Do you think Archie's life was just teen-age shenanigans? Then you don't know Life with Archie:
-- MSA
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Do you think Archie's life was just teen-age shenanigans? Then you don't know Life with Archie:
-- MSA
You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!
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Oh Lord, I member The Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. showing up as a kid, and growning, even at that time.
Those Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. stories were truly bizarre, because they made no attempt to square them with Archie's actual life. They were alternative-universe stories in which secret agents looked like the Archie gang and had similar types of buildings and such in their world. The first one went even further, making the star a guy named "Bonaparte" who just happened to look like Archie.
Whereas the Pureheart stories were essentially stories of the Archie gang having secret identities as super-heroes, with a huge dollop of suspension of belief as part of the plan. I'm not sure why they changed the dynamic between the two
They both achieved about as much success with a camp factor as any series did. They weren't really serious, but they weren't exactly funny, either.
The fact that both of those series were running concurrently, and then led into the formation of The Archies, indicates what a hot time the mid-1960s were culturally. I don't think there's been such an intense time that's left such a legacy since then.
-- MSA
These types of Mr. Age articles I consider to be the highest level of public service, as Mr. Age reads and reviews these old stories so we don't have to. Can't say as I ever bought or even read any issues of Life with Archie, and now, I don't have to! I did watch the TV show for years and years, but the episodes were all strictly of the standard teen humor variety like you'd find in the regular Archie titles. I did read a ton of the Archie Digests when I came across a bunch of them for a nickel apiece at a garage sale, but I can't remember ever seeing any Life with Archie style stories in them, either.
Who exactly do you think the target audience was for these LwA stories?
People with cash in their pockets and kids in the back seat for a long car trip. (HAPPY HALLOWEEN Y'ALL!).
...It postdates the SA , MSA , but what about the long-running ARCHIE AT RIVERDALE HIGH , which also featured " serious " adventures...of a more ( tending toward , anyway ) realistic manner ???????????
There have been a lot of the LWA stories reprinted in Digests, according to the GCD. I found six of the early issues just in the stack of Archie Digests I had sitting around the house, which was a big help in covering all the different genres that came up (my collection has a few holes).
I imagine the adventure stories were aimed at pre-teens, like the regular line, who wanted more adventure. The stories usually were plausible, given Veronica's mind-blowing wealth and ability to fly them all over the world or hole up in any number of mountain lodges. It was an interesting mix of story types, varying from high-school drama to spies to monsters from one issue to the next.
Emerkeith, as you note, AARH was a more Riverdale-based adventure series that started up about the time LWA was calming down and doing more traditional gag stories. I'm not quite sure why they made that switch. For awhile in the late 1960s-early 1970s, LWA was just a regular Archie comic, which was an odd way to go. AARH was, as it implied, more dramatic stories of his high-school career.
Obviously, since it lasted 113 issues, there must've been an audience for that. Maybe that more down-to-earth style worked better. I was never a fan of those, as they weren't funny enough or adventurous enough. I'm not sure I have any of them in my collection, in fact. But those early LWAs, at least through Man from R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E., were pretty quirky stuff.
-- MSA
I think the best Life with Archie must have been "The Seduction of the Innocent" tale that was recently printed by Continuity comics, by Brubaker. I was there for every twist.