GETTING A-HEAD

Call me morbid, but I just love a good "headless" story. There were a number of them during the pre-Code horror comics era, and this one comes from one of those odd crossover crime/horror titles that seemed to indicate that the comic publisher was testing the waters to see if more extreme horror stories would attract readers but weren't quite ready to pull the trigger. Well, we all know the answer to that, don't we?

"Getting A-Head" is from LAWBREAKERS SUSPENSE STORIES #10 (Charlton, January 1953) and was the first issue of the re-named title after LAWBREAKERS had a nine-issue run containing straight crime stories. The book was edited by Al Fago and the story drawn by Dennis Laugen, who also worked on western and hot rod comics for Charlton.

If the title of this comic sounds a little familiar, you'll know where its inspiration came from after reading the story. Then remember the old saying from Oscar Wilde: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."