Dark Horse just published an anthology of stories from "Crime Does Not Pay," for my money one of the best adult comic books ever. I skimmed my friend Mike's copy of the book, and I got the impression that the book's stories were chosen for the writing, and not the artwork, but maybe I'm wrong. Jack Cole used to draw for this comic, and so did Paul Gustafson.
You never heard of Gustafson? That's a sample of his work above. He had a real cinematic style. How do you like that second panel where we see ordinary pedestrians waiting for a light to change from the vantage point of some evil force lurking in the shadows?
The comic was edited by Charles Biro and Bob Wood in the early forties. In real life, Wood lived the life he wrote about and ended up beating his wife to death with a steam iron. He went to prison for it, and was murdered by another inmate.
"Crimes by Women" looks like a pretty good title too, to judge by the cover. There were a lot of crime titles in those days.
Look at that policeman (above)! He looks like he was drawn by Kirby, but I think the drawing is credited to someone else.
"Murder Incorporated" (above) looks like an interesting comic....
....as does "Crime Reporter!" I wish I could read these comics.
Geez, here (above) we have the shocking immediacy of seeing a man shot at point blank range from the point of view of the shooter.
I hate to seem like a prude, but maybe these comics
were too strong for kids
. They make crime and sadism look exciting in a way that EC comics never did.
How do you like the far away look (above) on the stabber's face? 'Probably an editor's change.
Wasn't it these comics along with the horror and tales of terror variety that caused the 50's comic ban and code of what could be depicted and said? You mentioned these were for adults but I think comics much like cartoons were considered for children back then.
ReplyDeleteI just found a book at our library called, "The horror! the horror! : comic books the government didn't want you to read!" It is a compilation of these very comics that sparked the code. Another book I want to find is "Seduction of the Innocent", which deals with the insidious influence of comics on American youth in the 40's and 50's.
ReplyDeleteJoel: I forgot about that horror book. I'll have to look it up!
ReplyDeleteI think I remember reading that Crime Does Not Pay briefly indicated on the cover that their preferred reader was an adult. That didn't last long, though.
I like these comics, and I know I would have read them when I was a kid if I'd been around in those days. Even so, it's so obvious that they glorify crime, even though that wasn't the intention.
Or rather, they glorify the pre-condition of crime, which is an attitude that boys with ambition and guts should grow up to be ammoral risk takers.
Nobody commented on it, but the Philosophy Girls were serious when they talked about bad philosophy preceding what appears to be impulsive crime.
It's odd that EC was singled out by Wertham (at least I think it was...maybe I'm wrong) when that line was one of the least morally offensive.
I would like to think that Eisenhower had a stack of these hidden in his golf bag. War was, and still is hell.
ReplyDeleteThat last one looks like Dick Tracy getting knifed in the back. I wonder if thats an expression of some deep seated venom between artists, editors and publishers of competing periodicals; or just a cow catcher cover.
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