8

Vault of Horror

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!

Inker: Johnny Craig; Penciller: Johnny Craig; Writer: Johnny Craig;

7

Vault of Horror

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!

Penciller: Harry Harrison; Writer: Harry Harrison; Inker: Wally Wood;

6

Vault of Horror

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!

Writer: Al Feldstein; Inker: Harvey Kurtzman; Penciller: Harvey Kurtzman;

7

Vault of Horror

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!

Inker: Al Feldstein; Penciller: Al Feldstein; Writer: Al Feldstein;