Written by: Chip Zdarsky
Art by: Derek Charm
Publisher: Archie Comics
Chip continues into his second arc with our favourite food-obsessed teenager, Jughead. While the first arc was a mad-cap off the wall story of high-school’s being turned into spy camps, with figments Jughead’s over active imagination thrown in this beginning has more of a ‘back-to-basics’ vibe about it. The jokes and how many of the characters acted strongly put me in mind of the classic strips that can be found at the back of every book, especially the portrayals of Archie and Reggie Mantle who fit their old roles of ‘girl obsessed teen’ and ‘dull-witted bully’ (respectively) rather than the slightly more filled out personas they’re given in the previous arc and in Mark Waid’s Archie.
Strangely enough, although the characters’ personalities don’t mesh quite as well with other recent appearances, the stories do. The previous arc could be enjoyed completely separate from the ongoing Archie run and although minor, events that occur in that run are referred to here and serve as a major plot point.
The book can be split rather nicely into beginning middle and end:
- Beginning– Jughead is kicked out of his house to go enjoy summer, convinces Archie to go camping with him and they journey to the cabin.
- Middle– The pair discover Reggie Mantle is having a family reunion on the nearby beach and so…
- End- Jughead and Archie go on a hike and have a heart to heart instead.
The beginning sets the scene well and there’s some good examples of Zdrasky’s top notch ability to deliver a good joke, although there is one about eating squirrels that out stays its welcome just a bit. The middle mostly consists of gags surrounding how much of a bunch of jerks the Mantle family can be. It can be funny and it did earn a chortle in places but compare this version of Reggie to the ‘viper in the grass’ Waid has turned him into or even the reluctant anti-hero of the previous arc and he just doesn’t measure up, this version would be more at home in Archie vs. Predator and I half expected him to yell about being a ‘sexual tyrannosaurus.’
The end third is what really puts the icing on the cake, it’s one of the few scenes that made me really believe that two characters were long term friends (for other such ones see Capt. America: Civil War when Cap and Bucky reminisced about their youth). I mean here we have a nice insight into two old friends who have been slowly moving apart over time, they talk about childhood adventures, things going on with friend’s pet projects and they even get into arguments with each other over their grievances with their relationship’s dynamic. An amazing opportunity to view these familiar characters and how they act together from a different angle is presented to the reader here while still getting in the occasional knee slapper.
The highlight of this comic for me is absolutely Jughead calling out Archie for not putting enough into their friendship because he was too busy chasing after girls. This fantastically reinvents both characters in minor but key ways, showing Archie’s main trait to possibly be a huge flaw (one much more interesting than Waid’s version of Archie who is just super clumsy) and showing that the usually lazy Jughead is willing to put in any amount of effort for friends (building upon themes from the previous arc).
Biggest complaint of this book?
Where is Chip’s introduction to Classic Jughead? Don’t get me wrong, Chris Cummins did an excellent job and gave some interesting insight but it just didn’t have that Zdarsky pop of weird humour.
Also, what happened to Jughead’s daydream sequences? I can understand if they were just too lengthy but they worked well to break up any monotony.
Erica Henderson did not do the art for this issue instead we have Derek Charm, who you may remember from several IDW titles such as Powerpuff Girls.
How does his art measure up?
Well you could say it’s positively … Charming (we can’t all be as witty as Zdarsky). Seriously though, the art is pretty great. I much prefer these design for characters than we’ve seen before and they reflect the tone of the writing well, classic but brought up nicely to modern standards. The biggest thing for me here is that Archie doesn’t look like he’s in his mid-twenties here and displays that awkward
not-quite-done-with-puberty-yet facial structure you’d expect from someone his age. Not only that but many jokes in this issue rely heavily on facial expressions and body language for that perfect delivery and Charm sticks the landing every time.
Bonus points for the amazing colouring work, bringing us from mid afternoon to late evening to night. Even if you never really pay much attention to the art in comics that slow sunset from panel to panel deserves a hearty slap on the back.
Zdarsky manages to bring back some of the old charm that first made the series so popular while bringing forward new ideas and themes that are sure to keep it fresh. This story and the way it’s handed will be quite different from our first foray some months back but so far Chip and Derek are doing an excellent job to maintain such a high quality of comedy and the more sincere moments are definitely something to be really proud of. If you haven’t been keeping up with Jughead or Archie, don’t worry this is a perfect jumping on point and you simply MUST pick it up this week (if you don’t, I’ll know).
