Boy Commandos #1

History

Simon and Kirby had been lured from Timely Comics to DC (then National Comics/Detective Comics Inc.) at the end of 1941, primarily on the strength of their Captain America work, but arrived without a clear assignment. Publisher Jack Liebowitz gave them latitude to create and revamp, and after reworking the Sandman and Manhunter, the pair decided the kid-gang format was their calling. They fused the real-world media fascination with British commando units with the rising popularity of teenage sidekicks to create the Boy Commandos, who debuted in Detective Comics #64 (June 1942) and were so immediately popular that they crossed over into World's Finest Comics before receiving their own quarterly title. Fearing that Simon and Kirby would be drafted — a fear that proved well-founded when Kirby was called up in June 1943 — Liebowitz pushed them to stockpile scripts and art, and the duo hired a small studio of inkers, colorists, and writers (including a young Gil Kane) to build a buffer of finished stories; the contents of issue #1 are among the last work where both creators were hands-on.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Liberty Belle (Libby Lawrence), created by Don Cameron and Chuck Winter; she went on to headline Star Spangled Comics #20–68 and became a founding member of the All-Star Squadron in the 1980s.
• The issue's lead story, 'The Town That Couldn't Be Conquered!', centers on Dutch commando Jan Haasan and the Nazi occupation of his home village of Vannders, giving the international kid-gang concept its most emotionally grounded early outing.
• The issue marks the first in-continuity team-up of the Boy Commandos and the Newsboy Legion (Big Words, Gabby, Scrapper, Tommy Tompkins); Sandman (Wesley Dodds) and Sandy (Sandy Hawkins) also appear.
• Agent Axis makes his first appearance as a villain in the issue's Newsboy Legion crossover story.
• In a notable meta-moment, Jack Kirby drew DC editors Jack Schiff, Jack Liebowitz, and Whitney Ellsworth into the story itself — one of the earliest documented instances of creator self-insertion in superhero comics, verified by Alter Ego #76.
• The series launched with a Winter 1942 cover date, ran for 36 quarterly (later bi-monthly) issues through November/December 1949, and was edited throughout by Jack Schiff.
• The issue has been reprinted multiple times: the Newsboy Legion crossover story appeared in Mister Miracle #6 (Jan–Feb 1972) and The Best of Simon and Kirby (Titan, 2009); the full issue is collected in The Boy Commandos by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Vol. 1 (DC, 2010).
• Brooklyn, the American Boy Commando whose real name was never given in the original series, was later retroactively identified as a young Dan Turpin, who grew up to become a hard-nosed detective in Metropolis's Special Crimes Unit — a retcon that connected Simon and Kirby's two distinct DC creative eras.

Cast · 18 characters

Full credits

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers