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Saturday, May 2, 2020


LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 - Driving Safely is NEVER out of Fashion!

I bought this beat-up looking copy for $1

Life With Archie, in it's original run, had longer stories that usually involved some more serious happenings and in this issue we get it on the splash page, though I'm going to hold off on that until later in the post.

Here we get a functional Samm Schwartz cover that perfectly convey's Archie fear... not for laughs really... he LOOKS like he's scared out of mind...

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964, with cover art by Samm Schwartz)

Early on a new student shows up... Patty Pringle (a long, lost cousin of Oogie Pringle?), her only appearance that I'm aware of, and of course Archie is all over it...

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964, with art by Bob White)

Archie naturally wants to help Patty Pringle get her fashion designs in the show and to show her appreciation she gives Archie a kiss (notice the spinning bow-tie), and his timing, as usual, isn't very good...

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964, with art by Bob White)

Remember the days when an annual, or a summer special or a Christmas special was a GREAT thing?  Now it all seems like a cheap money grab! But boy, back in the day, you just couldn't wait for these big, multi-page specials...

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964)

So what we have here is your typical Archie story... Archie's trying to keep Moose from beating him up by making Midge the star of the fashion show and pleasing both Veronica and Betty by making each of THEM the star of the fashion show, AND trying to get Patty Pringle's fashion ideas used (there's a hot shot designer in town for the show who insists it's all HIS designs to be used)... sounds like business as usual in Riverdale right? 

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964, with art by Bob White)

Nope. This is LIFE with Archie. A 'Rain Swept Mountain Road' and the van carrying the Designers' dresses skids off the road and crashes down the mountain! (The driver jumps out and saves himself at the last minute - it's not THAT hardcore)

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964, with art by Bob White)

So of course they have to use Patty's designs, at the last minute and... ah well, you know how it ends... Archie gets one on the LIPS this time!

(LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 cover-dated January 1964, on newsstands November 1st, 1964, with art by Bob White)