Crime Does Not Pay

(Lev Gleason, 1942-1955)
™ and ©1953 Lev Gleason Publications, Inc.
Series continued from Silver Streak Comics #21

This is the comic that got the entire crime comics genre rolling—and may have unwittingly contributed to the formation of the Comics Code years later. It began when Bob Wood and Charles Biro were swapping yarns in a bar and discovered that gangsters and criminals would provide a neverending flow of new stories for a comic book. Grabbing the name from a popular movie feature, the pair conspired to rename Silver Streak to Crime Does Not Pay, one of the earliest, and most lurid crime comics of all time.

The allure of the series was in its graphic and violent stories, drawing material from sources as far back as the middle ages, but concentrating mostly on gangsters of the 1930s. Biro’s ghostly “Mr. Crime” narrated many of the early episodes. This character was something of a patron saint of criminals, and would egg on the thugs until their inevitable comeuppance in the final page.

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Notes

Writer

Artist

Crime Does Not Pay #64

June, 1948
Cover Price: $0.10
1 copy available for $64.60

C.H. Moore

Bob Fujitani, Charles Biro, George Tuska

Crime Does Not Pay #71

January, 1949
Cover Price: $0.10
1 copy available for $10.28

Charles Biro

Crime Does Not Pay #91

September, 1950
Cover Price: $0.10
1 copy available for $62.70