Reggie's Wise Guy Jokes #17

History

Reggie's Wise Guy Jokes launched in August 1968 as part of Archie Comics' strategy of spinning supporting characters into their own gag-format titles. The series ran for 55 issues through September 1980, overlapping with Reggie and Me (which ran concurrently through issue #126). Dan DeCarlo — the artist most closely associated with defining the visual style of Riverdale — penciled multiple issues across the run, including issue #17, as confirmed by dealer and collector records. The format throughout the series was Archie's standard half-page and single-page gag strips, with rhyming story titles a recurring stylistic hallmark, set against the backdrop of Riverdale High.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Archie Comics (under the Close-Up Inc. imprint), cover-dated August 1971, as issue #17 in the Reggie's Wise Guy Jokes series (1968–1980, 55 issues total).
• Dan DeCarlo is credited as penciller on this issue, per collector and dealer records — consistent with his regular contribution to the series at this time.
• The series was one of several concurrent Reggie-headlined titles; it ran alongside Reggie and Me (issues #19–126, Aug. 1966–Sept. 1980), giving Archie Comics two simultaneous Reggie-centric publications throughout this period.
• The indexed character roster includes Clyde Diddit, Dan Didit, and Dippy Didit — characters who originated in Archie's Mad House as mascots and later fronted the Madhouse Glads band feature, making their appearance here a crossover between two separate Archie Comics sub-universes.
• Clyde Diddit (spelled both 'Didit' and 'Diddit' across Archie publications) was the drummer and leader of the Madhouse Glads, a teen band whose brothers Dippy (orange hair) and Dan (blonde hair) each played guitar — a group conceived in a style deliberately reminiscent of The Monkees.
• Vicky Mantle, Reggie's mother, is among the indexed characters — a rarely named family member whose appearances across the Archie line are infrequent, making her presence in any issue worth noting for completionists tracking the Mantle family tree.
• The standard gag-strip format of the series featured short, punchy multi-panel jokes built around Reggie's vanity, his rivalry with Archie, his pursuit of Midge (and Moose's inevitable retribution), and his attempts to charm Veronica — all recurrent comedic engines across the title's 55-issue run.
• Reggie Mantle himself first appeared in Jackpot Comics #5 (Spring 1942), introduced by Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater; this 1971 issue sits in the mature Bronze Age phase of the character's publishing history, well after his animated debut in Filmation's The Archie Show (1968).

Cast · 18 characters

Full credits