By Andrew A. Smith
Scripps Howard News Service
Feb. 22, 2011 -- “DC and Marvel better look out, because here we come.”
So sayeth Jon Goldwater, CEO of Archie Comics, about the venerable publisher’s plans. While DC, Marvel and Archie comics all date back to the late 1930s, Archie has always been the quiet one, staying out of the news while dutifully turning out G-rated laughs for the tween set.
Until now.
“I’ve been here about 18-19 months,” Goldwater said in an interview. “We kicked up a little dust, to be honest with you.”
And the results have been seen in the headlines, where it’s obvious that Archie Comics is leaping from wherever it was culturally into the 21st century.
“I wanted to make Archie and the gang a reflection of what’s going on with kids today in high school,” Goldwater said. “I wanted to be realistic within the confines of … what would be in Riverdale. I just wanted to give a representation of what kids deal with in high school, what they deal with in their home lives, what they deal with with their friends, and their relationships, and all the things that are going on in their lives. Which are pretty complicated, for goodness sake. We really wanted to sort of show that.”
And what they’ve done since Goldwater arrived is one breakthrough after another:
* Archie was the first publisher to launch its own standalone app. Goldwater says this was a result of his background in the music industry, which waged a losing battle against the Internet: “The one thing I knew is that we had to embrace new technology.”
* Veronica #202 introduced Kevin Keller, the first openly gay Riverdale teen, “something that we’re extraordinarily proud of,” Goldwater said. It will lead to another first: Archie Comics will publish its first miniseries soon, starring Keller.
* Archie #600-605 explored two possible futures for Archie, one married to Veronica, and one married to Betty. Both stories continue in the new Life with Archie magazine.
* Archie #608-609 featured the first interracial romance in Riverdale, when Archie of The Archies and Valerie of Josie and the Pussycats shared an interlude. “You know what happens when bands are on tour together on the road,” Goldwater laughed. “Things happen.”
* In January, the company announced it was dropping the Comics Code after more than 50 years of submitting its books for Comics Magazine Association of America inspection. Archie was the last publisher still using the Code, so its withdrawal effectively ended the CMAA, after decades of being its staunchest member.
Does that mean Archie is no longer safe? Not at all – Archie will remain G-rated. But how far will they push the envelope?
“You push it as far as you want to push it within the integrity of the characters,” Goldwater said. “These characters, even though they’re high school students … have a 70-year history. So when a mother or a father or a kid or whoever picks up an Archie comic, there’s a certainty in that comic. They know what they’re getting. But what we want to do is, we want to sorta push it as far as we can within that certainty.”
The hits will keep on coming. Archie had leased its superheroes to DC Comics, but that deal has ended, so “Red Circle” characters like The Shield are returning. Archie is also working with the legendary Stan Lee, co-creator of most of Marvel’s superheroes, on a secret project. Archie Babies, the company’s first original graphic novel, will be just the first of many. Abrams, Dark Horse and IDW continue archiving Archie’s 70 years in high-quality hardcovers. Goldwater drops tantalizing names like Cosmo the Merry Martian, Jinx, Katy Keene, Mega Man, Sam Hill and Superteens. A second magazine, Veronica & Betty, will follow the girls around the world as exchange students, as well as their replacements in Riverdale. And Goldwater promises big news throughout 2011 on film, television and animation projects.
“Our stated theme and goal here is playing in the exact same sandbox that Marvel and DC currently occupy,” Goldwater said. “They have all the revenue streams going, not just in publishing, but they have tons of licensing revenues, they have films, they have animation. They have all those things that we are now in the process of teeing up for Archie Comics.”
Which means serious competition for “the Big Two” – and a lot of fun for us.
Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.
Comments
...Yeah , and when I looked through Yahoo! Search (!) , I got mid-February 2010 stories about " Super Seven " , which was slated to be written by Tom DeFalco , and involved aliens (Presumably pretty much young ones!<wink>) getting straned on Earth , and meeting Stan...who becomes their mentor , setting them up in an underground headquarters .
Ahemph .
So...Stan , indeed , used the phrase " superhero " several times in describing the characters in his quotes that I read...Did this run afoul of DC/Marvel's mutual trademarking , or whatever it is , of the term " superhero " ? ( Stan said it without the hyphen , evidently based on what I read there . ) THere was even sample/start-up art...
...( Continuing )...Red Circle version , but , much as someone I could share a name with put it , I contain multitudes , my comrades !!!!!!!!!!! Ahemph .
No , I liked the Red Circle/DC versions .
I can't say that the concept of " Archie Babies " thrills me - What , is this the Eighties ? But , good things may happen...
That " secret project with Stan - Uuuuuumm , interest me , as I , very , very , very distinctly remember , that Archie , some time ago , announced a Stan-created superhero group that was described as young heroes - with a fictionalized version of Stan himself , referred to by his name , as their adult mentor !
It was to be published , furthermore , in a sperate line within Archie .
Did Marvel get onto them for the Professor X , or any other , analogy ?
I was just thinking this morning that I hadn't heard anything of that AreSta project (in conjunction with another topic I may post over here) .
......, if you ask me , not that anyone DID , y'understand...
From what little I know of the character , Super Duck sounds like he might've been interesting , in a sense , especiall-? as he appears to have been modeled on Donald Duck of the cartoons - agrouch/somewhat unpleasant " person " - without the , um , " humanizing " that a certain " Duck Man " barked and bowled to the Disney one...Also , it was interesting to me that one Archie character that the " comic Shop " crossover comepletely ignore , one that carried their own title for several years in the 60s and 70s , was...The Mad House Glads ( Gl-aads , Mads , whatevah !! ) . Completely ignored .
Too connected with Dan DeCarlo , possibly ? Just asking .
Oh , and as far as early Josie stories goes , one of the Digests has been reprinting She's Josie stories - early ones - recently !!
AS far as the MLJs go , now , in recent years , at times , Archie would run 1/2 to 2-page fillers underneath the title " Know Your Heroes " , that featured pocket-sized recaps of the origins of the MLJs ( The title additionally came from PSA exortations for kids to remember the Fire and Police Departments , etc. , if they got seperated from their folks .
A good idea , certainly . ) . These were drawn in a kind of " retro/straightforward " style that I thought might be worth following .
Actually , only a couple years ago , at least one Katy Keene story was published in Archie & Friends which was a clear brief throw at a possible revival of The Web - It had Katy-the-actress the leading lady in a Web suoperhero movie , so had " actual " action scenes , drawn in by Andrew Pepoy - The story carefully avoided any mention of in what way the Web might exist in that world and , much like that Human Torch/Captain America story in the days of old , was a clear dry run - It may seem odd for me to say that a " retro " version of the MLJs could be good when I was also praisiong the DC/
...that I have seen , in Archies published during the 21st , nude bathing/showering scenes of Betty & Ronnie ( Yes , yes , yes , the water/steam/whatever keeps it PG , but...) , 15/16-yr. olds ?????????
You might want to think twice before you answer that , ya know !!!!!!!!!
( Note: In Archie's official " guidebook "/whatever , it appears that Archie , especially , has gone from being 16 to 17 , and maybe Jughead and Reggie too , and Bets/Ron from 16 to 16 . )
It appears that my favorite Archie artist , Stan Goldberg ( wish I could put " luv "/heart emoticons here ) might be heading toward retirement - And , the new Goldwater regime has been rather emphasizing TPB-style lengthy stories , even crossovers , which I'm sorta " Uuuuuh " on ( I bought the BETTY/VERONICA/BETTY & VERONICA " Battle Of The BFFs " but missed the last ish <sob> )...Well , anyway , how's your Mom , Ed ?????????
Has anyone else but me read the two " Comics Shop " 2-parters in ARCHIE AND FRIENDS ( I missed the first part of the first one , actually !!! I assume that a TPB will be coming soon...) , which involved old Archie/MLJ characters crossing into Riverdale , and the gang doing the opposite ?
It was fun , BUT , for one , the parading of all thse " genre " non-superhero characters of the Gold and Atomic ages was a bit...I don't know , their original comics may be nice .
I recall someone at Archie actually SAYING that the emphasis on all these old characters was to try and get people to subscribe to Archie;s digital servuice , where these minor characters are all available...I think that Archie may be overestimating the appetite of the" real " ( not really fans ) audience for routine/okay 40s and 50s stuff .
...The latish-90s?? establishment of the MLJs as living in their own universe , with a couple crossover stories in ARCHIE'S WEIRD MYSTERIES (and a Jaguar story in the then-" tweenage " SABRINA title , which I missed)...presented a version of the heroes imitative of the DC Adventures version of the DC heroes .
Now , even if imitative , some of the versions of the MLJs over the years have been good...Anyhow , I liked the DC Red Circle versions of the MLJs , I would like them to try more , perhaps 1 40-/48-page title that could feature two stories per issue , maybe one tending more toward a group story , the backup a slo .
That's rather in the tradition of the Archie titles , anyways .
Now , I am actually an older fan who BUYS some Archie tiles - even ones about Archie and company ! Nt all of them - but some .
Most fans , when writing about Archie , adopt a bit of a " Oh boy , it's sure near that they're providing wholesome entertainment for keyyadds and their warier folks , and isn't it a shame that other companies "...Well , as muah as they may be true , after all , Archie has always incuded healthy amounts of cheesecake in the Riverdale recipe , and I realizrd that from a young age...Nothing wrong with that , now , - Even to the fact...
...I sort of liked the last Mighty Crusaders (actually , liking the Sheild about the least) , and I've done some posting over the Web to say this , and , actually , I recen;y did one here to say the same thing that didn't go up that day , so.........
At the end of the recent miniseries I thought that , dspite some of my complaints among the way ( Especially the middle ishes of the miniseries . ) , that the Mighty Crusaders concept that they had set up showed promise , had a fair amount of characters they could follow...I wanted it to continue .
I still hope it does...
Frankly , all these years , Archie has dealt with the MLJ heroes ( As I'll call them , tho some post-dated the dropping of the MLJ name . ) by imitating whatever someone else was doing with super-heroes at the time !
This has even been true in the " modern " The last 15 years or so . - age ...
Anyway, that's a long-winded way to answer your question. In summary, Archie likely dropped the Seal because it was untenable for them to support the CMAA solo, and because as the only member the Seal was rendered meaningless. And since they will remain within the parameters they have maintained for 70 years, they will still be "the epitome of wholesomeness and good clean fun."
There's a potential upside, too. If the distributors no longer have the Seal to guide them as to what they will or won't distribute, perhaps we'll see more than Archies and DC Kids at the venues they service. Or not. Who knows? But there's no downside to the Seal's demise that I can see.
Hope that helps!
Lee, some of the Goldwater comments quoted above were in response to my question "why did you drop the Comics Code?" So, while I didn't get a specific response, the upshot is that the presence or absence of the Code Seal doesn't matter -- Archie Comics will remain G rated.
The rest we can figure out for ourselves.
For one thing, the enforcer of the Code -- the only ones who really noticed whether there was a Seal on the cover -- was the magazine distributors who used to distribute all comics before the advent of the comic shop. In those days, cooperation from the distributors was the difference between making it to market around the country, or sitting on New York docks in crates (See: Blazing Combat magazine). But ever since the arrival of the direct-market (in the late 1970s), the power of distributors has waned with their share of comics distribution. Right now these "return" distributors account for less than 10% of comics sales, so their power is non-existent.
Further, the Comics Magazine Association of America (the Code's governing body) was supported by dues from member publishers, which for the last 10 years has been only Bongo, DC (partially) and Archie. Bongo quietly withdrew last year, so when DC announced it was no longer going to be a CMAA member, that left just Archie to support the CMAA solo, and to be the only publisher with the Seal on the cover. What good is an organization with only one member, or a Seal that only one publisher agrees to? Archie Comics seems to have figured this out in advance, because they were ready to throw in the towel at a moment's notice: Their announcement about dropping the Seal came right on the heels of DC's decision to withdraw last month.
(CONTINUED)
Why did Archie decide to drop the Comics Code, too? I figure it's because there's new leadership, and, after DC dropped it, they no longer saw the need.
Yes, the Archie line represents the epitome of wholesomeness and good clean fun, and I'm happy that they intend to continue to do so, with or without the Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval.
But, really -- does any would-be comics buying parent today even know what the Comics Code Authority Seal of Approval is? Especially any parent who didn't grow up reading comics, the way we did? Is it promoted, marketed, advertised or even referenced in any way that somebody could and would look for it and know what it means? I don't think so. I think it is so totally a part of the past that it really had outlived its usefulness.
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