Innocence & Seduction Art of Dan DeCarlo
The venerable line of comic books featuring teenager Archie Andrews and his pals is drawn in a house style intended to make it nearly impossible to distinguish any of its many illustrators. Every so often, though, someone breaks out of the pack. Dan DeCarlo, for instance, who came to be known for his sexy-yet-wholesome renditions of Archie's girlfriends Betty and Veronica, acclaimed examples of the comics cheesecake that fanboys call "good girl art." After laboring over the characters for 40 years, DeCarlo was abruptly fired when he sued the publisher for the rights to an Archie spin-off he created. This coffee-table tribute tome assembled and annotated by Morrison, an illustrator best known for his work on the Simpsons comic-book line, chronicles DeCarlo's long career, from cartoons he drew for his wife, whom he met while stationed in France during World War II, and through early non-Archie comic-book work, short-lived newspaper strips, and men's-magazine gag cartoons--risque then, quaint now--featuring showgirls, gold diggers, and secretaries. Plenty to peruse for partisans of pop-cult pulchritude.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved