Leave It to Binky #69
Leave It to Binky #69 lands at a precise cultural crossroads: published in the same month that Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines all premiered on CBS, the issue's pages were almost certainly packed with Saturday-morning house ads promoting those debut Hanna-Barbera series alongside DC's own superhero line — making it an accidental time capsule of the animation industry's most fertile single season. As part of DC's revived teen-humor line (alongside Swing with Scooter and Date with Debbi), it also documents the publisher's sustained, if ultimately short-lived, effort to compete with Archie Comics on the newsstand humor front. The issue additionally features a reprint story from Leave It to Binky #56 that was substantially reworked to reflect the updated character designs of the 1968 revival, illustrating how DC's humor editorial was actively retooling the Binky brand for a new generation of readers.
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Leave It to Binky was conceived by writer-editor Sheldon Mayer and given visual form by artist Bob Oksner, who described Binky as 'a little older version of Scribbly, more of a teenage focus' for a post-WWII market where the very concept of the teenager was newly commercially viable. The original series ran 60 issues from 1948 to 1958 before cancellation, then was revived via Showcase #70 in September 1967; strong reader response brought it back as an ongoing with issue #61 in July 1968. By issue #69, editorial duties had passed to Joe Orlando, with Win Mortimer handling pencils and Henry Scarpelli inking — a different creative team from the Oksner-led original run, reflecting DC's retooled approach to the line.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: November 1969; on-sale date approximately August 7, 1969, per League of Comic Geeks.
- Penciller: Win Mortimer; Inker/Cover Artist: Henry Scarpelli; Cover Letterer: Gaspar Saladino; Editor: Joe Orlando.
- Lead story is titled 'The Miss-Understanding!' — a 6-page Binky Biggs comedy strip; the issue runs 32 pages total with multiple backup stories.
- One interior story is a reprint from Leave It to Binky #56 (1956), revised with significant art corrections to align with the redesigned character models introduced in the 1968 revival.
- The enormous character index — encompassing the Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. gang, Wacky Races characters (Dick Dastardly, Muttley, Penelope Pitstop, Sylvester Sneekly/Hooded Claw, Yankee Doodle Pigeon, Zilly, Klunk), Archie Comics characters (Archie Andrews, Jughead, Sabrina, Salem, Aunts Hilda and Zelda, Hot Dog), The Monkees (Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork), and DC heroes (Superman/Clark Kent, Batman/Bruce Wayne, Robin/Dick Grayson, Speedy/Roy Harper) — almost certainly reflects a combination of DC house ads and licensed Saturday-morning cartoon promotional pages carried inside the issue, not story appearances.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines all premiered on CBS during the same fall 1969 Saturday-morning season in which this issue was on newsstands, making any promotional pages here among the earliest print appearances of those properties.
- The series was part of DC's teen-humor line alongside Swing with Scooter, Date with Debbi, and the spin-off Binky's Buddies (launched February 1969); the entire line was cancelled between 1971 and 1972.
- The title was renamed simply Binky with issue #72 (May 1970), roughly three issues after this one, marking the end of the 'Leave It to Binky' banner.
Cast · 40 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
When Binky reads a batch of accident statistics he becomes overly cautions and nearly ruins a date with Peggy.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).