The Haunt of Fear

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.

In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken.

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.

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.

(No host) 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.

(No host) Ernest Parker grows tired of his nagging wife, Nan, and meets a younger woman named Faye.

He wants to prove he can bring a man back from the dead, but things take a turn for the worse when he damages the corpse's brain and has to make a last-minute substitution.

(No host) The story of how Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein met the Crypt-Keeper, Vault-Keeper, and Old Witch in a sewer and were "persuaded" into giving them a publishing deal.

(The Vault-Keeper) Ezra, a vengeful caretaker decides to get back at his enemies when they die and are brought to his cemetery by desecrating their bodies and refusing to bury them until spring... but not if the dead have anything to say about it.

(The Vault-Keeper) Vincent Beardsley, a greedy New Yorker seeking the fourth tribal diamond for his collection, takes his friend to Ecuador to claim the gem.

(The Old Witch) While on holiday, a man begins a flirtation with a beautiful yet mysterious woman; but notices that she tends to appear whenever there is a murder in the local area.

He insists that his wife save canned food rather than give it away, and when she is poisoned by a jar of rotted fruit, it and her body create a living ooze that soon swallows up the cellar and everything else in the house.

(The Crypt-Keeper) A lonely man decides to take the place of the corpse at a funeral so he can enjoy the eulogies and ceremony for the deceased.

His wife decides to make his words come ironically true after his brutal cruelty results in the deaths of his dog, his mother-in-law, and his former business partner.

(The Old Witch) Harry kills his wealthy love rival and decides to steal the corpse's ring so he can sell it and use the money to marry his sweetheart.

There is only one thing to do with a nice big pig... (The Old Witch) Richard Braling's terminally ill brother is an inventor who seems determined to build a coffin for himself before he dies.

(The Vault-Keeper) A spoiled young nobleman who loves to drive at high speed devises an ingenious way to get an increase in his allowance from his wealthy father.

(The Old Witch) A couple on their honeymoon encounter a storm on the road and are forced to stop in an abandoned house, where the groom discovers a shocking skeleton in his new family's closet.

(The Vault-Keeper) In a fictional European kingdom, three jealous ladies of the royal court conspire to usurp the new queen by exposing her as an adulteress.

(The Old Witch) Myron and his girlfriend hatch a scheme to fleece her eccentric employer by pretending to create a potion to turn him into his hero: the villainous Edward Hyde.

(The Crypt-Keeper) Newly married Laura has learned to handle her suspicions about her husband's long business trips and the mysterious locked room in his house.

He capitalizes on his newly acquired "nine lives" by becoming a star performance artist whose specialty involves cheating death, but his time may be running out faster than he thinks.

(The Old Witch) In 19th-century France, Henri has 24 hours to raise the money to bury his dead wife due to an ordinance from the town council, otherwise the Commissioner of Health will hand the body over for dissection by medical students and pocket a financial bonus.

(The Old Witch) Townspeople try to convince an eccentric local genius to take part in a chess tournament that will put their town on the map, but he has a sinister secret that may foil their plans.

(The Crypt-Keeper) Bethy has always called her abusive, alcoholic husband a "creep"—but when she and her lover attempt to kill him by drowning him in a whiskey still, it becomes true in a terrifying way.

(The Crypt-Keeper) During a storm, a man takes refuge in a derelict old house but finds he is sharing the residence with the devoted mother of a very unusual child.

(The Vault-Keeper) A bored, wealthy housewife begins an affair with a stranger but does not count on her surgeon husband deciding to make them part of an experiment with a new anaesthetic.

(The Crypt-Keeper) A powerful 19th-century gentleman petitions the local authorities for increasingly stringent rules to protect public decency but goes a little too far when he orders the graves of the dead to be moved so that men and women are not buried together.

(The Old Witch) An elderly mortician who takes great pride in his work goes to extreme lengths to ensure his hated son-in-law will not be the one to embalm him after his death.

A black-and-white drawing of an old wrinkled woman wearing a hooded cloak cracking a crooked smile while her right eye bulges out of its socket
The Old Witch as drawn by Graham Ingels
A latex mask of a wrinkled old woman with long white hair, bushy eyebrows, a large nose, and a bulging right eye wearing a red hooded cloak
Steve Fiorilla 's latex mask of the Old Witch, as seen on HBO 's Tales from the Crypt