The Four Comrades

Membership: Buzz Brandon, Tommy Tompkins, Pudge O'Conner, Tip Adams

Purpose: To fight crime, especially foreign saboteurs.

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Black Satan, Archibald Stover

Base of Operations: A clubhouse in an unidentified U.S. city

First Appearance: Startling Comics#16 (Nedor, August 1942)

Summary: When two tough streetwise kids and a junior boxing champion stumbled across costumed criminal's kidnapping plot they donned costumes of their own to rescue the abductee, who proved to a young inventor from a rich family. With his addition to the team the group became the Four Comrades, and went on to derail many a villainous plot.

History: 

Comments: Created by Maurice Gutwirth.

   Like most, if not all, of Nedor's characters, the Four Comrades are now in the public domain. As such their original stories are legally available to read online at Comic Book Plus, in the Startling Comics archive. So if the characters are of interest, feel free to go read the stories for yourself!

   Because they and other Nedor characters are in the public domain, they were used by writer Alan Moore in his Tom Strong series, though in their case only in a very minor capacity. Just in case any budding authors out there hope to use these characters in their own stories and haven't already realized it, that Tom Strong tale and the changes it made to the Four Comrades are obviously not public domain.

Appearance checklist (not including reprints): Startling Comics#16-31, 33-34, 36, Tom Strong#12

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Four Comrades should not be confused with:

• the Fourth Musketeer, a Timely hero -- Comedy Comics#9
• or any other "Four" or "Comrade" characters

First Posted: Circa 03/08/2003
Last updated: 12/10/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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