Revisionist Archie History--Pep 22

[143ksk]

I was looking at the very cool work that wdb23 showed in this thread and got to thinking

 

Both Archie and Dr. Strange got very little respect in their early appearances. Like wdb23's Dr. Strange books, all my early Archie books have non-Archie covers

 

So I PM'd wdb23 and asked him if he could create a new and improved cover to Pep 22. About 30 seconds later he sent me this:

 

 

 

This is the first time I've ever felt bad about having a Pep 22 that already has a cover

[Aces]

Nice!

 

But it can't save you!

[bullseye]

way cool, now if pep 22 ever came up for auction....

[The Black Hand ®]

Pretty cool! Although the original Pep 22 cover is a classic in it's own right. Being a big archie fan I still have to say that the lack of respect he got in the early days were more then made up for by the way he totally took over the company in just a few short years, trends aside. On the other hand , I'd like to see Jackpot 8 and 9 covers replaced any day. Awful!

[The Black Hand ®]

Another comment on respect. I knew dealers several years ago who would never carry any Archie at all. Until they started bringing in better money. One dealer,in a condescending way, told me that MLJ was the poor mans Timely. Last time I ever bought from him.

[143ksk]

Yeah, I heard the "poor man's Timely" line about Nedors as well. I remember the days when Archie (and other MLJs) were looked down on. Fortunately, that's when I bought most of my early issues Unfortunately, I did not complete my collection then

 

I have to say I like the original cover to Pep 22, but I don't think it's in a class with some of the other covers of the time (eg 20, 27, 30, 34, 36). Still very cool though

[The Black Hand ®]

Well, 20 is obviously in a class of it's own. After that, any Montana cover will serve quite well for me.

[howardhallis]

This was a fun little project. I never got to read the first Archie story before. Just knowing he liked to be called "Chick" is weird enough, but to see him, Betty and Jughead debut as "tweenagers" of about 11 or 12 is really interesting in a historical sense.