The declaration is more than accurate, as the independently owned publisher is celebrating its 80th anniversary with the massive CW hit Riverdale entering its sixth season (one that will bring on board Kiernan Shipka’s teenage witch from the late, lamented Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as a guest star). Despite the TV success, comics are still Archie’s bread and butter, from the digest reprints that beg for impulse buys at the supermarket to a series of innovative titles that have seen Archie and his “pals and gals” become critical darlings. Created by MLJ publisher John L. Goldwater and artist Bob Montana, Archie drew influence from the era’s youth-based Andy Hardy films and successfully predicted how teenage life would become the fulcrum for popular culture in the following decades. Indeed “America’s typical teenager” (as the tagline for Archie’s solo book claimed) became so beloved that MLJ renamed itself in his honor. The peak of Archiemania was 1969, when the cartoon group The Archies, created by rock impresario Don Kirshner and featured on Filmation’s hit The Archie Show, had the number one song of the year with their eternal earworm “Sugar Sugar.” Indeed, the eternal Archie/Betty/Veronica love triangle is such a strong narrative framework that thousands of stories have been built upon it – and everyone who is familiar with these characters has a strong opinion about who Archie should wind up with and why. All of which is to say that Archie is experiencing a creative renaissance despite having recently turned 80. Director of Publicity and Social Media Ron Cacace (whose work with artist Vincent Lovallo on the viral Bite Size Archie comics on Twitter became a sensation) credits Archie stories not getting bogged down in their own mythology as a key reason to their ongoing success. The past 80 years have seen Archie rocking out with the likes of The B52’s and Kiss, getting killed, fighting zombies, serving in World War II, etc. Yet at his core he remains “America’s typical teenager.” A fact that Archie Comics President Mike Pellerito attributes to the longevity of these characters. “This is a fun group of kids to hang out with that you want to have as friends,” he says. “And I think what makes Archie (characters) special is they always earnestly try their best, even if it turns into a comedic disaster.” Over the course of the past 80 years, Archie has published its fair share of oddities. Here are our favorites.
Spire Christian Comics
In the 1970s, Archie writer/artist Al Hartley infamously convinced the company to license its characters to Spire Christian Comics, to be sold in religious bookstores. With titles like Archie’s Love Scene and Archie’s Sonshine, these jaw-dropping books featured off-brand takes on the characters that must be read to be believed.
Little Archie
Created by writer/artist Bob Bolling in 1956, Little Archie was an early example of juvenile versions of popular characters. Tonally shifting between humor, whimsy, and excitement—aliens and monsters were commonplace—these stories also had a melancholy edge that still make them essential reading.
