The Adventures of Little Archie Vol.1-2

 When I was a kid, I loved those Archie Comics digests, and one of my favorite series in those books was the original "Little Archie" stories by Bob Bolling. These weren't just funny stories, the illustrations were straight out of my storybook dreams, with its tales of kites, clubhouses and best friend Good 'Ol Gangs, adventures with funny aliens, rival gangs and magical mysteries!

Sadly, I wasn't really into the later Dexter Taylor stuff, and as time when on, I forgot all about how much i loved those early stories. But by chance when I was reading up on Dinosaurs, I happened to remember an old Little Archie strip I absolutely loved as a kid, where a friendly witch gives Little Archie the recipe to conjure up a live Pterodactyl into the Riverdale School Classroom!

It occurred to me that while I owned a TON of classic Archie/Jughead/PEP/Betty and Veronica comics, I didn't own even a SINGLE issue of Little Archie! Going onto ebay, I decided to rectify that right away. I didn't know which issues contained the stories I read as a kid in those early Digests, so i just bid at random. In the end, I picked up about 7 of them and waited for them to come in!

In the meantime I was browsing amazon and discovered that Archie Comics had released not one but TWO collections of Little Archie comics! Cursing myself for spending so much money on the original issues when I could have bought the collections for less than 10 bucks apiece, I ordered the two books right away and once again waited for my orders to come in.

In a few weeks, all the original comics from the 60's  came in, and besides them being simply BEAUTIFUL to look at (or, as Bob Bolling would have Little Archie say, Boo'ful), I was delighted to find that no less than SIX stories I remembered from my childhood were in them, INCLUDING the Pterodactyl story! There were, of course, a lot more that wasn't in those issues, and I was crossing fingers they'd be in the trades that were on its way!

Finally my Archie Trade paperbacks came in, and I have to say, it's a good thing I bought those individual comics, because there wasn't a single story inside that I remembered!

Oh, the stories were decent enough (they focused a LOT on the Mad Doctor Doom stories, these I wasn't too interested in even as a kid) but they weren't the ones that I had any sentimental attachment to.

SO! Looks like it's BACK to the ebay auctions because I can now see that by Bolling's art style, all the stories I loved had to be between issue 1 and 22. So far, I've got issues #2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 and 22 so I'm about halfway there!

Archie

As a huge, huge fan of artist Fiona Staples, i knew I had to get this one, but I'm REALLY not a fan of these new Archie reboots, as you may recall in my entry on "Afterlife With Archie"...Somehow in these new versions,  they forget how all the characters were basically good and likeable people. Veronica and Reggie are always portrayed in these new ones as 100% bad and Mr. Lodge as a cranky old tyrant, even Jughead, the most laid-back and mellow dude ever, is portrayed as more of a condescending and arrogant guy. And sadly, this new series is just like the others: despite its' awesome art, these reboots, though probably great for the kids of today, just don't do it for me.

Afterlife With Archie

Re-read this one again to see if I liked it any better than I did the first time around, but it looks like I'm the only one who hasn't warmed up to this revamp as everyone else seems to be praising it to the high heavens, LOL.

Afterlife With Archie

Greg recommended this one for me but I have to say as an Archie fan how much I DIDN'T like it. These characters had nothing to do with the beloved Archie characters outside of their names. Very SJW-ish!!!!

A Ronnie Addendum

Though Harry Lucey may be just about my favorite overall Archie Andrews and the Gang artist, it must be said that when it comes to drawing luscious Veronica in a bikini, there is no one that even comes CLOSE to the majesty that is Dan DeCarlo!

Coming out of the heady Glamour/Good Girl Art?Pin-Up Queen era, DeCarlo really knows his stuff, and no better example of this is when he's required to show off Veronica lounging around in her bathing suits! I mean, LOOK AT THESE PICS OF RONNIE! Holy CRAP! Whatta DOLL!


...And though not a bikini per se, I would be remiss if I didn't include this wonderful panel Dan drew of Ronnie having a sleepover with Betty- True to their styles, Bets is wearing Flannel Pajamas, and Ronnie's in this silky (and slightly translucent) Nightie!! YOW!

Yep, Dan DeCarlo is truly a MASTER OF THE GENRE!!!

Veronica Lodge Equal Time

Okay, Okay, After my gushing and pandering last entry regarding Archie Comics' artist Harry Lucey's illustrations of Betty Cooper, I would be amiss If I didn't even up things by posting some nice scans of Harry Lucey's take on Ronnie Lodge as well!

A Portrait Of Betty

Been recently re-reading through a lot of my old ARCHIE Comics and once again I was taken aback by how great the artist of the strip Harry Lucey was!  Harry was the primary ARCHIE artist during the sixties (and beyond), and he was the one who first illustrated the gang as the Mod, Peace and Flower Power scenes hit! He was even the guy illustraing most of those early issues where Archie and his friends formed their musical act, The Archies!

Now, my favorite character in the Archie Comics series has always been Betty Cooper, and this is probably one of the main reasons why I love Harry Lucey so much- Besides drawing Archie and the Gang with perfect zest,  Harry always drew the cutest, most adorable portrayals of Betty, and I just had to scan some of these terrific illustrations to share with y’all! These are just random passages from various strips, but I think Lucey really captured the essence of everything Miss Elizabeth Cooper is all about!

I’ve also scanned some complete Archie stories featuring Betty that I’ll have to upload on some future post! 

Everything's Archie!

I’ve always been really into Archie Comics, specifically those  digests that used to sell for about 75¢ back in the seventies. At the time I just liked the stories. They were funny, witty, and at times pretty humanitarian in their storytelling.

  As a kid, I would buy the books sporadically, mostly whenever I had extra change to purchase one…still, over time we accumulated a lot of ‘em, and me and my brothers and sister would regularly flip through the books whenever we needed something to read while snacking or relaxing. The Archie books became part of my childhood.

 As I got older, I realized how valuable these books were to me, and I tried to see how many back issues I could find at flea markets, used bookstores and rummage sales. I did manage to acquire quite a few especially at used bookstores like Rainbow’s Books.

It was only after this point of my mass consumption of Archie that I started to be able to tell which stories came out in the 40’s, which came out in the 50’s and the 60’s and 70’s.

  It was the stories from the Sixties and Seventies that really caught my eye, and as I got older, I finally began to appreciate the talent involved with the strip. Some of the art was just FANTASTIC, and you can see where current artists like Los Bros Hernandez got their influences from!

Harry Lucey

I started noticing that the art that featured Archie and the gang in the sixties had a real specific style to them. I could TELL that it was ONE artist drawing all of them. This was the artist that first drew the Archies as a band, and even the characters had real “sixties” style about them-Reggie even had sideburns! That artist turned out to be Harry Lucey, and MAN this guy could draw chicks…no one has ever drawn Betty cuter! The wild gestures he creates for the scenes are so dynamic and fun-In fact, Lucey is probably my favorite Archie artist of them all!

Among other things created during Harry's reign, most significant are the first appearances of both Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Chuck Clayton! Sabrina looked VERY Kim Novak back then!

Samm Schwartz

I also started noticing that a lot of my favorite stories that featured Jughead were all drawn in this retro reedy-thin style, and the guys all had high-water pants that showed their socks. I found out that these Jughead stories were drawn by artist Samm Schwartz, another great illustrator. He also had a flair for drawing gals, and his version of Midge Collins is the best as far as I’m concerned. Along with writer Frank Doyle, they created some of the FUNNIEST stories!

Al Hartley

Once in a while there would be certain Archie stories that dealt with peace, caring and loving your neighbor. I’d always notice that the artist’s style-He really had a flair for drawing Betty with real flaxen fluffy hair. Well, I found out that the artist/writer was a guy named Al Hartley, who was a strong Christian, and he’d slyly work gentle Archie stories into the strip. He even got permission to produce a few Christian-based Archie comics under the Spire Label.

 Dan DeCarlo

And then there’s Dan DeCarlo.The Mighty Dan DeCarlo!

 What can I say about him that hasn’t been said already. He’s the guy credited with redesigning the Archie Characters into the contemporary versions of we know and love today. He also created Josie, and later Josie and the Pussycats. Yes, the guy created Melody! And...Oh, how this guy could draw GIRLS!

I especially love his artwork in the mid-seventies, where Betty and Veronica were dressing like extras in Three’s Company. I call these the “Red Ribbon in Ronnie’s Hair” phase. Whenever Veronica would get exasperated, he would draw these lines on her cheeks to indicate flushing with rage, and I think it’s just hilarious!

Dan was also resposible for creating one of my favorite one-shot characters, a gorgeous uber-vixen named Virginia Cleary for the story "State Of Mind"! Yow! Yes, Virginia, slutty girls DID exist in Riverdale! Hahahahahahaha!

 The artwork all of these artists do is just terrific, and you can easily follow the story without even reading the word bubbles a lot of the time. I especially love when the artist goes out of his way to draw relaxed poses or shocked or angry reactions...they’re too funny!

It was this appreciation of the art involved that made me decide to expand my collection to try and get some of the original Archie comics. I wanted the ones that featured some of the stories I loved! Unfortunately (and obviously), most of these came out when I was like one to four years old, so it’s slow in collecting, but each time I SCORE and find an issue with a beloved story from my childhood, it’s like striking gold!

The search continues.....