TITLE: Binky’s Buddies Issue 10
YEAR: August 1970
COMPANY: DC Comics
By Henry Scarpelli
The late Henry Scarpelli is an artist who is best known for his work in Archie Comics.
A winner of the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Humor Division), Henry Scarpelli is also known for his earlier DC Comics work in the ’70s with “Date with Debbi” and the “Leave it to Binky” series.
The “Leave it to Binky” series began back in 1948 and ran for 60 issues through 1958. In 1968, DC Comics brought back the series a decade later in 1968 with issue #61 and with issue #72 (May 1970), the series went through a name change to “Binky” and ran through #81 in 1971 and a #82 issue in 1977.
Between 1969-1970, a spin-off series titled “Binky’s Buddies”. A series that revolves around the main character Binky and his guy friends. Also, included one page storyline’s featuring Scarpelli’s “Cross-Eyed Pussycat”. A strip about a cat that pre-dates Jim Davis’ feline comic strip, “Garfield”.
In issue 10, Buzzy is always getting distracted when a girl passes by. So, Binky bets that Buzzy can’t go on a day without flirting or ogling a girl. So, a bet for $10 is on and Binky and friends start spying on Buzzy to see if he can go without a day of flirting.
In the second story, Benny gets a job as a taxi driver and Binky and friends try to pull a prank on him by having him go to a deserted house, but unknown to everyone, the home is being used as a thief hideout.
In the third story, Sherwood spots Binky and Peggy out together and offers them a ride as he and Kiki are on a date to the countryside. But in truth, Sherwood’s motivation is trying to find a way to split Binky and Peggy out, so he can go out with Peggy.
In “Cross-Eyed Pussycat”, pussycat observes baby Glen and another story features Pussycat’s owner trying to teach him to become a hunter and a story of Pussycat being too curious for his own good.
Overall, “Binky’s Buddies” is a fun comic book series for those who grew up reading “Archie” but also want to see how lingo, pop culture and fashion trends of 1970 were at that time and “Binky’s Buddies” features a lot of that.