The Roots of Riverdale: Archie Comics Turns 80

| December two, 2021 |

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"It'south a gilt age to be an Archie Comics fan right now," says company president Mike Pellerito with infectious enthusiasm, adding "I just tin can't imagine a better time."

The declaration is more than accurate, as the independently owned publisher is celebrating its 80^th anniversary with the massive CW hit Riverdale entering its sixth season (1 that will bring on board Kiernan Shipka'southward teenage witch from the late, lamented Netflix series Spooky Adventures of Sabrina equally a guest star). Despite the TV success, comics are still Archie's bread and butter, from the digest reprints that beg for impulse buys at the supermarket to a series of innovative titles that have seen Archie and his "pals and gals" become critical darlings.

Some history: In December of 1941, MLJ Comics – a publisher and then best known for its stable of superheroes like The Shield, a patriotic figure who predates Captain America – released Pep #22, featuring a backup story focusing on lovable klutz Archie Andrews. It was an instant success due to the humor and charm of its bandage, which included lovely girl-next-door Betty Cooper and oddball pal Jughead Jones (Veronica Order was not withal office of the motion-picture show).

Created by MLJ publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana, Archie drew influence from the era'southward youth-based Andy Hardy films and successfully predicted how teenage life would become the fulcrum for popular culture in the following decades. Indeed "America'southward typical teenager" (as the tagline for Archie'due south solo book claimed) became and then beloved that MLJ renamed itself in his honor. The height of Archiemania was 1969, when the cartoon group The Archies, created by rock impresario Don Kirshner and featured on Filmation's hitting The Archie Testify , had the number one song of the yr with their eternal earworm "Sugar Sugar."

Since 1987 Dan Parent has been writing and illustrating for Archie and he views the "common sustaining thread through the entire history of Archie Comics has been that love triangle."

Indeed, the eternal Archie/Betty/Veronica dearest triangle is such a stiff narrative framework that thousands of stories take been built upon information technology – and everyone who is familiar with these characters has a strong stance about who Archie should wind upwardly with and why.

The 2010s saw Archie begin a serial of daring moves that would plant the brand equally an industry innovator, from the magazine Life with Archie: The Married Life to the introduction of Kevin Keller, Riverdale's first openly gay resident, created by Parent (and recently the focus of a successful Kickstarter that will see the publishing of an motorcoach packed with over 700 pages of Kev'south adventures). So came the horror titles Afterlife with Archie and Spooky Adventures of Sabrina , which paved the way for the telly Archieverse.

All of which is to say that Archie is experiencing a creative renaissance despite having recently turned 80.

"The character archetypes are so flexible and piece of work in and so many dissimilar settings that you can throw them into annihilation and they would stand," explains Archie Senior Director of Editorial and Betty and Veronica: Vixens (in which the pair awesomely led a biker gang) creator/writer Jamie Lee Rotante. "No thing what genre, what time bridge, it simply works considering the characters are so well defined."

Manager of Publicity and Social Media Ron Cacace (whose work with artist Vincent Lovallo on the viral Bite Size Archie comics on Twitter became a awareness) credits Archie stories not getting bogged down in their ain mythology as a central reason to their ongoing success.

"They're not, for the most part, these long, ongoing dramas like you may have in superhero stories," he explains. "You lot tin pick up any Archie issue, any Archie assimilate, and immediately inside v pages get a grasp of who these characters are, what the situation is, what they're going through, and yous merely want to read the next one."

The past 80 years take seen Archie rocking out with the likes of The B52's and Kiss, getting killed, fighting zombies, serving in Earth War Ii, etc. Still at his core he remains "America's typical teenager." A fact that Archie Comics President Mike Pellerito attributes to the longevity of these characters. "This is a fun group of kids to hang out with that you lot desire to have every bit friends," he says. "And I think what makes Archie (characters) special is they e'er earnestly try their all-time, fifty-fifty if it turns into a comedic disaster."

It'south a recipe for success that has been working for eighty years, even if Archie still looks the aforementioned every bit ever.

Over the course of the past 80 years, Archie has published its off-white share of oddities. Hither are our favorites.

Jughead'south Diner

Publishing titles like the scientific discipline fiction-tinged Archie 3000 and Jughead's Time Police , Archie Comics went through a fascinating experimental phase in the early 1990s. A fan favorite book from this era was Dan Parent's Jughead's Diner , which had our always-hungry hero interacting with the wacky denizens of an interdimensional eatery.

Spire Christian Comics

In the 1970s, Archie author/artist Al Hartley infamously convinced the company to license its characters to Spire Christian Comics, to be sold in religious bookstores. With titles similar Archie'southward Dearest Scene and Archie'due south Sonshine , these jaw-dropping books featured off-brand takes on the characters that must be read to exist believed.

Life with Archie

From mind-controlling teddy bears to Deliverance homages, the 1970s run of Life with Archie thrust the gang into unbelievable storylines that were as implausible as they were entertaining. For anyone who thinks Riverdale is the first time that Archie got weird, we point them in this comic'southward direction.

Lilliputian Archie

Created by writer/creative person Bob Bolling in 1956, Lilliputian Archie was an early example of juvenile versions of popular characters. Tonally shifting between humor, whimsy, and excitement—aliens and monsters were commonplace—these stories also had a melancholy edge that still make them essential reading.