The “horror and terror” of fighting crime is being auctioned off

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Pre-Code Horror

The testimony before a Senate subcommittee appears to have angered publisher William K. Friedman, as his subsequent comics such as Fight Against Crime pushed the boundaries even further.

You can almost talk about a comic from 1954, edited and/or published by William K. Friedman Even at the first glance at the cover artwork. In our discussions of the final months of the Pre-Code era, we often returned to Friedman's 1954 steps. This was the year of peak moral panic for comics, and most publishers spent the months between the Senate hearings on comics in April 1954 and the announcement of the development of the Comics Code in September either figuring out how they would survive or if they would survive, they would give up completely. Publishers like Marvel's Martin Goodman and even Lev Gleason toned down their most extreme content in 1954, long before the announcement of the Comics Code. But not William K. Friedman, who owned and/or operated the publishers Premier, Story Comics and Master Publications. It appears that the Senate subcommittee had angered Friedman, because in the months after the hearings but before the code, he published the very thing the would-be censors hated most. His horror comics became more extreme. His romance comics became more extreme. And his crime comics also became more extreme. Fight against crime No. 20 Possibly the most sought-after crime cover of the later Pre-Code era, a CGC VG/FN is featured in the Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase auction #40272, October 24-25, 2024 at Heritage 5.0 copy for auction auctions.

It seems as if Friedman was deliberately pushing the boundaries at this point. As his casual arguments and willingness to resist questioning before the Senate subcommittee show, this was not his first attempt to defend publishers against government censorship. He was also a lawyer and took the office of Commissioner of Licenses in New York City in 1934 Paul Moss's actions, which involved him ordering 59 magazines from newsstands there, including a number of pulps. Friedman was represented alongside other pulp publishers Harry Donenfeldwho would soon become the editor of DC Comics, but then was also the editor of Pulps Pep stories, Spicy stories, And Gay Parisian woman.

Friedman was known as an extremely practical editor, so the fact that his covers contained so many elements that Wertham and the Senate disapproved of was probably no coincidence. Fight Against Crime #20 is a notable example of this, and a CGC VG/FN 5.0 copy is up for auction in the Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase auction #40272, October 24-25, 2024 at Heritage Auctions.

Bleeding Cool partners purchase from and/or ship to Heritage Auctions.

Stay up to date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!