Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo, Vol. 2

Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo #2

by Dan DeCarlo, Various

The second collection of Dan DeCarlo classics starts once again in the 1950s and travels through the 1960s and into the 70s. You'll find gorgeous and hysterically funny stories, each scanned from Dan DeCarlo's original art, and meticulously re-colored using the actual comics they were first published in as a guide.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comedy, Humor

152 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2011

About the author

Daniel S. DeCarlo was an American cartoonist best known as the artist who developed the look of Archie Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, modernizing the characters to their contemporary appearance and establishing the publisher's house style. As well, he is the generally recognized creator of the characters Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats (with the lead character named for his wife), and Cheryl Blossom.

Reviews

[Jan Philipzig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Embarrassing: The story "Prize Package..." that is collected in this second DeCarlo volume was also already featured in the first volume. I mean, how sloppy can editors get?

Apart from this faux pas, most good things I wrote about the first volume also apply here. As long as Archie stays in his suburban haven and does not venture beyond its borders, the stories are fluffy, candy-colored fun. When he does, however, things get a little weird. In the book's final story, "Summer Prayer for Peace," Archie and his friends get drafted to do their part in the Vietnam War. Designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, the story tries to have it both ways. On the one hand, Archie declares: "Of course we don't want to go! Who in his right mind would want to go and maybe get killed?" And: "We are as much opposed to the war as anybody else." On the other hand, he insists that "we don't intend to cop out! That's wrong!" Why is that wrong if you are opposed to the war, Archie? Well, nobody asks that question. Moreover, Archie on the one hand denounces peace protesters as violent, chaotic, and ineffective: "Violent wild protesting and senseless rioting never really accomplished anything but contempt and fear! It's like trying to put out fire with gasoline, it only makes the fire uncontrollable!" On the other, he plays a concert with his band at a peace rally, singing the song "Summer Prayer for Peace." I guess calling a protest song a "prayer" makes this demonstration legitimate in Archie's eyes, go figure... He should have stayed in suburbia, I guess.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a weaker selection of stories than volume 1, ending on a somewhat bizarre alternate universe story in which Archie & the gang are drafted into the Vietnam war and tell a hippie how important it is to obey the government.