Adventures Of Little Archie

[JacksonCannery]

Hi, I'm a new member here, and I would love to hear anyone's opinions of Bob Bolling's Little Archie.
I recently picked up Archie's Classic Christmas Stories and The Adventures of Little Archie TPBs. I haven't read any Archie comics since I was around ten (which was almost thirty years ago), but I got these on a nostalgic whim.The Christmas collection was... well, underwhelming. I was hoping for a lot of sentimentality, mawkishness even. There was one story that fit that bill, but too many stories focused on Moose's jealousy. Looking back at the character of Moose now, he is a bit of a violent sociopath and could use some professional help for his rage.
But I really enjoyed the Little Archie collection. In one book you get Martians, pirates, robots with hypno-rays, escaped gorillas, time travel and the Incredible Shrinking Little Archie! That's what I call a comic book! It was a lot of fun...and funny, too boot (not in the unintentional way, either).I've never been a comic art afficionado, the writers always took precedence with me. But I loved the way Bolling's art mixed the cartoonish and realism. It was striking and, I thought, unique. Does anyone know influences on his work, or later artists he may have influenced?
By the way, I've read and enjoyed these forums for quite a while before finally registering, the Classic forum being one of my favorite spots on the net.

[Mike Kuypers]

Welcome, Jackson. Over on the Oddball Comics site, where moderator Scott Shaw! is a major fan of Bob Bolling and Little Archie, you can find many columns related to Little Archie. Here's a page (http://www.comicbookresources.com/msearch/search.php?action=meta&q=little+archie&cat=&x=0&y=0) with links to those columns.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Welcome to CBR, Jackson!

There was a special section on Little Archie in the third issue of Comic Book Artist vol. 2.

[Scott Shaw!]

You've got good taste, JacksonCannery!

Bob Bolling is one of the greatest cartoonists in comics; unfortunately, doing what are considered to be "kids' comics", he's usually overlooked by a fandom who seems to be obsessed only by superheroes. But even if you compare him to other creators of "funnybooks", he's every bit as good as other celebrated writer/artist talents such as Carl Barks, John Stanley and Sheldon Mayer. His stories have an inventiveness and emotional weight that's rarely seen in "kids' comics", and his artwork is equally adept at portraying physical comedy and dramatic tension, with atmosphere to spare.

Bob is one of the comic book greats, no doubt!

Aloha,

Scott!

[JimYung]

The Bob Bolling collection is truly a gem. I think it's interesting that Archie Comics doesn't publish any new Little Archie stories anymore (if they do, it's probably in the digests). While Archie is all ages, Little Archie still has that innocence to it where the boys still have that aversion to the girls. Bolling's stories had that and all the added fun of Mad Doctor Doom, the greasy haired sidekick, Ambrose and a lot of others. Add in a great art style and you can spot a Bolling story a mile away.

I still have a fondness for the older Archie stories. There were a couple of artists that had a unique style (even for Archie comics) and the older stories were just more fun. The new stories seem to repeat the same story over and over again. Granted, there's probably not much new ground to cover, but I remember when Archie Comics tried new things like R/C Racers, Time Patrol? and Dilton's Weird Science, just to name a few.

Jim

[Scott Shaw!]

I oughtta mention that I'll definitely be throwing my spotlight on more Bob Bolling masterpieces at my new ODDBALL COMICS website, launching April 1st:

http://www.oddballcomics.com

I'll also be featuring some of the other Oddball titles that Archie published, including TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU BATS, COSMO THE MERRY MARTIAN and JUGHEAD'S DINER.

Aloha,

Scott!

[spideyrules99]

Archie comics are the best. my father got me into them when I was a child. it sounds sappy but it really gave us something in common when i was a kid. Jughad was always the best on of the group and how Reggie would try and trick him but it would never work.

Little Archie is good. I dont like them as much as I do the other Archie Stories but they are good reads. I never really did like Fangs over Moose.

[JimYung]

Well, Fangs was the defacto bad guy, whereas Moose just lets his temper get the best of him. Ah, Fangs and his gang (West Side Serpents?). It was nice to have a foil that was really bad and we didn't have to worry about the spirit of Christmas or something else making him a sympathetic character.

Jim