CRIME SUSPENSTORIES #18 * 3.0 * Johnny CRAIG Sex

Heading:
Author:
Title: CRIME SUSPENSTORIES No. 18
Place Published:
Publisher:EC [Indicia: L.L. Publishing Co., Inc.]
Date Published: August-September, 1953
Description:

Good/VG (3.0). Spine stress, staples pulled, cover creases, edgewear, a few short tears, small chips to bottom spine and top right corner of front cover, small spot of paper loss to one page (about ¼x¾") with lost paper stuck to facing page. Cream to off-white pages. Cleaned and pressed by Comics In A Flash. Cover: Johnny Craig. Plots and Scripts: Bill Gaines. Al Feldstein. Art: Johnny Craig, Bill Elder, Jack Kamen, Reed Crandall. GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A 2.5 sold for $125 in July 2020.

Craig's cover illustrates Reed Crandall's "From Here to Insanity," in which a maniac gets sexual kicks from killing women with knives. Stories of sex abuse pop up with surprising regularity in EC mags of this era — this very ish has a house ad for Weird Science #20, featuring Al Williamson's space-rapist story "50 Girls 50" (July-August, 1953). Just a few months earlier, Al Feldstein shocked readers with his "rapist's-eye view" cover to Shock SuspenStories #8 (April-May, 1953), and the previous year, EC published a story in which a rotting corpse rapes a guy in a coffin ("None But the Lonely Heart," Tales from the Crypt #33). Dr. Wertham was concerned about the effects of stories of sexual violence on young readers: "The keynote of the comics books' sexual message, drummed into children from an early age on, is the admixture of sensuality with cruelty." — Seduction of the Innocent, p. 178.

A deluxe limited edition of 12 hardcover catalogues is available, in addition to a small number of softcovers. 400 lots, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcover $40, deluxe hardcover with dust jacket and limitation plate $200. Eight of the 12 hardcovers are pre-ordered and the rest will go quickly, so reserve yours now. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Spring 2022 Comic Book sale. Top prices for Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age, original art and ephemera. Find out why PBA is the new fan-fave of comics auctioneers. "This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books... Priceless." — R. Crumb. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.