Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Tales From The Quarter Bin--Ambushed by Archie!!

So, I'm just toodling along, minding my own business, when I come across this is the quarter bin:

Laugh #258 (1972)? Ah, Archie, just what I needed to brighten my day: a little teen hijinx humor!

And after a couple of short laughs, we come to what promises to be the show-stopper for the issue:

So, Riverdale takes field trips to the Gulf Of Mexico? OK, sure, why not? That's should prove a good premise for gales of hilarity, right?

But then something happens:

Wait, you're gonna get all educational on me?? In a book titled Laugh?? Where's my laughs? I was promised laughs!

You're giving me charts and maps and facts, when I want humor based an the antics of Riverdale teens on a beach trip?? How could this happen?

Trust me, this goes on for pages...

...until someone foolishly asks the question, "What causes the gulf stream?"

Wait...what??

Wait, first you take a perfectly good premise--in a book called Laugh--and proceed to give me a long, laughless science lesson. Now, we're getting a religious lesson, too?

Oh, but it gets worse:


So we get a religious sermon combined with an anti-pollution polemic? What...the...heck?



"It's always good to stop and take a look at things"?? That's the final line of this "story"??

Oh, the laughs resume after this story, but seriously--what...the...frak??

Can I get my quarter back??

5 comments:

Stephen said...

Where did Betty stuff that bible in her Annette Funicello one-piece?

That is... a weird one.

Martin OHearn said...

This would be written and drawn by Al Hartley, who did the Spire Christian Comics that started up in 1972 and licensed the Archie characters for similar stories.

Darius Smith said...

Incredible Comix That Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Christers!

Sina said...

Ha, I kept waiting for a reference to the Enbridge oil spill near the end of this post...I was surprised when it didn't happen, to be honest :/

-= Steamboat Willie =- said...

Definitely Al Hartley.