Tales from the Crypt #30

Credits:
Cover dated June/July 1952
Cover by Jack Davis

"Gas-tly Prospects!" - Art by Jack Davis/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"A Hollywood Ending!" - Art by Joe Orlando/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Auntie, It's Coal Inside!" - Art by Jack Kamen/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Mournin', Ambrose..." - Art by Graham Ingels/Written by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

My first issue in about a week or so; this is a slightly better than average issue of Tales from the Crypt.

"Gas-tly Prospects!" - This story is told by an old prospector named Jeff Whittiker, who heads to California to search for gold. Deep in the woods he comes across a stream filled with gold. One day however a man comes by and shoots Jeff, hoping to take over his territory. Jeff hides behind a rock with a shotgun, but the man waits him out and he dies. The man buries Jeff's corpse, but a wild cat comes by and digs him up, then fights with another cat and forgets about him. The man wakes up the next morning to find Jeff's corpse there, so he ties it up and throws it under water. Eventually however the corpse is loosened from its bonds and comes to the surface. The man decides to burn Jeff's corpse, but shotgun shells in his pocket explode, causing the woods around the man, and the man himself to be caught aflame, killing him. This story is told from an interesting perspective, that of a corpse.

"A Hollywood Ending!" - Hugh Howards, a famous Hollywood producer heads to the Arctic, where he meets a beautiful American woman named Terry. Terry tells Hugh that she has lived here for 6 years with a Dr. Wheems who has taken care of her after an accident she was in with her father where he died and she lost her memory. Hugh falls in love with Terry and convinces her to come with him to Hollywood to become a movie star. Dr. Wheems is fiercely against this, but they leave while he is asleep. At first all goes well in Hollywood, and the two are married. However soon the makeup man comes to see Hugh, telling him that Terry's skin is dry and cracking. Terry soon puts on a heavy veil and starts wearing gloves. She starts emitting a strange smell and locks herself up in her room. Dr. Wheems soon arrives and reveals the truth, that Terry died in the accident 6 years ago. Through an experiment he was able to keep her alive, but she had to be kept in cold weather to keep from decomposing. The two head into Terry's room where they find her rotting corpse remains. The strongest story of the issue, despite being a bit too wordy at times (particularly the final page).

"Auntie, It's Coal Inside!" - A seven year old boy named Toby keeps hearing a voice in his head that tells him to do bad things, in particular to take coal out of the coal bin in the basement despite his aunt Agnes telling him not to. Toby is immediately caught by her and she gets upset, telling him his father was a drunkard whose drunk driving killed both him and his Toby's mother. Agnes threatens Toby with going to the orphanage if he isn't good. Agnes decides to have a lock put on the coal-bin door, and the locksmith catches Toby trying to escape from his room, getting him in even bigger trouble. One day when Agnes orders more coal to be delivered she accidently locks herself in the coal bin. She calls out to Toby to let her out, but he thinks it is the voice inside his head and ignores it. When the coal truck arrives and pours the coal into the coal bin, Agnes gets crushed by it. Another kid-themed story by Jack Kamen, this is a fairly good one and one of the better of such stories.

"Mournin', Ambrose..." - A young man named Andrew is invited to his uncle Ambrose's mansion. There he meets Ambrose and his eccentric wife, Elsa. Ambrose tells Andrew that she has been this way since three relatives that had come to visit all mysteriously died. Elsa tells Andrew of a passage from Macbeth then meets him again later on and tells Andrew that Ambrose is a fiend. Andrew is awakened by Ambrose later that night who tells him that Elsa has died. after her funeral, Andrew repeatedly sees Ambrose visiting her body in the mausoleum outside. Thinking of Elsa's references to Macbeth, Andrew grabs it from the mansion's library but instead finds it to be a diary of Elsa's revealing that Ambrose murdered the 3 relatives. Ambrose refuses to consent to an autopsy of Elsa's body and it is soon discovered that he kept visiting her because he is a ghoul and was consuming his corpse. An average story to wrap up the issue.

Tales from the Crypt #24

Credits:
Cover dated June/July 1951
Cover by Al Feldstein

"Bats in My Belfry!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"The Living Death!" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Midnight Snack!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig
"Scared to Death!" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

One of Tales from the Crypt's most well known covers starts off this issue.

"Bats in My Belfry!" - A stage actor named Harry goes deaf. This results in the end of his acting career and a lot of financial stress for he and his wife, Joan. Harry goes to see a blind friend, John, who reveals that he went to a man who was able to give him cat eyes that permit him to see. Harry heads to see the man, who provides him with the hearing organ of a bat. Upon returning home, with hearing abilities greatly in excess of that of a normal person, Harry is able to hear Joan talking to her lover on the phone. He later notices strange things happening to him. He wakes up in the closet, hanging upside down, notices hair growing on his face and a membrane growing beneath his arms. He returns to see his friend John, who he finds turning into a panther. Harry realizes he is turning into a bat. His wife and her lover plot to kill Harry for his life insurance, but he manages to overtake the lover in an alley. Now fully transformed into a vampire bat, he drinks the lover's blood, then returns home and does the same to his wife.  This story was the inspiration for the Tales from the Crypt TV episode "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow". The episode had nothing to do with that original story, making me wonder why they didn't name it after this story. It was in the final season of the show, and was still a rather poor episode though.

"The Living Death!" - Two medical students, Lester and Arnold are close friends, even going after the same woman, Laurie. The two head into seperate fields, with Lester focusing on curing illness through psychological means, while Arnold focuses on surgery. Lester is set to marry Laurie, but when she develops a tumor the two conflict over whether to operate on her through psychosomatic means or surgery. Arnold wins out, but she dies during the procedure. Years go by. Arnold develops a brain tumor, and with no one who can operate on him, he goes to see Lester. Lester desires to prove to Arnold that he could have saved Laurie many years before and puts Arnold into a hypnotic trance so he cannot die. Upon leaving however, Arnold is it by a car and is killed. His body doesn't die however, nor even start decomposing. People don't believe Lester at first, but do as time goes by and nothing happens to Arnold. Months pass. Arnold calls out for Lester to help him with the pain. Lester mistakenly says "Laurie", the word he has chosen to break Arnold out of the trance. This causes Arnold to die for real, and he immediately decomposes. This story was inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar".

"Midnight Snack!" - A man reads horror stories late at night. Suddenly his feels dizzy and finds himself out in the middle of town. Hungry, he stops by a restaurant but the scent of cooking meat repulses him. He leaves the restaurant and has another dizzy sensation, waking up in a graveyard. Having a shovel with him, he digs up the body of a recently buried corpse. After another dizzy spell he awakens finding the body partially devoured. He grabs the corpse and starts running, being chased by an agngry mob. He trips and falls, but then awakens at his home, believing it all to be a dream. When he opens his refridgerator however, he finds a partially devoured corpse inside. He realizes that it wasn't a dream, and he's a ghoul. Bit of a drawn out story with an obvious conclusion; this is the weakest story of the issue.

"Scared to Death!" - A man named Ralph is brought to a party held in the honor of a young woman named Cora, whose uncle Alex is quite wealthy. With Cora being the heir to her uncle's fortune, Ralph decides to start a romance with her, and eventually marries her. Not liking the way Alex is treating him, Ralph is able to convince Cora to let him kill her, and he strikes him one night while he is out on a stroll, killing him. Alex's death has a grave effect on Cora, who suffers a heart attack and becomes bound to a wheel chair. Ralph decides to kill her as well, figuring he can do it by inducing another heart attack. He tries to convince Cora that her uncle Alex is back from the grave and wants revenge. He is successful and she has a heart attack and dies. Moments later however, Alex's corpse arrives for real. He grabs ahold of Alex and carries him into the middle of a pond where the mud, acting like quicksand, quickly consumes them. Some only so-so artwork from Wood here, but overall a fairly good rotting corpse story.

Tales from the Crypt #45

Credits:
Cover dated December 1954/January 1955
Cover by Jack Davis

"Telescope" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Carl Wessler
"The Substitute" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Murder Dream" - Art by Bernie Krigstein/Story by Carl Wessler
"The Switch" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Carl Wessler

Outside of the final story, which is one of my favorite EC stories of all time, this is a rather dissappointing issue. It was originally intended to be the final issue of Tales from the Crypt, although one final issue was published, containing the contents of the comic that was originally meant to be EC's fourth horror comic, The Crypt of Terror.

"Telescope" - A man is in a shipwreck; he and a rat are the only ones to survive. Using a piece of driftwood, they manage to make it out and land on a small deserted island made of little more than sand. At first, they provide company for one another, but the lack of clean water and food soon make the two bitter enemies. The man is fearful of sleeping should the rat try to eat him. He also makes attempts to kill the rat so he can eat it. The local natives refuse to come by, believing he is an island devil. One day the man manages to strike a seagull with a fish in its mouth with a rock, but the rat gets to it before he does and starts swallowing it. The man chases the rat back into the ocean and starts eating it himself, but is attacked by a shark. The natives arrive and kill the shark and find a bizarre sight - inside the shark's mouth is the man's head; in his mouth is the rat's head; in its mouth is the bird's head and in it's mouth is the fish's head. Overall this is a so-so story at best and is a bit dragged out; an interesting looking final panel is about the only notable thing in it.

"The Substitute" - A french prisoner named Henri Duval plots to escape from the Penal Colony where he is being held. Henri finds poisonous Hellebore plant and creates himself a poisonous dart out of it and other materials. He then kills the governor of the Penal Colony with the dart and gets it pinned on another prisoner. Henri helps with the construction of a coffin for the governor, which he puts holes in. The night the coffin is to be transported, Henri removes the governor's corpse, mangles it, then gets in the coffin himself, planning to escape once he returns to France. What he doesn't realize is that the governor has been set to be buried at sea, and the coffin is soon thrown into the ocean, resulting in his death by drowning. An alright story, but it is is essentially just a rehash of the story "Escape" from The Vault of Horror #16, with the protagonist dying of drowning instead of being thrown in a crematory.

"Murder Dream" - A man has dreams of trying to rescue a woman named Cathy. Flashbacks reveal Cathy moving into a house in the English countryside with her husband Howard. A caretaker named  Claude also lives there. Further flashbacks showing Howard preparing to go away. The dreams continue as our protagonist tries to save Cathy, who is seen being murdered by Claude, an axe wielding maniac. Eventually our protagonist sees Cathy sitting by a coffin. He awakes and heads to Cathy and the coffin, which contains Howard. Our protagonist, revealed to be Claude, grabs ahold of Cathy and kills her with an axe. This story was one of the most surrealistic ones done by EC; such stories were usually provided to Krigstein, who did similar surrealistic stories like "Pipe Dream" and "You Murderer"

"The Switch" - Carlton Webster is a wealthy, but very old man who has started up a relationship with a beautiful young woman named Linda, to whom he's kept his wealth a secret. Carlton proposed to her, but Linda tells him that his face is too old and wrinkled. Carlton goes to his doctor who tells him of another doctor named Faulkner. The German Faulkner tells Carlton that he can perform surgery to make his face look young by literally transplanting that of a handsome young man to whom a large amount of money will have to be paid. Through Faulnker, Carlton is able to find a man named George Booth who agrees to exchange faces with him. Carlton returns to Linda, who still refuses to marry him, saying his body is too decrepit. Carlton heads back to Faulkner and goes through surgery again, taking Booth's torso. Linda once again rejects Carlton's offer of marriage, this time blaming his scrawny arms and legs. Carlton goes through one more surgery that wipes him out financially so as to exchange his arms and legs with Booth's. He looks for Linda, only to find that she has moved to a fabulous penthouse. There she reveals that what she was looking for the whole time was someone wealthy, and introduces him to her new husband, George Booth. A fabulous story, one of my top 10 favorite EC stories of all time. It builds upon previous EC body/youth exchanging stories such as "Death Must Come" from the first issue of this comic and "Nobody There" from The Haunt of Fear #16. The story also had a very well done and faithful adaption on the Tales From the Crypt TV show.

The Crypt of Terror #18

Credits:
Cover dated June/July 1950
Cover by Johnny Craig

"The Maestro's Hand!" - Art by Al Feldstein/Story by Al Feldstein
"The Living Corpse" - Art by Wally Wood/Story by ???
"Madness at Manderville" - Art by Harvey Kurtzman/Story by Ivan Klapper
"Mute Witness to Murder!" - Art by Johnny Craig/Story by Johnny Craig

"The Maestro's Hand!" - A man named Doctor Hellman comes to a lonely cabin in the woods where he finds a package waiting for him. Flashbacks reveal that Hellman was engaged to a woman named Virginia and had taken her to see the great musician Vladimir Borrstein. Virginia immediately falls in love with Vladimir's talens, which include not just playing the piano, but also painting. Virginia breaks off her engagement with Hellman and instead gets engaged to Vladimir. Hellman is convinced that Virginia is merely in love with Vladimir's talents, not him, and when Vladmir injures his hand, Hellman takes the opportunity to have it amputed. Vladimir is so distraught over losing his hand that he kills himself, and Virginia does the same shortly afterwards. Back in the present, Hellman opens the package, which is revealed to be Vladimir's severed hand. The hand comes alive and tries to kill Hellman. He tries all he can to avoid it, but it eventually grabs him by the throat and strangles him. Later the police find Hellman's body which shows that he actually imagined it all and strangled himself. A strong start to the issue, with good story and art from Feldstein.

"The Living Corpse" - A middle aged man named Jed Bryant works at a morgue. One night a corpse is brought in, but becomes alive, grasping Jed and causing him to be knocked out. Jed wakes up earlier and the corpse is gone, causing him to forge the books as if it was never there. Days later another corpse arrives and the same incident happens again, causing Jed's hair to go completely white in shock. Jed is convinced no one will believe him and instead of going to a doctor he goes to a theatre where a man named Satanus the magician defies death after beind held underwater. Later another corpse is brought to the morgue which is the murdered assistant of Satanus. Satanus himself is soon revealed to be the "living corpse", who had been faking his death so he could be brought to the morgue and the proof of his involvement in his assistant's murder could be  destroyed. The two struggle, and Satanus is knocked out when his head strikes a wall. Jed puts him in the freezer to hold him while he tries to call the police, but the shock of seeing a corpse come to life for the third time is too much and he dies of a heart attack. Locked in the freezer, Satanus freezes to death. A so-so art job, but another strong story.

"Madness at Manderville" - A woman named Marion is continuously nervous, including dropping dishes and being convinced that there are noises and lights outside when her husband Tom doesn't notice anything. Marion continues to go crazier and crazier, as the family dog is found dead. Tom brings her to a mental institution but upon arriving there, it is Tom who is committed as he wasn't noticing any of the things that were really happening. The ending to this story is a bit contrived, with Tom being committed over rather flimsy reasons. A similar ending was done in far superior fashion in the story "My Brother's Keeper" from Shock Illustrated #2.

"Mute Witness to Murder!" - A woman named Pam witnesses a neighbor murdering his wife which causes her to suddenly go deaf in shock. Her husband calls for a doctor to come, but the doctor, Dr. Bask, is the very man who committed the murder. Knowing she witnessed it, he has her committed to a mental institution where he plans to murder her by claiming she needs brain surgery, then murdering her during it. Pam soon regains her voice but keeps quiet, and manages to overpower Dr. Bask when he comes to take her. Bask, who has a heart condition begs her to call for help, but she refuses and he dies. This story was adapted for an episode of the Tales From the Crypt TV series late in the show's run. It is a type of story that would have fit better in Crime SuspenStories, having no supernatural elements to it.

Tales from the Crypt #32

Credits:
Cover dated October/November 1952
Cover by Jack Davis

"Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity!" - Art by Jack Davis/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Roped In!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Cutting Cards!" - Art by Fred Peters/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines
"Squash... Anyone?" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Al Feldstein & Bill Gaines

"Tain't the Meat... It's the Humanity!" - A local butcher named Zach Gristle finds his meat in high demand during World War II with the advent of rationing. During the war, red points need to be exchanged for meat, limiting the amount of meat that each customer can buy, as well as Gristle himself. A man named Vandercliff convinces Gristle to sell high quality steaks to him on the black market. This requires Gristle to find substandard meat to sell to his regular customers so as to acquire the red points needed to buy the steak. He descends to horse meat, then stale meat, and finally tainted meat. This makes the townfolks sick and eventually some of them die. Gristle goes to get the money he's saved up so he and his family can go on the run. But when his son dies due to eating the tainted meat at a friend's house, his wife snaps. She kills him, chops his body up then puts it on display at his store. A strong start to what is overall a good issue; this story would end up being used as the title for a recently published book from Fantagraphics publishing various Jack Davis horror stories.

"Roped In" - Donald Morgan, President of a construction company is arrested when concrete at a hospital he was responsible for is found to be substandard, causing many deaths. Morgan is innocent, as his 3 partners were responsible so as to make more money for themselves. Unfortunately for Morgan, they've trapped him in a web of circumstantial evidence by only using substandard material on his jobs. Morgan is found guilty of manslaughter and sent to jail. The other 3 partners go on a plane trip after winning a special job. While flying between two mountains however, they are caught in a gigantic spider web. A giant spider appears which kills the 2 that head outside. The final one locks himself in the plane but goes insane, knowing that he is trapped inside by the spider. An effective story with strong artwork from George Evans. This was Evans' first story for Tales form the Crypt, and one of his earliest stories overall for EC. He was generally given tamer fare, like Jack Kamen, but this story gave him the opportunity to do a monster in the giant spider.

"Cutting Cards!" - Two gamblers, Gus Forney and Lou Crebis hate each other so much that they agree to gamble on each other's lives. They start by drawing a card; he who draws the lowest card dies. They both draw aces and decide to try russian roulette instead, but the bullet is a dud and doesn't go off. They then decide to play chop poker to a finish. The loser of each hand has to lose a limb. They chop each others fingers off as round after round goes by. By the end both are in the hospital, with all their limbs chopped off and are still gambling against each other. Not much of a plot to this story, which is more just a way to show a lot of violence. That said, the story was considered good enough to be adapted into an episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV show. The artist, Fred Peters did only a couple of stories for EC during the new trend (the others appearing around this same time) and was not that good compared to EC's usual artists.

"Squash... Anyone?" - A husband and wife, Milo and Rene, are stars at a circus, using an elephant named Emma which places its foot over Rene during performances. In reality, the two hate each other and Milo is carrying on an affair with a woman named Leeta. Leeta convinces Milo to have Emma step on Rene during a performance, which he does. Emma is considered out of control and is killed. Leeta replaces Rene in the act, with a new elephant. A year passes and the circus comes across the same town. suddenly the decayed corpses of Rene and Emma appear and kill both Milo and Leeta before falling away into a putrid slime. One of EC's better circus-themed stories, with a scary, elephant corpse-filled final page.