A Small Comic-Con Load

The amount of Betty Boop merchandise I came across at the Comic-Con last weekend in Albuquerque was very little, my purchases consisting of three cute little inexpensive items: a Betty Boop million dollar novelty bill, a pink ice cream button pin, and a Betty Wizard of Oz themed sticker, which got me a little excited since I've been hooked on L. Frank Baum's colorful Oz books; I'm coming up on Rinkitink of Oz. It's too bad there wasn't a Betty Wizard of Oz cartoon adaptation (at least I don't think there was), as Betty did get the Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, and Cinderella treatments. Early on at the convention, I came across a Biker Betty Boop magnet, but not being a biker, I thought I'd hold off and possibly pick it up later, but I ended up not returning to the particular booth. I was kind of hoping to get a picture with a Betty Boop cosplay model but no such luck (I was hoping for Vampirella too). It's not that surprising that Betty Boop would not be a big thing at a comic-con, as she has not appeared in comics in a long time. The only ones I know about were comic-strips, drawn by Bud Counihan, originally printed in the newspaper back in the 1930s, which have recently been consolidated and reprinted by Titan Comics in The Definitive Betty Boop: The Classic Comic Strip Collection graphic novel (more on that in a future post). Dynamite Comics recently dropped an intriguing hint about Betty returning to comics.

From left to right: my dear friend Amanda, Samantha (Jem) Newark , and me.

A couple other awesome finds at the convention that were a bit more pricey was the second issue of Sabrina the Teenage Witch from 1972 (I'm a big Archie Comics fan) and the 6th issue of Katy Keene from 1959 (thanks to those giallo films I gush about at my other blog, I've developed a thing for vintage glamour). I also got to meet Samantha Newark, the original voice of Jem, from a cartoon series I ended up liking more as an adult than as a kid (thank you, Amanda); I really do like the new Jem and the Holograms comic series from IDW, and, believe it or not, I kind of liked the live-action movie.