Marriage update: Archie, Spidey
As Archie Comics has been teasing for a few weeks, in issue #600 of his comic, Archie Andrews, the world’s oldest teenager, is finally getting married to either Betty or Veronica:
“The longest comic book love triangle in history is coming to an end. We’re told that Archie Andrews will at long last propose to either Betty or Veronica in a special issue coming out this summer,” said The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. The series features the fictional teenage Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe “Jughead” Jones characters by publisher/editor John L. Goldwater, written by Vic Bloom and drawn and created by Bob Montana.
While internet battles raged over Betty or Veronica, Archie has just released a cover (above) which shows whether Archie’s kids will be blond or brunette….and it’s…BRUNETTE!
Notice poor Betty crying in the background. You know, kid, there are other pebbles on the beach, other dots in the Benday. You will find another four-color character who will make your life complete, we feel certain. In fact, Jughead is looking a little jilted himself, so maybe you two can console one another.
§ Meanwhile, Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage has been retconned back IN to the daily Spider-Man comic strip. Robot 6 has more. While the strip went along with comics continuity for a while and made the marriage never happen, bowing to reader (not fan) pressure, it turns out it was ALL A DREAM.
05/27/09 at 2:07 pm
Every on-line poll I’ve seen said he should marry jughead.
05/27/09 at 2:14 pm
i bet there will be an alternate cover with him proposing to betty!
05/27/09 at 2:16 pm
Wonder how Joe Quesada will beard fans at Wizard World Philly in a few weeks, now that the newspaper strip has retconned his “Brand New Day” retcon? I’d consider purchasing a VIP pass just so we could all see “told you so.”
05/27/09 at 2:19 pm
I’m predicting an upset. Fight for what’s yours, Betty.
05/27/09 at 2:32 pm
Betty seems the nicer one, I would’ve thought he would go for her. But who knows, I haven’t been keeping up to date on the kids’ and their possible new relationships and attitudes and such.
05/27/09 at 2:42 pm
That’s the message we want to send to kids… “get married while you’re young”.
05/27/09 at 2:52 pm
I thought the message was “marry for money”?
05/27/09 at 3:53 pm
Okay…. for everyone who didn’t notice the big display at the Archie Comics booth at NYCC which featured all six covers…. (Don’t feel bad… most internet news sites and blogs didn’t notice it either….)
Archie will marry Veronica AND Betty.
#600-602 = What If future imaginary story with Veronica
#603-605 = What if future imaginary story with Betty
Both stories take place in the future.
(This was told to me by a booth employee at NYCC.)
If you don’t like the idea, then I suggest reading John Byrne’s adaptation of “Return to Riverdale”.
(No idea what is planned for Archie Comics #666.)
05/27/09 at 4:05 pm
Archie Comics #666: Mephisto offers Archie an ultimatum — either Jughead burns in hell forever, or the Betty/Veronica marriage is undone and nobody remembers it happening.
Biggest-selling Archie EVER.
05/27/09 at 4:27 pm
#600 should be a flip book where, naturally, he’s proposing to Betty on the other side. Since it appears to be a 6-issue storyline, then it should be a flip book for six issues with an alternate version of the storyline. Not with Betty just plugged into the Veronica role — what’s the point of doing that? — but to do, I suppose, a Run-Lola-Run type scenario where the central plot/conflict is greatly affected by Archie making a totally different choice.
Okay, so it’s an Archie comic and I’m therefore overthinking this waaaay too much, but still, it’s blasphemy for them to do any sort of an Archie story where one of the gals definitively wins over the other.
— Rob
05/27/09 at 5:13 pm
OK, I’ll bite: What’s the difference between “readers” and “fans”?
05/27/09 at 5:17 pm
Oh, man I KNEW it was and Imaginary Story. Just when you think Superman has finally decided between Lois Lane and Lana Lang… OH. IMAGINARY.
05/27/09 at 5:55 pm
My 11-year old daughter breathed a sigh of relief when it was revealed to be an imaginary story.
She loves Betty and would’ve fought the Archie/Veronica wedding.
Me — I’m happy the Archie books are out there feeding young readers imaginations, but I can’t wait until something more substantive like Raina Telgemeier’s ‘Smile’ comes out for my own young reader to enjoy.
05/27/09 at 6:29 pm
Well, at least now when Joe Q moves on from Marvel, he can get a job with Archie to retcon the imaginary wedding because everyone knows, you can’t tell an interesting story about a married Archie.
… which means the Amazing Spider-Man news strip must be reaching its end because, well, you know, there are no good stories to tell about a married Peter Parker either.
Still, for as long as it lasts, at least the strip has something going on that makes me want to read it again.
05/27/09 at 6:35 pm
“Archie Comics #666: Mephisto offers Archie an ultimatum — either Jughead burns in hell forever, or the Betty/Veronica marriage is undone and nobody remembers it happening.”
Betty and Veronica getting married? That would be awesome!!!!!111!!1!1!
— Rob
05/27/09 at 7:20 pm
Archie is only $2.50?
05/27/09 at 8:40 pm
Torsten:
To Riverdale and Back Again was adapted by Gene Colan. Byrne only did the cover.
:)
05/27/09 at 9:14 pm
I’ve been looking for a copy of that Archie movie for years.
Friend of the family never taped it for me like I asked when I was going out of town.
Keep hoping a copy will show up at SDCC whenever I go.
05/27/09 at 11:23 pm
I’ll second Michael’s question.
What’s the difference between readers and fans?
05/28/09 at 3:54 am
I would think “readers” is a more all-encompassing term, maybe for anyone who picked up the comic, even on a whim (remember, Archie is pretty much the only comic book (well, digest) you can still buy in a grocery store checkout line).
Meanwhile, “fans” would be the truly devoted readers who never miss an issue and can probably tell you the whole tortured, utterly sordid tale of Archie/Veronica/Betty, dating all the way back to the 1870s, or whenever it began.
05/28/09 at 7:03 am
My apologies… I’m a reader of Archie Comics, not a fan…
Curiously… while Archie Comics can produce imaginary stories, they have a zero tolerance policy regarding fan fiction. (Archie and Betty and Veronica and Reggie?)
05/28/09 at 8:15 am
I don’t see the connection.
Producing imaginary stories is an editorial decision. A policy of not permitting fan fiction is a legal decision (protection of trademarks and intellectual property).
05/28/09 at 8:16 am
I think we can see Archie comics as a strong contender for comics industry leader.
Here’s why:
Availability and recognition factor: The comics and digest have wide distribution, and they’re available in multiple languages (In my region, they are available at newsstands in English and French versions).
New technologies: They are going to be available on iPhones soon.
Market testing: The editors/creatives are experimenting with the looks of the characters (new style / old style). Not only that, but they are openly soliciting reader feedback! wow!
As much as we might think that the Archie line is trivial, tired and teen-targeted, I think the publishers are doing a lot of things right.
05/28/09 at 10:16 am
Here’s the distinction between fanfiction and editorial imaginary stories: One is amateur (in the sense that one is not earning a living from the production of the work) while the other is a commercial enterprise. I can either submit a proposal to Archie Comics, or I can post that story on the Web. One will probably result in a nice letter from an editor, while the other will result in a nice letter from a lawyer.
Also, Archie Comics encourage fans to submit fashion artwork, yet discourage actual stories. (A few Katy Keene fans actually became famous.)
http://archie-blogs.archiecomics.com/archie_comics_blogs/
I have heard rumors that at least one industry professional wrote fanfiction (supposedly slash) and was hired based on the writer’s amateur output. As manga publishers discover talent amongst doujinshi circles, so too might comics publishers discover fresh talent among fansites. (Need I mention the two young writers of the Legion of Super-Heroes you became industry leaders? Or the many APA contributors who became writers and editors?)
05/28/09 at 10:52 am
Here’s a bigger question, why are the characters, not drawn “on model?” What has happened to quality control over at Archie comics? Look at the spacing and size of all the character’s eyes. What a weird 3/4 view of Archie’s head. His posture and pose is awful also. These are such great icons of comic history, shouldn’t there be more concern to how they look? This illustration just looks sloppy and lazy. These aren’t the characters I grew up with.
05/28/09 at 11:00 am
Blackeye, that’s a good observation. I have noticed the really wide range of variation in how the Archie characters are drawn in the comics, and in the daily strip also.
However, I can make the same comment about other comic characters such as Batman, Superman and so on. One artist draws ‘em with big chins, another doesn’t. Another guy gives them an extra long cape and thick eyebrows.
Perhaps model sheets are not being used at all anymore.
05/28/09 at 11:31 am
Blackeye and Al:
It’s worth noting that none of the artists at Archie are Dan DeCarlo, so their attempts to do the DeCarlo style are coming out like Rich Buckler trying (and failing) to do Jack Kirby.
It may not be so much that they aren’t using model sheets (I almost think that model sheets are irrelevant given the style) as much as it appears to me from that cover that the Goldberg/Smith combo are just hacking the work out as quickly as possible. I bet master mimic Terry Beatty would be able to do a convincing DeCarlo.
— Rob
05/28/09 at 12:22 pm
I was actually going to mention something about how badly this cover was drawn, but decided to be nice.
Let’s hope Betty gets a little better drawing.
05/28/09 at 12:40 pm
There doesn’t seem to be much online in the way of model sheets for the Archie Comics characters, but here are some character sketches and model sheets from Filmation’s animated series.
SRS
05/28/09 at 1:17 pm
And for something different, or shocking, here is Joe Staton’s take on the classic characters.
SRS
05/28/09 at 11:00 pm
@Al — Archie already is an industry leader, actually! (Not THE leader, but that’s probably only because their title output is so small.) When you’re moving roughly half a million comic books every month you’re a strong #3 of the market share pie, and nipping at the heels of #2. It’s just that the comic book store market is the only one we tend to count when determining market share.
05/29/09 at 2:36 am
With more and more people that were fan(boys) first writing for the Big Two, it seems the line between fan fiction and “real” stories getting blurrier all the time.
Some of the most successful stories in the last few years seem very “fan fiction-y” to me. (not talking about Slash stuff, just plots)
05/31/09 at 2:54 pm
“. . . it seems the line between fan fiction and “real” stories getting blurrier all the time.”
There’s a line?!
— Rob
06/2/09 at 8:52 pm
It would be the greatest trolling of all time, greater than Michael Kauffman, if the 3 Archie Marries Betty comics were fake and Archie really did marry Veronica. I mean, I hate the idea of Arch marrying Veronica as much as anyone, Betty being the abstract ideal of perfect middle-class womanhood she is, but think about the reaction you could get out of hundreds of fanboys buying Archie #603 expecting “What if Archie married Betty” and getting domestic scenes of Arch and Veronica? How awesome would the internet firestorm be?
Plus, it makes a certain amount of sense. Betty likes Archie, but Veronica wants him. She wants him for apparently selfish reasons, but as a guy who’s been in that situation, it’s very hard to say no to a woman who wants you, especially if she’s rich, wily, and very seductive.
10/6/09 at 8:45 pm
I just found out that Archie is actually going into the future!!!!!!!!!!! For the first 3 parts, he sees what it would be like to marry Veronica and then the other three parts he sees what it would be like to marry Betty!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOO excited to see who he chooses!!!!!
01/3/10 at 2:19 pm
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