EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1

In "Portrait in Wax!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, jealousy turns deadly when Henry, envious of his friend Robert’s art, begins passing off Robert’s etchings as his own. After a violent confrontation leaves Robert presumed dead, Henry builds a macabre museum with a wax sculptor—only to uncover a horrifying secret when a damaged statue reveals a human hand beneath its surface.

In "The Werewolf Legend," Walter Mallory is haunted by a family curse he believes makes him a killer under the full moon. As he confesses his crimes to Scotland Yard, the truth unravels in a chilling twist: the real monster isn't a beast, but a man who used hypnosis and makeup to frame him.

In the eerie stillness of the Hawkin's Tourist Colony, Tom’s drinking takes a turn when his friend Jim arrives, shaken by a vivid dream: a couple checks in, the woman terrified of an unseen death, kills a cat in panic, and the man, consumed by guilt or rage, murders her before taking his own life. Jim dismisses it as mere nightmare—until the same couple arrives in person, stepping out of the night with the same haunted eyes as Tom’s dream.

In "Terror Train," Gloria flees her husband Ralph, desperate to escape what she believes is his plot to poison her, only to find herself trapped on a train where every passenger lies dead in their berths. As she stumbles through a nightmarish sequence of visions and horrors—only to awaken again on the train—she begins to question whether her fear is real or a delusion born of paranoia. The story unfolds with chilling precision, blurring the line between terror and reality in a suspenseful descent into psychological dread.

In "The Dead Will Return!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, Florence and Bert try to bury their secret—literally—after disposing of her husband’s body in the ocean. But when the corpse keeps washing ashore, their panic grows with each gruesome return, culminating in a chilling descent into the lighthouse as fear takes hold. The story’s relentless dread builds with every wave, every drip of water, and every shadowed stair.

In "The Curse of Harkley Heath," the last heirs of a decaying family gather at their ancestral estate to claim their fortune—only to learn the will names a distant cousin, Miss Sybil, as the true beneficiary. When the brothers plot to silence her with the same morphine that killed their uncle, they unwittingly awaken a vengeance far older and darker than they imagined.

In "Doctor of Horror," Professor LeMonet, a disgraced anatomy instructor at the Hampshire Surgeon School, resorts to grave-robbing to boost his class attendance—only to spiral into a darker ambition when he begins orchestrating murders along the waterfront to impress the royal surgeon. As his schemes grow more audacious, he plots to eliminate rivals for the dean's position and even aims for the governorship, unaware that his own body may be the next to turn up among the victims.

In "Island of Death," Steve Crane survives a plane crash on a remote island only to be rescued by the enigmatic Count Cabeza, who offers him shelter and a lavish meal. As the Count proudly displays his collection of animal trophies, he reveals a chilling fascination with one final challenge: outwitting a man.

In "Voodoo Vengeance!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, Caleb’s quiet evening takes a dark turn when a visit to a mysterious antique shop leads him to a voodoo doll sculpted in his wife Sally’s likeness—just after he catches her with her lover. After a heated confrontation and a violent clash, Sally hurls the doll at Caleb, only for it to shatter against the fireplace and vanish into flames. But as the smoke clears, Caleb’s horror isn’t just over the betrayal—it’s over what’s happening to Sally.

In the chilling pages of *The Vault of Horror #1*, Viktor Zorak’s mountain climb through Transylvania takes a terrifying turn when their guide, Jan Bodzla, grows suspicious of him—whispering warnings of a werewolf among them. As the full moon rises, the expedition’s fragile trust shatters when Zorak’s eyes glow red and a blood-curdling scream echoes through the night, leaving Edna Farnum dead and the survivors scrambling for their lives. With the truth still hanging in the air, Bodzla’s final warning is cut short—three werewolves are closing in.

In "Rats Have Sharp Teeth!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, Abner, the town’s self-proclaimed historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of its past, ventures into the graveyard one night to steal jewels from a corpse—only to be confronted by a rat he despises more than any other. As he uncovers Revolutionary War-era tunnels beneath the cemetery, he plans to use them to loot graves unseen, but soon finds himself trapped in a web of his own making when the rats he fears so deeply begin to outwit him. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, this chilling tale turns the quiet dread of the underground into a relentless, creeping terror.

In "The Strange Couple!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, a man stranded on a storm-lashed road takes shelter at a remote house inhabited by a bizarre pair—she claims her husband is a vampire, he insists his wife is a ghoul. As tension coils through the night, each spouse tells a different, chilling tale about their dog’s fate, leaving the guest uneasy and wide awake, barricaded in the bedroom. When the walls seem to shift and the couple appears in the dark, he wakes to find himself back in his car—only to drive again until he sees the same house, and the same unsettling pair waiting at the door.

In "Terror in the Swamp!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, two travelers venture into the Okefenokee Swamp, where a desperate man warns them to turn back—or never be seen again. Drawn by the eerie tale of a failed experiment that birthed a living, ravenous mass from the swamp’s depths, they press on, unaware of the horror that awaits.

In "Report from the Grave," the town’s undertaker Fred Coombes leads the Vault-Keeper’s Club in a chilling initiation ritual: exhuming a recently buried member to verify their death. When Warren Lake returns with only rags and bones, the club investigates—only to find the corpse is decades old, and suspicion falls on Vardy, who once shared a room with the dead man. As the members demand answers, the ground itself seems to betray them, and the truth emerges in a moment of shocking, gas-filled silence.

In "Buried Alive!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, Jo finds herself trapped in a twisted game of deception and desperation at a roadside carnival, where the only thing more buried than the man in the dirt is the truth behind his act. With Rita’s schemes running deep and Sam’s fate hanging by a thread, the line between performance and peril blurs in a story that keeps you guessing until the very last page.

In a remote Hungarian hotel haunted by a string of mysterious murders, a famed pianist named Mademoiselle Micheline arrives under suspicious circumstances. As the guests grow uneasy and the owner’s desperation mounts, a chilling twist unfolds when the true nature of the hotel’s guests—and the deadly game they’re playing—begins to surface.

In "Fitting Punishment!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, young Stanley finds himself under the care of his uncle Ezra, the town’s undertaker—until he uncovers a grim secret about the man’s post-mortem practices. When Ezra tries to silence Stanley by entombing him in a coffin too small, the boy’s fate takes a chilling turn that leaves the undertaker facing a punishment far more personal than he ever imagined.

In "The Grave Wager," Paul and Clyde make a chilling bet: that Roger won’t spend the night in a haunted apartment with a corpse. They enlist Pirro, the Wax Man from a local freak show, to play the part—only to find their prank spirals into something far darker. When Roger awakens to a moving corpse, the night takes a terrifying turn, leaving Paul and Clyde to confront a horrifying truth they never saw coming.

In "Escape!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, convict Pete Lugar bets everything on a chilling plan: swapping places with a dead inmate during an execution, counting on a confederate to dig him out from the grave. But when the coffin is sealed and carted off to the prison’s new crematorium, his desperate gamble takes a terrifying turn.

In "Terror on the Moors!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, Jim Ryan takes shelter in a remote estate during a thick fog, where he’s welcomed by the reclusive Andrew Clymore and his silent servant, Evers. When Evers reveals Clymore is already dead and that a funeral pyre must be built to honor him, Ryan agrees—only to learn the estate hides a monstrous secret in a barred room. The story unfolds with creeping dread, as the line between duty and horror blurs in a tale of isolation, guilt, and a creature born of grief.

In "Baby -- It's Cold Inside!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, Barton Gordon ventures through a brutal snowstorm to answer a job ad for a superintendent, only to find himself in a freezing, eerie apartment building ruled by a reclusive owner who keeps his own quarters unnaturally cold. When the building’s air conditioning fails and the decaying stench seeps from the superintendent’s door, Gordon must confront the chilling truth behind the man who lives in the ice.

In "Voodoo Horror!" from EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #1, George Baker’s curiosity leads him to a mysterious Haitian shop where he commissions a voodoo bust of himself—only to find it aged beyond recognition while he remains unchanged. As the years pass, his marriage to Jean, the daughter of an employee, becomes a twisted dance of youth and decay, all watched over by the ever-aging statue. When Jean finally takes matters into her own hands, the bust’s transformation takes a shocking, horrifying turn.