Posted By Dan Greenfield on May 12, 2024 | 1 comment

PAUL KUPPERBERG: Betty especially likes a good time…

On Friday, we brought you the EXCLUSIVE news that Archie Comics is jumping into the Facsimile Edition game. The first issue, out in August, will be the risque classic Betty and Me #16 — a natural choice to launch a new line. In that vein, we here at 13th Dimension have put together 13 HISTORIC ARCHIE COMICS FACSIMILE EDITIONS WE’D LIKE TO SEE. (Click here.) But that’s not all! Here, our pal Paul Kupperberg — a former Archie writer himself — brings you 13 RISQUE ARCHIE COMICS FACSIMILE EDITIONS WE’D LIKE TO SEE. And, just in case Archie decides to go the Mighty Crusaders route — we have 13 ARCHIE COMICS/MLJ SUPERHERO FACSIMILE EDITIONS WE’D LIKE TO SEE. (Click here.) Dig it. — Dan

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By PAUL KUPPERBERG

It is the standard by which all suggestive Archie Comics covers are measured: Betty and Me #16 (September 1968).

“Archie, did you have any trouble rescuing me?” the bikini clad Betty Cooper breathlessly asks a somewhat peeved looking Archie Andrews as he carries her out of the water. In the background are Reggie and two unidentified boys, waist deep in water, with black eyes and little stars dancing around their heads. “I sure did, Betty!” Archie answers. “I had to beat off three other guys!”

What the what? Hey-oh!

In the world of suggestive comic book covers (Wink, wink! Nudge, nudge!), this classic penciled by artist Dan DeCarlo is almost as famous as the photo cover of Dell Comics’ The Rifleman #10 (January/March 1962) featuring an unfortunate juxtaposition of “dad” Lucas McCain (played by Chuck Connors), “son” Mark (Johnny Crawford), and some impressive lengths of, ahem…wood.

Of course, it’s only in retrospect that we see how downright, and I would bet mostly inadvertently, insinuative these and so many other Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age covers were. They were, no kidding, more innocent times, and while I don’t doubt there were suggestive covers artists might have snickered their way through — Dan DeCarlo, a regular contributor of gags and pin-ups to the adult cartooning market, was certainly not unaware of what he was drawing — I’m sure most flew under the radar.

(Okay, maybe not The Rifleman cover. I mean…really, WTF, Dell art director?)

Regardless of its original intent, I’m happy to see Archie Comics is kicking off its own Facsimile Edition program with that classic Betty and Me cover. Any Facsimile Edition reprint is a welcome addition to comics-shop shelves, via which many have found their way to my own shelf, as will those forthcoming from Archie showcasing the range of its famous firsts and special issues from across its more than 80-year history.

Here then, here are 13 RISQUE ARCHIE COMICS FACSIMILE EDITIONS WE’D LIKE TO SEE.

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Pep #65 (January 1948)

Art Fagaly

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Archie #45 (July/August 1950)

Bob Montana

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Archie #50 (May/June 1951)

By Bob Montana

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Archie #55 (March/April 1952) by Bob Montana and Archie’s Joke Book #48 (August 1960) by unknown. (A bawdy gag recycled. I like the way Montana’s posed Archie in the original version.)

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Archie #78 (January/February 1956)

Unknown

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Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica #173 (May 1970)

Dan DeCarlo pencils

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Betty and Me #37 (September 1971)

Dan DeCarlo pencils, Rudy Lapick inks

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Everything’s Archie #22 (October 1972)

Unknown

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Betty and Me #55 (February 1974)

Unknown

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Betty and Veronica #328 (February 1984)

Dan DeCarlo

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Betty and Veronica #65 (July 1993)

Dan DeCarlo and Alison Flood

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Archie #511 (August 2000)

Stan Goldberg and Bob Smith

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Betty #101 (September 2001)

Stan Goldberg and John Lowe

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MORE

— ARCHIE COMICS to Launch FACSIMILE EDITION Line — With the Classic BETTY AND ME #16. Click here.

— 13 ARCHIE/MLJ SUPERHERO COMICS Facsimile Editions We’d Like to See. Click here.

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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. Now, as a Post-Modern Age gray eminence, Paul spends a lot of time looking back in his columns for 13th Dimension and in books such as Direct Conversations: Talks with Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators and Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in Their own Words. His latest, Direct Creativity: The Creators Who Inspired the Creators, is out now.

Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/

Shop: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/shop-1