Welcome to a ACE crime/horror double feature.
First up is another great issue:
CRIME MUST PAY THE PENALTY #39
The Cameron lead story is nice, but even more beautiful and gripping are the follow-ups by Zansky and McLaughlin.
Second book for today is
BAFFLING MYSTERIES #25
Last missing issue! Mark it complete-o, Mr. Admin-Man.
It’s a strange book, cause code-approved. All reprints from earlier ACE horror books.
First story (a boxer’s tale) seems uncompromised, in the second the title has been rendered harmlessly from “Mark Of The Sinister Cat” to just “Mark Of The Cat”. On page 2 a knife thrown at a cat is drawn smaller and more out of range. On page 4 facial transformations are not shown anymore. Same goes for page 6, where it’s just six hairs standing on end of the woman’s head which are left out!
Grand finale on page 7: “She must die!” is changed to “She must pay!” and another reference to death is cancelled. The man stabbing the woman is gone. And the last panel has new text: “I don’t understand” replaces the former phrase: “That she-devil is destroyed at last”.
The next story is heavily retouched, please see for yourself: “Flee The Other Self” (Ken Rice) used to be: “It Is Written: I Die Tomorrow!”. In many balloons the Leroy original text has been doctored in handlettered changes. The best part: The Fate character (it’s a story from HAND OF FATE) has been redrawn in many pictures (probably by Louis Zansky) to look like the doppelganger of the protagonist!
The end is just fantastic: Paul falling down a man-hole, killing himself and drifting face-down away through the sewers? Not anymore! He is pulled out of the water and gets to live!
Mopping up with a harmless Colan-story where just the last panel morale has been shifted away from terms like "bizarre" and "insane".
