crime comics Archives

Air Fighters Comics returned with issue #2, introducing Airboy with art by Biro and a story by Bob Wood's brother (and frequent Lev Gleason contributor) Dick Wood.  Biro and Dick Wood clearly understood the assignment here, and the relaunched Air Fighters Comics with Airboy would be a success. But if Hillman wanted a crime comic from the launch[...]

The unusually-titled 1953 one-shot Who Is Next? from Ned Pines' Standard/Better/Nedor line is a crime comic book with a point to make.  While even the most extreme crime comics of the Pre-Code era made at least some effort to stress that they were pro-law enforcement rather than glorifying crime, Who Is Next? took an entirely[...]

According to his credits on GCD, John Buscema worked almost exclusively for Marvel in 1948 and 1949, but in 1950, he branched out to other publishers, including Ziff-Davis and Orbit.   Buscema worked on every Orbit comic book that was being published at this time, which included Love Diary, Love Journal, The Westerner Comics, and Wanted[...]

Publishing, 1948) up for auction in the 2024 October 24 – 25 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40272 at Heritage Auctions. Exposed #1 (D.S Publishing, 1948), 1925 newspaper depiction of The Bat-inspired James E Walters. Dubbed the "Lone Wolf" and the "Boudoir Bandit" by Boston newspapers, James E Walters terrorized Boston in early 1925 with[...]

With crime comics on the rise at the time in the wake of the success of titles such as Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay, D.S Publishing is best remembered today for a short-lived but extensive crime comic book line including titles like Gangsters Can't Win, Outlaws, Public Enemies, Pay-Off, Underworld, and Exposed. Around the time[...]

With crime comics on the rise at the time in the wake of the success of titles such as Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay, D.S Publishing is best remembered today for a short-lived but extensive crime comic book line including titles like Gangsters Can't Win, Outlaws, Public Enemies, Pay-Off, Underworld, and Exposed. Under the heading[...]

Publishing, 1948-49) up for auction in the  2023 July 13 – 14 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40227 at Heritage Auctions. Pay-Off #4 (D.S Publishing, 1949) D.S Publishing began life in 1940 when publisher Richard Davis acquired the highly-regarded Dance Magazine from the magazine's founder MacFadden.  The company then moved into publishing "song sheet" magazines[...]

During the comic industry's boom time of the early 1950s, L.B. Cole covers were designed to stand out on the crowded newsstands.

Shortly after their tenure saw Headline Comics become a successful crime comics title, Simon & Kirby then launched a companion series called Justice Traps the Guilty.  Out of all of this material, the Simon & Kirby Headline Comics crime issues are perhaps the most underappreciated, but there are a few Simon & Kirby issues of[...]

A short but memorable crime comic series that was part of a publishing line known for such titles, the series gets off to a cold-blooded start in the first two issues, particularly with issue #2's The Case of the Giggling Killer.  There's a solid copy of Exposed #1 and the high-grade River City copy of[...]

With crime comics on the rise at the time in the wake of the success of titles such as Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay, D.S Publishing is best remembered today for a short-lived but extensive crime comic book line including titles like Gangsters Can't Win, Outlaws, Public Enemies, Pay-Off, Underworld, and Exposed.   Gangsters Can't[...]

Headline Comics from publisher Prize Comics Group covered a lot of ground from 1943-1955, including Simon & Kirby and much more.

Shortly after their tenure saw Headline Comics become a successful crime comics title, Simon & Kirby then launched a companion series called Justice Traps the Guilty.  Out of all of this material, the Simon & Kirby Headline Comics crime issues are perhaps the most underappreciated, but there are several Simon & Kirby issues of Headline[...]

Considered the last western outlaw and perhaps the first of a new breed of 20th century killers, Harry Tracy closed out the Prize Comics.

Crime Smashers was a 15 issue crime comics series that included art from Joe Kubert and Wally Wood, from a company owned by Harry Donenfeld.

Publishing began life in the early 1940s as a publisher of "song sheet" magazines which reprinted lyrics of popular songs of the time (comic book publisher Charlton was in the song sheet business as well) and jumped into the comic book business in the late 1940s.  With crime comics on the rise at the time[...]

Ellery Queen was created in 1928 by cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee as part of a writing competition. He was a fictitious mystery

Publishing began life in the early 1940s as a publisher of "song sheet" magazines which reprinted lyrics of popular songs of the time (comic book publisher Charlton was in the song sheet business as well) and jumped into the comic book business in the late 1940s.  With crime comics on the rise at the time[...]

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. [...]

Eisner Award-winning creator Christian Ward (ODY-C, Invisible Kingdom, Machine Gun Wizards) teams up with red-hot artist Patric Reynolds (The Mask) for an

Fawcett, the publisher best known for Captain Marvel produced one of the most notorious crime comic issues of the 1950s era.

Titan Comics are releasing their September solicitations in dribs and drabs as is their wont. Which also means, the launch of the second of their