Vault of Horror 1950 #27 - .5 - $50.00

House promotional ad for MAD #1 [cover by Harvey Kurtzman].

Cedric, a sculptor in love with his model Christine, offers to silver-plate a life-sized statue of her as a gift, hoping she will accept his marriage proposal. One day, he accidentally overhears a phone conversation between the model and her lover as they conspire to kill Cedric and run off with his money. When Gary comes to Cedric's studio one day looking for Christine, he finds her, but not exactly the way he had hoped.

The children ran up to the hearse as Mr. Byrd drove by, yelling things at him as he made his way to the general store. They couldn't understand why a man, who was NOT an undertaker, would drive such a contraption. The townsfolk were scared of the man, who lived in a rented, deserted house. Whenever Lionel would come to town, the kids would look in the back of the hearse and only see a curtain partition, wondering what was behind it. The answer began when Lionel first moved to town....before he ever owned the hearse, and a couple of fugitives came by his house, looking to hide out from the law. When Lionel told them to leave, they shot him dead, and dug a grave to bury him behind the cabin. When they re-entered the cabin, there he was, holding a shotgun on them, and telling them they had killed his siamese twin! As he stepped forward, they could see the dead corpse still attached to Lionel, who tied the pair up and threw them in the grave they had prepared for him. Now we know why Lionel had that curtain in the back of his hearse!

Henderson was watching his partner diving into the water from their boat, trying to locate the valuable oyster bed that was shown on a map and they had been trying to find the last two days. Then, his partner discovered a huge oyster with a giant pearl inside....but before he could do anything, Henderson pushed his partner back into the water, followed him and knifed him in the chest, and cut the airhose. He was going to tell the crew aboard the boat that his partner had been killed by an octopus, but before he re-surfaced, he was attacked by a giant octopus himself. He passed out, and when he awakened, he discovered the octopus had torn off one leg and a savage tentacle was wrapping around his other leg. All Henderson could do was pray for a quick death!

VK presents more letters about Mrs. Phelan's criticism of EC mags from E. Manning, P.O. Hagan, Mrs. R.K. Colgin, Dorothy E. Padolick, Johnny Knisely, C. Fanning, Mary Margaret Bye, Bob Hoopengarner, , D.C. McLarty, Hardy Myers, Ralph Becker, Hector M. Cuellar, Felix Canps III, George Ramming, Mrs. L. Collins and Mrs. J.L. Rakes. Finally he pushes copies of Tales of Terror Annual #2, photos of the three GhouLunatics and subscriptions to EC's mags.

The posse stood before the mouth of the dark cave, where they had trailed a creature that had killed ten of their own, stripping their flesh from their bones. Doc told them he'd seen this creature long ago....before it came to look like it did now. Pete came to see Doc with a lump on his arm, which he discovered was cancer, and he only had a few months to live. Dejected, Pete went to see the Old Hag up on Baldy Mountain, and she hexed him so that he'd never die....IF he'd agree to never ask her to un-hex him. He began to rot away, but he couldn't die!

A tiny kingdom was overrun with rats and the people decided they'd had enough and proceeded to kill most all the rats. The rulers were a pompous King and Queen, who lived in a castle whose moat the rats couldn't cross over. The Queen had pet white mice she loved, and when she learned that the townspeople had nearly killed off all the rats, which were related to her mice, it became a crime to kill any rat! Furious, the townspeople invaded the castle, captured the royal couple, shoved starving rats down their throats and sewed their mouths shut, and then watched as the rats ate their way out!

• Strictly from Hunger - Cover title taken from 3rd story, from which the cover was based.
• Silver Threads Among the Mold! - Colorist and letterer credits by Craig Delich.
• Treasure! - The text story was printed on the inner halves of the two pages, with EC house ads to either side. One promoted Weird Fantasy #15 [with cover by Al Feldstein], while the other promoted, with covers, the Complete Old and New Testament editions in the Picture Stories From the Bible series, Picture Stories From Science #2 and Picture Stories From World History #2.
• Strictly from Hunger! - Script credit from Tales of Terror: The EC Companion. The visage of the Vault-Keeper at the top of the of page 1 is a Johnny Craig photostat. Some of the story is told in flashback. Cover story.
• A Grim Fairy Tale! - Colorist added by Craig Delich (March 2006). Letterer credit by Craig Delich.