Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals Double Digest #146 (Archie, Jan. 2011). “All the Doggone Day” was the first story I wrote for Archie Comics, before I was offered the Life With Archie series, but not published until after. In it, Archie offers to pick up Mrs. Lodge’s prize pooch from the groomer’s and deliver it safely to the dog show, which he does, but only after a series of near disasters.
What surprised me was how easy it was to slip into writing these characters; I immediately went to Archie’s characteristic over-eagerness, his headlong plunge into being helpful without any thought to consequences. I’ve been reading Archie since I’ve been reading comics and after all those years of exposure, the Riverdale gang were as familiar to me as family.