Number 979


The Newsboy Legion meets the Rafferty Mob


As promised a couple of days ago, here is the second story this week from DC's Star Spangled Comics #17, 1943, this time featuring the Simon and Kirby Newsboy Legion. Don Markstein in his Toonopedia website explains the Newsboy Legion and their adult friend, the Guardian:

The Newsboy Legion is the second such feature Simon and Kirby did, debuting in Star Spangled Comics #7 (April, 1942, the same issue that introduced Robotman), about eight months after The Young Allies, their first. DC Comics, publisher of Star Spangled, showed such confidence in the new feature that they put it on the cover, permanently displacing the title's original stars, The Star-Spangled Kid & Stripesy.

The newsboys were Tommy (the leader), Big Words (who, inevitably, wore glasses), Gabby (a little guy with a big mouth. . .) and Scrapper (a little guy with big fists). They were orphans living in Suicide Slum, who, as the title suggests, made their living selling newspapers — but as the series opened, they weren't above supplementing their income with a little petty crime. Naturally, this led to skirmishes with the law, specifically, police officer Jim Harper. But Harper took a liking to the boys, and became their legal guardian in the first story. After that, they stuck to the straight and narrow. Harper was a "guardian" in more ways than one. Earlier in the story, while off duty, he'd been chased by three thugs into a closed costume shop. There, he helped himself to a set of blue tights (complete with mask), plus yellow shorts (worn outside), shield and hard hat (leaving money behind to cover what he took). Declaring himself to be The Guardian, he proceeded to bring his assailants to justice. Afterward, he maintained his new persona, finding it a convenient way to avoid all the little legalities that so badly hamper a policeman in his battle against crime (a ploy also used by The Black Hood, The Ghost Rider and The Woman in Red). He may have been the first superhero to be used as a supporting character in a non-superhero series.

I like that the boys go up against a "...GOIL!" in this story. It's never too early for a boy to learn that women are tougher than they look, and and he'd be smart to never underestimate them.