I suppose it comes naturally, being a part-time writer. I'm always looking to add new words to my vocabulary for fun. I think it comes from when I was a kid and I used to look at the Charlie Brown Dictionary that was at my house. Granted, the Peanuts cartoons that helped illustrate what the words meant helped draw my interest in reading and learning new words, but I just really loved that book. I actually wish I still had that book, but it got lost during a move, and eBay wants a fortune for a replacement copy!
It was right around that time that I got introduced to Archie comics, and I credit Archie comics with helping to enrich my vocabulary as well. I'd always come across a word or two that I didn't know, and it prompted me to look up the word in Webster's Dictionary so that I knew what it meant. It was a fun little game, and I believe that Archie comics helped me develop my word power.
You see? Comic books CAN be educational!
I first came across one of these gags in a digest. The one pictured above - "Jughead With Archie Digest #25". Admittedly, I bought this one at a garage sale, and it's probably one of my most beat up digests - one that I should replace. However, one thing that drew my attention to this digest was one of the gags inside.
So, clearly, this is a reprint of a gag that originally appeared in another comic book, but this one - as well as all of the other "alphabet gags" - were illustrated by artist Al Hartley. And they have since become a bit of a cult classic within the Archie universe, as many people have actively sought out these gags. Between 1970 and 1972, these alphabet gags would appear in random comic books. And believe me, they were completely random. The "A is for Archie" and "B is for Betty" gags appeared in two back to back "Archie and Me" comic books in 1970, and the next few letters were also released in a pattern. But by the time they got to the letter J, the pages would be printed out of order, making it a real treasure hunt to find all of them.
Each alphabet gag followed the same formula. The top panel would have the letter being introduced, like "C is for Comics" up above, or "J is for Jughead". Sometimes, nonsensical words would be invented to fill in the letter blanks where a character couldn't be used, like "N is for N Joyment", for example.
And included in each alphabet gag would be a total of anywhere from eight to ten words starting with the letter that was featured. In this example for "O is for Oh!", we see the words "obesity", "oblivious", "obsess", and "odoriferous", and Hartley did a fantastic job of drawing the perfect picture underneath each word. It really helped this then young reader get a better idea of what the word meant. Seeing it in picture form as well as word form helped my brain connect the two, and I think all of them were just perfection.
I wish that Archie would gather up all of these pages and create a miniature dictionary of these alphabet gags. All of them were brilliantly done, and I think everyone who loves Archie would like to have the whole collection of them, rather than hunt all of them down one by one.
However, I've done some homework, and I have found out where twenty-four of the twenty-six letters in the alphabet have originally appeared, and I will be inserting my findings inside this blog. But, note that my list is still incomplete. I've looked high and dry for the letter "F", but all efforts came up empty. I honestly believe that it could appear in PEP Comics #255 given the pattern of the other letters, but I don't have that book, and I can't find out anything about that book. As well, I don't have a listing for the letter "X" either - but given that X is one of the least used letters as far as word beginnings go, I wouldn't be surprised if there was no X page.
So for F and X, I'll leave them blank. If any of you can help me locate these two letters, please let me know. I'll update my list, and I will credit those who give me the information. Thanks in advance!
Here is my partial list for where to find these alphabet gags. Happy hunting everyone! (And don't ask me about reprints - they have been reprinted so many times, I'm not even sure where they all appear!)
A is for Archie! - ARCHIE AND ME #38 (October 1970)
B is for Betty! - ARCHIE AND ME #39 (December 1970)
C is for Comics! - BETTY AND ME #35 (June 1971)
D is for Dilton! - PEP COMICS #254 (June 1971)
E is for Big Ethel! - LAUGH COMICS #243 (June 1971)
F is for...
G is for Miss Grundy! - LAUGH COMICS #244 (July 1971)
H is for Hot Dog! - PEP COMICS #256 (August 1971)
I is for Idiots! - ARCHIE AND ME #45 (October 1971)
J is for Jughead! - ARCHIE'S PAL JUGHEAD #200 (January 1972)
K is for Coach Kleats! - ARCHIE'S PALS 'N' GALS #67 (December 1971)
L is for Mr. Lodge! - ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT #10 (November 1971)
M is for Big Moose! - REGGIE AND ME #51 (October 1971)
N is for N Joyment! - EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE #17 (December 1971)
O is for Oh! - ARCHIE AND ME #46 (December 1971)
P is for Pop Tate! - EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE #16 (October 1971)
Q is for Quiet! - ARCHIE AND ME #44 (September 1971)
R is for Reggie! - REGGIE AND ME #48 (May 1971)
S is for Mr. Svenson! - PEP COMICS #265 (May 1972)
T is for Two-Timer! - BETTY AND ME #37 (September 1971)
U is for Hang Ups! - LAUGH COMICS #254 (May 1972)
V is for Veronica! - ARCHIE'S GIRLS BETTY AND VERONICA #189 (September 1971)
W is for Mr. Weatherbee! - ARCHIE AND ME #43 (August 1971)
X is for...
Y is for Youth! - LAUGH COMICS #248 (November 1971)
Z is for Zleeping! - LAUGH COMICS #257 (August 1972)
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