Archie #322

Few things capture early-1980s anxieties quite like a gas pump reading $12.18 for 9 gallons, and Dan DeCarlo's cover for Archie #322 turns that sticker shock into pure Riverdale comedy. Archie stands helplessly at a self-service pump beside the Archies' band van, answering a passenger's question about the saddest song he's ever heard with a deadpan "The Ding-Ding Blues!" — as dollar signs and "ding ding ding" sound effects ring out from the pump. Up top, a bulletin teases a strange alien visitor coming to Riverdale with gifts for Archie and Jughead, making this 1983 issue a cheerful snapshot of two very different pop-culture preoccupations at once.