Boy Commandos
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| Boy Commandos | |
 Boy Commandos #1 (Winter 1942-43). Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Simon. |
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| Publisher | DC Comics |
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| Main character(s) | Boy Commandos |
The Boy Commandos was a 1940s comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for DC Comics. A combination of "kid gang" comics and war comics, the title starred an international cast of little tough guys fighting the Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".
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[edit] Creation
Simon & Kirby, hired away from Timely Comics by DC towards the end of 1941, found themselves hired primarily due to their success on Captain America, but without their being a clear purpose to the decision, nor title to work on.[1] Finding themselves initially embroiled in the Captain Marvel lawsuit, Jack Liebowitz gave them free rein to create of revamp DC heroes. Initially, the due created new versions of [[The Sandman, and Manhunter (both of whom bore strong resemblance to their Captain America work), before deciding that "kid gangs seemed to be the way to go".[1] Teenage sidekicks (Batman's Robin, Captain America's Bucky, etc.) were fast becoming a comics staple, intended to provide young characters with whom the youthful readers could identify.[2] Simon & Kirby's own Sentinels of Liberty (later the Young Allies) had already succeeded in this mold, and had an influence on their subsequent creation.
Having already created the "Sentinels of Liberty" for Timely, they now created for DC the Newsboy Legion ("a Dead End Kids-style group led by a police officer in a Captain America-like blue-and-yellow costume, toting a shield"[1]). Although America had not yet entered the war, headlines and news stories highlighted the role of British commandos, so Simon and Kirby fused the kid gang with the commando, and created The Boy Commandos.
Debuting in the pages of Detective Comics[3] #65 (that issues cover (right) showing the gang meeting Batman) cover-dated July 1942, the team became extremely popular, moved to World's Finest Comics (#21 and #22 in particular) and were then soon spun off into their own title, launching with a 'Winter 1942' date. The title sold "over a million copies each month," and was one of DC's "three biggest hits" alongside Superman and Batman.[1] Kirby drew around five pages a day of the title, but Liebowitz requested an even faster turn-around - fearing (as happened) that the two would be drafted, as had many other industry professionals. Simon & Kirby hired "inkers, [letterers], colorists, and writers, striving to create a year's worth of tales" (Boy Commandos was also a quarterly title until Winter, 1945[4]). Among those hired was a young Gil Kane, who recalls being:
- "hired to do as many Boy Commandos, Newsboy Legion, and Sandman stories as I could... they gave me scripts and they would do the splashes and they would have it inked."[1]
Boy Commandos ran until issue #36 (Nov/Dec 1949), and was edited throughout by Jack Schiff. Among the individuals who assisted Simon and Kirby on the title (and its covers) were future-Superman legend Curt Swan, Steve Brodie, Louis Cazeneuve and Carmine Infantino.
[edit] Fictional team biography
The eponymous characters were André Chavard from France; Alfie Twidgett from England, Jan Haasan from the Netherlands, and "Brooklyn" from the United States. An elite commando squad of orphaned children, led by grown-up Captain Rip Carter, they fought on all fronts of the Second World War.
The team's adventures continued well past the war, even though there were many roster changes. Jan left first, having found relatives in his homeland to stay with. Alfie was replaced by a Texan named Tex. Percy Clearweather, a glasses-wearing genius, replaced Andre.
It was revealed years later that Brooklyn was Dan Turpin, that André Chavard had become the head of the French Intelligence Departement Gamma, and that Alfie Twidgett was now the head of the firm Statistical Occurrences Ltd. (SOL), with his daughter Twiggie.
[edit] Subsequent appearances
_1973.jpg/180px-Boy_Commandos_Issue_1_(reprint)_1973.jpg)
Reprints early BC stories. Compare artwork to #1 (1942) above.
In addition to the aligning of Gotham City Police Department's Detective Dan Turpin with "Brooklyn", the team have seen print in a couple of titles since the late 1940s.
In the 1970s, during Kirby's involvement at DC, several of their stories were reprinted in various books, particularly those written and drawn by Kirby himself (e.g. Mister Miracle #6 in February 1972[5]). A reprint Boy Commandos title was published in Sep/Oct 1973 under editor E. Nelson Bridwell, but lasted only two issues before disappearing.
They made an appearance in the most recent incarnation of The Brave and the Bold (issue #9, February 2008), in which they teamed up with fellow WWII heroes, the Blackhawks.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2004)
- ^ Doubt has been cast of the veracity of this - ostensibly editorial - opinion (that child readers desired or required a child character with whom to identify). Notable comics commentators including Jules Feiffer have noted:
- "The super grownups were the ones I identified with. There was still time to prepare. But Robin the Boy Wonder was my own age. One need only look at him to see he could fight better, swing from a rope better, play ball better, eat better and live better - for while I lived in the East Bronx, Robin lived in a mansion...", Feiffer, Jules The Great Comic Book Heroes (Crown, 1964) as quoted in Van Hise, James, Batmania (Pioneer Books, 1989), p. 10
- ^ Although that title had previously stuck largely to characters who were, as the title implied, detectives of some kind, the onset of war (and America's subsequent involvement in it) both inspired and was requested of comics companies to create patriotic heroes, such as Simon and Kirby's Captain America a year earlier.
- ^ ComicBookDb: Boy Commandos. Accessed March 27, 2008
- ^ ComicBookDb: Mister Miracle #6. Accessed March 27, 2008
