The Jug Is Up

I’ve always had a fondness for Archie Comics (and Harvey Comics, too, but that’s another post!) since I first discovered comic books as a seven year-old. I can’t exactly pinpoint the reason why. I guess I would point to the artwork of such greats as Dan DeCarlo, Harry Lucey, and Bob Bolling as a major factor. No matter the reason, Archie and the gang have wormed themselves into my heart so I still grab some Archie comics from time to time to keep in touch with my Riverdale nature. Recently, Jughead has been my Archie comic of choice mainly due to the amusing writing of Craig Boldman. In my opinion, there is no great Archie artist working at the moment, but Rex Lindsey and Rich Koslowski (of The 3 Geeks fame) handle the series well with some nice character work and interesting panel layouts.

Out of pure whimsy, I recently got a five issue subscription to Jughead and issue #177 was my first issue of the subscription. In honor of this, I’m going to do some Jughead blogging!



The Cover: Doesn’t really stand out to me and the gag is feh tho it is nice to see Jughead wearing his mysterious “S” shirt.

“Judge Jughead”: In this issue’s first story, Jughead is punished by Mr. Weatherbee for eating in class. His punishment? Serving as the judge for the school’s grievance court. Of course, nothing good comes out of this. Not the best Jughead story, but certainly not the worst.

“Yes Man”: Archie is tired of Jughead constantly nay saying his bad ideas so Jughead tries to be positive concerning Archie’s harebrained schemes. When Archie plans to take Veronica and another girl to the Ice Festival at the same time, Jughead supports his friend all the way. Disaster then occurs, but Veronica takes her wrath out on Juggie when Archie tells her the needle nosed one approved of his idea. Overall, a fun story and definitely the best one in this issue. Bonus points for showing Jughead wearing a fur vest ala Sonny Bono.



“The Watcher”: Despite having the opportunities to do cool stuff with his friends, Jughead is stuck babysitting his baby sister, Jellybean (And, yes, he really does have a little sister despite the fact she doesn’t share the Jones nose like the rest of her family. If I was Jughead’s father, I would demand a blood test). However, his babysitting gig saves him from going out with Big Ethel which makes Jughead very happy. An average story with some unnecessary thought balloons for Jellybean.

“The Beat Goes On”: In the final story for this issue, Ms. Grundy (Uh, I always thought she was Miss Grundy. When did that change?) doesn’t approve of Jug’s constant drumming, but other members of the faculty find some use for it (Why does that sound kind of dirty?). Another humdrum (Is that pun intended?) story, but I like it because it features cranky lunch lady Ms. Beazly and I always believe cranky lunch ladies make all comics better.

My Grade: B-