Free Old School Warren Download Creepy Issue #15 From 1964 For Your Old School Science Fantasy Campaigns

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Hailing from the subtle time machine days of 1964 comes this classic issue of Creepy magazine by Warren publishing sporting a classically iconic cover by the one and only Frank Frezetta. This issue is an old school DM's dream with a classic mix of horror, science fiction, sword and sorcery all done with the dark edginess of Warren from its hey days. There is a ton to mine from this issue The contents speak for themselves and here here's what's included with the stories in this issue : Thane: City of Doom by Steve Ditko and Archie Goodwin; Adam Link, Champion Athlete by Joe Orlando and Otto Binder; The Adventure of the German Student by Jerry Grandenetti and Archie Goodwin (from the story by Washington Irving); The River by Johnny Craig; and The Terror Beyond Time by Neal Adams and Archie Goodwin. Also includes Creepy Fan Club information. Cover art by Frank Frazetta. Cover price $0.40.This issue is a microcosmic trip back in time to when the blending of genres wasn't quite so stable. Like many of the horror comics of the thirties, forties and fifties. Creepy was throwback in time and tastes. While not much has changed really. The iconic stories of Warren always seemed to walk a fine balance between tasteless and iconic. Many times they often broke the conventions of their subjects. This makes them very suitable for use as adventure fodder. 

 Thane: City of Doom by Steve Ditko and Archie Goodwin is a really nice little sword & sorcery tale that plays fast and loose with the conventions of the traditions of S&S. There's plenty of magic, monsters, excellent artwork, and a twisted ironic slant to the tale but there's also room to mine this tale as fodder for a sword & sorcery tale or as a jump off point for other explorers of this ruined city state. What for example is happening below the ruins of City of Doom. Are there more secrets just waiting for a clever DM to exploit? You bet there are if your A. Willing to invent them and B. Are willing to use the elements of the story to create your own woven sword and sorcery tale. This story makes an excellent jump point for an AS&SH or sword & sorcery retroclone idea. 

Adam Link, Champion Athlete by Joe Orlando and Otto Binder, Adam Link is one of those characters whose iconic and status transcends the material. If you want to know what a golem or android would be like in a Weird Tales or a science fantasy setting. This tale is a good jump off point. This tale is perfect fodder for the Weird Adventures retroclone setting or any pulp science fantasy setting. There are several gimmicks that could be applied to any robotic or old school golem PC or NPC as well in this one. 

 The Adventure of the German Student by Jerry Grandenetti and Archie Goodwin (from the story by Washington Irving). You know your in for a Gothic fueled treat when Archie Goodwin and Jerry Grandentetti are at the helm. Everything about this story is perfect fuel for a Ravenloft style retroclone adventure or for as fodder for a Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonsque fueled game adventure. There's a bit of meat for this one and if I was going to pull from this tale. I would certainly track down and read the original tale.  This tale could also with a bit of wrangling be used for a Lamentations Of The Flame Princess style game to boot. 

 The River by Johnny Craig, this tale makes an excellent adventure encounter bit. There's a whole subtle gimmick about the story that screams Gothic adventure fuel. The art isn't bad at all and certainly the characters of the tale could make decent NPC's. 

and The Terror Beyond Time by Neal Adams and Archie Goodwin. This is a classic in the Lovecraftian school of subtle and twisted with a bit of tweaking this could be perfect fodder for a mini adventure encounter with bells. All in all this isn't a bad little tale at all. 

Looking through this issue is like taking a mini time trip for me especially looking at the  Creepy Fan Club information and staring at that cover art by Frank Frazetta, and finally that  price tag of  $0.40. is making me want to take a trip down to the local drug store and see if the latest issue is in stock. 

Hope that this issue is going to help you out for some of your old school OSR gaming inspiration. 

Free War Torn Monday Download - Creepy Magazine Issue #89 (1977) For Your Old School Combat Stricken Campaigns

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Welcome to another fun filled Monday old school gamers, one aspect of the old post apocalyptic formula that often gets forgetten is the fog of war! Way back in the annals of comic shops I ran across this wonderful little issue of Warren's Creepy magazine issue #89 due to the striking Frazetta cover. Now Creepy has always been a bit of a weird magazine to begin with but they often featured themes. This one was a War issue and it was a damn fine issue at that with lots of old school horror comic book action. Creepy didn't pull any punches either.
This issue stacked out like this according to My Comic Shop.com :
Stories in this war-themed issue include: Blood Brothers by Bruce Jones and Jose Ortiz; The Windmill by Lou Rossin and Leopoldo Duranona; Angel of Jaipur and Bill DuBay and John Severin; The Hungry Dragon by Nicola Cuti, Carmine Infantino, and Alex Nino; The Door-Gunner by Larry Hama, Cary Bates, and Leopold Sanchez; and Coggin's Army by Roger McKenzie and Martin Salvador. Cover art by Frank Frazetta. Cover price $1.50.

Alright Blood Brothers is a real take on the bonds between soldiers and undeath with some dire indications for a Call of Cthlhu or Mutant Future game where the fighting rages eternal for some folks. The idea here for the characters to encounter a deranged NPC and his ghoul band of brothers. This one I've use several times and its always made skin crawl on some folks. 
The Windmill is another trap waiting to happen that can be imported right into Mutant Future or any war torn land for that matter. Plenty of opportunity for mayhem with this one. 
Angel of Jaipur is a good solid old fashioned romp down memory lane with some room to be adapted to a post apocalyptic wasteland quite easily. 
The Hungry Dragon is a story that I've used for Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu plenty of times for the adapted history of a cult of ghouls and their descendants within America. Simply change the serial numbers on the story and it easily becomes a Mutant Future group of cultists. 

The Door Gunner is a tale that can indicate the strain of war on some and could be used for an NPC in an adventure of Call of Cthulhu. Very easily adapted into a tale for Mutant Future for a very deranged city guard or given a fantasy spin for a gent whose seen too much. 

Coggin's Army is a dark and abiding little tale that can easily be adapted to a number of old school games to indicate some dark deeds from the wastelands or the war torn bastions.  Many of these  comic stories are easily adapted into a Lovecraftian frame of mind for old school adventuring or horror gaming. War is hell and these comic stories play upon this theme with a vengeance add in a bit of the Cthulhu Mythos or the post apocalyptic angle and your pretty much ready to play. These stories play fast and loose with some details of history and whatnot but what do expect? Creepy was a horror comic from the 70's and 80's. A product of its time and so we got quite a bit of non politically correctness and solid old school entertainment. It makes them perfect for old school gaming and ripe for adapting.
Any of these tales could be moved ad hoc into a modern old school game with little issue to indicate the cost and strain of war upon the denizens of a campaign. There's lots to work with in this classic issue of Creepy. Happy Monday and keep on rolling.  

Another Free Halloween Download - Skywald Comics: Nightmare Issue 11 (1973) For Your Old School Campaigns

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My own journey with Skywald comic magazines begins someplace around 1975 when I was a wee little lad and since it is Halloween I thought I would share one of my all time favorite issues of the venerable ghoulish grave side story offerings. I stumbled upon these magazines whilst helping clean out a basement back in New York state.  This issue features some fantastic tales of horror, a bit of sword and sorcery thrown in, and some old school horror articles. This magazine series is forever linked in my mind with OD&D because it was two years later I stumbled or was shoved right into my first game! And things haven't ever really been the same again.
Skywald was an incredible engine of creativity and horror back in the 1970's and then it disappeared under an avalanche of Marvel horror induced haze. Many speculate that this was done as sheer marketing volume stunt to drive Skywald into submission. Needless to say that Skywald folded its tents and its material have faded into the public domain. Its perfect fodder for a retro horror campaign.

This issue featured :
The Wetness of The Pit which could well be a purely urban retroclone adventure withe PC's pushed right into the horror train tracks of the story. The monsters here are nasty and deadly enough to make this a very easy story to adapt to a variety of old school retroclone games.
Taw is another story with potential for an old school adventure encounter, here I'm thinking either Strange Adventures or another modern day variant here. 
The Beasts of Tomb Island might well be a great adventure encounter for a Planet Mother #$@er campaign touch stone with a bit of reworking this could be used for an old school post apocalyptic campaign. 
Where Gods Once Stood is absolutely perfect for an Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea style adventure or any old school sword and sorcery campaign. 
Corridors of Caricature is just the sort of thing that might go on in a lower key Planet Mother $#%er campaign. Very workable for any old school modern style horror themed campaign. 
Where are The Inhabitants of Earth? now this is a perfect crossover venue for any old school post apocalyptic campaign including Stars Without Number, Mutant Future, Bandits and Battlecruisers or any old school science fantasy style campaign setting. 
Titan Weep is another old school sword and sorcery story with a twist that makes a great little encounter for AS&SH or any old school sword and sorcery campaign. 
Finally The Horror War rounds out the whole issue and keeps the ball rolling.
The whole issue of Nightmare has some great filler material and adds from a real by gone age. It gives a great alternative to the huge glut of Marvel horror material of the time. Bear in mind that I love Marvel here even though Skywald was a completely different animal and had a whole different feel to their magazines. From their characters, settings, stories, art, and backdrops in all of their graphic comic magazines. All in all Skywald is like Charlton comics for me. An old school independent spirit in age when boxed and packaged consumerism was just really getting its toe hold in. 

Free Halloween Download Psycho #14 For Your Old School Horror and Sword & Sorcery Campaigns On The Dark Corner Blog

Dare you trod down the dark alleyways of time to the newstand of old where Skywald's Psycho magazine is still sold for the cover price of .75 cents and there are realms of horror and adventure that await your old school campaigns right over 

HERE

Revisiting Poul Anderson's Free Sword and Sorcery Tale The Valor of Cappen Verra On The Dark Corner Blog

Need a sword and sorcery tale to get the ball rolling in your old school games? How about an old classic from the mind of Poul Anderson? A nice old school sword and sorcery number to get the blood boiling and your imagination fired up! 

Available right over 

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Free Classic Science Fiction Download - H.G.Wells Star Begotten As Fodder For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign

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Imagine that at the end of War of The Worlds and the supposed Martian Invasion that the Martians didn't die and that they were actually delivering a biological legacy to mankind. We really are the Martians and they are right now living among us.
Well's Star Begotten addresses this very idea. The book is a 1937 science fiction book which might be loosely and I do use the term loosely Well's sequel to The War Of The Worlds.
The plot goes something like this : 

Star-Begotten is a 1937 novel by H. G. Wells. It tells the story of a series of men who conjecture upon the possibility of the human race being altered by Martians to replace their own dying planet.

The protagonist of the story Joseph Davis, who is an author of popular histories, becomes overtaken with suspicion that he and his family have already been exposed and are starting to change. 

There are even other over arches with the Star Begotten in recent books like The Sherlock Holmes War Of The Worlds book from 1975.
 

Much of the material in the book is a weird take on the War Of The Worlds. The Martians are completely unstoppable and almost a force of nature in the books.
Wiki goes into it :

At the end of Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds, Professor Challenger indicates that the "Martians" (not really from Mars in the story) from The War of the Worlds are the same Martians from Star-Begotten, and hints at the start of the Martian alteration-program.

The connection to the 'Star Begotten' and 'Quartermass and the Pit'  is even stronger and the two books have certain parallels. Wiki goes into it thus: 

In Nigel Kneale's 1957 BBC television serial, and its later 1967 British science fiction movie adaptation Quatermass and the Pit (of the Professor Quatermass series), a discovery of strange fossils reveals that human evolution was altered by a dying race of Martians, in order to leave a legacy behind. This may have been inspired by the tale of HG Wells.

Using The Star Begotten As Fodder For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaign 

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At the end of War of The Worlds the narrator is left with a sheer sense of dread and doubt. He even suffers a complete mental breakdown. The final chapter which is one of the most dire. It reads like a post apocalyptic adventure. The narrator encounters a couple of deranged characters, hides out in the ruins of London, scouts for food, witnesses the fifth cylinder crash, the final horrors of the Martians, etc.
Yet it all seems like a final gesture by a dying race of alien monsters. But there might be more happening happening in War of the Worlds
A good overview right HERE
And a solid resource HERE

 The Star Begotten gives a DM another whole take on these events. The invasion could take place in A Mutant Future style world and the Martian war machines etc are actually on Earth to deliver their final blow to mankind. A legacy of  viruses designed  to change the human population into something 'else'.Perhaps this is where the the mutants come in as the Earth changes completely and a second wave of the invasion begins. Could there be more to the Mars seen in Well's Crystal Egg? If this world was Mars at all. There is far more going on in The Star Begotten then simply an invasion and changeling like plan of these creatures. The Star Begotten makes these alien far more cosmic and weird then simply the whole sale destruction seen in War of the Worlds. This is an invasion on a micro cellular scale with changes that will effect generations of humans for the rest of this planet's life.
Simply put the Star Begotten changes everything that we've seen in War of the Worlds and turns it on its ear. The book is a really different take on events of War of the Worlds however loosely and it could be used as a compelling campaign maybe even during the so called Shadow Years of a game like Mutant Future or Gamma World. 

Free Download Science Fiction Classic - H.G. Well's The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaigns

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Time and again I've returned to this particular short story collection of H.G. Wells as the basis for any number of old school campaigns. This particular collection has some real gems and lately I've not seen the amount of appreciation for this collection.
What is so special about a bunch of stories that originally appeared in various magazines during the 1900's?
 Well according to Wiki: 

The Country of the Blind and Other Stories is a collection of thirty-threefantasy and science fiction short stories written by the English author H. G. Wells between 1894 and 1909. It was first published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in 1911. All the stories had first been published in various weekly and monthly periodicals. Twenty-seven of the stories had also been previously published in five earlier story collections by Wells.

The title of this collection refers to one of Wells's best known short stories, "The Country of the Blind", which is included in this book.
Many of these stories can easily be adapted into your old school post apocalyptic campaigns as variations of the usual mutant monsters, plants, and hellish Armageddons. And more here's what's in this collection and why I've included it
All of these are from Wiki : 

• "The Jilting of Jane" (Pall Mall Budget, 12 July 1894) ^2 3
• "The Cone" (Unicorn, 18 September 1895) ^{2 3
  A tale of revenge and violence this might make an excellent mini encounter for a factory or post apocalpytic community.} 
• "The Stolen Bacillus" (Pall Mall Budget, 21 June 1894) ^{1 3
  This one makes a very nasty little encounter with a party and the events depicted in this one will have PC's on the edge of their seats.} 
• "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" (Pall Mall Budget, 2 August 1894) ^{1
  This  one is perfect for an encounter with a rather nasty mutant plant and the weirdness that follows it.} 
• "In the Avu Observatory" (Pall Mall Budget, 9 August 1894) ^1 3
• There's lots to use with this one and its easy to adapt.
• "Æpyornis Island" (Pall Mall Budget, 27 December 1894) ^1 3
• "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" (Pall Mall Budget, 28 March 1895) ^{1
  A case of Mutation gone horribly wrong? A possible mini encounter.} 
• "The Lord of the Dynamos" (Pall Mall Budget, 6 September 1894) ^{1 3
  A post apocalyptic fix up mini encounter perhaps.} 
• "The Moth" (Pall Mall Gazette, 28 March 1895) ¹ 
  Another encounter with a mutant species and this time its an insect! 
• "The Treasure in the Forest" (Pall Mall Budget, 23 August 1894) ^{1 3
  This mini adventure practically writes itself.} 
• "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham" (The Idler, May 1896) ^{2 3
  A study in high weirdness and a possible Mutant Future style encounter} 
• "Under the Knife" (The New Review, January 1896) ^{2
  This one makes a great little quick mini encounter for adventuring.} 
• "The Sea Raiders" (The Weekly Sun Literary Supplement, 6 December 1896) ^{2 3
  Things are not so nice beneath the mutant filled waves.} 
• "The Obliterated Man" (New Budget, 15 August 1895 as "The Sad Story of a Dramatic Critic") ^{2 3
  Theater during the Shadow Years?} 
• "The Plattner Story" (The New Review, April 1896) ^2 3
• "The Red Room" (The Idler, March 1896) ^{2 3
   This one makes an excellent cross over point for a post apocalyptic campaign and a haunted mini demi plane with strong ties to the negative material plane. Other possibilities include an OD&D style haunting.} 
• "The Purple Pileus" (Black and White, December 1896) ^{2 3
  There's potential in this tale as a possible campaign opener for a POA game. Short sweet and to the point, this tale is easy to adapt.} 
• "A Slip Under the Microscope" (The Yellow Book, January 1896) ^{2 3
   Is there far more that hangs on the thread of this tale. A possible encounter during the shadow years?}
• "The Crystal Egg" (The New Review, May 1897) ^{4
  A super science device with deep connections to the War of the Worlds and the interactions of it with an ordinary fellow. Could there be a cult carrying out the sinster agenda of the Crystal Egg in the Wastelands?} 
• "The Star" (The Graphic, December 1897) ^{4
  There is far more going on here in this tale then many would expect. A dangerous tale that might happen in the wastelands.} 
• "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" (The Illustrated London News, July 1898) ^{4
  A branch in the road of mutation and its possible consequences as evolution and mutation merge in this tale? A good mini campaign.} 
• "A Vision of Judgement" (Butterfly, September 1899)
  Dangers plenty in this tale of high weirdness. A good mini encounter with far reaching implications in the wastelands. 
• "Jimmy Goggles the God" (The Graphic, December 1898) ^{5
  Becareful what you gaze into out in the abyss of space and time.} 
• "Miss Winchelsea's Heart" (The Queen, October 1898) ⁵
• A tale with heart and soul that could be a great mini encounter. 
• "A Dream of Armageddon" (Black and White, May/June 1901) ⁵
• Dangers aplenty in this tale that can take place in your favorite post apocalyptic campaign. 
• "The Valley of Spiders" (Pearson’s Magazine, March 1903) ^{5
  One of my all time favorites with an encounter with some dangerous mutant spiders and a cold blooded murder out in the wastelands.} 
• "The New Accelerator" (The Strand, December 1901) ^{5
  A super science encounter gone wrong. A nice little mini encounter out in the wastelands.} 
• "The Truth About Pyecraft" (The Strand, April 1903) ^{5
  Becareful what you wish for and how it goes. A good mini encounter!} 
• "The Magic Shop" (The Strand, June 1903) ⁵
• An encounter with the forces of super science and danger. Easily adaptable and very dangerous adventure among the urban wastes. 
• "The Empire of the Ants" (The Strand, December 1905)
• High mutant weirdness with the ants among the hills. A solid adventure into itself with themes similar to the Fifties classic 'Them'
• "The Door in the Wall" (The Daily Chronicle, 14 July 1906)
  There are some doors that shouldn't be opened. This story goes into why and how it would make an excellent mini adventure. 
• "The Country of the Blind" (The Strand, April 1904)
  A super science event with far reaching effects, this one makes a great quick encounter with a dangerous event. 
• "The Beautiful Suit" (Colliers, 10 April 1909)
• Another super science artifact that could ruin lives and makes a great encounter for PC's! 

 All in all this is one of my favorite HG Wells collections and not widely known today with some very short stories with far more reaching effects for PC's in your favorite old school games. More Wells very soon!
Happy Gaming! 

Read Two Excepts From Shulalarolan The Wanderer by Eric Fabiaschi On The Dark Corner Blog

   

Go over to the Dark Corner blog and read two excepts from the Shulalarolan The Wanderer Short Stories  by by me over at the Dark Corner Blog. Shulalarolan The Wanderer is a new vampire antihero. That will be appearing soon in the Protodimension magazine.
More details right HERE