Archie & Friends 153

Illustration by the enigmatic but surprisingly skilled 'Giselle'. Who is she? And what else has she done?

APRIL FAUX PAS

This themed issue looks at four successive April Fools’ Days in the life of Riverdale High’s premier prankster, Reggie Mantle. Each story is by a different artist/writer combo, each a little different from the Archie ‘house style’ – retaining enough of the characteristic flourishes so that the characters remain on-model, but still giving a slightly different flavour to each tale.

Trouble is, each of the stories, being five to seven pages long, has only the space for a list of pranks, and very little else. And to be honest – maybe I’m showing my age here – a lot of what is depicted or mentioned – causing a teacher’s hair to fall out, unleashing a swarm of bees on the glee club – goes well beyond ‘pranks’ and somewhat into the territory of ‘felonious assault’. Granted, the Archieverse is hardly realistic territory, but the severity of Reggie’s actions in the first two stories (Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz and J. Torres & Tim Levins, respectively) would, in almost any other fictional environment, result in heartfelt restraining orders if not actual litigation. It sits ill with the generally benign Archie universe.

The third story, by Ian Flynn and Giselle (who’s apparently too cool for a surname), is the slightest, but most charming; this is down largely to the artwork of said Giselle, who draws beautifully, with a simplified but decorative line of enviable grace and skill.

The final tale gives a bit more substance, focussing on a chain of linked pranks, rather than a random batch, and ones that have little chance of engendering actual bodily harm. This puts it somewhat ahead of its rivals in the book, and the script and art being by Tania Del Rio, late of Sabrina, we’re in reliable hands.  It ends, in classic form, with the trickster tricked, and redeems the flaws of the earlier stories.

Archie, as a publisher, has been laudably experimenting with format and content lately, and this special issue can be taken in that vein, but since most of the issue portrays the selfish-but-generally-decent Reggie as a reckless thug who’s indifferent to the potential harm his actions could cause, this issue has to be filed under “Kinda Went Wrong” in the experimental file.