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Archie Comics: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:archiedraw.jpg|frame|A typical cover gag. Note the [[Male Gaze
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Well known for being available in newsstands and grocery store checkout magazine racks everywhere (partly due to it also being one of the only comic books that still publish digest-sized issues, perfect for stocking near the checkouts), Archie Comics come and have come in MANY titles, including ''Archie'', ''Archie Digest'', ''Archie Double Digest'', ''Betty'', ''Veronica'', ''Betty '''and''' Veronica'', ''Jughead'', ''Jughead '''with''' Archie'', ''Archie's Pals and Gals'', ''Tales from Riverdale High''... It's still meant for kids, but (as this article proves) there's a large number of adults who still read and enjoy them out there.
While Archie Comics is best known for its comic books featuring Archie and/or other "Riverdale" characters, their output has never been limited to those characters. Archie published stories with a number of superhero characters, including the Shield, a patriotic hero who actually predated the more popular [[Captain America]], the Hangman, the Fly, the Jaguar, and others. Starting in the early 1970s, these and other "non-Riverdale" titles have often been published under the "Red Circle" imprint. Archie has also published a number of licensed titles over the years, such as ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
Archie Comics pushed for the creation of the [[Comics Code]], and more or less ran it. Archie was the last publisher adhering to the Code when it ceased to exist in early 2011.
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'''Media associated with Archie Comics:'''
* ''[[
* ''[[The Archie Show]]'' (1968-69)
* ''The Archie Comedy Hour'' (1969-70)
* ''Archie's Funhouse Starring the Giant Jukebox'' (1970-71)
* ''[[
* ''Everything's Archie'' (1973; replays of previous segments)
* ''[[Josie and
* ''[[Sabrina and The
* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Comic Book)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' (the comic)
* ''Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space'' (1972-73)
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* ''The Archie/Sabrina Hour'' (1977; renamed ''Bang Shang Lalapalooza'' at mid-season)
* ''The New Archies'' (1987)
* ''[[
* ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' (the live-action sitcom)
* ''Sabrina: The Animated Series'' (1997)
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (
* ''[[Mega Man (
* ''[[
* ''[[The Governator]]'' (comic book version)
* ''[[Life With Archie:
Now has a [[Archie Comics/Characters|Character Sheet]].
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** Then there's the "Dynamic New Look" art style, which goes for a more realistic approach. It's only used for specific story arcs, though.
** ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Comic Book)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' has gone "manga-style".
*** So has ''[[Josie and
* [[Asleep in Class]]: One time ([[Recycled Script|or maybe more]]) Jughead painted eyeballs on his eyelids so he could sleep in class and look like he wasn't sleeping.
* [[Bait and Switch Comment]]: [[media:andswitch1_1088.jpg|This sequence]]. "I'd like to comment on your good work... WHEN YOU DO SOME!"
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** The interesting thing about them being that Betty and Veronica are ''inseperable best friends''. They have each other's backs 99% of the time, it's just that they both want the same guy (and he's head over heels in love with them both). Stranding the 3 of them on a deserted island would either lead to murder...or it might be their private idea of Heaven.
* [[Big Eater]]: Jughead is pretty much the biggest example of this in all fiction.
* [[Blonde, Brunette, Redhead]]: Betty, Veronica and Cheryl, since the latter's debut. Betty, Veronica, and Archie, of course. Or [[Josie and
* [[Brand X]]: Done frequently, with many exceptions. See [[Subliminal Advertising]], below.
* [[Brats
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: Frequently used -- characters will "talk to the audience", and several #100 issues will have the characters deciding exactly ''how'' to celebrate their "[[Milestone Celebration|100th issue]]".
* [[Broad Strokes]]: One theory about the comics is that they all take place in parallel universes, which would nicely take care of plenty of [[Canon]] problems, along with the many comics that seem to be almost [[Aesop Amnesia|complete duplicates of previous plots]].
** [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|Not to mention the age problems]].
** The first issue of ''[[Life With Archie:
* [[Butter Face]]: Big Ethel, in her early days.
* [[Canon Foreigner]]: For "The New Archies", a version featuring the group set in their middle school era, the characters of Amani and Eugene were created. "Fangs" Fogarty and Ambrose appear in the elementary-setting "Little Archie". None of the four made it to the mainstream continuity in anything other than a one-shot or cameo.
* [[Canon Immigrant]]: Betty's older siblings, Polly (a reporter) and Chick (a spy). Both debuted in the ''Little Archie'' stories of Bob Bolling when older teens were needed for the kiddie-based tales. Later on, he added them to the mainline continuity as successful siblings who'd moved out of the Cooper household. ''Betty's Diary'' stories made the most use out of them- otherwise it [[Depending
* [[Captain Geographic]]: Some of the superheroes.
* [[Cavalier Consumption]]: Jughead is normally apathetic and somewhat aloof. The only thing he openly takes seriously is food. This results in his eating during serious discussions, with other characters getting annoyed at him. However, more often than not he really is paying attention and is simultaneously thinking on two levels: About his food and about the discussion at hand.
* [[Celibate Hero]]: Jughead doesn't so much hate women anymore as he is simply not interested in romance, believing it complicates a guy's life and taxes his funds. This doesn't keep girls from hitting on him, though. Big Ethel is usually the one who pursues him, although in one story all the girls in Riverdale pursued Jughead because he was the only guy ''not'' wearing an overpowering cologne at a school dance, much to his chagrin. His blatant misogyny was altered by 1989 into being conflicted problems over women, as he had many romantic liaisons during the '90s: Joani Jummp, Debbie, January [McAndrews], Anita the crippled girl, etc.
** He also has a magical hatpin at one point that attracts girls. In a subversion, the pin [[Depending
*** In one story, he gets a date with a girl named Terri thanks to Reggie trying to make her think Jughead's the "Second-Best Romeo In Town" but with the pin drawing Terri to Jughead, Reggie gets thwarted--and the small-scale [[Villanous Breakdown]] he goes through once Archie told what went on is priceless.
{{quote| '''Archie:''' I wonder where he found Her?<br />
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* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: When Archie Comics announced the introduction of new, openly gay character Kevin Keller, they argued that Riverdale is meant to represent a safe place for everyone, so it only made sense that gay teens would find acceptance there too. Several conservative writers then went on to complain that Archie Comics, a series built around the ''entire premise of a love triangle'', was no place for "sexuality."
* [[Congruent Memory]]
* [[Conviction
* [[Criminal Doppelganger]]: In the [[Crossover]] ''Archie Meets [[The Punisher]]'', a criminal the Punisher has tracked to Riverdale looks very similar to Archie.
** And the series ends with [[Wolverine]] learning about [[Here We Go Again|a dangerous mutant who looks like Jughead]].
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** More recently, there was a crossover with ''[[Tiny Titans]]''.
* [[Cuteness Proximity]]: Characters are prone to this in general, especially Betty and Veronica. But what might be the most notable example was when Chuck marched around town being a jerk for some reason, and Archie stopped this by putting a kitten in his path. Chuck immediately picked up and played with the kitten.
* [[Depending
** These things change within stories drawn by the same artist, too, especially the design of Veronica and Archie's homes. Dan DeCarlo said in an interview that the publishers once tried to make him establish a consistent look for the interior of Archie's house, but he found it was too limiting.
* [[Depending
** Enough that one could imagine that the comic spans multiple [[Alternate Universe]]s. [[Fridge Brilliance|Actually, that would explain a lot]].
* [[Disney Acid Sequence]]: Some of the 60's-70's era "The Archies" comics.
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** Betty mentioned two friends to a third friend of hers: Ronnie and Juggie. When he meets Veronica("Ronnie") he assumes she's Juggie...possibly because of her jugs.
** There's one where Veronica panics because she thought Betty and Archie showered together, and another where she nearly freezes to death because she thinks Archie and Betty are sleeping together.
** Reggie sabotages Archie's jalopy to take Veronica to a dance. Veronica, hearing a false story from Reggie, feels sorry for Archie, while Reggie assures her that he's probably "[[A Date
** Another strip has Archie going to a gift counselor to ask for an idea of a birthday present for Mr. Lodge. The counselor's suggestion? Her phone number.
** Archie is in a women's store as a favor to Betty. One of the sales clerks has this line:
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* [[Hello, Nurse!]]: Various characters nearly always draw this reaction ? Cheryl Blossom and Melody Valentine, most often. Veronica tends to do so on bikini covers. Betty usually only does if and when she dresses up for an occasion to one-up Ronnie.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Archie and Jughead, obviously. More so in Juggie's case than Archie's, since Archie's shown hitting on anything in a skirt, and will readily bail on his best friend.
* [[Hoist
* [[Hollywood Pudgy]]: Brigitte is meant as [[An Aesop]] on judging people by their appearances, as she's Riverdale's only fat girl. Unfortunately, they made her as pretty as most of the female cast (just with a double-chin), and only slightly overweight. If done-up properly, she could have easily become a [[Big Beautiful Woman]].
* [[Hot Mom]]: In the "Little Archie" stories, Little Archie's mom is depicted with a thin, bodacious body and long hair, much different from her pudgy, older self in the regular stories.
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** One story even makes fun of this, when Archie thinks he's talking to Veronica, only to find out that it's Betty trying out a black wig.
* [[Intercontinuity Crossover]]: Archie Meets The Punisher
* [[It Runs
* [[It's Fake Fur, It's Fine]]: Fur is occasionally stated to be this.
* [[Jail Bait]]: Somewhat has [[Unfortunate Implications]] in the sense that grown men have discussed how hot Betty and Veronica are for years, but in every incarnation, they're never older than 17. At least they're drawn as busty, curvy grown women and not obviously meant as pedo-bait.
* [[Jerkass]]: Archie could be seen as this, due to the countless times he has cheated on basically every girl he's ever dated, and refuses to choose between Betty or Veronica, instead stringing both along. [[It's All About Me|And he complains about this]].
** In fairness, he has seldom if ever cheated on anyone he was officially "going steady" with at the time - witness stories about "pinning" and so on. It's pretty clear that in the vaguely 1950s-ish culture where the stories are set, everyone agrees that there's no commitment unless there's commitment.
* [[Jerk
* [[Know Your Vines]]: One comic ended with the revelation that the corsage Archie gave Veronica to wear at the prom was poison ivy.
* [[L Is for Dyslexia]]: Moose. He fits all the classic signs, including excelling at sports. In the late 1980s, soon after the publication of a certain best-selling book on dyslexia and intelligence, Miss Grundy tested Moose for dyslexia. She, and other students, began giving him special tutoring geared to his learning style. (It may have come off like a [[Very Special Episode]] to a lot of cynics, but to some who actually suffer from the condition, it was likely quite touching).
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* [[No Going Steady]]: The teens seem to believe in this. Though the girls get mad when they see Archie date another, it's generally acknowledged that everyone just dates whomever, whenever, and there's no "cheating" going on. Most newly-introduced characters are one-shots.
* [[Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date]]: Part of [[The Gay Nineties]] story.
* [[Only Known
* [[Only Six Faces]]: Legendary in pop culture for it. The entirety of the teenage female cast possesses the exact same frame and facial make-up, to the point that Betty and Veronica can switch identities with wigs. Only intentionally "busty" or "curvy" girls, like Cheryl Blossom and Melody Valentine, are different, as well as [[Gonk]] characters like Ethel, or [[Hollywood Pudgy]] Brigitte. Lampshaded in one issue where Betty wearing a simple brunette wig is enough for Archie (presumably the man ''who loves her'') to mistake her for her rival Veronica.
** It should be noted that Archie thought he was going crazy at the time because everything he'd been seeing that day wasn't what it looked like (a soda can that was really a radio, an old bus that was really a snack bar, a banana phone, etc.) and just wanted to meet someone "normal." It didn't help that Betty acted like Veronica to fool Archie at the time.
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* [[Performance Anxiety]]: One story involved Reggie getting stage fright during his first attempt at stand-up comedy, leading to Jughead heckling him, which got Reggie mad enough to reply and then go into the rest of his routine.
* [[Pimped-Out Car]]
* [[Portal to
* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Veronica has loads of furs, but other characters wear fur occasionally.
* [[Progressively Prettier]]: Jughead's mom, Big Ethel, and Archie's & Betty's mothers have all been altered into more attractive forms in the past couple decades. A few of the fathers (Betty's father, Hal, for one) have also lost their original white hair, being recoloured in collected digests.
* [[Public Domain Character]]: Archie Comics never renewed copyrights for anything they published before 1950s, and yes, this includes all the issues of ''Pep Comics'' and ''Archie'' published up to this point. This would make pre-1950 versions of the characters public domain. The reason why we haven't seen anyone else doing their own versions of Archie's gang is because Archie Comics trademarked the characters' designs (that and [[Archie Comics]] is notoriously litigious about anything even remotely related to their characters).
* [[Put
* [[Replacement Flat Character]]: Cheryl Blossom is basically a bitchier, meaner version of Veronica, amplifying most of her negative traits. In Cheryl's own series, her Pembrooke friends contain many worse examples of ''her'' personality.
* [[Retool]]: "It's Josie!" was a fairly simple series, featuring Josie as a red-haired everygirl who had a snarky, odd-dressing best friend, a nice blond and a nasty brunette fighting over her, a rich rival, etc. Basically a girl Archie. When the cartoon studios asked the Archie company for another group to mimic the success of "The Archies," Josie suddenly shifted into being ''defined'' by her existence in a band. Best friend Pepper was dropped, [[Black Best Friend]] Valerie was added, and the whole comic was now a "travelling band" one instead of a regular teen book. Opinions varied, but guess which version is the most famous?
* [[Rich Bitch]]: Veronica used to be this, before [[Character Development]] moved her into the [[Jerk
* [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense]], [[Spoiled Brat]] and the [[Alpha Bitch]], sometimes: Veronica ''defines'' all of these, but she's often shown with the "secret heart of gold" routine as well. Cheryl Blossom is a more authentically bad version (though still has her nice moments, because she had her own series for a while). Libby Chessler, seemingly a creation of the ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' TV series, is both and the [[Trope Namer]] for the latter.
* [[Rule 34]]: The company is known for coming down hard on [[Slash Fic|Slash Fics]] featuring its characters, to the point where Fanfiction.net will no longer accept any kind of Archie-related fanfiction.
** Adultfanfiction.net still accepts them though.
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* [[Sexy Santa Dress]]: Betty, Veronica, Sabrina and other girls would wear them quite frequently during Christmas issues, at least on the covers.
* [[Shiny Midnight Black]]: Veronica and Reggie's hair are full-blown examples, complete with large blue highlights. Most every dark-haired character counts as well -- plain brown or dark hair is almost unknown. Midge, Dilton, Jughead, many of the parents, etc., all possess this.
* [[Shipper
* [[Shoo Out the New Guy]]: Many characters over the years were introduced with great fanfare as potential regulars, and then dropped instantly when readers weren't interested.
** One notable example was Adam the Alien, introduced simultaneously in all three flagship titles (''Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica'') in 1979, with captions promising that he'd have lots of wacky adventures at Riverdale High. He never appeared again.
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* [[Smart People Play Chess]]: Dilton.
* [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]]: Archie, Jughead and Betty were all fairly young in their first 1941 appearance, resembling pre-teens. By the next issue, they were full-on teenagers.
* [[Spanner in
* [[Spinoff Babies]]: "Little Archie" was one of the earliest (the 1960s), taking place in the gang's elementary school years. For some reason, Mr. Weatherbee and Miss Grundy were working at their school. "The New Archies" (an [[Animated Series]] and a comic, both short-lived) came in the 1980s, and was based around their pre-teen years in middle school. The former appears to actually be in continuity (told nowadays as flashbacks), but the latter, with several replacement characters (Eugene for Dilton, among others), is mostly forgotten.
** During the "Pureheart the Powerful" series, the little Archies all became superheroes, too.
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* [[Straight Gay]]: Kevin Keller, introduced in the comic as a normal, positive gay character for kids to read.
* [[Stripperific]]: ''Everyone'' in the Archie I series. Betty and Veronica tote [[Fur Bikini]] outfits, and Archie and Jughead both wear an incredibly small [[Loin Cloth]]. [[Fan Service]] for all.
* [[Subliminal Advertising]]: There was a story published in 1992 in which Archie talks the gang into going to have a picnic in the woods so they enjoy nature, but they all bring along electronic devices to distract themselves with. Throughout the story, all sorts of real life products pop up in the artwork - Veronica's eating a Fruit Roll-Up in the first panel, Archie's sipping from a pack of Capri Sun (and from when it was doing a promotion for ''[[Yogi Bear
** Another story from 1992 opened with Archie and Jughead playing [[Super Nintendo]]. Boxes for actual Super Nintendo games were all on the floor in front of them.
* [[Sweater Girl]]: The girls really fit into their sweaters.
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