I've never been much of a fan of the Little Archie stories, though since having read Bart Beaty's very interesting take on them in his book on Archie, I've been meaning to give them another go. Bart notes that Bob Bolling, who shepherded Little Archie through the 60s, was given unprecedented creative freedom with the series, building a continuity unheard of in Archie comics, and telling stories that ranged from the hilarious to the tragic.
Now, that said, this particular issue of Giant Series tells stories that are far more mundane. The cover story is something that could have come out of a Life With Archie issue from the 70s, and the other two main tales are pretty standard Archie stories. There's a note on this issue in the GCD entry that states that the move of the Little Archie stories to Giant Series was an attempt to keep cancelled series in the public consciousness, and I wonder if the series was cancelled because the Little Archie stories started being a bit too much like the older Archie stories. If Bolling's work did actually make these stories and characters stand out from the teenage versions of themselves, then the movement of the series into more standard Archie stories would have been very frustrating for fans of the Little Archie gang.
This is, of course, all speculation, since I haven't read any Bob Bolling stories for I don't even know how long. Every now and again I post an entry in this project that I'm sure I'll one day look back on and shake my head at the presumption I exhibit.
Hi, Older Tom! Glad to see you're still keeping up with the project.
Onward.
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