The Haunt of Fear is an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series that was published by EC Comics from 1950 to 1954 created by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. The magazine began in June 1947 as Fat and Slat. It continued under this title for four issues before becoming Gunfighter (#5–14). It was retitled The Haunt of Fear with issue #15 (1) (May/June 1950). The numbering was reset after #17 (3). The comic bore this title for 28 issues until being discontinued after issue #28 (November/December 1954).
Along with Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, it formed a trifecta of popular EC horror anthologies. Publication ceased, however, after horror and crime comics came under scrutiny for an alleged link to juvenile delinquency and the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code.
The Haunt of Fear has since been reprinted in single issues and collected volumes. Some of its stories were adapted for the 1972 motion picture Tales from the Crypt and television's Tales from the Crypt, which aired on HBO from 1989 to 1996.
Production history Original run In 1950, EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines and his editor, Al Feldstein, began experimenting with horror tales in their crime titles, War Against Crime and Crime Patrol. An EC Western comic called Gunfighter, which had previously run for five issues as the comedy Fat & Slat, became The Haunt of Fear with issue #15 (1) (May/June 1950). Due to an attempt to save money on second-class postage permits, characteristic of comics publishing in the era, the numbering did not change along with the titles. However, numbering for the magazine was reset after #17 (3) due to a request by the United States Post Office that the fourth issue under the new title be numbered accordingly.
The Haunt of Fear continued to run for a total of 28 issues before ceasing publication with issue #28 (November/December 1954). Along with its sister titles, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear was popular, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers, and others who believed the magazines contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency. In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken. With the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code, which placed severe restrictions on violent comic book genres, including forbidding publishers from using the words "terror" and "horror" in titles and from depicting zombies, werewolves, gruesome characters, and outrè horror fiction trappings, EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines cancelled The Haunt of Fear and its two companion horror titles.
Reprints The Haunt of Fear has been reprinted on numerous occasions. Ballantine Books reprinted selected stories in a series of paperback anthologies from 1964 to 1966. The magazine was fully collected in a series of five black-and-white hardbacks by publisher Russ Cochran as part of The Complete EC Library in 1985. Cochran also reprinted several issues in a standard comic book format during the early 1990s in association with Gladstone Publishing. He eventually reprinted the entire series with Gemstone Publishing from 1992 to 1998. This complete run was later rebound, with covers included, in a series of six softcover EC Annuals. Cochran and Gemstone planned to publish hardcover, re-colored volumes of The Haunt of Fear as part of the EC Archives series, until Gemstone's financial troubles left this project in limbo. The series was revived by GC Press, a boutique imprint established by Cochran and Grant Geissman, and the first volume (of a projected five) was released in 2012. Dark Horse Comics took over publication of the remainder of the series from 2015 to 2018. The complete five-volume series was later republished as over-sized trade paperbacks from 2021 to 2025.
Production Creative team Gaines and Feldstein were responsible for writing all the stories until the end of 1953. An unauthorized adaptation of Ray Bradbury's work in another of EC's comics eventually led to a series of authorized Bradbury adaptations. Features included "Grim Fairy Tales", horror-based parodies of well-known fairy tales such as "Sleeping Beauty" and "Hansel and Gretel". The parodies began appearing in issue #15 (September/October 1952).
Artist Graham Ingels took over the art duties of The Haunt of Fear starting with issue #4 (November/December 1950). He became the Old Witch's primary artist for the remainder of the comic's run, though his art had been appearing since the second issue. Ingels later took over cover art duty with issue #11 (January/February 1952). Other artists who contributed to the title were Feldstein, Johnny Craig, Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, George Roussos, Harry Harrison, Joe Orlando, Sid Check, George Evans, Reed Crandall, Jack Kamen, and Bernard Krigstein. Ingels' artwork on the eight-page lead stories and his splash pages, particularly on issues #14 and #17, set a new standard for horror illustration.
Among the title's most controversial stories was "Foul Play" (#19, May/June 1953), written by Feldstein and drawn by Davis. It featured a crooked baseball player being dismembered, with his body parts used to play baseball by his murderers. The story was singled out by Robert Warshow in his 1954 essay "Paul, the Horror Comics, and Dr. Wertham". He described it as "the outer limits of... 'good taste'." It was also one of many examples used by Fredric Wertham in his book Seduction of the Innocent. Author Grant Geissman used the title of the story for his book on EC artists, Foul Play (2005).
Influences and adaptations As with the other EC comics edited by Feldstein, the stories in this comic were primarily based on Gaines using existing horror stories and films to develop "springboards" from which he and Feldstein could launch new stories. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:
"The Wall" (#15 (1)): Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" "Television Terror" (#17 (2)): H. Russell Wakefield's "Ghost Hunt" "Monster Maker" (#17 (2)): James Whale's Frankenstein "The Hunchback" (#4): Robert Bloch's "The Mannikin" "Horror in the Freak Tent" (#5): Tod Browning's Freaks "A Strange Undertaking" (#6): Ray Bradbury's "The Handler" "The Basket" (#7): Robert Bloch's "The Mannikin" "Horror in the Schoolroom" (#7): John Collier's "Thus I Refute Beelzy" "Hounded to Death" (#8): Maurice Level's "The Kennel" "Irony of Death" (#8): Bram Stoker's "The Squaw" "Warts So Horrible?" (#9): Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer "Forbidden Fruit" (#9): William Hope Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night" "The Gorilla's Paw" (#9): W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" "Grave Business" (#10): Louis Pollock's "Breakdown" "Ship-Shape" (#14): William Hope Hodgson's "The Derelict" "House of Horror" (#15): Bennett Cerf's Try and Stop Me "Nobody There" (#16): Ralph Murphy's The Man in Half Moon Street "Thump Fun" (#20): Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" "Hyde and Go Shriek" (#20): Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde "Wish You Were Here" (#22): W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" "Model Nephew" (#22): H. P. Lovecraft's "The Terrible Old Man"
After their unauthorized adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's stories in another magazine, Bradbury contacted EC about their plagiarism of his work. They reached an agreement for EC to do authorized versions of Bradbury's short fiction. These official adaptations include:
"The Coffin" (#16) "The Black Ferris" (#18)
The Old Witch
Although EC's horror stable consisted of three separate magazines, there was little beyond their titles to distinguish them from one another. Each magazine had its own host, known as a GhouLunatic. The Old Witch was the primary host of The Haunt of Fear. Hosting duties for any one magazine were typically shared with the hosts of the other two. For example, a single issue of The Haunt of Fear would contain two stories told by the Old Witch, one by the Crypt-Keeper (of Tales from the Crypt) and one by the Vault-Keeper (of The Vault of Horror). The professional rivalry among these three GhouLunatics was often played for comedic effect in the letter column.
The Old Witch was the last of the three to make her appearance. She was introduced in the second issue of the magazine, #16 (2) (July/August 1950), in a segment titled "The Witch's Cauldron" in which the Old Witch introduces herself in a story drawn by artist Jack Kamen. The third issue featured a Johnny Craig cover depicting the three GhoulLunatics stepping out of doorways and launched a letter column, "The Old Witch's Niche." Thereafter, the Old Witch presided over the magazine as its comedic horror host, delivering an irreverent and pun-filled commentary to lighten the horrific tone of the stories she introduced. In spite of her late start, the Old Witch would prove to be the most visible of the GhoulLunatics in their initial run. Not only did she appear in virtually every issue of The Haunt of Fear, Tales From The Crypt, and The Vault of Horror, she also appeared in the final story in each issue of Crime SuspenStories from #3 through #16. Occasionally, the Old Witch would appear as a character as well. A personal account of the circumstances surrounding her birth are related in "A Little Stranger!" (The Haunt of Fear #14), and "Horror Beneath the Streets" (The Haunt of Fear #17) tells how she and her fellow GhouLunatics got their EC publishing contracts. The character was inspired by Old Nancy, the Witch of Salem, host of Alonzo Deen Cole's radio series, The Witch's Tale, which aired from 1931 to 1938 on WOR, the Mutual Radio Network, and in syndication.
List of issues +The Haunt of Fear issuesIssue #DateCover artistStory titleStory artistSummary (GhouLunatic host) 15 (1) May/Jun 1950 Johnny Craig The Wall Johnny Craig A man finds his wife's love for her cat, Snooky, unbearable, and finally decides to take care of the problem once and for all, but soon finds he is slowly slipping into insanity when his imagination gets the best of him. (No host) House of Horror Harvey Kurtzman A fraternity initiation goes eerily wrong, when the initiates are told to walk through a supposedly haunted house... but never come out. (No host) The Mad Magician Wally Wood & Harry Harrison Boris Petaja, a skilled magician, begins to kidnap innocent townspeople to use in his experiments on a real "saw a man in two" trick but finally meets his match in a young couple he kidnaps. (No host) The Thing in the Swamp! Al Feldstein A swamp hermit relates a tale of a group of scientists that fed an amoeba that ate everything in its path to two boaters. It is just a myth... right? (No host) 16 (2) July/Aug 1950 Johnny Craig Vampire! Johnny Craig A doctor insists that the body he examined was killed by a vampire, but no one in town will believe him. So, he goes to the mansion where the body came from and finds that there is a vampire, but who is the vampire? (No host) Horror-Ahead! Wally Wood A shopkeeper tells a customer a story about his quest with his assistant to Africa to collect some real shrunken heads from a native tribe. When they are caught stealing, they learn a startling punishment. (No host) The Killer in the Coffin! Graham Ingels Ernest Parker grows tired of his nagging wife, Nan, and meets a younger woman named Faye. Together, they plan going away and getting married, but they have to get Nan out of the picture, so Ernest coughs up a plan to fake his death. (No host) The Mummy's Return! Jack Kamen