Number 2495: The killers are dead shots with head shots

 

Quoting Heritage Auctions, when they sold a near mint copy of the comic book, Underworld #1 in 2006: “Mile High pedigree (D.S. Publishing, 1948) Condition: NM-. This issue's body count is high even for a crime comic, there's someone getting rubbed out on almost every page, with death by a point-blank shot to the head more often than not! Hence Overstreet's "excessive violence" tag. No less a talent than Sheldon Moldoff rendered the issue's cover.”

Those head shots, and other graphic shootings, are there in this tale of a pair of brothers, “The ‘Mad Dog’ Murderers.” It may have been noticed by the vigilantes who had declared war against the comics, and always eager to throw a comic book on a bonfire. We slavering crime comic junkies are fortunate that some comic book readers kept their copies of Underworld #1 away from the book burners.

No writer named, but along with the cover, Sheldon “Shelly” Moldoff did the skull-shootin' story art. From Underworld #1 (1948):

Number 1216: Bad blondes 2 — more blondes, more bad

Women usually fell into one of three categories in crime comic books: victims, gun molls, or ruthless criminals. These three stories, featuring blondes, fall into the criminal category.

Kathryn Kelly, wife of George “Machine Gun” Kelly, was said to have promoted her husband’s criminal career, much like a publicist or agent. She was arrested right along with him. The story, “Machine Gun Kelly,” is from Avon's All True Detective Cases #3 (1954), reprinted from Famous Gangsters #2 (1951). Kathryn goes from blonde to redhead in this story, but that's no big thing...I've been married to a blonde, brunette and redhead, and they're all the same woman.

Betty-Jane Watson, a tigress with some sharp claws, is hot but hostile. This busty gal busts out of prison. Her tale is told in Prison Break #4 (1952), drawn by Mort Lawrence.

“Angel Face,” aka Connie Farrar, has a face that appears innocent, but she's no angel, she's a devil who murders men when it suits her purposes. She's featured in Underworld True Crime (called Underworld in the indicia) #2, 1948.

These blondes may have more fun, but the guys with them, uh-uh...no fun at all.

I showed more bad blondes in Pappy's #1114.

Number 1151: Ma Barker Beamus and her gang

If you only knew the late Shelly Moldoff from his ghosting of Bob Kane's Batman from the years 1953-'67 you might not recognize him in this lively, action-packed strip from Underworld True Crime Stories #2, (1948). In Batman Shelly's style was very stiff, but there is a certain freedom in "Mother Knows Best" that he didn't show in Batman.

"Mother Knows Best" is a fictional version of the infamous real-life Barker-Karpis gang, notorious in the lawless era of the early '30s. Kate "Ma" Barker was said to be the head of the gang, training her boys to be criminals and killers. Ma Barker was killed in a shoot-out with FBI men. Author Bryan Burrough, who wrote one of the definitive books on that age, Public Enemies, claims that Ma was just a grandmother who went along with whatever her family was doing, living off the money they heisted. (No Social Security in those days!) The killing of an old woman in a shootout would have outraged the public had not J. Edgar Hoover created an evil persona for her. The story, embellished several times by Hoover, has come down that Ma Barker was a criminal mastermind, when the public record proves she was anything but. What the comic book scripter did was create a character like Hoover's legendary Ma Barker, and a story loosely based on the crimes of the Barker-Karpis gang.

Sheldon Moldoff died on February 29, 2012, at age 91.

Number 1103


Gangster and Gothic Ghastly


I've shown stories from different eras of "Ghastly" Graham Ingels' career, including a Western (Pappy's #707) and a love story (Pappy's #712.) But today I'm showing a 1948 crime story, and then a fine 1952 example of Ingels' gothic art for the EC horror comics.

Major differences in the stories are the violence levels in the artwork. In the EC story the violence is toned down. The rat-killings are shown just before the kill, and the retribution of the king and queen's subjects is told in the captions, yet the drawings are camouflaged by coloring and silhouette. The last panel of the royal couple writhing is more slapstick than gruesome, until you read of their fate in the caption. On the other hand, in "Spanish John" we see a couple of graphic knifings (one through the arm, another through the neck), some shootings, including a cop, and the dying Spanish John, bleeding on a tombstone.

Ingels drew some ghastly things in his career (hence his nickname), but I believe it was his ability to evoke mood that made his work so special. Mood is mostly missing from "Spanish John." It's well drawn, but not as effective in pushing its knife-like point as "A Grim Fairy Tale."

From Underworld #4 (1948):







From Vault of Horror #27 (1952):