Crime Does Not Pay #28

Charles Biro's cover for this July 1943 issue delivers a chaotic prison-break scene — striped-suited convicts brawling with guards around a central guard tower, alarm horns blaring as searchlights sweep the yard. Up top, the series' sneering "Crime" specter taunts readers with a speech bubble introducing "Touhy," while a real mugshot photo of the man himself is inset in the corner. Promising "All True Crime Stories," this tenth-cent issue from Lev Gleason is a vivid snapshot of the era's appetite for ripped-from-the-headlines crime drama — and the interior delivers with Dick Wood and Norman Maurer's account of "Kid" Dropper.