EXTRACTS: Illustrators Crime Comics Special © 2020 Book Palace Books (144 pages in full edition)

78 Crime Does Not Pay The story behind the creation of America’s most notorious crime comic is even more lurid and bizarre than the tales it featured. Lev Gleason Charles Biro Bob Wood Illustration by Peter Richardson ABOVE: The creative team that launched Crime Does Not Pay comics. RIGHT & FACING PAGE: From its inception, Crime Does Not Pay went well beyond accepted norms with its no-holds-barred violent cover art. The three creative talents that spawned the US’s best-selling crime comic were wildly disparate entities: from the liberal left-leaning Lev Gleason, whose political beliefs informed his attitude to all aspects of his life (most crucially his business practices), to Charles Biro, whose sheer chutzpah and vision provided a perfect foil for his art, and to Bob Wood,