In the Days of the Mob #1

In the Days of the Mob #1 (On Sale: June 15, 1971), has a strange cover by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia on this, DC's first black and white magazine (if we don't count MAD, and really, why would we?).

We begin with "Welcome to Hell" written and penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta. Introduction to the stories ahead by Warden Fry, the warden of hell in charge of the section patterned after a maximum-security prison. The artwork throughout is black and white with wash tones.

Next up is "Ma's Boys" written and penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta. This is the tale of Kate Clark Barker, Ma Barker, and her savage children. She taught them to be like her and it was the end of them. The first to go was Herman, who killed a police officer in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, and paid the ultimate price when the police caught up with him in 1927, and rather than be caught, he shot himself. Freddy and Ma herself were killed in a shootout in Florida in 1935. In 1939 Doc Barker was killed trying to escape from Alcatraz. The last of the Barker boys, Lloyd was captured and became a model prisoner who eventually was released from Atlanta Federal Prison, He went straight and moved to Colorado, but violence, in the form of his girlfriend, followed and he was gunned down by her during an argument in 1947.

The book is structured like one long story, with the Warden moving between them. Next is "Bullets for Big Al" written and penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta. The story follows New Your mob bosses Guiseppi Aiello and Guinta's attempt to move in on Al Capone's turf. When given the news that he is out, Capone throws a huge party for the new boss. Guiseppi has hired two of Capone's own men to do him in at the party, but as they head off to it, their car explodes, killing them both. The two Guiseppi's are unaware that their hired guns are dead as Capone appears at the party. Once there, big Al takes care of his rivals. Capone remained the boss of Chicago till the feds finally caught up with him.

That is followed by a text and photo feature "The Breeding Ground" with photographs about life in the 1930s and "Funeral for a Florist!" a text story by Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman with an illustration by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta.

Our next story is "The Kansas City Massacre" written and penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta. Warden Fry shows up at a train station in Kansas City in 1933. A train arrives and federal officers escort Frank "Jelly" Nash off the train. As they are putting him into a car, Pretty Boy Floyd and his gang arrive to free Nash, only in the resulting gunfight Nash and all the feds are killed. As reinforcement arrive, Floyd and his gang escape and the rest is history.

Next is "Method of Operation" also written and penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta. This final story is regarding Country Boy and his love of fishing and women and how those loves proved to be his downfall. But in the end, the Warden lets Country Boy out of hell. 

Next are two pages of "Kill Joy Was Here" cartoons by Sergio Aragones and a Wanted Poster for John Dillinger to round out the one and only issue of In the Days of the Mob.

Most everything was reprinted in In the Days of the Mob HC (2013) and DC Universe: The Bronze Age Omnibus by Jack Kirby HC (2019).

Edited by Jack Kirby.