{"id":35657,"date":"2026-06-07T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35657"},"modified":"2026-06-05T16:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T16:42:07","slug":"betsy-and-me-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/06\/07\/betsy-and-me-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Betsy and Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Jack Cole<\/strong> & Dwight Parks<\/strong>, with R.C. Harvey<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-156097-878-7 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> added for comedic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jack Cole was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American comics\u2019 Golden Age. Before moving into mature magazine and gag markets he originated landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero comic books, where his incredible humour-hero Plastic Man<\/strong> remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. It was a glittering career of distinction which Cole was clearly embarrassed by and unhappy with.<\/p>\n

Without doubt – and despite his other triumphal comics innovations such as The Comet<\/strong>, Silver Streak<\/strong>, Daredevil<\/strong>, The Claw<\/strong>, Death Patrol<\/strong>, Midnight<\/strong>, Quicksilver<\/strong>, The Barker<\/strong>, and a uniquely twisted and phenomenally popular take on the crime and horror genres – Cole\u2019s greatest contribution and lasting creation was the zany Malleable Marvel who (with indispensable sidekick\/gadfly Woozy Winks<\/em>) quickly grew from a minor back-up character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the era.<\/p>\n

In 1954 Cole quit comics for the lucrative and prestigious field of magazine cartooning, and swiftly became a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began regularly running in Playboy <\/strong>from its fifth issue. Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips and, in 1958, achieved a life-long ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me<\/strong>, which began publication on Monday May 26th<\/sup>.
\n\"\"
\nSomething about reaching the cartoonist\u2019s Promised Land clearly did not meet with the infamously private Cole\u2019s expectations and, on August 13th<\/sup> 1958, at the peak of his prowess and success, he took his own life. The reasons – although much speculated upon ever since – remain unknown.<\/p>\n

The strip was handed to commercial cartoonist Dwight Parks who continued it until an editorial decision was made to end it. The last daily was published on Saturday, December 27th<\/sup>. That great loss to the future of the industry and artform has for years clouded a greater truth: whatever his demons, Cole was a master of comedy and narrative art in all its forms and Betsy and Me<\/strong> was, in its own niche, every bit as great as his glamour illustration and comic book endeavours.<\/p>\n

This mostly monochrome tome collects those long-lost newspaper sorties in a welcoming package which begins with the captivating solicitation page designed to entice new papers to buy the strip. Then biography, history, context and analysis come courtesy of historian R. C. Harvey\u2019s introductory essay \u2018The Last of Jack Cole: His Life and Art and Why They Both Ended with Betsy and Me<\/strong>\u2019<\/em>. The heavily illustrated article also offers possible insights into Cole\u2019s motivations, state of mind and possible reasons for suicide, before this superb collection of what should have been Cole\u2019s greatest legacy opens…<\/p>\n

Utilising a stripped-down minimalist style that was the astute acme of its time, this domestic comedy is recounted as a fireside tale by homely working stiff Chester B. Tibbit<\/em>. He recalls and reminisces with unseen readers who daily learn of his romancing of and marriage to Betsy; his downtrodden life as a floorwalker at the Meyers department store and plodding climb up the ladder of middle class aspiration.<\/p>\n

The move from apartment to house, the trepidatious purchase of consumer benchmarks such as white goods and even an automobile (in the most generous sense of the term), and the inevitable addition of a child are all gradually covered in a manner most wry and deliciously sardonic. All the laughs stem from an old cartoonist\u2019s trick: the rose-tinted self-deluding narrative says one thing whilst the pictures tell the grim, sordid truth, even when Chester can\u2019t see it himself…<\/p>\n

His admired and adored bosses are bullying martinets, his friends are shallow, fair-weather self-servers, Betsy isn\u2019t a quiet, obedient little woman and his son is…
\n\"\"
\nWell, the truth is that infant Farley<\/em> actually is<\/em><\/strong> a genius: rude, brusque, impatient and utterly beyond the intellectual capabilities of his terrified, long-suffering parents. Even from his earliest moments in the crib the kid is the smartest one in the house – and that includes financially and emotionally…<\/p>\n

The strips follow the traditional developmental path of courtship, marriage, home-making and child-rearing but always Cole\u2019s needle-sharp social observations and uncontrollable whimsy are seditiously at work. At Meyers\u2019 the infant blackmails his father\u2019s superiors so they stop picking on the little nebbish and when Farley starts school he organises a student revolt…<\/p>\n

The toddler even masters judo to protect his bewildered guardians from marauding criminals and spars continually with mooching, predatory Gus<\/em>, a confirmed bachelor always hanging around Betsy with attentions that are clear to everyone but Chester…
\n\"\"
\nOver the summer of 1958 Betsy and Me <\/strong>steadily grew in quality, scope and popularity. When Cole died on August 13th<\/sup> he had submitted strips for a full month ahead. His last daily ran on September 7th<\/sup> and the final Sunday on September 21st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Dwight Parks took over and whereas the pared-down artistic style remained, the uneasy edgy satire was lost in favour of more domestic comfortable themes – such as the new house being a broken-down money pit, interfering neighbours, kindergarten woes, dieting and \u201ckeeping up with the Joneses\u201d- the stuff of contemporary TV sitcoms like I Love Lucy<\/strong>…
\n\"\"
\nCritics have debated ever since Cole\u2019s passing about whether, given time, Betsy and Me (<\/strong>or even a successor strip) would have cemented the brilliant raconteur as a master of all forms of graphic narrative, or whether he had finally overreached himself. We\u2019ll never know, but at least you can read what remains and judge for yourself.<\/p>\n

… And you really should.
\n\u00a9 2007 Fantagraphics Books. Text \u00a9 2007 R. C. Harvey.<\/p>\n

Today in 1915, EC all-star \u201cGhastly<\/em><\/strong>\u201d Graham Ingels<\/strong> was born, as was Polish comics star Henryk Chmielewski<\/strong> AKA \u201cPapcio Chmiel<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (Tytus, Romek i A’Tomek<\/em>); cartoonist\/editor\/educator Barb Rausch<\/strong> (Barbie<\/strong>, The Desert Peach<\/em>, Omaha the Cat Dancer<\/strong>, Disney Studios, Neil the Horse<\/em>) in 1941; writer\/editor\/artist Larry Hama<\/strong> (Wolverine<\/strong>, G.I. Joe<\/strong>, Bucky O\u2019Hare<\/strong>, Nth Man<\/strong>) in 1949: artist\/animator Rick Hoberg<\/strong> (Tarzan<\/strong>, Star Wars<\/strong>, Eternity Smith<\/strong>, Green Arrow<\/strong>) in 1952 and Mark Schultz<\/strong> (Superman<\/strong>, Xenozoic Tales<\/strong>) in 1955.<\/p>\n

In 1958 today we lost astounding illustrator Joe Maneely<\/strong> (Ghost Breakers<\/em>, Super Magician Comics<\/em>, Black Knight<\/strong>, Yellow Claw<\/strong>, Atlas genres shorts) and in 2003 French artist Georges Pichard<\/strong> (Blanche \u00c9piphanie<\/em>, T\u00e9n\u00e9brax<\/em>, Submerman<\/em>, Ceux\u2013l\u00e0<\/em>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jack Cole & Dwight Parks, with R.C. Harvey (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-156097-878-7 (TPB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content added for comedic effect. Jack Cole was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American comics\u2019 Golden Age. Before moving into mature magazine … <\/p>\n

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