Undercover Archie

ARCHIE COMICS #49

(On Newsstands in January 1951)

Another great Bob Montana cover... his classic cover run was coming to an end here (topped off with one of his most iconic next issue), but what a run it was!

(from Archie Comics #49 - January 1951, artwork by Bob Montana)

Hey! We get a Bob Montana story to kick things off, and this time, it's Jughead buying a jalopy! Archie and his gang are starting to seep into the American culture of the times, and Archie Comics embraced it, and took the responsibility of having a voice within the culture seriously.

Yes, we'd still see the typical hi-jinks, but this issue would feature an extension of the story as Archie and Jughead (after a reckless through the town 'free-wheelin' debacle are called upon by the city leaders to give 'safety tips' to young drivers in the community.

Archie Comics was growing up!

(from Archie Comics #49 - January 1951, artwork by Bob Montana)

It didn't exactly stop there... in 'Love Thy Neighbor', Archie meets his new next door family, featuring a daughter who is blind (a redhead named Milly...Hmmm, shouldn't it have been 'Chili'?), who also turns out to be hot. Archie is of course kind to her, but a misunderstanding with Veronica, and hurt feelings, and a foreign eye surgeon who was a fraternity brother of Mr. Lodge...

Oh did I mention how she lost her sight? Car accident! Yikes!

(from Archie Comics #49 - January 1951, artwork by Sam Schwartz?)

In 'Video Rodeo' (which in 1951 I'm not even sure what that MEANT), Betty and Veronica compete with each other again for dates to the dance...

(from Archie Comics #49 - January 1951, artwork by Bill Vigoda)

Even Mr. Weatherbee is confounded by the philanthropy of Archie and his friends! It's been speculated that this story was drawn by Dan DeCarlo, which would pre-date his most commonly associated first Archie work (B&V #4) by almost a year...

(from Archie Comics #49 - January 1951, artwork by Dan DeCarlo?)

That's right! Hope for other kids in town to do the same thing... Archie and his pals were helping steer kids in the right direction! Archie Comics has successfully gotten on course and turned away from the ugly under belly of seedy comics on the market that.... wait a second. What's that an ad for?

Jim Steranko once told me he didn't think all that much of it, but I loved the wise crackin', hard fisted, suave, detective Sam Hill! Crime comics were all the rage in 1951!

(from Archie Comics #49 - January 1951, artwork by Dan DeCarlo?)