1971 DATE WITH DEBBI: "Take It Off!"

Here is the story "Take It Off!" from the DATE WITH DEBBI DC comic book No. 15, May-June 1971.

No, no. Debbi DOES NOT "take it off." I mean, this is the hippy dippy era, but, dudes and dudettes -- COME ON! -- this is a comic for kids. It's copyright National Periodical Publications, Inc. 1971 and will never again see the light of day because it's very insulting to women everywhere.

"Take It Off!" refers to the pounds that Debbi's friend Lylia has gained. There are so many pounds that it causes the drugstore's sidewalk scale to go "Spong!" in the splash page. (And it almost kills a guy on page two.)

Lylia is fat (umm … by 1971 standards) and Debbi will help her get skinny in this story. Because skinny girls get the guys. And that's the most important thing to be in this Archie-ripoff. And then … there is an act of cruel betrayal. Well, read the story and you'll see.

The art looks familiar to me. It's uncredited, as was the norm back then. The mycomicshop people credit the art to Stan Goldberg, with inks by Henry Scarpelli. Stan would, of course, go on to become the flagship artist for Archie for a number of decades.

DATE WITH DEBBI had a total of 18 issues between 1969 and 1972. It was inspired by DC's long running (1947-1960) DATE WITH JUDY series, even recycling some stories and cover ideas. Inker Henry Scarpelli won a Shazam Award for Best Humor Inking during DEBBI's run. From 1969 to 1970, a companion series, DEBBI'S DATES, ran for eleven issues.

And here is the cover article, "How much of Marlo Thomas is really 'THAT GIRL?'"