Number 1543: Not so smart Cookie gives up on girls!

Ha! This story reminds me of a time in the mid-‘90s, finding my teenage son’s stash of Playboy magazines, and the nice afternoon I had going through them. Cookie’s pop in this story is as interested in his son’s pin-up collection as I was in mine. It’s nice when a father and son share a hobby.

But Cookie says he is through with women. Ha! again.

This is at least the second story I’ve shown where Cookie dresses up like a girl. I...er...uh...have no explanation for that.

Art by Dan Gordon (who sometimes signed his work “dang”). It’s from Cookie #14 (1948):

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Another story of Cookie dressing like a girl. Click on the thumbnail.

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Number 1375: That dang Cookie!

Cookie O’Toole, who despite the name was a boy and not a girl, was one of the Archie competitors during the late forties and early fifties. I think Cookie is an excellent comic book, and I have shown a couple of stories in the past.* It had a long run at ACG under editor Richard E. Hughes. Cookie was drawn by Dan Gordon, who sometimes signed his name “dang.” Gordon was one of the animator/cartoonists who worked on ACG’s funny animal and teenage comics line.

Cookie may have been a half-pint, but he was also smart, and brash, and had a cute girlfriend named “Angelpuss.” Cookie followed the teenage template for this type of comic. He had friends, and rivals who were supposed to be his friends. He also had a family, including a very funny, excitable dad. Come to think of it, when I was a teenager I followed that template, too!

This story is from Cookie #7 (1947):

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*Click on the thumbnails for more Cookie.

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Number 1162: Dan Gordon was a dang fine cartoonist

 Dan Gordon, who sometimes signed his name dang, was a talented animator and comic book artist who worked for ACG on their humor books. Cookie is a funny Archie-style teenage comic. Gordon's fluid drawings move the eye quickly across and down the page (a good example is page six of "Cookie's Oil Company," in a borderless sequence of Cookie sleepwalking). To show his technical drawing ability, page four features a large bird's-eye view perspective drawing.

You can find some more examples of Dan Gordon's work in Pappy's #796 (with a short bio of Gordon, and a story of Cookie in drag), and a Superkatt funny animal story in Pappy's #506.

Cookie's Pop is a great example of how Gordon could draw anger. Poor Pop looks like he's about to have a stroke. Those of us pappies who raised teenage sons remember the feelings Pop goes through in this story. I also love Gordon's funny little bearded guy, Pete.

From Cookie #6 (1947):

The inside cover features a subsidiary character seen in a couple of panels in the above story:

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Number 930


A mess of cross-dress


Back in Pappy's #796 I showed a story from the ACG teenage comic, Cookie, with the title character, Cookie, in drag.

In this story from Cookie #6, in 1947, there is also some cross-dressing in Al Hartley's "Pickles" feature. This time it's Pickles' pal, Binkie (apparently not related to DC's Binky), who does the honors of dressing up. He's quite a dish in Pickles' sister's clothes, and Binkie doesn't put up much of an argument for dressing up. (Confidentially, I think he really digs it.) One wonders about this fetish for blurring of sexual roles, because in the same issue there's some gender confusion in the one-page "Lorrie" strip.

Both are by Al Hartley. Hartley went on to draw for Atlas, and was a good-girl artist, able to draw knockout females. I've featured some fun strips by him in Pappy's #194, Pappy's #440 and Pappy's #635, all showing his ability to draw hotties. Hartley went on to Archie Comics, and at some point got religion, after which he drew the line of Spire Christian Comics.

His drawing in 1947* was much tighter, less cartoony than his later artwork. Pickles looks like a more realistic Archie, red hair and freckles, but no bowtie or crosshatching on his temples. Hartley, after a long career in comics, secular and religious, died in 2003.







*In 1947 Hartley's dad, United States Congressman Frederick Allan Hartley, Jr., was the co-sponsor of the controversial Taft-Hartley Act.

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