In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.
Today, we look at times that Beatles wigs played a role in comic books during the 1960s.
The first comic dealing with Beatlemania was 1964's Archie's Pals and Gals #29, in a story by Frank Doyle, Samm Schwartz and Marty Epp that sees Archie, Reggie, Jughead and Moose wearing literal mops on their heads to dress like the Beatles and they quickly become celebrities themselves...
I might feature the rest of the story in the future. Suffice to say, fame is not what the boys expected.
Next up is She's Josie #7, in a story by Frank Doyle and Dan DeCarlo, where Josie gives a guitar to her love interest, Albert, and he becomes obsessed with it and ignores Josie. Josie's rival for Albert's affection, Alexandra Cabot, tries to turn Albert into a star by getting him a Beatles wig...
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #79 (in a story by Leo Dorfman and George Papp) sees Jimmy Olsen rocking his Beatles wig while watching the Fab Four on TV...
He is then tricked into traveling back in time by a bad guy and is stranded there...
He has to raise some money, so he comes up with a way to create Beatlemania nearly three thousand years early!
The cover to Archie's Mad House #38 has a good Beatles wig joke on it...
In Fantastic Four #34 (by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Chic Stone), the Yancy Street Gang send Ben Grimm a Beatles wig...
He plans to use it in Strange Tales #130 (by Bob Powell, Stan Lee and Chic Stone) to see the actual Beatles...
but he and the Human Torch are caught up in some crimefighting while their girlfriends watch the Beatles rock out. They get back too late to see the show, but Thing at least rocks his Beatles wig one more time...
If anyone has a suggestion for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!