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Content Items (44 total)

Deadly Beloved and Other Stories

Illustration on Cover, Front

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Pages: 1

Deadly Beloved and Other Stories

Credits on Interior Page(s)

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Pages: 3

[untitled]

Table of Contents on Interior Page(s)

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Pages: 2

Dateline: Johnny Craig

Text Article on Interior Page(s)

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Letterer(s): typeset

Subject Matter

First Line: A case can be made...

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Pages: 11

Notes: Article about Craig and the stories in this volume.

Whirlpool

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); unnamed woman; three asylum employees

First Line: Well, well!

Synopsis: Her mind was whirling as three horrid creatures hovered over her, asking her her name, and she ran to escape. A series of events: thrown into boiling water, plunged into ice, poked with a hypodermic, strapped into an electric chair, and put into a small room that kept shrinking. She thought she was going insane, but the men told her everything had been in her mind and that she was an inmate in an insane asylum. She began to quiver and as they began to ask her her name, she suddenly remembered that THEY were the ones trying to persecute her!

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Pages: 8

Notes: Letterer credit by Craig Delich.

The Tryst!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: crime

Feature(s): A Crime SuspenStory

Character(s): Julie Adams [aka Julie Hendricks] (a secretary); Mr. Cowles (Hendrick's employee); Mr. Farnsworth (client of Hendricks, death); Tommy (an orphan, death); John Hendricks (villain, Julie's boss and later husband)

First Line: She was fresh out of high school...

Synopsis: A man is so jealous of his wife that he murders a boy from the local orphanage that she has been spending time with in the woods.

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Pages: 8

Notes: Russ Cochran, in the large-sized 2nd Volume of Shock Suspenstories, does not indicate that Craig wrote this story.

Letterer credit per Russ Cochran and added by Craig Delich 2013-12-11. Feldstein reports that Wroten used a K & E Lettering Stylus to do all the lettering with.

Fire Trap!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Feature(s): Crime SuspenStories

First Line: Their fabulous honeymoon was at last ended...

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Pages: 8

Star Light, Star Bright!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Hartley Quimb

First Line: Heh, heh! Hello there, you crazy mixed-up kid!

Synopsis: As the rain fell in sheets, Hartley stood over the open coffin as he nervously and sickenly watched people run up to the corpse and do terrible things to it. Hartley discovered that was the only way the understaffed guards at the facility could keep the inmates in line. At dinner, the guards told him that this man [whom he was replacing as head master] was killed by the inmates for vowing to take this privilege away from them.....and he nervously looked at the dining inmates as they stared at him. Hartley excused himself from dinner and went to his room, fearing the inmates hated him and would kill him. He layed back on his bed and gazed up at the skylight. Out of a deep sleep, Hartley was suddenly awakened by the inamtes, who grabbed him, stuffed rags into his mouth and placed him in a coffin and placed a lid over it that had a window cut out so that he could see. One pinched his nose and then they carried him out of the facility and to the cemetery....things got blurry and he "woke up" back in bed, still staring at the skylight, nervously believing it had all been a bad dream. That is, until he saw an inmate's face suddenly appear over head and a shovel full of dirt hit him in the face!

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Pages: 8

Understudies!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: crime

Feature(s): Crime SuspenStories

Character(s): Myrtle Donaldson (Jim's wife, death); Mr. Williams (Gail's husband); Jim Donaldson (villain); Gail Williams (villain)

First Line: For the last two years...

Synopsis: Gail and Jim are unhappily married to their respective spouses, but, in fact, love one another. They decide on a daring plan to kill their mates and dissolve their bodies in quicklime to leave no trace. Further, they have separate photos taken of themselves together in disguise to fool any suspicious person that might smell a rat. But both soon discovered that the other was quickly becoming like their deceased mates and aim to do something about it.

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Pages: 7

Notes: Letters credit added by Craig Delich, verified by Al Feldstein.

The last panel suggests that Gail and Jim kill each other.

...And All Through the House...

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Santa Claus

First Line: Ho, ho, ho! And what would you like for Christmas?

Synopsis: A terrific thud w/the fireplace poker and her husband Joseph lay dead on the floor. But then she heard her little girl upstairs, who asked her mommy if Santa Claus had come yet, and was told no and to go back to sleep. The wife then returned downstairs, cleaned off the poker, turned on the radio and heard an announcement of a maniac woman-killer dressed as Santa on the loose in the area. She wondered how she would be able to get rid of Joseph's body, when there was a knock at the door. She looked outside and saw a Santa at her door, the woman-killer, and paniced knowing she couldn't call the Police w/her husband's body there on the floor. Quickly she ran to every door and window, locking them, putting Joseph into a closet and then trying to board up windows from the inside. Going upstairs to check on Carol, her daughter, the woman was terrified when she found the little girl gone.....but more terrified when she went downstairs to see Carol having let in "Santa Claus"!

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Pages: 8

Bats in My Belfry!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

First Line: And now, read Henry Gordon's own 3-d-lerium...

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Pages: 8

Twin Bill!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Larry Bannister

First Line: Heh, heh! Well here I am again, kiddies...

Synopsis: Larry stood there in the dark, sweating profusely, waiting for them to come: his wife and her lover. He remembered the night he caught them in each other's arms....how he made them take shovels and forced them to dig a grave, made them get in and how he covered them over with the dirt....alive! Then how he returned to the lodge and tried to make a get-away in the car....but the battery was dead. So he took the car of his wife's lover and headed to town to get a new battery, but couldn't get one. How he later drove lover boy's car to the other side of town and how he reported his wife's "disappearance" to the Police. Yet, two weeks later....no one had found that car or them. So he drove back to the lodge where his car still sat....then he remembered that his wife had a spare set of keys in her purse, so he headed back to the grave to dig up the bodies so he could get the purse.....but the grave was empty! As he headed back for the lodge, he saw two figures following him, so he ran to the lodge as fast as he could.....and lay in wait, believing them NOT to have died in that grave. Now he heard someone enter the room and as he snapped on the flashlight, he saw two rotting corpses coming at him, and he fired at them....the last thing he ever did!

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Pages: 8

Surprise Party!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Drusilla (cameo); Jerry Adams

First Line: Heh, heh! Here we go again!

Synopsis: Jerry Adams arrived in a small town on a rainy night, checked into a motel and headed out to see a movie. He hits a detour and turns off on a dirt road [which isn't on any map] and gets lost, gets out and walks a it until he spots a house. As he approaches it, he sees that a party is in progress, and is invited to join in. He thoroughly enjoys himself, dancing the hours away w/his beautiful hostess. Then it dawns on him that the band plays only one tune the entire night, and his hostess tells him that it was the tune being played on the night of the fire. When he tells the crowd his name, they suddenly turn on him.....the flesh falling from their faces, as they explain that, back in 1884, his hostess was celebrating her engagement to Roger Wertham, but a rival suitor, named Adams, set fire to the house, killing everyone in it. Since then, on the same night, all the people "return" to re-enact that night until their deaths could be avenged. Now, that Jerry Adams has shown up, they now avenge themselves on him, his ancestor!

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Pages: 8

Any Sport in a Storm

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Drusilla [cameos]; Lon Shannon; Timothy O'Rourke

First Line: Heh, heh! Pile aboard the good ship Sarcophaghus, me horrible hearties!

Synopsis: Lon made his way along the beach and past Smuggler's Caves as the stormy night raged on, then entered Ratsmouth Inn when O'Rourke was caring members of Shannon's crew w/tales of stormy nights like this when Shannon lost his father at sea, supposedly to the "Sea Hag." Shannon knocked Tim to the floor and told the others about a ship a mile off shore loaded down w/expensive goods, ripe for the taking. But only one volunteered to go w/Shannon, and the two cast off into the restless waters. Those waters threw them off course until they spotted a lighthouse and landed, meeting up w/the lighthouse operator and his daughter. Shannon made a move on the girl that night, then went to his partner and told him that they were leaving. They jumped in their boat and back into the water....water which began to tear the boat apart. Then suddenly, the girl came out from a lower part of the ship and came at him, wrapping her tentacles about him and throwing him into the water w/herself. Yes, Shannon found out too late that the stories of a Sea Hag were true!

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Pages: 8

Deadly Beloved!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Drusilla (cameo); Edward Leeds; Eloise Fontagne

First Line: Heh, heh! How y'all, li'l ol' harpies and hobgoblins?

Synopsis: Edward's car overheats and is forced to stop and seek out help. He spots a stately mansion in the bayou, and enters, finding it burnt out inside. A lass named Eloise welcomes him and begins telling him of the home's history, and said her entire family had died in the fire, then shows him around. Edward encounters several near-fatal accidents while on this journey, then comes under her spell and discovers that she wants him dead in order to join her, since she was already dead. He flees the home, but the longing becomes too great and he heads back to the mansion, where she awaits him!

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Pages: 8

Notes: Letterer credit by Craig Delich.

Old Man Mose!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host); Drusilla (cameo); Mose; Ned Rogers

First Line: Heh, heh! Well, here we are, all set to go again!

Synopsis: Ned stopped his wagon when he saw townspeople throwing stones at old Mose, a man they thought worshipped the Devil since he lived in the Black Church. He chased them off, then invited the man to his home, where he was welcomed by Ned's wife. The next day Ned went to town for supplies and the folk there warned him of the old man, but he paid them no mind. Late that night, he heard a noise and discovered old Mose coming in, supposedly from a late night walk. But the townsfolk told Ned the next day about sacrificial killings that had occured in the area, the latest being last night, and once again they blamed Mose for it. Ned covered for Mose, but rushed home to find the still form of his wife on the floor and Mose in the doorway....with scratches to his face. Ned pounced on Mose and beat him to death, but then heard the last words of his dying wife tell him that Mose was protecting her from an escaped prisoner, whose still form lay outside the door!

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Pages: 8

Dateline: Cayo Romano, Cuba!

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: adventure

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: Patrick Joseph MacDonald, editor-in-chief...

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Pages: 8

Dateline: Key West!

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Genres: adventure

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: It was nice of Mac to give us a three-day vacation, wasn't it, Keith?

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Pages: 6

Dateline: Oslo

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Genres: adventure

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: Come in, Keith.

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Pages: 8

Dateline: New York City

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: adventure

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: The offices of the World Press News Service in New York City...

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Pages: 6

Dateline: Algiers

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Letterer(s): typeset

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Genres: adventure

Feature(s): Keith Michaels

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: Clutching furtively to the lower rim of the Mediterranean...

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Pages: 8

Notes: Story is illustrated text rather than multiple panel/strip art.

Dateline: Paris

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: adventure

Feature(s): Keith Michaels

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: The glistening airliner settled smoothly onto the runway...

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Pages: 6

Dateline: New York City

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: adventure

Feature(s): Keith Michaels

Character(s): Keith Michaels; Steve "Slick" Rampart

First Line: Keith Michaels, world press correspondent...

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Pages: 8

Notes: Not the same story as in #2.

Dateline: Rio Para

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Genres: adventure

Feature(s): Keith Michaels

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: Tomorrow, Keith... be careful!

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Pages: 6

Dateline: Long Island Sound

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Genres: adventure

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: Scene: Keith's new apartment.

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Pages: 7

Notes: Letterer credit by Craig Delich.

Dateline: Germersheim

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: adventure

Character(s): Keith Michaels

First Line: Washington, D.C.... a gay house party is suddenly catapulted into the realm of tragedy...

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Pages: 7

Notes: Letterer credit by Craig Delich.

The Robbery Ring The Case of the Striking Serpent!

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Genres: crime

Character(s): Three unnamed hoodlums; Mr. Connors; Legrand; Inspector Hall

First Line: The stakes were enormous in this duel between the...

Synopsis: Three hoodlums commit a robbery in a jewelry shop.

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Pages: 9

The Werewolf's Curse!

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Genres: crime, horror

First Line: Throughout the ages, wherever men have gathered...

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Pages: 8

The Hanged Man's Revenge

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Genres: crime, horror

First Line: In primitive times...

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Pages: 6

The Borrowed Body!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Vault of Horror!

Character(s): The Vault-Keeper (host)

First Line: Heh, heh! Greetings, ghouls!

Synopsis: A woman and her lover plot to murder the wife's husband. The lover's intention to ambush him in an alleyway goes awry when the husband runs across the street after being attacked and the lover runs after him only to suffer terminal injuries from being struck by a car. While he is being taken to the hospital, the husband returns to confront the wife, having realized she set him up. At first she is shocked her husband hasn't been killed, but then rallies, determined to finish the job herself. At the exact moment she strikes her husband with the poker she seized, her lover dies in the hospital room. But instead of remaining dead, the soul of her husband finds itself transplanted into the lover's body and he leaves the hospital in order in confront his wife once again.

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Pages: 7

Notes: Script credit from "Tales of Terror! - The EC Companion" by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

That's a 'Croc'!

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: horror

Feature(s): The Witch's Cauldron!

Character(s): The Old Witch (host); "Crazy" Coogan (zoo-keeper)

First Line: Hee, hee! So, who else?

Synopsis: At the local zoo, people crowd around the newest attraction: a pit with four crocodiles in it, and along comes Mr. Coogan, the zoo keeper and lover of these ferocious animals, to feed them their daily ration of meat. But when a young boy reminds him that these animals are MAN eaters and maybe they don't like being fed other types of meat, it makes him stop and think. That evening, he heads to town and kills someone and feeds them to his charges. Meanwhile, at the home of Norman Simms, family members discover him to be missing and they begin to backtrack his steps to locate him, without success. Back at the zoo, "Crazy" Coogan is over-seeing the cleaning of the crocodile pit when one of the men, Lou, discovers a ring on the floor and pockets it secretly. Later, in town, Lou stops in for a drink and sits down next to Norman Simm's relative, who has just learned others have disappeared in town mysteriously....then he sees Simm's ring on the finger of Lou, who tells him where he got it. Two and two are added together, and the angry men in the bar head for the zoo to confront Coogan. When Coogan sees them coming, he jumps into the crocodile pit, thinking these creatures will protect him.....instead, they devour him!

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Pages: 7

Notes: Script credit from Tales of Terror: The EC Companion.

Vampire of the Bayous

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Genres: science fiction, superhero

Feature(s): Moon Girl

Character(s): Moon Girl [Claire Lune]

First Line: Hidden in the impenetrable depths of the Louisiana swamp-lands...

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Pages: 7

Notes: Script credit from Tales of Terror: The EC Companion.

The Menace of the Railroads!

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: crime

Feature(s): Choo-Choo Jones

Character(s): Tom 'Choo-Choo' Jones; Diana Rage; J. L. Grover; Superintendent Peters; Susan; Mauler; Baldy; Pop Jones; Engineer White

First Line: Have you ever longed to sit in the cab of a steam engine...

Synopsis: Train wrecks have been plaguing the Happy Valley Railroad of late and Diana Rage wants this to continue so that she can buy it very cheap.

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Pages: 8

Notes: Script credit from Tales of Terror: The EC Companion.

"A Bed of Murder"

Story on Interior Page(s)

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Genres: crime

First Line: The police found the dead man here and there...

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Pages: 7

Notes: John Alton is credited in the reprint, but, in an interview from Graphic Story Magazine number 15 (Summer 1973), Harry Harrison said he did this story with Wally Wood. Most online sources don't credit Wood with doing anything in this particular story (though Harrison and Wood did a lot of work together). It is included in Harry Harrison: An Annotated Bibliography, which credits Harrison with the art and tentatively credits him with the script.

Werewolf

Story on Interior Page(s)

Subject Matter

Genres: adventure, horror

Character(s): Reggie and Eric Smythe; Viktor Zorak; Edna and John Farnum; Jan Bodzla

First Line: The tingling air and the gleaming snow-capped peaks of the Carpathian mountains...

Synopsis: Viktor Zorak is on a mountain-climbing expedition in Transylvania with the Smythe's and the Farnum's, all of whom are closely following their guide, Jan Bodzla. They reach the lodge they will stay in that evening, but the members are warned by Bodzla that he thinks Zorak is a werewolf and to be careful. Laughing it off, all go to bed.....but later Bodzla visits the Farnums and Smythes, giving them silver crosses and wolfsbane for their windows, since the next night would be the full moon. After completing the next day's climb and setting up camp, the full moon rises and Bodzla shows the others that Zorak's eyes have turned red and to be wary. Soon after all have retired in their tents, a blood-chilling scream is heard....discovering Zorak and Edna Farnum missing, they search and find her body torn to pieces. Then they spot the werewolf, which jumps at them....causing injury to all the men [but Bodzla] before it falls to its death. But Bodzla informs them that having been scratched and bitten by the werewolf means.....but he can't finish his thoughts as three werewolves bear down on him!

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Pages: 7

Johnny Craig

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First Line: He wrote good stories and drew them well and knew how to entertain you.

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Pages: 6

Notes: Biography of Johnny Craig, with art by Craig.

Hurry Up, You Idiot! My Fingernails Are Burning!

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First Line: People often speculate about what it would have been like...

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Pages: 8

Notes: Memoir about Johnny Craig and cosplay.

Behind the Panels

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Pages: 4

Notes: Biographies of Jules Feiffer, Albert B. Feldstein, Gardner F. Fox, William Maxwell Gaines, Harry Harrison, Paul Edwin Kast, Richard Kraus, Howard Larseon, Sheldonn Moldoff, Carl Wessler.

Spot illustration by Moldoff.

Statue Head Dug Up

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Pages: 1

Notes: Close-up of a panel from the interior of this book.

Crime, Horror, Terror, Gore, Depravity, Disrespect for Established Authority - and Science Fiction, Too! The Ups and Downs of EC Comics

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Pages: 3

The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library

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Pages: 1

Frightening Man Laughing

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Pages: 1

Notes: Close-up of a panel from the interior of this book.

Every EC Ray Bradbury Story in One Volume!

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Pages: 1

Johnny Craig's Ultimate Prime Crime and Holiday Horror!

Promotional Material (from Publisher) on Interior Page(s)

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First Line: Johnny Craig displayed a uniquely elegant and sophisticated approach...

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Pages: 1

Notes: Back cover.