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| Sanjulian |
Simon Pepper, curator of the Arkham Museum, has had enough of the trollish high priest who continually visits and tries to barter for "The Tiara of Dagon!" Pepper tells the unsavory man one more time that the Tiara is not for sale, but his visitor pulls out a gold bar worth thousands and offers it up, hoping this time he has a deal. Pepper pulls a gun and nabs the gold bar, telling the little man to be gone. The priest laughs and tells the curator that he behaved exactly as expected and that the gold was treated with a chemical that will kill Pepper in a matter of minutes. Simon takes a shot at the man but he finds he's all alone in the museum. At first scoffing at the idea that he's been poisoned, Pepper soon learns that the priest was telling the truth. I love comic stories that are flavored with Lovecraft; there's such a huge universe to draw from. "The Tiara of Dagon!" is a bit disjointed and it's cloudy as to what's happening in that museum after Pepper steals the gold bar. Ideally, this would have been drawn by Tom Sutton; this does not look like your typical Maroto (not one half-nekkid chick to be found in that museum).
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| "Puppet-Player" |
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| Kelly |
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| Kelly |
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| "24 Hours of Hell!" |
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| "Nightfall" |
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| "Exterminator One" |
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| "Childhood's End" |
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| "The Man Hunters" |
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| "The Unholy Creation" |
I am so thrilled to see "The Man Hunters," a new, eight-page outer space story drawn by the great Wally Wood! This one has it all: gorgeous color, a gorgeous gal, and creatures with tentacles. The story by Gerry Boudreau is nothing special, and it was obvious that the creature was David, but it's such a treat to see new art by Wally Wood that I really don't care.
Why doesn't Jason Boswell show up for his wedding? It turns out that he took a woman home from his bachelor party the night before and woke up at four a.m. While staggering home, he was set upon by crooks and murdered, all in order to provide a mad scientist with a fresh brain for his Frankenstein-monster-like creation. Unfortunately, the mad scientist forgot to hook up "The Unholy Creation's" nerve endings, so he can't feel anything. The monster kills his creator and is left to face life alone, unable to feel pleasure or pain.
We dump on Moench and Skeates a lot on this blog, and stories like this are the reason why. Were it not for some pretty cool panels by Leopold Sanchez, who draws a neat monster, this would be an utter waste of space. The ending is so abrupt that I found myself paging through the ads in the back of the book to try to find the final page or pages.
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| "Interlude" |
Dr. Archaeus doesn't recognize Jamaica Jennsen right off, but as soon as she leaves to notify Miles Sanford, Archaeus realizes who she was and that he can't go home. Sanford breaks into the doctor's room and reads his list of victims, but the doctor does not return. The next day, Miles boards a coach to visit Scotland Yard, but the coachman is working for Dr. Archaeus and takes a detour, delivering an unconscious Sanford to the ruined Lancashire Abbey, where Archaeus waits to kills him. Sanford manages to defeat the coachman, only to receive a fatal arrow in his chest from Archaeus's bow.
"Interlude" is another satisfying entry in the saga of Dr. Archaeus. The story isn't spectacular, the art isn't the best in the issue, but somehow it all works together to make a fun final product. I can't always keep straight who the characters are (other than Archaeus), but for some reason it succeeds and I look forward to the next chapter. All in all, an above-average issue of Eerie! A very sharp cover, too.-Jack
Peter-I really liked the first chapter of "The Night of the Jackass," while acknowledging that it has its faults. The title, for instance, doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, and it teeters on pretension. We're told that the drug causes the user to become psychotic and then die after 24 hours, but not why they sprout Spock-ears as well. And, though I thought "24 Hours of Hell!" was a grueling and grim roller-coaster ride from beginning to end, I'm not sure the hook should be stretched out into a four-chapter series. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
After three interminably cute and pretentious chapters, "Child" is finally put out of its misery. I know the series has its fans, but I think this chapter might be the nadir. "...and it doomed your sweet soul. But child... poor child... have you even a soul? Daddy always said a soul makes man divine.... In your lonely, painful wanderings have you yet become... divine?" What kind of atmosphere bred writers who longed to be Doug Moench when they grew up, or did Budd Lewis come to Warren a fully-formed Moenchite? I love how our country doctor knows everything there is to know about the parasites latching onto little Timmy's face, despite this being a completely alien lifeform ("I got this theory..."). This really is the pits.
If nothing else, "The Man Hunters" brings Wally Wood back into the fold after a long absence, but it would have been more respectful had they given Wally a good script rather than an utterly predictable rehash of past outer space monster sagas. And what a happy ending! Gorgeous chick married to Cthulhu. This probably would have looked better sans color. "The Unholy Creation" is some warped public safety announcement about adultery, right? It's oddly disjointed and doesn't seem to know what direction it's going. It's better than "Child" but that's about as much praise as I'll give it.
Eerie won't be as much fun to visit once Boudreau and Mones finish their Dr. Archaeus run next issue. Panel for panel, I think this may be the best series Eerie ever ran. I didn't think that way the first time I critiqued the series characters a decade ago for From the Tomb (you can read it here and here); I probably would have handed the Silver Goblet to Hunter II. But a second reading has been enormously entertaining. My regret is that Jim Warren never talked Aurora into issuing a Dr. Archaeus Monster Scenes kit. Imagine that under the tree for Christmas!
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| Next Week... A double dose of Colan! |