Leave It to Binky #17
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeLeave It to Binky #17 is a representative artifact of DC's postwar teen-humor experiment — a publishing category that Sheldon Mayer helped pioneer when he conceived Binky Biggs as a comic-book response to the newly defined concept of the American teenager. The series, of which this is the seventeenth installment, demonstrated that DC could compete in a genre being dominated by Archie Comics, and it did so with a recurring cast large enough to sustain multiple simultaneous backup features — sister Lucy, little brother Allergy, dog Dopey, rival Sherwood, and girlfriend Peggy — giving the book an ensemble depth unusual for teen-humor fare. Issue #17 also holds a modest but documented place in DC production history: it falls within the run of issues where letterer Ira Schnapp began bringing his distinctive cover-balloon style to the title, with comics historians noting that his work on this very issue shows his cover lettering moving noticeably closer to the mature Schnapp house style that would define DC's visual identity throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Together, issues like this one helped sustain a bimonthly publication record for nearly a decade, proving there was a durable audience for wholesome, joke-driven suburban comedy at DC well before the Silver Age revival.
ComicBooks.com Value
Find on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Leave It to Binky was conceived by writer-editor Sheldon Mayer, who retired from editing in 1948 to devote himself to cartooning and then co-wrote early scripts with animator-turned-comics-writer Hal Seeger; artist Bob Oksner, who had been brought to DC by Mayer after Mayer admired his syndicated strip Miss Cairo Jones, provided pencils and inks from the very first issue and remained the series' primary visual voice through the original 1958 cancellation. The book was edited by Larry Nadle, DC's regular humor editor at the time, and published bimonthly by National Comics Publications under the indicia name used throughout the Golden Age run. By the time issue #17 went to press for a November–December 1950 cover date, the creative team of Mayer, Seeger, and Oksner had settled into a reliable anthology format — typically three or four Binky-starring stories per issue, supplemented by backup features spotlighting Lucy, Allergy, and filler pages by other hands.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: November–December 1950 (vol. 1, #17); published bimonthly by National Comics Publications, Inc.
- The series was created by Sheldon Mayer, with early scripts co-written by Hal Seeger and art throughout the original run by Bob Oksner, who described Leave It to Binky as the assignment that truly established his footing at DC.
- Issue #17 contains multiple story features: at least two lead Binky stories, a Lucy Biggs backup, and an Allergy Biggs story — consistent with the anthology structure the series maintained across its Golden Age run.
- According to comics lettering historian Todd Klein's documented research, issue #17 is one of the earliest Leave It to Binky covers bearing Ira Schnapp's cover balloon lettering, and Klein specifically notes the balloons in this issue are 'even closer to Ira's mature cover style' than preceding issues, making it a transitional marker in Schnapp's development of the DC house lettering style.
- The expansive supporting cast indexed for this issue — including Binky, Peggy Baxter, Mr. Baxter, Allergy, Lucy, Dopey the dog, Sherwood, Alice and Bertram Biggs Sr., Uncle Snootly, and numerous schoolmates — illustrates the ensemble depth that distinguished Leave It to Binky from simpler single-character teen comics of the era.
- The character 'Alan Ladd' indexed for this issue shares a name with the then-prominent Hollywood film star, consistent with the period practice at DC of referencing popular celebrity names as in-story characters or in-universe figures (DC simultaneously published The Adventures of Alan Ladd as a licensed comic).
- Leave It to Binky ran for 60 issues in its original Golden Age incarnation (1948–1958) before cancellation, was revived via Showcase #70 in 1967, and resumed with issue #61 in 1968 — meaning the stories produced in this period, including #17, were later mined for reprints in the Silver Age revival issues.
- The series is historically positioned as DC's direct answer to the dominant Archie Comics formula, with the core triangle of Binky, Peggy, and rival Susie functioning as clear counterparts to the Archie–Betty–Veronica dynamic, though Leave It to Binky made the central couple's relationship more unambiguously committed than its Archie inspiration.
Cast · 26 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Hundred Comic Monthly #8 (1957), The Hundred Comic Monthly #9 (1957), Century, The 100 Page Comic Monthly #15 (1957), Century, The 100 Page Comic Monthly #16 (1957), The Hundred Comic Monthly #13 (1957), Superman #117 (1957), Blackhawk #119 (1957), Superboy #108 (1958), Blackhawk #123 (1958), Adventure Comics #291 (1961)
Key issues in Leave It to Binky
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.