By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Arturo Cazeneuve, Gil Kane, John Daly, Harry Tschida & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2593-3 (HB/Digital edition)
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Never Too Early for Classic Comic Kid Capers… 9/10
Just as the Golden Age of Comics was beginning, two young men with big dreams met and began a decades-long association that was uniquely, intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. As kids both had sold newspapers on street-corners to help their families survive the Great Depression…
Joe Simon was sharp, smart, talented and studious, with 5 years’ experience in “real” publishing: working from the bottom up to become art director on a succession of small paper like the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American.
He moved to New York City and a life of freelancing as an illustrator, art & photo retoucher. Encouraged and recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc.: a production “shop” generating strips and characters for numerous publishers, all eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman. Within days, Simon devised The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (AKA Marvel), where he became acquainted with young Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with The Blue Beetle for the Fox Features Syndicate.
Together Simon & Kurtzberg (who went through many pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) built a creative empathy and synergy that galvanized an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres. They produced influential monthly periodical Blue Bolt, sub-contracted and dashed out Captain Marvel Adventures (#1) for Fawcett and, once Martin Goodman appointed Simon his editor at Timely, created a host of iconic characters like Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, proto-Kid Gang The Young Allies and, of course, million-selling megahit Captain America.
Famed for his larger-than-life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual, hard-working family man who lived through poverty, gangsterism and the Depression. He loved his work, hated chicanery of every sort and foresaw a big future for the comics industry…
When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and a fat chequebook. Bursting with ideas the staid company were not comfortable with, the hypercreative duo were initially an uneasy fit, and given two strips that were in the doldrums until they could find their creative feet: Sandman and Manhunter.
They turned both around virtually overnight before, ensconced, established and left to their own devices, launching the aforementioned Kid Gang genre (technically “recreating” as the notion was one of their last Timely innovations in 1941s bombastic, jingoistic Young Allies #1). Their DC star fully rose with a unique juvenile Foreign Legion dubbed The Boy Commandos.
The little warriors began by sharing the spotlight with Batman and Robin in flagship title Detective Comics, but they rapidly won their own solo title. It promptly became one of the company’s top three sellers.
Boy Commandos was such a success – frequently cited as the biggest-selling US comic book in the world at that time – that the editors and Publisher Jack Liebowitz, knowing the Draft was imminent, greenlit completion of a wealth of extra material to lay away for when their stars were called up. S&K consequently assembled a creative team which generated so much material in a phenomenally short time that Liebowitz suggested they retool some of it into adventures of a second juvenile team. Thus was born The Newsboy Legion (and superheroic mentor The Guardian)…
Based on the Our Gang/Little Rascals film shorts (1922-1944) and Angels With Dirty Faces (1938, directed by Michael Curtiz), the Newsboy Legion was pitched halfway between a surly bunch of comedy grotesques and charmingly naive ragamuffins, and comprised four ferociously independent orphans living together on the streets, peddling papers to survive. There was earnest, good-looking Tommy Tompkins, garrulous genius Big Words, diminutive, hyper-active chatterbox Gabby and feisty, pugnacious Scrapper, whose Brooklyn-based patois and gutsy belligerence usually stole the show. They were headed for a bad end until somebody extraordinary entered their lives…
Their exploits generally offered a bombastic blend of crime thriller and comedy caper, leavened with dynamic superhero action and usually seen from a kid’s point of view. The series debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7, forcing the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy off the cover slot and lead position. The youngsters remained opening feature until the end of 1946, when – without fanfare or warning – #65 found them gone: ousted and replaced by Robin, the Boy Wonder. His own youth-oriented solo series subsequently ran all the way to SSC #130 in 1952, by which time superhero romps had largely been supplanted throughout the industry by general genre tales.
This collection reprints the first 26 episodes, spanning Star-Spangled Comics #7 to 32 (April 1942-May 1944), and includes stunning covers by Kirby, inker Arturo Cazeneuve, Fred Ray and teenage debutante Gil Kane. It opens with a lyrical and revelatory reminiscence from Joe Simon himself. His invaluable Introduction ‘Birth of the Legion’ leads directly into a potent tale of poverty and skulduggery pitted against idealism to create optimism in the darkest of urban outposts as ‘The Story of the Newsboy Legion’ introduces rookie cop Jim Harper walking a beat in the inner city hellscape dubbed “Suicide Slum”.
When he’s jumped by a gang of thugs and severely beaten, Harper responds in an unlikely manner: raiding a costume store and cobbling together an outfit to obscure his identity. Donning a blue bodystocking, hooded mask, crash-helmet and shield, he hunts down his assailants and gives them the thrashing they so richly deserve…
Happily, his illegal actions accidentally result in the arrest of an infamous kidnap ring. The mysterious figure is dubbed the Guardian of Society by the newspapers selling like hotcakes on street corners. Harper has no intention of repeating his foray into vigilantism, but when he catches Tommy, Big Words, Gabby & Scrapper shoplifting, their lives are all forever changed…
The tough little monkeys are destined for reform school until the cop makes an earnest plea for clemency on their behalf. In response, the judge appoints him their legal guardian. The lads are far from grateful and send him packing, but when their next get-rich-scheme involves them with armed bandits, they realise the mettle of the man they’re saddled with…
Witnesses to the crimes of murderous mobster Frankie the Fence and hopelessly implicated in them, the boys are about to die when a human thunderbolt in a mask and helmet comes to their rescue.
In actual fact it’s unclear who saves whom, but at the end the Newsboy Legion are finally set on a righteous path, but with their suspicions aroused. Frustratingly, no matter how hard they try, the boys can’t prove that their two Guardians are the same guy…
And thus the scene was set: the lads constantly looking for broadly legal ways to make a living, whilst Harper hovered over them as a guide and his alter ego worked tirelessly behind the scene to keep them alive and extricate from the trouble that always found them on the streets and alleys of the most-crime-infested slum in America…
The very next month Tommy stumbles onto the hideout of fugitive killer Black Leo Lucas and his abduction to ‘Last Mile Alley’ leads the fighting-mad Guardian to a confrontation with the latest Big Boss who thought himself untouchable. ‘The Rookie Takes the Rap’ then sees Harper framed by devious gambler Sure Thing Kelly and only cleared by the actions of his now-devoted foster-kids…
To be frank, the relationship between Jim and the boys was never properly defined. Although he was responsible for keeping them out of trouble, they never lived with him and generally provided for themselves whilst – presumably – still sleeping on the streets…
Having now made some headlines of their own, the boys are offered the chance to be ‘Kings for a Day’ in Star-Spangled Comics #10: running various municipal departments in a grand civic publicity stunt. Sadly, the event is hijacked by mobster The Mark, whose plans to plunder the entire city would have succeeded had he not underestimated those pesky kids temporarily in charge of the emergency services…
Many episodes worked powerfully against the pervasive backdrop of crushing poverty and social injustice. SSC #11 saw the boys arrested by a heartbroken Jim for burglary and sent to the State Reformatory. What he doesn’t know is that the boys have learned of corruption at ‘Paradise Prison’ and seek to expose unctuous, sanctimonious Warden Goodley for the sadistic grafter he truly is…
With little kids starving in their hovels and resorting to petty theft, the boys decide to make a documentary with borrowed film equipment. Naturally the hunt for perfect locations drops them right in the laps of bank bandits resulting in a ‘Prevue of Peril’, and requiring another last-minute save by the blockbusting blue-&-gold mystery man with the pot on his head…
With the clue in the name, the Legion still made most of their living hawking newspapers. Whenever tabloids weren’t selling, things got tough, and in SSC #13 falling sales spur the lads to create their own local periodical. With Harper’s assistance, the premier issue of the Slum Sentinel proves a huge success but ‘The Scoop of Suicide Slums!’ makes the area too hot for crooks in their warrens. However, in seeking to crush the little newsmakers, the city’s biggest racketeer only exposes himself to Legion scrutiny …and the Guardian’s furious fists!
Philanthropist Wilbur Whilling is a man with a plan. Using the Legion as his unwitting shills, he convinces slum residents to donate everything they have to build a modern apartment project to house everyone. Sadly, ‘The Meanest Man on Earth!’ never expected the kids to uncover his fraudulent alliance with lawyers and planners to repossess the snazzy new complex upon completion, and certainly isn’t ready for the personal retribution doled out by Scrapper and the man in the mask.
Arturo Cazeneuve became prime inker with #15’s ‘Playmates of Peril!’ as Patrolman Harper’s frequent absences lead to his being partnered with a supervising sergeant. It doesn’t stop his trouble-magnet wards falling into another criminal caper and being taken hostage: necessitating a storm of frantic improvisation to save them, his job and his secret identity…
When Tommy saves a child from being run over, the hero is eagerly adopted by rich banker Willis Thornton. He doesn’t want to go but his pals force him to take his shot at escaping the ghetto. All too soon, though, ‘The Playboy of Suicide Slum!’ is framed for robbery at the Thornton mansion and needs his true brothers to clear his name, after which ‘The Newsboy Legion versus the Rafferty Mob’ finds the kids in a turf-war with rival street toughs led by the toughest girl they have ever encountered.
Hostilities cease as soon as a gang of gunsels use the distraction as a way of trapping the Guardian…
‘The Education of Iron-Fist Gookin’ sees the slum’s most brutal thug taking elocution lessons from Big Words, and picking up a few morals – plus a pardon and new start – along the way, before ‘The Fuehrer of Suicide Slum’ focuses on Scrapper and takes the odd narrative liberty, depicting the boys battling Nazis after a sneak attack and invasion of New York City…
Steve Brodie inked the return to comic book reality in Star-Spangled Comics #20’s ‘The Newsboys and the Champ!’ as the boys help hillbilly boxer Zeke Potts navigate the lethally crooked big city fight game before ‘The House Where Time Stood Still’ (Cazeneuve inks) finds the kids selling war bonds. To do so they explore a derelict house and discover two be-whiskered hermits who have shunned the world for decades. The belligerent Presby brothers change their isolationist attitudes once Nazi spies move into their home, so it’s a good thing the Legion didn’t take that first “no” for an answer…
Gabby wrecks an automobile and incurs dubious yet huge debt in the Cazeneuve-inked ‘Brains for Sale!’ and his proposed payment solution leads the entire team into deadly danger from an underworld surgeon, after which ‘Art for Scrapper’s Sake’ (John Daly inks) sees that bellicose boy discovering his extremely profitable creative side. Typically, he’s far from happy after realising he’s just the patsy for a high-end art fraud…
Cazeneuve returns as regular inker with ‘Death Strikes a Bargain’ in SSC #24, as a crime crackdown in Suicide Slum leads to the kids being parachuted into a luxurious new life as part of a bold social experiment. Of course, the reformer in charge has a murderous ulterior motive for his seeming benevolence…
A vacation growing vegetables on a farm in ‘Victuals for Victory’ lands the lads in more trouble as their nearest neighbours turn out to be bucolic bandits hiding out after a big city crime spree, whilst ‘Louie the Lug Goes Literary’ sees the Guardian bust a major felon and inadvertently spark a massive hunt for the racketeer’s favourite tome… and the incredible secrets it holds…
Star-Spangled Comics #27 has the lads as volunteer firefighters encountering an insurance inspector-turned-arsonist eager to ‘Turn on the Heat’, whilst #28’s ‘Poor Man’s Rich Man’ sees kindly night watchman Pop O’Leary inherit a fortune. Immediately lavishing largesse on all the other unfortunates in Suicide Slum, Pop only starts to worry after his unpaid bills mount up and his lines of credit dry up, until the Newsboys discover the generous geezer is victim of a cruel plot by saboteurs. They furiously take appropriate action, with the hammer-fisted Guardian charging along for the ride…
Always seeking solid investments, the kids hop on the publishing bandwagon in ‘Cabbages and Comics’: hoping to make millions peddling their own strip magazine. Their big mistake is incorporating local hoods’ likenesses and overheard snippets of gossip in the final mix…
Naturally, their masked protector is on hand to prevent them perishing from the indignation – and guns – of the plunderers they inadvertently expose and plagiarize…
In SSC #30, a reformed crook is framed and ‘The Lady of Linden Lane’ suddenly abandons her miserly ways and starts acting very strangely, leading the lads to devilish fraud, after which neophyte superstar Gil Kane illustrates ‘Questions, Please?’ with brilliant Big Words and even his less cerebral comrades becoming radio quiz sensations on the very night the dread Purple Mask gang raid the studio.
This stunning assemblage of astounding articles concludes with Star-Spangled Comics #32 as the boys act as ‘The Good Samaritans!’ (by Kane & Harry Tschida), unknowingly sheltering a gang of desperate, starving thieves holding millions in hot cash they can’t spend… yet…
After years of neglect, the glorious wealth of Jack Kirby material available these days is a true testament to his influence and legacy, and this magnificent, initial collection of his collaborations with fellow pioneer Joe Simon is a gigantic box of delights perfectly illustrating the depth, scope and sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics.
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