Vampirella 12

Today in my first individual issue coverage in a long time, I will be going over Vampirella #12. This issue is notable for having the first appearance of Manuel Sanjulian, who did the cover, as well as Jose Gonzalez, who did his first of numerous Vampirella stories. Frank Brunner provides the story and art for this issue's frontis, titled "The Sirens!"

First is "Death's Dark Angel" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story features Vampirella being captured by an old man, W.W. Wade, who also controls a demon called Skaar. Wade wants to cheat death and thinks he can do so by getting Vampirella to bite him. He captures the Van Helsings as well. Vampirella eventually does bite him, but because she's not a traditional vampire, it kills him for good. Gonzalez's art is so-so here, but over time it would greatly improve.

Next is "Amazonia and the Eye of Ozirios!" by Billy Graham (art) and Gardner Fox (story). Amazonia had previously appeared in a couple of stories in Creepy and Vampirella. The evil Dread Throkklon captures or kills numerous innocents, bringing them to his castle Grimkrag. Queen Amazonia heads to the castle to take him on and finds the eye of ozirios glaring at her. Many men attack her but she defeats them (including an entire page of no dialogue or captions, featuring her hacking away at many foes). Eventually however she is captured by Throkklon and set on a cross, to be burned alive. When more forces arrive, Throkklon is distracted and Amazonia is able to escape, then stab the eye, which causes Throkklon and his men to fade away, as they were actually dead men brought back to life by the eye.

Third is "Quest" by Jeff Jones (story & art). This story features a mere 2 panels per page, with some nice artwork by Jones. The story features a hunter pursuing a woman, who is attacked by another man, then flees using some elephants. She is attacked by a saber tooth tiger, but the hunter arrives, seemingly to save her, but in reality to kill her. The twist at the end reminds me of a little bit of "Yellow Heat", my favorite Warren story.

Fourth, and final story in this issue is "To Kill a God!" by Wally Wood (story & art). This story takes place in Egypt, with the Romans having invaded and taken over. The Roman Governor, Marcus, rescues the Egyptian Princess Cleopatra from reanimated corpses attacking her, summoned by the God Anubis. The two fall in love, but she is later attacked again by Anubis's forces. Cleopatra fears that Anubis will kill Marcus so she heads off to the river Styx give herself to him. Marcus heads there and takes on Anubis himself, who is revealed to be a werewolf. The two, having both been bitten by him, do not return to Egypt, considering themselves monsters, but instead head to Transylvania. I have heard this story was an attempt by Wood to show that he still had it after he had faced some criticism over how much effort he was putting into his work and how much his assistants were providing. Its some of the best and sexiest art you'll ever see from Wood.

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 45

The cover aside, this is a tremendous issue of Vampirella, my pick for the overall best issue of the magazine ever produced. Cover dated September 1975, the cover is a montage of various covers including Enrich's covers for issues 17, 29 and 40, Sanjulian's cover for issue 38, Jose Gonzalez's cover for issue 19 and the background from Frank Frazetta's cover of Creepy 7. Extremely attractive artwork, and strong stories from all concerned make this a must have issue.

First is Vampirella in "Blood Wager" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Len Wein (story). This was Mayo's first story on Vampirella and probably the best art job he ever did for the character. This story takes place in a dream of Pendragon's as he lays in a hospital bed, dying of gunshot wounds (a single panel of him by the artis Zesar, from the next issue is included here). Vampirella and Adam have a fight, causing him to go back to an old lover, who brings him to a casino on an island called Lemondo. Conrad and Pendragon meanwhile think a friend of theirs has a cure for Vampirella's bloodlust, and they head to the same island. In actuality, the friend and the head of the casino are agents of Chaos. Vampirella and Adam's former lover are able to defeat them.

Second is "The Parable of the Hermits of Glastonbury Tor" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Bertrand, a scholar, comes to the town of Glastonbury. He heads to the Hermit's Abbey where he meets a beautiful woman to whom he makes love. The woman tells him she is life, and introduces him to the seven hermits of Glastonbury Tor. She tells him that he'll be given eternal life, that others who have come eventually chose death, but he can avoid that by choosing to marry her and always remaining faithful to her. He gladly does so, and the hermits also give him a gift of whatever he wants, so he tells them that no matter what they can never inflict death upon him. The years go by. He is happy for a while, but eventually becomes bored and leaves the abbey to sleep with women from the outside world. While his wife cannot kill him due to the deal with the hermits, she does cause him to fade from existence entirely.

Third is "Janis!" by Luis Garcia (art) and Victor Mora & Budd Lewis (story). This story appears in color, although the colorist is uncredited. Like many stories done by Garcia during this time period, this story was originally printed in Europe and appears as a reprint here. This story possesses in my opinion the most beautiful artwork to ever appear in a Warren magazine. A man comes across a statue of a beautiful woman in a Greek harbor. The woman, named Janis, vanished into the sea ten years ago. He sits down to play the guitar, and suddenly she appears. Janis brings her with him into the depths of the sea. All is alright at first until two humanoid monsters appear and carry him off with them.

Fourth is "A Hero Made of Wishes" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A kingdom is treated harshly by their lord, Cervantes. One of the townfolk, Chaucer, talks to the priest of the town, saying that they should summon a champion using the book of Asmodeus, which the priest believes to be evil. Later, when Chaucer's lover and the priest's niece is taken captive by Cervantes, the priest agrees to the plan. The townfolk summon their champion, a powerful looking knight who acts based on the will of the people. Their will to topple Cervantes causes the champion to charge towards Cervantes' castle and kill him and all his men. The townfolk are pleased, but when they start thinking about who will now be leader, their greed to be leader causes the champion to kill them all.

Fifth is "The Winter of Their Discontent" by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is heavily influenced by the story "The Wolves at War's End" from issue 43. An english soldier returns home from the war against Holland in the 1600's to find his hometown heavily in ruin, ravaged by the plague. Being told that his parents have died from the plague, he searches for his sister, but finds her among a pile of corpses being buried by the side of the road. He returns to the town to look for his lover and finds her family being blamed for the plague, with her father being thrown on a fire by a mob. After they escape, she tells him there is nothing worth living for and that he should kill her. He does so, then kills himself.

Last is "There Are No Children in Hungry Hollow, Tennessee" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man comes to the town of the title to write a book. He finds it quite odd that there are no children whatsoever in the town. Everyone he talks to tells him that they are sent away, but their stories contradict one another, causing him to suspect something. He changes his plans to instead write his book about the town, but when he tries to mail it out, the town postman, who inspects all the mail stops it from going out. He is confronted by him, the local store owner and the boarding house host who reveal to him that the town reverted to cannibalism afer the war. After revealing this secret, they make him their next meal.

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.

Eerie 66

This issue of Eerie, dated June 1975, is an all El Cid special. El Cid was a spanish knight, who made his first appearance in the previous issue, Eerie 65. The cover is provided by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Cousin Eerie and El Cid on the inside front cover. Gonzalo Mayo provides art for the entire issue. Some very nice art here by Mayo, in some of his earliest work for Warren.

The first two stories are "The Seven Trials" and "The Seven Trials of El Cid Part Two" by Bill Dubay (story) and Budd Lewis (dialogue). El Cid defeats a sorceror king in battle, who curses El Cid to suffer from seven trials. El Cid's ship is soon attacked by a group of sirens that they defeat. The last one, a nymph is taken captive by them. More trials start arriving including a dragon, evil dwarves and others. El Cid falls in love with the nymph but she is killed as the last trial occurs. He awakens on a ship soon after however and realizes it has all been a dream, and that the nymph is alive and well as the nurse who has taken care of him.

Next is "El Cid and the Vision" by Gerry Boudreau (story) and Budd Lewis (dialogue). In this story the Moors have attacked El Cid's kingdom. El Cid encounters a mysterious black knight in the woods that he battles, but the knight vanishes just as he's about to kill El Cid. El Cid then goes to see his king and ends up killing a man who criticizes him. El Cid proposes that he take on the Moor's best knight to determine whether they or the moors will be the victor. The knight ends up being the very knight that he encountered earlier. By using his knowledge of that battle, El Cid is able to defeat him.

Fourth is "The Lady and the Lie" by Gerry Boudreau (story) and Budd Lewis (dialogue). El Cid encounters two demons, Ahriman and Az, known as the Lie and the Lust. The two demons try to get El Cid to damn himself by killing two imaginary lovers. They try with El Cid yet again later but once again fail. They turn their attention to a woman and get her to kill her lover by making it appear that he is sleeping with another woman. El Cid goes to hell to defeat them and save her.
Last is "The Emir of Aragon" by Jeff Rovin (story) and Budd Lewis (dialogue). El Cid assists in the defeat of the Emir of Aragon and is given a woman, Arias. El Cid brings Arias back to his kingdom with her, but she plots to frame him, sending a letter in his name to get the king to come and see him. Another man comes in the king's place and is killed by her when she enters. El Cid goes to battle and defeats the Emir of Aragon once again, and Arias while fleeing ends up falling on her own knife and dies.

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.

Eerie 135

Sanjulian provides the cover to this issue of Eerie, cover dated October 1982.

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

Second is one of Warren's all time most famous stories, "Collectors Edition" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 10. The story features Danforth, a man obsessed with the occult who hears of a book, 'Dark Visions' that he becomes obsessed with obtaining. Seeking to spend all of his wife's money on the book, he eventually murders the bookstore owner who told him of it in the first place, who had also committed murder to obtain the book. Reading the book, Danforth finds that it goes long past the time of the author, all the way to the present, and even the future, showing his own death, which shortly comes when his wife buries an axe in his head. Terrific art, terrific story, this is certainly up there among Goodwon's best stories. Ditko's drawing of Danforth's eyes slowly closing across the bottom of each page is also a nice touch.

Third is "Beast Man" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 11. The story features 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.

Fourth is "Blood of the Werewolf!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 12. 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.

Fifth is "Second Chance!", with art by Steve Ditko and story by Archie Goodwin. This story was originally printed in Creepy 13. Its about a man who makes a deal with the devil to stay alive longer. The devil brings him back to life, but he ends up being stuck in a coffin! Luckily for him a gravedigger digs him out, but upon seeing this 'corpse' come to life, he kills him, which finishes him off for good. Pretty good story here.

Sixth is "Where Sorcery Lives" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 14. A warrior, Garth comes after the sorceror Salamand who was responsible for the destruction of his town and capture of his lover. The warrior battles various beasts sent after him by the sorceror and finally comes upon him. The sorceror reveals that he is going to use Garth's body such that the lover will love him, but ends up getting stabbed by her because he let his guard down.

Seventh is "City of Doom!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 15. This story features the Barbarian Thane in his first appearance, a character that would appear in random stories by Archie Goodwin throughout the years. Thane goes to a city where monsters run amock, including a sorceress who controls a tentacled monster. Thane defeats the sorceress when her own monster ends up turning on her.

The eighth story is "The Incredible Shrieking Man!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 4. 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.

Ninth is "Fly!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Goodwin (story), from Eerie 7. This story is about a man covered in bandages who has had surgery to change his face. Only he keeps being bothered by a fly and falls out a window to his death. It ends up that the fly was attached to his head bandages near his ears which is why it bothered him so much.

Last is "Demon Sword!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Eerie 8. A demon sword is recovered as part of an archeological find. Soon after however murders start occuring. Two of the archeologists witness a battle between the demon using the sword and a warrior, and when the demon is defeated so too is one of the archeologists. The other ponders whether to destroy the powerful but dangerous demon sword.

Vampirella 38

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, cover dated November 1974.

First is "The Mummy's Revenge" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). This story continues from the Vampirella story in issue 36. Vampirella and Pendragon are in Egypt and visit the mummy of Ptolemy, who was killed by Vampi in ancient times in the previous story. Vampi meets Professor Bruno who brings her on a tour of an underground labyrinth. He abandons her there and the mummy of Ptolemy along with other ghouls pursue her. The spirit of Amun-Ra arrives and tells her that Ptolemy's mummy is alive due to Bruno. Vampirella goes and kills him, resulting in the destruction of the mummy.

Second is "Gypsy Curse" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A gypsy woman is attacked by her husband when he comes back from the war. The story flashes back to before they were married, when he had to kill her father because the gypsies didn't approve. As he dies, her father tells him that should he ever harm his daughter, he will be destroyed by demons. While the husband is away from the war an ugly servant threatens to tell her husband she's having an affair (which is untrue). Her husband then attacks her when he returns home because of this, but the gypsy curse comes true and he is torn to shreds by unseen demons.

Third is "Lucky Stiff" by Ramon Torrents (art) and once again Gerry Boudreau & Carl Wessler (story). A very cautious man ignores a beautiful young woman who starts at the place where he works. At the end of the day she invites him to come to her home at the other side of town. The story shows what would happen if he went. He arrives there, only to be attacked by cats. She tells him he doesn't deserve to live and that he is going to be fed to them. The narrative then reveals that he actually didn't go there, as he was hit by a car along the way. This story is a rewrite from a story Carl Wessler did for EC comics in the Haunt of Fear 26, published in 1954.

Fourth is "Out of the Nameless City" by Felix Mas (art) and John Jacobson (story). 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 Dennis 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 "On Little Cat Feet!" by Auraleon (art) and John Jacobson (story). A much lighter toned story than the other stories in this issue, a very good one though, the best story of the issue. A witch, Kitty, lives in a rooming house with her artist friend Eulalia. Kitty is kicked out of the place by the landlady and plots revenge by turning into a cat and poisoning her claws. She kills the landlady's cat, taking its place, then kills the landlady as well soon after. Eulalia meanwhile recruits an actor as a model for her latest work, a statue of Nero. Kitty, still in her cat form, wanders by and Eulalia has the actor hold her in his arms. Eulalia reveals herself to be Medusa, and when she reveals herself ends up turning both the actor and Kitty into a statue.

Last is "Trick of the Tide" by Isidro Mones (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). A man, Gabriel, finds the corpse of a man in the water and steals the money on him. When his wife arrives to claim the body he refuses to admit it was there. When she confronts him later, he clubs her head in and dumps her in the river. When a reward is offered for her, he goes to fish her out, only for her to kill him.

Vampirella 91

This issue of Vampirella, from October 1980 is an all reprint issue featuring various Vampirella stories. The cover is a montage of various past Warren covers (featuring artist Enrich and Sanjulian, from Creepy 51, 58 and 60, Eerie 41, and Vampirella 40 and 57) with new artwork from Enrich.

First is "The Carnival of Death" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew), from Vampirella 34. Traveling in Venice, Vampirella and Pendragon meet the 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, 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 "The Human Marketplace" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 53. Vampi is caught with her forged passport on the US border and agrees to work undercover in order to get off the hook. She is used to go undercover to thwart Algernon Silver, a man who plans to sell women to various world leaders and use them to kill them all at once. As usual, Vampi is able to save the day while Silver's own men also end up 'screwing' up his plans. Pretty good story with gorgeous art by Gonzalez.

Third is "City of Ghosts" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), from Vampirella 57. Vampirella is stranded in the desert and comes across a deserted town where she meets her husband from Drakulon, Tristan. Adam arrives but is shot by him. Eventually it ends up that it was all an illusion and Vampi is reunited with Pendragon and Adam.

Fourth is "The Headless Horseman of All-Hallow's Eve!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story) from Vampirella 56. Some extremely good art by Gonzalez here, one of his best Vampirella stories ever. Vampirella and Adam try to solve the mystery of a headless horsemen who is kidnapping young woman. Using Vampi as bait they find the truth, it is actually some men who are trying to sell the women into slavery. Vampi and Adam are able to stop their operations.
Fifth is "Pendragon's Last Bow" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story) from Vampirella 59. 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.

Eerie 133

Sanjulian provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, dated August 1982. This issue is dedicated to the artist Ramon Torrents, and also features all three Fleur stories.

First is "Destiny's Witch" by Ramon Torrents (art) and John Jacobson (story), from Creepy 59. Hundreds of years ago a servant is suspected of being a witch when she tries to remove some leaves from her master's daughter, which is supposed to ward off a vampire that's been plauging the village. In actuality she is a witch, and is betrayed by her boyfriend Oliver multiple times, who reveals her as a witch, then frames her as being a vampire when he is actually the vampire. Hundreds of years later however she gets revenge by getting him fried by the sun.

Next is "From the Spain of Legend" from Vampirella 34, 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.

Third is "Our Tarts Were Young and Gay", from Vampirella 35 by Ramon Torrents (art) and John Jacobson (story). This story also stars Fleur and features her encounter in a brothel with a very odd customer. After this story Fleur wouldn't have her own story in Vampirella again for years, although she did have a short cameo in a Vampirella story in Vampirella 50. Terrific art by Torrents and the best of the Fleur stories in my opinion.

Fourth is the final Fleur story, "Night of the Alley Cats" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 68. This was Fleur's last appearance overall. Its a good thing, as this was quite a poor story, not on the level at all of her other stories. Fleur gets involved with the investigation of a murder involved with a gang. It ends up that the man she is seeing is responsible for the murders and through her witchcraft he gets whats coming to him.

"The Quest" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Budd Lewis (story) is last, from Vampirella 67. This story features an Amazoness-esque heroine who tries to save a holy city from a group of barbarians. In the city she finds a group of dead lords as well as a pair of bizarre pillars made up of naked people who ask her to join them. After saving the city from the Barbarians she does so. The final page reveals that the entire city is actually a giant spaceship of aliens whose time goes much, much slower than ours. All the humans in the pillars end up being used as fuel for the ship. Quite an interesting story here.

Vampirella 107

An all Esteban Maroto reprint issue of Vampirella. This issue is cover dated August 1982. The cover is provided by Sanjulian.

First is "The Blood Red Queen of Hearts" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story), from Vampirella 49. Probably my favorite single Vampirella story in this magazine's history, although the Blood Red Queen would make many return appearances down the in later issues, each declining in quality. This story introduces the queen, who has slain six people, taking their hearts. With the acquisition of a seventh she believes she'll become the queen of Chaos. She summons a demon which she sends to take the final heart, from Vampirella. Vampi meanwhile returns to the hospital where Pendragon is kept and saves him by giving him a blood transfusion. The demon has hidden himself within Pendragon's body however, and attacks Vampi when the transfusion takes place. Adam meanwhile returns to the hospital, having been cleared due to Sara confessing to the attempted murder. Adam saves Vampirella and shoots out the demon's eyes, forcing it away. Vampirella is cleared of all charges, and Conrad is revealed to be alive, having been in hiding. Alas, the Queen does not have such a happy ending, with the demon tearing her eyes out to replace his. Some extremely good art by Maroto here in his first story featuring Vampirella herself (he'd do his second and last Vampi story in issue 50). The final page, showing the Queen's fate is particularly good.

Second is "Moonspawn" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story), from Vampirella 26. A very quick paced story with not much dialogue, it features the origin of werewolves on Earth, which occurs when a meteor crash mutates a wolf, which attacks a gypsy, turning him into a werewolf. He battles a fellow gypsy who stole his girlfriend and they both end up dying.

Third is "Black and White Vacuum to Blues" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story was in color in its original appearance in Vampirella 34. Despite some very good art, 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.

Fourth is the first of a three part series featuring Dracula. This story is titled "The Circus of King Carnival", originally from Vampirella 39. Art is by Esteban Maroto and story is by Gerry Boudreau. This story was also in color in its original appearance. Despite being the title of the series, Dracula barely appears at all here. Instead the story focuses on a couple who come by a freak show that Dracula is a part of. The husband visits a shaman as he wants to save his dying wife, but the shaman tells him he'll have to bring him a human heart. The husband attacks a thief who is captivated by the butterfly lady in the freak show, and kills him to take the heart. Only the butterfly lady kills him. Meanwhile, Dracula bites the neck of the wife, preventing her from dying by turning her into a vampire.

Fifth is "Look What They've Done!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates (story), from Eerie 36. This unique story breaks the fourth wall, having the lead character argue with the writer and plead to the reader. A hippie, he refuses to go along with the plot, and ends up getting killed by an alien.

Last is "Snow White and the Deadly Dwarfs" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates & Gerry Boudreau (story), from Vampirella 39. A young woman lives in a large mansion all by herself, well except for dwarves that live with her and call her snow white. Her boyfriend doesn't believe her about them, and when he comes over they stab him to death to 'protect her'. Only it ends up that the dwarves weren't after all and she did it all the stabbing herself. Some extremely good art by Maroto on this story, one of his best.

Eerie 132

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring Haggarth (although the character painted here looks nothing like Haggarth!). This issue is cover dated July 1982.

First is the return of the Rook to Eerie, in "The Dane Curse!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A pretty good story, but we kick off right in the middle of things, meaning this story probably originated from the Rook magazine (which by this point was cancelled) and is continued here. In this story the Rook is in the past, helping a woman who others are accusing as a witch. The Rook takes the blame himself to save her and is jailed, then they go ahead and jail her too. It ends up that the mob is possessed with a demon and that when they are about to execute him, the demon comes out and he destroys it. The past changed, the Rook appears back in the present, not remembering what happened.

Next is Zud Kamish in "Hero of the Milky Way" by E.R. Cruz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). In this story Zud is recruited to guard an ambassador. He agrees to do so, then helps save the ambassador from an assassination attempt. The assailant responds by blowing up Zud's home, apparently killing his son, lover and robot friend. Or so it seems. The story ends here, to be continued later.

Third is "Space Force: Shipwrecked", by Paul Gillon (art) and Jean Claude Forest (story), continued from Eerie 129. In this story Chris is on Venus, battling aliens with some soldiers in a facility. One of the robots he comes across has the face of the woman that he was jettisoned out into space with. They are able to narrowly escape from the facility before it explodes.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story and art). Haggarth once again runs into Ethan and his friend Eco. Haggarth agrees to help them search for the treasure they are looking for when they let him borrow their canoe. They later come across an amazoness that Haggarth helps. Later when Ethan and Eco are captured by them Haggarth captures their princess, enabling them to escape.

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.

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.

Vampirella 36

Sanjulian provides the cover for this 5 year anniversary issue of Vampirella, dated September 1974. The back cover is provided by Enrich, a redo of the cover originally intended for issue 31. Jose Gonzalez provides one page features of Vampi on both the inside front cover and inside back cover.

First is "The Vampire of the Nile" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampi and Pendragon suddenly find themselves in ancient Egypt. Vampi is Cleopatra and Pendragon is her slave. Vampi is summoned before her husband, Ptolemy, who is a vampire and bites her. Later she meets Marc Anthony whom she falls in love with, but he kills himself when he learns her true nature. Vampi drives a stake through Ptolemy's heart, then summons Amun Ra, who permits her to be reincarnated after she gets herself bitten by a snake. Vampi awakens back in the modern era, with a Doctor Antonioni tending to her.

Second is "A Wonderful Morning!" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). Color is provided by Richard Corben. This story takes place in a world where there are only children. The lone remaining adult left in the world is found by them and killed. Not much of a plot here, but some very nice art and atmosphere from Fernandez.

Third is "The Tiara of Dagon!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and John Jacobson (story). A tribal priest comes to a museum, seeking the tiara of dagon. The curator refuses to give it up, and when provided with gold for it instead pulls out a gun and holds on to it anyway. The priest reveals there is poison on the gold that the curator touched and that he'll only give the antidote if the tiara is handed over. The curator still refuses, flees, and turns into a bizarre scaly creature.

Fourth is "Good to the Last Drop!" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Martin Pasko (story). The president of a food company mistakenly kills his wife when he slaps her. He destroys her body in the garbage disposal, then gets an idea and deep freezes her remains, turning it into coffee. Thinking she was having an affair with an employee at the company, he invites him over and puts her remains in his drink. The employee switches cups unknowingly however, and our protagonist drinks her remains. He manages to switch it though and the employee also drinks it. It ends up that she died due to ingesting poison, and as a result the poison kills both of them.

Fifth is "Swordplay" by Felix Mas (art) and Martin Pasko (story). The mysterious Alexander Deroth arrives at a school as a fencing instructor. While fencing with a female student, he strikes her with his sword, and when she starts bleeding he is revealed to be a vampire and bites her. When her corpse is found by some other students, she springs to life and attacks those who found her as well.

Sixth is "Prey For Me!" by Auraleon (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A rich man, Alexander Guileford captures men and has them fight to the death a werewolf like creature. His latest victim is unable to win and dies. Alexander soon finds himself in the same predicament however when his servent, upset at him for letting him be in danger earlier, poisons him then releases the werewolf to come after him.

Last is "Puppet-Player!" by Jose Bea (story & art). Michelle Brand provides the color. This story features a puppet player in the 17th century. When he goes to sleep, his puppets come to life and bring him through a bizarre world, controlling him with puppet strings. He is eventually beaten to death with a club he uses in his act. It ends up that he's been dead along and is revised to act as puppet player to hide suspicions.

Eerie 129

Sanjulian provides the rather cluttered cover for this issue of Eerie, dated February 1982. Like the previous issue, this is actually quite a step up from what Eerie had been providing over the previous few years.

First is "Ode to a Dead Thing!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story features Marvin the Dead Thing, who originally appeared back in Eerie 49. While the writer of that story, Al Milgrom, made it a parody of Swamp Thing, this story is anything but a parody, actually quite serious. Marvin and the girl who became a swamp monster as well watch a couple drop a dead baby into the swamp. The father is a man who conspires with an old woman to get women pregnant, then make money off of aborting them. Here, the mother refused to abort the baby, so the old woman strangled it when it was born. The baby comes to life out of the swamp, as does the mother when she dies and is placed there as well. The villain of this story has got to be one of the most detestable people in a Warren story ever.

Second is "Ms. Liberty" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A woman travels throughout a post-apocalyptic world, searching for her husband. The vast majority of humanity has turned into mutant cannibals. As she searches, she comes across some other normal humans, but finds them either crazy, or ends up killing them due to herself going crazy. In the end she finally finds her husband, but ends up killing him, thinking he's one of them.

Third is "Mercenary!" by Pat Boyette (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Quite pleased to see another Boyette story, he's an artist I quite enjoyed during the stories he did with Warren during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This story is an oddity here in that it doesn't feature any supernatural theme to it. It is about Ed Skinner, a Mercenery, and his adventures in various south american countries. Along the way, he learns a president is also the leader of revolutionaries. He takes a large payoff to keep quiet, and escapes the death the president plans for him.

Fourth is a new series, Space Force, with the story "Shipwrecked". This story was originally published in France in 1964. Art is provided by Paul Gillon and story is provided by Jean-Claude Forest. In the future Earth is attacked by alien spores. To ensure humanity stays alive, a man and a woman are put into capsules and sent out into space. The man, Chrisopher, is recovered many years in the future and is resusitated. The man finds that the spores are still around, and bigger than before. He flees, with one of the women who recovered him, in search of the woman who was shipped out to space along with him. A fairly interesting story here and some good art too. One of the panels here is strikingly familiar to one from Esteban Maroto's "Scourge of the Spaceways", one of my favorite art jobs in a Warren story ever. As this story came out first, its obvious Maroto's work was a swipe however.

Last is the latest story in the "Haggarth" story, with story and art provided by Victor de la Fuente. In this story a strange man appears before Haggarth and warns him Desirra and the Amazon warriors in the jungle. Heading through the woods, he comes by an injured man who was hurt by the Amazon warriors. As Haggarth's part in this story ends, he is attacked by the Amazon warrior he met before and her eagle. Ethan meanwhile is captured when some village dwellers find him in the canoe used by their dead comrades. Accusing him of their murder, they are set to execute him but proof of his innocence is found and he is permitted to leave in the canoe.

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 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.

Vampirella 50

Sanjulian provides the cover for this issue of Vampirella, dated April 1976. This special issue, Bill Dubay's last in his original run as editor includes the first feature length Vampirella story, told here across five Vampi stories. Jose Gonzalez provides a one page intro from Vampirella.

First is "Call Me Panther!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampirella, traveling through the graveyard, finds a dead body hanging from the tree, as well as a woman who transforms into a panther when she puts a stone necklace on. Vampirella manages to take the necklace off the woman, whom ends up getting kiled when she is struck by a train while running from Vampi.

Next is "The High-Gloss Egyptian Junk Peddler" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Conrad has visions of a demon like creature killing another woman in the graveyard. For now though our heroes ignore that and try to find the origin of the necklace, which is called the Khafra Stone. They visit an Egyptian expert, Nubia El Amarna, who tells them of the stone's origin. It belonged to Khafra, who appeared in Egypt during the reign of Khufu when a ship he was on crashed nearby. Khafra worked for the pharoah, then became pharoah himself after his death. Khafra had the ability to turn into a panther himself. That night Nubia transforms into a panther herself when she steals the necklace, but is stopped by Adam when he pulls the necklace off of her.

Third is "Granny Goose and the Baby Dealers" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Conrad and Pendragon investigate the events in the graveyard while Adam and Vampi head to New York to find Fleur, who they think can help them solve the mystery of the Khafra stone. Fleur also gets involved with Granny Goose, who is in charge of a group that deals with black market sales of kidnapped babies. Fleur reveals that Khafra was an alien and that there have been many panther people throughout time. She then shows them Khafra's last living descendent, who just happens to be Pantha!

Fourth is "The Final Star of Morning" by Bill Dubay & Jeff Jones (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Adam and Vampirella head to Egypt where Pantha has been kept in a cell by Russians who captured her after Pantha's previous appearance in issue 44. The Russians hope to copy the Khafra Stone and have a whole army of panthers to take over the world. However, Vampi wears the Khafra stone and Pantha turns into her Panther self, killing the Russians who have captured them. Pantha decides to head to her home planet and agrees to bring Vampirella to Drakulon along the way (this was before Panther realized that she too was from Drakulon), but Vampirella decides to stay on Earth with Adam.

Fifth is "The Thing in Denny Colt's Grave" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pendragon and Conrad head to the graveyard, where they find a woman captured whom they save. While Conrad tends to her, Pendragon heads after the killer, who is nothing supernatural, but just a crazy guy named Elmiro Dungfoot. By causing an illusion of the Spirit, Pendragon captures him. The Spirit makes a cameo appearance in one of the last few panels.

Last is "Ground Round" by Auraleon (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), the sole non-Vampirella story of this issue. A butcher kills his wife and puts her body in the freezer, groundind up her body and selling it at the store. As a cover he says she's sick and that they'll be moving to Florida. When her nosy friend arrives, he has to kill her too and heads to the freezer, but gets locked in, with the remains of his wife, who takes revenge on him.