The late Dan DeCarlo (1919-2001) is renowned as one of the signature artists who breathed four-color life into Archie. But he also crafted the “space age” cutie, Jetta, “The Teen-age Sweetheart of the 21st Century”, a fusion of the Archie sensibility with pre-Jetsons futurism. The comic ran for only three issues before disappearing into the mists of comics history. Comics historian Craig Yoe has unearthed the entirety of this obscure curio for the inaugural volume in his “Good Girl Art Library,” so Publishers Weekly Comics Week was once more on hand to ask the burning questions that would shed light upon this intriguing piece of comics archaeology.

PW Comics Week: Clearly a precursor to Judy Jetson, how did the character of Jetta reflect the American teenage female of the early 1950’s transplanted to a future setting, much like her animated descendant embodied the pop culture image of the teenage girl of the Kennedy era?

Craig Yoe: When contemplating the gestalt of Jetta, we must ponder the immortal words of a great philosopher, “Girls just wanna have fun!” This might have been a little harder for girls in the conservative 1950s, except for the few rebels that took up that cause. But in comic books there was no holding back for a fun, liberated girl like Jetta who really wasn’t a ‘50s chick, but “a teen-ager of the 21st century”!

PWCW: How did you discover this series?

Craig Yoe: Amazingly, not from the comic book at all, but from purchasing some original art at a comic book convention a few decades ago. Dan DeCarlo was a friend and lived nearby, so I took the artwork over to his house to have him autograph it. That started me on a quest to find the comics that the art was from. The three issues are quite rare and extremely difficult to find.

PWCW: Considering the growing furor over comics at the time of Jetta’s original run and how wholesome the series’ content was when stacked against many of its contemporaries, why did it die such a quick death?

Craig Yoe: First of all, the material was fairly sizzling for the time when you think that Jetta was jetting round in a formfitting mini-skirt and knee-high boots. If she would have traveled back in time and walked into a 1950s classroom, I’m sure she would have been greeted by loud wolf whistles! A Dan DeCarlo girl would still get that reaction today, I’m sure of that!

The Jetta comic book was produced by a very small publisher, Standard, who had lousy distribution and, yes, they were printed in the mid-‘50s, when psychiatrist do-gooders, parents, reporters and civic groups were down on comics, and kids weren’t getting the dimes they needed to purchase funny books. Jetta, the teenage girl of the future, had no future in this environment and, sadly, we don’t see her again until, maybe she was resurrected as Judy Jetson, a decade later.

PWCW: It’s fascinating to see DeCarlo display his distinctive “teen” art style while employing it in a comedic future setting, which begs the question, did DeCarlo ever do other works outside of the teen comedy genre or Archie’s Riverdale-set world?

Craig Yoe: Dan did do some drawings for Penthouse Comix. In his humor comics, Dan would occasionally draw a more realistic looking character on a movie screen or such. There’s some of that in Jetta. I often wondered what Dan’s more realistic adventures might be like. He certainly was a master draftsman and had the chops, if he wanted to go that way. Certainly, the world is a better place for all of Dan’s wonderful humor comics. But it’s interesting to consider, “What if?”

PWCW: Please tell us about how you got the roster of current artists to contribute pinups to the book.

Craig Yoe: Is this a 20/20-type investigative journalism question? There is no truth to the vicious rumor that I slept with all the artists to get them to do a Jetta pinup. The 35 artists who contributed full-page, color pin-ups for the book all have a deep love for Dan DeCarlo. They jumped at the chance, purely with the motivation that it’d be a blast to bring their own interpretation to one of Dan’s characters. And Jetta is especially inviting. People love the pin-up sections and all the incredible art turned in. Many of the artists told me they tried to do their finest work, knowing the stellar talent they were going to be sharing pages with.

PWCW: What’s next for the Good Girl Art Library?

Craig Yoe: The Good Girl Art Library has rocketed to a roaring start with Jetta, so it’s full speed ahead. The series will be collecting many more good girl art treasures from top cartoonists from the past that we’ll be announcing soon.

While we await the next entry in the God Girl Art Library, Dan DeCarlo’s Jetta is available at comics shops and bookstores nationwide.