Blazing Combat 3

My first issue of Blazing Combat covered on this blog, and it will be my last for a while as this is the only issue that I own at this time. The cover is by Frank Frazetta, who did all the covers for this magazine.

First is "Special Forces" with art by Joe Orlando & Jerry Grandenetti (uncredited) and story by Archie Goodwin. The story, occuring in Vietnam surrounds a group of soldiers in their battle with the Viet Cong.

Second is "Foragers" by Reed Crandall (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). The story features soldiers from the North, 'Foragers' heading through towns in the South during the civil war era. They ravage the towns they head through until they come across a cabin manned by a single old man with a rifle, who kills most of the soldiers. He finally runs out of bullers and the lead forager is about to kill him but is killed by his own man, who wants the killing to stop.

Third is "U-Boat" by Eugene Colan (art) and Goodwin (story). During World War 2 in the Atlantic a US boat is sunk by a German submarine. Two survivors are brought on board, one who is bloodthirsty and desires to be on the offensive for once. When his collegue plans to give away their position, he sells him out, but is killed by the Germans anyway when the allied forces spot the submarine and attack.

Fourth is "Survival" by Alex Toth (art) and Toth & Goodwin (story). An old man in a post-war landscape ravages for food found from small cans, and has to fight of wild dogs. He gets excited upon realizing that there is other people nearby when he finds a raft, but upon finding out that they have taken some of his food he goes on a rampage and kills them all. He is shocked to find a woman among the people he killed. My favorite story of what is already a superb issue. I love the final lines of the story "Suddenly, the air filled with a taut, shrill, horrible cry of pain and rage... Animal-like in pitch and quality, it rose higher into the night, ripping, tearing my head apart! I tried to shut it out... out... but it wouldn't! ...and couldn't stop it... for in a while, I realized the truth... and knew that the raw, shrill scream... was MINE!"

Fifth is "The Battle of Britain!" featuring art by Wally Wood & Dan Adkins (uncredited) and story by Wood. My least favorite story of the issue, it takes place in 1940 featuring allied planes facing off against Nazi planes. The hero of the story fails miserably his first time in the air and narrowly survives the second, but they call off the fighting in order to bomb the German cities instead, sparing him future combat.

Sixth is "Water Hole!" by Gray Morrow (art) and Goodwin (story). The story takes place in the late 1800's where US troops pusue Apache warriors. The story surrounds a single soldier who finds himself the last living soldier on the battlefield. He is willing to die and finds an Apache warrior, who surrenders to him, driving him crazy.

Last is "Souvenirs!" by John Severin (art) and Goodwin (story). The story occurs in Japan during World War 2. A soldier becomes obsessed with taking the gold fillings out of the teeth of dead japanese soldiers. His superiors tell him to leave a field of dead soldiers alone, but he returns that night to take the gold, only to find out that the soldiers were all playing dead. He is killed, but manages to break up the planned Japanese ambush because of it.

Eerie 36

The cover for this issue is by Enrich, featuring... a hand! The frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery - Atoms" by Pablo Marcos (art) and T.Casey Brennan (story).

First is "Bad Moon on the Rise!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Doug Moench (story). This story surrounds a series of murders taking place by a werewolf. The werewolf is suspected as being the killer and is finally confronted on the night of the full moon. But an eclipse causes him to turn into a human and is killed, with the detectives thinking that the werewolf is still out there on the loose.

Next is "The Silence and the Sleep" by Rubio (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A jealous man kills the boyfriend of a woman he likes. She is so shocked that she becomes mute and is put in an institution. The killer, a piano player, hopes to keep the secret, but is eventually found out and arrested.

Third is "Prototype" by Bruce Jones (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Bruce Jones was quite a prolific writer for Warren during the late 70's, but did do a couple of art jobs for them around this time. This story, done completely in pencil, features Skeates's recurring character Targos, who is captured by odd looking sea creatures who create a robot clone of him to attack Atlantis. Fairly good story, although the ending, where the creatures abandon their attack was a tad confusing to me.

Fourth is "Look What They've Done!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This unique story breaks the fourth wall, having the lead character argue with the writer and plead to the reader. A hippie, he refuses to go along with the plot, and ends up getting killed by an alien.

After that is "Crocodile", with art by Mascaro and story by Don Glut. Natives kill crocodiles for a scientist experimenting on the natives, trying to turn them into powerful crocodile men. He finally finds the solution, but his former assistant, one of the natives, turns on him and injects it into him. He turns into a crocodile and heads outside, only to be killed by other natives who seek to turn him over to the scientist!

Next is "The Trap" by L.M. Roca (art) and Greg Potter (story). A disgraced detective locks himself in a crypt with another man, telling him he'll only get the key if he kills him. He presses on the man until he finally kills him, only for that man to discover that there is no key, and hence no way out. The detective wanted to solve a crime and punish a criminal so much that he did it by getting himself killed!

Last is "Oh, Brother!" with art by Dave Cockrum and Steve Skeates yet again doing the story. Two monsters arrive in modern time and are promptly killed by the police. The story takes a step back to explain things, that these monsters were actually responsible for the creation of humanity when they tampered with time and screwed up their own history, erasing it and resulting in humans having control of the Earth.

Creepy 86

A special Christmas issue of Creepy, featuring a cover by Ken Kelly with a robot attacking Santa Claus.

Up first is "A Noggin at Mile End" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Budd Lewis (story). It features one of Santa's elves helping a kindly natured freak by turning him into a real boy and taking him away with him.

Second is "Dick Swift and his Electric Power Ring!" with art by Carmine Infantino & Berni Wrightson and story by Bill Dubay. This story is about a sick boy and the superhero he is a fan of who has a magic electric ring. The boy eventually dies of his illness but gets to use the ring himself, at least in his mind, before he passes away. Probably the best story of the issue.

Third is "The Greatest Christmas of All" by Leo Duranona (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). It features a poor boy who is given Santa's magic sack, which he uses to give gifts to many. His mother dies of amnesia and his drunken father grabs the sack, only for a snake to come out and kill him. In the modern times the boy is now grown up and behaves like Santa, but dies when he decides to rest and think about the past.

The cover story is "Mother Knows Best" by Al Williamson (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story is partially colored in red. A pair of kids celebrate Christmas with the robot that takes care of them. Santa arrives and whispers to them the truth, that they are on a spaceship and that the robots there went berserk. He's been thawed out of hibernation each Christmas to play Santa. One of the kids kills the robot, and they hope to head back to Earth, but they discover that the ship had crashed a while ago.

Like the previous story, "Bloodstone Christmas" is also partially colored in red. The art is by Carmine Infantino & John Severin, and the story is by Gerry Boudreau. It features a man in the old west who robs a Bank and kills its owner on Christmas Eve. He returns a few years later to find a woman he was with, but the sheriff kills him, cuts off his head, and gives it to the wife of the Banker as a Christmas gift.

Next is "Season's Grievings" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A woman whose husband was accused of murdering his prior wife faces her psychotic kid on Christmas Eve and is forced to kill him. At the end we see how things really happened, that she was crazy, she was the one accused of being a murderer, and that she killed his innocent son. The husband kills her then himself.

Last is "A Gift for Mama" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story), about a pair of boys whose father passed away in the mines and whose mother was essentially made comatose by her new husband, who they killed with an axe. On Christmas their dead father comes back from the grave and takes her away with him.

I usually was not a big fan of the Christmas issues as the stories generally were not that scary, but for the most part this is a fairly good issue.

Vampirella 99

A reprinted cover kicks off this issue of Vampirella. The Sanjulian cover was originally published for issue 23.

First is "Spell of Slaughter" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). With the assistance of Cassandra. St. Knight, in a cameo appearance (her usual segment is absent this issue), Vampi is able to track down Pendragon's captors. She heads there with Conrad and they fight the demons there. The leader, Shadrach, switches Vampi and Conrad's afflictions temporarily, but they are able to come out on top.

Next is "Missing You" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bruce Jones (story). Both were gone from Warren at this point but returned to Vampirella for this two part story. It surrounds a man whose blind wife has gone missing on the top of a mountain, where they had been mountain climbing. As he searches for her he flashes back to them getting in a fight over an affair he was having, the car accident that made her blind and other assorted things that built up to the trip into the mountain. Terrific story which won't conclude until issue 104.

Third is "Friends" with art by the Artifact team (Val Lakey, John Lakey & Laura Buscemi) and story by Val Lakey. A man is in love with his best friend's wife. One day he heads to their home under false pretences and drugs her, planning to rape her while she's unconscious. She ends up waking up soon afterwards, but he ties her up, beats her then rapes her anyway. At the end its revealed that his friend was doing the same thing to his wife, both of whom consented to such actions.

Fourth is Pantha's entry for this issue, "The Lair of Dr. Rictus" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Our heroes continue towards Haiti. Moonchild is able to stop the storm threatening them on the sea. They reach land and go see Dr. Rictus, an old man who initially appears very sick but looks fine the next morning.

The issue wraps up with the cover story "Salome", with story & art by Esteban Maroto.Salome, daughter of the king is in love with a prophet who has been jailed. He refuses her so she desires he be executed. Her father fears what the people would do to him were the prophet to be executed, but eventually goes along with her wishes, chopping off his head, then orders her executed as well.

Aside from Vampirella & Pantha's segments a really good issue.

Eerie 57

A very good issue of Eerie, featuring Hunter by Ken Kelly on the cover.

First is "Stridespider Sponge-Rot!" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Doug Moench (story). This is the first of a seven part series entitled 'The Spook' about a black zombie. The term, which is a racist way to refer to black people, had been created by Bill Dubay, who told Doug Moench to write a series featuring a voodoo character. Anyway, this is a fairly good story, featuring the title character encountering a sorceress woman who brings numerous zombies to life. The Spook is able to stop them by throwing her into a fire. Really nice art by Maroto, who'd be replaced with Leopold Sanchez for the remainder of the series after this story.

Second is the last segement in the Hunter series. Art is by Paul Neary and story is by Bill Dubay. Hunter, along with Schreck and the Blood Princess arm the nuclear warhead to go off in one hour. Hunter heads off to meet with Oephal and have one last confrontation. Scheck and the Blood Princess meanwhile take out the remaining demons and find some weapons. Hunter tries to kill Oephal but finds he is unable to. The bomb fails to go off however, and Oephal kills Hunter, dying seconds later when Schreck kills him. A depressing end, but at the very least Hunter's quest of eliminating the last remaining mutants comes to fruition.

Next is "Hide From the Hacker!" by Tom Sutton (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This is the first of a three part series which would have a fairly long gap of 8 issues between parts 1 and 2. The story is about the investigation of a serial killer who had been pursued many years before but now seamingly has come back. A pair of detectives search for him to no avail, despite having some suspects. In the end, one of the detectives is decapitated! Fine art from Sutton in his final Eerie appearance.

Next is "Child" by Richard Corben (art) and Greg Potter (story). This retelling of the Frankenstein story using a child-like monster took place in three parts and was a rarity in that the entire series was in color. The first story tells of Child's origin, how he was created by a scientist who wanted a child after his wife died. Child has many good years with his father but he is eventually killed by the son of his former landlord. Child goes on a rampage and kills him.

Fifth is "The Terror of Foley Mansion!" by Jose Gual (art) and Carl Wessler (story). The third segment in the 'It' storyline, this focuses primarily on a group of robbers who try to steal from the Foley mansion. It comes back from the grave yet again and exacts revenge on them.

Last is "A Switch in Time..." by Isidro Mones (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Sanford thinks he's finally figured out Archaeus's pattern, killing people based on the Twelve Nights of Christmas. Archaeus meanwhile still manages to kill yet another juror under his nose by killing another man, then replacing the juror with his corpse in the coffin at a funeral when everyone else is distracted by a bomb he's planted. The juror is then buried alive with no one knowing of is fate. A pretty ingenious plot!

Creepy 94

A special issue of Creepy featuring 'Weird Children' as advertised on the cover, done by Don Maitz. This is quite a good issue across the board, not a bad story here, although there is some negative aspects to the final story which I'll reveal when I get there.

First story is "Etran to Fulsing" by Dick Giordano (art) in a rare solo job, and Nicola Cuti (story). This seems like the typical medieval story of a prince savings a princess from a sorceror. The interesting twist this time is that the entire medieval setting is actually a delusion, and the reality is that everyone's in a war torn post apocalypic world.

Second is "Bad Tommy" by Martin Salvador (art) and Roger McKenzie & Nicola Cuti (story). The story tells of a young boy, Tommy, who creates an imaginary friend that kills both his parents. The boy goes to see a psychiatrist to tell her about it and it is revealed that Bad tommy is real, who promptly appears and stabs her. Not only that, but Bad Tommy is the real person, and the 'good' version of him is actually a robot created by him. Luckily the psychiatrist is able to kill him.

Third is "Ada" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bill Pearson (story). The Ada of the title is a girl who was born as an old woman then reverts in age as she gets older. The story surrounds a man who meets her and ends up staying with her til she turns into a baby then passes away.

Fourth is "Bessie" by Leo Duranona (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A woman comes to a detective to help her look for her daughter Bessie while he's working on a murder case. To make a long story short, it ends up that the woman is Bessie herself, as she had gone insane after a miscarriage and became convinced that she had a daughter as well who was actually just a second personality of her's.

Fifth is "Sacrifice" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). Four boys sacrifice a cat which gives them eternal life. Every 100 years they have to sacrifice another person to retain their eternal life or they'll immediately die. One of them decides to start using the others as his sacrifice. He heads after the last one only to find that he's committed suicide, which will result in his death.

Last is "Backwater and Timing Circles" by Alex Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A boy takes a trip to the past to go fishing in the prehistoric era through the company Timing Circles. His guide warns him that they can't take anything back with them and must not kill anything, but when the guide gets in trouble, the boy stabs the dinosaur attacking him. This changes the present such that everyone becomes bizarre looking monsters. This story is blatant plagarism of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder". Luckily for Warren, they never got in trouble with this as they did with Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog.

Vampirella 82

A cover by Jose Gonzalez begins this issue of Vampirella.

Up first is "The Lost Soul of Adam Van Helsing" by Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Adam's soul is taken control of and Vampi has to head through some Buddhist tasks to save him including encounters with various creatures. Eventually she is successful in saving him.

Next is "Blind Justice" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story, which has both drawings and photographs within it (something common for Duranona around this time period) is about a man on trial for the murder of his new wife. They had headed to another planet for their honeymoon and got seperated after an argument. The husband left only to come back to find her impregnated by a bizarre tentacled creature. She ended up killing herself and blowing up the whole place. While the husband tries to hide this, he eventually reveals it, which proves his innocence.

Third is "Prey For the Wolf" by Brian Lewis (art) and Cary Bates (story). The story features a Wolf mask that actually comes to life and attacks people. Lewis, in his sole Warren appearance provides some fairly good art, but not that great a story.

Fourth is "Fever" by Val Mayerik (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a native american warrior with a sick wife about to give birth who heads out to find a magical buffalo that can save her. He eventually does find the buffalo, but too late to save his wife's life.

Next is "Deep Love" by Joe Vaultz (art) and Cary Bates (story). The story features a mother & daughter mermaid duo who capture human men underwater and eat them. The mother comes across a man who ends up being an alien creature that captures her and kills her.

Last is "The Night Willa Jane Gornley Went Home" by Val Mayerik & Jeff Easley (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). In a rather poor issue this story sticks out like a sore thumb. In fact I'd probably rank it among Warren's 25 best stories, and it was honored as best story of the year during the Warren awards. Willa Jane of the title is a handicapped girl who was discovered in an empty shack. She lives a hard life, but is taken in by an elderly couple, Mr. & Mrs. Gornley. After learning how to read she becomes convinced that she is an alien and goes to the hills where UFOs have been spotted each night hoping for the aliens to come take her away. After Mrs. Gornley's death and learning that she's going to an institution, she heads out for one last time and a UFO actually does appear and land. A skull-faced alien comes out to take her away. In reality, its all in her mind, as she's passed away.