Patsy Walker #16

This charming 1948 teen humor comic sends Patsy Walker and a checkered-sweater-clad boy tumbling into a spectacular wipeout on the ice rink, their skates flying as a dark-haired girl in a green outfit glides up behind them — the cover caption teasing, "Won't Patsy and Buzz be surprised!" Al Jaffee's pencils, inked by George Klein, capture the slapstick energy of a winter skating scene with genuine warmth and comic timing. The cover's proud boast that "5,000,000 teen-agers love the experiences of Patsy Walker" speaks to just how widely this series had captured young readers' hearts by the late 1940s.