Eerie #60 - Warren

"Super Special Summer Giant"? Does any phrase guarantee comics fun more than those? And why have those words pretty much disappeared from comics nowadays?

Anyway, I thought a sweltering July would be a perfect time to talk about an Eerie "Super Special Summer Giant" so here we go...

After the beautifully odd and somewhat erotic cover by Ken Kelly(the woman doesn't exactly look that bothered to be in that creature's tentacles) we open with "24 Hours to Hell!" by Bruce Bezaire and Jose Ortiz. It's about a blackmarket drug that turns its users into a raving, zombie-like mob. Great black and white storytelling by Ortiz, and the mob is suitably horrrible and terrifying.

Next is "Nightfall" by Bill DuBay and Bernie Wrightson, which is a classic monsters-in-the-closet story with simultaneous humor and horror, something of course Wrightson excelled at. An understated classic.

Third is "Exterminator One", about a robot who once was a man who is now programmed to be an assassin. By DuBay and Paul Neary, it's a fun old-school "twist-ending" sci-fi tale where things never turn out the way you or the characters expect.

Next is the color section of the book, "Childhood's End" by Budd Lewis and Rich Corben. It stars that sad, Frankenstein-esque "Child" character, in a tale of kindness rejected and tragic misunderstandings. Corben's work is of course beautiful and the color is picture-book-like, which fits the tale perfectly.

"The Man Hunters", by DuBay and Wally Wood, is also in color, and is about two heroic space explorers who land on alien world and confront a classic Wood-esque alien, replete with multiple tentacles and drooling jaws. The man disappears and the woman--his wife--comes to a horrible realization. This story ends where a lot of Hentai might begin, I think...

Back to black and white, we get "The Unholy Creation", by Steve Skeates and Leopold Sanchez. A sad, sad tale of man, about to start a new life with his bride, becomes the victim of a horrible set of experiments. Beautifully told, but depressing as all get out. Thank god Skeates didn't write Aquaman like this!

After a whole bunch of Captain Company ads(ooh, I never get tired of looking at that stuff!), we get one more story, "Interlude", by Gerry Boudreau and Isidro Mones, about two longtime adversaries--Dr. Archaeus and Miles Sanford--that is the last chapter in an ongoing scheme of revenge. It ends violently and ruthlessly, but stories of revenge never really end...

There's also fun back cover by Wrightson, promoting the "Nightfall" story that is wonderfully creepy...er, eerie.