One of DC’s best reprint lines in recent years have been their 80 and 100-page Giant books, mixing in “replica” editions of actual giants from the 1960s and 1970s with “lost” editions, books designed to look like they could have been published back then. This book is designed to look like it could have been a 1969 BRAVE AND THE BOLD annual (although it contains a Captain Atom story from Charlton, which wouldn’t have been in there).

Among the contents is a 1943 Boy Commandos story by Simon&Kirby, reprinted from DETECTIVE COMICS #76. The logic of it being in a team-up title is that there are brief cameos by the other S&K stars of the time, Sandman and the Newsboy Legion (oddly, the cover of this issue bills it as a Newsboy Legion / Sandman crossover, not even mentioning the actual stars of the story) (also oddly, the credits have Kirby as writer and inker, with Simon as penciler, which doesn’t seem likely).

Anyway, the 12-page adventure has Rip Carter and the boys making a trip to New York for a goodwill tour, and finding themselves kidnapped by German spies. Along the way, the encounter their fan club, the Kid Commandos, led by Sally from Flatbush, who get around on a variety of go-carts, and in the end meet FDR. It’s a fast-moving adventure, a great example of the kid-gang genre and patriotic wartime comics. I did think the accents of the foreign characters (especially the Germans and the British Boy Commando Alfie) were a bit overdone and distracting, but other than that it was all fun.

Published 2001

One of DC’s best reprint forums of the early 1970s was the 100-Page Super Spectacular. #DC-15 was a good one, with two Simon&Kirby reprints.

First up was the Boy Commandos story from DETECTIVE COMICS #65, the untitled second Boy Commandos story. They also reprinted the cover, which has Batman and Robin (by Jerry Robinson) welcoming the BCs to the book, an issue late, but Batman is a busy guy…

The story opens with, of all things, Nostradamus in 1565, in the court of Queen Catherine of France. It turns out that not only did he predict Hitler and his invasion of France, he also predicted the Boy Commandos. No word on if he predicted Devil Dinosaur.

From that introduction, we go to the then modern day, where Rip Carter and the Boy Commandos are practicing parachute jumping in England. Carter then announces that the boys have to go to school, and they go an English boys’ school. They get hazed by the other students and befriended by a gardener. Unfortunately, the gardener turns out to be a spy for the Germans, hoping to get some hint about what Carter’s unit is planning. Fortunately, Carter manages to figure this out in time to change his plan and destroy a weapons factory in France, just missing capturing Goering. Of course, the boys are disappointed that after that they still have to return to the school.

Oddly, the story just ends there, while I would have expected a return to the Nostradamus framing sequence.

Later in the issue, the Sandman story from ADVENTURE #81 is reprinted. “A Drama in Dreams” has Sandy suspicious about how Wesley Dodds is acting (and as an aside, didn’t Sandy and Bucky have the worst secret identities in the world? I mean, their first names? The mask doesn’t really help much with that kind of clue). For one thing, Wes doesn’t seem to know that he’s the Sandman. Sandy follows him, and finds out that “Wes” is a criminal double, who has captured the real Wes in order to steal one of his businesses. Eventually, it ends with Wes Dodds, disguised as the Sandman, impersonating the criminal, who’s impersonating Wes Dodds, who is, of course, the Sandman. Yeah, I was confused too.

Two good examples of early 1940s S&K, plus the issue has three Superboy stories, a Superbaby story, Aquaman, Hawk&Dove and Dial H For Hero.

Published March 1973