Tales from the Crypt #27

(December 1951 - January 1952)

Well-Cooked Hams! (Table of Contents: 1)

The Crypt of Terror / comic story / 8 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Jack Davis (signed)

Inks

Jack Davis (signed)

Colors

?

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Heh, heh! So you're back for more, eh?

Genre

horror-suspense

Characters

The Crypt-Keeper (host); M'sieu Matier (theatre owner, death, comes back from the dead); Pierre Matier (Matier's father, mention only, death); Charles; Arthur Mack (villain, movie producer, death); Miles Andish (villain, movie producer, death)

Synopsis

Two American producers want to bring Parisian-style, Grand Guignol, gory plays to a Broadway theater, but the owner refuses to do business with them. They shoot him and take the man's gory makeup secrets manuscript, but he returns from the dead and gets his revenge by swapping out the stage prop acid and red-hot stove with the real things.

Reprints

• in Phantastische Geschichten (Norbert Hethke Verlag, 1986 series) #4
• in Tales from the Crypt (Russ Cochran, 1979 series) #2 (1979)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #7/1992 (uke 44 1992)
• in Skræk (Semic Interpresse, 1994 series) #6 (1. december 1994)
• in Tales from the Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #11 (March 1995)
• in Biblioteca Grandes del Cómic: Clásicos del Terror de EC (Planeta DeAgostini, 2003 series) #2 (junio 2003)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #4 - Tain't the Meat...It's the Humanity and Other Stories (March 2013) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in Tales from the Crypt (Diábolo Ediciones, 2021 series) #2 (diciembre 2021)
• in The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2, #2

Keywords

Grand Guignol

Indexer Notes

Script credit from "Tales of Terror! - The EC Companion" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

Madame Bluebeard (Table of Contents: 2)

The Vault of Horror! / comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Joe Orlando (signed as J. Orlando)

Inks

Joe Orlando (signed as J. Orlando)

Colors

?

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

heh, heh! So, it's my turn to entertain you now, eh?

Genre

horror-suspense

Characters

The Vault-Keeper (host)

Synopsis

A woman raises her daughter to hate men and so for six years she murders a husband a year, making each appear an accidental death, as trophies for her departed mother. The seventh victim is not quite dead when he drags himself from the airplane wreck she caused, and thus she has to finish the job off herself with a large rock. When he is interred with the other six dead men that are ignorant they've been murdered "the wind...comes up...seems to sound like a whisper...telling the others..." When she is alone in the cemetery the corpses rise and drag her down into the earth with them.

Reprints

• in Phantastische Geschichten (Norbert Hethke Verlag, 1986 series) #4
• in Tales from the Crypt (Russ Cochran, 1979 series) #2 (1979)
• in I Classici Americani I Racconti del Terrore (Edizioni B.S.D., 1991 series) #v1#9 ([settembre 1991])
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #5/1994 (uke 41 1994)
• in Tales from the Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #11 (March 1995)
• in Biblioteca Grandes del Cómic: Clásicos del Terror de EC (Planeta DeAgostini, 2003 series) #2 (junio 2003)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #19 - The Thing from the Grave and Other Stories (October 2017) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in Tales from the Crypt (Diábolo Ediciones, 2021 series) #2 (diciembre 2021)
• in The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Script credit from "Tales of Terror! - The EC Companion" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

Nature (Table of Contents: 3)

text story / 1 page (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

?

Inks

?

Colors

?

Letters

typeset

Genre

horror-suspense

Synopsis

A botanist goes into a deep forbidden part of the jungle, gets snared in a giant spider's web, and is attacked by "thick swarms of the most gigantic and fearsome spiders".

Reprints

• in Tales from the Crypt (Russ Cochran, 1979 series) #2 (1979)
• in Tales from the Crypt (Diábolo Ediciones, 2021 series) #2 (diciembre 2021)
• in The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 4)

The Crypt-Keeper's Corner / letters page / 1 page (report information)

Script

?

Pencils

Al Feldstein

Inks

Al Feldstein

Colors

?

Letters

typeset

Reprints

• in Tales from the Crypt (Diábolo Ediciones, 2021 series) #2 (diciembre 2021)

Indexer Notes

Letters from Jerry Fenwick, The Old Witch.

Return! (Table of Contents: 5)

comic story / 6 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Jack Kamen

Inks

Jack Kamen

Colors

?

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Here's a ghostly yarn!

Genre

horror-suspense

Characters

The Crypt-Keeper (host)

Synopsis

A woman ends up getting pregnant by her husband's ghost!

Reprints

• in Phantastische Geschichten (Norbert Hethke Verlag, 1986 series) #4
• in Tales from the Crypt (Russ Cochran, 1979 series) #2 (1979)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #4/1991 (uke 22 1991)
• in I Classici Americani I Racconti del Terrore (Edizioni B.S.D., 1991 series) #v1#9 ([settembre 1991])
• in Tales from the Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #11 (March 1995)
• in Biblioteca Grandes del Cómic: Clásicos del Terror de EC (Planeta DeAgostini, 2003 series) #2 (junio 2003)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #20 - Daddy Lost His Head and Other Stories (November 2017) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in Tales from the Crypt (Diábolo Ediciones, 2021 series) #2 (diciembre 2021)
• in The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Script credit from "Tales of Terror! - The EC Companion" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

Horror! Head... It Off! (Table of Contents: 6)

The Witch's Cauldron! / comic story / 7 pages (report information)

Script

Bill Gaines (co-plot); Al Feldstein (co-plot, script)

Pencils

Graham Ingels (signed as Ghastly)

Inks

Graham Ingels (signed as Ghastly)

Colors

?

Letters

Jim Wroten

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Now that you've had your chilling appetizers from my dear GhouLunatics...

Genre

horror-suspense

Characters

The Old Witch (host)

Synopsis

A member of the French nobility during the Terror betrays his fellow's confidence in order to curry favor with the revolutionary government. The servant of his latest duped victim demonstrates to him in the market how chickens can live with their heads cut off for quite some time and suggests that perhaps the same may be true of humans. He laughs this off as the servant merely attempting to frighten him, but later that evening, the servant does indeed guide the headless body of his former master to acquire vengeance.

Reprints

• in Phantastische Geschichten (Norbert Hethke Verlag, 1986 series) #4
• in Tales from the Crypt (Russ Cochran, 1979 series) #2 (1979)
• in Iskalde Grøss (Semic, 1982 series) #6/1990 (uke 35 1990)
• in Tales from the Crypt (Gemstone, 1994 series) #11 (March 1995)
• in Biblioteca Grandes del Cómic: Clásicos del Terror de EC (Planeta DeAgostini, 2003 series) #2 (junio 2003)
• in The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (Fantagraphics, 2012 series) #13 - Grave Business and Other Stories (June 2015) [Reprinted in black and white.]
• in Tales from the Crypt (Diábolo Ediciones, 2021 series) #2 (diciembre 2021)
• in The EC Archives: Tales from the Crypt (Dark Horse, 2021 series) #2

Indexer Notes

Cover story. Script credit from "Tales of Terror! - The EC Companion" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.