Kathy #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeKathy #2 is an early entry in Standard Comics' answer to the postwar teen-humor boom — a genre wave that Archie had pioneered and that every major publisher rushed to join by decade's end. The issue is distinguished by its cover, credited to Alex Schomburg, one of the most versatile cover artists of the Golden Age, here demonstrating his late-1940s pivot from wartime superhero splash pages to breezy, good-girl cheesecake work. As the second issue of a series that would run a healthy seventeen issues through 1955, it helped establish the formula — rotating ensemble cast, school-and-dating comedy, reader-participation contests — that kept the Kathy franchise alive well into the early Silver Age. The book is also a quiet early-career document for Clark Haas, the cartoonist who drew virtually every interior story in the series before going on to found Cambria Studios and create the animated television series Clutch Cargo.
"Big Splash," by Betty Cummings, follows Janey as she competes in a Diving Club contest at Hollywood High for the prize of appearing in a movie short. Competing against her friend Dotty, who has a crush on Don Winters (the best boy diver), Janey struggles with nervousness and Dotty's increased practice efforts, ultimately discovering her white satin bathing suit missing just before the contest. Additionally, the issue contains a comedic story about Ginger's father unexpectedly bringing a Scottish visitor to a party, leading to confusion and chaos when the guest mistakes casual party antics for serious misbehavior and enlists the host's help to discipline the unruly "American children."
Kathy is in a panic when her father accidentally sends a baby alligator—meant as a gift for his boss—as a wedding anniversary present, and she must scramble with her friend Mickey to retrieve it before the truth is revealed. As they race to replace the gift, a series of mishaps and near-failures unfold, all while trying to keep the secret from her father. The story ends with a surprising twist that leaves Kathy and Mickey stunned—and the alligator still at the boss’s house.
In "Daddy's Little Helper," Kathy accidentally buys a steam shovel at an army depot auction, only to discover it's worth four hundred and fifty dollars—far more than she intended. When the machine comes to life and wreaks havoc on her neighborhood, she must scramble to hide it from her furious father, who’s just been named head of the fund drive for a new playground. As chaos unfolds, Kathy realizes the only way to save her dad—and the playground—is to come clean about the misunderstanding.
Speedy Hopper is furious when the girls at Hilltop High start wearing slacks and casual jackets, calling it a disgrace to the school’s reputation. Determined to make them change, he convinces a group of boys to rent Scottish kilts and march through town in protest—only to find their prank spirals into chaos when Ginger’s father’s boss arrives unexpectedly.
Kathy’s emotional outburst over a simple date request spirals into a family crisis, with her mother and father each trying — and failing — to calm her. As her family struggles to understand her tears, Kathy unexpectedly finds her emotional release in a school play, where her performance is both a surprise and a revelation.
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The Kathy series launched in September 1949 under Ned Pines's publishing empire, which operated its comic-book output through the Standard Comics brand while the indicia listed the legal entity as Visual Editions Inc. Pines, a prolific pulp and comic-book publisher active from the late 1920s onward, had built his stable around genre variety — superheroes, romance, science fiction — and the teen-humor line was a deliberate commercial response to Archie's growing dominance of that readership. Clark Haas, who had previously worked on Sunday-supplement strips including Buz Sawyer and Tim Tyler's Luck, was the primary artistic engine of the series from the outset, handling both pencils and inks on the Kathy features throughout the run's early years.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published December 1949 by Pines (Standard Comics), with the legal indicia listing Visual Editions Inc. as publisher — the second issue of a series that debuted in September 1949.
- Cover art by Alex Schomburg, one of the Golden Age's most prolific cover artists, known for his earlier work on Timely/Marvel superhero covers and his long association with Ned Pines's Standard Comics line.
- All interior Kathy strip art in the issue is by Clark Haas, who signed his work and served as the series' consistent artistic backbone across its early years.
- The issue is a 36-page, full-color anthology in the teen-humor genre, priced at ten cents — standard for the format and era.
- The series marketed its title character as 'America's Most Lovable Teen-ager,' a branding phrase used in house advertisements within the comic itself.
- The ensemble cast established across the series includes Kathy Crane, her family members (Mickey, Mr. Crane, Martha Crane), her dog Gyp, and supporting characters Fanny Farnswortle and Hank — all of whom appear in issues surrounding #2.
- Later issues of the same series (around #9–#10) featured work by Dan DeCarlo, identified by comics historian Jerry Bails, giving the Kathy run a footnote in the pre-Archie career of one of teen-humor comics' most consequential artists.
- The series ran for 17 issues in total, from September 1949 through September 1955, making it one of Standard Comics' more durable humor titles of the period.
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