Famous Funnies #27
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFamous Funnies #27 holds a distinct place in the history of comics as the vehicle for the first true-crime story ever published in a comic book. When Eastern Color reprinted Rex Collier's newspaper strip War on Crime in this October 1936 issue, it introduced a genre — fact-based criminal biography drawn from real law enforcement files — that would explode into one of the defining (and most controversial) categories of the Golden Age. The decision to anchor that debut in what was already the medium's flagship anthology title gave the crime genre immediate mainstream exposure, planting a seed that eventually flowered into titles like Crime Does Not Pay and, later, sparked the Senate investigations of the 1950s.
In "The Urschal Case," newly appointed F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover takes charge of a failing agency, determined to transform its ineffectual staff into disciplined investigators through a rigorous new training program. With crisp art by James Hammon and dynamic cover work by Victor Pazmiño, this 1936 issue captures the early days of America’s most iconic law enforcement agency in a story that blends real-world intrigue with the emerging spirit of the comic book era.
In "The Urschal Case," newly appointed F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover takes charge of a struggling agency, replacing its weak leadership with a rigorous new training program designed to turn raw recruits into sharp, capable agents. The story follows the early days of this transformation, as the bureau faces its first real test in a high-stakes investigation.
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The War on Crime strip had its roots in a May 1936 conversation between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Washington crime reporter Rex Collier, whom Hoover personally selected to write a strip drawn from actual Bureau case files on Prohibition-era celebrity criminals. The strip launched in newspapers through the Philadelphia Ledger Syndicate on May 18, 1936, with art by Kemp Sterrett, and Eastern Color moved quickly to reprint it in Famous Funnies #27 just months later. Famous Funnies was at that point two years into its run as what historians regard as the first regularly published American comic book, giving Collier's FBI-sanctioned strip the largest comic book readership then available.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: October 1936, published by Eastern Color Printing as part of the ongoing Famous Funnies anthology series (issues #1–218, 1934–1955).
- Contains the first true-crime story in comic book history: the debut comic book reprinting of War on Crime, a daily newspaper strip written by Rex Collier with art by Kemp Sterrett.
- War on Crime was conceived at the direct instigation of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who proposed the strip to Collier and approved its story content; it was based on real FBI case files covering Prohibition-era gangsters such as John Dillinger.
- The strip originally launched in newspapers via the Philadelphia Ledger Syndicate on May 18, 1936, making Famous Funnies #27 its first comic book appearance mere months after its newspaper debut.
- War on Crime ran in newspapers from 1936 to 1938, eventually exhausting its source material as the FBI's own successes eliminated the celebrity criminals the strip dramatized.
- The issue also continued Famous Funnies' ongoing Buck Rogers reprint feature, which had run in the title since issue #3 (1934) and would eventually span issues #3–190 and #209–215, with strip art credited to Philip Nowlan and Dick Calkins (though Rick Yager ghosted much of the artwork by this period).
- Famous Funnies #27 is widely cited by comics historians as a direct predecessor to the Golden Age crime comics boom, predating Crime Does Not Pay — long considered the genre's flagship — by several years.
- The War on Crime strips from Famous Funnies were later collected in a 2007 hardcover (War on Crime: 1936–1938, Comic Preserves) and a subsequent print-on-demand reprint volume, giving modern readers access to this historically significant material.
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Reprinted in Dickie Dare #3 (1942)
Key issues in Famous Funnies
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