Everything's Archie #1

Everything’s Archie #1

Archie Comics 2021

Written by Fred Van Lente

Pencilled by Dan Parent

Inked by Bob Smith

Coloured by Glenn Whitmore

Lettered by Jack Morelli

FIRST ISSUE IN AN ALL-NEW SERIES OF 80TH ANNIVERSARY ONE-SHOTS!

Finally Archie declares his TRUE LOVE, and its a very expensive guitar! So Archie picks up a few extra jobs to make some cash, what could go wrong?! Spies, TV Execs, tech warfare, nothing in Riverdale will be the same! No place is safe when Everything’s Archie!

First I love the fact that this is a traditional Archie comic, meaning it’s not the updated version so i’m thrilled. Also it just goes to show how gosh darn talented Mr. Van Lente is because he nails these characters perfectly and even has that way of utilising humour in the right ways. Nothing is better than poking fun at the CW for doing what they do, I mean they had help with UPN and The WB, regardless, the humour throughout is intelligently utilised and quite on the nose if you will. Fred can write anything and everything and he seems to be able to do it with such ease and I’m kind of jealous. This is a perfect issue of an Archie comic, told in segments that are like chapters of one story that moves along nice and yet could be told in book a chapter at a time, each issue on chapter like the ongoing tales of….

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is bloody amazing to see thanks to the dialogue, character interaction, monologuing and of course how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter which keeps fleshing them out and reinforces them as the characters we know and love. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it keeps us riveted to our seats.

How we see this being structured is fantastic and the layers within the story beginning to emerge, grow and strengthen throughout the issue is fantastic. The one story arc going through many of the segments, the continual characterisation and just the small bits that make up the larger bits really superbly rendered. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

The interiors here are marvellous! First and foremost it’s Dan Parent on pencils so you know that this is going to be on point all the way through. The man has one of the best eyes for storytelling that we’ve seen and his linework with its varying weights being utilised to create the detail work is phenomenal to see. I do really like that you don’t notice you’ve got a separate penciller and inker on this so that it seamlessly looks like one person did the entire thing. Bob’s talent is really underrated here people. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling and that we see backgrounds like we do here reinforces this for me. The colour work is perfectly rendered and with various techniques being utilised to lay it down I’m thrilled beyond belief. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows why I have such a high opinion of Glenn’s work.

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This is your typical Archie comic and it’s bloody perfect for the entire family. Pass it around and chat about what’s in it at the dinner table, device free mind you, and actually have the kind of conversation that can segue into more than what the book has to offer. Few books are capable of doing this as well as a strong Archie book can.