Originally, there were three horror comics, The Crypt of Terror, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. Each horror book had a character that introduced the stories and commented on the conclusions. The Old Witch as in charge of The Hunt of Fear, The Vault Keeper ran The Vault of Horror and the Crypt Keeper managed The Crypt of Terror which was later renamed Tales From the Crypt.

Comic book artist and writer Al Feldstein edited the horror comics and wrote most of the stories with plot input from Gaines. Feldstein and Gains told tales like no one have ever read before in comics and took the horror comics to a whole new level. Tales of revenge and retribution were popular topics, and the results were always ghastly and described and illustrated in great details. People were axed, shredded, torn, ripped, devoured, and diced in bright, gory color. Werewolves and zombies dripped with blood and no demise was too grisly, and no character was too dead to get up and stalk.

In 1952, Feldstein began adapting stories by Ray Bradbury. Unfortunately, they didn’t consult Bradbury first. But, the author took the adaptations in good grace and reached a settlement where he was paid twenty-five dollars for each story used by EC Comics.

Unfortunately, not everyone was a fan of the gory horror medium aimed at children. In 1954 Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book, “Seduction of the Innocent”, was published, linking comic books to the rising tide of juvenile delinquency in America. Now with the government on the tails of the horror comic book William Gaines went to testify before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. But, when confronted with one of his comic coves that showed a man with an ax holding a woman’s severed head, Gaines argued that such a cover would be in bad taste if, for example, the severed head was held higher and blood was shown dripping from it. This did not go over well with the committee and it led to the establishment of the Comics Code. The Code, which forbid even the use of the words “horror” and “terror,” dealt a devastating blow to EC’s New Trend and within a short time, all horror comics were cancelled.