Stepping away from DC Comics for this edition, and dealing with some interpersonal relationships and interconnectedness of being. Jughead goes on a date with Sabrina the Teenage Witch (and, of course, wackiness ensues) and Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective begins to investigate some weird happenings with his history and his memories.
Jughead 10
Written by Ryan North
Art by Derek Charm and Jack Morelli
The first couple issues of the updated Jughead comic left me kind of flat, and I stepped away from it for a time, but I’m glad I picked it back up two issues ago. The introduction of Sabrina the Teenage Witch last issue was a masterstroke, and Ryan North’s dialogue between the gang has left me laughing on the subway on the way home.
After the last issue, where Jughead fell in love with the girl in the burger suit outside of Pop’s – finally asking her out and discovering Sabrina underneath the costume – the pair goes out on a date and… well, it doesn’t go well. Jughead nervously calls in Kevin Keller and Archie for help and doesn’t really seem to notice when Sabrina uses her magic skills to increase the ambiance of the evening. Lesson one: don’t cross a witch.
Sabrina sets out for revenge, spending the day trying to prank Jughead while he’s at school, but things don’t go as planned as all of Sabrina’s spells end up benefitting our hungry hero. Jughead even has a fun day with town bully Reggie! Frustrated with how oblivious Jughead is to even revenge spells, Sabrina sets out to enact a forgetting spell, and we have yet another cliffhanger.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what the spell Sabrina set out to cast does, not just to Jughead and Reggie, but to the whole town of Riverdale. Because, let’s be honest, this is an Archie Comic, things are going to get chaotic for everyone. Ryan North’s Jughead has been a complete blast and it’s easily one of the most fun comics on my monthly pull list.
Dirk Gently: The Salmon of Doubt 1
Written by Arvind Ethan David
Art by Ilias Kyriazis
As a new Dirk Gently television series debuts on BBC America, IDW debuts its next Dirk Gently miniseries, promising a vast multiverse of past and present Dirks. You see, our Holistic Detective protagonist has been recalling a childhood that didn’t happen to him, and his newfound remembrances have him concerned. So, he takes his (don’t call her an) assistant Sally to see his former professor, Reg Chronotis, for some interconnected assistance.
The previous miniseries have been jam packed with story, although I felt like the second one fell into a decompression trap that I found disappointing. The Salmon of Doubt could still go either way. There was a lot of information presented this time around – most of it exposition – but it still felt like they could have advanced the plot a little bit more before leaving us with the set-up for the next issue, with Sally accidentally falling through time because the professor’s bathroom is his time machine. Because of course it is.
The IDW miniseries continue to produce fun Dirk Gently stories, and I have high hopes for this new one.