Thirteen Going on Eighteen ─ The John Stanley Library: Collected From the First Nine Issues of the Dell Comic Book Series, 1961-64

THE LATEST TITLE IN THE JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY DESIGNED BY THE CARTOONIST SETH

In the early to mid-1960s, John Stanley turned his attention to drawing and writing his own series rather than working with the already established licensed characters he is most well known for, such as Little Lulu.D+Qhas embarked on an archival series of Stanley’s comics, including Melvin Monster, Around the Block with Dunc and Loo, Kookie, and Thirteen Going on Eighteen.

Thirteen Going on Eighteen focuses on the friendship and rivalry of two teenage girls, Val and Judy. Each comic is a darkly hilarious look at the socialmaneuverings and betrayals of the teen set.Stanley’s strippeddown approach perfectly captures the fever pitch of the teenage years. He creates a teenage sitcom and turns it into an anguished character study.

John Stanley (1914–93) was a journeyman comics scripter in the 1950s and 1960s.He is most famous for his scripts for the Little Lulu comics produced by Dell, and is considered by many comics historians to be the most consistently funny and idiosyncratic writer to ever work in comics.He left comics bitterly in the late 1960s, never to return.