Tag Archive for 50s

Cyanide and sin: The stylized visual world of ’50s true crime magazines

From McGill Reporter

By MAEVE HALDANE

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Though there have been coffee-table books on lesbian pulp fiction of the 1940s, cheesecake pin-ups of World War II and classic film noir posters, the stylistic evolution of the quintessentially American true crime genre has been overlooked until now. This month, communications and art history professor Will Straw launches Cyanide and Sin: Visualizing Crime in 50s America in New York City and Montreal.

Thanks to a compulsive five-year eBay habit, Straw has amassed boxes of Inside Detective, True Mystery, Men in Danger and the like. He sifted through that private collection for the nearly 200 images reproduced in the book. “I wouldn’t be here as a McGill professor if I weren’t a comic book geek who got into movies, then film studies,” said Straw. . . . Read Complete Report