| Slot: |
Crime and Punishment 2 |
| Item: |
Crime and Punishment 2 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0186478001
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Owner Comments
Crime and Punishment #2 is referenced in Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” (SOTI) in the text on page 161. In this section of the SOTI, Wertham provides examples of comic books that teach and encourage children to commit crimes. He describes one comic as follows – “Nothing is overlooked in these crime comics, however mean. One book shows how to steal the money box from a blind man who runs the newsstand. Of course, as in the vast majority of criminal acts depicted in comic books, this particular act is successful and not punished.” The cover of Crime and Punishment #2 fits Wertham’s description nicely and is assumed to be the comic that he is referring to in the passage on page 161.
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| Slot: |
Crime and Punishment 3 |
| Item: |
Crime and Punishment 3 |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
0014538002
|
Owner Comments
Crime and Punishment #3 is referenced in Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” (SOTI) in the text on page 112. Throughout the SOTI, Wertham often cites the injury-to-the-eye motif as an “outstanding example of the brutal attitude cultivated in comic books”. In the text on page 112, he references one such example from a story contained in Crime and Punishment #3: “In a run-of-the-mill crime comic a man with brass knuckles hits another man (held fast by a third man) in the eyes, one after the other. Dialogue: ‘Now his other glimmer, Pete! Only sort of twist the knuckles this time!’”The example cited by Wertham comes from the story “Joe Bologna” contained in Crime and Punishment 3. I have included a scan of the injury-to-the-eye panel (upper right) that Wertham references on page 112.
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| Slot: |
Crime and Punishment 16 |
| Item: |
Crime and Punishment 16 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
2035228008
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Owner Comments
Crime and Punishment #16 is referenced in Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” (SOTI) on pages 98-99.
In this section of the SOTI, Wertham criticizes the attempts of publishers to moralize the crime deterrent aspects of crime based comic books. He references a two-page essay written by a police captain criticizing him for his views and quotes several passages from the essay “In one comic book are two pages by a police captain attacking me: ‘Don’t let reformers kid you!’ He is ‘shocked by what I read today about the people who condemn crime comics. These people are the menace.’ He goes on: ‘Children don’t like to be kicked around by reformers who want to decide what’s good for them to read.’ And he extols ‘the strong moral force’ the comics exert on children.’”
The two-page essay, entitled “Don’t Let Reformers Kid You…”, was written by police Captain Felix L. Lynch and it appears in Crime and Punishment #16. Crime Does Not Pay #76 also contains this essay and it’s likely that this was the book that Wertham was using when he quoted from the essay.
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