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.

Creepy 144

A reprinted Frank Frazetta cover from Creepy 5 is used for the cover of this issue of Creepy, cover dated January 1983.

The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is from Creepy 64. The story takes place in a graveyard where a group of rotting corpses get out of their graves in order to switch grave sites with some more well to do deceased people. Along the way they come across a duo of grave robbers who they mistake as being among them and bury them too, alive.

Second is "For the Sake of Your Children!" by Jaime Brocal (art) and E.A. Fedory (story), from Creepy 45. A group of peasents dislike a nearby Baron, who is revealed to have vampires as ancestors. A mob gathers and goes to the Baron's castle after one of the children is found dead. Inside they kill the Baron, putting a stake through his heart. However a group of female vampires within the castle attack the mob, and when they return to the village, all of them are now vampires themselves.

Third is "It" by Tom Sutton (story & art), from Creepy 53. 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.

Fourth is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Creepy 76. A vampire kills a woman who is a lover of his. Another lover of the woman discovers that he is a vampire and comes after him, and chases him, eventually striking a stake through his heart. Unfortunately hundreds of years later in the modern era someone removes the stake, causing the vampire to rise again.

Fifth is "The Ghouls" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story), from Creepy 61. This story is about a pair of grave robbers who encounter a group of vampires in a graveyard. It ends up that one of the robbers set up the other, making a deal with the vampires to feast on his body, as he's a ghoul who will get the body after the blood is drained from it. Wessler's story here reminds me of his EC work from approximately 20 years earlier.

Sixth is "Berenice" with art by Isidro Mones and adaption by Rich Margoulos. This story, from Creepy 70, is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. This story tells of a man who is obsessed with his cousin Berenice, whom he plans on marrying. Berenice gets sick and the protagonist starts obsessing over her teeth. After her death he digs up her corpse and tears all her teeth out.

Last is "The Terror Stalked Heiress", from Creepy 72, featuring art by Jose Gual and written by Carl Wessler. This story is part of the series 'It', whose original story is referenced earlier in this issue. The series stars a corpse named Timothy Foley who comes back from the grave to help his niece Jill. Oddly for some reason in this story the family name of Foley is changed to Redey. Jill gets attacked by some monsters that live in a mirror. It arrives and saves her, and they cover the mirror with a blanket so the monsters can't get out. Later some men come to the house to kill her so they can take over her home, and It arrives once again and saves her, while the monsters from the mirror kill the criminals.

Creepy 57

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

First is "The Destructive Image" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Don McGregor (story). A rather disjointed, odd tale featuring lots of bizarre events occuring as a man and wife sit down watching TV. Repairmen appear to fix it, but this only results in even more bizarre events occuring. Some very nice art from Torrents here.

Second is "The Hope of the Future" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Doug Moench (story). Some very nice art by Brocal in this pencils only story. It features a man barricaded in a house, surrounded by evil children who are trying to get in. He eventually gives in and heads downstairs where the children, including his son, await him.

Third is "The Bloodlock Museum" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). Two parents carry a bound man through their own museum, featuring various corpses of people that did them wrong in the past, brutally murdered. The bound man finds a similar fate awaiting him, as he was the military recruiter that convinced their dead son to join the military, resulting in him dying in Vietnam.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "The Low Spark of High Heeled Noise!" by Richard Corben (art) and Doug Moench (story). A traveling salesman comes across a house during a storm. The couple inside reluctantly lets him sleep there. The man overhears the couple arguing, apparently they killed the man's former wife, but suspect each other due to them hearing footsteps of the other during the night. Eventually the man kills the woman and the salesman kills him in self defense. He soon dies however when he drinks something that the woman had poisoned. Only then is the one who started the footsteps revealed, the ghost of the man's dead wife.

Fifth is "The Red Badge of Terror" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in the civil war. A pair of soldiers pursue an enemy, eventually coming across an abandoned town. Only the town isn't abandoned after all, but contains a vampire, that attacks them. They then wait for more soldiers to come along who they can attack.

Last is "Sense of Violence" by Isidro Mones (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story takes place in a city filled with violence. The first three and a half pages or so come off like a Don McGregor story with lots of various unconnected scenes of violence. We get into an actual story around the fourth page. A nervous man wanders down an alley and when a man approaches him he stabs him in self defense and runs off. Only it ends up that the man who approaches him was actually just a cop asking for ID, and our protagonist is soon arrested.

Creepy 70

Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, cover dated April 1975. This issue is another all Edgar Allen Poe issue, with Rich Margopoulos providing the adaption for all stories within. Berni Wrightson provides the one page frontis intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is the cover story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", with art by Jose Ortiz. This story surrounds a mysterious murder where a woman is killed in her room, with no motive apparent. It eventually becomes clear that an escaped orangutan is responsible for the murder.

Second is "Man of the Crowd" with art by Luis Bermejo. Bermejo's art is terrific here, as was much of his early stories for Warren. A man sitting in a restaurant spots a mysterious old man walking by. He heads outside and follows the man, who always is staying close to a crowd. He eventually realizes that the old man is some sort of psychic vampire, drawing the energy from the souls of others.

Third is "The Cask of Amontillado!" with art by Martin Salvador. This story, which had already been adapted earlier in Creepy by Archie Goodwin features a man who gets even with a collegue of his who loves wine. Telling him of his favorite wine, Amontillado, he convinces the friend to come down into an underground passageway with him where he bricks up the friend in a passage and bricks it off, trapping him there forever.

Fourth is "Shadow" with art by Richard Corben. Some very surreal artwork in this story by Corben. Pestilence and war plagues the countryside. In the city of Ptolemais a group of men sit to eat dinner next to the body of a fellow warrior, Zoilus. Soon a mysterious shadow appears on the wall. They then all die, due to catching a disease that the corpse had.

Fifth is "A Descent into the Maelstrom!" with art by Adolfo Abellan. This story tells of a ship that travels past a large waterfall, then gets caught in it. One of the men saves himself by tying himself to a barrel.

Last is "Berenice" with art by Isidro Mones. Like the Cask of Amontillado, this story was originally adapted by Archie Goodwin years before, but is adapted anew by Margopoulos here. This story tells of a man who is obsessed with his cousin Berenice, whom he plans on marrying. Berenice gets sick and the protagonist starts obsessing over her teeth. After her death he digs up her corpse and tears all her teeth out.

Creepy 76

Sanjulian provides an interesting cover for this issue of Creepy, featuring the grim reaper on a horse, carrying a headless woman's corpse. This issue is dated January 1976. Berni Wrightson and Walt Simonson provide a one page intro from Uncle creepy

First is "Goodbye, Mr. Lincoln" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A very interesting story surrounding a woman whose son is murdererd. At the police station she explains that her son is actually the reincarnation of a slave boy who had a spell cast on him by an old woman. After the boy's death, he is reincarnated as leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy, but is always assassinated. In the modern era, Satan's forces captured the woman and her son and killed him. While the policeman believes his story, he leaves her in the care of another person, who is actually a demon, who kills her for talking.

Second is "Ensnared" by Alex Toth (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features a man who wakes up and finds himself trapped in an elevator. After much anguish, he finally gets out, but it is revealed to be part of an experiment performed by robots (or perhaps aliens in robot-like suits).

Third is "A Flash of Lightning" by John Severin (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A mysterious man comes across a man's farm and starts working for the farmer. Soon afterwards mysterious deaths start occuring, that appear to be the work of a vampire, which is of course the man who just appeared. The farmer comes across the man with his daughter and they get in a fight, and the man is accidently stabbed by a sharp piece of wood, killing him. As the story ends, it is revealed that the daughter is pregnant.

Fourth is "My Monster... My Dad" by Martin Salvador (art) and Jan Strnad (story). A rather bizarre story about a boy who hates his black stepfather, thinking he's a monster. He has multiple dreams, including one where he stabs his step father, and that occurs in real life. A real odd one here. There is nothing evidencing that the father is a monster, making it come off as simply a story about a very racist and delusional boy.

Fifth is "In Darkness It Shall End!" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story). A vampire kills a woman who is a lover of his. Another lover of the woman discovers that he is a vampire and comes after him, and chases him, eventually striking a stake through his heart. Unfortunately hundreds of years later in the modern era someone removes the stake, causing the vampire to rise again.

The issue concludes with "The Imp of the Perverse!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man plans to kill his rich uncle in order to inherit his money. He does it by creating a poison candle which he burns in the old man's bedroom. With no one suspecting things, he keeps muttering "I am safe" to himself over and over again until he suddenly blabs in public about killing his uncle. As a result, he is jailed and hung for murder.

Creepy 69

This issue of Creepy is the first of two Edgar Allen Poe specials. Ken Kelly provides the cover for this issue, dated February 1975. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover. Rich Margopoulos did the adaptions for all the stories in this issue.

First is "The Pit and the Pendulum" with art by Jose Ortiz. The Warren Companion reveals that Berni Wrightson was originally intended to do the art for this story. A man is sentenced to death and put in prison. Inside, he nearly falls into a giant pit. When he drinks some water, it is poisoned and knocks him out. He awakens tied up on a wooden slab, with a giant pendulum swinging over him. By rubbing meat over the ropes binding him, some rats come and eat the rope, freeing him. He is able to escape to freedom afterwards.

Next is "Premature Burial" with art by Vicente Alcazar. A man is deathly afraid of being buried alive, particularly because he has an illness where he can appear dead when he's still alive. His wife comes up with a plan to install a rope within his coffin so if he is prematurely buried, he can notify her he's still alive. He later wakes up though to find himself in another coffin, with no way to notify her. Luckily for him he is actually on a ship, not in a coffin, and this helps him get over his fear for good.

Third is "The Fall of the House of Usher" featuring art by Martin Salvador. A man goes to see his friend, who is part of the Usher family. The man is worried for his sister, who is quite ill. Eventually the sister passes away and is buried in the basement. Usher is still quite nervous however and one night his sister, who wasn't actually dead appears and attacks him. The two of them die from the ordeal and the house collapses just after our protagonist departs.

Richard Corben provides the art for the next story, "The Oval Portrait". "The Raven", a color story published in issue 67 was originally intended to appear here instead, but got mistakenly published two issues early. A man is wounded in a duel so he is brought into a lare house nearby. Inside he finds a very realistic oval portrait of a beautiful woman. He reads a diary within the house which reveals the history of the portrait. The woman was the wife of the artist. He showed her little love, and made her be the model for the portrait. As he worked on the portrait, and it became more and more lifelike, she became exhausted and eventually collapsed dead when he finished the portrait.

Fifth is "Ms. Found in a Bottle" with art by Leo Summers. This story is told by a man on a ship that faces a huge storm. Eventually there is just him and one other man left. Soon the ship sinks when it comes across another, our protagonist flees onto it. There he sees a number of spectral crew members. He writes down his encounters, putting it in a bottle, and the ship comes across a whirlpool, sinking in it.

Last is "Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" with art by Isidro Mones. This story is about an old man dying who is visited by a hypnotist who hypnotizes him to stay alive. It works, and he lives through the night, then for days and eventually months. The hypnotist, not feeling good about the matter releases the trance, and the man immediately decomposes.

Creepy 79

Enrich provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, which is miscredited to Sanjulian. This issue is cover dated May 1976, and was the first issue during Louise Jones's era as editor. Jose Ortiz provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy on the inside front cover.

First is "As Ye Sow..." by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story takes place in a post apocalyptic society featuring a family of cannibals. The daughter of the family finds a man hiding in the woods. They fall in love with each other and she hides him from the others. When her family finds him and tries to eat him, she tries to scare them off with a cross but they shoot her in the face. They force her to have babies with the man, which they then proceed to eat.

Second is "Kui" by Alex Toth (story & art). This story features a man traveling to a South American temple during his vacation with his reluctant wife. They search for an entrance and eventually find it, going inside. They end up trigger a trap however, and are buried alive with sand because of it.

Third is "The Super-Abnormal Phenomena Survival Kit!" by John Severin (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). This hilarious story is a parody of the Captain Company ads that appeared in the back of each Warren magazine. Eight pages of parodies and horror movie staples/homages results in a fairly good effort, one of Warren's best humorous stories.

Fourth is "The Shadow of the Axe!" by Russ Heath (art) and Dave Sim (story). This story was Sim's sole Warren appearance. It features a boy living in a small town who suspects his father is an axe murderer. To stop him, he turns on his father and kills him with an axe. The next day, his mother winks at him, making one wonder if she was responsible for it all.

Fifth is "Visitation at Pliny Marsh" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story features mysterious events occuring near a swamp including the corpse of a man killed years before by his wife and lover appearing, and a mysterious fish like alien. The corpse attacks the lover of his wife, killing him, then confronts her, but is stopped by the alien, who apologizes for bringing the corpse back to life by his presence there. The alien is shot however by one of the men in the town, and the wife hangs herself soon afterwards.

Last is "The Pit in the Living Room Floor!" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A very good, odd story. A man hears mysterious noises from under the floor in his living room. Eventually a bizarre looking man bursts out of the floor, and our protagonist kills him. Looking at where the man came from, he finds a seemingly never ending pit coming below the floorboards. He decides to head down into it and after a very long time, reaches the bottom. He bangs on the floor of the pit, eventually breaking through, only to be shot by himself, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Creepy 44

Vicente Segrelles provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, from March 1972, one of only two Warren covers.

First story is "With Silver Bells, Cockle Shells And..." by Irv Docktor (art) and F. Paul Wilson (story). A former convict encounters a scientist at a bar that he thinks has money, but he only has seeds. The convict kills the man, then buries his seeds in the ground. He finds out the seeds will make him rich, but they also reveal him as the killer when they look like the very man he killed. Some very interesting art from Docktor in his sole Warren appearance.

Second is the cover story, "Something to Remember Me By!" by Tom Sutton (story & art). A man's wife and her lover get him to die by scaring him to death with a fake grave. They bury him without a locket of his, and believing in a curse that he'll come back to take it, they dig up his grave to put in in his coffin, but his grave ends up falling on them, crushing them.

Third is "A Certain Innocence" by Nebot (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Normally a very dependable writer, Skeates turns out quite an odd one here, this story I'd expect more from a T. Casey Brennan or Don McGregor than him. Its about some hippie girls who enjoy some records, but find some weird words on them, which when they speak turn men into giant monsters.

Fourth is "The Last Days of Hans Bruder" by Frank Bolle (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story features a nazi concentration camp doctor's sad history as he tries to end people's misery as soon as possible, including killing his former lover knowing what the other nazis are going to do to her. In the present time he takes an experimental drug rather than testing it on other people, and it kills him.

Fifth is "Like A Phone Booth, Long and Narrow" by Jose Bea (art) and Jan Strnad (story). This was Strnad's Warren debut. A man's phone obsessed wife convinces him to bury her with a phone in the event she dies, as her family has a history of being buried alive due to an illness. It happens to her, but when she calls him, he's too drunk to pick up the phone.

Sixth is "The Ultimate High!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This was Salvador's Warren debut. A man is about to settle down with his girlfriend, but before decides to go on one last big adventure to experience the ultimate high from a drug used by Tibetan monks. He uses the drug but the high is so intense that his entire life passes him by and he's an old man by the time he feels normal again.

Seventh is "Dorian Gray: 2001" by William Barry (art) and Al Hewetson (story). In this story Gray retains his looks not because of a deal with the devil, but because he's a vampire! Eventually he's found out however, and ends up falling into a vat of chemicals, which completely destroys his body. Another Dorian Gray themed story appeared in Vampirella around the same time as this story.

Last is "Sleep" by Mike Ploog (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A pair of thieves are able to steal from people by cutting the hands off a corpse and lighting a finger on fire when they enter someone's house, which causes everyone to fall asleep. Eventually one of the thieves kills the other and heads into his final house, but lighting the fingers don't work as the house is filled with vampires!

This issue would mark the last Creepy appearance by Ploog and the last Warren appearances overall by Bolle and Barry, as the spanish artists quickly became the dominant artists of Warren.

Creepy 78

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, Bill Dubay's last during his original run as editor. It is cover dated March 1976.

First is "The Horseman" by Miguel Quesada (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story). Quesada was an artist who worked with the Valencia studio with Jose Ortiz, Luis Bermejo and Leopold Sanchez. While those three became very prolific artists for Warren, this ended up being Quesada's only story. It features a centaur like horseman who encounters a Canadian soldier who is afraid of the battlefield. When other soldiers come and try to kill him, the horseman kills them all. The two say their farewells soon after.

Second is "Unreal!" by Alex Toth (story & art). This story features an actor named 'Baba' Boone who does a lot of stunts, but is extremely quiet. As the story ends it ends up that is the case because he is a robot. A good story, though a tad predictable.

Third is "Creeps" by John Severin & Wally Wood (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features an accountant who is bugged by homeless people and the more destitute in society, calling them "Creeps". Eventually it becomes an obsession to him and he starts killing them. It goes even further when he thinks his mother is a Creep herself and kills her. Only this time someone sees it, so he has to flee and hide on the streets. As the days go by he takes on the appearance of a homeless person himself, then ends up killing himself when he sees his reflection. Very good story from Goodwin and an interesting art job from Wood and Severin.

Fourth is "Lord of Lazarus Castle" by Jorge Moliterni (art, miscredited to Claude Moliterni) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). This story features a couple that kills people who visit an old castle they occupy. They then take the corpses and provide it to a cannibal, who pays them for them. When summer comes however it is too popular a place and they can't kill anyone. This angers the cannibal, who ends up eating one of them.

Fifth is "The Nature of the Beast" by Martin Salvador (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This odd story features a man with visions of the past long ago, as a caveman. Years pass into the present and we witness the future as well. An odd story, although a fairly good art job by Salvador.

Last is "God of Fear" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). Very good art by Alcazar, resembling Luis Garcia's work. An archeologist of the Smithsonian discovers ancient artifacts referencing a God, Uturuncu. When he returns, he gets upset when his colleague tries to take all the credit and utters a chant that turns him into Uturuncu. He then goes on a rampage around the Washington Monument. He eventually turns back into his human self, at which point the story ends very abruptly.

Creepy 89

This issue of Creepy is an all war special issue. Alas, the stories here aren't at the quality of the Blazing Combat days, which would have made this quite the issue. The cover is a reprint of Frank Frazetta's cover for Blazing Combat 1.

First is "Blood Brothers" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Jones (story). The issue's best story, it is about a soldier who meets another soldier, Voper among the dead of a destroyed fort. Voper travels with him, but constantly dissappears and appears fine after being shot by our protagonist. At the end of the story it is revealed that Voper was dead the entire time and was actually being eaten by our protagonist.

Second is "The Windmill" by Leo Duranona (art) and Lou Rossin (story). This short story, at only 5 pages, features a hunchback in the days before World War II who fights to save his country of Liechenstein from the Nazis.

Third is "Angel of Jaipur" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a young pilot flying a plane who goes back in time and manages to save his father from a military assault. Despite there being some sceptics, the gun marks on his plane are proof enough that it really happened.

Fourth is "The Hungry Dragon" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A soldier comes across a village in Vietnam where he finds some young children which he attempts to care for. He heads out and kills some enemy soldiers to find food for them, but upon returning finds them eating the remains of some dead soldiers, causing them to kill them... in his mind. In actuality, he only harmed one of them, who ended up becoming his wife years later, but in his mind he is convinced he killed them all.

Fifth is "The Door-Gunner" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Larry Hama & Cary Bates (story). This story is drawn in pencil only. It features a veteran back from Vietnam who is convinced that he is still there at the war, resulting in murderous rages from him. In the end it ends up that he's in a mental hospital.

Last is "Coggin's Army" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Similar to the last story, this story takes place in an institution, where an old general, his wheelchair bound friend and others are convinced they are still at war.

Creepy 129

Jeff Easely provides the cover for this issue of Creepy. Rudy Nebres draws a one page intro from Uncle Creepy. Like most issues from this period, a boring issue with nothing much here to impress the reader.

First is "The Terrible Truth About Danny" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story tells of a young boy with pyschokenetic powers who can cause objects to do whatever he wants to get revenge on anyone whose done him wrong. A beautiful girl moves in next door but unlike other boys doesn't like her. One night he decides to force himself on her to be like everyone else but instead decides to kill himself by blowing his own head up.

Second is "The Saga of Popeye Jackson!" by Paul Neary (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story tells of a revolution from a robot man who used to be human. Some pretty good art from Neary, but a poor, rather dull story.

Third is "Working Class Hero" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an accountant in his forties who looks much older than that who is bored with life, but is suddenly transported to thousands of years in the past where he helps a woman who escaped from her slave master. They go meet with a wizard, the man who brought him back in time by accident and they defeat the slave master. The wizard tries to transport him back to the present, but he ends up in the revolutionary war period instead. Some good art, but a poor, pointless story.

Fourth is "The Last Voyage of Sinbad" by Fred Carillo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Sinbad of legend is actually a dim-witted man who desires more than anything else to have friends and have the rain stop. Some treasurer hunters recruit him to join them and when they find how dumb he is they instead plan to have him be the fall guy when they discover a genie that will kill whoever summons him. The genie instead grants Sinbad's wishes to have friends and stop the rain.

Fifth is "He Who Lives!" by Danny Bulandi (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A confusing story about a man on a spaceship who goes down to a planet, sees weird visions, and encounters a vampire who he kills, making him a vampire himself.

Last is "Strategic Retreat" by Herb Arnold (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story features a humanoid dinosaur who hires soldiers to kill his old men and help him escape. While escaping however the soldiers sign a new contract with his enemy, giving him only two weeks to live.

Vampirella 59

Enrich provides a rather comedic cover to this issue of Vampirella.

First is "Pendragon's Last Bow" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi and Pendragon come to a new town where some murders have been taking place. Pendragon meets a beautiful woman Rosie, the owner of an antique shop directly above the place where the corpses have been found. The Van Helsings arrive and find that Rosie is a succubus, who along with her brother is responsible for the murders. Rosie and her brother are killed, but she saves Adam, who had been attacked by her brother before she dies.

Second is "Changes" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a man released from a mental institution who wonders around where he used to live, but everything has changed. A rather weak story

Third is "Funeral Day" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story surrounds a funeral director in a post apocalyptic society where people eat the corpse. Another so-so story at best.

Fourth is "Force Feed" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Cary Bates (story). A killer who is on the run from the police finds a scientist who is able to transport him to someone else's body in another time. He proves it by letting him tempoorarily be in Jack the Ripper. But when they go ahead with transporting him to someone else's body, the scientist, knowing the killer is a vegitarian, has him turned into a Tyranosaurus Rex. The best story of this issue.

Fifth is "The Plot's the Thing" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). A comic book story writer who is an expert at horrific stories decides to inspire himself by killing people. Eventually he kills his wife, then kills his neighbor when he discovers him trying to escape with the body. He drags the bodies to throw over a bridge where he is killed by another man, who just happens to be killing him to inspire himself for his first comic book story.

Last is "The Beast is Yet to Come" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a man on the planet Rego living there with his son. The aliens there tell him of a creature, the "Wilwulf" which he doesn't believe in. After fighting some other aliens on the planet however, he returns home to find that his son is the Wilwulf.

Eerie 102

Sanjulian provides an odd cover for this issue. Most of it is okay, but there is no background whatsoever, just white space. A different style for this issue only, featuring mostly stand alone stories.

First is the Rook in "Terror of the Spaceways" by Lee Elias (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story was Elias's Warren debut and its quite impressive, a large improvement over the art in prior Rook stories. Elias would for a while do the Rook's stories once the character got its own magazine. This story, which is continued in the next issue, was originally part of a large story that had been split in two after Jim Warren (thankfully) demanded that Dubay reduce the size of the Rook stories. In this story the Rook, upset over the government cutting funding for NASA heads into the future to find something to impress the government. A battle is occuring however, and at the end of the story he comes across a partially destroyed ship, looking for survivors. Ironically enough Joe Brancatelli's 'The Comic Books 'column discusses this very story (clearly before the decision to publish it had occured), with Bill Dubay talking about how he does not want to split the story in two parts for publication.

Second is "Siege", the latest "Horizon Seekers" story. Art is by Leo Duranona and story is by Duranona & Cary Bates. In this story Allison and Jesse are pursued by the giant throughout the castle. It eventually gets its hand stuck in a tower within the castle. Unfortunately for them, an even larger menace, a huge army of creatures seems to be coming from the horizon.

Third is "The Earthquake Stick" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story tells of a young boy in an orphanage who is abused by the head of the place as well as his fellow orphans. He has a secret friend however, an alien creature that he is able to summon with a small device he has. Eventually he finds that he can use his fellow orphans as food for the creature.

Fourth is "Ophiophobia" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features a man who is deathly afraid of snakes. The story flashes back to his childhood and how his fear in snakes got started. Eventually he gets sent to war in Vietnam, where is he is captured by the enemy and thrown into a pit filled with snakes.

Fifth is "Tracks" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story takes place around a winter cabin where a man's wife dies and her corpse is eaten by some unknown menace. He goes outside trying to hunt it and eventually passes out in the snow.

Last is "Neatness Counts" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Jean Michel Martin (story). This short story with no dialogue features aliens coming to the moon, finding what the astronauts left there, and cleaning it all up, thinking it is trash.

Creepy 87

This issue is a special issue dedicated to the planet Mars. Nicola Cuti is credited as an editor (below Louise Jones and Bill Dubay) for this issue only. The cover is by Berni Wrightson; it is not an original cover but rather colored reprinted panels from art he did within the magazine. Wrightson was reportedly rather upset when he found Warren had done this; its a practice they used occasionally throughout the years, although mostly on reprint issues such as Creepy 82 and Eerie 78. An excellent issue, with only one poor story.

First is a one page feature titled "Four Classic Martians", drawn by Berni Wrightson. It features four panels of various martians. Two of these panels would be used on the cover.

Next is "A Warped Tale" by Gray Morrow (art) and Al Sirois (story). This was Morrow's first Warren appearance since the cover of Eerie 10 in 1967, and his first interior story since Creepy 10 in 1966. Unfortunately it would also be his final Warren appearance. The story features two astronauts who end up going through a timewarp, and find themselves on Mars, thousands of years ago. Mars at this time is a beautiful planet, very similar to Earth. From two of its inhabitants who they meet, they find that Mars is battling a planet that exists between Mars and Jupiter. The aliens from that planet can't breathe on Mars, and vice versa. Eventually these aliens attack, pumping their atmosphere into Mars. When our heroes retaliate, its sets the entire planet on fire. The enemy's planet is destroyed, creating, the asteroid belt that exists today. A very interesting and well drawn story to start the issue.

Third is "A Martian Saga" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Rather than an actual story, this is a 6 page poem, told with three panels per page. It features a man coming to Mars who meets a tribe there, confronts a monster, and meets a beautiful woman. Alas, its not a happy ending for him as he suffocated when he takes off his oxygen mask while with the woman.

Fourth is "Those 'Orrible Passions of '78" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This issue's best story, it features a retiring detective being interviewed about the most mysterious case of his career. It involved multiple events occuring within a short period of time where parents murdered their children, then died themselves shortly after. At the same time an old man off in the wilderness just lied down in his yard during a snowstorm and died. Throughout the story we are shown similar events occuring on Mars involving a martian and its dead children. The detective wonders if the death of an alien race somewhere in the universe occuring at the same time as these murders influenced them in some way. As an epilogue we are shown the mysterious face on Mars. A very interesting story.

Fifth is "The Last" by John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features a humanoid Martin who lives on Mars all alone with a robot. The martian is very depressed over the fact that the humans that used to be there are now all dead. The robot starts playing a movie for him, but the martian, trying to get him to stop, electrocutes himself. Ironically, the movie reveals that he wasn't a martian at all, but a mutated human, effected by radiation from the war on Earth that forced humanity to flee to Mars. All alone, the robot kills himself.

Sixth is "They Come Out at Night" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Some astronauts arrive at Mars and find a prior expedition wiped out, with just corpses there. The story then flashes back to the past where one of the astronauts arrives at Mars, finding that his wife is sleeping with another man. When learning of her infidelity he tries to leave her, but it ends up that she is actually possessed by roach like creatures who infect the other crew members when she kisses them. He kills her, but her corpse still comes after him as its still possessed by the roaches. In the present time, our protagonists are confronted by her corpse, which is still possessed by them!

Last is "Warmonger of Mars" by Ralph Reese (art) and Wally Wood (story). This story was reportedly created a long time before this issue, but not printed until now. The issue's sole poor story, it is a comedic effort featuring a man and creature on Mars. Yawn. Reese's art appears heavily inspired by Wood here.

Eerie 94

Don Maitz paints another terrific cover featuring the series Honor & Blood.

First is "The Coming of the Annihilator" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Despite being part of the Rook series, this story actually more heavily features Vampirella and Pantha, in a guest starring role. This story takes place just after their return from Drakulon (which should have taken place between issues 66 and 67 of Vampirella). They encounter a monster known as the Annihilator which absorbs energy, so they hope to go back in time with the Rook's help to prevent it from ever being brought to Earth.

Second is the second story in the "Honor & Blood" series with art by Leo Duranona and story by Nicola Cuti. This story continues with the daughter from the prior story, Sybil, now all grown up. She takes part in a pagan ceremony attempting to give birth to the anti-christ by having sex with a man with an elk mask. She gives birth to a son, Ian, and the doctor, seeing that he will be a vampire himself, tries to stop it by putting dirt from a vampire's grave on him. Sybil interferes, but the sun ends up killing her. Ian grows up to become a well known lawyer, but he is murdered when he tries to help a man who is framed. He comes back to life as a vampire, and while he desires only revenge against the man who killed him, he can't help but take other victims as well. He is eventually killed for good by his step-father the doctor, who is revealed to be his real father. The story ends with his son appearing to display homicidal tendencies as well. This series continues to be extremely good, head and shoulders above anything else in this magazine.

Third is "Dead Man's Ship" by Isidro Mones (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A ship heading to China comes across a ship filled with corpses, dead of the plague. The captain, thinking that he sees himself as one of the corpses, orders the ship destroyed. They arrive in China, where they are told that a ship with the same name was there mere months before. The ship departs, and soon the crew start coming down with an illness. Scared of their fate, the captain orders an approaching ship fired upon, thinking it is their ship. But is actually a completed different one, that fires back, killing them all.

Fourth is "Divine Wind" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Louise Jones & Budd Lewis (story). This is a rather poor story, featuring the Mongoloid invasion of Japan hundreds of years ago and the weather which helps the Japanese fight htem off.

Fifth is "Don't Drink the Water" by Martin Salvador (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A group of boys come across a canteen containing an antidote for a sick alien. The antidote has horrific effect on humans however, and a boy who drinks it goes on a murderous rage, killing one of his friends. His brother later kills their mother when he drinks it. The whole town's water supply ends up getting contaminated with the stuff.

Last is "Bruce Bloodletter of the IRS" by Fernando Fernandez (art) and Fernando Fernandez & Bill Dubay (story). This story was originally created by Fernandez in Europe as an educational story and was rewritten by Dubay in its reprinting here. Bloodletter of the title is an IRS agent, coming to a planet of lunatics where he is coming after the tax cheat Silas Mendicant. Despite Fernandez's good art, this is a very lame story and ends right in the middle of things. Bloodletter would return for his final Warren appearance a few years later in Eerie 117.

Creepy 131

A so-so issue of Creepy. The cover is by Frank Frazetta, a reprint from issue 4.

First is "The Nut" by Delando Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A man invents a time machine, in the form of a nut. He uses it to go to the future, which his life later does as well. Only they go into the future where there is no Earth, and find themselves out in the middle of space.

Next is "Son of the Nut!" by Martin Salvador (art) and Bill Dubay (story, as Will Richardson). This story actually stars Budd Lewis and Bill Dubay, authors of the two 'Nut' stories in this issue. Lewis tells Dubay that the Nut story is true, and he's found a way to go back in time to the wild west. He wants to avoid publication of the story so he can go there undisturbed, but Dubay decides to publish it anyway, and then they both go back and time. Why in the world this story is in a horror magazine, I have no idea.

Third is "Lycanthropist" by Bill Draut (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A town of werewolves requests werewolf hunters who are used as prey. This time however the werewolf hunter who comes is actually a robot, who defeats all the werewolves and plans on taking over humanity as well.

Fourth is "Possession is Nine Point of the Soul" by Danny Bulanadi (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). A priest is brought to a lighthouse to help out a boy that has been possessed by a demon. He successfully performs an exorcism, but the demon takes over him!

Fifth is "Bella Donna" by Fred Carillo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). An institution doctor becomes enamored by a beautiful patient and ends up releasing her so she can live with him and his wife. The patient isn't cured though, and kills a guest, then later gets the man to go along with killing his wife as well.

The issue concludes with "Mindwar" by Noly Panaligan (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). This story, which features the best art and story of the issue features a war between Earth and aliens. It is decided that the war will be decided by a one on one battle between an Earthling and alien in the fifth dimension. The Earth representative manages to defeat the alien, saving Earth, but is paralyzed for the rest of his life. Some very good art here by Panaligan, its too bad that he did so few interior stories for Warren.

Eerie 56

This issue of Eerie features a cover by Ken Kelly, with the werewolf battling a wizard.

First up is the return of the Werewolf in part 7 of the Curse of the Werewolf series, "There Was a Were-Mummy" by Martin Salvador (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Arthur Lemming, now trapped in the body of a mummy, is forced to carry his body around with him in search for an amulet that can return him to his original body. Jerome Curry of the Mummy series also makes a brief cameo during this story, looking for the same thing. Along the way a group of men steal his body and bring it to an old man who seeks to switch to Lemming's much younger body. Lemming arrives in the mummy's body however, turns into a werewolf, and goes on a rampage. Throgmore, the old man's hunchbacked assistant however takes the opportunity to take Lemming's body for his own and as the story ends heads off in it as our hero can only watch in horror. This would be the last story in the series until issue 61, where it was officially melded with the Mummy storyline (which had already been happening over the prior two segments).

Second is part 5 of "Hunter", by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Hunter comes across a castle filled with demons. There he is captured and thrown in a cell with an old man, who reveals him to be Schreck (see issues 53-55). The demons had taken over the castle but apparantely now there's only 3 or 4 left because of a ghost, the "Princess of Bathory Castle" who has been killing them off. When a demon guard is killed they escape and find her, a little girl, along with a huge nuclear missile. Hunter's conclusion follows in the next issue.

Next is "Wizard Wagstaff", a color story by Richard Corben (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This humourous tale tells of a man who turns into a werewolf after being bitten by a poodle. He finds the wizard of the title who can help him as long as he isn't doing anything for personal gain. Along the way they meet another werewolf who they help turn human as well.

Fourth is "It Returns!" by Enrique Badia Romero (art, his sole Warren appearance) and Carl Wessler (story). "It" was originally a self contained story in Creepy 53. It is revived here by Wessler and would continue rather inconsistently spread out in four total segments over the next couple of years. I wouldn't necessarily say one needs to read the original story to follow this serial, as this story takes off in a different direction seperate from the original story. The story features a young woman, Jan Foley who is being pursued by a cousin who hopes to take the family fortune from her. Luckily for her, "It", a rotting corpse arrives and saves her. The cousin arrives later however and knocks her out, then gets himself married to her and throw her off a boat to her apparant death. Luckily "It" saves her, then kills him. The ending reveals "It" to be dead relative of hers.

Last is "The Night of the Red Death", part three in the Dr. Archaeus series, with art by Isidro Mones and story by Gerry Boudreau. Sanford continues in his pursuit of Dr. Archaeus, who now sets his site on the third juror, a man who is involved with cock fighting. Sanford thinks that the pattern Archaeus is using is birds, but it ends up being French Henna flowers laced with cholera which kill the juror. This segment also introduces Sanford's lover, Jamaica Jansen who will have more importance in the story a little down the line.

Eerie 50

Eerie's fiftieth issue is quite a good one! Seven stories here, and not a bad one in the bunch; a stark contrast to Creepy's fiftieth issue. Very good art and stories across the board.

Up first is the third entry in "The Mummy Walks" serial, "The Mind Within" by Jaime Brocal (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This segment gives us some background info on our protagonist, Jerome Curry, about how he found the amulet he used to become the Mummy, and about his desire to kill the various women who have spurned him in the past. When thieves steal the amulet however, Curry might find himself trapped in the Mummy's body forever!

Next is the third segment in the "Curse of the Werewolf" serial, "This Evil Must Die". Martin Salvador has replaced Dubay & Buckler as the artist, while Al Milgrom remains as writer. An expert on the supernatural comes to town and tries to defeat Arthur Lemming/The Werewolf. Only when he starts using commonly used witch material to fight him, the town mob thinks he is using witchcraft and attacks him!

Third is Satanna, Daughter of Satan! in the story "Genesis of Depravity" by Ramon Torrents (art, in one of only two Eerie appearances) and Doug Moench (story). A woman calls Satan in order to obtain eternal life and beauty. Satan arrives and grants her her wish, by making her the first ever vampire. Her first victim is none other than Count Dracula. A short but good story, Torrent's Satan is quite scary looking.

Next is "Monarch's Return" by Paul Neary (art) and John Jacobson (story). An archeology student comes across an ancient castle occupied by an old woman and her servant, who tells the student that she's not all there in the head and believes he's Agamemnion, a Greek lord. The student plays the part, but soon discovers the truth, that he's about to be killed by her.

Fifth is "Lord's Wrath" by Aldoma (art) and John Jacobson (story). A priest meets with an evil Baron who mistreats his people. By using a poisoned needle on a ring he wears, he knocks the Baron out, who is out cold so long that he wakes up far in the future and is run over by a train.

Sixth is "The Disciple" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A man comes across a cult of people under mind control. When they realize he is having independent thoughts, they try to attack him mentally, only to fail. He manages to kill their leader and is about to leave when he realizes all the power he'd have over them, and becomes the new leader of the cult.

Last is this issue's Dax the Warrior segment, "The Secret of Pursiahz". Dax comes across an old man who has been caring for a man with wings. The winged man, Pursiahz, tells him of how his lover became trapped in a giant spider's web and he was too afraid to stay. Dax heads there and defeats the giant spider, but the woman is dead. Dax discovers there are other winged women, who have been cast away by God and are depending on Pursiahz. Pursiahz tries to fly away towards the sun, but his wings can't support him and he falls to his death.

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.

Creepy 61

A pretty good issue of Creepy from 1974. This was the first of 4 issues edited by Archie Goodwin during his short return to Warren as editor. A pretty good issue which would preview some of the terrific stuff that would be coming in Creepy over the next year.

Behind the Sanjulian cover of a mummy's tomb is the frontis, "Child of Hell", with art and story by Bill Dubay. This was the last of the frontis stories, they would be replaced with portraits of Uncle Creepy starting with the next issue.

First up is "A Stranger in Eternity" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story is a sequel to the story "A Stranger in Hell" from Eerie #38, which I have reviewed earlier in this blog. This story features the main character of that story in long rambling conversations with the cloaked female character he had encountered before. Like the first story, this story makes little to no sense and is quite poor. That said, Abellan's art is somewhat better than usual here.

Second is "Advent of the Scrap-Heap!" by Jose Gual (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). When a group of mobsters kill a monk mistakenly, his spirit causes a conglomoration of trash and junk to form a humanoid giant that goes on a rampage in order to take revenge. A rather odd premise, but not that bad of a story.

Third is "The Ghouls" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story), about a pair of grave robbers who encounter a group of vampires in a graveyard. It ends up that one of the robbers set up the other, making a deal with the vampires to feast on his body, as he's a ghoul who will get the body after the blood is drained from it. Wessler's story here reminds me of his EC work from approximately 20 years earlier.

This issue's color story is "Terror Tomb" with both story and art by who else, but Richard Corben, who did the color story in Creepy for about 10 straight issues during this period. This is a very fun comedic story about a group of archaeologists who go into a mummy's tomb where some of the locals are setting them up by bringing the mummy back to life. Only things don't exactly go as planned for all involved.

"The Blood Colored Bike" is next, which like the previous story is handled by a single person, this time Jose Bea. The story's about a pair of factory owners who clash over the idea of purchasing a motor bike. The owner desiring the bike ends up killing the other one with an axe and buys his bike, only for the ghost of his dead partner to haunt him while riding it until he rides off a cliff. The lead character's desire for a bike is rather goofy, but overall not that bad a story.

"Twisted Medicine" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story) is the issue's best story, about a one armed hunchback who plans revenge on the witch he works for only for his plans to go up in smoke when she uses him as one of her ingredients for a spell. Intersperced throughout the story is the path of a boy growing up and joining the military. In the end it ends up the entire story was a hallucination of a blind, deaf and handless veteran laying in a hospital bed. This story would end up being one of Warren's most controversial stories ever (although not the most, that title would almost certainly go to "Landscape" from Blazing Combat #2) due to the ending, and was the centerpiece of an attack on Warren in a page long letter published in issue 64, which resulted in months of debate in the letter page.

Last up is "Encore Ghastly" which is written and drawn by Tom Sutton. One of Sutton's last jobs for Warren, the art here is one of his best. The story is about an old man based on Dr. Frederick Werthem (whose unfounded attacks on comics almost destroyed the entire industry in the 1950's and led to the creation of the Comics Code) who has been the subject of attempted murder. In the end it ends up the killer after him is an artist based on horror artist "Ghastly" Graham Ingels whose upset over the impact his work had on his job prospects. With horror comics popular again, he's happy to attempt a comeback, using Werthem's blood as ink in his story. Terrific tribute to EC great Ingels, who was one of the very few EC artists who never worked for Warren (having left the medium altogether by that time).