Teen Beat #1 - DC

Dec. 1967 - "What the hell is this?" I can picture some of you asking.

Well, Teen Beat is a real oddity in DC's seventy + year publishing history. It is, for all intents and purposes, a classic, Tiger Beat-style magazine aimed at the new music scene, filled with photos and articles on all that was happening at the time.

The odd thing is/was that, DC, not really being set up to produce magazines, printed this in standard comic book size, and even advertised it in their other comics(you can see one of those ads today over at Coming Super-Attractions!)! The credits list DC staffers Jack Miller, Sol Harrison, and Jack Adler, plus someone named Mary Marx as "Feature Reporter." So it's a safe bet that Mary was some young swinging chick that the stuffy old guys at DC went to for the word on the street.

Is this technically a magazine? No, since it's not the standard magazine size, and its in color, but this(and its second, and last, issue, which we'll talk about tomorrow)is so oddly charming that I just couldn't help myself. Why DC found it so difficult just to tell the printer to cut the paper at a larger size, I guess we'll never know!

Anyway, this first issue opens up with a pledge to the readers, from Teen Beat's official mascot, a Twiggy-esque groovy mama named Teeny:

I have to say, the color here is actually pretty cool. The photos are in black and white, but they've been tinted in a way that actually makes the presentation pretty nifty. It starts with an article on Moby Grape, then The Beatles, some band called Every Mother's Son, and then a five-page feature with the worrying title "Are the Monkees Splitting Up?" (Wait a minute...the Beatles get one page, the Monkees get five? What am I missing here?)

Next is a piece on the Mamas and the Papas, featuring this illustration. It's uncredited, but surely it was done by someone on the DC staff:

Next is "Hollywood Happenings", sort of a Bullpen Bulletins page, then articles on Peter Noone, Zal Yanovsky from the Lovin' Spoonful, the New Animals, the Blues Project, then, oddly, a piece on the Palisades Amusement Park, which was located just across the river in New Jersey, and was featured in many a DC ad around this time(with Superman and/or Batman doing the pitching). What kind of deal did DC have with these guys?

Next, Teeny predicts the rise of some newer bands, like Procol Harum, The Bee Gees, Free Spirits, and the Tremeloes. She ended up batting 500%, not bad, Teeny!

There's "An Evening with the Supremes", a piece on The Byrds, then a puzzle page where you were supposed to cut out the pieces(nooooo!!!!) to complete it. I plan on scanning that page so I can do the puzzle without damaging my copy, and then it wraps up with a piece about Jefferson Airplane.

Teeny appears all over the magazine, and since there's no art credits I can't be sure, but the style looks a lot to me like Carmine Infantino when he would ink himself, which always came out very loose:

Pretty groovy overall, be here tomorrow for the second issue. I will also be blogging from my bed, in an attempt to bring about World Peace.