(Stock Image)
SOLD ON: Thursday, 06/05/2014 12:03 PM
This auction has ended.
PUBLISHER: Lev Gleason
COMMENTS: ow/white pgs
classic, sadistic, brutal woman's head on a burner cover; 1st app of Mr. Crime, hanging panels
Toronto Riverdale Collection
Read Description ▼
ow/white pgs
classic, sadistic, brutal woman's head on a burner cover; 1st app of Mr. Crime, hanging panels
Toronto Riverdale CollectionIt doesn't take much to see how comics like this one led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, as well as the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, and all of the censorship and watering down of comics that would ensue in the years to follow, but, that being said, this cover is pure pulp insanity. Images like this would not be seen again until the birth of the Underground Comix movement of the 60s.
Charles Biro helped create the crime comic genre with titles like this one, and although he had already left an indelible mark on the history of the industry with Daredevil Comics, he hit pay-dirt once again with the sordid, ripped from the headlines appeal of the crime comic. His gritty style fit perfectly with his subject matter, and this cover, showing a sadistic brute shoving a woman's head into a burning stovetop is a showstopper, and it is undoubtedly one of the most bonkers covers to grace a comic from the period, it still packs a wallop today, sheer brutality!