Corporate Crime Comics (1977)

CORPORATE CRIME COMICS. (1st Printing). July 1977.

Most Americans first learned about Karen Silkwood's harrowing experience with radiation leaks at an Oklahoma Kerr McGee plant, and her mysterious death in the 1983 film Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep in the title role. However, astute readers first read about the story in Corporate Crime Comics No. 1 in 1977! Edited by muckraking cartoonist Leonard Rifas, this anthology features white collar crime exposés. Greg Irons contributes the front cover plus the "Minamata Bay" ecological disaster, R. Diggs tackles "Karen Silkwood."

Famous mimic Peter Poplaski (in a great Chester Gould Dick Tracy riff) does "The ITT Scandal"; Trina Robbins tackles "The Great American Airplane Scam of 1973." Guy Colwell illustrates "Giant Monopolies Steal Land and Water in California." Sharon Rudahl looks at the nursing home industry in "Golden Years," Kim Deitch takes on "Mr. San Diego" (C. Arnholt Smith). Justin Green illistrates "Bad Dugs while Peter Loft does the same for "Racist TV." Larry Rippee's old-fashioned style is perfect for taking the lid off "The Teapot Dome Scandal."

Jay Kinney illustrates "The Streetcars" scandal, while Denis Kitchen does the same for "Outlawed Cartoons," about an 1899 anti-cartoon bill. Rebecca Wilson's back cover exposes the "Demon Seed" inherent in the Dalkon Shield. Rifas himself writes much of the issue and draws "Anti-Monopoly," an ironic tale of the game-making Parker Brothers' actual monopoly position, and "The Ludlaw Massacre," the closest thing to corporate mass murder in American history.

A powerful, if brief series (2 issues), Corporate Crime Comics was written up in the Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and other national media. But major publishers interested in the material eventually balked at collecting it into a book --- fearing (what else?) corporate lawsuits! Published by Kitchen Sink Press.