Dates
- Cover date
- September-October 1952
- Pages
- 36
Editions and covers
- Original editionSource ↗
Creators
Stories
- Chatter-Boxed! · The Witch's Cauldron! · 8 pages
A man subject to cataleptic fits worries that he may be buried alive during one of them so he instructs his undertaker to perform no embalming and has a telephone installed in the coffin. He gets into an auto accident while having a fit and it is assumed he was killed by himself. When he revives in the rapidly oxygen-depleting coffin, he first tries to phone his wife, then his brother, and finally his doctor, all without success. Finally, he tries to dial the operator, but unfortunately for him, it is December 7, 1941, and all circuits are busy!
- All Washed Up! · The Vault of Horror! · 7 pages
A man doesn't have the money to marry his girl, so he kills his wealthier rival and dumps his body down an old well. While he is doing so, he accidentally drops the diamond ring he stole from the victim down the well. He returns for the ring only to have the corpse clamp its teeth into his ankle when he attempts to climb back up out of the well and drag him back down under the surface.
- The Patient Stake · 1 pages
Frontiersman Wayne Cameron and his friend are caught by Shawnee Indians who plan on burning them at the stake. Wayne escapes into the woods but gets cold during the night due to the frigid temperatures. By morning he opts to go back to the Shawnee camp for warmth.
- Marriage Vows! · The Old Witch's Grim Fairy Tale! · 6 pages
In this grim fairy tale, evil king Blackheart gets princess Buttercup's proverbial hand in marriage.
- Death of Some Salesmen! · The Crypt of Terror · 7 pages
A salesman has the bad luck to break down outside the home of a deranged old couple who cover him with a shotgun as they show him their refrigerator, stove, vacuum cleaner, grandfather clock, and television set that they made sure worked by testing it out on the body of each device's respective salesman. The man asks him "What do you sell?" and he replies "It's out in the car" while the old woman covers him with the shotgun. The old man goes to get it and he tells the woman "You don't want what I sell" and offers to pay anything to be released but she just waits for her husband to return with the device, a handy-dandy meat cutter...
Reprinted in
EC Classics (1985), Haunt of Fear (1985), Haunt of Fear (1994), The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library (2012), EC Portfolio (1971), Choke Gasp! The Best of 75 Years of EC Comics (2019), The EC Archives: The Haunt of Fear (2021)