ARCHIE & VERONICA…AGAIN?

FROM WHERE I SIT  ARCHIE & VERONICA...AGAIN?  FEB. 20, 2014  PAT SPILSETH

Did you read comic books when you were growing up?  Among old photos and saved papers, I found comic books from 1972 with curling pages, slightly brown and tattered, of ARCHIE, WENDY WITCH WORLD, JOSIE and RICHIE RICH.  They’re probably collector items worth some cash!  Who knows?  The memories are priceless.

Today’s morning newspaper had an article about Archie Comics, known for its rather conservative views.  “Now it’s gaining a reputation for being the most experiemental comics publisher in America,” according to McClatchy News writer Andrew A.Smith. 

Archie Comics has entered the digital comics market with its own app, seeking projects for its characters in TV and movies.  This comic company made national headlines in 2009 exploring what would happen if Riverdale’s redhead Archie married.   Readers would probably say that this perpeturally grinning guy would marry either Betty or Vernonica, his two girlfriends.  They’d be happy forever after...that’s the way their lives always turned out way back then...everything had to have a happy ending. 

The comics tried out some modern attitudes when Principal Mr Weatherbee was charged with having a Male Chauvinist Attitude.   He had banned boys, namely Archie, from being in the girls’ only cooking class: Archie was a distraction for the girls.  The teacher, in her apron and earrings, reminded me of my Home Economics instructor Mrs. LaMasters.  She charmed the principal, calling him a gourmet whose opinion on the cooking class would be valued.  When Archie was introduced as the most outstanding student, Weatherbee rescinded his orders.  Archie broke the ice: jocks, nerds and greasers all wanted to join the class, leaving little class room for girls.

In an October issue of 1972, Archie encountered Costrophobia, the fear of high prices. Archie and his adoring bathing beauties at the beach are aghast with the prices on the restaurant’s  menu.  In another episode, Reggie tried to get a rise out of Archie by calling him “Carrot-Top”, the same name that Bob Savage, my junior high math teacher, called Jimmy Gilman, another redhead.  Savage could have added stories to the Archie comics.  He began singing “The FIrst Noel” when Noel Anderson entered his classroom.  I thought Mr. Savage was a stitch, but I bet he embarassed several other classmates.  

Remember ads for building an Atlas Body in 7 days?  The “American Physique Chest Developer” was guaranteed to increase chest measurements 2-4 inches in 14 days or your money back.  Did any of you buy those self-defense kits promising “you’ll never be afraid again”?  These Home Courses promised to teach fighting secrets in less than 15 minutes a day.  One ad promised “Your hands will have the power of an axe and you can use your elbows, knees and feet as death-dealing clubs.”  The ads featuring how to build muscles were inserted throughout the comic pages and repeated on the backcover.  I remember one ad showing some big muscled, bully kicking sand into the face of a skinny guy with no muscles, a weakling in need of muscle building.  Another ad, from BLAIR company in Lynchburg, VA., asked readers to send in 25 cents in coin for a spray perfume, a $4 value.  Extra money could be earned by introducing Blair beauty and home products to friends and neighbors.  A 40% commission could be earned on each order.  Union Sales Club of American of Springfield, Mass., offered prizes for orders of All Occasion Greeting Cards costing $2.00 for 12 boxes of 21 greeting cards.  That’s less than 10 cents a card.  Salespeople could keep 70 cents for each box sold.  What a deal!  Guess who bought into that offer as well as the “fast selling American Vegetable and Flower Seeds” where I had to sell one 50 pack order, at 30 cents a pack.   Mom ended up buying numerous packages of seeds, even though she had no time to garden as she was cooking for the jail prisoners 3 meals a day plus forenoon, afternoon and evening snacks 3 times a day.  That busy job didn’t earn her a cent in pay.

Movie producer Michael Uslan wrote the stories for the comics, but they’re being continued in “Life With Archie” written and drawn by veterans of superhero books.  The magazines of “Life With Archie” are aimed at adults as well as kids.

In 2010, this modern-day gang of Archie’s introduced Kevin Keller, Riverdale’s first openly gay character.  When some companies threatened to stop selling Archie comics, the publisher continued to produce the comics, and the furor died down.  Now Keller is one of the most popular members of Archie’s gang, the star of his own book.

Another shocker for Archie Comics is the release of a paperback whose story is an interracial romance between Archie and Valerie, a black guitarist in “Josie & the Pussycats”.  Currently, the gang is struggling to survive in a new genre, the zombie apocalypse.

“Afterlife With Archie” came out recently with Jughead’s canine pal Hot Dog being run over by a car.  Juggie turns to Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, who tries to help, but the results are not good.  Hot Dog returns to life as a zombie, bites Jughead and zombie fans know what comes next.

In the past Archie Comics featured characters and events that never changed much. Nothing spectacular happened to the kids. Today Archie Comics Company has gone from romance to superhero to horror...and it’s successful.   Has anyone seen these comics and know a store where the comics are sold?  931 words