1934: Dracula
kills a victim and throws him from an ocean liner; the call of “man overboard”
attracts a crowd of passengers. Dracula mingles among them and strikes up a
conversation about death with the young Beverly Carpenter….
Beverly, with her
boyfriend Stuart, returns to the North Dakota farm where she lived with her
parents until her mother’s recent untimely death; her father doesn’t want her
there and tells her so. She can’t understand how her father has changed since
mom’s death and leaves in rage….
Dracula arrives in
the nearby Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, because he has sensed a great evil there
and considers it a threat to his own sinister plans. He encounters Beverly and they
are surprised to see each other; Beverly invites the mysterious visitor to stay
at her father’s home. But Dad isn’t there…
Paul Carpenter has
gone to church to seek help from the priest: he is desperate and afraid. He
confesses that periodically he has been overwhelmed by a strong desire to kill,
first a bird, then his dog, finally his wife, whom he frightened into running
away from him and being caught in a blizzard where she died. (He omits
mentioning killing his neighbor Anton Nyborg with an axe the day before.) The
priest is suddenly possessed by the same murderous spirit and attacks Paul who
kills him with a candlestick and, panicked, flees into the night. Dracula goes
out into the storm and, in bat form, searches for his unseen enemy. At the house,
Stuart goes crazy and attacks Beverly; Paul returns and together they take her
captive and with the revived priest and Anton Nyborg, they climb down a well
and move through a maze of underground tunnels until they reach their
destination under the mountain called the Devil’s Heart. Dracula has also
traced his enemy to this same spot and arrives to see Beverly being presented
to a giant, pulsating, living heart. The heart has the men fight Dracula who
kills Stuart as he tries to rescue Beverly. But he is too late, as Paul has
fatally stabbed his daughter. The giant heart (revealed here to be that of a
Sioux necromancer feeding on lives to sustain its own) shrivels and dies. Paul,
now normal again, pleads with Dracula to kill him but the vampire lord, not given
to mercy, departs, so Paul takes his own life.
“Forbidden Drink”
Writer: ? Art:
Pete Tumlinson. Colors: ? Letters: ?
Synopsis: An aging
stage actor offers to sell his soul to look young again. A mystery figure
appears and offers him the water from the Fountain of Youth. The dude swigs it
and sees himself growing younger. He heads over to propose to a young actress
but she laughs—he is still growing younger and now looks like a child; the
devil claims his soul! Reprinted from MYSTIC #2.
“The Gargoyles”
Reprinted from TALES OF SUSPENSE #46.
“I Am the Living
Ghost!”
Writer: ? Art:
Steve Ditko. Colors: ? Letters: Artie Simek.
Synopsis: A
skeptic visits a supposedly haunted castle and spooky phenomena scare him away.
There are no ghosts—but the suits of armor and statues there are alive!
Reprinted from TALES OF SUSPENSE #15.
“You Can’t Escape”
Writer and artist
unknown.
Synopsis: A
vengeful vampire explains how he created a comic book story and had it printed
up and inserted in a random copy of a comic book—the very one you’re holding in
your hands! Reprinted from ADVENTURES INTO TERROR #6.