I have sort of a tradition of reading my Archie Christmas
comics in December. I was buying a
couple of things online and spontaneously decided to get a few Archie Christmas
comics from their website. Specifically,
I was interested in this years’ Christmas floppy comic. While I was there, I picked up a couple of
Christmas digests that were half price and a previous years’ floppy was like a
dollar. I was in a festive mood.
Everything came in good order in the package and was delivered quickly. The order was only delayed because the new comic in the order hadn’t actually released yet. I got it on the day it came out.
There was also a new Sabrina Holiday special. It has a great cover, but I was questioning the contents. (It’s closer to an occult horror comic.) From the preview pages I saw later, I think I made the right call in passing on it. I did look at some non-Christmas comics and nothing jumped out at me, but after getting that big Sabrina volume, I’m not sure there’s much else I’d really want.
Archie
Christmas Spectacular (2024)
I read everything from the order over last weekend. This was the only full price item I got and I
read it first. Boy was I disappointed. What I was interested in was the lead story
featuring evil versions of Jingles and Sugar Plum drawn by Holly G. Those two characters are Archie Christmas
staples that I enjoy for reasons I’ll list a little later.
What I got was a five-page story with fairly crude art
that simply trotted out the new characters and that was basically it. I think the sample page speaks for
itself. Frankly, if I’d seen preview
pages of this beforehand, I wouldn’t have thought about ordering anything.
Holly G. is a good artist and Tom DeFalco is a good comic
book writer. The story features Grumpus
as a villain, a takeoff of Krampus, sort of an evil Santa Claus. He was introduced in a previous story that I
haven’t read that was apparently inspired by Stranger Things. The evil
versions of Jingles and Sugarplum, Jangles and Sourplum, seem a bit unnecessary
as both original characters already cause mischief whenever they appear.
Still, this should have been a fun story. I think the short page count likely hobbled
the story severely. It also may have
been rushed. It was a bad effort and not
a good start to my Archie Christmas reading.
I think the rest of the issue was several short reprints. Jingles and Sugarplum are in a few of them,
along with Noelle, Santa’s daughter.
None of them are all that great, though Veronica is very stylish in one
story.
Archie
Christmas Spectacular (2023)
This toss-in issue was about the same in format and
quality.
I did like Dan Parent’s art for this story about Noelle. Of course, Santa’s daughter looks like
Marilyn Monroe.
The only story I really liked was this Jughead story drawn
by the Kennedy Brothers. These guys (one
of them recently passed away) really had a flair for making great large panel action
shots.
Betty
& Veronica Spectacular #86
This comic was not a recent purchase. It’s from 2008. Since that time, it has become my favorite
Archie comic. (The Archie Daily Newspaper Comics 1946-1948
is my favorite Archie book.) BVS was my
favorite Archie title. It was only
quarterly, but I’d pick it up at Hastings whenever I saw it. It is printed on newsprint, unlike the new
comics, which are on slick paper.
Half the issue is a great-looking Dan Parent story
featuring Jingles and Sugarplum seducing Betty and Veronica and Archie, but
ending up falling in love with each other.
Dan’s art, with the enhanced coloring and shading, really pops. The story is fun and romantic. This story really made me like the characters.
The rest of the issue features nice pinups and a couple of
shorts: Archie gang greeting cards and gift ideas. They weren’t really stories just quick funny gags. For an Archie Christmas comic, this is the
standard by which I judge the rest. It
nails the season and the characters.
On to Part 2.
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