Some years ago I did this annual-long series for Fandomania called Fandomanual and when I got to comics, I said that I wasn’t a traditional reader because well, I’m not. Never have I poured my heart into the superhero laced pages of a comic book, but I did love the comics that came through every week in the Sunday paper, but my crush today is not from there. Nope, he comes from the period of my life where I was obsessed with the 1950s, and that is Archie.
Not too long before I got enamored with teen magazines, I would pick up Archie comics near the grocery store register every week. The era they were in, again – I was obsessed and I’m not even sure why. Perhaps it was walking ‘Grease’ way too much years before that, or it was the fact that I would’ve done anything for my mom to finally get me a poodle skirt. Unfortunately, I was a chunky-ass child and they were not making those cutesy things in my size at an affordable price at our local Kmart. So I just had my little Archie comics to live that fantasy through and that I did.
Archie was the cute boy next door and looking back – there was nothing special about him but at the time I wanted to be with the cool, popular boy, and in many ways, Archie was that boy who was in my class. I’ve talked about him before. He was definitely that stereotypical all-American boy that every girl in class had a crush on, including myself – obviously. He was very much an Archie that I would’ve loved to be the Betty to because let’s face it, I’m no Veronica.
So while many of this week’s comic book crush fascinations are going to spawn from superhero tales, mine is not because those were never my jam as a kid. Unless you count Captain Planet but even he wasn’t in comic book form, that I know of. He was just a small screen hero for me. As for our guest this week, Bryant Collins, he went with one of the most wonderful comic book crushes anyone could have chosen and we’ll talk about just how he discovered her, why she’s his number one, and what he thinks of every live-action version of her that’s come through screens both big and small.
Crushgasm 