Since we’re celebrating the man behind the mirthquakes this month, a little introduction is in order. Here is a brief bio that ran in the back of the September 1935 issue of Sky Birds as part of Magazine Publisher’s The M-P News Flash—a one page newsletter of sorts getting readers interested in and informed about what’s in the other titles they publish. The prolific Archibald ran stories in all their titles.

JOE ARCHIBALD is one of the veterans of the Magazine-Publishers group. Since its conception, the words he has pounded out are beyond computation. The short chunky little writer who is never seen without a cigar has had a diversified career to put it mildly. In 1917 be was selected as one of a small group from the Chicago Academy of Arts to draw pictures of mother earth from the air. Joe arrived at Kelly Field and was about to climb in a plane when a telegram arrived from his fond parents. He was under age and they clipped his wings! A year later he joined the Navy and chased up and down the New England coast looking for German subs. After the fuss was over he became a police reporter on the “Boston Telegram” and “Post.” Joe can also swing a pencil. He stopped haunting Beantown’s underworld and signed up to draw two or three features for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. From there he went to the United Press to draw sport cartoons and write a column.

“The New York Graphic” drew Joe next. He claims to have been the pioneer in detective strips. But the yen to write fiction was strong and he quit newspaper work to devote his entire time to turning out flying, detective. western and adventure stories for WESTERN ACES—WESTERN TRAILS—TEN DETECTIVE ACES—FLYING ACES and SKY BIRDS.

The majority of his readers do not have to be told that Joe prefers to dish out humor more than anything else. He assures us that a man has to possess an abnormal funny bone to have been a hotel man, a wrestler, a bookkeeper, an artist, a writer and a newspaper reporter during a period of seventeen years. Life has not begun for Joe as yet. He’s nowhere near forty. There’s no telling what he’ll try his hand at next.