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That Wilkin Boy!

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topic icon Author Topic: That Wilkin Boy!  (Read 4100 times)

Adventure 247

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That Wilkin Boy!
« on: March 12, 2007, 05:02:22 PM »

Hello, hello, hello!

I have not posted anywhere on our board except in the "Introduce Yourself" section, and, even worse, I have not written anything at all in over a week.  Rather than be forgotten before I am ever known, I thought I would jump in with a short article about one of my favorite comics, That Wilkin Boy, published by Archie Comics from 1969 to 1982.

If you have never heard of it, you are not alone.  It ran for 52 issues, and it took me more than five years to amass them since they are not usually at the forefront of dealers and eBayers' minds.  There are also a small number of free-standing Wilkin Boy stories in other Archie titles, but I have no idea how to find them.  To date I have only Pep 297 (1975), an accidental discovery.

Here are the three central characters--Bingo Wilkin, Samantha Smythe, and the overprotective Mr. Smythe--in a typical pose on the cover of That Wilkin Boy 45.



So why That Wilkin Boy?  In my not-so-humble opinion, it is a better than average Archie feature since Bingo , Samantha, Tough Teddy, Buddy Drumhead, and the rest are not part of the "regular" Archie crowd.  Most of their stories are the usual six-some-odd pages centered on a gag, but a number of stories are more risqu
« Last Edit: March 12, 2007, 05:14:05 PM by Adventure 247 »
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PeterC

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Re: That Wilkin Boy!
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2007, 10:27:53 PM »

Hi...

For looking for other comics with Bingo in them, try over at comics.org (the GCD).  There isn't a lot of Archie stuff there (though there is more every week).  I did find Bingo Wilkins in 3 comics that weren't That Wilkin Boy!  I did a Character search for 'Bingo Wilkins' and a character search for "That Wilkin Boy" and found these:

1) Archie's 65th Anniversary Bash - Free Comic Book Day Edition #1 Title: Moving Forward (Story - 22 pages)  May 2006 
2) Betty And Veronica Double Digest Magazine #12 Title: ["Tomorrow Samantha?"] (Story - 8 pages) April 1989   (from how this is indexed, it looks like the first line of the story is "Tomorrow Samantha?"...
3) Laugh #357 Title: "Council Of War" (Story - 5 pages)  December 1980

The second two might be reprints.  If they are, and you figure out which issues they are from, send the info to the GCD at gcd-errors@lists.comics.org <gcd-errors@lists.comics.org>. (I'm an editor over there and we can always use new info)...

Peter
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Adventure 247

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Re: That Wilkin Boy!
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2007, 02:50:28 AM »

Hi, PeterC.  I had never heard of "comics.org (the GCD)."  The two long articles I wrote for Comic Book Marketplace are my only claim to comics fame.  Academic writing has taken up far too much of my time, and I would like to get back to writing about the other things I love.  It's good to know that there is a database out there.

What is this database looking for comic fans to do in order to help it?

I would guess that Archie's 65th Anniversary Bash features a Bingo cameo at best, but I could be wrong.  In Archie 300 from 1981, there is a cameo appearance by Bingo, Samantha, and Mr. Smythe on the final splash page.  The Josie characters, the Sabrina characters, and many others also appear there, but none of them have any dialogue. 

If the information about Archie 300 is helpful, feel free to add it to the database.  There are probably similar cameos for anniversaries.

If the story from Betty And Veronica Double Digest Magazine #12, 1989, is not a reprint, then what I have read about Jughead and Friends Digest #5 containing the first new Bingo story in all these years is wrong.

Laugh #357 from 1980 could contain a new Bingo story, as the main Bingo comic was not cancelled until 1982.

Are any of these comics on line so that I could check them?  I know that I don't have them.

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PeterC

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Re: That Wilkin Boy!
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2007, 10:21:37 AM »


What is this database looking for comic fans to do in order to help it?

There are a few things you could do.  If you find an error in an already indexed comic while searching it, you can email the error list.

If you are interested in indexing full comics, you can become an indexer.  Basically you go through the comic and type in what the story names are and who the artists are if you know them or they are listed.  It's not for everyone, but a lot of us enjoy it.  I'm currently working on the Daredevil comics from the 50's (thanks to the scans from this site)...

Submitting covers is probably the easiest thing (and I know a lot of the covers for That Wilkin Boy are missing).  You scan the covers and then upload them via an online interface.

There are a few email lists over there you can join too, with people sharing their knowledge about all types of comics...


Are any of these comics on line so that I could check them?  I know that I don't have them.

I have no idea myself.  I know they would still be in copyright, but they might be out there somewhere...

Peter
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