SUNDAY FUNNIES!!Archie vs Starchie Vs Goodman Beaver

Friday it was announced that  Stan Goldberg, artist for ARCHIE Comics had died at age 82.  I thought that was indeed strange, because months ago I read that  it was decided by ARCHIE Comics that ARCHIE would die this year.

Every time I hear or see something about ARCHIE the back of my mind nudges me to remind me of strange paradox with ARCIE.  Back in the early 50s MAD Comics, did a lampoon of ARCHIE named STARCHIE and showed no mercy.  It made ARCHIE and JUGHEAD to be thugs who were bullies, campus drug dealers and more.  The story was written by MAD's editor Harvey Kurtzman and illustrated by Will Elder.    See below.

Surprisingly, ARCHIE creator and publisher of ARCHIE Comics did not complain.

A  few years later Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder and others left MAD and started their own  satirical magazine, owned by Warren Publishing Company, named HELP!  They had a reoccurring character named GOODMAN BEAVER .  Goodman BEAVER had an innocent outlook of life and humans , he was almost like a titless ANNIE FANNY of PLAYBOY.  ANNIE FANNY was created by them too.  In one of the GOODMAN BEAVER episodes Goodman comes back to Pleasantvile expecting to see his old high school friends hanging around the malt shop or drug store, like times were when he left.  Instead, they were hanging around bars and lounges, with always plenty of money with no visible means of support.  It was the exact kind of life PLAYBOY Magazine would promote..... Come to find out, they sold their souls to the Devil.   It was not critical of the ARCHIE type of life he remembers in his teenage years but critical of the PLAYBOY Yuppie style life he was seeing then. 

Shouldn't Hugh Hefner be the one offended?  Hef wasn't but ARCHIE's owner, John L. Goldwater was high offended and sued for blood.  The court finally ruled that HELP could no longer print that story in their magazine. See below.

click on image to make it lookable and readable.

Wonder why Goldwater did not even let out a whimper the first time?  Both stores were written by Harvey Kurtzman and illustrated by Will elder.  It was because John Goldwater and the late Maxell Gaines, who owned E.C. Publishing, who owned MAD Comicbook used to be partners in the comicbook world and were friends.  Or, that is what I think anyway.