Crime Must Pay the Penalty! Issue #41 (November 1954) 

In Crime Must Pay The Penalty Issue #41 the criminals are always caught and punished for their crimes. In the first story a safe-cracker is released from jail and declares that he is going to go straight. But his buddies have another plan, they force him to betray his new employer, a legitimate safe cracking company, and rob the customers. But the now good safe cracker manages to foil his old criminal gang's plans and in the end is rewarded for his bravery and trustworthiness. In the second story a criminal gets surgery to change his appearance and avoid deportation. He has his cousin, who is his spitting image, deported in his stead but when his cousin brags about being a past crime boss he has him killed. Of course the crime boss's plans are foiled and he is caught by the cops, as are all the other criminals in every story, because like the title says, Crime Must Pay the Penalty!

This is a good example of Hegemony, in which the idea that "Crime Must Pay" is represented in each of the stories. This theme reoccurs through every plot line reiterating the concept that being a criminal may seem like an easy way to gain fortune, but that in the end you are either going to end up dead or caught. Most of the criminals, even though they wear suits and drive fancy cars, seem to be from a poor background, they talk with slang and act all macho and some times are immigrants, like the criminal from the second story who was going to be deported. Never are the bad guys corporate criminals who schemed their way up the ladder, instead they are blue collar, hard and dirty felons who rob banks and wave around guns. This gives off the idea that the people who break the law are often of the lower classes, that crime and jail are meant for those poor offenders who are lazy and moral scum, rather than white collar up standing citizens.

Module 11 Example: Reading Comics

PROMPT

For this post, students should visit either the Digital Comic Museum or The Internet Archive Comics Collection and read a US-based comic (these archives have manga and other non-US comics; these are not acceptable contributions for this assignment).  After reading the comic, provide an analysis of the comic using one or more of the theoretical lenses that have been presented to you in the course lectures such as feminism, race & ethnicity studies, the Frankfurt School (also known as critical inquiry; also, don't forget Part 2 & Part 3), symbolism, post-modernism, and hegemony.

Your post should include the following:

1. A clear identification of the comic book that you read that includes the title, issue number, and direct link.
2. Describe the content (1 paragraph).
3. A brief discussion of a theoretical lens that you want to use  (1 paragraph).
4. Applying the theoretical lens to the comic to explain what newer meaning is derived by using the lens on the comic  (1 paragraph).

Relevant Labels/Tags:  comics, [the name of your comic], [the name of the theory you are using]

EXAMPLE

For this module, I will be tackling Crime Must Pay The Penalty Issue #10 from October, 1949.  The comic contains 4 comic stories (Revenge of the Cop Haters, The Genius and the Perfect Crime, Sinister Cab Combine, Pledged to Homocide), and one text story (Lineup Masquerade).  Revenge of the Cop Haters and Pledged to Homicide both entail prisoners who get out of prison and continue to commit crimes in attempt to get the aforementioned revenge or just to cause chaos.  The Genius and the Perfect Crime and Sinister Cab Combine, both deal with people who are aspiring improve their social standing (one to become part of elite culture and the other to court a woman) and commit criminal acts to achieve them.    Given the history of comics and the interest in crime comics (and eventually, horror comics) that we talk about in this module, I think discussing hegemony is probably a good topic to consider.  In hegemony, we see that there is a disruption of culture or an intrusion and that society tries to use compromises of sorts to limit actual substantive change.  Many of the comics read are often by youth, who feel disempower and crave a life not confined by rules and order.  Crime stories provide this opportunity to explore the uninhibited life.  Readers get to enjoy vicariously, the adventures and violence by the criminals represented in these tales.  However, the compromise comes with the fact that the stories often ended in their demise.  Thus, the cultural hegemonic powers provided the exploration of power in the face of authority but only tangentially and always with a message that this path ends in destruction of the individual instead of the overarching authority.