Uncanny Tales #1
In "While the City Sleeps," a desperate man tries to wash away the evidence of a murder—only to find that the bloodstain on his shoulder refuses to fade. As he turns to a mysterious salesman’s cure, what begins as a desperate fix spirals into something far more sinister. Written by Carl Wessler and brought to life with stark, moody art by Dick Ayers—pencils and inks—this chilling tale from Uncanny Tales #1 (1952) is a standout early horror story, with a cover by Sol Brodsky that captures its eerie, sleepless dread.
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A man stabs to death another man and gets a spot of blood on his shoulder when he carries the body out to a field to bury it. He tries soap and water and even kerosene but the stain won't come off his skin. He buys a nostrum from a carnival snake oil salesman who promises that it "will restore the flesh" and when he uses it, it removes the blood stain, but regenerates the body of the murder victim who then strangles him.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).