Down The Rabbit Hole is a new occasional feature here at Wonderland Burlesque. It's simply an opportunity for me to share with you things I stumble upon while looking for other things. Generally, something about them catches my interest and before I know it... down a rabbit hole I go, chasing after more information and/or more images.
Today, we'll travel back to the early 1940's when being gay was not much fun and Gay Comics were not gay at all!
Published from March 1944 - October 1949 by Timely Comics (related to Marvel Comics), Gay Comics featured the madcap adventures and shenanigans of a trio of comely gals named Millie, Tessie and Nellie. All three young ladies went on to have their own solo spin-off comic series: Millie became Millie The Model, Tessie became Tessie The Typist, while Nellie became Nellie The Nurse.
In addition, Millie, Tessie, and Nellie would appear under two other comic brands: Joker (not related to the supervillain) and Comedy.
For Issue #33 of Gay Comics, Nellie was bumped and Hedy De Vine (AKA: Hedy of Hollywood), who already had her own comic series, came on board. Hedy, by the way, would also join forces with Patsy Walker, another popular female comic who happened to live in a little community called Riverdale! Yes, all roads do indeed lead to Riverdale, for all these characters end up being related in some way to Archie Comics, which began life in 1942 for a different publisher, MLJ magazines. In fact, down the road, there are issues of Millie The Model where she appears to be dating that morally uptight little ginger nerd, because... apparently models really dig perpetual high school seniors? (?)
Be that as it may, Millie The Model, a creation of Stan Lee, would outlast them all, pushing out issues until December of 1973.
And let me let you in on a little something... turns out, Gay Comics, actually skips from Issue #1 to Issue #18 - something I wish I would have known upfront, for I, of course, ever the completist, spent quite a bit of time hunting for Issues #2 thru #17. But it's all good - that's how I stumbled upon Archie and Millie's illicit affair! (Don't tell Betty or Veronica!)
And there you have it... more than you ever wanted to know about Gay Comics.
This concludes our trip down the rabbit hole. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
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1 comment:
What a fun post! When did "gay" become a word to describe us?
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