Ah, the infamous “artwork” of Archie. And the dialogue… far worse. How suited is that to Palin and O’Donnell! I used to have drawers full of these comics. I may have even had the first one, who knows. These days I have scanned a few while waiting in line and wondered, “What the hell did I ever see in that???”
Looks like ‘Archie’ but it’s not. It’s actually a lame competitor, ‘Vicki,’ put out by Atlas Comics. Was ‘Archie’ ever really that popular that some publisher thought a similar comic copuld make money? (As a kid, I had some ‘Archies’ but they weren’t my favorites.)
Well, they had to be somewhat popular: you still find new editions at the checkout counter. These days I have no idea what the attraction was, or is. I think I started buying because my brothers did. Plus there was something sexy about the short skirts. I had one where Betty fell and her underwear showed. Back then, at that age… sheer gold!
I used to buy the sci-fi, horror, superhero, and war comics, and Mad magazine, with my grass mowing/snow shoveling money. If I had any left after buying candy, I’d get an Archie or Jughead, but it wasn’t often. As I remember, the stories were always predictable and pretty tame.
Other than… gack: the Archie stuff… Mad and the Twilight Zone comics. I’ll bet that last one is quite the collector’s item now.
Started with allowance and maybe what I earned from mowing a doctor’s lawn and working at a store: but by then I was probably buying Terhune books, Bradbury and Fredric Brown. Loved Brown. He wrote the shortest short story at the time. Went something like this: “The last man in the universe sat at his desk, and then there came a knock on the door…”
Joyce Lovelace
14 years ago
They are making new looney toons cartoons too. I was watching with my granddaughter and realized the theme was too modern for the real cartoons. They are no where’s near as good as the originals.
Even though it was a lot of money to me at the time, I subscribed to Amazing Science Fiction and Famous Monsters. For awhile, I even got Science Fiction & Fantasy mag. I read some good Fredric Brown stories, although I don’t recall that one in particular. Also bought sci-fi paperbacks, when I could afford them.
Joyce, since the days of hand-painted animation cels are gone, replaced by computer-generated graphics, those cartoons will never be the same again or, IMO, as good as they were ‘back in the day.’ Some of the stuff is even downright creepy to watch these days. Plus there aren’t any geniuses like Tex Avery or Chuck Jones drawing, writing and directing cartoons — the closest you’d come now is The Simpsons.
Our town in the Adirondacks we’ll retire to used to be home to one of those artists; Terrytoons: Bill Hilliker. I believe I met him in the 60s, but knew nothing about his former job. Now I know what he did I wish he was still alive.
Back in the 60s, you could go down to the editorial offices of the four major newspapers and get already-printed original comic strip art and political cartoon panels for free. (My collector friend did this several times, and I have a great original political cartoon by a conservative, Carey Orr of the Trib, framed and hanging in the living room.) They used to throw away the originals. My how times have changed — for the better, in this case. I’m glad the art is preserved and the artists are making a little more money.
Ah, the infamous “artwork” of Archie. And the dialogue… far worse. How suited is that to Palin and O’Donnell! I used to have drawers full of these comics. I may have even had the first one, who knows. These days I have scanned a few while waiting in line and wondered, “What the hell did I ever see in that???”
Looks like ‘Archie’ but it’s not. It’s actually a lame competitor, ‘Vicki,’ put out by Atlas Comics. Was ‘Archie’ ever really that popular that some publisher thought a similar comic copuld make money? (As a kid, I had some ‘Archies’ but they weren’t my favorites.)
Well, they had to be somewhat popular: you still find new editions at the checkout counter. These days I have no idea what the attraction was, or is. I think I started buying because my brothers did. Plus there was something sexy about the short skirts. I had one where Betty fell and her underwear showed. Back then, at that age… sheer gold!
I used to buy the sci-fi, horror, superhero, and war comics, and Mad magazine, with my grass mowing/snow shoveling money. If I had any left after buying candy, I’d get an Archie or Jughead, but it wasn’t often. As I remember, the stories were always predictable and pretty tame.
Other than… gack: the Archie stuff… Mad and the Twilight Zone comics. I’ll bet that last one is quite the collector’s item now.
Started with allowance and maybe what I earned from mowing a doctor’s lawn and working at a store: but by then I was probably buying Terhune books, Bradbury and Fredric Brown. Loved Brown. He wrote the shortest short story at the time. Went something like this: “The last man in the universe sat at his desk, and then there came a knock on the door…”
They are making new looney toons cartoons too. I was watching with my granddaughter and realized the theme was too modern for the real cartoons. They are no where’s near as good as the originals.
Even though it was a lot of money to me at the time, I subscribed to Amazing Science Fiction and Famous Monsters. For awhile, I even got Science Fiction & Fantasy mag. I read some good Fredric Brown stories, although I don’t recall that one in particular. Also bought sci-fi paperbacks, when I could afford them.
Joyce, since the days of hand-painted animation cels are gone, replaced by computer-generated graphics, those cartoons will never be the same again or, IMO, as good as they were ‘back in the day.’ Some of the stuff is even downright creepy to watch these days. Plus there aren’t any geniuses like Tex Avery or Chuck Jones drawing, writing and directing cartoons — the closest you’d come now is The Simpsons.
Our town in the Adirondacks we’ll retire to used to be home to one of those artists; Terrytoons: Bill Hilliker. I believe I met him in the 60s, but knew nothing about his former job. Now I know what he did I wish he was still alive.
Back in the 60s, you could go down to the editorial offices of the four major newspapers and get already-printed original comic strip art and political cartoon panels for free. (My collector friend did this several times, and I have a great original political cartoon by a conservative, Carey Orr of the Trib, framed and hanging in the living room.) They used to throw away the originals. My how times have changed — for the better, in this case. I’m glad the art is preserved and the artists are making a little more money.
Re: “back in the 60s?”
Let me get out my ear horn. Eh, what’s that you say?
As I read that sentence for the second time I realized: that was half a century ago. May we both sit on some park bench like Bookends some day.