Pep Comics #65
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePep Comics #65 (January 1948) marks the final curtain for 'The Original Shield and Dusty the Boy Detective,' the patriotic superhero duo who had anchored the title since its very first issue in 1940 — a continuous run of eight years that witnessed the entire arc of Golden Age superhero comics, from pre-war jingoism through wartime triumph to postwar irrelevance. With the Shield's departure, Pep transformed into an all-humor anthology, completing the quiet coup that Archie Andrews and his Riverdale friends had been staging since 1941 and cementing the direction that Archie Comics would follow for the next four decades. The issue also represents the mature lineup of the early Archie humor universe — Archie, Katy Keene, and Li'l Jinx sharing pages for the first time as the undisputed pillars of the book — demonstrating just how thoroughly the publisher's identity had shifted from costumed adventure to wholesome teen comedy. It is, in a real sense, the birth certificate of the 'Archie Comics house style' that would define the company through the 1980s.
In "Weeny Roast!" from Pep Comics #65 (1948), Professor Scott’s dangerous experiment with a resurrection serum sets off a chain of chilling events after his execution. With the help of his assistant Dr. Green, he returns from the grave to seek revenge—only to be undone by his own obsession. Art by Irv Novick, with cover by Al Fagaly, this eerie tale blends mad science and moral reckoning in a story that lingers long after the final page.
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Harry Shorten, who had edited Pep Comics since issues #22–23, concluded his editorial tenure with this very issue, marking a clean generational handoff as the title shed its superhero legacy entirely. The Shield feature's final two issues — #64 and #65 — consisted of reprint stories rather than new material, a quiet winding-down that underscored how thoroughly the character had been eclipsed; the last original (non-reprint) Shield story had appeared in issue #64. Bill Woggon's Katy Keene and Joe Edwards's Li'l Jinx, both relative newcomers to the book (Katy having migrated over from Wilbur Comics in 1945 and Jinx having debuted in Pep #62 in July 1947), were now the title's creative anchors alongside the Archie gang.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Final appearance of The Shield (Joe Higgins) and Dusty (Dustin Simmons) in Pep Comics: the duo had run continuously since Pep #1 (January 1940), an unbroken eight-year tenure.
- The Shield and Dusty stories in this issue were reprints; the last original (non-reprint) Shield story ran in Pep #64.
- After #65, Pep Comics became an all-humor title; the long-running 'Shield G-Man Club' reader feature was replaced by 'The Archie Club' beginning with the following issue.
- The issue includes the Archie story 'The Weeny Roast!' and a Shield/Dusty story titled 'Revive the Dead.'
- Katy Keene, the reader-interactive fashion model strip created by Bill Woggon (who debuted the character in Wilbur Comics #5, summer 1945), appears as an ongoing feature.
- Li'l Jinx, created by Joe Edwards and first introduced in Pep #62 (July 1947), appears here with her father identified as Mr. Bubblegum — the character would later be revised and renamed Hap Holliday when Jinx received her own solo title in 1956.
- Harry Shorten's editorial run on Pep Comics concluded with this issue, having shepherded the title from #22–23 through the entire superhero-to-humor transition.
- The Archie stories from this issue were later reprinted in Dark Horse Comics' Archie Archives Vol. 9 (collecting Pep Comics #65–67, Archie Comics #29–31, and Laugh Comics #25–26).
Cast · 18 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
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Professor Scott has invented a serum that can bring people back from the dead. In order to find out if it works he kills a man but is caught by the police before he can administer the serum. Tried and convicted of murder, he's sentenced to the electric chair. He convinces his assistant Dr. Green to dig up his corpse and inject him with the serum so he can return from the grave to enact his revenge. Professor Scott electrocutes Dr. Ray for turning him in to the police. While trying to kill the district attorney he's stopped by Dusty and kills himself with a lethal injection. Never to return.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
Key issues in Pep Comics
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