May 31, 2022

David Cassidy's Comic Book Career

In 1972, when I was 11 years old, David Cassidy was everywhere.

On tv, as Keith Partridge on The Partridge Family.  On Saturday morning cartoons. 

On the radio, where the Partridge Family was still cracking the Top 40, and his own singles were cracking the Top 10.

In 17 paperback novels (The Ghost of Graveyard Hill, Terror By Night, Marked for Terror).

In every teen magazine on the newsstand.







So it made sense that he would push into comic books.  The bargain-basement Charleton Comics, which specialized in cannibalizing other properties, published 14 issues of David Cassidy (1972-73), most with photographs of David on the cover.















Yes, I bought them.

The stories inside were banal, mostly involving David helping a fan, or getting into humorous misadventures on the way to a concert. His fans were portrayed as 100% female.  Men were competitors for girls, manipulating agents, scheming managers, 100% bad guys.

But at least most issues found a way to get David out of his clothes.








By 1973, when David's star was in decline, apparently stories about meeting fans or trying to seduce the one girl in the world who wasn't into him weren't selling well, so the plots moved toward action-adventure, with David meeting spies and pirates.  This says "Outlaws, groovy chicks, and a fiddle bit keep David busy."

A few years later, when his songs were no longer charting, the real-life David also tried to re-invent himself as an action-adventure star with David Cassidy, Man Undercover (1973)..

See also: David Cassidy, Man Undercover; Charlton Comics

6 comments:

  1. Fiddle bit? I imagine that's not like a FitBit. Or is it a fiddler crab with two possible colors for its shell, and it can switch between them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I imagine it's like a guitar pick.

      Delete
    2. Then why not call it a guitar pick?

      Delete
  2. Charlton Comics. So that's why we don't see David Cassidy anymore: After 1986 he never existed.

    I keed. I use that same joke for literally everything DC, Charlton, Fawcett, or Quality Comics made.

    But seriously, celebrity comics are weird. I mean, Grant Morrison basically made a Super-Obama for Earth-23, but Grant Morrison is weird, as evidenced by that same story.

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    Replies
    1. There were several celebrity comic titles in the 1940s and 1950s, featuring celebrities who weren't popular with kids, like Bob Hope. I guess they were intended for adults.

      Delete
    2. Well, Bob Hope naturally.

      That Grant Morrison story, by the way, gets all kinds of meta (Technically you are one of the bad guys, empowering them just by reading the story.), and they (Morrison is nonbinary and uses they pronouns.) use the Charlton universe to explain why deconstruction is not as genius as you think it is, by having Captain Atom take a dog apart to better enjoy the whole dog.

      Also Sprach Doctor Manhattan?

      Delete

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