Archie & Friends in Summer Vacation #1

Archie & Friends Summer Vacation #1

Archie Comics 2021

Written by Dan Parent

Pencilled by Jeff Schultz & Bill Galvan

Inked by Jim Amash & Bob Smith

Coloured by Glenn Whitmore

Lettered by Jack Morelli

Get ready for a BEACH PARTY BONANZA with Archie and all his pals ‘n’ gals in RIVERDALE! It’s time for pool parties, barbecue blowouts, and maybe even a little summer romance… hopefully no one gets too sun burned!

I’m really glad that we get books like this. The classic Archie style of comics is what I loved about them to begin with and the whole updating look was cute and interesting and has its place but there’s nothing quite like seeing the gang like we have for the last 80 years. This makes me miss the beach to be honest, having those great summers without a care in the world and now a vacation sounds just right in my mind. Right now the sun is shining and it’s hotter than h e double hockey sticks outside and it doesn’t matter because I have a smile on my face and joy in my heart and that’s what these kids do to you, they bring unmitigated joy and happiness to the reader no matter what time of day or year it is.

I love the way that this is being told and how each segment seems to be able to lead directly into the next one like it’s one large story instead of four smaller ones. It’s pretty impressive but then again Dan himself is pretty darn impressive. While each story is a complete stand alone tale I’m gobsmacked by the way that the transitions from one to anther are so seamless and it feels like we’re just seeing one day then the next and so on and so forth so that it just feels normal and natural. The story & plot development, the character development and the pacing are all just incredibly superb and really pull the reader into the book beautifully.

I love the way we see the dialogue, the character interaction and how you know that their personalities never change but somehow they still seem to grow and evolve it’s kind of uncanny. I am still awed by the fact that each of these is so complete with such smaller page counts and that I don’t feel like i’m missing out or jipped or anything, I don’t even feel the normal I get into the story and it ends feelings.

The interiors here are bloody perfect. The linework is sensational and how we see the detail work come to life makes this so cute to see. I love the Hawaiian style shirts in the third story because they are so now and so back in fashion and seeing the creative use of the Tic Tac Toe game is pretty darn genius. Also Babette and Frankie yeah they were pretty spot genius as well. The use of backgrounds throughout and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some exceptionally talented eyes for storytelling. I love that both Jeff & Bill know how these are supposed to look and they do it so well you can hardly tell that separate folks worked on the book. Glenn’s colours are always magnificent the man is a master colourist. How we see the various colour choices and how the colour is so solid and packed in or how the hues and tones utilised in the backgrounds bring this nice subtlety to the book is phenomenal.

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This book ended on the perfect note from one of the most unexpected characters. Though while I miss seeing Kevin around and even Reggie a bit this just goes to show that these teenagers are timeless icons that know how to have fun, get in trouble and make up for their mistakes. This is family reading at its finest.