Ginger Snapp and Her Advertures in Dating

[strannik01]

Hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when Archie Comics had many titles that starred teenage protagonists that had nothing to do with Archie Andrews and his supporting cast. One of them was a red-headed girl known as Ginger Snapp. She originally appeared in 1945 on the pages of Suzie Comics #49. She was originally depicted as a mousy, clumsy girl. But over the next few appearances, her personality evolved. She gained confidence and generally became more assertive. Ginger also discovered that she liked boys. A lot. She dated quite a few of them without ever quite committing to any one in particular, but she seemed especially fond of two boys - the pure-hearted, carefree Tommy Turner and inventive, the more intellectual Ichabod "Ickky" Jones. Unlike Betty and Veronica, the two never seemed to get at all jealous of each other, or any other guys Ginger dated.

After appearing on the back pages of Suzie Comics for a while, she gained her own title in 1951. Her title lasted for 10 issues. After that, Ginger Snapp was never seen again.

Or, at least, so I've been able to gather. I've hard time finding any sort of information about Ginger Snapp and her supporting cast. I found a rundown of her cast at Archie Universe website (scroll towards the bottom), but that's pretty much it.

Now, lots of online sources call Ginger a female Archie. Me, I don't think that's really the case (beyond a few surface similarities), but I'll let you be the judge of that.

The first story originally appeared in Ginger #10. The rest originally appeared in Ginger #6. I couldn't find any credits, so I have no idea who drew or wrote any of them.



















And, as a bonus, an Archie Comics house ad from Suzie Comics #56




Tune in next time for a story from Spy and Counterspy - a Cold War anthology that billed itself as a mix of adventure and romance comics and delivered better than what you might expect.

Comments

[thelazyreader]

I like it. I wonder why they haven't revived the character. I suppose they think Cheryl Blossom already fills the 'reverse-harem' niche.

[strannik01]

When Jon Goldwater became Archie Comics co-CEO, the press release indicated that the company might be interested in reviving Ginger:

"Jon Goldwater plans on bringing the kids from Riverdale to a larger multi-media audience. He is also looking ahead to developing new projects focusing on not just Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jugehead and Reggie, but other long standing Archie Properties such as Katy Keene, Lil Jinx, the Red Circle Heroes, Sabrina, Josie & the Pussycats, Cosmo The Merry Martian, Pat The Brat, Wilbur Wilkins, Bingo Wilkins, Suzie and Ginger Snapp. just to name a few."

Of course, that was in June 2009. Than again, Archie recently decided to revive Lil Jinx, so maybe we'll see a new Ginger comic sometime in 2012.

Oh, lawd, not Katy Keene

[jazzypom]

Ugh. She was the closest thing to a Mary Sue in comic form. Model, actress and every man who saw here fell a little bit in love with her. Ugh.

Josie and the Pussycats were always good fun, though.

Re: Oh, lawd, not Katy Keene

[strannik01]

I don't know. In the Golden Age comics I've read, Katy was a struggling actress who had to work hard to get ahead. And, yeah, she did get lots of guys, but so did Suzie, and I don't think anyone would really want to be Suzie.

Re: Oh, lawd, not Katy Keene

[strannik01]

Archie also apparently wants to revive Sam Hill.

Sam Hill.

The private detective character who is even more obscure than Suzie and Ginger.

The heck...

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=8044

Oh, hayyyy?

[jazzypom]

Wha' Sam Hill?!

Dayum- leave no character unturned, I guess. They have to work, or gtfo.

Sam Hill.

*SMH*