The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. (Archie Comics Presents)
by Frank Doyle, Bob White, Bill Vigoda, and Dan DeCarlo
(Archie Comics, 2019)
review by BK Munn
I read the shit out of this! Which is to say, I read these 19 collected stories from 1966 and 1967 over the course of 19 meditative bowel movements. I'd read many of these randomly in various period Archie titles and reprinted in Archie Digest form over the years, but it's nice having these in one compact, manga-sized volume. The stories are, I think, almost entirely written by Archie workhorse Frank Doyle and mostly all drawn by signature artist Bob White, although there are a couple by Dan DeCarlo and Bill Vigoda thrown into the mix. The concept is a Man from U.N.C.L.E. parody mashed-up with the superhero craze, with all of the villains having costumes and superpowers (the most grotesque of these is The Whistler, whose mouth and lips are permanently pursed and shaped like a bottle-sized whistle). In the first story, Veronica and Reggie are bad guys, Jughead and Archie are the good agents, and Betty and Pop are completely oblivious to the fact their best friends are engaged in a hot Cold War in the soda shoppe and elsewhere, but this soon changes and the whole gang (with the exception of Pop, whose store is their headquarters) are members of P.O.P. for the rest of the series. Goofy, gadget-crazy fun, enjoyable in small doses.
