Number 2332: “. . . a not uncommon perversion . . .”

I am always happy to present a story recognized in the infamous anti-comics book Seduction of the Innocent, by Fredric Wertham, MD, published in 1954. The panel I used today as a teaser at the top of the page was squeezed onto a page in that book, with no explanation, just that killing people in lovers lane is a not uncommon perversion. There have been some famous real-life cases of killers preying on victims in so-called lovers lane, including the Phantom in the late '40s in Texarkana, Texas, and the Zodiac killer of California. But “a not uncommon perversion”? All right, any of you who have fantasies about killing people in lovers lane, raise your hand. I see by peering through the cameras in your phones, laptops and other devices that one guy is waving his hand, but maybe he is just asking permission to go to the bathroom. (Go, but then come right back.) I imagine there may be other perverts out there, since a lovers lane is a good spot for voyeurism, and especially now that most drive-in movies are closed. But killing, I just don’t know.

Anyway, the story, “Crimson Trail of the Lipstick Slayer” is about a Navy man who kills a woman and puts a lipstick mark on her forehead, something shared by the couple in lovers lane. I don’t know if this is based on a true story, or if it is a mashup based on the Texarkana killings and the killings of William Heirins in Chicago, also in the mid-'40s. Heirins was known as “the Lipstick Killer” in newspapers, for a message on a mirror written in lipstick, “For heavens sake catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself”...a hair-raising note that caught the public’s attention.

The artwork is by L.B. Cole, who does an excellent job, both with the story and the cover. Cole was known for designing poster-like covers, and this one is a beauty for grabbing attention on crowded newsstands.

As for the contents of Law Against Crime #3 (1948), it is a mixed bag: two violent crime stories bookending two crudely drawn funny stories, which look more at home in a child’s comic book. They were obviously filler, but how disappointed did they leave the readers of the sordid crime stories? Dr Wertham didn’t mention them. Once again I opine that comic books published in 1948, unless they were laying around in stacks of old comics, would be unavailable to most readers at the time Wertham’s book was published. He did that with many of the other illustrations, also, leaving the reader of 1954 horrified at the images which hadn’t been seen for several years. No matter...many comic books in 1954 were just as sordid. Maybe he didn’t think anyone would know that his material was mostly outdated and years later be the subject of scrutiny by people he could not have dreamed at the time would ever exist, fans of the very books he put under attack!

Number 2305: A Seduction tale: Hands off!

This story, from Tom Mix Western #9, is what is called a Seduction of the Innocent (or SOTI) story. The complaint about  “Hands Off!” is told in Chapter 12 of Fredric Wertham, M.D.’s infamous anti-comics book. If you go to the link below you will find a blogsite with the chapter, which will explain more. Why Wertham and Tom Mix Western publisher Fawcett got into the threat of a lawsuit for libel and other back-and-forth between them is fascinating, with its example of how a publisher could become defensive about their product when it was singled out by Wertham.

As for my opinion of the story, I think it is thin; Tom has a dummy of himself, made by Indians. Why? No reason given. It figures into the story’s end, though. In one of his rebuttals to Fawcett’s argument Wertham says there are three pictures of “hacked-off hands” in a box found by two little boys. No hands are shown in the pictures, so that’s misleading. Cutting off hands does seem to be the talent of the tale’s villain, besides being a sharpshooter who has escaped from an “insane asylum.” Wertham doesn’t mention the two pages of panels where Tom Mix is hanging by his wrists from a tree limb. Bondage and torture were big in comic books, but if the victim and villain are both male, maybe it didn’t count with Wertham.

Comedy relief was supplied by a panel of Tom Mix standing on his head and shooting his gun while riding his galloping horse. As a kid I saw acrobatic cowboy action in many of the old B-movie Westerns I watched, but that one was new to me!

Tom Mix Western #9 was published in 1948; Grand Comics Database has no artist or writer listed.

Fredric Wertham, M.D., spoke of this Tom Mix story in his book, Seduction of the Innocent. You can read the relevant information on this website: Altruistic World Online Library.

Number 1665: Gotta have a plan

After all these years I can still be surprised. My surprise today is that the innocent looking panel above, from DC’s Gang Busters #3 (1948), is reproduced in the infamous anti-comics book, Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Fredric Wertham, MD. Hats off to Seduction of the Innocent.org for posting it. Thanks!

Okay, Doc, I see your point. Does a kid get some credit for being prepared? He would learn how to draw a diagram from school, anyway, so you’re stretching, but it’s still a point.

The story from which the panel is lifted is “The Crime of the Century,” fairly standard crime comic fare, drawn by George Roussos.

More from Seduction of the Innocent in these three posts. Just click on the thumbnails.

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An interesting coincidence: after finishing this post I watched a DVD of the 1949 movie, Gun Crazy (nothing like a film noir crime classic movie after reading crime comics). I made a screen capture from a scene of the Bonnie and Clyde-like couple drawing up a diagram for a plan to rob a meat packing plant. Did Dr Wertham see this?

Number 1304: Headlights on full beam

With the 1948 cover of Phantom Lady #17, artist Matt Baker helped give us comic book fans a code word we've used now for decades: “headlights”. It happened when Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D., published his book, Seduction of the Innocent, which pointed out how murder, crime and sexual perversion were all part of the comic books kids loved. Wertham used the cover to point out that children called big breasts on comic book women “headlights”. (This page has been razored out of some of copies of SOTI I've seen. By headlights fans, no doubt.)

I've pointed out before that Wertham’s book is a good example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It was used at the time to condemn comic books, but is used now to identify comics that belong on a special list of desirable collectibles. Interior art on this story is also by Matt Baker, and the whole issue was prepared by the Jerry Iger comic book shop, where Baker was a star. The publisher was Victor Fox, and the blobby printing was by some fast and dirty web press printing company of the 1940s, which didn't care that they were printing one of the most iconic covers and collectible comic books of all time.