Comics Review: Jughead’s Time Police and some other Archie Comics

Jughead’s Time Police

When I saw this volume at Barnes & Noble, I couldn’t resist picking it up and looking at it, even though I’d had no interest in the title when it was first published.  After looking at it, I had to get it.  It looked fun, wacky, and colorful, and after I read it, that’s exactly what it was.  

Unexpectedly, it was more than that.  These stories busted out every concept from the time travel toy box.  It was Dr. Who-ish even.  Further, Jughead was more passionate and active than I’d ever seen him apart from his pursuit of food.  There’s even romance in the form of fellow time agent, January McAndrews, Archie’s far distant descendant.  I don’t know how far this concept could have really gone, but they made the most of it and even gave it some closure at the end.  There was a recent story at the end that homaged the Time Police, so it still works today.

Best of Betty &Veronica #2

I only bought this volume so I could finally get the third and final issue of Adam Hughes’ Betty & Veronica series.  When I found he was doing an Archie series, I definitely wanted it, but apparently production delays hampered their original publication.  Getting them after the fact has been a teeth-pulling exercise.  I think I’ve got all three issues in three different formats. 

Hughes’ series was poignantly hurtful.  Well known as a great illustrator of the female form, he clearly loved and relished the opportunity to draw the iconic duo.  Moreover, it was really funny and clever.  However, his run only lasted three issues.  I don’t know if it was mostly Hughes’ methodical pace of work or cash flow problems at Archie that caused some lengthy production delays.  The book was also viciously criticized because he made the girls look too good.  “It wasn’t appropriate,” or some other such nonsense puked by critics, who’d obviously never read an Archie comic.      

All that said, the rest of the volume, especially the 40’s and 50’s material, was a lot of fun.  The main problem is I don’t know how much longer Archie can keep repackaging the same material like this.  You could argue they’ve been doing this for decades with their digests, but there’s only so much quality material they can put in these trades.  Archie’s done a bunch of crap over the years that isn’t worth reprinting. 

Archie Meets the Ramones

I’ll toss in a couple of other Archie comics I bought last year.  First, this crossover with the Ramones is a classic.  Gisele Lagace, a comic artist with an immensely appealing style, somehow talked Archie Comics into publishing this story.  If you’re a Ramones fan, you might feel a bit cheated, as the story focuses more on the Archies, as you might expect.  However, Gisele does a great job with the story and has probably does the best classic-style version of Archie and the gang.  Don’t pass this one up if you ever see it.  

Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica

This, at least, was an interesting concept.  Strangely, these two duos actually pair up fairly well.  The inside artwork wasn’t as appealing as the Adam Hughes’ cover though.  I had assumed this was a one-shot, but it was actually a mini-series.  I wasn’t intrigued enough to track down the rest.  This comes off more as a marketing gimmick than a labor of love, like the Ramones meet up.  Perhaps if I hadn’t bought these two books at the same time, I might have judged this one a little less harshly.