Saddened by this.  I talked to him at least once about my MLJ history.  He was a nice guy.

This was a story pitch I made to Vic Gorelick, which was passed over.  See what you think of it.


 THE ARCHIES plot
Open with a shot of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead at a Derrick Klampton concert (guess who he's based on), admiring his guitar mastery.  Arch and company mentally review the groups he's been in—the Yardguards, Dream, Derrick and the Dynamos.  They come away pumped for action at their next concert in a nearby club.
The next night, the Archies play their gig.  Outside, Derrick and a couple of his mates notice the posters on the club and Derrick reflects on how he started like this in some pubs around London.  He votes to go in.  The Archies wind up their opening number and Derrick gets up and asks if he could sit in.  Starstruck, the band says yeah.
Derrick has one of his mates fetch him a guitar from his van and our heroes start into "Sugar, Sugar", but Derrick starts out with a blazing solo before they get to the words.  They finally get to the vocals, but Derrick's hard-rockin' style and fretboard pyrotechnics don't match the song.  When they get to the bridge, Derrick takes off, but the band realize they can't keep up with him.  At first the crowd gets off to it, but when they realize the Archies are one-by-one dropping off, the cheers turn to catcalls.
Derrick winds up his solo, and is dumbfounded the band is staring at him.  He asks what's going on.  Archie explains that Derrick is a hero guitarist, all right, but he's not fitting in with the band.  They come back in and finish the song the way it was supposed to be played.  Applause.
Abashed,  Derrick apologizes to everyone.  He admits that when he started out, he wasn't much better than them...but he worked hard at his gigs, and finally gained the proficiency he has now.  He asks them if they'd give him...well...a second chance.  The Archies look at each other and then say, "Do you know 'Who's Your Baby'?"  He tells them he'll pick it up.
This time, when Derrick plays, he complements the band instrumentally, and they accept him.  Reggie asks sneakily if Archie thinks the new guy will work out, and Archie replies, "Give him a chance, Reg, give him a chance!"

I'm trying to find a specific giant Archie comic published in the Sixties.  It's probably an ARCHIE'S PALS 'N' GALS or maybe an Annual, but the Grand Comics Database doesn't list it, so let's see if anyone can find it.


1)  A story in which Archie transforms himself into Reggie with the help of a secret formula.  Jekyll / Hyde riff.


2)  A story in which Archie misinterprets Betty and Veronica having a verbal cutdown session as having a real fight, and the girls later get into a real fight.


3)  Moose hears about playing bridge and puts a board across two boxes, pretending he's crossing a bridge over a river.  (This one turns up in some reprints and it's only a page long.)


Any help?

Keeping up with Waid's ARCHIE (I knew Mark when) and ASTRO CITY whenever it comes out.