Hard Case Crime to Publish Illustrated Crime Novel, Seduction of the Innocent by Max Allan Collins

In our previous post we happened to mention specialty publisher Hard Case Crime in reference to a new title being published this month. Afterwards we thought we'd surf — Gosh … does anyone still use that term in the context of the Internet? We're probably dating ourselves here … — on over the publisher's website to see what's new.

In the "Our Books" section, we noticed a new book by Max Allan Collins, Seduction of the Innocent. But what really attracted our attention was the fact that it seems to be a cross between a crime novel and a graphic crime novel, an illustrated crime novel, if you will.

Here's the publisher's synopsis of the book:

"Comic books are corrupting America's youth!

"Or so the esteemed Dr. Werner Frederick would have people believe — people like the Congressmen holding hearings on banning violent crime and horror "funny books." And when the crusade provokes a most un-funny murder, Jack Starr — comics syndicate troubleshooter — has no shortage of suspects. Was it the knife-wielding juvenile delinquent or the naked seductress? Perhaps a frustrated publisher or an outraged cartoonist. Or was it a comic book reader …?

"Inspired by the real-life 1950s witch-hunt against Tales From the Crypt publisher EC Comics, Seduction of the Innocent pulls back the curtain for an insider's view of the history of comics — and features more than a dozen brand new illustrations in the classic EC style by comic book legend Terry Beatty!"

A whodunit-style mystery to look forward to. It is expected to hit bookstores in February 2013. You can read a sample chapter here.