Creepy 62

Today I'll be covering issue 62 of Creepy, featuring a cover by Ken Kelly. This issue is dated May 1974. This is one of Creepy's best issues, certainly a pleasure to read. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Uncle Creepy.

First is "The Black Cat" by Berni Wrightson (story & art). This was Berni Wrightson's first appearance in a Warren magazine. A tremendous horror artist whose style was perfect for the black and white format of Warren, Wrightson was one of those artists who usually made an issue worth having even if the rest of the issue was poor. A very talented writer too, in fact his best stories are probably those he wrote as well. This story is an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story. A man and his wife own a beloved black cat. Eventually the husband grows tired of the cat, then upset at it. After the cat bites him, he cuts out one of its eyes and soon after hangs it. That very night his house burns down. Wandering into a bar, he finds another black cat that has one eye that starts following him. He brings it home and the wife quickly becomes fond of it. The husband loses control and tries to kill the cat. When his wife gets in the way he kills her by slamming an axe into her head. He hides her beneath a brick wall and is confident that the police won't find it when they stop by. The cat however, which was also walled behind the brick wall ends up attracting them to her corpse due to its screams.

Second is "Buffaloed" by John Severin (art) and Larry Herndon (story). Another western themed story perfectly fitting Severin's style. A buffalo Hunter, Hawkins, is nearly killed by a buffalo stampede. When he comes to he is being taken care of a native american woman, Little Fawn. Little Fawn's father is One Eye, who wants to kill him but is convinced by his daughter to speak to the buffalo spirits to see what he should do. Hawkins eventually recovers and spotting a group of white buffalo nearby starts firing on them, even though Little Fawn tries to stop him. One such buffalo however, one with only one eye, doesn't go down and stampedes him to death.

Third is "Firetrap" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Jack Butterworth (story). This story is Vicente Alcazar's Creepy debut (he had appeared for a few issues in Eerie before this). A landlord visits his inner city property to collect rent because his superintendent quit. He refuses to do anything about the terrible condition of the place and is attacked by a woman who blames the death of her baby on him. As he's about to leave he is pushed down into the basement where the tenants lock him into a coffin, dump rats on him, and eventually light him on fire.

Fourth is "Judas", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). A group of aliens head throughout the galaxy, destroying worlds. Their next target is Earth. Earth sends a spaceship to stop the invasion that is piloted by St. John, a man who desires fame and fortune above all else, who even killed the original pilot of the ship to be in the position he is in. When his ship approaches the alien fleet, he is contacted by the alien commander who says he'll make him immortal if he permits them to attack Earth. St. John agrees to the deal. He is brought onto the alien ship, where his body is changed to an alien version that lives forever. He convinces the aliens to bring him to their leader so he can thank him; when he arrives there however he beats the leader to death and tells the aliens that he is their new leader and they are going to return to their home. The alien fleet departs, calling off their invasion of Earth.

Fifth is "Survivor or Savior!" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Steve Skeates (story). In the future the Earth is a wasteland due to pollution and war that has occurred. A man is sent back in time by a scientist to find a Chester P. Hazel, who he thinks can help prevent the war by doing something about the pollution. Our protagonist heads back in time, meets Chester, who oddly enough ends up being a woman, and saves her from an attempt on her life. Because the time machine can not return him to his present, he ends up dying of radiation poisoning, not knowing if what he did actually saved the future or not.

Sixth is "The Maze" by Leo Summers (art) and Steve Skeates (story). My favorite story of the issue, and one of Warren's odder tales. A man, John, is sick of his worthless life with his low paying job and nagging wife. He decides to start a new life, stealing money from where he works and heading down to the subway to run off. He is attacked by a group of maniacs and wakes up later deep in the subway tunnels, still possessing the money, but having no idea how to get out. He tries to escape from the subway numerous times but the maniacs prevent him from doing so. Eventually he finds their 'king', a grotesquely fat quadruple amputee who is fed the body parts of living people that his maniac 'subjects' bring to him. John continues to fail to escape and decides that by attacking the maniacs he'll be able to escape. He attacks their 'king', chopping his head off with a blade, and is declared by the maniacs their new king. He demands they let him out, but they refuse, and attack him. On the final page we see his fate, he has permanently become their new 'king', and like the previous one has had all his limbs chopped off and gleefully watches his 'subjects' brutally murder people to feed to him.

Last is "The Demon Within" by Isidro Mones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A woman believes that she is cursed, that a demon lives with in her bringing death to everyone around her. We flash back to her past, where her parents were murdered and her sister was killed in a car accident. Eventually she gets married and has a son, but he too ends up dying. She flips out and stands outside a window on a tall building, about to jump. Her husband arrives to try and stop her, but when he's about to help her off he falls of the ledge to his death. She too jumps off seconds later to her death as well.

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 63

Not that good an issue of Creepy, quite a disappointment considering the era its from. This issue is dated July 1974. The cover is by Ken Kelly featuring murderous dolls attacking a man. A rather bad job of perspective by Kelly, as the man's legs appear far too big for a normal human.

First is "Jenifer" by Berni Wrightson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). One of Warren's best ever stories, and notable for being Bruce Jones's only story during Bill Dubay's era. He would eventually become a very prolific writer for Warren while Louise Jones was editor. A man hunting in the woods one day rescues a girl from being killed. The girl, called Jenifer has the ugliest face imaginable, but he becomes obsessed with her, and adopts her. His family hates her and eventually leave him after she scares them off. He then does what he can to get rid of her, such as having a freak show owner come to take her, but Jenifer simply kills the man and shoves his corpse in the fridge. Eventually he brings her out into the woods to kill her, only to be killed by someone wandering by, much like what happened at the start of the story.

Second is the cover story "A Touch of Terror" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This story features an investigation of a security guard at a warehouse. The owner of the place is in argument with the person conducting the investigation, as the guard was hired without his consent. The owner is in charge of little toy dolls called Nymatoids, which he uses to kill the investigator. He thinks he'll be able to rule the world with them, but the Nymatoids aren't actually controlled by him, but act on their own, and eventually kill him too.

Third is "...A Ghost of A Chance" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). Brennan's final Warren story is pretty good, mostly thanks to some good Alcazar art. A man heads into a haunted mansion because it is rumored a treasure is inside. In the mansion he is confronted by the ghost of the man who lived there, who gives him his treasure, a coffin. It ends up that the man is turned into a vampire, so that certainly was a sensical gift for him.

Fourth is "Demon in the Cockpit", this issue's color story, by Richard Corben (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). The United States government works on their latest weapon to defeat the communists - summoning a demon from hell which they successfully are able to do. Unfortunately for them, the communists have the same idea and use their own demon to attack.

Fifth is "Fishbait" by Leo Summers (art) and Larry Herndon (story). A man on a yacht is very jealous of a competitor who won over a woman he liked. When the ship mysteriously crashes into something, they find themselves in shark infested water. Eventually it is just our protagonist and his competitor left, using some drift wood. When a ship approaches, our protagonist fights off his competitor to make it to it... but it is not a ship but actually a giant shark, the entity which destroyed the yacht in the first place.

Last is "The Clones!" by Jose Gual (art) and Martin Pasko (story). Probably the single worst story of Bill Dubay's first run as editor (although Gual's art is good). This story features a hospital where clones of criminals have been developed that are used so that their organs can be used to give to other people. One of the clones comes to life and goes on a rampage, taking back his organs that were taken from him. He then returns to the hospital, including a ridiculous sequence where he runs amok with a machine gun, and takes back his final organ from the doctor that developed him. In a nonsensical final twist, the clone reveals he is a cannibal, and that he has been eating all the organs he took back.

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).

Creepy 123

This issue of Creepy came during Bill Dubay's second period of editorship, while he was under the alias "Will Richardson". During this time period the quality of Warren's magazines were steadily going down, although overall this is a fairly good issue. The sexy cover is by Ken Kelly, one of his better ones.

First story is "Kiss of the Plague!" by Leo Summers & Alex Toth (art) and Doug Moench (story). Given that Summers stopped working for Warren around 1975, and Moench likewise vanished from the pages of Warren around that period (outside of the 3 part series 'Blood on Black Satin' published in Eerie towards the end of Louise Jones's time as editor) one wonders if this story wasn't prepared years before and just sat around for a few years. Anyway, any story with Alex Toth art is something easy to enjoy and this story is no exception. The Summers/Toth combo provides an interesting art style, although this would be their only work together at Warren. The story surrounds a woman who dies of the plague. Her family and husband's family slowly start being murdered. Suspecting it was the husband, the last 2 remaining relatives kill him, only to find out that it was her all along, and that she was never actually dead, just horrifically disfigured from the plague. Very good story here.

Up next is "Hands of Fate" by Martin Salvador (art) and Carl Wessler (story). Wessler is another writer who was prominent at Warren in the mid 1970's, but by this point had left the company, making me wonder if this is another story that was held in reserves for a while. The story is about a murderer held in an institution who killed three different people with his hands. One night he finds his cell door unlocked and he takes the opportunity to escape. He hitchhikes and ends up getting picked up by the ghost of one of his victims. The other two victims soon arrive and chop off his hands. Although the whole experience ended up being a dream, it frightens him so much that he loses the use of his hands permanently.

Third is "They Don't Make Movies" by Carmine Infantiono & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Except for a single story in Creepy #83, Infantino never inked his own artwork at Warren and was often paired with one of many different inkers including Alex Nino, Walt Simonson, Dick Giordano and Alacala. The result was a somewhat unique style of art each time. Although admittingly here Alcala's inks are so strong that the Infantino influence is hard to notice. The story is about a newspaper reporter investigating the death of a prostitute who was killed in a porn movie. Not a bad story, although there's no horror element whatsoever to it.

The cover story, "The Slave" is fourth, with art by Jesus Blasco (miscredited to Jaime Brocal) and story by Jim Stenstrum (credited to his pseudonym, Alabaster Redzone). Blasco, a well known spanish artist, did three stories for Creepy around this period but all were miscredited to Jaime Brocal or Joaquin Blazquez, artists whose style looked nothing like his. In medieval England a War Lord's slave/lover convinces him to refrain from imposing taxes for a full year if she can ride through town on a horse with no one looking at her. One man tries to look but ends up being struck by lightning, horrifically scarring his face. The slave befriends the man, admitting to him that she used her magic to strike him with lightning so the town wouldn't be punished for his deed. She then transforms his deformity to the War Lord. Short, but good story, the best one in the issue.

"Harriman's Monsters!" is next, with art by Dan Adkins and story by Greg Potter. Potter was another writer who left Warren years ago. It's been said that in the last few years of Warren's existence, they used up a lot of inventory & rejected stories as well as reprints of stories done in other countries (like the prior story, The Slave), and this issue is ample proof of that with so many stories by writers that were long gone from Warren at this point. A special effects expert is jealous of another special effects guy who does even better than he by making his models look extremely realistic when moving. He confronts the man only to find out that the models look so realistic because his adversery can use telekinesis, which he uses to kill him.

The issue's worst story is "Always Leave Them Laughing" by Rudy Nebres & Val Mayerik (art) and Michael Fleischer (story). This story surrounds a depressed old clown whose about to die. Yawn. Did not like this one at all.

Last up is "Jelly" by Herb Arnold (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Arnold's art looks kind of like Richard Corben's, but his skill isn't anywhere as good as Corben's is. The story is about blob-like creatures called jelly which are accidently mixed with the food of that name. A very short story at only 4 pages, but it is at least somewhat better than the previous one.

Overall, a fairly good issue considering when it came out. Although that likely has to do with having multiple stories that were probably drawn 3-4 years earlier.

Creepy 64

For my first issue, I'm going to cover one of my favorite issues, Creepy #64.

This issue came at what was probably the peak of Warren's operations in the 1970's, the summer of 1974. The cover, by Vaughn Bode and Larry Todd featured a rotting man in what appears to be an astronaut's suit. The cover was the basis for the stories contained in the issue, the first of many themed issues for Warren. This issue's also notable for being Archie Goodwin's final issue as editor in his Warren career. This was Goodwin's third stint at Warren as editor, which lasted only for 4 issues of Creepy and 2 issues of Vampirella before he left due to not getting along with Bill Dubay. While he would write some additional stories for Warren later in the 70's and 80's, this was it for him at Warren in terms of being editor.




The first story, "Forgotten Flesh" by Vicente Alcazar (art) and Doug Moench (story) is the sole story in the issue to not feature the rotting man on the cover. Originally, all seven stories in the issue were to feature the rotting man, but the story "Avenger" was unable to be finished in time, which resulted in this story being run in its place. Oddly enough, rather than print "Avenger" in the next issue, Warren waited 8 years to publish it, in Eerie #128 in 1982. "Forgotten Flesh" 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.

"Mates" by Esteban Maroto (art), Bill Dubay (color) and Doug Moench (story) is next. The story features an astronaut who heads to a planet that has been rumored to be a sex paradise. When he gets there he fights off countless rotting hulks and finally encounters a city full of beautiful women. After a night full of sex his entire body proceeds to rot away, making him just like one of the creatures he had encountered along the way. A good story with typical great art by Maroto. The story reminds me of the Wally Wood story "Rescued" from Weird Fantasy #6.

Next up is "High Time" by Paul Neary (art) and Steve Skeates (story), about a pilot who's plane is destroyed during battle, leaving him stranded in a radioactive wasteland. As he lies dying, he suddenly finds himself in a paradise like landscape, where he encounters a beautiful woman. The vision soon fades and he meets his demise. While Neary's art is great, this story just did not make much sense to me at all.

Fourth is "Only Losers Win" by Howard Chaykin (art), in his first Warren story, and Rich Margopoulos (story). In the future, Earth is extremely overpopulated, but a race filled with numerous death traps held once a year allows the winner to spend a year in the only sanctuary left on Earth. A man takes a drug that increases his metabolism a hundred fold and wins the race, only to find that the increase in metabolism also severly increased the aging process. An okay story with fine art by Chaykin that fits the story perfectly.

"One Autumn at Arkham" is the next story, and is both drawn and written by Tom Sutton. This would be Tom Sutton's final story for Warren. It features a researcher who learns of a 'power suit' which gives a man immortality. He digs up one of the suit's inventor's, who was buried alive with it, only to find that he's still alive! Having been been buried alive for 20 years however, the man's body has been almost entirely eaten by worms, leaving him a rotting mess. Great story and art by Sutton, its a shame that this was it for him at Warren.

Sixth is "To Sleepy Hollow... Returned" by Larry Summers (art) and Jeff Rovin (story). A photographer comes to the small town where the story of the headless horseman originated. There he starts dating a waitress and is confronted by her bitter former boyrfriend/boss. Riding home one night from a costume part, he encounters the headless horseman himself, who kills him with a flaming pumpkin, burning his face away in the process. A pretty good story and very good art job from Summers, who unfortunately wasn't around at Warren as long as he should have been.


Wrapping up the issue is another colored story, "An Angel Shy of Hell", by Richard Corben (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). It starts Hard John Apple, a bounty hunter hired by "Protstns' in the far future, who goes about the state of Kansas, killing as many 'Catlicks' as he can, including an injured helicopter pilot with a burned face (see image). A terrific story, although probably somewhat offensive with the parodies of various relgious groups. Stenstrum would eventually write three more stories starring Hard John Apple in Eerie in 1977.


Overall, a terrific issue, one of Creepy's bests. Outside of the rather confusing "High Time" no bad stories, and the art is terrific across the board. Unfortunately this would be Creepy's only issue with two color stories.