Archie's Pal Jughead Comics / Jughead (1949-1987) #225

Plot

Archie and Reggie are at Jughead's house, and Reggie is going through a pile of old books on a table. He asks Jughead if they're first editions and Jughead says they are. Reggie asks Jughead if he's kidding, and Jughead tells Reggie that nobody's asking him to believe it. Reggie continues looking through the books, and, apparently surprised by what he sees, says "Gulp!" and "Eep!". Archie asks Jughead about it, but Jughead shushes him. Jughead asks Reggie if something's wrong, and Reggie tells Jughead that it's crazy, but he has this thing about junk. Jughead and Archie both say that they didn't know this, and Reggie says that it's not for anything valuable - just worthless old junk like those books. Reggie convinces Jughead to sell the books to him for $20, and Reggie runs off excitedly with the books. Archie asks about the "first editions" and Jughead says "First ones I ever had!" (emphasis on "I") - besides, he TOLD Reggie that he wasn't asking him to believe him. He then tells Archie that he found them in the trash outside the library and that the books were too worn out to repair. Meanwhile, Reggie is seen running into a rare book dealer. He tells the owner that the books are first editions, and that they're autographed too. The owner looks puzzled at the autographs - "Bill Shakespeare", "Chuck Dickens" and "Hank Longfellow" [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]. He then looks at another book and Reggie thinks the books are worth a small fortune. The man says he likes that book's autograph - "To our pal Jughead from Cleo and Marc Antony". Reggie asks what book that autograph appears in, and the dealer says that it's the 1970 World Almanac. Reggie then realizes that he's been had. He finds Jughead and complains that Jughead wrote in the books. Jughead says he did and that he was just fooling around with a new pen he got - besides, as Reggie said, they were just worthless old books anyway - and only an idiot would take the autographs seriously... Reggie walks off saying he got a big laugh out of them, trying not to let on that he actually believed the autographs (even though Jughead and Archie already know this). In the last panel, Jughead and Archie are seen sitting in Pop Tate's. Pop is holding a piece of paper that says "Best Wishes, Ben Franklin" on it. He says that he doesn't need another autograph of Ben Franklin - how about some cash for a change? Archie says that Jughead is a wild man with his pen and tells him to pay Pop - he's GOT $20. Jughead says that there wasn't any harm in trying.