Crime Does Not Pay #131

A tense street showdown leaps off the cover of this February 1954 installment of Lev Gleason's long-running crime anthology, produced by Charles Biro. Cover artist George Tuska stages the drama with sharp economy: a uniformed cop's gun clicks empty as a red getaway car screeches away, a fallen figure sprawls in the foreground, and the criminals' threatening dialogue makes their intentions unmistakably clear. Paired with a mug-shot inset of "Hothead Slayer" Elroy Benette, it's a vivid snapshot of the hard-boiled true-crime storytelling that made Crime Does Not Pay one of the defining comics of its era.