Creepy 47

Ron Cobb provides the cover for this issue of Creepy, dated September 1972. The cover was originally to have been done by Sanjulian, featuring the interior story The Land of Bone (and that cover actually appears on the preview page), but it failed to meet the deadline and wouldn't be used until Eerie 123. The frontis for this issue is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Not Sherlock by a Long Shot" by Jose Bea (art) and Doug Moench (story).

First is "The Land of Bone" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story features a warrior Costan who finds himself in a world where every person he meets is a skeleton. He is joined by a skeleton wizard, Wikkander, who tells him that his lover Aruna has been captured by the Wizard Poxxalt. The two of them fight off various creatures and then defeat Poxxalt. Costan is shocked to find Aruna a skeleton herself, and gives Wikkander a ring on her finger. Once he gets the ring, the truth is revealed. Costan was a skeleton himself, and only thought that he was human and everyone else was a skeleton. Wikkander, a descendent of his brought him to life to free Aruna from Poxxalt.

Second is "Mark of the Phoenix" by Reed Crandall (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). This story features a student drug dealer who finds that he is dying of cancer. In order to live forever, he makes a deal with a Phoenix which will enable him to live forever, unless his body is completely destroyed. The Phoenix tells him that he will have to be set ablaze and reborn every 10 years however, and this frightens him terribly. He gets so nervous of a pigeon following him that he ends up killing himself for good.

Third is "The Law and Disorder" by Luis Garcia (art, his final Creepy appearance) and Dennis P. Junot (story). This story features a man who is angry at the board of trustees of a college, thinking they are responsible for his father's death. He creates a disintegration ray which he lets into their hands, and they die of radiation once using it. The protagonist then dies suddenly at the end of the story, with little explanation.

Fourth is "The Eternity Curse" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Thraxis (story). This story features an enemy of the pharoah who is cursed to live forever. His corpse lies in the ground for thousands of years, getting out in present times, when he starts attacking some victims of a plane crash, absorbing their life force until he is restored to a normal appearance. A similar theme as to what takes place in the modern version of the Mummy movie.

Fifth is "Point of View" by Luis Dominguez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story features a number of stories all converging into one. A man is fearful of a powerful being that he suspects is after him. In another a woman leaves her boyfriend very frantically. In the third, an older man drives drunk despite his wife's warnings. All converge when the car is about to hit the woman, and our protagonist notices a caped woman distracting her, who is actually the person he is fearful of. A rather confusing summary? Probably cause this is a rather confusing story that ends rather abrubtly.

Sixth is "This Burden, This Responsibility" by Jerry Grandenetti (art, his final Creepy appearance) and Steve Skeates (story). Another odd story by Skeates, featuring a man in a future where computers run almost everything. He gets a bigger office for his good work, then gets in trouble when he comes in late, being killed by his computerized superiors.

Seventh is "Futurization Computation!" by Bill Dubay (story & art). This short three page story tells of a modernized computer device, which ends up robotic teachers for a school.

Last is "The Beginning!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Seve Skeates (story). In contrast to Skeates's two earlier odd stories, this one is quite good. It takes place in a future Earth where normal humans are fighting mutants who have mutated due to contaminated food. One of the human soldiers sees a beautiful woman whom he becomes obsessed with seeing. He finds her, then fights off a superior who calls her Queenie. She brings him through a wall where he finds out the truth, that she's a mutant and she's lured him to other ones who seize him.

Eerie 41

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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