Creepy 105

A fairly good issue of Creepy featuring a rare Esteban Maroto cover, his sole for Creepy.

First is "Shrivel" by Val Mayerik (art) and Bob Toomey (story). The story features a talking dragon that attacks a kingdom. Not too big a fan of this story, the worst of the issue in my opinion.

Second is "Night Life" by Auraleon (art) and Bob Toomey (story). This story surrounds a man who has eternal youth meeting a woman he had been with long ago, but is now middle aged. After remembering their meeting, she kills him by opening the blinds, revealing him to have been a vampire.

Third is "Dime Novel Hero!" by Russ Heath (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), a very good werewolf story taking place in the wild west. The story focuses primarily on the children of a farmer whose plagued by the werewolf, who works for the corrupt sheriff. In the end the lone ranger himself ends up showing up and saving the day.

Next is "Always Leave 'Em Laughing!" by Alex Nino (art) and Len Wein (story). All clowns are banned from Earth and forced to head to the moon if they want to remain a clown. There they fail to generate any laughs from the robot population and decide to bomb the surface of the moon to turn it into a clown face It is successful, but they are killed by Earth who misunderstand their intensions.

Fifth is "The Sign" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story tells of the 'true' source of the star that the three wisemen were led to baby Jesus by, that it was a self-destructing rocket.

Next is "Visit to a Primitive Planet" by John Severin (art) and Bill Dubay (story). A pair of aliens come to Earth, but find the people in a small town they arrive in not moving at all. It ends up that they arrived at a test site for a bomb and are soon all killed because of it. A nice story with very little dialogue.

Last is "The Summoning" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story takes place in a swamp where a man's baby is born as a deformed monster that wanders the swamp. It behaves, not killing anyone as long as a deer is sacrificed to it each month. It is summoned by a dog whistle. Naturally when a couple comes to the swamp and uses one to search for their lost dog, this causes a big problem.

Vampirella 64

The cover for this issue is by Enrich featuring who else, but Vampirella. This issue features a whopping seven stories, all about Vampi. All seven are written by Gerry Boudreau. Gonzalo Mayo provides artwork for all seven, with an uncredited Carmine Infantino contributing to the first two. The stories are titled "The Manipulators", "The Eradicators", "The Vindicators", "The Intruders", "The Stalkers", "The Ironoclasts" and "The Survivors".

This is a very complicated overall storyline spanning about 70 pages but I'll try to summarize it as best as I can. Vampi is recruited to once again help the FBI Agent Spectum, who first appeared in issue 53. Vampi is blackmailed into assisting him with delivering a briefcase to a man who just happens to be dead when she gets there. Soon after Adam is kidnapped. Multiple characters are introduced, multiple ones which get killed. Vampi figures out that there is a tape within the briefcase which is what is really of importance. Her blood serum is kidnapped by yet another villain however, the Englishman, who originally created the tape, which contains a line which he needs to state every year to retain his eternal life. The tape also creates information about Chaos. The Englishman screws up his timeframes and dies before Vampi can get him the tape however. Pendragon meanwhile is apparantly hypnotized then goes into a coma while there are attempts on Conrad's life. It ends up however that Pendragon was part of an act, working with another agent. The true villain soon becomes apparant, Spectrum, who is actually evil and seeks to bring Chaos demons to Earth. He does so when Vampi gives him the tape for 2 million dollars. The tape is damaged however, which results in the demons running amock, contrary to Spectrum's plans. Vampi hunts him down and he is finished off. The final demon, Moloch is defeated by Vampi in the final part of the story.

While very complicated and convoluted, this is a fairly good story compared to the usual Vampirella fare.

Eerie 62

The Unholy Creation is cover featured for this issue, by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a frontis with Cousin Eerie.

First is the first part of a new series featuring the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, appropriately titled, 'Apocalypse'. The first part is titled "The War". Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Budd Lewis. The weakest of the four stories in this series, this tale chronicles battles from the beginning of man while two chess players compare war to a game. While this is a weak first segment, overall this may be Eerie's greatest series ever, which would continue in the next three issues.

Second is "Cool Air" by Berni Wrightson, adapted from the HP Lovecraft story. This classic tale tells of a man who moves into a new boarding house where he befriends his neighbor who lives upstairs, Dr. Munoz. Munoz suffers from a disease which forces him to keep his apartment at a very cold temperature continuously. One day his machine that keeps the temperature cold breaks, and while the main character brings as much ice as he can Munoz rots away as it ends up he was dead the entire time and looked like a normal person because of the cold.

Third is "Crackermeyer's Churchyard", tha latest segment in 'The Spook' series. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Budd Lewis, who takes over the series from this point forward. The story introduces a new character, Crackermeyer, who takes center stage for this story over the Spook. The story surrounds an evil white man who tries to take away some land that was given to some black people. Crackermeyer and the Spook step in to ensure they get to keep the land.

Fourth is the first part of a new two part series, titled 'The Butcher'. This story's called "Forgive Us Our Tresspasses", with art by Richard Corben and story by Bill Dubay. This gangland melodrama features a crime lord who is killed on his deathbed by assassins hired by one of his sons, hoping to frame a rival crime family. During the murder the priest who was tending the crime lord is mutilated and apparantely killed. After hiding out the assassins are all killed... by the priest, who survived the attack and now swears revenge as 'The Butcher'. A very entertaining, but very short new series.

Fifth is the second and final part of 'The Unholy Creation' serial, "Circus of Pain" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). This story focuses on Kuzzo, a freak in a circus who is friends with an elephant. The Unholy Creation arrives and does battle with the elephant, killing it. This angers Kuzzo but the two end up becoming frineds. A rather lame ending to a rather lame series.

Last is another segment in 'And the Mummies Walk', "Death be Proud" by Joaquin Blazquez (art) and Steve Skeates (story). Trogmore, in Arthur Lemming's body continues to live the excesses of life, and kills a young boy. Lemming in his Mummy body is finally able to reach him and knock him out, and is able to use a spell to return to his own body. Only mere moments later the father of the killed boy arrives and kills him. A sad end for Arthur Lemming as his part in this series finally comes to an end after 9 segments. Only one more segment in the series remains, to be concluded in the next issue.

Creepy 60

This issue features a cover by Sanjulian. The frontis for this issue is "Child of Hell" by Bill Dubay.
First story is "Slaughter House" by Adolfo Abellan (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). At 16 pages this is one of the longest stories in Creepy during this period. Unfortunately its not that great a story. A couple with a new baby move into a house that has been rumored to be haunted by a dwarf-like creature. They summon a good spirit and when the dwarf creature arrives it is able to save them and rid the house of the creature for good.

Next is "A Most Precious Secret" by Jose Gual (art) and Margopoulos (story). A man's wife discovers the horrible truth, that he's a vampire! To keep his secret, the man kills her and drinks her blood. The story brings us back in time, telling how they got married and how he was able to keep his secret from her. Back in the present the man receives a call from his lawyer telling him that his wife was seeing him to draft a will, because she has leukemia, cancer of the blood!

Third is cover story, "The Hero Within" by Richard Corben (art) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features an orphan with a wild imagination whose brought to a new foster home where his foster mother and sister treat him horribly, subjecting him to the wrath of their dangerous dog. The boy, locked in the basement finds a magic donut shaped rock on the ground and uses it to imagine himself in a prehistoric world, where he's a powerful monster warrior battling the dog, who has now changed into a Tyranosaurus Rex. While he succeeds in his battle with the beast, he loses the magic rock and reverts to the real world, where the wounded dog gets his revenge.

Fourth is "Monsieur Fortran's Houx" by Martin Salvador (art) and John Jacobson (story). An alien race plans on infiltrating Earth and has an agent in France approximately 200 years ago. The alien agent, Fortran, publishes a book revealing all the alien's plans, thinking that it is so crazy that everyone will think he's crazy and ignore the true danger. His plan initially works, but one drunk who does believe him ends up destroying his entire house, killing the both of them, when Fortran's superiors check in on him.

The issue concludes with "The Other Side of Hell" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). This story is Mayo's Warren debut. The story features a town drunk who has died and finds himself in hell. He desires to get away and suddenly finds himself in an Egyptian-esque realm where he kills the king and takes his Queen. He becomes power hungry and eventually kills her as well. But he soon realizes that he never left hell...

Vampirella 103

A really nice cover for this issue by Enrich featuring Vampirella swimming. Jose Gonzalez contributes yet another table of contents portrait of Vampirella.

First up is Vampirella's story, "The Last Prince!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Gonzalez returns to Vampirella to deliver his first new story since issue 82. He would handle the lead Vampirella story from now until the end of the magazine's life. This story features Vampirella dissappearing below the depth of the ocean where she meets Ariel, a prince of the sea who looks just like Adam. He lets Vampirella live with him and others who have lived beneath the sea. It ends up that the others are all diead however and he's been hiding his true form from her. Vampi and he head for the surface and while she makes it, he is unable to make it out of the sea and returns to where he came from. A short story at only 8 pages, but much higher quality than the epic stories we've had in Vampi over the last couple of years of this magazine.

Next is "The Mephisto List", the final story in the Cassandra St. Knight series. Art is by Auraleon and story is by Rich Margopoulos. A rather dissappointing finale to a dissappointing series. Cassandra is recruited to help a tibetan monk discover who stole 'The Mephisto List', which enables its user to summon demons. Both suspects are murdered, causing Cassandra to find the true culprit, a servant to the head monk. The series ends here with no apparant conclusion whatsoever.

Third is "The Final Solution!" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), part of the 'Pantha' serial. Dr. Rictus attempts to prolong his life by extracting cells from Pantha, which will kill her. Pantha breaks free of her bonds, defeats Rictus's wife, his bigfoot son, and finally Rictus himself.

Fourth is "Terror in the Tomb!" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story), part of 'The Fox' series. Sha-Ming and Will head with her uncle to Ch'In's Tomb where he finally obtains the wand he's been seeking; it ends up being a fake however and the real one is buried within a dead buried soldier. While this seems like an apparant resolution to the storyline, this series will continue for a while longer.

Fifth is "Pentesilia" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Timothy Moriarty (story). The story features the battle between the country of Thornodium and the Amazon country of Sapphae. Sapphae's queen, Pentesilia refuses to bow down and battles Gleyin, who had originally attempted to be an ambassador between the two countries. After a long battle he succeeds in killing her. Quite a dissappointing story from a story and art standpoint compared with Maroto's recent Vampirella work.

The issue wraps up with "Lover" with art by Artifact (Val Lakey, John Lakey and Laura Buscemi) and story by John Lakey. This story features a space shuttle manned all by women and their robot companion, nicknamed Lover. Lover runs amock, killing all the women aboard except the Captain, the only one that didn't mistreat him. Not a great story, but the artwork is quite good and Lover is quite a scary looking robot.

Eerie 24

This issue came out right around when Warren was starting to rebuild itself from the horrendous state it had fallen into in the late 1960's. Alas, that still means there's some reprinted material here. The cover is by Vic Prezio, featuring a giant ghost near a lighthouse.
This issue's frontis is "Eerie's Monster Gallery: Perchance to Dream" by Tom Sutton.

Up first is the cover story, "Head For the Lighthouse!" by Mike Royer (art) and Bill Parente (story). A rather disjointed story with a poor narrative at times, it features an old lighthouse keeper who enjoys telling stories of pirates to young kids. The city decides to replace the light in the lighthouse and the old man dies, but comes back as a corpse and turns things back to normal.

Second is a reprint from the very first issue of Creepy, "Pursuit of the Vampire" by Angelo Torres (art) and Archie Goodwin (story). 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 "The Immortality Seeker" by Tom Sutton (art) and James Haggenmiller (story). A man overhears another man talking of immortality, so he follows him and kills him. Taking a map from the man, he heads to a planet and kills a monster, and finally finds a computer that will give him immortality. Only the computer ends up freezing him!

The following story is "Checkmate" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Ron Parker (story). A man meets an old friend at his his house, who possesses a chess set made up of demonic pieces. They play and the friend eventually wins. He tells the man that he needs to play someone every night to keep the chess set and if someone beats him they get it. But if he wins, he gets to take their soul, which is exactly what happens to our protagonist.

Fifth is "Scavenger Hunt", with art by Jerry Grandenetti and story by Don Glut. A short fat guy who loves the macabre keeps ruining parties, so the guests come up with a scavenger hunt of part of various monsters to keep him busy and out of their hair. He is able to find all the items however and returns to the party with them... along with the monsters they belong to!

Sixth story is another reprint, "Dracula's Guest" from Eerie 16. The art is by Frank Bolle and the story is by E. Nelson Bridwell. This story is originally from a Christopher Lee book of comic stories. It is an adaption of the events that occur in the novel Dracula prior to the start of the well known story in Translvania.

Last is "Wrong Tennant" by Reed Crandall and Bill Parente. A pair of ghost hunters arrive to help an old woman eliminate a ghost from her house. They initially have difficulty and one of them is killed, but the ghost is able to be stopped using electricity. Only it ends up the ghost was actually a victim of the old woman, who is a vampire and kills the last remaining ghost hunter. This story would be rewritten and published in color in Creepy 74 in 1975.

Creepy 39

A whopping four artists' Warren debuts highlight this issue of Creepy. The art is by Basil Gogos. The frontis is "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: The Evil Eye!" by Clif Jackson (art) and Richard Grose (story).

First story is "Where Satan Dwells..." by Sal Trapani (art) and Al Hewetson (story). This story is a rarity, it actually stars Uncle Creepy himself! Uncle Creepy, getting bored of just telling stories seeks to find an adventure of his own. He comes across a bookstore where the bookkeeper gives him a book with the same title as this story. He reads the book and suddenly finds himself in a position where he has to save the bookkepper and his family from the evil spirit Groton. It ends up being a dream, and the bookkeeper ends up being Cousin Eerie!

Second is "C.O.D. - Collect on Death!" by Dave Cockrum (art, his debut) and Dave Wood (story). A man makes a deal with the devil to spurn death, but in exchange he must kill someone each day. If he misses even a single day, he will die himself. This eventually forces him to kill his own fiance when he loses track of time due to her. Her brother leads him to a desert to kill him. He does so, but is told that he's so far away from society there's no way he'll be able to kill someone else within a day, which results in his ultimate demise.

Third is "The Water World", featuring the debut of artist Pablo Marcos. The story is written by Buddy Saunders. A trio of astronauts crash on a water filled world and drift aimlessley on a raft over very clear water. Soon two are dead and the last remaining one fishes using the remains of one of the others. This catches a fish, but one so huge that it ends up eating him!

"Death by the Wizard" with art and story by Pat Boyette is next. Not as good a story as usual from the usually excellent Boyette. It features the Wizard Merlin who is facing his own demise due to a woman he was with. He is turned into a tree by her.

Fifth is "Harvest of Horror!" by Frank Brunner (art) and Phil Seuling (story). This story interestingly enough features three different endings, surrounding a man who is on the run, finding a scarecrow in a field. A rather interesting concept, surprised that Warren didn't use it more often.

Sixth is "The Dragon Prow!" with Richard Bassford (art, his debut) and Steve Skeates (story). The story features a serf who wishes for freedom so he tries to steal a horse and escape, but he is captured and put aboard a boat as a slave. A sea storm causes the ship to crash and he thinks he finally has his freedom only to realize that he died in the crash.

Last is the debut of Gary Kaufman, in "Mad Jack's Girl". The Jack of the title is a gang leader who does a lot of bad deeds. His girlfriend tries to steer him right but can't do it. Eventually she gathers up corpses of his victims then kills him and sets him up in a dinner setting with them.