My chances of finding a Detective Comics #27 at a garage sale in Melbourne just got slimmer.
From The Argus, Wednesday 14 September 1938…
TWO ‘COMICS’ BANNED
SYDNEY, Tuesday. – Magazine distributors were notified to-day that seven publications had been added to the banned list, including, for the first time, two classified in the trade as “comics.”
These comics are publications for boys, and sell at fourpence. They are entitled “Keen Detective Funnies” and “Detective Comics.” Both come from America, where the price is 10 cents. Copies inspected to-night contained principally a series of crime and adventure stories in picture form crudely printed in colours. Some of the titles of the stories were “Dictator of the Pope Dynasty,” “Too Many Crooks,” “Bayfront Cowboy.” “Captain Jim and the Chinese Pirates.”
The names of the other magazines banned were “Black Mask,” “Clues,” “Yellow Book,” “Top – Notch Detective,” and “Gang Detective Fiction.”
How lucky my grandparents were to live in a country protected from the social evils of these new-fangled American “Comics”!