KC’s Bookshelf: Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter
by KC Carlson
Crime comics used to be the bread and butter of the industry, long before many of us were born. Beginning in the early 1940s (although newspaper strip Dick Tracy [1931] was an important precursor), these types of stories lasted until they were driven out by crusading psychologists, crazed legislators, and wimpy publishers in the comic book witch hunts of the early 1950s. They were gory, grim, violent, wanton, and celebratory of crime and criminals. Of course, kids loved them! So they were crushed in the name of protecting the young ‘uns – covered up with the postage stamp of the Comics Code, which was your guarantee of bland comics!
