jhsharman - Tumblr blog

[jhsharman]

One of Those Days

The digest reprinting keeps to the recoloring made in the first Giant Series reprint -- note the color of the Corn Flakes box, excepting the update on Mary Andrews's hair color. A little curious for this in that this keeps the red "R".

We shuffle the foliage and leaves to fill autumn.

Which may cause a reversion to blue skies -- last the colours blend in to itself.

"Busses" you say?

A story with a plot detail based on a full scale cold war civil defense drill. Are there nuclear fallout shelters right outside town that everyone is getting bussed in over? These days we get an occasional on our phones, though nothing nuclear as yet.

[jhsharman]

seller's market

Betty's expression in the last one.

[jhsharman]

banking

A little bit interesting to follow a general trendline on what boys get drawn drooling over, say, Veronica -- Moose seems to sneak in in the 70s, then not. Curious one here with the third cover though. Jughead?

[jhsharman]

"Spy Guy"

An unnecessary correction, the lack of preposition is perfectly valid.

[jhsharman]

Book worm

A little bit curious that these two pieces, going with the same premise and basic page set up across two pages, flip the sequence -- construction sight and sewer manhole.

Somewhat different is where Archie is forced to reposition Jughead as he obliviously proceeds engrossed in a book.

And prepare weak rim shot for the two which have book premise as big reveal.

[jhsharman]

the rappers

"Now I've seen everything" refers to. Walkmen. The tape decks here are Massively by anyone's standards. And which the kids are calling "rappers", apparently. Early 80s kids will need to let me know if that was indeed a term in use.

[jhsharman]

"Vacation Vexation"

Forced perspective. And I guess he swings it around between panels.

[jhsharman]

Thrill Thrall

"Thrill seeker" is where Reggie should be reaching. Whatever the problems with "blast chick" (is that a phrase used by anyone at any point in time?), it does better fit the narrative premise than "a blast".

The Flash?

[jhsharman]

cheep shot

Something off with the thick line marking Betty's cleavage in this opening splash panel. It has the off kilter effect of something added or adjusted, like the off kilter indicia filler seen here for Veronica's.

Curious matter on re-coloring. Dropping the yellow for Gaston's skull thought a consciously arrived at decision?

[jhsharman]

January White Sale

The one weird effect on this change in the Aunts' witch outfits to Gray is that in further digest reprints they get reprinted alongside stories that were not re-colored. This may make a narrative sense -- Aunt Hilda has different colored outfits, she wore the gray one in this one and in our new altered universe the blue one in the story left unchanged.

[jhsharman]

Everything's Duckie

It is always a little strange when they take the out of fashion loud pants design and just wash it all out in blue, with the line designs remaining.

And where are we with Al Hartley's Archie flat pompadour? I always found it especially off-putting. But from whence did it come to Hartley, I wonder.

A few more scribbles for Mr. Lodge.

[jhsharman]

to flee or not to flee

[jhsharman]

whappy ending

I think old married couples can relate to this experience. Funnily enough, it was common television sitcom practice in the 1950s for couples to sleep in separate beds, so I don't know what Betty and Veronica are doing here.

[jhsharman]

clear, clear waters

The two panels that have two lines to denote Veronica's cleavage are the two panels they adjust.

[jhsharman]

"In the Mood!!"

Her pants are not far off from what she was wearing during that time period. On the shirt, during this seventies period while it is interesting some of the things that appeared on t-shirts (Mickey Mouse to Mickey Rat?) no one was ever going to wear that one. It is a little amusing to see Robert Crumb did see an appearance in Archie Comics, ads selling iron on decals with the "Keep on Truckin'" image (C7), and another for Mr. Natural (D3). Though I am more curious on how the Budweiser and the "Master" and "Slave" ones pass code standards.

In keeping with a Crumb response page on the growing popularity of his "Keep on Truckin' ", ("keep on [blank]in' " with comical number of copyright notices splashed about) -- decal J6 has "Keep on Bikin' ". Curious too that later ads see a copyright Crumb note, pointing to the state the issue was in the court system.

[jhsharman]

No Peace

Peace has fallen by the wayside, in favor of space.

The new room is one without a window. It was causing a problem -- Archie and Betty routinely getting distracted watching the pretty girls walk by. The second one throws three questions. What accounts for Veronica's expression? Where is Archie looking toward? What happened to the globe?

[jhsharman]

"Nothing but a Hound-Dog"

Right around Dilton's hands. I guess it changes it -- in the former, the book was stationary while his head bobbed forward and back. Now he's moving the book along with his head.