The first issue of Boy Comics, #3, was published at the beginning of 1942. As was common practice for the time, for licensing reasons, rather than start the numbering over, it took the place of the defunct Lev Gleason title Captain Battle.
Boy Comics was published bi-monthly from #3 (April, 1942) through #50 (February, 1950). The first code approved issue was #109, two months after the lead Crimebuster feature shifted to a more code-friendly college setting and became a boys adventure series rather than a true crime series. The final issue, #119, had a cover date of March, 1956. Lev Gleason ceased operations later that year.
Here's a look at how the Crimebuster feature changed over the years:
Boy Comics #3-17 or so feature Crimebuster in a kind of pseudo-superhero mode. He has a supervillain archenemy, Iron Jaw, who dies in #15. He also fights a few other "supervillains," such as He-She in #9 and the incredibly lame The Moth in #17, which is just an arsonist with no powers and a dumb nickname. These stories are mostly fairly short and relatively straightforward, though often weird (again, He-She) and usually topical (not just fighting WWII villains, but actually taking on home front issues, such as in #12 where Crimebuster goes undercover to expose a black market ring of profiteers).
Issues #18-27 or so feature a lot of growth in the characterization. The stories become longer, with more dialogue that delves into the motivations of the criminals and their crimes. Thematically, with the superhero stuff gone (other than CB still wearing his costume), the series becomes a true crime series. However, Biro hasn't really hit his stride yet, so the later complexity still isn't quite there.
Issues #28-44 is what I consider to be the best era of Boy Comics, where Biro really hits his stride, particulary in the late 30's and early 40's. By the end of this period, Crimebuster has pushed all the other characters out of the book and now gets 2-3 long stories every issue. Often, Crimebuster himself doesn't even show up in the story until the third act, stepping in on page 15 or 18 to solve the crime and bring the perp to justice. These are really detailed looks at crimes, motivations and are basically just straight up morality plays. Some great, great stuff.
Issues #45-59 during this period, Biro starts easing off the hard crime and starts moving towards what I would call public service stories. There are certainly still crime stories with murders and stuff, but there are also a lot of stories about sports, cheating in school, juvenile deliquency, the dangers of racing cars, etc. These stories read like the great PSA movies from the late 1940's and early 1950's they would show in classrooms to scare kids straight.
Issues #60-74 With #60, the series takes a turn. Iron Jaw returns from the dead. In the same issue, we have one of my favorite comic book moments of all time, where Crimebuster's supporting cast have an intervention to tell him that, well, nobody wanted to mention it, but he looks like a fool wearing a superhero costume around town. He gets in a fight with them over his clothes, but by the end of the issue he's ditched everything except his signature hockey sweater, losing the cape and replacing his hockey pants with slacks. It's a fantastic bit of meta-commentary on the demise of the superhero genre, and I think this is entirely intentional on Biro's part. [note: this issue has a cover date of December, 1949 - right when the superhero era was crashing to an end]
The last superhero vestiges are gone with this issue, though ironically at the same time they bring back his supervillain arch-enemy. Iron Jaw begins appearing regularly as an antagonist again, meaning there is less room for morality plays and PSAs and more straightforward hero vs. villain stuff, though with a Cold War twist. Crimebuster also loses one story slot to Dilly Duncan, a lame Archie ripoff.
Issues #75-96 By far the worst section of the series, these issues feature more and more Iron Jaw and less and less Crimebuster. In a rare three-issue arc, in #80-82, Crimebuster battles a dumb supervillain named The Vacuum, while Iron Jaw teams up with Sniffer and the Deadly Dozen. These knobs end up taking over the book, relegating CB to one little 8 page backup. The lead stories with Iron Jaw and Sniffer are tedious "comedy" stories, while Crimebuster, stuck with just a few pages to work with, begins having more adventure-themed stories with less hard crime and less character work.
The only "highlight" of these issues, beyond the still-decent Crimebuster backup, is the new Rocky X backup, which starts in #75 and runs until the end of the series. Rocky X is an astronaut in the future who visits other planets and fights aliens and the like. It's actually... more boring than it sounds, but at one point he does battle the classic Biro supervillain The Claw.
Issues #97-119 Crimebuster returns to the cover spot and starts getting longer stories again. The series becomes boy's adventure, with CB doing stuff like bullfighting, flying stunt airplanes and the like. #107 is a major turning point for the title. Biro was faced with the impending creation of the Comics Code, which would eventually prohibit him from even using the character's name - Crimebuster - because it had the word "crime" in it. So he came up with a typically realistic story to deal with this. Basically, the powers that be suddenly realize that an unlicensed, unregulated teenager is running rampant in their police department. Crimebuster is given an ultimatum: If he wants to keep fighting crime, he has to actually get a degree, then go to police academy and become an actual cop. Loover then gets Crimebuster a position at a school called Curtiss Tech, where he can get a diploma before heading to police academy. The rest of the series is CB under his real name of Chuck Chandler doing Hardy Boys style adventures while dealing with the reality of being in a high school environment, complete with an Archie-style cast of new teen supporting characters. It's a radical shift, but Biro still makes it work.
One very odd note: Just as Crimebuster becomes a teen adventure series, Rocky X - the sci-fi backup series about an astronaut in the future fighting aliens - somehow transitions into a Korean War series, with Rocky X and his sidekick fighting the red menace in Asia as soldiers. Don't ask me to explain how they made that shift.
Boy Comics was published bi-monthly from #3 (April, 1942) through #50 (February, 1950). The first code approved issue was #109, two months after the lead Crimebuster feature shifted to a more code-friendly college setting and became a boys adventure series rather than a true crime series. The final issue, #119, had a cover date of March, 1956. Lev Gleason ceased operations later that year.
Here's a look at how the Crimebuster feature changed over the years:
Boy Comics #3-17 or so feature Crimebuster in a kind of pseudo-superhero mode. He has a supervillain archenemy, Iron Jaw, who dies in #15. He also fights a few other "supervillains," such as He-She in #9 and the incredibly lame The Moth in #17, which is just an arsonist with no powers and a dumb nickname. These stories are mostly fairly short and relatively straightforward, though often weird (again, He-She) and usually topical (not just fighting WWII villains, but actually taking on home front issues, such as in #12 where Crimebuster goes undercover to expose a black market ring of profiteers).
Issues #18-27 or so feature a lot of growth in the characterization. The stories become longer, with more dialogue that delves into the motivations of the criminals and their crimes. Thematically, with the superhero stuff gone (other than CB still wearing his costume), the series becomes a true crime series. However, Biro hasn't really hit his stride yet, so the later complexity still isn't quite there.
Issues #28-44 is what I consider to be the best era of Boy Comics, where Biro really hits his stride, particulary in the late 30's and early 40's. By the end of this period, Crimebuster has pushed all the other characters out of the book and now gets 2-3 long stories every issue. Often, Crimebuster himself doesn't even show up in the story until the third act, stepping in on page 15 or 18 to solve the crime and bring the perp to justice. These are really detailed looks at crimes, motivations and are basically just straight up morality plays. Some great, great stuff.
Issues #45-59 during this period, Biro starts easing off the hard crime and starts moving towards what I would call public service stories. There are certainly still crime stories with murders and stuff, but there are also a lot of stories about sports, cheating in school, juvenile deliquency, the dangers of racing cars, etc. These stories read like the great PSA movies from the late 1940's and early 1950's they would show in classrooms to scare kids straight.
Issues #60-74 With #60, the series takes a turn. Iron Jaw returns from the dead. In the same issue, we have one of my favorite comic book moments of all time, where Crimebuster's supporting cast have an intervention to tell him that, well, nobody wanted to mention it, but he looks like a fool wearing a superhero costume around town. He gets in a fight with them over his clothes, but by the end of the issue he's ditched everything except his signature hockey sweater, losing the cape and replacing his hockey pants with slacks. It's a fantastic bit of meta-commentary on the demise of the superhero genre, and I think this is entirely intentional on Biro's part. [note: this issue has a cover date of December, 1949 - right when the superhero era was crashing to an end]
The last superhero vestiges are gone with this issue, though ironically at the same time they bring back his supervillain arch-enemy. Iron Jaw begins appearing regularly as an antagonist again, meaning there is less room for morality plays and PSAs and more straightforward hero vs. villain stuff, though with a Cold War twist. Crimebuster also loses one story slot to Dilly Duncan, a lame Archie ripoff.
Issues #75-96 By far the worst section of the series, these issues feature more and more Iron Jaw and less and less Crimebuster. In a rare three-issue arc, in #80-82, Crimebuster battles a dumb supervillain named The Vacuum, while Iron Jaw teams up with Sniffer and the Deadly Dozen. These knobs end up taking over the book, relegating CB to one little 8 page backup. The lead stories with Iron Jaw and Sniffer are tedious "comedy" stories, while Crimebuster, stuck with just a few pages to work with, begins having more adventure-themed stories with less hard crime and less character work.
The only "highlight" of these issues, beyond the still-decent Crimebuster backup, is the new Rocky X backup, which starts in #75 and runs until the end of the series. Rocky X is an astronaut in the future who visits other planets and fights aliens and the like. It's actually... more boring than it sounds, but at one point he does battle the classic Biro supervillain The Claw.
Issues #97-119 Crimebuster returns to the cover spot and starts getting longer stories again. The series becomes boy's adventure, with CB doing stuff like bullfighting, flying stunt airplanes and the like. #107 is a major turning point for the title. Biro was faced with the impending creation of the Comics Code, which would eventually prohibit him from even using the character's name - Crimebuster - because it had the word "crime" in it. So he came up with a typically realistic story to deal with this. Basically, the powers that be suddenly realize that an unlicensed, unregulated teenager is running rampant in their police department. Crimebuster is given an ultimatum: If he wants to keep fighting crime, he has to actually get a degree, then go to police academy and become an actual cop. Loover then gets Crimebuster a position at a school called Curtiss Tech, where he can get a diploma before heading to police academy. The rest of the series is CB under his real name of Chuck Chandler doing Hardy Boys style adventures while dealing with the reality of being in a high school environment, complete with an Archie-style cast of new teen supporting characters. It's a radical shift, but Biro still makes it work.
One very odd note: Just as Crimebuster becomes a teen adventure series, Rocky X - the sci-fi backup series about an astronaut in the future fighting aliens - somehow transitions into a Korean War series, with Rocky X and his sidekick fighting the red menace in Asia as soldiers. Don't ask me to explain how they made that shift.
