[.ca] Archie Americana Series Best Of The Fifties Book 2 (ISBN 1879794152)

Nice sampling of 50s-era Archie Comics:
I've loved Archie comics since I was a kid, so the "Americana Series" has been a lot of fun for me. Since they probably weren't anticipating doing a second volume of this when the first book was published nearly a decade ago. it's not surprising that the selection of stories isn't quite as good. Still, they're all classic Archie Comics. This volume seems to focus mostly on Betty and Veronica, with Archie being little more than a supporting player in most of the stories and with Jughead existing to bail him out of trouble. It's interesting to note how much the characters have evolved over the years while the situation has remained the same -- Betty is the same sweet "girl next door" she always was, but she's not quite as despondant as she used to be. Veronica is still the spoiled rich kid, but she's softened a bit. It would be interesting, once I've gotten the whole collection, to read the entire "Americana" series in one lump, just to see how much things changed over the years. I've got a new project to work on...