Archie Comics
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Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenage Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe "Jughead" Jones characters created by Bob Montana. All characters were based on people he knew in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Archie's first appearance in Pep Comics #22 on December 22, 1941, was drawn by Montana and written by Vic Bloom. With the creation of Archie, publisher John L. Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney.
[edit] History
Archie Comics started out in 1939 as MLJ Comics, named after the first initials of its three founders: Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater.
Early MLJ titles featured generic superheroes remembered in the lore of comic collectors' trivia. The Shield was the first flag-themed superhero, a year before Captain America. The Comet was the first superhero killed in the line of duty.
The Hangman (the Comet's younger brother) might be the most brutal superhero of the 1940s. Roy the Superboy preceded Superboy by half a decade, and Steel Sterling was dubbed "the Man of Steel" before Superman. None remained popular. In 1941, a teenage humor strip called Archie began as a new back-up feature in Pep, replacing Madam Satan. Striking a popular nerve with emerging youth culture, Archie and his gang were such a hit that MLJ changed its name to Archie Comics in 1946.
In the 1950s and 1960s, 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 comics 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, feature straight adventure and/or mystery stories.
In May 2007, Archie will debut what they call a more "dynamic", realistic art style, which will also feature longer serialized 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 bubblegum pop band, The Archies, earned a gold record with their #1 hit "Sugar, Sugar". In 1974, a network television pilot was made in attempt to bring a live-action Archie show but was unsuccessful.
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.
Several attempts have been made to revive MLJ's original superhero line, without success. Today, Archie Comics largely ignores its superheroes. Occasionally, some appear in their comics, if only for the sake of maintaining a trademark.
[edit] Lawsuits
Archie Comics sued music duo The Veronicas for trademark infringement in 2005 over the band's name, which was taken from the comic book character. Archie Comics and Sire Records (The Veronicas' record company) finally resolved their problems through a co-promotion deal. [1]
Fanfiction.Net received a cease and desist order from Archie Comics to remove any Archie comic based fan fiction from its site, as they are derived from their copyrighted and trademarked properties and were stated to damage Archie's public image. It included public statements by Archie Comics, who have stated that they do not allow fan fiction based on Archie comics works.[citation needed]
On April 4, 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre in 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. Dad's Garage artistic director Sean Daniels said, "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." [2]
[edit] The Archie universe
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Archie is set in the small town of Riverdale. The state, or even the general location of the town, is unclear. It is known, however, that John L. Goldwater went to school at Horace Mann School, which is located in New York City in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In the early years of Archie, Riverdale was located in Massachusetts, with Mr. Lodge being a senator for that state, but this is no longer considered canon.
For the comics' 60th anniversary in 2002, several geographical and historical hints to the location of Riverdale were printed in every digest issue. At the end of the year, it was revealed that the hints point to Riverdale being located in the "Missouri area," but that officially Riverdale has no location. It is essentially located wherever the reader wants it to be. Indeed, the geography of Riverdale is far too inconsistent for it to be any one specific location (see below).
[edit] Characters
[edit] The Archie gang (main characters)
- Archibald "Archie" Andrews, [3] main character, a typical teenage boy with a great interest in dating. He sometimes tends to be clumsy.
- Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper, [4] the blonde girl-next-door, with incredible cooking skills, and an expert mechanic.
- Veronica "Ronnie/Ron" Lodge, [5] the rich, sometimes nice and sometimes snobbish girl.
- Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones III, [6] - Archie's best friend. Jughead is sarcastic, obsessed with eating, lazy, and apathetic towards girls.
- Reginald "Reggie" Mantle, [7] the conceited practical joker. He occasionally dates Veronica and sometimes, although very rarely, goes on dates with Betty. He is also obsessed with Midge, which often earns him one of Big Moose's beatings.
[edit] Parents (of the main characters)
Of all the parents, it is Veronica's father and Archie's parents who appear most frequently.
- Mr. Hiram Lodge, [8] Veronica's rich father, still very handsome with white hair; often becomes angry with Archie for his clumsiness in his house.
- Archie's parents are Fred and Mary Andrews. Fred is pear-shaped, highly conservative, old-fashioned, and is losing his hair. He also plays the saxophone and was briefly part of The Archies. Mary is a typical all-American suburban mother.
The other parents appear less frequently:
- Mrs. Hermione Lodge, [9] Veronica's mother. Appears far less frequently than her husband, and rarely plays a significant role. She has also been called Julie in the Archie comics circa 1980s.
- Betty's parents are Hal and Alice Cooper. They are typically the most relaxed and tolerant of the parents.
- Jughead's parents are Forsythe Pendleton Jr. and Gladys Jones. His father is very slim. In older comics, Gladys is portrayed as a slim, older woman with a "needle" nose not unlike Jughead's, but more recently is usually portrayed as being younger, less thin, and with a nose normal in appearance.
- Reggie's father is Ricky Mantle, editor of the local newspaper.
[edit] Other family members
- Jellybean, Jughead's little sister. Her real name is Forsythia.
- Hot Dog, [10] Jughead's faithful pet dog.
- Betty has an older brother, Chic, and older sister, Polly, both of whom primarily appear in the Little Archie series.
- Spot ("Spotty"), Little Archie's faithful pet dog, who also primarily appears in the Little Archie series.
[edit] Other Teens/Expanded Archie Gang (supporting)
- Malcolm "Moose"/"Big Moose" Mason [11] (earlier Moose McGee), a muscular star athlete who is not so good in his studies and is possessive about his girlfriend.
- Midge Klump, [12] Moose's girlfriend. (earlier "Midge Collins")
- Dilton Donald "Dilly" Doiley, [13] the very intelligent nerd and inventor.
- Ethel "Big Ethel" Muggs (earlier Ethel Dinklehof) [14], a tall, stringy teenager who always tries to win over Jughead, albeit unsuccessfully.
- Charles "Chuck" Clayton, [15] an athlete and cartoonist.
- Nancy Woods, [16] Chuck's girlfriend.
- Ginger Lopez, a fashon designer and close friend of Betty and Veronica.
- Renée Lyon [17] A rich yuppie girl who occasionally hangs around Veronica. Originally scheming, and wanting to ruin Betty and Archie, now she mostly appears in comics to act hostile around Veronica's friends, and offer exclusive invitations or tickets to concerts, parties, clubs, and premieres of her rich, movie star, mother's movie.She later moved to Tahiti and calls Veronica and asks her to jet-set down to see her.
- Cricket O'Dell, [18] a teenage girl with a great nose for money, appearing occasionally. Her big claim to fame is her uncanny ability to sniff out money. She can guess the amount of money in almost anybody's pocket with this keen sense. Jason, one of the snobs at Pembrooke Academy, thinks of her as somewhat of a novelty in one episode and brings her to meet his frat brothers. The jokes on Jason as the overwhelming aroma of money knocks her out cold and burns her nostrils thus ruining Jason's planned performance to the guys.
- Cheryl Blossom, a rich yuppie love interest of Archie, debuted in 1982.
- Jason Blossom, Cheryl's arrogant brother and a rival of Archie's. Interested in Betty but hindered by his clique's disdain for "townies".
- Wendy Weatherbee, the niece of Mr. Weatherbee, the principal. Admired by Archie & Reggie, but they don't want to date the principal's niece. She has dated Dilton at least once. She was interested in Jughead in one issue.
- Jinx Molloy In several episodes, Jinx makes an appearance and brings about bad luck and misfortune to anybody within a certain radius of him. Typically, Archie and his gang are on the receiving end of this misfortune and usually are oblivious to the oncoming doom that awaits them (e.g. A flower pot falling off a high balcony about to knock Archie out cold with him being none the wiser).
- Penny is Jinx Molloys girlfriend. Her nickname is "Lucky Penny," and she seems to have a tendency to ward off Jinx's bad luck with her good luck. In one episode, everyone warns her about Jinx and his string of bad luck, but she still manages to find gold coins hidden under a tree. After finding her fortune, she takes a job as a model for an advertising company, which pays her a substantial amount of money. This would not have been possible without having Jinx around to counter off of his bad luck.
- Frankie Valdez is your stereotypical Hispanic compliment to Archie and his gang. Not seen often, but he can be found dating Maria, the other Hispanic character.
[edit] Characters who no longer appear
- Ambrose, a small, clumsy boy whose hat always covered his eyes. He was the "tag-along" who never quite fit in with the gang, despite trying with all his might to help. He moved away from Riverdale. One comic has him visit the town; Archie, recalling how often he was rude and even mean to Ambrose, feared that Ambrose would want to get back at him-- but all Ambrose remembered was how Archie had included him in the gang. In the story "The Great Quiz Whiz Contest" reprinted in Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #108, Archie pulls a lucky double sided penny from his pocket that his pal Ambrose gave him.
- Fangs Fogarty, the town bully--"Fangs" over his prominent teeth. He, too, moved away. The comic that has him visit the town reveals he has had dental work that gave him perfect teeth, and that he now goes by the name "Smiley." He asks forgiveness for the terrible things he did as a kid.
- Bubbles McBounce was an obese girl from the Little Archies. She is known for saving the day by holding down an air balloon that risked taking Archie and the gang on a magical voyage.
[edit] The Faculty
- Mr. Waldo Weatherbee, [19] the school principal, popularly referred to as 'The Bee'.
- Mr. Patton Howitzer, ex-Marine sergeant and vice-principal of Riverdale High. The first time he came to Riverdale High, he was very harsh with everyone in the school, but has softened up since.
- Geraldine Grundy, [20] a teacher at Riverdale High. Is usually portrayed as an English teacher, but is occasionally shown teaching history and French.
- Professor Flutesnoot,[21] science teacher (also band teacher in the Little Archie universe).
- Coach Kleats, [22]a physical education teacher.
- Coach Clayton,[23] Chuck's dad, also a physical education teacher.
- Miss Beazley, [24]the cook in the school cafeteria.
- Miss Haggly, a teacher. Has been noted as a History teacher.
- Miss Simkins, a math teacher, appearing rarely.
- Mr. Svenson, [25]school custodian.
- Ms. Phlips, Mr. Weatherbee's assistant.
- Superintendent Hassle, the superintendent of the Riverdale school board, who is often not impressed with Mr. Weatherbee. He usually is impressed with some of the things Archie and the gang does (for example, putting happy faces all over the school to promote the feeling of joy among the students and faculty).
- Mr. Grimley - the school's uneasy guidance counselor who has an ulcer from listening to the students' "wacky" career choices (e.g. Betty wanting to be a macaroni artist).
- Ms. Juanita Sanchez - the Spanish teacher of Riverdale High, appearing rarely. She sent Jughead once to Ms. Grundy's French class because he was not good in Spanish.
[edit] The Townsfolk
[edit] Cameos by Non-Fictional Characters
From time to time the writers would drop in real people and locations as characters in a story. The most common one of these was Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles with appearances by the late Bill Liebowitz, the store's then owner, and Jen Niles one of the store's employees. Most of these stories revolved around yo-yos, a hobby Bill and Jen were known for. There were three appearances of Bill and Golden Apple Comics.
[edit] Inconsistent themes and character portrayals
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This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details. |
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 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 on occasion, but in other strips is insulted when Archie considers her a second choice and responds with either anger or sadness. In addition, sometimes Veronica dominates Archie's love interest 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 other girls; the vast majority of these girls only appearing once. Veronica and Betty also go on dates with other boys who 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 (thus wanting 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."
There are also inconsistencies surrounding "Moose" Mason's character. In some issues he is portrayed as too dumb to solve the simplest math problem, but in other episodes he can complete in-class tests, win spots on knowledge-based game shows, and even place ahead of other characters in these shows. Other episodes describe him as having a learning disability, with the students being very kind and supportive. Midge, Moose's girlfriend, is usually respectful of Moose's limited intelligence, but has been known to make comments suggesting otherwise.
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 other strips he is depicted as an outsider and is an antagonist to Archie and the gang. Similarly, Archie is sometimes depicted as a complete hopeless klutz of only average 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 who 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. In Archie's Double Digest #165, 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 away from Archie's house.
As stated above, the geographical location of and size of Riverdale is always vague, and there have been a number of inconsistencies in this. Sometimes Riverdale 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. Snow is very common in "winter" comics. Often the gang will be seen on seemingly impromptu and convenient ski holidays. This would suggest it might be somewhere in the northern states. 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 tornadoes in this part of the country." There is also one story in which Riverdale is shown on a small map as being in about the same place as Des Moines, Iowa. Riverdale seems to be surrounded by farm land and woods, as well, but one story shows Archie and his father buying lobsters from an 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. But perhaps the most fitting choice of all for the location of Riverdale, if there can really be one, would be that it simply is a somewhat fantasized version of Riverdale NY, since that town is real and is only a few miles away from the actual headquarters of the publishers of Archie Comics, and also fits with all of the other clues given above except the presence of tornadoes and the small map. However, in the film adaptation it was plainly stated that Riverdale was located in California, contradicting all of the above evidence.
Overall, it seems that the writers of the comics have no qualms about changing facts to fit the story even at the expense of continuity. The complete absence of established canon is an often noted aspect of Archie Comics and may be a turn-off to fans of other comics who are accustomed to an established comic universe with strict canon. See also:
[edit] Common themes in Archie Comics
The following are stories or story elements that are often used in Archie comics.
- The prom or some sort of dance is coming up and Archie cannot decide who his date will be.
- 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.
- A cash-strapped Archie attempts to borrow or raise money for an impending date with Veronica. Despite his best efforts, he either cannot pay for dinner or his jalopy breaks down. Veronica vows never to date him again.
- 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.
- Archie and his friends help Pop Tate get more business, or they prevent a greedy businessman from shutting him down.
- 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.
- The boys challenge the girls or the Riverdale High faculty to game in various types of sports. The boys think it will be an easy win, but they end up getting defeated.
- A rivalry develops between the gang at Riverdale High and students at another high school (who are always depicted as being villainous) over a competition or athletic event. The rival students will cheat in an attempt to win and/or sabotage Riverdale High's efforts, but this would always backfire, allowing Archie's gang to emerge victorious.
- Jughead shows everyone an item that he claims endows him with great luck, and Reggie and/or Veronica are skeptics. But when all sorts of events occur that support Jughead's claim, they do everything in their power to steal it.
- Archie is at Veronica's house and ends up breaking countless priceless heirlooms. Mr. Lodge angrily kicks him out of the house.
- An assortment of characters go to the beach. While there, Archie and Reggie love to look at the scantily clad women. Occasionally they organize "girl watching" contests.
- In true Three's Company fashion, one character eavesdrops on another and misinterprets what they're saying.
- Archie learns that Betty or Veronica is spending large amounts of time with, say, "Billy," which causes Archie to become enraged with jealousy. However, by the end of the strip, we learn that Billy is actually a visiting cousin, neighbor's pet, or some other non-romantic and innocuous subject.
- Archie (often dragging Jughead along) tries to "make points" with Mr. Lodge by doing chores for him, but fails miserably, causing Mr. Lodge to become very angry and damaging their relationship even further.
- A character develops short-lived paranormal abilities, such as predicting the future.
- Mr. Weatherbee, stressed out from Archie's antics, decides to go on vacation or visit a quiet, remote area of Riverdale to relax, but ironically ends up running into Archie.
- Veronica abuses her wealth and connections in order to upstage Betty (for example, she flies to Paris and hires a renowned fashion designer to provide her with a dazzling dress for the prom, while Betty is left at home sewing by hand). Often, Veronica ends up dissatisfied with the results (for example, Betty independently creates an identical dress by hand).
- Pop, Mr. Weatherbee, Mrs. Grundy, or Ms. Beazley decide to retire, and Archie and the gang persuade them to stay. For members of the faculty, one variation has the person in question in fact retire, but their replacement proves to be so horrible that the gang has no choice but to convince them to come back.
- Betty (in love with Archie) and Reggie (in love with Veronica) unite to try and sabotage Archie and Veronica's relationship
- The boys become lifeguards and have many adventures while saving drowning people and flirting with the women on the beach.
- Jughead eats an incredible amount of food, often in a food-eating contest. People watching him are amazed.
- Veronica sees Betty and Archie together and develops a plan to separate them. The plan usually backfires on herself. Conversely, Betty attempts, usually without success, to separate Veronica and Archie. Can also happen with Archie and Reggie. One extremely common strip involves Reggie sabotaging Archie's sporting equipment so that he can win first place uncontested or play in the important game and therefore get all the girls. However, the plan backfires on him when the girls opt to take care of the injured Archie rather than Reggie the sporting hero.
- Archie must cram for a test the next day but gets into a series of hijinks.
- Veronica's father tries to introduce Veronica to men other than Archie. (Who, sometimes, might be clumsier or more annoying than Archie.)
- Archie is assigned to do an errand, but he messes up along the way.
- Middle-class Betty and wealthy Veronica wonder what it would be like to be in the other's shoes.
- Archie and friends go on a vacation together.
- Archie loses an important document that Mr. Lodge has asked him to deliver to a business associate. However, the document inexplicably still reaches its destination (i.e. via the wind), which causes a confusing moment for Archie when Mr. Lodge thanks him for a job well done at the end of the strip. Some minor variations occur.
- Jughead runs away from women, especially Big Ethel.
- Despite the fact that Betty sews her dress by hand and Veronica spends quite a bit of money on her own, they end up with the same thing and have a fight.
- Reggie mocks Jughead's apparent stupidity or incompetence, then falls victim to Jughead's hidden cunning.
- Betty investigates a strange occurrence in the area. Sometimes, she gets help from her friends, like Moose and Dilton, to solve the case.
- Archie saves Mr. Lodge from being swindled by a crooked business associate.
- Mr. Lodge is convinced that Veronica needs to learn to value money and forces her to get a job. After a series of occurrences, she is forced to quit either by her father or by being fired, and sometimes ends up spending more money than she would have made.
- Archie and/or Jughead attend one of Veronica's posh social events and stick out like a sore thumb.
- Archie decides to finally choose between Betty and Veronica once and for all (but never does).
- Jughead shows Archie how badly he is treating Betty. Archie takes Betty out to dinner or to a movie instead of Veronica, who is incensed.
- Cheryl Blossom decides to "slum it" in Riverdale and all the boys (especially Archie & Reggie) flock to her, leaving Betty & Veronica very jealous. The two always find some way to either A) run her off or B) keep Archie away from her.
- Betty and Veronica compete for Archie's affections. Ex: Cooking for him, in which Betty always wins.
- Jughead eats his friends (Archie, Betty, and Veronica) out of house and home.
- Archie and Jughead's parents comment on how lazy they are and attempt to get them to either clean their room or do some sort of chore around the house.
- Archie and Betty go to the beach where Archie is paying attention to all the other girls there (ie. looking, chatting up), rather than Betty. Betty thus tries to get Archie's attention away from the girls. The story usually ends with Betty getting her way.
- Archie (sometimes Jughead) usually disrupts some con-men from stealing other people's money.
- Archie begs for an allowance increase to no avail, and usually ends up getting the money anyways because his money making schemes cause more headaches and money for his parents.
- Jughead does something to prove that he will do absolutely anything for food.
[edit] Super heroes
The Archie Comics line published the occasional dramatic action-adventure superhero comic.
- 1940s
- Black Hood
- Black Jack
- Bob Phantom
- Captain Flag
- The Comet
- Fireball
- Firefly
- The Fox
- Hangman (Upon whom Alan Moore based Hooded Justice of Watchmen fame [28] )
- Mr. Justice
- Mr. Mystic
- Mister Satan
- Red Rube
- The Scarlet Avenger
- The Shield
- Dusty (Shield's Sidekick)
- Steel Sterling
- The Web
- The Wizard
- Roy the Superboy (Wizard's sidekick)
- 1960s (published as Archie Adventure Comics, Radio Comics, and Mighty Comics)
- Black Hood
- The Comet
- The Fly (later called Fly-Man)
- Flygirl
- The Jaguar
- Pow Girl
- Lancelot Strong: Shield
- Shield (son of original Shield)
- The Web (son of original Web)
- The Shadow
(Hangman and The Wizard become villains during that period)
- 1980s (published as Red Circle Comics)
- Black Hood (nephew of original Black Hood)
- The Comet
- Darkling
- The Fly
- Flygirl
- The Fox (son of original Fox)
- Hangman (son of original Hangman)
- The Jaguar
- Mr. Justice
- Lancelot Strong: Shield (soon killed off)
- Shield (son of original Shield)
- Steel Sterling
- The Web (son of original Web)
Archie would later license their superheroes to DC Comics for use on the !mpact imprint in the 90s.
[edit] Archie spin-off titles
- Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
- Josie and the Pussycats
- That Wilkin Boy
- Cheryl Blossom
- Li'l Jinx
- Madhouse Glads (or Madhouse Ma-ads, separate group of college age youth used in the 1960s and 70s)
[edit] Other series published by Archie Comics
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic X
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures
- Street Sharks
- The Mighty Mutanimals
- Katy Keene
- Nights Into Dreams
- Koosh Kins
- Hanna-Barbera Comics
- The Flintstones
- The Jetsons
- Scooby-Doo
- Hanna-Barbera All-Stars
- Hanna-Barbera Presents
- Space Ghost
[edit] Currently published titles
- Archie (Winter 1942— )
- Archie and Friends (Sept 1992— )
- Archie Digest Magazine (Aug 1973— )
- Archie's Double Digest Magazine (1981— )
- Archie's Holiday Fun Digest Magazine (1996— )
- Archie's Pal Jughead Comics Vol. 2 (June 1993—, #46—)
- Archie's Pals 'n' Gals Double Digest Magazine (Nov 1992— )
- Betty (Sept 1992— )
- Betty and Veronica Vol. 2 (June 1987— )
- Betty and Veronica Digest Magazine (Nov 1980— )
- Betty and Veronica Double Digest Magazine (1987— )
- Betty and Veronica Spectacular (Oct 1992— )
- Jughead and Friends Digest Magazine (June 2005— )
- Jughead's Double Digest Magazine (Oct 1989— )
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch Vol. 2 (Jan 2000— )
- Sonic the Hedgehog (June 1993— )
- Sonic X (Sept. 2005— )
- Tales From Riverdale Digest Magazine (May 2005— )
- Veronica (Apr 1989— )
[edit] Defunct titles
- Archie at Riverdale High
- Archie's Joke Book
- Archie's T.V. Laugh-Out
- Betty And Me
- Jughead's Jokes
- Laugh
- Pep
- Reggie And Me
- Reggie's (Wise Guy) Jokes
[edit] Archie Comics in pop culture
In The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Bart is pushed out of Sideshow Bob's limo, and a few seconds later, Homer is pushed out of Archie's jalopy, with Archie, Reggie, Jughead, and Moose riding in it. Moose warns, "Duh, stay out of Riverdale!". Later in the episode, Bart and Lisa are meeting up with Smithers, and Homer's in the car reading an Archie Comic, muttering "Those Riverdale punks think they're too good for me!"
The film Chasing Amy, in which all the main characters are comic book writers/artists, includes a scene in which two of the characters debate the sexuality of Archie.
The Archie characters were recently parodied on an episode of Robot Chicken ("Veggies for Sloth") in a similar plot to the film Final Destination. Archie played Devon Sawa's part, as the student who has the vision of death, in this case, a bus to Paris rolling over multiple times. Reggie's dialogue almost completely consists of overly sexual comments towards Betty and Veronica, and Jughead is revealed to be bulimic.
In the Duel Masters episode, "Win, Lose, or Draw", a girl named Betty greets Shobu. She introduces her friends, whose names are Veronica, Archie, and Reggie.
In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 parody of Eegah, Joel, Crow, and Tom Servo often refer to Arch Hall Jr. as "Archie" and sometimes make references to the comics.
In the Seinfeld episode The Wink, the character Kramer enters Jerry's apartment and is greeted "Hi, Jughead!" by Jerry. Kramer then greets each person in the apartment in reply by referring to them as Archie Comics characters: "Archie, Veronica...Mr. Weatherbee.
The 1994 pornographic film Cherry Pie, which featured such stars as Jenna Jameson and Kylie Ireland was a spoof of the Archie comics.
In an episode of Hey Arnold, Helga mentions Jughead, Veronica, and Betty
In the hit animated series Family Guy, the episode Death Lives shows Stewie and his brother Chris reading an Archie comic which shows Jughead painting eyelids on his eyes to fool Miss Grundy into thinking he is awake when he is sleeping. Also from Family Guy, In the episode North by North Quahog, Peter is reading a sketch while driving with Jughead attempting to eat lots of hamburgers. In the end Peter crashes and carries on reading the comic while Lois is lecturing him.
[edit] Little Archie
Little Archie comics were were produced in the 1980's.
[edit] Archie comics in technology
Although the Archie search engine was not named after Archie Andrews, many users made this association; subsequently, the Veronica search engine was named after Veronica, and "Jonzy's Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation and Display" is named after Jughead.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official web page
- Announcement of new style Archie Comics
- Daily Online Archie Comic
- Archie Comics and ESL
- Archie comic strip
- Big Comic Book DataBase: Archie
- Toonopedia: Archie
- Quebecois Archie Website
- Toonopedia: MLJ/Archie Comics
- A detailed history of Archie Comics
- Archie Comics Fan Board
- Archie Imageboard
- Comiccovers.com: Archie Comic Covers
