Dick Tracy #31

Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Comics Monthly #31 puts the square-jawed detective right in the thick of a chaotic crime scene — Tracy descends the stairs gun drawn while a dark-haired woman urgently warns him that "Shaky is escaping," and below, a menacing gunman threatens a figure labeled "Crushed Hand" with a cold declaration that no one double-crosses Shaky and lives. Harvey Comics' "Calling All Crime Stoppers!" banner perfectly captures the tense, pulpy energy Gould brings to every panel of this September 1950 ten-cent thriller.