"Back to School Issue"

This magazine-format comic sports a beautiful Dan Parent cover that makes going back to school look almost fun! The pale orange background, colorful flying leaves, and red, top-down convertible scream crisp autumn breezes, football games, and road trips to the mall. This simple image of perky girls in a car captures the appeal the Archie line has for its many young, tween, and teen fans: carefree teen-age fun. Readers can fantasize that this is what their return to school will be like.

The "table of contents" page continues the autumn theme with a background that shades from red-brown to dull yellow and a leaf design that looks almost like it's been stenciled on with ink. It serves as an attractive backdrop for the fashion shots of Veronica and Betty, who takes a hint from Indiana Jones and claps a fedora on. A variety of fonts in various colors are used for the titles of the different features, creating a colorful, yet subdued, look.

"Get Up & Go!" starts in a realistic manner, turns into a fantasy, and then returns to an actual possibility. One too many mornings of Veronica getting up late and taking the limo to get to school on time has Mr. Lodge shouting "You will get up on time! You will eat a good breakfast! You will ride the bus to school!" But the heiress has her own idea of what constitutes riding the bus.

Parent cleverly begins the story with a situation any reader of any age can empathize with: having trouble getting up and getting to school on time. Veronica's secondary problem of disliking riding the bus is also something readers can relate to. The comment Betty makes about high gas prices makes the story relevant, but in no way mars the essential timelessness of the story. It's also the practical Betty, with some help from Ms. Grundy, who comes up with a solution that helps both Veronica and other students.

Artwise, the bed-hair Veronica is actually quite attractive. A mussed-up Veronica is much more approachable than a perfect beauty queen. Archie's eternal smiling face, on the other hand, is just plain creepy. He seems to have been replaced with a pod person as he never says a word to either girl over the entire course of the story.

Parent incorporates a couple cute design tricks this issue. The panels on the opening page are all on a slant, reinforcing the idea that Veronica's day has started askew. The spiky shattered background as Veronica realizes she's once again late is also indicative of the moment, while a sway-sided panel subtly adds momentum to Mr. Lodge leaning in to yell at a retreating Veronica.

The Fall Fashion spread is beautiful. All it needs are the corresponding pages that detail where each piece of clothing can be purchased and how much it retails for to be a perfect match for a GL or Teen Vogue layout. The hairstyles Betty and Veronica sport are easily figured out, and I can see girls trying them out for a new Fall look. The outfits are also fairly easy to put together for someone out school shopping. Though the skirts run too short for my taste, there's not really anything a mother would hate to see her daughter wearing, so kudos to Dan Parent's fashion sense.

Betty raids her diary for some school memories in the next segment, and the result is funny and adorable. Parent excels at portraying the younger version of these characters. His style isn't big-eyed anime or small-body deformed or Bob Bolling. It's just stylized adorable. The pages feature photo album-like pictures and captions and cut-outs of the characters that look like sticker-pics. There's a wicked sense of humor at work with lines like: "I remember when we had to do a report on an unusual or strange creature. I chose Jughead" and "A few years ago, computer tech classes began. Dilton really taught the teachers a lot."

This issue ends with a "Back to School Survival Guide" that combines situations both humorous and familiar and good advice. The candy-colored pages offer some down to earth suggestions to make the school year go better. It's nothing parents haven't told their kids for millennia, but hearing it from characters who are having the same problems might make it easier to digest.

While your favorite tween might not be ready to head back to school just yet, this issue of B&VS will definitely get them in the mood.

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