Archie’s Pals ‘N’ Gals Double Digest Magazine #55 review
special archie content repost for nick curtin.
originally written on or around feb 23 2001
notes:
how many titles in archie pantheon? is this really the 55th archie pals n’
gals double digest magazine? or just the 55th digest?
title correctly punctuates “‘n’”, with the apostrophe as stand-in for both
first and last letters.
cover features janitor mr. svenson, a little-used superstitious swedish
handyman archetype (not sure if “superstitious” is part of the archetype,
but it is something aften thrown in to an ethnic caricature)
weird characters: evelyn evernever “that boo’ful gal”: like li’l jinx
drawn in a more archiesish fashion; cheryl blossom: some sort of fashion
model.
chuck (the coach’s son) is a jack-of-all-trades. in this ish he’s a
cartoonist who redraws archie and the gang as sexy jungle cats and does
not reference josie and the pussycats, underlining the fact that there is
no crossover in the different titles (right?).
2 characters named “ambrose”: sabrina’s cousin and “evelyn evernever”’s
andy cappish young friend
archie 3000: the future means big earrings for girls, big hair for
everyone, and everyone is more of a jerk. and flesh-colored hair is at
last a reality.
archie 3000’s futuristic ballet nemesi (you read that right): inhale
barnifshafutz and rudolph neurosis. described by veronica 3000 as “super
hunky” which is, given the visual language of archie comics, not
true: they carry no hunk-signifiers, such as broad shoulders, or “hunk
eyes” (that special way of drawing eyes not used for regular
characters).
learn to draw archie is just a picture of archie with the instruction
“learn to draw archie!”
veronica: not cool
story titles include: gag bag, letter fretter, gym jam, sale tale, heed
speed, skate wait, late fate, snow know, sculpture schemer, nice ice, horn
scorn, eat feat, and snow row
li’l archie does not mean young archie: it means li’l everyone- even
archie’s dad is rounder, more expressive, prone to say cute stuff.
Nice!
I laugh at observations such as learn to draw archie is just a picture of archie with the instruction
“learn to draw archie!”