Post by Crimebuster on May 13, 2015 22:47:08 GMT -5
As most of you know by now, one of my favorite titles of all time is Boy Comics, and one of my favorite characters is the star of that series, Crimebuster.
Unfortunately, Boy Comics was a casualty of the Comics Code crackdown, as Lev Gleason went out of business, ending the series in 1956.
However, what none of us knew until now is that the series continued to be published into the 1960's down in South America!
Say hello to Justy!
I just got a couple issues in from Argentina. Now, unlike those Mexican issues of Sgt. Fury I got a while back, these unfortunately do not contain new stories. Instead, they are translated reprints from Boy Comics. But since they were only reprinting one story at a time, and Boy Comics often had 2 or 3 stories, they had a huge backlog of stories to publish, meaning they continued working through the inventory long after Boy Comics was just a happy memory here in America.
I did look through a few later ones on ebay, and at least one of them had a story that looked as though it might have been done by the Argentinean publisher. I didn't recognize it offhand, anyway, and since the issue was from 1960, it's certainlyp ossible they had run out of inventory by then.
The best part of the issues I did get, though? Well, the stories inside may not be new, but the covers are. Since they changed Crimebuster's name to Justy, they also had to change his costume. So I guess they just decided it would be easier to draw entirely new covers.
Here's another awesome new cover for Justy, never published in America:
These issues also have seriously sweet house ads. Check it out:
I got these off ebay from a guy in Argentina. He had several more issues, but alas, I only had the money to buy these two. All the issues he had were fronted by brand now original covers, some of which - like these two - were definitely better than a lot of the covers Charles Biro was doing. There was a particularly weird one where everyone including Justy was wearing a giant fake mustache that I really wanted.
Oh well. At least now I have another title to try and track down!
Unfortunately, Boy Comics was a casualty of the Comics Code crackdown, as Lev Gleason went out of business, ending the series in 1956.
However, what none of us knew until now is that the series continued to be published into the 1960's down in South America!
Say hello to Justy!
I just got a couple issues in from Argentina. Now, unlike those Mexican issues of Sgt. Fury I got a while back, these unfortunately do not contain new stories. Instead, they are translated reprints from Boy Comics. But since they were only reprinting one story at a time, and Boy Comics often had 2 or 3 stories, they had a huge backlog of stories to publish, meaning they continued working through the inventory long after Boy Comics was just a happy memory here in America.
I did look through a few later ones on ebay, and at least one of them had a story that looked as though it might have been done by the Argentinean publisher. I didn't recognize it offhand, anyway, and since the issue was from 1960, it's certainlyp ossible they had run out of inventory by then.
The best part of the issues I did get, though? Well, the stories inside may not be new, but the covers are. Since they changed Crimebuster's name to Justy, they also had to change his costume. So I guess they just decided it would be easier to draw entirely new covers.
Here's another awesome new cover for Justy, never published in America:
These issues also have seriously sweet house ads. Check it out:
I got these off ebay from a guy in Argentina. He had several more issues, but alas, I only had the money to buy these two. All the issues he had were fronted by brand now original covers, some of which - like these two - were definitely better than a lot of the covers Charles Biro was doing. There was a particularly weird one where everyone including Justy was wearing a giant fake mustache that I really wanted.
Oh well. At least now I have another title to try and track down!
