Crimeboss

Among comic-book aficionados, '40s and '50s crime titles carry considerably less cachet than, say, Silver Age Marvels or EC horror mags. That's part of their appeal to Crimeboss (crimeboss.com) webmaster Richard Wolfe, who notes that lurid, forgotten comics like Crimes by Women and Teen-Age Dope Slaves, while hard to track down, are ''reasonably inexpensive to collect.'' Wolfe cops to the truth that the covers -- which he reproduces in eye-popping color -- are the best thing about many crime books, admitting that ''oftentimes the interior content...is terrible.'' No matter -- this site's content will make devotees of noir esoterica as happy as a warm gun.