Cover dated May/June 1952
Cover by Graham Ingels
"For the Love of Death!" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Fed Up!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Minor Error!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Wolf Bait!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"For the Love of Death!" - A man named Morton is obsessed with funerals, trying to attend as many as he can. He believes that people are provided with tremendous dignity and respect at their funeral, even if they didn't receive it in life. Morton desires to have such feelings being made towards him, while he's still alive, so he murders the richest man in town then sneaks into his coffin so he can experience what its like to be the deceased during a funeral. He pays someone to dig up the coffin once its buried, but hadn't realized that the man he killed was set to be cremated, and is burned to death when the coffin is put in the crematorium. A rare Ingels lead story that features no supernatural elements to it, is is nonetheless a decent story kicking off an overall good issue.
"Fed Up!" - A woman named Sandra works at a carnival as a sword swallower's assistant. She meets a handsome man named Alec who convinces her to break out on her own with him managing him. Eventually they get married. Money is always tight for the two, particularly after Alec starts spending all of their money on food, growing morbidly obese. When Sandra gets a raise she hides money from Alec for several years in an attempt to buy a special sword that will make her act more famous, but he finds the money and spends it all on food. Fed up with him, she convinces him to practice swallowing a sword himself so he can get into the act, then ties his hands up while its still in his throat and leaves him such that any slight movement will result in his death.A rare Craig story that wasn't written by him, but still written perfectly to suit his style.
"Minor Error!" - A trio of boys notice a new boy named Ezra that has moved into town, but always stays inside. The boy's uncle is a cruel man who tells the boys off when they ask if Ezra can play. Ezra tells them that he isn't allowed to go outside and play with them. The boys follow the uncle and find him kill a man and collect his blood in a container. They become convinced that he is a vampire, so one day they head inside the house and drive a stake in his heart. When they head to the basement however they find Ezra sleeping in a coffin and realize that he was the vampire. Kamen was typically the artist tasked with drawing stories featuring kids as main characters, and this was many of such stories.
"Wolf Bait!" - This story takes part in Russia in the midst of winter as 5 people head through the snow on a horse drawn sleigh towards a nearby town. The sleigh's passengers include a mother and her baby, a young officer, an older man and the driver. The sleigh is being pursued by a ferocious pack of wolves. The officer shoots the wolves, which delays them slightly, but runs out of bullets. The old man uses the food he was carrying for his daughter and her family to delay them as well, but the wolves still catch up. With them nearing town, the passengers know there is only one thing they can do to delay the wolves further, to sacrifice one of them. One of the passengers, which is not revealed to the reader, is thrown to the wolves and killed by them, enabling everyone else to make it safely to town. The ending to this story, for which the 'sacrificial lamb' is not revealed made for quite the complaints from some readers in the letter columns in future issues.
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