Comic Book Cats, number 177: Jetta: Teen Queen of the Galaxy, written, drawn & lettered by Andrew Pepoy and colored by Jason Millet, published by Astrocomix in December 2020.
Created by the great Dan DeCarlo, Jetta of the 21st Century was published by Standard Comics and ran for three issues between December 1952 and April 1953. It can be described as “Archie meets The Jetsons” although it actually predates The Jetsons by a decade. Jetta was a beautiful redheaded teenager living in a retro pulp sci-fi future. She and her friends attended Neutron High School. All three issues can be read on the Comic Book Plus website.
Although short-lived, Jetta in the 21st Century was fondly remembered. Yoe Books published a collection in 2010, with Craig Yoe interviewing DeCarlo about the series. More recently Jetta was revived for a one-shot by Fernando Ruiz, Dan Parent & Andrew Pepoy.
“Beach-Blanket Blast-Off” sees Jetta at the beach modeling her hot new bikini, “an exclusive by Martian designer Ibtwypdb.” Jetta is all ready to have a blast with her boyfriend Arky, but he’s lugging around a vacuum cleaner. He’s been selling them door-to-door to raise money to get his rocket ship repaired. Meanwhile, the evil Professor Potnshot has set up a machine on the crowded beach that will enable him to harness “Teen Power” and rule the world. There’s so much teen energy, though, that the machine overloads, creating a black hole that begins sucking in everyone on the beach, including Jetta, Arky and a poor kitty cat who just happened to be passing by!
And that’s where I come in. Andrew Pepoy included the cat on this page so his work could be spotlighted in a Comic Book Cats entry. Very clever indeed, Mr. Pepoy!
Andrew Pepoy has been working in comic books for 30 years. He has inked a wide variety of titles for various publishers. Pepoy is the writer & artist of the awesomely funny, cute and sexy series Simone and Ajax, which features the misadventures of impulsively adventurous redhead Simone and her best friend, the nervous mini brontosaurus Ajax. The new Simone and Ajax book can be preordered on Indiegogo.