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:'''MLJ' and 'MLJ Comics' redirect here. It was the initial name of Archie Comics, which changed in 1946.''
'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.
''Archie Comics'' is also the title of the company's longest running publication, the first issue appearing with a cover date of Winter 1942. Starting with issue #114 the title was shortened to simply ''Archie''.
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 older 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 debuted what they call a more "dynamic", realistic art style since its title characters' debut in Pep Comics #22 (December, 1941), also features 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 an 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.
The February 1962 issue of Harvey Kurtzman's ''Help!'' magazine featured a parody of the Archie characters in its Goodman Beaver story, ''Goodman Goes Playboy'', written by Kurtzman and illustrated by frequent collaborator, Will Elder (the magazine itself hit newsstands on December of 1961). Attorneys for Archie Comics filed suit shortly thereafter, for copyright infringement. An agreement was reached in March 1962, with $1000 in damages paid, and an apology was issued.
Later attempts to reprint the Goodman Beaver story, with names and artwork altered by Kurtzman and Elder to minimize similarities to Archie characters and trademarks, were again met with threatened legal action by Archie Comics. After much back-and-forth, Kurtzman and Elder agreed to pay damages and turn over all materials to Archie's publisher. Excerpts have appeared from time to time, but the entire strip itself has not been republished.
Despite the above legal wrangling, Archie Comics took no action against Kurtzman, Elder nor publisher William Gaines for the 1954 Mad Magazine story ''Starchie'', which has been reprinted numerous times.
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 (even family-oriented) fan fiction based on Archie comics works.
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]
''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 attended Horace Mann School, which is located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City. 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).
★ Archibald "Archie" Andrews, [3] main character, a typical red-headed teenage boy with a great interest in dating. He tends to be clumsy and accident prone.
★ Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper, [4] the blonde girl next door, who is a good student, cheerleader, cook, and auto mechanic.
★ Veronica "Ronnie/Ron" Lodge, [5] the rich, sometimes nice and sometimes snobbish girl. Betty's best friend and rival for Archie's affections.
★ 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 vain and conceited practical joker. He dates Veronica and sometimes, although very rarely, Betty. He is also obsessed with Midge, which often causes Moose to beat him up.
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.
★ Mr. Fred Andrews, [9] Archie's father is pear-shaped, highly conservative, old-fashioned, and is losing his hair. He also plays the saxophone and was briefly part of The Archies.
★ Mrs. Mary Andrews, [10] Archie's mother. She is a typical all-American suburban mother. She also works for a real estate agency.
The other parents appear less frequently:
★ Mrs. Hermione Lodge, [11] 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.
★ Mr. Hal Cooper, [12] Betty's father, a middle-class father who works as a druggist. In older comics, his hair was white and thinning, but more recently, he has a head of brown hair. He also used to be shown smoking a pipe, but the pipe has been deleted in reprints of stories.
★ Mrs. Alice Cooper, [13] Betty's mother who is close to and proud of Betty and always there for her, but hopes that Betty will eventually outgrow her tomboy phase. Her appearance has been made more youthful in recent years. (She has always been the most attractive of the parents shown.)
★ Mr. Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr, [14] Jughead's father (referred to as Timothy Jones in one story), who is very slim and looks just like his son, only older and balding.
★ Mrs. Gladys Jones, [15] Jughead's mother. In older comics, she is portrayed as a slim, older woman with a nose like Jughead's, but more recently is usually portrayed as being younger, less thin, and with a nose normal in appearance.
★ Reggie's father is Mr. Ricky Mantle, editor of the local newspaper. Nothing is known of Reggie's mother, except that she has appeared occasionally as a slightly heavy-set, brunet woman.
★ Jellybean, Jughead's little sister. Her real name is Forsythia.
★ Hot Dog, [16] Jughead's faithful pet dog.
★ Betty's older brother, Chic, and older sister, Polly, both in their 20s. They were introduced in the ''Little Archie'' series, but later appeared in the main continuity.
★ Spotty, Little Archie's faithful pet dog, who also primarily appears in the ''Little Archie'' series.
★ Leroy, Veronica's frequently-appearing cousin who is in Elementary School, and is noted for being a troublemaker.
★ Caramel, Betty's orange tabby, appearing in both Little Archie and in regular Archie Comics.
★ Fifi, Veronica's poodle, though sometimes Veronica appears to have a different dog or a cat.
★ Malcolm "Moose"/"Big Moose" Mason [17] (earlier ''Moose McGee''), a muscular star athlete who is a poor student and is possessive about his girlfriend.
★ Midge Klump, [18] Moose's girlfriend. (earlier "Midge Collins")
★ Dilton Donald "Dilly" Doiley, [19] the very intelligent nerd and inventor.
★ Ethel "Big Ethel" Muggs (earlier ''Ethel Dinklehof'') [20], a tall, stringy teenager who always tries to win over Jughead, albeit unsuccessfully.
★ Charles "Chuck" Clayton, [21] an African-American athlete and cartoonist.
★ Nancy Woods, [22] Chuck's girlfriend.
★ Cheryl Blossom, a rich redheaded 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. Since 2006, she has made more and more appearances.
★ Jinx Malloy, a teenage boy who brings about bad luck and misfortune to anybody who gets close to him. He briefly had a girlfriend named Penny (nicknamed "Lucky Penny").
★ Cricket O'Dell, [23] a teenage girl, appearing occasionally, whose big claim to fame is her uncanny ability to sniff out money. She can even guess the amount of money in almost anybody's pocket.
★ Frankie Valdez, Puerto Rican-American compliment to Archie and his gang. Somewhat vain and cocky, a bit of a show-off and ladies man. Also a singer and guitarist.
★ Maria Rodriguez, Frankie's girlfriend.
★ Ginger Lopez, a fashion designer and close friend of Betty and Veronica.
★ 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. He eventually moved away from Riverdale, but made a cameo in a story in the main continuity.
★ Fangs Fogarty, the town bully--"Fangs" over his prominent teeth. He eventually moved away. Somewhat older than Little Archie and his friends. He too later appeared in a story in the main continuity.
★ Mr. Waldo Weatherbee, [24] the aggravated 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.
★ Miss Geraldine Grundy, [25] a teacher at Riverdale High. Is usually portrayed as an English teacher, but is occasionally shown teaching history and French. As well as Home Economics and cheerleading.
★ Professor Flutesnoot,[26] science teacher (also band teacher in the Little Archie universe).
★ Coach Kleats, [27]a physical education teacher.
★ Coach Floyd Clayton,[28] Chuck's dad, also a physical education teacher.
★ Miss Bernice Beazley, [29]the cook in the school cafeteria.
★ Miss Haggly, a history teacher. Appeared less and less starting in the 1990s.
★ Mr. Svenson, [30] Swedish 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.
★ Pop Tate, [31] owner of the Chocklit Shoppe where Archie and the gang frequently hang out.
★ Smithers, [32] faithful butler of the Lodges.
★ Gaston, the temperamental French chef of the Lodges.
From time to time the writers would drop in real people and locations as elements in a story.
★ Comic book writers, artists and publishers: Real people involved in the comic book industry appear (sometimes people from Archie Comics, sometimes from other companies).
★ As a recurring in-joke, the first names of the artists, writers and editors of Archie Comics are often inserted into the comics' dialogue when a random name is needed.
★ Celebrity parodies: Parodies of real life people who are famous and popular when the story is written. When they appear in the comics, their names are slightly changed (a similar thing is done with various brand names of products, popular culture, etc). This is likely to avoid legal problems and/or to be humorous.
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 she 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 spot 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). Betty sometimes appears traditionally feminine, as she can be seen cooking, sewing and cheerleading. On the other hand, other stories display her as more of a tomboy. While she definitely has some traits associated with both, there is inconsistency as to which is more prominent.
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.
The grade of the main characters is rarely, if ever, explicitly stated. When they are on summer vacation, they are always implied to be going to school next year, but never is it mentioned that graduation is upcoming or that it will be their last year in school. Students who are older than the main group are never mentioned, as is a 'senior class' (only freshmen are mentioned regarding grade). However, in one of the stories, the class talks with Miss Grundy about their future plans after high school, explicitly stating that college is "two years away". In another comic, Miss Grundy says to Archie that when he grows up, he will be a junior in Riverdale High, like he is now, unless he starts studying- they have a big test on Monday. This suggests that the Archie characters are juniors during those particular stories, but mostly, they mainly stay as an ambiguous grade in high school. However in one of the comic books it states that Betty is 16 years old, and in another, Betty says that Jughead is 17, meaning that they are all in Grade 11.
As stated above, the geographical location 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. 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."
Mountains are sometimes said to surround or be located near Riverdale, making it appear to be located in a valley. However, the surrounding terrain frequently also appears to have a very low and level elevation. Additionally, the existence and geography of rivers and lakes in the area may vary. Normally, the beach (when it appears) is on the ocean, but at least one story declares that the beach is on a lake with no other land in sight (this matches the description of some very large bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes, and may suggest the possiblity of Archie and the gang living in Riverdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago).
The climate is also inconsistent. 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. On the other hand, the temperature can get very high in Riverdale. Heat waves are occasionally featured, and beaches (when they appear) are very warm in the summer. 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. One plot in the 1990's involved Jughead possibly being forced to move to Ohio, in which Betty, looking at a map, comments that Ohio is extremely far away.
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 in Mamaroneck, NY, and also fits with many of the other clues given above (though some, such as the presence of tornadoes and the small map contradict it). 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:
★ Minor characters in Archie Comics
★ Alternate Universes in Archie Comics
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ In another variation of the above, after Mr. Weatherbee gets angry at Archie, the superintendent turns up and approves of what Archie is doing. Sometimes Mr. Weatherbee apologises, sometimes he punishes Archie anyway.
★ Archie is at Veronica's house and ends up breaking countless priceless heirlooms. Mr. Lodge angrily kicks him out of the house.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Archie must cram for a test the next day but gets into a series of hijinks.
★ Archie is assigned to do an errand, but he messes up along the way.
★ Archie and/or Jughead attend one of Veronica's posh social events and stick out like a sore thumb.
★ Archie begs for an allowance increase to no avail, and usually ends up getting the money anyways because his moneymaking schemes cause more headaches and money for his parents.
★ In the Lodge mansion, Archie will spoil a high-priced purchase Lodge has made. This usually has an unusual twist, as in the case of a half-million-dollar painting Archie ruined (with solvent unaccountably left near the painting in a can with a loose cap); beneath was a painting with a "Picasso" signature. Lodge was ecstatic until Smithers pointed out that such a "Picasso" could not possibly be authentic. Archie in fact exposed the painting as a fraud and the art dealer got the heave-ho instead.
★ Reggie and Veronica conspire to discomfit Archie, but Archie, or Betty, or Jughead detects this and turns the plot on the plotters.
★ The prom 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.
★ 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).
★ Betty (in love with Archie) and Reggie (in love with Veronica) unite to try and sabotage Archie and Veronica's relationship
★ 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.
★ Middle-class Betty and wealthy Veronica wonder what it would be like to be in the other's shoes.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Betty and Veronica compete for Archie's affections. Ex: Cooking for him, in which Betty always wins.
★ Veronica gets jealous of Betty's constant contact with Archie during an extracurricular activity, such as Archie being on an athletic team, and tricks her into switching to some other pursuit. Then she finds out Archie has just suffered an injury that put him off the team for the season, and he winds up with Betty anyway.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Archie learns that Betty or Veronica is spending large amounts of time with someone he doesn’t know, which causes Archie to become enraged with jealousy. However, by the end of the strip, we learn that the boy in question is actually a visiting cousin, neighbor's pet, or some other non-romantic and innocuous subject.
★ The boys become lifeguards and have many adventures while saving drowning people and flirting with the women on the beach.
★ Veronica's father tries to introduce Veronica to men other than Archie.
★ Jughead runs away from women, especially Big Ethel.
★ Jughead desides to take a break from eating. He either winds up hating it, or begins dating. Things would go awry if he hates it, but if he dates, he may wind up dating every girl in town (excluding Betty, Veronica and Midge) who are very attracted to him.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Jughead actually gives dating a try. He may enjoy it more than he thought he would, but no permanent couple is formed.
★ Nancy is angry at Chuck because he often pays more attention to his cartooning than to her.
★ Dilton’s friends attempt to help him get over his shyness so that he can meet girls. He usually succeeds beyond their expectations.
★ In a variation of the above, Reggie pairs Dilton with a girl as a practical joke. The girl is either new to Riverdale, or a "man-eater" (a tall, shapely girl with a dominating attitude), or in some other way too "hot" for Reggie to handle. The girl becomes fascinated with Dilton and pleads with him for affection and dates.
★ Two characters appear to be dating the same person, resulting in one or both getting jealous of the other. In the end, the two turn out to be dating identical twins.
★ 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 either end up getting defeated, or win, and find that the prize wasn't worth it in the first place. The same thing goes for the girls.
★ A rivalry develops between the gang at Riverdale High and students at another high school (who are either depicted as being villanous, or counterparts of the people at Riverdale High.) over a competition or athletic event. The rival students will either 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, or both teams would battle harder and harder with no end.
★ In a variation of the above, the rival school (notoriously Central High) steals the Riverdale High mascot. The sight of the mascot (in one story, an "iron bulldog") painted in the rival school's colors stirs something deep inside the Riverdale players' minds and they defeat the rival school easily.
★ 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 actually retire, but their replacement proves to be so horrible that the gang has no choice but to convince them to come back.
★ Archie gets frustrated with the punishment Mr. Weatherbee metes out to him for tardiness. Either his efforts only make matters worse (a battery of alarm clocks he sets up overload the circuit and the power goes off), or he is delayed en route by a sudden occurrence (a motorist, in a stalled car, who turns out to be a representative of the superintendent's office).
★ Moose is failing something, and is not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, including sports unless his grades pick up. One of the school teams needs him to win a game. They usually get him to pass a makeup test in time, but their efforts sometimes backfire.
★ Reggie pulls some prank designed to get Archie in trouble with Mr. Weatherbee or a teacher, so Archie will be sent to detention while Reggie is free to move in on Veronica. Or Reggie will plot to get Archie in trouble with Moose over Midge. Sometimes he succeeds; sometimes a teacher, or Svensen, or Jughead intercepts Reggie's plans and Reggie suffers the consequences.
★ A guy would accidentally bump into Midge. Moose thinks the guy is flirting with her (even though they usually aren't) and he either beats up the person unfairly, or Midge explanes what happend.
★ Archie and his friends help Pop Tate get more business, or they prevent a greedy businessman from shutting him down.
★ 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.
★ In true ''Three's Company'' fashion, one character eavesdrops on another and misinterprets what they're saying.
★ A character develops short-lived paranormal abilities, such as predicting the future. They lose this ability by the end of the story.
★ Jughead eats an incredible amount of food, often in a food-eating contest. People watching him are amazed.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ 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 (sometimes Jughead) usually disrupts some con-men from stealing other people's money.
★ Jughead does something to prove that he will do absolutely anything for food.
★ Archie is terrorized by a bully, or rowdies in areas distant from his home or the school. Usually Jughead scouts out the situation--sometimes even questioning the person Archie pointed out to him as the bully--and solves the problem. Sometimes, they call in Moose, who is stronger than the bully.
★ Chuck creates a concept for a new comic book, often basing the characters on his friends.
★ The gang get jobs at a summer camp where their teachers work as counsellors during the summer. They end up going on an adventure in the forest.
★ The school suffers a wave of vandalism, theft, or something similar, and Archie, Jughead, or even Reggie, is accused or at least suspected. Archie or Betty does some detective work and identifies the cuplrit--for example, outwitting him by pretending to be the culprit in order to force the real culprit out into the open.
★ Veronica cooks up an elaborate scheme to get Archie away from Betty; they usually backfire and leave Veronica without a date.
★ Archie picks up on a mystery in Riverdale, sometimes including the Lodges and their money, and shows a smarter, more good-hearted side of him.
★ Archie finds some sort of belonging on the ground, such as a purse. Reggie, who is usually with him, advises him to take it and keep the money. Archie does the right thing and finds the owner. This usually results in Archie getting some kind of reward and a date with a pretty girl, leaving Reggie in the cold.
★ One or more of the group travels, sometimes to other parts of the country, sometimes abroad, and, despite much humorous bungling, stops a criminal operation. They have stopped a diamond smuggling operation in Europe; nabbed a professor who was stealing artifacts in Mexico;, and more locally, assisted a riverboat captain (much like the captain in the Shirley Temple movie ''Captain January)'' who faced foreclosure on his riverboat, and rescued a teenage girl, a victim of child abuse, from her murderous uncle.
★ Jason (and, sometimes, Cedric) will cook up some scheme to cause Archie or other "townies" humiliation; the hand of fate (often unwittingly aided by Cheryl) upsets Jason's plans, to ''his'' dismay and humiliation.
''Little Archie'' comics were originally produced in the 1950s. This series featured the familiar teenagers as Elementary School-age children. It became the longest running Alternate Universe published by Archie Comics. A number of ''Little Archie'' series were produced, and new stories are occasionally published even today.
It introduced a number of characters that had never before existed in the Archie continuity. These included Archie's dog Spotty, Betty's cat Caramel, Betty's older brother Chic and older sister Polly, and new kids Ambrose Pipps and Fangs Fogarty. This made the series more non-canonical. However, around the 1990s, the creators of Archie Comics began to tie ''Little Archie'' in to the main continuity by featuring appearances by these characters. Some became recurring characters in the gang's teenage years. Additionally, stories that take place in the main continuity sometimes feature flashbacks to the gang's childhood.
A few contradictions remain between ''Archie'' and ''Little Archie''. One is that, in ''Little Archie'', the Riverdale High faculty is the Riverdale Elementary faculty. ''Archie'' has established that characters like Mr. Weatherbee have worked at Riverdale High too long to have ever been elementary school teachers when the gang was young.
In the 1980s, the creators experimented with a different art style which made the characters less realistic and less like the art style used in the main continuity. Their heads became unnaturally large, their arms, legs and bodies were disproportionate in length, and their eyes were simply dots without eye pupils. However, this was eventually dropped, and ''Little Archie'' reverted back to its old style.
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 [33] )
★ 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.
Archie and his friends sometimes appear in stories in which they turn into superheroes to fight varied villains. They normally change from street clothes to superhero costumes and back again in a split second. Below are the characters with their superhero identities:
★ Archie is also Pureheart the Powerful.
★ Jughead is also Captain Hero (not to be confused with the "Drawn Together" character of the same name), as well as Captain Wham in one story.
★ Betty is also Superteen.
★ Reggie is also Evilheart.
★ Veronica is also Ms Vanity (in Archie's Super Teens #4)
★ ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch''
★ ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (also published as ''Josie'' and ''She's Josie'')
★ ''That Wilkin Boy''
★ ''Cheryl Blossom''
★ ''Li'l Jinx''
★ ''Mad House'' (also published as ''Mad House Ma-ad'' and ''Mad House Glads'')
★ ''Katy Keene''
★ ''Wilbur''
★ ''Suzie''
★ ''Sonic the Hedgehog''
★ ''Sonic X''
★ ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures''
★ ''Street Sharks''
★ ''The Mighty Mutanimals''
★ ''Nights Into Dreams...''
★ ''Koosh Kins''
★ Hanna-Barbera Comics
★
★ ''The Flintstones''
★
★ ''The Jetsons''
★
★ ''Scooby-Doo''
★
★ ''Hanna-Barbera All-Stars''
★
★ ''Hanna-Barbera Presents''
★
★ ''Space Ghost''
★ ''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— )
★ ''Archie Archie Andrews Where Are You? Digest''
★ ''Archie and Me''
★ ''Archie at Riverdale High''
★ ''Archie's Giant Series'' (revolving one-shot and recurring titles similar to Dell's Four-Color series; early issues had longer page counts, but by the 1980s this had ended)
★ ''Archie's Joke Book''
★ ''Archie's Pals 'n Gals''
★ ''Archie's RC Racers''
★ ''Archie's T.V. Laugh-Out''
★ ''Betty And Me''
★ ''Betty's Diary''
★ ''Cheryl Blossom''
★ ''Jughead's Jokes''
★ ''Knuckles the Echidna'' (spin-off of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series)
★ ''Laugh''
★ ''Laugh Digest''
★ ''Life with Archie''
★ ''Pep''
★ ''Reggie And Me''
★ ''Reggie's (Wise Guy) Jokes''
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!" In the episode "Girly Edition", Bart flips through the newspaper looking for news, trying not to look at the comics, and reads, "'The Supreme Court ratified the...' ugh... ok fine, just one Archie comic. 'Hey Jughead, did you hear? The Supreme Court ratified the...'"
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 American sitcom Friends episode "The one that could've been" Chandler writes for Archie Comics and sells a story based on working as Joey's assistant.
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 Family Guy episode Death Lives, a scene shows Stewie and his brother Chris reading an Archie comic which shows Jughead painting eyes on his eyelids to fool Miss Grundy into thinking he is awake when he is sleeping.
Also, 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.
In Mad Magazine, during its comic-book phase, writer Harvey Kurtzman and artist Bill Elder created an article titled "Starchie." "Starchie Standrews" is a juvenile delinquent, offering to treat "Salonica" (Veronica) to a Scotch-and-Soda, and threatening "Biddy" (Betty) and "Mr. Weathernot" (Mr. Weatherbee) with physical violence. Starchie and his sidekick "Bottleneck" (Jughead) decide to take "Wedgie" (Reggie) for a "last ride," and push him out of a moving car. "Bottleneck" takes off his mask and appears as Edward G. Robinson. Starchie winds up in prison as a middle-aged, balding man, still wearing the checkered slacks, sweater, white shirt, and bow tie, and torturing himself for chasing "Salonica" when "Biddy" 'threw herself' at him. ("Jerk! Fool! Idiot!")
In Gordon Korman's Island Trilogy one of the men in charge of the boat cannot remember the teenagers names and ends up calling them all character names from Archie Comics.
Experimental comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre's third album, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, contains a spoof of Archie Comics called "High School Madness," featuring two high school boys named "Peorgie" and "Mudhead."
In the ''Entourage'' episode "The First Cut Is the Deepest," Ari Gold tells Vincent Chase that the only role available to him is Jughead in a live adaptation of "Archie and Friends". Vince retorts, "I'm more of a Reggie".
In the Robot Chicken episode entitled Veggies for Sloth, there is a parody of the film Final Destination featuring Archie and the gang. It has Archie characters dying in ways similar to specific characters from the film, such as Jughead dying in a bathtub like Tod Waggner, or Betty being hit by a bus like Terry Chaney. It also parodies the very long chain of events killing Ms. Valerie Lewton in the film with its own ridiculous chain of events that seem like a Rube Goldberg machine, with a candle burning a rope, dominoes set up like the face of death, and a car dangling above Ms. Grundy conveniently.
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.
★ Li'l Jinx
★ 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
★ Cover scans of thousands of Archie comics
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.
''Archie Comics'' is also the title of the company's longest running publication, the first issue appearing with a cover date of Winter 1942. Starting with issue #114 the title was shortened to simply ''Archie''.
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.
Cover illustration for the ''Archie Love Showdown''
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.
The characters from Archie comic
In May 2007, Archie debuted what they call a more "dynamic", realistic art style since its title characters' debut in Pep Comics #22 (December, 1941), also features 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 an 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.
Lawsuits
The February 1962 issue of Harvey Kurtzman's ''Help!'' magazine featured a parody of the Archie characters in its Goodman Beaver story, ''Goodman Goes Playboy'', written by Kurtzman and illustrated by frequent collaborator, Will Elder (the magazine itself hit newsstands on December of 1961). Attorneys for Archie Comics filed suit shortly thereafter, for copyright infringement. An agreement was reached in March 1962, with $1000 in damages paid, and an apology was issued.
Later attempts to reprint the Goodman Beaver story, with names and artwork altered by Kurtzman and Elder to minimize similarities to Archie characters and trademarks, were again met with threatened legal action by Archie Comics. After much back-and-forth, Kurtzman and Elder agreed to pay damages and turn over all materials to Archie's publisher. Excerpts have appeared from time to time, but the entire strip itself has not been republished.
Despite the above legal wrangling, Archie Comics took no action against Kurtzman, Elder nor publisher William Gaines for the 1954 Mad Magazine story ''Starchie'', which has been reprinted numerous times.
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 (even family-oriented) fan fiction based on Archie comics works.
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]
The Archie universe
''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 attended Horace Mann School, which is located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City. 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).
Characters
The Archie gang (main characters)
★ Archibald "Archie" Andrews, [3] main character, a typical red-headed teenage boy with a great interest in dating. He tends to be clumsy and accident prone.
★ Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper, [4] the blonde girl next door, who is a good student, cheerleader, cook, and auto mechanic.
★ Veronica "Ronnie/Ron" Lodge, [5] the rich, sometimes nice and sometimes snobbish girl. Betty's best friend and rival for Archie's affections.
★ 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 vain and conceited practical joker. He dates Veronica and sometimes, although very rarely, Betty. He is also obsessed with Midge, which often causes Moose to beat him up.
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.
★ Mr. Fred Andrews, [9] Archie's father is pear-shaped, highly conservative, old-fashioned, and is losing his hair. He also plays the saxophone and was briefly part of The Archies.
★ Mrs. Mary Andrews, [10] Archie's mother. She is a typical all-American suburban mother. She also works for a real estate agency.
The other parents appear less frequently:
★ Mrs. Hermione Lodge, [11] 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.
★ Mr. Hal Cooper, [12] Betty's father, a middle-class father who works as a druggist. In older comics, his hair was white and thinning, but more recently, he has a head of brown hair. He also used to be shown smoking a pipe, but the pipe has been deleted in reprints of stories.
★ Mrs. Alice Cooper, [13] Betty's mother who is close to and proud of Betty and always there for her, but hopes that Betty will eventually outgrow her tomboy phase. Her appearance has been made more youthful in recent years. (She has always been the most attractive of the parents shown.)
★ Mr. Forsythe Pendleton Jones Jr, [14] Jughead's father (referred to as Timothy Jones in one story), who is very slim and looks just like his son, only older and balding.
★ Mrs. Gladys Jones, [15] Jughead's mother. In older comics, she is portrayed as a slim, older woman with a nose like Jughead's, but more recently is usually portrayed as being younger, less thin, and with a nose normal in appearance.
★ Reggie's father is Mr. Ricky Mantle, editor of the local newspaper. Nothing is known of Reggie's mother, except that she has appeared occasionally as a slightly heavy-set, brunet woman.
Other family members
★ Jellybean, Jughead's little sister. Her real name is Forsythia.
★ Hot Dog, [16] Jughead's faithful pet dog.
★ Betty's older brother, Chic, and older sister, Polly, both in their 20s. They were introduced in the ''Little Archie'' series, but later appeared in the main continuity.
★ Spotty, Little Archie's faithful pet dog, who also primarily appears in the ''Little Archie'' series.
★ Leroy, Veronica's frequently-appearing cousin who is in Elementary School, and is noted for being a troublemaker.
★ Caramel, Betty's orange tabby, appearing in both Little Archie and in regular Archie Comics.
★ Fifi, Veronica's poodle, though sometimes Veronica appears to have a different dog or a cat.
Other Teens/Expanded Archie Gang (supporting)
★ Malcolm "Moose"/"Big Moose" Mason [17] (earlier ''Moose McGee''), a muscular star athlete who is a poor student and is possessive about his girlfriend.
★ Midge Klump, [18] Moose's girlfriend. (earlier "Midge Collins")
★ Dilton Donald "Dilly" Doiley, [19] the very intelligent nerd and inventor.
★ Ethel "Big Ethel" Muggs (earlier ''Ethel Dinklehof'') [20], a tall, stringy teenager who always tries to win over Jughead, albeit unsuccessfully.
★ Charles "Chuck" Clayton, [21] an African-American athlete and cartoonist.
★ Nancy Woods, [22] Chuck's girlfriend.
★ Cheryl Blossom, a rich redheaded 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. Since 2006, she has made more and more appearances.
★ Jinx Malloy, a teenage boy who brings about bad luck and misfortune to anybody who gets close to him. He briefly had a girlfriend named Penny (nicknamed "Lucky Penny").
★ Cricket O'Dell, [23] a teenage girl, appearing occasionally, whose big claim to fame is her uncanny ability to sniff out money. She can even guess the amount of money in almost anybody's pocket.
★ Frankie Valdez, Puerto Rican-American compliment to Archie and his gang. Somewhat vain and cocky, a bit of a show-off and ladies man. Also a singer and guitarist.
★ Maria Rodriguez, Frankie's girlfriend.
★ Ginger Lopez, a fashion designer and close friend of Betty and Veronica.
Characters only featured in ''Little Archie''
★ 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. He eventually moved away from Riverdale, but made a cameo in a story in the main continuity.
★ Fangs Fogarty, the town bully--"Fangs" over his prominent teeth. He eventually moved away. Somewhat older than Little Archie and his friends. He too later appeared in a story in the main continuity.
The Faculty
★ Mr. Waldo Weatherbee, [24] the aggravated 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.
★ Miss Geraldine Grundy, [25] a teacher at Riverdale High. Is usually portrayed as an English teacher, but is occasionally shown teaching history and French. As well as Home Economics and cheerleading.
★ Professor Flutesnoot,[26] science teacher (also band teacher in the Little Archie universe).
★ Coach Kleats, [27]a physical education teacher.
★ Coach Floyd Clayton,[28] Chuck's dad, also a physical education teacher.
★ Miss Bernice Beazley, [29]the cook in the school cafeteria.
★ Miss Haggly, a history teacher. Appeared less and less starting in the 1990s.
★ Mr. Svenson, [30] Swedish 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.
The Townsfolk
★ Pop Tate, [31] owner of the Chocklit Shoppe where Archie and the gang frequently hang out.
★ Smithers, [32] faithful butler of the Lodges.
★ Gaston, the temperamental French chef of the Lodges.
Cameos by Non-Fictional Characters
From time to time the writers would drop in real people and locations as elements in a story.
★ Comic book writers, artists and publishers: Real people involved in the comic book industry appear (sometimes people from Archie Comics, sometimes from other companies).
★ As a recurring in-joke, the first names of the artists, writers and editors of Archie Comics are often inserted into the comics' dialogue when a random name is needed.
★ Celebrity parodies: Parodies of real life people who are famous and popular when the story is written. When they appear in the comics, their names are slightly changed (a similar thing is done with various brand names of products, popular culture, etc). This is likely to avoid legal problems and/or to be humorous.
Inconsistent themes and character portrayals
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.
Love triangle between Veronica, Archie, and Betty
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 she 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 spot 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). Betty sometimes appears traditionally feminine, as she can be seen cooking, sewing and cheerleading. On the other hand, other stories display her as more of a tomboy. While she definitely has some traits associated with both, there is inconsistency as to which is more prominent.
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.
The grade of the main characters is rarely, if ever, explicitly stated. When they are on summer vacation, they are always implied to be going to school next year, but never is it mentioned that graduation is upcoming or that it will be their last year in school. Students who are older than the main group are never mentioned, as is a 'senior class' (only freshmen are mentioned regarding grade). However, in one of the stories, the class talks with Miss Grundy about their future plans after high school, explicitly stating that college is "two years away". In another comic, Miss Grundy says to Archie that when he grows up, he will be a junior in Riverdale High, like he is now, unless he starts studying- they have a big test on Monday. This suggests that the Archie characters are juniors during those particular stories, but mostly, they mainly stay as an ambiguous grade in high school. However in one of the comic books it states that Betty is 16 years old, and in another, Betty says that Jughead is 17, meaning that they are all in Grade 11.
As stated above, the geographical location 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. 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."
Mountains are sometimes said to surround or be located near Riverdale, making it appear to be located in a valley. However, the surrounding terrain frequently also appears to have a very low and level elevation. Additionally, the existence and geography of rivers and lakes in the area may vary. Normally, the beach (when it appears) is on the ocean, but at least one story declares that the beach is on a lake with no other land in sight (this matches the description of some very large bodies of water, such as the Great Lakes, and may suggest the possiblity of Archie and the gang living in Riverdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago).
The climate is also inconsistent. 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. On the other hand, the temperature can get very high in Riverdale. Heat waves are occasionally featured, and beaches (when they appear) are very warm in the summer. 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. One plot in the 1990's involved Jughead possibly being forced to move to Ohio, in which Betty, looking at a map, comments that Ohio is extremely far away.
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 in Mamaroneck, NY, and also fits with many of the other clues given above (though some, such as the presence of tornadoes and the small map contradict it). 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:
★ Minor characters in Archie Comics
★ Alternate Universes in Archie Comics
Common Themes in Archie Comics
Archie Getting into Trouble
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ In another variation of the above, after Mr. Weatherbee gets angry at Archie, the superintendent turns up and approves of what Archie is doing. Sometimes Mr. Weatherbee apologises, sometimes he punishes Archie anyway.
★ Archie is at Veronica's house and ends up breaking countless priceless heirlooms. Mr. Lodge angrily kicks him out of the house.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Archie must cram for a test the next day but gets into a series of hijinks.
★ Archie is assigned to do an errand, but he messes up along the way.
★ Archie and/or Jughead attend one of Veronica's posh social events and stick out like a sore thumb.
★ Archie begs for an allowance increase to no avail, and usually ends up getting the money anyways because his moneymaking schemes cause more headaches and money for his parents.
★ In the Lodge mansion, Archie will spoil a high-priced purchase Lodge has made. This usually has an unusual twist, as in the case of a half-million-dollar painting Archie ruined (with solvent unaccountably left near the painting in a can with a loose cap); beneath was a painting with a "Picasso" signature. Lodge was ecstatic until Smithers pointed out that such a "Picasso" could not possibly be authentic. Archie in fact exposed the painting as a fraud and the art dealer got the heave-ho instead.
★ Reggie and Veronica conspire to discomfit Archie, but Archie, or Betty, or Jughead detects this and turns the plot on the plotters.
Betty and Veronica’s Rivalry
★ The prom 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.
★ 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).
★ Betty (in love with Archie) and Reggie (in love with Veronica) unite to try and sabotage Archie and Veronica's relationship
★ 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.
★ Middle-class Betty and wealthy Veronica wonder what it would be like to be in the other's shoes.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Betty and Veronica compete for Archie's affections. Ex: Cooking for him, in which Betty always wins.
★ Veronica gets jealous of Betty's constant contact with Archie during an extracurricular activity, such as Archie being on an athletic team, and tricks her into switching to some other pursuit. Then she finds out Archie has just suffered an injury that put him off the team for the season, and he winds up with Betty anyway.
Other Stories Involving Dating and/or Romance
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Archie learns that Betty or Veronica is spending large amounts of time with someone he doesn’t know, which causes Archie to become enraged with jealousy. However, by the end of the strip, we learn that the boy in question is actually a visiting cousin, neighbor's pet, or some other non-romantic and innocuous subject.
★ The boys become lifeguards and have many adventures while saving drowning people and flirting with the women on the beach.
★ Veronica's father tries to introduce Veronica to men other than Archie.
★ Jughead runs away from women, especially Big Ethel.
★ Jughead desides to take a break from eating. He either winds up hating it, or begins dating. Things would go awry if he hates it, but if he dates, he may wind up dating every girl in town (excluding Betty, Veronica and Midge) who are very attracted to him.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ Jughead actually gives dating a try. He may enjoy it more than he thought he would, but no permanent couple is formed.
★ Nancy is angry at Chuck because he often pays more attention to his cartooning than to her.
★ Dilton’s friends attempt to help him get over his shyness so that he can meet girls. He usually succeeds beyond their expectations.
★ In a variation of the above, Reggie pairs Dilton with a girl as a practical joke. The girl is either new to Riverdale, or a "man-eater" (a tall, shapely girl with a dominating attitude), or in some other way too "hot" for Reggie to handle. The girl becomes fascinated with Dilton and pleads with him for affection and dates.
★ Two characters appear to be dating the same person, resulting in one or both getting jealous of the other. In the end, the two turn out to be dating identical twins.
At School
★ 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 either end up getting defeated, or win, and find that the prize wasn't worth it in the first place. The same thing goes for the girls.
★ A rivalry develops between the gang at Riverdale High and students at another high school (who are either depicted as being villanous, or counterparts of the people at Riverdale High.) over a competition or athletic event. The rival students will either 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, or both teams would battle harder and harder with no end.
★ In a variation of the above, the rival school (notoriously Central High) steals the Riverdale High mascot. The sight of the mascot (in one story, an "iron bulldog") painted in the rival school's colors stirs something deep inside the Riverdale players' minds and they defeat the rival school easily.
★ 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 actually retire, but their replacement proves to be so horrible that the gang has no choice but to convince them to come back.
★ Archie gets frustrated with the punishment Mr. Weatherbee metes out to him for tardiness. Either his efforts only make matters worse (a battery of alarm clocks he sets up overload the circuit and the power goes off), or he is delayed en route by a sudden occurrence (a motorist, in a stalled car, who turns out to be a representative of the superintendent's office).
★ Moose is failing something, and is not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, including sports unless his grades pick up. One of the school teams needs him to win a game. They usually get him to pass a makeup test in time, but their efforts sometimes backfire.
★ Reggie pulls some prank designed to get Archie in trouble with Mr. Weatherbee or a teacher, so Archie will be sent to detention while Reggie is free to move in on Veronica. Or Reggie will plot to get Archie in trouble with Moose over Midge. Sometimes he succeeds; sometimes a teacher, or Svensen, or Jughead intercepts Reggie's plans and Reggie suffers the consequences.
★ A guy would accidentally bump into Midge. Moose thinks the guy is flirting with her (even though they usually aren't) and he either beats up the person unfairly, or Midge explanes what happend.
Other Story Themes
★ Archie and his friends help Pop Tate get more business, or they prevent a greedy businessman from shutting him down.
★ 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.
★ In true ''Three's Company'' fashion, one character eavesdrops on another and misinterprets what they're saying.
★ A character develops short-lived paranormal abilities, such as predicting the future. They lose this ability by the end of the story.
★ Jughead eats an incredible amount of food, often in a food-eating contest. People watching him are amazed.
★ 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.
★ 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.
★ 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 (sometimes Jughead) usually disrupts some con-men from stealing other people's money.
★ Jughead does something to prove that he will do absolutely anything for food.
★ Archie is terrorized by a bully, or rowdies in areas distant from his home or the school. Usually Jughead scouts out the situation--sometimes even questioning the person Archie pointed out to him as the bully--and solves the problem. Sometimes, they call in Moose, who is stronger than the bully.
★ Chuck creates a concept for a new comic book, often basing the characters on his friends.
★ The gang get jobs at a summer camp where their teachers work as counsellors during the summer. They end up going on an adventure in the forest.
★ The school suffers a wave of vandalism, theft, or something similar, and Archie, Jughead, or even Reggie, is accused or at least suspected. Archie or Betty does some detective work and identifies the cuplrit--for example, outwitting him by pretending to be the culprit in order to force the real culprit out into the open.
★ Veronica cooks up an elaborate scheme to get Archie away from Betty; they usually backfire and leave Veronica without a date.
★ Archie picks up on a mystery in Riverdale, sometimes including the Lodges and their money, and shows a smarter, more good-hearted side of him.
★ Archie finds some sort of belonging on the ground, such as a purse. Reggie, who is usually with him, advises him to take it and keep the money. Archie does the right thing and finds the owner. This usually results in Archie getting some kind of reward and a date with a pretty girl, leaving Reggie in the cold.
★ One or more of the group travels, sometimes to other parts of the country, sometimes abroad, and, despite much humorous bungling, stops a criminal operation. They have stopped a diamond smuggling operation in Europe; nabbed a professor who was stealing artifacts in Mexico;, and more locally, assisted a riverboat captain (much like the captain in the Shirley Temple movie ''Captain January)'' who faced foreclosure on his riverboat, and rescued a teenage girl, a victim of child abuse, from her murderous uncle.
★ Jason (and, sometimes, Cedric) will cook up some scheme to cause Archie or other "townies" humiliation; the hand of fate (often unwittingly aided by Cheryl) upsets Jason's plans, to ''his'' dismay and humiliation.
''Little Archie''
''Little Archie'' comics were originally produced in the 1950s. This series featured the familiar teenagers as Elementary School-age children. It became the longest running Alternate Universe published by Archie Comics. A number of ''Little Archie'' series were produced, and new stories are occasionally published even today.
It introduced a number of characters that had never before existed in the Archie continuity. These included Archie's dog Spotty, Betty's cat Caramel, Betty's older brother Chic and older sister Polly, and new kids Ambrose Pipps and Fangs Fogarty. This made the series more non-canonical. However, around the 1990s, the creators of Archie Comics began to tie ''Little Archie'' in to the main continuity by featuring appearances by these characters. Some became recurring characters in the gang's teenage years. Additionally, stories that take place in the main continuity sometimes feature flashbacks to the gang's childhood.
A few contradictions remain between ''Archie'' and ''Little Archie''. One is that, in ''Little Archie'', the Riverdale High faculty is the Riverdale Elementary faculty. ''Archie'' has established that characters like Mr. Weatherbee have worked at Riverdale High too long to have ever been elementary school teachers when the gang was young.
In the 1980s, the creators experimented with a different art style which made the characters less realistic and less like the art style used in the main continuity. Their heads became unnaturally large, their arms, legs and bodies were disproportionate in length, and their eyes were simply dots without eye pupils. However, this was eventually dropped, and ''Little Archie'' reverted back to its old style.
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 [33] )
★ 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.
Archie and his friends as super heroes
Archie and his friends sometimes appear in stories in which they turn into superheroes to fight varied villains. They normally change from street clothes to superhero costumes and back again in a split second. Below are the characters with their superhero identities:
★ Archie is also Pureheart the Powerful.
★ Jughead is also Captain Hero (not to be confused with the "Drawn Together" character of the same name), as well as Captain Wham in one story.
★ Betty is also Superteen.
★ Reggie is also Evilheart.
★ Veronica is also Ms Vanity (in Archie's Super Teens #4)
''Archie'' spin-off titles
★ ''Sabrina, the Teenage Witch''
★ ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (also published as ''Josie'' and ''She's Josie'')
★ ''That Wilkin Boy''
★ ''Cheryl Blossom''
★ ''Li'l Jinx''
★ ''Mad House'' (also published as ''Mad House Ma-ad'' and ''Mad House Glads'')
★ ''Katy Keene''
★ ''Wilbur''
★ ''Suzie''
Other series published by Archie Comics
★ ''Sonic the Hedgehog''
★ ''Sonic X''
★ ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures''
★ ''Street Sharks''
★ ''The Mighty Mutanimals''
★ ''Nights Into Dreams...''
★ ''Koosh Kins''
★ Hanna-Barbera Comics
★
★ ''The Flintstones''
★
★ ''The Jetsons''
★
★ ''Scooby-Doo''
★
★ ''Hanna-Barbera All-Stars''
★
★ ''Hanna-Barbera Presents''
★
★ ''Space Ghost''
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— )
Defunct titles
★ ''Archie Archie Andrews Where Are You? Digest''
★ ''Archie and Me''
★ ''Archie at Riverdale High''
★ ''Archie's Giant Series'' (revolving one-shot and recurring titles similar to Dell's Four-Color series; early issues had longer page counts, but by the 1980s this had ended)
★ ''Archie's Joke Book''
★ ''Archie's Pals 'n Gals''
★ ''Archie's RC Racers''
★ ''Archie's T.V. Laugh-Out''
★ ''Betty And Me''
★ ''Betty's Diary''
★ ''Cheryl Blossom''
★ ''Jughead's Jokes''
★ ''Knuckles the Echidna'' (spin-off of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series)
★ ''Laugh''
★ ''Laugh Digest''
★ ''Life with Archie''
★ ''Pep''
★ ''Reggie And Me''
★ ''Reggie's (Wise Guy) Jokes''
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!" In the episode "Girly Edition", Bart flips through the newspaper looking for news, trying not to look at the comics, and reads, "'The Supreme Court ratified the...' ugh... ok fine, just one Archie comic. 'Hey Jughead, did you hear? The Supreme Court ratified the...'"
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 American sitcom Friends episode "The one that could've been" Chandler writes for Archie Comics and sells a story based on working as Joey's assistant.
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 Family Guy episode Death Lives, a scene shows Stewie and his brother Chris reading an Archie comic which shows Jughead painting eyes on his eyelids to fool Miss Grundy into thinking he is awake when he is sleeping.
Also, 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.
In Mad Magazine, during its comic-book phase, writer Harvey Kurtzman and artist Bill Elder created an article titled "Starchie." "Starchie Standrews" is a juvenile delinquent, offering to treat "Salonica" (Veronica) to a Scotch-and-Soda, and threatening "Biddy" (Betty) and "Mr. Weathernot" (Mr. Weatherbee) with physical violence. Starchie and his sidekick "Bottleneck" (Jughead) decide to take "Wedgie" (Reggie) for a "last ride," and push him out of a moving car. "Bottleneck" takes off his mask and appears as Edward G. Robinson. Starchie winds up in prison as a middle-aged, balding man, still wearing the checkered slacks, sweater, white shirt, and bow tie, and torturing himself for chasing "Salonica" when "Biddy" 'threw herself' at him. ("Jerk! Fool! Idiot!")
In Gordon Korman's Island Trilogy one of the men in charge of the boat cannot remember the teenagers names and ends up calling them all character names from Archie Comics.
Experimental comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre's third album, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, contains a spoof of Archie Comics called "High School Madness," featuring two high school boys named "Peorgie" and "Mudhead."
In the ''Entourage'' episode "The First Cut Is the Deepest," Ari Gold tells Vincent Chase that the only role available to him is Jughead in a live adaptation of "Archie and Friends". Vince retorts, "I'm more of a Reggie".
In the Robot Chicken episode entitled Veggies for Sloth, there is a parody of the film Final Destination featuring Archie and the gang. It has Archie characters dying in ways similar to specific characters from the film, such as Jughead dying in a bathtub like Tod Waggner, or Betty being hit by a bus like Terry Chaney. It also parodies the very long chain of events killing Ms. Valerie Lewton in the film with its own ridiculous chain of events that seem like a Rube Goldberg machine, with a candle burning a rope, dominoes set up like the face of death, and a car dangling above Ms. Grundy conveniently.
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.
See also
★ Li'l Jinx
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
★ Cover scans of thousands of Archie comics
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