Candy #9

Candy #9 from Quality Comics delivers the breezy teenage humor the series does so well — on this Harry Sahle cover, a grinning Candy pedals confidently away on a full-sized red bicycle while poor Ted, sporting his varsity "H" sweater, is left hunched over a tiny child's tricycle outside a "Rent a Bike" stand. Her quip — "Well, you didn't want to ride a girl's bike, Ted!" — says everything about who holds the upper hand here. It's a perfectly timed gag rendered with Sahle's clean, lively linework that makes this 1949 issue an appealing snapshot of mid-century teen comedy comics at their most cheerful.