Blaze (1994) # 12

"A Blaze of Glory"

Cover Date: July 1995; On Sale Date: May 1995

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Gary Erskine; Letterer: Bill Oakley/NJQ; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Marie Javins; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Gary Erskine

John Blaze, Clara, and the Punisher arrive at the cemetery base of the Undead M.C., finding the vampires wrestling with a chained coffin. Thinking it to the be a source of their power, Blaze blows open the coffin with his hellfire shotgun, releasing the entity Uri-El, who immediately attacks. Blaze uses his shotgun against Uri-El, nearly destroying him, and the vampires rejoice. Blaze realizes that Uri-El was actually keeping the vampires in check and now that he's been defeated there is no one that can stand in their way.

The Wendigo arrives with Blaze's children, Craig and Emma, who use the magic nailfile against Charnel, the vampire leader. Carnel disarms Blaze and Punisher, allowing the vampires to nearly overwhelm them. Blaze reaches out and grabs Uri-El's flaming sword and uses it to kill the vampires, finally stabbing Charnel through the chest and ending the threat.

Blaze is reunited with his children, along with their orphaned companion Jesse Pinto, and returns the flaming sword to the recovered Uri-El. The rest of the Quentin Carnival arrive, having encountered and defeated a now shrunken down and imprisoned Shelob. Clara gives Blaze the jar containing the Eyes of the Kristall Starrer, stating she doesn't want to pay the price of using them anymore. Finally, the Punisher departs, telling Blaze to enjoy his happy ending because not everyone gets one of those.

Blaze (1994) # 11

"A Pale Fire Gleaming"

Cover Date: June 1995; On Sale Date: April 1995

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Gary Erskine; Letterer: Bill Oakley/NJQ; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Marie Javins; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Gary Erskine

John Blaze is fighting the vampires of the Undead Motorcycle Club when the Punisher arrives, wanting to kill the lead vampire Charnel for dealing heroin. Despite being shot full of bullets and hellfire, the vampires escape and retreat. Outside, the members of the Quentin Carnival have fought off more of the vampires. Clara utilizes the eyes of the Kristall-Starrer to show where the vampires have escaped to and joins Blaze on the back of his motorcycle. John, Clara, and the Punisher ride off to find the vampires, leaving the other carnival members behind to follow later.
Meanwhile, in another dimension, Craig and Emma Blaze beg Jesse Pinto not to kill Baal and instead go with them and the Wendigo to save their dad. Jesse uses the magic nail file to brand the number 7 on Baal's forehead as a promise that he will return for revenge.

At their underpass base of operations, the Undead MC accidentally releases the vampire-killing angel Uriel from his sarcophagus. Uriel manages to kill one of the vampires before he is stopped by Shelob, who seals him back inside the sarcophagus. Blaze, Clara, and the Punisher arrive and resume their battle with the vampires while the Wendigo and the children make their way back to Earth.

Blaze (1994) # 10

"Interview with a Biker"

Cover Date: May 1995; On Sale Date: March 1995

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Gary Erskine; Letterer: Bill Oakley/NJQ; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Marie Javins; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Gary Erskine

A vampire motorcycle gang, the Undead M.C., see a vision of John Blaze, who they plan to use to destroy a being they have chained inside a coffin. Leaving the coffin in the hands of the spider-woman, Shelob, the vampires head out to find Blaze. Meanwhile, while on the road with the Quentin Carnival, Clara uses the eyes of the Kristall-Starrer to show John a vision of his children traveling with the Wendigo in their hunt for Baal.

While they head toward Blaze, the leader of the vampire gang, Charnel, is run over by a passing motorist. He kills the motorist and leaves their body as a sign pointing toward Stark’s Pavilion. The carnival members stop when they see the body, with Blaze going inside the Pavilion alone. While he confronts Charnel inside the Pavilion, the carnival members are attacked by the other vampires. Meanwhile, the Punisher learns from a tortured informant that Charnel is a drug supplier and can be found at the Pavilion.

In another dimension, Wendigo and Blaze’s children prepare to kill Baal but stop when he tells them that their father is in danger. Back in New Jersey, Blaze blasts Charnel with hellfire and thinks he has defeated them, only for them to rise back up and attack him.

Blaze (1994) # 9

"Gateway to the Soul!"

Cover Date: April 1995; On Sale Date: February 1995

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Keith Pollard; Inker: Bill Reinhold; Letterer: Bill Oakley/NJQ; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Marie Javins; Editor in Chief: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

John Blaze has barricaded himself inside his trailer with the eyes of the Kristall Starrer, who has returned from the realm of shadow to reclaim his eyes for himself. While the other members of the Quentin Carnival watch over the frantic Clara, the shadowy Crystal Gazer makes his way to Blaze’s trailer. The eyeballs jump out of their tank to attack Blaze while the Gazer breaks through the barricade; Blaze responds by blasting it with hellfire and remembering how he got to this point.

Flashback to yesterday, when the corrupted Clara is visited by the Oculist who sent her the eyes of the Kristall Starrer. He tells her that she must take out the eyes because the Crystal Gazer has returned for them. The Oculist tells her the story of his childhood in Germany during World War II, where he was the assistant to the Crystal Gazer as he attempted to pass through dimensions to see the light from the beginning of time. When the boy woke up the next day the Gazer was gone save for his eyes, preserved in a jar of liquid. The Oculist tries to take the eyes out of Clara’s head but he’s stopped by Blaze and kicked out of the carnival. That night, after the stunt show, Blaze is told by police Captain Rawlins that the Oculist was found dead, strangled with his eyes gouged out.

Back in the present day, Blaze is firing hellfire at the shadow form of the Crystal Gazer but stops when he sees ghosts of his wife and children. John starts to strangle himself before realizing that the Gazer is just trying to guilt him into killing himself. Blaze grabs the headlight of his motorcycle and channels hellfire through it, producing a blinding light that sends the Gazer away. Rawlins and Clara break into the trailer and Clara reclaims the eyes, allowing them to burrow into her head despite Blaze’s warning that she should destroy them. Rawlins leaves, saying he knows when it’s time to walk away.

Blaze (1994) # 8

"...No Laughing Matter!"

Cover Date: March 1995; On Sale Date: January 1995

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

The light of an opening door appears in a dark room, allowing John Blaze to step through into the darkness. Suddenly, three figures - a woman with an axe, a maniac with a chainsaw, and a soldier with a rifle - attack him before freezing in their tracks. Blaze is approached by the Mad Monk, a robed man whose Murderama attraction, including the animated statues, is under review for addition to the Quentin Carnival. While Blaze is wary of signing him up, the Monk shows him something that might interest him personally: the actual chair that electrocuted Ice Box Bob and a sarcophagus containing the mummified remains of a High Priestess of Baal the Unspeakable. Curious as to how he knows so much about his personal life, John signs the Monk onto the Carnival and tells him to park his rig on the midway of their compound.

Blaze exits the Mad Monk's traveling rig and confers with Kody and Wolf, who are concerned about the fact that no one has ever heard of the Monk's "Murderama" attraction. John shrugs them off by saying that he'll hire on every freak, grifter, and psi-talent in the country to find his missing children. Blaze walks through the Carnival and thinks about the misery of his life while a police helicopter buzzes the Carnival in the sky above. Blaze's thoughts are interrupted by Clara, who is once again wearing the Eyes of the Kristal Starrer and an outlandish leather outfit. She blames John for her inability to control the Eyes, that it was him who made her use them to help find his children. John enters her trailer, unaware that he's being spied on by Princess Python - who in turn is discovered by Kody. The two talk about their feelings toward their co-workers: Python has fallen hard for Blaze, while Kody has long been in love with Clara. They hear a scream coming from the Mad Monk's trailer and decide to investigate, while the cops in the helicopter notice the Monk's truck shaking.

Inside the trailer, the Mad Monk - actually the assassin named Arcade - is held by an arm produced from the Priestess' sarcophagus. The Priestess tells him that their contract demands Blaze's death while Arcade begs for one last shot to murder him. Kody and Princess Python bust into the trailer and are rendered unconscious by Arcade's gas-filled boutonniere. Back in Clara's trailer, John's attempts at fighting off his friend's sexual advances are halted when they see the Mad Monk's trailer transforming into something new. The Carnival members assemble outside the reconfigured trailer, which is now a bizarre funhouse with "Murderworld" written on a large sign. Wolf tells John that Arcade is an assassin that's given carnies a bad name for a long time, then tosses John his shotgun.

Blaze enters and finds Arcade at a podium, directing him toward one of three doors. Unwilling to play the game, Blaze simply fires his hellfire at Arcade, nearly destroying the robotic double of the assassin. Instead of choosing a door, he follows a large coaxial cable into the wall, where another gunshot reveals the hidden Arcade. The assassin pulls a lever and opens all three doors, allowing the three killer robots from the Monk's attraction to attack. Blaze simply tosses his gun over his shoulder and fires, destroying the robots with one shot. Afraid for his life, Arcade opens a door to reveal Kody and Python held in the grasp of the Priestess, who says that she has waited three millenniums as an undead being for Baal's return, only for it to have been halted by Blaze. Blaze fires his gun, blasting the undead creature with hellfire and causing the sarcophagus to fall to the ground. While Kody helps Python outside, Blaze grabs Arcade and tosses him into the sarcophagus with the Priestess and locks it. He goes outside as the funhouse transforms back into a rig and tosses the keys to Wolf, telling his aide to drive the truck into the desert and just lose it. While Wolf drives away in the truck, the police helicopter hovers overhead, announcing futilely over a loud speaker for Blaze to stop where he's at.

Blaze (1994) # 7

"We Who are Lost"

Cover Date: February 1995; On Sale Date: December 1994

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

John Blaze wakes in his trailer in the middle of the night to find three intruders looking for jobs with the carnival: the diminutive psychic Madame Yang Kwei Fei, the Lobster Lad, and the Roach. Sensing that Fei’s psychic power could help him find his missing kids he hires them, then kicks them out of his trailer. The next morning, Blaze kicks a trick-shooter named Double-Tap out of the carnival during his audition. During that afternoon’s show, Blaze attempts to ride down a flaming wire that Double-Tap shoots and breaks, causing Blaze to crash and injure himself. Double-Tap’s two assistants, Tex and Aura-Lee, shoot the carnival’s cashier and steal the show’s ticket money.

Blaze wakes up in the hospital, where he’s questioned by a police detective. Madame Yang Kwei Fei reads the detective’s mind and learns that Double-Tap has a brother named Lucious Tapp, so the carnival members go off to seek revenge despite Blaze begging them not to. While Fei and her assistants interrogate the brother and learn that Double-Tap is hiding in an aquarium, Blaze convinces Clara to use the eyes of the Kristall-Starrer to help him find his motorcycle and stop the carnival members. Blaze and Clara arrive at the aquarium in time to see Lobster Lad and Roach running out, happy and no longer deformed. Two new minions carry Fei out in her steel box. The next morning, the detective questions Blaze at the carnival and notices that the new Roach and Lobster Lad look just like Double-Tap and Tex, while there’s a new trained monkey named Aura-Lee.

Blaze (1994) # 6

"Apache Autumn, Part 3: Hungry Spirits!"

Cover Date: January 1995; On Sale Date: November 1994

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

In Washington's Cascade Mountains, John Blaze has tracked down the Wendigo, a Native America folk creature that is supposedly a woodland protector spirit.  Before Blaze can shoot the Wendigo, he's shocked to see his children, Craig and Emma, riding on the Wendigo's back along with another young boy.

The day before, Blaze and the Quentin Carnival arrive in the local town just as Kody is confronting Clara over the eyes of the Kristall Starrer.  A native woman named Eve Two Crows intervenes, demanding Clara be given back her property, which allows Clara to place the eyes inside her head.  Realizing that Eve is the woman they were sent to meet by Wyatt Wingfoot, Blaze follows her inside her office, where she has compiled all known Wendigo sightings in the mountain area.  Clara enters wearing a provocative new outfit and blasts the computer with her eyes, pinpointing the Wendigo's location.

In the dimensional prison of Ice Box Bob, the Wendigo enters the cell holding Craig, Emma, and Jesse Pinto.  They grab onto the Wendigo's back and allow the creature to take them out of the prison, which is exactly what the demonic entity imprisoning them was hoping for.  The entity follows the Wendigo through the portal onto Earth directly behind Blaze, who the children are screaming at the turn around.  Seeing the entity's reflection in his motorcycle, Blaze fires behind him, but is blasted by the demon's eye beams.  The entity identifies himself as Baal, who wanted to use Blaze's hellfire to free him from the dimensional prison he had been locked within for centuries.  The children save Blaze using the magic nail file that killed Ice Box Bob, which wounds Baal.  While Baal goes back through the dimensional portal, Craig and Emma check on their dazed father.  Jesse Pinto and the Wendigo go to the portal, saying they're going to track down and finish Baal off before he can come back and kill them.  Craig and Emma decide to go with Jesse, and John wakes up just in time to see his children disappearing yet again in front of his eyes.

Blaze (1994) # 5

"Apache Autumn, Part 2: Bad Day at the Haunted Mesa!"

Cover Date: December 1994; On Sale Date: October 1994

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

John Blaze and Warpath are in a fight with a college student named Darryl Licht, who bartered the souls of murder victims to an entity he believed to be a Native American trickster god.  The entity is actually the same one that kidnapped Blaze's children, and he has bestowed supernatural power to Licht, transforming him into a six-armed buffalo demon.  Licht easily defeats Blaze and Warpath and uses magic to transport them inside a nearby mesa.  Wyatt Wingfoot, Clara Menninger, and the rest of the Quentin Carnival arrive too late to see where Blaze and Warpath have been taken, finding only Blaze's abandoned motorcycle and shotgun.

Meanwhile, in the the dimensional prison formerly inhabited by the deceased Ice Box Bob, the entity locks away Blaze's children, Craig and Emma, and they are soon visited by someone entering their cell through the floor.  The visitor is Jesse Pinto, who was given to the entity by Licht.  He has a plan to escape and seek revenge using the magic nail file used to kill Ice Box Bob.

Back inside the mesa, Licht rants to the mystically bound Blaze and Warpath, while outside Clara uses the eyes of the Kristall Starrer to find their location.  While Warpath breaks free of his bonds and attacks Licht, Clara and Princess Python ride Blaze's motorcycle toward the mesa, bringing the shotgun with them.  Blaze concentrates his hellfire to escape his own bonds, while in the prison dimension the Wendigo appears riding mystical rails, taking the nail file with him from Jesse before disappearing again.  The Wendigo appears inside the mesa and hands the nail file to Blaze just as Clara and Princess Python arrive, giving the shotgun back to him as well.  Blaze sticks the nail file through a 12-gauge round and shoots it through his shotgun at Licht, which when combined with the hellfire disrupts the entities magic and transforms Licht back into his human body.  The mesa disappears and Blaze threatens Licht, wanting information on who he made his deal with and where he can find his children.

Blaze (1994) # 4

"Apache Autumn, Part 1"

Cover Date: November 1994; On Sale Date: September 1994

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

John Blaze is an Apache "spirit kiva", where he has is experiencing a vision/hallucination of the Wendigo walking hand in hand with this two missing kids.  During the vision he is confronted first by Icebox Bob and then by Bob's master, who claims to have met Blaze once before but is unrecognized by John.  He claims to have Blaze's children and he'll be seeing him soon enough.  John wakes up in the hut and is pulled free by Warpath and Wyatt Wingfoot, who believe Blaze to be a thief or even a killer that they're hunting for.  When Blaze tells them about his vision of the Wendigo, Warpath and Wingfoot reveal that they too both had visions of the Wendigo that drew them to this area.

They show Blaze a grisly murder scene, where a family were the latest victims of a serial killer on the Apache reservation.  All of the family's children had been killed but one, 5-year-old Jesse Pinto, who has gone missing.  Warpath had received a vision of Jesse walking with the Wendigo, mirroring Blaze's own vision.  At the local trading post, Blaze tries to convince Clara to use her magic eyes to find the kids, but she refuses, believing that the eyes are trying to corrupt her.  Wyatt Wingfoot offers an alternative, and at his home he places the jar with the eyes in a magical basket, transporting himself, Blaze, Clara, and Warpath to the spirit realm.  There they see the Wendigo, Icebox Bob, and hundreds of souls being devoured by a demonic entity.  Once the vision ends, Wyatt gets a phone call that tells him there's been another murder and the killer is trapped inside.

Outside the trading post, they're told by the police that the killer may be a college student named Darryl Licht, who had been at the reservation studying Native American shamanism.  Blaze and Warpath enter the store and are attacked by Licht, who has been transformed into a powerful new form by a mystical entity in exchange for the souls of the people he's murdered.  Licht escapes out into the desert, and is followed by Blaze and Warpath.  They find Licht being powered by the entity he made the deal with, who is using Licht to get a foothold into their realm.

Blaze (1994) # 3

"Highway to Hellfire!"

Cover Date: October 1994
On Sale Date: August 1994

Writer: Larry Hama
Artist: Henry Martinez
Inker: Bud LaRosa
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: John Kalisz
Editor: Bobbie Chase
Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco

Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

In the alternate dimension that serves as his prison, Icebox Bob screams at a poster of John Blaze, yelling that it'll take more than a swamp monster with a burning touch to destroy him. He then kicks at a locked door and says "at least I ain't stuck here alone". From a metal grate at the bottom of the door, two small sets of eyes look at their captor in terror.

Back in the Florida town of Brownings Corners, John Blaze and the young Holden Blevins return to the Quentin Carnival, carrying with them the retrieved Eyes of the Kristall Starrer. Blaze demands that Clara tell him how the Eyes are connected to the Nexus of Realities and Icebox Bob, and she replies by letting the Eyes implant themselves in her head. Her attitude immediately changes, the Eyes making her more cruel. While Clara, Blaze, Kody, and Wolf argue in the trailer, Holden interrupts them. Blaze had thought of Blevins as a ghost, but Clara calls him a "weirdling", seeing a strange aura of energy around him. Blevins tells them about how he had been taken by Icebox Bob, and his mother had followed them to rescue him. She confronted Bob with a # 7 nail file, not knowing that a piece of steel with the number seven on it was a powerful channel for magic. Blevins' mom stabbed Bob with the nail file, breaking his hold on keeping them trapped in his dimension, opening a small portal back to the real world. But Bob wouldn't let them escape so easily, and Holden stops his story there.

Back in the alternate dimension, Bob terrorizes John's children. Suddenly, a demonic hand slithers out of the ground, accompanied by a voice that accuses Bob of stealing the children from him. Bob pleads that he was just borrowing the kids so he could get Blaze to release him from his prison. The other demon tells Bob to call for Blaze through the Eyes, and that he will make ready the road. Suddenly, back in the trailer, Clara's eyes blast forth with energy, and she tells John that "he wants to meet you on the highway". John runs from the trailer, determined to get his kids back from Bob, and Holden runs after him. After they leave, Wolf states that he knows someone who might be able to shed a little light on the mystery.

As John and Holden ride down the highway, the road suddenly transforms into a river of blood in a valley of fire. They follow the blood river to a light at the end of the road, which they drive right through. They pass through the dimensional gate and fall toward Bob's house, crashing through the skylight. Inside, the second demon slaps Bob down on his electric chair and powers it up, giving him his own counter to Blaze's bike. Bob races toward Blaze, but John blasts his chair with his shotgun, destroying it.

Meanwhile, Wolf has called an old friend in the police and got information on Holden's mother, Mary Blevins. He tells Wolf and Clara that Mary did get away from Bob, but she was found stark raving mad. She was put in an asylum, where she committed suicide. The child that was found with Mary was dead due to ice pick wounds: the boy's name was Caufield Blevins, age three. Kody asks about Holden, and Wolf tells him that during the autopsy on Mary they discovered she was pregnant with a boy, who would have been eleven years old today had he ever been born.

Back in Bob's realm, the killer grabs Craig and Emma and uses them as hostages. Holden tells Blaze to fire, but John refuses because he can't hurt his children. Holden then jumps off the bike, a # 7 nail file in his hand. He stabs Bob in the head, causing the alternate reality to start breaking apart. Blaze loses control of his bike, and skids past his children, who he reaches for. The demonic hands of Bob's master then grabs the two kids and pulls them through a steel door. The next moment, John is lying on the highway, screaming hysterically that he won't ever give up trying to get his children back.

Blaze (1994) # 2

"Swamp Fire!"

Cover Date: September1994; On Sale Date: July1994

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

With his thoughts focused on nothing but Icebox Bob's last message, "I know where your kids are", John Blaze rides ahead of his carnival caravan as they navigate through the Florida Everglades on their way to the town of Brownings Corners. Suddenly, Blaze runs across a monstrous creature walking across the road, one which he immediately believes to be a threat to his people. John blows off the monster's head and hand with his hellfire, but finds that even that won't stop it when it lands a mean punch to Blaze's jaw, knocking him off his bike. Wolf, Cody, and the rest of the Carnival come to John's aid, but the monster has already returned to its path back into the swamp, head and arm regrowing as it walks. Wolf prepares to shoot it again, but Clara stops him, telling him that the monster isn't evil...that it's a guardian of a portal, "a thing of wondrous beauty, like a crack in the ether leaking limitless radiance". Wolf then comments that Clara has been acting strange ever since she got that package in the mail, and that she's been describing things in a way that only a sighted person could. When Kody jumps in to defend her, John breaks up the argument and tells everyone to get back on the road.

As they pull into Brownings Corners, a gathering place for circus and carnival folk, they stop a gas station owned by J.B. and R.L. Shadrach. Before they leave, John makes a comment about the swamp monster, to which R.L. replies that he must have seen the Man-Thing. Further into town, the carnival crew run into a bit of harassment from the local freaks, who call them nothing but grifters and cons. Two of those staying in the town are a slightly drunk Ringmaster and Princess Python, from the Circus of Crime, who says that the word on the grapevine is that the Quentin Carnival is in town to do some talent scouting.

The next morning, Blaze holds interviews with the residents, turning away most of the people he talks to, saying he's looking specifically for psi-talents and mind readers. While he's interviewing Princess Python, who says that she does have mental abilities that she uses to control her snakes, the Shadrach brothers sneak around to Clara's trailer. Spying on the woman, they see the eyes of the Krystall Starrer jumping from their jar and into her head. Green light then emits from the eyes, showing a vision of the Man-Thing and the Nexus of All Realities. Realizing that the eyes can lead them to the Man-Thing, the biggest freak show attraction in the country, the brothers break into Clara's trailer. Blaze, meanwhile, hires Python, but then excuses himself when he sees Holden Blevins sneaking into his trailer. He confronts the boy, who tells him that his children are being held captive by someone even nastier than Icebox Bob. Elsewhere, in Bob's mystical realm, he has a conversation with himself as he chews down on a meal of roaches, saying that he's elected Blaze to take his place in his prison, and that the Nexus is the way he's going to lure him in.

Blaze is then brought to Clara's trailer by Wolf, where he sees the bruised and beat-up psychic. She tells him that the brothers stole her eyes, which she swears aren't evil. John runs outside and jumps on his bike, deciding to ride out to the place where he encountered the Man-Thing the day before. Elsewhere in the swamp, the brothers are led to the Man-Thing and the Nexus by the Krystall Starrer. From their truck, they attempt to shoot the swamp creature, but instead run straight into him. The swamp oozes into the truck, grabbing hold of J.B. and setting him on fire (for whoever knows fear... burns at the Man-Thing's touch!). R.L. jumps free, just as Blaze arrives on the scene. With the Nexus behind him, Blaze points his shotgun at Shadrach and tells him to hand over the eyes. Before either men can react, however, the living swamp body of the Man-Thing crashes down on R.L. like a wave, attracted by the man's fear. All that's left after the blaze is Shadrach's charred skeleton. Suddenly, a pair of ice tongs clamps around Blaze's throat, and stepping from the Nexus Icebox Bob gets ready to stab him with his ice pick. Before he can, however, the Man-Thing reaches forward and grabs Bob's face, setting him on fire and forcing him to retreat back into the Nexus. Weak from the lack of oxygen, John collapses and can only watch helplessly as the Nexus closes and the Man-Thing shambles back into the swamp.

Blaze (1994) # 1

"A Cold Blast From Icebox Bob!"

Cover Date: August 1994; On Sale Date: June 1994

Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Henry Martinez; Inker: Bud LaRosa; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: John Kalisz; Editor: Bobbie Chase; Editor In Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Henry Martinez

A young boy named Holden Blevins arrives at the Quentin Carnival, telling John Blaze that he met the Ghost Rider at a crossroads at midnight.  Ghost Rider directed Holden to seek out Blaze, stating that the two of them will help each other. The boy asks him to stop a man called Ice Box Bob, a killer that eats people's souls. Blaze disregards the boy's story, but turns to find that the kid has vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, Clara and Kody go to a local store to buy groceries, surprised to find that the wheelchair bound owner has been holding a package for Clara for over ten years. The owner, Mr. Schenker, then shows Kody a preserved corpse in a prisoner's uniform that he keeps on display.

That night at the Carnival, while Blaze is performing, a young girl is kidnapped by a ghost that carries ice tongs. Around the same time, Clara opens her package in her trailer, a jar of liquid in which floats two pairs of eyes. Calling them the Eyes of the Kristall-Starrer, the orbs jump out of the water and attach themselves to Clara's face. She sees a vision of the corpse in Schenker's store, the body of an electrocuted killer named Ice Box Bob. John sits in his trailer, preparing to go find the missing girl, only to find that his metal casing on his face is no longer needed...his face is healed, repaired by the hellfire that saturates his body. Holden then appears in his trailer, telling him to go after Schenker.

John arrives at Schenker's store and finds the store owner, now able to walk, preparing to execute the young girl. As John blows away bits of the man's body with hellfire, he can almost see the ghost of Ice Box Bob underneath. After Schenker dies, Holden reappears and shows a message left for John, written on the wall in blood - "I know where your kids are!"