Dan DeCarlo's Jetta (The Good Girl Art Library) [Hardcover]

Dan DeCarlo (Author), Craig Yoe (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

Series: The Good Girl Art Library | Publication Date: March 1, 2010

Dan DeCarlo's futuristic, curvy teenage girl, Jetta, zoomed through the future a full decade before Judy Jetson. In the 1950s, the fan-favorite artist, beloved for his portrayals of Betty and Veronica, Josie, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, delineated the madcap adventures of Jetta, "Teen-Age Sweetheart of the 21st Century," with obvious delight. The comics, collected for the first time in their entirety and in living color will be accompanied by a revealing introduction by Craig Yoe who interviewed DeCarlo about these timeless treasures. There's also a bevy of rare, unpublished, original art and photographs, plus Jetta pin-ups by top comic book artists and Hollywood animators.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: Idea & Design Works Llc (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600106463
• ISBN-13: 978-1600106460
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sizzling comets! We hit the jackpot., July 26, 2010

By 

Chris Thompson "popculturehound" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dan DeCarlo's Jetta (The Good Girl Art Library) (Hardcover)

I've just had the pleasure of sitting down with my morning coffees (who can do just one?) and reading Craig Yoe's latest offering of Dan DeCarlo's Jetta. This book is Volume 1 in Yoe's new Good Girl Art Library from IDW Publishing, and there is no better way to start than with some classic Dan DeCarlo art. If this guy isn't just the father of 'good girl art' then he's the granddaddy of them all! DeCarlo created Josie & The Pussycats, redefined the Archie Comics 'house-style', influenced an untold number of artists, and truly deserves every bit of acclaim he gets. Sadly DeCarlo is no longer with us (he passed away in 2001), but he left behind a huge body of work, of which Jetta is a vital (and, until now, missing) part.

For those who don't know, Jetta was a title originally published by Standard Comics in 1952-53. It began with issue 5 (and there's a story to that), but sadly ran for only 3 issues before poor distribution and the ridiculous censorship of comics at the time led to its untimely demise. Fredric Wertham has a lot to answer for, and I will no doubt address that in a future post on Pop Culture Hound! The books have remained rare and hidden gems for many years now (like a lot of comics from this era), so to have them cleaned up and reprinted in beautiful hardcover format like this is quite a treat.

I first read about this book a few months ago when I was trawling through Amazon looking at upcoming releases. I'd heard something about IDW partnering with Archie to release some classic volumes (including DeCarlo and Montana ones), but couldn't find anything at that stage. Fortunately I happened upon the listing for Jetta and was immediately smitten! I like it when a book can get me excited like that as it happens so rarely these days. For a start, it was new DeCarlo artwork (well, to me, anyway) - and it was edited by Craig Yoe who, aside from being a great guy, produces some of the most sincere love letters to comics I've ever seen. Sure enough, the wait has been worthwhile, and I hold in my hands a gorgeous book that drips with love from every page.

One of the things I love about Craig, along with his partner Clizia Gussoni, is the way they produce such beautifully and thoughtfully designed books. You can feel the joy in each page and, despite obviously being a Yoe! Book, it never comes across as laboured or heavy-handed. Yoe and Gussoni's signature is in their craftsmanship, not in some egotistical trumpet-blowing or vain fanfare. They service the material and, therefore, the reader at the same time. Dan DeCarlo's Jetta is no different and I was fully absorbed from cover to cover. I pored over the introduction, salivated over the pin-ups, and lost myself in the reproductions of DeCarlo's original comics ... In short, I was mesmerised!

Jetta reads like a cross between an old-school Archie and one of the early MAD comics. It has the same outlandishness and humour, but grounded in the angst and issues found in high-school comics of that period. There's the usual gang of teenagers, including Hilaria, Biff, Gizmo and Arky (sound familiar?) - besieged on all sides by the typical mix of clueless parents and meddling teachers - all wrapped up in their own crazy vernacular. Where else would you hear expressions like 'cookin' with uranium', 'atomized with embarrassment' or 'stop poppin' your rockets'? DeCarlo creates a unique cast of characters who speak their own language yet are still completely relatable and easily understood.

Aside from the wonderfully informative introduction (which features more beautiful DeCarlo images), the other truly great feature of this book is the collection of Jetta pin-ups by a host of modern artists. This is another area where Yoe shines. Not only is he an expert comics historian, but he has his finger on the pulse of modern comics and animation as well. The result is a broad mix of styles and interpretations from some well-known illustrators through to some lesser known (though not lesser talented) ones. I particularly enjoyed seeing folks like Jay Stephens, Danny Hellman, Dean Yeagle, Scott Tolleson, Dominic Marco and Molly Crabapple bring their signature to the cosmic beauty ... but now that I've started naming names I already feel like I've left so many out. I would've loved to see even more pin-ups, but the real star here (and rightly so) is Dan DeCarlo himself.

Overall I give this book a solid 9.5 out of 10. I'd give it a 10, but I'm a little petty and childish in that way - the beauty and superb work put into the book only serves to remind me of how little of Jetta there actually is available. I have it all in this one book and that's all there will ever be ... It's a bittersweet thing. This book should be required reading for fans of Archie, Dan DeCarlo, good girl art, and budding comics historians everywhere. While I eagerly await the continuation of Yoe's Good Girl Art Library, I think he will be hard pressed to beat this first, essential volume. As Jetta herself said, 'Sizzling comets! We hit the jackpot.' See more reviews like this at Pop Culture Hound (popculturehound dot com).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mindblowing! A MUST have, April 13, 2010

By 

Heather Malloy (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dan DeCarlo's Jetta (The Good Girl Art Library) (Hardcover)

This little book will blow your mind! Between its covers you'll find not only all 3 RARE Jetta comics beautifully reprinted, but tons of sexy funny cute AND titillating Jetta pin ups by GREAT contemporary artists like Dean Yeagle Bill Presing and Craig McCracken. What a treat!!! The book is what you can expect by great designer Craig Yoe: high quality design that beautifully showcases the art. Last but not least LOTS of interesting facts about DeCarlo.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cooking with Super-Atomic Radiation, June 10, 2010

By 

Gord Wilson "alivingdog.com" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dan DeCarlo's Jetta (The Good Girl Art Library) (Hardcover)

Dan DeCarlo's Jetta comic book, which ran for three issues, first appeared in 1952. It takes place in 2052, when there's "a new kind of teen-age talk". It's everything good about Archie comics shot into the future, combining the best features of '50s comic art: the stylized design, teen slang, and zany slapstick. Jetta is the cosmic cousin of Betty and Veronica, and Arky's space ship has "Atom and Eve" doodled on it, not unlike Archie's slogan-scrawled jalopy. The big news is who's taking Jetta or Hilaria to the Prom at Neutron High School, not unlike the sock hop at Riverdale. Jetta, "Teen-Age Sweetheart of the 21st Century" which began at issue #5 (a ploy to suggest a track record for new comic titles) and ran through issue #7, was published by Standard Comics (Pine's).

With such a winning formula, no wonder Archie's artists spun off so many likable teen tales, including Sabrina, Josie, and my favorite, Archie's Mad House (later called Mad House). I wouldn't be surprised if DeCarlo did those also, because he did Sabrina comics, and she became a regular in the retooled Mad House title starting in the '60s. Despite the rarity of this comic trio, one might yet find the price a bit steep, but this is a Craig Yoe book, which means that's only the beginning.

Besides the three full color comic books in this 115 page, full-color, (about) 9 X 12 inch hardback coffee table book, there's a twelve page introduction (more or less, depending if you count the art), and 37 pin-ups of Jetta in a myriad of diverse styles by a roster of contemporary artists. This would not attract me to the book, as I am not a fan of the constant revisioning of comic and cartoon characters: I don't think there should be a live-action Popeye or a CGI Garfield merely because some studio has bought the property; I would not be a fan of a reimaged Jetta comic book, for instance, merely because the original Dan DeCarlo ones are so amazingly great. To give another example, I don't think the new Dan Dare comics have anything on Frank Hampson's originals, and see no reason to make new ones.

That said, this is volume one in "The Good Girl Art Library" from IDW/ Yoe Books. The pin-ups are meant to be viewed in a light-hearted way as part of the '50s culture, as opposed to the Playboy-style nudes also prevalent at the time. The phrase was Don DeCarlo's, and I think of the sort of "pin-up" art associated with Vargas, Frazetta, and Vaughn Bode. The pin-ups are in three sections, dropped in between the three comic books. I think the book remains OK for kids who read Archie comics, and as I have had cause to say many times before, cheers to Craig Yoe, who is doing for comics what Jerry Beck is doing for animation: making really great stuff almost as available and affordable a half century later as when it first appeared. As Jetta would say, "Now we're cooking with super-atomic radiation!"