Today in Comics History, October 23: Happy birthday, Bob Montana!

Born on this day in 1920: Bob Montana, artist and creator of the original Archie comic strip, comic book feature, and characters of Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica. (I personally credit Montana and not John Goldwater, and here's a good TCJ article by R. C. Harvey that argues the same.) Montana also drew or inked some stories at Lev Gleason and Marvel Comics.





Appearance of Bob Montana himself are few and far between in the comics. There is a text page bio of him in Archie Comics #1 (Winter 1942), but I don't have an original copy and all the reprints of the issue that I have or have seen omit the text page. (Also: they're re-lettered, and terribly.) But he does briefly appear in the very next issue, albeit heavily caricatured by artist Joe Edwards. Drom left to right in the panel below: editor Harry Shorten, Joe Edwards, Bob Montana (behind the "Comic Book Artists" easel), and on the right some comic book character whose name I don't remember and has probably never appoeared since.


from "The Case of the Missing Page" in Archie Comics (1942 series) #2 (Archie/MLJ, Spring 1943), pencils and inks by Joe Edwards
Can you spot Bob in this celebrity-stuffed page which suggests you place your valuable items in a stump grinder that converts them into War Defence Bonds, in a story from, of all places, Crime Does Not Pay?


from "[The Bond Drive]" in Crime Does Not Pay #22 (Lev Gleason, July 1942), pencils and inks (and script?) by Bob Montana
That's right: he's in the lower right-hand corner, wearing Jubilee's raincoat.


Happy birthday, Bob Montana!