Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics #336
I violated my usual directive on buying a digest for just one story, but I was already out looking for a digest for just one story, so why not? Not to mention, the story looked pretty fun.
I discovered this digest was a bit damaged after I bought it. The spine was broken. I was able to glue it back together. Later, I found a page may have been ripped out. I think it was just an ad page. I was back at Barnes & Noble and was going to check, but the digest was off the racks.
Slight digression here. A new Archie Halloween Digest was there. (I think the Halfway to Halloween issue I just got was still there.) It was in slightly larger in format, so it would be closer to comic book dimensions. However, it was thin (96 pages) and printed on cheap pulp, but still cost $10. I don’t think there were any new stories in it and I already had several stories in it that had been recently reprinted. I wasn’t just not interested; I was insulted. I will say it was reprinting quite a few older stories that aren’t often reprinted these days.
The first story is a Dan Parent production. He uses the whole page for his art. Betty throws a Tiki party. Veronica gets involved and goes completely overboard, as usual, which is why she’s so entertaining. I’m not sure if this is a new story or not, probably not.
Here’s the reason why I bought this. It’s a crossover story between Sabrina and Josie and the Pussycats. I’m a sucker for these crossovers. It’s a full length story, so it’s worthwhile. The setup is Sabrina’s rival for Harvey, Amy, recruits him for a battle of bands competition. (Hate to say it, Amy here could actually be competition for the normally nearly peerless Sabrina.)
Sabrina isn’t taking this lying down. She recruits Josie and the Pussycats. Salem knows a good thing when he sees it and immediately latches on to Melody.
There’s a running gag of Sabrina adding to her home to accommodate the Pussycats and irritating a neighbor, but then making it disappear.
Sabrina joins the group, but Josie gets laryngitis and now the group needs a lead singer. It’s discovered that Sabrina can’t sing worth a lick, but a spell from her aunts gives her the ability. In the finest sense of comedy, she now can’t speak without singing.
I love this panel. The band competition begins and Sabrina gets jealous and acts on it.
This is just awesome. Salem is such an operator.
I think there’s a bit of an omission in the story. In order for Sabrina to be able to sing, I think she ended up with Melody’s sing-song voice. At the end of the story, Melody is speaking normally, while Sabrina is still singing and waiting for the spell to wear off. Maybe that wrinkle was too much to jam into the story explicitly or doesn’t entirely make sense (Melody could have just taken over singing for Josie), though it’s still there. It’s weird seeing Melody’s dialogue without the musical notes.
Just reading this, it seems like an episode of the Sabrina TV show, guest starring the Pussycats. It’s a triumph on some level to have pulled it off so well. Dan DeCarlo’s art and his redesigned Sabrina are fun and friendly. They really should do a reprint volume of the Sabrina comics from that era. (In addition, there should be a volume with just Gisele Lagace drawn Archie stories and Holly G’s Sabrina and Pussycat stories.)
There’s a few older 60’s DeCarlo stories. The girls are very appealing and fashionable, of course.
One of these stories involves the girls meeting a blonde version of pop singer, Bobby Darin. He’s a jerk in the comics, just like real life (but quite talented).
Add those bottom two frames to the list of embarrassing out-of-context Archie panels. Actually, in context, this is still really questionable and it’s way too easy to read a double entendre into what Jughead said. I guess you could take it as a terrible insult at the guy. Maybe. Let’s move on.
Of course, we have a couple of cute pinups of the girls.
Veronica’s father is the subject of a TV biography. Veronica isn’t mentioned in it and is infuriated. She goes to the network and demands an edit to add her to it. That goes as well as you’d think. Don’t worry, Ronnie. We think you’re a star.
There are a couple of stories with Betty interacting with squirrels. In the first, she’s battling them and trying to keep them out of her bird feeders. She finally succeeds, but feels sorry for them. In the next story, they’re talking to her, along with some other animals chatting with her.
Veronica daydreams on the beach after reading a book of famous women in history. In one dream, she’s Veronica of Arc. I think this sequence is just for the comedy of putting everyone in a pageboy haircut.
Veronica gets a case of crabs. The result is some amusing physical comedy.
Lastly, with no setup, Veronica is stranded alone on a desert island . . . for six hours. How this happened is established later in the story. It’s cute.
Okay, this one is also fun. I probably wouldn’t have gotten it without the Sabrina/Pussycats crossover, but the rest of the material didn’t make me regret the purchase. Unlike pretty much every superhero comic I get lately, at least I get something entertaining from these Archie comics.
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