Once again, a Timely (Marvel) superhero comics is completely renamed and has its genre changed: “Sub-Mariner Comics” becomes “Official True Crime Cases” with issue #24 (June 1947). Crime stories, like “teen humor” and “funny animal” comics were increasingly popular in the 1940s. The crime comics genre was started with Lev Gleason’s “Crime Does Not Pay” back in 1942 and Timely Comics seems eager to cash in on the trend.
The stories featured lots of violence, including both criminals and cops shooting people at point-blank range and violence against women. Scanning through some of these stories, it becomes clear why Wertham, and laterr the Senate, decided to target crime and horror comic books as a cause for juvenile delinquency in the 1950s. The stories are shocking and brutal and presented in a realistic manner – these things happened.
