Katy Keene

by Archie Superstars

Since the 1940s, fashion model supreme Katy Keene has enthralled audiences with her own self-titled series as well as  Katy Keene Pin-Up Parade  and  Katy Keene Fashion Book Magazine . Readers have followed her adventures on the runway as well as her intriguing romances. Best of all, Katy Keene was one of the first interactive comic book series, inviting readers to send in fashion suggestions of their own that were turned into pin-ups and paper dolls that they could cut out and keep! This fully-colored edition features her high-fashion-hijinx!

Katy Keene, model/actress/singer extraordinaire, has been an inspiration for the fashion-conscious for years! Now, Archie Comics is pleased to bring you a collection of some of Katy's most wonderful stories! Katy certainly has her hands full with the Hollywood lifestyle she has. Glitz and glamour, famous boyfriends and runway rivals make for quite a balancing act! Can she keep it together and keep her fans wowed?

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Teen, Humor, Drama

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 17, 2019

About the author

THE ARCHIE SUPERSTARS are the impressive line-up of talented writers and artists who have brought Archie, his friends and his world to life for more than 70 years, from legends such as Dan DeCarlo, Frank Doyle, Harry Lucey, and Bob Montana to recent greats like Dan Parent and Fernando Ruiz, and many more!

Reviews

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine]

These are amusing little vignettes that are never short on charm. The earliest stories from the Golden Age are chock full of wide-eyed innocence that never quite goes away in later stories. In fact, that innocence continues to inform the title character as the stories become more and more akin to cut throat soap operas. There is a feeling of longing for a kinder existence there.
The art evolves in interesting ways. The Golden Age strips drawn by Bill Woggon are very much in the Archie house style but with a little elevation, a touch less cartoon in the faces (or perhaps a different style of cartoon?). The '80s stories drawn by John Lucas continue in this vein, but with Archie's later house style. For the Betty & Veronica story drawn by Dan Parent, Katy almost looks like a human dropped into a cartoon world. For the 2000s stories, Andrew Pepoy's art is entirely different, not entirely bereft of cartoon but contributing more to the soap opera flavor of the stories.
If I had to criticize at all, it's with the story "Nostalgia Time." In a story originally published in 1987, a character speaks of sending an email. Clearly this was edited for the sake of younger readers who might not have readily understood whatever was said there in the first printing. I've seen Archie do this sort of thing in their digest reprints and in a Josie & the Pussycats collection where a character spoke of using a website in a story from the '60s. Please, Archie Comics, give your readers some credit. Sure some of the younger ones might not immediately get a dated reference, but we all know that older stories will reflect the times in different ways. If something is unfamiliar, we can always ask an elder or just look it up. That strange editing of the dialogue is just jarring.
Overall, this is a fun collection of an interesting character from across the years.

[Shirley]

Interesting to see designer clothes from around the world including Canada!

[T.J.]

I enjoyed my walk down memory lane with Katy Keene, Archie Comics' fantastic fashion model who occasionally crosses paths with the gang from Riverdale.

This "Archie Comics Presents" collection packs together 3 distinctive KK eras, opening with 50 pages from Katy's original 1940s comics. While I always enjoyed these vintage strips sprinkled in among her 1980s digests, new (i.e. younger) readers might find them lacking context here. Maybe the bits selected just seem like odd choices. I wonder who decided "Spaceship pinups and poor poetry are the best, most accessible Katy Keene from 80 years ago."

Better are the 50 pages from John S. Lucas's classic 1980s KK issues. Maybe I'm biased since this is MY Katy Keene, the Katy I collected and read and whose fan club I joined growing up. Mr. Lucas's stylish art is as perfect as I remember, and I love teenage Sis and all of the various supporting characters - Click Lenz, Gloria Grandbilt, Arnold Horsenlegger, Ramon Ramirez. I adore these light-hearted soap operas. The clothing designs and cosmopolitan settings were better (and more over-the-top) back then, too!

The second half of the book is Katy's modern appearances from the 2000's, which I was less familiar with. Artists Dan Parent and Andrew Pepoy draw her "Archie" style, dropping the pinup paper-doll look in favor of big eyes and big lips to make her blend in with Betty, Veronica, and pals. For me, this artwork doesn't showcase what makes Katy great. John S Lucas and Bill Woggon before him both loved and understood fashion, and it shows in every pose and every detail of the clothing they drew. Modern Katy gets simple strappy dresses, peasant shirts and jean shorts. Too bad. Surprisingly, I did enjoy the modern stories and seeing Katy bloom as a superstar while taking care of Sis, now renamed MacKenzie (random).

Archie Comics, please release an "Archie Comics Presents Katy Keene" volume 2 with all/only John S. Lucas material, as it really needs to be in print again! And include the paper dolls this time. I wouldn't cut them out. But it seems strange to have Katy Keene without paper dolls!

[Barbi]

I loved 1980s Katy Keene when I was a kid, so I had to buy it. The stories were super cheesy and often corny, but it was still fun to reread some of her comics from my childhood. I do think this book is more suited for the person who's reading this out of nostalgia and not people who aren't already familiar with Katy Keene.

[Carrie]

DNF at 14 pages. I like the updated stories in the Archie world so thought I'd check out some of the older ones. It may just be my lack of patience lately but I didn't find this particularly interesting enough even to distract me between work calls.

[Jamie Sands]

Cool retrospective through Katys history with comics from multiple eras. The stories are mostly all minor inconveniences that lucky Katy deus ex machinas her way out of, but these comics are about the fashion and there's plenty of that

[Matt Matt Tobin]

Gotta admit - I'm a sucker for classic Katy Keene. I couldn't get into the modern stuff for this character (I'm a big fan of the direction Archie went through 100%). But I feel like a camp 80s Katy would be so radical

[Aliza Gans]

Good, but the ones of the original Archie characters are way more my style

[Soph Garcia]

this is very very great 😸👍😸👍👍👍