Number 2406: The Brothers Vampire

They should have known better, the two American archaeologists digging around the castle. Especially since the castle is in a remote village in Eastern Hungary. “A thousand passing years have left the town and its customs unchanged! Perched above it stands the sinister remains of Horhaga Castle...like an evil sentinel...” says the caption. The Horhaga Brothers, you see, are vampires. The villagers know this and don’t want the archaeologists to bring them back from the dead, which, of course they do.

Halloween is in a few days, so I have a horror story today, and a couple of them on the day before Halloween. At that time I will get back in my coffin and wait out the trick-or-treaters. I hope I won’t have to spend a long time. My old coffin gets awfully dank.

“The Thing in the Vault” (and shouldn’t that be “Things,” since there are three vampires?) was published in Amazing Mysteries #33 (1949). The title had lasted four issues after replacing Sub-Mariner’s comic book. The first two issues were horror, the last two crime stories. The Grand Comics Database takes a guess that the pencils are by Bill Everett, but Atlastales.com doesn’t guess, leaving no artist credits for this story.