Archie's Joke Book Magazine #278

The cover of this 1981 Archie Comics Group entry sets up a perfectly timed three-panel gag: Archie desperately tries to rouse his napping father to ask for ten dollars, only for his mother — reading her magazine nearby — to deliver the punchline with a knowing smirk. Stan Goldberg's clean, expressive linework captures the warm domestic comedy that made this series a staple of spinner racks, and the strip format gives the joke a satisfying little-comic-strip feel right on the cover itself. At fifty cents, Archie's Joke Book Magazine #278 is a cheerful slice of everyday Riverdale humor.