Number 1116


Police follow the Code


Police Trap was a Simon and Kirby comic, from their Mainline Publishing. Issue #1 came out in 1954; there were four issues under the Mainline imprint and when Mainline folded the title was sold to Charlton. They published two issues. Issue #6, which I'm showing here, was all Kirby. Unlike earlier issues, #6 was produced under the newly instituted Comics Code, and shows it.

A sequence of panels from #1 (not drawn by Kirby) shows a deadly police shootout:

A somewhat similar sequence, bad guy pulls a gun, gets shot by cops, is handled more "off camera" as drawn by Kirby in the Code-approved issue.

The reason I'm showing it is because of the dynamism of Kirby's artwork, where he actually doesn't need to show the mayhem. The reader can fill it in based on the dramatic drawings.

The book, Simon and Kirby Crime, reprints stories from S&K's 1940's period. (The sole exception being a few pages from Police Trap, including "The Debt," shown below). The depictions of shootings and murders are more violent from the pre-Code era, but as far as comic art goes they really aren't any better.

As anyone who followed Kirby's career at Marvel can tell you, he could have impact with a panel full of people talking. It was because of his innate ability to stage scenes to best effect. He was very cinematic and his stories, regardless of genre, could be used as storyboards for movies.