Archie: Dark Horse Archives Volume Four Review: An Archie Fan’s Dream Come True

Let’s all return to a time where everything was simple-and a kid named Archie Andrews was there to mess up your day with his clumsiness and shenanigans. It’s time once again to return to Riverdale and to Archie comics during World War II in Dark Horse’s “Archie: Dark Horse Archives Volume Four.”

Here, Dark Horse not only collects Archie comics originally published in Archie Comics and Pep Comics during World War II, but there are also plenty of extras, such as short stories, comic covers and letters from fans. On top of that, there are comics where Betty and Veronica are the stars. Dark Horse has gone out of their way to make this edition worth every penny and a collector’s item. It’s an Archie fan’s dream come true.

However, the comics themselves will not bring in any new Archie fans. There’s no doubt that Archie has had a huge impact on American pop culture and comics, but the stories don’t hold any relevance today. It’s not that the stories are bad per-se; they are well written and have a certain type of humor that needs appreciating. It’s that the stories were designed for people living in a certain time period. Unless you’ve lived in that era, you will have no connection to the character’s lives at all. The Betty and Veronica comics are worth reading though. Cat fights are always fun to read.

The artwork will come off as a shock to the modern Archie fan. It has had a facelift since World War II. Best examples are Betty and Veronica: The character models look different here than they do now. The artwork looks much like the comics of the ’40s with these two girls looking exactly like the ‘ideal women” of the time.

The extras are what make this collection worth buying. Seeing the letters from the fans is always fun and the short stories are worth looking into as well. Another good thing about this collection is seeing how far this series has come. It’s always great to have a way of seeing how an old series began.

Filled with plenty of Archie comics, short stories, cover art and other goodies, this is worth a look at.