Since I never resigned or got kicked out, I guess I'm still technically a member of the Archie Club, an organization I joined for a dime (I think) back around 1961. Even then, I thought it was kind of a scam. You got a pin and a certificate and a few other items and hey, how about that membership card? Is it possible they could have spent less on them? One color on cheap paper with the printed signature of a fictional character. Yeah, there's a press credential that will get you into all the important places. It especially annoyed me that the card said I was "entitled" to be a reporter for their magazines…like they were bestowing on me the honor of sending them stuff to fill up those text pages that nobody read. This, I did not do, though I was tempted to submit an item about crummy comic book fan clubs…or maybe one about how I'd decided that at age nine, I was outgrowing the reading of Archie comic books. Somehow, I don't think they'd have printed either.
Anyway, of all the "clubs" one could join as a comic book reader, the Archie one was just about rock bottom. Over the next week or two, I'll try to discuss some of the better ones.