Three good stories, though one is a bit annoying. Sheer chance leaves Annie with Dr. Zee; she's a catalyst to make some major changes for him, for Kate and Blunt, and for the whole town. I like that one. Plus the whole thing with Eldeen and Zaney - yet another miraculous invention, with a secret formula - that part's a bit of a yawn, it's too unlikely to work for me. Then an extension - the Junior Commandos of the title; Annie organizes all the kids in town, from the smallest to the big tough gang kids, into helping with war work, in dozens of ways. Again, she's a catalyst - changes things for Mrs. Sleet, in particular. And the return of Shanghai Peg - it's great to see him again, in a slightly more...hmm. I can't really say respectable. Slightly more powerful role, I guess. It's a little odd how people keep popping into and out of the army, though. Blunt's out, then he's in, then he's out again, then finally in; Dr. Zee goes off, and returns; and so on. Dr. Clover is interesting - hope things work out for her, I don't think she ever shows up again. And then another unlikely adventure, though I like the setting - the castle is fascinating. Another ghost, too. And the local Junior Commandos play a big part. I like that some of the characters are a bit broader than their surfaces - at least two here are more than they seem, and on the right side. The poor commander...And Daddy comes back in the nick of time. Again. Honestly. Annie should know better than to believe any reports of his death, ever, from any source... ( )

Harold Gray was better-positioned than most serial comic strip creators of the day to embody the hard realities of World War II into his strip. LOA was already a strip that had faced the hard realities of the Great Depression and not shied away from them, and had already dealt with violence and death and evil characters. As the nation rallied around FDR in the months after Pearl Harbor, so did the hard-right conservative Harold Gray, using LOA to support the war effort, higher taxes and shared sacrifice in the form of volunteerism, rationing and heightened vigilance. Gray also shows a willingness to buck the conventional wisdom of the day, making points in favor of equal opportunities for women and blacks in the military, and against prejudice toward Americans of German ancestry (although "Japs" are not portrayed nearly as even-handedly in the strip).

The main sequences here have Annie, left again in the care of others while "Daddy" Warbucks goes off to fight the war in his own way, fighting her own battles on the home front. She begins the "Junior Commandos", a military-styled juvenile association that takes on many helpful endeavors, geared toward promoting volunteerism, recycling, rationing, and a variety of other activities geared toward helping the war effort. A number of real Junior Commando chapters did actually arise in response, although it's unlikely that any of them achieved Annie's success in fighting against the enemy's hidden endeavors on the home front. Annie and her Junior Commandos successfully contend against 5th Columnists, spies, and U-boat installations. Some of the charm, innocence and optimism have left the strip -- in these days, it was a very real question whether the Allies would win the war. But Gray finds an opportunity here and there to pursue stories of human interest and love, and the heightened action sequences here are tense and well-paced. ( )