Pre-Jetsons Sci-Fi Comic Jetta, by Archie Legend Dan DeCarlo, Hits Auction

Forget what you thought you knew about The Jetsons' origins. A full decade before Hanna-Barbera introduced the iconic Space Age family, cartoonist Dan DeCarlo’s Jetta comic delivered strikingly similar sci-fi comedy. Now, a rare, high-grade issue of this forgotten gem is hitting the auction block.

Jetta, a short-lived Standard/Better/Nedor series from 1952-1953, chronicled the everyday life of a futuristic family, complete with flying cars and robot maids. Sound familiar? The visual and thematic parallels to The Jetsons, which debuted in 1962, are uncanny. This isn't mere coincidence. DeCarlo, later famed for defining the look of Archie Comics, brought his clean, charming style to Jetta. But the lineage goes deeper: Kin Platt, a prominent artist for Jetta's publisher, Standard/Better/Nedor, later helped create The Jetsons and wrote for other Hanna-Barbera classics like The Flintstones.

Standard/Better/Nedor, led by Ned Pines, was a titan of mid-century pulp and comic sci-fi, nurturing talent and ideas that clearly propelled the nascent animation industry. Properties like Captain Future from the same publisher show a consistent vision of "the world of tomorrow" that predates many iconic animated worlds.