I recently picked up a couple of old issues at Addicted to Comics. Eerie #88 kicks off with an installment of Bill DuBay's “The Rook.” This free-wheeling sci-fi adventure, stylishly illustrated by Luis Bermejo, concerns time-hopping scientist Restin Dane, and his robotic manservant, who bares a striking resemblance to C-3PO, as well as Dane's cantankerous grandfather and a couple of babes who lounge around pouting prettily in frilly dresses. In this chapter, villainous gunslinger Gat Hawkin pursues Dane into an apocalyptic future.
Budd Lewis' “The Black Demon's Sword,” illustrated by Jose Ortiz, concerns Irish scallywag Sully Sullivan and his genteel British sidekick, Hickey. In turn-of-the-century Japan, Sullivan and Hickey battle monsters and sorcery in their quest for a magical artifact. This time around, Sullivan captures a little hell-hound as it creeps up on him in the night, and a majestic ninja girl makes a daring escape from execution, buck naked! Now that's art, baby.
A couple years back, I happened to pick up one-time “Sword” author, Budd Lewis, in my cab here in Albuquerque. Well, you had to be there, and, maybe, you had to be me, to appreciate that turn of events.
Bruce Jones' “Boiling Point,” a dark atmospheric thriller set in the gloom of the New York subway system, is illustrated with cinematic flare by Leopold Sanchez, and Nicola Cuti's futuristic Terminator-like tale, “Junkyard Battles, or Never Trust an Electric Shaver,” very well drawn by Auraleon, includes scenes with a girl who is buck naked! Now that's art, baby.
There are the results of an art contest which include many very talented amateur contributors, a comic book column, a letters section, and ads for everything from pre-VCR super-8 movies to Creepy and Eerie underwear. The Warren mags are also a pivotal part of the legacy of some fantasy artists who even the pedestrian crowd has probably heard of, such as Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazetta and Richard Corben.
As for Creepy, well, it was pretty much more of the same great stuff. The lady you're looking at with that great big beautiful pair of—um—eyes, is actually in a series of four so-so Creepy's that were put out in '92 by Harris Publications. But, hey, she made you look, right?!
Okay, so Snake is the ultimate white trash hero. With that eye-patch and the permanent sneer of disgust for the entire human race, what's not to love? I was lent this comic book equivalent of a movie trailer for Snake Plissken Chronicles, which includes some generic snake being a bad-ass with weenie-ish villains stuff inside, plus an interview with John Carpenter. At least he doesn't sport a mullet.
