Leave it to Binky #60 Poster (1958) by Bob Oksner

Description

Before there was Beaver, there was Binky. In fact, DC’s workhorse teen humor title actually predated Leave It to Beaver by nearly a decade, launching in 1948 at the dawn of a mini-Golden Age of “teen fun” comics that also included A Day with Judy, Here’s Howie, Buzzy, Scribbly and the unforgettable Everything Happens to Harvey. The titular buffoon was Bertram “Binky” Biggs, a genial Archie-esque high-school student who routinely got into and out of sitcom-style picles with the help of his doting girlfriend Peg and his mischievous, morbidly obese little brother Allergy. Drawing Binky from the title’s inception was Bob Oksner, whose insouciant style was better suited to this kind of fare than the super-hero assignments he had been getting previously. Oksner’s work would later grace the pages of the similarly madcap Stanley and His Monster, Windy and Willy and Angel and the Ape. Sadly, after this issue, Leave It to Binky was cancelled, although it was revived in 1967, whence it ran for another twenty-two issues, its title eventually shortened to Binky. A companion title, the hippie-themed Binky’s Buddies, lasted two years and twelve issues from 1969 to 1970. Leave It to Binky is a comic book series published by DC Comics which ran for 82 issues. The adventures of Binky Biggs started in February-March 1948 and ran for 60 issues coming to an end in 1958. The series was revived in June-July 1968 and continued the numbering of the original series. With issue #72 (April-May 1970), the title was shortened to Binky and the series ran until issue #81 (Oct.-Nov. 1971). Issue #82 was published in Summer 1977. Its success inspired the creation of a spin-off title, Binky’s Buddies, which began in January-February 1969 and was cancelled with issue #12 (Nov.-Dec. 1970). It was basically a teen-humor series of the Archie Comics mold. Bob Oksner (October 14, 1916, Paterson, New Jersey – February 18, 2007) was an American comics artist known for both adventure comic strips and for superhero and humor comic books, primarily at DC Comics.