It’s Monday—so it must be Archie Comics Day! I don’t know where it started, but I often see other people putting Archie columns and previews. So, I decided to join in on the fun, frequently doing my spin on Archie. And when I say fun—I mean fun!
I’m sure as a kid, I read Archie Comics. Yet somewhere along the way, I felt I “outgrew” Archie. No one outgrows Archie: we only think we do. I can read an Archie story from decades ago and find it a fantastic read! The tales are timeless and for all ages. Kids to your curmudgeonly next neighbor will get a few chuckles from those Riverdale Tales.
Here’s something I realized recently: Archie brings out the fanboy in me. It’s not exactly like I feel like a kid again, but comics used to bring up a different side of me. Kind of like when your favorite author puts out a new book, and you get excited, and you put everything else aside.
Today, there are too many comics that kind of feel sub-par. A feeling of “been, there… done, that.” Comic I read because I’ve read them for years and read, hoping they’ll… eventually get better. That’s never the case with Archie.
Take Archie Double Digest #360 out this week, which has two new stories. Bill Golliher does Cosmos the Merry Martian is back—after appearing last month in another digest that I wrote about in a previous column. Archie Comics debuted Cosmo the Merry Martian in September 1958. The series consists of six issues and depicts Cosmo’s cheerful adventures as the pioneer Martian on a journey to Earth.
Now, I thought Cosmos hadn’t been seen all that much, but I turned out to be totally wrong, of course. In 2019, Archie Comics released Cosmo the Mighty Martian #1 as part of a five-issue miniseries showcasing Cosmo and his Martian crew as they tackled cosmic challenges, including an intriguing scheme by the Queen of Venus. I also found out there are other Cosmos collections, which I’ll be reading soon. But I digress…
It’s rare not to have at least one new story in a digest, but here you get another. Francis Bonnet and Bill Galvan give a tale of the Southside Serpents. The Southside Serpents are a fictional biker gang that the CW Riverdale show used, and it appeared in Archie Comics long before the show. They made their first appearance in Archie Comics in the Adventures of Little Archie series, and that’s going back to the Silver Age at least.
But the thing that excited me the most: Stan Goldberg, who I call “The Other Stan.” He started back in the Golden Age when Marvel was still Timely. He was primarily the colorist there. Fans, don’t give colorists their due. He designed the color schemes for Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. Those eye-popping Marvel covers during the Silver Age—that was mostly Goldberg. Part of the reason he doesn’t get his due is that it wasn’t until colorist was added to credits until the 1970s.
But Stan Goldberg was also an artist, and die-hard Archie fans know he worked at Arcfhie for over forty years. During his tenure, he rose to prominence as one of the publisher’s most iconic artists, crafting countless stories and covers that shaped the distinctive Archie aesthetic. He’s an icon that too many fans don’t know about.
As I was going through Archie Double Digest #360, Stn’s name kept popping up. And I had to go back and do the math. The digest contains a whopping 11 Goldberg stories—almost half of the digest. It’s a Goldbergpalooza celebration! As much as I enjoyed everything else—these were by far the highlight for me.
Pick up the issue and join in that Goldbergpalooza celebration. And do a little digging around the “Other Stan” and learn a little bit more about this icon. He may not have been as famous as another Stan, but Goldberg made significant contributions to comics as a whole, and he deserves fans to know a little bit more about him.
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