Gwandanaland Comics #2306

Part of Gwandanaland's "Wertham's Weapons" series — reprinting comics cited in the infamous Seduction of the Innocent — this volume collects material from Law-Crime, one of the hard-boiled crime titles that made Fredric Wertham reach for his red pen. The cover reproduction captures all the lurid energy of the original: a wild-eyed, knife-wielding figure lunges forward from a yellow spotlight, surrounded by a ring of horrified, distorted faces, while a smiling police officer looks on and a mock newspaper headline screams "Lipstick Slayer Sought." If you want to understand why 1950s crime comics ignited a national controversy, this 2019 collection — signed by the badge reading "Law Always Wins" — puts the evidence right in your hands.