Only the cover and the first story are Thanksgiving themed. However, considering my recent luck with Thanksgiving comics turning out to either be busts or minimally set during the holiday, if at all, I count this as a win.
Pop's Chock'lit Shop is holding a raffle for a Thanksgiving turkey. Jughead gets a sneak peak at it and the thing is HUGE! Naturally, Juggie buys a slew of tickets in hopes of winning the thing. But he has a change of heart when he learns about a little girl, whose family is in dire straits, that spends her last 4 bits to buy a single ticket.
The other two stories were good as well. Boy genius Eugene invents a machine that reveals people's innermost thoughts. Being that the gang is all in junior high school and that means tons of drama, it's not exactly a machine that wins the user of the device any friends. The final story has all of the boys getting jealous of the compliments Jughead gets from wearing his hat. So they all end up wearing lids too in order to look cool. Only Mr. Weatherbee offers some sage advice that has everyone but Jug playing the fool!
I loved The New Archies as a kid and I still love them. They didn't exactly take off with fans when they debuted in 1987. But I actually was a fan. I didn't understand the concept as to why the gang from Riverdale had to change, but I liked them all!
The idea behind them was first to be a new take on a classic property, having the kids de-aged from high school to middle school. White boy genius Dalton was replaced with Eugene, who was black. Eugene was given a black girlfriend named Amani. Neither character has ever returned to Archie books to my knowledge. More modern situations and themes were added to the mix and the focus of the stories was less on the love triangle between Archie, Betty and Veronica and more on the angst of being a budding teen.
The other reason for the change was a legend I had heard a while back but can't seem to recall where I learned it; nor can I confirm it. Supposedly, NBC wanted to make an Archie cartoon. However, CBS still owned the rights to the ageless teens. Thus, DIC Entertainment Corporation worked to make The New Archies as close to different as possible as to prevent a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Not that really any of that mattered because within 4 months, the cartoon was cancelled. The comic book lasted a little bit longer. It hung around until 1991, with a total of 22 issues and 14 digests being released on a non-regular basis.
Most who remember the series in any format, look at The New Archies with disdain. I have fond memories of getting issues for free at visits to my dentist. At least with the books being so infamous among Archie fans, these books aren't very expensive buy- IF YOU CAN FIND THEM!
There are a total of 3 stories in this issue. That makes my Thanksgiving average with this issue a .333. Maybe a little higher if you count the cover. Heck, Hall of Fame worthy hitters in baseball consider themselves lucky if they can average .333 in a season. Plus that first story was such a home run...
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
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