Archie Comics

Archie Comics

Type	Private
Industry	Publishing
Founded	1939
Founder(s)	Maurice Coyne Louis Silberkleit John L. Goldwater
Headquarters	Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, United States
Products	Comics
Website	http://www.archiecomics.com

Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York,^[1][2] known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by publisher/editor John L. Goldwater, written by Vic Bloom and drawn by Bob Montana. They were based in part on people met by Goldwater "in the midwest", during his travels throughout the United States while looking for jobs and places to stay.

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 Goldwater hoped to appeal to fans of the Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney.^[3] 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

MLJ Magazines

Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John L. Goldwater formed MLJ Magazines and started publishing in November 1939. The company name was derived from the initials of the partners' first names.

Coyne served as MLJ's bookkeeper and CFO. Coyne and Silberkleit had been partners in Columbia Publishing, a pulp company that published its last pulp in the late '50s. Silberkleit had a college degree from St. John’s University, was a licensed and registered pharmacist, and had a law degree from New York Law School. His efforts were focused on the business, printing, separating, distribution and financial end of the company. John Goldwater served as editor-in-chief. Goldwater was one of the founders of the Comics Magazine Association of America, and served as its president for 25 years. The Comics Magazine Association of America is best know to comic fans for its Comics Code Authority. He was also a national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League.

Their first comic was Blue Ribbon Comics published November 1939; the first issue was half color, with the remaining pages in red and white tints. In December 1941, Top Notch Comics was introduced. In January 1940, Pep Comics debuted featuring the Shield, America's first patriotic comic book hero, by writer and Managing Editor Harry Shorten and artist Irv Novick. The Shield was the cover feature for Pep Comics until March 1944, when Archie became the dominant feature; the Shield continued in Pep Comics until January 1948. The Shield predates Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Captain America by 15 months, and his sidekick Dusty, from Pep Comics #11, January 1941, predates Bucky by 3 months.

Archie Comics

John Goldwater, inspired by the popular Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney, wanted to create a comic about a normal person to whom readers could relate. He created "America's newest boyfriend", Archibald "Chick" Andrews. In Pep Comics #22, December 1941, writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana published Archie Andrews' first adventure. "Archie was based partly on a red-headed friend of his named Archie," Gloria Goldwater, wife of John Goldwater, said. "He also created Betty and Veronica. Then he decided Archie needed a real good friend. That was Jughead. It just grew and grew."

As Archie’s popularity grew, MLJ Magazines changed its name to Archie Comics Publications. In the mid-fifties, the advent of television caused a the pulp magazine industry to suffer as TV became a dominant form of entertainment. With slumping sales, Silberkleit and Coyne decided to discontinue Columbia Publications. Coyne stayed on at Archie Comics as CFO until he retired in the '70s. Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater shared the same office and ate lunch together for their entire business career.

In the early 1970s, Archie Enterprises Inc. went public. Just over ten years later, Louis Silberkleit’s son Michael and John Goldwater’s son Richard returned Archie Comic Publications to private ownership. Michael Silberkleit and Richard Goldwater served as Chairman and Co-Publisher, and President and Co-Publisher respectively until their passing. John Goldwater served as Honorary Chairman, a post he held until he died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan, February 26, 1999. In 2009, John's son Jonathan succeeded in his family's legacy and was named CEO of Archie Comics Publications.

Lawsuits

• The February 1962 issue of Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine featured his parody of the Archie characters in its Goodman Beaver story, Goodman Goes Playboy, which was illustrated by frequent collaborator, Will Elder. A parody of the sybaritic Playboy lifestyle, the article featured various characters drinking, living out of wedlock, stealing cars, becoming pregnant, attending an orgy, and selling their soul to Satan. Shortly after the magazine hit newsstands in December 1961, attorneys for Archie Comics filed suit for copyright infringement. An agreement was reached in March 1964, with $1000 in damages paid, and an apology was issued. Kurtzman and Elder later tried altering the names and artwork to minimize similarities to Archie characters and trademarks so that it could be reprinted, but they were again threatened with legal action by Archie Comics. According to a May 2008 posting on The Comics Journal's website, the second effort "resulted in waves of lawyers raining upon the strip’s creators, ultimately leading to Kurtzman and Elder handing the copyright to the story over to Archie and signing an agreement promising never to reproduce it again." In 2004, Comics Journal publisher Gary Groth discovered that Archie had neglected to renew the copyright to the strip, and that it had fallen into the public domain." As a result, Goodman Goes Playboy can now be reprinted by anyone, anywhere, at anytime, since it is no longer copyrighted by anyone. Despite the above legal wrangling, Archie Comics never took any action against Kurtzman or Elder for their 1954 Mad magazine story "Starchie", presumably because publisher William Gaines was known for defending lawsuits with vigor, and had greater financial resources than Kurtzman or Help! Magazine. The Mad parody has been reprinted numerous times over the decades. Parody and satire are specifically protected under the 'fair use' doctrine of U.S. law.

• 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.^[4]

• 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. (It should be noted, however, that story contests are frequently run through the official Archie website, allowing fans to create their own stories in accordance with the site's rules).

• On April 4, 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre Company 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." ^[5]

Archie Andrews

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. Drawings of Riverdale High School appeared to follow the general design of the original high school, now City Hall, in Haverhill, Mass. One newspaper that carries the Archie comic strip, the Haverhill edition of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, calls the strip "Haverhill's Archie". It was said that characters in the strip were based on people in Haverhill especially at the high school, which was attended by Bob Montana.

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).

Titles

Dynamic "New Look" Series

In 2007, Archie Comics started making four part "new look" series where the first part of four issues is a different story and the characters are drawn in an updated, less cartoony style. At Comic-Con 2009 the writer revealed that the series is ending after the current Reggie storyline. Here are the titles for the issues:

Currently published titles

• Archie (Winter 1942— )
• Archie and Friends (September 1992— )
• Archie's Double Digest (January 1982— )
• Archie's Pal Jughead Comics Vol. 2 (June 1993—, #46—)
• Archie & Friends Double Digest (December 2010— )
• B & V Friends Double Digest (November 2010— )
• Betty (September 1992— )
• Betty and Veronica Vol. 2 (June 1987— )
• Betty and Veronica Double Digest (1987— )
• Jughead's Double Digest (October 1989— )
• Life With Archie: The Married Life (July 2010— )
• Sonic the Hedgehog (June 1993— )
• Sonic Universe (February 2009— )
• Veronica (April 1989— )
• World of Archie Double Digest (October 2010— )

Defunct titles

• Archie 3000 (1989–91)
• Archie Americana Series
• Archie Annual Comics Digest
• Archie... Archie Andrews Where Are You? Digest (1977–98)
• Archie and Me (1964–87)
• Archie at Riverdale High (1972–87)
• Archie Digest Magazine (1973–2010)
• Archie Giant Series Magazine (1954–92, revolving one-shot and recurring titles similar to Dell Comics' Four Color series; early issues had longer page counts, but by the 1980s this had ended)
• Archie's Explorers of the Unknown! (1990–91)
• Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica (1950–87) relaunched immediately as Betty and Veronica Vol. 2
• Archie's Holiday Fun Digest (1996–2007)
• Archie's Joke Book Digest (1953–82)
• Archie's Pal Jughead (1949–65)
• Archie's Pals 'n' Gals (1952–91)
• Archie's Pals 'n' Gals Double Digest (1992–2010)
• Archie's RC Racers (1990–91)
• Archie's Story & Game Digest (1986–98)
• Archie's TV Laugh-Out (1969–86)
• Betty and Me (1965–92)
• Betty and Veronica Digest Magazine (1980–2010)
• Betty and Veronica Summer Fun (1992–98)
• Betty and Veronica Spectacular (1992–2009)
• Betty's Diary (1986–90)
• Cheryl Blossom (1997–2001)
• Cosmo the Merry Martian (1958–1959)
• Dilton's Strange Science (1989–1990)
• Everything's Archie (1969–91)
• Josie and the Pussycats (1963–1982)
• Jughead (1965–87; relaunched immediately)
• Jughead Vol. 2 (1987–93) continues as Archie's Pal Jughead Comics Vol. 2
• Jughead and Friends Digest Magazine (2005–2010)
• The Jughead Jones Digest Magazine (1977–96)
• Jughead's Pal Hot Dog (1990–91)
• Jughead's Diner (1990–91)
• Jughead's Jokes (1968–82)
• Jughead's Time Police (1990–91)
• Jughead with Archie Digest (1974–2005)
• Knuckles the Echidna (1997–99) spin-off of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series
• Laugh Comics (1946–87) relaunched immediately
• Laugh Comics Vol. 2 (1987–91)
• Laugh Comics Digest (1974–2005)
• Life with Archie (1958–91)
• Pep Comics (1940–87)
• Reggie's Revenge
• Reggie and Me (1966–80)
• Reggie's (Wise Guy) Jokes (1968–80)
• Riverdale High (1990–91)
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1971–83)
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1997–99) relaunched immediately as Sabrina Vol. 2
• Sabrina Vol. 2 (2000–02)
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch Vol. 2 (2003–09) continues from Sabrina Vol. 2
• Sonic X (2005–2008)
• Tales From Riverdale Digest Magazine (2005–2010)
• World of Archie (1992–98)

Characters

Superheroes

At various points, Archie Comics has experimented with publishing various superhero titles. Beginning with Blue Ribbon Comics #1 (Nov. 1939), and continuing throughout the 1940s with titles such as Zip Comics, Jackpot Comics, Hangman Comics, Shield-Wizard Comics and Pep Comics.^[6] This last title was, "before Archie came along in issue #22... home to the first ever patriotic superhero, The Shield."^[6]

During "Archie's Silver Age (late 1950s through the 1960s)," the Shield led other characters in the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby title The Double Life of Private Strong, while Simon & Kirby soon added another title - The Adventures of the Fly - which in turn was later joined by The Jaguar.^[6] "By the mid-'60s, the superheroes were back in full force" with Mighty Comics Presents and The Mighty Crusaders featuring "all of Archie's superhero characters teaming up for epic adventures."^[6] The Mighty Crusaders comprised The Fly, The Shield, Jaguar, Steel Sterling, Captain Flag, The Comet, Fly Girl, Firefly and The Fox.^[6]

Many of these characters have subsequently in several instances been licensed to DC.^[7][8] Writer J. Michael Straczynski is overseeing the current effort which carry the logo of Red Circle Comics.

Mighty Comics

Red Circle Comics

In October 1973, Archie's new "Red Circle Comics" imprint debuted with Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #3 (formerly Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as told by Sabrina), later morphing into Red Circle Sorcery with issue #6, running for a further six issues, until issue #11 (Feb, 1975). A small handful of other short-lived, non-Archie, titles were published by Red Circle Comics before - in 1978/79 - two digests were published collecting some of the Archie Superhero comics from the previous decade. These were Archie's Super Hero Special and Archie's Super Hero Comic Digest Magazine - the latter notable for printing a previously-unpublished revamp of the Black Hood by Gray Morrow and Neal Adams.

In the 1980s, Archie's superheros returned. Initially published by JC Comics in JCP Features #1, (Dec 1981), in March 1983, the first issue of Mighty Crusaders appeared, leading to a procession of new titles under the Red Circle Comics banner, soon to be rebranded (in February 1984) the "Archie Adventure Series," before cancellation in September, 1985.

Impact

Archie's super-heroes were later leased to DC Comics for use in its short-lived Impact Comics line, "and while many of their titles received critical acclaim, there were already too many superhero comics flooding the market."^[6] DC Comics regained the license to the characters in 2008 and began assimilating the Red Circle heroes into it's continuity following Final Crisis.

Honors

US post will pay a tribute to Archie Comics by releasing a stamp on Friday, July 16, 2010.World Stamp News

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Archie Universe
• Who's Who in the Archie Universe
• Archie comic strip
• Archie Veronica Wedding