Ah, good ol’ Archie! It’s not something I’ve talked about much on this blog, but I LOVED Archie back in the day. Specifically, the double digest collections where all kinds of Archie comics were compiled into a nice compact form suitable to be held by small hands. I had a couple of issues and I read them over and over again.
Unfortunately, I have only one of those double digests still in my collection after all these years:
While flipping through it, I came across this fun ad for 1990’s Archie calendar:
It was tough being an 8 year old kid with no money. Every time I flipped through a comic book in those days, I was teased and tormented by offer such as a monthly comic book subscription, but in this case… it’s the 1990 Archie calendar! Of course, I didn’t have the $9.95 to cover the cost of the calendar. I didn’t have have the $2.05 to pay for postage and handling. And I could never convince my mom to drop something like $10 down on an Archie Comics calendar, but man, I could dream and stare at this ad in wonder (and frustration) about what it would be like to see up close and in person.
As a side note, in the last couple of years I’ve slowly dipped my toes and wiggled them around in the waters of Archie Comics. There’s just something about them that I still enjoy. I love the Archie style of art and the stories are wholesome fun. It’s somewhat of an anomaly in this day and age to see these stories not only being reprinted for today’s audience, but to see that NEW Archie stories have never stopped being told.
Of course, Archie Comics has done some unique things over the years, separate from their main line of Archie books, to attract an older and more mature audience. But, maybe I’ll save that topic for another time.
In the meantime, I wonder if I can buy that calendar now on eBay? Hmm…