Number 2203: Suzie by Bill Woggon: Oh, baby!

Bill Woggon was most famous for his Katy Keene series for Archie Comics. They are somewhat hard to find today in un-mutilated condition, because he included paper dolls, and many of the kids who bought the comic cut out the paper dolls.

No such problem with other features he did for Archie. For instance, in 1946 he drew a couple of Suzie stories for issue #52 of Suzie Comics. In biographical information about Katy Keene, it has been noted that Katy Keene was “clean” — free of sexy innuendoes, anyway. I don’t know for certain because I haven’t seen all that many issues of Katy (that old mutilation thing again). Katy herself dressed in top fashions of the day, wore bathing suits, and Katy “posed” — drawn by the artist in typical pin-up style, so she had an appeal beyond that of just fashion design.

Archie Comics were a bit freer in their early days, after morphing from MLJ Comics, where they had a certain rowdy reputation. Suzie was no different. She was a typical sitcom dumb blonde, and was of her era. She was sexy, shapely, and Woggon seemed to delight in showing her in sexy poses. In “Suzie ‘Clicks’ in a Camera Shop” the plot revolves around photography-shop employee Suzie misunderstanding what a portly gentlemen means by pictures of “his baby.” In the next panel we see him with his “Baby”...a hot chick on his arm. Later we find out the gent is married, and risks disclosure of his affair to his wife, except that Suzie, in her simple way, has solved the problem for him. Oh, make a joyful noise! His adulterous behavior will be undisclosed until another day, and Suzie will not be involved. Yes, sex, even though not blatantly presented, is part of the story. Woggon, who is credited for the script by the Grand Comics Database, stays on this side of decorum, but we can assume the old man is a cad, and on the sly is boffing the sweet young thing in the red dress.

Suzie Comics #52 is actually issue #4.