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 TIPPY TEEN "Volley Folly"

We've talked about students having crushes on teachers...

...but sometimes it can get waaaaay out of hand!

BTW, note how the colorist didn't follow the description of the gym teacher's hair...

The script from this never-reprinted tale from Tower's Tippy Teen #2 (1966) is a re-use of a previous script for Quality's Candy #37 (1953) by the same writer, Jack Mendelsohn!
(Even the one-shot gym teacher's name is the same in both stories!)

Next Week:

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, But We Guarantee that...

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 JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "What a Specimen"

To help ease your sad return to school before Labor Day (those of you with an extended school year)...

MORE fun with Dan DeCarlo's Jetta!
The 21st Century isn't what they thought it would be in 1953...

"Leaping Electrodes!"
"Now we're cookin' with uranium!"
"Go atomize yourself!"
"This is simply electronic!"
Why aren't we all talking like this?

This tale from Jetta #6 (which was actually the second issue) was written and penciled by Dan DeCarlo, but it may not have been inked by him.

Next Week...
We're Not Yet Certain What We'll Present!
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Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Amorous Education JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "Act Your Age!"

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

...as this tale of 21st Century teen-agers from 1953 proves!

I'm positive writer/penciler Dan DeCarlo re-used this concept for an Archie story using Dilton Dooley as the creator of the aging/de-aging device!

I know I've seen a story with younger versions of Principal Weatherbee and Miss Grundy almost becoming a couple, before reverting to their present-day older selves.

Anybody know what my failing memory vaguely recalls?

It's a shame this was from the final issue of Standard's Jetta of the 21st Century (#7 in 1953).

(Despite that issue number, there were only three issues, #s 5 to 7!)

Guess the concept was too "far out" for early 1950s readers!

BTW, we'd like to extend our thanks to the amazing Kracalactaka, heroic and voluminous contributor to both the Digital Comic Museum and ComicBookPlus, for these Jetta scans!
It's people like him who assure that comic book art will be appreciated for generations to come!
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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Dan DeCarlo's Jetta

Amourous Education GINGER "Smellbound"

We presented two later versions of this tale HERE and HERE...

...Now here's the story that started it all!

(Note: all three tales are by the same writer!)

The biggest difference is that the teacher isn't a science instructor, but a history teacher, but many of the elements (including the perfume store, and of course, the punchline) are the same!

Freelance writers like Mendelsohn were dependent on producing volumes of work to pay the bills, since comics (and pulp magazines) weren't high-paying gigs back then.
It was strictly "work for hire", a one-time payment only!
They didn't get reprint fees, nor payment (not even a credit/acknowledgement) if their stories were re-used on radio/tv/movie versions of the characters, which they ofter were!
So it's not that unusual for writers to reuse storylines for stories for different publishers!
(We presented a kool example of this during our last year's annual Halloween blogathon starting with THIS TALE, and continuing through the links...)
Illustrated by George Frese, Mendelson's story from Archie's Ginger #1 (1951) was a continuation of the character's strip which premiered in Zip Comics in 1943, continued in the back of Suzie Comics, and finally got it's own title in 1951!

Ironically, the mid-1950s "Seduction of the Innocent" scandal involving horror and crime comics that caused numerous publishers to close and the surviving companies to reduce their output, doomed the wholesome character's book to end at #10 in 1954 when Archie cut back their line!
She disappeared until the early 2000s, when Archie began reprinting her stories in their numerous digest-sized titles, introducing her to a new audience who weren't even alive when she first appeared!

Happy April Fool's Day!

Be Back Next Wednesday for More Amorous Education!

Amorous Education CANDY "Chemical Formula"

The Amorous Education story we presented last week...

...was the final version of a plot used three times by writer Jack Mendelsohn.

This is the second version of the tale!

This never-reprinted story from Quality's Candy #42 (1953) has some differences from the later Tippy Teen tale, but the similarities are unmistakable.

Be here on April Fool's Day, when we present the original version of the story!

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

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

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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...

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