Heading:
Author:
Title: PERFECT CRIME No. 23 * Third Highest-Graded Copy
Place Published:
Publisher:Cross [Indicia: Cross Publications, Inc.]
Date Published: April, 1952
Description:

CGC certified: Fine (6.0). Off-white to white pages. Cover: Uncredited. Art: Carl Massey, Jim Reilley, Floyd Torbert. CGC Census: 16 slabbed copies. This is the 3rd highest-graded copy, behind a 7.0 and a 6.5 (there's one other 6.0). GPAnalysis: Only three results in any grade: two 2.0 copies have sold for $378 and $439, and a 4.0 sold for $3840 in November 2021. This 6.0 appears to be the highest-graded CGC copy ever offered for sale.

Classic cover by an uncredited artist with a flawless sense of composition and design, depicting a terrified brunette cringing against striped wallpaper that hems her in like prison bars. A grinning goombah approaches, his mug reflected in a circular mirror (a neat trick possibly borrowed from Jan van Eyck's famed Arnolfini portrait), his grotesque shadow falling over the wallpaper and the logo itself — pure visual dynamite. The insides are chockablock with tuff-guy talk, pistol-play, brass knucks, etc. In the "Adding-Insult-to-Injury Dept.", a crook with outsized ears gets blasted with both bullets and wisecracks: "TOO BAD! If only your brains was as BIG AS YOUR EARS, you wouldn't be a SIEVE now!"

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2022 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art, vintage comic-related photos and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.