Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: bob powell, crime comics

Drug Running and Double Crosses in The Perfect Crime, Up for Auction

Published Mon, 25 Jul 2022 14:47:09 -0500

Cross Publications was owned by Harold L. Crossman and Edward Bobley, who acted as publisher and editor of the company respectively. Max Levin is listed as the publisher's managing editor. Edward's brother Harry Bobley later joined the business as another co-owner. Together, Crossman, the Bobley brothers, and Levin were best known for putting out Radio Best (Later, Radio & Television Best) magazine, a short-lived but historically important broadcasting industry publication that lasted 1947-1950. The Radio Best connection explains why this group published a comic book called Uncle Milty, starring radio and early television legend Milton Berle. Another Cross Publications comic book series, Super Circus, was based on a popular 1950-1956 ABC television series of the same name. But Cross Publications' most successful series, The Perfect Crime, would seem to be an anomaly for a publisher who otherwise focused on television and radio properties. The Perfect Crime is thoroughly embedded in the comic book culture of the time when crime comics were a major and usually notorious category.

Perfect Crime #20 (Cross Publications, 1952)

Having put together a solid team of artists that included Doug Wildey, Bob Powell, and Cal Massey, the broadcast business experts who put out Radio Best pulled off a pitch-perfect clone of Crime Does Not Pay. The series hits all of the right 1950s crime comic notes: lurid covers, hypodermic needles and drug use, violence, and a healthy dose of sex appeal. An underappreciated crime comic series that contains everything you'd expect from 1950s-era pre-Code crime comics, there's a bunch of issues of Cross Publications' The Perfect Crime up for auction 2022 July 24-25 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122230 at Heritage Auctions.

Perfect Crime #18 (Cross Publications, 1951)

Perfect Crime #2 (Cross Publications, 1950) Condition: GD. Moisture damage and color pull on cover. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $28.

Perfect Crime #17 (Cross Publications, 1951) Condition: FR. Cal Massey, Jim Reilley, and Floyd Torbert art. Cover detached, moisture damage, cover torn and missing pieces. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.

Perfect Crime #18 (Cross Publications, 1951) Condition: FR/GD. Drug cover, heroin propaganda story, plus anti-drug editorial. Cover detached and half of spine split. Cal Massey art. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $41.

Perfect Crime #20 (Cross Publications, 1952) Condition: GD. Cal Massey art. Fraying to the cover and the spine. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.

Perfect Crime #21 (Cross Publications, 1952) Condition: FR. The first copy we've encountered. Cover detached, three-quarters of cover split, tape repair to outer cover, tape repair from pages to cover. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.

Perfect Crime #22 (Cross Publications, 1952) Condition: GD. Moisture damage. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.

Perfect Crime #25 (Cross Publications, 1952) Condition: FR. Centerfold detached, moisture damage, and top staple popped. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.

Perfect Crime #26 (Cross Publications, 1952) Condition: FR. Drug propaganda story. Hypodermic needle cover. Water damage, piece missing front cover, Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $41.

#29 (Cross Publications, 1952) Condition: GD/VG. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20; VG 4.0 value = $40.

#31 (Cross Publications, 1953) Condition: GD. Staple rust and rust migration. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.

#33 (Cross Publications, 1953) Condition: FR/GD. Final issue. Cover and centerfold detached. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $20.