The legend that is Archie Comics began inauspiciously in 1939 with the birth of a new comic book company called MLJ Magazines, named after its three partners and founders, Maurice Coyne (M), Louis Silberkleit (L) and John Goldwater (J). The company’s first title was called Blue Ribbon Comics, which was followed by Top Notch Comics and then, in January 1940, Pep Comics. Among MLJ’s growing stable of superheroes was The Shield, said to be the comic book industry’s first patriotic hero who battled the villainous Axis powers.

While MLJ produced their own brand of superheroes to compete with the likes of Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, The Sub-Mariner, Wonder Woman and the like, its founders realized that in order to entertain younger readers, and, in particular, female readers, they needed to head in an entirely different direction. John Goldwater wanted to create a comic book character that was grounded in reality, and prove that an ordinary person could be just as popular. And thus the wheels were set into motion that would eventually give birth to the phenomenon known as Archie.

Goldwater’s inspiration for Archie Andrews came partly from the old Mickey Rooney movie series, Andy Hardy, crediting an actual high school friend of his, named, ironically enough, Archie. During their days at the New York Teachers’ Training School, Goldwater recalls, "I felt like Jughead to him. I was a very loyal friend." With his lead character in hand, Goldwater brought together a stable of writers, editors and artists, including Bob Montana (who would become the principal artist on the strip) creator of the likenesses of the original Archie characters.

Without any fanfare, the very first Archie story appeared in the hero laden pages of Pep Comics #22 in December of 1941. In that story, Archie (who, for some odd reason demanded to be called Chick) sought to impress the new girl in the neighborhood, Betty Cooper. But, despite warnings from his woman-hating chum, Jughead Jones, Archie wound up getting into all sorts of trouble when he tried to do a highwire act at a traveling circus. The kids all looked to be no more than 12 or 13, but by the time they appeared in their next story, they were teenagers.

Comicdom’s most famous, and fabulous rich girl, Veronica Lodge made her debut in Pep Comics #26 (April 1942), and life would never again be the same for poor Archie. In this story, Veronica had just moved to Riverdale and Archie somehow managed to get a date with her. When Jughead tells Arch that Veronica is a rich debutante, Arch, forever hard up for cash lands a job at a swanky restaurant, which just so happens to be the same one he takes Veronica to, thus leading to the sort of chaos readers would come to expect for years to come from Archie.

When Archie #1 hit the newsstands later that year, Veronica’s origin was revised. In this new telling, Veronica receives a mushy love note from Archie, asking her to be his date at the prom. On a lark, the flighty heiress accepts, putting Archie in a bind since he was going steady with Betty at the time. In a pinch, Arch gets Jughead to be her escort, and, after giving her poison ivy from, of all places, a graveyard, chaos again erupts, but later on, Veronica convinces her parents to move to Riverdale, mostly because she likes the town, and partly to get back at Archie!

Dubbed, The Mirth of a Nation, the visibility of Archie grew, as did his popularity. Readers were demanding to see more of Archie and his friends, and the powers that be at MLJ readily satisfied those demands. The company increased Archie’s presence in the still superhero prevalent Pep Comics, culminating with Archie’s first appearance on the cover of Pep #36 in 1943. Then, in Pep #49, Archie got the lead story in that book over The Shield. By 1944, MLJ’s superheroes were slowly starting to be phased out in favor of the ever increasingly popular Archie.

One of the emerging themes that made Archie so popular with his growing legion of fans was The Eternal Triangle. Archie #7 (March 1944) heralded the beginning of the teenaged menage á trois between Archie, Betty and Veronica. This story, in which Archie tries to keep a movie date with both girls at the same time on the same night at the same theater would be the catalyst for thousands and thousands of stories over the decades as perpetually indecisive Archie had nothing but trouble trying to choose between sweet and lovable Betty or rich and spoiled Veronica.

During World War II as America fought in Europe and the Pacific, pin-up girls like Betty Grable became enormously popular with soldiers, sailors and marines, and this led to the emergence of the most popular pin-up girl in the history of comic books–Katy Keene! Created by Bill Woggon, Katy, debuting in Wilbur Comics #5 (1945) was a tall, dark-haired beauty queen who attracted all kinds of male suitors while keeping her cute but mischieviously candy crazed kid sister out of trouble. Katy, like Archie was an overnight smash, thus leading to more appearances.

Katy would quickly become a fixture in Wilbur and other Archie series comics until she got her own regular comic in 1949. By then, Bill had assembled quite a charming cast of characters to go along with Katy, chief among them: her rich and glamorous rival, Gloria Granbilt, pretty, but superstitous redhead Lucki Lorelei, K.O. Kelly, Katy’s pugilistic boyfriend and Randy Von Ronson, a wealthy suitor of Katy and a rival of K.O. It was no secret that a goodly amount of servicemen were fans and readers of Katy.

What made Katy Keene so immensely popular with fans was that readers were encouraged to send in fashion designs for Katy and her friends. Not just fashions, but designs for houses, cars, boats, just about anything, with recognition given when their designs were shown in the book. And, when it came to fashions for Katy, Gloria and Lucki, it wasn’t just girls who submitted designs, boys and grown men of all ages submitted fashions as well! Katy would enjoy enormous success, second only to Archie himself until her book was cancelled in 1961.

In 1946, a dramatic turning point was reached as MLJ Magazines adopted the name of what had now become its flagship character and officially became Archie Comics Publications. The change coincided with the new editorial direction which focused entirely on the humorous exploits of Archie Andrews and his friends and less on superheroes. In the fall of that year, Archie Comics released Laugh Comics which, like Pep would feature Archie and other humorous characters. Then, just before the decade ended, yet another title was added: Archie’s Pal Jughead.

As the ’40s yielded to the ’50s, the appeal of Archie only grew in strength, as did the entire genre of teenage humor comics which literally sprung up overnight. Virtually every other comic book company, seeing what was happening with Archie put out similar books, trying to capitalize on the Archie mystique, but no one did even a fraction as well as Archie did. Most of those companies either folded or returned to producing superhero books. Archie’s formula for success was to remain contemporary with the times in terms of fashions, slang and the fads and pastimes of the day.

The 1950s would see a tremendous expansion of the Archie empire as new titles shot off from the three parent books, Archie, Pep Comics and Laugh Comics. First and foremost was Archie’s Girls Betty & Veronica. Having begun as a back-up feature in Archie, Betty and Veronica incessantly plotted, schemed and fought over Archie, and any other boy they came across while maintaining a humorous arm’s length friendship with each other. The girls’ misadventures (some complete with hilarious catfights) would soon become a key part of the Archie legend.

The concept of Archie’s JokeBook was as unique as they came during that particular time, showing just how innovative the people running Archie Comics truly were. This book didn’t feature any actual stories with all the other books, instead it had Archie and his friends barraging the readers with loads of gags and jokes, most of them corny as sin while others were screamingly funny. It should also be noted here that one of the legends of the comic book industry, artist Neal Adams got his start in the business drawing for Archie’s JokeBook.

Life With Archie was yet another unique Archie title. LWA would be the company’s first, and most enduring adventure-based title as it featured Archie and his friends engaging in exciting exploits in and beyond the city limits of Riverdale. In the early years of LWA’s run, the stories were all book length and saw the gang travel to such places as Washington, across country to Hollywood (where an obsessed Betty risked life and limb to get a popular movie star’s autograph) and even across the ocean for adventures in Paris and Italy.

In addition to the jumbo sized yearly editions of Archie, Jughead and Betty & Veronica, the company’s first regular giant book was Archie’s Pals ‘N’ Gals. Every issue of Pals ‘N’ Gals topped out at a whopping 64 pages (as did the other jumbo books), easily making it the largest comic book of its day that was published more than yearly. Along with great stories by the company’s top talents, Pals ‘N’ Gals also featured, as an enticing treat for fans, Betty and Veronica pin-ups and fashion pages, something which would become a staple in the book well into the early ’70s.

Over the succeeding years, the rest of the Archie cast of characters would develop and become part of Americana: Pop Tate, the fat and friendly proprietor of Pop’s Chock’Lit Shoppe (said to be the inspiration for Arnold’s on the hit TV series Happy Days), Reggie Mantle, who debuted in the ’40s became Archie’s chief rival and nemesis; Moose Mason, a lumbering but lovable slow witted ox, along with his diminutive girlfriend Midge, Dilton Doiley, the brainy bookworm and Big Ethel, the ugly duckling hopelessly smitten with Jughead.

Since most of Archie’s adventures took place at Riverdale High, it spawned a faculty that more than held their own in the humor department: Mr. Weatherbee, the pompous, overweight windbag of a principal for whom Archie would be his personal bane; Miss Grundy, the tough but tender spinster of a teacher; Coach Kleats who coached EVERY varsity sport at school; Professor Flutesnoot, the science teacher who took his life in his hands whenever he lets trouble prone Archie mix chemicals in the lab, and Miss Beazley, the grouchy chef of the school’s cafeteria.

Another aspect regarding the popularity of Archie was in how the people who ran the company cashed in on the trends and fads of the day, and during the ’60s, they made hay on two such sensations of the day: spies and superheroes. During the mid ’60s, when the Cold War was at its height, one of the most popular TV series on the air was The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Archie tapped into this media phenomenon with a successful parody of spy stories with Archie as the Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. as he and his fellow agents battled the evil minions of C.R.U.S.H.

Then, there was Batman. When the camp driven TV show debuted on ABC and became a smash hit, the folks at Archie wasted no time cooking up a parody of their own. In Life With Archie #42 (October 1965), Archie joined the cape and spandex set as Pureheart the Powerful. These hilarious stories, with Archie as a semi-competent superhero was so wildly received by Archie fans, the rest of the gang eventually joined in as Jughead became the crown hatted Captain Hero, Reggie as the nefarious Evilheart and Betty as the courageous Superteen.

Beyond the world of comic books, Archie was making inroads in other mainstream media outlets, such as a popular radio show back in the ’40s for nearly a decade, but as the ’60s rolled around, Archie’s popularity would skyrocket, thanks to television. In 1968, Filmation produced an Archie cartoon show that would go on to be one of the most popular Saturday morning animated series of all times, garnering, at its zenith, an astonishing seventy-five percent of the Neilsen audience, and would run in several different formats until 1976.

The success of Archie on television would spawn similar series. First was Sabrina the Teenage Witch which was also produced by Filmation and would lead to her own regular comic book late in the ’60s, then there was Josie and the Pussycats which was produced by the top animation studio of the day, Hanna-Barbera and featured Cheryl Ladd of Charlie’s Angels’ fame as the voice of ditzy Melody. In the case of Josie, the cartoon show would go a long way in revitalizing and permanently changing the entire scope of the accompanying comic book.

Before the concept of The Pussycats came along, Josie was nothing more than an Archie clone, of which several were produced by the company, going as far back as the mid ’40s to duplicate the original formula. If anything, Josie, which debuted in the early ’60s was as bland and uneventful as they came. But that all changed when, in Josie #45 (December 1969), Josie and two friends, Melody who was part of the original cast, and Valerie, introduced in that issue formed an all-girl rock and roll band.

However, the real appeal of Josie, especially to male readers of the series occured in that very same issue when the girls first donned their legendary leopard print leotards, complete with ears and tails. No doubt harkening back to those Carnaby Street suits The Beatles wore when they first invaded America in the early ’60s, those sassy catsuits went a long way in estasblishing the unique fashion style of Josie and the girls. Possibly, even being a prelude to the wildly bizarre outfits that would, in the ’70s, become the trademark of KISS.

But television would not be the only success for Archie as he and the gang became recording stars, of a sort. In 1968, thanks to studio musicians, The Archies made their debut in record stands with such hip and fun songs as "Archie’s Theme," Truck Driver and Bang-Shang-A-Lang, as sung by lead vocalist Ron Dante. But the ultimate success of The Archies came in 1969 when Sugar Sugar hit number one on the billboard charts, becoming one of THE most popular songs of all time. Even to this day, you can hear Sugar Sugar on oldies stations from coast to coast!

The people at Archie headquarters saw what was happening and capitalized on the popularity of their characters on television and on the record charts by putting out two new books which would be direct tie-ins with same: Everything’s Archie which, early on would focus mostly on stories featuring The Archies band (one story had them auditioning for Don Kirschner who produced the albums) and Archie’s TV Laugh-Out where Archie would share center stage with Sabrina, at least until the teen witch graduated to her own regular comic a short time later.

When the ’70s began, Archie Comics were at their peak, producing, at one point, 18 regular titles, the line-up swelling to include Betty and Me (Betty’s first solo title), Archie At Riverdale High (stories about the gang at school), Reggie and Me (a spin-off of the original Reggie title from the ’50s) and separate joke books starring Reggie and Jughead. Add in close to a dozen different giant sized books (Betty and Veronica had four alone!), and three monthly books expanded to giant size (Archie and Me, Betty and Me and Reggie and Me), the company was very busy indeed!

The expansion would also extend into rather small areas as well with the debut of the Archie digests. Going as far back as the ’30s, digests were very popular with the reading public, so, Archie created the digest series which would feature reprinted stories from the ’50s and ’60s. This was a unique concept as it would allow Archie fans to read stories from decades past without having to spend huge sums of money on the original books. The digests became extremely popular with readers and remain so to this very day, with some 15 different titles being published.

It was also during the ’70s when the country’s social consciousness was expanding that Archie Comics recognized the need for racial diversity, to that end, they responded by adding minority characters to the cast. African-Americans were represented by Chuck Clayton who would become a close friend of Archie, especially in athletic endeavors at school, and his girlfriend Nancy Harris while Hispanic-Americans were represented by Frankie Valdez, a cocky, Latin version of Reggie and his girlfriend, Maria Rodriguez whose father was the school’s vice-principal.

But, the ’70s would end with the first major elimination of titles by Archie. As with publishers like Marvel and DC, comic book sales in the latter half of the decade sagged horribly, and the only way to stem the tide was to jettison unproductive books. At Archie, the ax fell on Reggie and Me, Reggie’s Wise Guy Jokes and Jughead’s Jokes. The subtraction would continue well into the ’80s with the demise of Archie and Me, Archie at Riverdale High, Archie’s JokeBook, Archie’s TV Laugh-Out, Josie, Laugh, Sabrina and, ironically, Pep where Archie got his start in 1941.

To balance things out, the late ’70s would also see the much heralded return of Katy Keene to comics. Despite being away for over fifteen years, Katy had not vanished from the public eye. In 1978, a Katy revival began when Marilise Flusser, a fashion coordinator for Saks Fifth Avenue enlarged Katy Keene covers for window display backgrounds for Saks fashions and the response was good. This led to renewed interest for Katy as, in 1979, Craig Leavitt a California native launched a Katy Keene newsletter.

The newsletter ran for four years and featured the work of Katy’s creator, Bill Woggon along with Barbara Rausch and John S. Lucas, Katy’s number one fan. The grass roots rebirth of Katy, spurred on by Craig’s newsletter and Katy themed conventions he sponsored paved the way for a brand new Katy comic series. In 1983, the first Katy Keene Special hit the newsstands, featuring reprinted stories from the original series with cover art by Archie’s main artist, Dan DeCarlo. Following three more reprint books, new stories followed in subsequent books.

The new Katy series didn’t really take off until John Lucas took over as the regular artist, and the book quickly soared to new heights. Just like in the original series, readers were encouraged to submit designs for Katy and her friends, and a brand new generation of fans around the world enjoyed being part of the creative process of the book with their designs. In addition to the comic book, there was a Katy Keene Fan Club with pens, notepads, buttons, plus t-shirts and sweatshirts, all of which had been designed by John.

The early ’80s would see the arrival of far and away THE most controversial character ever seen in the long and storied history of Archie Comics: Cheryl Blossom. Cheryl, a buxom, saucy devil-may-care redhead with a blatant come hither personality made her infamous debut in Betty and Veronica #320 (August 1982) where, in a story called "Dare To Be Bare," Cheryl caused quite a stir on the beach when she proudly showed off a shockingly brief bikini that horrified even Veronica, then casually tried to go topless, only to be stopped by a panicked Betty!

Portrayed as a international jetsetter who was just as rich as Veronica, (if not more so), nowhere near as coy or demure as Betty and later, displaying a talent for deviousness that would put Reggie himself to shame, Cheryl, salong with her smarmy twin brother Jason looked upon the population of Riverdale as beneath her notice, calling its residents townies and sought to make life miserable for them. Except for Archie whom Cheryl was absolutely crazy about, much to the outrage of Betty and Veronica as red hair on boys turned her on.

After only two years of entertaining stories that dealt with Cheryl and Jason causing trouble for the Riverdale High crowd, not to mention Cheryl’s dogged pursuit of Archie, the Blossoms suddenly vanished from Archie series comics without a trace. While no official explanation was ever given for their disappearance (a regular practice at Archie when characters outlive their usefulness), one theory proposed by the author of this article was that Cheryl got the boot because she was too racy a character for the family oriented atmosphere of Archie Comics.

Since his inception in 1941, Archie has been portrayed as a bastion of clean, wholesome entertainment for kids. Suddenly, along comes the sultry Cheryl who in her low cut tops or tight sweaters, brazenly short skirts and spike heels made no secret of constantly lusting after boys. One could imagine this did not go over too well with parents, and since they either bought comics for their kids, or controlled what they bought, they probably made a boatload of complaints to the management of Archie Comics, and, as a result, Cheryl was sent packing.

The ’80s would continue to see new things emerge from Archie Comics, most notably, one of the more memorable, though short lived titles the company ever produced: Betty’s Diary. The original concept of Betty’s Diary began in the pages of Archie’s JokeBook with the hopelessly lovesick Betty relating rather exaggerated, and humorous tales of her exploits with Archie in her diary. In this version which debuted in 1986, stories, told in first person narrative by Betty herself would focus on the day to day events in her life as she truthfully related them in her diary.

The stories, written by the likes of Kathleen Webb, Frank Doyle and Rod Ollerenshaw were warm, funny, touching, thought provoking, occasionally heartrending, but always told with a down to earth realness that often eschewed the typically mindless slapstick approach of all the other Archie titles. Humor was not the primary goal of storytelling in Betty’s Diary, the stories made you smile, and, they made you think about life. Unfortunately, despite how well crafted the book had been, Betty’s Diary was cancelled in early 1991.

Meanwhile, in 1987, Archie would return to television in a brand new animated series produced by DIC for NBC called The New Archies. In this series, Archie and the gang were portrayed not as full fledged teenagers, but as thirteen year olds at Riverdale Junior High. The dress and slang and fads employed by the kids were constant with the day, and while the stories were mildly amusing, even leading to a New Archies comic book, the show itself didn’t have the staying power of the original Filmation series and only lasted until the end of the year.

The late ’80s to early ’90s would see a tremendous amount of turbulent times for Archie Comics. Turbulent in ways that would have lasting effects on Archie fans to this very day. As the last decade of the 20th century began, more titles were being purged, in addition to Betty’s Diary, Archie’s Pals ‘N’ Gals, Everything’s Archie, Katy Keene, Life With Archie and The New Archies were cancelled, and the titles that took their place wildly varied in terms of quality. A few were somewhat entertaining while others were nothing short of wretched.

These new books would more or less take place outside the normal, everyday realm that has come to be known as the Archie Universe, and, in some cases, WAY beyond that particular realm. Archie 3000 featured the gang in the 31st century, in Archie’s R/C Racers, the gang, on separate teams race radio controlled cars, sponsored by competing companies across the country. Next came Archie’s Explorers of the Unknown where Archie and company were troubleshooting adventurers in a hilarious tribute to DC’s Challengers of the Unknown.

Dilton’s Strange Science saw the diminutive genius in science fiction based stories like time travel, alien invaders and what not. Faculty Funnies, one the lesser lights had Mr. Weatherbee, Miss Grundy, Professor Flutesnoot and Coach Clayton as hapless superheroes, Jughead’s Time Police, a semi-transparent take off on Doctor Who had Jughead as a guardian of time with Archie’s 30th century descendant as his partner, Veronica, in her first ever solo title featuring stories set in foreign locales and, unquestionably, the worst of the lot, Jughead’s Diner.

While these books might have been looked upon as being extremely innovative and imaginative, apparently they were not well received by Archie fans. At one point, Scott Fulop, the editor for this new line of books practically begged for letters from readers! However, his pleas fell on deaf ears as those books all fell victim to the ax, most of them never lasted more than five or six issues, R/C Racers ran for ten, and Archie 3000 stretched to sixteen. By July of 1991, the only title that survived this third major purge was Veronica.

During this period, Archie would make has last foray onto television to date. In April of 1990, DIC produced a live action telemovie for NBC that would see Archie and the gang like they had never been seen before: AS ADULTS! In Archie: To Riverdale And Back Again (now out on video), Archie and company were thirtysomething adults, fifteen years removed from their graduation from Riverdale High and were coming home for a reunion. The concept of this movie was to combine the long-standing familiarity of Archie along with decidedly adult issues.

Case in point: Veronica, just as vampy as ever, having lived overseas in France since graduation was a four time loser at marriage; Jughead, a psychiatrist of all things was also a divorcé who carried emotional baggage that manifested itself in a terrible fear of women while Betty, a gradeschool teacher was being bossed around by her crummy boyfriend, Robert. Moose and Midge had married, became chiropractors and had a son, and Archie, now a successful lawyer was getting ready to tie the knot with his fiancée, Pam and move out of Riverdale to the big city.

But when Archie sees Betty and Veronica for the first time in fifteen years, all his old feelings for them come flooding back, threatening his engagement. It doesn’t help that the girls renew their pursuit of Archie, heedless of the fact that he has a fiancée! A sideplot to the movie saw Archie trying to keep perpetually slimy Reggie, helped along by an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge from evicting Pop Tate from his store. In the end, Archie saves the Chock’Lit Shoppe, though he loses Pam in the bargain, however, he decides to stay in Riverdale as do the others.

The telemovie, which was broadcast during the May sweeps period was seen as a pilot for a possible series. Despite a pretty decent story and even better performances from the actors and actresses who portrayed the Archie characters, the movie finished a disappointing 51st in the Neilsen ratings, having been thrashed by the prime-time premiere of the Kevin Costner/Sean Connery remake of The Untouchables on CBS and the powerful one-two punch of Married: With Children and In Living Color (featuring the then unknown Jim Carrey) on FOX.

Considered by some to be a low point in the history of Archie Comics, mid-1991 saw the launch of continuing storylines, a là Marvel and DC. The magic of Archie was that one could pick up an Archie series comic at any time and enjoy it without having to worry about buying back issues in order to keep up to date with a particular storyline. But all that changed when a new editor was brought in to revamp Jughead, Betty and Me, and Veronica. It’s no secret that many long-time Archie fans felt the results were disappointing.

The tenor of all three books had changed, and not necessarily for the better. In Jughead, he underwent a horrific change in appearance and attitude, gaining a mohawk and adopting the lifestyle of a skateboarding thrasher while gaining a new circle of friends who were even weirder than he was. Over in Betty and Me, Betty was employed by the local TV station in an internship program, running afoul of a jealous female anchorperson, while in Veronica’s book, the globehopping theme had been scrapped in favor of stories set entirely in Riverdale.

With stories ranging from dull, to confusing to near unreadable, the new editorial policy tried to make those titles exactly like Marvel and DC books, tying plotlines from one book to another, including captions telling readers to see one issue or another and instituting letter columns with somewhat snappy names, i.e. Letter-Head for Jughead, Ponytail Express for Betty and Me & BillionAIRe Mail for Veronica. Also criticized by fans were the letter columns… where childish terms like "Smack dab kissable" actually saw print.

At the height of Archie’s continuity experiment, a similar, but equally unpalatable experiment was conducted in Betty and Veronica #54 (August 1992) where the girls, throughout the entire book sported all sorts of different and unusual hairstyles, worlds apart from Betty’s ponytail and Veronica’s pageboy. Readers were then asked to select one of the unfamiliar hairstyles for what would be the girls’ all new look in future issues. When the votes were tallied several months later, the consensus was to keep the girls’ original hairstyles.

During late 1992, the influence of these "new wave" policies slowly lessened, the changes plainly evident in Jughead as he grew his hair back and resumed dressing and acting the way he always had. By early 1993, the exeriment had ended, and Betty and Me was laid to rest after 200 issues and then relaunched a month later as Betty. Apparently, the readers voiced their dislike of the "new Archie" which was reflected in poor sales on Jughead, Betty and Me, and Veronica.

Also in 1993, one of the most popular video game characters of the day gained a strong foothold in the comic book world, thanks to Archie: Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic, created in 1991 to be a mascot for Sega similar to Mickey Mouse being the mascot for Disney quickly became a celebrity in his own right, thanks to the video game which was widely played in arcades and at home on the Sega Genesis game system and later, the more advanced Sega Saturn. This notoriety led to not one, but two different animated television series.

Archie Comics jumped on the Sonic bandwagon when the company published an eight page Sonic sample issue. Written by Michael Gallagher and drawn by Scott Shaw!, this book was a free gift from Sega and was originally based on the syndicated cartoon series.

In August, a regular Sonic comic was launched which is still going strong today. Meanwhile, a new Sonic cartoon series debuted in September on ABC, displaying an action/adventure angle, the comic would soon follow the show’s lead with stories based on the series.

In the years that followed, Archie Comics would engage in a series of crossovers where a major storyline would crossover into two or more books, i.e. "The Prom Tale" which saw Archie, Betty and Veronica in a serious tussle leading up to the prom, and "House Of Riverdale" where Archie and the gang found themselves caught up in one monster of a ghost story. But, the single biggest crossover epic Archie Comics had ever done was the now legendary "Love Showdown." The premise of this crossover was dirt simple: the end of the Eternal Triangle.

The madness began in Archie #429 (November 1994) when a lovesick Archie received a letter from a girl from his past who was returning to Riverdale. That alone got fans from coast to coast wondering just who the mystery woman could be. When Betty and Veronica get wind of the letter, but had no idea who the girl was as Archie refused to divulge her identity. The girls sever their friendship after being conned by Reggie who told Betty that Veronica wrote the letter to Archie and vice versa, each vowing to win him over once and for all!

The first skirmish was in Betty #19 (November 1994) as Mr. Cooper, gives Betty tickets to the Lodge Foundation Summer Charity Dance. When Betty calls Archie to be his date, he explains that he is having problems with his car, Betty arranges to help repair his car if he’ll be her escort to the dance. After Betty repairs Archie’s car, Veronica winds up with Archie after the heiress tells her the tickets were for a different date. Later, Betty learns from Jughead that Veronica printed the tickets Mr. Cooper gave her. Furious at being duped, Betty vows to crash the dance!

The action continues in Betty and Veronica #82 (December 1994), Veronica is enjoying herself with Archie during a party at her house when Betty struts in wearing one of Veronica’s hand-me-down dresses which she altered to reel in plenty of attention from every boy there, including Archie, but when Veronica tries to get the spotlight back, she winds up embarrassing herself.

With Betty having outfoxed her in the vamp department, Veronica tries her hand at cooking to win Archie back, only to fail there as well, despondent, she turns to rotten Reggie for help.

The concluding chapter in Veronica #39 (December 1994) begins with Veronica having regained her nasty edge thanks to Reggie’s tutelage, and she wastes no time using it to lure Archie away from Betty. Outraged, Betty proposes a final battle for Archie: super soakers at high noon at Pickens Park in their fanciest outfits. The showdown in the park ends with Archie and the mystery girl–getting soaked by Betty and Veronica–Cheryl Blossom! Then, to add insult to injury, Archie, angry at the girls’ childish behavior decides to be with Cheryl instead!

The return of Cheryl Blossom to the Archie Universe was a shocker to Archie fans worldwide as she was perhaps the LAST person Archie fans ever expected to see again. Normally, when a character is eliminated from the Archie cast, and many have been over the decades, more often than not, he or she never comes back. One prevalent theory regarding Cheryl’s return was that a foil was needed to keep Archie from choosing between Betty and Veronica as part of the Love Showdown plot, to which end, Cheryl was rescued from oblivion by the editors to serve that purpose.

However, what the editors didn’t foresee was the tremendous popularity Cheryl gained with Archie fans upon her return. Throughout 1995, Cheryl made guest appearances in virtually every Archie series comic, picking up where she left off in 1982: chasing after Archie and tormenting Betty and Veronica. That lead to four 48 page specials Cheryl starred in, containing new stories and reprints, followed in late 1995 and most of 1996 by a trio of entertaining three issue mini-series which would see Jason’s return and the first ever appearance of Cheryl’s parents.

With fans clamoring for more, their demands were met in early 1997 with the debut of a regular Cheryl Blossom comic. The tone of the comic had been set during the last mini-series where Cheryl went to great lengths to have a movie she made shown at an international film festival. This would lead to the running theme in Cheryl’s new book of her neverending quest to be a celebrity, helped along when she and Jason inherited an inn from a deceased aunt and transform it into a posh resort called Club Blossom which Cheryl uses to entertain the rich and famous.

As it turned out, Cheryl Blossom wasn’t the only character rescued from limbo to enjoy newfound popularity with a brand new generation of Archie fans. At 8 p.m., on April 7th, 1996, Easter Sunday, the Showtime cable channel premiered a prime-time made for TV movie aimed at kids, the movie was Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Based almost entirely on the comic book series, the Sabrina movie featured in the starring role, Melissa Joan Hart, best known for fronting the hip and popular Nickelodeon series, Clarissa Explains It All.

The premise of the movie centered around Sabrina, sent to live with her aunts Hilda and Zelda in a new town, gaining magical powers on the eve of her sixteenth birthday and her struggle to fit in with her peers while adjusting to being a witch. Sabrina is helped along the way by Hilda and Zelda who were portrayed as attractive but extremely quirky women and Salem, a sleek black cat who just so happens to talk. The movie clicked on all levels, casting, acting and, of course the special effects. But the movie would only be the beginning of the Sabrina saga.

In May when ABC released its fall schedule, Sabrina was one of the new shows on the docket, joining the network’s popular but sagging TGIF Friday night kiddie sitcom line-up, sandwiched between the long running Family Matters and a small screen version of the hit movie Clueless. The plot of the original 90 minute Showtime movie had been effectively condensed into a half hour premiere as Sabrina Spellman, sent to live with her nutty aunts by her warlock father (divorced from her mortal mother) gained magical powers on her sixteenth birthday.

Thanks to the enchanting presence of Melissa, Sabrina was given a wonderfully spunky and sassy personality, something the character never had in the comics as Sabrina was portrayed as a typically awkward teenager who just so happened to be a witch. Filled with delightfully off-beat humor and guest stars galore such as Penn and Teller, Robby Benson (Sabrina’s dad), Brian Austin Green, Randy Travis, Kathy Ireland, Coolio and Raquel Welch, just to name a few, Sabrina attracted quite a following in her maiden season and became a sleeper hit.

Meanwhile, at Archie Headquarters, the editors, seeing how much of a success Sabrina had become produced a one-shot special in the latter half of 1996 with a cover featuring Sabrina, as drawn by longtime artist Dan DeCarlo next to Melissa as the live action version. This entertaining book length story recounted Sabrina’s origin straight from the two TV pilots, but with one twist as Sabrina used her magic to transform Hilda and Zelda from the crones they had always been in the comics into the modern looking versions as seen on TV.

As Sabrina continued to gain in popularity, it eventually became the highest rated show in ABC’s TGIF line-up, displacing Family Matters which jumped ship to CBS. Sabrina’s success led the people at Archie to produce a regular Sabrina comic which debuted in early 1997 with a fun filled three issue story where Sabrina brought Cleopatra from ancient Egypt into the modern world and couldn’t get her to go back. Lastly, in April of this year, Pocket Books came out with a series of Sabrina young adult novels based on the TV show.

Beyond the realm of comic books, Archie, unlike any other comic book company has been at the forefront of educational and charitable relationships for years. In the early ’90s, Archie Comics became the first comic book publisher to use soy inks and print their books with 100 percent recycled paper. The company received nationwide recognition for the efforts regarding the environment, leading to the creation of custom environmental comic books for the cities of San Diego and Chino which tied in with Earth Day.

Archie has also produced a variety of custom comics for such businesses and agencies as Radio Shack, Alcoholics Anonymous, the FBI and New York State. The cause of literacy in Mississippi led to the creation of a custom comic book for that state’s school system, promoting the importance, and the fun of reading. In 1995, Archie Andrews was selected to be the official ambassador for the United Cerebral Palsy Association. As UCPA’s spokesperson, Archie has made public appearances and donated comics to people afflicted with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

Archie Comics created a series of public service announcements, for abstinence from smoking, missing children and AIDS education to name a few that have run in their comics at no cost to other publications. In 1996, Archie Comics participated in a promotion with Ore-Ida foods in an effort to raise more than $100,000 for UCPA. For every two and five pound package of Tater Tots and Onion Tater Tots purchased in March of that year, Ore-Ida donated two cents to UCPA while Archie donated twenty five cents for every comic book subscription they received.

The relationship of Archie and the military has been a long and fruitful one, when servicemen stationed overseas would spend their idle hours reading comic books sent to them from loved ones back home, and Archie seemed to be at the top of every soldier, sailor, airman and marine’s list. From World War II to Operation Desert Storm (Aside: an Archie series comic from Spring 1991 dealt with the return of hometown servicemen and women to Riverdale from Iraq in an excellent book length story), this relationship has not changed.

During the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, Archie and the gang brightened the grim existence of American troops stationed in that war torn country. Acting on a request from Supply Sgt. Edwin Rodriguez of the HHC 16th Engr. Battalion, Michael Silberkleit, chairman and co-publisher of Archie Comics arranged to have more than five hundred assorted Archie comics sent to Sgt. Rodriguez to disperse to the troops. Reading the timeless, fun filled adventures of Archie and company was a warm and pleasant reminder of home to the men and women serving abroad.

Recently, Archie Comics played a role in the tragic events of September 11, 2001, by putting American flags on the covers of their digest magazines, as well as putting American patriotic hymns and anthems inside Victor Gorelick's "Editor's Notebook", a monthly feature for Archie Comics since 1989. You can find these special inserts in digest magazines such as Archie #186, Jughead with Archie #171, Laugh #171 and #172, Betty and Veronica #126, Archie's Double Digest #130, Betty and Veronica Double Digest #103, Jughead's Double Digest #81 and #82 and Archie's Pals and Gals Double Digest #63.

Enjoyed by 1.25 million readers every month and recognized by an astonishing ninety-eight percent of surveyed teens and adults, Archie has had a powerful influence on mainstream entertainment. Revolving around themes similiar to those established by Archie Comics, there’s Happy Days (was it a coincidence that Richie Cunningham, the lovable lead character was a redhead?), not to mention shows that centered around kids in high school settings such as The Wonder Years, Saved By The Bell and Beverly Hills 90210.

Even after more than 60 years, Archie and his friends remain a key part of American pop folklore. Despite the rampant changes that have occurred in the comic book industry, Archie remains a pleasant and refreshing constant amidst all the chaos and turmoil. It’s very good to know that Archie and his gang will be around to entertain young and old alike, well into the next millennium. The times, fads and fashions may change, but the down home values that make Archie great never will. When all is said and done, it’s quite true that–EVERYTHING’S ARCHIE!