[This is a re-post of an old review. I think I originally posted it on MySpace. It's been so long since I scanned these pictures, I forgot why I was re-posting this. Here it is anyway.]
I wasn’t interested in the first two volumes, but this one had some stories I’d wanted to read in it. Bottom line, it’s mostly filled with good, entertaining classic Archie stories. I’ll be a bit more specific, breaking it down by decade, as they do in the book itself, and point out my favorites and critiques.
40’s
The stories here were mostly by Montana. While the artwork was a little crude compared to his newspaper strip work, the broad, breathless humor comes right through.
50’s
The style here is very clean, distinct, and polished and a bit cartoony. The highlight story is Jughead’s Folly, and epic book-length tale of the iconoclast becoming an instant Elvis-like sensation, though it all turns out to be a dream (spoilers).
60’s
The style is more detailed, more realistic, maybe a bit more sex appeal. There’s a strange book-length Life With Archie story, Hi-jinks and Deep Diving, where Archie and Reggie find the undersea kingdom of Neptunia. The comedy and adventure combination is a bit awkward. Samm Schwartz does a great job on the long tale, Beetlemania. The all-boy version of the Archies become an instant Beatles-like sensation, though it all turns out to be a dream (spoilers). Hmmm. The funniest story in this whole volume is Decarlo’s Josie story, The Hold Up, a complete twist on a mugging event. Talk about meta,Visit to a Small Panic features the Archie gang visiting the Filmation Studios as they produce the Archie cartoon. Harry Lucey had fun with this one.
70’s
All I can say about this section is that it is short. If you’re a fan of this era, you’ll be disappointed.
80’s
The only story in this 400 page book that I had read before was Betty’s Diary #1. I wouldn’t have picked The Art Lesson for a Best of, but there are other stories in this book that represent Archie life-lessons type stories, rather than straight comedy. This section contains Rex Lindsey’s time travel opus, Back from the Future from the Archie Giant: World of Jughead #590. If there’s ever a case for an American Dr. Who, it must be Jughead. Here we meet Archie descendant, January McAndrews, as she arrives in the past to have a “wibbly wobbly timey whimey” adventure with her idol, Jughead. This was certainly presented in a way where it could be an epic, passionate (as Jughead and January fall in love) one-shot or a backdoor pilot (which it turned out to be).
90’s
I almost bought The Best of Betty and Veronica volume until I flipped through it and realized many of the stories inside were incomplete, just one part of a multi-part story. Cheryl’s Beach Bash here had the same disappointing problem. The splashy red-head deserved better from the editors.
2000’s
Fernando Ruiz could not resist himself transferring the Archie gang from Archie’s Weird Mysteries into a Scooby Doo-like mystery, A Familiar Haunt. It wasn’t quite a straight-on parody or homage though, since Weird Mysteries seemed to mostly take its cues from the X-files or Kolcheck the Night Stalker. Frankly, I thought the mystery-supernatural angle worked reasonably well as a setting for the gang. An even better fit was Sabrina as a manga magical girl. I was pleased to see Tania Del Rio’s version represented here in the heartfelt, Spell It Out.
2010’s
The reason I bought this book was because I’d missed getting Jughead #200 when it came out. Something Ventured, Something Gained was indeed suitably grand for this anniversary, a bit preachy, but awesome. Jughead is magically tempted out of his prodigious metabolism and his friends start losing their best traits trying to get it back. Rex Lindsey’s art was excellent. I was also eager to read The Great Switcheroo, where the gang is gender-flopped. I’m a big fan of Gisele’s artwork and it doesn’t disappoint here. I’m not sure I got whatever the point was supposed to be of Tania’s story, but it was fun anyway.
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