Number 1920: Joyriding with Speedy

“Case 1009” is the last of a series of one-shot crime stories that appeared in Boy Comics, from the first issue (#3) to #10 (1942), which is where we take our tale of young Earl “Speedy” Feehan. Speedy loves cars. He loves them so much he steals borrows them and hot-rods around his home town. He thinks this sort of activity is okay — it’s just for kicks, y'know — but then he boosts the wrong car. He steals some classified war files foolishly left in a car by a government guy, and Speedy is confused for a Nazi spy.

The story, written by Dick Wood and drawn by Norman Maurer, is more cautionary tale than crime story. Certainly Speedy gets his punishment at the end, but his thefts are represented more as youthful folly than actual crimes. Maybe the attitude toward taking someone else’s car without permission was different in 1942 than it is in 2016. Nowadays he would probably get a lot more than six months in reform school for the same crime. I also hope George Anderson of Naval Intelligence got some form of censure or punishment from his superiors for foolishly leaving secret defense plans in his car while spending the night in a hotel.

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