I recently came into possession of the twenty-second World of Archie Double Digest, and I can say that I was most impressed. Recently, I've noticed an increasingly displeasing routine that the publishers of Archie Comics have fallen to: reusing old material to pad new digests. However, with this volume and two others that I recently purchased, it seems that either some new writers have appeared on the scene or stories that I have never seen in my collection of 200+ Archie Comic Digests (+ 1 Bob Montana Original two-year newspaper cover and 1 wedding special) are being published. The writing of a particular story featuring Pop Tate, proprietor of the local Chocklit Shoppe in Riverdale, caught my eye and I thusly decided to do a short analysis.
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| Page 1 |
The story opens with a close-up of a cheerful Pop flipping his shoppe's sign to "Open." He then sighs contentedly and fixes himself a soda (which I find interesting considering he once held a bet with Jughead with the winner receiving a free sundae while mentioning that he hates to eat up his own profits) and cracks open a book to read as he awaits his customers. We learn that the story is, as we'll soon observe, aptly titled "Downtime" featuring Pop Tate.
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| Page 2 + my lovely toe |
In page 2 of the story we find that the book Pop is reading is one "Murder Most Messy," an important fact to remember for later on. We see some interesting shots from various angles within the Chocklit Shoppe along with Pops's imaginings of the Riverdale Gang, showing that he enjoys the company of Archie and Co. He soon becomes distracted by the quiet and begins to notice ordinary noises in greater volume due to the contrasting silence of the school day emptiness.
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| Page 3 |
Page 3 opens with Pop sighing once again, but this time less than contentedly. He turns on the jukebox to dance away the time and we see that Pop is quite the funky dancer, but perhaps a bit too exuberant considering his age. He throws out his back and accidentally kicks the jukebox, causing the song (interestingly enough, the hit single "Sugar Sugar" from Archie's band "The Archies") to trail off into a broken skip.
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| Page 4 |
Page 4 has Pop noting again how quiet things are without the kids as stars surround his back to indicate the discomfort caused by the previous panels. In the background of panel 1, you notice that the jukebox is now shooting off steam after being kicked (I love the funny background events in the Archie Comics--they're really half the story!). Pop resumes his story, but notices some mysterious scratching noises that he identifies as originating from the back room.
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| Page 5 (the end) |
The final page opens with Pop brandishing a frying pan as he readies himself against whatever denizen is scratching at his door. Why is he so overly cautious? He's been reading a undoubtedly gory story entitled "Murder Most Messy" and has an overactive imagination right now. He rushes out, prepared to assault the potential vagabond and finds to his surprise Jughead's faithful pet Hot Dog having been the one making those scratching noises. Enjoying his new company, he happily feeds Hot Dog several hamburgers and promises him more goodies next time. Panel 4 shows our usual spotlight characters, Archie and Jughead, home at last from a hard day at school. Jughead greets Hot Dog, and is somewhat abashed to see his loyal pal tuckered out after his feast and not jumping to greet him after a day spent seemingly alone.
What I especially love about this comic is that it stands apart from the typical vein of storyline in the Archie Universe. This story is centered around two side-characters, Pop and Hot Dog, with Pop being the main character for once. We learn several interesting things such as what genre Pop is interested in (as in another story "The Malted Falcon," we find out that Pop enjoys mystery) and what his typical day looks like before the kids arrive as well as a more in-depth look at the dynamics of his relationship with Hot Dog (in one story where Cheryl Blossom's Pomeranian Sugar was allowed inside the restaurant an Jughead protested the unfair treatment toward Hot Dog, Pop replied that the ban was due to Hot Dog thinking that his shoppe was an all-you-can-eat). In short, this story was a refreshing change of pace and follows the motif featured in Jughead's "Inaction-figures" story: relaxation is the key.
