I was looking for a specific new Archie digest at Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago and came up empty. However, I looked at the digests there and couldn’t resist two of them. I guess this is my birthday present this year, instead of the new iPad that I had my dad take back. I went to three other places that used to sell Archie digests still looking for the one I was after, but they had none. (That’s discouraging.) I could maybe still get it online sometime.
Archie Showcase #24 Halfway to Halloween
How many old, spooky, abandoned mansions are there in Riverdale? This digest attempts to answer that question. Well, by my count, there are nine in this volume alone along with two abandoned mines. I assure you from reading other Archie Halloween comics that that is by no means a complete listing.
Up front is a Rex Lindsey drawn story. In this one, someone moves into the abandoned mansion behind Archie’s house. See, there’s haunted houses everywhere in Riverdale. I think they could do a horror TV show based on this concept. Oh wait, they did: This Old House. (It was usually a horror show for the homeowners.) Archie thinks a vampire woman has moved in. He consults Chuck Clayton about his fears. Chuck is sort of ghetto in this story. I kind of like it. They should stick with that.
In the next story, there’s a commentary on how Halloween is almost more of an adult holiday than one for kids. It’s about as much social commentary as you can expect from Archie, but they’re not wrong. Next up, Archie and a non-ghetto Chuck go to a museum in a haunted house and encounter vampires again. For two horror stories, amazingly, the black guy survives to the end.
I’m having too much fun with this review. There’s a couple of Fernando Ruiz drawn stories. This one seems like an Archie’s Weird Mysteries story. It involves an abandoned mine, a monster, and a reveal that the monster is a masked villain. You know, I’ll bet you could make a cartoon based on variations of that premise. Fernando obviously wants to do a Scooby Doo comic so bad. There was an additional reveal at the end possibly explaining the Lodge families’ wealth.
Reggie then does some myth busting and destroys some cherished myths. Happy Halloween.
In another story, Betty’s big sister, Polly, makes an appearance. See, she is not a myth.
There are a few old Madhouse stories in this digest. They are weird. This is the least weird example.
Into another old, creepy Riverdale mansion an ersatz Adams Family moves in. Archie is immediately taken by their attractive niece, who is a redhead and does not look like Marilyn Monroe, unlike in the Adams family.
Archie helps to recover the family’s fortune and gets his reward. Honestly, Rex Lindsey draws this girl more attractively than he usually draws Betty and Veronica.
Fernando Ruiz next draws an epic two-part Weird Mystery story. The first part recaps an episode of the cartoon series featuring Scarlet, an attractive female vampire, who turns out to be “The Ender,” the girl who hunts vampires.
Archie does not turn into a vampire in the follow up story in spite of this splash page.
Scarlet returns as a vampire. She gets redeemed by . . . Reggie? It’s sort of Buffy. The character could be an Archie spin off title, but only in fan fiction, though. Weird Mysteries was a pretty fun concept for Archie. Too bad, it’s only back in reprints. (They could do a full series reprint volume of these stories. I’d probably buy it.)
There’s a Little Archie Scooby Doo-like story with an actual ghost with a somewhat surprising reveal at the end. Little Archie always had way more hard core adventures than he did as a teen.
Lastly, Reggie and Jughead get pranked. I just like Hiram’s reaction to the spectacle.
Overall, this was a lot a fun. Maybe Archie is going to the well too often publishing out-of-season Halloween and Christmas stories, but it’s hard to complain when it’s entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment