Tales from the Crypt #26
"Drawn and Quartered!" from Tales from the Crypt #26 (1951) delivers a chilling tale of political intrigue and grim retribution, written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and illustrated with masterful dread by Graham Ingels. When a rival assassinates the sitting mayor with a poisoned note meant to ruin his legacy, the truth is nearly buried—until the wind shifts and fate takes hold. Cover by Wally Wood captures the story’s dark, brooding atmosphere, setting the stage for a haunting payoff that lingers long after the final panel.
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A political rival for the office of mayor poisons the current mayor and leaves a suicide note confessing graft and corruption on the table in order to smear the mayor's past reputation and cement his victory in the election. However, a stray wind blows the note off the table underneath a bookcase. When the current mayor is found dead, an autopsy is performed and the whole town knows the mayor had been poisoned, but at the lavish funeral he wonders why no one found the note. Eventually the note does turn up after he wins the election, and he whips up so much ill will toward the previous mayor that they exhume his body from the graveyard and dump it out at sea. One day, while the mayor is out at sea fishing in a rowboat, a storm blows up suddenly. He attempts to bring up anchor, but it appears to be stuck on something. He peers over the side of the rowboat, and the hand of his victim's corpse thrusts out and pulls him into the depths.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).