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.

Shock SuspenStories #18

Credits:
Cover dated December 1954/January 1955
Cover by George Evans

"Cadillac Fever!" - Art by George Evans/Story by Carl Wessler
"The Trap" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Carl Wessler
"In the Bag" - Art by Bernie Krigstein/Story by Carl Wessler
"Rundown" - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Carl Wessler

The final issue of Shock SuspenStories, which was cancelled along with EC's other horror and crime comics in 1954 due to the controversy over such comics at the time. Unfortunately its one of the weaker issues for what was a usually high quality comic.

"Cadillac Fever!" - A young woman named Ruthie's father (called Pa) wants desperately to ride in a Cadillac. He tries to save up the money to rent a ride in it, but his wife, Ma, is constantly finding the money and spending it, telling him what a waste it would be to spend such money to simply have a short ride in a car. One day Ma turns up dead, having been shot. Pa is put on trial, where Ruthie tells the court that Pa murdered her. Pa is executed as a result, and during his funeral is delivered in a Cadillac hearse. Ruthie then admits that she murdered Ma, all so Pa could get that Cadillac ride. As a result, she is jailed as well and sentenced to death, looking forward to her own Cadillac ride.An average story that's similar in theme to the earlier EC story "Fed Up" from The Haunt of Fear 13, with a cadillac ride substituted for what was a sword in that story.,

"The Trap" - A man named Matt Hall is down on his luck in a new town where he and his wife have moved. His wife, Irene, and the local undertaker, Larry Grover convince Matt to fake his own death such that they can get his life insurance money. Matt grows a mustache and starts wearing glasses. Then, months later they fake his own death, convincing the police that he was mugged and stabbed with a knife. At Matt's 'funeral' his coffin is put in the crematory shortly after he comes out of it. Matt heads to South America to hide for a year. When his wife never shows up as expected, Matt returns to the U.S. and his home where his wife, now married to Grover, refuses to acknowledge him. Matt calls the police and reveals the whole scheme, but no one believes him. With his fingerprints on the knife used to fake his own death, Matt is swiftly convicted then executed for his own murder. 8 page stories by Jack Kamen usually led Shock SuspenStories but this story is oddly in the second spot. Its a decent story, the best of the issue, and was later adapted into an episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV show.

"In the Bag" - On a rainy night, a cop named McLeod comes across a man walking with a bag containing a round object and a stain at the bottom. He chases the man, who flees from him, and eventually traps him in an ally. The man starts ranting about his boss and claims to have chopped off his boss's head with an axe, holding it in the bad he has. The maniac is able to overpower McLeod and run away. McLeod spends a while trying to find him and eventually comes across a man carrying a bag with something round in it. He shoots him without a second thought. Minutes later however fellow cops tell him that they already caught the maniac, and the man McLeod shot was an innocent man carrying around a bowling ball. This story was originally intended to appear in the Vault of Horror (likely issue 41) but instead was used here in the final issue of Shock SuspenStories, cut from its original 8 pages to 6. It is one of several Krigstein drawn stories late in EC's run to use his technique of breaking out multiple panels, and at 77 panels contains the most out of any EC story.

"Rundown" - A man named Joe is told by his wife that she's having an affair and only married him thinking he had money, which he doesn't have. Knowing that he'll lose her without having a lot of money, he decides to withdraw his life savings from the bank and gamble it, losing it all at roulette. There, a wealthy man is extremely successful, winning $60,000. Joe follows him as he leaves them holds him at knife point. When the man struggles, Joe stabs him. He tries multiple ways to dispose the body but always finds people nearby. Eventually he is able to dump the body down into the sewer. When a cop spots him and calls for him soon afterwards, Joe flees, getting hit by a car. It ends up the cop was simply following him because he dropped his wallet and the car was driven by his wife and her lover. A rather disappointing end for Shock SuspenStories story-wise; Crandall's art is strong as usual.

The Haunt of Fear #27

Credits:
Cover dated September/October 1954
Cover by Graham Ingels

"About Face" - Art by Graham Ingels/Story by Carl Wessler
"Game Washed Out" - Art by George Evans/Sftory by Carl Wessler
"The Silent Treatment" - Art by Jack Kamen/Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
"Swamped - Art by Reed Crandall/Story by Jack Oleck

Today I'll be covering my first EC horror comic on this blog, one of the very last they ever published.

"About Face" - A husband, Jeff, and his wife, Amy, have twins, but Amy will only show him one of them, Penny, demanding he promise not to see the other one, Olga. Years go by and Amy keeps Olga's existence a secret from everyone, not even letting Jeff see her. Amy dies when the twins are 15 years old and Jeff pesters Penny enough that Olga leaves her room and meets him for the first time. Olga has a hideous deformed face and a dour, cruel personality as well. Jeff tries to be a good father to her and takes her out in public, but he denies Olga is his daughter when the neighbors are horrified at her appearance. This causes Olga to flip out and attack a young child. Jeff becomes convinced that Olga is evil and he and Penny will only be happy if he kills her. One night he barges into the twin's room and shoots Olga despite Penny's protests. As she falls to the ground, dead, Jeff realizes the truth, that Olga's face is on the back of Penny's head and that he's murdered her as well. This is a terrific story to start out the issue, with a great twist ending. Olga has one of the scariest appearances of any character to appear in an EC comic. The story does have some non-believable aspects (such as the fact that Penny had to keep the back of her head covered for her entire life, including all time in her father's presense) but the artwork and concept is strong enough to make you not really notice it. This story would be adapted in the final season of the Tales from the Crypt TV show and was probably the best episode of that very lackluster season. Carl Wessler, who wrote this story was the most prolific of several outside writers that joined EC in 1954. Wessler's original version of this story had Olga killed by police rather than her father, thankfully it was changed to the far superior ending in the published version.

"Game Washed Out" - In a Puritan community, a man named John Talbot carries on an affair with a woman named Becky. His wife Priscilla catches him and refuses to let him go so he murders her and weighs her body down in the nearby lake. He later goes to see Becky in broad daylight and is caught by her husband. As punishment, he is sentenced to three duckings in the lake on a stool.  Realizing its the same lake where he put his wife's corpse, he shouts out for them to stop, but his wife's corpse is able to grab ahold of him and cause him to drown. This is an alright story, but the underwater corpse ending is extremely similar to Tales from the Crypt #40's "Pearly to Dead" which was published earlier in the year and also was drawn by Evans. Warren Publishing's Vampirella magazine featured a story with a very similar ending that was probably inspired by this story in issue #28's "The Power and the Gory!".

"The Silent Treatment" - A king enjoys constant music and partying, but when it distracts him enough such that his daughter dies while trying to rescue her cat, he orders it all to cease. He then demands the entire kingdom go silent, starting with anything in the castle, but moving on to the village itself, including even menial tasks, then talking aloud, writing and even breathing. The townfolk, unable to take it anymore storm the castle and sew a metronome clock into his body that will make noise for hours unless he is absolutely still. The king stays as still as he can, but a spider crawls on him. Swiping it away, the metronome starts up again and the king, unable to take it, throws himself off a cliff. The final Grim Fairy Tale, a regular feature that appeared in the 3 horror comics (as well as a single appearance in Panic) that featured EC-style versions of classic fairy tales. This story was an original story rather than being based on something else. I consider it one of the weaker ones.

"Swamped" - This story is told from the perspective of a cabin build over the Okefenokee Swamp. The cabin was built by a ghoul, who specifically constructed it in quicksand. The ghoul frequently captures campers, hunters and other people in the swamp, eats them, then dumps their remains into the quicksand via a trapdoor in the cabin floor. Anyone who tries to go after him drowns in the quicksand. The cabin is disgusted by its creator's actions but can't do anything about it. Eventually, the enormous amount of corpses under the cabin are able to cause it to collapse, and the ghoul becomes just another corpse in the swamp. A very strong effort from Crandall, in one of his more gruesome stories. Jack Davis, who usually did the Crypt Keeper story in the Haunt of Fear is missing for the first time since issue 3. The story is pretty good too, with the unique perspective from which it is told.