Mike Gold: Archie’s Sex Change
I have reported here and elsewhere about the goings-on at Archie Comics. While DC keeps on hitting the reset button like a monkey in a crack experiment, and Marvel keeps on doing endless – literally endless – mega-events, Archie has been slowly making history.
In the past several years they’ve added a major gay character and they’ve had Archie fall in love (on the cover, no less) with a black woman. They’ve taken ongoing looks into the potential futures of their characters, which plays against the assumptions held by our culture for more than 70 years. They’ve tried to make Riverdale look and feel more like the real world: even the hallowed Pop Tate’s has had to endure competition by national fast food chains. Archie Comics continues to be the major force in entertaining each next generation of comics readers; without their efforts and similar, but smaller, endeavors by Boom!, Bongo and others, we would have no future readers for the graphic novels published by Fantagraphics and Abrams.
And, I’m happy to report, now Archie Comics is just getting weird.
In Archie #636 (the alternate cover is shown here; the newsstand cover is done in sort of a traditional 1950s Archie style), the current issue, the Riverdale gang swap sexes. Yep, the boys become girls and the girls become boys. This doesn’t happen voluntarily; Sabrina the Teenage Witch has a snarky cat who casts a spell so that the kids can see things from the other side of the gender bend. Hilarity ensues, and the point is made. Two points, if one wants to infer a warning about the dangers of catnip.
Mind you, I like weird. Weird is the antidote to boring. It’s the elixir that promotes experimentation and new story concepts. But I doubt Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Reggie will be getting permanent sex change operations any time soon.
Mister Weatherbee… Well, I’m not so sure.
THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil’s Autumnal Time Warp
Wait, what’s the matter with catnip?
It only works on cats.
This was an odd, but interesting story. I have a mailorder subscription to Archie and sometimes I wonder what the mail lady must think when she sees the covers. This is one of those times.
Well the issue in question shouldn’t faze her at all since… you know, she’s a mail lady.
Who would have thought that Archie would be the more forward-thinking publisher?
Still deplorable how they treated Dan DeCarlo, but good for them with how they’ve been creating new characters with resonance. As opposed to the big two just going for shock value.
We’re now at the third generation of the Archie ownership family, Jeremiah, and I wouldn’t hold the current Goldwater and Silberkleit kids to their elders’ sins. Given everybody’s situation and corporate nonsense and our pathetically antiquated copyright laws, I don’t know how you can squeeze that toothpaste back into the tube.
These folks are trying hard, and they’re accomplishing a lot. Including EIC Vic Gorelick, who’s been guiding the ship of Archie through editorial waters since Reggie crawled out of the sea.
As the father of a six year old girl, I’m rediscovering Archie and loving the way the stories have reflected our world. You put your finger on it — where they once who borrow skate boards or fade hairstyles to reflect the times, they are now taking steps to tell stories about all of us. Even when they jump on trends — Twilight, anyone? — they do it with zest and humor: Betty the Vampire Slayer vs. Vamperonica!
Gotta go pick this one up! (And I love ARCHIE, as does my niece.)