Dates
- Cover date
- April-May 1951
- On sale
- January 16, 1951
- Pages
- 36
Editions and covers
- Original editionSource ↗
Creators
Stories
- Sink-Hole! · The Vault of Horror · 8 pages
A lonely woman, who had joined a lonely hearts club, accepts a marriage proposal by mail, but when she meets him, he is actually much older than she had realized. After she meets the new area health inspector, Rick Hudson, and falls for him, she murders her husband and dumps him into the well on their property so she can carry on a romance with Hudson. Then she discovers that Hudson is married and leaving town. Disappointed beyond hope, she goes over to the well to draw some water to quench her mounting thirst and gets a REAL surprise!
- Lend Me a Hand! · The Crypt of Terror · 7 pages
Eminent physician Dr. Johnson is the victim of a car accident and loses his hand, which means his career is finished. After reading an article in a medical journal about keeping tissue alive by a chemical and mechanical apparatus, the doctor decides to kill a drunk to get a hand to replace the one he lost, with some very unfortunate results!
- Trap · 2 pages
Inspector Mattern and Sergeant Finch were working homicide detail concerning four murders that had occurred under a full moon in the last four months. They laid a trap for the killer. As Mittern sat waiting to spring the trap, he looked up at the full moon and a strange tingling began coursing through his body....and he blacked out. When he awoke, he noticed a heavy weight on his chest, which he discovered to be Sgt. Finch. Then he noticed his hairy hands were covered in blood and realized that the trap he had set had worked and had caught the killer werewolf, and it turned out to be himself!
- The Mask of Horror · The Vault of Horror · 6 pages
Ken Anders stops off at an eerie costume shop to get a costume for a party, and the weird owner outfits him with a mask and costume that is supposed to represent his true self: that of a rotting corpse. His fiancée refuses to go to the party with him, so he leaves devastated. He puts the mask on and heads to the party, and meets a woman dressed as a vampire and falls for her. They head into the garden to unmask and he discovers she really is a vampire, who then attacks him. Anders drowns her in a lily pond....but then notes his reflection in the pond with terrifying results!
- Dying to Lose Weight! · The Witch's Cauldron! · 7 pages
In a small town populated by many fat people, a weird Dr. Perdo comes to town, offering to help those people through the use of a tiny weight-loss capsule. Four accept his offer and the capsule works on them to perfection. But then, the four people suddenly die horrible deaths, as if they had starved to death. Six months later, Perdo, in disguise, returns to the town, but is discovered and runs into the cemetery to hide in the mausoleum of one of his victims, where he comes face-to-face with the thing that had killed his victims: a giant tapeworm!
Reprinted in
The EC Archives: The Vault of Horror (2021), The Vault of Horror (1982), Vault of Horror (1991), Vault of Horror (1992), The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (2012)