San Diego Comic-Con Countdown part 3!

Here's the next 6 days of my Facebook page Comic-Con countdown up to and including today's.

The great Will Eisner and "The Spirit".

The Archie Comics Gang!

Too many things to do, so few Jeffy's.

Grooming, perhaps with comic geek romance in mind.

Star-Spangled heroes for the 4th of July.  There were around 40 or so star-spangled characters to come out of the WWII years.  I chose 4 to hang with yesterday.

The original Justice League of America-ers...Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and J'onn J'onzz - The Manhunter from Mars.  Most of whom are jealous of the Avengers movie.

7 more days.  7 more sleeps.  My head's gonna bust!  This day next week will be "travel day" and first day at the zoo they call "Comic-Con"..I'll be sure to report all the fun back at ya!

Talk to you soon.

"Starchie!" - Will Elder - Mad Mondays!

Mad Monday and keeping in chronological order, we should be wrapping up 1954's Mad THE COMIC BOOK #11, the final story therein being Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder's take on Jack Webb's iconic OldTime Radio program "Dragnet".  I've already posted that story however, back here.  Check it out, it's pretty awesome.

After checking that out though, we forge headlong into issue 12 and apparently we're getting into "Seduction of the Innocent" time, as even the cover takes note of the general public's disdain for the low, low cultural significance of the low, low comic book...

Reading the first story there's even a blurb in the upper right mocking the newly formed "Comics Code Authority", the very institution that would bring William Gaines' to change "Mad" from a comic book to a magazine a little later.  And what subject would messers Kurtzman and Elder take on to show the adultitude of their little humor rag?  A deviant super-hero comic book?  Or even horror or western or science fiction comic book odder?  Did they take on an adult scewed movie or radio program?  No, no Nanette, they took on the wholesomest of wholesome, Amercia's average teen-ager, Archie Andrews!

Archie had jumped in to MLJ comics as the super hero trend was fading and eventually nudged all of their super hero features out of their own books.  A comic book take on radio's popular Henry Aldrich program, it was all just a sign of the coming homogenization of America.  Archie had some great aspects to it too.  The art of Bob Montana and a sense of a cohesive world of it's own, but most importantly...Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge helping millions of American boys through puberty while their Mom's thought they were still innocently reading comic books.  Here's to you, girls!!!

But never id the feature feel so adult as when the boys who would one day bring us Goodman Beaver and Little Annie Fannie, first took on "Starchie!"

Enjoy!

Talk to you soon!

Bob Montana: The Typical Average American Teenager

Born this date in 1920, Bob Montana would have been 89 years old today.

Bob is responsible for creating perhaps the second most recognizable comic book icon in the history of the medium, just after Superman representing superheroes. Bob created the typical, average, American teenager, Archie Andrews.

Here from 1941's Pep Comics #22 is his first appearance:

Looks quite a bit different from the Archie gang as you all grew up with, I know. Quite a bit rougher, but Bob's drawing skills slickened up quickly as he kept producing more strips of the happy gang from Riverdale.

Almost immediately, the feature became a staple in newspapers as well. Below you can see just how clean Bob's line became. All the more to add to the Idyllic life modeled in the strip.

Here's the real astonishing thing about Archie Andrews et al. 1938 was the dawn of the comic book as ushered in by Superman. Through WWII, there was a wide variety of genres well represented. Superhero, Teenager (like Archie), Detective stories, War, Western, Romance, Science Fiction, Horror. Then in the 1950's the Superhero fell by the wayside and the rest became the norm with Archie still on top. The 1960's dawned a new age of the superhero, and through the 1970's the War, Western, Romance, Sci-Fi and horror comics fell to almost non-existence, but Archie stayed on.

To this day Archie hangs around where none of his ilk can be seen.

But the real reason for this post is...the eternal decision between Betty and Veronica. This year it was announced that Archie would pop the question to Veronica and they would be married.

Your characters finally lost credibility with me Bob.

Every one knows Jeffy's stance on these matters...

Maryanne over Ginger...

Janet over Chrissy...

Rachael Ray over Giada DeLorentis...

and Jeffy and America's favorite perennial average typical teenager would always choose ...

Betty over Veronica.

It's a no brainer.

Happy birthday anyway Bob. Maybe you should rise from the dead and straighten this nightmare out.