Number 1992: Happy New Year: Suzie is a doozy, and an old year comes around again

So we made it to another year, both on the calendar and for Pappy’s Golden Age.

First up for 2017 is a story from Suzie Comics #50 (1945). This story shows some changes in attitude from 1945 to now. The story, which has Suzie “disguising” herself as a “just past 10”-year-old so she can get a half-fare train ticket, becomes just past creepy to modern eyes, especially when we get to pages 8 and 9. Our faux 10-year-old ends up on an old man’s lap, then is taken to the ladies’ room by the man’s wife so she can clean Suzie “from top to bottom.” Oh, such comedy.

Drawn by Al Fagaly in his style inspired by popular newspaper cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo (They’ll Do It Every Time).

Next up for our New Year is a Katy Keene story by Bill Woggon. Woggon hit on something big with Katy: let young fashion designers send in their clothing ideas for Katy to model. It was used on other comic characters, but never with such long term success as Katy. In 1949, when the story was published in Suzie Comics #73, Katy Keene was appearing in four Archie titles, and soon got her own title.

This is also one of those fascinating calendar things, because 1950 dates are lined up the same as 2017. So print out the last page of the story and you will have yourself a 2017 Katy Keene calendar. Another perk from Pappy!

Number 1249: Watch a breeze make Katy's cheesecake

“Katy Keene in ‘A Breezy Day’” is a breezy story. It exists for the purpose of cheesecake, showing Katy's legs and stocking tops. I will go on record as saying there is nothing wrong with that.

Bill Woggon created Katy Keene in 1945, and the strip was popular for nearly 20 years, spawning a whole industry of Katy Keene comics and paper dolls,. Budding fashion designers sent their designs to Woggon, hoping to see their creations on Katy,* and their names in print. Woggon got free material for his comics. It was a great idea.

From Wilbur #12, 1947:

*The name mentioned here for the designer of Katy's dress, “Ward Montgomery of Chicago,” is a joke on the Montgomery Ward department store chain. Like Sears and Roebuck, Montgomery Ward also used catalog ordering services for rural customers. It went out of business in 2001. In 2004 an online retailer bought the trademarks.

Number 1222: Paper dolls: Katy and Kitty Kut-ups

Katy Keene had a relatively long run in comics, 1949 to 1961, produced by her creator, Bill Woggon. She was revived by others in 1983 and was published until 1990 by the same folks at Archie. On the other hand, Kitty, drawn by a favorite of mine, Lily Renée, was a one-shot from 1948.

Paper dolls were popular, and I've seen comic books where someone cut them out, thereby damaging the book beyond repair. But I think to do it they'd need sharp eyes and a sharper pair of scissors to follow the outlines of the tiny images published in comic books. If you want to use my scans to print your own go ahead.

Kitty was drawn in 1948 by Lily Renée for St. John with a cleaner, less complicated style than that required by Fiction House, where she drew Werewolf Hunter, Señorita Rio* and the Lost World features. I'd think Kitty would be a natural character for Renée, who wasn't far out of her teens (born 1925). Although born in Austria and a war refugee who became an emigrant to the U.S., she captured the American bobby soxer very well. She claimed she dressed Rio in clothes she wanted to wear, so a paper doll fashion comic book seems a natural.

In 1953 St. John changed Kitty's name to Lucy, and reprinted the story (whiting out Renée's signature) in Lucy the Real Gone Gal #1.

 Bill Woggon got a lot of mileage out of simple storylines about supermodel Katy, her tomboy little sister and several boyfriends. He also helped future fashion designers by providing an outlet for them. They supplied the creations, Woggon drew them up and published them in his comics. Woggon, born in 1911, died in 2003.

I picked this story to show because Katy wears a leopard costume. There is just something about a girl in a cat suit...

 From Katy Keene #2 (1950):

 From Kitty #1 (only issue, 1948):

*I've posted several stories by Renée, but the latest was this one where I told a little of her story: Pappy's #1175.

Number 726


Happy Birthday, Katy Keene and Mrs. Pappy


I've mentioned before in this blog that Mrs. Pappy does not like comic books, nor does she read them. Still, she remembers Katy Keene from her youth, and because Katy Keene is having a birthday, I thought I'd let them share the celebration.

Katy has her birthday in Suzie Comics #60, from 1947. Mrs. Pappy was born on this day in 19........errrrrrr, on second thought, maybe I'd be better off not saying.