Betty & Veronica Friends Forever Halloween Spooktacular #1

Betty and Veronica Friends Forever Halloween Spooktacular #1

Archie Comics 2021

Written by Francis Bonnet, Frank Doyle, Bill Golliher & George Gladir

Pencilled by Dan Parent, Dan DeCarlo, Rex Lindsey & Stan Goldberg

Inked by Bob Smith, Alison Flood, Jon D’Agostino, Chic Stone

Coloured by Glenn Whitmore & Barry Grossman

Lettered by Jack Morelli & Bill Yoshida

Betty & Veronica are here with some spooky stories to get you into the Halloween spirit, including a BRAND-NEW story! In “Best Witches,” while out shopping for their Halloween costumes, Betty and Veronica find an old witch’s hat at a thrift store. Thinking it would be perfect for her costume, Veronica buys it and puts it on. When she wishes that Archie was there and then he magically appears, they realize the hat is magic! What will Betty and Veronica do next with this newfound power?

I’m telling you people that if you aren’t picking up these books then you are missing out on some truly extraordinary storytelling. Usually these are all reprints but we get an all-new original story and it’s a hoot that’s for sure. This is the kind of book that can turn a gray sky blue, it really has that honest gosh darn good time feeling that comes from reading it. Archie has the ability to really put that smile on your face and is great to read anytime day, night, sun, rain, snow or whatnot.

I’m a huge fan of the way that this is being told. There are four stories in this issue and each one is impeccably rendered through the story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really makes their personalities shine. The pacing is excellent and how it takes us through the pages introducing the stories, the characters and their work is amazingly well rendered.

I adore the fact that regardless of what era these stories come from, the look is so universal that you’d never know that four teams worked on these. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how the varying weights are utilised to create the detail work that we see throughout the book is wonderfully done. How we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as 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 magnificently rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some remarkable sets of eyes for storytelling. Also that the work with pencils and inkers being done by different folks is so seamless it really is kind of a trademark for Archie. The colour work we see through the various hues and tones within the colours creating the shading highlights and shadow work is expertly rendered. Which is saying something since most of this is really just mostly solid packed in colour and how we see it with the linework to change the hues is stupendous.

I love that the range of stories that we see within this book is diverse. I mean one could fit into a House of Mystery style book, and no Sabrina isn’t in that one, and that alone is kind of groundbreaking for Archie. The Sabrina costume part is amazing in itself, it’s an older tale as well, as it just features costumes of the kids being more varied and innocent, think Flintstones or Jetsons inspired. Wholesome is something we could easily apply to Archie but with a modern edge, okay for those time periods it holds true and even by today’s standards as well.

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Yes we see the normal Archie hijinx within these pages as well and how things happen with mistaken identity or even wrong place at the wrong time, I love Jughead, which of course creates something to be worried by and laughed with. With equal parts our favourite best friends and Sabrina’s tales this manages to capture a lot of aspects of Halloween in the fan favourite Archie tradition. I love this series of one-shot as they make me smile, brighten my mood and help me forget my troubles for a bit.