Vault of Horror

Intellectual satirist Mort Sahl once quipped of J.F.K. - and I’m paraphrasing - “He was a Lightweight going in, but he learned on the job very quickly.”

The same could be said of William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics during their late 1940s - mid 1950s heyday. He hadn’t the inclination nor the knowhow to enter the comic book biz, although, ironically, he had grown up surrounded by the industry through his dad, Max, who had been an editor and assistant at the companies that published the very first comics in book form in the mid 30s.

Max Gaines had since struck out on his own, establishing and owning the then-called “Educational Comics,” a company that reflected his own tastes, which veered toward light humor and Bible Stories.

When Max died unexpectedly in 1947, his son William had just finished his hitch in the armed forces, fighting in World War II. Not necessarily wandering around aimlessly, but very unsure what his next move would be after witnessing the atrocities of Europe and the Pacific, he decided to throw his helmet into the ring and at least attempt to make a go of his father’s business which he had inherited.

Two key elements contributed to the subsequent success he achieved in his new venture; First of all, just by virtue of being a young man, he knew in his heart that the type of material EC was putting out under his dad’s control was a bit out of step and corny, and did not reflect, nor take into account that the audience for comics was becoming older and more sophisticated in the Atom-Age.

Secondly, he had the good business sense to retain a right-hand-man that actually DID know the various ins and the various outs of running a comic book company. This man was Al Feldstein, a well-versed artist/writer and editor. He would be Bill Gaines’ art director and editor in chief for the new, re-booted EC Comics (now known as Entertaining Comics, but mostly remembered as EC).

The two men started building up their reputation by introducing a new line of books that would attract an older demographic by pushing the envelope with edgier material that the post-war audience was craving. EC soon became the desirable place to work, at a time when the wartime superhero boom was essentially gone and left artists, writers and editors scrambling for any work while listening to their groaning stomachs.

EC quickly enlisted the services of the most talented among these poor, tired and huddled-masses.

The new company would now dabble in many genres; War, True Crime, Science Fiction - all of which did very well - but it is perhaps their grittier line of Horror/ Supernatural books that were the most attractive. The alienation, mystery, sense of unknown, and the paranoia spoke to the contemporary reader in a way that said “Yes! That’s exactly how I feel!”

Their other horror books are detailed elsewhere in this price-guide, but by the time EC rolled-out The Vault Of Horror in the Spring of 1950, Gaines and Feldstein had managed to attract some of the industries’ most skilled creatives. Feldstein, Gaines, and artist Johnny Craig assumed most of the writing duties - and it is notable that DC workhorse Gardner Fox also contributed several scripts early in the run. And Vault Of Horror, more than any other of EC’s similar titles, liberally featured adaptations (sometimes unauthorized - whoops) of stories by well known masters such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Louis Stevenson, Richard Connell and Ray Bradbury.

Oh, and the artists! Regular contributors included Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, George Evans, Marie Severin, Reed Crandall, Johnny Craig, Joe Orlando, and Feldstein himself.

Vault started out featuring the character “The Vault Keeper,” used as a framing device to introduce the stories, and reappearing at the end of the strip to add macabre commentary on the lesson learned within the text. However it wasn’t long before ECs other two go-to storytellers introduced in the other horror titles “The Old Witch and The Crypt Keeper” started to also appear in Vault. This was a minor stroke of genius; by cross-pollinating these recognizable characters by featuring all three in all of their horror books, it sort of gave the impression of the several books as being a part of a whole, and thus created the desire to collect them all!

Whether or not being an editorial decision, The Haunt Of Fear did maintain noticeably less deranged, bloody and graphic content than, say, Tales From The Crypt, another of EC’s notorious offerings.

Anyway, it was all over by 1955, with the adoption of the Comics Code Authority due to the exploitative pop-psychology crusade and book by Frederic Wertham, “ The Seduction of The Innocent,” and the subsequent Senate Sub-Committee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings, which both pointed a misguided finger of judgement on these comic books as being contributors to America’s children suddenly turning into hoodlums.

The Vault Of Horror’s last issue rolled off the presses in January 1955, a scant two-months before the CCA Stamp of Approval started to appear on the cover of every comic book.

Vault remains a highly collectible book, with virtually every of its 40 issues fetching high prices in the marketplace! Do you have a Vault of Horror issue or collection that could be valuable? Contact our team of experts for a free appraisal.