One of the great unsung comic books of the past is Little Archie, as written and drawn by Bob Bolling. At arm's length, it seems like a dumb idea for a comic. To the extent the teenage Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and the rest of the gang were entertaining, it was because they dealt with all the travails of their age bracket: Dating, high school, cars, etc. And of course, there was always the fact that the girls, especially as drawn by Dan DeCarlo, were so gosh-durn sexy. So you'd figure the kiddie version, which loses all that, would be a quadruple snooze…and in the hands of anyone other than Bolling, yes, that's what it would have been. But using a few remnants of the teen formula, Bolling managed to craft a very personal little franchise, occasionally generating actual, on-the-page suspense. Through sheer cleverness and dedication, he managed to make his characters very real and avoid the "generic" feel that so many Archie comics had in script and art. It's really a body of work deserving of more attention.
And this week, it's getting some over at Scott Shaw!'s beloved Oddball Comics page at Comic Book Resources. All week, Scott spotlights Little Archie in all his glory. Good stuff.