Post by Eric on Oct 18, 2014 14:23:01 GMT -6
World of Archie Comics Digest#44
-160 page Comics Digest
-Released on October 22, 2014
-Has 1 new holiday lead story: Archie in The Secret Santa Secret Swap
-First holiday themed Digest in 2014
-A beautiful cover by Jeff Shultz shows the Archie gang having fun at a Christmas Party. Just seeing the cover puts me in a great mood as the Holidays are literally around the corner and just like the cover we will soon be having our own Holiday parties with family and friends! Definitely a great time of the year!
-Includes She's Josie stories and Super Duck
A disappointing new lead story unworthy of best story or even honorable mention!
World of Archie #44 is the first Christmas themed Digest of 2014 and I was very thrilled when I received this Digest in the mail as the Christmas themed Archie Digests are some of my favorite types of Digests and some of the stories included are excellent and even includes 7 Christmas stories in it. World of Archie #44 has a new lead story called Archie in the Secret Santa Secret Swap written by Paul Kupperberg and art by Fernando Ruiz. While the art was excellent as usual by the amazing Fernando Ruiz, the story written by Paul Kupperberg was very disappointing. I expected much more from Paul Kupperberg, the writer from the wonderful Life with Archie series.
The story deals with the Archie gang picking names to see who they will give Christmas presents too. Archie not content with the name he received and with Reggie's advice decides he will keep swapping names until he finds the one with Veronica's name on it and this leads to almost everyone exchanging names until they get the name they want. That about sums up a very unoriginal and disappointing story without any spirit as I was expecting far better. In this Digest there are far better classic and memorable Christmas stories than this one. This story simply is not memorable and was not worth the six pages it took up in the Digest. This is the first new lead story that does not receive either a best story award or even an honorable mention. For a story from a great writer, for being a new lead story of a Digest, this story simply does not measure up in any way to the better new lead stories that have appeared in the Digests so far. Mummy Mayhem, the 12 page new lead story from Archie Jumbo Comics #255 still remains as the best new lead story of the current Digests released in 2014. But on a positive note there are some great holiday stories and other types of stories that are far superior than this one which makes up for this very disappointing new lead story which should have been so much better!
Archie Award of Excellence Best Story!: Betty and Veronica in the Gift of a Lifetime
Art by Dan DeCarlo and written by Kathleen Webb
One of my favorite Christmas stories appears at the end of this Digest and involves Veronica asking Betty what she wants. Well as Archie fans we probably already know that answer which is Archie and nothing but Archie. Veronica obviously does not want to give this very special present to Betty but Jughead reminds her that if she does give Betty some time to be with Archie that she might have enough of Archie's time to last her for awhile. So Veronica pays for Betty and Archie to have a great time one evening at a great theater show, at a great restaurant and at many other grand and expensive places. The fun element of this story comes when we see that Betty loved this present so much as well as Archie that they both have agreed to go on three more dates together, something that Veronica did not see coming when she realizes that Betty will get much more time with Archie and that she helped bring this about! Essentially her great plan backfires in Betty's favor. Furious as we all know Veronica to be from this, she waits outside Jughead's house with a bat hidden behind her to thank Jughead for the advice that she gave him. A well written and well drawn story with much laughter and lots of heart. We often see Veronica get much of Archie's time but its great to see Betty enjoy a great time with Archie especially during the Holidays!
Archie Honorable Mention Story!: Archie in Treed
Art by Al Hartley and written by Frank Doyle
A classic Christmas story in which we see Jingles the Elf show up and cause much mayhem and conflict and this conflict is targeted directly at Reggie! The story begins as Reggie tricks Archie by wrapping him all up in gift wrap so that he can be the man of the hour and show Archie up by cutting a great Christmas tree for Veronica in the nearby woods. Little does he know of the mayhem that Jingles will cause him when he appears as he does near Christmas time and frees Archie and uses his magic to make Reggie look bad in front of Betty and Veronica. Such laughter comes from Jingles appearing in this story and how Reggie gets repaid for trying to trick Archie by wrapping him up. A story worth reading and remembering and its a Jingles story which are some of my favorites and this is a great one! Wait until you see what the title "Treed" means as it has to do with what happens to a Christmas tree and Reggie at the end of this story!
Archie Honorable Mention Story!: Boot Camp High- A 22 page 4 part story
Art by Stan Goldberg and written by George Gladir
Boot Camp High is actually the first part of a four part 22 page story that involves Mr. Weatherbee getting his back injured severely by trying to show the football team many of the great plays he used to do when he was in high school. The problems come when Weatherbee must be confined to a hospital for a few weeks until he recovers and his temporary replacement as principal is a retired military drill sergeant Mr. Howitzer. Not only the students but the teachers want him gone when he wants to transform the entire school into a sort of military boot camp from the cafeteria, the teachers as well as how he wants classes run. Read this great 22 page story of what happens when the Bee is gone for awhile and the students as well as the teachers desperately want their favorite principal back!
Overall Rating: Good(3.5 out of 5 stars)
+For 6 great and memorable holiday stories excluding the lead holiday story
+For classic She's Josie stories and Super Duck
+Many great classic and well written stories mentioned above
-Includes a very unoriginal and disappointing lead holiday story which keeps this from being an even better Digest. If you can ignore this new lead story then this is a good digest to get!
