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Jughead's Double Digest #139 Review
- by Brian Cronin
- in Comic Reviews
This past week saw the debut of Archie Comics' latest "Dynamic Look" project, a four-part story called The Matchmakers (which may or may not be based on an Archie young adults novel - folks more knowledgable than me in that arena have to help me out), by writer Melanie K. Morgan and artists Joe Staton and Al Milgrom (Milgrom inking Staton).
It's a marked improvement from the first "Dynamic Look" project.
First off, the question that immediately comes up is, how did Staton and Milgrom do on the art?
Here are two sample pages...
Not great, but a big step up from Steven Butler's (whose work I normally enjoy) Bratz-esque work on "Bad Boy Trouble." Staton's work at least looks normal enough (although it's amusing to think of a guy with a career spanning four decades being brought in for the "new, dynamic" look. I guess if you're younger than Stan Goldberg, you're young at Archie. 
). He does seem to dig the long sideburns, though, which is kinda funny.
The biggest improvement, though, was Morgan's script. I thought her work on Bad Boy Trouble was pretty embarrassing, really. Terrible (TERRIBLE) dialogue and a lackluster plot.
Here, I think she improves a good deal by not trying to do too much, just telling a story that would not feel out of place at all in a standard Archie comic book. In the comic, Betty and Veronica feel sorry for Jughead, because he often spends "date nights" all by himself, and since there was a big school picnic coming up where everyone has to couple up, Betty and Veronica decide to try to get Jughead a girlfriend in time for the picnic.
They zoom in on a new character, Sandy Sanchez. The interactions between Jughead and Sandy are nicely handled, and I especially liked how Morgan had Jughead go from specifically stating that he felt different around Sandy, that he was actually relaxed around her, to suddenly being extremely nervous when he realizes there might be something romantic between them.
How this is dealt with in later issues is still up in the air, but for the first issue, at least, Morgan has created a compelling storyline (and a decent amount of laughs, in the various ideas the girls have to try to get Jughead interested in girls, although Betty sorta throwing herself at Jughead was a bit much), and the art is pretty good.
It's enough to give a slight recommendation.
Recommended.
P.S. There was one really weird thing in the story, though. There is a volley ball game during gym class between Jughead's team and Reggie's team. Fine, but in the 4 on 4 game, we never see Reggie's fourth team member. I get that they didn't want to use one of the big Archie characters, but they couldn't throw in some nameless character? Instead, it was awkward that there were a few pages devoted to the game, and yet no depictions of Reggie's fourth team member. Weird.
- Posted on April 15, 2008 @ 03:20 PM
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16 Comments
Apodaca
April 15, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I still can't believe that the "Dynamic New Look" includes fashion from over a decade ago.
Actually, I can. It's just another example of comic artists having no fashion sense whatsoever.
Jack Norris
April 15, 2008 at 4:20 pm
That's Joe Staton and Al Milgrom? It's almost as sad to look at as when they made Herb Trimpe ape a Liefeldian 90s Image look.
Ivan
April 15, 2008 at 7:11 pm
love Joe Staton and Al Milgrom, but there is something not right with this art. I know Arch ain't Guy Gardner, but there's something about this...
Cat Skyfire
April 15, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Fashion from over a decade ago, Adopaca? Haven't you looked in the stores? Disturbingly enough...the fashions are coming back.
Punch
April 15, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Is he eating that slice backwards on the cover?
Apodaca
April 16, 2008 at 2:43 am
A-P-O-D-A-C-A. It's right up there, in big type.
The trends that are being revived are from the eighties, not the sideburns and vests of the nineties. My sister's in high school. I know what teenagers are wearing, and it's not plaid shirts and folded-over knee socks.
Michael
April 16, 2008 at 3:51 am
Jughead should just find himself a nice lesbian girl to "date."
Dan
April 16, 2008 at 6:04 am
No kidding with the clothes: Archie is in a long-sleeve flannel, and Reggie is sporting a VEST? I think I dressed like that in middle school, and even then it's time had come...
Tomer S
April 16, 2008 at 6:18 am
What is the red broken frame in both pages?
Patrick Joseph
April 16, 2008 at 12:13 pm
'What is the red broken frame in both pages?"
Looks suspiciously like the guidelines from Adobe's InDesign page layout program.
As far as the clothes go, my daughter is 18 and her boyfriend dresses just like Archie. Or like I did in 1990. We're in Austin, Texas, so I don't know if we are ahead of the curve, if that's just a "look" that kids with certain interests default to, or if the city never outgrew it's mid-nineties hey day.
Jack Norris
April 16, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Ah, whatever, when I was a kid in the seventies Archie dressed like it was the fifties, with his sweater vest, bowties and all. Kids read it anyway, without having some kind of freakout episode over the incorrect clothing and refusing to keep reading.
Tulika Dubey
April 17, 2008 at 2:54 am
I think this new dynamic look sucks. I would go for the traditional look anytime..
the innocence in the characters appeal..with this new horrid makeover..they r nt innocent anymore
Brian Cronin
April 17, 2008 at 2:58 am
How you are managing to equate this art style with a loss of "innocence" is beyond me.
MAYBE, MAYBE you could make that argument for Butler's art, because it seemed like it was making Betty and Veronica look like Bratz, and Bratz are weird, but this art?
It's a cartoonish style, as well - it's just a DIFFERENT cartoonish style. Joe Staton is about 60 years old, this isn't some guy going for boob and ass shots here, he's just drawing characters who have been drawn in ONE cartoonish style in a DIFFERENT cartoonish style.
Feel free to knock this style if you think it looks bad, but don't knock Joe Staton for robbing them of their innocence. The guy draws Scooby Doo, for crissakes.
R
April 17, 2008 at 8:04 am
No problems with the art, but that is some horrendous colouring right there.
Ellia
July 16, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Apodaca, the old fashion is just classic Archie. They stopped progressing the fashion in the late eighties I think, because they wanted the characters to be stuck in a time slot. It wouldn't make sense if they never age, but the rest of the world does.
Ann Marks
July 16, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Reggie looks like some kind of southern rapist.
Archie is the same.
Betty reminds me of Ellie-May Clampett,
And Veronica doesn't look like Veronica.
Moose (background in the first panel) looks like the Hulk, and Midge doesn't look like Midge.
I don't like Pop either.
And why is Dilton randomly in the background by Veronica's head?