Nobody Can Draw Like Dan DeCarlo - Here's Proof
Archie Comics is trying the New Coke Thing with Betty & Veronica, changing the characters' look in a one-time, four-part story (Betty & Veronica Double Digest #151-154). Reader reaction will be assessed, and hopefully this whole thing will go far, far away.Like toysrevil says over at his blog, I haven't bought a new issue of this stuff in decades, so how upset can I get? Pretty upset, as it turns out.
Thanks to toysrevil, Table Of Malcontents and the Archie Comics website for the bad news.
posted by Jeff Pidgeon at
12:38 PM
8 Comments:
and yet another childhood memory ravaged by the winds of change ~ LOL ~ cheers for the mention+link, sir :)
No problem! Your toy blog is great!
The more realistic, the less artistic. Same charge was leveled at Disney's rotoscoping of the human leads in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" back in 1937.
While I generally agree, in the case of Snow White, I'm not sure what style would've worked better.
If Snow White and Prince Charming had looked more like the dwarves, I don't think the love story would've worked.
Let's be honest... Archie Comics have been in a steady decline since the mid 1970s. I'm not sure why this incarnation of the characters has gotten so much press... when I saw anime-inspired Betty Coopers and Sabrinas, I turned
my back on the whole shebang and retreated back to the security of my moldy stack of Double Digests.
Like so many, Dan DeCarlo is my favorite Archie artist, but from the beginning he referred to and was inspired by Bob Montana's masterful characterizations and flair. Montana co-created Archie with Richard Goldwater. He was the first to draw the characters and had spent many years working on them by the time DeCarlo came on board. Have you seen Montana's work on the old Archie comic strip? It's incredible!
In The Comics Journal #229, DeCarlo revealed how Archie made every effort to get all the other artists drawing exactly like him, forcing them to draw all the characters in bastardized carbon copies.
"We had a seminar every every Monday morning for a couple of hours. I'd draw the characters and answer questions on how I did this or that. All the while they would be videotaping this and they sent it to the artists that lived out of state. This lasted a month or two."
And that was the beginning of the end.
Archie is a rich and timeless property. Half-baked innovation and gimmicks may have worked in the past, but what's really missing today is any semblance of a personal touch. Who could confuse Bob Bolling's pages with Al Hartley's or Harry Lucey's? Samm Schwartz stripped his Jughead stories down to the barest of essentials, delivering a look and feel to his readers as raw and gritty as Jughead himself. If Silberkleit really cared about Archie's future, he'd locate a few writers who understand comics and situation comedy, and fill his books with cartoonists willing to bring a little of themselves to the mix.
Hi Marc! Happy new year!
You're right - The Archie line hasn't been good-looking for quite a while.
I imagine this change attracted attention because the company wanted it to - paying for articles and the like. This type of press often 'forgets' about the past in order to make the current change seem new and exciting.
The same thing happened a little while ago when Sesame Street touted a new attempt at a main female muppet as if they'd never tried before.
I haven't seen a lot of Montana's stuff, thought I did have a '40s TPB of Archie for a while. I also have a framed Sunday comic that's credited to him, but I'm not sure that he actually drew it.
Anyway, Montana's stuff didn't make a big impression on me, but of course he was a important springboard for DeCarlo and many others. I probably need to take another look. Have you got a book you recommend for that?
You're very right that a key to the line's vitality was diversity - Harvey comics did the same thing, allowing different artists to draw the characters in their own unique ways. Later, standardization set in at both publishers, and everyone had to draw like the best artist in the house.
To a degree it makes sense, but trying to make artists play to another's strengths usually winds up weakening things instead. There's a better reason to do it in animation, but in comics it's just not necessary.
I don't know if I'd describe anything in an Archie comic as 'gritty', but I do like a lot of the other Archie artists, and you're dead on otherwise!
Happy New Year, Jeff.
Yeah.. maybe 'gritty' is a little strong. Schwartz drew the Jughead solo title for many years, and even did all the inking and lettering, too. His work always had a stripped-down look, much like Jughead himself. I guess that's what I was getting at. It's good comics, though!
I got into Montana when I had to ape his style for a freelance gig. Mostly I just found a lot of jpgs of his old original daily and Sunday strips online. He drew so many that you'll often find one or two available on eBay. At first his stuff appears somewhat generic, but then you realize just how many of the characters and personalities he himself created or had a hand in creating! He drew with the ease and elegance of someone who clearly knew his subjects inside and out, and had been drawing them for some time. Everything in his comic strips is always staged clearly and to optimal comedic effect.
I know there have been some recent trade paperbacks reprinting the early Archie material,
but I don't have any of that. MANY years ago--in 1980!--I bought a book called The Best of Archie, and that has some nice examples of the early stuff. I recommend buying up a collection of the earlier digests on eBay... there's a ton of great material in the older ones.
There was a nice interview with Bolling in Comic Book Artist #3. I also liked "A Critical Analysis of Archie Comics" by Adam Phillips in The Comics Journal #99. Incidentally, I just realized that The Comics Journal has an interesting thread on their message board about Betty and Veronica's makeover in their News section.
Look for the subject heading:
"Archie Comics to be ruined forever".
cool work man. Keep it up!
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