| Issue | #12 |
| Published | April-May 1950 |
| Cover Price | 0.10 USD |
| Pages | 36 |
| Editing | Al Feldstein; William M. Gaines (managing editor) |
| Notes | Cover title taken from first interior story from which the cover is based. |
| Genre | horror |
| Pencils | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Inks | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Notes | Cover title taken from first interior story from which the cover is based. |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992) |
| Characters | The Vault Keeper |
| Synopsis | Robert was an artistic genius but with no desire for claim to fame, while Henry,having no ability of his own, was jealous because his friend was passing up a fortune for not selling his etchings. One day, Henry purloined a piece out of the studio and took it to an art buyer, who not only bought this piece, but was willing to buy all that Henry could supply. Eventually Robert found out and confronted Henry, who threw acid into the face of the artist, then dumped the body into an acid vat. Henry went on to sell more etchings and lived like a king, until only a few were left, and Henry mused what he would do for money once they were gone. Several days later he got an unsigned letter stating that an old friend of his had died, but he was invited to see a statue of that man created by an unknown sculptor at a certain address. Curiousity got the best of Henry, who proceded to the address to view the wax statue. Impressed, he schemed to do the same thing to this man as he had with Robert, so he told the sculptor that he was going to open a wax museum and he needed more statues to put in it. The museum was built and the statues were provided, but when he moved one of the statues, the arm hit a wall, the wax crumbled, and Henry discovered a human hand beneath it. Confronting the sculptor, the madman-artist told Henry this was all part of his scheme, and, as he approached Henry, wax crumbled from his face, revealing the rotting flesh of his former friend, Robert! |
| Genre | suspense |
| Script | Johnny Craig |
| Pencils | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Inks | Johnny Craig (signed) |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992) |
| Characters | Walter Mallory [a werewolf] |
| Synopsis | In the deep, dark woods, a werewolf stalks his prey, pounces and kills. The next morning, Walter awakes in bed, looks in the mirror and sees himself as a werewolf....and faints. Later, his butler enters the room and tells him that his cousin, Sir Gregory, has arrived, and over a cup of coffee, he tells Mallory that a neighbor has been murdered. After he leaves, Mallory enters the library and sicovers a book on the Mallory's werewolf legend, and he eagerly reads every page, recounting his ancestors, all of whom were werewolves. Later that evening, Walter staggers from his bed, turns into a werewolf, stalks more prey and kills the individual....then faints, and awakens in his room. Walter immediately heads to Scotland Yard and tells the story about the family werewolves....which peaks the interest of Sir Gregory. But later that night, Walter awakens again as the werewolf and goes out and kills again, then re-awakens in his room. Determined to end the string of killings, Mallory is about to shoot himself when Scotland Yard enters and tells him that it was actually Sir Gregory who killed the people [because they had been blackmailing him], then hypnotized Walter and put werewolf makeup on him to make him think he had committed the crimes! |
| Genre | monster; suspense |
| Script | Harry Harrison |
| Pencils | Harry Harrison [as Harrison] (signed) |
| Inks | Wally Wood [as Wood] (signed) |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992) |
| Synopsis | At last he had done it: he had killed Montrose to get a valuable gold chain, but someone was coming and he had to get away....he could return for the chain later. Later, after the burial, the killer broke into Montrose's mausoleum, into his coffin, and there was the gold chain in the corpse's hands. Much as he try to pry the chain from those stiff fingers, he couldn't budge it.....until finally, the fingers moved ever so slightly to release that chain. As the man bent forward to examine the chain in the light, the fingers of the corpse began to close again.....this time around the man's throat.....tighter and tighter and tighter until........... |
| Genre | mystery |
| Script | William M. Gaines |
| Pencils | ? (1 panel art) |
| Inks | ? (1 panel art) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992) |
| Characters | Tom Hawkins |
| Synopsis | At the Hawkin's Tourist Colony, Tom is hitting the bottle as his friend Jim walks in, and explains that he is doing so because of a terrible dream he had the night before. In it, a couple come in to take a room for the night....but the woman appeared to be very strange. As it turns out, the woman believes that death is stalking her at every turn, and kills a cat, believing it was death coming for her. Her husband locks her in the room, but that night she attempts to escape, they get into a fight and he kills her, then shoots himself to death! After hearing the story, Jim tells Tom it was just a nightmare and not to pay any attention to it, and leaves. A few moments later, a car pulls up and the same couple Tom had seen in his dream were standing before him wanting a room! |
| Genre | suspense; mystery |
| Script | Al Feldstein? |
| Pencils | Harvey Kurtzman |
| Inks | Harvey Kurtzman |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992) |
| Characters | The Vault-Keeper (head shot) |
| Synopsis | Contains letters from readers Grace Calmesi, Cleo Gruner and Shirley Johnson. |
| Pencils | Al Feldstein (spot illo) |
| Inks | Al Feldstein (spot illo) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1 |
| Synopsis | A knife flashes down and the owner of a circus falls to the floor....dead. The killer then saw the shadows of the roustabouts just outside the tent, so he shoved money he had just stolen into his pockets, then looked for another way out. He spied a barred door at the back of the tent, opened it and hid there. Suddenly there was a snarl behind him and he could see the eyes of a large cat....a panther.....he tried to escape, but the barred door wouldn't open. He thouight of screaming to alert the roustabouts, who were leaving the area....but he couldn't be heard over the roars of the cat as it.....killed him! |
| Genre | crime |
| Script | William M. Gaines |
| Pencils | ? (2 panels art) |
| Inks | ? (2 panels art) |
| Letters | typeset |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992) |
| Characters | Gloria; Ralph |
| Synopsis | Gloria was in a cab, running away from her husband Ralph...heading toward the train station and the train that would take her away from this man whom she thought was trying to poison her. Seated on the train, she kept imagining him at every turn and remembering the $25,000 insurance policies Ralph had taken out on them both...then she remembered that poison bottle he had brought home. Asleep in her berth, Gloria suddenly awakens at what she thinks is a scream, and goes to wake the conductor...but he is dead in his berth. In fact, everyone is dead in their berths! She jumps off the train and locates a farmhouse that has a freshly-dug grave outside. She enters the house and spies a coffin in it....then sees Ralph behind her, who grabs Gloria, puts her in the coffin, nails it shut, drags it to the grave and buries it. Suddenly, she awakens in her berth on the train.....sees Ralph with an attendant in a white coat, who takes her off to a nice house with bars on it so that Ralph can never get to her again! |
| Genre | horror |
| Script | Al Feldstein |
| Pencils | Al Feldstein [as Feldstein] (signed) |
| Inks | Al Feldstein [as Feldstein] (signed) |
| Reprinted | in Vault of Horror, The (Russ Cochran, 1982 series) #1; in Vault of Horror (Russ Cochran, 1992 series) #1 (October 1992); in Haunt of Fear (Gemstone, 1994 series) #20 (August 1997) |