The Warren Report Issue 1: Creepy!

The Critical Guide to 

the Warren Illustrated Magazines

1964-1983

by Uncle Jack

& Cousin Peter

Jack Davis

Creepy #1 (Late 1964)
editor Russ Jones

"Voodoo!" ★
Story by Russ Jones and Bill Pearson
Art by Joe Orlando

"H2O World!" ★★
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by Al Williamson and Roy G. Krenkel

"Vampires Fly at Dusk!" ★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Werewolf!" ★★★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by Frank Frazetta

"Bewitched!" ★1/2
Story by Larry Ivie
Art by Gray Morrow

"The Success Story" ★★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Al Williamson

"Pursuit of the Vampire!" ★1/2
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres

Eerie #1, published in 1959 by Hastings.
Cover by George Tuska

There had been horror comics since EC closed its Vault, but most of the chills and thrills presented in illustrated form had been CCA-approved pablum like DC's House of Mystery and Atlas's gelded horror line (Uncanny Tales, Spellbound, etc.). Few instances of real horror managed to sneak under the radar of the all-seeing eye (though the first issue of John Stanley's Ghost Stories, published in 1963 by Dell, came very close to rekindling that EC fire, and a single issue of a magazine-sized illustrated horror comic, Eerie #1, was published by Hastings five years prior to Warren's bright idea) and so, when Jim Warren decided to launch a new magazine of illustrated horror, he wisely chose the non-CCA required magazine format for Creepy. But Warren, prodded by Russ Jones (who would become Creepy's first editor), not only wanted to capture the vibe of the legendary EC comics, but also wanted to revive it with help from several members of the old EC bullpen, including Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Wally Wood, Al Williamson and, incredibly enough (but for one show only!), Frank Frazetta. The story behind the birth of Creepy has been told a boatload of times before, so I won't retype it here* (but you can read a fabulous version of it right here), but suffice it to say, Warren and Co. had the right idea. But the real question is: could Warren, Jones, and their crew come up with enough original ideas to fill out 42 pages of original material (as opposed to the 26 pages Gaines and Co. had to fill) every issue, or would this experiment fall to the levels of the non-EC publishers? No more stalling. Let's find out...

"Voodoo!"

Frank Prentiss is a bit perturbed that his wife has become fond of "Voodoo!," but what else is a girl to do for kicks when she lives in the jungle with a loser of a husband? Things get heated when Sylvia brings a shrunken head home and Frank banishes her from the hut. The angry woman then uses black magic to draw Frank out into the jungle and attempts to decapitate him, but the plan goes awry and it's Sylvia who ends up without a noggin. Terrified, Frank bolts into the jungle but soon hears the chant of his name, as if called by the dead woman. A figure approaches him and, sure enough, it's Sylvia, with a very tiny head atop her shoulders, come to claim her prize. In both art and script, "Voodoo!" is doo-doo. We've just come from evaluating a whole lot of bad Joe Orlando art and this, if anything, is worse than his EC work. Time may be playing tricks on my mind but I recall Joe's work with DC on House of Mystery and Witching Hour (a few years after this first issue of Creepy) was at least tolerable, but "Voodoo!" looks like something that would have fit comfortably in a Myron Fass publication. We get no explanation for the fact that Sylvia is beheaded and then, magically, has a shrunken head attached to her body. Jones and Pearson seem content to go for the shock rather than supply a well-written story, just like many comic writers who grew up on a steady diet of EC Comics (Jones was only 22 years old when this first Creepy was published and he was the first editor to boot!) and believed it was the final shock panel that delivered the goods every time.

"H2O World!"

A young couple explore an undersea kingdom located just below the waves in "H2O World" and come across a peaceful but human-shy race of amphibious creatures. Their leader explains that, after World War III, his race decided to have nothing to do with the surface world. The memory of the undersea world is wiped from the minds of the couple and the fish-leader muses that, eventually, man will destroy everything. An early example of ecological fiction, a genre that would be dipped into several times in the Warren era. Neither better nor worse than a lot of the "preachies," "H2O World" suffers from a sense of being a small part of a larger story. How did the young couple stumble onto this find and why aren't there more explorers? Writer Larry Ivie had an illustrious career in the funny books and monster magazines, which included contributing to the classic Castle of Frankenstein, and editing and publishing Monsters and Heroes, a very weird melange of monsters, heroes, and photography. Like Joe Orlando, Williamson and Krenkel were rescued from post-EC purgatory for Warren's big hoo-hah. Williamson had been working on comic strips and on comics over at Gold Key, while Krenkel had pretty much disappeared from the face of the planet. "H2O World" is just as gorgeous as the work the duo did a decade before for EC.

"Vampires Fly At Dusk!"

In "Vampires Fly at Dusk!," Elena believes her husband may be the vicious vampire killer draining the nearby villagers of their blood. Cooped up in a mansion high upon a hill overlooking the plagued village, Elena's imagination runs away with her. Why does Carlo prefer to sleep during the day and do business at night? Why does he disappear for hours at a time? Why is Carlo's library full of books on vampires? One night, while snooping around, Elena discovers a secret passageway into the castle and encounters Carlo entering with a jar of blood. Terrified, the young woman races downstairs and pulls the curtains open on the rising sun. Bad idea. Carlo explains to Elena that he's not the vampire, as her body turns to dust. Even though the "twist" is a surprise to no one but Elena, I liked this very EC-inspired tale very much. Reed Crandall's pencils and line work (especially on the last page) are glorious, sheer perfection.

"Werewolf!"

Many fans feel Larry Ivie's "Werewolf!" is the single greatest story Creepy ever ran; not for the story, obviously, but for the ultra-rare, full-length Frazetta work. While I'm not in that group, I'll allow it's hard to argue with the quality of the visuals. The fabulous art overshadows what is essentially a reworking of “The Most Dangerous Game.” Big-game hunter Biff Demmon (a dead ringer for Ernest Borgnine) tracks the ultimate game in Africa, but when he finally comes across the rare beast, the tables are turned. The third panel of the fourth page depicting the werewolf hulking over the hunters is a classic piece of art, one that Warren brought out many times over the years. It's a shame that Warren couldn't persuade (or offer enough coin to) Frank to contribute more longer pieces but, at least, we've got the multitude of classic covers.

"Bewitched!"

A man (who remains nameless) decides it would be a fun idea to burn a basketful of holly atop a hill (a sure way to kill witches), just for the hell of it, and incurs the wrath of a local coven. The man burns the holly, then hallucinates that he's being chased by a dinosaur and awakens in bed with a pain in his side. His daughter enters with a voodoo doll and explains that a nice old woman distributed exact copies of the doll (along with long needles to poke it with) to all the girls of her Brownie troop. "Bewitched!" is a really silly, meandering tale that doesn't seem to know in which direction to travel. There are hints that Madge, the protagonist's wife, may be a witch herself (shades of ABC's Bewitched, a show that debuted right around the time this issue went on sale in October 1964) but that area is not explored. Artist Gray Morrow (who would go on to 1970s' fame, if not fortune, co-creating Marvel's Man-Thing) gives his all despite the script, but there's only so much you can do with  a sow's ear. Morrow was a contributor to that aforementioned Hastings zine, Eerie, as were Torres, Orlando, and Williamson.

"The Success Story"

Cartoonist Baldo Smudge worked his way up from the ground floor to "The Success Story" he is today. Smudge began his career ruling panel borders and stumbled onto a good thing when his wife's uncle died and left them with a boatload of money. Baldo hires a writer, an artist, and an inker to create and maintain his strip, while taking all the credit for himself. The strip becomes a big hit and the three hired hands demand a raise and credit, but Smudge isn't about to give over any slices of his pie so he shoots all three and dumps them in the river. Several months later, the three corpses rise from the muck and use Baldo Smudge to make their masterpiece. Ladies and gentlemen... the Bob Kane story! Sure, "The Success Story" exaggerates some elements (I think) and devises a nasty ending for the glory hog but, otherwise, this is a true story in the comics world. There were (and probably still are) quite a few "creators" who (à la Tom Clancy and James Patterson) loan out their names for a big cash prize and think nothing of taking the credit right to the grave. "The Success Story" has a lot of humor and the rising corpses are almost an afterthought to Archie's real message. Best of all is the sequence (reprinted here) where Smudge has to deal with his workers.

"Pursuit of the Vampire!"

A stranger comes to a small Austrian village to help dispatch a batch of vampires who have been draining the locals of their blood and transforming them into creatures of the night. With help from the town's burgomeister, two female vampires are found and staked but the king vampire remains loose. The stranger confides that he knows the burgomeister is the original vampire but before the blood-sucker can attack, the newcomer shows his true self: he's a werewolf here to stop the competition. Taking elements from a whole bunch of EC stories (and Harvey and Atlas and ACG and...) and crafting "Pursuit of the Vampire!" must have been the easiest pay Archie Goodwin ever made. It's silly stuff but at least it's got some gorgeous Angelo Torres pencils to distract us. I couldn't help but wonder, throughout this entire first issue, how color would have affected the quality of these seven stories. There's some dreadful stuff in this premiere issue but, taken as a whole, it's not a bad reintroduction to graphic horror comics. -Peter

Can it get much better than this?

Jack: Never having read a single issue of Creepy before just now, I expected higher praise from you! "Voodoo!" does not get things off to a great start, but I found Orlando's art less annoying than it was at EC and it's a neat trick how Sylvia manages to decapitate herself. "H2O World" seems to me to show some Marvel Comics influence, and by fall 1964 Marvel was putting out some decent comics. Ivie's script is too talky but the art by Williamson and Krenkel is superb. I was happy to see Reed Crandall make an appearance with  "Vampires Fly At Dusk!" but the story was predictable. "Werewolf!" is a dopey tale but it's a real treat to see six pages of classic Frazetta and his work on the wolf is outstanding.

"Bewitched!" is the third story by Larry Ivie in this issue and it made me think that he wrote some weird fiction. I love Grey Morrow's work and think he makes a great addition to the bullpen of horror artists. This story seems a bit more original than the ones before it, what with the parade of vampires and werewolves. Most original of all is "The Success Story," a funny look at the comic strip business with more wonderful art by Al Williamson. Like you, Peter, I found myself wishing for color. Finally, "Pursuit of the Vampire!" makes one too many vampire stories in this issue; it's not a strong story and the end is terrible, but (again) the art is great. Seven stories at six pages each and those wonderful Warren ads in between! I like it!

Frank Frazetta

Creepy #2 (April 1965)
editors Russ Jones, Archie Goodwin

"Fun and Games!"★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Joe Orlando

"Spawn of the Cat People"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Reed Crandall

"Wardrobe of Monsters!"★★★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Gray Morrow

"Welcome Stranger"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Al Williamson

"i Robot"★★
Story by Otto Binder
Art by Joe Orlando

"Ogre's Castle"★★★
Story by Archie Goodwin
Art by Angelo Torres

"Fun & Games!"

Harry and Phyllis Gorman have a screaming match outside an arcade that offers "Fun & Games!" Phyllis storms off and Harry succumbs to the entreaties of a hunchbacked tout, going inside to try his hand at the special games in the back room. He shoots a realistic rifle at a dummy that resembles Phyllis, but when he goes home he finds her dead on the living room floor. Harry returns to the arcade, but this time he is the target and Phyllis does the shooting.

The cover of Creepy #2 promises "The Greatest Comic Artists in the World," notably failing to mention anything about the writers. This first story makes little sense and is all about the twist ending, which is predictable. I think Peter would agree that Joe Orlando was not in our list of "The Greatest Comic Artists in the World," though this piece is reasonably well executed.

"Spawn of the Cat People"

Todd is hunting in New Mexico when he comes across a strange scene--several men have a beautiful woman tied to two stakes in the ground. The men tell Todd that they killed the girl's father and that she inherited a curse from him. Todd rescues the girl and she leads him nimbly through the woods until they reach a cave, where he decides that she is able to turn into a cat. He shoots and kills her but, to his surprise, the rest of the men find him and reveal that she was the only one in the area who cannot turn into a cat. They all turn into cats in order to finish him off.

Two weak stories in a row don't make me think the people behind Creepy have solved the conundrum we've encountered with so many horror comics: how to find writing to match the art? Reed Crandall draws everything well but the ending of "Spawn of the Cat People" makes little sense other than as a simple shock.

"Wardrobe of Monsters!"

Five men who stole the mummy of Pharaoh Ank-Ummem from a pyramid examine several extra sarcophagi that they found accompanying the mummy. In those ancient coffins they find artificial forms of a vampire, a werewolf, a devil, and Frankenstein's monster! Archaeologist Arnold Baxter translates hieroglyphics and reads that the figures are a "Wardrobe of Monsters!" that the pharaoh could put on like living clothes. Baxter invokes a magic formula and discovers that he can inhabit the forms; one by one, he uses the monstrous bodies to murder his colleagues so he can keep all of the Pharaoh's treasure. He destroys the Pharaoh's body to eliminate a potential rival, only to find that doing so frees the Pharaoh's spirit, which takes over Baxter's physical form, leaving the murderous archaeologist stuck in the body of Frankenstein's monster!

When I read Creepy #1, I wondered where the mummy story was--and here it is! Binder's narrative is quite creative, and the idea of finding a way to work all of these classic (let's face it, Universal) monsters into one story is loads of fun. I liked the idea of Baxter taking on one monster form at a time to murder his colleagues, but I thought the denouement was a letdown, as if the page limit was reached before Binder was finished telling his tale. At eight pages, this is the longest story yet; every other one so far has clocked in at six pages.

"Welcome Stranger"

Mark and Randy are out scouting for a movie location when their sports car suffers a blowout of two tires. They see a sign for Jonesville and walk toward the town, looking for a mechanic. Instead, the duo stumble upon a sacrifice in progress in the town cemetery. A girl is tied to a stake but, when Mark and Randy protest, the townsfolk announce that the interlopers will replace the unfortunate girl. A ghost is summoned out of an open grave amid a pillar of fire; the townsfolk yell "surprise" and reveal that the whole scene was set up to demonstrate the town's fitness as a movie set. Unfortunately, Mark and Randy died of fright when the ghost rose from the grave.

The usual sharp artwork by Al Williamson highlights "Welcome Stranger," a fast-moving but, in the end, disappointing seven-page story that held my interest until the corny ending. Archie Goodwin should've thought this one out a bit more.

What happened the day Peter got lost.
("i Robot")

Dr. Link builds an intelligent robot and names him Adam. The robot learns quickly but, when its creator is murdered, Adam must run from those who hold him responsible for the crime. In the end, he decides to switch himself off to prevent him from harming any of the humans who hunt him.

"I Robot" again? What is it about this story that makes it so appealing to horror comic publishers? We had to suffer through Adam Link stories at EC and now here we go again, with seven pages seeming like twenty and Uncle Creepy telling us there will be more to come in future issues. Joe Orlando's art is fairly good for Joe Orlando, which is not saying much.

A knight approaches the "Ogre's Castle" where his brother had disappeared on a prior quest. Ignoring the warnings on an old man, the sight of skulls on posts, and the shock of seeing a beautiful girl led by two monsters, the knight crashes through the castle gates, only to meet up with an ogre. The knight defeats guards, bats, and a demon-hound; he rescues a fair maiden and kills the ogre with a well-thrown knife. Sadly, the ogre changes back into the knight's brother and the maiden turns out to be a sorceress, who changes the knight into the new ogre guarding the castle.

Angelo Torres joins every other artist from this issue not named Joe Orlando in producing pages that are lovely to look at, even though Goodwin's script is nothing special. Did anyone reading this not know that those monsters and ogres were going to turn out to be spellbound men? I bet not. Still, the second issue of Creepy is an improvement over the first and I look forward to more.--Jack

"Ogre's Castle"

Peter: With the second issue, staff writer Archie Goodwin steps in to assist Russ Jones with the editing (Jones will jump ship after the third issue and leave Archie as the sole editor as of #4). I've always had a soft soft for Goodwin, as it seems like everything he touches turns to quality. We'll have to see what he's got up his sleeve in a couple of issues. There's not a lot to like in this sophomore effort, just more cliches and tired plots we've seen countless times before. "Fun & Games!" makes no sense whatsoever (it reminded me a lot of that Twilight Zone episode where the guy watches himself kill his wife on TV); "Spawn of the Cat People" rips off the fabulous Val Lewton flick (at least that's a semi-unique "borrow"); "Wardrobe of Monsters!" is overlong and gawdawful; "Welcome, Stranger" is a little too elaborate and owns a very silly climax; and "Adam Link" was a boring SF novelty when it ran in Weird Science-Fantasy and it's no better here (might have to do with the fact that the same crew worked on both versions). That leaves the final story, "Ogre's Castle," the best of the six this issue. I first read this one when it was reprinted in Eerie #42 (by 1972, Warren had abandoned their annual yearbooks and incorporated a full-reprint issue within the regular numbering); Angelo Torres's art gave me the willies back then and it still does. It's got a really nasty twist and ends on a downbeat note to leave the issue on an upbeat one.

* By the way, we're getting most of the historical details (who did what and how many times, etc.) from Gathering Horror by David Horne (Phrona Press, 2010), a gargantuan, insanely detailed guide to all things Warren.

First word on Creepy from the pages
of Famous Monsters of Filmland #31

In Two Weeks...
Just wait 'til you see what
crawls from the muck!

Next Week...
What have the Losers gotten themselves
into this time?

1971 Flashback: Omega-Mania Sweeps the Country - Boxoffice, August 16, 1971

by John Scoleri

Warner Brothers unleashed their first adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend on the world on August 1, 1971. The Omega Man starred Charlton Heston as Robert Neville, believed to be the last normal man on Earth living in Los Angeles following a plague unleashed due to a Russian/Chinese conflict. Said plague killed off most of society, and left the remainder a gathering of deranged mutants with an aversion to light that drives them into hiding by day. Directed by Boris Sagal, the liberal adaptation was written by the husband and wife team of John William and Joyce Corrington. A pre-Exorcist William Peter Blatty would also provide an uncredited polish on the screenplay. While the film is quite far removed from Matheson's original novel, it's still an entertaining piece of 70s cinema, and pairs nicely with Heston's other sci-fi efforts of the period, Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green.

The August 16, 1971 issue of Boxoffice (Volume 99, Number 18) trumpeted the early success of the film in a number of territories, including house records in Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina. Now granted, a $64,000 opening in eleven theaters over five days in Dallas (with heavy rain!) is nothing in today's numbers, but back when the average ticket price was $1.65, it's a little more impressive.

What's even more intriguing to fans of the film are some of the promotions hinted at in the two-page spread Warner paid for.

I would love to know if anyone attended an around-the-clock Omegathon! The Omega morning and Omega noon sound far less exciting. In all my years of collecting, I've never seen any Last Man/Last Woman buttons promoting the film. And what could they possibly mean by 'a giant Omega chain store tie-up'? The mind reels at the thought...

This issue of Boxoffice also includes a synopsis of the film, catchlines ("The Family Was Out to Destroy All Symbols of Civilization" and the more effective "The Last Man Alive is Not Alone!") and exploitation tips (have a zodiac display?) and a generally positive review of the film.

Sad to say we lost actor Paul Koslo on January 9, 2019, who played 'Dutch' in the film. You can read an interview with Koslo, as well as Charlton Heston, at the I Am Legend Archive.

Journey Into Strange Tales! Atlas/ Marvel Horror! Issue 27

The Marvel/Atlas 
Horror Comics

Part 12 

December 1951
+ The Ten Best Stories of 1949-1951

Maneely

 Journey Into Unknown Worlds #8

"Face of Stone"(a: Paul Reinman)  ★★ 
"When a Planet Dies!" (a: Joe Maneely)  ★★1/2
"No Return!" (a: Russ Heath) ★1/2
"The World Beyond" (a: Al Hartley) ★★ 

World renowned sculptor, Lucifer Marsh, has spent a lifetime making masterpieces out of stone but, one night at his gallery, Marsh stumbles across what he feels will become his greatest achievement: the beautiful Jane. Marsh talks the gorgeous gal into posing for him and, while she's not paying attention slips her a special mickey designed to transform her lovely bones into stone. The process complete, Marsh stands back to admire his "work," when Jane's boyfriend busts down the door, demanding to know where his girlfriend is. A fistfight breaks out and the vat of Marsh's special stone-juice spills on both the men. They quickly become statues but the crazed Lucifer Marsh looks on the bright side of things: he is his own last masterpiece.

Another of the standard 1950s horror plots was the crazed sculptor/wax museum owner and Lucifer Marsh holds his own with the best of them. Even more evil than turning his subjects into stone is the fact that the victims don't die (well, I assume they do eventually, but we aren't given a time frame) and that's particularly nasty since poor Jane is an innocent as is her white knight, the doomed Henry. The final panel, of Marsh complaining that the formula prevents him from smiling while his face turns to stone is darkly humorous. Paul Reinman continues up my chart of Favorite Atlas artists; he's simple but effective without the typical cheats and shortcuts.

When scientists discover that the military on Jupiter is sending a robot to conquer Mars, powers-that-be on Earth decide we have to build a robot capable of conquering Mars first! To that end, the big brains select Anthony Rogers as the perfect specimen of manhood, the only human being powerful enough to concentrate on rocketing the robot to Mars. The two robots met and duke it out but Rogers is just too powerful for the puny Jupterian and Earth claims Mars. But Rogers doesn't stop there. He sends his juggernaut to Jupiter to destroy all life and, with his final order, then return to Earth to do the same. Why? Because Anthony Rogers isn't human, he's a peace-loving Martian! Lovely Maneely art propels "When a Planet Dies!," a decent space opera script with a clever twist in its tail. Not so clever is "No Return!," which wastes the vast talents of Russ Heath on a silly time travel story about an industrialist who muscles his way onto a time machine (it's amazing that the scientists in these tales always set the way-forward lever on 3951, exactly 2000 years into the-then future) and then finds himself stranded in a utopia that has no need for money. We're not even told how the greedy guy found out about the time machine!

Jack Buckley buys a gorgeous mirror in a shop and gets it home to discover a flaw: the glass does not reflect but, instead, shows the way down a tunnel to the underground world of Stygia. Jack takes the mirror back to the shop owner, who shows an interest in tracking down the tunnel, and the two go on an adventure. Jack and Marla find the tunnel but, halfway to Stygia, Marla pulls a gun and discloses her true nature. The pair meet up with the citizens of Stygia and their leader explains to Jack that they lure humans down to test on them from time to time and then release them back to the surface to sell mirrors to unwary consumers. He further explains that Jack will now only be able to breathe surface air for a short period of time and that he must sell his quota of mirrors to regain entry to Stygia. And Jack is a lousy salesman. "The World Beyond" features a fanciful hook, but one that draws the interest of the reader and wraps up with a dark and satisfying climax. Not so satisfying is Al Hartley's art, which is sketchy and crude, appearing almost unfinished in spots. Hartley's number one claim to fame was his work on the long-running teenage girl title, Patsy and Hedy, for Atlas/Marvel.

Everett

 Venus #17

"The Storm!" (a: Allen Bellman) ★

Carston Fuller is deathly afraid of water and when a storm lashes his remote cabin, that fear escalates to terror. Somehow, a single drop of water leaks from the roof and grows larger before Carston; soon he's engulfed by the water and imagines a world of mermaids. The gorgeous fish-girls tell Carston he can remain with them but first he must write out a list of the reasons he hates water. He agrees, and the next morning, his body is found by the local police, drowned by the leaking rain from his roof. A nonsensical fantasy that only takes up four pages but somehow seems to be ten times that size. Much better (but beyond my purview) are the Venus stories this issue, wherein the gorgeous goddess must tackle the terrors of  "The Tower of Death" and quash the attack of "The Stone Man." As usual, the anything-goes scripts and superb Everett art combine for a boatload of fun.

George Tuska

 Suspense #12

"The Dark Road" (a: Russ Heath) ★★★
"The Trumpet!" (a: Joe Maneely) ★
"You're Killing Me!" (a: Norman Steinberg) ★1/2
"Draw Me a Picture" (a: George Tuska) ★
"Fingers of Fire!" ★1/2 
"The Old Woman" (a: Paul Reinman) ★★★

A man drives through a driving rain down "The Dark Road," when, out of nowhere, he sees a figure to the side of the road, hitchhiking. Figuring it's not fit for a dog outside in this weather, he pulls over and lets the stranger in. Just as they pull away, the radio announces that an inmate at a local asylum has escaped and the driver eyes the stranger warily. He makes an excuse to stop, his passenger gets out to wipe off the headlights, and the driver runs him down. The tire blows out and another driver comes along, asking about the body on the ground. Our protagonist, hearing another bulletin, this time conforming that the maniac is behind the wheel of a stolen car, fears that this may be the killer looney and crushes his skull with a tire iron. He flees to a nearby diner, where he meets up with a pretty girl. As he's using the phone, he sees a reflection of the woman grabbing a long knife and heading for him. He grabs a cleaver and is about to carve up some lunch meat when he's shot dead by two cops, who tell the woman the man dying in front of them is the escaped lunatic.

Though this plot line is as old as Moses, the uncredited writer (probably Stan) delivers a couple of clever twists to throw us off guard and keep us guessing up to (what turns out to be) the predictable outcome. I assumed from the get-go that it was the driver who was the madman, as that twist has been done to death, but the escalating violence gave me hope that we were in for something new. Alas...  Oddly enough, Al Feldstein will write almost the exact same story ("The Escaped Maniac!") and it will see print a mere one month after this issue of Suspense, in Crime SuspenStories #8. How about that for coincidence? Russ Heath does a marvelous job accentuating the driver's fear (Heath loved those beads of sweat, didn't he?), an effective way of confounding our expectations. That hitch-hiker looks almost like a zombie; surely he's a homicidal maniac!

"The Trumpet" is a silly two-pager about Gabriel having his horn stolen while on a train. If it wasn't signed Joe Maneely, I'd have a hard time believing this was his work. It looks more like a rushed Don Heck to me. Equally inane is "You're Killing Me!," about a guy who murders his uncle for money and then must contend with the parrot who witnessed the killing. Not much can be done with three pages but artist Norman Steinberg gives it a go, delivering a nasty and effective splash.

Fred is a 60-buck-a-week artist at a New York ad agency when the boss rejects a drawing Fred did and gives him a gift, a new pencil that somehow has a magical, but deadly, gift. When Fred draws a picture and then uses the pencil to erase part of the drawing, disaster follows. It works with a bridge, a jet, the horses, anything Fred puts his nib to. Lots of dough follows and that's great because Fred is in love with the office secretary, Lil, who is in love with the green stuff. Fred shows off the fruits of his "labor" and Lil shuts down her boyfriend to marry Fred, but before it can happen, disaster falls when Fred accidentally erases a drawing of himself.

"Draw Me a Picture" is another Atlas story that resembles an EC story, one that wouldn't be published for another two years: "Easel Kill Ya" (from Vault of Horror #31). I doubt if writer Johnny Craig got his inspiration for "Easel..." from "Draw Me a Picture," but even if he did, he batted that one out of the park and "Draw Me..." barely gets to first base thanks to its lifeless art and snail's-pace script. One hilarious scene which makes it almost worth the read is when Fred stumbles on horse racing to win a bundle. How would he go about that, you ask. Fred stands next to the track and sketches each horse he wants to stumble as they're running by. This guy can not only draw faster than anyone on the planet but he can make each sketch unique in its own way!

Heartless businessman James Evans is in a nasty train crash and appears dead but it's only his body that's comatose. His brain is still working and he works feverishly to send off some signal to his "rescuers" to let them know he's still alive. At the funeral parlor, his associate is called in to identify Evans and one of the attendants excitedly points to what appears to be a tear on Evans' face. "Impossible," the associate sighs, "Evans was a man who could never cry!" Into the cremation chamber goes Evans! Yes, "Fingers of Fire!" bears a more-than-striking resemblance to the Louis Pollock short story, "Breakdown," published in a 1945 issue of Collier's (and later adapted as a Hitch-directed episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents), but Evans meets a fiery end while Pollock's character evades death thanks to his tear ducts. Does that make this story worth reading then? Nope; it's just a shameless steal and it's got really really bad art.

Two grifters, on the prowl for an easy mark, come upon the house of "The Old Woman." Thinking they can ease their way into the woman's confidence, Hink and Grace rent a room from the old lady, get her to trust them (she confides that her money was made from writing romance books), and then drop the boom on her. They tell her to cut herself off from the outside world and sign her checks over to them from now on. The sweet old thing happily agrees, thinking it all so exciting and a break from her old routine. Her grin and general good mood eventually wear thin for the con artists and they demand to know what's going on. The woman allows that there may just be a fortune stashed in her cellar and, after very little prodding, she leads the way. Once in through the cellar door, Hink and Grace are locked in and told they'll be inspiration for her new trade: writing suspense novels!

There's a deliberately vague climax to "the Old Woman" that intrigues me. After telling her prisoners of her plans, the old woman becomes almost ghostly and then the final panel caption reads: Perhaps there are screams still coming from that deserted little White House... perhaps not... over a drawing of a dilapidated cottage, clearly the house shown in the opening but then not quite the same one. So, was the old woman a ghost the entire time? It appears so. Whatever the case, that final three-panel sequence is supremely creepy, as is most of the story, thanks mostly to Paul Reinman's visuals and a light foot on the gas that allows for the gradual eeriness.

 Strange Tales #4

"The Evil Eye" (a: Bill Everett) ★★★
"Dial... City Morgue!" (a: Sol Brodsky) ★
"It!" (a: John Romita) ★
"The Man on the Beach!" (a: Bill LaCava) ★★1/2


Scientists assume that the huge object deep in space which has popped up in their telescopes is a new star but the closer it gets to earth, the more apparent it becomes that it's a giant eye. Only one man, Professor Lyle Chambers, knows the secret of "The Evil Eye," but is he mad or is he responsible for bringing this monstrosity into our atmosphere? Death, destruction, and wild scientist hair equals everything you could ask for in a 1951 science fiction comic story. And it's got a nice art job by the legendary Bill Everett to boot. Just about anything Everett worked on was worth... looking at.

Ted discovers that his new phone used to belong to the city morgue. Now, when he makes a phone call to someone exactly one year after a death in the city, the person he's calling will drop dead (yes, I know, it's a bit complicated so you can skip this one if you want... I wish I had). Things go great for Ted when he calls his business rival and his rich aunt and both meet with untimely deaths, leaving Ted a boatload of money. But, as these things usually go, Ted makes the wrong phone call at the wrong time and ends up a victim of his own greed. "Dial...City Morgue!" is incredibly silly and unnecessarily complicated with its hook. It's also about three pages too long.

Not Pennywise, but "It!" nonetheless!

Bill and Jenny Carter have just adopted the sweetest baby and can't wait to get home to spoil him. Once there, though, Jenny becomes increasingly agitated and exhausted, and Bill becomes convinced the baby is to blame. Then he discovers poison in his coffee pot and suspicion swings to his wife. Could she be mentally ill? Jenny takes a bad tumble down the stairs and breaks her neck, leaving Bill to fend for himself and their son. Hearing a noise in his study, Bill opens the door to discover his baby boy holding a gun, pointed at his pop. Just before he pulls the trigger, the child explains that he's actually an alien from outer space and his mission was to kill Bill and Jenny. At Bill's funeral, all the women fawn over the new orphan and wonder who will be lucky enough to adopt the little darling.

The humorous climax of "The Man on the Beach!"

"It!" explores the fears and angst that every couple face when they become parents, the deep-rooted terror that maybe you're not doing your best... Yeah, right. Well, maybe that was the initial goal of "It!" but the whole thing comes off as so ludicrous, it's tough to consider that the writer may have had loftier goals in mind. The poor kid is never clothed, spending his entire four-page life in a nappie and nothing else and the sight of him hoisting that gun, looking all the world like a young gangster, is more hilarious than ten issues of Melvin the Monster. But what's the goal of this baby alien? He kills his parents for what purpose? They could have raised him to be the first Damien Thorn just as well as the next couple, right? Clarity is all I ask for. Ray Bradbury spun this first, and much better I hasten to add, with "The Small Assassin" (adapted by Al Feldstein for Shock SuspenStories #7).

A young couple come across a disheveled, wild-talking "Man on the Beach," who claims he is the only man who can save Earth from destruction. They invite the gaunt man into their beach tent and hear his fantastic story. Time-traveling scientists, who warn of armageddon and time backwashing, shrink the Earth and then entrust it to our grizzled hero for safe-keeping and send him back to present day. Unfortunately, the scientists didn't do their homework or else they'd know this is the world's most clumsiest man and, sure enough, he manages to lose the world on the beach. The couple scoff at the man's claims until things start disappearing around them. "The Man on the Beach" is so complicated (even for a 1950s Atlas funny book) that it defies description and almost warrants a Tylenol or two. That's not to say it's a bad story (though the LaCava art is tough to sit through),; it's actually quite clever and earns an extra star for breaking the fourth wall in the final panels. I wonder how many kids figured it was a printing error!

More from "The Evil Eye!"

Maneely

Astonishing #7

"Nightmare" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★★
"Paid in Full" (a: Harry Lazarus) ★
"Out of My Mind" (a: John Romita) ★★1/2
"Out of the Darkness" (a: Joe Maneely) ★★

The third anniversary party for Connie and Tony ends after a night of wild partying, when the doorbell rings and a gorgeous dame walks in. Tony gasps and utters a single word, "Rita!" Seems as though Tony hadn't told Connie about the girl he dumped to marry her, but Rita is here to wish the both of them the best. After the babe mixes them all drinks, the room spins for Connie and a terrifying tableau lays itself before her. Tony grabs Rita and kisses her madly and Rita urges her old beau to kill Connie so that they can be together. Tony picks up the andiron and sinks it into Connie's head as she screams...

Herself awake! Yep, all just a "Nightmare!" Now Tony tells her to calm down and get ready for the anniversary party that night. But Connie has a sense of doom approaching and can't relax all night. Sure enough, after the party is over, the doorbell rings and it's Rita! The whole scenario repeats itself. Connie screams... herself awake. Yep, we've gotten the "it was only a dream but hang on, was it really cuz it's about to happen again" plot a zillion times but maybe it's because this one happened so early in the game that I can excuse the tired old cliche one more time. And then there's an extra jolt when the murder scene is repeated a second time and Connie's last thought is Am I really awake now... or is this too, a... a... nightmare? That's scary stuff.

Nathaniel Hastings begs miser Jeremiah Leech (who holds the note on Nathaniel's farm) to just give him a little more time to pay his mortgage, but Leech tells the poor old man he doesn't care about anything but money and he'll be foreclosing very soon. Nathaniel heads back to his farm in a driving snow and suffers a fatal heart attack. A few nights later, Leech, still smiling about the foreclosure, answers a knock at his door and discovers Nathaniel Hastings on his porch. A bit surprised, Leech asks the old man what he's doing out when he's supposed to be dead and the very pale Nathaniel answers that he can't find peace until he's paid his debt. The dead man promises a great fortune if Leech will follow him into the night and Jeremiah, afraid of nothing, agrees. The men end up in  Nathaniel's tomb, where Leech finally finds something to be afraid of when he finds he's been locked in. Yet another money-hungry scrooge gets his comeuppance in "Paid in Full." There's nothing new nor interesting about this latest variation although I must admit I thought Harry Lazarus's art very atmospheric in spots.

Horror writer Isaac Bartley is beyond astonished when he discovers that his greatest creation, the murderer named Axton, has somehow come to life and is threatening his creator when the creation gets wind that Bartley is about to kill off the golden goose. Axton lets on that he's set up shop in a gambling establishment downtown and Bartley heads on over to check it out to see if he's losing his mind or if this could be the real deal. Sure enough, once Bartley gets past the thug at the door, he sees Axton, lording over a roulette wheel. Axton sees his maker and gives chase but has a nasty fall down the staircase and is impaled on a statue holding a sword. Exactly how Bartley write Axton's death scene! Relieved, Bartley heads home to finish his book but, unbeknownst to the absorbed writer, Axton sneaks up behind him and...

"Out of My Mind" is not a great story but it benefits from some early John Romita work and an early example of the "fiction comes to life" plot line used to great advantage decades later by Stephen King (The Dark Half) and John Carpenter (In the Mouth of Madness). At one point, Bartley's editor tells his writer to tone down the scary stuff since "three people have been driven insane trying to read your books!," another avenue explored by Carpenter. Romita's Axton is not very threatening though with his Zorro eyes, Elvis lip, and Michael Jackson nose. The climax is a letdown but the build-up is a winner.

The oddball in this issue's quartet would have to be the final story, "Out of the Darkness," an old-fashioned science fiction story about life 2000 years after World War III. The Earth's surface had become poisoned and man had had to go underground and build a new world but evolution is throwing a funny (but annoying) monkey wrench at the survivors: the children being born in this generation resemble rats and are massing together to murder their human parents. It's up to scientist/super-stud Carleton Lar to invent a contraption that will clear up the poisons and allow man to walk the Earth again. Preliminary scouts discover a freakish form of dinosaur has evolved up top and the creatures must be destroyed if civilization is to "move upstairs." Luckily, Carleton's machine kills two dinosaurs with one stone; when the poison clouds disappear, the monsters die! Not sure who thought this would be a good fit amidst three horror stories, but "Out of the Darkness" is imaginative and enjoyable for both its wild scenario and its Joe Maneely artwork. It's funny to think of this as a throwback story since it was published 66 years ago but it has the feel of a 1940s SF adventure. I assume the radiation is to blame for the full-grown dinosaurs our heroes have to face.

THE TEN BEST STORIES FROM 1949-1951

I didn't feel that enough issues were published from 1949 and 1950 to warrant a Ten Best list but the end of 1951 seems a good place to start a yearly Best of.

So far we've covered 247 stories from 65 issues and the quality is surprisingly high. Of those 247 stories, 34 received a rating of three stars or higher (out of four), with two receiving the full four stars.

  1 "The Devil Birds" (Mystic #4)
  2 "The Evil Eye" (Suspense #8)
  3 "Don't Open This Door" (Suspense #8)
  4 "Juggernaut" (Marvel Tales #98)
  5 "The Spider" (Marvel Tales #101)
  6 "The Brain" (Adventures Into Terror #4)
  7 "The Man Who Lost HIs Head" (Suspense #3)
  8 "Felix the Great" (Suspense #6)
  9 "A Man Named Satan" (Marvel Tales #98)
10 "The Pin" (Strange Tales #2)

In Two Weeks...
Could '52 be even more grim than '51?

A change of format for the text piece in Astonishing #7

Star Spangled DC War Stories Issue 148: April/May 1974

The DC War Comics
1959-1976
by Corporals Enfantino and Seabrook

Kubert

Our Army at War 267

"A Baker's Dozen!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by John Severin

"Moonglow"
Story and Art by Sam Glanzman

Jack: As Easy Co. approaches the French city of Denille, Nazi flak towers blitz the American soldiers and Sgt. Rock is knocked unconscious. He awakens in the home of a French family where the mother has told her little boy that Rock is his father, who was killed in the war. The family of bakers tells the Nazi commander that Rock is shell-shocked and cannot speak.

Rock sees a French underground fighter shot down in the street in front of him and decides to don the garb of a local baker to take over the local underground's mission. Rock wheels a barrow full of loaves of bread toward the Nazi mess hall but instead shoots and kills the Nazi commander before blowing up the flak towers with explosives hidden under the loaves of bread. Soon, the city is liberated and Rock reunites with the rest of Easy Co.

Rock's "gun jump"

"A Baker's Dozen!" is a fairly good Rock story with pretty good art by John Severin. It doesn't make a lot of sense that Easy Co. would be separated from Rock when he's knocked unconscious or that he would be taken in by a French family, and the "gun jump" Rock successfully makes that ends with him shooting the Nazi commandant is ridiculous, but the story is easy to digest.

"Moonglow"

At sea, the "Moonglow" bathes a scene where a submarine fires on and destroys a battleship. Like so many of Sam Glanzman's short stories in the back of these DC War comics, this doesn't amount to much.

Peter: Could be I'm just getting grumpy in my old age but I'm dying to read a really good Rock story and this ain't it. John Severin's wonderful art makes turning the pages easier if I don't read the words, but Big Bob seems to be running out of fresh ideas for his most famous war character (but, to be fair, according to my quick calculations, Kanigher had penned 834 stories just for the Big Five by this point!). Another day, another quasi-romance for Rock, but at least this pretty one doesn't end up dead in a French gutter. Ho-hum.

Dominguez

Weird War Tales 24

"The Invisible Enemy"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Ernie Chan

"The Last Battle"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Alex Niño

Peter: When a Nazi Oberlieutnant orders the slaughter of a village populace, he is cursed to die by "tiger." Afterwards, the soldier believes he cannot be killed and wanders into each new battle with startling confidence. When his platoon is backed into an underground bunker near the end of the war, he somehow manages to stay alive for ten years before he's dug out. Hallucinating, he flees his captors and falls from a great height, breaking his back... on a statue of a tiger. "The Invisible Enemy" is a mess, in both script and visuals. The story meanders here and there and never once involves the reader, as though writer Oleck had no idea in which to take his narrative. Ernie Chan/Chua's art is equally hard to decipher; a scratchy and, at times, ugly distraction.

Chua on this, bad art fans

"The Last Battle"

Much better is "The Last Battle." One hundred years hence, a dictator sees his grip on the nation he rules slipping away and deduces that what the country needs is a good, old-fashioned war. The despot cooks up an impending invasion from Mars and sets out to "destroy" the battle before it begins. All goes well for the ruler when he gets to the red planet and transmits scenes of fiery carnage back to Earth, but things turn iffy when the people of Mars fight back! I'm not much of a fan of these SF/future war tales (they all tend to be cut from the same cloth), but "The Last Battle" is a darkly funny and clever little yarn and the best Weird War Tale in some time. Jack Oleck goes one for two this issue.

Jack: I agree that "The Last Battle" is better than "The Invisible Enemy," but it's the art that makes it worth reading, not the script. Nino is so inventive and his page designs are so unusual that every story he illustrates is a treat. We've seen the old "fake a war to get the people to unite" so many times that it seems trite, but not as trite as the conclusion of the first story. There is actually a germ of a good tale buried deep inside "The Invisible Enemy," but it's overwhelmed by the plot confusion and muddy art. Chua would get better fast and do some decent work on Batman not too many years later.

Kubert

Our Fighting Forces 148

"The Last Charge!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by John Severin

"Toro"
Story and Art by Sam Glanzman

Jack: When Nazis in the North African desert grab a local gal from her horse, Johnny Cloud steps in and saves her. The Losers are invited to her grandfather's camp, where the sheikh tells them that "Johnny-the-Cloud" must now wed Ramallah, since it is written that she will wed the dark stranger from across the sea who saved her. Nazi mortar shells begin to hit the camp and the sheikh is happy to make "The Last Charge!" against the invaders. Ramallah is fatally wounded in the shelling, so Johnny weds her right before she breathes her last; her grandfather is killed in the charge that follows but at least the Losers are able to destroy an old Moorish castle that was serving as the Nazi base.

"The Last Charge!"

Though John Severin's art is a little shakier than usual in spots, perhaps because he took on too much work (see Our Army at War), the story is exciting and I was touched by the brief relationship between Ramallah and Johnny Cloud. Sure, it's hokey to have them wed as she is dying, but I liked it anyway. The story opens with the Losers looking for Ona and ends with a caption that says she'll be found next issue. It seems like the missing Captain Storm subplot has been replaced by the missing Ona subplot; in this issue's letters column, Archie Goodwin writes that her relationship with the Losers will take on a whole new turn. I'm intrigued to see what happens.

Peter models his
weekend outfit

"Toro" is the nickname of a soldier whom the U.S.S. Stevens picks up when it stops at New Caledonia. He is fond of picking flowers and likes to wear plenty of jewelry and comb his hair a lot. When the crew is on liberty at Manila, a surprise attack by Japanese soldiers causes Toro to spring into action; he savagely kills every enemy and dies when he leaps off a cliff after the last adversary. It seems Toro was a Marine trained to be a special killing machine, but he had gone off the deep end and was on his way to a medical discharge.

One of the more bizarre stories we've seen in the DC War comics, "Toro" seems to suggest that a savage killing machine goes loony in the head and turns flagrantly gay. "His walk seemed peculiar," reads one caption, and another reports that "he wore a girlish belt." One sailor calls him a "fairy" but Glanzman confuses the reader by drawing an actual fairy flying by on the first page. I really don't know what to make of this story!

Peter: "The Last Charge!," probably the weakest chapter of the Kanigher/Severin reboot of the Losers, is hokey to the extreme, like a bad crossover episode of Combat and Rawhide. Complete with the forced marriage we all know will result in a dead bride (and probably no mention of the betrothal in any future installment), the story is vacuous and cliched, the antithesis of what we've come to expect from this series. At least the art is still great! Let's hope the "Search for Ona" arc gets back on track next issue. I didn't know what to make of "Toro," or whether Sam Glanzman's splash (with its very effeminate boy-toy and the oh-so-subtle fairy image) is supposed to be beautiful or offensive. It's a head-scratcher all right, complete with a WTF? climax.

Kubert

Our Army at War 268

"The Elite"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Russ Heath

"Red Snow"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Ric Estrada

Jack: Sgt. Rock and the men of Easy Co. ascend a steep cliff and have orders to blow up a bridge far below on the other side, but they find themselves shelled by Nazi mortar fire. American Rangers parachute in from above to help Easy Co. reach the bridge by means of a strong cable across the chasm, and soon the bridge is destroyed. Easy Co. help the wounded Rangers down the hill to safety and are rewarded with green berets.

"The Elite"

Russ Heath is back, and "The Elite" features wall-to-wall action and minimal dialogue. I was a bit confused by all of the going up and down the sides of mountains, but the art is strong enough that I didn't mind.

German troops face off against Russian troops in the dead of winter during WWII and the result is "Red Snow." A lone Russian machine-gunner at the top of a hill makes trouble for the advancing Germans but is finally killed and turns out to be a woman with long red hair.

"Red Snow"

I don't usually like Ric Estrada's art in these back-up stories, but this one is better than average. Not much happens but at least there's a minimum of that annoying Estrada caricature.

Peter: Seems like it was just at the top of this page that I was whining about the lousy scripts afforded Rock these days, but Big Bob must have heard me cuz he delivers the best Rock adventure of the year. Yep, the finish is predictable, but I really liked the contrast between the seasoned vets and "The Elite" snooty boys. The return of Russ certainly helps as well. "Red Snow" has a good twist in its tail but it's definitely at the lower end of the Gallery of War stories.

Dominguez

Weird War Tales 25

"Black Magic--White Death!"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Alfredo Alcala

"The Unseen Warrior"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Alex Niño

Peter: Jacques and Marcel are inseparable, even through the horrors of the war they fight for Napoleon in Haiti, and one would do anything for the other. When their troop is ambushed and slaughtered by natives, Marcel is mortally wounded and Jacques calls upon his friend, witch doctor Kwami, to nurse his bosom buddy back to health. Marcel survives but quickly becomes jealous and suspicious of Jacques's voodoo-practicing friend. One night, Jacques cuts a lock from Marcel's hair and heads off into the night, unaware that he'd disturbed his friend's sleep. Marcel follows Jacques to Kwami's hut and observes the pair practicing black magic. In a rage, Marcel strangles Kwami and confronts his soul mate about what he'd just witnessed. Jacques explains that Marcel  had died that day at the ambush and Kwami had brought him back to life. The spell broken, Marcel rots away to bones.

"Black Magic--White Death!"

No doubt Alfredo Alcala's creepy art had a lot to do with my enjoyment of "Black Magic--White Death!," but the story is involving as well. Give writer George Kashdan some extra points for having the nerve to spotlight two obviously homosexual characters in an industry that was, at the time, not the most tolerant of "different" lifestyles. Yes, I agree that the "twist" is predictable but Marcel's disintegration is highly effective in a very EC-esque manner. Looks like the Comics Code was starting to let some things slide about this time.

A Nazi soldier awakens to find he's been experimented on by brilliant (but mad) German scientists and has been granted the gift of invisibility. "The Unseen Warrior" ventures out into the battle to strike fear in the Allied forces and bring backbone to the failing Axis. One thing you can say about "The Unseen Warrior": it's fabulous to look at. Niño, like Alcala, is funny book M&Ms to me; I just can't get enough of that sweet stuff. The script is not all that great (the plot contains more than a heaping helping of the Universal movie vibe), and the climax is a bit confusing but, in the end, we get two pretty darn good stories this issue and it's been a really long time since we could say that.

"The Unseen Warrior"

Jack:  It's certainly nice to see 10 pages of Alcala art in the first story. I thought the tale meandered a bit on the way to the end but the conclusion was strong and recalls Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar." Equally well drawn is the Nino story, making me wonder why they keep relegating Alex to the back of the book. The confusing plotting dooms this story but it doesn't dim my enjoyment of the pictures.

Next Week...
At long last, we'll begin
our issue-by-issue dissection
of the twenty-year reign
of Warren Comics!