Undercover Archie

BLUE RIBBON COMICS #3

(On Newsstands in December 1939)

I guess they decided to take some time off for the holiday’s and only produce one book for December, Blue Ribbon Comics #3! Featuring a Corporal Collins cover (who made his first appearance last issue) by Charles Biro! Pretty nifty drawing for the cover here and, hey, what’s that thing in his hand? Read on!

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

 Charles Biro)

Man, did they sell a lot of cool stuff in comics back in the day…I remember ordering some of it, and usually being disappointed in what they sent.. how in the world did we trust sending money in the mail back then?

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

 Charles Biro)

Rang-A-Tang the Wonder Dog, his stories always full of excitement, gets a full page, beautifully rendered splash, that had to produce some awe back in the day…. and yes, he gets rid of the dynamite in time!

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

 Charles Biro?)

There’s a neat device Corporal Collins has - a flexible magnetic ‘repeller’? Sounds plausible!

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

 Charles Biro?)

What? First and last appearance? How’d this NOT succeed? “Red Dugan, Vicious Captain of a PIRATE SHIP, forces Dr. Cardo to CREATE a MONSTER to help him become MASTER of the HIGH SEAS.”

I’m all in on this one!

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

 Edd Ashe)

Maybe one of the coolest pages of the Golden Age. Tell me this didn’t inspire young underground cartoonists of the 60’s!

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

Edd Ashe)

So crime comics began in 1942 with Crime Does Not Pay #1, right?

Wrong. Heck, Dick Tracy was around since 1931, and here in Blue Ribbon Comics #3, Jack Cole gives us an early glimpse of the sensational new genre that would fit quite nicely in one of those Lev Gleason publications, THREE YEARS LATER!

(from Blue Ribbon Comics #3 - on newsstands December 1939, artwork by

 Jack Cole)


Also of note this month: Captain Marvel would make his debut in Whiz Comics this month!