Betty & Veronica Volume 1 (Betty & Veronica Comics)

Betty & Veronica Volume 1 (Betty & Veronica Comics)  collects the three-issue mini-series by Adam Hughes, along with Jughead #12.This is a vehicle for Adam Hughes artwork (and for Hot Dog, who does the voice-over narrative, and without whom this would have been a two-star story). The story itself is fairly minor – minor enough that I never even bothered to think ahead to the resolution, so it came as a surprise).The artwork is very stylised, but also proper comic-book art – everyone looks like themselves, and also look like proper humans (or dogs and cats, as applicable), though most of the regulars look like film stars – Mr Hughes’ trademark ‘glamour’ approach (and just to be pedantic, doesn’t ‘glamour’ come from fairy-tales, where unsuspecting mortals would be put under a spell (or glamour) and see things as being far more beautiful than they actually were?).The individual panels are also under a glamour, as people spend a lot of time striking poses, particularly Jughead (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Alice Cooper – the rock-star, not Betty’s mother), though to be honest, teenagers probably would strike poses when declaiming dramatic dialogue to their friends.There is nothing wrong with this story – other than it being only three issues (and looking at the dates on the Amazon listings for the individual issues, with a one-year spread, it explains why this book was six-months late).This was more of a teen-romance book than anything, despite there not being a great deal of teen-romance; though there were many references hidden away for readers, and several in-jokes about 75th anniversaries (which this book missed by a year…). It is a pretty book, but the story just felt stretched out, unlike the Jughead issue which spotlights just how good the all-new all-now Archie and Jughead titles are.Read it if you want to, but don’t feel obliged to. I read a library copy.