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

Issue Details

Issue #20
Published July-August 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) #20 (August 1997)

8 page The Witch's Cauldron! story "Thump Fun!"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis A murderer thinks he is like the character in Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart", imagining he hears a heartbeat in the walls, but after police examine the area they find his older brother's corpse. When the youngest brother admits to slaying the eldest brother for the family inheritance and burying the body in the cellar, the police dig it up, and it is revealed to be missing its heart.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Graham Ingels
Inks Graham Ingels
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #20 (August 1997)

7 page The Vault-Keeper's E.C. Classic story "Terror Train"

Characters The Vault-Keeper (host)
Synopsis Gloria was in a cab, running away from her husband Ralph...heading toward the train station and the train that would take her away from this man whom she thought was trying to poison her. Seated on the train, she kept imagining him at every turn and remembering the $25,000 insurance policies Ralph had taken out on them both...then she remembered that poison bottle he had brought home. Asleep in her berth, Gloria suddenly awakens at what she thinks is a scream, and goes to wake the conductor...but he is dead in his berth. In fact, everyone is dead in their berths! She jumps off the train and locates a farmhouse that has a freshly-dug grave outside. She enters the house and spies a coffin in it....then sees Ralph behind her, who grabs Gloria, puts her in the coffin, nails it shut, drags it to the grave and buries it. Suddenly, she awakens in her berth on the train.....sees Ralph with an attendant in a white coat, who takes her off to a nice house with bars on it so that Ralph can never get to her again!
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Albert B. Feldstein
Inks Albert B. Feldstein
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted from Vault of Horror (EC, 1950 series) #12 (April/May 1950)

1 page text story "Tasty Dish!"

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 Typset

6 page Haunt of Fear story "Bloody Sure"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis A man marries a woman the townsfolk warn him away from because, after her previous five husbands sicken and die, they think she is a vampire. It turns out her child has a rare blood disorder and she has been performing transfusions upon the men as they slept at night. The man knows she isn't a vampire because he is in fact one, and he drains both her and the child's blood.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Reed Crandall
Inks Reed Crandall
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #20 (August 1997)

7 page The Crypt of Terror story "Hyde and Go Shriek!"

Characters The Crypt-Keeper (host)
Synopsis A chemist strings along a rich admirer of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who is willing to pay to have such a personality altering formula recreated. The joke is on the chemist when he ingests the formula he comes up, thinking that it's a placebo, but it actually does work and he loses control of himself and murders his girlfriend.
Genre Horror
Script Albert B. Feldstein
Pencils Jack Davis
Inks Jack Davis
Colors Marie Severin
Reprinted in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #20 (August 1997)