Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun!

Showing posts with label Little Archie. Show all posts

Thursday, June 09, 2022

Today in Comics History, June 9: Happy birthday, Bob Bolling!

Born today in 1928 (and still with us!), comic book writer and artist Bob Bolling, creator, writer and artist of the acclaimed Little Archie, and, for Marvel/Star Comics, Wally the Wizard! He also created Doctor Doom! Mad Doctor Doom, that is...Little Archie's bad scientist nemesis!

'Wingarad leviusum your ASS, Potter!'

from Marvel Age #30 (Marvel, September 1985); text by Jim Salicrup, pencils and inks by Ron Zalme, colors by Andy Yanchus
Ol' Mad Doc premiered in an issue dated Fall 1962. Marvel's Dr. Victor von Doom premiered in a comic dated July 1962. Great minds: thinkin' alike!

This whole series could have been titled 'Stranger Danger.'

This whole series could have been titled 'Stranger Danger.'

Although they're not as well-known or -remembered as the Carl Barks Duck stories, I'd argue that Bolling created a series of tales as high-adventure and as innovative as the Uncle Scrooge stories themselves! If you think you know Archie, you've never read Little Archie!

'Okay, but take your foot off the page, kid, you're smearing the ink.'

'Okay, but take your foot off the page, kid, you're smearing the ink.'

(reprint?) in Archie Giant Series Magazine #549 [Little Archie] (Archie, August 1985), pencils and inks by Bob Bolling
We wish you a very happy birthday, Mr. Bolling, and many more!

'We've swapped Little Archie for this cuddly dog. Will Archie artist Bob Bolling be able to tell the difference? Let's watch!'

'We've swapped Little Archie for this cuddly dog. Will Archie artist Bob Bolling be able to tell the difference? Let's watch!'

from Little Archie in Animal Land #1 (Archie, 1957); pencils, inks, and letters by Bob Bolling

Thursday, July 28, 2016

A Month of... Pancakes! Day 28: Pancake Heartbreak

We wanna dance and we wanna sing / Have some fun and go adventuring / All our friends are here / But it ain't complete /
We ain't the Archies without pancakes to eat

Uh oh! Somebody put Archie Andrews in a hot wash an' shrunk 'im!

Wow, she doesn't even know her husband's own name?!?

Panel from "Flapjack Fling" Little Archie Giant Comics #6 (Spring 1958); script, pencils, inks, and letters by Bob Bolling
I consider the Bob Bolling Little Archies masterpieces of kids' comics, right up there alongside John Stanley's Little Lulu, Barks's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck, Fred Toole and Al Wiseman's Dennis the Menace, Sheldon Meyers's Sugar and Spike, and Walt Kelly's Pogo Possum. Witty, charming, and beautifully drawn, it deserves a big hardcover boxed set of several volumes collecting the complete Bob Bolling. How about it, Archie Comics? If you don't wanna, why not license the books to Fantagraphics? What, are ya scared? Nyah nyah nyah nyah!

Ahem. Little Archie makes pancakes.

Little Veronica, don't you have a personal chef? Or at least a pocket full of Little Daddykins's credit cards?

Little Veronica, don't you have a personal chef? Or at least a pocket full of Little Daddykins's credit cards?

Archie Andrews: Men's Rights Activist. Of course, antics ensue, mostly because that's what antics do.

EVERYBODY knows you go upstairs to the bedroom and jump up and down until the pancake falls down on Daddy Pig!

EVERYBODY knows you go upstairs to the bedroom and jump up and down until the pancake falls down on Daddy Pig!

Enter: Mom Andrews! It's "antics" like this that made her say to Fred: "Only one child!" In fact, pretty much everybody in Riverdale except the Joneses thought the same.

Uh oh! Mr. Furley's going to find out that Jack isn't gay unless he puts on this dress! WAH WAH WAH WAH

Uh oh! Mr. Furley's going to find out that Jack isn't gay unless he puts on this dress! WAH WAH WAH WAH

Man, I love that fourth panel above, with Betty and Veronica skipping down the stairs. Anyway, sitcom catastrophe is now set up, and the pay-off is coming in for a landing in five...four...three...

The Pancake Hat was the rage from Paris to London to New York, at least until Coco Chanel introduced the '59 Waffle Bra.

The Pancake Hat was the rage from Paris to London to New York, at least until Coco Chanel introduced the '59 Waffle Bra.

No harm done, then! Also, judging from his initial reaction, I think that French guy wants to have a menage a trois with Fred and Mary Andrews. But that's a whole 'nother comic book. Probably Pep. Anyway, all's well that ends well, and Archie has learned a valuable lesson, which was the whole point — hasn't he?

...If you don't buy one Reggie will have me killed / Burma-Shave.