Today in Comics History, October 15: Happy birthday, Samm Schwartz!

Born on this day in 1920: comics artist Samm Schwartz, whose extensive work for Archie brought Jughead up from supporting character to the popular position of Archie Comics' Mr. Spock within the pages of Archie's Pal Jughead and the reluanch simply titled Judgead. Samm's the creator of "Big" Ethel Muggs and he co-created Tippy Teen for Tower Comics (later reprinted as Vicky by Atlas Seaboard)! After the closure of Tower, he worked on similar stories for DC's Date with Debbi and Debbi's Dates, which were astonishingly two concurrent different comics!


from Archie (2015 series) #8 (Archie, July 2016), essay by Mark Waid



With his uncomplicated but expressive cartoony style, Schwartz often brought a wonderfully delightful rubbery animated cartoon style to Archie Comics:




from "Take Two" in Archie's Pal Jughead (1949 series) #100 (Archie, September 1963); pencils, inks, and letters by Samm Schwartz
Schwartz often filled background with self-references like signs that proclaimed "Vote for Samm!" (I don't have any examples here but I'll fill this in when I do find them!) But here's a story by Craig Boldman and Rex Lindsey that references that artistic gag...for a very specific reason.





from "Samm Was Here" in Archie's Pal Jughead (1993 series) #103 (Archie, April 1998), script by Craig Boldman, pencils and inks by Rex Lindsey, colors by Barry Grossman, letters by Bill Yoshida
With his old pal Samm back in town, Jughead spends the entire story trying to track him down, but only just missing him at every place Samm's been to in Riverdale:



It's a lovely tribute to the late Samm Schwartz by the creators at Archie. I think even hard-hearted cynical ol' me shed a tear at this one.


Happy birthday, Samm Schwartz! Your stories helped me appreciate Jughead as the god of comedy that he is.


from "Who Laughs Last" in Archie's Pal Jughead (1949 series) #100; script by Frank Doyle; pencils, inks, and letters by Samm Schwartz