Archie Andrews (comics)
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- This article is about the U.S. comic book character. For other uses, please see the disambiguation page.
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Archie Andrews, created in 1941 by Bob Montana, is a fictional character in an American comic book series published by Archie Comics, a long-run radio series, a syndicated comic strip and animation -- The Archie Show, a Saturday morning cartoon television series by Filmation, plus Archie's Weird Mysteries.
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[edit] History and character
Archibald "Archie" Andrews debuted in Pep Comics 22 (December, 1941), and six decades later, he is still a redheaded 17-year-old.
Archie lives in Riverdale, attends Riverdale High and is the only son of Mary Andrews and mid-level business executive Fred Andrews.
Archie is a typical small-town average teenager. He studies in Riverdale High School, and he is also a lead singer of The Archies band. Generous, well-mannered, but clumsy, he is genuinely liked by many of his friends. Unfortunately, Archie is a bit of a womanizer and always tries to score dates with many beautiful girls. He is the center of the eternal love triangle/quadruple between Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper, and sometimes with Cheryl Blossom. His best friend is Jughead Jones, who has been his friend since they were kids.
Archie often takes odd jobs to pay for his various projects and his dates. Archie is a good fellow, but he often acts clumsily, coming in conflict with Veronica's father Hiram Lodge and Riverdale High's principal, Waldo Weatherbee. As the lead singer of The Archies, Archie performs with Betty, Veronica, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones.
A number of the comic book stories have revealed the Andrews family's origins in Scotland. Archie has been depicted wearing the traditional kilt of his ancestors and playing bagpipes (but not very well). In addition to having many hobbies, Archie is passionate about his car. For decades, he was shown driving a 1916 Ford Model T jalopy called "Betsy." Betsy was destroyed in Life With Archie #238 (Sep '83), after Archie had Dilton Doiley install a rocket-propelled motor for a race. A test run destroyed the jalopy, but was replaced by a brand new hot rod won in a raffle by Archie's friends. In the 1990s, Archie acquired a Ford Mustang.
[edit] Bob Montana and Haverhill, Massachusetts
Archie often greets his friends at Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe. This soda shop, a frequent hangout of Archie's Gang, was based on real-life locations frequented by teenagers in Haverhill, Massachusetts, during the 1930s -- Crown Confectionery and the Chocolate Shop on Merrimack Street and the Tuscarora on Winter Street.
Bob Montana went to high school in Haverhill from 1936 to 1939, and his sketchbook, an illustrated diary of life in Haverhill, was the true origin on Archie and his friends. Montana's daughters once made pages from this sketchbook available online. Several real-life residents of Haverhill became characters in Montana's creation, such as Arnold Daggett, the model for Moose, and Skinny Linehan (Jughead). Miss Grundy was inspired by school librarian Elizabeth Tuck, while Haverhill High School principal Earl McLeod was the basis for Mr. Weatherbee. Montana knew the Massachusetts' Brahmin political family, the Lodges, because he had once painted a mural for them; he combined that name with actress Veronica Lake to create the character of Veronica Lodge.
After four years in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Montana returned in 1946 to launch the Archie newspaper comic strip, which he drew until his death in 1975.
[edit] Archie on radio
Montana's characters were heard on radio in the early 1940s. Archie Andrews began on the Blue Network on May 31, 1943, switched to Mutual in 1944, and then continued on NBC from 1945 until September 5, 1953. Archie was first played by Charles Mullen, Jack Grimes and Burt Boyar, with Bob Hastings as the title character during the NBC years.
[edit] Relationships
Archie has forever been involved in the love triangle between him, Veronica, and Betty. The love triangle is famous, and has become the hallmark of the Archie stories ever since the character was created more than 60 years ago.
Initially, when Archie was known as "Chick", he was trying to woo the girl next door Betty Cooper for his object of affection. Initially, Betty only considered him as an annoying red head neighbour. When Veronica came to Riverdale, "Chick" switched his attention to her, leading Betty to jealousy. She then tried to win "Chick"'s affection back.
It is hard to decide which one Archie truly loves: Betty or Veronica. Because of his famous indecision between the girls, the terminology of Betty and Veronica syndrome is now being coined.
Archie says in many occasions and stories that he considers Betty to be his best friend, someone that he can confide in, and is more comfortable with her. But on other occasions, he likes going on a date with Betty. Even when Jughead asked him whether he likes kissing Betty, Archie blushly answered yes. With Betty sporadically dating Jason Blossom currently, he shows a tinge of jealousy. Archie also admitted on several occasions that whenever he wants to have his ego lifted up, he comes to Betty who will shower him with affection.
Archie also considers Veronica to be his girlfriend. Beautiful, stylish, and not to mention one of the richest girls in Riverdale, Veronica can easily manipulate him, and although he sometimes realizes it, he cannot do anything about it. Archie is always fighting for her affection, especially with other boys and his main rival, Reggie Mantle. Archie admits for some unexplained reason that Veronica can always take control over him. Sometimes he can be his own man, sometimes he can't (variants of this revelation exist as a result of differing writers).
Jughead Jones is Archie's best friend ever since childhood. When Jughead first came to Riverdale, he was in a bad mood and tended to dismiss Archie. But Archie, of good heart, tried to cheer up Jughead; they became inseparable ever since. Oftentimes Jughead has to help Archie out from a tricky situation, which usually involves girls.
Besides Betty and Veronica, another object of affection comes from another recently introduced character - a rich red-haired girl named Cheryl Blossom. At first, she was deemed too sexual and a bit promiscuous and she was taken out of the series. But when her character was realized to be popular, she was brought her back again, shown in Love Showdown issues.
[edit] Love Showdown
Love Showdown is a four part mini-series that features characters from Archie Comics. The story got more publicity than any other event in Archie history. Archie, who has been undecided whether he should choose Betty or Veronica, instead in an unexpected move chooses Cheryl Blossom.
[edit] The Archies
The Archies is a band contains Archie as a lead singer and lead guitarist, Reggie as the lead bassist and sometimes guitarist, Veronica and Betty as back up singers and keyboarist, and Jughead as the drummer. The band is a garage band, founded by Archie himself. Although not as famous as Josie and The Pussycats, the band sometimes playing in numerous gigs, including one at the "twelve flags" amusement park.
[edit] TV movie
On May 6, 1990, NBC telecast Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, a TV movie (and subsequent comic book) depicting the characters as adults 15 years after their high school graduation.
Christopher Rich portrayed Archie with Lauren Holly as Betty and Karen Kopins as Veronica. As Archie and the gang prepare for their 15th high school reunion, their teenage years are only memories. Archie is an attorney engaged to image-conscious Pam, while Jughead (Sam Whipple) is a neurotic psychiatrist with a troublemaking son (dubbed "Jughead Junior" by Archie). An elementary school teacher and aspiring novelist, Betty is engaged to a jerk named Robert, who is jealous of Archie. Living in France, Veronica charters a Concorde to attend the reunion. She remains in love with Archie, who still has divided feelings for Betty and Veronica.
Moose Mason (Jeff Hochendoner) and Midge Klump (Debi Derryberry) are married chiropractors, while Big Ethel (Cindy Ambuehl) is a beautiful model. Having worked for Mr.Lodge (James Noble), Reggie (Gary Kroeger) owns several businesses. Reggie's plan to demolish Pop Tate's to gain extra space for his gym is contested in court by Archie. At the end, Archie breaks up with Pam, Jughead moves back to Riverdale to open a practice and Betty plans to teach in Riverdale High. Veronica stays for a while before going back to Paris, and Reggie is forgiven. Panned by both fans and critics, and dubbed "Archie-something" by at least one critic, this pilot film was not picked up for a series run.
[edit] Official website
According to Archie publisher Michael Silberkleit, the official Archie website receives 15 to 18 million hits a month. [1] There have been many Archie licensing deals and products, including Archie tattoos from Topps Chewing Gum in 1968.
[edit] Lawsuits
Because of the romantic and erotic envolvement, and sometimes fans create an adult situation content, Archie Comics is banning every fanfiction stories based on Archie comics characters. The reason behind this is Archie Comics does not want to tarnish the clean and good nature of the characters into something more adult or different from the stories that have been depicted in the comic. Fanfiction.Net received cease and desist order from Archie Comics to remove any Archie comic based fanfics from its site.
On April 4th 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre of Atlanta, was scheduled to debut a new play, Archie's Weird Fantasy, which depicted Riverdale's most famous resident coming out of the closet and moving to New York. The day before the play was scheduled to open, Archie Comics issued a cease and desist order threatening litigation if the play proceeded as written. "The play was to depict Archie and his pals from Riverdale growing up, coming out and facing censorship. 'Archie Comics' thought if Archie was portrayed as being gay, that would dilute and tarnish his image," For full report, go to Archie satire lawsuit.
[edit] Cultural references and trivia
- In The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Moose Mason, and Jughead Jones make a brief cameo; they're shown pulling up to the Simpson's house and tossing Homer Simpson out of their car as Moose warns Homer, "Duh, stay out of Riverdale!".
- The Spanish version of Archie Andrews is named Archi Gómez.
- On an episode of the popular game show Jeopardy!, Archie and Jughead's names appeared as the answer to a trivia question.
- In the Drawn Together episode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree", a red-headed character shown playing Whac-A-Mole is modeled after Archie Andrews.
- In the Kevin Smith film, Chasing Amy, Banky and Hooper begin a debate on the sexual preference of Archie, claiming that he and Jughead are homosexual lovers.
- In 1998, director Tommy O'Haver (Get Over It, Ella Enchanted) was hired by Universal to write and direct a big-budget Archie movie, but the project never went before the cameras.
- In an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Reese says while reading an Archie Comic, "I wish Reggie would kill Archie and take over this comic book".
- An episode of Robot Chicken features Archie and the other characters in a Final Destination parody where Archie has a vision of their deaths in a bus accident and manage to get everyone off before it happens (although Archie's vision of it was different from how it really would have happened).
[edit] External links
- Haverhill cartoonist Bob Montana
- Archie:To Riverdale and Back Again at the Internet Movie Database
- Archie trivia
- Rik Offenberger interview with Michael Silberkleit
