Number 2294: The Werewolf Legend

“The Werewolf Legend” is from The Vault of Horror #12, which is actually #1, from 1950. It is, once again, the EC publisher avoiding having to pay for a whole new second class mailing permit for a new title. So War Against Crime was killed after issue #11, and resurrected as The Vault of Horror #12. EC had been experimenting with horror stories in their crime books, and felt secure enough to issue horror comics under their own titles, after chiseling the Post Office.

The story is drawn by Harry Harrison and Wallace Wood. I am not sure who did what, but the inker may be Harrison. He bragged once about how fast he could ink with a #7 brush, “socking in the blacks,” as he called it.

The story is kind of a cheat, and also clumsy, putting all of the exposition into the last couple of panels. (The stories got better over time, which is why EC Comics has the reputation they do today.) The credit for the story goes to Gardner Fox, based on information from Tales of Terror/The EC Companion, by Fred Von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman.

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