“The Beast”
Writer & Artist: Pablo Eluteri Serpieri
Two men go to an old Indian Pueblo to search for gold. Instead, they find an old shaman who warns of the beast. The beast turns out to transform the men into beast who kill each other in their greed.
“Love Doesn’t Last Forever”
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Rick Veitch
A man in the future becomes infected with an alien sexually transmitted disease.
“Fortresses”
Writer: Chesea Mann
Artist: Michael White
A poem winner of the Atlanta Fantasy Fair.
“Sarvul”
Writer & Artist: Cheryl Manaus
A man goes to the mountain to talk to the god Sarvul. Only it is a goddess, and she gets mad.
“Felina”
Writer & Artist: E.H. Terrill
Another winner with story of a woman and a cheetah.
“Works in Progress”
A preview of works being done by Barry Windsor-Smith.
“Mediaview”
by Dennis O’Neil
His final review was a review of his past experiences writing this column.
“Out of Phase”
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: Al Williamson
A man gets trapped in his own fantasies.
“Doctor Watchstop: Wasting Time”
Writer & Artist: Ken Macklin
Dr. Watchstop has found an alien artifact.
“The Last Galactus Story: Chapter Nine”
Writer: John Byrne
Artists: John Byrne and Terry Austin
Galactus finds out who is behind this construct. It is the Watcher who claims to have created Galactus.
“Horizon Lights”
Writer: Jo Duffy
Artist: T. Sagura
Someone battles aliens in this futuristic world.
“They Just Fade Away”
Writer & Artist: Bernie Wrightson
In a future where the world is destroyed the last man battles the last robot. The robot keeps resurrecting the man, so it has something to fight.
“Bookview”
by Jo Duffy
Final column talks about the column and recommends the authors James Clavell, Dick Francis and Georgetta Heyer.
“Futureview”
by John Robert Tebbel and Martha Thomases
Final column that just sort of rambles on about nothing.
“The Return of Cholly and Flytrap”
Writer & Artist: Arthur Suydam
The two guys go to a restaurant and get angry at finding a bug in their food. The fight ends up killing the other customers and cook.
“Amber 1”
Writer & Artist: Jim Starlin
A naked woman cavorts around.
“Death of a Legend”
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: S. Plunkett
The story of the final day of live of Robert E. Howard.
“Slow Dance”
Writer & Artist: Bill Sienkiewicz
Something about dancing.
The final issue. Like the others before it, it was a mixed bag. The Roy Thomas story was the best. A very moving story about Howard’s suicide. I also loved The Beast, Love Doesn’t Last Forever, Out of Phase and They Just Fade Away. I also liked the Cholly & Flytrap story which I normally don’t. The others were mediocre or downright dumb. The final story they had was completely incomprehensible.
The Galactus story ends just as it was getting really interesting. The magazine promised to release a special to finish the story. Unfortunately, this never happened. Byrne did tell what was planned in an interview but sadly I would have liked to get the whole story.
The magazine was declining in quality. I didn’t like most of the ongoing stories they were running or the standalone ones. It was also getting filled with previews of upcoming stuff. More advertisement than story. I think this was a noble effort on their part. To be honest most of the good stuff was released as graphic novels and you wouldn’t even need to get the series to read them. A very flawed series but something I don’t regret checking out.
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