The modern concept of the teenager — that awkward stage between clueless happiness and scowling Miss Grundy — began at midcentury with Andy Hardy movies, the Baby Boomers and the comics' Archie Andrews.
Archie has eyes for Veronica, and Betty has eyes only for Archie, throughout Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe.
Archie has eyes for Veronica, and Betty has eyes only for Archie, throughout Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe.
Now, 70 years after he was introduced, comes Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers (IDW Publishing, 224 pp., $49.99), a tell-all history of the creation and durability of not only Archie but of Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and Moose.
"Archie was everyman," says author and comic historian Craig Yoe. "Or everyman's fantasy, anyway, having two gorgeous girls — one blonde, one brunette — hotly vying for his affections."
That sexual subtext — "Betty or Veronica?" is a common fanboy question — runs throughout Archie's history, up to the recent "imaginary" story lines in which Archie marries Veronica in one story, and Betty in the next.
"The breast size and cleavage factor of Betty and Veronica changed through the years," Yoe says. "I wasn't able to precisely correlate the rising and the falling of these matters to the stock market or I'd be a wealthy man instead of a cartoonist and comics historian.
"But there's no denying that there is indeed a teen sexual subtext to the stories and art. I instinctively knew this when I read Archie as an adolescent. This sizzle helps sell the steak, I'm sure."
Yoe's hardcover history includes rare covers, unpublished and sometimes racy artwork and Archie Comics co-founder John Goldwater's never-before-printed autobiography.
"I would reverse the common wisdom," Goldwater says of his inspiration for Archie in the 1940s. "Instead of 'boy chasing girl,' I would have the girl chasing the boy — and usually not getting him. Eureka!"
The origins of Archie's pals and gals has sometimes been disputed, but Yoe concludes that "Goldwater had the beginning of the idea," later fleshed out by artist Bob Montana and writer Vic Bloom in Pep Comics #22 in December 1941. Archie Comics #1 followed soon after.
Many of Archie's creators modeled characters on high school friends and relatives.
"There's even a picture Montana drew of himself with a broad grin, a gap between his teeth, checkered orange pants and a bow tie — just like the first years of Archie," Yoe says.
The decades that followed found Archie reflecting every teenage fad and fantasy, from Elvis to The Beatles, disco and cellphones.
"Today Archie is putting references to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga in their stories," Yoe says. "And the beat goes on."
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