Further Adventures of Toni Gay and Butch Dykeman

[strannik01]

Ah, Toni Gay and Butch Dykeman. Chances are you've already seen the rather suggestive first page from their story in Popular Teen-Agers #6. It's become something of a meme in comic book fan circles. But few people ever stopped and asked - who was Toni Gay, anyway? And what the heck was the deal with Butch Dykeman?



Toni Gay was originally known as Toni Gayle. She first appeared in 1945 in Novelty Press' Young King Cole #1. She as a model who decided to become a detective after her father, a famous police detective, was wounded by a deranged criminal. After capturing the criminal, she realized that she enjoyed the mystery-solving thing and decided to split her time between modeling and detective work.

Toni was one of Novelty Press' more popular detective characters, and it wasn't hard to see why. In the age when many female protagonists were often dumbed down, she remained smart, resourceful and independent. Letter columns were filled with letters from female fans who praised her as a great role-model.

Then, in 1949, Novelty Press went out of business. Its assets wound up in the hands of artist L. B. Cole, who used them to start his own comic book publisher, Star Publications. He revived all of Novelty Press' most popular characters, including Toni Gayle. But when Toni reappeared in the first issue of School-Day Romances, case, it wasn't quite the Toni Gayle the readers remembered. All the sudden, the detective part was dropped and she was merely an aspiring model who attended a modeling school. She got herself a boyfriend named Butch Dykeman, a struggling actor who attended the Adonis School Of Arts. And she gained a rival in Eve Ardor, a fellow aspiring model who wanted to out-succeed her and steal her boyfriend.

Oh, and, in School-Day Romances #3, her last name was changed to "Toni Gay." Not really sure why.

(In my personal canon, the Star Publications stories took place before Young King Cole #1. Hey - it makes more sense than her sudden chickafication)

Anyways... With that long history lesson out of the way, allow me to show you what you actually asked to see - a story starring Toni Gay and her boyfriend, Butch Dykeman.

The following story originally appeared in School-Day Romances #4. Art and (presumably) writing by Norman Nodel.










Tune in next time to see Archie Comics' attempt to do the female version of their most famous character as we take a look at Ginger Snapp and her many boyfriends.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

0_o

[hamimi_fk]

I've never heard/seen this comic before but...

Is it just me or was this an early attempt at a lesbian couple? Why else do you randomly rename a character Toni Gay and have her have a boyfriend named Butch Dykeman unless it's all code for something else? And uh, Butch's lips were a little too pink for a guy, if ya ask me.

xD But you know, I sorta dig it when looking at it like that. Can I get a gay pride 'whoop-whoop'? xD No, I'm kidding. But seriously, I'm definitely intrigued by this.

[leoboiko]

Oh come on, just because Butch Dykeman is an actor from a school called Adonis, as in the god cultued by the harem students of Sappho from the island of Lesbos doesn’t mean it’s a code or anything. I mean, gaze upon his male features:

[ex_cherrybomb869]

Prunella is fucking insane.

[sadoeuphemist]

Prunella is totally fucking insane.

[kamino_neko]

And, soon, Harold is going to be fucking insane....

Chicken in a bucket - of possible death!

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Prunella is the predecessor of the reason 1950's teenage death songs were written.

I knew those two reminded me of someone

[leoboiko]

Am I stretching it in the case of Butch?

Re: I knew those two reminded me of someone

[lavode]

Well, I think Haruka is a better driver...

[halloweenjack]

Jeez--now I'm imagining a cross-continuity team-up of Butch, Ginger Snapp, and drag Jimmy Olson in "When Gingers Clash". And by team-up, I mean team-up, if you know what I mean and here it's never just me.

[strannik01]

Oh please.

Ginger may be very... flexible when it comes to her dating choices, but I'm pretty sure she would draw the line at manipulative jerks like Silver Age Jimmy Olson :)

[greenmask]

It wasn't a joke or a satire comic when you said "Toni Gay and Butch Dykeman"?

Oh.. Oh!

Well, they're a cute pair!

[strannik01]

It wasn't a joke or a satire comic when you said "Toni Gay and Butch Dykeman"?

The "Straighten up, Miss Gay" page has been posted all over the place. (Seriously - google "Toni Gay and Butch Dykeman" and see what mean) I figured most people would be at least vaguely aware of what I'm talking about.

[karthzon]

Is there even one panel where Butch is not drawn and written like a slightly masculine woman? Because seriously, this is a lesbian couple and I can't read it as anything else. For heaven's sake, Butch has breasts in panel 4 of the first scan. They're very slight, but they're there.

[liara_shadowsong]

To be honest, I don't really see Butch as intended to be biologically male either. I have my suspicions that they were trying to be subtle about the fact that he was either intersexed or that she was a very, well... butch... lesbian, perhaps with some transvestite tendencies, but physically, if not necessarily mentally, female either way. Leaning slightly toward slightly masculine homosexual or bisexual woman, though. Butch and Toni are quite an adorable pair, regardless.

[strannik01]

I don't know. While the stories Butch appeared in tended to be suggestive, I wouldn't go as far as saying he was supposed to be a girl. He doesn't usually look quite as feminine as he does here - at least to me.

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/index.php?did=3766&page=4
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/preview/index.php?did=9949&page=3
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_64jRVt1CleE/RjNRoI3JwsI/AAAAAAAAAjw/Cah4o3Ed2ps/s1600-h/toni-knighthood.jpg

Of course, YMMV.

[liara_shadowsong]

Hm... Then perhaps the pages here are simply a case of art inconsistency? The world may never know!

[keeva]

Any chance you could be a little more careful about tossing around loaded terms such as "biologically male" and "physically female"? Thanks.

[liara_shadowsong]

Sorry? I'll try to be more careful in the future? I was actually trying to be precise while still avoiding coming across wrong, but obviously I must have failed miserably. Please note that however badly my wording got mangled, I didn't intend to come across in any sort of offensive way, am very sorry for whatever problems I may have caused, and lay some small amount of the blame on the English language for being finicky. *sigh* I'm really not trying to toss loaded terms willy-nilly, but sometimes good wordings are damn near impossible, leaving one with either possibly causing unintended problems (possibly without even knowing there could be an issue until months later), or just not saying anything ever for fear of upsetting someone without meaning to.

[keeva]

Oops, sorry, this got linked today from another post on Toni and Butch, and I forgot which one was the "current" one.

[liara_shadowsong]

*sigh* That's fine. Don't worry about it.

(Why are the months later replies never to things like when I have interesting theories and someone agreeing with me, or something like that? Oh well.)

[feyandstrange]

I'm gonna blame the art and some weird art decisions here for this one. Look at Harold - take off the stubble and he too looks "girlish", mostly because the artist persists in drawing pretty girlish lips and big eyes on everyone. (The main difference in the inks - not colors - between the genders seems to be forehead creases on all the males, which is odd if these are supposed to be teenagers.)

[karthzon]

Butch also seems to use eyeliner, while Harold does not.

[strannik01]

he main difference in the inks - not colors - between the genders seems to be forehead creases on all the males, which is odd if these are supposed to be teenagers

As per letter columns in Young King Cole, Toni was supposed to be in her early 20s. Not sure if that's still true in her Star Publications appearances (it would help if School-Day Romances #1 was available for download, but it's not as of this writing)

As far as Butch's feminine appearance, I think it comes down to inking and coloring more than anything.

[dejadrew]

"White" carnations?

....Are we suuuuuure the script didn't say "green?"

[psychopathicus_rex]

They look white enough to me. What's the problem with them being white?

[dejadrew]

Green carnations used to be used by gay people to identify each other in the way back when.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh. OK. One lives and learns...

[blackruzsa]

I'm almost entirely sure the writers were trying to tell us something with these names.

[joasakura]

oh my god, it's like the DaVinci Code!!!!

[psychopathicus_rex]

While I generally don't go in too much for innuendoes, this is just... wow. Going by those other pictures, it would seem the Butch wasn't USUALLY supposed to be as femme as he seems here, but he seems freaky-wild femme here, so that's not surprising. I mean, look at those lips! Those are not man lips!
My theory is that the artist was good at drawing female faces, but not male ones - Harold's face looks kinda weird as well.

[feyandstrange]

The names, the names, my land! If it weren't for that and the strangely femmy art (who draws such pouty lips on men? Harold too!) this wouldn't parse as queer, I think.

But this is awesome, and this is exactly the kind of great comics historical learnin's that I count on from scans_daily folks. Big thanks!

[domino_blue]

I kind of doubt that it was intentional just because it seems well...too easy.

[recognitions]

Upgrade to pro today!

[galateus]

I was going to say...

[strannik01]

What? The scans show up just fine on my computer.

[galateus]

That's not really surprising. It might be because:

- Your browser still has the images in its cache
- You have HTTP-Referer headers disabled for images
- Photobucket does some voodoo that lets you load your own images without trouble as long as you're logged in (the first two are more likely though)