So I bought another Archie
Returning to Archie is as an adult
I bought an Archie comic the other day.
I was at the store for the 10,000th time this week because we were yet again out of bananas and cheese and no day passes for my kids in peace without these essential food items. And at the check out I saw a Betty and Veronica digest, in the same exact spot I’ve seen Archie Digests for as long as I can remember.
Every summer, when on the rare occasion I’d be at the grocery store with my Dad and I spotted an Archie digest at check out – he’d buy it for me. I collected boxes of Archies. I even had a standard issue size comic of Cheryl Blossom which I LOVED to tatters.
So, feeling the nostalgia, I threw it on top of the medium aged cheddar and brought it home to read.
I wanted to write about it. I thought about it and wrote a full essay to share with you. But a friend who read it over for me (gotta love them beta readers) asked a simple question – so what? Why are you writing about this now? Why should I care?
She was right (cus she’s brilliant like that).
Archie is old. Very old. He stepped onto the scene in 1941. That’s a long time for a comic book about teens just doing regular teen things. And when I cracked open my new Betty and Veronica, I was surprised at how much it still sometimes felt like hanging out with a group of time travelers trying to fit in to the modern world. Soda shops and varsity jackets. Words like ‘noggin’’ or ‘dippy’ and phrases like ‘good grief’. The era of my grandparents. Like anything with such a long and iconic history, there’s plenty to be critical of. Looking at their pin-up girl design now as an adult, I had to wonder if Betty and Veronica gave me a bit of an unhealthy understanding of what the world expected of my appearance and relationships – but then, that was the deal with everything in the 90s/early 2000s (I still haven’t recovered from Bridget Jones’ weight shaming).
Why then am I so excited to re-visit Archie now?
My friend was right. I hadn’t made any kind of argument except that I loved these comics as a kid. So, as a writer, I failed. And I sat with that failure like a sad dinosaur in a tar pit. There was no coming out of it.
Because this failure happened at a time when I’m feeling the failure in everything. Creatively, I’m dealing with crippling self-doubt, struggling to write and draw, to figure out how and where to spend my time on which projects, afraid any wrong move will set me back. Waffling between cautious optimism and dead certainty that my story about final girls is a terrible mistake. Rejection rolls in at steady intervals, such is the creative life, a slow but constant drip drip dripping of ‘thank you, but no.’ Am I good enough to make this creative career work? The answer I land on, despite my best efforts, is almost always no.
A month hardly passes when an article doesn’t come across my inbox about some young author exploding out of the gates with a million dollar deal and instant best seller status. Maybe at 39, I’m already too old.
The world itself is mired in uncertainty for a lot of us – a future of AI-infected everything raising questions about job security and surveillance and singularities or whatever horrible dystopian nightmare the tech bros are dreaming up for the rest of us. The stress of moming and adulting in general, pulls me in a thousand different directions, chasing after a thousand different ideas and half-baked solutions. Of knowing I need to change what I’m doing – be better, be different, be more – and having no idea how.
And in the midst of all that, what could have possibly motivated me to buy the Betty and Veronica when I haven’t bought one in years – decades?
And I realized….I had. I bought two new Archies not that long ago, though Archie was newer and barely recognizable – probably why I didn’t realize I’ve been keeping up with Archie in some form all this time. The New Archies are Archie for the modern-day. Re-invented. A series of alternate universe story lines from new writers and new artists who bring their bold style and fresh creative flair to the Archie universe. I have one from the original launch of the New Archie line illustrated by Fiona Staples, and one featuring one of my fave illustrators right now, Gretel Lusky. There are issues with the Riverdale gang gritted up and zombie hunting. I am very excited to read the Archie Horror issues – they have deliciously insane story lines, like burger-ravenous Jughead hiding a family legacy of werewolf vibe HUNGER.
Throughout its 85 year run, Archie has been making an ongoing effort to keep up with the modern world and make up for past failures, from adding an expansive cast of diverse characters and creating newer feminist story lines. The creative team behind Archie hasn’t shrunk back from the changing world – its leaned into it, embracing fresh creative teams with surprising and unexpected takes on what Archie’s world can be.
Archie adapts. And that’s why he endures.
So maybe that’s why I bought the Betty and Veronica Digest – nostalgia sure, the burning world making me long for the bright colours and candy-coated fun of a cast of familiar characters that can usually be relied upon to ultimately do the right thing. But also, because Archie, at 85 years of age, is just – interesting. As a writer and illustrator, everything happening in the Archie Universe is about pushing limits, experimenting with story and just letting go and having fun.
Because that’s the thing about story, and the thing I seem to have let myself forget as the pressure of adulting weighs down on me – stories are for having fun, for playing and seeing what works and what doesn’t. It’s about having the guts to experiment. And create weird and wonderful and unexpected things. Maybe it doesn’t look like what people expect from you, but maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe no one expects anything.
Archie is old, in the same spot at the check out as always. And he’s easy to pass by, because we take for granted that he’s always there. People overlook what’s old and always there.
But beyond the grocery store where the average person isn’t looking, Archie’s out in the great wide world doing things that are wild and exciting and new.
Maybe if Archie can find himself hunted by Predator, I can go ahead and write that story about Final Girls crawling out of movie screens.
Maybe all anyone is really looking for is to be surprised.
Doodle
What I’m Working On
It’s the end of the school year! So that means getting the kids organized for the summer fun to come. I’m also still trying to find time to get the first part of Beckon done. I’m re-orienting the panels for online so hopefully when I send the full comic, the reading experience will be better suited for your online scrolling! And I’m doing some portfolio updating - figuring out what I want to showcase for the kind of work I’m looking for, where I have gaps and how to fill them. It’s looking like a lot of work but I’m excited for the refresh!
What I’m Reading
Archie! Couldn’t you tell? :)
So interesting to revisit Archie. When I was young they were only available to me on summer vacation in Canada. I loved getting new ones or second hand ones.
I never realized the pin up style until now. A lot of the plots ruffled my young feminist and 90s sensibilities. Especially Betty. It’s interesting to see their evolution.
You absolutely can write and finish your project. The world is full of 10 year overnight successes. I recently got surgery on my dominant hand so writing/drawing is at a standstill. But I sat at our kitchen counter channeled Scarlett O Hara and declared to myself, and the world, and to a slightly shocked hubby serving as witness that I would not give up on my dream of being a career writer ever again. That I was in it for the long haul.
Maybe you’re just on the other side of that valley 🩷 hang in there.
Thank you for sharing! It's so supportive to read about shared concerns and positive messages. I remember Archie comics and reading those!