Tales from the Crypt #20
In "The Thing from the Sea," a chilling tale from EC's Tales from the Crypt #20 (1950), a solitary artist's unsettling sketch takes a terrifying turn when he encounters a man who looks exactly like the figure he drew. Written, drawn, and inked by Johnny Craig—whose masterful control of shadow and suspense defines the story—this haunting narrative unfolds with quiet dread, blending fate and obsession in a single, unforgettable encounter. The cover, also by Craig, captures the story’s eerie tone with a stark, unforgettable image.
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An artist draws a frightened face with a circle around it. Thinking it odd, he goes for a walk encountering a grave-stone cutter who looks exactly like the picture he drew of the man carving a tombstone with his name on it. The stone-cutter laughs it off, but wants to show his wife the picture. It turns out the artist and the stone-cutter's wife were once romantically involved and she wants to be so again. The stone-cutter catches them together and kills the artist, but is facing the hangman's noose for it.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).