Friday, September 25, 2026

Back then I don't think you were supposed to refer to a woman as "Queen-Size," yet here we are.

"Chili Special"? What, does that come with cornbread or somethin--oh. The GCD calls this one an annual, but the indica doesn't, so split the difference and call it a "Queen-Size Special" like the cover! From 1971, Chili Special #1, cover by Stan Goldberg. All stories written by Stan Lee, pencils by Stan Goldberg.
Millie also had a Mad About Millie Queen-Size Special, as did My Love; but I don't think Marvel had any female superheroines big enough to get one at the time! Chili is described as "Millie's Red-Headed Rival" on the cover, which feels reductive; but yeah, she was basically the Reggie to Millie's Archie, or maybe the Goofus to her Gallant. This issue has several stories reprinted from Chili's first two issues from 1969, which also were later reprinted again in 1973: they are very much in the style of Archie comics, and the thought may have been, how many of them do you need, before the readers grow out of them and you can just run them again to new kids?
That said, these are kinda fun, as Stan usually writes Chili as 100% that bitch, who most often receives immediate karmic retribution for her misdeeds; as when she thinks Millie is planning a party without her, so she goes around and tells everyone it was cancelled, only to find out it was a surprise party for her birthday. Still, some of the cutdown lines are just brutal: you might not think Stan would've had that in him, but you can see a bit of it in the Spidey/JJJ repartee. (One of my favorites there was Spidey taunting "anybody that pays a dime for your rag of a paper oughta get eleven cents change!") And Millie isn't above serving some back herself!
I don't think I'd read either Millie or Chili before, but you find something like this in the dollar books; you pretty much have to, right?

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid said...

I think because Stan crafted such an affable public image of himself for readers, they forgot or didn’t realize that deep down he was ultimately a New Yorker, and we all know how renownedly good with insults New Yorkers typically are. Peter Parker is a great example of this with his non-stop cavalcade of zingers, one-liners & put-downs he’d use specifically for Jonah & the bad guys. Partially to mask his fear & anxiety in his early, formative years, but also as a cathartic way of getting back at everyone who bullied him in school by using JJ & his villains as stand ins. I can personally relate bc while having to deal with bullying at school, I had to learn very quickly to be good at dishing the insults right back, whilst also using humor to defuse the situation. Peter clearly realized this as well but only once he began his career as Spider-Man.

Anyhoo….

Chili is definitely your stereotypical Mean girl in school who grew up to work for Fox News.