Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Al Hartley, stan lee

Class is in Session with Marvel's Meet Miss Bliss, Up for Auction

Marvel's Meet Miss Bliss, inspired by the Our Miss Brooks tv franchise & Kubert's Meet Miss Pepper, was created by Stan Lee & Al Hartley.

Published Tue, 11 Apr 2023 18:57:09 -0500

by Mark Seifert

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Marvel's experiments in trying to find its footing in the Comics Code era seem to be heavily inspired by the television and film of the period. As we've recently discussed, the publisher ended its long-running My Friend Irma series to launch My Girl Pearl, after the rest of the Bliss tv/radio/film franchise had ended. The return of Marvel's Annie Oakley comic book series at this time was likely prompted by the success of the Annie Oakley tv series, which debuted in early 1954. Della Vision with its fictional tv series Pringle Pretzel Hour was a lampoon of sorts of tv variety shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour. The Adventures of Pinky Lee was a licensed series based on the star of television's The Pinky Lee Show. Even the Black Knight series was probably inspired by the Alan Ladd film The Black Knight, which had hit theaters a few months prior. Another series along these lines was Meet Miss Bliss, inspired by the radio/tv franchise Our Miss Brooks.

Meet Miss Bliss was not the first comic book series inspired by Our Miss Brooks. In fact, the Marvel series is arguably even more closely inspired by the St. John's Joe Kubert comic book series Meet Miss Pepper. Meet Miss Bliss was the creation of Stan Lee and writer/artist Al Hartley. Hartley had gotten his start in comic books in the late 1940s on Ned Pines' Standard/Better/Nedor line and the American Comics Group. During the 1950s, he worked on an enormous number of Marvel/Atlas titles across virtually every genre the publisher offered. Around the time of Meet Miss Bliss, Hartley also worked on Della Vision and began his longtime association with the Patsy Walker franchise.

The series lasted only four issues, but Meet Miss Bliss is an obscure but interesting moment in Marvel history, as the publisher made its way into the Comics Code era. There's a pair of issues from the series with Meet Miss Bliss #3 and 4 Group (Atlas, 1955) in the 2023 April 20 Timeless Good Girl Art Comics Featuring Dan DeCarlo Showcase Auction #40221 at Heritage Auctions. If you've never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.