I came to buy anything with Archie's new star , Kevin Keller , late .
I just recently bought his self-titled miniseries's#s 1-2 (with an Archie-unique oddity in the numbering , but*) and - Cmdr. Benson ?
I think this might interest you .
Kevin Keller is the son of a just-retired U..S Army Colonel ( Sorry , not your branch - it was my father's branch , too , so I sympathise !!!!! ) , and , in giving his background in these issues , talks about life as an Army brat !!!!!!! ( His Mom was a civilian . )
Oh , BTW , before I " take five " now , Kevin made a appearance in the likely last-ever ARCHIE new newspaper strip , which appeared two weeks ago this last Sunday , and was credited solely to KK creator Dan Parent , writer/penciler of KK #1-2 as well , methinks the first " sole " creator on the strip since Bob Montana?? Nice to have him brought in , and in a way fitting , too , and a pretty well-done one...
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Quite frankly , a possible problem with this story is that - as with much of modern Archie - it is maybe a little too nice - Kevin's proud of himself , his family's proud of him , they're all sure-as-shootin' proud of Kev's pop's military service , everyone in Riverdale luuvves the Kellers , Veronica has : found a new family " , the Kellers a new home...Now , this sort of REFLECTS tendencies in modern-day Archie and Parent even gives himself an out in the dialogue...A " meta /postmodern/self-referential " moment in which someone says " This is just like one o fthose greeting card commercials ! " ! :-)
Dan Parent's freize-like(Sp??) artand the coloring makes use of modern Archie's slick paper & printing well .
Kevin gets some friends of hos own introduced , from a pre-teen years earlier posting in a nearby town , and---well , maybe...we DO get a hint that Kevin might have a flaw of the genteel jockiness that , i the original , 50s , Marvelman was called " s*p*rd*ck*ry "...Oh , and a pregnant woman (shown in flashback) and , seperately , a vomit joke for the first time?? ever in an Archie ? When Jugheads parents' created Jellybean , was Mrs. Jones shown...???
Kevin is given a real-world ambition that can be used to have him leave some day .
His ambition is to go West Point and be in the Army as a journalist ! ( Is that specialty/grade an officr/West Point-level one ??? )
It occurs to me that , if Archie decides to write him out for a while , it could be declared that he , in advance of/preperation for that hoped-for appointment , could leave Riverdale to go on some training program or something...This ties an Archie character to a real-world , specific , ambition . Has that been done before ???
Frankly , with the nice-nice-niceness and the limits that there would , likely , have to be in showing Kevin's inclinations working hemselves out , I don't know how long-term a title this may be . It could be a good TPB , though .
Oh , and if Kevin's not supposed to like musicals...Maybe he could , anyhow , co-star with Veronica in Carol Burnett Show-like " Kev'n'Veronica Theater " spoofs of Joan Crawford/Viven Leigh/Bette Davis-style movies and the like , even though not musicals ???
Just askin' .
On another Archie note , even as the ARCHIE newspaper strip has been discontinued for some onths now as a new strip , but having a last one specially on the 9/11 10th anniversary that , furthermore , introduces Kevin into the newspaper strip's world and allows Dan Parent sole credit on the Sunday strip , the first sole-credited Archie strip creator since Bob Montana himself?? , the digests have started reprinting old Archie Sunday strips from the Henry Scarpelli/Craig Boldman era , leaving the sigs on but taking off the syndicate's date and not bothering with an additional title , either per story or for the Sunday reprints in general ( As in the " Archie's Gag Bag " reprints of the mmediately post-Bob Montana era?? daily strips . ) . Going back to the oldest form of source for funny book material !