“C: What other titles did you work on while at Archie?
BB: I guess just about all except Katy Keene and Superduck. Thankfully.”
-From a fan interview with Bob Bolling.
The vast majority of Archie comics I own are in the digest form. Reading them in this way, though convenient, is much like reading textbooks written after the war. Who knows what’s being cast aside by the victor in the retelling? Take a look at most any digest on the shelves these days and you’ll see that the material by Lucey, Schwartz and even Decarlo have all but disappeared, replaced by trendier, usually uglier, comics. The strangest experience in going through the older digests is when you come across a story that must have slipped through the cracks, one that makes almost no sense within the context of the overall Archie digest oeuvre. It’s like discovering a secret, sordid history. Ga Ga Over Gary, starring Betty’s big sister Polly, is one such animal.
Polly has just landed a date with the most popular boy in the whole junior class, only to find to her dismay that she had also promised to make little Betty’s doll a new dress for her class’ style show the next day. Drawn by renowned Little Archie artist Bob Bolling, Ga Ga Over Gary is illustrated and paced far different from just about any teenage comic I have ever read. The colours are all soft pastels, and the backgrounds are almost non-existent. Bolling draws teens completely unlike any other Archie artist, and it’s certainly a nice change of pace, especially in comparison to the standardization that crept into the line with the ascendancy of Decarlo’s popularity.
As for Polly, apparently she eventually left Riverdale to pursue a career as a TV news anchor somewhere on the West Coast. Thanks to the always invaluable Betty Cooper FAQ and fellow Archiephile Comics Worth Reading for that piece of information.
