If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  Except for this year with the beaches closed. But you can always sit back and catch up on the pages of Archie Comics via some new books arriving soon at a comic book store near you.  The high point from Archie this summer is this great homage cover to the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer #1 hit album from 1974 that rode the Billboard charts for 155 weeks, my own personal most-listened to album ever (you owe it to yourself to listen to this great compilation album of the band’s hits–check it out here at Amazon).  The homage cover was created by Jeff Shultz and Rosario “Tito” Peña after artist Keith McConnell′s original album cover (designed just after McConnell’s tour as Marine Corps artist in the Vietnam War and a while before he would return to war as an artist in Desert Storm).

Here is the original double vinyl cover:

The cover accompanies the first issue of Archie & Friends: Endless Summer, due in comic shops in August, giving you plenty of time to add it to your comic shop pull list.  Look forward to those things we can’t and shouldn’t be doing, but want to be doing: taking off to island resorts, making new camp tales, and taking a sunny Florida road trip, including a beach outing with an unexpected guest.  The entire book is written by Dan Parent, with a host of artists in the anthology of stories including Bill Galvan, Pat and Tim Kennedy, Jeff Shultz, Dan Parent, Jim Amash, Bob Smith, Glenn Whitmore, and Jack Morelli.

For even more fun with Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, that same crew of creators plus Bill Golliher will be putting out a 120-page book of stories titled Archie & Friends: Forever.

Rounding out some summer fun from Archie Comics, keep an eye out for the giant 80th anniversary Best of Archie Boxed Set, featuring 1,200 pages of stories.

You’re going to be home, might as well put on some Beach Boys classics and kick back and enjoy some comics.  Look for all of these at Elite Comics or you local comic shop this summer.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg