Boy Commandos

Boy Commandos
Boy Commandos #1 (Winter 1942-43). Pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Joe Simon.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Volume 1 Quarterly: #1-13 Bi-monthly: #14-36 Volume 2 Bi-monthly: #1-2
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	Volume 1 Winter 1942 to Nov.-Dec. 1949 Volume 2 Sept.-Oct. 1973 to Nov.-Dec. 1973
Number of issues	Volume 1 36 Volume 2 2
Main character(s)	Boy Commandos
Creative team
Writer(s)	Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Joe Samachson, Francis Herron, Don Cameron, Gardner Fox
Penciller(s)	Jack Kirby, Louis Cazeneuve, Curt Swan, John Fischetti, John Severin, Arthur Peddy, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane
Inker(s)	Joe Simon, Louis Cazeneuve, Steve Brodie, John Fischetti, Gil Kane, Charles Nicholas, John Giunta, George Klein, Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy
Editor(s)	Jack Schiff

Boy Commandos was a 1940s comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for DC Comics. A combination of "kid gang" comics and war comics, the title starred an international cast of young boys fighting Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies".

Simon & Kirby were hired away from Timely Comics by DC towards the end of 1941, primarily due to their success on Captain America, but without there being a clear purpose to the decision, nor title to work on. Finding themselves initially embroiled in the Captain Marvel lawsuit, Jack Liebowitz gave them free rein to create or revamp DC heroes. Initially, the duo created new versions of The Sandman, and Manhunter (both of whom bore strong resemblance to their Captain America work), before deciding that "kid gangs seemed to be the way to go". Teenage sidekicks (Batman's Robin, Captain America's Bucky, etc.) were fast becoming a comics staple, intended to provide young characters with whom youthful readers could identify. Simon & Kirby's own Sentinels of Liberty (later the Young Allies) had already succeeded in this mold, and had an influence on their subsequent creation.

Having already created the "Sentinels of Liberty" for Timely, they now created for DC the Newsboy Legion ("a Dead End Kids-style group led by a police officer in a Captain America-like blue-and-yellow costume, toting a shield"). Although America had not yet entered the war, headlines and news stories highlighted the role of British commandos, so Simon and Kirby fused the kid gang with the commando, and created The Boy Commandos.