Racket Squad in Action #26

Charlton's long-running crime anthology delivers another cautionary tale in this 1957 issue, with a cover by Dick Giordano and Vince Alascia that sets the scene perfectly: a silver-haired man leans in close to a glamorous dark-haired woman in red, while an unseen figure lurks behind them snapping photographs with a camera — clearly someone's scheme is about to unravel. The teaser copy says it all: "He thought he had a sweet racket, but he turned out to be a Dead Duck," promising the kind of sharp, street-level crime drama that made Racket Squad in Action a reliable ten-cent thrill.