well. Terrific art as always from Garcia, but the story is extremely similar to the story "Spiders are Revolting" from Eerie 26.

Fifth is "Derelict" by Paul Neary (art) and John Thraxis (story). This was Neary's Warren debut, and looks nothing as good as his usual work. The story features a spaceship coming across a derelict ship. A number of astronauts head aboard to find it deserted, but a mysterious vapor lingers in the ship and soon all the men are dying off. At the end of the story only one astronaut is alive, with everyone else dead.

Sixth is "The Safest Way" with art by Jose Gual (art) and story by Steve Skeates (story). The story features two men, one a General under a lot of pressure to keep down revolts and the other a man talking to the revolutionaries trying to get them to work towards a peaceful solution. The general panics due to pressure and orders the other man killed. A very abrupt ending to this story right in the middle of things.

Last is "Chess", this issue's segment of Dax the Warrior, by Esteban Maroto. Dax is summoned by a sorceror who simulates a chess game where Dax's dead family and friends are brought back to life as chess pieces and are killed once again as their pieces are taken out. Dax performs quite poorly and when his last piece, his father, is about to be taken out, he snaps and attacks the sorceror's queen. Dax is sent back to reality with a souvenier, his father's decapitated head. This story would be reprinted in color in issue 59.

Overall quite a good issue, with strong stories and art for the most part throughout the issue.

Eerie 44

This issue of Eerie is from the beginning of Bill Dubay's first run at editor of the Warren line. The cover is by Luis Dominguez, featuring various monsters watching a ship from the cliffs above. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Werewolf - Fact or Fantasy?" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Fred Ott (story).

First story is "Crazy Mazie" by Tom Sutton (art) and J.R. Cochran (story, his last for Warren) featuring an aged western movie star whose gone a little crazy in his old age. By the end of the story he's killed his wife, a fan, and even himself.

Next is "Everlasting Mortality" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Doug Moench (story). A man seeks to live forever, so he willingly lets a vampire drink his blood. After beign buried, he rises from his grave, only to die because his gravestone creates the shadow of a cross.

Third is "The Thrill of the Hunt" by Martin Salvador (art) and Doug Moench (story). The story is about a man being hunted through the woods after killing an agent from the electric company who wanted the trees trimmed near the electric lines. Although he kills many of his pursuers, the wilderness eventually wears on him and he ends up getting electrocuted when he jumps into an electric line from out of a tree.

"Hand of the Discarnate" is next, from Bill Dubay (art) and Doug Moench (story), about two brothers who go to see a medium who ends up summoning their father's spirit, who gets them to fight and kill each other.

Fifth is "Mervin's Dead Ringer!" a short story by Luis Dominguez (art) and Greg Potter (story) about a man who thinks his alarm clock, Alan, is alive, and goes crazy when he accidently breaks it.

Next is "Tiller of the Soul" with art by Rubio and story by Greg Potter. An old farmer who is a loner comes across a dead man buried in his farm that talks to him. The dead man befriends him, but when he digs him up, he discovers that the dead man is himself!

Last is this issue's entry for Dax the Warrior, "The Lake of Gold" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). A group of slave traders come across an island occupied by Dax and a number of beautiful women. Dax tells the slave traders of riches in the nearby lake. They head there, where Dax destroys the bottom of their ship and the women all turn into fish like demons that kill all the slave traders.

A so-so issue, with nothing particularly great, but most of the stories are okay ones.

Eerie 46

This issue features a cover with Dracula holding a female victim in his arms. The frontis for this issue is "Portrait of Dracula" by Auraleon (art) and Fred Ott (story). This two pager spans both the front and back inside covers.

First story is "Dracula", with art by Tom Sutton (the first two pages feature art from Bill Dubay) and written by Dubay. This story is the first of a three part series starring Dracula, who had originally appeared in a few Vampirella stories in issues 16 through 21. The story features Dracula being sent to a sea port in the early 1900's where he takes over a ship and encounters a haggered witch whose been eating hearts to stay alive. After the Conjuress (a powerful being who was also from the Vampirella series) is killed by her, Dracula kills both the witch and her assistant. Pretty good story here, which would continue over the next few issues.

Next is "The Things in the Dark" by Jim Janes (art) and Fred Ott (story). Janes was usually paired with another artist in his stories, and unless I'm mistaken, this is his only solo story. A caretaker of a graveyard asks a supernatural expert to help him solve the mysteries of the events taking place in the graveyard. It ends up that a group of giant worms have eaten all the bodies in the graveyard and the caretaker brought in the expert to be a meal for them. Janes's art is pretty good here, its too bad he didn't do more solo stories.

Third is "Garganza!" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Warren (story). This story is Warren's version of Godzilla, feauturing a tyranosaurus rex running amock in Tokyo, and managing to wipe out all of human society only for things to start all over again millions of years later.

Next is "The Root of Evil" by Martin Salvador (art) and Mike Jennings (story). A bum is hired by a scientist to take part in an experiment to help humans be able to breath carbon dioxide. As the days go by, his body slowly turns into a tree while a nearby plant becomes more and more human. Eventually the tree-man is unleashed on society, but is luckily able to be stopped.

Fifth is "Planet of the Werewolves!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Crandall's art is absolutely dreadful here, the worst art he'd ever do on a story for Warren. A trio of astronauts come across a planet overrun by werewolves, except for a single man, who they bring aboard. One of the astronauts is killed while repairs are being done. Eventually the other two discover the truth, that the man they brought aboard is a vampire, whose going to get them to take him to Earth. Crandall's art kind of spoils what is otherwise not that bad a story.

Last is "The Giant", part of the 'Dax the Warrior' series, with art and story by Esteban Maroto. This series was a reprinting of 'Manly' which Maroto had originally done in Spain. Except for the final story, all the stories were stand alones and can be read in any order. I don't expect to review them in order on this blog due to that fact, although I will try to do the finale last. Anyway, this story surrounds Dax encountering a cyclops giant and the wizard controlling him. Dax refuses the wizard's offer to take his place and defeats both the cyclops and him.

Creepy 50

Today I'm going to tackle Creepy #50, a landmark issue for Warren that unfortunately failed to meet expectations. A very dissappointing issue in my opinion, an opinion that is shared by fellow internet Warren commentator Richard Arndt as well as Stephen Sennit's book Ghastly Terror. The cover of the issue, by Sanjulian, features various Warren characters such as Uncle Creepy, Cousin Eerie, Vampirella and Dracula. Sanjulian was one of Warren's most prolific cover artists and was with them for over a decade. The frontis for this issue is "Odd Worm" by Auraleon (art) and Al Hewetson (story).

First up is the issue's best story, "Forgive Us Our Debts" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). The story is about a pair of drug smugglers whose plane crashes in the jungle. One of the smugglers, Manning, escapes while the other, Hunter, loses one of his arms to a crocodile. He gets his revenge by later taking Manning captive and forcing him along with his collegue Sharon in the jungle to recover their lost drugs. Along the way they encounter a bizarre group of humanoid creatures who are guarding the drugs along with a large amount of treasure. When Hunter goes to get the drugs, Manning shoots him in the back. He goes to claim the treasure himself, but when Sharon is unable to cover him due to going insane from fright, the creatures kill him. Pretty good story with very good Maroto art, although its a tad long and drags a bit in the middle.

Up next is "Frog God" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and E.A. Fedory (story). The story is about an archaeologist who discovers an ancient temple of a civilization that worshipped a 'Frog God'. He finds a monument which he thinks will give him magical power, but it ends up turning him into a frog instead. Fedory's narrative quality is quite poor and Abellan's artwork is extemely ugly, like his artwork in pretty much all of his Warren stories.

"Side-Show", drawn by Jose Bea and written by Fred Ott is about a jealous husband who thinks his wife is cheating on him when he catches buying a ring in a store with another man. He meets a sideshow magician who shrinks both of them for him, but when he realizes that the gift was for him, he tries to renege on the deal with the magician and suffers the same fate himself. While Bea's artwork is good, the main character is a complete and utter idiot, completely forgetting that his wife may be buying him a birthday present. That lapse of logic is enough to ruin the story for me.

"The Sum of Its Parts" by Reed Crandall (art) and Doug Moench (story) is fourth. The story is about a bunch of dismembered body parts that suddenly start appearing in various places. Each person who finds them ends up losing various limbs themselves. Eventually all the dismembered parts, sans a head, come together and run amock with an axe until they can find one. Moench's story is pretty good, but Crandall's art is quite poor, which was unfortunate considering how good of an artist he was with EC and just a few years earlier at Warren.

Last up is "The Climbers of the Tower" by Felix Mas (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story). The story surrounds two friends, Druin and Tarran, who have spent their entire lives climbing a tower. When they approach the top, Druin gets greedy, wanting the glory of being the first to reach the top and loses his life in a confrontation with Tarran. Tarran reaches the top only to realize that he never knew why he wanted to reach the top of the tower, and goes crazy. As I mentioned in my review for Eerie #38, Brennan's stories were usually quite nonscensical and this is definately one of them. A compeltely pointless and piss poor story that wastes Mas's talented artwork.