Today in Comics History, February 28: Happy birthday, Cindy Wilson!

Born on this day and making the world a little more fab since she arrived: singer/songwriter/actor Cindy Wilson of The B-52's, the groundbreaking new wave band that, along with the Go-Go's, brought artsy pop to the 1970s and 1980s and defied where you're supposed to put an apostrophe in your band name!!


from "Ralph Carney" in American Splendor: Our Movie Year (Random House, December 2004); script by Harvey Pekar; pencils, inks, and letters by Gary Dumm





Cindy, I love you, and you need to appear in more comic books! Luckily thanks to Archie Comics publishing the aptly title Archie Meets the Punisher B-52's, we got a gold mine of Cindy (and other B-52's) appearances!


from Archie Meets the B-52s one-shot (Archie, April 2020), pencils and inks by Dan Parent
Archie Andrews, America's only teenager, loves The B-52s. Mind you, he also loves Veronica Lodge, so his tastes are suspect. Nice Walkman, Archie! Did your parents buy that for you? ("Yes. Yes, they did. It was a Christmas present.") Oh. Um...sorry. Never mind.


from Archie Meets the B-52s; script by Alex Segura and Matthew Rosenberg, pencils by Dan Parent, inks by J. Bone, colors by Glenn Whitmore, letters by Jack Morelli
Kevin Keller has booked the B-52s at the local club! Man, they really do have all the hippest connections, don't they? ... What? I mean that Kevin, as a club booker, has all the hippest connections. Most club bookers do? ... What did you think I was talking about?


The band members overhear Archie playing his guitar and are impressed!

Don't look so surprised they're fans! Remember, this hapless tow-headed teenager had an American #1 top of the charts hit record for four weeks in 1969! When, uh, he and his pals were in high school. You know, maybe it's the Riverdale High staff that's possibly the problem here.


Say, who d'you think sings that "I'm gonna make your life so sweet" background refrain at 2:21? 'Zat Betty or Veronica? As it sounds too full of soul for either of those two white girls, I'm gonna actually put my money on it being Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats.

The B-52s want to play with a local Riverdale band at their show, so of course you know what that means...Cheryl Blossom and the Spoiled-Rotten Brats! Naw, I'm pullin' your legs, of course they want The Archies to perform. Trouble is...The Archies have broken up! (Gasp!) That's really got to be tough. Like, when The Beatles or Pink Floyd or Oasis broke up, they didn't all still have to go to high school together. Actually, I'm not entirely certain about Oasis on that point.



The B-52s make a blood vow that they will reunite The Archies...or die trying. Cindy's assigned to pluck Betty out of her self-imposed beatnik phase.


All's well that ends well (Oh! hey, Mr. Shakespeare! I just thought of a a name for your new play!) and The Archies are reunited to play "Sugar Sugar" and "Love Shack" on stage with the B-52s. Time for them to do a whole big Archies reunion tour! But first: tell the Bee you're dropping out of high school! You've been there since 1949!



Happy birthday, Cindy Wilson! Please make the effort to appear in more comic books this coming year, willya? 'Coz I've checked for others and I'm pretty sure you're not this Cindy Wilson.


from "Second Sight" in Daredevil Black and White #1 one-shot (Marvel, October 2010), script by Peter Milligan, pencils and inks by Jason Latour, letters by Joe Caramagna