A random sampling of three Archie comics anthologies and one of the modern series.
First:
Archie 75th Anniversary Celebration, #4.
A collection reprinting classic Betty and Veronica stories from assorted decades, from the 1940’s to the 2010’s (!)
The collection itself is as you might expect: A mix of forgettable stories paired with some actually pretty interesting ones. You can see not just elements that would later be used in the most recent versions (the semi-serious Teen Soap heralded by Mark Waid and the Horror imprint —but also even more interesting experiments from assorted decades), but also how these comics became time capsules for quite a few trends in US fashion and in comics in general.
All stories come with commentaries from assorted writers, editors, artists and whatnot —the most interesting ones noting subtle details in the art and the evolution (sometimes de-evolution) of themes.
Some stories that stand out:
- Where the action is. By Dan Parent, Rich Koslowski, et. al. 2008. One of many stories re-creating the characters as X genre —in this case, as glamorous spies. What is notorios about this story is that it’s one of the fist to use obscure character Evelyn Evernever (from the Little Archie comics) as a villain.
- Dare to be bare. By Frank Doyle and Dan DeCarlo. 1982. One of the earliest stories starring the Blossom twins, Cheryl and Jason. I’d always wondered why Cheryl was for a time deemed too sexual a character for an all-ages comics. Then in this story we see her arrested for trying to go topless in a public beach and —yeah, now I get it.
- Vamp it up. By Dan Parent, Rich Koslowski, et. al. 2012. Imagine my surprise at discovering that Vampironica was not a character created for the current Horror storyline, but made her debut in this story —complete with the origin of Betty the Vampire slayer. Respectively, open homages to Vampirella and Buffy.
- Taking care of business. By Paul Kupperberg, Jeff Schultz, et. al. 2012. The single best story in this collection. Betty and Veronica get stranded in the woods at winter and must use their wits to survive. The twist is that Betty, by this point usually the reliable, level-headed one, get a concussion early on and spends most of the story unconscious, so it falls on Veronica (normally the spoiled rich princess) to keep both of them alive —a very clever scrip that managed to hit just the right amount of drama without going overboard.
- Of men and mermaids. By Bill Vigoda and Al McLean. 1945. One of the earliest Archie stories, which shows how the character Betty in particular has changed over the years —this one was quite capable of knocking out men with a good sock to the jaw. Described as “feisty” in and out of the comic, I’d say she was that very early kind of female character in comic books that had to be tough just to survive.
- For one brief moment. By C. J. Henderson, Doug Crane, et. al. 1996. A romance between Betty and Reggie —what is interesting here isn’t the up-ending of the usual romantic triangle of these comics, but the rare emotionally sincere handling of teen romance. How often do you see this kind of characters breaking off simply because they both realize that it’s becoming a serious thing and neither of them is ready for something that intense just yet?
There is an overwhelming amount of male writers, artists and editors in display here (the sole story written by a woman is “Pick me up”, by Kathleen Webb, 2000. Fittingly, it’s a tale about the girls dealing with constant harassment from entitled men) —which says more about the problem with the general comic book industry than with this particular publishing line, really.
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