EERIE ADVENTURES "Perfect Hideout!"

 It's a sci-fi tale...
...a horror story...
...a parable about how crime never pays!

...it's all these things...and more!

Illustrated by Gerald McCann, this tale from Ziff-Davis' one-shot Eerie Adventures (1951) shares a title with several other 1940s-50s tales from other publishers.

But none of the others were sci-fi, just standard "crime does not pay"-style tales...

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Horror Comics of the 1950s
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Halloween Horrors AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES "Ghost Story"

Here's a never-reprinted 1950s comic book tale...

... that's both about law enforcement and justice from beyond the grave!

You may note the Joe Maneely-illustrated cover doesn't really match the Bill Everett-rendered tale from Atlas' Amazing Detective Cases #13 (1952)

There are several possible reasons for that.

1) the cover and interior art were done at two different points in time, sometimes months apart!

2) The cover artist didn't have copies of the interior pages as visual reference, only plot descriptions from the editor!
3) the cover was done before the interior art as a "springboard" and the actual writer/artist(s) made changes when they were creating the story!
All three of these reasons could (and did) apply to Atlas Comics' books if the story's artist didn't do the cover...as was the case most of the time!
From issues 1 to 10, Amazing Detective Cases was a "true crime" pulp magazine, then a comic, telling tales of (allegedly) real criminals!
From 11 to the final issue, 14, it became a horror comic, ending in 1952.

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Blackjacked and Pistol-Whipped

A Crime Does Not Pay Primer

Halloween Horrors AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES "It's Time to Go, Higgins!"

Justice takes many  forms...

...not all of them visible...to the innocent!

But the guilty, well that's another story...

Written by Carl Wessler and illustrated by Bill (not the basketball player) Walton, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Amazing Detective Cases #11 (1952) combines crime and (mild) horror!

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Weird Detective

The Stars are Wrong

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The Russkies are Coming! ATOMIC SPY CASES "Operation H.M."

Think we're paranoid about the (unnamed, but obvious) enemy discovering our atomic secrets?

Look at how nutso we were back in the 1950s!

(BTW, the "Based on TRUE Stories" caption is a total lie!)

The lead story from this Avon Comics 1950 one-shot with a Norman (Mars Attacks) Saunders cover exemplifies the "Russkies/Chinese under the bed" paranoia of the era!
With imperialist running dog Putin going Don da Con-level bonkers, perhaps it was, in fact, justified!
Regrettably, neither the writer nor artist(s) are known.

Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Corpse that Wouldn't Sleep"

It's almost Halloween, so let's present a scary private eye story...

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage, starring private dick Ken Shannon, to whom this sort of thing happened quite often, as seen HERE!

This tale from Quality's Ken Shannon #3 (1952) was one of several cover-featured stories during his run that featured horror comics elements, though the "monsters" were fakes created to cover-up crimes!

The superb artwork by Reed Crandall makes up for the fairly obvious plotting by an unknown writer.

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Weird Detective

The Stars are Wrong
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Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Vampire Mob"

It's Halloween season, so let's present a scary private eye story...

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage!

Ken Shannon started in 1950 when Police Comics dropped all their superheroes (including Plastic Man and The Spirit) in favor of crime stories.

Beginning with #103, Ken took the cover and lead story slot until #126.
Simultaneously, Ken received his own title, which ran for 10 issues.
As you can see from the story, Ken was the typical hard-boiled private dick with an internal monologue, obviously patterned after already-popular detectives like Sam Spade and Mike Hammer.
His only distinctive characteristic was that he was of Irish descent.
(In fact, his premiere tale was called "The Mad Irishman"!)
The art for almost all his tales (including this one) was by Reed Crandall, one of the best illustrators in the business who went on to become one of the mainstays of EC Comics, handling horror, war, romance and sci-fi with equal panache.

Justice for Asians ALL-TRUE CRIME "Tong War!"

Non "big-name" Asians and Asian-Americans (like Fu Manchu)...

....were rarely featured in crime comics, the way the Italian Mafia, Irish Westies, or other ethnically-based criminal groups were!

Writer Carl Wessler and artist Jack Keller played on numerous, already outdated, racist cliches about Chinese in America in this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' All-True Crime #51 (1952), including speech patterns, clothing, and methods, indicating that the Tong members shown were immigrants, not native-born Asian-Americans!

Unfortunately, all the Chinese shown are given the bright lemon-yellow skin coloring common in comics of the era to denote Asians.

(Note: The non-Tong Chinese are shown in contemporary American clothing and speak impeccable English.)

BTW, though this is listed as issue #51, this is the first issue of this title.

Before this, the book was titled All-True Crime Cases Comics.

Shortening the title didn't help.

The book's run ended with the next issue!

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Tongs, Gangs, and Triads

Chinese Crime Groups in North America