Li'l Jinx displays her typical energy level. Artist: Joe Edwards.

LI’L JINX

Medium: Comic Books
Published by: Archie Comics
First Appeared: 1947
Creator: Joe Edwards
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By the late 1940s, Archie Comics had found its niche in kid-friendly humor. There were still a couple of superheroes hanging around in Pep Comics, where Archie himself had become the cover-featured …

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… star, but they were rapidly being phased out. After #60, The Black Hood was gone, replaced by a couple of humor features named Twiddles and Li'l Jinx. Jinx debuted in the 62nd issue, dated July, 1947. The artist was Joe Edwards, who also worked on Super Duck, Captain Sprocket and other Archie Comics fare. Edwards did the vast majority of Jinx stories for as long as the character remained in print.

Comics about kids, ranging from high-spirited (e.g., Dennis the Menace) to mischievous (The Katzenjammer Kids) to downright antisocial (the other Dennis the Menace), were of course nothing new. Right then, the trend was toward little girls, such as Little Lulu, Little Audrey and Little Iodine; and Li'l Jinx fit right in with that crowd. Jinx represented the "high-spirited" end of the spectrum (with Iodine closer to the opposite end).

Jinx was so-called because she was (like Edwards's own son) born on Halloween, about a half-dozen or so years ago. Her best friend was a boy named Charley. She was the only child of Hap and Merry Holliday, who were typical of comic book parents except for one thing. Hap was a comic book collector. No big point was ever made of the fact, but in one story, he pulled out some ancient back issues to show to Jinx. Not surprisingly, he didn't have much in the way of DCs or Marvels, but was pretty solid on The Shield, Steel Sterling and other heroes from the old MLJ line. (That's what Archie Comics called itself in the early '40s.)

Jinx's series continued for years, not just in the back pages of Pep but as fillers in other comics as well. She had her own title 1956-57, but after a half-dozen issues it was replaced on the schedule by a minor Little Archie spin-off. Archie Giant Series magazine, which from the 1950s to the '80s served as a catch-all series for specials devoted to everything from Katy Keene to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, devoted a half-dozen issues to Li'l Jinx. From 1971-73, she was the star of an extra-thick comic titled Li'l Jinx Giant Laugh-Out.

But as the '70s wore on, Jinx's appearances began to thin out. By the end of the decade, she was seen rarely if at all. Reprints of her antics still appear in Archie's line of digest-size comics, but the regular ones haven't used her in many years.

— DDM

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Text ©2005-09 Donald D. Markstein. Art © Archie Comics.