Cover: Dan DeCarlo & Rudy Lapick

That Wilkin Boy #2

Apr 1969 · Archie · 0.12 USD

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“Enemy Action”

About this Issue

That Wilkin Boy #2 is one of the earliest issues to establish the full ensemble dynamic that would carry the series for over a decade: the Bingo–Samantha romance under siege from both their feuding fathers and the scheming Tough Teddy, with Rebel the dog serving as the gang's unlikely conscience. By its second issue, the book had already settled into a confident groove distinct from Archie — centering on a monogamous teen romance and a rock band (the Bingoes) rather than the love-triangle formula Archie relied upon — making it a minor but genuine formal experiment within the Silver Age Archie line. The issue also continues the tradition, present from issue #1, of embedding a Li'l Jinx backup by Joe Edwards, broadening the book's appeal and giving Edwards's character a regular home outside her own title. Appearing just weeks after the debut, issue #2 confirmed that the series had a stable creative identity and a cast worth following across what would become a 52-issue run.

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writer Frank Doyle · artist Dan DeCarlo · inker Rudy Lapick · colorist Barry Grossman · letterer Bill Yoshida · cover Dan DeCarlo, Rudy Lapick

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History

The series was created by writer Frank Doyle and artist Dan DeCarlo — Archie's most prolific writer–artist pairing of the era — with DeCarlo on record (quoted in 'The Best of Betty and Veronica Summer Fun') as having drawn the first issue and confirming Doyle scripted it. Issue #2 continues that same creative team: Doyle scripts, DeCarlo pencils, and Rudy Lapick on inks, the same partnership that defined the book's visual and comedic style throughout its early run. The series launched as Archie Publications was riding a pop-music wave tied to The Archies' real-world recording success, and That Wilkin Boy was positioned as a rock-band-centered complement to that momentum, set in the fictional town of Midville.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published February 1969 by Archie Publications (Radio Comics/That Wilkin Boy Inc.); 36 pages, 12¢ cover price.
Cover pencilled by Dan DeCarlo, inked by Rudy Lapick — the same team that handled all interior story art in this issue.
Frank Doyle scripted all main stories in the issue, including 'Canine Cupid,' 'Change of Heart,' 'Painful Lesson,' and 'See Saw.'
'Canine Cupid' establishes Rebel's role as a quasi-human problem-solver: when the Wilkin–Smythe feud keeps Bingo and Samantha apart, it is Rebel who engineers their reunion.
'Painful Lesson' dramatizes the recurring gag of Samson Smythe deliberately mispronouncing 'Wilkin' as 'Wilkins' to antagonize Bingo's father Willie — a running joke that would define the fathers' feud for the entire series.
The issue includes a 'The Bingos' band pin-up by DeCarlo and Lapick — notably spelling the band name without the 'e,' differing from the 'Bingoes' spelling used in story text, an inconsistency present from the earliest issues.
Joe Edwards contributes a Li'l Jinx one-page story ('Girl Watcher,' featuring Li'l Jinx and Greg), establishing the backup-feature format that recurs across the series' early years.
The full cast indexed for this issue — Bingo, Samantha, Samson Smythe, Sheila Smythe, Willie Wilkin, Wilma Wilkin, Tough Teddy, Buddy Drumhead, Rebel, Li'l Jinx, and Greg — confirms that nearly the entire core ensemble was operational by only the second issue of the run.