Creepy 22

Tom Sutton provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, from August 1968. As with all issues from this era of Warren, this issue has a few reprinted stories. Its a so-so issue at best, with multiple themes repeated in the stories, giving us not a lot of variety.

The issue starts with "Home is Where" by Pat Boyette (art) and Ron Parker (story). This story features a pair of thieves who break into a curio shop. They find a set of stairs that leads to the basement and head down there where they are pursued by various monsters and beasts including snakes, crocodiles, vampires, ghouls, zombies and others. They are eventually found by the police, having been driven insane by their experience. It is revealed at the end of the story that they had broken into Uncle Creepy's home. This story is practically an exact copy of the story "When the Cat's Away" from the EC comic Vault of Horror #34 which features a pair of thieves breaking into the Crypt Keeper's home.

Next is "Monster Rally" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was originally published in Creepy #4. A mad scientist assembles a large group of monsters, all in order to find a formula that will give him eternal life. Eventually a town mob attacks him when one of his monsters, a vampire, escapes and attacks the town. The scientist frees his monsters, who kill him rather than attack the mob. The entire castle burns to the ground. There is only one survivor, a small baby... Uncle Creepy!

Third is the cover story "No Fair!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Bill Parente (story). A group of young boys follow the night watchman in a cemetary and it is revealed that he is bringing bodies to a vampire that lives in a mausoleum. The boys ask around about how to kill a vampire, then head to the cemetary where they kill the night watchman and drive a stake into the vampire's heart, killing him as well. As the story ends it is revealed that all the boys are ghouls and they killed the vampire to prevent him from taking further bodies that they could instead have for themselves.

Fourth is "Strange Expedition" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Parente (story). A group of 5 astronauts head to the moon and upon landing due to necessary repairs on their craft find plant life growing, despite the lack of oxygen. A few of the men go exploring but one is found torn to bits after the men split up. Two more of the men face similar fates after heading outside on their own. The repairs to the ship are completed and one of the last 2 remaining men reveals to the other that the plant they found is wolfsbane and transforms into a werewolf, killing the other man.

Next is "The Judge's House" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), originally published in Creepy 5. This is an adaption of a Bram Stoker story. A man moves into a house that was owned by an evil judge. As the nights pass he finds a number of rats inhabiting the house with him. Eventually the ghost of the judge himself appears from out of a portrait in the house and kills him.

The issue concludes with "Perfect Match" by Sal Trapani (art) and Ron Parker (story). This story features a woman who runs a computer dating scam where she finds people their 'perfect match'. She finds that her latest customer is a wealthy man and plans to scam him through several women before taking him for herself. When he immediately returns to her claiming the woman she set him up with was a perfect match and is going to marry her, she tries to blackmail him with a contract he signed but he reveals that both him and his fiance are vampires and they kill her.

Creepy 12

Dan Adkins provides the cover to this issue of Creepy, although it is miscredited to Frank Frazetta. The frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" is provided by Dan Adkins as well.

First is "Dark House of Dreams" by Angelo Torres and Archie Goodwin (story). An artist moves into the house of Matthew Gaunt, an evil man who was killed by a mob almost 200 years earlier. The artist has a number of dreams where he encounters Gaunt, and other evil beings, which become worse and worse with each one. Eventually he dies and turns into Gaunt, resurrected. Another very good story, as usual from Torres and Goodwin.

Second is "Turncoat!" by Bob Jenney (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features a member of the Union army in the Civil War, who, hoping to escape from battle, puts on the uniform of a dead confederate soldier when he spots some confederate soldiers. The soldiers end up being dead however, and force him to die as well.

Third is "Maximum Effort!" by Rocco Mastroserio (art) and Ron Parker (story). A pair of men open a funeral business and find a lot of success with it. A skeptic thinks he realizes whats going on when he finds that they're grounding the bones of the dead to sell for fertilizer, but find that they also find other uses for the corpse, as they are a vampire and ghoul!

Fourth is "Voodoo Doll!" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). An older man gets a voodoo doll to keep his young wife from leaving him. However, it ends up that it is all a trick by her and her lover. She shows him a voodoo doll of himself, which causes him to die of a heart attack. However, when she disposes of both dolls, it ends up that they worked after all. By throwing the two of them in a fire, she is burned up herself.

Fifth is "Blood of the Werewolf!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). A man wandering the city in a drunken stupor is found by a psychologist who has a werewolf for a son. The psychologist manages to transfer the werewolf curse onto our protagonist, who soon becomes a werewolf himself. He ends up going to a psychologist to tell him whats going on, but it ends up that the man is actually the son who was originally a werewolf, and shoots him dead with a silver bullet.

Sixth is "Idol Hands!" by Manny Stallman (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story is about a large idol statue that is discovered and brought to a museum. It is soon discovered however that it isn't just a statue, and is alive. A so-so story, the weakest in this issue.

Last is "Adam Link, Robot Detective" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam dons a human disguise in order to investigate some murders that have been accused as having been committed by his robot mate, Eve. A rather interesting twist in this story, with Adam looking like a normal human being for most of it.

Creepy 21

This issue of Creepy has a cover by Gutenberg Monteiro, featuring a man attacked by rats. Probably the worst cover in Creepy's history, this is absolutely awful. This issue's frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Bob Jenney (art) and Bill Parente (story).

First is "The Rats in the Walls" by Bob Jenney (art) and Unknown (story, a HP Lovecraft Adaption). A rather disjointed story featuring a man whose family committed many murder and has rats plauging his new home. Not that familiar with the orignal story, but this adaption didn't turn out to be that interesting a story.

Second is "Room With A View!", with art by Steve Ditko, and story by Archie Goodwin. This story was originally published in Eerie #3. A man arrives at an inn with no rooms available, except for a single one which the innkeeper warns him against staying in. The guest uses it anyway and sees a weird creature in the mirror. Each time he looks in the mirror he sees more creatures appearing until he is completely overtaken by them. Hearing his scream, the innkeeper comes up and finds the room empty, but sees the guest's corpse when he looks in the mirror.

Third is "The Immortals" by Sal Trapani (art) and Ron Parker (story). The Immortals of the title are powerful people who live forever in a futuristic society. A man seeks to become an immortal, even going as far as to reveal some conspirator's hideout. He is successful and made an Immortal, but loses all his individuality as the Immortals are actually controlled by a computer.

Fourth is "A Reasonable Doubt" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Ron Parker (story). A man rescues a girl, Elizabeth, who is pursued by a mob. She tells him that they accused her of being a witch after her parent's deaths. She tells him of her past and they head to a cabin in the woods. It is only there that he discovers the truth, that she's Lizzie Borden, who quickly comes after him with a hatchet!

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

Last is "Timepiece to Terror" by Gutenberg Montiero (art) and Bill Parente (story). A pawnshop owner buys a watch which enables him to go forward and backwards in time. He's able to do so by summoning a demon at a certain time while protecting himself with pig blood. He becomes rich with the watch's powers but the demon eventually kills him when he forgets about daylight savings time.

Eerie 24

This issue came out right around when Warren was starting to rebuild itself from the horrendous state it had fallen into in the late 1960's. Alas, that still means there's some reprinted material here. The cover is by Vic Prezio, featuring a giant ghost near a lighthouse.
This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Perchance to Dream" by Tom Sutton.

Up first is the cover story, "Head For the Lighthouse!" by Mike Royer (art) and Bill Parente (story). A rather disjointed story with a poor narrative at times, it features an old lighthouse keeper who enjoys telling stories of pirates to young kids. The city decides to replace the light in the lighthouse and the old man dies, but comes back as a corpse and turns things back to normal.

Second is a reprint from the very first issue of Creepy, "Pursuit of the Vampire" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features a group of townspeople being joined by a stranger who tells them two murder victims are actually going to turn into vampires since a vampire was their killer. He leads them to a house where they are and kill them. The town leader ends up being the vampire that killed them, but the stranger, who is a werewolf kills him to eliminate competition for victims.

Third is "The Immortality Seeker" by Tom Sutton (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). A man overhears another man talking of immortality, so he follows him and kills him. Taking a map from the man, he heads to a planet and kills a monster, and finally finds a computer that will give him immortality. Only the computer ends up freezing him!

The following story is "Checkmate" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Ron Parker (story). A man meets an old friend at his his house, who possesses a chess set made up of demonic pieces. They play and the friend eventually wins. He tells the man that he needs to play someone every night to keep the chess set and if someone beats him they get it. But if he wins, he gets to take their soul, which is exactly what happens to our protagonist.

Fifth is "Scavenger Hunt", with art by Jerry Grandenetti and story by Don Glut. A short fat guy who loves the macabre keeps ruining parties, so the guests come up with a scavenger hunt of part of various monsters to keep him busy and out of their hair. He is able to find all the items however and returns to the party with them... along with the monsters they belong to!

Sixth story is another reprint, "Dracula's Guest" from Eerie 16. The art is by Frank Bolle and the story is by E. Nelson Bridwell. This story is originally from a Christopher Lee book of comic stories. It is an adaption of the events that occur in the novel Dracula prior to the start of the well known story in Translvania.

Last is "Wrong Tennant" by Reed Crandall and Bill Parente. A pair of ghost hunters arrive to help an old woman eliminate a ghost from her house. They initially have difficulty and one of them is killed, but the ghost is able to be stopped using electricity. Only it ends up the ghost was actually a victim of the old woman, who is a vampire and kills the last remaining ghost hunter. This story would be rewritten and published in color in Creepy 74 in 1975.

Creepy 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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!

Creepy 20

Here's a very reprint heavy issue of Creepy from Warren's dark age. The cover is a reprint from Famous Monster #4 by Albert Nuetzell. It's one of Creepy's bizarrest covers, featuring a green one eyed creature with long arms. No frontis this issue.

First up is "Thumbs Down" by Al Williamson (art) and Anne Murphy (story), originally from Creepy #6. This story may be the most reprinted in Warren's history. Can't count how many times this story ended up being reprinted over the years. The story features a crooked arena games master who has his top gladiator killed only for him to come back from the dead to take revenge.

"The Inheritors of Earth" by Hector Castellon (art & story) is second. The story feaures a chemical company employee creating a spray that kills cochroaches. He is suddenly transported to a world of giant insects where humanoids try to capture the formula. He escapes from the world only for them to get him back in the real world. Not that good of a story and hard to follow as well.

Another new story, "Beauty or the Beast!" by Sal Trapani (art) and Len Brown (story) is next. Four astronauts land upon an Earth like planet. Two are quickly killed. Another heads out and finds a beautiful woman, whom he tries to bring back with him. His colleague refuses, thinking she is probably responsible for the deaths, and brings her outside, only to get killed as well. Our protagonist finally tells her off only to have second thoughts. He heads back out to find her but now finds her killed, and finds what was really killing everyone, the male of the species, a hideous monster. The monster appears to be a swipe from the story "Counter-Clockwise" from the EC comic Weird Fantasy #18.

Another reprint from Creepy #6, "The Cask of Amontillado" is next, with art by Reed Crandall and story by Archie Goodwin. This is obviously an adaption of the classic Edgar Allen Poe story, featuring a man who encloses a colleague of his in a brick tomb. Goodwin adds a new ending to the story, where the protagonist, now an old man, returns to the scene of the crime and is killed when the chamber floods and the corpse of his colleague pulls him under water.

Another reprinted adaption is up next, "The Damned Thing!" from Creepy #4. It features art by Gray Morrow and story by Archie Goodwin. The story features a monster who is of a color that makes it appear invisible to the human eye. Upon being told of the monster, men are skeptical of it, only for the creature to appear and kill them. Very good story with a very scary looking ape-like monster, when it finally is able to be seen at the end.

Last is "A Vested Interest", originally published in Creepy #8. It has art by Geroge Tuska and story by Ron Parker. It featuers a man who sees a werewolf but finds no one believing him except a single man he meets at a bar. The man brings him to an alley at night and reveals himself to be the werewolf. Our hero thinks he's tricked him, shooting silver bullets from his camera, but the werewolf has outsmarted him, wearing a bullet-proof vest! Tuska's art is not too good here, but it is a fun story.