{"id":15363,"date":"2016-10-22T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=15363"},"modified":"2016-10-21T15:17:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T15:17:13","slug":"archie-obama-palin-in-riverdale-archie-friends-all-stars-volume-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2016\/10\/22\/archie-obama-palin-in-riverdale-archie-friends-all-stars-volume-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Archie: Obama & Palin in Riverdale (Archie & Friends All-Stars volume 14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Alex Simmons<\/strong>, Dan Parent<\/strong>, Rich Koslowski<\/strong>, Jack Morelli<\/strong> & Digikore Studios<\/strong> (Archie Comics)
\nISBN: 987-1-87979-487-0<\/p>\n

For nearly three-quarters of a century Archie Andrews<\/em> has epitomised good, safe, wholesome fun, but inside the staid and stable company which shepherds his adventures and bears his name there has always lurked an ingenious and deviously subversive element of mischief as well a keen eye for a headline.<\/p>\n

Ever since they launched as MLJ publications in the Golden Age’s dawning, family-friendly iterations of superheroes, spooky chills, sci-fi thrills and genre yarns have always been as much a part of the publisher’s varied portfolio as the romantic comedy capers of America’s cleanest-cut teens.<\/p>\n

As you probably know by now, Archie has been around since 1941, spending most of those seventy-five years chasing both the gloriously attainable Betty Cooper<\/em> and wildly out-of-his-league debutante Veronica Lodge<\/em> whilst best friend Jughead Jones<\/em> alternately mocked and abetted his romantic endeavours and life-long rival Reggie Mantle <\/em>sought to scuttle his every move and bring down the freckle-face\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

As crafted over the decades by a legion of writers and artists who’ve skilfully logged innumerable stories of teenage antics in and around the idyllic, utopian small-town Riverdale<\/em>, these timeless tales of decent, upstanding, fun-loving kids have captivated successive generations of readers and entertained millions worldwide.<\/p>\n

To keep all that accumulated attention riveted, the company has always looked to modern trends and movements with which to expand upon their archetypal brief. In times past they have strengthened and cross-fertilised their stable of stars through a variety of comic property team-ups such as Archie Versus Predator<\/strong>, Archie Meets the Punisher<\/strong> or Archie Meets Vampirella<\/strong> as well as notionally real-world characters as typified by Archie Meets Glee<\/strong> or Archie Meets Kiss<\/strong>. Every kind of fashion-fad and youth-culture sensation have invariably been accommodated into and explored within the pages of the regular titles.<\/p>\n

That willingness to dip traditional toes in unlikely waters led in 2010 to the publishers taking an extremely bold and outrageously controversial step which turned heads in all the right places and hopefully nurtured the political sensibilities of many kids who might well be voting in this year’s Presidential Elections\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama has long been out of the closet in regards to comics (apparently he collects Spider-Man<\/strong> and Conan<\/strong>) and after his election in 2008 got to guest-star in a load of different titles. I’ve no idea what Sarah Palin’s position on funny books is, but she too has been the star of a whole bunch\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 although mostly as a star-spangled bikini-clad bimbo toting swords and big guns.<\/p>\n

She was represented in a far more even-handed and respectful manner when she and the President appeared in Archie<\/strong> #616-617 (December 2010 and January 2010); a tale gathered in this slim paperback collection with the similarly-themed contents of Veronica<\/strong> #199 (March 2010) to form a fabulous dossier of democracy and fair play for beginners, coincidentally packed with lots of laughs and a few salutary tips on electioneering.<\/p>\n

As written by Alex Simmons, illustrated by Dan Parent & Rich Koslowski, lettered by Jack Morelli and coloured by Digikore Studios, the Machiavellian games begin with the two part ‘Campaign Pains’<\/em> as Archie and Reggie clash in a debate as part of their efforts to become Student Body President.<\/p>\n

Their clearly different styles of presentation don’t sway many potential voters and Veronica, as Archie’s Campaign Manager, decides its time to bring out the big guns: Money, Power and Influence. Reggie’s manager is little better. Trula Twyst<\/em> is a ruthless psychology student eager to push people’s buttons just to see how they react\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Having already once met Barack Obama, and after kitting out Archie in new duds, Ronnie blags her way into a Presidential event and manufactures a photo-op between the Most Powerful Man in the World and the most na\u00c3\u00afve kid in Riverdale. She then uploads it and lets the little people in Riverdale make their own assumptions\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

At Mantle Campaign HQ, Trula knows a winning ploy when she sees one and decides to fight fire with fire; orchestrating a similar sneaky session for Reggie with blithely unaware Governor and potential future Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.<\/p>\n

Once more a dubious association with celebrity enflames the youthful voters of Riverdale High, but when the professional politicians see how they’ve been shabbily misrepresented by school kids. they both head for the sleepy town to make their disapproval known\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

As Obama and Palin arrive, so do the news crews and all too soon a shambolic media circus ensues. Terrified, Archie, Ronnie, Reggie and Trula head for the hills but eventually realise the only solution to their problem is to face it head on, take their medicine and make reparations.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And that’s when everybody learns a few useful lessons about reasoned discussion and plain dealing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Following amazingly clear, concise and compelling biographical features on ‘\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Chicago Kid\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Barack Obama’<\/em> and ‘\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Thrilla from Wasilla\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sarah Palin’<\/em>, the cartoon tomfoolery resumes by harking back POTUS’ first appearance in Archie Comics with ‘Ms. Lodge Goes to Washington’<\/em> from March 2010 and Veronica<\/strong> #199, by Parent, Koslowski, Morelli & Barry Grossman.<\/p>\n

Here our junior stars enjoy a class trip to Washington DC; seeing the sights and learning some civic history. However, when a tour of the White House leads to Veronica intruding on a press conference and accidentally impressing the President, she is so moved by the moment and on the trip home she resolves to help him fix the economy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Her plan is to hire all her friends, creating jobs whilst escaping her own chores, but as ‘No She Can’t!’<\/em> proves, adult problems are seldom simple and never end well when Archie and the gang are involved\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Including a cover and variants gallery, pin-ups and a large selection of roughs, cover sketches and parody covers, this is a splendidly witty slice of all-ages comedic fun with the added bonus of introducing the basics of political thought to youngsters in a manner both considered and effective.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2011 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Simmons, Dan Parent, Rich Koslowski, Jack Morelli & Digikore Studios (Archie Comics) ISBN: 987-1-87979-487-0 For nearly three-quarters of a century Archie Andrews has epitomised good, safe, wholesome fun, but inside the staid and stable company which shepherds his adventures and bears his name there has always lurked an ingenious and deviously subversive element … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Archie: Obama & Palin in Riverdale (Archie & Friends All-Stars volume 14)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[141,113,132,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archie-comics","category-comedy","category-older-kids","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-3ZN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}