Cover dated September/October 1953
Cover by Graham Ingels
"An Off-Color Heir" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Dig That Cat… He's Real Gone!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Corker!" - Art by Jack Kamen & Bill Elder/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The High Cost of Dying!" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"An Off-Color Heir" - An artist named Laura meets a man named Gilbert and they fall in love. Gilbert convinces her to marry him and come with him to his mansion in New Orleans. The mansion is in a remote location and has portraits of his ancestors including one of a Baron Gilles De Rais who seems familiar to her. The mansion has many rooms, but Gilbert refuses to let her go in one of them. Eventually Gilbert starts growing a beard. Laura finds some hair dye in the bathroom one day and realizes he is going gray. Eventually she steals his keys and goes into the locked room, finding numerous corpses in there. She then realizes where she had seen Gilles De Rais before. She rubs off some of the white paint on his beard, revealing blue behind it. Gilbert then reveals himself behind her, showing his own blue beard and holding a razor. He says De Rais was the original bluebeard and he is carrying on the family tradition, A fairly good story, inspired by the bluebeard serial killer folktale.
"Dig That Cat… He's Real Gone!" - A homeless man named Ulrich is approached by a Dr. Manfred who tells him that he can help make them rich by giving Ulrich the 9 lives of a cat. Manfred performs an operation on Ulrich, killing a common cat but transferring its 9 lives to Ulrich. Through his multiple lives, Ulrich and Manfred are able to make a lot of money by showing Ulrich doing crazy, life threatening stunts and taking all wagers against it. Ulrich soon becomes greedy however and purposely gets the two of them in a car wreck. Manfred dies, but Ulrich comes back yet again. Now on his own, Ulrich hires a man to ensure his body won't be embalmed, but the man ends up robbing him and taking one of his lives. Now down to his last life, Ulrich has himself buried alive. However it isn't until he's buried that he remembers that the cat gave one of its lives during the operation and he only had 8 lives, not 9. Ulrich dies for real this time. A very good and original story, which was adapted as one of the first couple of episodes of the Tales from the Crypt TV show.
"Corker!" - A woman named Janet goes to a swami with her fiance Peter. Janet recently underwent a major personality change where she started seeking out evil things. She also has felt some suicidal tendencies. She has tried traditional therapy to no luck. The swami believes that she is infected with a lamia, a type of devil. Upon hearing that she witnesses the hanging of a man during which time his head got tore off, the swami thinks that a decapitation lamia infected her. He says this type of lamia is impossible to remove unless she is beheaded. Janet runs off and Peter chases her. She jumps into an oncoming subway and is decapitated. Peter is then infected himself by the lamia. Another Jack Kamen collaboration, this time with Bill Elder. A fairly good and original story.
"The High Cost of Dying!" - This story takes place in Paris in the 1800's. A poor man named Henri carries around a body with him. Flashbacks reveal that Henri's wife Suzette died in her sleep. A new ordinance requires all bodies to be buried within 24 hours or they will be sent to the conservatory of medicine to be dissected by medical students. Henri is too poor to bury her, especially with his two starving children. An officer tells Henri that the Commissioner of Health makes 75 francs per body and that Henri should consider bringing Suzette to the conservatory himself to pocket the 75 francs. Back in the present, Henri brings the body he is carrying to the conservatory and receives 75 francs. The next morning Henri eats with his children, buys them new clothes and they hold a funeral for Suzette. In the conservatory, it is soon discovered that the body Henri brought them was that of the Commissioner of Health. Another strong story to wrap up this very good issue. Some really good artwork from Crandall here and a sympathetic main character.
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