Comic book art was a lonely business. You'd spend a week batting out pages in a studio somewhere with only the radio for company. Every so often you'd throw the pages in an envelope and mail them off to New York, or you'd take the train downtown and drop them off with the receptionist. You might chat with your editor, maybe pick up another script, and that's about it. (Cartooning is STILL a lonely business, but that's because they all hate each other now, thanks to social media.) Anyway, it's no wonder artists and writers were prone to throw in a shout-out or two towards their co-workers every once in a while! Sure, if you worked for some outfits you'd get credited in every story, but other companies, like, say, Archie, preferred their talent to remain anonymous. That's why you occasionally see names like Schwartz, Doyle, Edwards, and Gladir on signs, posters, as incidental characters, etc in Archie stories. Those are always fun to spot. But in today's story? That little shout-out is now a loud siren.


Design for Danger? No kidding! Purple and yellow together are murder!


"Who's Dandy Carlo?" indeed. Just think of how odd and weirdly centered this fashion designer character would seem if you didn't know the name of legendary comic artist Dan DeCarlo. And if you were a kid reading this comic when it was published, you probably didn't. But that's OK, because the real DeCarlo wasn't known for being fashion forward, and didn't look like "Fernwood 2 Night" era Martin Mull, either.


A slow week indeed for Riverdale's newspapers and detergent-brand themed magazines.


Nothing says 'great reporter' like going out and getting the story that at least three other media outlets have already covered. But you do you, Archie!


Wow. If you value your privacy, don't stay in THIS hotel!


You know, I only worked on my high school paper for a little while, but even with that scant experience I know that even as desperate for copy as high school newspapers get, pitching a piece about a visiting fashion designer might have been a hard sell.


Just think. There actually was a time when a man wearing jeans and a sweater could be described as "a slob." I have bad news for you, Dandy Carlo; from here on out it's all downhill.


Tell me about it! Try giving Public Image Limited's "Metal Box" more than one listen! Sure, "Album" and "Happy" had their moments, but since then? Nothing.


(trying furiously to work up a reference to Pete Townshend's "Rough Boys" single)


The world of fashion! Glamour, glitz, galas, schlock, extortion, and bodily harm. Sometimes all in the same night, if you're Gianni Versace!

What, too soon?


And right here is where we have to face the fact that Archie *deliberately* combs his hair that way.


It's a fashion makeover for Archie as he achieves Peak 1970s. Well, okay, Peak Comics Code 1970s, they weren't big on doing rails of coke off the "Saturday Night Fever" album cover


When we said Archie was a fashion victim, this isn't what we had in mind!


Well seeing as how this is a bottle of Windsor Newton 951- the most powerful India ink in the world and it'll BLOW YOUR HEAD CLEAN OFF, you've got to ask yourself one question. Dip pen - or brush?


It takes a heap of kidnapping to make a warehouse a home!


Get comfortable, Dandy. First we'll photostat these at a production house, have them overnighted to our plant in Hong Kong, they'll spend a few days retooling, we should have some initial prototypes by sometime next week. Then we'll have to adjust things, always corrections to make. Then we can begin marketing. The big spring show is in what, a month and a half? And then, of course, we'll have to visit some retailers in person. Yup, that's our plan, steal some of your drawings while committing felony kidnapping, and then install you in an apartment and pay your living expenses for months. Sure, we could just BUY designs from designers, but where's the fun in that?


You'd think these guys would know how to tie knots, being fashion-industry adjacent and all, but no, they just figure kidnap victims will sit quietly like nice boys.


Cut off electrical power to the building, to the city, to the Eastern seaboard, just throw some switches Archie, your wild guesses never turn out bad, except when they do, which is all the time


I'm curious about how the kidnapping trial is going to go. Will the real Dandy Carlo perjure himself and claim he was actually abducted? Will Archie reveal his clever disguise? Is this Archie or Dandy in this scene here? Those guys actually kidnapped SOMEBODY so it really doesn't matter, I guess. I'm just concerned about how a clever lawyer could use this confusion about who exactly got kidnapped when to get a mistrial or a conviction on a lesser charge. Actually... I'm concerned at how deeply I'm over-thinking this.


Can there finally be a space in Riverdale where women can celebrate their interests without men - meaning, Archie - interrupting and making it all about them? Could fashion be that space?


Nope. Sorry girls! This comic isn't called 'Life WithOUT Archie'!

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