Twelve Cent Archie

Twelve-Cent Archie by Bart Beaty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Twelve-Cent Archie is an examination of Archie comics published in the 1960s, when the cover price was twelve cents.

I'm an Archie guy from way back and threw this on my Christmas list because I'm allegedly hard to buy for.

Divided into 100 short chapters, Bart Beaty examines every aspect of Archie comics during the twelve cent era. Almost every topic imaginable is covered, from every girl in Riverdale being drawn the same apart from their hair, except for Big Ethel, to various plot conventions, to Hiram Lodge being called Albert or JP in early appearances.

The plot devices and secondary characters common to a lot of Archie stories are dissected, put under the microscope, and have the fun sucked right out of them in some cases. The lack of continuity is discussed, noting exceptions like Jingles and Archie's black book. The super hero tales are covered, as well as the Man from RIVERDALE.

This is a pretty cool examination of Archie comics. My one gripe is that Bart Beaty takes every opportunity to throw sideways jabs at Dan DeCarlo and tout Harry Lucey as the best Archie artist of the time period, putting DeCarlo third after Samm Schwatz and making sure everyone knows it.

Apart from the blatant anti-DeCarlo bias, Twelve Cent Archie is a good examination of Archie comics during the 1960s. 3.5 out of 5 stars. Yeah, deducting that half star was for Dan DeCarlo.

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