Number 1484: Swastika over New York!

The Boy Commandos spent the World War II years kicking Axis butt, and in the postwar era they spent at least part of their time kicking surviving Nazi butt. Nazis were a great subject for comics — and fiction in general — in those years directly after the war. In real life many top Nazis had escaped justice after the Allied victory, and there were always those persistent rumors that Hitler was still alive.

“Swastika Over New York” is from Boy Commandos #29 (1948). Art is by Curt Swan and Steve Brodie, according to the Grand Comics Database...which also makes a guess the story is by France Herron.

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Here is another postwar Boy Commando story, this time about Hitler. Click on the thumbnail.

Number 1359: Boyoboy! The Boy Commandos

We’re in day three of our “Boyoboy! Week,” where we’re celebrating those kid-gang comic book heroes of the past. Today, the Boy Commandos, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby after they slipped the tether at Timely Comics, then moved to DC. The Boy Commandos were created as a wartime group but lasted until 1949. While they were popular they had their own title, and appeared also in Detective Comics and World’s Finest Comics.

Even during their wartime days the stories occasionally slipped into fantasy and science fiction, and so it is with “The Triumph of William Tell” from Boy Commandos #30 (1948). The Grand Comics Database credits the penciling to John Severin and the inking to George Klein? (Question mark means they’re not sure.)

I’ve featured Boy Commandos a half dozen other times on this blog, but in this posting from 2010 I explain how I lost my near-mint copy of the first issue at the San Diego Comicon. It’s a sad story, and a cautionary tale at that. You may need a hanky when reading it.

Click on the picture to go there:

Number 1002





When Hitler came back!





Adolf Hitler was a caricature: the Chaplin-style mustache, the distinctive hair, made him easily recognizable, perfect for editorial cartoonists, animated cartoons, comic strips and comic books. His image still has a lot of villainous appeal, even after his real-life villainy had ended with a bullet in 1945.



"When Hitler Came Back," a Boy Commandos story, is from Detective Comics #125, 1947, and features a fake Hitler. Credits from the Grand Comics Database tell us it's drawn by Curt Swan and Steve Brodie. The story is written by George Kashdan.



We've seen several Hitler in stories on this blog in the past year, including those in Pappy's #900, Pappy's #862, and Pappy's #851.

Number 967


"We come in peace..."


Regular readers of this blog know I like science fiction. I'm fond of post-war stories about traveling to the moon or other planets. It's all very fanciful, but these stories remind me there was a time in this country when we had a lot of optimism for our future, and the future of technology. We still have optimism and the technology, but it took some unexpected turns from the predictions I grew up with.

When I watched the TV coverage of the moon landing on July 20, 1969, I thought that by 2000 we'd have bases on the moon, and like 2001, A Space Odyssey, we'd be on our way to exploring the solar system. We are exploring, but not with humans. I wonder if it will ever happen that people set foot on the moon again, much less Mars or beyond.

"First Stop--the Moon!" from Boy Commandos #20 from 1947 is yet another entertaining flight of fancy about the "first" moon landing. It's drawn, according to the Grand Comics Database, by Curt Swan and Steve Brodie.