by Wayne Markley

When I was young, a very long time ago, I loved DC Comics; Flash, Green Lantern, Dial H for Hero, Land that Time Forgot and, of course, Superman and Batman. But even as a youth, I wanted a change now and then from the superheroes and I would turn to Archie Comics. Archie in the ‘50 & ‘60s had a style that was clean, colorful, entertaining, and almost always five or six pages with a gag at the end. Or they were one page gag strips. As an adult, I learned who was behind all these wonderful stories; Dan DeCarlo, Stan Goldberg, Frank Doyle, and others. (Archie rarely give credit to the creators back then even though Marvel and DC did.) To this day I can re-read stories from that time period and it still makes me feel happy, brings a smile to my face, and lifts my spirits. We are fortunate that we live in a time when there is a revival of interest in these classic strips and there are a number of excellent collections for those that may not have had the pleasure of reading these classics when they were first published.

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by Robert Greenberger

In the first issue of the new Life with Archie: The Married Life, Betty laments that all the boys — Henry Aldrich, Richie Cunningham, Zach Morris, Troy Bolton — she’s dated since Archie married Veronica were clones of her true love. It’s one of the few genuine moments in Michael Uslan’s script and pays homage to the template Archie Andrews has been a part of since his introduction in 1941.

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by KC Carlson

One thing I’m not exactly crazy about overall with October comics is that the giant gift book season still isn’t over yet. I am now completely overwhelmed with expensive hardcovers, during a time when many comics customers (and netizens) are trying desperately to budget their comics purchases to around $20 dollars a week. I’m not a big fan of publishing plans which have all (or most) of the major releases planned for the holiday season, especially when every single one of the publishers does the same thing. There is always so much stuff available that I want (or can ask Santa for) around Christmas, that I basically forget about half (or more) of it, simply because I cannot afford it. This is why I’ll always believe that a yearlong schedule of great books and projects will always trump a publishing plan that has everything dumped into the fourth quarter. Publishers, why take a foolish risk that your big year-end project (or three) may be the one (or many) that gets forgotten in the crush?

Now, having said that… one of the most expensive books of the year (but…):

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