On Vacation with Betty and Veronica
- Posted by Johanna on May 28, 2007 at 10:07 am
- Category: Archie Comics
Since today is Memorial Day, a national holiday in the US that traditionally kicks off the summer vacation season, let’s look at a time when Betty and Veronica went to Possum Holler.
It’s from (a slightly mouse-eaten copy of) Archie’s Girls Betty & Veronica #102, cover-dated June 1964.
Possum Holler is just down the road from Dogpatch, home of L’il Abner, based on the costumes, the exaggerated diction, and the sex-crazed, half-clothed country honeys out to nab them a man! (Who, though, came up with “cotched” for caught?)
The girls fight more literally than usual over Archie, who’s little more than a plot device afeared of gittin’ hitched. I love Veronica threatening to stomp Betty Lou “flatter’n a toad frog”. Is “toad frog” redundant? Are they typically flat?
Jughead’s still got a funny hat, but it’s a really different funny hat.
Dad’s completely out of character, after Archie to marry into the Lodge fortune (which is, as always, relative). Nice wife beater, too.
And he’s not above inserting himself in the fray. Check out that great pratfall in panel 4 of page 4! The material might be the hoariest corn, but the cartooning’s still lovely.
And then comes Reggie, with an oddly modern no-side haircut and the timeless vest, no shirt macho look.
Go Betty Lou! Smack that bear cross-eyed.
And everyone gets what they want. Reggie gets Veronica’s attention. Veronica gets to threaten. Betty gets the guy. And Archie … well, Archie doesn’t have to think.
Just to show off some more good artistry from that issue, here’s a pinup page.
The girls can look sexy even dressed normally — it’s all in the pose — and I love the way you can practically feel the breeze blowing by.
May 28, 2007 at 11:11 AM
[...] Worth Reading gives looks back at the time when Betty and Vernica visit Possum Holler! It is so great! And I didn’t even KNOW ABOUT THIS STORY when I wrote the Pea Pickin’ [...]
May 28, 2007 at 6:00 PM
Wow, that’s brilliant. Kind of odd that there’s no word of explanation for the story. Was it normal at the time for the Archie books to do such one-off parodies?
May 28, 2007 at 11:26 PM
According to the OED, catched and cotched are still both widely prevalent in dialect and vulgar speech, and date back to a time in Middle English when a regular form of catch existed alongside the current irregular one.
May 29, 2007 at 7:01 AM
And we learned something, too. Thanks, Joshua.
Bob, I don’t know. I’ve asked my resident Archie expert to stop by this thread and give his opinion.
May 29, 2007 at 4:42 PM
I think this story was reprinted in one of the digests (or perhaps collections?), as I can remember reading it before.
A very fun story though!
May 31, 2007 at 5:22 PM
[...] response to this reader query on my previous Archie story post: Was it normal at the time for the Archie books to do such one-off [...]
August 3, 2007 at 12:32 PM
I always loved this particular style (from the pin-up) but, am having a helluva time trying to figure out who drew them. Any clue?
August 3, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Isn’t it Dan DeCarlo?
August 3, 2007 at 1:55 PM
I think so – but, I’m not really sure. DeCarlo was the one who always drew Betty with 3 er, “parts” in her bangs like that? If so, then YES!! And, thanks!!
May 31, 2009 at 2:21 AM
yes, this is dan – inked by rudy lapick