In the early days of the Golden Age, comic creators started expanding their heroes’ worlds by giving them sidekicks. Many of those sidekick characters were kids or teens, developed to connect with their young readers by inspiring them to imagine working with a superhero themselves. And then there was Doiby Dickles.

Charles “Doiby” Dickles is a portly man in a derby hat who became the sidekick to original Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Bill Finger and Irwin Hasen created Doiby, making him a New York City taxi driver with a thick Brooklyn accent and the motto, “Soivice that don’t make youse noivice.” He was introduced in All-American Comics #27 (June 1941), meeting Green Lantern when he followed the hero while he was chasing criminals.

When the thugs supposedly killed Alan, Doiby dressed up in his own Green Lantern costume and attempted to stop the bad guys himself. Green Lantern showed up and the two defeated the criminals together. After the incident, Alan sent Doiby a letter asking the cabbie to aid him in his mission of stopping crime. Doiby accepted the invitation to work together, referring to the hero as Green Lan’trin, and eventually learning his secret identity as Alan Scott.

The pair worked side by side against run of the mill bad guys and Nazis during World War II. While Alan used the power of his lantern, Doiby went into battle with his trusty pipe wrench. They also worked together in their regular personas with Alan heading the Gotham Broadcasting radio station and Doiby as his personal assistant. They tried to help Solomon Grundy during his debut in comics when the character went on a rampage.

In another story, they met Princess Raima of Myrg, who was an alien that fled to Earth because she was being forced to marry an evil prince. They helped the alien woman and Doiby traveled to Myrg and married Princess Ramia. The aliens appreciated his wisdom and tales of New York City, so Green Lantern returned to Earth while his buddy stayed behind.

Doiby returned to Earth and was part of Old Justice, a group of Golden Age sidekicks that included Merry Pemberton, Neptune Perkins, the Cyclone Kids, Dan the Dyna-Mite, and Second Sweep from the Minute Men of America. The older sidekicks join together because they believe that younger superheroes of the time don’t take their responsibilities seriously.

In the Sins of Youth storyline, an alien device that Doiby brought back to Earth and Klarion the Witch Boy’s magic turns adult superheroes and villains into children and vice versa. Doiby and Old Justice take on the responsibility of watching over the adults-turned-children, many of whom have powers and are now behaving irresponsibly. The group babysits the reckless kids and collectively the age-swapped group convinces Klarion to work with Doiby to change everyone back to the way they were. The Young Justice impress the Old Justice during the event, convincing the Golden Age sidekicks that the younger heroes are up to the task of being superheroes.