Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: boy comics, Iron Jaw, lev gleason

The Vicious Iron Jaw in Boy Comics #3 and Beyond, Up for Auction

Published Sun, 31 Jul 2022 10:33:10 -0500

Regular Crimebuster foe Iron Jaw, whose exploits largely played out in the pages of the unassumingly-named Boy Comics, might be one of the most vicious supervillains of the war era. From publisher Lev Gleason who is best known for Daredevil Battles Hitler and Crime Does Not Pay, Iron Jaw might properly be described as a combination of both of those things. While the character had first appeared in Boy Comics #3, his origin as told in Boy Comics #6 is a doozy. It's explained in the story that the man who would become Iron Jaw, Sergeant von Schmidt, had befriended young Adolf Hitler on the Belgian front during WWI. In battle on the front line, Hitler shoots a superior officer who had opposed him. Thinking that Sergeant von Schmidt had been involved in the act as well, the officer tosses a grenade at him — blowing his jaw off in a gruesome fashion on the page.

Boy Comics #3 is actually the first issue of this long-running series, which had formerly been titled Captain Battle Comics. The issue introduced young superhero Crimebuster and a number of other boy heroes, in stark contrast to the brutal Iron Jaw. The successful Boy Comics series ran for 117 issues from 1942-1956. There is a copy of the first issue of this series and the debut of Crimebuster and Iron Jaw in Boy Comics #3 (Lev Gleason, 1942) Condition: VG, several other issues of the Boy Comics series, and several early Iron Jaw appearances up for auction in the 2022 July 31-August 1 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122231 at Heritage Auctions.

Boy Comics #4 featuring Iron Jaw (Lev Gleason, 1942)

Years later, Iron Jaw resumes his relationship with his old friend Hitler, who has by then risen to power in Germany. The character has a son by this time as well, who also rises within the Nazi party and is considered the strongest youth in Germany — in Hitler's words the "perfect Man of Tomorrow." With Iron Jaw presumed dead at this time due to the events of Boy Comics #4, it soon transpires that Hitler tells Iron Jaw's son that the hero Crimebuster killed him, and sends the son to America to seek revenge. But Crimebuster convinces the boy that Hitler is a liar — leading to a shocking ending with Iron Jaw returning to murder his own son in close combat. As he later explains, "I had to kill him because he was bitten by a mad disease called Americanism!"

Important characters in a historically important series, there is a copy of the first issue of this series and the debut of Crimebuster and Iron Jaw in Boy Comics #3 (Lev Gleason, 1942) Condition: VG, several other issues of the Boy Comics series, and several early Iron Jaw appearances up for auction in the 2022 July 31-August 1 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122231 at Heritage Auctions. If you've never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters. It's a particularly good week to take a look with lots of rare Ace Magazines comics, Champ and Champion Comics, Lev Gleason comics, and much more.