Heading:
Author:
Title: SHOCKING MYSTERY CASES No. 54
Place Published:
Publisher:Star [Indicia: Star Publications, Inc.]
Date Published: May, 1953
Description:

VG- (3.5). Spine roll, spine stress, tiny chips to spine ends, some staple rust, a few small chips to top edge of back cover, corner creases, edges of back cover toned, some pages dogeared. Cream to light tan pages. Cover: L. B. Cole. Art: Uncredited. GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A 3.0 sold for $151 in 2/22.

A boatload of hoodlums spray hot lead at a guy clinging to a lifebuoy on L.B. Cole's nautical crime cover. As with many Cole covers, an unseen narrator drones on and on: "No crime is pleasant, but some are more despicable than others... None is worse than murder for profit. Three who attempted such a killing were shocked in a terrifying way when they recieved an unexpected visitor, and a... DOUBLE-CROSS OF DEATH!!" Cole's blather belies his dictum that cover art should speak for itself, but then Cole is said to have been a contradictory fellow in some regards.

"I personally don't think that [caption-heavy covers] were necessary. Doesn't that go directly against one picture being worth a thousand words? It's insecurity, playing down to your audience. If you feel you have to explain every damn thing you do, then don't put a picture on the cover." – E.B. Boatner, "L.B. Cole: The Man Behind the Mask." The Comic Book Price Guide, 1981-1982. Overstreet: 1981, p. A-64.

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