Crime Patrol #15

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of the Crypt-Keeper (credited in the story as host of 'The Crypt of Terror'), the horror-host character who would carry Tales from the Crypt through its entire EC run and be revived for HBO's 1989–1996 television series.
• First 'Crypt of Terror' feature in comics — the seven-page story 'Return from the Grave!' written, penciled, and inked entirely by Al Feldstein.
• Cover date: December 1949/January 1950; on-sale date per the U.S. Copyright Entries catalog: August 18, 1949; publisher of record in the indicia was I.C. Publishing Co. Inc., EC's house imprint.
• Cover art and the lead crime story 'Murder Writes a Policy' (8 pages, signed script) were by Johnny Craig; additional interior stories featured art by John Alton and Fred Peters.
• Editor of record was Bill Gaines (credited as William M. Gaines); the Crypt-Keeper's visual design — a sinister hermit with long white hair framed in a crypt's half-open doorway — was created by Al Feldstein.
• The issue is the pivot point in the Crime Patrol title's metamorphosis: #16 added more horror content, and with #17 the title was officially renamed The Crypt of Terror (continuing the same numbering to save on second-class postage permits), eventually becoming Tales from the Crypt with issue #20.
• The issue has been reprinted multiple times: in the Russ Cochran Crime Patrol series (1993, issue #2), in the Gemstone Crime Patrol series (2000, issue #9), and in the Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library volume Terror Train and Other Stories (October 2020, in black and white).
• Original seven-page silverprint proof pages from 'Return from the Grave!' are documented as existing production artifacts, providing a rare tangible record of EC's pre-press workflow for this historic story.

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