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?)

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VICKI "Kiss and Tell" 2.0

The original version of this "meta" tale of a comic book character reading a comic book appeared HERE...

...now here's the same story, with "updated" clothing and hairstyles and a different lead character., but the same supporting cast!

When Seaboard Publishing/Atlas Comics reprinted this tale in Vicki #2 (1975), they did the usual modifications to keep the tale looking "current" that everybody else did with their older teen humor and romance material.

I don't know if Atlas/Seaboard tried to get the rights to Tower's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, at that point only five years after their last appearance and still-fondly remembered by comics fans!

But, they ended up with Tippy Teen...who was renamed Vicki!
My personal opinion is that Seaboard's Martin Goodman discovered that Tower had abandoned the negatives/photostats at the printer (whom they didn't pay).
Like Israel Waldman who took similar abandoned material for his Super/IW Comics line, Goodman took the material (which also had never been copyrighted, so it was Public Domain as soon as it was published) and reprinted it, changing only the title to avoid a nuisance lawsuit from Tower (which was still publishing paperbacks) and claim a new copyright on the modified reprinted material.

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TIPPY TEEN "Kiss and Tell"

Besides romance comics, most of us also read teen humor comics...

...like Tippy Teen, which featured this tale that starts off with our heroine reading a romance comic...

If the plotting and art style on this never-reprinted tale from 1967's Tippy Teen #17 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!

Next Week:

We don't know what we'll present..yet,
but we can guarantee that...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
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Archie's Americana

Volume 3

Best of the 1960s

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...

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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™

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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