In the early 1940s, a group of young orphans and runaways called the Little Wise Guys encountered the superhero Daredevil while he was fighting a German-American cult. The four boys—Meatball, Jock, Scarecrow, and Peewee—soon became Daredevil's sidekicks. Later, Meatball was killed in action, and his place in the gang was soon taken over by a bald kid called Curly. When the four kids weren't helping Daredevil to battle crime, they were having rambunctious adventures of their own.

The four original Little Wise Guys first appeared in Daredevil Comics #13 (Oct. 1942) and became the sidekicks of the title character. The original lineup included Scarecrow, Pee Wee, Jock and Meatball. Two issues later, one of them—Meatball—was killed off, and in issue #16 Curly was added.

As superheroes declined in popularity, Daredevil's role was gradually reduced to introducing the Wise Guys at the beginning of their stories, and starting with issue #70 (January, 1951), he disappeared completely; the book was still called Daredevil Comics, but only the Little Wise Guys remained. The titular star briefly reappeared in issues #79 and 80, but that was the end of him.

Daredevil Comics ended with issue #134 (Sept. 1956), and the Little Wise Guys vanished along with it.

Decades later, an elderly Curly saw a television broadcast announcing that the superheroes who had mysteriously vanished years ago had now returned, and that 'Devil was among them. Curly knew the original Daredevil had died in 1987, and on his deathbed had given Curly one of his boomerangs. Determined to expose the fraud, Curly obtained a drug on the black market that returned him to peak physical condition, and donned a green and purple version of 'Devil's costume; calling himself The Dragon, he then sought out 'Devil and exposed the fraud.

Also in 2009, Curly was brought back in the Dynamite Entertainment miniseries The Death-Defying 'Devil as The Dragon.