Millie the Model
Encyclopedia
Millie the Model was Marvel Comics
' longest-running humor title, first published by the company's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics
, and continuing through its 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics
, to 1970s Marvel.
model Millie Collins, it very quickly evolved into a broader, more slapstick
y comedy — though for a time becoming a romantic adventure
series with all the same characters (#113-153, March 1963 - Aug. 1967) before returning to humor.
The premiere issue was penciled and inked
by Ruth Atkinson
, one of the pioneering women cartoonists in comic books; some sources credit her with creating the character, while others say it was a co-creation with writer
and Timely editor-in-chief Stan Lee
. Alden Getz also claimed that he created the character when working at Timely. Following this first issue, subsequent early stories were drawn mostly by Timely staffer Mike Sekowsky
.
The character's essential look, however, was the work of future Archie Comics
great Dan DeCarlo
, who would later create Josie and the Pussycats
and other Archie icons. DeCarlo's remarkable 10-year run on the series, from #18-93 (June 1949 - Nov. 1959), was succeeded by the team of writer Stan Lee
, Marvel's editor-in-chief, and artist Stan Goldberg
, a.k.a. "Stan G.", the main Atlas/Marvel colorist at the time. Goldberg mimicked the house style DeCarlo set, and later went on to work with him at Archie, as did occasional Millie artist Henry Scarpelli
. Al Hartley
and Ogden Whitney
provided an occasional cover.
The occasional backup feature included a four-page "Powerhouse Pepper
" story by famed cartoonist Basil Wolverton
in #9, and work by humorist Harvey Kurtzman
in #8, 10-11, 13-14, & 16. Lee and Goldberg had Marvel artist and major industry figure Jack Kirby
guest-star in a story in #107 (March 1962), though the image itself did not particularly look Kirby.
Millie became part of the Marvel Universe
with Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965), which chronicled the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm: Fellow humor-comic stars Patsy Walker
and Hedy Wolfe, among the sidewalk crowd outside, talk about wanting to catch a glimpse of celebrity Millie, whom they've heard is on the guest list. Alex Ross
depicted her at the ceremony when he revisited the wedding in the 1990s miniseries Marvels
.
She reappeared in the 1980s as an older character running her own modeling agency and minding her niece, the titular star of writer-artist Trina Robbins
' Misty (Dec. 1985 - May 1986), from Marvel's children's-oriented Star Comics
imprint. Millie has also appeared in the superhero comics The Defenders
#65 (Nov. 1978); Dazzler
#34 (Oct. 1985), along with Chili; The Sensational She-Hulk
#60 (Feb. 1994); and in the kitsch
y flashback
series The Age of the Sentry #3 (Jan. 2009).
Mille starred alongside Patsy Walker and Mary Jane Watson
in a 23-page story "Un-enchanted Evening", by writer Paul Tobin and artist Colleen Coover
, in King-Size Spider-Man Summer Special #1 (Oct. 2008). Millie stars in the four-issue miniseries
Models, Inc. (Oct. 2009 - Jan. 2010).
for "Best Romance Comic" at the 1968 New York Comic Art Convention
.
musical, Dial "M" For Model by John Epperson, inspired by Millie, was staged at LaMaMa E.T.C. Not a direct adaptation, it featured, for instance, the female impersonator Lypsinka as Mannequin St. Claire, a character based on Chili.
, told the press there were plans to reimagine Millie as a 15-year-old tennis player for a comic-book series called 15 Love, to be targeted at teenaged girls. The possibility of a Millie movie was also mentioned at that time. 15 Love was eventually published in 2011. Written by Andi Watson
, it featured Millie Collins' niece, Mill Collins, the lowest-ranking student at the Wayde Tennis Academy, who is about to lose her scholarship and must convince her aunt and others not to give up on her. It is set to run for three issues, with each as a double-sized 56 page story.
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
' longest-running humor title, first published by the company's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics
Timely Comics
Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....
, and continuing through its 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics
Atlas Comics (1950s)
Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...
, to 1970s Marvel.
Publication history
The series ran 207 issues (cover-dated Winter 1945 to Dec. 1973), a 28-year span that included one of the first Marvel Comics annuals (in 1962), and spin-offs including A Date with Millie, Life with Millie, Mad About Millie and Modelling with Millie. Initially a humorous career-gal book about New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
model Millie Collins, it very quickly evolved into a broader, more slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
y comedy — though for a time becoming a romantic adventure
Romance comics
Romance comics is a comics genre depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published through the first three decades of the Cold War...
series with all the same characters (#113-153, March 1963 - Aug. 1967) before returning to humor.
The premiere issue was penciled and inked
Inked
Inked is a documentary television series about the employees of the Hart & Huntington Tattoo Company in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The series was created by Jeff Bowler in 2005, and was broadcast by the A&E Network...
by Ruth Atkinson
Ruth Atkinson
Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson Ruth Atkinson Ford née Ruth Atkinson and a.k.a. R. Atkinson (June 2, 1918 - June 1, 1997 was an American cartoonist and pioneering female comic book artist who helped create the...
, one of the pioneering women cartoonists in comic books; some sources credit her with creating the character, while others say it was a co-creation with writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and Timely editor-in-chief Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
. Alden Getz also claimed that he created the character when working at Timely. Following this first issue, subsequent early stories were drawn mostly by Timely staffer Mike Sekowsky
Mike Sekowsky
Michael Sekowsky was a Jewish American comic book artist best known as the exclusive penciler for DC Comics' Justice League of America during most of the 1960s, and as the regular writer and artist on Wonder Woman during the late 1960s and early 1970s.-Early life and career:Mike Sekowsky began...
.
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
great Dan DeCarlo
Dan DeCarlo
Daniel S. DeCarlo was an American cartoonist best known as the artist who developed the look of Archie Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, modernizing the characters to their contemporary appearance and establishing the publisher's house style...
, who would later create Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats (comic)
Josie and the Pussycats is a teen-humor comic book about a fictional rock band, created by Dan DeCarlo and published by Archie Comics. It was published from 1963 until 1982; since then, a number of one-shot issues have appeared without regularity...
and other Archie icons. DeCarlo's remarkable 10-year run on the series, from #18-93 (June 1949 - Nov. 1959), was succeeded by the team of writer Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
, Marvel's editor-in-chief, and artist Stan Goldberg
Stan Goldberg
Stan Goldberg is an American comic book artist best known for his work as a flagship artist of Archie Comics and as a Marvel Comics' 1960s colorist, who helped design the original color schemes of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and other major characters.-Career:Stan Goldberg began work in the...
, a.k.a. "Stan G.", the main Atlas/Marvel colorist at the time. Goldberg mimicked the house style DeCarlo set, and later went on to work with him at Archie, as did occasional Millie artist Henry Scarpelli
Henry Scarpelli
Henry Scarpelli was an American comic book artist who has worked in comics. His work in comics has won him recognition from the industry, including the Shazam Award for Best Inker in 1970, for his work on Date With Debbi, Leave It to Binky, and other DC comics...
. Al Hartley
Al Hartley
Henry Allan Hartley , known professionally as Al Hartley, was an American comic book writer-artist known for his work on Archie Comics, Atlas Comics , and many Christian comics...
and Ogden Whitney
Ogden Whitney
Ogden Whitney was an American comic-book artist and sometime writer active from the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comics through the 1960s Silver Age. He is best known as co-creator of the aviator hero the Skyman and of the superpowered novelty character Herbie Popnecker and his alter ego, the satiric...
provided an occasional cover.
The occasional backup feature included a four-page "Powerhouse Pepper
Powerhouse Pepper
Powerhouse Pepper is a fictional, comic-book humor character who appeared in comics published in the 1940s by Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics...
" story by famed cartoonist Basil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton
Basil Wolverton was an American cartoonist, illustrator, comic book writer-artist and professed "Producer of Preposterous Pictures of Peculiar People who Prowl this Perplexing Planet", whose many publishers included Marvel Comics and Mad.His unique, humorously grotesque drawings have elicited a...
in #9, and work by humorist Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
in #8, 10-11, 13-14, & 16. Lee and Goldberg had Marvel artist and major industry figure Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
guest-star in a story in #107 (March 1962), though the image itself did not particularly look Kirby.
Millie became part of the Marvel Universe
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...
with Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965), which chronicled the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm: Fellow humor-comic stars Patsy Walker
Hellcat (comics)
Hellcat is a fictional character published by Marvel Comics. She premiered as the star of a teen romantic-comedy series and was later integrated into Marvel superhero franchises such as the Avengers and the Defenders....
and Hedy Wolfe, among the sidewalk crowd outside, talk about wanting to catch a glimpse of celebrity Millie, whom they've heard is on the guest list. Alex Ross
Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross is an American comic book painter, illustrator, and plotter. He is praised for his realistic, human depictions of classic comic book characters. Since the 1990s he has done work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an...
depicted her at the ceremony when he revisited the wedding in the 1990s miniseries Marvels
Marvels
Marvels is a four-issue comic book limited series written by Kurt Busiek, painted by Alex Ross and edited by Marcus McLaurin, and published by Marvel Comics in 1994....
.
She reappeared in the 1980s as an older character running her own modeling agency and minding her niece, the titular star of writer-artist Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...
' Misty (Dec. 1985 - May 1986), from Marvel's children's-oriented Star Comics
Star Comics
Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and continued to publish comic books until early 1988. Titles published by the imprint were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys...
imprint. Millie has also appeared in the superhero comics The Defenders
Defenders (comics)
The Defenders is the name of a number of Marvel Comics superhero groups which are usually presented as a "non-team" of individualistic "outsiders," each known for following their own agendas...
#65 (Nov. 1978); Dazzler
Dazzler
Dazzler is a Marvel Comics superheroine, associated with the X-Men. She first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #130 ....
#34 (Oct. 1985), along with Chili; The Sensational She-Hulk
She-Hulk
She-Hulk is a Marvel Comics superheroine. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 ....
#60 (Feb. 1994); and in the kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
y flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
series The Age of the Sentry #3 (Jan. 2009).
Mille starred alongside Patsy Walker and Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson, often shortened to MJ, is a fictional supporting character appearing, originally, in Marvel comic books and, later, in multiple spin-offs and dramatizations of the Spider-Man titles as the best friend, love interest, and one-time wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man...
in a 23-page story "Un-enchanted Evening", by writer Paul Tobin and artist Colleen Coover
Colleen Coover
Colleen Coover is a comic book artist, based in Portland, Oregon. She is probably best known as creator of the lesbian-themed erotic comic book Small Favors from Eros Comix, illustrator of the comic book limited series Banana Sunday from Oni Press, and for illustrating several short stories in...
, in King-Size Spider-Man Summer Special #1 (Oct. 2008). Millie stars in the four-issue miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Models, Inc. (Oct. 2009 - Jan. 2010).
Fictional character biography
Millie Collins worked as a model for the Hanover Agency, where her boyfriend was photographer Clicker (originally Flicker). Her best friend was Toni Turner, and redheaded model Chili Storm her friendly nemesis. (Millie: "Sorry I'm late! I just got back from the beauty parlor!" Chili: "Too bad they didn't have time to take you!")Awards
The series won an Alley AwardAlley Award
The Alley Award was an American series of comic book fan awards, first presented in 1962 for comics published in 1961. Officially organized under the aegis of the Academy of Comic Book Arts and Sciences, under executive secretary Jerry Bails, and later Paul Gambaccini and David Kaler, the award...
for "Best Romance Comic" at the 1968 New York Comic Art Convention
Comic Art Convention
The Comic Art Convention was an American comic-book fan convention held annually New York City, New York, over Independence Day weekend from 1968 through 1983, except for 1977, when it was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 1978 to 1979, when it was held concurrently in New York and Philadelphia...
.
In other media
A 1986 Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
musical, Dial "M" For Model by John Epperson, inspired by Millie, was staged at LaMaMa E.T.C. Not a direct adaptation, it featured, for instance, the female impersonator Lypsinka as Mannequin St. Claire, a character based on Chili.
15 Love
In 2003, Marvel's then-president, Bill JemasBill Jemas
Bill Jemas is an American media entrepreneur, writer and editor. He is a former vice president of Marvel Comics, and a founding partner at 360ep, a media management firm.-Early life:...
, told the press there were plans to reimagine Millie as a 15-year-old tennis player for a comic-book series called 15 Love, to be targeted at teenaged girls. The possibility of a Millie movie was also mentioned at that time. 15 Love was eventually published in 2011. Written by Andi Watson
Andi Watson
Andrew "Andi" Watson is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Love Fights, published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics....
, it featured Millie Collins' niece, Mill Collins, the lowest-ranking student at the Wayde Tennis Academy, who is about to lose her scholarship and must convince her aunt and others not to give up on her. It is set to run for three issues, with each as a double-sized 56 page story.
Spin-offs and annuals
- A Date with Millie #1-7 (Oct. 1956 - Aug. 1957)
- A Date with Millie vol. 2, #1-7 (Oct. 1959 - Oct. 1960), continues as
- Life With Millie #8-20 (Dec. 1960 - Dec. 1962), continues as
- Modelling with Millie #21-54 (Feb. 1963 - June 1967)
- Mad about Millie #1-17 (April 1969 - Dec. 1970)
- Mad about Millie Annual #1 (1971)
- Chili, Millie's Rival #1-26 (May 1969 - Dec. 1973)
- Chili, Millie's Rival Special #1 (1971)
- Millie the Model Annual #1-10 (1962–1971), continues as
- Queen-Size Millie the Model #11-12 (1974–1975)
External links
- Atlas Tales: Millie the Model
- The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
- Millie the Model at Don Markstein's ToonopediaDon Markstein's ToonopediaDon Markstein's Toonopedia was a web encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation. Don D...
. Archived from the original November 8, 2011 - Independent Heroes from the U.S.A.: Millie the Model - (Note: Erroneously states the comic started with issue #2.) Includes obituary for Ruth Atkinson Ford, giving death date of June 1, 1997.
- The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Jack Kirby
- The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 23rd ed. ISBN 0-380-77220-5