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Aside from a bit of work in Prize Comics in 1940, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby began working in earnest with publisher Prize around late 1946, at first on established titles such as Headline Comics and Prize Comics among others, and eventually including series like Black Magic and the landmark series Young Romance. After their tenure saw Headline Comics become a successful crime comics title, Simon & Kirby then launched a companion series called Justice Traps the Guilty. The series lasted for 92 issues from 1947 to 1958. Simon & Kirby contributed covers and interior work on about the first dozen issues (and a few scattered later issues), but then turned all of the cover and interior work over to Simon & Kirby Studio creators such as Marvin Stein and Mort Meskin among others. A long-running crime title deserving of more attention, there are several issues of Justice Traps the Guilty up for auction in the 2022 July 24-25 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122230 at Heritage Auctions.
Notably, Justice Traps the Guilty is one of the few crime titles that survived the institution of the Comics Code in 1954, with little change in editorial direction. The series continued on with the action-driven style that Simon & Kirby had begun rather than the lurid details that made titles like Crime Does Not Pay so infamous. Creators like Stein, Meskin and Bernard Baily contributed covers and stories with the skill that they also brought to more famous creations from other publishers. A crime title that survived on quality while countless others fell by the wayside, there are several issues of Justice Traps the Guilty up for auction in the 2022 July 24-25 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122230 at Heritage Auctions.
#33 (Prize, 1951) Condition: PR. Missing inner page. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $12.
#36 (Prize, 1952) Condition: GD. Two centerfold pages detached, cover chipping, and spine splitting. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $12.
#37 (Prize, 1952) Condition: VG. Cover chipping. Overstreet 2021 VG 4.0 value = $24.
#38 (Prize, 1952) Condition: VG. Spine roll. Overstreet 2021 VG 4.0 value = $24.
#41 (Prize, 1952) Condition: VG. Overstreet 2021 VG 4.0 value = $24.
Affiliates of Bleeding Cool buy from and/or consign to Heritage Auctions.
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