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Archie Andrews (comics)

This article is about the U.S. comic book character. For other uses, please see the disambiguation page.

Archibald "Archie" Andrews, created in 1941 by Bob Montana, is a fictional character in an American comic book series published by Archie Comics, the long-running Archie Andrews radio series, a syndicated comic strip and animation — The Archie Show, a Saturday morning cartoon television series by Filmation, plus Archie's Weird Mysteries.

History and character

Archibald "Archie" Andrews debuted in Pep Comics 22 (December, 1941), and six and a half decades later, he is still a redheaded 17-year-old. Archie lives in Riverdale, attends Riverdale High and is the only son of Mary Andrews and mid-level business executive Fred Andrews.

The stories of Little Archie are also published. As Little Archie, he had a dog named Spotty.

Archie is a typical small-town teenager. He studies at Riverdale High School, and he is also a lead singer of The Archies band. Generous, well-mannered, but clumsy, he is genuinely liked by many of his friends. As a normal teenager, Archie goes ga-ga over pretty girls, but both Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper try to keep him in check. He is the center of the love triangle between Veronica and Betty. His best friend is Jughead Jones, who has been his friend since they were kids. He is an average athlete who always is second to his friend and 'enemy' Reggie Mantle, from whom he never hears the end of. Reggie is rich and conceited and contends with Archie for Veronica, with whom he shares an 'upper class' complex.

Archie often takes odd jobs to pay for his various projects and his dates. Archie is a good fellow, but he often acts clumsily, coming in conflict with Veronica's father Hiram Lodge and Riverdale High's principal, Waldo Weatherbee. As the lead singer of The Archies, Archie performs with Betty, Veronica, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones.

A number of stories have revealed the Andrews family's origins in Scotland, with "Andy Andrews" immigrating to the United States and befriending Moose Mason's Russian ancestor, who was immigrating at the same time. Archie has been depicted wearing the traditional kilt of his ancestors and playing bagpipes (but not very well).

In addition to having many hobbies, Archie is passionate about his car. For decades, he was shown driving a 1916 Ford Model T jalopy called "Betsy".In Archie double digest #192, it is said to be a model a. In a story where Archie tried to have his jalopy insured, he described it as being a "Ford, Chevy, Plymouth, Pierce-Arrow, Packard, DeSoto, Hudson..." The insurance agent originally thought Archie wanted to insure several cars, but then Archie explained that his jalopy was "a collection of replacement parts from several junkyards", with some parts of the car dating back to 1926. In the newer comics, he drives a car which is more contemporary in appearance, but still unreliable and prone to breakdowns.

Archie Digest 239, published in October 2007, contained a new story where Mr. Lodge owned a classic antique car that had a very strong resemblance to Archie's jalopy. In addition, the story had a character referred to as "Grandpa Andrews" who looked and dressed like Archie from the 1940s.

Bob Montana and Haverhill, Massachusetts

Archie often greets his friends at Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe. This soda shop, a frequent hangout of Archie's Gang, was based on real-life locations frequented by teenagers in Haverhill, Massachusetts, during the 1930s — Crown Confectionery and the Chocolate Shop on Merrimack Street and the Tuscarora on Winter Street.

Bob Montana went to high school in Haverhill from 1936 to 1939, and his sketchbook, an illustrated diary of life in Haverhill, was the true origin of Archie and his friends. Montana's daughters once made pages from this sketchbook available online. Several real-life residents of Haverhill were drawn into Montana's creation, as was revealed when film critic Gerald Peary interviewed Haverhill's cartoon character prototypes for the Boston Globe in 1980.

Arnold Daggett was the model for Moose, and Skinny Linehan (Jughead). At a 1989 reunion of Montana's classmates, Daggett said that he recognized himself in one strip "where I was getting kicked out of class." Miss Grundy was inspired by school librarian Elizabeth Tuck, while Haverhill High School principal Earl McLeod was the basis for Mr. Weatherbee. Montana knew the Massachusetts' Brahmin political family, the Lodges, because he had once painted a mural for them; he combined that name with actress Veronica Lake to create the character of Veronica Lodge. Betty was based on Montana's girlfriend in New York.

After four years in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Montana returned in 1946 to launch the Archie newspaper comic strip, which he drew until his death in 1975.

Archie on radio

Montana's characters were heard on radio in the early 1940s. Archie Andrews began on the Blue Network on May 31, 1943, switched to Mutual in 1944, and then continued on NBC from 1945 until September 5, 1953. Archie was first played by Charles Mullen, Jack Grimes and Burt Boyar, with Bob Hastings as the title character during the NBC years. Jughead was portrayed by Harlan Stone and Cameron Andrews as Jughead. Stone later wrote a book about his experiences on the series.

Relationships

Love life

Archie has forever been involved in the love triangle between Betty, Veronica, and himself. The love triangle is famous, and has become the hallmark of the Archie stories ever since the character was created more than 60 years ago. In fact, when Archie was known as "Chick", he was trying to woo the girl next door Betty Cooper for his object of affection. Initially, Betty only considered him as an annoying red head neighbour. When Veronica came to Riverdale, "Chick" switched his attention to her, leading Betty to jealousy. She then tried to win "Chick"'s affection back.

It is hard to decide which one Archie truly loves: Betty or Veronica. Because of his famous indecision between the girls, the term "Betty and Veronica syndrome" was coined. Archie says in many occasions and stories that he considers Betty to be his best friend, someone that he can confide in, and is more comfortable with her. But on other occasions, he likes going on a date with Betty. Even when Jughead asked him if he likes kissing Betty, Archie blushly answered yes. With Betty sporadically dating Jason Blossom and Adam Chisholm currently, he shows a tinge of jealousy. Archie also admitted on several occasions that whenever he wants to have his ego lifted up, he comes to Betty who will shower him with affection.

Archie also considers Veronica to be his girlfriend. Beautiful, stylish, and not to mention one of the richest girls in Riverdale, Veronica can easily manipulate him, and although he sometimes realizes it, he cannot do anything about it. Archie is always fighting for her affection, especially with other boys and his main rival, Reggie Mantle. Archie admits for some unexplained reason that Veronica can always take control over him. Sometimes he can be his own man, sometimes he can't (variants of this revelation exist as a result of differing writers).

Besides Betty and Veronica, another object of affection comes from another recently introduced character — a rich red-haired girl named Cheryl Blossom. At first, she was deemed too sexual and a bit promiscuous and she was taken out of the series. But when her character was realized to be popular, she was brought her back again, shown in Love Showdown issues.

Archie also dated Ginger Lopez un-officially every now and again.

Friends

Jughead Jones is Archie's best friend ever since childhood. When Jughead first came to Riverdale, he was in a bad mood and tended to dismiss Archie. But Archie, of good heart, tried to cheer up Jughead; they became inseparable ever since. Often Jughead has to help Archie out from a tricky situation, which usually involves girls.

Dilton Doiley is the local genius and consequently gets Archie into and out of trouble through his experiments and inventions.

"Big" Moose Mason is the dim-witted but likable athlete of Riverdale high and is shown as being on various sports teams with Archie. His girlfriend is Midge Klump.

Reggie Mantle is Archie's constant romantic and athletic rival, but is often shown as a companion to and of Archie despite his arrogance and competitive nature.

Chuck Clayton is another of Archie's teammates. Originally shy and reclusive, he was brought out of his shell when Archie befriended him.

Ethel* or sometimes called "Big Ethel" is also one of Archie's friends who has a big crush on Jughead.

Love Showdown

Love Showdown is a four part mini-series that features characters from Archie Comics. Archie, who has been undecided whether he should choose Betty or Veronica, instead in an unexpected move chooses Cheryl Blossom.

The Archies

The Archies is a band containing Archie as a lead singer and lead guitarist, Reggie as the lead bassist and sometimes guitarist, Veronica as a back up singer and keyboardist, Betty as a back up singer and tambourine, and Jughead as the drummer. The band is a garage band, founded by Archie himself. Although not as famous as Josie and The Pussycats, the band sometimes playing in numerous gigs, including one at the "twelve flags" amusement park.

Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again

On 6 May 1990, NBC telecast Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, a TV movie (and subsequent comic book) depicting the characters as adults 15 years after their high school graduation.

Christopher Rich portrayed Archie with Lauren Holly as Betty and Karen Kopins as Veronica. As Archie and the gang prepare for their 15th high school reunion, their teenage years are only memories. Archie is an attorney engaged to image-conscious Pam, while Jughead (Sam Whipple) is a neurotic psychiatrist with a troublemaking son (dubbed "Jughead Junior" by Archie). An elementary school teacher and aspiring novelist, Betty is engaged to a jerk named Robert, who is jealous of Archie. Living in France, Veronica charters a Concorde to attend the reunion. She remains in love with Archie, who still has divided feelings for Betty and Veronica.

Moose Mason (Jeff Hochendoner) and Midge Klump (Debi Derryberry) are married chiropractors, while Big Ethel (Cindy Ambuehl) is a beautiful model. Having worked for Mr. Lodge (James Noble), Reggie (Gary Kroeger) owns several businesses. Reggie's plan to demolish Pop Tate's to gain extra space for his gym is contested in court by Archie. At the end, Archie breaks up with Pam, Jughead moves back to Riverdale to open a practice, and Betty plans to teach in Riverdale High. Veronica stays for a while before going back to Paris, and Reggie is forgiven. Panned by both fans and critics, and dubbed "Archie-something" by at least one critic, this pilot film was not picked up for a series run.

Official site

According to Archie publisher Michael Silberkleit, the official Archie website receives 40 million hits a month.

There have been many Archie licensing deals and products, including Archie tattoos from Topps Chewing Gum in 1968.

On the blogs on ArchieComics.com, there also is a Story Starter page where Archie Comics official bloggers write the beginning of an Archie (or Betty, Veronica, Jughead, etc...) story is listed and replaced once a week. Fans may write a story about the starter and post it on the blog for all to read. In a couple weeks, if the fan won because their story was the best, they are rewarded with either a comic subscription or a comic collector set. They may go on to become the grand prize winner and get their story published in an Archie comic book.

Lawsuits

Because fans sometimes include adult and erotic content, Archie Comics prohibits fan fiction stories (even family-friendly ones) based on Archie Comics characters. The reason for this is that Archie Comics does not want to tarnish the clean and good-natured image of the characters or allow them to stray too far from what has been depicted in the comic. Fanfiction.Net received a cease and desist order from Archie Comics to remove any fanfics based on Archies characters from its site.

On April 4th 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre of Atlanta, was scheduled to debut a new play, Archie's Weird Fantasy, which depicted Riverdale's most famous resident coming out of the closet and moving to New York. The day before the play was scheduled to open, Archie Comics issued a cease and desist order threatening litigation if the play proceeded as written: "The play was to depict Archie and his pals from Riverdale growing up, coming out and facing censorship. 'Archie Comics' thought if Archie was portrayed as being gay, that would dilute and tarnish his image." For full report, see the "Archie satire lawsuit." However, a couple of Archie projects, Archie Sonic Comic, Knuckles the Echidna and Sonic X didn't had lawsuits due to popularity of SATam, AOSTH, Underground, X, and Sega's copyrights so people can write fanfics about them.

Cultural references and trivia

On Seinfeld, Jerry was once referred to as 'Archie', with Elaine called 'Veronica', Kramer called 'Jughead' and George called 'Mr. Weatherbee.'
In The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle, Moose Mason, and Jughead Jones make a brief cameo; they're shown pulling up to the Simpson's house and tossing Homer Simpson out of Archie's "jalopy" as Moose warns Homer, "Duh, stay out of Riverdale!". Later in the episode, Homer is seen reading Archie Comics, plotting revenge on "those Riverdale punks."
In The Simpsons episode "Lisa The Tree Hugger", Bart is shown reading an "Itchy & Veronica" comic book where he sighs and says aloud, "Oh, Betty..."
The Firesign Theatre's album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers has a segment called "High School Madness" about two characters based on Archie and Jughead.
The Spanish version of Archie Andrews is named Archi Gómez.
In an episode of Smart Guy, TJ pretends to be stupid and reads a Jughead comic.
In the Drawn Together episode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree", a red-headed character shown playing Whac-A-Mole is modeled after Archie Andrews.
In 1998, director Tommy O'Haver (Get Over It, Ella Enchanted) was hired by Universal to write and direct a big-budget Archie movie, but the project never went before the cameras.
In the 1985 feature film, Police Academy 2, Officer Mahoney (played by actor Steve Guttenberg) goes undercover to infiltrate a gang that is taking over their city. When first making contact with members of the gang, he claims that his name is Jughead and that he runs with a gang called The Archies.
Trip-hop band Lovage wrote a song called "Archie & Veronica".
In an episode of Hey Arnold!, Helga mentions Jughead.
In the television show Ed on NBC, Ed is compared to being Archie by his friend.
In the Johnny Bravo episode Bravo Dooby Doo, Johnny Bravo, who has been assigned to search for clues with Shaggy, comments, "Why did I have to get stuck with Jughead?" in reference to Shaggy's remarks about searching for food.
In the episode of Family Guy "North by North Quahog," Peter is caught reading an Archie comic book while driving the car, as he picks on Jughead for eating a large pile of hamburgers.
Archie's favorite pie is Lemon Meringue, and his favorite color is blue.
The 1970's soft-core porn movie "Hot Times" was loosely based of the Archie Gang.
In Chasing Amy, two characters argue over the sexually orientation of Archie, one claiming he is gay, the other that he is straight.