| Issue | #40 |
| Published | December 1954-January 1955 |
| Cover Price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 36 |
| Editing | Johnny Craig; William M. Gaines (managing editor) |
| Notes | Cover title taken from 2nd story in the issue, as the cover was based on that story. |
| Characters | The Old Witch (inset); The Vault-Keeper (inset); The Crypt-Keeper (inset) |
| Genre | horror |
| Pencils | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Inks | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | Cover title taken from 2nd story in the issue, as the cover was based on that story. |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |
| Synopsis | House ad for MAD magazine and Panic Comics. |
| Notes | Found on the inside front cover. |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5 |
| Characters | The Vault-Keeper (host); Drusilla (cameo); Mose; Ned Rogers |
| Synopsis | Ned stopped his wagon when he saw townspeople throwing stones at old Mose, a man they thought worshipped the Devil since he lived in the Black Church. He chased them off, then invited the man to his home, where he was welcomed by Ned's wife. The next day Ned went to town for supplies and the folk there warned him of the old man, but he paid them no mind. Late that night, he heard a noise and discovered old Mose coming in, supposedly from a late night walk. But the townsfolk told Ned the next day about sacrificial killings that had occured in the area, the latest being last night, and once again they blamed Mose for it. Ned covered for Mose, but rushed home to find the still form of his wife on the floor and Mose in the doorway....with scratches to his face. Ned pounced on Mose and beat him to death, but then heard the last words of his dying wife tell him that Mose was protecting her from an escaped prisoner, whose still form lay outside the door! |
| Genre | horror |
| Script | Johnny Craig |
| Pencils | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Inks | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Colors | Marie Severin |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |
| Characters | The Crypt-Keeper (host); Captain Grady; Lt. Morton; Kip Fowler |
| Synopsis | Captain Grady's ship approached the seemingly derelict "Sea Witch", boarded her and found the entire group on board slaughtered....that is, except for one Kip Fowler, who was barely able to tell them the story of how the ship had been caught in a bad storm and forced ashore. They had spotted a castle where they were met by a strange man, who invited them in out of the rain. That night, Kip roamed the castle and found coffins! He hurried back to the room of a female passenger and saw a vampire bending over her, and he drove a wooden stake thru its heart as it jumped at him. The passengers then headed back to their boat and shoved off, but Kip discovered the woman had already been bitten and was a vampire herself. At that point, Fowler passed away, and the Captain & Lt. Morton noticed the female lying near, and the Captain raised a wooden stake and plunged it into her heart. Both went up on deck....then Morton remembered that she had bitten Fowler, and both whirled to see the vampire....Fowler, leaping at them! |
| Genre | horror |
| Script | Carl Wessler |
| Pencils | Joe Orlando (signed) |
| Inks | Joe Orlando (signed) |
| Colors | Marie Severin |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |
| Synopsis | This was an editorial request to readers to write letters to the Senate Sub-Committee on Juvenile Delinquency in support of comic magazines as being "harmless" entertainment. It was at this time that comics were under fire by "do-gooders" wanting to rid the nation of this type of entertainment. |
| Script | Johnny Craig ?; William Gaines ? |
| Letters | typeset |
| Notes | No doubt this piece was written either by Editor Johnny Craig or Managing Editor William Gaines...or both. |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |
| Characters | The Vault-Keeper (host); Felix & Lila Johnson; Aaron & Beatrice Scott |
| Synopsis | Felix & Lila listened to the crowd screaming for blood as they watched a cock fight, and Felix thought it was inhuman. Nearby, they was another fight brewing....between vicious dogs, and a similar argument brewed between Aaron & Beatrice Scott. Later Aaron & Felix compared notes and discovered that the two couples were trying to outdo each other to draw paying crowds. Later the two women ran into each other and a slow hatred developed between the two. To the husbands involved, there was only one solution to their "problem" women and competing "businesses": they put the two women into the arena and let them go at each other! |
| Genre | horror |
| Script | Carl Wessler |
| Pencils | Bernard Krigstein [as B. Krigstein] (signed) |
| Inks | Bernard Krigstein [as B. Krigstein] (signed) |
| Colors | Marie Severin |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |
| Synopsis | EC house ad for their new comic, Piracy. |
| Pencils | Wallace Wood [as Wood] (signed) |
| Inks | Wallace Wood [as Wood] (signed) |
| Letters | ?; some typeset |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5 |
| Characters | Storch |
| Synopsis | Storch felt the bullet in his shoulder as he peered over to see the dead form of one Quint Barlow, and he knew he'd better leave town before they strung him up for the killing. He jumped onto his horse and rode, fearing the "bloodsucking" sodbuster friends of Barlow's might catch up with him. He was weakening from the loss of blood and decided to stop and hide in a field of grain to rest up and dig the bullet out of his shoulder. He passed out, but soon awaoke to a strange whirring sound, which he recognized to be hungry locusts invading the grain field. He tried to rise and get away, but he was too weak and the locusts soon came upon him, and didn't leave until his bones had been picked clean! |
| Genre | horror |
| Pencils | ? (spot illo) |
| Inks | ? (spot illo) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |
| Characters | The Old Witch (host); Emil Frankenstein |
| Synopsis | Emil sat at his desk in the old Frankenstein mansion writing in his diary about how his infamous Father had tried to create life from a miasmic swamp. Only partially successfully, it was Emil who took over the experiment and successfully created a newborn infant. However, he didn't know if this infant would one day be able to reproduce. He took the child to a local hospital, switched it for a newly dead infant, and then followed the progress of the child from there. The young lady, Louisa, grew up and fell in love with Karl, but her Father, drunk as usual, came into the engagement party with a gun and tried to kill the young man. His shot went astray and his his daughter in the stomach and she fell to the floor, her body reverting to the greenish-black ooze it had been taken from in the swamp years before. Emil has his answer! |
| Genre | horror |
| Script | Carl Wessler |
| Pencils | Graham Ingels [as Ghastly] (signed) |
| Inks | Graham Ingels [as Ghastly] (signed) |
| Colors | Marie Severin |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #5; in Vault of Horror (Gemstone, 1994 series) #29 (October 1999) |