10 Terrifying Comics About Real Life Crimes

3. Crime Does Not Pay By Various Authors

My Friend Dahmer
Image Comics

Before comic censorship became a rampant pain in the backside of the comic industry - turning Batman from a dark symbol of justice and vengeance into a goofy, dancing crime fighter for a period of time - writers could pretty much do as they pleased when it came to stories and what horrors were to be found in them.

Mostly written by their editor, Charles Biro, the Crime Does Not Pay series of comics were published regularly throughout the 1940s and quite deep into the 1950s, until the aforementioned censorship.

These comics told of horrendous real crimes including but not limited to murder, torture, physical violence and hard drug use.

The series was known for its incredibly violent attention to detail in its imagery, and the stories told were done in a very frank and confessional manner -though they clearly had a sense of humour, as a regular segment of a publication was called "Officer Common Sense"

These comics are not only a good way of getting stories of true crimes from days gone by, but are also a very interesting slice of the history of comic books as a medium.

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