Katy Keene Special 1

I am assuming that these stories are all by Bill Woggon.  Most of the stories are untitled and uncreditted. 

Immediately opening the book you get a great sense of going back into time.  The reprints look fantastic.  They keep the old Katy Keene 1/3 page ad.  The issue has 5 doll pages and 5 Pin up pages with a couple full page pins-ups.  Just really a great issue.  You can tell that there was a lot of pride and love going into this issue.  Plus there is a great pin up picture on the back cover.  I am not sure who did the covers though.

1st story - Jungle Queen
Opens up to a great splash page of Katy Keene in a Jungle costume.  The script is simple.  Katy is on set in a Jungle type movie and the leading man gets stuck playing the gorilla.  K.O. visits her on set and ruins her scene but gets casts as the Gorilla.  Leaving the dreamy leading man to play opposite Katy.

2nd story – Untitled
This story is kind of mean spirited but that is what you get when a 14-year-old boy submitted the script.  Katy visits Gloria who is stuck washing her dog herself as the maid has the day off.  She immediately request Katy to leave, who gets insulted and pours the Pink shampoo into Gloria’s head.  The end result is a glamorous all pink look from head to dog.

3rd story – untitled
Katy is practicing her ballet for an upcoming audition.  Gloria too is practicing for the same audition but gets quickly sidetracked by stealing K.O. newly founded free time.  Which leads to Katy becoming the shining star and Gloria a flop at the audition.

Barbara Rausch treats us to a ½ page pin-up of Katy in a beautiful Ballerina outfit at the end story.  She draws Katy simply stunningly.

4th story – untitled
Sis innocently pastes pictures of Katy on the covers of recent newsstand magazines.  Katy ecstatic over the news calls K.O. to pick up some issues.  Then she runs out to grab some issues for herself but before leaving receives a call from K.O. telling her that she is not on the covers of any magazines.  She then realizes Sis took her old pictures and pasted them on the new magazines.

5th story untitled
Katy gets casts in the lead part in an Egyptian movie along side Errol Swoon.  When Gloria gets wind of the casting she is outraged that she is to play Katy’s slave.  A catfight ensues and in the studio hospital they have to cover their wounds with bandages.  They are both re-cast as mummy extras!

Not a problem.  I took a picture because I didn't want to ruin the book with a scan.  I should clarify my post though.  I don't believe the drawing is by Barbara but probably was submitted by her when she was a reader.  Of course the flash didn't go off on the picture I was referring to in my post.



This is her first one as indicated by the text in the previous one.

Katy Keene Special 3

Dan DeCarlo did the cover for this issue.  He draws a nice looking Katy Keene.  I wonder if he ever did a Katy story.  This issue didn’t maintain the old Katy ad but it appears to be the same artwork.  They changed the comic titles in the ad to reflect her current appearances.  It reads Katy Keene Special, Laugh, Archie Double Digest and Laugh Comics Digest.  So now I am going to have to start looking at the Archie Double Digest around this time frame for Katy Keene reprints.

Katy Keene pin up count: 2
Katy Keene doll pages count: 2
Gloria doll pages: 1

1st story untitled
K.O. takes Katy and Sis to the county fair.  On their way to the fair, Sis makes a wish to ride the merry-go-round, Katy wishes K.O. was wearing a tie and K.O. wishes that there is a tunnel of love.  All three get their wishes granted in a bittersweet way.  Sis rides the merry-go-round one too many times, K.O. gets a glow in the dark tie that reads, “Kiss Me”, and during the Tunnel of Love a group of girls obliged.  This didn’t fair so well with Katy.

2nd story – Katy Keene goes to Squaw Valley
This was a great story and very different for the traditional Katy stories I have read.  Her agent asks Katy to go the ski resort and bring Helga back to finish a movie.  Katy finds Helga in the company of a Count and is in no hurry to return.  Katy learns that the Count is a jewel thief from her agent’s friend Jay.  They work with the FBI and Katy goes undercover nab the Count.  Katy and Helga fly back to the studio.

Katy and Gloria in Meow Meow and Katy and Sis in Meow Meow
These are quick one liners or Katty remarks.  Here’s a couple:

Gloria: Katy dahling, Do you know what kind of mare I ride on my ranch.
Katy: Yes, Gloria dear, a nightmare.

Gloria:  I’m going to be on television
Katy: What show? Amazing Animals.

3rd story – Katy Keene in the history of Squaw Valley
This is just a quick back-story about Squaw Valley.  I would have rather had a true Katy Keene story but it fits well with the issue.

It's absolutely amazing just how daring early Archie and Katy Keene comics really were.

Unless there's a lot of retouching involved, you'd NEVER see this story being reprinted in a NEW digest!

Katy Keene Special #4
Another Dan DeCarlo cover which is actually a revamped splash page from the first story in this issue.  It would be nice if the stories had editor boxes to indicate the original source.  We get cheated again with a non-Katy story in this issue – Debby’s Diary.  I didn’t review it.

3 pin up pages with commentary panels
2 doll pages of Lucki Red.  I believe that she is an actress that works with Katy.  Here’s a picture of her:


Here’s my favorite Katy pictures from this issue. 




1st story untitled

Katy is on set for a western movie.  While she is changing, the cast and crew hid from her.  As she is strolling around the empty set, a guy on a horse nabs Katy and tells her that he is going to kidnap her.  She punches him off the horse then lassos him.  He finally explained to Katy that he is playing the villain in her new movie.  All the crew reveal that they were filming her in secret.

2nd story untitled

Katy and Gloria see K.O. talking to a red-head thinking that he is picking her up.  So both girls run over to their beauty salon to, yep you guessed it, dye their hair red.  When they both go to see K.O. they learn that the red-head girl was his cousin and that he hates red-heads! 

3rd story

Katy is feeling down so Sis suggests that she goes hat shopping to cheer up.  She picks out a hat that looks like a nest with a bird perched on it.  Once out of the shop, the wind sweeps away Katy’s hat and it gets stuck in a tree.  Sis mistakenly takes an actual bird nest out of the tree and plops it on Katy’s head right when Gloria was passing by on the street.  Can you say embarrassing?

4th story

Yes it’s another hat story but it’s only a one pager.  Katy is trying on hats when her nemesis Gloria is shopping for hats too.  The both like hats next to each other’s and they grab them and walk away. Left in the wake is one confused sales lady.

Katy Keene Special 6

This issue is so reminisce of an old fashion romance comic.  With the dramatic scenes, the sappy thought word balloons and perhaps Colletta on the book reminds me of my DC romance issues.  I just love it!

There are no reprints in this issue in fact it is one complete story.  The story is very well written and entertaining.  It appears that the writer is attempting to serialize this title and is doing a great job.  The art is growing on me. 

Spoiler alert:  I do try not to put spoilers in but sometimes it is needed.  This review does have a spoiler and I added some comments after the review with my overall thoughts on the story.  Continue on if you don’t mind spoilers.  Post if you don’t want me to add spoilers in the upcoming ones. 

Extras: Hints from Sis – one page, Letter page now is in normal comic book column format.  The previous issue had a cute Katy drawing next to each letter giving it a nice personalized feeling to them.  One fun thing is that a letter mentions Duran Duran!

To Love or not to Love by Susan Berkley; art and lettering Hy Eisman and Inking by Vince Colletta

Opens up to a domesticated Katy cooking Sis breakfast.  They are living in an apartment now (can tell by the artwork).  Katy has her assignment to shoot the video with Garrett Sayles today.  Gloria reads up about it and snakes her way into the filming by telling the band she is the wardrobe lady.  Katy arrives and Garrett asked her out to lunch before Lon was able to so she accepted Garrett’s invite.

While Katy was out to lunch, Gloria replaces Katy’s outfit, which is unacceptable for shooting the video.  Under Sis advice, Gloria is instructed to give Katy her skirt and is fired on the spot. 

Garrett asks Katy to go out with him and the band but Lon tells her that she has some go see appointments in the morning.  Katy ends up going over to Garrett’s hotel anyway but none of the other band members want to go to eat so the two of them head off alone.  After dinner, they decide to walk to the club but Katy’s purse is snatched and Garrett gets shot when attempting to retrieve it.  At the hospital the next day, Garrett’s wife and kids arrive from England.  A confused Katy leaves and decides to focus on her career.

So much fun is had in this issue and hopefully my review comes across that way.  The story really has a seamless unforced flow to it.  I am putting this at the end because of the spoiler.  The reveal was a shocker and the guy didn’t truly do anything wrong.  It was just a misunderstanding on Katy’s part.  Perhaps it can be chalked up to simple Rock Star worship and Garrett’s wanting to improve his image by being seen with a model.  Good stuff that brings back loads of 80’s memories.

Here’s a pic of the pin up. 

No offense to other Katy artists, but WOW!  Is Don Sherwood a romance comic artist?