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Issue: Tales from the Crypt #38
Publication Date: October 1953
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Disclose Detail
Issues: #38 of 27 Issues
Title:
Variant: unnamed
Rating:
Publisher: FlagEC
Brand:
Indicia Publisher: I. C. Publishing Co. Inc.
On Sale Date: (not set)
Volume: 1
Pages: 36
ISBN: none
UPC/EAN: none
Price: $0.10 USD
Indicia Frequency:
Content Items: 7 (5 stories, 1 cover)
Editor(s):  
Disclose Notes:  
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Disclose Format
Publication Type: Comic Book
Color: color
Dimensions: Standard Golden Age U.S.
Paper Stock: glossy cover; newsprint interior
Binding: saddle-stitched
Publishing Format: was ongoing series
Format Notes:  
Disclose Reprinted In12
Disclose Reprinted From0
There is currently no data for this Issue being reprinted from anywhere.
Disclose Images3
Cover, Front
Original Artwork
Digital Edition
Adult Image
Title Page
Indicia on this Page
 
 
Cover, Front
Original Artwork
Digital Edition
Adult Image
Title Page
Indicia on this Page
 
 
Cover, Front
Original Artwork
Digital Edition
Adult Image
Title Page
Indicia on this Page
 
 
Assets0
 
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Disclose Content Items (7 total)
Disclose Issue Images
[untitled]

Illustration  on  Cover, Front
Credits
Colorist(s): ?
Letterer(s): ?
Subject Matter
Genres: horror
Character(s): The Crypt-Keeper (inset); The Old Witch (inset); The Vault-Keeper (inset)
Reprinting
In Content Item: FlagTales from the Crypt #38 published December 1953
as [untitled] [Illustration on Cover, Front]
In Content Item: FlagIskalde Grøss #6/1990 published January 1990
as [untitled] [Illustration on Cover, Front]
In Content Item: FlagTales from the Crypt #22 published December 1997
as [untitled] [Illustration on Cover, Front]
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 1
Disclose
Tight Grip!

Story  on  Interior Page(s)
Subject Matter
Genres: horror
Feature(s): The Crypt of Terror
Character(s): The Crypt-Keeper (host); Wilma (death); Jeeves (Wilma's butler); unnamed Justice of the Peace; unnamed bellboy; Willy (villain); Carl Roswell (villain, Wilma's fiance, death)
First Line: Heh, heh. Well, all I can say is... you're either fans or fiends...
Synopsis: This story is narrated by a trunk and concerns the murder of a woman the trunk is fond of. When the murderer attempts to hide in the trunk, he panics and shoots holes through it, whereupon the trunk contracts itself turning the killer into flesh spaghetti and concentrated bone.
Reprinting
In Issue: FlagThe Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #4 published March 2013
In Content Item: FlagIskalde Grøss #6/1990 published January 1990
as En grepa kar! [Story on Interior Page(s)]
In Content Item: FlagTales from the Crypt #22 published December 1997
as Tight Grip! [Story on Interior Page(s)]
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 8
Disclose Notes: Colorist and letterer credits by Craig Delich.
Script credit from "Tales of Terror! - The EC Companion" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.
Cover story.
Disclose
...Only Skin Deep!

Story  on  Interior Page(s)
Subject Matter
Genres: horror
Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!
Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Herbert; Suzanne (Herbert's wife); A. M. Moore (Justice of the Peace); Moore's wife
First Line: Heh, heh! Yep, creeps, it's your scream-story-teller in the Vault of Horror...
Synopsis: A man marries a woman at Mardi Gras who wears a hag mask. She continually puts off his requests to remove her mask until he becomes agitated enough to bodily pull the mask off of her head whereupon he realizes she wasn't wearing a mask.
Reprinting
In Content Item: FlagDe vloek van de volle maan #[nn] published January 1981
as ...Alleen het uiterlijk! [Story on Interior Page(s)]
In Content Item: FlagIskalde Grøss #6/1989 published January 1989
as Ansiktsløftningen! [Story on Interior Page(s)]
In Content Item: FlagTales from the Crypt #22 published December 1997
as ...Only Skin Deep! [Story on Interior Page(s)]
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 7
Disclose Notes: Script revisions, colorist and letterer credits by Craig Delich.
Disclose
Big Fish!

Text Story  on  Interior Page(s)
Credits
Writer(s): ?
Letterer(s): typeset
Subject Matter
First Line: As he poised at the edge of the lake...
Synopsis: A man tries to rig a fishing contest by diving underwater and removing the bait from a competitors hook. However the hook ends up getting caught in his neck and rips it open killing him.
Reprinting
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 1
Disclose
[untitled]

Letters Page  on  Interior Page(s)
Credits
Letterer(s): typeset
Reprinting
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 1
Disclose Notes: Letters (whole and partial) from Nelson Bridwell (future DC employee), Milton Hughes, Dick Baumann, Patrick McKernam, Emanuel Peluso, Richard Renner, Otis Barton, Roger Todahl, Ira Bankoff, Lynn Weber, J. Farmisano, Judy Albarado, Hepster Jim Moran, Bob West, Ronald Frager, Jack Laws, Danny Simons.
Disclose
Last Laugh

Story  on  Interior Page(s)
Subject Matter
Genres: horror
Character(s): The Crypt-Keeper (host); practical joker; a doctor (villain)
First Line: Ernie visited the doctor but never expected the last laugh
Synopsis: An obese practical joker with a stomach problem visits a doctor and relates a practical joke involving getting old clothes and bloody butchered chunks of horse flesh to take down to the trainyard near where some children regularly play. When the train rolls through, he lets out a scream after dropping the gory mess on the rails, and finds the ensuing panic tearfully funny. Unfortunately, the doctor's son died from that prank, so gets his revenge by giving him some capsules that contained fish hooks and he straps the obese man to a table and tickles him so that he will literally 'die laughing'.
Reprinting
In Content Item: FlagIskalde Grøss #4/1990 published January 1990
as Den som ler sist ... [Story on Interior Page(s)]
In Content Item: FlagTales from the Crypt #22 published December 1997
as Last Laugh [Story on Interior Page(s)]
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 6
Disclose Notes: This story was actually based on an event Bill Elder was involved with as a kid.

Colorist and letterer credits by Craig Delich.

Script credit from The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #[18] - The Million Year Picnic and Other Stories.
Disclose
Mournin' Mess

Story  on  Interior Page(s)
Subject Matter
Genres: horror
Feature(s): The Witch's Cauldron!
Character(s): The Old Witch (host); Mayor Merk; Sweeney (reporter, death); Sweeney's boss; Felix J. Copehard (villain, a ghoul, representative of the Grateful Hoboes Society)
First Line: Hee, hee! And now that your appetites for horror have been sufficiently piqued...
Synopsis: The Grateful Hoboes, Outcasts, and Unwanteds' Layaways Society is run by a man who read 'Midnight Mess' in Tales from the Crypt #35, and offers a pleasant burial for the penniless. A local reporter thinks their setup odd, and when his boss later tells him that they have buried their 1000th derelict, he is sure something stinks because their cemetery does not have enough area for 1000 graves. He discovers the truth: that the 20-30 members of the society are ghouls hence the acronym (G.H.O.U.L.S)!
Reprinting
In Content Item: FlagTales from the Crypt #22 published December 1997
as Mournin' Mess [Story on Interior Page(s)]
Reprint Notes:  
Miscellaneous
Pages: 7
Disclose Notes: Script revision by Craig Delich, formerly Al Feldstein.

Colorist and letterer credits by Craig Delich.

Much of the story is told in flashback.

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