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Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt was part of Bill Gaines' EC Comics line during the early 1950s. The bi-monthly horror comic, edited by Al Feldstein, began with an issue cover-dated April – May 1950. Over a five-year span, it ran for 30 issues, ending with the February – March 1955 issue.
After early front covers by Feldstein, Johnny Craig and Wally Wood, the remaining covers from 1952 to 1955 were by Jack Davis. The contributing interior artists were Craig, Feldstein, Wood, Davis, George Evans, Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Williamson, Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Bernard Krigstein, Will Elder, Fred Peters and Howard Larsen.
Tales from the Crypt originated with a Feldstein story, "Return from the Grave!", in EC's Crime Patrol #15 (December 1949 – January 1950). and Feldstein created the host character, the Crypt-Keeper, with that story. Issue #16 featured more horror tales than crime stories, and with #17, the title changed from Crime Patrol to The Crypt of Terror. It continued as The Crypt of Terror for the next two issues, and the title was finalized as Tales from the Crypt with issue #20 (October – November, 1950). Jack Davis took over the art for the Crypt-Keeper stories with issue #24 (June – July, 1951) and continued as the title's lead artist for the rest of the run. For issue #33, Feldstein devised the Crypt-Keeper's origin story, "Lower Berth!", illustrated by Davis.
In 1955, Gaines and Feldstein intended to reactivate the earlier title, The Crypt of Terror, by adding a fourth book to their three existing horror titles. At the last minute, the idea was dropped, the logo was changed, and the contents was instead published as Tales from the Crypt #46 (February – March, 1955), the final issue. Shortly afterwards, a copy of Tales from the Crypt was used by Fritz Lang as a prop in his film While the City Sleeps (1956).
In 1989, the series was adapted into the TV series Tales from the Crypt, which included comic book covers designed to look like the original 1950s covers. These new covers featured artwork by Mike Vosberg, with at least one drawn by Shawn McManus.

Tales from the Crypt Movie

Tales from the Crypt is a British horror movie, made in 1972 by Amicus Productions. It is a portmanteau film consisting of five separate segments, based on stories from EC Comics. Only two of the stories, however, are actually from EC's Tales from the Crypt. The reason for this, according to Creepy founding editor Russ Jones, is that Amicus producer Milton Subotsky did not own a run of the original EC comic book but instead adapted the movie from the two paperback reprints given to him by Jones: The story "Wish You Were Here" was reprinted in the paperback collection The Vault of Horror (Ballantine, 1965). The other four stories in the movie were among the eight stories reprinted in Tales from the Crypt (Ballantine, 1964).
In the film, five strangers encounter the mysterious Crypt Keeper in a crypt, and he tells each in turn the manner of their death. Amicus Productions' Crypt Keeper is portrayed by an actor, (Ralph Richardson), rather than a puppet as on the 1989-1996 HBO television series of Tales from the Crypt.
The screenplay was adapted into a tie-in novel by Jack Oleck, Tales from the Crypt (Bantam, 1972). Oleck, who wrote the novel Messalina (1950), also scripted for EC's Picto-Fiction titles, Crime Illustrated, Shock Illustrated and Terror Illustrated.
In 1973, a sequel was released, titled The Vault of Horror.

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