Monster Crimes Minus Any Monsters

Hillman Periodicals had a several comics running throughout the Golden Age, much of which dealt with crime such as Clue Comics, although unlike many other publishers in this era, they were almost completely void of containing any horror titles. However, one of their few one-shots labeled Monster Crime Comics might have made your average comic buyer in 1952 think that they were getting a crime/horror crossover. The cover takes place outside the reputable Bat Cafe with a purse snatcher running away from feisty redhead dressed like an erotic witch who raises her whip to catch the thief, all while the vamp's deformed servant literally sicks a hungry dog after him with the thug running for his life. First of all, you would think the average pickpocket would be a more selective about who they tried to rob, least of all a dominatrix in a purple cape clearly already shown brandishing a whip. That, and the angry victim was accompanied by her own personal Igor with a large canine being held back by a chain that looked like it was handcuffed to its holder. The actual comic was 52 pages long which was large for the time, but its interior features eight stories, all of which only had a crime theme to them. None of its cases have much anything to do with horror except for the second one titled Another Hallowe'en that employs the old school term for Halloween about a racketeer romp taking place on Oct. 31st, and it contains no monsters to it at all. The slightly horror-themed cover image along with the flaming white-hot font might trick you into thinking it's about vampire vigilantes, werewolf cops, and monster mobsters. Hillman however had this one-shot special in a limited run during the Pre-Code days with its only saving grace is that all of its contents were completely original, and not a greatest hits collection of formerly printed crime stories.