2016 Comic Challenge 154 The Punisher Meets Archie #01

TITLE-The Punisher Meets Archie
PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics/Archie Comics

Nope this is a real comic. One that I wanted to get when it first came out. But I refused to pay the almost $4 cover price. So it wasn't until years later at a con that I found it for 10 cents and grabbed it.

Not sure if you can tell from the above picture but the area around Archie's head is cut out. When you open the cover you get.

This 48 page,with no ads as the cover proclaims,comic is written by Batton Lash. With John Buscema handling the Punisher side of the pencils and Stan Goldberg doing the Archie side. And Tom Palmer is on inks.

The story is simple and actually works fairly well. A crook,Mel Jay AKA Montana Bob AKA Freckles and currently known as Red Fever has managed to escape the Punisher. And is now hiding out in Riverdale. And shocker he looks a lot like Archie Andrews.

So we get a mixture of typical Archie style comedy mixed with Frank Castle chasing down this killer. It sounds like it wouldn't work and would be horrible. But Batton Lash does a great job and makes this one of the best and oddest comic crossovers I have read.

Quickly funny story about this issue. I got it at a con cheap as I said. During the con I end up staying with my cousin. So that night I get back to her house and her 10 year old wanted to see what I bought. He is looking thru the comics sees this issue and asks me "Who is Archie?"

The next day of the con he came with me I mentioned to the dealer I got this from,who I was also buying another 50 bucks worth of comics from,about my cousin's lack of knowledge of Archie.The dealer dug thru his bins pulls out right at 15 issues of various Archie titles.Which the dealer gave to him for free.

The Punisher meets Archie #01 gets a Buy.