I was the kind of kid who read whatever comic book I could get my hands on. I’ve read through paperback collections of “Beetle Bailey,” “Charlie Brown” and “Hagar the Horrible.” I devoured Dave Berg and Don Martin strips collected into poorly-bound digest-size “Mad Magazine” paperbacks that I found haphazardly tossed in the stacks at used bookstores. And in my time, I’ve read quite a few “Archie Digests” off the supermarket rack. Oftentimes, when I’m standing in line at a Publix, I wonder who reads soap opera recaps or who is excited to see the latest “Sudoku Recipes for Cat Owners” specialty publication. “Archie Digests” sits right there, behind the register with the rest, and this week, I was the one excited to see it.                 I slipped a copy of “Archie Jumbo Comics #296” into my bag and cracked it open between classes. I found an Archie who is not exactly who I remembered. Maybe I’ve been absorbing too much of the background noise from the new Archie Comics multimedia empire of the last few years, but this Archie is, well, lame. Stories are either written in a desperate attempt to remain relevant (see the story in which he spread “Rapping,” the cool new trend for teens to all of Riverdale High) or with punchlines that commonly revolve around gaggles of women mooning over Archie. He hasn’t aged well.

So what gives? TV series “Riverdale” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” are currently airing on The CW and Netflix, respectively, and a “Katy Keene” show is headed to the air next season, as well. Mark Waid, Sina Grace, Fiona Staples and big-name comic book creators relaunched “Archie” in 2015, bringing the flagship title for the company to a place somewhere between the gritty “Riverdale” and the classic series. Archie has been fighting zombies and demons and even The Predator, who touched down in town to massacre the kids of Riverdale High, in recent years.

Why all of this energy and excitement about the Jumbo Comics Digest character with one foot firmly planted in the 60s and another in the 40s? Why is Archie cool? Why was I willing – excited even – to pick up a copy of this book? Maybe it’s because it is finally spring, and that means driving around with the windows down and the music playing. “Archie” has that kind of feeling when he’s at his best. He’s the sort of guy who is always on the edge of graduating high school, he’s got a case of “senior-itis” that’s been stretched out for 70 years. Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and the rest of the gang are just old enough to fall in love but not old enough to have real problems and worries. Somehow, Archie’s garage band,“The Archies,” sounds just like the records, heavily produced and crooning “Sugar Sugar” at the school dance.

There’s something timeless about the idea of Archie, even if the stories about him don’t seem to follow through. “Riverdale,” and to a lesser extent, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” bend their characters into campy teen-drama antics, and stories like “Jughead: The Hunger” (about werewolf Jughead) or “Afterlife with Archie” (about Archie vs. Zombies) drop these lame characters, nothing more than punchline generators and straw men, into stories that force them to reveal something about themselves and the stories we like. “Archie” works because you can fit the average teenager with dreams of playing guitar and hanging out with his friends into any story. It tends to work – except in stories just about that.

The “Archie” renaissance is just beginning. I think the creators figured out what to do with the characters and how to make them work in other mediums for the 21st century, but those original versions of the characters might need to say goodbye to the grocery story racks.