The EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #4
In "Split Personality!", Johnny Craig delivers a chilling tale of paranoia and psychological dread, set in a remote asylum where the line between inmate and warden blurs. As the new headmaster, Hartley grapples with the unsettling rituals of his predecessor’s downfall, only to find himself trapped in a nightmare that may not be a dream at all. With stark, expressive art by Craig and moody colors by Marie Severin, this story from The EC Archives: The Vault of Horror #4 is a masterclass in suspense, its cover by Craig perfectly capturing the creeping dread within.
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As the rain fell in sheets, Hartley stood over the open coffin as he nervously and sickenly watched people run up to the corpse and do terrible things to it. Hartley discovered that was the only way the understaffed guards at the facility could keep the inmates in line. At dinner, the guards told him that this man [whom he was replacing as head master] was killed by the inmates for vowing to take this privilege away from them.....and he nervously looked at the dining inmates as they stared at him. Hartley excused himself from dinner and went to his room, fearing the inmates hated him and would kill him. He layed back on his bed and gazed up at the skylight. Out of a deep sleep, Hartley was suddenly awakened by the inamtes, who grabbed him, stuffed rags into his mouth and placed him in a coffin and placed a lid over it that had a window cut out so that he could see. One pinched his nose and then they carried him out of the facility and to the cemetery....things got blurry and he "woke up" back in bed, still staring at the skylight, nervously believing it had all been a bad dream. That is, until he saw an inmate's face suddenly appear over head and a shovel full of dirt hit him in the face!
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).