Pep Comics #46
Pep Comics #46 (February 1944) delivers the first appearance of Pop Tate, owner of Riverdale's Chocklit Shoppe — the teen hangout that would become one of the most recognizable settings in all of Archie Comics. The issue also lands squarely at the tipping point in the series' editorial identity: superhero stalwarts The Shield, The Hangman, and Captain Commando share pages with comedy stories, but the humor content is clearly winning, and The Hangman would bow out for good in the very next issue. Together, the debut of a cornerstone supporting character and the accelerating transition from Golden Age superhero anthology to the defining American teen-humor comic make this a genuine snapshot of comics history in the making.
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Published in February 1944 under the MLJ Magazines/Archie Publications imprint, the issue was edited by Harry Shorten, who had steered Pep Comics since issue #24 and oversaw the gradual shifting of editorial emphasis toward Archie's humor world. The Archie stories were scripted by Harry Sahle and Ed Goggin and illustrated by Sahle, with inks by Virginia Drury (credited as 'Ginger'), while the superhero material was handled largely by the prolific Otto Binder. The cover, also by Sahle, visualized the new comic hierarchy in miniature: The Shield — once the undisputed star of the series — has literally been reduced to a prop character helping Jughead build a gigantic Archie snowman.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Pop Tate, owner of Pop's Chocklit Shoppe: in this debut he is depicted as a skinny, gray-haired older man with a mustache, and his establishment is called simply 'Tate's' — a very different look from his later standardized design.
- First appearance of Gabby, described in-story as the town blabbermouth, in the same 'Christmas Cheers' Archie story.
- 'Christmas Cheers' was scripted by Harry Sahle and Ed Goggin, penciled by Harry Sahle, and inked by Virginia Drury (credited as 'Ginger').
- The cover was illustrated by Harry Sahle and depicts The Shield and Jughead Jones constructing a giant snowman in Archie's likeness — a deliberate visual signal of Archie's ascendancy over the superhero characters.
- The Shield story 'Tales of a Safety Pin' and The Hangman story 'Dead Men's Eyes Tell Tales' were both scripted by Otto Binder, with the Hangman installment illustrated by Bob Fujitani (credited as 'B. Fuje').
- Captain Commando and the Boy Soldiers appear in 'The Ferryboat Admiral,' with the Boy Soldiers roster including Armand De Latour, Flatbush, Billy Grayson, and Percy.
- The Hangman's feature would end entirely with the very next issue, Pep Comics #47 (March 1944), making #46 his penultimate appearance in the series.
- The Archie stories from this issue were reprinted in Dark Horse's Archie Archives Vol. 3 (October 2011), a hardcover collection covering Pep Comics #46–50 and Archie Comics #7–10.
Cast · 19 characters
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Captain Barney Keel is driving a tugboat along the land when a dam breaks and he and Catfish Joe find themselves floating around on a newly created lake rescuing animals.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).