Tales of Horror #2

Dates

Cover date

September 1952

On sale

May 16, 1952

Pages

36

Editions and covers

• Original edition

  Source ↗

Creators

Stories

• The Thing in the Pool · 10 pages

  An architect loses his secretary, who he's secretly in love with, to a young good looking man. Wanting revenge on the couple he offers them a huge mansion complete with a beautiful swimming pool as a gift. It turn out that inside the pool is a prehistoric furry tentacled monster. The architect encountered this monster years ago in a small watering hole and built the swimming pool over the hole to destroy the couple. Unfortunately for him the monster also makes him a victim.

• The Hand of Jao Tze · 8 pages

  A sailor steals the jewels from a huge statue of Jao Tze in a temple. He kills the old man who was guarding the temple and escapes with the loot. He eventually is chased by jewel thieves who hack off his fingers. Ultimately he finds himself returning to the temple to be its new guardian.

• The Ripper's Return · 4 pages

  A mad doctor at a sanatorium is somehow able to inject brain atoms from deceased historical figures into the minds of patients thus restoring these people to life in new bodies. He does this with Napoleon Bonaparte and Confucius. He then performs the experiment on his assistant turning him into Jack the Ripper, but Jack ends up murdering him.

• The Man Who Bought the Earth! · 0.5 pages

  In 193 A.D., the Praetorian Guard auctions off the position of Roman Emperor. Didius is the highest bidder. Shortly thereafter general Septimius Severus defeats Didius, who is then executed.

• Love from a Plant · 8 pages

  A lonely little horticulturist, who's been constantly bullied by his hulking wife, finds a way to give life to a vine with a special spray. He can make the vine display both love and hate. He makes the vine hate and traps his wife in the greenhouse where she is strangled to death. Alone with his vine, he uses his spray to make the plant love. The vine hugs him but hugs him so tightly it kills him.

Reprinted in

Mystery Tales (1964), Haunted Horror (2012), Tales of Horror (1952), Crypt of Horror (2005), Gwandanaland Comics (2016)