Archie 243 (Apr. 1975)

This comic book was a hand-me-down. Sometime in the late '70s or early '80s (I don't remember exactly when), during one of the vacations my family took to a lake in Wisconsin with my dad's brother's family, my cousin Scott gave this comic book to me. He's a few years older than me, so when I was only seven or eight years old, he seemed impossibly cool and grown-up. This was my first Archie comic book.¹

It was well-read when Scott gave it to me, and became even more well-read over the next several years. Miraculously, and unlike most of my comics from the late '70s and early '80s, its cover is still attached. But just barely.

Here's what I learned from this issue: Harry Lucey was (and still is) my favorite Archie artist. I didn't know his name back then, but his style was unmistakable, and he drew every story in this issue. Ren and Stimpy creator John K. provides a brief but thoughtful overview of the primary Archie artists on his blog, and I agree with pretty much everything he says. But what I keyed into specifically in this issue were Lucey's uses of exaggerated action, motion lines (and blobs, and stars, etc.), and creatively drawn sound effects.

In "Race against Time," Archie braves a blizzard to deliver some important papers for Mr. Lodge. He begins by using some old snowshoes, but eventually switches to using a trashcan lid as a snow sled, which results in him rocketing down the side of a hill. I love the snowball-sized snowflakes that fall throughout this story.


From "Race against Time"
In "Way to Go, Boy!" Mr. Weatherbee yells at Archie, Jughead, and Reggie, twice, for throwing things to each other in the school hallways. The panels in which Mr. Weatherbee finally loses his cool are works of art.


From "Way to Go, Boy!"
In "Clear Thinking," Archie apologizes to Reggie for insulting him, which leads to Archie and Jughead reinsulting him. The "steam from the ears" squiggles to indicate irritation were old news to me, but I'd never before seen bubbles used to the same effect. This was a Lucey staple.


From "Clear Thinking"
Last but not least, in "It's a Cool Fool," in which Archie tries to remain calm while Veronica is out on a date with another guy, he finally loses it in a way that makes Mr. Weatherbee's earlier freak-out look positively calm by comparison.


From "It's a Cool Fool"
All these little details were what made Harry Lucey's artwork come alive for me, resulting in a powerful childhood bond with the fictional gang from Riverdale. I love Dan DeCarlo's art too, but Lucey was always number one in my book.

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Pointless Footnotes

¹ Not to be confused with my first Archie digest. I don't know which I got first.