Pep Comics #62
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePep Comics #62 (July 1947) marks a pivotal transition in the long-running anthology: it is the first appearance of Li'l Jinx, the mischievous child character created by Joe Edwards who would go on to headline her own title and remain a fixture in Archie Comics publications all the way through the series' final issue in 1987. The issue also signals the effective end of the Golden Age superhero era at the publisher — with the Black Hood having departed in the preceding issues and the Shield winding down, #62 is the point at which humor strips fully colonized a title that had launched with patriotic crime-fighters in 1940. This editorial pivot, with a new child-centric comedy feature slotting into the space vacated by costumed heroes, reflects the broader postwar transformation of the American comics industry away from wartime adventure and toward family-friendly, slice-of-life humor.
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By the time #62 reached newsstands, Pep Comics had already formally transferred its statement of ownership from MLJ Magazines to Archie Comic Publications Inc. with issue #57 (June 1946), accelerating the title's shift away from superhero anthology toward humor. Editor Harry Shorten oversaw this transition period, which ran from #24 through #65. Joe Edwards — a World War II veteran who had joined MLJ Comics in 1942 and worked extensively on Archie and Jughead stories — created Li'l Jinx partly inspired by his own experiences as a father; the character's Halloween birthday directly mirrors that of Edwards' son Ken. The cover was drawn by Bill Vigoda, a prolific Archie house artist whose brother was actor Abe Vigoda, and interior credits across the issue include Bill Woggon on the Katy Keene installment, with an in-story cameo reference to editor Harry Shorten and artist Al Fagaly as named football players.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Li'l Jinx (listed in the GCD as 'Li'l Jinx (introduction)'), the high-spirited child character created by Joe Edwards who would run in Pep Comics from 1947 all the way to the series' end in 1987.
- Li'l Jinx debuted as a direct replacement for the Black Hood strip, which had made its final appearances in #59–60 before departing; her arrival marks the last superhero feature being pushed out of the anthology.
- Creator Joe Edwards (December 6, 1921 – February 8, 2007) based the character's Halloween birthday on that of his own son Ken, and drew on his parenting experiences for the strip's humor about a mischievous girl and her long-suffering father.
- In her debut story, Li'l Jinx — here identified in early sources under the surname 'Bubblegum/Malloy' before the 'Holliday' surname solidified — drags the boss's refined son into a rough neighborhood baseball game.
- The issue is an anthology containing at least six features: 'Archie in Puppy Love' (Archie and Jughead rescue a stray dog), a Katy Keene story drawn by Bill Woggon, a Shield and Dusty adventure ('Death Strikes the Hour'), Willy the Wise-Guy, Gloomy Gus the Homeless Ghost, and the Li'l Jinx debut.
- The Shield and Dusty story in this issue is among the character's final appearances in the anthology; the Strip concluded entirely with #65 (January 1948), only three issues later.
- Cover art is by Bill Vigoda, a regular Archie house artist whose interior work and name appear as an in-story Easter egg in the Katy Keene story (Vigoda is name-dropped as a football player who paints a pin-up girl on a tackling dummy).
- Li'l Jinx later received her own solo title (1956–1957), a Giant Laugh-Out series (1971–1973), a 2012 graphic novel reinvention by J. Torres and Rick Burchett, and a further Archie Horror revival in the 2020s — all tracing back to this issue's debut.
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Pep Comics #57 (1946), Pep Comics #59 (1946)
Reprinted in Archie Americana Series #1 (1991), Archie Archives #8 (2013), The Best of Archie Comics #4 (2014), Archie Spotlight Digest: Archie 75th Anniversary Digest #2 (2016), Archie Spotlight Digest: Archie 75th Anniversary Digest #3 (2016), Best of Archie Americana #1 (2017)
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