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Authentic Police Cases
St. John Publications
  18
  34

Behind Prison Bars
Avon/Realistic Comics
  1

Complete Book of True Crime Comics
William Wise
  no#

Crime Detective
Hillman Periodicals
  V1#6

Crime Does Not Pay
Lev Gleason Publications
  22   Thumbnails 1
  23
  24
  25
  26
  27
  28
  29
  30
  31
  32
  33
  34
  35
  36
  37
  38
  39
  41   Thumbnails 2
  42
  43
  44
  45
  46
  47
  48
  49
  50
  51
  52
  53
  54
  55
  56
  57
  58
  59

Crime Reporter
St. John Publications
  1   Thumbnails
  2
  3

Crimes By Women
Fox Features Syndicate
  1    Thumbnails
  2
  3
  4
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  11
  12
  13
  14
  15
  54

Crime SuspenStories
E.C. Comics
  22

Famous Crimes
Fox Features Syndicate
  1   Thumbnails
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  11
  12
  14
  15
  16
  18
  19
  51

Fox Giants
Fox Features Syndicate
  Album Of Crime   Thumbnails
  All-Famous Crime Stories
  All Great Crime Stories
  Crimes Incorporated
  Journal of Crime
  March of Crime #1
  Truth About Crime

Gangsters And Gun Molls
Avon/Realistic Comics
  1
  2
  3

Harvey Comics Library
Harvey Publications
  1 (Teen-Age Dope Slaves)

Hunted
Fox Features Syndicate
  2

I'm a Cop
Magazine Enterprises
  3

March of Crime
Fox Features Syndicate
  7 (#1)
  2

Martin Kane
Fox Features Syndicate
  4 (#1)

Murder Incorporated
Fox Features Syndicate
  1   Thumbnails
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9a
  9b
  13
  14
  15
  V2#2
  V2#3

Murderous Gangsters
Avon/Realistic Comics
  4

Parole Breakers
Avon/Realistic
  3

Prison Break!
Avon/Realistic
  2
  4
  5

Prison Riot
Avon/Realistic
  1

Racket Squad in Action
Capitol Stories/Charlton Comics
  1

Reform School Girl!
Realistic Comics
  no#

Shock Illustrated
E.C. Comics
  1   Thumbnails
  2
  3

Spectacular Stories Magazine
Fox Features Syndicate
  3 (#2)

True Crime Comics
Magazine Village
  2
  6

Underworld Crime
Fawcett Publications
  7

Western True Crime
Fox Features Syndicate
  16 (#2)
  3
  4

Women Outlaws
Fox Features Syndicate
  1
  4
  5

NON-CRIME COMICS
(but I love 'em anyway)

Blue Beetle
Fox Features Syndicate
  54

Brenda Starr
Four Star/Superior Comics
  V2#4
  V2#10

Claire Voyant
Leader/Standard/Pentagon
  2
  3

My Life
Fox Features Syndicate
  7

Phantom Lady
Fox Features Syndicate
  16

All images are
copyright their
respective publishers
and/or licensors.

Crime Comic Books of the 1940s and 1950s

What follows is a few of my favorite crime comic books. In selecting these, I just flipped through my collection and started picking out books. Reasons for inclusion vary. Some simply have great eye appeal. Others are included strictly due to their "historical significance," or simply because a book is very rare and I'm darned proud to have found it.

Click on any cover to see the full-size version. As with the gallery, I plan on adding more to this page when I get time. Check back every now and then.

Crime Does Not Pay #22
Lev Gleason Publications
June, 1942

For crime collectors, this is the Holy Grail. This is the one that started it all...the very first "crime comic." For my money, this is the second most important comic book of all time (the first being Action Comics #1, of course). Editors Charles Biro and Bob Wood* stole the title from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's popular newsreel series, and bordered the cover with photographs of famous criminals to give it a "true detective" look and feel. All of the early covers, including this one, were drawn by Charles Biro himself.

*Ironically, according to Ron Goulart's Over 50 Years of American Comic Books (which is a great reference, by the way), Bob Wood went to prison in the early 1950's for beating his girlfriend to death.

True Crime Comics #2
Magazine Village
May, 1947

Great cover by Jack Cole, wouldn't you agree? This is perhaps the most notorious crime comic book of them all. Basically, it had everything: drugs, women undressing, and bad guys threatening eyeballs with sharp, pointy objects. Dr. Fredric Wertham singles this book out numerous times (including two illustrations) in his alarmist classic Seduction of the Innocent, and it was also criticized in Parade of Pleasure. The infamous drug story from this book, "Murder, Morphine, and Me" was reprinted in its entirety in the report issued by the New York State Legislative Commission on Censorship in Comics.

Crime SuspenStories #22
E.C. Comics
May, 1954

True Crime Comics #2 may be the most notorious crime comic of all time, but Johnny Craig wins the contest for "most notorious cover illustration" hands down. When the Senate Committe of the Judiciary to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency began hearings in New York City in 1954, this particular cover caught the eye of Senator Estes Kefauver. William Gaines, the publisher of E.C. Comics, was put in the awkward position of having to defend the cover:

"Here is your May issue. This seems to be a man with a bloody axe holding a woman's head up, which has been severed from her body. Do you think that's in good taste?" asked Kefauver.

"Yes, sir, I do...for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that blood could be seen dripping from it, and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody," replied Gaines.

"You've got blood coming out of her mouth."

"A little."

By the end of the day, William Gaines had achieved nationwide notoriety and crime comics had been pronounced guilty of corrupting the youth of America.

Reform School Girl!
Realistic Comics
1951

One of the more eye-catching Avon one-shots, this cover was actually recycled from a trashy pulp paperback of the same title. Dr. Wertham also had problems with this book, which he claimed "blends sex, violence, and torture in its context" (Seduction of the Innocent, page 358).

The girl on the cover is Canadian figure skater Marty Collins. I hope this didn't end her career as a model.

Harvey Comics Library #1
AKA Teen-Age Dope Slaves
Harvey Publications
April, 1952

I could go on and on about what a cool comic book this is, but I feel that Dr. Wertham's description of this book was most eloquent:

"When adolescent drug addiction had finally come to public attention, it led to the publication of lurid new comic books devoted entirely to the subject, like the one with the title, Teen-Age Dope Slaves. This is nothing but another variety of crime comic of a particularly deplorable character. (Seduction of the Innocent, page 27)

Crime Reporter #1
St. John Publications
August, 1948

Though it only ran for three issues, Crime Reporter is one of my favorite titles. The cover art on all three issues is spectacular. Interestingly, the covers to issues 2 and 3 are attributed to Matt Baker (of Phantom Lady fame) in Overstreet and Gerber, and indeed they are signed "Baker" visibly. This cover sure looks like Baker's work to me. If anyone has any info on this cover's artist I'd greatly appreciate an e-mail.

Murder Incorporated #1
Fox Features Syndicate
January, 1948

This book marks the entry of publisher Victor Fox into the crime genre, with the titles Famous Crimes and Crimes By Women only months behind. The Fox titles are (obviously) among my very favorites. If Victor Fox understood nothing else, he certainly knew that a good cover meant strong sales. For the most part, Fox crime comics are unreadable due to awful interior content (both the art and the writing, usually)...but the covers make it all worthwhile!

For the first two issues of Murder Incorporated, Fox even stooped to putting three little words on the cover: For Adults Only. There were no restrictions on selling comic books to minors, and up until this time no one had ever had the moxy to suggest that these books were not suitable for children. Fox wanted to make it clear to his young audience that there was plenty of sex and violence to be had, if only you ponied up a dime to buy this book!

Authentic Police Cases #18
St. John Publications
April, 1952

This book falls into the category of "very rare and I'm darned proud to have found it." Gerber rated this book an 8 in his scarcity index, estimating that only 11 to 20 copies still exist. He was unable to find a copy to photograph for the Photo-Journal.

Crimes By Women #12
Fox Features Syndicate
April, 1950

"WHY YOU RED-HEADED WILDCAT!!"

Crimes By Women is a great title...this is about as sleazy as Fox comics ever got. While I like all the covers from this series (make sure not to miss issues 2, 3, and 11), this one is my favorite.