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

Issue Details

Issue #18
Published March-April 1953
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 Graham Ingels
Inks Graham Ingels
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #18 (February 1997)

1 page text article "Ray Bradbury"

Script Albert B. Feldstein
Letters Typeset
Notes Inside front cover. Photo and biography of Ray Bradbury.

8 page The Witch's Cauldron! story "Pipe Down!"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis A young woman marries an old man with a penchant for tobacco and poetry for his money and quickly grows tired of him. She meets a young man and they plot to push him down the stairs as though his death were accidental. After he dies, she buys a monkey as a pet that was born the same day her husband was killed. She tells her lover that they must wait a year before they marry to make it look good, but he feels that she is putting him off. One night, when he visits, he finds little clues that she has been entertaining a gentleman guest. He loses his temper and kills her as the police arrive after receiving a phone call with an animal-like shriek. After he is taken away, the monkey comes back to the chair and finishes his pipe and poetry reading.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Graham Ingels
Inks Graham Ingels
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #18 (February 1997)

7 page The Vault of Horror! story "Bedtime Gory!"

Characters The Vault-Keeper (host)
Synopsis A woman buys a stretch rack for her husband when he reveals that he killed her wealthy father so as to appear an accident and married her for her money and not for love.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils George Evans
Inks George Evans
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #18 (February 1997)

1 page text story "Decision!"

Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Marie Severin
Inks Marie Severin
Letters Typeset

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

Script Albert B. Feldstein
Letters Typeset

6 page The Old Witch's Grim Fairy Tale! story "Pot-Shot!"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis This grim fairy tale relates the story of a prince who gets the king to pay him a yearly allowance of what he weighs in gold. In order to be as heavy as can be, he swallows lead shot to get his already fat frame close to almost 500 pounds. As he urges the carriage faster and faster to arrive at his new castle, the brakes are thrown suddenly and the shot explodes out of him.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Jack Kamen
Inks Jack Kamen
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #18 (February 1997)

7 page The Crypt of Terror story "The Black Ferris!"

Characters The Crypt-Keeper (host)
Synopsis Two boys witness a Ferris wheel at a creepy carnival that can make time go forwards or backwards for the rider depending on which way the wheel spins. A man tries to take advantage of this by riding the wheel backwards 24 times until he is a 10 year boy and then posing as an orphan in order to find and steal a kindly old woman's money who has taken him in. He plans to then ride the wheel forwards 24 times so no one will ever find the culprit. The boys warn the woman about him and tell their parents, but of course no one believes them. They are afraid the man will attempt to kill them, so they intercept him the next time he is riding the Ferris wheel and attack the operator. The wheel becomes stuck in the forward position, and when it finally does come to a halt, the gathered crowd stares in shock at the skeleton reclining against the seat.
Genre Horror
Script Ray Bradbury; Albert B. Feldstein (adaptation)
Pencils Jack Davis
Inks Jack Davis
Colors Marie Severin
Notes Ray Bradbury adaptation.
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #18 (February 1997); in Ray Bradbury Comics (Topps; Byron Preiss, 1993 series) #2