Good Girl Art and Square-Jawed Competence

Archie #164 (Archie, June 1966, 12 cents)
"Bells Are Ringing" Script: Frank Doyle, Pencils: Harry Lucey, Inks: Mario Acquaviva, Letters: Mario Acquaviva.
Archie offers to fix a short in the Lodge family doorbell for Veronica, who is not pleased that he is distracted from "our date fun and games." Mr. Lodge returns home and gets his finger stuck. Soon, everything is ringing.

"What Price Archie?" Script: Frank Doyle, Pencils: Harry Lucey, Inks: Mario Acquaviva, Letters: Mario Acquaviva.
Employees of the Acme Protective Service pick Archie up to have tea with Veronica. Upset that she would would act like she owns him, Archie storms off. Veronica then tries to show that everyone—even Archie—has a price. She succeeds, and he goes fishing on her yacht at sunset while Betty stews on shore.



"Muffled Madness" Script: Frank Doyle, Pencils: Harry Lucey, Inks: Mario Acquaviva, Letters: Mario Acquaviva.
Veronica makes Archie a scarf, and it is very large. Archie accidentally chokes and trips the principal, Mr. Weatherbee, with it, as well as Miss Grundy. Archie and Betty use it to escape out a window.

"Li'l Jinx: Speed Up" Script: Joe Edwards, Pencils: Joe Edwards, Inks: Joe Edwards, Letters: Joe Edwards.
Li'l Jinx helps her father paint a banister more quickly, surprising him.

"The Bouncer" Pencils: Harry Lucey, Inks: Marty Epp.
Reggie tricks Archie with two rubber balls.

Early Archie artwork borders on good girl art! When I was younger, I didn't realize how prominent Betty and Veronica's breasts, hips, and rumps were, or the dominant role that clothing and fashion played in what I considered simple, silly humor comics. In this issue, Veronica is absolutely beautiful—like a cartoony Barbara Steele—and of the two artist pairings, I prefer Marty Epps's inking of Harry Lucey's pencils. His Reggie is wonderful!

I was also struck by the square-jawed competence of Lucey's men: Veronica's father, the clerk at the sporting goods store. The humor—despite the occasional ill intent of Veronica and Reggie—is gentle and loving, and the periodic canoodling between Archie and one of his girls is affectionate and innocent (p. 2 of "Muffler Madness").

This issue's Statement of Ownership indicates that the September 1965 issue had a press run of almost 1 million, with 585,000-plus of that in paid circulation. A subscription offer ad featured a free, all-weather raincoat as an incentive for new subscribers. Wonder how many children that pushed over the edge to subscribing!

Availability: Stories from this issue have been reprinted in digest comics several times. Some of the best Archie stories of this decade were collected in Archie Americana Series Best of the Sixties Vol. 1.