Creepy 104

This issue is an all robots special of Creepy. The cover by Ken Kelly was originally used for the back cover of Eerie 63, although the entire background has been edited out for this reprinting. A so-so issue at best with nothing terrible but nothing that good either.

First is "The Games" by Pablo Marcos (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story features a pair of gladiator 'brothers' who perform very well, but are forced by their masters to be part of a large melee in which they fight various people including themselves. The two of them are the last standing and forced to fight to the death, but the winner is allowed to go free from his masters, who end up being robots who have taken over humanity.

Next is "The Caretaker" by Alfredo Alcala (art) and Bob Toomey (story). The story features a man on his own accompanied by robots who is allowed to live forever as long as he doesn't head outside. He eventually decides to knowing that he'll die, and ages to death, leaving only the robots left.

Third is "Mother Park" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). This story features an oafish man who is chased by cops through an amusement park that talks to him. He is being chased due to causing the death of a young girl. He is haunted by spirits within the park and soon meets his death.

Fourth is "In the City of Gold" by Pepe Moreno Casares (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features the character Wolfer O'Connell, who originally appeared in Eerie 76. While traveling through a winter wilderness, Wolfer comes across a city occupied by a giant robot man. The robot man tells him that he is from another planet and calls this a City of God. An interesting story, the best of the issue.

Fifth is "Holocost" by Terry Austin (art) and Steve Englehart (story). This story takes place in the future where there's a great war of men vs. women. Eventually the fighting is reduced to a single man and woman who have a prior relationship with one another, but it ends up that the woman is nothing more than a hologram, as the robots had taken their place a while before.

The issue concludes with "Keep Kool" by Alex Nino (art) and Bob Toomey (story). An old man who is quite wealthy despises humanity so he heads off to another planet where his only companions are robots. He has the robots fight one another, then receives a giant box that he can create monster from to fight one another.

1984 9

A fairly good issue of 1984. The cover for this issue is by Patrick Woodroffe, featuring a spaceship taking off.

First story is "Break Even" 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. If only every issue could start off like this.

The second part of "Herma", by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story) is second. Herma, refuses to sleep with the Mexican 'sultan' she's been brought to and actually convinces his entire group of wives to leave him. They head through the Mexican desert where they find some more men, who of course they end up sleeping with. Herma is recruited to a whore house where her first customer is actually a talent scout for his mother's movie studio. That's where the story ends, to be concluded in the next issue. As with the prior part, a rather poor story, but very attractive art by Gonzalez.

Third is the issue's best story, "A Clear and Present Danger!" by Jess Jodloman (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). A man is distraught over the death of his beautiful wife, and agrees to go back in time to prevent the birth of an 'Archbishop' that controls their society and was responsible for her death. In the past he finds the Archbishop's mother, pregnant with him, and pushes her off a cliff, causing a miscarriage. He returns to the present only to find that his actions in the pasts caused his wife to never marry him, and he married a hideous fat woman instead.

Fourth is this issue's color story, "Starfire" by Herb Arnold & Frank Springer (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The issue's poorest story, this is about a flying ace who is just a 13 year old boy and a rival who wants to get revenge on him. The rival sneaks up on the boy in the men's locker room showever, where he has suddenly become a woman, he tries to rape 'him', but gets killed. A very odd story that doesn't make much sense. I miss Mutant World already!

Fifth is "Humungus", part of the Rex Havoc series, returning after a multi-issue absense. Art is by Abel Laxamana and story is by Jim Stenstrum. Rex Havoc and the Asskickers of the Fantastic head to Japan, and this story parodies Godzilla. By this point I have had about enough of Rex Havoc and they must have thought the same thing as this was the series's final appearance.

Last is "The Schmoo Connection" by Alex Nino (art) and Bill Dubay (story). An odd story that is hard to make much sense of due to the poor dialogue and some very exotic, but hard to understand art by Nino. It appears to be about a woman whose husband committed suicide, which is somehow connected to Schmoos, creatures which can change their appearance to satisfy any person's sexual desires. Similar in nature to the story "Snarking Down" from Vampirella 86.

Eerie 72

Another Hunter II and Exterminator cover for the latest issue of Eerie, by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a one page intro from Cousin Eerie. After having only a couple of series features in the last issue, this issue is all series.

First is "Daddy Was a Demon Man", carrying the series title "The Demons of Jeremiah Cold". This series would feature a number of different names over the next 6 issues. Art is by Jose Ortiz and story is by Bill Dubay. This story features Jedediah Pan, a demon worshipper who owns two bracelets that can summon demons. His family killed, he swears revenge and takes back one of his bracelets from the mayor of the town, killing him afterwards. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Cold of the title reveals to his son that he is actually Jedediah's son, and he goes to see Jedediah, who lets him keep the other bracelet, apparantely not aware that he's his son.

Next is "Valley of Armageddon", the latest story in the Hunter II serial. Art is by Paul Neary and story is by Budd Lewis. Karas and the Exterminator head towards the mountains where Yaust's castle is. There they find a huge amount of Goblins being fought by other Goblins, making it apparent that the Goblins are not all in Yaust's employ. Karas is severely injured, and the Exterminator finds Yaust himself willing to help him out. This series will be concluded in the next issue.

Third is a new series, Reuben Youngblood, in "Beware the Scarlet Combine" by Howard Chaykin & Berni Wrightson (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Youngblood is a private eye who is hired by a German woman who brings him aboard a zeppelin, where it soon becomes apparent that she is of a group of vampires. Youngblood escapes from the zeppelin and blows it up. The next Youngblood story wouldn't appear for a number of years until near the end of Eerie's life.

Fourth is another new series, The Freaks, in "A Thin Dime of Pain". This is this issue's color story. Art is by Leopold Sanchez and story is by Doug Moench. This series had been discussed for years in the feature pages and previews, as early as three years prior to this issue, but didn't make its appearance until now. This first story was probably written around that time, as Doug Moench had left Warren by this point. This story features some mistreated Freaks who get revenge on their master by turning him and his son into one of them.

Fifth is "The Pie and I" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). A sequel to the very popular "Daddy and the Pie" from Eerie 64, this story is a rather poor one, featuring the son from the first story, now grown up. He and his family continue to be treated badly, and when he is beat up by the townfolk, the father heads out with a gun and is killed. The son plans to blow up the entire town using the device Pie left behind, but Pie's spirit, contained within the device, convinces him not to.

The issue concludes with yet another new series, Tales of Peter Hypnos, in "The Incredible People-Making Machines" by Jose Bea (story & art). This was Bea's first appearance in Eerie since issue 41 in 1972. A very strange and surreal story, this features Peter, a young boy who finds himself suddenly in a bizarre world which features mutated and deformed people who show him the various devices they use to enlarge people's bodies and heads, and switch human heads with animal heads. They want to use a device on Peter, but he escapes from them and back to the real world.

Creepy 134

This issue of Creepy features Ken Kelly's final Warren cover. Rudy Nebres provides a one page Uncle Creepy introduction.

First story is "Guardians of the Universe!" by Delando Nino (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story features a pair of men on a planet whose ship is destroyed and confronted by a large tentacled monster.

Next is "Hear the Organ Grinder Play" by Martin Salvador (art) and Mark Willard (story) about a group of homeless people who come across an organ grinder who collects real organs!

Third is "Soul Sucker!" by Fred Carillo (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story) about a man at a hotel who faces a soul sucking monster which he is able to kill.

Fourth is "Wreck of the Vendigo Shafter!" by Gene Day & Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story), which tells of a ship that is overtaken by vampire rats.

Fifth is "Nefites" by Jun Lofamia (art) and Bruce Jones (story). A woman goes to a planet with uncivilized frog like creatures who act very bad. Eventually she is impregnated by one of them.

Sixth is "Orson Who?" by Carmine Infantino & Wayne Howard (art) and Nicola Cuti (story) a futuristic retelling of the Orson Wells incident when people believed his reading of War of the Worlds were real. Only this time there really were aliens!

Seventh is "War is Hell!" by Val Mayerik (art) and Roger McKenzie (story) about a soldier on D-Day who finds bizarre things keep happening to him which he dreams of. It ends up that he is in hell.

Last is the issue's best story, "The City of God" by Steve Gan (art) and Budd Lewis (story). Two people in a plane crash come across a giant bald man and a large city, which he says they built for him but passed away, leaving him alone. They die too, as he is radioactive and causes anyone near him to die of poisoning soon after.

Overall a rather lousy and boring issue, which is why my summaries are so short this time.

Vampirella 112

Vampirella's final issue, featuring a cover by Martin Hoffman, his sole Warren appearance. Jose Gonzalez provides art on the table of contents page.

The first of two Vampirella stories is first, "The Walker of Worlds" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Vampi encounters the Walker of the title, a mysterious man who walks around with a large number of floaing eyes. The Walker figures out that Vampi won't love him since she loves Adam, so he goes to kill Adam. Vampi is able to convince him that she isn't worth his love however by saying its okay to kill Adam, and he leaves the both of them alone. Gonzalez's art is extremely good here.

Second is the Fox, in "Shadows of the Mind" by Luis Bermejo (art) and John Ellis Sech (story). Will gets very sick, so Sha Ming heads into his mind to help him. There she encounters various enemies including Will himself who tries to kill her. She stops him and in the real world he gets better. A rather poor end to this saga, with Bermejo's art being quite bad compared to how good he used to be.

Third is the latest segment in "Torpedo" by Sanchez Abuli (story & art). Luca is hired to take out a rival mob boss. He does so by using a woman friend to sleep with the man and lead him right into a place where Luca is hiding. He plans to kill the woman whom he had promised half the proceeds to, but she turns the table on him and escapes with her life, the money, and his car.

Fourth is "Ransom" by Auraleon (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). A man's wife is kidnapped, so he goes to the police, who plan to hand over the money they requested, but when the man heads into the house, the police announce themselves, causing his wife's death. The kidappers are killed in a car crash shortly after discovering that the suitcase of cash they were given was actually filled with newspaper. The real cash was taken by the man, who planned this all, including the announcement from the police to kill his wife and get away with the money.

Fifth is "Limbo" by Esteban Maroto (story) and Bill Dubay (story). Aliens from the planet Limbo encounter the barbarian Krak, who they argue on whether to bring back to their planet, where their race is being attacked by evil lizard creatures. The male, Enore thinks they shouldn't bring Krak to their planet, bringing violence to their people, while Leejah, the female thinks they should bring him back. Eventually they go along with Leejah's plan and Krak kills numerous lizard men while Enore is killed. With the lizard men defeated however, Leejah regrets bringing so much violence to Limbo in the first place.

Last is another Vampirella story, "Feeding Frenzy" by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Vampi and Pantha, reunited, are on a cruise when suddenly the cruise is taken over by terrorists. The terrorist leader wants to take those on the ship hostage and force society to stop using nuclear energy, as he was in a power plant that had a meltdown. Vampi, whose blood substitute was destroyed goes on a rampage and kills all the terrorists in her blood lust except for the leader, who goes crazy.

Eerie 71

Quite a good issue of Eerie, featuring mostly stand alone stories. The cover, featuring the character 'Goblin' is by Sanjulian. Berni Wrightson provides a Cousin Eerie intro on the front inside cover.

First is "Goblin" by Jose Ortiz (art) and Budd Lewis (story). The Goblin seeks to return to the magic world he came from, but scares mostly everyone he meets. He does befriend a beautiful woman who helps him, but is shot by policemen coming after the Goblin. Luckily he finds another friendly person who has a portal in his home back to Goblin's world. Although self-contained here, Goblin would become a recurring character and receive his own magazine in the early 1980's.

Next is "Time in Expansion" by Paul Neary (art) and Budd Lewis (story), part of the Hunter II series. Hunter and Exterminator meet a group of people in a fortress who have lost their king. Goblins come to attack, but the King returns, and they are able to defeat the Goblins.

Third is "Irving and the Devil Pie" by Leopold Sanchez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Irving is an outlaw who is very famous and thinks he's immortal, only to be killed. He finds himself not going to hell, but a spirit world where he meets Devil Pie, who allows him to return to the real world, where he marries a rich, but ugly woman. He plots on killing her, but becomes scared of the Devil Pie, so he runs off and hides in the woods until his death. The Devil Pie had no intensions of doing anything bad to Irving however, making it all a waste.

Fourth is "Pooter and the Magic Man" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Pooter is a failed magician who meets the ghost of a Dr. Sigmond who says he'll let him be a famous magician as long as he assists the poor as well. Pooter becomes rich because of an inheritance and becomes quite famous, but pays no attention to his deal, so Sigmond causes his 'magic' to actually kill his assistants, driving him crazy. Bermejo's art is extremely good here.

Fifth is "Demon's Treasure", by Gonzalo Mayo (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This would be El Cid's final appearance. The story is about El Cid being sent to help a thief who had gone after treasure rumored to belong to a demon. After passing multiple distractions, he meets the wizard who created the demon, and switches cups with him when the man tries to poison him. Some very detailed, but hard to comprehend art by Mayo.

Last is "Mordecai Moondog" by Esteban Maroto (art) and Bill Dubay (story). The issue's best story, this features the character of the title, an exorcist, who is called by an old man to his mansion, which is haunted by seven spirits. The old man goes through the horrific history of the spirits, who were all of the 'Von Daemon' family. The spirits are all actually just part of one spirit, the old man, but Mordecai, who is actually the person who killed the original Von Daemon destroys him. A very interesting story with the horrific, long history of the Von Daemon story providing a lot of interesting and bizarre tales.

Creepy 38

Ken Kelly's cover of an axe wielding maniac starts off this issue. It was Kelly's first cover for Creepy. Clif Jackson provides the frontis, "Creepy's Loathsome Lore: Killer Plants!"

First story is "Wooden Cross!" by Rich Buckler (art) and Steve Skeates (story). A young man is called to a town by his uncle only to find him dead of a 'plague' when he gets there. It ends up that the plague is actually a vampire. The young man suspects the vampire is the head of the town, but it ends up being the son of the town doctor who he manages to kill with a cross after being made a vampire himself. Buckler's art appears very heavily influenced by Angelo Torres in this story.

Next is "The Vengeance of the Hanged!" by Syd Shores (art) and Chris Fellner (story). A corrupt judge sentences innocent people to die by hanging, doing so for some just to show his power to an enemy lawyer. One night he has a dream of being pursued by the corpses of the innocent people he's had hanged over the years. During the dream he is hung by them. He is found dead of a heart attack the next day, with rope burns appearing on his neck.

Next is "Sticks and Stones to Break Their Bones" by Tony Williamsune (art) and Stu Schwartzburg (story). A man finds many ancient carvings of people with modern weapons. This causes him to go to the military, telling them that ancient civilizations must have reached modern levels only to be wiped out, forcing civilization to start over. The military doensn't believe him, choosing to focus on their latest weapon... a primitive catapult. Not much of a sensical ending here.

Fourth is "The Way Home!" by Mike Royer (art) and T. Casey Brennan (story). A disoriented man talks to manequins, sits in a bar occupied by skeletons, and has dreams of going home to see his mother, who is with another boy, and kills her. He sees a black haired woman in a trenchcoat who says she'll bring him home... which ends up being a cemetary.

Royer provides the art again for the following story, "Sleepwalker!", with writing by Gerry Conway. A young woman beliees herself to be a vampire and attends therapy to cure herself of it, which she believes is successful. The killings continue however. She soon realizes that her husband is the true culprit, who had it blamed on her. Not only that, but he's a ghoul, who makes her his next victim.

Sixth is "Secret of the Haunted Room!" by Ernie Colon (art) and Bill Warren (story). A young man is given a house as part of his inheritance, under the condition that he live there for the rest of his days. The house is haunted however, and he soon meets a young woman inside who claims to be from 1910, not the present year, 1970. It ends up that she's a vampire, and makes him her next victim. This story is enhanced by inclusion of some real life shots, a shot of the cover, and some extra detailed drawings from Colon.

The story concludes with "The Cosmic All" by Wally Wood (story & art). Astronauts heading across the universe find a blob like creature on each planet they come to. They finally find a planet with humanoid people who attack them and are killed, leaving behind a message that their death was clean compared to whats going to happen to the astronauts. They decide to sleep there and the next morning two of the astronauts find everyone else reduced to skeletons. They escape, but one of them sends their ship crashing to Earth. Immediately after the flesh falls off their bodies, turning into the blob seen before, known as the 'Cosmic All' that is bringing peace to the universe by turning everyone to blobs. A very interesting sci-fi story.