Police Action #6

This October 1954 Atlas Comics crime anthology delivers a tense split-scene cover by Sol Brodsky and Carl Burgos that tells its own story at a glance: a squad of uniformed officers closes in on a ramshackle hideout above while, in the lower panel, a gang of criminals huddles in the shadows divvying up their loot, one boasting there's "enough here to last us all our lives." The collision course between the law and gangland is practically crackling off the page, making good on the banner headline "Police Strike Back at Gangland!" For fans of mid-century crime comics in the Atlas tradition, Police Action #6 is a satisfying slice of street-level drama.