Vampirella 75

A terrific cover for Vampirella starts off this issue. It's by Jose Gonzalez and Kim McQuaite, featuring Vampi and a furry black creature behind her.

First is "The Blob Beast of Blighter's Bog" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi, in Hollywood is recruited for a new movie with Pantha's help. The movie is directed by Emile Gorgonzola and is also starring his fat wife Beatrice who is a cannibal that desires to eat Vampi. Beatrice is actually an alien who has controlled Emile's mind and gotten him to bring her victims. With her getting old her power is slipping and Vampi and Pantha are able to defeat her and escape. A nice play on words with the villain of this story and some very nice art by Gonzalez.

Second is "Peter, Peter" by Leo Duranona (art) and Gerry Souter (story). A man named Peter in the early 1800's is very successful at carving wooded creatures based on drawings he has made. He becomes fairly well off by selling them for use on ships, but with the War of 1812 most of the ships are destroyed, his work is no longer in vogue and he loses it all, including his wife to illness when former customers won't give him a loan. He seeks to get revenge, first by burning all his pictures, resulting in all the ships they are on burning as well. He then makes pumpkins carved like the faces of those he wants revenge on and give it to them, which result in burning the people when they put the flame inside. He then ends it all by carving a pumpkin to match his own face, then smashes it. A very good story, the best of the issue easily.

Third is "Sasquatch Love" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Cary Bates (story). A trio of campers discover a sasquatch which they call Martha. In order to get pictures of her and test a love potion they're making, one of them dresses up as a sasquatch and temporarily lives with her. In order to let him escape, one of the other two dresses up as a sasquatch as well and do some things which Martha mimicks. When a fly flies inside the man's mask though, they take off his mask, causing Martha to tear the head off their colleague.

Fourth is "Business is Booming" by Isidro Mones (art) and Bob Black (story). An undertaker murders his wife and gets away with it. Enjoying what he did, he starts murdering other people on the street and doesn't get caught. When a potential victim gets away from him, he runs to his lab where those he killed get their revenge on him.

Last is "A Matter of Principle" by Azpiri (art) and Budd Lewis & Len Wein (story). This story features a man in a post apocalyptic future who enjoys eating worms and maggots. He fights off birds to get them, and waits around corpses to get at them. He finds a few men fighting over a women, so he kills them, but since she's already dead he plans to use her to attract more bugs to eat. A disgusting story with so-so art from Azpiri, who only did two stories for Warren. One part of the art is dated "72" making me wonder if this was a story they held on to for a while before printing.

Eerie 75

Possibly Eerie's strangest cover ever, colored pink with a central panel of a green alien from Jose Bea's internal story. Quite obviously an attempt to save money and get out a cover with little to no effort.

First is "The Demons of Jebediah Cold" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Jedediah Pan comes across a town next to another town where freaks are living. The people in that city, called Amity start abusing the freaks in the neighboring town, going as far to have a mob head there to kill them all. Jedediah, along with Jeremiah Cold who shows up summon their demons which kill all the people from Amity.

Next is "The One Eyed Shall Be King" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story), the conclusion to the Freaks series. The Freaks are captured in a desert and brought before a small creature held in a glass chamber who breeds freaks in a nearby town to be fed to it. One of the freaks goes on a rampage and kills him. Overall this was quite a poor series; it would be followed up with a sequel series, the Moonweavers starting in the next issue.

Third is "Oogie and the Worm!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This issue furthers the adventures of Leroy, Prunnie and Oogie, who pretend to be Buck Blaster and Thelma Starbust. In the real world Thelma has gotten a popular spinoff show seperate from Buck Blaster's, causing Prunnie to get rather arrogant. A rather poor story compared to the last one, both from an art and story standpoint. I wonder what a 'worm' has to do with this story as well.

Fourth is "Invasion" by Jose Bea (art) and Esteban Maroto (story, miscredited to Bea). This story was originally published in the comic 'Dracula' in England. A short, bizarre story about alien creatures arriving on Earth and discussing the human body. It ends up that the aliens are what we call cancer. This issue's best story, with a lot of bizarre artwork, a Bea trademark.

Last is "Gillian Taxi and the Sky Pirates" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Despite Bermejo's terrific artwork, this is a dull, poor story that drags excessively at 16 pages long. It features the adventures of a large flying taxi that is shaped like a teapot.

Creepy 93

This is Creepy's second special issue dedicated entirely to sports. The first, previously reviewed by me was issue 84. The cover is by Don Maitz, his first for Warren. Like the first sports special, this issue contains a lot of Carmine Infantino and Roger McKenzie.

First is "The Replacement" by Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of a baseball player who suddenly vanishes in the middle of a game, replaced by a weird looking creature. The creature takes his place and is very successful, but faces discrimination from the human players. He eventually vanishes, replaced by the original player when they are close to winning it all, resulting in them losing.

Next is "The Return of Rah" by Carmine Infantino & John Severin (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is a sequel to "The Mummy's Victory" from the previous sports special. Rah the mummy is once again brought into the game of football, this time by a scout who was impressed by his prior performance. Once again Rah is a big football star, winning many games.

Third is "The Great Black Cheese" by Carmine Infantino & Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is about an old black boxer who never got his big chance due to his mother getting sick. He takes part in a boxing match which causes a heart attack. With his death he has a vision of finally getting his big shot.

Fourth is "Elixer" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story is about a veteran hockey goalie who takes a magical elixer that makes him young again. It succeeds, making the team very successful, but each time he takes the elixer its effects aren't as powerful and he eventually ages to death in the middle of a game.

Fifth is "Running Wild" by Carmine Infantino & Alex Nino (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of siamese twins, who when seperated causes one to be paralyzed, but he has psychic powers to control his other brother. He forces him to do things he doesn't want to do, so the brother eventually causes him to die of exhaustion by running too hard.

Last is "Cold Blooded Murder" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bill Mohalley & Nicola Cuti (story). A young boy paralyzes another boy in a hockey game after being inspired by his favorite hockey player. The boy's life is pretty much ruined by this event, and he tries to kill himself by drowning, but his body won't let him kill himself and he is saved by a priest.

1984 10

1984's last issue under this title, starting with the next issue it would become 1994. The cover is by Patrick Woodroffe, featuring a character from the Starfire Saga.

First is "The Whatever Shop!" by Alex Nino (art) and Jim Stenstrum (story). Looking to get a new popcorn popper, a man instead finds a store where the storeowner can get him anything he wants. He initially asks to for just a new popper, but comes back later when he realizes the owner gave him something else. He finds the owner trying to sell stuff to terrorists, and when the owner offers to give him anything he asks for a girl from a porno magazine, causing the machine to go crazy. The owner is arrested, as it ends up he was stealing and teleporting things using the machine. A pretty good, light hearted story to start off the issue.

Next is the finale for "Herma" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Herma finds out that the movie career promised to her is all a lie, and she is instead locked up by a woman (who looks quite a lot like Vampirella) who gets off on people's pain and anguish. Luckily Herma's rescued by Dr. Pitts and Sir Robert Bolt, who had originally discovered her.

Third is "The Little Spaceship That Could!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). A fleet of ships is asked to deliver an anti-toxin through a black hole. The smallest ship volunteers for the very dangerous mission, aware that he may not make it out alive. He heads through the black hole, is about to get out safely... then blows up. A rather unexpected ending to an otherwise dull story.

Fourth is "The Klanks Are Coming! The Klanks Are Coming!" by Vic Catan (art, his Warren debut) and Rich Margopoulos (story). This is a rather boring story featuring robotic aliens attacking and eventually destroying Earth. A Margopoulos clunker, what a surprise.

Fifth is the second part in the "Starfire Saga". Rudy Nebres now takes on the art duties, with Bill Dubay handling the story. Kris Starfire, revealed to be a girl who is masquerading as a boy (clearing up a very confusing ending to the last issue's story) heads to another planet and is a stowaway on a ship where a pervert attacks her. She is saved by Dr. Snufflesniff and some other men. Just then, space pirates arrive. Only two stories in and I'm already bored to death by this serial.

Sixth is part three in "Ghita of Alizarr" by Frank Thorne (story & art). Ghita and friends head through a forest where they encounter a unicorn, then is confronted by some trolls, whom she tricks and defeats by showing them her breasts. With three parts under our belt, I've still not really gotten all that into this story, which is a shame.

Seventh is "Haxtur" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). This series was originally published in Europe in the early 70's and was reprinted for a couple of issues of 1984/1994 before being moved to Eerie. Alas, this means that after these first two parts we won't be seeing this series for a long, long time since its very far off compared to where I am in Eerie right now. Haxtur is a man apparantely killed by a giant lizard who is visited by four men calling themselves the Timeless Ones. They tell him he's cursed to discover man's destiny. Haxtur awakens to find himself attacked by lizard like men. He is rescued by some men who tell him of the Tyrant, a man who has created some robot creatures called Greyks who dominate the lizard men. Haxtur defeats the Greyks, which enables the Lizard men to kill the Tyrant.

Eight and final story is "Thinking of You" by Abel Laxamana (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). This story features a pilot whose ship has a woman-like personality, who gets jealous over the fact that he's with a human woman. Eventually the ship takes advantage of the opportunity to fire off a missile at her, eliminating its competition.

Eerie 74

Only four stories in this issue of Eerie. The cover is by Ken Kelly, featuring Jedediah Pan and his demons. Auraleon provides the interior front cover feature of Cousin Eerie.

First is "The Demons of Jedediah Pan" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pan is confronted by some bandits in the desert so his uses his bracelet to summon some demons which beat them, tearing out all their teeth. A rather dissappointing second part to this series, which still has a ways to go before its conclusion.

Second is "Father Creator" by Paul Neary (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The story features a massive spaceship that is responsible for bringing saviors to various planets. The current person in charge of the spaceship, known as 'Father' is all on his own. The story surrounds what happens when he revises the latest savior and seeks to end his loneliness. An okay story with some good art by Neary.

Third is "A Secret King", the second Merlin story. Art is by Gonzalo Mayo and story is by Bill Dubay. A rather long, drawn out story at 20 pages long, this story features the well known tale of King Arthur, including his escapades with Merlin and Snivel, the death of his father the King, his time with Ector and Kay and the eventual discovery of the sword in the stone.

Last is "The Expedition" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Two friends go canoeing in the wilderness in Louisiana. Eventually they come across an abandoned cabin where a man has been killed by some creature. It eventually ends up that there is a monster in the river that one of the men is feeding, and gives him his friend to eat. The monster goes out of control however and kills him too.

Creepy 36

An early issue of Creepy featuring a terrific cover by Kenneth Smith. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Body Snatchers Who Stole A Giant!" by Tom Sutton.

First is "One Way to Break the Boredom" by Jack Sparling (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). A rich man is bored with his life, and when the devil arrives he gives him his soul in order to become a vampire, a life that he plans to be very exciting. It is exciting for a while, he travels from place to place, kills many people, and always survives the execution whenever he is captured. Eventually however he arrives at an old city in the country with an old custom for executions, shooting with wooden arrows, something which kills him for real.

Next is "Weird World" by Tom Sutton (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). An astronaut arrives at a bizarre planet where he meets a beautiful woman, but also a talking frog and her father, a bizarre looking alien creature. He soon finds out that the planet is a mental asylum for crazy aliens. He heads into his ship to take off from the planet, but once he goes inside he becomes insane for real.

Third is "Frankenstein is a Clown" by Carlos Garzon (art) and Bill Warren (story). A famous clown later in his career becomes well known as an actor playing a friendly monster on TV. Unfortunately for him he perishes in a car crash. A mad scientist brings him back as a real Frankenstein monster. He heads to a memorial for himself, but realizing how dangerous he is, he decides instead to kill himself for good by jumping out of a window.

Fourth is "On the Wings of a Bird" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and T. Casey Brennan. As good as Grandenetti's art is it can't save this absolutely horrific story which was startling enough awarded by Warren as the best story of the year! A man, Ahzid, is trapped in a desert prison with a talking statue. He dreams of the day that he'll be able to escape due to a bird that sits there, but never takes off. He has a dream of actually leaving on the bird, but when he wakes up he finds that the bird has already left and that he's trapped here due to sleeping in. This story would have a sequel in issue 42.

Fifth is "Forbidden Journey" by Rich Buckler (art, his Warren debut) and Greg Theakston (story). This story tells of four astronauts heading to a world with a natural resource, 'thurium' that will make them rich. One of the astronauts kills the three others, but when he arrives at the planet he finds it is nothing more than a waste dump and his ship falls into quicksand, trapping him there.

Sixth is "If A Body Meets a Body" by Jack Sparling (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A man is in a car crash with his friend. He awakens and heads home only to find his wife crying over his death. His friend arrives and tells him that they're both dead and they should head to the spirit world. At the urging of his friend the man jumps off a cliff. It ends up all being a trick however as the friend and wife are together, and he falls to his death. Only it ends up that the friend truly is dead, something he and the wife soon discover.

Last is "Frozen Beauty" by Richard Corben (story & art). This was Corben's Warren debut. A hideous queen, Maleva, summons Darman, a sorceror, offering him gold in exchange for making her look like her beautiful niece. They head to a cave in the icy mountain where he casts a spell such that Maleva will have her niece's exact appearance. Her niece is left frozen there in the cave so she'll always look the same. Instead of paying the sorceror however, Maleva has him stabbed and left in the cave. Maleva doesn't get to enjoy her beauty for that long, as Darman, still left alive due to the cold starts eating the corpse of Maleva's niece, resulting in her body being torn to shreds. A very nice debut for Corben.

Vampirella 7

A classic Frank Frazetta cover starts off this issue of Vampirella.

The first three stories of this issue are a Witch trilogy, all written by Nicola Cuti. Vampi has a one page intro and one page conclusion surrounding the stories. Despite being called a trilogy, all three stories are self contained.

First is "The White Witch!", with art by Tom Sutton. The White Witch is a singer who cannot go into the sunlight as it will harm her. Her elderly brother asks a painter to paint a portrait of her, and he stays at their house. He soon finds out the truth, that she isn't human, but rather was found in a haunted tower by the brother in a cocoon. The next day the painter opens the curtains, thinking its midnight, but it is actually noon and she dies due to the sunlight.

Second is "The Mind Witch" with art by Ernie Colon. The Mind Witch is a woman who steals the soul from men, leaving them mindless husks. A pair of men plan to investigate it. One of them arrives at her home finding she already knows their plan, as the other one has become her latest victim. She reveals that she is an alien and has the power to do what she does because of that. Yet the man is actually from outer space as well and has come to punish her for her actions.

The third and final witch story is "The Black Witch" with art by Billy Graham. The Black Witch kills the man she loves who is going to marry another woman, then goes to the woman and turns her into a praying mantis. The man ends up surviving the attack and comes after her, killing many witches over the years. When she finally comes for him, she turns into a spider in order to avoid him shooting at her, but the praying mantis arrives and eats her.

Fourth is "Plague of the Wolf" by Frank Bolle (art) and Doug Moench (story). A werewolf is plauging the city. A man warns his girlfriend to stay away from him, because he has a pentagram on his arm, showing that he'll be the next victim and he doesn't want her there when the werewolf arrives. But she arrives anyway, as she is the werewolf!

Fifth is "Terror Test!" by Tony Williamsune (art) and R. Michael Rosen (story). This story features astronauts arriving on a strange planet where they kill a strange creature. One of the astronauts becomes a vampire and is killed by another one, but he finds the other astronaut to be a monster as well. The man awakens, it all was a dream, but that doesn't stop him from going crazy and killing those that put him under the test with an axe.

Sixth is "The Survivor" by Ernie Colon (art) and Buddy Saunders (story). This story is about an entity that has occupied a planet for many years by occupying the bodies of the people there. When a group of astronauts arrive, the entity plans to take one of them over. He waits until one of the men is alone then hits him in the back to knock him out. He kills his current body in order to take over the new one, but the man is paralyzed from the blow!

Last is "The Collection Creation" by Jerry Grandenetti (art, miscredited to Tony Williamsune) and R. Michael Rosen (story). A woman with eternal life who needs to steal the youth from others finds a painter whom she hopes to make her next victim. She shows him her great painting collection of old men. It ends up that they were her victims, and she takes his youth, making him the model for the next painting.