Moose Mason in "The Eyes Have It"

Archie comics have been making generations of kids and teens laugh for over three-quarters of a century.  And with tens of thousands of stories printed over that time period, you're never at a shortage for laughs.

However, there are some times in which Archie comics have tackled social issues as well.  And believe it or not, they have turned out to be some of my favourite stories.

I found that whenever Archie tackled social issues, they were well done, and not overly preachy.  Well, unless you count the various "Say No To Drugs" ads that appeared in Archie comics throughout the late 1980s, that is. 

Now while almost all the titles in the Archie universe focused on serious issues on an occasional basis, there were a couple of titles that seemed to touch on them at least every other issue.  One of those titles was "Archie at Riverdale High", a series which ran from 1972-1987, and was rebooted from 1990-1991.  It was sort of like the "Life With Archie" series, only every single story took place either at Riverdale High School, or featured a prominent member of Riverdale High's faculty, like Mr. Weatherbee, or Ms. Grundy.  In that series, Archie and the gang usually had to foil a Scooby-Doo type mystery where they had to figure out who was sabotaging the school newspaper, or who vandalized school property after hours.

By the time the early 1980s rolled around, the series started to tackle serious issues.  Issues such as peer pressure and smoking were touched upon and were added in with the more hilarious tales. 

But did you know that Archie comics also tackled the subject of learning disabilities?  It's true.  And how they handled this delicate subject was by having one of the secondary characters of the series come to terms with the fact that they have a learning disability, as well as explaining it to the reader in terminology that they could understand.

So, let's have a look at the story "The Eyes Have It", which was first printed in Archie at Riverdale High #98.  As you'll notice, I have already posted the cover of said book earlier in this blog.

Unfortunately, I actually don't have a copy of this book.  However, I do have the reprinted version of it.  It can also be found in Archie Digest #96.  And yes, my scanner is still broken, so you'll have to deal with my iPod camera for now.  Just note that this blog will contain spoilers for those of you who have not read this story.  Consider that your warning.

The story begins in Ms. Grundy's classroom where the entire Archie gang seems to be enrolled in her class.  And I bet that every single one of them were kind of wishing that they weren't.  Ms. Grundy loves to assign homework, and this assignment that she is giving them is a doozy.  Not only does she write so much information on the blackboard that it fills the entire surface area, but she gives them until noon tomorrow to finish it!  That is cruel and unusual punishment! 

And yes, I can say that because I had a teacher in high school that used to do the same thing to us!

Now while most of the students are stressed out over the assignment, in previous Archie tales we can count on a few things.  We can count on students like Dilton and Betty getting great marks.  We can count on Archie and Jughead being very average.  We can count on Reggie to try and copy off of Dilton's paper.

And we can sadly count on Moose flunking.

It's a common characteristic trait for Moose since he was first introduced to Archie comics in "Archie's Pal Jughead #1".  Marmaduke "Moose" Mason.  Brilliant football player, strongest man in the whole school, but dumb as a box of rocks.  Of course, Moose's way of looking at the world is seen differently by his peers.  In the eyes of Moose's best friend Dilton and his girlfriend Midge, it's delightful.  In the eyes of Moose's enemy Reggie, it's D-uh-lightful.

However, Moose has a fire and determination to do better in school, and by the time the 1980s rolls around, I feel that he's tired of being made fun of for his lack of intelligence.  He makes a conscious effort to try and get a great mark on Grundy's assignment even if he stays up all night to work on it.

That effort certainly seems to be noticed by Betty, who thinks that the rest of the class might be selling him short and that maybe they should all give him a chance.  But it seems as though everyone else has their minds made up about him. 

About a week passes, and Ms. Grundy has everybody's assignments graded and marked.  Unfortunately for Moose, it's not good news.  He failed the assignment miserably, and Moose is genuinely broken-hearted about it because he claims that he worked twice as hard to make his paper a success. 

However, the first sign that something might be wrong is seen when Moose provides Ms. Grundy with the notes he took the day she wrote the assignment.  Moose's notes didn't make any sense with words missing letters, and paragraphs written in the wrong order.  With notes like that, it was fairly easy to see how Moose's paper ended up being a mess.

Dilton helpfully suggests that maybe Moose has a vision problem and believes that he might just need some glasses to fix the issue, but Moose says that can't be the problem because he had an eye test recently and his vision was 20/20.  Unfortunately, Ms. Grundy is disappointed in Moose's latest assignment, and notes that up until this point his grades have been mediocre at best.  But after today, Ms. Grundy might not have any choice but to talk to Mr. Weatherbee and have Moose suspended from all sports events until his grades go up.

This probably leads to one of the saddest panels ever drawn in 1980s-era Archie.  A dejected Moose walking down the hallways not understanding what is going on, and why he continues to fail at school despite trying his hardest.

It's not until Moose goes through a series of tests with medical professionals that the truth is finally revealed.  Moose has dyslexia - a learning disability.  When Moose sees something written on the board, his eyes don't work together with the brain to transmit messages as they should be written.  Perhaps the best way to explain it is that if you write a word like "Hello" out, someone with dyslexia might read it as "Halo", or "Hlelo". 

Or as Moose himself explained in football terms, dyslexia is what happens when your signals get crossed in your brain and your eyes, and those crossed signals can cause your reading to fumble.  And you know, I have to give kudos to the writer of this story, Sam Kujava, for explaining dyslexia in a way that we could all understand what it was.  Even better, explaining it in a way that it didn't have to be seen as a detriment.  Because as Mr. Weatherbee and Ms. Grundy explained, dyslexia could easily be managed with a lot of hard work - hard work that we already knew Moose was capable of.

I think that this story really helped me see that Moose was more than just a character who was a dumb jock who beat up Reggie every time he tried to hit on Midge.  He was actually a very determined man who wouldn't be defined by a learning disability.  And over time, Moose became a more well-rounded character as a result.

He even ran for mayor of Riverdale in the Life With Archie reboot in 2010!  Of course, that was in an alternate universe where Archie ended up dead at the end of it all, but still...I'd consider that a success for Moose!

Veronica's Passport

1989 was an interesting year in the Archie Comics world. 

It was a year that was filled with some incredible changes to the Archie comics line-up.  Jughead received his own "Double Digest" title, toy stores began selling bendable action figures of Archie and his friends, and in the comic book series, at least ten new titles debuted between 1989 and 1990.

Mind you, nine of those titles were cancelled by the time Archie Comics celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1991, but hey, you have to admire the company for trying to expand their horizons to take risks.

In the case of one of these ten titles that debuted in 1989/1990, one managed to run for over two hundred issues and twenty-three years!  What's even more remarkable is that the subject that this comic focused on?  This was their first solo title in the comic book's history!

(And no...it wasn't Dilton's Strange Science, either.)

It was Veronica Lodge!  It's true.  Prior to the release of "Veronica in Paris" in 1989, Veronica did not have a solo title of her own.  To put that into perspective, Archie has had over a dozen of his own titles.  Jughead had six if you include "Jughead's Time Police" and "Jughead's Diner" - two other titles that debuted in the 1989/1990 year that didn't nearly last as long as Veronica's title.  At the time, Betty had two - "Betty and Me" (which debuted in 1965), and "Betty's Diary".  Even Reggie had "Reggie and Me", though the last issue was released in 1980.  But still, Reggie had his own title before Veronica did.

Veronica's title also marked a couple of firsts for the company.  Aside from being Veronica's first solo title, it was also the first time that Archie artist Dan Parent had illustrated a cover for Archie comics.  He would work on the cover for the first issue (and the final issue of Veronica with many others in between), as well as all of the stories that were featured within the first eighteen issues of the title.

In fact, that's what the focus of today's blog is all about! 

While the title of Veronica was filled with lots of creative stories, the first eighteen issues were dedicated towards Veronica touring the world.  Although Archie and his friends have gone to almost every country in the world, this was really the first time we saw Veronica take on the world on her own.  And it wasn't all that contrived to believe, as we well know that Veronica's family is rich.  All the writers had to do was say that Veronica was on winter vacation, or on a business trip with her father. 

Now, Veronica went to several places during those first eighteen issues of her solo title.  While she stayed in the United States to visit places like Hollywood, Hawaii, Texas, and New York City, she also traveled to several other cities, countries and continents.  These include France, Africa, India, Germany, Greece, Russia, Italy, the Bahamas, Switzerland, Canada, England, Japan, Australia, and Mexico!

What's also interesting is that in nearly every issue of those first eighteen, Veronica somehow managed to find a new love interest!  In the first issue, Veronica fell in love with a man named Jean-Paul...only to have him fall in love with someone else at the end of the story!  Whoops!

However, one thing I can also say about the Veronica issues is that they were very informative, and actually provided a bit of a history and geography lesson as Veronica visited world landmarks.  Whoever wrote the stories certainly did their research!  In fact, I probably shouldn't admit this, but I actually used one of the Veronica books for research when I had to do a school project on Japan in the sixth grade!  I ended up getting an "A" though, so I consider that a win! 

Anyway, I've read all of the first eighteen issues of Veronica, and I'm ready to talk about which five are my favourite in the series.  One probably doesn't come as too much of a shock given my nationality, but the other four are stories are written and illustrated in a way that when I was a kid reading them for the first time, it felt like I was actually there with Veronica taking in the sights and sounds.

So, here are my five favourite issues of the first eighteen of the Veronica series.  Beginning with...

#5 - VERONICA IN CANADA

Yeah, you knew that this book would make an appearance in my top five, with me being from Canada, of course.  In this story, Veronica accompanies her photographer cousin (whose name is Ginger Snap, I kid you not) on a coast to coast tour of Canada where Ginger is putting together a photo project on Canada.  What's interesting about this story is that they touch upon so many Canadian landmarks such as the Bay of Fundy and the CN Tower.  You can tell that a ton of research was done into creating the various stories.  What's even more interesting is that when they visit Quebec, Veronica runs into her former French flame, Jean-Paul, and she ends up getting her sweet revenge on him.  Might be a bit immature for Veronica, but it's still satisfying!

#4 - VERONICA IN TEXAS

This story reads more like a plotline on "General Hospital", but it still plays out quite nicely.  When Veronica is flying to Texas, her plane hits turbulence and it causes her to bump her head and lose her memory.  She believes that she is the rodeo star featured in the Harlequin romance novel that she was reading on the flight and transforms into her when they land in Texas - even dying her hair bright red as a result!  But as contrived as this plot is, it's good to see her bond with Matt, a local boy who is into the country scene.  And it's also good to learn all about Texas history and culture.

#3 - VERONICA IN ROME

Mr. Lodge is fed up with Veronica's lack of knowledge in business and finance, and he decides to send her to a prestigious school in Rome, Italy so that she'll figure it out.  Once Veronica arrives, a mix-up at the airport sees her being sent to a reform school for girls, and she is bullied and treated poorly by her instructors and her roommates.  Veronica is frustrated over the whole situation and she worries that she won't survive it.  But when a chance encounter on the rainy streets of Rome comes into play, will Veronica's luck change for the better?  Toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain and make a wish...this story will not disappoint!

#2 - VERONICA IN JAPAN

Veronica is accompanying her father to Tokyo, Japan, where he is on a business trip.  And Mr. Lodge arranges for an American-born tour guide named Rob to show Veronica around town.  At first, the two have a hard time getting along as Veronica sees Rob as being a nerd, and Rob has no tolerance for spoiled brats.  But as Veronica and Rob get to know each other, they find that they might have misjudged each other.  And Veronica finds that she might need Rob's help more than once when she accidentally gets caught up in the middle of a spy mission after purchasing a pair of earrings.  Again, plot contrivance, but at least you can learn a lot about Japan reading this story!

And finally...

#1 - VERONICA IN HOLLYWOOD

Now, this story was written during a time in which there were copyright protections in place, so names had to be changed.  For the sake of argument, I'll write the changed names out here...you can probably figure out who and what the pop culture references are from there. 

Someone has stolen the Sapphire Slippers that famed actress Jody Wreath wore in the movie "The Wizard of Ooze", following an auction where they were recently sold.  Veronica and Mr. Lodge must find a way to not only locate the thief, but also find a way to convince the buyer of the slippers to display them in a museum.  With help from Timmy, the stunt double of actor Tom Hunks, Veronica sets out to find the truth.  The culprit ends up being someone unexpected, their motive is actually quite heartwarming, and in the end, Veronica does something incredibly unselfish.  But I've said too much.  If you want to check out this story, it was also reprinted in Veronica's Passport Digest #2.

In fact, if you can get your hands on the Veronica's Passport Digest series (which changed to Veronica's Digest from issues 3-6), a lot of the first eighteen issues of Veronica's title were reprinted in those books.  In fact, the first issue of the series contains the first three issues of Veronica, as well as a new adventure where she goes to Hong Kong where Mr. Lodge plans on unveiling a secret project that utilizes Hong Kong's main industries.

Or, you could just get a copy of the Veronica's Passport graphic novel.  It has many of these stories reprinted within.  Either way, it's a neat way to learn about the world we live in.

Little Archie in "The Thanksgiving"

Just a little note before I continue with today's blog.  Initially I wanted to use my scanner for the images in this post, but as it turns out, my scanner is broken.  Fortunately, the camera in my iPod is fairly clear, so I just used that.  You can still make out the images, but they might appear slanted.  Until I can get my scanner fixed, this will have to do for now.

Anyway, for any Americans that might be reading this blog, I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving.  And you're in luck because today's blog post is Thanksgiving themed!  And for those of you who aren't celebrating Thanksgiving today, at least give this a look.

Since I am an unapologetic fan of Archie comics, I continue to buy them even though I am in my late thirties and they are now close to eight bucks for one digest.  What can I say?  It's the one thing from childhood that I absolutely refuse to let go of.  And besides, it's a good thing that I still read them because otherwise I wouldn't have been reminded of one of my favourite Thanksgiving themed stories ever created.

If you want to pick up a copy of this story right now, see if you can fetch a copy of "Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #293".  As of November 2018, it's the most recent issue, so it's still readily available.  

But if you want the original source of this story, you will have to locate a copy of Little Archie #102.  

The story is called "The Thanksgiving", and it stars Little Archie and his dog Spotty.  Now, I know that some fans of Archie aren't fans of Little Archie and like to focus on teenage Archie instead.  But as I mentioned in the introductory post, Little Archie was the title that introduced me to Archie comics in the first place, so I have a very soft spot for the title.  In fact, I will go on the record in stating that some of the Little Archie comics of the 1970s are among some of my all-time favourite stories in the whole Archie universe!

At this point, I will like to remind those of you who have not read this story yet that the rest of this blog post will have spoilers inside of it, so if you haven't read the story, go to the nearest supermarket, pick up the book that I've listed above with the reprinted version, and read it.  If you have, continue on.

It's Thanksgiving, and Little Archie and his parents are going to visit Grandpa and Grandma Andrews for the holiday.  Spotty is tagging along too.  As they pull up into the driveway, Little Archie notices a sign telling them that they are on private property, which Mr. Andrews says the reason behind it is because of hunters.  Seems like a random piece of information, but as we well know in Archie comics, nothing is ever random.

Once they get out of the car, they are immediately greeted by Grandpa and Grandma Andrews, where Grandpa informs Little Archie that he has a big surprise for him.  It appears as though a friend that they met a couple of years earlier has been seen in the area, and for Little Archie, it brings back a bittersweet memory.

When Little Archie was even littler, he was visiting his grandparents during the summer when he heard gunfire.  When he tried to find out what it was, he found that two hunters had shot and killed an adult raccoon.  To make the situation even more heartbreaking, when the hunters left, Little Archie discovered a baby raccoon hiding in a tree.  The hunters had killed the baby's mother, and it was up to Little Archie to help him.

Little Archie took the baby raccoon back to his grandparents' place and together the three of them took care of him so he wouldn't starve.  They even nicknamed him "Little Bandit", since the black marks around his eyes sort of looked like a mask.  After a few weeks though, Little Bandit had to go back to the woods, and a tearful Little Archie said farewell to his friend.

Little Archie, Grandpa Andrews, and Spotty go out into the woods to leave Little Bandit some corn for Thanksgiving dinner, and Grandpa Andrews warns Little Archie to keep back as Little Bandit isn't comfortable around humans.  But Spotty didn't get that message and he darts into the forest once he gets a glimpse of Little Bandit.

Eventually, Little Bandit manages to hide in the forest, and Spotty is left wondering where he disappeared to.  But then the worst possible thing happens and Spotty is shot by what appears to be the same hunters that shot and killed Little Bandit's mother!  What are the odds, right?  The good news is that Spotty doesn't immediately die and is just knocked unconscious...but he needs medical help, and quickly.

This is of little comfort to Little Archie, who is absolutely freaking out over Spotty's disappearance.  He is so broken-hearted about it that he can't even enjoy Thanksgiving dinner even though he has ended up with one of the drumsticks that in my family was the piece of the turkey that we all fought over at my holiday dinners!  Of course, Little Archie doesn't realize that Spotty is in danger.

Now here's where the story takes a turn from depressing to heartwarming.

Little Bandit stumbles upon Spotty lying in the forest, an obvious bullet wound in his body (which in the recent reprint was edited out, might I add), and Little Bandit recalls seeing the dog before.  He then remembers Little Archie, and rushes towards Grandpa and Grandma Andrews' farmhouse to alert someone of what happened.  It doesn't take long for Little Bandit to attract Little Archie's attention...after all, Little Archie is staring out the window in sadness over missing Spotty.  Little Bandit motions Little Archie to follow him into the woods, and he leads him right to a wounded Spotty.

It is touch and go for a few panels as Spotty is rushed to the local vet by Grandpa and Mr. Andrews, and Little Archie is worried sick about his beloved dog.  But the tense silence is interrupted by a familiar bark, and it looks like Spotty will make a full recovery.

It's a true Thanksgiving miracle!

And, of course, to end this story on an even happier note, when the Andrews family get back to the farmhouse to resume Thanksgiving dinner, Little Archie does another disappearing act.  Grandma Andrews explains that Little Archie fixed up a plate of food to give to a friend, but Little Archie's parents are confused because Spotty is resting comfortably on the floor.

It's not until the final panel of the story that we see who the food is for...the true hero of the tale.  A Little Bandit.

A lot of the stories from the 1970s were a bit more serious in nature compared to some of the other funnier tales of the decades before and the decades after.  And yet, these stories are some of the tales that I believe have aged the best out of all of the Archie stories ever written and illustrated.  That's certainly the case with this Little Archie adventure.

Digest Covers of the Early 1980s

When I first began reading and collecting Archie comics, I was a few weeks shy of my 6th birthday.  And back in 1987 the covers of Archie comics were brightly coloured masterpieces that depicted Archie and his friends telling classic jokes (often at Archie's expense).  Though the classic Archie comics have always been (and continue to be) aimed towards children and teenagers, I can understand why Archie comics wanted to make their covers as flashy as possible.

But it wasn't until I started really seeking out older Archie comics to add to my collection that I realized that the digest covers were even more elaborate and creative than the ones I was reading when I was a kid.  In particular, those comic book covers that were released in the early 1980s.  The amount of detail that went into not just the cover gag included in the cover, but the little details that surrounded the cover gag...it was like a brilliant masterpiece of creativity.  And keep in mind that these covers were all illustrated before people even knew what Photoshop was.  The penciling, the inking, the colouring...they were all done by hand. 

So for today's post, I thought that I would share some of my favourite cover designs for digests in the early 1980s.  The reason I am doing digests instead of the standard 32-page comics was because even back in the early 1980s, the cover design for those was rather standard.  But the digests gave the artists free reign to create whatever they wanted. 

Are you ready?  Let's go ahead with this post starting with the oldest and working our way down.

Okay, so technically I'm cheating as this cover was released in late 1979.  But I couldn't resist posting the cover of Jughead Jones Digest #10.  For one, the cover gag panel is shaped just like Jughead's head, right down to the crown.  And have a look at all the miniature photos of Jughead surrounding the cover.  Believe it or not, these images are from previous Jughead stories that were printed.  It's also one of the rare instances in which more than one artist shares creative duties, as the cover gag was done by Dan DeCarlo, while the surrounding images were done by Samm Schwartz.

The cover of Archie Digest #47 depicts a common theme for early 1980s digests...taking the theme of the cover gag and expanding on it to create a themed cover.  I think the board game theme was a success for this gag, but I think what could have improved on it was if they had actually used a Monopoly game for the border instead of checkers.  But overall, it's a design that really grabs the eye.  I know my eye gravitated to this one right away when I bought it in a used book store.

The following issue of Archie Digest #48 was another example of an eye-catching cover.  The dynamite stick really makes the cover gag pop out in a huge way.  And while I can see why some people might have complained that the gags were too small for the cover, consider the fact that back in the 1980s, digests were complete reprints of classic stories.  In some cases, digests outright copied many of the cover gags of the 1950s and 1960s.  So, to make them seem newer, I can see why they made the digest covers so flashy.

The only thing the cover of Archie Annual Digest #39 made me long for was a package of Archie playing cards.  Seriously, they could have easily made Betty and Veronica the Queen of Hearts and Queen of Diamonds respectively.  Coincidentally, did you know that Archie Annual started off as a standard sized comic?  It switched to digest format in 1975 with issue #27 and lasted until 1998 with issue #69.

I don't know about anyone else here, but one thing I remember growing up in the 1980s was that geometric shapes were all the rage in design.  This cover of Little Archie Digest #10 certainly made use of those shapes in a huge way, even throwing a promo for Little Sabrina in the bottom right corner.

I don't know what exactly Archie means when he wants us to "Flick Out", but one thing that I will say about Jokebook Digests were that the 3-4 page panel gags that usually accompanied the cover (mainly because Jokebook Digests were collections of single page "Gag Bags", "Pin-Ups", and collections of "Jughead's Dipsy Doodle" gags) were brilliantly done.  Linking the side picture of Archie and the video camera with the gag being inserted into film strips was a nice touch for Jokebook Digest #10.

Betty and Veronica Digest started off as an annual only title in 1980, but quickly increased publication after issue #5 was released.  I can see why the Betty and Veronica titles sold so well.  The cover of Betty and Veronica Digest #3 was a fantastic cover conception from the very beginning.  On one hand, you have Betty and Veronica checking their make up in a vanity mirror...but the mirror itself contains our cover gag.  The additional details like the lipstick, lotions, and Katy Keene perfume were nice touches as well.

Sometimes the fads of the era contributed to the cover designs.  And when Rubik's Cubes became all the rage in 1982, Laugh Digest #40 decided to make their cover gag fit inside of a Rubik's Cube!  It would have been cooler if they had inserted cover gags inside each of the coloured squares, but that would have been too much work!

Archie...Archie Andrews...Where Are You Digest #21.  This digest title is known for having the longest title of all of the digests that have been made, but even the size of the title didn't stop artists from adding a ton of embellishments and detail to their covers.  The shades of yellow, blue, and green used here really stands out!

Archie Digest #58 is just one of the many examples of the Christmas covers that Archie were known for.  Again, with the Archie's Christmas Stocking titles following a formula for their covers, the digests could afford to take on more creative liberties.  Having the gang caroling inside of a giant wreath with music notes encircling it?  Nice idea.  Also, check out Veronica's disgusted look at Betty and Archie's smooches, as well as Jughead and Hot Dog's large mouths!  So that's how Jughead could eat all those burgers!

I really like the cover design of Archie's Double Digest #7.  If you look closely at the book, it actually shows the downstairs and upstairs of Archie's house!  Jughead and Archie enter through the front door, and then go downstairs in the rec room to do their "homework".  The details surrounding the house make this cover seem rather cozy!

Finally, we have Jughead With Archie Digest #59.  This cover came out in 1983 - the same year that Archie digests started to make their spines multicoloured (prior to 1983, all of them were white with black text).  1983 was really also one of the last years that Archie digests added extra details on the outside of their cover gags.  By the time 1984 came around, the cover gags expanded to fill the whole cover, and background details were enhanced.  But hey, at least this cover showed that they weren't afraid to have fun with their designs.

In fact, I think that Archie Comics Publications should try going retro with their cover designs once more...perhaps in 2021 for the company's 80th anniversary.  What do you think?

And are there any cover designs that I may have missed?  I'd love to see them!

PEP Comics #22 - Where it all began...

The date was December 22, 1941.

At that time, Glenn Miller had two of the top musical hits in the world with "A String of Pearls" and "Chattanooga Choo-Choo".  Johnny Weissmuller brought Tarzan back to life in the 1941 film "Tarzan's Secret Treasure".  The world was still coming to terms with the attack on Pearl Harbor in the midst of World War II.

And it was on this date that we were first introduced to a seventeen-year-old red-headed boy from Riverdale, U.S.A.

Interestingly enough, Archie didn't exactly debut with his own title right away.  That wouldn't come until 1942.  Instead, Archie made his debut in the title PEP Comics #22 - a title that prior to issue #22 was mostly a collection of superhero comics.  It was one of the titles that was published by MLJ Magazines Inc. - a company founded by Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater. 

How Archie came to make his first appearance in the comics can be attributed to the success of the Andy Hardy film series.  The title role was played by Mickey Rooney, and it's speculated that the design of Archie Andrews was based off of Rooney in many ways, right down to the red hair.

Though, I think we can all agree that the 1940s portrayal of Archie Andrews was a lot more...shall we say...less polished than the 2010s version of Archie.  Of course, that's no fault of the artist who first designed Archie, Bob Montana.  The amount of detail he put into that first story was phenomenal for 1940s standards.  Just have a look at the first page of the very first Archie story!

It's interesting that Archie insisted that Betty call him "Chick" at first, especially given that Betty has a seldom seen older brother named Chic in the comic books.  Remind me to do a character profile on him one day.

Anyway, the original story features Archie trying to impress Betty by doing a whole bunch of silly stunts which include riding on a bicycle standing up and walking across a fence blindfolded.  This might be tame to some of you, but keep in mind that this took place sixty years before "Jackass" debuted, so this was impressive back in the day!

Of course, Archie loses his balance and ends up falling right through a portrait of Betty's father - with "Old Man Cooper" watching the whole thing!  Naturally, this causes Betty's dad to have a less than favourable opinion of Archie, and this marks the first time in which a parent disapproves of Archie dating their daughter.

We all know that Mr. Cooper would soften towards Archie in the comic book series, and that when Veronica was introduced Archie would become a thorn in Mr. Lodge's side for decades to come.  So, it's interesting that they would start off on this note.

Archie's best friend Jughead tells Archie to forget about Betty, saying that girls are nothing but trouble long before DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince had a hit song with that sentiment.  But Archie is smitten over the blonde-haired girl next door, and he insists on not only winning her heart, but smoothing things over with Mr. Cooper as well.

Betty comes up with the idea for Archie to help her out at the upcoming carnival.  She's making taffy and if Archie volunteers to work at her taffy booth with her, Mr. Cooper will forget all about the damaged portrait and see that he's making an effort.  Fair enough.  But as we all well know in the world of Riverdale, U.S.A. that nothing EVER goes to plan.

When the tightrope walker performing stunts at the carnival gets injured, Betty volunteers Archie to take on the job.  Wow, Betty.  Walking on a fence and slipping was how Archie got into this mess in the first place and now you want him to go up a hundred feet in the air to walk across a wire?  I wonder if this is where the "Betty is crazy" meme got started?

As predicted, Archie walks across the tightrope without much trouble at first - that is.  But when a butterfly lands on his nose, Archie slips and falls off the rope!

An effort by both Jughead and Archie's mother to save him quickly follows, but luckily Archie is spared by falling into a vat of Betty's taffy.  Unfortunately, Archie's foot causes a switch to go off sending taffy flying into the crowd, covering Betty's father in sticky pink goop.

Who would have thought that this story would have kicked off seventy-seven years of stories, jokes, and comics starring Archie Andrews and his pals and gals?  And who knew that Archie's popularity would rise to the occasion that he would fully take over the PEP Comics title by 1946?  Beginning with issue #56, Archie formally took over the title and would continue publishing new Archie stories until the title ended with issue #411 in 1987 (though a few PEP issues were included in the Archie Giant Series title in the late 1980s and early 1990s).

Now, if you're looking to own a copy of PEP Comics #22 so you can have the first ever appearance of Archie, I'd suggest you start saving up for it now.  A copy of that comic book sold in a September 2017 auction for over a quarter of a million dollars!  Not bad for a book that originally cost a dime!

Fear not though.  There is still a way for you to own a copy of this historical story, as it has since been reprinted many times in various digests and graphic novels.

I would strongly recommend picking up a copy of "Archie Americana Series: Best of the Forties" if you haven't got it already.  Not only is the PEP Comics #22 story reprinted in that book, but so are several other stories that feature the first appearances of Veronica, Reggie, Ms. Grundy, Mr. Weatherbee, Pop Tate, and Moose!

Barring all that, you can also see if you can track down a copy of Archie Digest #236.  It was released as part of Archie's 65th anniversary celebrations and not only does it contain the reprint of PEP Comics #22 and Archie #1, but also features a story in which 2000s era Archie meets 1940s Archie.  It's a weird tale, but worth seeking out.

PEP Culture

Greetings, everybody.  And welcome to my new blog.

My name is Matthew, and for seven years, I was the mastermind behind the blog "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE".  It was a good run when it lasted, and for what it was worth, I had fun doing the blog for the first six years it was up and running.  But I suppose like some relationships, I got prone to the seven-year-itch, and I started to lose interest in all things pop culture.

The last half of 2017 and the first half of 2018 were challenging, and I had to do a lot of personal reflections and take some TLC for myself (both the action and the '90s girl group).

And the conclusion that I came up with was that I didn't want to do a pop culture blog any longer.  While I took a hiatus from my first blog six months ago, I made the final decision that I would not be returning to it.  I just don't have it in me to write about pop culture tidbits any longer because I find that I've lost interest in the vast majority of it.  I look at it, and it's just too broad of a subject, and there is so much out there that I found it overwhelming.

Taking six months away from writing to focus on myself was probably one of the greatest things I have done for myself because when I was on hiatus, I thought about narrowing my focus to one specific topic.  And the more I thought about it, the more the answer smacked me right in the face.

Why don't I just do a blog on my favourite comic book series ever?  A series that has lasted for seventy-seven years and counting.

Yes, guys.  This former pop culture addict has gone into rehab and now it's all about PEP Culture.

Welcome to PEP Culture, my blog celebrating the world of Archie comics.  I can't guarantee you that I will be writing in this space every day like I did in my first blog for five years straight, but I can promise you that with my encyclopedic knowledge about Archie comics, I will strive to make this blog an informative, yet fun experience.  If you're a huge fan of Archie, you're going to love this new venture.  And if not, maybe I'll convince you to pick up a comic or two.

How do I plan on doing this?  Well, there are a few ways. 

Obviously, this is going to be a study on Archie comics.  And when I say Archie comics, I mostly mean the classic ones.  Not that I have anything against the Archie comics reboots and the "Riverdale" television show on the CW.  I like those too.  But since most of my collection deals with the classics, I thought I would stick to those.

And what might some of the topics feature?  Here are my ideas.

CHARACTER PROFILES:

A character sketch on a random character, whether it be one of the members of the core five, or a tertiary character.  If possible, I'll even see if I can locate their first appearances in the Archieverse.  For newer characters like Kevin Keller, it's going to be easy.  For older, obscure characters like Cricket O'Dell...that might take some research.

TITLE PROFILES:

Did you know that there have been more than fifty different titles released under the Archie library?  That gives me a lot of material to choose from.  And while some titles only released three or four issues, others lasted for hundreds.  From PEP Comics to B & V Friends Jumbo Digests, I'll focus on one title per month in one retrospective post.  And I may even take a look at some non-Archie titles in the Archie world.  You know, titles like Josie and the Pussycats, Katy Keene, Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch, Lil Jinx, That Wilkin Boy, etc, etc, etc.

MY FAVOURITE STORIES:

My collection of comic books right now stands between 3,000-4,000 books.  In a standard double digest alone, you have at least 20 different stories featured.  I'm not going to do the math here, but needless to say, I have read thousands of Archie stories.  And while there is very rarely an Archie story that I don't like, there are many more that I do.  And I'll occasionally feature some of my favourite tales complete with some scans.  I'll try to find the original sources for these stories, but if not, I can at least point out where they have been reprinted.

GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMPILATIONS:

Over the last ten years or so, Archie comics have released a series of graphic novels and books that are collections of past stories.  While some of these graphic novels have been well put together, others have missed the mark.  Since I have quite a few of these in my own collection, you know that I'll be talking about them.

ARCHIE MEDIA:

Archie had a lot of television cartoons and television projects over the years (with "Riverdale" being the most recent).  And once a month, I'll be talking about some of these shows.  In fact, I may transport some of the reviews I did on "The New Archies" in my old blog and post them here.  You know, for posterity.

ARCHIE MERCHANDISE:

From toys to boxer shorts and everything in between, Archie has his image on a variety of different products.  Some of them I own.  Some of them I used to own.  And some of them I WISH I owned.  I'll have that section covered as well occasionally.

And, of course, like I did with my other blog, I will be doing a PEP Culture Advent Calendar.  Even if I end up just posting Christmas themed covers for a blog entry, I will find a way to make your holiday season a little more Archi-fied.

So, that is what you can expect to see in this new blog.

But why do I have such an obsession for Archie comics?  Why would I choose to shift my focus towards a subject that not everyone might have heard of, let alone liked?

Well, I guess it's because Archie and his pals have been by my side since I was five years old.  In the spring of 1987, I received my very first Archie comic.  It was a Little Archie Digest from the local supermarket, and my mom decided to buy one for me because she thought I would like it.  Not only did I like it...but it was the cornerstone for my obsession with Archie comics, which was followed very closely by a Jughead Jones Digest. 

Whenever I lost a baby tooth, all that money went towards a new comic book (which back in the late 1980s actually BOUGHT a standard sized comic book).  Whenever I had birthday parties, I asked for Archie comics for a gift.  Archie and his friends were there for me through my highest highs and my lowest lows.  Whenever I was feeling down, and when I felt like I didn't have anyone to talk to, I could always pick up an Archie comic, and transport myself to the world of Riverdale.  Well, the classic version anyway.  Where everyone treated each other with dignity and respect.  Where people were kind and said hello to each other on the streets.  Where people got along in perfect harmony...

...well, provided you didn't try to hit on Midge, that is.

I've been a fan of Archie for thirty-one years now...and I hope to be a fan for at least thirty-one more.  I love the comic book series very much, and despite all the changes and alleged turmoil behind the scenes of the comic book company, I will forever consider myself a permanent member of the Archie Fan Club.

(Which is really ironic because I never did go through with applying for that club in the books...I really wanted that multicoloured pen and fan button too.)

So, that's my story.  I hope you'll stick around for this project.  I promise that it'll be fun.  You might even learn some interesting facts.

Sincerely, Matthew
The Reformed Pop Culture Addict and Current PEP Culture Blogger.