Number 2408: Crimebuster busts Iron Jaw

“C.B. (as Crimebuster was usually addressed) didn't have super powers. His costume consisted of a hockey uniform, plus a cape he'd grabbed almost as an afterthought. He wore a mask only on the cover of his first issue — he had a secret identity, but never used it. His sidekick was nothing but a small monkey. ” Quoting Toonopedia.

Crimebuster seemed like a smart young man, clever and agile enough to escape Nazi saboteurs, crime bosses, hitmen, and even the worst villain of all, Iron Jaw. Iron Jaw is in this story from Boy Comics #10 (1943) with Crimebuster, in another battle with his Nazi foe. As Don Markstein explained in his Toonopedia entry, Iron Jaw, who began his career in Boy Comics #3, was “killed” in Boy Comics #15 but returned years later in Boy #60.

I found the cover on Heritage Auctions. It shows how good editor Charles Biro was at making his comics stand out on magazine racks crowded with comic books.

Number 2336: Iron Jaw bites!

In the early history of comics Iron Jaw rates high on the villain scale. He was created for Boy Comics #3, and continued on until that title went out of business in the mid-fifties. According to some biographical information on the golden age Iron Jaw,* his jaw was blown off in World War I, where he and Hitler were pals. He had an artificial jaw, but in the early days (as in our tale today) the jaw looked different. Iron Jaw must have gotten a new dentist, because in later issues of Boy he went to full-on metal choppers, with which he could bite off a human limb.

In later years Iron Jaw’s jaw looked a lot more iron, as seen in this panel from Boy #76:

That description of Iron Jaw is no more far-fetched than this story from Boy Comics #11 (1943). Iron Jaw pretends to be mentally ill and fools the judge. The law in real life sometimes works in mysterious ways to us outside observers, but even the most rudimentary knowledge would keep us from believing the oddball workings of the local justice in this story. The story rockets along at its own speed, which causes it to leave logic and law behind.

Charles Biro, credited with creating the characters, had a keen eye for making comic books stand out among the multitude of other comic books on the magazine racks. Had I been a comic book fan standing and looking at that week’s new issues, I would have picked up Boy Comics #11, and based on the cover, would most likely have bought it.

*Read the history of Iron Jaw in Comic Vine.

Number 1985: Crimebuster, anti-Nazi

Lev Gleason, who formed the company that published Daredevil,Boy Comics, and Crime Does Not Pay, was one of the original comic book men. Gleason had been involved with Maxwell C. Gaines and Louis Silberkleit in the very early comic book business. Gleason was the first editor of Tip-Top Comics beginning in 1936. He later got financial backing to start his own comic book publishing business, and named it after himself.*

I believe Gleason did a brilliant thing: he hired Charles Biro and Bob Wood as his editorial team, which put his small list of titles among the top sellers all through the 1940s. Biro had a knack for the sort of attention-getting devices in comics. He created a costumed character called Crimebuster by putting a hockey uniform and cape on a boy, Chuck Chandler, who has plenty of smarts and moxie, but no superhero powers. Because of the strong and dramatic storytelling that character sold comic books throughout the 1940s, and only ended when Gleason closed his company in 1956.

“Crimebuster in the Touch of the Leper” is an anti-Nazi story from Boy Comics #5 (1942). I love the design elements of the splash page. Uncle Sam, the Nazi swastika standing in for the “s” in sabotage, all eye candy for the newsstand looky-loos to induce them to part with a dime.**

*You can read a fascinating 2010 article from The Comics Journal written by Gleason’s nephew. It tells a lot about the publisher and his left-leaning political philosophy.

**Another trick to get the dimes from kids was the continued story. I am sorry to keep you folks hanging. When you get to the end you will find Crimebuster confronted by gorgeous blonde twins, and the promise of Iron Jaw for the next issue. I don’t have that issue, but you can read Boy Comics #6 at the Digital Comics Museum. Unfortunately for me, it is a fiche copy, and I have enough troubles with my aging eyeballs without trying to read a fiche.