BARBIE & KEN "Wedding"

For girls of the late 1950s thru early 1970s, Barbie and Ken dolls were fashion icons...

...so it was inevitable that there would be a comic book about their adventures.

 But, as it turns out, Barbie and Ken were secretly married the entire time!

It's true!

Here's the story from Dell Comics' Barbie & Ken #1 (1962)...

Surprised?

To be fair, the never-reprinted tale, illustrated by Norman Nodel, details the little girls in the Barbie Fan Club telling their own alleged experiences with Barbie and Ken...which are no doubt fantasies since they cover Barbie being a nurse, a ballerina, and a stewardess, as well as getting married!
Except...who is the kid going off with Patty?
As you might have guessed, Mattel had play sets (clothing and props) showing Barbie doing all those things!
BTW, note that Nodel deliberately kept both Barbie and Ken "on model", looking very much like the actual dolls...except they could bend their arms and legs (which the dolls couldn't do until the late 1960s)!

Next Week:

Another Never-Reprinted Story About Barbie!

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

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Barbie and Ruth

The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her

Anything BUT Archie / Wedding Bliss WENDY PARKER "Getting Married!"

For over the past half-century, when you think "teen/young adult humor" in comics...you think Archie!

But, before the early 1960s, there was a lot more to the genre, as we'll show you, beginning with this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Wendy Parker #1 (1953)!

Wendy Parker first appeared in Atlas' Miss America #53 (1953), which already featured Patsy Walker and Hedy Wolfe (who had their own comics as well).

Wendy was a rational, logical, young woman, unlike the ditzes who tended to populate the genre.

As you've seen in this tale, it was literally everybody else in the strip who were...well...ditzes!
Wendy was immediately given her own book, which lasted only eight issues, but she continued to appear as a backup feature in other titles for another year, before finally disappearing.
And I do mean "disappearing"!
None of her stories has ever been reprinted!

Next Week:

Another Example of Humor That Doesn't Look Like Archie!

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

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Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics

1940s-1970s

An Illustrated History

Amorous Education & Wedding Bliss CONFESSIONS ILLUSTRATED "High School Bride"

In a total contrast to last week's frivolous flight of fancy...

...here's a totally-serious tale...but with an upbeat ending!

I had said that the only genre the EC Comics crew couldn't handle well was romance.

OK, I was wrong.

This story, and the entire EC Comics Confessions Illustrated series, prove me incorrect.
In their final attempt, after Saddle Romances; A Moon, a Girl, Romance; and Modern Love, they finally got it right!

This particular tale, written by Daniel (Flowers for Algernon) Keyes and illustrated by Jack Kamen, was never published during the series' original run.
It was intended for #3...but the series ended with #2.
It was finally published in a now OOP boxed hardcover edition in 2006 presenting all the EC "Picto-Fiction" titles along with their previously-unpublished final issues!
But it was just reprinted last month as a standalone edition, as you see below.

Next Week

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Can Guarantee...

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EC Archives
Confessions Illustrated
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Wedding Bliss & Super-Love ACTION COMICS "Superman Takes a Wife" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...before the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, there were two Supermen on parallel worlds, one who began his career just before World War II on "Earth-Two", and one who began his career in the late 1950s on "Earth-One"!

This is the tale of the Earth-Two version, who has just married Lois Lane...

The Mr and Mrs Superman strip, detailing the couple's adventures, ran for several years until Crisis on Infinite Earths merged all the parallel worlds in the DC Universe into one, rebooting the comic publisher's continuity and eliminating various duplicates of characters...except the Earth-Two Superman and Lois, who survived in a "pocket universe"!
But that's a story for another time (and blog)...

And now, we're going "fanboy/fangirl" with a few Easter Eggs...

The Earth-Two Superman's "different" chest insignia was actually used in the 1940s on a promotional painting done to publicize the Adventures of Superman radio show...

...rendered by pulp cover artist H J Ward, whose previous superhero credits included promotional art for the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet radio shows!

Villain Colonel (Edmond H) Future was a tribute to Golden/Silver Age pulp and comic book writer Edmond Hamilton, who, besides introducing a number of characters into the DC Universe, created the pulp sci-fi hero Captain Future...

...whose premiere issue's cover was one of the featured items in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment on The Big Bang Theory!

The robots Superman stopped in Part One of our story were based on the ones seen in the 1940s Fleischer Brothers' Superman cartoon "Mechanical Monsters"...which also showed the very first time Superman changed into costume in a phone booth!

Wow, it felt good getting that out of my system!

Next Week...

More SUPER Love!

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

Wedding Bliss & Super-Love ACTION COMICS "Superman Takes a Wife" Part 1

You may think you know the tale of Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois Lane, but..

...if you're under 50, it's doubtful you know the story of this Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois Lane...

You know how they say "The honeymoon's over"?

Well, it gets a whole new meaning...

TOMORROW

Don't Miss It, Because

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Do!

There are several Easter Eggs in this part of the story, but we're not going "fanboy/fangirl" on you and explain them until tomorrow...with one exception...

For those of you born after 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, here's a crib sheet explaining a bit more about the Clark and Lois whose tale you've been reading...

(Click on the page to enlarge)

BTW, when this tale was published, the Golden Age original Superman had been appearing for a couple of years in DC's All-Star Comics as an active member of the Justice Society in stories set in the present day (1978)!
And, this Clark was now the editor of the Daily Star...

(Technically, that's not a separate Easter Egg, so there...)