Gargoyle (1985 series) #2

Gargoyle (Isaac Christians) is stunned to find that the man in his human body “Isaac” has returned his beloved Elaine from the dead. He also admits to creating the faceless women, clay bodies imprisoning the spirits of humans dragged down by lust. “Isaac” then reveals his story: spirits from the ancient world driven out by the coming of Christianity, gargoyles were imprisoned as decorations atop churches. But then a red-robed stranger arrived (revealed later to be the Druid Derwyddon) and gave the gargoyles life, sending them into the world to wreak havoc. But the stranger changed his mind about the terror unleashed and turned them back to stone. But some refused to be bound. One of them gained a following and came to the attention of the Six-Fingered Hand who, when they put Isaac Christians’ soul into the gargoyle’s body, put the gargoyle’s soul into Isaac’s body, thereby punishing both of them. Gargoyle recoils at “Isaac’s” tales of lust but the old man knows Isaac is a liar. So here we discover what Isaac has always kept a secret: after WWI he didn’t want to return home so he visited Paris, becoming obsessed with a prostitute named Germaine, pouring out his lust and degrading himself for her. Then she left him, driving Isaac mad. He is now attacked by gargoyles and he defeats them with his bio-mystic energy. “Isaac” has a proposition: they can return to their original bodies if Isaac consents and “Isaac” offers Elaine as his reward. She pleads with him to accept the proposal so he does and in a painful magical transaction they are restored. The gargoyles depart and Elaine punches the now-human Isaac in the face, revealing she is not Elaine but Germaine….

And the red-robed stranger returns….