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Today, we look at the time that Archie and the gang had to convince Santa Claus to not give up due to the pollution of the world.
This is a feature called “A Political World,” where we spotlight 20th Century comic book stories that came out back when comic books were not political at all, unlike comic books nowadays.
This time around, we’re looking at “Christmas Past” from 1971’s Pep Comics #261, by (apparently) George Gladir, Gus LeMoine and Joe Edwards, where Archie and the Riverdale teens have to convince Jingles the Elf to convince Santa Claus not to give up on Earth due to pollution.
WHAT WAS PEP COMICS?
Pep Comics is one of those rare comic book titles where, when it underwent a dramatic change in the function of the comic book itself, the title still kind of fit. Pep Comics, you see, was introduced by the comic book company, MLJ, which was named after the first names of the three guys who owned the company – Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John L. Goldwater. Like all of the other pulp fiction publishers who got into the comic book game, MLJ was all about superheroes and Pep Comics debuted the company’s most famous superhero, The Shield, who was the first major American patriotic superhero (debuting a full year before Timely’s Captain What’s-His-Name). The series also introduced The Comet, who was a groundbreaking superhero in his own right (for a not so happy reason). However, a couple of years in, the series introduced a back-up feature about a teenager and his life. Archie Andrews soon grew so popular that he became the lead feature in Pep Comics (one of the most awesomely odd periods in the history of the company was when Archie and the Shield SHARED the cover of the comic. So you’d have them interacting in such bizarre ways, as obviously a superhero and a goofy teen don’t really go together too well).
Eventually, Archie took over the magazine ENTIRELY and the company was re-named Archie Comics. However, unlike, say, Action Comics, Detective Comics, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, Journey Into Mystery or Adventure Comics, the name of the series, Pep Comics, worked rather well for the new, humor comic-centric approach of Archie Comics. So it remained in use until it went under in 1987 (although Archie continued to use the name for some of their giant-sized comics throughout the early 1990s).
WHO IS JINGLES THE ELF?
Early in legendary Archie artist Dan DeCarlo’s time at the company, he (along with writer Frank Doyle and inker Rudy Lapick) introduced Jingles, a brownie/elf who worked for Santa Claus that only kids could see. He visited Archie and the gang every year (which, of course, doesn’t really make sense since the gang never seems to age and yet Jingles would visit year after year) and got into all sorts of mischief (different artists would draw him differently each year. It was kind of funny).
WHO WERE THE CREATORS BEHIND THIS STORY?
George Gladir was one of the most prolific Archie writers of all-time. If Gladir hadn’t worked at Archie with Frank Doyle, who probably wrote the most comic book stories of any American comic book writer of the 20th Century, then Gladir might have the honor himself! Still, Gladir was a remarkably prolific writer, and after starting with Archie Comics in 1959, he was still delivering scripts right up until his death in 2013. Besides a sharp sense of humor, Gladir was particularly good at keeping his stories current. Archie Comics are typically unusual in that they try to maintain a fairly timeless quality, overall, so that their digest system could work. You see, Archie Comics was the company that came up with the idea of selling digest versions of its comic books at supermarkets (a young Tom DeFalco specifically came up with the idea). Archie succeeded in making these digests work by virtue of the fact that Archie stories from different eras can co-exist pretty darn well with each other. However, even with that in mind, Gladir tried to make his Archie stories toe the line between timeless and still “of its time,” which is no easy feat, but it’s one that Gladir pulled off for more than 50 years.
The artist on the story, Gus LeMoine, is a mysterious figure in the history of comics. I’ve only seen two comic book creators who have ever even said that they MET the guy in person. This has led to people believing that he was perhaps a pseudonym, but LeMoine later famously did Fast Willie Jackson, an African-American Archie-style comic book series (VERY Archie style) and he had some issues with the publisher of that comic, and the publisher of the comic interacted a good deal with LeMoine and later talked a lot about him, so I tend to believe he was not a pseudonym, and it is possible that he was the first prominent African-American comic book artist for Archie Comics. Again, I don’t know enough about the guy. I wish I did.
Finally, the inker was Joe Edwards, another prolific artist who worked at Archie for decades, most famously on the recurring character that he created called Lil’ Jinx, a precocious little girl who was born on Halloween (just like Edwards’ son, Ken), hence the nickname.
SO WHAT’S THE DEAL, SANTA CLAUS?
The story opens with Jingles visiting and being disgusted that he arrived right in the middle of smog. He explains to the teens that their pollution is ruining the planet…
He then drops the bomb. He thinks that things are so bad that he will recommend to Santa Claus that he suspend operations this Christmas!
The teens are shocked, they have to convince Jingles to change his mind. They explain that the world NEEDS the Christmas season to give them something to break into the cynicism of the world…
Jingles is unmoved, as he feels as though they’re actively allowing this pollution to happen…
The teens, though, insist that they will do their best to fight to change the world’s ways…
Jingles agrees to give them one year to change things….
And, of course, pollution luckily ended in 1972. Phew.
Okay, folks, I’m sure you have suggestions for interesting political storylines from the “good old days when comic books weren’t political,” so drop me suggestions at brianc@cbr.com!
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