Vault of Horror #13

Hello, welcome to the second comic in the Vault of Horror series.

The Dead Will Return!
This comic starts off with a tale of a man (Bert) and a woman (Flo) who have just murdered her husband (Hank) to inherit his fortune, a whopping $16,000. So, to get rid of the body they paddle a boat out to sea and dump the body. Once the couple returns to the lighthouse, which is apparently the home of Flo and Hank, they begin a frantic search for the money. After a few days of no luck they decide to expand their search to the surrounding buildings, when Flo goes to the beach shed she discovers that her Hank's corpse has washed up on the beach in front of the light house. Scared out of her mind she demands that Bert get rid of the body. This time Bert drives 20 miles up the coast and drops Hank's body off a cliff. What do you know the body washes back on shore in front of the lighthouse again this time more decomposed, now they are scared shitless. Bert decides that he will drive 2 hours away and just leave the body on a distant shore so that someone will discover the remains.

Spoiler Alert!!!...Before Bert returns to the lighthouse Flo hears a banging on the door and notices sea water leaking in under the door, which means the husband is back and he is pissed off. The next day the police find both of these adulteruss lovers dead and covered in seaweed. Oh and the money was strapped to the husband the whole time.

This is a strong entry in the series and was later adapted to the 1982 Warner Bros movie Creepshow, entitled "Something to Tide You Over." The movie itself paid homage to the era of Horror Comics and specifically EC.The illustrations are fairly good and the story is interesting, you are never sure if it was in fact the husband who came back to murder the two lovers.

Seaweed Zombies ruin everything

The Curse of Harkley Heath
The second story starts with a trio of cousins (Sybil, Charles, Edgar) sitting around discussing the death of their uncle. Actually they murdered him and stand to inherit his wealth, with a knock at the door their Uncles lawyer enters and reads from his will. In a twist Sybil inherits all of the money, which pisses off Charles and Edgar. Aware that now she has a target on her head she is fearful for her life and sleeps with a gun near her side. Sure enough Charles and Edgar enter the room intent on killing her, she try's to fight back put they inject her with a large amount of morphine, effectively killing her. The cousins drag her into the basement which happens to contain a crypt. While Edgar and Charles sit around drinking and talking, Edgar becomes paranoid that the ghost of their recently deceased cousin Sybil is haunting them. Charles drunk with liquor and rage attempts to murder Edgar so that he will inherit all of the wealth.

Spoiler Alert!!! With a chase ensuing a chandelier falls and kills charles, as Edgar is attempting to escape he opens a door to the recently deceased Sybil! It turns out she has been on morphine most of her life so it simply knocked her out. With the candles from the chandelier lighting the house on fire the two remaining cousins burn down with the cursed manor!

This was a more mild story with a very predictable pace, the mood is set early and the characters are all interesting in their own way.

The Diamond of Death!
The only text story included in this comic and guess what it's about? Someone trying to steal something! A butler is trying to find a precious diamond while his master is in bed. Searching every area of the house he finally comes across the diamond in the exotic plant section of the house. His master bursts in and warns him of the curse surrounding the diamond. So, the butler kills him only to have the infamous "man-eater" plant swallow him whole...the end.

Once again it is a text story about greed with a slight supernatural twist. It would be awesome if the plant was the alien from Little Shop of Horrors, but it's not. If you pick up this comic I would say skip over it.



Doctor of Horror
The third (illustrated) story revolves around an anatomy professor (Lemonet) who is on the brink of losing his job and must resort to extreme measures in order to gain a larger attendance in his class. Lemonet figures that if he has more cadaverous for the students than attendance will begin to swell. Luckily for him there is a cemetery in close proximity so he resorts to grave robbing, but soon discovers the need for "fresher" specimens.

Spoiler Alert!!! As Lemonet begins to gain infamy as the foremost authority for anatomy and climbs the ladder of success the power goes to his head so far as to hire men to kill people and bring them to him. Unfortunately, one night while tracking his men to ensure the job gets done they do not recognize him and he becomes one of the subjects for dissection.

I was glad to see a story that strayed away from robbing someone or trying to inherit money, although there is still an element of greed its a fresh idea. The one major complaint I have is the quality of the illustrations, the majority of the prints were dark and tough to read. This story would later be adapted as an episode for the HBO series Tales from the Crypt, Doctor of Horror staring Hank Azaria.


Island of Death

The final story is based on the 1932 RKO film The Most Dangerous Game, which is based on a short story of the same name by Richard Connell.Starting with two men (Steve and Alec) who are flying over an unmarked island begin to have engine failure and result in a crash landing in the middle of the sea. One of the men, Steve, swims to shore of the unidentified island and begins a search for the other man, Alec. With no luck Steve stumbles apon a lone castle in the middle of the jungle and eventually passes out due to exhaustion. Once he awakens he realizes he is in a bed with fresh clothes and a hot bath ready. Next we meet the host (Alvar Cabeza) of the castle who allows the Steve to recuperate before revealing a room of conquered animals. Alvar reveals that he intends to add Steve to the collection and will hunt him down like an animal. Steve has 12 hours to run and hide becayse now the hunt is on.

Spoiler Alert!!!...Steve manages to set traps which kill the hosts right hand man (Mulok) and the hunting dogs he brought on the hunt. In a final standoff Alvar raises the crossbow to kill Steve when Alec jumps out of the brush shooting the hunter. Wounded the hunter falls into a nest of Jungle Hornets which proceed to sting Alvar to death.

This is a great story to end this issue, a fresh idea with no connection to greed and great illustrations. Today the idea of the stereotypical Alpha Hunter who has resorted to hunting men is by no means original, back than it was not a common idea.



And now I present my favorite panels from each story.

The Dead Will Return!

Is it bad I laughed when I read the bubble?

The Curse of Harkley Heath

I like the Ghost of the woman just chilling in the fire place.

Doctor of Horror

Dude really wants that job

Island of Death

Just left is man hanging, that's cold.

Thanks for reading and join me tomorrow for Vault of Horror #14.

Credits

Cover Artist: Johnny Craig
Story Artists: Al Feldstein (The Dead Will Reutrn), Wally Wood & Harry Harrison (The Curse of Harkley Heath), Graham Ingels (Doctor of Horror), Harvey Kurtzman (Island of Death)