Boy Commandos is a fictional organization from

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. ( doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with the ...

first appearing in ''Detective Comics'' #64 (June 1942) by

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

and

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gre ...

. They are a combination of "kid gang" characters, an international cast of young boys fighting Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".

Creation

Simon & Kirby were hired away from

Timely Comics Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...

by DC towards the end of 1941, primarily due to their success on ''

Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...

'', but without there being a clear purpose to the decision, nor title to work on.Ro, Ronin. ''Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution'' (Bloomsbury, 2004) Finding themselves initially embroiled in the '' Captain Marvel'' lawsuit, Jack Liebowitz gave them free rein to create or revamp DC heroes. Initially, the duo 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". Teenage sidekicks (

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest r ...

's Bucky, etc.) were fast becoming a comics staple, intended to provide young characters with whom youthful readers could identify. 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 The Newsboy Legion is a teenage vigilante group in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, they appeared in their own self-titled feature which ran from ''Star-Spangled Comics'' #7 (April 1942) to #64 (January 1947). In 1970, ...

("a

Dead End Kids The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play '' Dead End'' in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They prov ...

-style group led by a police officer in a Captain America-like blue-and-yellow costume, toting a shield"). Although America had not yet entered the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, 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. The international group included the French Andre Chavard, the English Alfie Twidgett, the Dutch Jan Haasan and an American only known as "Brooklyn". Debuting in the pages of ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...

'' #64 (the issue #65's cover (left) shows

presenting the gang but they appeared first in the issue before) cover-dated June 1942, the team became extremely popular, also appearing in ''

World's Finest Comics ''World's Finest Comics'' was an American comic book series published by DC Comics from 1941 to 1986. The series was initially titled ''World's Best Comics'' for its first issue; issue #2 (Summer 1941) switched to the more familiar name. Michael ...

'' (#8-41, 1942-1949) 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 Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book '' Action Comics'' #1 ( cover-dated June 1938 and pu ...

'' and ''

''. 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, etterers colorists, and writers, striving to create a year's worth of tales" (''Boy Commandos'' was also a quarterly title until Winter, 1945). 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". According to ''Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes'', "most of their criminals are ordinary, either Germans and Japanese or merely human criminals, but there are also exotics like Crazy Quilt, Diamond Hand, and Mr. Bleak, he of the devilish shadow". ''Boy Commandos'' ran until issue #36 (Nov/Dec 1949), and was edited throughout by

Jack Schiff Jack Schiff (1909 – April 30, 1999) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for his work editing various Batman comic book series for DC Comics from 1942 to 1964. He was the co-creator of Starman, Tommy Tomorrow, and the Wyom ...

. Among the individuals who assisted Simon and Kirby on the title (and its covers) were future-Superman legend

Curt Swan Douglas Curtis Swan (February 17, 1920 – June 17, 1996) was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 195 ...

, as well as Steve Brodie,

Louis Cazeneuve Luis "Louis" Cazeneuve (August 18, 1908 – August 1977) was an Argentine-born American comic-book artist.Carmine Infantino Carmine Michael Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are ...

Fictional team biography

The

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous characters were André Chavard from

Fra A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the o ...

nce; Alfie Twidgett from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, Jan Haasan from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and "Brooklyn" from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. An elite commando squad of orphaned children, led by grown-up Captain Rip Carter, they fought on all fronts of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In September 1944, the Newsboy Legion teamed up with the Boy Commandos to stop armed and armored traitors based out of New York City. 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 André. It was revealed years later that Brooklyn was

Dan Turpin Daniel "Terrible" Turpin is a character published by DC Comics. He first appeared as Brooklyn (due to him being born in New York City) in ''Detective Comics'' #64 (June 1942), and first appeared as Dan Turpin in ''New Gods'' #5 (November 1971). Pu ...

, that André Chavard had become the head of the French Intelligence '' Département Gamma'', and that Alfie Twidgett was now the head of the firm '' Statistical Occurrences Ltd.'' (SOL), with his daughter Twiggie. In addition to the aligning of Metropolis Special Crimes Unit's Detective

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 Mister Miracle (Scott Free) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Mister Miracle'' #1 (April 1971) and was created by Jack Kirby. Publication history Mister Miracle debuted in ...

'' #6 in February 1972). A reprint ''Boy Commandos'' title was published in Sep/Oct 1973 under editor

E. Nelson Bridwell Edward Nelson Bridwell (September 22, 1931 – January 23, 1987) was a writer for '' Mad'' magazine (writing the now-famous catchphrase, "What you mean...we?" in a 1958 parody of ''The Lone Ranger'' in Mad) and various comic books published by D ...

, but lasted only two issues before disappearing. The four original members, minus Brooklyn, reappeared late during the run of

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men ...

's ''

Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...

'', which reintroduced Alfie as the founder and president of Statistical Occurrences Ltd., an insurance company specializing in properties which may attract the activities of superhumans. Using his daughter "Twiggie" as a mediator, Alfie hires Murray Takamoto, an ex- S.T.A.R. Labs administrator (and college roommate of Ted Kord) who'd worked on a "Star Wars" satellite program, which S.O.L. had received a contract concerning its protection. Joining Alfie in this venture are his old teammates Andre, now head of the fictional Department Gamma of the

French Secret Service This is a list of current and former French intelligence agencies. Currently active *DGSE: Directorate-General for External Security – '' Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure''. It is the military foreign intelligence agency, whi ...

, Jan, now a professor working for th
Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
and their former mentor "Rip" Carter, now a general. It was implied that they would eventually come into conflict, along with the Blue Beetle, with corrupt European industrialist Klaus Cornelius, who had already used his influence to disband Europe's lead super-hero agency, the

Global Guardians The Global Guardians is a team of DC Comics superheroes whose members hail from countries around the world. The concept originated in the ''Super Friends'' Saturday morning cartoon, which aired after the comics stories in ''Super Friends'' #7-9, ...

, and was working to resurrect the Boy Commandos' old enemy Agent Axis. However, the series ended before the storyline could reach fruition, and no further developments have been mentioned since then, although Cornelius did make a brief cameo during

Kurt Busiek Kurt Busiek ( ) (born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer. His work includes the ''Marvels'' limited series, his own series titled '' Astro City'', a four-year run on '' The Avengers, Thunderbolts'' and '' Superman.'' Early life ...

's '' Power Company'' miniseries. They made an appearance in the most recent incarnation of ''

The Brave and the Bold ''The Brave and the Bold'' is a comic book series published by DC Comics as an ongoing series from 1955 to 1983. It was followed by two mini-series in 1991 and 1999, and was revived as an ongoing title in 2007. The focus of the series has varie ...

'' (issue #9, February 2008), in which they teamed up with fellow World War II heroes, the Blackhawks.

Collection

DC published the first of 2 hardback collections of Simon and Kirby's work on the series: * ''The Boy Commandos'' Vol. 1, 2010, ISBN (reprints ''Detective Comics'' #64-73, ''World's Finest Comics'' #8-9 and ''Boy Commandos'' #1-2). * ''The Boy Commandos'' Vol. 2, 2015, ISBN (reprints ''Detective Comics'' #74-83, ''World's Finest Comics'' #10-13 and ''Boy Commandos'' #3-5).

References

External links

Boy Commandos
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on February 22, 2018. {{GoldenAge Golden Age superheroes DC Comics child superheroes Comics by Jack Kirby DC Comics superhero teams Comics characters introduced in 1942 Characters created by Jack Kirby Characters created by Joe Simon Fictional World War II veterans Teenage superheroes

Creation

Fictional team biography

Collection

See also

References

External links