Undercover Archie

ARCHIE COMICS #15-18 (on newsstands May 1945 - November 1945)

Archie #15 would be the last cover for Bill Vigoda for awhile (it's a good one too! I love the facial expressions of all the characters!), as Al Fagaly would take over both Archie Comics and Pep Comics covers as the primary artist.

We'll have a nice look at Fagaly's cover run in a future post... in the meantime, here's Vigoda's last one for a while:

Issue #15 kicks off with Veronica needing Archie's help in deciding what to wear to the Masquerade party, so naturally that puts her in a number of different outfits for him to drool over.

This whole concept of 'outfits' on female characters would become a pretty big deal in comics very quickly. Young girls also read comic books and, as you'll see later on, they'd even have a voice in WHAT some of the female characters wore!

(from Archie Comics #15, July-Aug. 1945)

There will be no shortage of Betty laying around in her underwear on the phone during the 40's. Not so much since, but...

(from Archie Comics #16, Sept.-Oct. 1945)

Never let it be said, that the artist's in Archie were afraid to have him do whatever it took to get a laugh!

(from Archie Comics #17, Nov. - Dec. 1945)

Back in the 40's it must have been easy to be an editor at MLJ. You'd go to work and sit down with the writer/artist and say, "Ya know Bill (Vigoda), I was thinking... You should do a story this month where Betty and Veronica are swimming... and they get in an argument over... whatever... and then they start wrestling in their swim suits!"

See. That's how you make comics.

(from Archie Comics #17, Nov. - Dec. 1945)