More Cute Girlie Stuff: Katy Keene Paper Doll Reprise

The most popular Out of This World blog post for a long time time was actually about paper dolls in comics. I made a one-off post about this topic as a 'thank you' to a fellow blogger who was very kind enough to allow me to use her scan of a newspaper comic strip for a project I was working on. Since then, paper doll fans have been among my most frequent visitors. So I thought it was about time I followed up on that success with some more paper dolls. In today's post I'm using other people's scans that have been passed on to me, and they are all from various Katy Keene issues from the original series and annuals. In the next post I'll be featuring some Millie the Model and Patsy Walker paper dolls from my own collection.

Katy Keene was published by Archie Comics. Katy Keene is something of a phenomenon. Bill Woggon has that 'good girl' look just right, with Katy sort of somewhere between Fritzi Ritz and Torchy. So here's a selection of material from some classic Katy Keene comics - wedding dresses, some covers, a cool beatnik story, and of course, lots of paper dolls! Enjoy!

First here's the story from the beatnik issue:

 

 

Next, some examples of those word and picture narratives that were frequently included in Katy Keene comics. This first one is again from Katy Keene 50:

and this one is from Katy Keene Annual 3:

and this from Katy Keene 45:

Now some paper dolls. From Katy Keene 62:

and this one from Katy Keene 50:

Here's a bunch from Katy Keene Annual 3:

and Katy Keene Annual 4:

Some really old ones, from Katy Keene 16:

and finally (for the paper dolls in this post), I don't know if these aprons are supposed to be paper dolls but I'll put them here anyway, from Katy Keene 45:

Katy Keene (the character) is a model and movie star, pretty much like Millie the Model and other 'model' characters in girls' comics from the Golden and Silver Age. Katy Keene comics have tons of fashion features and reader participation in providing ideas and designs. As an example, here's some Katy Keene wedding dresses, from Katy Keene Annual 3:

from Katy Keene 16:

and Katy Keene Annual 4:

Well that's pretty much it for this one. I found that an interesting jaunt through some of Bill Woggon's Katy Keene artwork, and I hope you all enjoyed it too. Paper dolls seem to have quite an incredible following, so I hope some of those fans stumble across this post. Paper dolls are an interesting piece of culture, and it heartens me to know that there are people dedicated to preserving and perpetuating them for future generations to appreciate and enjoy. Until next time, hopefully you'll think these paper dolls are Out of This World!

 

I <3 Katy Keene!?

DC's Pat Boone Comics: Wholesome Americana

The cover of Pat Boone 4 is typical of the short run of this late 1950s DC title, in that it uses a large photo of Pat, plus in this case Johnny Mathis and Bobby Darin, about whom there are some text features with illustrations inside. The series ran from Sept/Oct 1959 through May/June 1960, and coincided with Pat's still being a hit record artist, as well as a movie and TV star. We'll start this second look at DC's Pat Boone series with one of the short 5-page stories set in Pat's family, with his wife Shirley and their four young children. The beautifully rendered art is again by Bob Oksner, who drew the entire 5-issue series, and this and the stories presented in the previous post were written by Larry Nadle.

Next here's a collection of the fashion double-page spreads from the centers of Pat Boone 1 through 5, stitched together as well as I could manage. These are very much a feature of DC romance comics of the 1960s, and you can see a wonderful selection of these on Jacque Nodell's romance comics blog, Sequential Crush. Note the "Twixt Twelve and Twenty" title to the fashion pages from Pat Boone 2 - this was the title used by Pat for one of his self-help books for teens.

Pat himself was used in ads in the comics, including this one for men's shoes from the back cover of Pat Boone 5.

Here's a couple of double page gag features drawn by Mort Drucker. "Teens Eye View" is from Pat Boone 3 and "Teen Dates" is from Pat Boone 2.

Here's one of the text features on another star of the time (and still today in this case!): Johnny Mathis from Pat Boone 4.

Each issue contained one or more pages dealing with the numerous Pat Boone Fan Clubs - fan clubs appeared to have been very important to young people at the time, a social group for individuals with a shared interest. Note the cartoon drawn by Pat Boone.

Each issue has information about Pat Boone and his life, and was in fact written by Pat Boone himself, so it's autobiographical. I like this one, from the last issue:

Finally, the letters pages that were also a regular feature. Whether or not Pat answered the letters himself, or even if the letters were genuine, is unknown, but Pat certainly seems to have got into writing those self-help books for teens in the early 60s.

So that's it for this one. As you can see, these comics contained a lot for the Pat Boone fan, more than what has been offered here on this post. These books are tough to find nowadays, but I would say they're important artistically because of the way Oksner drew the stories (different from his other work, for example, on DC's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis), and for me, this was some of his best work. The absence of speech balloons, and with minimal framing to the panels, this style must have saved on inking but it also looks really great.