u/bossladytae

Artist spotlight: Nate Butler, for those unfamiliar with his work. These are a couple of the stories I remember best with Butler's art (though Rod Ollerenshaw is credited for the first story): In Search of the Beat and A Lass From the Past. I always liked the drummer story. As for Jughead's romances, I like him best when he's flying solo, so not my favourite series of stories, but it was an interesting (and sometimes weird) batch of stories at the time.

A few stories I like of Jughead staying ahead of the game with Reggie and Veronica: Hobby Horse, Play Mates, and Just for the Record.

A couple of Samm Schwartz-drawn Jughead stories that I always enjoy:

Put a Lid on It (1993, but I feel it's older? Could be the earliest catalogued item for now on the site)

The Sound of Jughead (1979)

Another Bob Bolling fave of mine with Oh, Brother; and a similar story, Country Clubbing, which has initial credits for Joe Edwards (story) and Hy Eisman (art), but recent reprints have George Gladir (story) and Howard Bender (art) instead.

I enjoy revisiting stories in which Reggie is more than a prankster and with more on his mind than undermining Archie.

This is among the most memorable student election stories for me: The Campaign, with art and story by Bob Bolling. Narrated by Mr. Weatherbee, there's quite a lot going on throughout this fun, lengthy story, especially with a lot of dialogue-free scenes.

*Note: there is a derogatory term for Romani people used, unfortunately. I was looking for more modern reprints with alternate wording, but we've lost a significant source of online scans to check (won't link to it, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people know which source that is). This is a product of its time for sure. I recently came across an offensive story for Indigenous people that I hadn't read before. Being Indigenous myself and used to seeing old stereotypes pop up in stories over the decades, it was quite interesting to read through and see how much they used to idolize a particular historical figure.

A couple of Mr. Weatherbee stories centered around eavesdropping:

• A Surprised Party, in which the thought does not count, lol
• It's All Relative, in which it's important to get all your facts straight first

Pot Luck, featured in Laugh #70, with art by George Frese and story by an unknown writer (going by this entry only). This was my first time reading this story; I don't recall any reprints in my readings over the years. But we've seen plenty of similar stories of this team-up to win Archie and Veronica and then backfiring in some way. I thought it was cute, and Reggie's expressions are amusing.

These are a couple of my favourite Reggie stories:

• Reggie's Gift, 1988, from Betty's Diary #20
• A Change for the Better, 1985, from Pep #398 (in reprints, they change the band name a couple of times)

For the first one, Reggie may have wanted to uphold an image, but I'm also glad he didn't feel the need to brag about his "good deeds." For the second one, I'm curious as to how he presented his report while maintaining Ethel's privacy.

Togetherness, first featured in Betty & Me, issue #131. Art by Stan Goldberg and story by an unknown writer (we could make some guesses, but so far it hasn't been entered into the Comics website, at least). It looks to have had only two known reprints, the last one from 1997. I can imagine why, this one's a little suggestive in a certain way, lol. Usually, Veronica's the one saying, "Ladies don't sweat; they perspire," but here we have Betty taking that up instead.