Racket Squad in Action #20

Two uniformed officers crouch in tense readiness as they train their attention on a confrontation unfolding just beyond a doorway — a hatted figure faces off against another man in a dramatic standoff that perfectly captures Charlton's gritty, street-level crime drama. This 1956 issue of Racket Squad in Action promises "inside facts from the files" of law enforcement, and the cover art by Dick Giordano and Vince Alascia delivers exactly the kind of taut, procedural tension the series was known for. With Joe Gill's scripting and the story "The Man Who Stole from Himself," issue #20 is a solid entry in one of the era's most grounded crime anthologies — all for a dime.