Diversity in Comics: Marcy and Bunny (II)

Here's another few stories from Bunny featuring The Soular System, Harvey's African American contingent in this late 60s/early 70s teen humor comic with a heavy dose of flower power. The first, "Jive Happening", is from Bunny 9, and is replete with all kinds of contrived pseudo-hippie speech patterns and vocabulary. At the same time it does capture something genuine from the times, mainly through the use of pop-art lettering, and a love and peace vibe that especially surrounds Soular System. As an example of a popular cultural artifact attempting to be 'in the groove', it is representative of a whole range of phenomena aspiring to be 'hippie' but only succeeding in being somewhat removed from the reality of actual hippie culture, with all its drug-taking and debauchery. So the pseudo-hippie culture, to which this series belongs, evidences a kind of first wave of influence of actual hippie culture on the mainstream. Nowadays, of course, you're likely to hear "White Rabbit" being played as you glide up a building in an elevator, or stroll round the supermarket doing your shopping!

All these Bunny comics have fashion pages like those found in the Marvel teen humor books, and in DC romance comics, not to mention Katy Keene, and so on. Marcy Sweete, being a model, is included. The first two are from Bunny 20, and the second two are from Bunny 9.

Here's a 6-page short story from Bunny 20, featuring the difficult-to-tolerate Esmeralda, and the Soular System. Note the new fashion - hot pants! We're into the early 70s.

In "Shakes Soul" (Bunny 20), Honey gets herself in a tight spot with a class assignment. This provides an opportunity for Soular System to explain just what 'soul' is.

Back in Bunny 9 there was a text page with one of those fictional interviews, in this case between Bunny and Gideon of Soular System. Here the creators of the comic try to define 'soul' in more detail.

Overall Bunny was a bold effort to introduce diversity into comic books, starting at the tail end of the Silver Age. There's a little bit of a 'roots' look to the Soular System, with some African style clothing. And the whole thing about soul tries hard to connect with the African American mainstream. Soular System are out and out good guys, and their 'groovy' language is a hippie stereotype rather than an African American one. This was definitely a feel good attempt to better reflect the diversity of American society, and the racial harmony that could exist.

Again, thanks to Britt Reid for turning me on to this title, and to Masterbowler and the Harvey Preservation Society for the scans.

Diversity in Comics: Marcy and Bunny (I)

Thanks to blogger Britt Reid, who commented on one of my recent posts, I was alerted to the presence of an African American character in the Harvey Comics teen humor series Bunny. Britt told me the first issue Marcy Sweete appeared in was #7 (February 1969), and sure enough, here's the story, which also introduces her band, The Soular System. Marcy, like Bunny, is a model, so there seems to be a bit of a similarity here between this comic and Millie the Model with her African American colleague, Jill Jerold, who first appeared in Modeling With Millie 48 (Aug 1966). But Bunny is way more than a Millie, or Archie series rip-off. A 25c giant, it ran for 20 issues straight, from December 1966 through December 1971, with a final reprise issue #21 in November 1976. It's really over-the-top pseudo-hippie flower power with extremely contrived hippie linguistics and pseudo-hippie stereotypes everywhere you turn. As a cultural artifact, it's probably the best I've encountered of its type. It has fashion pages and letters pages, even a club in which readers can be card-carrying members. Marcy, and Jill Jerold, are Silver Age African American support characters, and therefore members of a very limited category in comics.

The story that introduces Marcy and The Soular System, with its flower power lettering here and there, is a zany modeling story that ends up in a club where Bunny introduces her boyfriend to The Soular System. Pay particular attention to the last page of the story. The Soular System band members accept Bunny and Arnold as friends, upon being introduced by Marcy, so the friendship between the two young women has acted as a catalyst for the development of a wider mixed-race social group.

As Britt pointed out to me, the first Bunny issue with Marcy on the cover is #11. This issue actually contains a strange, 3-page Marcy story, that concludes a few pages later on a text page featuring a fictional interview between Bunny and Archimedes Gold, 'the world's ultra-brainiest boy inventor'. Bunny does have a portfolio of support features, such as the comedy superhero strips, Fruit Man, and Sooper Hippie, that are also interesting reads.





The 3-page Marcy story in Bunny 11 also features the other members of The Soular System, Gideon, Bomby, and Randolph, who are significant characters in their own right, and have roles in other Bunny stories featuring Marcy.

Many thanks to Masterbowler and the Harvey Preservation Society for the scans. In the next Out Of This World post, we'll be looking at another story featuring Marcy, plus her inclusion in the fashion pages.

Diversity in Comics: Tiny and Little Audrey

Little Audrey was originally published by St. John but later became a Harvey Comics title. In the mid-1950s, totally against the norm for mainstream comic books, it included an African American character, Tiny, who wasn't some bizarre stereotype, but was just a normal kid like the other characters in the stories. He hung out with Audrey and Melvin, and participated in the group's adventures. He even had his own feature. In this first Audrey story, from Little Audrey 42 (June 1955), Tiny is one of the main protagonists. There's no racial disharmony, and race isn't mentioned - it isn't presented as an issue. This is just a bunch of kids who are friends and do stuff together.

This next Audrey story, again from Little Audrey 42, also features Tiny, who is as much in difficulty in dealing with the intellectual new girl as are the others.

 

Finally, here's a solo Tiny story, from Playful Little Audrey 2 (August 1957). The cover is typical of Harvey kids' comics covers from the 50s and 60s.We learn a little about Tiny's background from this one. He's got a cute mom. The family lives in a nice house, and Tiny is well-dressed. This looks like a middle class part of town. They have a nice yard as well. So Harvey are not trying to lay a whole ghetto image on Tiny. There's no blaxploitation here. Tiny's a middle class kid from a well-resourced home.

If you're interested in reading another Tiny story, there's one from Playful Little Audrey 4 over on Mykal Banta's blog, The Big Blog of Kids' Comics. You'll have to scroll down past the first two Audrey stories (or read them first on your way down the page). Anyway - interesting stuff! Smack bang in the middle of the still segregated 50s, when there were, with very few exceptions, no African American characters in mainstream fictional comics, we've got a character appearing fairly regularly, even getting his own strip. How revolutionary is that!!! Many thanks to Green Giant for the Little Audrey 42 scans, and SOTE for the Tiny story.