Buzzy #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBuzzy #1 marks the launch of DC Comics' first standalone teen humor title, a direct editorial response to MLJ/Archie Comics' runaway success with Archie Andrews earlier in the decade. By giving Buzzy Brown — a trumpet-playing, jalopy-driving teenager — his own ongoing book, DC staked its claim in what was rapidly becoming one of the most commercially potent genres of the Golden Age. The series endured for 77 issues through 1958, making it one of the publisher's longest-running non-superhero Golden Age titles and an important example of how mainstream publishers broadened the medium beyond capes and war stories during the mid-1940s.
In "null," Buzzy and his pals take on a mysterious art mystery when they’re tasked with delivering Mr. Gruff’s portrait—painted by the famed Henri Boltinoff—to City Hall, only to find it vandalized en route. With time running short and the unveiling just hours away, the gang scrambles to restore the masterpiece before the public sees it in shambles.
In "null," Buzzy heads to the costume shop to trade Mr. Gruff’s original outfit for the masquerade ball, only to find the shop has run out of everything but a flashy circus strongman costume—leading to a series of awkward and hilarious moments as Mr. Gruff tries to make the best of an unexpectedly flamboyant look.
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George Storm, a veteran newspaper strip artist whose earlier Bobby Thatcher strip had been syndicated by McClure Syndicate for fifteen years and whose strip work had been reprinted in the earliest issues of All-American Comics, created Buzzy Brown for DC's All Funny Comics #1 in 1943. DC moved the character into his own title the following year, with scripter Alvin Schwartz (writing here under the pseudonym V. Woodrum) collaborating with Storm on the launch issues. Storm supplied both the cover art and interior story art for the debut, while supporting humor features by Henry Boltinoff, Jack Farr, and Tom McNamara fleshed out the 52-page package. Storm and Schwartz remained on the book for the early issues before a rotation of other creators, most prominently Boltinoff, took over the series.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: Winter (December) 1944; published by DC Comics (National Comics Publications).
- First issue of the Buzzy ongoing series, which ran for 77 issues through 1958, making it DC's first dedicated teen humor title.
- Character Buzzy Brown had debuted the prior year in All Funny Comics #1 (1943) before being spun off into his own book.
- Cover art and interior story art by series creator George Storm; scripts by Alvin Schwartz (credited as V. Woodrum in the text story 'Buzzy Beats the Heat').
- Supporting features in the issue include a Shorty humor page by Henry Boltinoff, a Prof. Pipp story by Jack Farr, and an Alix in Folly-Land story by Tom McNamara.
- Buzzy Brown is defined by his trumpet playing, his beat-up jalopy, his girlfriend Susie Gruff, and her disapproving father Mr. Gruff — a cast dynamic deliberately echoing the Harold Teen newspaper strip tradition.
- Captain Tootsie (created 1943 by C.C. Beck and Rod Reed for Tootsie Roll) and his Secret Legion member Rollo appeared as characters in Tootsie Roll advertisement strips that ran throughout the Buzzy series; these one-page ads by the C.C. Beck studio (Beck and Pete Costanza) were a recurring feature of the run.
- The series is understood as DC's answer to Archie, following Archie Andrews' debut in Pep Comics #22 (1941) and the launch of Archie Comics #1 (1942).
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