Crime Must Pay the Penalty
Crime Must Pay the Penalty is a transformed version of the super-hero comic book, Four Favorites. When super-heroes lost their popularity in the later 1940s, many such comics were converted over to genre material, such as Westerns. The first issue of the new crime format continued the numbering of Four Favorites, and was #33 (February 1948). The next (and second) issue was then labeled #2 (June 1948). The new magazine ran through #48 (January 1956). The last two issues simply had the title Penalty. The logo of the comic had long featured the word "Penalty" in vastly bigger letters than the rest of the phrase "Crime Must Pay the", so this is not that much of a change.
The Gang of a Thousand Faces (1950). A criminal wears masks as disguises. This is one of several stories which deal with ingenious methods crooks come up with to baffle the law. The stories put us through a complete development of the ideas. We see how the methods are first stumbled on by the crooks; the initial successful attempts to use the new clever methods; and the final unraveling of the approach, as it shows flaws and snowballing problems. This whole development is typical of many comic book tales, which emphasized thorough investigation of the full plot possibilities of a story's key ideas. This maximalist aesthetic will play a powerful role in comic books throughout the decades. It also serves in these crime tales to de-emphasize gore, and replace it with plot ingenuity instead.
This tale, like others in the series, employs another comic book convention: the ability of characters to don convincing disguises. Disguise, impersonation and doubles are ideas that are more fully employed in comic books than in other media.
Pathway to an Early Grave (1952). Gangster Duke Norbert organizes a phony witness racket to protect criminals.
The Killers Who Wouldn't Forget (1952). Small town cop Al Ronson tries to protect Fred Lewis from his former criminal associates. This story takes place over a long period of time; it includes life histories for its characters. Comics were very flexible in their use of time. Writers and artists could recreate their characters at any age, and the medium's flexibility seemed to encourage stories like this. One stylistic feature: Even though we see the crooks in this tale over a ten year period, they are wearing the same suits and ties throughout. Giving a character a distinctive look is a comic book convention, here pushed to an extreme. It helps make the character instantly identifiable to the reader.
The way that the policeman hero narrates the tale in flashback, recalls all the elaborately narrated film noir works of the era.
The small-town atmosphere recalls the Smallville setting of the Superboy stories.
Policeman Al Ronson is notably handsome: comics tended to make their heroes good looking.
Big Gun of the Goon Squad (1952). Al Furnell is a professional strike-breaker who attacks dock unions. This story mixes sympathetic pro-labor union commentary, with the ingenious method of evading the law found in several stories in this comic book. One can recall few such pro-labor union tales in any medium. Al Furnell is essentially a gangster; he is like the big time professional crooks who are the sinister protagonists of other stories in this comic book. Like the others, he has a special criminal racket: in this case, strike-breaking for sinister management figures.
Cover (#22, October 1951). The cover shows a cop in profile, fighting a fur storage company robbery. He is wearing a spiffy uniform, with Sam Browne belt, visored cap, patch pockets and badge. The uniform is exceptionally elegant and refined. The profile view is unusual: most of the cop's face is turned away. We see a "man in uniform", where the uniform largely replaces his individual appearance or face.
Cover (#24, February 1952). The cover shows a similar view of a policeman in elegant uniform, with his face turned away from the viewer. Only here, we see the policeman in full figure. Two other cops in full figure are in the background. The uniforms are full dress: tall boots, Sam Browne belts, peaked caps, flashlights.