Archie Comics (II of IV)

- Archie´s favorite high school comics. A recompilation *of* compilations, gathering assorted Archie stories set in high school, from the 50’s to the 2010’s (the 40’s are absent in this one for some reason). Most are the kind of perfectly serviceable but easily forgotten fluff pieces you’d expect from classic Archie, though now and then you’ll get an interesting glimpse of how certain ideologies will subtly shift over time. 

The highlights include: 

- The specialist. George Gladir, Dan DeCarlo Jr., et. al. (Year unknown). A rare anti-fat-shaming story in which the victim who gets back at his tormentors is a middle-aged man —in this case, long-standing character Coach Kleats, showing how a fat person may still be athletically gifted. 

- The uninvited. Frank Doyle, Stan Goldberg, et. al. (1982). A mystery yarn with a curious twist in which Archie and Chuck play detectives to figure out who has been breaking into school at night and living in the facilities. 

- Magic Mayhem. Tom DeFalco, Bill Galvan, et. al. (2013). Jughead spins his day at school into a bedtime fantasy yarn for his sister Jellybean —what makes this story stand out is that it successfully gains ambiguousness by ending. It becomes clear that besides the fantasy elements (magic), Jughead is inventing a skewered version of the story, to the point of subtly mocking his classmates and presenting himself as the hero of a story that apparently went badly in ‘real life’ (the entire school is at his throat by the ending). In other words, an all-ages story that is designed to make the readers consider the events from several possible points of view. 

- Sound Off. Frank Doyle, Dan DeCarlo, et. al. (1967). An example of a classic comic book tradition: Telling a story with no dialogue (in this case with only the occasional sound effect). The result is both clever and humorous. 

On the whole it’s a fairly entertaining mix. 

Next: Archie Crossover Collection (which I will admit I included mostly for being the only compilation including Kevin Keller I could find). 

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