Thursday, April 24, 2008

From the Dust Bin: The Four Comrades





Here is a quick glimpse at another golden age feature from the Better/Standard/Nedor line of publisher Ned Pines.

The Four Comrades were juvenile boxing champ Buzz Brandon, Irish street urchins Pudge O'Conner and Tip Adams and boy inventor Tommy Tomkins. Lifting an earlier plot device from the Black Terror, whose costume was left over from a party, the Comrades donned identical, discarded theatrical suits to battle against wartime criminals and foreign agents. While they possessed no extraordinary powers, the four were very adept at fighting together as a team and were able to handle even the toughest of foes, including one recurring nemesis by the name of Black Satan, who sported a nifty pair of horns on his noggin.

Their golden age adventures were chronicled in Startling Comics #16-31, 33-34, & 36.

6 comments:

Kid Terror said...

Black Satan was waaaay to cool of a villain for these guys. Commando Cubs could slaughter these kids.

Chuck Wells said...

Too bad the two kid teams never interacted.

I'll have to rectify that in a fan fiction one of these days, AND you might be able to guess what I would call a grouping of Nedor's other heroic kid sidekicks (Tim, Eaglet, Mike & Mickey) .... it's an available group name from the Better/Standard/Nedor stable that fits 'em perfectly.

Kid Terror said...

Well there's Crime Crushers which is two of the Three Comrades (no relation) and The Supersleuths. I'm guessing Supersleuths.

Chuck Wells said...

Kid, both are excellent guesses, but the correct answere is "Little Legends".

And I didn't realize that Steve & Ploopie (the Crime Crushers) were affiliated with the "Three Comrades". You'll have to enlighten me further on that one with a nice post someday. Thanks for the info!

Kid Terror said...

Actually checking back on my one grainy B&W scan of Three Comrades I seem to be way off. I'm not sure where I got that idea. I was trying to figure it out and I guess they look a bit like two of the Commando Cubs. I still can't shake the feeling they came from another comic.

Chuck Wells said...

No problem, pal.

With all of the super-cool Nedor scans that you're providing, forgiveness comes easy.