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Showing posts with label Archie Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archie Comics. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 02, 2020

Number 2475: Invisible sexy Suzie

The cute and sexy Suzie is ditzy in that dumb blonde cliché used seemingly forever in comedy. Normally Suzie isn’t that dumb, but for various reasons in this story Suzie does not see that she can’t be seen.

“Out of This World” is the lead story of Suzie Comics #49 (actual issue #1, 1945, having taken over for Laugh Comics). It was published and on sale as World War II entered its final year. Suzie was the type of gal that soldiers and sailors thought of when thinking of home; “what we’re fighting for,” as the saying went.

It was drawn by Albert (“Al”) Fagaly, a comic book artist and creator. He created and drew Super Duck for the Suzie publisher, MLJ Comics, which would become the Archie line of comic books. There has always been a tantalizing bit of sex in Archie, and Fagaly could draw a pretty girl. Suzie ends up invisible in quite a bit of the story, but readers can fill in the blank areas with their imaginations.













 

Friday, July 06, 2018

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.










Friday, September 08, 2017

Number 2099: The Jaguar and the Sea Circe

The Jaguar, part of the Archie Adventure Series, seems very tame. Ralph Hardy is a zoologist, and as the Jaguar is ruler of all beasts. Any thrills from that must have been seriously muted by the Comics Code, which kept any real dangerous stuff out of most comic book stories. For instance, in “The Sea Circe from Space!” sex is part of the plot, yet so mild it barely registers. The Sea Circe is in a one-piece swimsuit-styled costume, and has definite sex appeal, but her animal magnetism does not seem to work on the ruler of all animals, Ralph the Jaguar. He chooses not to go off with the Sea Circe and rule the universe.

They are on an island, far from his home. Did he think he might at least invite her to his room? Apparently not. Oh, noble Ralph.

The story was written by Jaguar creator Robert Bernstein, and the artwork is by comic book journeyman, John Rosenberger.

From Adventures of the Jaguar #3 (1961):














Friday, July 21, 2017

Number 2078: Suzie, the Ditzy

Day three of our theme week featuring comic book females of the forties and fifties ends with “the Ditzy,” the tail end of the theme’s title, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ditzy.” I use the term “tail end” on purpose, because in this story Suzie shows her own tail end more than once in this fetishistic funny by the creator of Katy Keene, the Pin-up Queen, Bill Woggon. Suzie was part of the transition of MLJ Comics from the action-filled, violent superhero adventures to the Archie gang, the teenage characters still with us today. This issue, #53 (actual #5, 1946), was published shortly after the end of World War II, and I wonder at what audience it was aimed. Young girls or young guys...particularly servicemen just returning from Europe or the Pacific?

Later in her comic book career Suzie got a bit more tame, falling in line with the standards of the Archie characters. In the earlier days, in her own innocent way, Suzie showed a lot of her charms.