Review: Archie Comics Giant Gala

Gwen Dylan Stacy

6 years ago

There is nothing in the world that I find quite so charming as taking something that might be slightly antiquated and then breathing new life into it. Be it fashion or otherwise. A lot of that is what is happening in this sweet little collection of Archie shorts that have been gathered into one enormous, and I mean that word in its entirety…like enormous for a non-attention deficit reader like myself, volume. This four hundred and eighty four page anthology of stories is charming; never quite as breathy as you’d think for something that has so many pages, and sweetly touched by vintage nostalgia that will make you smile.

The pages itself are aware enough to realize that these tidbits of work from the universe should stay as close to the original source material as possible. There’s a campiness to the writing by Francis Bonnet that pokes a little fun at itself with the exaggeration of dramatics on the Riverdale High clique; couple that with the verbiage and the art by Pat and Tim Kennedy with colors by Glenn Whitmore and inks by Jim Amash as well as the well recognizable lettering by Morelli, and you’ve got something that bridges the gaps between generations without trying too terribly hard to. The simplicity in its efforts is appreciated, as sometimes over complicating a thing that’s worked so well can come off like a bad masquerade.

The giant sized volume is story but with flux, weaving itself in and out of different writers and artists with a fluidness like liquid that never is jarring enough to detract from the inner workings of itself. Sometimes those types of approaches can distract from the simple storytelling that does its best when it’s left to its own devices. Everything is seamless. You barely notice transitions, if at all, from one writer and set of artists to the next. Dipping past the pages that were outside of the first two opening stories, I can say that I melted into the next story and wouldn’t have known that the artists working on these panels were different if they hadn’t been announced.

I think that the most lovely part of this writing is that it comes without pretense. There aren’t little lessons to be learned or anything cleverly hidden in the text, it’s more just a simple telling of fun stories. Much like all the ones you’d share around a dinner table with close friends and family who chuckle over the misadventures. A quaint reminder that not everything has to have an ulterior motive to be important. If you’re a long time Archie fan, then this 3.5 out of 5 star acumen chock full of stories is something I highly suggest for days when you need some light-hearted, fun reading.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Various (A) Various (CA) Dan Parent