Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: golden age, l.b. cole, Star Publications

The Lurid Saga of L.B. Cole's Thrilling Crime Cases #49, at Auction

Published Mon, 09 May 2022 11:32:09 -0500

With an unusual amount of text for a comic book cover, L.B. Cole lays out precisely what you're going to get in this issue of Thrilling Crime Cases: "Beautiful and deadly as a cobra, she struck down her victims in a frenzy of wanton greed. Climbing ever higher over the bodies of those she poisoned, she grasped for more until the stern and relentless hand of justice brought extermination and wiped out a snake in human form… The Poisoner!" A typically lurid cover by Cole playing to an audience that had made crime comics an incredibly successful genre during this period, there's a Thrilling Crime Cases #49 (Star Publications, 1952) Condition: GD up for auction in today's 2022 May 8-9 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122219 from Heritage Auctions.

Thrilling Crime Cases #49 cover by L.B. Cole (Star Publications, 1952)

Interestingly, Cole chose a reprinted story from this issue to illustrate for the cover, rather than the new lead feature "Underworld Mastermind" by artist George Peltz. But "The Poisoner", which first appeared in Victor Fox's 1949 Crimes by Women #7 as the story "The Devil in Petticoats" does command the reader's attention. The ostensibly true story of Hilda Pomeroy, a beautiful young woman living in pre-WW2 Vienna, who seduced wealthy older men, married them, poisoned them, and then inherited their fortunes. It's a classic kind of true crime tale of the era, and while I couldn't find the source with some quick research, the details of the story do have the ring of truth. L.B. Cole symbolically represents this tale on his cover, right down to the end of Pomeroy herself.

The indispensable Black Light: The World of L.B. Cole describes the Thrilling Crime Cases #49 cover as "certainly the most bizarre of all his crime covers, with the five figures placed carefully around the page to give it an overall unity," and it's impossible to disagree with that assessment. A classic and bizarre crime cover from the peak moment of the genre, there's a Thrilling Crime Cases #49 (Star Publications, 1952) Condition: GD up for auction in today's 2022 May 8-9 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122219 from Heritage Auctions.

Thrilling Crime Cases #49 (Star Publications, 1952) Condition: GD. Classic cover by L. B. Cole. Detached centerfold and insect chew on spine. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $300.