Archie Comics

Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, and Forsythe "Jughead" Jones.

Archie's first appearance, in Pep Comics #22 on December 22, 1941, was drawn by Bob Montana (sound familiar?), and written by Vic Bloom. Archie was conceived by John L. Goldwater, who some believe was influenced by the Andy Hardy movies.

In 1941, a teenage humor strip, Archie, began as a new back-up feature in Pep Comics. Striking a popular nerve with emerging youth culture, Archie and his gang were such a hit that in 1946, MLJ Comics changed its name to Archie Comics.
In the 1950s and '60s, cartoonist Dan DeCarlo ceased work on Atlas Comics' Millie the Model, and brought his influential style to the Archie Comics universe. DeCarlo is primarily responsible for the modern look of the Archie characters, and the creation of popular Archie spin-off characters Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats.

The enduring Archie legacy has spanned dozens of Archie titles, including spin-offs, digest collections, and magazines focused on particular characters.
Some of the odder series feature Archie and his friends cast as superhero versions of themselves or playing spies in a parody of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Some series such as Life With Archie and Archie at Riverdale High featured straight adventure and/or mystery stories.

The Archie characters have been continually successful in other mediums since the comic's inception. The Archie Andrews radio program debuted May 31, 1943 and ran on various networks until September 5, 1953. The "Archie" newspaper comic strip was launched in 1946, and was drawn by Bob Montana until his death in 1975. In 1968, Archie was adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon series by Filmation, The Archie Show. In 1969 the teen's bubblegum pop band, The Archies, earned a gold record with their #1 hit "Sugar, Sugar".
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Archie characters were authorized for use in a series of Christian comic books written and drawn by Al Hartley for Spire Christian Comics.

Aside from very basic characteristics, many of the characters' traits and even personalities can change from strip to strip, usually depending on the writer. For example, usually Archie is very good at any given sport but sometimes he is the worst player on the team.

In certain strips, Betty does not mind being Archie's second choice as long as she gets a date with him sometimes, but in other strips she is insulted when Archie considers her a second choice and responds with either anger or sadness. In addition, sometimes it's depicted that Veronica dominates Archie's love interests and Betty plays a distant second fiddle, while other times both girls seem to have Archie split 50/50 in a heated love triangle. Even though Archie's main love interests are Veronica and Betty, he often goes on dates with many other girls, the vast majority if not all only appearing once and never again. Veronica and Betty also often go on dates with other boys that only appear once.

There are some similar inconsistencies regarding the source of the Lodge's wealth; some stories depict Mr. Lodge as a self-made man who grew up in a poor part of Riverdale (who thus wants his daughter to study in a public high school to avoid making her a snob), while others depict the Lodge family as "old money" with a long history of wealth and a gallery of pictures of famous wealthy relatives. One comic's punchline ends, when Archie is trying to find out how Mr. Lodge gained his wealth with Veronica answering for him: "That's easy, when he married mom she was worth $40,000,000 at the time."

Reggie Mantle is usually portrayed as being part of the gang (as a character that's sometimes mean and rude, but deep down is really a good person), but in many other strips he is depicted as an outsider and is an antagonist of Archie and the gang. Similarly, Archie is sometimes depicted as a complete hopeless clutz of somewhat limited intelligence, while in other stories he is presented as being an extremely honest and good-hearted person, as well as being extremely moral (see the Christian comics produced in the 70's by Spire).

Each character has numerous relatives that have appeared once and never again. The inside of each character's house is almost always inconsistent. Other details will conflict between any two given stories. Archie states that it takes a half-hour to drive from his house to Veronica's, which greatly contradicts the numerous previous implications in other strips that Veronica's mansion is only a few miles or blocks away from Archie's house.

The geographical location of and size of Riverdale is of course always left vague, but there have been a number of inconsistencies. Sometimes it is portrayed as being near enough to a beach for the gang to drive there; other times there seems to be no beach, as in a story where the gang are complaining they have nowhere to go on a hot day. Often the gang will be seen on seemingly impromptu and convenient ski holidays. This would suggest it is on the west coast, perhaps in California (as in the TV film). Yet other times it seems to be a small town in the middle of America. One story has Betty, Archie and Jughead trying to escape a tornado, which would suggest Riverdale is in the Midwest -- Betty at one point says, "We shouldn't laugh about tornados in this part of the country." It seems to be surrounded by farm land and woods, as well, but one story shows Archie and his father buying lobsters from a old fisherman who says to a critical Mr. Andrews that he should "either buy lobsters or do like I do on Sunday -- 'jes keep yer trap shut." Despite seeming to be an idyllic small town, occasional stories have taken part in a rough, seemingly crime-ridden part of town.

There are stories or story elements that are often used in Archie comics. For example, the prom is coming up and Archie cannot decide on who his date will be or
Archie accidentally invited two girls to the same date at the same time, which he usually does not realize until the last minute. He tries to run between one date and the other without getting caught by either. Sometimes he is caught, sometimes he gets away with it. In a variation of the above, one character may break a date to go with another person, but runs into that person while on the date and has to hide from them. Archie and Veronica are the usual offenders.

Often a cash-strapped Archie attempts to borrow or raise money for an impending date with Veronica. Despite his best efforts, either he cannot pay for dinner or his jalopy breaks down. Veronica vows never to date him again.

In some stories Moose is jealous because Reggie is talking to his girlfriend, Midge. Moose beats up Reggie. Sometimes, Reggie has a plan that he thinks will help him get past Moose, or out of a beating (ie. Moose states Reggie will pay for kissing "his girl", Midge, and Reggie will give him money, or an IOU, but it backfires. Occasionally, it will be Archie who gets caught for some reason talking to Midge (almost always in a nonromantic way i.e. homework), and chased or beaten by Moose.

Another story line has Archie and his friends help Pop Tate get more business, or they prevent a greedy businessman from shutting him down.

Typically Archie is late for school, accidentally breaks something, or disrupts class. Mr. Weatherbee desperately tries to prevent Archie, Jughead, or both from clumsily disrupting or damaging the school when the superintendent visits. As if on cue, the boys accidentally blow up the chemistry lab. A variation on this theme has Mr. Weatherbee so obsessed with Archie not causing trouble, he brings it on himself, e.g. watching Archie's every move, he falls down the stairs.

Blog re-edited in 2015

This comic book has been in print and selling for so many years and it is still being sold today.

There are a few unsolved mysterys within the books.
What does the "S" on Jugheads shirt stand for?
Why does Archie have tic-tac-toe boards on the side of his head?

We probably will never know!