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''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 little tough guys fighting the Nazis — or in their own parlance, "the Ratzies". ==Creation== Simon & Kirby, 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.〔Ro, Ronin. ''Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution'' (Bloomsbury, 2004)〕 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.〔Doubt has been cast of the veracity of this - ostensibly ''editorial'' - opinion (that child readers desired or required a child character with whom to identify). Notable comics commentators including Jules Feiffer have noted: :"The super grownups were the ones I identified with. There was still time to prepare. But Robin the Boy Wonder was my own age. One need only look at him to see he could fight better, swing from a rope better, play ball better, eat better and live better - for while I lived in the East Bronx, Robin lived in a mansion...", Feiffer, Jules ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'' (Crown, 1964) as quoted in Van Hise, James, ''Batmania'' (Pioneer Books, 1989), p. 10〕 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. Debuting in the pages of ''Detective Comics''〔Although that title had previously stuck largely to characters who were, as the title implied, ''detectives'' of some kind, the onset of war (and America's subsequent involvement in it) both inspired and was requested of comics companies to create patriotic heroes, such as Simon and Kirby's ''Captain America'' a year earlier.〕 #64 (the issue #65's cover (left) shows Batman presenting the gang but they appeared first in the issue before) cover-dated June 1942, the team became extremely popular, also appearing in ''World's Finest Comics'' (#8-41, 1942-1949) and were then soon spun off into their own title, launching with a 'Winter 1942' date. The title sold "over a million copies each month," and was one of DC's "three biggest hits" alongside ''Superman'' and ''Batman''.〔 Kirby drew around five pages a day of the title, but Liebowitz requested an even faster turn-around - fearing (as happened) that the two would be drafted, as had many other industry professionals. Simon & Kirby hired "inkers, (), colorists, and writers, striving to create a year's worth of tales" (''Boy Commandos'' was also a quarterly title until Winter, 1945〔(ComicBookDb: ''Boy Commandos'' ). Accessed March 27, 2008〕). Among those hired was a young Gil Kane, who recalls being: :"hired to do as many ''Boy Commandos'', ''Newsboy Legion'', and ''Sandman'' stories as I could... they gave me scripts and they would do the splashes and they would have it inked."〔 ''Boy Commandos'' ran until issue #36 (Nov/Dec 1949), and was edited throughout by Jack Schiff. Among the individuals who assisted Simon and Kirby on the title (and its covers) were future-Superman legend Curt Swan, as well as Steve Brodie, Louis Cazeneuve and Carmine Infantino. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boy Commandos」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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