Undercover Archie

LAUGH COMICS #39

(On Newsstands April 1950)

ARCHIE COMICS #45

and

PEP COMICS #80

(On Newsstands in March 1950)

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Samm Schwartz was quickly becoming the go to guy at Archie Comics. He had a clean style and was able to easily incorporate the Montana House Style, so that regardless of the title the Archie books would have uniform appearance.

Oh and I have a sweet copy of this book don't I?

(from Laugh Comics #39 - Apr. 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz)

Speaking of 'incorporating the Montana House Style', they also tended to incorporate the Montana story telling style, many times by straight out copying the story! You may remember a similar scene from my last post featuring a January 1947 News Paper Strip by Montana!

(from Laugh Comics #39 - Apr. 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz)

That Betty!

(from Laugh Comics #39 - Mar. 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz?)

Montana was still on his classic cover run in the Archie book, here featuring one of my favorites...

(from Archie Comics #45 - May 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz)

...but on the inside, Samm Scwartz had become the feature artist of the book. He'd go on to be a fixture on Jughead's solo book for most of the next 40 years, but his  work on Archie would show others how the house style should look!

(from Archie Comics #45 - May 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz)

He would bring his classic body language to the book that would influence everyone on it forever!

(from Archie Comics #45 - May 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz)

And he understood the youth of the times... and he could draw females!

(from Archie Comics #45 - May 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz)

Meanwhile, there was an artist named Harry Lucey who was getting his own title (Sam Hill) and would eventually make his own mark on the world of Archie! Here's an ad promoting it's drivable a few moths later!

(from Archie Comics #45 - May 1950, artwork by Harry Lucey in the ad)

Ok... I had a few nice copies in a row here... this one... not so much!

A nice gag all the same!

(from Pep Comics #80 - May 1950, artwork by Samm Schwartz?)

Meanwhile Bill Vigoda was getting a story to do here and there, and George Frese was doing a Jughead feature in Pep as well!

(from Pep Comics #80 - May 1950, artwork by Bill Vigoda)