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Black Cat Mysteries #51 help!

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Anyone here own a copy of Black Cat Mysteries #51?

I have a question concerning the 3rd story Punch and Rudy. The story involves a punch-drunk boxer who gets exploited by a shady manager. On the last page of the story, the boxer gets his revenge which would appear to be very gruesome. It seems like he might have decapitated the manager's head and uses it as a punching bag but the second to last panal on my copy is blank! :pullhair:

That would have been the horror money-shot! Was it edited out? Is this on all copies or just a few?

 

If anybody could check their copy and let me know, I'd appreciate it very much, thanks!

 

BlackCatMysteries51.jpg

 

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73235.jpg.6e3b35d4bf4a27fe42e24b6a591f037e.jpg

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It had to have been a sweet panel of Rudy's battered head - couldn't have been any worse than the head in the bell on the cover of Witch's Tales #26 though - so I don't know why it would have been censored - perhaps just a tragic production error.

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It had to have been a sweet panel of Rudy's battered head - couldn't have been any worse than the head in the bell on the cover of Witch's Tales #26 though - so I don't know why it would have been censored - perhaps just a tragic production error.

 

That's a pretty blatant error! The artwork was either drawn on the page and purposely covered up or that panal was a stat that fell off right before printing! hm

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Once you look at the reprint, the case for a panel falling off the stat can be discarded since in your "censored" version, there is a panel frame added that does not exist on the original so this was a conscious editorial decision.

 

When did it come out timeline-wise vis-à-vis the Senate hearings?

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Pappy's Golden Age Blog has a reprint of the story from Silver Scream #2 that shows the full panel. :)

 

I know it doesn't answer the question but thought you might like to see the decapitation. :D

 

WOW! Very cool, it seems it was originally a single panal.

 

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Once you look at the reprint, the case for a panel falling off the stat can be discarded since in your "censored" version, there is a panel frame added that does not exist on the original so this was a conscious editorial decision.

 

When did it come out timeline-wise vis-à-vis the Senate hearings?

 

GCD says August 1954 and it was the 4th to last issue before the CCA code appeared on the cover.

Guess they were already feeling the pressure!

Still I wonder if this is the same on all issues? hm

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Great finds Coin Addict!

 

Very bizarre editing - considering the cover Harvey had on the title just one month previous.

 

It's interesting that the censored version would only make sense to someone familiar with pre-code horror. It must have been a very last minute decision as it wouldn't have been that hard to blow up and crop the image - and still get the point across.

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The GA.UK copy of BCM 51 was printed in the USA and it has the same blank panel.

I find it strange that they would edit that page and leave equally gruesome pages in other issues.

A page from Black Cat 53 by Palais as an example, also from GA.UK scans

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BC #51 would have been going to press right around the time Bill Gaines was defending the cover of CSS #22 in the Senate hearings on comic books. There might have been a moment of fear at the Harvey offices that an image of a decapitated head specifically might bring the wrong kind of attention, and they self-censored. By the time #53 would have gone to press - the CCA would have seemed inevitable, and they may have decided there was no point in censoring the last few pre-code issues.

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