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

Issue Details

Issue #40
Published February-March 1954
Cover Price 0.10 USD
Pages 36
Editing William M. Gaines

Cover Details

Characters The Crypt-Keeper (inset); The Vault-Keeper (inset); The Old Witch (inset)
Genre Horror
Pencils Jack Davis
Inks Jack Davis
Reprinted in Tales From The Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #24 (June 1998)

8 page The Crypt of Terror story "Food For Thought"

Characters The Crypt-Keeper (host)
Synopsis A woman plots to run away with the circus animal trainer because her husband, even though he can project his thoughts to her which they use as their act, does not love her. The husband tumbles to the plot and forces the animal trainer at gunpoint into the lion's cage where he is torn apart. The wife suspects him but has no proof and so when the husband is accidentally paralyzed when a beam lands upon him while the circus packs up, she ignores his thoughts for help and coldly advises them not to embalm him so that he is buried alive. He begs her to come back and help him, and he hears digging at the coffin lid, but his luck continues to be very poor as it turns out to be a ghoul who proceeds to devour him alive.
Genre Horror
Script Al Feldstein
Pencils Jack Davis
Inks Jack Davis
Reprinted in Tales From The Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #24 (June 1998)

7 page The Vault of Horror! story "Pearly To Dead"

Characters The Vault-Keeper (host)
Synopsis Two navy divers discover a pearl bed while placing demo charges and make plans to go back for them after the war ends. One gets greedy and murders the other one whose corpse then surprises him while he is attempting to acquire the pearls.
Genre Horror
Script Al Feldstein
Pencils George Evans
Inks George Evans
Reprinted in Tales From The Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #24 (June 1998)

1 page text story "Choice!"

Letters typeset

6 page story "Prairie Schooner"

Characters The Crypt-Keeper (host)
Synopsis A story about a madman who converts a house into a ship in the middle of a prairie.
Genre Horror
Script Al Feldstein
Pencils Bernie Krigstein
Inks Bernie Krigstein
Reprinted in Tales From The Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #24 (June 1998)

7 page The Witch's Cauldron! story "Half-Baked!"

Characters The Old Witch (host)
Synopsis A man who enjoys tormenting lobster ends up in a car crash where the steering column disembowels him and the flames that erupt broil him alive.
Genre Horror
Script Al Feldstein
Pencils Graham Ingels
Inks Graham Ingels
Reprinted in Tales From The Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #24 (June 1998)