Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics, 1940s-1970s: An Illustrated History

Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics, 1940s-1970s: An Illustrated History by Michelle Nolan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics, 1940s-1970s chronicles the teen humor genre that started with the redhead from Riverdale.

I'm an Archie fan from way back and the pandemic reignited my love for the Riverdale gang. I saw this on Amazon and my wife bought it for me for Christmas.

Archie's Rivals is what the title indicates - a painstakingly researched account of the imitators that sprang up in Archie's teenage wake. From popular and enduring teen humor characters like Patsy Walker to space age teen humor like Dan DeCarlo's Jetta to Dan DeCarlo's juggernaut Josie and the Pussycats to characters that only appeared a couple times like Dan DeCarlo's Seymour. There are also a Date with Judy, a Date with Debbie, Debbie's Dates, Here's Howie, Harvey, Junior, Sunny, Fast Willie Jackson, and a couple hundred others.

The book is fairly thin for something that cost close to $40 but the print is on the verge of being tiny. The text is a little dry and gets repetitive at times. Ultimately, I think the topic is better suited to a coffee table book crammed with cover art. It's a good read but I think the format hurts it a bit.

If you're looking for an A-Z account of teen humor books, Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics is the best one I've encountered so far. Four out of five Archie knockoffs.

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