Racket Squad in Action #19

This Charlton crime anthology from 1955 delivers the kind of gritty street tension the series was built on — the cover, penciled by Dick Giordano and inked by Vince Alascia, captures a desperate figure in a hat and green coat clutching what appears to be a briefcase or sample case while a uniformed officer levels a gun at him mid-chase, with two alarmed bystanders caught in the scramble on a rain-lit city block. It's a tightly composed snapshot of law versus lawbreaker that makes you want to flip straight to the inside. At a dime a copy, Racket Squad in Action #19 offered readers "inside facts from the files" of real-style crime-busting drama — and this cover wastes no time setting the mood.