The Mad Magician of Crime – Key Highlights
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Publisher: Toytown
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Publication Date: October 1952
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Cover Artist: John Buscema
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Interior Artists: John Buscema, Mort Leav, Harry Anderson, and Bill Woolfolk
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Writers: Not individually specified
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Genre: Crime; Pre-Code Crime
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Pages: 32
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Original Cover Price: $0.10
🔥 Key Significance
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Features a cover by John Buscema, who also contributes interior artwork to this macabre pre-Code crime anthology.
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Includes a gruesome revenge story about Murdered Marv, who returns from the grave to seek vengeance.
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Continues the series' sensational crime-comic approach, inspired by Crime Does Not Pay, with a mysterious, top-hatted narrator.
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Features real-life wanted posters offering rewards for criminals, an unusual addition to the fictional crime stories.
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Includes another installment of the Great Unsolved Mysteries contest, inviting readers to investigate the murder of a man who had made numerous enemies.
📖 Story Highlights
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Make Way for Murder – A macabre crime story featuring Murdered Marv, who returns from the grave seeking revenge. An early John Buscema story.
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Coin of Killers – A crime story; individual creators not specified.
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His Last Meal! – A crime story; individual creators not specified.
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Great Unsolved Mysteries: “The Model Murder” – An interactive mystery contest asking readers to ponder the murder of a man who made many enemies.
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Wanted: William Lamerato, Alias Sam Harris – A wanted-poster feature identifying a real-life criminal and offering a reward.
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The Condemned! – Georges is sentenced to a brutal prison in Guiana and vows revenge on the accomplices who betrayed him.
📌 Additional Details
This October 1952 issue combines gruesome revenge tales, prison drama, real-life criminal wanted posters, and an interactive murder mystery. John Buscema's cover and interior contributions make it particularly interesting to collectors following his early comic-book work.
The Mad Magician of Crime delivers the sensational storytelling and macabre atmosphere characteristic of the pre-Code crime-comic era.
