Leave It to Binky #3
Leave It to Binky #3 (June 1948) is one of the earliest entries in DC's post-war teen-humor line, a genre whose very existence Sheldon Mayer and artist Bob Oksner traced directly to the newly coined cultural identity of the American 'teenager' — a concept that barely existed before World War II. The issue belongs to a historically unusual series: Binky was the first DC character to headline his own comic without prior anthology appearances, making each early issue a document of DC staking out commercial ground against the Archie formula on its own terms. Within the series continuity, issue #3 carries a small but concrete piece of character bookkeeping — it is the issue where Jamie Draper's girlfriend's surname is revealed, fleshing out the supporting cast that had debuted just two issues earlier. The issue also continues the series' habit of weaving references to DC's superhero line into its comedy, with a Lucy story built around the Adventures of Superman radio broadcast.
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Sheldon Mayer conceived and edited Leave It to Binky, drawing on the same semi-autobiographical teenage sensibility he had explored in Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist, his strip dating back to 1936. Mayer had just resigned from his editorial position at DC in 1948 to return to full-time cartooning, and Leave It to Binky launched that same year as his primary new creative project. The visual identity of the series belonged to Bob Oksner, who penciled, inked, and covered the book from the start, with Mayer contributing both scripts and layouts; Hal Seegar co-scripted most of the Binky stories through the early run. By issue #3 the creative team and the cast of Binky Biggs, his girlfriend Peggy Baxter, his kid brother Allergy, sister Lucy, and the family dog Dopey were all firmly established.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: June 1948 — the third issue of the series, published bimonthly by National Comics Publications (DC).
- Issue #3 is the issue where Jamie Draper's girlfriend's surname 'Draper' is first revealed, according to GCD annotations on issue #1, which records her as a first appearance with 'surname revealed in issue #3.'
- Stories in this issue were scripted by Hal Seegar and Sheldon Mayer, with art by Bob Oksner and Sheldon Mayer; cover art by Bob Oksner.
- The issue contains five stories plus backup humor pages: 'Mannequin Maneuvers,' 'A Day With Binky's Folks,' 'Uncle Snootly's Picture starring Little Allergy' (script and art by Sheldon Mayer alone), 'His Undivided Attention,' and 'The Western Gal.'
- 'His Undivided Attention' features a comedic Superman crossover: Lucy's portable radio won't shut off and she ends up at the police station — with the radio broadcasting the Adventures of Superman while she is wearing a Superman costume.
- The issue also includes an untitled Mimie humor page by Harry Lampert, a DC staff cartoonist who contributed recurring backup humor throughout the early run.
- Binky was the first DC character to receive a solo title without prior anthology appearances — making every early issue, including #3, part of an editorially unprecedented publishing experiment for DC at the time.
- The large catalog of indexed characters (including Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, Ibis, Robotman, Sam Spade, Red Ryder, and others) almost certainly reflects interior house advertisements and back-cover promotional material for other DC and licensed titles packaged within this 52-page Golden Age anthology format, not appearances in the Binky stories themselves.