The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #30

In "Roped In!", three construction company co-owners—Donald Morgan, Ellis, and Buckley—try to escape justice after a deadly hospital collapse, but their getaway flight through a South American mountain pass takes a terrifying turn when their plane becomes entangled in a vast, unseen web. As dawn breaks, they realize too late that they’re trapped in the web of something far larger—and far more ancient—than they ever imagined.

In "Strictly from Hunger!", the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of a man consumed by a curse that defies death—his body overtaken by a relentless, spreading cancer, yet never allowed to die. Trapped between agony and immortality, he becomes a living horror, a walking wound that only the desperate would dare to face. When a monstrous entity emerges from a cave, driven by hunger, the men of the posse must confront not just the beast, but the terrible price of defying nature’s end.

In "All Washed Up!", a desperate man’s attempt to secure his future takes a deadly turn when he murders a rival for love and hides the body in an old well—only to lose the stolen ring in the process. When he returns to retrieve it, the corpse’s grip on his ankle pulls him into a nightmare he never saw coming. The Vault-Keeper warns of the price paid when greed and guilt drown a soul.

In "This Trick'll Kill You!", the Vault-Keeper presents a chilling tale of ambition and terror: a traveling magician and his wife, drawn to India by the promise of a new act, encounter a mysterious girl and her uncanny rope that defies gravity when played with a pipe. When greed takes hold, their plan to steal the rope spirals into a nightmare — one that turns the very trick against them, leaving the man dangling in a trap of his own making.

In a forgotten castle where time hangs heavy, the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of loyalty, obsession, and a bell that never tolled—until the day it did, with a sound that would echo through the ages. A young apprentice, denied his moment for decades, finally claimed the bell’s voice in the most terrible way, his body becoming its clapper as the tolls grew fainter, one by one.

In "A Creep in the Deep!", the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of love and dread: a man, fishing alone on a lake, learns his wife has been attacked by a vampire while rowing. When he returns to the water, he hears whispers of blood-drained bodies and realizes she may now be one of the undead, haunting the depths. Armed with a sharpened spear, he prepares to face her in the dark — not as a monster, but as the one who must end her suffering.

In "Oil's Well That Ends Well!", The Vault-Keeper spins a tale of greed and unintended consequences, where a pair of con artists scheme to sell fake oil rights to a gullible town—only for their plan to backfire in the most explosive way possible. When one swindler fakes his death and is buried, his partner’s careless smoke leads to a fiery surprise buried beneath the cemetery soil.

A mother's growing dread turns to terror as she becomes convinced her newborn is a threat—her fears are chillingly justified. When her husband is found dead and the doctor who delivered the baby arrives, his calm demeanor hides a far more unsettling resolve.

In "Practical Choke!", three pre-med students push the limits of their morbid humor with a series of unsettling pranks involving cadaver parts—only to find their joke spirals into something far more dangerous than they ever imagined. As the night unfolds, a chilling presence begins to stir in the shadows, and the line between practical joke and deadly consequence blurs. The Vault-Keeper warns that some experiments should never be taken beyond the lab.

In "Bedtime Gory!", The Vault-Keeper spins a chilling tale of deception and dark intentions, where a woman’s gift of a stretch rack to her husband takes a sinister turn after he confesses to murdering her wealthy father—motivated not by love, but by greed. The story unfolds with quiet dread, weaving betrayal and domestic tension into a suspenseful nightmare that lingers long after the final page.

In "Curiosity Killed...", the Vault-Keeper invites you into a chilling tale of paranoia and misplaced trust, where a woman’s growing suspicion about her neighbor’s disappearance spirals into a terrifying confrontation. When she becomes convinced her friend’s husband is secretly disposing of her body through carrier pigeons, the line between fear and reality begins to blur—especially when the man himself shows up at her door.

In "Lover, Come Hack to Me!", the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tradition: every generation, a madwoman is born on her parents’ wedding night, destined to murder her new husband with an ax in the same house. The tale unfolds with a slow, dread-laden pulse, building around a ritual that feels both ancient and terrifyingly inevitable.

In "An Ample Sample," the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of obsession and betrayal, as Irwin confesses to Bert how his love for his wife Hannah—whose devotion to chocolate led to her growing heavier—eventually turned deadly. As Irwin invites Bert into his home, the true horror unfolds in the form of a monstrous, handmade chocolate box, each compartment revealing a disturbing, intimate detail of Hannah’s fate.

In "About Phase," a chilling tale from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #30, Wilbur’s chilling habit of recounting gruesome murder details to his wife takes a dark turn when his own twisted plan unravels under the cold light of a full lunar eclipse. As he prepares to execute his final, calculated crime, the very celestial event he believed would shield him becomes his undoing.

In "A Slight Case of Murder!", the Vault-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of rural dread, where Doc Sam Swanson investigates a string of gruesome murders in a remote town. With the help of newspaper editor Phil Ingram and the suspicious Sheriff Moulton, Sam uncovers a horrifying truth tied to a deformed baby born in an abandoned mansion—and the twisted mind behind the killings may be more monstrous than anyone imagined.

In "Chess-Mate," the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale from a quiet town where a legendary chess player’s genius was matched only by his secrecy—until a parade forced him to remove his ever-present top hat, revealing a horrifying truth beneath. The story unfolds with a creeping unease, blending small-town atmosphere with a twist that redefines skill, identity, and the cost of hidden selves.

In "Pearly to Dead," the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of greed and betrayal beneath the sea: two navy divers, bound by duty and a shared dream of riches, stumble upon a hidden pearl bed during a wartime mission. After one man's ambition leads him to murder his partner, the corpse returns in a way he never expected—just as he’s about to claim the treasure he so desperately wanted.

In "No Silver Atoll!", the Vault-Keeper hosts a chilling tale of survival and paranoia on a remote atoll after a plane crash. With dwindling supplies and silver vanishing from the survivors’ belongings, fear turns inward as two are killed and suspicion grows—someone among them may be a werewolf. But the real danger might not be the beast they imagine.

In a chilling twist of institutional neglect, a deranged asylum’s patients are moved into forgotten dungeon cells to cut costs—until a state inspection looms. Dr. Morgan Ullman scrambles to hide the truth, but one broken man’s desperate cry for his lost "Linda" leads the inspectors straight to the prison’s depths. There, the horrifying truth of his devotion is revealed in a single, unforgettable moment.

In "The Secret," a young boy named Theodore is taken in by the seemingly kind Mr. and Mrs. Colbert, but their home hides a monstrous truth—these are vampires who plan to feast on him. When the boy’s true nature as a werewolf is revealed, the roles reverse in a shocking twist neither the couple nor the reader sees coming.

In "Indisposed!", the Vault-Keeper presents a chilling tale of domestic horror: a man’s attempt to dispose of his wife’s remains via a newly installed garbage disposal goes horribly wrong when his plumber friend makes a fatal connection to the water supply. When a guest reaches for a drink, the faucet unleashes a gory surprise — and the man’s dark secret begins to spill out, one dripping glass at a time.

In "Clots My Line," the Crypt-Keeper hosts a game show where a red ink manufacturer baffles the panel with cryptic answers, leading them to suspect he’s hiding something far darker. As the tension mounts, the host revels in the twist, revealing the guest’s prize: a coffin—just as the panel’s suspicions turn deadly.

In "Game Washed Out!", the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale from a Puritan colony where a man’s desperate scheme to seduce another man’s wife spirals into a grim, supernatural reckoning. After murdering his own wife and dumping her in a pond, he faces public punishment—three dunkings—only to be claimed in the end by the very corpse he sought to escape.

In "The Dress," Martin Paulson struggles to convince the coroner that Aunt Agatha, not Janie, was responsible for the young girl’s death—her final moments marked by a desperate yearning to wear a forbidden dress. For years, Agatha denied Janie the garment, enforcing the ban with harsh punishment, all at Paulson’s insistence. But after Janie’s passing, Agatha finally reveals the truth behind the prohibition, a secret tied to the dress itself.

In "Country Doctor," a dedicated physician reflects on the lives he’s touched and the families he’s helped bring into the world—many of whom couldn’t afford his care. When a sudden snowstorm strands him on a remote road, he’s pulled between urgent calls, each one a test of his duty and his limits, as the weight of his choices begins to take its toll.

In "Heart Interest," a quiet, poignant drama unfolds as a doctor recalls a fateful prognosis made years before—telling Walter Harmon’s wife that her new husband had only six months to live. She chooses not to tell him, instead dedicating their time together to tender, unspoken moments, until Walter begins to sense a growing distance, drawn to another woman in ways that unsettle the fragile peace they’ve built. The story lingers in the space between love, loss, and the unexpected turns of fate, where the heart’s burden is not always what it seems.