"The stories provided details of actual criminal activity and, in making the protagonists of the stories actual criminals — albeit criminals who were eventually caught and punished, usually in a violent manner, by story's end — seemed to glorify criminal activity, according to several critics.An immediate success, the series remained virtually unchallenged in the field of non-fiction comic books for several years until the post-World War II decline in other of comic books, including superhero comic books, made it more viable to publish new genres.