Eerie 115

Jim Laurier provides the cover for this issue of Eerie, featuring Night of the Jackass. This issue collects all four stories in the series within this issue.

First is part one of 'Night of the Jackass', titled "24 Hours of Hell!" by Jose Ortiz (art, his Eerie debut) and Bruce Bezaire (story). This story is from Eerie 60. A terrific, terrific serial, probably my favorite in Eerie after 'Apocalypse'. The story surrounds a drug which when taken causes a person to turn into a monster, but kills them after 24 hours. A group of poor old people head to a hotel, lock it up and take the drug, then go on a rampage, killing and raping everyone inside. A newlywed, Garson, witnesses his wife murdered by them, but is one of only two people to survive, the other being Bishop, a man who planned to kill himself but changed his mind when the jackassers went on their rampage.

Second story is the second part in the 'Night of the Jackass' series, "Storm Before the Calm!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Bruce Bezaire (story), from Eerie 63. Garson and Bishop meet up once again at a church that has been taken over by the Jackassers. While no one else wants to go inside and help the victims, Garson and Bishop do so and with the help of people inside are able to defeat all the monsters.

Third is part three of the Night of the Jackass series, "The Children's Hour", with art by Jose Ortiz and story by Bruce Bezaire, from Eerie 64. A group of children take the Hyde (25) drug, causing another rampage. Bishop and Garson once again arrive to help stop them and meet Berthe Astruc, a chemist who seeks to create a cure for the drug. During the fighting Garson realizes that Bishop's nearly as bloodthirsty and willing to kill as the Jackassers and is helping more out of a desire to output his rage upon them than save others. As the story ends they decide to help Berthe find a cure.

Fourth is the final entry in the Night of the Jackass series, "Endstorm", from Eerie 65. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Bruce Bezaire. Bishop and Garson head to Berthe's lab where she hopes to finish her Bishop reads Berthe's notes and realizes that she was the one responsible for creating the Hyde drug. Berthe forces him out, but Garson gets upset and leaves as well, only to find that Bishop has taken the drug and become a jackasser. Bishop goes out of control and attacks them, but Berthe is able to use her antidote which works, turning him back to normal. The series ends here on an optomistic note, with our heroes now having a way to cure the jackassers. Overall this is certainly one of Eerie's best series ever, with a unique and interesting storyline and great Ortiz art. While the series certainly had an open ended conclusion, Bezaire avoided a lame ending and let it end on a high note.

Last is "Excerpts from the Year Five", from Creepy 67, by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story takes place in a future where all the power in the world has vanished. The story focuses on a man, who meets a woman when receiving first aid. They help fellow people and find a young boy eating the remains of his mother. Eventually Satan worshippers kill the boy however, and the woman dies soon afterwards as well.

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.

1994 #23

This issue of 1994, dated February 1982, is the only reprint issue in the magazine's history. Alex Nino provides the cover, credited as A2-120.

First story is "Break Even" from issue 9, by Alex Nino (art) and Kevin Duane (story). This is... believe it or not... a well thought out, intelligent story to kick off an issue of 1984 that doesn't feature sex! It features a pair of astronauts hired to scope out the asteroid field between Mars and Jupiter who find a very small planet that's actually a shrunk gas giant planet which they end up destroying.

Next is "Painters Mountain" by Alex Nino (art) and the team of Bill Dubay & Budd Lewis (story). The star of the story, Painter is a man who grows a distaste of the tribe he lives with and leaves them. He forms his own society but realizes that his old tribe is in danger. He tries to warn them, but they ignore him and are all killed by a mass flood.

Third is "Teleport: 2010" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story is about a madman who hijacks a teleportation shuttle used to transport thousands of people a day. He kills numerous people, demanding the captain transport him to a place out of government jurisdiction. They fight, more people die, and eventually the captain transports him and everyone else, who he hopes to use as hostages... into the middle of space by accident, killing them all.

Last is "Zincor and the Fempire" by Alex Nino (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in the future where women have abandoned men, and are seeking out and destroying any they can. Our hero Zincor along with some of his fellow men spots a Fempire warship which lands near them and attack, spawning a battle between them and the women. Zincor rapes one of the women, Marta, which causes her to betray her allies and join the men. The women's battleship is destroyed by her and only one woman is left. Marta spots her with Zincor however, killing them both, leaving her as the only person left.

Eerie 128

Kirk Reinert provides a terrific cover for this issue of Eerie, probably the best of its latter day covers. This issue is dated January 1982. Aside from the horrible Zud story, this issue is quite a lot better than those we've been seeing for quite a while now.

First is "Dr. Coven: Ashes to Ashes!" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Dr. Coven is a man who comes to the jungle with his wife to study voodoo. A voodoo priestess invites him to a ceremony and captures his wife, he then passes out. When he awakens he finds himself surrounded by zombies, including his wife, who is now one. He dismembers his wife to escape her, then kills the zombies and priestess.

Second is "The Demon Queen" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Jonathan Thomas (story). A professor who has one of his students as a lover is writing a book on demons and soon starts seeing them, suspecting that he is being pursued by a demon queen. He sees the demons more and more and his behavior to get rid of them gets more and more out of hand, resulting in him being fired and his book's publication being suspended. His book's chances of publication finished, his lover reveals that she is the demon queen. He is found later, gone completely insane. The demon queen in this story is modeled after that on the cover of Eerie 41.

Third is the retitled Zud and Son in "Heroes at Large!" by E.R. Cruz (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). In this story, it is revealed out of nowhere that Zud has a thirteen year old son, Raz. Raz dissappoints Zud, as he is interested in the ballet and other odd stuff rather than normal boy stuff. While at the ballet Zud is captured by an old enemy of his who tries to kill him. Raz is able to rescue him, then at the end reveals that he is interested in football and other standard male interests after all.

Fourth is "Blackstar and the Nighthuntress" by Peter Hsu (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Jason Blackstar and Rowena, the stars of this story originally appeared back in issue 85. In this story the appearance of a medallion at someone's home means assassins, the Rectifiers (sent by the three Governor who rule the galaxy) will come after them and kill them unless they can stay out of their hands for seven days. Killing a Rectifier is illegal, and when Rowena mistakenly kills one, the Governors send other ones after them. Rowena and Blackstar eventually come across the Governors and convince them to stop coming after them.

Fifth is "Avenger!" by Jim Starlin & Neal Adams (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). This story was originally intended for Creepy 64 back in 1974. Odd enough it was held back for eight years before finally appearing here. A pilot, Thomas Flagg climbs out of the sea, ten years after his death from a plane crash into a body of water. Flagg, now a rotting hulk, has the ability to cause others to succumb to his will and soon gathers an army to go after he whom he finds responsible, his father, who forced him into duty in Vietnam. His army of followers are killed, but he still encounters his father and causes him to succumb to his will as well.

Last is "Haggarth" by Victor de la Fuente (story & art). Haggarth is attacked by an eagle and its amazoness owner who tries to kill him with a poison spear. Meanwhile a trio of men look for precious stones and come across Ethan and a friend of his who accidently take their canoe. Two of the men take back the canoe and leave, only to be killed by the amazonesses.

Creepy 45

Enrich provides the vampire themed cover of this issue of Creepy, cover dated May 1972. Bill Dubay provides the frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Chiklil Tablets!".

First is "What Rough Beast" by Frank Brunner (art) and Jan Strnad (story). A woman tells her husband about many months before, when she traveled through an alley, encountered a strange old man, then a large hairy beast. She passed out, then woke up hours later, finding the old man dead. She become pregnant soon after, and the baby is a horned beast. Suddenly, the beast she encountered bursts into the house and takes the baby, then leaves.

Second is "Targos" by Jack Katz & Nebot (art) and Jack Katz (story). A medieval themed story, surrounding Targos, a warrior, who is in love with a goddess named Kirke, and goes to recover an amulet for her. After battling various beasts he recovers it, then takes from his enemy an amulet that gives him eternal life.

Third is "And Horror Crawls... ...From Out of the Sea!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Kevin Pagan (story). A blob like creature from the sea takes the form of a dog, then, finding a group of four humans near the water, slowly starts taking them over as well. The last one alive kills the creature in a fire, but is soon seized by many others from the sea.

Fourth is "For the Sake of Your Children!" by Jaime Brocal (art) and E.A. Fedory (story). A group of peasents dislike a nearby Baron, who is revealed to have vampires as ancestors. A mob gathers and goes to the Baron's castle after one of the children is found dead. Inside they kill the Baron, putting a stake through his heart. However a group of female vampires within the castle attack the mob, and when they return to the village, all of them are now vampires themselves.

Fifth is "Dungeons of the Soul" by Felix Mas (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). Another 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.

Last is the issue's best story, "The Picture of Death" by Jose Bea (story & art). A man traveling through Scotland comes across an inn and stays in a room where people have dissappeared in before. The room contains an odd painting reminiscent of Hieronimus Bosch. As the man falls asleep, bizarre creatures start crawling out of hte painting and pull him inside. Eventually they bring him to a beautiful young woman who is to be his companion. She soon transforms into a bizarre beast however, and he flees. The next day, the maid comes into the room and finds him gone. But the painting has now changed, with him in it!

Vampirella 25

Enrich provides a rare Vampirella-less cover of Vampirella, featuring the story Nimrod. This issue is cover dated June 1973.

First is "What Price Love" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This is a continuation of the previous issue, where Pendragon's daughter Sara, and her mobster husband Richard lock him and Vampirella up and inject her with cocain. Vampirella, due to the cocain and the lack of her blood substitute serum goes crazy, attacking all she sees, including Richard and their son. This story would be continued in the next issue, and Sara would return many issues later for revenge.

Second is "The Haunted Child" by Auraleon (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). A blind psychic research professor and his wife, who has telekenitic powers head to a haunted house where they encounter an autistic little girl. After being taken in by the staff of an institution, they take care of the girl and return to the house. The girl suddenly starts talking like a normal girl, then wanders off and kills a couple driving down the road. She then stabs the wife, and reveals to the professor that the girl's spirit left her body, and that the spirit of a cleaver killer took over her body, before killing him as well.

Third is this issue's color stories, Nimrod, by Esteban Maroto (art) and Jack Bannow & Bill Dubay (story). This is one of Warren's first color stories, and the coloring here is absolutely horrific, marring much of the artwork. A group of hunters in Africa flee from a rhino and come across a cavern where they find Nimrod, a man who watches over a group of bizarre freaks. The men flee, but then decide that if they capture some of the freaks they can make a lot of money off of them. The freaks attack them however, killing one of the men. The other man escapes to the surface and finds a beautiful woman, who also ends up being one of the freaks and they kill him.

Fourth is "Cold Calculation" by Ramon Torrents (art) and Doug Moench (story). A man joins a project in Alaska, where a trio of scientists are staying in an outpost in the winter wonderland. One of the scientists, a woman, is obsessed with the Yeti, whom she blames for the death of her husband, who vanished into the wildnerness six months before. While none of the others believe her, one night the creature actually appears. She fires on it, killing it, but it ends up being her husband, who has been out in the wildnerness for six months and only looks like the Yeti from afar.

Last is "The Dead Howl at Midnight" by Jose Bea (art) and W. Eaton (story). A professor who works at a morgue performs bizarre experiments, transporting body parts from corpses to living creatures. One such creature is Nicolas, who has the head of a young boy who died. The boy is adopted by a couple who treat him horribly, beating him and forcing him to spend all his time working. Eventually Nicolas runs away, back to the adoption agency. The couple returns to take the boy back, but finds that everyone there is a sewed up freak like him. They then have their heads chopped off and transported to the midget bodies of two of the professor's workers.

Eerie 14

Vic Prezio provides the cover for this all reprint issue of Eerie, cover dated April 1968. The frontis for this issue is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: The Mummy" by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (art) and Archie Goodwin (story).

First is "The Stalkers" by Alex Toth (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 6. A man goes to a psychologist, telling him of these bad dreams he is having where he is confronted by aliens that look like prune faced people. The psychologist reveals that he's an alien himself, and that our protagonist is one as well, who had been on Earth in human form so long that he forgot who he was.

Next is "Pursuit of the Vampire" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 1. The story features a group of townspeople being joined by a stranger who tells them two murder victims are actually going to turn into vampires since a vampire was their killer. He leads them to a house where they are and kill them. The town leader ends up being the vampire that killed them, but the stranger, who is a werewolf kills him to eliminate competition for victims.

Third is "Howling Success" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 3. A city is plagued by a werewolf. A man who hates his wife encounters the werewolf but is safely able to hide from it by running through a cemetary fence. He plots to bring his wife to this spot at he next full moon so she can get killed by the werewolf, making him money on insurance. Only when he brings her there he discovers that she's the werewolf and becomes its next victim!

Up next is "Untimely Tomb!" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 5. The title is credited to Anne Murphy, Goodwin's wife. This story features a doctor who is humiliated when a girl whom he pronounced dead is found alive by her brother, only for her to die due to being entombed alive. The brother confronts the doctor, who strikes him down and ends up killing him. When his corpse is put in the doctor's family crypt he fears that it is alive and heads inside, dying of fright after thinking it true. Only it ends up the corpse was stored elsewhere and he was all on his own after all.

Fifth is "Curse of the Full Moon!" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 4. A rich man, Henry, has his coach attacked by a wolf, and his driver killed, He encounters an old gypsy woman who tells him that it is a werewolf, and he is to be the creature's next victim. Henry plans to hunt the werewolf with his two hunting buddies and when the werewolf attacks him, he kills it with a silver bladed knife. Because he was bitten however, he becomes a werewolf himself and his killed by his friends.

Last is "Blood and Orchids" by Al McWilliams and Archie Goodwin (story), from Creepy 4. A doctor assists in a murder investigation where multiple people have been found with their blood drained. He suspects it is because of a countess he met who doesn't use mirrors, brought over native soil for her plants, and doesn't go out during the day. He naturally thinks she is a vampire, but it is actually her blood drinking plants that are the culprit.

Oddly enough, this Eerie reprint issue has all Creepy reprint stories.