Number 1073
IN the swim with Betty and Veronica
Were you startled by the new look Betty and Veronica?
Check out a 1947 interpretation of our pulchritudinous pair from an artist who signs the splash page I.N., and is in fact Irving Novick. Irv did Black Hood strips for MLJ. He later did extraordinary work at DC.At the time Harry Shorten was the editor, and there's an in-joke about "Shorten's Beach." The writing was on the wall at MLJ as they made the transition to the Archie teenage comics they're still living on. Maybe Irv wasn't getting enough work after the postwar demise of the superheroes, and Shorten gave him the assignment.
It's a fascinating strip, if only for Novick's artistic interpretation. Did he do any more of these?
From Archie #27, 1947:
Betty got herself into a similar situation ten years later, in Archie Annual #9, 1957-58.
This is really sorta "awesome" stuff by Novick.
ReplyDeleteHoly Frito-Lay! That splash is like nothing I think of when I think of Archie! Guess I need to rethink the old MLJ!
ReplyDeleteJoplin John, I thought Betty and Veronica were sexy even in the post-Code comics. There was just something kinky about two beautiful girls trying to get Archie, and the idea of it fired up my pre-adolescent imagination with some potent scenarios.
ReplyDeleteChuck, thanks for your comment. You definitely know sexy! http://comicbookcatacombs.blogspot.com/2011/12/gal-friday-paula-patton.html