Artist: Harry Lucey

Like I've mentioned before, I was…and am…a big Archie fan. As a youngster, I would pick up a digest from the grocery store checkout line whenever I had the money.
I would usually flip through the digest before buying, to see if there were any stories drawn by…"that artist". Back then, the writers and artists weren't credited in the books for some reason.



But there was a certain artist that connoted the best stories to me. Somehow, the stories drawn by that guy were always funnier…and funner…than the other stuff.
It wasn't until recent years that I found out the artist was Harry Lucey.



As far as I can tell, he wasn't often the writer of the stories. But his art was full of such energy and fun, with the characters often running around wildly, thanks to some crisis or other.



Even if the story was more dialogue-heavy (as Archie stories often are), Harry Lucey's excellent portrayal of the various personalities, big emotions, and facial expressions made every story more engaging. I often laughed at his stories, which, as much as I love the characters, is rare with any of the other Archie artists. Nobody does the patented Archie comics "baffled" expression better than Harry Lucey did!


(he could render a pretty sexy Betty or Veronica too)

Unfortunately, Harry Lucey passed away quite awhile ago, before fandom really knew who he was. But looking back, he did what I would really love to do with strong characterization and facial expression (…and hapless characters running around wildly).



He did a lot of other comic work as well, but it's Archie that I know him for, and where he really left his mark.

Harry Lucey, thanks for the many, many ongoing laughs!