With Gold Medal paperbacks, you could tell a book by its cover

From Just a Pile of Old Comics

RESTRICTED 1949 Navy recruiting cartoon from Famous Studios

Jetta -- teenage sweetheart of the 21st Century

If the art here looks familiar, it should. It was drawn by Dan DeCarlo who was often credited with developing the house style for Archie as well as creating Sabrina and Josie and the Pussycats. 

The hidden side of DC

Most aficinados know that even in the Golden Age, what we now think of as DC was actually two sister companies, National (Superman, Batman) and All American (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash) and that many of the other Golden and Silver Age characters we associate with DC were published by other companies including Quality (Blackhawk, Plastic Man), Fawcett (Captain Marvel) and Charlton (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle).

Less well known are the companies that DC partnered with and or operated, for lack of a better word, covertly. The folks at DC Comics Artists have handy section listing the examples. Here are some examples.

Many of the titles had a harder edge than those that carried the DC logo.

Noted artist Alvin Hollingsworth was a regular on Beware.

The title was also notable for crediting artists and writers. And yes, that's the same Harry Harrison who created the science fiction hero the Stainless Steel Rat.

This one was penciled by the great pulp cover artist H. J. Ward.

The Stanhill line specialized in good girl art and may have been intended for PX sales.

Goofy Golden Age science fiction from Everett Kinstler

Covers by Kinstler

Bill Ward's Good Girl Art classic Torchy

How correspondence schools create unrealistic expectations

For the Washington School of Art. From Weird Horrors #4, 1952

Frank Cho is not a leg man

For years, the title of best good girl art -- funny pages division was shared by two extraordinary strips: Brooke McEldowney's 9 Chickweed Lane; and Frank Cho's Liberty Meadows. Cho's characters showed more skin; McEldowney's had more sex. McEldowney's women had the supple, leggy beauty of ballet dancers. Cho's women also had dancers' bodies, but not that kind of dancer.