Undercover Archie

From the Start:

BLUE RIBBON COMICS #1 

(On Newsstands in September 1939) 

Let's go back to September of 1939:

 Superman was a year and a half old, Batman was only making his 7th appearance in Detective, and Robin wouldn’t show up until the following Spring (followed by Batman’s own title a month after that). Marvel Comics #1 had debuted the previous month in August. 

But there it was! MLJ, who would later become what we now know as Archie Comics, had their first comic book on the stands!

 (Blue Ribbon Comics #1 - on the stands in September 1939, story by Norman Danberg featuring Rang-a-tang the Dog) 

 Jack Cole (who’d go on to create Plastic Man two years later) did the inside front cover.

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #1 - September 1939, artwork by Jack Cole) 

 Welcome letter (from Blue Ribbon Comics #1 - September 1939) 

 Even though it was primarily made up of new HUMOR material, the harsh realities of the time are apparent from the opening story… thank goodness Rang-a-Tang is there! 

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #1 - September 1939, story by Norman Danberg, artwork unknown) 

 Sometimes, in the infancy of comics, things can be unintentionally funny, and of course other times, not so much, as here in this Flash Gordon influenced Dan Hastings character, in the Mexidian Raiders! (???) 

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #1 - September 1939, artwork by Clem Gretter) 

 Comics in the very early years already establishing itself as somewhat counter-culture with it’s hip jargon. 

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #1 - September 1939, artwork by Jack Cole) 

 Also in September of 1939, Paul Robeson’s The Avenger would debut in “Justice Inc.” in the Avenger Magazine #1 

 Books published by MLJ Publishing (Archie Comics) and on the stands in September of 1939 

BLUE RIBBON COMICS #1