Archie Comics Introduces Gay Riverdalian
Okay, I’ll admit for the past year or so I’ve found our friends over at Archie Comics to be the most innovative and most courageous outfit among the major publishers. The first to jump feet-first into the world of digital publishing, they’ve followed up with Mike Uslan’s media-quaking Archie Gets Married story arc, they’ve entered the slick magazine market, and – this month – they cover featured Archie Andrews’ interracial kiss.
They’re not resting on their laurels.
This September they’ll be introducing a new character, Kevin Keller. He’s a dreamboat, and Veronica Lodge dumps Archie like a he was Enron stock. But there’s one small problem for Ronnie.
Kevin’s gay.
“It just makes sense to have an openly gay character in Archie comic books,” Archie Comics Co-CEO Jon Goldwater noted. Whereas there have been a handful of openly gay characters from other mainstream publishers (although sometimes the publishers conveniently forget the characterizations), no other American comic book publisher is so dependent upon sales on the general newsstand. The press on this event – and make no mistake about it, this is an event – will get Archie titles pulled off of some racks in certain communities across the nation. Remember, even the citizens of the state of California voted to withdraw the right of same-sex marriage; this nation’s road to freedom continues to have its major potholes. And Archie Comics has the guts to steer right into one of the biggest.
What is troubling to this reporter is that Kevin Keller defeats Jughead Jones in a hamburger eating contest. This, to me, is a sign of the apocalypse.
The story “Isn’t it Bromantic?” will appear in Veronica #202. It will appear in comic shops September 1st; you might want to consider advance-ordering.
First interracial dating, now homosexuality– they're compressing the last fifty years of the sexual revolution into five months. Isn't comic book time supposed to work the other way around?And as far as beating Jughead in a hamburger eating contest– what, you'd rather it had been bratwursts and sausages? (I would have said hot dog, but who'd want to eat Jughead's pet?)
Cool.
Kudos to Archie Comics.
Seconded.
C'MON! I can't be the only person that for a split second thought that this meant Archie would now have three dates to choose from