Data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under Creative Commons license.

Issue Details

Issue #5
Published January-February 1951
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing Albert B. Feldstein

Cover Details

Characters The Old Witch (inset); The Vault-Keeper (inset); The Crypt-Keeper (inset)
Genre Horror
Pencils Johnny Craig
Inks Johnny Craig
Reprinted In Haunt of Fear (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #5 (November 1993)

7 page The Witch's Cauldron! story "A Biting Finish!"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis A man murders his rival and buries his body in the grave of someone who died in 1867. When he confesses in his sleep, his new wife confronts him and he murders both her and the maid. With police on his heels he takes to an underground tunnel system that passes through the old graveyard. A coffin obstructs his path and he smashes an opening into it to reach inside and pry it out of the way. The corpse inside bites down hard on his hand causing him to bleed to death. As life fades, he notices the name plate on the coffin is the same one that he disposed of the body of his rival.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Graham Ingels
Inks Graham Ingels
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted In Haunt of Fear (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #5 (November 1993)

1 page The Old Witch's Niche letters page "Letters page"

Script Albert B. Feldstein
Letters Typeset

7 page The Crypt of Terror story "Horror in the Freak Tent!"

Characters The Crypt-Keeper (host)
Synopsis Enraged, a freak show owner blinds the carnival's knife thrower with red-hot pokers. The other freaks get revenge by gagging the owner, strapping him to the board and guiding the thrower's tosses with their comments.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Wallace Wood
Inks Wallace Wood
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted In Haunt of Fear (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #5 (November 1993)

1 page text story "Skeleton"

Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Letters Typeset

7 page Haunt of Fear story "A Tasty Morsel"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis You pull into the End of the Road Inn and proceed to have a dream that you become the victim of a vampiric innkeeper who ties his victims upon a slab to slash their wrists and collect their blood in a bowl. Upon awakening you realize you got one detail wrong as you are indeed tied upon a slab as the innkeeper expresses indignation at being referred to as a vampire. He proclaims he is a ghoul as he advances upon you with meat cleaver held high.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Jack Davis
Inks Jack Davis
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted In Haunt of Fear (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #5 (November 1993)

7 page The Vault of Horror! story "Seeds of Death!"

Characters The Vault-Keeper (host)
Synopsis A farmer's wife and the hired hand are having an affair so the farmer kills the hand one evening and buries him along with some flower seeds he had purchased that day in the field. His wife grows concerned and leaves for the city to inquire with the hired hand's relatives. Enraged, the farmer catches up with his wife in an alley and threatens her with violence. She clouts him with a lead pipe and stuffs him into a garbage can which the sanitation workers load into the compacter truck. When the wife returns to the farm through the field she comes across the newly sprouted flowers and realizes what must have happened.
Genre Horror
Script Johnny Craig
Pencils Johnny Craig
Inks Johnny Craig
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted In Haunt of Fear (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #5 (November 1993)