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.
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.
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.
Good grief! It's Christmas again already! Didn't we just have one of these about 365 days ago? Time doesn't just fly, it puts on the afterburners and goes supersonic.
Last year around this time I showed you a Boy Commandos story with a character named J. Smytherton Malone, who helped the Commandos on Mount Everest. You can read the story in Pappy's #648. In this Boy Commandos story, from Detective Comics #132, 1948, the Commandos revisit some of their past friends, including J. Smytherton on Everest, in order to leave him a Christmas gift. Awwwww. That's the ol' Christmas spirit, boys.
Unfortunately, the bad guy, rotund Rollo, believes it's better to receive than to give. He does plenty of taking, and what he does give is trouble.
The artwork is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Curt Swan and Steve Brodie.
I hope you and yours are having a great Christmas.
