Redartz: Hello, everyone! Today we're looking at a big feature of the Bronze Age for many of us, Archie Comics. It's quite possible that some of you may never have picked up an Archie book, so for you, there will be a plethora of covers and a bit of a general overview to clue you in.
The first Archie comic I ever bought was the first issue of "Archie's TV Laugh-Out", from September 1969. At that time I (like many kids) was a big fan of the Archie saturday morning television cartoon, and had also gotten caught up in "Sabrina the Teen-age Witch". Seeing that this new comic featured Sabrina, I gave it a shot. At that time I was buying a scattershot variety of books from Marvel, DC, Harvey and Gold Key, but hadn't tried Archie yet. It turned out this comic was but the first of many.
By the end of 1970 I'd dropped all the Marvel and DC books, and was only buying a couple Disney and Little Lulu books. But I replaced that comic reading with Archie titles, quickly being enticed by the Archie's Band covers, Sabrina, and also Josie and the Pussycats (I was living proof of the merchandising potential of Saturday morning cartoons). I was amazed at the huge number of comics out each month featuring Arch, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and all the rest. And it didn't take long for me to discern some differences between the books.
And on that note, let's take a brief look at the array of Archie publications on the stands in the Bronze Age...
Since we've mentioned "Archie's TV Laugh-Out", we'll start with that. It basically featured a couple of stories with Sabrina, rounded out with a variety of short features with Archie and the gang. Some issues also featured "Archie's Band" stories. It was one of many "Giant" sized books published by Archie.
Continuing with the tv theme, "Josie and the Pussycats" was another book I picked up frequently. Starring the characters from the Saturday morning show, it presented adventures and pitfalls aplenty. Incidentally, Josie had been published for years prior to the tv show, but the book really took off when the Pussycats joined in.
Adventurous stories were also to be found in two regular-sized Archie books, "Life With Archie" and "Archie at Riverdale High". "Life" began back in the early 60's, and had featured stories with "Pureheart the Powerful" and the Archie gang as superpowered heroes. The book used many book-length stories, a big difference from many other Archie titles that generally contained several short humor stories. In 1972, "Riverdale High" joined "Life" in carrying these more dramatic tales.
Like Marvel and DC, Archie published a giant-sized Annual each year. This one starred Archie, others highlighted Jughead, Betty and Veronica. These giants were full of stories of varying lengths, generally humor stories and gag strips.
"Archie Giant Series" was an ongoing series with a rotating lineup of monthly titles. Here are two, "The World of Archie" and "Betty and Veronica's Christmas Spectacular". Each holiday season saw several Christmas themed books, with famously festive covers.
"Pep" and "Laugh" both were long-lived titles originating in the Golden age when Archie was published by MLJ comics. During the Bronze age they contained comic stories of various lengths, gag strips, pin ups, and so forth.
"Archie's Joke Book" is a bit different from the other Archie titles. It focused on single panel, multi-panel or single page gags, with no longer stories. Basically it was exactly what it promised: a joke book.
"Little Archie" obviously presented stories about Archie and his retinue as children. This book gained a big following for the clever, adventurous tales by writer/artist Bob Bolling...
"Archie and Me" was a book devoted to stories involving Riverdale High School's principal Mr. Weatherbee. There also was a "Reggie and Me", starring Archie's perennial rival Reggie.
"Jughead" was the best place to find stories about Archie's best friend, the hamburger-loving Jughead Jones. "Juggie" owns a level of popularity rivaling that of Arch himself. Jug was always my personal favorite character. Maybe it was the hat.
Now how can we discuss Archie comics without mentioning his two loves, Betty and Veronica? The girls have been the stars of several books all their own, primarily "Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica". Betty also starred in "Betty and Me", and in the 80's, both girls had titles of their own. "Betty and Veronica" seems to be a popular title for collectors; vintage issues bringing some premium prices. Incidentally, this issue of "Betty and Me" had an interesting storyline: a parody of the then-current soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman". Called "Betty Cooper, Betty Cooper", the feature ran over the course of several months, and took Betty through some pretty strange scenarios. Oh, if you're wondering "Betty or Veronica?" For me, it's always been Betty. No contest.
Finally, here's an issue of "Archie Comics Digest". Archie publications made great use of the digest format starting in 1973, and continuing even today. As a matter of fact, the current Marvel Comics digests being sold (finally) in stores and newsstands are actually published by Archie Comics. They know how to do digests..
Okay, so now you've seen some of the massive presence Archie Andrews had on the spinner racks throughout our youthful years. Did any of these, or other Archie titles, find their way into your reading stacks? Which were your favorite characters? Did you watch the tv cartoons? Share your thoughts and memories, and I'll tell Miss Grundy to go easy on you.
