I posted the splash page from this highly atypical 1947 story featuring Archie's girls. BETTY & VERONICA, on Facebook the other day to wild acclaim and interest due to its amazingly different art style. Dan DeCarlo's classic B&V style has been used for decades and, in fact, was a variation on the Archie "house style" that came even before DeCarlo! Thus, there is a certain level of shock in seeing our 16 year old heroines out of context in an Archie-less story (but for the wall picture on page one) and looking more like WWII pin-up models! The jury is still out on who did the art here but Steven Rowe, an expert on these sorts of things, speculates that it may be future Batman artist Irv Novick who had been drawing superheroes for the MLJ line (Archie's precursor if you will) or perhaps Harry Sahle. It's very GOOD art...it just isn't Betty and Veronica as we know and love them!
It's Irv Novick -- You can see a little "I.N." at the bottom of the splash page.
ReplyDeleteYes - Archie fans love the old, "bad" Betty before she turned into the good girl! These comics are gems!
ReplyDeleteSteven,
ReplyDeleteGood call on identifying the art on this selection as Irv Novick -- take a look at page 2, panel 2 -- clasic Novick eyebrows! I always enjoy your blog!
Jaime, I can't believe we all missed the little IN! It blends so well! The more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of his SHIELD stories of the period. Thanks for being eagle-eyed.
ReplyDeleteArchie was sold as a healthy alternative to all the sordid comics out there at the time but they were little more than standard good-girl art. It was just how parents perceived Archie.
ReplyDeleteyou can check out the dan decarlo website at http://www.dandecarlo.com
ReplyDeletethey have a bunch of images organized nicely in galleries