The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36

In "Kamen's Kalamity!", Jack Kamen grapples with creative pressure after Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein tell him his horror art is too gentle. Pushed to embrace the darker edge of the genre, he dreams of a monstrous transformation under the full moon—only to wake in terror, startled by his wife’s scream at the sight of a mouse.

In "Busted Marriage!", The Crypt-Keeper spins a tale of dark obsession and twisted devotion, where a man’s obsession with control leads him to craft voodoo dolls as wedding cake figures—only to find his plans unravel in the most chilling way. When his first wife’s doll begins to rot, he discards it, but the severed connection proves impossible to escape, as the doll’s broken form rises from the trash to destroy its counterpart, leaving the new bride screaming in terror.

In "How Green Was My Alley," The Crypt-Keeper spins a tale of deceit and deadly retribution, where a bigamist’s double life ends in a gruesome twist—his two wives, both athletic and furious, turn his betrayal into a macabre game. With chilling precision, the story unfolds as the golfer putsts using his eyes and the bowler sends his severed head down the lane.

In "Corker!", a troubled woman and her skeptical psychologist seek answers from a mysterious swami, only to be drawn into a nightmarish revelation: her trauma is tied to a grotesque, otherworldly entity born from a decapitation. As fear takes hold, she flees into the subway, where fate delivers a final, shocking twist—leaving the psychologist's laughter echoing in the dark.

In "Beauty Rest," Helen Curtis and Joyce Noble share a strange room under the watchful eye of The Vault-Keeper, where beauty is measured in death. When Joyce prepares for the macabre "Miss Corpse of 1954" contest, Helen takes her place—only to find the prize demands more than just a disguise. As the night unfolds, the line between performance and permanence blurs, and the true cost of winning begins to show.

In "Current Attraction," the Crypt-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of obsession and deception at a traveling circus, where a father’s desperate attempt to protect his daughter from a dangerous performer backfires in terrifying ways. When he rigs the knife thrower’s act with a hidden magnet, the daughter’s loyalty shifts—and the act takes a deadly turn when the wife is replaced by someone far more dangerous than expected.

In "Only Sin Deep," a young woman’s desperate gamble to preserve her beauty backfires when she trades it for cash from a mysterious shopkeeper—only to find her face aging rapidly. When she tries to reclaim her pawn ticket, the price has risen to an impossible sum, forcing her into a dangerous game of deception and desperation. With her husband’s wealth now out of reach and the police closing in, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to undo her mistake.

In "By The Dawn's Early Light," the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of time, suspicion, and a vampire who outwits his captor—just as the first light breaks over New York. A man from Illinois, convinced he’s trapped a vampire, binds him in a coffin, only to realize too late that his watch is an hour behind, and dawn has already passed.

The Old Witch spins a chilling tale of desire and dread, where a man’s infatuation with a dazzling new office colleague leads down two divergent paths—one ending in monstrous revelation, the other in a fatal fall. She teases us with both, then reveals the truth: beauty can be a trap, and a single misstep can be the end.

In "Cold War," the Vault-Keeper introduces a chilling tale of love and deception, where Norman King’s pursuit of Maria Holt takes a dark turn when her husband, Paul Holt, reveals a haunting truth about her past. As the story unfolds, the line between romance and horror blurs, leaving Norman—and the reader—wondering what secrets lie buried beneath the surface of a seemingly ordinary marriage.

In "Spoiled," the Old Witch spins a chilling tale of desire and consequence, where a surgeon’s obsession with perfection leads to a grotesque act of vengeance. When a wife and her lover cross the line, their betrayal is punished in a way that twists life and identity beyond recognition.

In "The Proposal," The Crypt-Keeper spins a chilling tale of desire and deception, where a woman’s dream of a lavish life collides with a horrifying truth—her suitor’s proposal comes with a very literal appetite. The story unfolds in six haunting pages, blending dark wit with the macabre, as romance takes a gruesome turn.

In "The Substitute," the Vault-Keeper recounts a chilling tale of deception and desperation: a prisoner in a remote penal colony, desperate to escape, poisons the governor and schemes to take his place in a coffin sent back to Paris—only to face the unknown horrors of a sea burial and a fate far more tangled than he imagined.

In "Audition," a young woman’s obsession with joining Phil Vitale’s all-girl orchestra drives her to an extreme act of desperation, leading to a chilling transformation under the watchful eye of The Old Witch. What begins as a tragic bid for belonging spirals into something far stranger, as the line between music and the macabre blurs in a performance that defies life and death.

In this chilling tale from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36, the Crypt-Keeper presents a grim fairy tale where a young prince’s grief turns to horror at his nanny’s funeral—only to find her seemingly lifeless, yet moving beneath the surface. When the boy glimpses her stir in her coffin, he’s told she’s only in a cataleptic trance, but his thoughts drift not to sorrow, but to the lost pleasures of the celebration that’s been canceled.

In this chilling tale from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36, the Crypt-Keeper spins a dark fable of tyranny and retribution, where a king's insatiable greed leads to a grotesque tax on the very fingers of his people—until the peasants rise in a gruesome act of vengeance.

In a grimly festive twist, a young whipping boy returns home for Christmas, haunted by the cruelty of his royal charge, Tarby, and wondering if Santa will still come for him. As the night deepens, the boy’s father makes a desperate plea to the King—only to find the next morning that the season’s gift has arrived in the most horrifying way. The Vault-Keeper invites you to ponder what happens when a child’s innocence meets a king’s cruelty, and the holidays bring more than just presents.

In this darkly whimsical tale from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36, a spiteful old queen torments the castle’s seamstress, decorator, and artist with her endless demands to paint her portrait. When the artist snaps, the story takes a gruesome turn as the queen’s head is severed, stitched to canvas, and framed—just as she always wanted.

In this chilling tale from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36, the Prince, driven by greed and bound by a macabre bargain with the King, fattens himself to near-legendary proportions—swallowing lead shot to reach a weight measured in gold. As his carriage races toward his new castle, the sudden jolt of brakes sets off a horrifying chain of events. The Old Witch, ever the sardonic observer, watches from the shadows as the Prince’s ambition turns to ruin.

In "Double-Header!" from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36, the Old Witch spins a chilling tale of royal betrayal and tragic love, where a king’s devotion to a young bride is shattered by jealousy, and vengeance takes a merciless, unforgettable form.

In this dark twist on a classic tale, the Crypt-Keeper spins a chilling version of "Sleeping Beauty," where the reason the princess spends her days in slumber is far more sinister than a cursed spindle—something far older, far hungrier, and very much awake when the world is not.

In this chilling twist on a classic, the Old Witch recounts the unsettling truth behind Snow White’s fate—her obsession with order and cleanliness drove the seven dwarfs to desperate measures, leading to a poisoned apple that wasn’t just a plot, but a last resort.

In this chilling tale from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36, the Old Witch recounts a grim fairy tale of a king haunted by guilt after his loud revelry drowns out his daughter’s cries for help. Tormented by the silence he now imposes—first on his court, then on the entire kingdom—he demands ever more extreme quiet, until a peasant’s desperate act of vengeance forces him to confront the noise he can no longer bear.

In "The Graveyard Feet," a reporter haunted by a pair of severed feet—each with a mind of its own—must unravel their violent past before they drag him into something far darker. The story unfolds with eerie precision, blending body horror and revenge in a tale where the limbs of the dead remember how to fight.

In "Diminishing Returns!", the Old Witch hosts a chilling tale of greed and retribution, where a man’s dark bargain with the Jivaro head-hunter tribe comes back in the most horrifying form—when a package arrives at his door, containing the shrunken head of his latest victim. The head, eyes wide and unblinking, fixes him with a gaze that promises no mercy, and in a single, brutal moment, the tables turn with a vengeance.