Man, I wish I had been a kid in the 50s!
Boy Detective #1-4 were from 1951 & 1952
Monday, November 16, 2015
Manic Monday Triple Overtime--Kid Cop!!
Back in the early 1950s, someone thought it was a good idea to make children into policemen:
Nothing that crazy ever happens on the inside of the comics. The official police never give Dan Tayler guns, or a badge, or a hat...but he does have them on all the covers!
I haven't read the first two issues, so I don't know if we get an "origin" story that how the police let the "boy mastermind" not only fight crime, but go undercover and trail murderers and tackle armed felons and all manner of kind of dangerous stuff.
The FBI even uses Dan to roust spies and capture saboteurs for them!! And it's not a case of Dan butting in where he's not wanted. Virtually every story had the police summoning Dan in to help with their investigations!
Of course, you have to love the veteran cops letting a child be the first one into the room filled with dangerous criminals...again, cover only. But Dan was in plenty of danger, and no adult ever seemed seriously worried about his safety, as long as he helped keep their arrest number up!!
Man, I wish I had been a kid in the 50s!
Boy Detective #1-4 were from 1951 & 1952
Man, I wish I had been a kid in the 50s!
Boy Detective #1-4 were from 1951 & 1952
The origin story, such as it is, has Dan the son of a murdered policeman. The cops in the homicide bureau adopt him as a mascot and teach him detecting, whereupon he helps bring his father's killer to justice. Here's the first issue on Comicbook+:
ReplyDeletehttp://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=28673
In the stories they play reasonably fairly in making Dan an "ordinary" kid. Understanding, of course, that being a comic hero he is stronger, tougher, and smarter than the rest of us adolescent boys.
Speaking of which, as an adolescent boy I sure wouldn't have minded meeting the "vice lords of crime," especially if it meant being clutched by a buxom damsel in distress.