The Haunt of Fear - Influences and Adaptations

Influences and Adaptations

As with the other EC comics edited by Feldstein, the stories in this comic were primarily based on Gaines reading of a large number of horror stories and using them to develop "springboards" from which he and Feldstein could launch new stories. Specific story influences that have been identified include the following:

• "The Wall" (issue 15 ) - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• "The Hunchback" (issue 4) - Robert Bloch's "The Mannikin"
• "A Strange Undertaking" (issue 6) - Ray Bradbury's "The Handler"
• "Horror in the Schoolroom" (issue 7) - John Collier's "Thus I Refute Beelzy"
• "Hounded to Death" (issue 8) - Maurice Level's "The Kennel"
• "Irony of Death" (issue 8) - Bram Stoker's "The Squaw"
• "Warts So Horrible?" (issue 9) - Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• "Forbidden Fruit" (issue 9) - William Hope Hodgson's "The Voice in the Night"
• "The Gorilla's Paw" (issue 9) - W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw"
• "Ship-Shape" (issue 14) - William Hope Hodgson's "The Derelict"
• "Thump Fun" (issue 20) - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• "Wish You Were Here" (issue 22) - W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw"
• "Model Nephew" (issue 22) - H. P. Lovecraft's "The Terrible Old Man"

After their unauthorized adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's stories in another magazine, Bradbury contacted EC about their plagiarism of his work. They reached an agreement for EC to do authorized versions of Bradbury's short fiction. These official adaptations include:

• "The Coffin" (issue 16)
• "The Black Ferris" (issue 18)