Amorous Education TIPPY TEEN "Chemical Warfare"

Archie wasn't the only "teen humor" strip set in high school...

...as this tale from one of the many Silver Age competitors' comics, Tower's Tippy Teen #1 (1965) demonstrates!

Tower's character, Tippy Teen, was not an Archie clone.

She didn't have two boys fighting over her, as Betty and Veronica did over Archie, but a number of her supporting characters seemed like close relatives to some of Archie's pals and gals.

It's not surprising, since a number of Archie Comics writers and artists were also doing work for Tower, including Dan DeCarlo, Sam Schwartz, Harry Lucey (who penciled this story) and Bob White!

Tippy also had several spin-off comics including Tippy's Friends Go-Go & Animal and Teen-In, which serves as the basis of our Tippy line of kool kollectibles!

Trivia: The story is reputed to be a reworking of a story from Ginger #1, a short-lived title published by Archie Comics that reversed sexes for the lead characters.

(The lead was a red-headed girl pursued by blond and brunette boys.)

Since I don't have the issue, I can't verify it.

But the cover sorta speaks for itself...

Art by Geo Feese (signed)

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

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Tippy's Teen-In™

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DARLING LOVE "Second Hand Love"

This is not an early April Fools joke!
Did you know Archie Comics once published romance comics?

No, not like this!

Like this...

and this!

Like almost all comics publishers at the end of World War II, Archie (then MLJ Magazines) experienced a major drop in sales as action-oriented comics (and super-heroes in particular) fell out of favor with readers.

Luckily, one of their other characters, Archie (along with his supporting cast), proved extremely-popular, and quickly replaced the super-heroes in various titles like Pep Comics and Top-Notch Laugh Comics (which became Laugh Comics) as well as new solo titles for Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and others.

In fact, the company was renamed Archie Comics in 1946!

But that didn't mean the company had abandoned non-Archie concepts!

Due to sales generated in 1949 by then-new romance titles like Young Love, Archie jumped into the brand-new (to comics) teen and young adult women with two titles, Darling Love and Darling Romance published under the Darling Magazines imprint!

Though most of the tales were of the usual breathless "true love" type, a few were stories surprisingly-mature (more in the vein of soap operas), such as this never-reprinted one from Darling Love #8 (1951)...

Illustrated by Harry Lucey (who was also one of the primary Archie artists at the time), the subjects include "older man/younger woman", "widower with child remarrying", and "inadvertent motherhood" 

The two comics were bi-monthly on alternating months and lasted only two years (1949-1951) before being forced out by a glut of romance comics flooding the newsstands as every other publisher entered the compeetition.

Neither series has ever been reprinted!

Next Week:

We're Not Yet Sure What We'll Present!

But We Can Guarantee that If You Miss It...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out!

And now a word from our Sponsor...

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The Love Showdown Collection

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TIPPY TEEN "Fashions from Our Readers" & "Mad Fads"

Besides stories, comics run features...

...like this page featuring contributions from the readers (redrawn by the comic's artists), and the two-pager below, that I'm not sure was legit, or just the middle-aged male editor's idea of what teen girls were thinking...

All three pages from Tower's Tippy Teen #15 (196x).

The art looks like Doug Crane.

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Visit our

Tippy's Teen-In™

Comics Collectibles Shop

TIPPY TEEN "What's Happening, Baby?"

When middle-aged men write stories about hipsters...

...the results are going to be...interesting, offering a look at how the middle class viewed beatniks in the 1960s!

If the plotting and art style on this tale from 1968's Tippy Teen #19 reads like an Archie Comics story, that's because many of their writers and artists (who were freelancers) including Sam Schwartz, Harry Shorten, and Dan DeCarlo, also worked on Tippy strips for the short-lived Tower Comics in the 1960s!

If anyone can tell me who of that crew did this tale, I'll post the info and credit the poster!

 Happy Easter from Tippy!

Though there were a number of Easter-themed comic stories (and even entire comic books) in the 1940s and 1950s, this is the only Easter-themed comic I could find from the Silver Age!

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Visit our

Tippy's Teen-In™

Comics Collectibles Shop

GO-GO "Violin Violation"

One of the most successful Archie-style imitators was Tippy Teen...

...who sold well enough to spin-off a book featuring some of her supporting cast, led by Tippy's best friend, Go-Go and her on-and-off boyfriend Animal.

Written and illustrated by Sam Schwartz and Harry Lucey, this never-reprinted tale from Tower's Tippy's Friends Go-Go and Animal #1 (1966) has the look and feel of an Archie comic of the era.

That's not surprising since both Schwartz and Lucey were regular contributors to various Archie titles!

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Check out the

Tippy's Teen-In™

Comics Collectibles Shop