A Month of... Pancakes! Day 14: Fighting Hitler...with Pancakes!

Let's all take a look at pancakes in Archie #1! No, not the recent rebooted post-Crisis non-zombie Archie that all the cool cats are lovin' and readin'...but the original Golden Age Archie, back when he was related to the World War II Squirrel Girl!


Panels from "Pancakes in a Blackout" in Archie Comics #1 (Winter 1942); script (?), pencils and inks by Bob Montana. (Obviously re-lettered for its modern reprint here.)
Y'see, kiddos and kidettes, back in the Big W-W-2, home front Americans had to have nighttime blackout drills, ine which entire cities would shut off all the lights to let Hitler think they weren't at home. Now imagine tryin' to make pancakes in a blackout! Why, the hilarity that would ensue...I can't imagine it! Which is a good thing that Bob Montana did it for us. (Your extra fun fact trivioid for today: Bob Montana was not born in Montana. He was born in California. You're thinking of Bob California.)


It's funny because we all lived through it! Not me, though: I'm only six years old.


"Don't worry, [Mary]," Fred Andrews says. "Archie can take care of himself in a blackout." To which there are two possible responses.

1. The Firesign Theatre Response: "He's not your son, Fred."
2. The Meta Response: "Take care of himself? Have you ever read an Archie comic book, Fred?"

And then Archie was imprisoned in the Army compound for wasting valuable wartime food.