Thursday, July 26, 2012

Li'L Jinx-Joe Edwards-1947



There was a time when LI'L JINX one-pagers dotted every single Archie-related comic for maybe 20-30 years...or at least it seemed that long. They were, in my opinion, ugly and generally unfunny. Here. though, we see an early example and while Jinx isn't the most attractive child character ever, it's much funnier and less stylized than the strip became.  Question: Was this the first instance of a single parent in comics? I haven't seen the new, revived Jinx of recent vintage but I bet it isn't as funny as this.






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5 comments:

  1. Daniel [oeconomist.com]July 26, 2012 at 2:39 AM

    If we're only looking a ostensibly humorous, recurring juvenile characters in the comics, then this might indeed be the first case of one who had an unpartnered parent.

    (Relax parent to guardian, and there's obvious cases such as Swee'pea and perhaps Skeezix, and various nieces and nephews such as Nancy, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. But, plainly, foundlings and nephews don't give us the parent who has, one way or another, lost his or her partner.)

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  2. A LadyJuly 26, 2012 at 4:18 PM

    Li'l Jinx was not a single parent setup - her mother was around, she just wasn't the focus of the story. This looks almost NOTHING like most of Edwards Jinx work - if it wasn't for the lettering, I'd think this was someone else trying to follow Edwards style.

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  3. Winslow LFebruary 28, 2016 at 1:07 PM

    I think Jinx's dad was single once? As far as the art is concerned, it's more like the young Edwards here is being influenced by Milt Gross--- but doubt the inking is his

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  4. Winslow LFebruary 28, 2016 at 1:13 PM

    I think Li'l Jinx's was single for a time. As far as art is concerned, it seems here more as if the young Edwards is being influenced by Milt Gross? The lettering and story seem like his, but the inking, which he almost always did, does not

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  5. GLGJanuary 21, 2022 at 7:34 PM

    Nope. Jinx's mother was always around. She just never appeared in the strip. Or very very rarely. I always thought that it was a single parent set up too but eventually I came across a few strips with the mom. I'm a fan of the strip and have too many of them! It seems odd that mom so rarely appeared--it's like Joe Edwards forgot about her for years at a time--but Jinx had a live in mom.

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