Manhunt #5

This February 1948 issue of Manhunt delivers a vivid snapshot of the era's crime and adventure anthology format, promising tales spanning the FBI, Scotland Yard, the Northwest Mounted, and the Secret Service. The cover by Ogden Whitney is a striking piece of work — a red-haired man in a green sweater reels backward in agony as a dagger buries itself in his chest, while a smaller, red-turbaned figure crouches nearby swinging a rope in a dockside setting. Teased prominently on the cover is Gardner F. Fox's "Knife of a Thousand Cuts," making this a fine example of the punchy, pulp-inflected comics that made Manhunt such a distinctive ten-cent thrill in 1948.