SIDEKICK IV

DUSTY e ROY by Lancelot

DUSTY ou melhor Dusty Simons foi criado em 1941 por Irv Novick & Harry Shorten
e teve sua primeira publicação na Pep Comics# 11, de janeiro de 1941. Na MLJ Comics foi publicado em diversas revistas como: Pep Comics 11-65; Shield-Wizard Comics 5-13; Special Comics 1; Hangman Comics 2-8; Black Hood Comics 9-11. Na Mighty & Radio Comics: Mighty Crusaders 4. Na Red Circle & Archie Comics: Original Shield 2.

DUSTY recebeu o nome de BOB no Brasil e foi publicado primeiro que o ESCUDO(SHIELD), no GIBI MENSAL#23-A em novembro de 1942 em companhia de ROY parceiro de DRAGO (WIZARD). É apenas um garoto sem super-poderes e mais tarde passaria a integrar BOY BUDDIES com ROY.
ROY foi criado por Harry Shorten and Edd Ashe, seu nome complete é Roy Rossman e surgiu pela primeira vez em setembro 1940 na revista Top-Notch Comics #8. Foi chamado de Super Boy mas também não tinha super-poderes e surgiu bem antes que o SUPERBOY.

Roy, o Super Boy e Dusty, o Menino Detective, ambos respectivamente, parceiros de WIZARD e SHIELD formaram uma aliança no tempo da guerra denominada BOY BUDDIES, algo como Meninos Amigos e transcrevemos no original a seguinte matéria:

Boy Buddies
Original Medium: Comic Books
Creators: Bill Woolfolk (writer) and Paul Reinman (artist)

The Shield and The Wizard, stars of the MLJ Comics line (which also included Mr. Justice, Steel Sterling and Sgt. Boyle) had the first superhero crossover in comic books, but they barely edged out Marvel's Human Torch and Sub-Mariner for the distinction. But when it came to teaming up the sidekicks, the companies' primacy was reversed. The Torch's Toro and Captain America's Bucky were both appearing regularly as members of The Young Allies months before The Shield's Dusty the Boy Detective and The Wizard's Roy the Super-Boy (no relation) startedhaving adventures together as The Boy Buddies.

It was a very early use of spin-offs for MLJ, the company which, after re-naming itself for its most popular character, Archie, eventually came to subsist almost exclusively on such spin-offs as Archie's Pal Jughead, Life with Archie and Little Archie. They gave The Hangman his own comic (the first issue titled Special Comics, and later ones named after the character himself), and the two Robin-inspired sidekicks became co-stars in his back pages.

The gig started in Special Comics #1 (Winter, 1941-2) and continued in Hangman Comics #s 2-8 (Spring, 1942 through Fall, 1943). When The Black Hood replaced The Hangman on the publishing schedule, Dusty and Roy remained for the first three issues, ending with the one for Summer, 1944. The first few stories were written by Bill Woolfolk, who had writing credits at Quality, DC, Fawcett and elsewhere. The artist was Paul Reinman (Mighty Crusaders, John Force). Later appearances were drawn by Bill Vigoda (brother of actor Abe Vigoda, who also drew several Pureheart the Powerful stories).
The Boy Buddies series ran its back-pages course, then was dropped for good. The idea of a sidekick team wasn't revisited until, decades later, DC launched The Teen Titans. By that time, Roy and Dusty had been virtually forgotten.