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 796

Comical Comics Week: Cookie in drag

This is the third day of Comical Comics Week:

In the 1940s cross-dressing in popular comedy was treated in a non-sexual way, like the 1892 play, Charley's Aunt, where a man dressed in disguise as a woman. So does Cookie, but he not only has a girl's name, he's small and looks good in a Veronica Lake wig.

Well.

At the time it was illegal in many places for men or women to wear each others' clothes in public, which is why Zoot is hollering for the cops because of a "female impersonator."

Wearing girls' clothes and a bit of sexual confusion sets the tone for some comedy by longtime animator/funnyman Dan Gordon, who also did Superkatt for ACG in the late 1940s. Cookie was another Archie-teenage comic, more successful than most. Cookie lasted for 55 issues, until 1955. Dan Gordon, who had worked for Max Fleischer, then Famous Studios, went back to Hanna-Barbera in the late '50s and did storyboards for their earliest creations, including storyboards for the first couple of episodes of The Flintstones. Gordon died in 1969.

From Cookie #5, 1947:

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