The Vault of Horror #1
"Portrait in Wax" is a chilling tale from The Vault of Horror #1 (1982), a standout entry in the horror anthology series that delivers a masterclass in creeping dread. Written, drawn, and inked by Johnny Craig—whose distinctive art and storytelling elevate the story’s eerie atmosphere—this tale follows Jim Ryan, a man seeking shelter in a remote estate during a storm, only to uncover a terrifying secret behind a barred door. With a cover by Craig himself, the issue blends gothic suspense and supernatural horror in a way that lingers long after the final page.
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Jim Ryan is driving his car through dense fog along the bumpy moors, but decides to stop for safety sake and seek refuge in an estate he spots. The owner, Andrew Clymore, lives alone with his servant, Evers, and agrees to give him a room for the night. While at dinner, Ryan hears a scream, but Clymore says he heard nothing....and Ryan thinks maybe he needs to get some sleep. As Ryan climbs the stairs, Evers is coming down with a covered platter that reeks of rotting human flesh. Ryan is shown to his room, across from a room whose door is barred. Curious about it, Ryan gets up in the night and listens outside the door to a strange scratching from his....and he also hears moans coming from Clymore's room. Later, Evers appears and tells Ryan that his master is dead.....looking at Clymore's body, Ryan thinks the poor man had been frightened to death. Anyway, Evers tells Ryan that the master wanted to be cremated on a funeral pyre, but he was now too old to build it....so Ryan agrees to do it....that is, after the pouring rain ceases. Meanwhile, mysterious sounds keep emanating from the barred room, and Evers finally reveals that Clymore's wife had been subject to catalepsy, dies and was buried.....but when Clymore visited the tomb, he heard sounds from the coffin and discovered that his wife had given birth to a creature of some kind, and it was in that barred room. Suddenly, the thing broke out of the room. Ryan tried to shoot it, but the pistol mis-fired, and he was flung against the wall. As he awakened, he saw the room afire and the creature flitting wildly around the corpse of Clymore, snatching pieces out of his face with its teeth. As the flames grew more intense, Ryan made his way out of the house before it burned to the ground and drove off.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).