Thirteen Going on Eighteen

Thirteen Going on Eighteen: The John Stanley Library by John Stanley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thirteen Going on Eighteen: The John Stanley Library collects issues 1-9 of Thirteen Going on Eighteen.

I'm an Archie fan from way back and learned about this series in Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics, 1940s-1970s: An Illustrated History. Fortunately for me, Drawn and Quarterly recently reprinted the first nine issues as part of their John Stanley Library.

Thirteen Going on Eighteen might have been born out of the teen humor craze but these aren't Archie comics. Val and Judy are thirteen year old girls and act like thirteen year old girls actually act, albeit in an exaggerated fashion. They can be dramatic or catty or jealous or insane, sometimes all in the same story.

Val is a blonde slim girl and Judy starts out as a portly brunette, although she drops weight every couple issues until she has the same build as Val. Val's a schemer and Judy is a gruff smart ass. The story setups usually involve boys. Val is nuts for Paul Vayne but keeps the neighbor boy Billy on deck for emergencies. Judy's beau is a shmuck named Wilbur who she seems to actively dislike. And get this: the stories are actually laugh out loud funny at times instead of mildly amusing like most Archie comics.

The art style is pretty slick and has a very open feel to it. It looks cartoony but not quite as cartoony as Archie books from the same time period. Nothing spectacular but Stanley got his point across with the expressions and gestures.

Now that I've finished, there's a Val and Judy shaped hole in my heart. Apparently the John Stanley Library didn't sell well enough for us to get the rest of this series reprinted so I'll either have to wait for someone else to pick up the baton or track down issues 10-25 individually.

Thirteen Going on Eighteen is a masterpiece of the teen humor genre. Five out of five stars.

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