In Which Archie Channels His Inner Dennis the Menace

There is simply no way we're going to miss out on the first appearance of Archie Andrews from Pep #22.  I don't know why you might have thought that was an option, but it isn't.

So, here he is in his very first appearance with Betty.

That doesn't look too much like the Archie (or Betty, that matter) that we would grow to love.  He looks like someone... I can't quite pin it down...

Oh, wait.... yes, I can:

Anyhoo, this is an intro to Archie, whose family apparently couldn't yet afford all those sweater vests and slacks he would later wear:

As we see there, "Archie" is a nickname for "Archibald."  Yet, he wants a nickname of his nickname.  And he's telling you to call him what had been recognized as slang for a girl at least since Elmer Gantry was published in 1927.  I don't know where to begin with how wrong that is.  It's a small surprise they dumped that.

This is, of course, before Veronica would move into town and Kardashian up the place.

Anyway, the gimmick behind this first appearance is that Archie is an awful klutz and causes headaches for Betty's dad.  Of course, once Veronica showed up, we didn't see a whole lot of Betty's dad.  But for now, while Archie is inexplicably wearing Capri Pants:

I include that picture because the sound effect makes it look like he's farting.  He isn't, but it looks like he is and farts are almost always hilarious.

And here's the first appearance of Jughead, who is really the reason you read Archie stories.  It's like Mr. Spock is the reason Star Trek is awesome.

Jughead's family had apparently also fallen on hard times as well.

Anyway, as I'm reading the story, Archie gets manipulated by Betty into walking a tightrope, there's taffy involved, and....

... well, I think they go to England and there's a sea monster:

... okay, I'm not sure exactly where that transition was made, but then someone dies... is that Reggie?

No, it couldn't be Reggie.  Reggie is still around.  But maybe this is Reggie's dad or something.  It would explain a lot of Reggie's behavior, to tell you the truth.

To be honest, I may have started another story without realizing it.  That's the thing about these anthology comic books.

I also found this, which will be used for our new meme, My Eyes, My Eyes! (tm!), so we'll look forward to that in the future.

See you Monday!

In Which I Say "Pull My Finger" Three Times in One Post Tuesday!

Okay, so I'm taking a Flash break to check out Pep Comics #1, from 1940:

Yup, it's the original Shield, the Man with the Humongous Chest Insignia.  What is his origin?  Well, we're not going to waste any time drawing it, that's for dang sure!

Got all that?

Seriously, would your average child have read that?  When I was a lad, I never read the caption boxes.  Ever.

Anyway, Higgins is a government agent, so he gets orders from some FBI Chief muckety-muck:

Your first assignment is TO PULL MY FINGER!

Forgive me for asking, but I am a product of American public schools and I have no idea what "Stokian" is. Is or was that a thing?  Because Google is telling me nuthin'...

AND I SAID PULL MY FINGER!

WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?  THE PUBLIC IS CLAMORING FOR ACTION... AND CLAMORING FOR YOU TO PULL MY FINGER!

I don't know that I would want to be known as "The Dreaded Shield."  I mean, does everyone dread him?  Why is that?  Is he a poor house guest?

Anyway, with an origin like that, I guess you can just have whatever super-powers that pop into your writer's head:

There's always a way in... for the Shield!  

You can tell he's got low self-opinion by the way he refers to himself in the third person.  Adam has been known to do that himself.

This is my favorite part: He takes down the spies, and then just stands there for what had to be a really long time:

I mean, I suppose if you're invulnerable, it's not a huge deal, but why make life harder than it needs to be?  And I have to point out, this is taking place in a hotel, so I presume some folks were blown to smithereens when the bomb went off.

Oh, well.  The Shield still gets his man, but not wishing to reveal his identity (kind of a weird priority for a man who refers to himself in the third person), he puts his business card into the hands of his foes.  You know, because the best way to keep your identity a secret is to leave physical evidence of your identity in the hands of others.

Not the best strategy for keeping things on the down-low, but he didn't ask for my advice! 

Hey, is that spy wearing fingernail polish?  It sure looks like fingernail polish.

See you tomorrow!