One wouldn’t have thought the squeaky clean publisher DC Comics would have entered the grimy genre of crime comics, but flagging superhero sales by 1947 indeed had it cranking issues of Gang Busters off the presses and onto newsstands. The title was licensed based on a popular radio show by the same name. Gangbusters aired for CBS over 21 years (1936-1957). The comic issue I’m showing here, clearly purchased for its cop on motorcycle cover, is #4 from July 1948.
The cover was drawn by the venerable Win Mortimer. A World War II veteran for the Canadian Army, he started working for DC Comics in 1945 and almost immediately had a hand in some Batman and Superman comics. By the early 1950s was doing the cover art for those same heroes’ covers – and in addition took over Superman duties for the daily newspaper strip.
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