The Boy Commandos were nearing the end of their run in 1940’s comic books. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1942 as a group of boys fighting in World War II, it ended as a postwar boy gang having adventures with the sole adult in the group, Rip Carter, carrying on from the war years as their leader. Boy Commandos stories were published from 1942 until 1949. They appeared in their own comic book for 36 issues, as a backup feature for Detective Comics (86 issues) and World’s Finest Comics (33 issues) before they were bumped. It was a time of transition in comic books. The old costumed, super and urban heroes were giving way to other types of heroes, like cowboys and Wild West stories.
From Detective Comics #143 (1949). Illustrated by Curt Swan and Steve Brodie.
The dialogue of the first panel after the splash made me laugh. Can we imagine real thugs anxious for new gimmicks of the sort that would figure in such a story?
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, some years ago, historian Phil Magness found and reported records of Alexander Hamilton's dealing in slaves, but the mainstream refused to attend to those records; they wanted the mythic Hamilton. Now, they've started to admit to the unhappy truth, but they don't acknowledge Magness's having produced those records years ago.
Daniel, there are many people who would like slavery to be forgotten. It won't happen.
ReplyDeleteI understand that Hitler based some of his policies on Jim Crow laws from the U.S. They also had slave labor in Germany. I remember in high school being told that, but when American slavery came up it was an almost taboo subject. At that time (early-mid sixties when I was in high school)my history teachers avoided it, and it might have been that I lived in very conservative Republican area, and they may have felt if they made something of human slavery while civil rights was a hot topic that they might bring down the wrath of the right wing types who were also parents of students.