Previous | Next

First appearing in 1956 (under the shorter title of LITTLE ARCHIE), this kid-version of Riverdale’s favorite teenager was created by the talented cartoonist Bob Bolling at Archie Comics’ bidding to take advantage of the incredible success of Hank Ketcham’s comic strip DENNIS THE MENACE and its comic book incarnation. In much the same manner that Carl Barks wove lasting stories about Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge and Huey, Dewy and Louie, Bolling turned Riverdale into the ultimate kids’ fantasy, a pastoral town where all sorts of wild adventures (even leading to prehistoric times and outer space) are just waiting to happen to Little Archie Andrews and his “good ol’ gang”. Bolling also brought a unique touch to the world of Riverdale that owed as much to Will Eisner’s atmospheric storytelling and lush inking style as it did to Archie’s creator, Bob Montana or his supreme stylist, Dan DeCarlo. And Bolling’s self-proclaimed love of animals (such as on the inside-front-cover of LITTLE ARCHIE IN ANIMAL LAND #1) is evident in nearly every one of his stories, which usually feature some sort of beautifully-drawn wildlife.

This issue’s 8-page “Little Archie” cover-story is “Martians Return”, written and drawn by Bob Bolling. It begins as Little Archie’s leave their house to go shopping, expecting their son to clean up his room in the two hours before they return. But when he goes to get himself a soda before starting his task, he discovers to green-skinned aliens hiding in the Andrews’ refrigerator! They’re Abercrombie and Stitch (hmm, where have we heard that last name recently?), two friendly Martians who visited Riverdale in an earlier issue of LITTLE ARCHIE. The duo is on Earth on a mission to measure, record and blueprint Little Archie’s home, intending to build a life-size replica of it for the “Primitive Wing” of their museum back on Mars. Abercrombie and Stitch have also brought a present for their Earthling friend: a “grizbik” egg, which immediately hatches. Out of the egg comes the grizbik, a bearded, rotund critter with three eyes and four arms. He also utters such nonsensical phrases as “Wizzle dizzle”, “Fizzle bizzle” and “Hizzle dizzle” (which somehow leads me to believe he’s a die-hard fan of Snoop Dogg.) Little Archie takes the grizbik to meet his “good ol’ gang”, some of whom are rather dubious regarding the critter’s extraterrestrial origins. Soon, the grizbik reveals itself to be something of an obsessive neatnik, tidying up the gang’s clubhouse and even the junkyard environment that surrounds it! But prolonged exposure to the affable alien has an unexpected effect on Little Archie and his pals ‘n’ gals; they all begin to sprout white whiskers and beards just like the grizbik! As the bristling kids become alarmed, Abercrombie and Stitch hear their cries and arrive to reverse the grizbik’s hair-raising effects. Back at Little Archie’s home, the two Martians apologize, then take the grizbik upstairs to hide in Little Archie’s room when his parents return home unexpectedly early. Little Archie’s mom demands to see what kind of cleaning job her son has done, but both of them are surprised to see that Little Archie’s room is now spotless! Little Archie’s Mom notices a light in the night sky:

MRS. ANDREWS:
Look! A shooting star! Let’s make a wish!

LITTLE ARCHIE:
No, Mom, that’s a Martian space ship cleverly disguised as a shooting star!

MRS. ANDREWS:
Oh? Well…then I’ll wish those Martians a pleasant voyage home, how’s that?

LITTLE ARCHIE:
Well, it may not be a pleasant voyage, but – it’s sure gonna be a neat trip!

This “Giant” issue of THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE ARCHIE also includes the following stories:

• “Little Archie” in “Lawbreaker”, written and drawn by Bob Bolling (When Little Archie gets carried away with his duties as a “pretend” traffic cop, he winds up “jailing” most of the neighborhood kids in a chicken wire “cell”. But when Little Archie “customizes” the overcrowded cell with roller skate wheels (in order to make further “arrests” while keeping an eye on his “prisoners”, his “rolling jail” goes completely out of control, with Little Archie ultimately winding up at the mercy of the former “inmates”!)

• “Little Archie” in “Little Archie And The Wishing Witch”, written and drawn by Bob Bolling (When his class studies birds by building a bird-feeder, Little Archie decides the kind of “bird” he wants to attract is a prehistoric pterodactyl! But when Miss Grundy sends him to the Riverdale library to research a more appropriate, non-extinct bird to study, Little Archie meets a tiny, green-skinned “wishing witch” hiding in the stacks gives him a big, dusty book that she promises will grant his wish. The next morning, Little Archie reads page 37 of the tome, and sure enough, a huge pterodactyl appears, flying around his classroom and picking up the wishing witch’s book in its beak. The story ends a few days later, with Miss Grundy, sitting on a lonely hill, peering through a pair of binoculars in the hope of spotting another pterodactyl!)

• “Shrimpy” in “Money Talk!”, a one-page gag written and drawn by Joe Edwards

• “Little Archie” in “Tell The Tooth”, written and drawn by Dexter Taylor (When Little Archie loses a tooth, his dad ventures out into a snowstorm to borrow some pocket change from his next-door neighbors for “tooth fairy” money. Instead, he creates havoc when he’s mistaken as a prowler!)

• “Little Archie” in “Movie Madness”, written and drawn by Dexter Taylor (A story cleverly told in pantomime, wherein Little Archie sneaks away from his babysitter and stows away in his parents’ car so he can secretly go to the movies with them. To avoid being seen, he hides out in the projection booth, where he switches a reel of Saturday matinee cartoons for that evening’s romance film. Then he creates chaos at the theater’s snack bar, where he destroys the popcorn machine. When the theater manager spots him, Little Archie makes a getaway back to his parents’ car, in which he finally returns home without further incident! When the babysitter comments that Little Archie’s the quietest child she ever had, his father comments, “When he’s quiet, its usually means trouble!” How right he is!)

• “Little Archie” in “Spotty Strikes Back”, written and drawn by Dexter Taylor (When Little Archie’s dog Spotty chases Betty’s cat Caramel up a tree, he attempts to rescue her pet -- with calamitous results.)

• “Little Archie” in “Turnabout Tale”, written and drawn by Dexter Taylor (This story -- “about a little boy” -- is told from the point of view of a rabbit living in the woods near Little Archie’s home. When Little Archie is suffering through a particularly rotten day, Jughead gives him a “lucky” rabbit’s foot, which only succeeds in turning his luck from bad to worse! Little Archie tosses it into the trash, where it’s retrieved by Miss Grundy, but it has the same negative effect on her, but somehow reverses Little Archie’s bad luck streak. She discards it as well, but Principal Weatherbee picks the rabbit’s foot off the top of the trash, soon becoming the third victim of its “curse”! As the story-telling rabbit concludes, “…And what humans don’t understand is that if a rabbit’s foot were lucky…it would still be on the foot of a rabbit!”)

• “Li’l Jinx” in “Close The Door!”, written and drawn by Joe Edwards (Li’l Jinx is driving her father crazy with her inability to close doors. When she finally obeys his orders, Li’l Jinx winds up locking both of them out of the house!)

• “Little Archie” in “One For The Book”, a one-page gag written and drawn by Dexter Taylor

• “Little Archie” in “Nothing But The Tooth”, written and drawn by Dexter Taylor (When Little Archie enters a beaver in his elementary school’s pet show contest, it escapes. Meanwhile, Principal Weatherbee and Miss Grundy give the mayor a tour of the school in the hopes that he will approve funds to have the school’s decrepit wing to undergo repairs. After the trio repeatedly crash through weakened floors, stairs and furniture, the mayor calls for an entire new school to be erected – unaware that the mishaps were due to Little Archie’s pet’s insatiable appetite for wood!)

• “Caramel” in “Caramel Has A Tale”, written and drawn by Bob Bolling (One of Bob Bolling’s most affecting stories ever, this begins when Betty’s cat reveals that she can talk! Caramel relates the story of her life (and three kittens) from before the day that Betty found her lying hurt on her doorstep. She talks about living in an abandoned building, on the docks, even in the boxcar of a freight train. During their travels, various kind-hearted humans adopt each of Caramel’s kittens. One snowy night, Caramel leaves the train (which has made a stopover in Riverdale), and gets hit and injured by a passing automobile. Here’s the final page of this Oddball tearjerker!)

ODDBALL Factoid –Spin-offs of THE ADVENTURES OF LITTLE ARCHIE include LITTLE ARCHIE MYSTERY COMICS, LITTLE ARCHIE IN ANIMAL LAND and LITTLE AMBROSE.

For more from Scott Shaw!, visit his Web site at http://www.shawcartoons.com/.

Just how odd is today's Oddball Comic?
Cast your vote right now -- from one to five oddballs --
in the poll on the left. Then come talk about it
on the Oddball Comics' discussion board!