Vampirella 65

A very good issue of Vampirella with a cover by Enrich. This issue has a special gimmick. Editor Louise Jones, sick of people complaining about predictable ending asked the readers to predict the ending of each of the six stories, removing the final page from each of the non-Vampirella stories. The last page of each story ran in the next issue. To make it easier for the reader I'll be covering the complete stories here based on the endings included in the following issue.

First is "The Mad King of Drakulon" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi is returned to Drakulon where she meets the sole living person there, Cedrin, who actually lives on a moon near Drakulon. She is happy with him for a while until she realizes he stays alive by keeping captive various tourists to Drakulon, sucking the blood out of them to create a river of blood. Vampi responds by drinking his blood, killing him.

Second is "A Game of Hide and Seek" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Some very nice art here by Duranona, one of his best horror stories for Warren. An old man, Eric invites a number of unrelated people to his house telling them they're inheriting something due to his death. He tells them that they are to hunt him, and whoever kills him gets the inheritance. He in turn will be hunting them. The story focuses on one of the people invited, Elizabeth. As various people in the house are murdered, a new handsome man arrives, Michael, who Elizabeth falls in love with. Soon they are the only two left in the house. Elizabeth opens the shades however, killing Michael, who is actually Eric. He was a vampire, so by opening the shades she is able to kill him with the light.

Third is "Mystery of the Strangled Stockbroker" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story is a murder mystery about a stockbroker found strangled on a desk. There are numerous suspects with numerous motives. It ends up that the killer is the elevator operator, who had been stealing which was known by the stockbroker. This issue's weakest story since its so complicated.

Fourth is "The Pharoah's Lady" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). Upon hearing of the pharoah becoming a god in the afterlife, one of his slave women plots to become the god herself. She murders both the pharoah's wife, then the pharoah himself and heads into his pyramid where she instead is given a jackal head of an egyptian god.

Fifth is "But First, This Brief Interruption" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A broke man meets a mysterious man in a bar who bets him $500 to answer a riddle, which he does successfully. Our protagonist uses the money to get back on his feet again and become successful, but keeps encountering the mysterious man and bets again and again, each time for higher stakes. The final bet is for a million dollars, with his life at stake if he loses. He is able to answer the complicated riddle at the last second, saving his life.

Last is "Goodbye, Norma Jean" by Auraleon (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Norma is a siamese twin, her younger sister Jean is actually a second head growing out of her soldier. While in college Norma fell in love with a fellow student Tom, and they had a child, Leslie. By threatening to take Leslie away from him, Norma was able to get Tom to marry her despite her deformity. When he discovers that Jean grew out of Norma's body starting at seven, Tom gets upset, thinking it could happen to Leslie. Norma gets worried even more and goes to a psychiatrist where another shocking truth is revealed. Leslie is normal, but Norma & Jean have yet another head growing on their soldier.

Eerie 76

This issue of Eerie features an Oogie cover by Sanjulian.

First is "Deliver the Child", the first of a two part spinoff series from the Freaks, titled The Moonweavers. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis. This series stars Gerome and Jason, the sons of the boys who appeared in the second Freaks story. Gerome has a special power where he can sense supernatural things occuring. One such thing happens in their town, so they go to investigate and find the local hardware store owner summoning a demon, Jahnte. Jahnte is shocked to find out that the man wants him to protect his baby daughter rather than make him powerful or commit some other deed. Jahnte loses his hands when he tries to attack the man, and retaliates by chewing off the hands of the man's baby. Sanchez's art is quite good, and this story is a vast improvement over the three part Freaks series.

Second is "Highsong", starring Wolfer O'Connell. Art is by Luis Bermejo and story is by Budd Lewis. Wolfer is confronted by some native americans who want to kill him because of a monster that they think arrived due to the white man. Wolfer outsmarts them then confronts the beast, which is killed when they come across a pack of wolves.

Third is the latest Oogie story, "Oogie and the Scroungers" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Leroy and Prunnie are confronted by the IRS, who fly a ship to their planet and are seeking not only taxes not paid while they were a part of human society, but also taxes for their time on Oogie's planet. Prunie, with her godlike powers transports Leroy away and blows up the IRS agents. While Leroy thinks she has died, she comes back, completely unharmed. Maroto's art is unfortunately quite inconsistent and poor in this story. The head IRS guy's head fluctuates in size in pretty much every panel.

Fourth is "The Silver Key" the final Peter Hypnos story. Art and story is by Jose Bea. Peter once again finds himself in a bizarre world, this time after being sucked into a painting. He uses a key to enter a door, where he is put on trial, has his key taken away, then meets others who lost their key. He eventually finds a large pile of keys, and using the first one he finds opens yet another door and returns to the real world.

The issue concludes with the premiere story of "Darklon the Mystic" by Jim Starlin in his Warren debut. An eyepatched man meets an assassin in a bar who tells him how he and three fellow assassins went after a man named Darklon, who lives in a giant castle. They sneak through the castle and blast away in his bedroom only to find that he's not there. Soon all are dead except the assassin at the bar. The eyepatched man ends up being Darklon himself, and kills the assassin after finding out that the person who hired the assassin was none other than Kavar Darkhold, his father.

Creepy 15

This issue of Creepy features a classic cover of neanderthals by Frank Frazetta. It would eventually be used as the first reprinted cover Warren ever used, on issue 83.

First is "City of Doom!" by Steve Ditko (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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.

Second is "Adam Link, Champion Athlete!" by Joe Orlando (art) and Otto Binder (story). Adam becomes an athlete on advice in order to improve his public image. He succeeds tremendously in all sports he tries, but that doens't stop a newspaper columnist from criticizing him. This was Adam Link's final appearance, ending his storyline without an ending.

Next is "The Adventure of the German Student" by Jerry Grandenetti (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This is an adaption of a Washington Irving story. A german student staying in Paris meets a beautiful woman by the guillotine and sleeps with her. The next day he wakes up to find her dead! When he summons the authorities, they reveal that she was executed the previous day and her head falls off! The student goes crazy and ends up in an asylum, where he dies.

Next is "The River" with story & art by Johnny Craig. A pair of thieves try to escape using the river, but one has second thoughts and is killed by his colleague. Although he is shot at, he is able to escape and is helped by an old man on a boat. However, it ends up the old man is bringing him to the lake of the dead.

Next is the one page "Creepy's Loathsome Lore" by Gil Kane.

Last is "The Terror Beyond Time!" by Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). At 16 pages, this is the longest story of the original Goodwin era. Searching for a professor, a man heads deep into a cavern where he had dissappeared. Inside he finds a prehistoric world with dinosaurs and prehistoric men. In addition various other people throughout time have been summoned here including a beatiful woman from England. The professor is found, but it ends up that he's working for an evil being who is responsible for summoning everyone there as well as controlling people's thoughts. Our hero refuses to work under his control and instead kills the professor and the evil being. Afterwards he awakens in the modern age, with the woman there with him. A fairly good story although as discussed by Neal Adams in the Warren companion, the evil being ends up looking like an ice cream sundae rather than something supremely evil.

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.