Number 1049


"Dat takes care of dat!"


As I understand the stories from the history of EC Comics, after founder M.C. Gaines died in a boating accident in 1947, and his son, Bill, took over the editorial chores, one of his first hires was Al Feldstein. Feldstein had been an artist on teenage comics ( Fox's Junior). That was the direction they were headed until they stopped that project and went out for crime, love and Western fare. Al did stories in all three genres.

"Machine-Gun Mad Mobsters" is from War Against Crime #4, 1948. Al's artwork, while noirish, seems a little stiff, but a year or so later when he was drawing horror comics that was appropriate. He drew lots of stiffs.

The first two pages of the story in my copy of this comic are damaged, so I scanned them from Russ Cochran's 2000 reprint. The rest is from the 1948 printing.