Crime Patrol #15

E. C. Comics - Dec. 1949 / Jan. 1950

Key Issue Notes
First appearance of the Crypt Keeper
First Crypt of Terror

In keeping with the October horror theme, next on the list of key issue comics is this gem of a comic. This historic comic introduced the first horror story to the E.C. line of comics, which would be what they were to become known for all these years later.

This comics holds the first appearance of the Crypt Keeper, who was made popular by the HBO show Tales from the Crypt that ran from 1989 to 1996. I have to admit, this was one of my favorite shows when I was growing up. The mixture of laughs and gore really caught my attention.

If you've been keeping up with entertainment news, then you've seen that M. Night Shyamalan is going to reboot the series for TNT. I wonder how much of the gore and language that they can get away with on a cable network like TNT. However, I've noticed that it's gotten pretty gruesome on some shows like The Walking Dead.

In earlier interviews with Shyamalan, he had the idea of creating a season long story line for the show, kind of like what American Horror Story does, but recently it seems he's going for more of a direct reboot of the original series, Crypt Keeper and all. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I, personally, am having mixed feelings about it.

Enough about that, let's talk about this comic. As I'm sure you've all noticed, this is not a horror comic, but a true crime comic. In the beginning, EC decided that it would be a good idea to try out the idea of introducing a horror related story in these books to see if they would sell. As it turns out, that was a very good idea.

We are introduced to the Crypt Keeper and his Crypt of Terror in a short seven page story called Return From the Grave. In this short story, two executives are trying to swindle a company from a poor business owner. The business owner is so poor and down on his luck that the two executives convince him that he should commit suicide and make it look like and accident, so his family can collect on his life insurance policy.

A short time later, the two execs get a phone call. Apparently the old man took their advice and jumped in front of a truck. Now that the two executives own the old mans company, they get a call for a large order of perfume. The factory that makes the perfume doesn't have the formula for it so the now the two panicked men try to find it.

They find out that the formulas are in the pocket of the suit that the old man was buried in, so the two start digging, and find the coffin empty, except a small piece of paper with a note scribbled on it. The note said "I have discovered how you have stolen money from me for the last three years driving me to suicide. I have risen from my grave... and will not return until I have taken my revenge!" I don't want to spoil the ending, but in true EC style, the two executives get their just deserts.

I've gotta tell ya, it wasn't easy to find a copy of this story to read. Not only that, It's also a hard comic to find. As on now, there have only been 40 copies graded by CGC. It's kind of a mixed bag of high to low grades, but surprisingly there are five, that's right, I said five 9.8 NM/M copies. I'm assuming that these are going to be the Gaines File Copies. Don't worry, If you don't know about the Gaines File Copy pedigree, I will be writing about it very soon.

Values for Crime Patrol #15 on GoCollect

High grade copies of this comic are expensive, but they're not Action Comics #1 expensive. It's not going to cost you millions of dollars to add this to your collection. It may not even cost you tens of thousands. There was a CGC 9.8 NM/M Gaines File Copy that sold at Heritage Auctions for only $7468.75. Yeah, that's a lot of money, but for a piece of history like this, I think they got it at a bargain. However, There was a 9.6 NM+ Gaines File Copy that sold at Heritage a few years earlier in 2010 for $13,800. So, does that mean that interest in this comic is going down? Not likely. With comics like this, they hit the market so rarely that it can drive the price up or down, depending on how many people are interested at that particular time. The more people that know about the auction, the higher the price will go, and the less, the lower it will probably go.

The information of the two other sales that I was able to get from GoCollect don't really tell me where this comic is headed in terms of value. There was one sale for a CGC 7.5 VF- that sold for a penny shy of $1,850 in April 2015, and a low grade 2.0 G that ended up selling for $412.05 in June of the same year.

Like I said, it's hard to say where the values of this comic are going. I can tell you that there has been no change in value in Overstreet over the last two years. Horror comics are a genre that aren't collected by the masses like superhero comics are. Values will slowly rise within this small community of collectors. Since I'm a fan of horror comics, I have this one on my want list, but being able to afford a copy is a whole different story.

Find a copy here
eBay - ComicLink - MyComicShop - ComicConnect

Eerie Comics #1

Avon - Jan 1947

Key Issue Notes
First horror comic book

It's finally October, and it's time of the year when everybody dresses up in scary costumes, decorates the yards with the latest items they got at Spirit Halloween store, and binge watches horror movies (or maybe that's just me.)

In honor of the scariest month of the year, I decided that all month long, I'll be talking about nothing but horror comics, and to start it all off, I'll go all the way to the beginning with Eerie Comics #1.

To be completely honest, this isn't the first horror comic ever made, but it is the first comic that has original stories written for it. Before this comic came out, horror comics were adaptations of stories that were already popular, like Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

This issue of Eerie Comics was a one shot deal. It wouldn't be visited again until years later in 1951. Why did it take so long for? Perhaps it wasn't very popular at the time. This was the beginning of horror comics, so maybe it wasn't a big seller. Horror comics really seemed to take off in the early 50's, so it could have been a wait and see mentality from the folks over at Avon Comics. Perhaps they got a lot of complaints from the parents of the kids that read it and they decided to stop producing this title. These are just a couple of theories of mine. I have no idea what the real reason is behind there only being one issue.

One of my favorite about writing this blog is being able to read all of the wonderful historic comics. It wasn't easy to find a copy of this comic, but I did. The stories in them aren't as graphic or horrific as the horror comics that would be put out by EC Comics in the 50's. In fact, it's rather tame in its depiction.

Eerie Comic #1 is a 52 page anthology comic, meaning that it is comprised of many short stories, and not one long one. It's interesting to me that the picture on the cover has nothing to do with any of the stories within it. I was hoping to learn the story behind it, but alas, there was no story to be had. Instead there are stories about a vengeful ghost of a tiger, a haunted mansion, and a short story about an attorney that learns a valuable lesson in perception. In all there are six stories, including a fun two pager staring Goofy Ghost. My favorite part about this story, is that it was supposed to be continued in the next issue of Eerie Comics, but that issue never came saw the light of day.

Again, because of the age of this comic, don't expect there the be a lot of graded copies available on the market. As of now, there have been 71 copies graded by CGC. I don't expect that number to change very much in the near future. I expect that a lot of copies of Eerie Comics #1 made it's way to a landfill or into a fireplace at some point. Of the copies that are listed in the census, none are graded higher than a 9.2 MN-. Most of the graded copies are in the 4.0 VG to 6.0 F range. Don't expect to find many high grade copies out there.

Values for Eerie Comics #1 on GoCollect

If you're lucky enough to find a copy on the market, you might want to call your bank and get a loan. These comics are not cheap, even in lower grades. There isn't a lot of sales data out there for this book, but the numbers that are available, are quite high. I'll start off with an 8.5 VF+ copy since there are some good data points for it. In 2009 a copy at that grade sold for $3,107 at Heritage Auctions. That last sale at the same site and at the same grade sold for over $9,500. That really is quite amazing. However, lower grades aren't seeing this kind of growth. A 5.0 F- copy sold for $1,191 in 2012 and went up to only $1,250 in Feb of 2016. As we go down to a 4.0 VG copy, there was a sale in 2011 that dropped for $711 and then rose up to $775.25 about a year later. If you're looking for the best investment potential, the higher grade the better.

Rarity will play a huge factor in the value of this comic. It's almost impossible to find any copies online, graded or raw. I can usually find one or two copies of hard to find comics at one of the big online auction sites like eBay, but as of this writing, I couldn't find any. I'll leave the links at the bottom of the page like normal because you never know when a copy will be listed. My advice for you is to check back often, and if you find a copy for sale, buy it.

Find a copy here
eBay - ComicLink - ComicConnect - Heritage Auctions