1950s Era Comic Book Meditations on Human Smuggling, Mexicans, the Border and More! Headline Comics #63 January-February 1954

Every now and then I get lucky. Meandering the back alleys of the internets can turn up some compelling artifacts--particularly where your interests are focused on all things Mexican.  It had not occurred to me until after finishing Tex[t]-Mex (better price here!) that some of the best materials on "Mexicans" in America would be in pulp fiction from the 1930s-1950s.  And that some of the "best" (most garish, most racist, most provocative) materials would appear in genre books--westerns, crime fiction, etc.

That's the case today with Headline Comics #63 from 1954--I am in debt the Bristol Board Tumblr site, a treasure trove of comic book artifacts, for the find. "Slave Peddlers" is a tale of Mexicans and Americans at the border/on the border--with n'ere-do'-wells, crooks, coyotes, "Mexicans" and more. According to Comic Books Plus, the artist credits for this issue are: "Pencils: Marvin Stein?; Inks: Marvin Stein?; Letters: Ben Oda."

Check out the whole story here--like most images on the Textmex Galleryblog, they get bigger when you hit them with your cursor or your finger.