Archie Christmas Spectacular #1

Archie Christmas Spectacular #1

Archie Comics 2021

Written by Dan Parent & Francis Bonnet

Pencils by Dan Parent & Pat & Tim Kennedy

Inked by Bob Smith & Jim Amash

Coloured by Glenn Whitmore

Lettered by Jack Morelli

BRAND NEW STORY: “Jingles Jangled!”

It wouldn’t be Christmas without a visit from Jingles! Jingles wants to be part of the Riverdale High Christmas Ball, so he “disguises” himself in human form. He makes quite a splash at the dance, but really hits it off with Veronica’s cousin’s Harper. What happens when he has to reveal his true self to her? Only time will tell!

I will say this, I miss Kevin in these new stories! He needs to be featured with the gang more especially at a Riverdale High school dance. I really am a sucker for these one-shots because they have all these stories from across the entire fun of Archie and I’m never quite sure what year some are from. That these remain as timeless as they are is amazing to me and keeps them such a pure joy to keep reading. That and no matter if it’s an ungodly early hour, a rainy or snowy day or whether the sun is shining brightly the Riverdale gang always, and I mean always puts a smile on your face.

I love the way that this is being told. Yes there are four vignettes here but they all seem to really flow from one to another with such ease, kudos to whomever is responsible for making that happen. The story & plot development in these short stories always amazes me in how complete they are. The character development never waivers and how we see them through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances is utterly delightful. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through each story it manages to feel simply like a natural progression.

The way that we see this book structured is amazing and where the stories are placed and what they contain just seems to be impeccably chosen. While there really aren’t too many layers within the story to explore, that's okay there really shouldn’t be as this is the perfect all-ages line of books. There’s something for everyone regardless of age or gender and I have to say I love trying to figure out when the story first appeared based on the outfits we see. I do have a favourite and that’s the Snow Castle with Veronica in that red number while the story is more recent it’s a definite throwback to old Hollywood glamour.

I’m always amazed by the quality of the work on the interiors. It doesn’t matter what year the story came out it all looks so similar to each other and that’s classic Archie style. The linework is strong, crisp and clean and how we see the attention to detail is extremely well rendered. The backgrounds along with the composition of the panels enhance and expand the moments while also bringing out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such remarkable eyes for storytelling. The colour work is extraordinary and what Glenn is capable of doing with such solid colours really blows me away.

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I love that this is the kind of book that can be passed around the house and talked about at a device free meal by the entire family, regardless of what that family looks like. One of these days though I’d really like to see an Archie Channukah special come out just because my own holiday would be nice to see celebrated by the Archie gang. These stories are timeless classics, even the new one, and they represent everything Archie stands for and just brings more than simple holiday cheer.