Crime Patrol #16
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCrime Patrol #16 (February–March 1950) is the penultimate stepping stone in one of the most consequential pivots in American comics history: the moment EC's pre-Trend crime anthology tipped decisively toward horror, carrying more fright stories than crime stories for the first time and making the Crypt-Keeper's second appearance just one issue after his debut. That balance of content was the direct editorial signal to publisher Bill Gaines and editor Al Feldstein that the horror experiment launched in #15 had legs, and it sealed the decision to retitle the book The Crypt of Terror with the very next issue (#17) — the direct ancestor of Tales from the Crypt. Without #16 confirming the new direction, the genre-defining run that eventually gave the medium its most recognizable horror host might never have been greenlit.
In "The Corpse in the Crematorium," a treacherous explorer’s scheme to murder a rival takes a chilling turn when his plan unravels through a single, telling scratch. Written by Al Feldstein and illustrated by George Roussos, this gripping tale from Crime Patrol #16 (1950) unfolds with tense suspense as deception, hidden clues, and a desperate rescue unfold in a remote tomb. Johnny Craig’s stark cover captures the story’s grim atmosphere, perfectly framing the danger lurking beneath the surface.
In "The Corpse in the Crematorium," a man prone to cataleptic episodes is mistakenly taken to a crematorium just as his fiancée frantically searches for him. With time running out, she’s moments too late to stop the process—until the attendant notices something impossible: sweat beading on the man’s brow as he’s about to be fed into the furnace.
In "Trapped in the Tomb," a treacherous explorer sets a deadly trap in an ancient Egyptian tomb, sealing his rival inside to die. When his love interest intervenes—her frantic struggle leaving telltale scratches on the villain—she becomes the key to unraveling the deception. As suspicion grows and the truth emerges, a third explorer must act fast to stop the murderer and save the man still clinging to life beneath the desert sands.
In "The Graveyard Feet," a reporter survives a mad doctor’s gruesome experiments only to discover his new feet have a mind—and a martial arts instinct—of their own. As they lead him through a web of secrets and locked doors, the truth about the doctor’s victims begins to surface. Written by an unknown hand and illustrated by an unknown artist, this chilling 1950 horror-suspense tale blends body horror with a surprising twist of vengeance.
In "The Spectre in the Castle," a man takes up residence in a haunted estate to claim his inheritance, only to find the night's eerie occurrences are far more earthly than spectral. As strange events unfold, the truth behind the ghostly rumors begins to unravel—revealing a far more dangerous threat lurking in the shadows.
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By late 1949, Gaines and Feldstein had grown restless with EC's flagging crime titles and began slipping horror stories into them as market tests. The experiment launched in Crime Patrol #15 with Feldstein's 'Return from the Grave!' — the Crypt-Keeper's debut — and #16 doubled down, packing the issue with macabre anthology tales while retaining just enough crime content to preserve the title's postal permit. The cover was painted by Johnny Craig, who also contributed interior story art alongside Feldstein, John Alton, Fred Peters, and George Roussos, all working under Gaines's editorial direction. The issue was published under the indicia of I.C. Publishing Co. Inc., EC's corporate shell at the time.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February–March 1950 by EC Comics (indicia: I.C. Publishing Co. Inc.), cover-dated and on-sale circa February 10, 1950.
- Contains the second appearance of the Crypt-Keeper and the Crypt of Terror — his debut having occurred in the immediately preceding issue, Crime Patrol #15.
- This is the final issue published under the Crime Patrol title; the series continued with the very next issue renumbered/retitled as The Crypt of Terror #17 (April/May 1950), which later evolved into Tales from the Crypt.
- Issue #16 was the tipping point at which horror stories outnumbered crime stories within the title — a content shift that directly drove the editorial decision to rename and rebrand the book.
- Cover art and interior story art by Johnny Craig; additional interior art by Al Feldstein, John Alton, Fred Peters, and George Roussos; stories written by Al Feldstein and Johnny Craig; edited by William M. Gaines.
- Interior stories include 'Murder Writes a Policy,' 'The Swindle by Flame,' 'Johnny Sparr: Guardian of the Little Guy,' and 'Return from the Grave!' (the Crypt-Keeper hosted tale).
- Reprinted in Russ Cochran's Complete EC Library (black-and-white hardcover, 1993), in Gemstone's color Crime Patrol reprint series (2000), and select stories also appeared in Crime SuspenStories #2 (December 1950–January 1951) and IDW's EC Covers Artisan Edition (May 2024).
- A coloring credit previously attributed to Marie Severin has been disputed by EC scholarship (Cassell, 2012), which argues Severin had not yet begun coloring at EC when this issue was produced.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Crime SuspenStories #2 (1950), The Rocket's Blast-Comicollector #126 (1976), Crime Suspenstories #2 (1993), Crime Patrol #10 (2001), EC Archives: Crime SuspenStories #1 (2007), The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #25 (2019), The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #28 (2020), The Fantagraphics EC Artists' Library #36 (2024), Artisan Edition #[16] (2024), Crime Patrol #2
Key issues in Crime Patrol
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