Aside from Dell’s authorized Beatles one-shot, the Fab Four’s 1964 comic book appearances were mostly played for laughs. The Beatles TM and © Apple Corps Ltd. Herbie Popnecker TM and © Roger Broughton. Betty and Veronica TM and © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.
a “mop top”—started another trend. Betty and Veronica were gushing about the new hairdo for boys as early as the cover of Laugh #160 (July 1964) and dreaming of the Fab Four themselves on the front of issue #166. By fall, Charlton was spotlighting the Beatles on the covers of My Little Margie #54 and Teen Confessions #31. The trendy Beatles wigs that sprang up shortly thereafter became the focus of a short tale in July’s Betty and Veronica #105 even as Superman’s pal was hawking them to natives of the distant past—while crooning rock songs—as “the Red-Headed Beatle of 1,000 B.C.” in DC’s Jimmy Olsen #79. Over in ACG’s Herbie #5, its comical star simply donned a literal mop-head to become a rock star in “Herbie, Boy ‘Beetle.’” Mad #90’s back cover used a Frank Frazetta-illustrated caricature of the Beatles’ Ringo Starr as the centerpiece of a Breck (as “Blecch”) Shampoo ad parody while one of cartoonist Al Jaffee’s first Mad Fold-Ins (issue #88) suggested “The Only Hope For Curing ‘Beatle-Mania’” 165
would be the “premature loss of the Beatles’ hair.” The Beatles’ hugely-anticipated first U.S. appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (February 9, 1964) was the subject of an early parody in Laugh #162. It recounted Archie’s hilarious efforts to fix the reception on Veronica’s television just minutes before the debut of the Termites Five on Sullivan. In July, Dell published the official Beatles comic book, a one-shot that sandwiched their 64-page “life story” (illustrated by Joe Sinnott) amidst several full-page photos. Giant comics still retailed for a quarter but Dell charged 35-cents for this one, well aware that fans would snatch it up. In April, the massive New York World’s Fair opened on nearly one square mile of land in Queens, New York. Although dominated by U.S. interests, the exposition’s goal was to celebrate “Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe” and demonstrate the way that technology would improve the lives of everyone. Towering over the festivities was the Unisphere, a 12-story