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Title: CRIME SUSPENSTORIES No. 9
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EC (Indicia: "L.L. Publishing Co., Inc."). February-March, 1952. VG/Fine (5.0). Nice clean, flat mag that would probably come back from CGC as a 5.5 or better. Light spine stress, rubbed spots to back cover at corners. Small penciled distributor's mark to back cover ("1-11/20"). Off-white pages. Johnny Craig cover. Plots and scripts by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. Johnny Craig script. Art by Johnny Craig, Jack Kamen, Jack Davis, Graham Ingels. Artist's biography: Johnny Craig ("This tall, dark and handsome purveyor of violence was born....").

Lawnmower makes mincemeat of murderer's mug. Craig's "Understudy to a Corpse" shows the writer-artist gaining confidence as a master of psychological terror.

Johnny Craig: "I was always interested in comics when I was a kid. I lived around the corner from a candy store... and of course the candy store had a lot of comic books and I used to go in there all the time and read the comic books... so I spent a lot of time in there, because... candy and comic books. So I just kind of grew up on comic books, and I knew all the time that I wanted to do some kind of drawing. And this art student, the son of the [candy store] owner, knew [Flash artist] Harry Lampert, who was working for EC at the All-American downtown Lafayette Street office for Bill Gaines' father. And this artist needed an assistant. And I started when I was 10 years old doing backgrounds and so forth." – The Comics journal Library Volume 8: The EC Artists.

A limited edition of 100 softcover and 15 hardcover catalogues are available. Over 200 pages, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcovers $40, dust-jacketed hardcover with limitation plate $200. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com or visit: https://www.pbagalleries.com/content/comics/.

R. Crumb says, "I found [PBA's catalogue] so interesting that I am saving it for the texts that accompany the comics which were put up for auction. This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books. I especially enjoyed the reviews of the post-war horror comics. Great. Priceless."

Consignments welcome for PBA's Spring 2021 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.