AROUND THE BLOCK WITH DUNC AND LOO "TV or Not TV"

After last week's spooky Gothic romance mini-blogathon...

...we thought a bit of teen humor would be in order!

You'll note two major differences from most teen humor tales we present here...

1) the art doesn't mimic the Archie Comics "house" art style, which became synonymous with "teen humor" in the late 1950s!

2) the series is set in a big city with apartment houses and other urban elements.

(Most "teen humor" series are set in suburbs/small towns!)

This never-reprinted story from Dell's Around the Block with Dunc and Loo #1 (1961) was written by John Stanley and illustrated by Bill Williams (who were the series' co-creators).

It was one of three "teen humor" series created for Dell by Stanley, including Kookie and Thirteen (Going on Eighteen) for Dell.

We'll be presenting examples of them in the future...

Next Week:

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

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
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Thirteen Going on Eighteen

by John Stanley

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!
And now a word from our sponsor...
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Archie's Americana

Volume 3

Best of the 1960s

PEP COMICS "Archie in 'Christmas Cheers' "

It's comics' all-American boy...as most of you don't know him...

...a buck-toothed, layabout, closer to Reggie (who doesn't appear in this tale), than the wholesome teen of today!
(BTW, for an explanation of War Bonds, and why Archie's dad invested part of his son's $50 check, go HERE!)

Written by Harry Sahle and Ed Goggin, penciled by Sahle and inked by "Ginger" (Virginia Drury), this story from MLJ's Pep Comics #46 (1944) is notable for the debut of two characters; Pop Tate, owner of "Pop's Chocklit Shop" (Called "Tate's" in this tale), and Gabby, a short-lived character who screwed-up other people's lives by continually blabbing things others were not meant to know!

As you can see, the original Bob Montana character designs (which Sahle and Drury matched almost exactly) had not yet been updated to the streamlined Dan DeCarlo versions, which serve as the templates of the characters to this day!

Next Week:

We don't know what we'll publish...yet!

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

And now a word from our sponsor...

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True Love Comics Tales!

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Archie and Friends All-Stars Christmas Stocking

TIPPY TEEN "Wheel of Misfortune"

It's been a while since we ran some "teen humor", so let's look in on Tippy Teen...

...doing Archie-esque things with her Archie-esque cast in an Archie-esque tale from Tippy Teen #14 (1967).

Art by Doug Crane, who was the only artist to sign his art, probably because he was the only Tippy illustrator (besides artist/editor Samm Schwartz) who wasn't moonlighting from Archie Comics...at that point.

After Tower Comics went out of business, Doug worked on DC Comics' teen humor line including Swing with Scooter, Date with Debbie and Binky's Buddies.

From 1989-2005, he was a mainstay of Archie Comics' art staff, working on almost every title they published, even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

The writer is unknown.

Next Week...

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

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

(Yeah, we say that a lot...but it's true!)

And now a word from out sponsor...

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HARVEY "Beauty and the Beach"

When summer vacation begins, comic book teens run for, where else...

...the beach!

This never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Harvey #5 (1972) was the penultimate issue of their last attempt at "teen" humor.
Written and penciled by Stu Schwartzberg and inked by Henry Scarpelli, clearly imitating Dan DeCarlo's art style which became the "look" of Archie Comics, this book and several Millie the Model titles ended in 1972-73, leaving Archie standing alone in the teen humor genre to this day.

Next Week

Our Annual Summer RetroBlog Blogathon Begins HERE with a special re-presentation of the first Graphic Novel!

A Tale of Love, Lust, Politics, Crime, and a Man Romancing a Successful Businesswoman...and Her Daughter!

It Rhymes with LUST

by Arnold Drake, Leslie Waller, Matt Baker, and Ray Osrin

A Saga So Big...So HOT...No Single Blog Can Contain It!

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

Now a word from our sponsor!

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Best of Archie Comics

75 Years - 75 Stories

BUNNY "Yvoorg Nam"

We've presented several teen humor stories from Jetta and Tippy Teen...

...but this one has to be the wildest of all!

WTF?

If you're shaking your head in confusion, consider two things...

1) It was 1968 and "psychedelic" was IN!

2) This story, illustrated by Ernie Colon (though who wrote the tale is unknown), is from Bunny #4, Harvey Comics' 1960s attempt to expand their fanbase from pre-teens to 'tweens and teens...which has a fascinating back-story of it's own...

To most people today, the 'tween / teen comics scene begins and ends with the Archie Comics line.
Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and the rest seem to be the only non-super powered teenagers in the four-color world!
But it wasn't always that way...
In the 1960s, when many comics companies flourished in the era of Pop Art and "Camp", every company had teen-age characters side-by-side with superheroes and spies!
Harvey Comics, had a teen line headed by a female lead, rather than a male.
She was a doll...literally!

In 1966, a toy company wanted to launch a line of Barbie-type dolls, with the added kick of a comic book tie-in to boost public awareness in the same way the 1980s GI Joe series was co-conceived by Hasbro and Marvel.
Harvey's writers and artists worked with the toy company's staff on character development and storylines for the comic and toys.

Like most Harvey characters, Bunny had an ongoing obsession--in this case with teen fads and trends...clothing, dances, hairstyles, etc!
Presumably, this was to encourage doll buyers to pick up the newest clothing and accessories the manufacturer could produce...after seeing them in the comic!

However, before a single doll could roll out of the factory, the toy company collapsed!
The Harveys (three brothers who owned and ran the comic company), not wanting to let the already-prepared pages go to waste, decided to publish the comic anyway.
It sold well enough to keep going for several years and produce a spin-off title, Rock Happening, which serves as the basis for our own line of Bunny-themed goodies!

Next Week:

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

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

(Things are really getting juicy...)

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TIPPY TEEN / VICKI "3rd Finger, Right Hand"

She's supposedly two different girls, almost a decade apart...

...even though both of them have the same boyfriend!

When this story from Tower's Tippy Teen #3 (1966) was reprinted in Atlas/Seaboard's Vicki #1 (1975), more than just the fashions and hairstyles were altered*.

Tippi became "Vicki", though her boyfriend remained "Tommy Trippit" in both versions!

Why did Seaboard change the character's name from Tippy to Vicki?

Nobody's certain.

But, since Vicki was cancelled after only four issues, the question is now moot.

 

*With sales falling on most non-superhero genres in the late 1960s (including Western and war as well as romance and teen humor [except for the Archie titles]), "updated reprinting" became a common practice on teen humor and romance comics until the genres all-but died out in the late 1970s.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

b) updating the art was cheaper than totally-redrawing the story. 

c) the artists were better-utilized doing stuff that sold better (like superheroes).

d) the audience for teen humor and romance comics, unlike superhero comics, totally-changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the "old" plots.

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

True Love Comics Tales™

Comics Collectibles Shop