- How are you doing you wonderful nerds?
Normally I cover superheroes on this show,
but Archie Comics are a
staple of American culture
as one of the longest running
and most successful publishers
in the comic book industry.
While the company has published
other comics involving
Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man,
and a couple other
superheroes and anthologies,
the company gets its name from
their most famous creation,
a red-haired teen named Archie Andrews.
(electricity zapping)
(bubbles popping)
(electronic tones)
Even if you've never read a
story featuring Archie, Betty,
Veronica, Jughead, or the
rest of the Riverdale gang,
you've probably at least heard of them
and know the basic idea.
Small town teens who usually
face everyday problems
that usually get fixed
quickly and comically
and usually have no
bearing on the next story.
There's hardly a sense of continuity,
and in its place is a
sense of consistency.
You pick up an Archie comic;
you know what you're getting.
Everyday problems doesn't
describe every story, though.
Riverdale has seen magic, aliens,
superheroes, sharknados and more.
For the most of its history,
Archie comics were simple kid stories that
refused to grow up, both
literally and figuratively.
That is, until recent
years when Archie started
to tackle more mature,
contemporary themes,
diversify Riverdale's inhabitants,
and bring these characters
into the modern world.
This change in course culminated
in the reboot of Archie
and pals in 2015 that has
been overall well received.
I know my buddy Geoff
from Mother's Basement
loves the direction of
the new Archie comics
and especially loves
the CW's Riverdale show.
So much so that he made a video
about how great it is on his channel!
- Those are lies, Scott.
Lies and slander.
- Yeah, well, it was a
long, sad, and strange road
from Archie's debut back
in Pep Comics #22 from 1941
to the comic book reboot
and Riverdale show.
The story involves a
couple of business folk
cashing in on popular trends,
a pair of untimely deaths,
spies, intimidation, sexual
harassment allegations,
and multiple lawsuits that created
a toxic battle for the company's soul.
Plus, there's a story about
someone shouting penis a lot,
so you'll at least want
to stick around for that.
But to set the stage,
let's talk about two families
at the heart of Archie Comics,
The Goldwaters and the Silberkleits.
John L. Goldwater was a New York orphan
who hitchhiked around the country during
the Great Depression,
working mostly as a reporter
when he wasn't too busy
being a ladies man.
Eventually, he found
himself back in New York
where he started a shipping company called
Periodicals for Export, Inc.
with an interesting idea.
Goldwater would buy old
magazine issues from publishers
for cheap and sell them
overseas for a decent profit.
But he would need a magazine
publisher with whom to partner.
Enter Louis Silberkleit.
Silberkleit had a ton of
experience working for and even
creating his own publishing
companies for pulp magazines.
The two struck a deal to work together
and saw a surprising successful business.
Unfortunately, their
success was short-lived
thanks to a war brewing in Europe
that would make international
shipping a bit tricky.
Goldwater and Silberkleit
continued to work together
as the two men witnessed
the phenomenal popularity
of a brand new comic book
about an alien dressed in
brightly colored spandex who would fight
as the champion of the oppressed.
The comic book superhero market exploded
as Superman stories started
flying off the stands.
Figuratively, of course.
Superman couldn't actually
fly when he first debuted.
Just jump real high.
Goldwater and Silberkleit saw,
along with many other publishers,
that the superhero comic
market was where the money was.
Together, along with Maurice Coyne,
a business manager who worked
closely with Silberkleit,
they set off on their
new business venture.
With their powers and names combined,
they founded MLJ Magazines in 1939.
During the company's first three months,
they launched three anthology titles.
Blue Ribbon Comics, Top
Notch Comics, and Pep Comics.
The latter is where the superhero
The Shield was introduced.
That Patriotic hero that
predates Captain America,
and is actually part of the reason
why Cap uses that iconic round shield.
It was originally triangular,
as I'm sure we all know,
but was so close to The Shield's design
that the creators of Cap changed it
to something a little more unique.
And as much as MLJ wanted
The Shield to be their
favorite creation by
putting him on every cover
of Pep Comics when it started,
he simply could not compete
with a red-haired teen
and his pals who debuted
in the 22nd issue.
Co-created by John L.
Goldwater, Bob Montana,
and Vic Bloom, Archie Andrews
made his first appearance
alongside Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper.
In a time when superheroes
were popping up left and right
and dominating culture, they
looked to the Andy Hardy movies
as inspiration for a
non-super, relatable person.
The stories involving the Riverdale gang
were a surprise hit!
Even though The Shield kept
appearing solo on the covers
of Pep Comics, Archie's
popularity could not be ignored.
The two started sharing the
covers in 1944 with a series of
images that continually showed
how Archie was simply better.
The Shield would lift
Archie up on his shoulders,
announce him as victorious,
and even build a monument to the kid.
It was bizarre, and I love it so much!
The Shield started getting
smaller and smaller
on each cover until Pep Comics #51
where Archie took over
the covers completely.
And in 1946 between issues #55 and #56,
MLJ Magazines became
Archie Comics Publications,
permanently changing the company name
to reflect their most iconic creation.
Like when National Comics
briefly branded themselves
as Superman-DC, before just
being called DC Comics,
reflective of the title
where Batman debuted.
There's more to that story,
we made a video about it.
Moving on.
It wasn't long before the Archie
Universe started to explode
with new characters and
ideas that would settle
into the standard for the
series for decades to come.
When Archie debuted, he
went by the nickname Chick
and wanted to impress the girl-next-door,
Betty Cooper, who only found him annoying.
Veronica Lodge came into the
picture a few issues later,
establishing the classic love-triangle
that would be a constant
driving force of the plot.
As the years went on, other characters
like Josie and the Pussycats
and Sabrina the Teenage Witch
found themselves in Riverdale.
There was even a Saturday
morning cartoon that,
while only lasting 17 episodes,
created the real-life #1
hit single Sugar, Sugar!
♫ Sugar
♫ Aw honey, honey
♫ You are my candy girl
♫ And you got me
Nope, not that one.
Well, close enough.
Archie comics were so popular
that they were regularly
outselling Marvel's Fantastic Four
at the height of the
Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era.
Archie wasn't selling expansive
universes of spandex-clad
superheroes or experimental
storytelling art pieces.
They were selling consistency.
Assembly-line narratives with a unified
art-style developed by Dan DeCarlo.
The stories were so
simple and cookiecutter
that there was even an issue
where they broke down exactly
how to write them beat for beat
in Archie's Pals 'n Gals #34.
It ironically follows a
basic and generic plot
while ending with the phrase,
"Variety is the spice of life!"
That sentiment does not seem to be true
for the characters of Riverdale.
As Bart Beaty wrote in
his spectacular book
Twelve-Cent Archie, quote,
"The goal of Archie Comics was not to
"produce a widely disparate set of stories
"but to provide readers with
virtually the same material
"month after month, with
only as much variation
"as would be required to keep
them coming back for more."
End quote.
And this worked for a while,
but it also made the characters
and stories rather stale.
Eventually, sales would start to drop.
In 1983, both John L.
Goldwater and Louis Silberkleit
retired from the Archie Comics business.
In their place, they left
the company to their sons
Richard Goldwater and Michael Silberkleit.
To maintain the legacy that
their fathers established,
Richard and Michael didn't
want to change a thing.
Archie, Jughead, and the
rest of the Riverdale gang
would remain more or less
stories for children,
fearful that venturing
outside of what was already
established would risk the
integrity of the Archie brand.
As one example, there was
an unlicensed play titled
Archie's Weird Fantasy
which featured the character
coming out as gay.
Richard and Michael
could not let this stand,
so they sent the play a cease
and desist the night before
the show's debut thinking
that it would tarnish the Archie image.
The creative stifling only
led sales to diminish further,
and it's conceivable to think
that if nothing changed,
Archie Comics might
have died out for good.
Then between 2007 and 2008,
both Richard and Michael died of cancer.
Although tragic, their
deaths would set the stage
for an updated Archie, saving
the company and bringing
the characters of Riverdale
into the modern world.
But first, there would be a
toxic rivalry that would result
in severe and somewhat
hilarious allegations.
To keep the Archie dynasty alive,
the void at the company
left by Richard and Michael
was filled by Nancy
Silberkleit, Michael's widow,
and Jon Goldwater with no
H, Richard's half-brother.
Both Nancy and Jon were
pretty unqualified.
Nancy was an elementary
school art teacher,
and Jon had a career in music management.
And from minute one,
the two feuded over Archie
like Betty and Veronica.
Nancy, again, being a
teacher, wanted to secure
the Archie brand as stories
aimed specifically towards
children to encourage literacy,
instill a love of reading,
and combat bullying.
Her motto according to her website is
Children + Comic Books = Reading,
Knowledge and Confidence.
Jon, on the other hand,
saw Archie as irrelevant
in today's society.
He recalled a story where he was reading
a few Archie comics on a train.
A woman sat down next to him,
took a look at the comics,
and remarked, "Archie!
"Wow, they still make those?"
Jon knew from that point
that the company needed to be
reworked from what kinds of
stories they were telling
to how they would
distribute those stories.
Under this new leadership,
Archie Comics introduced new
ideas like the character of
Kevin Keller the first gay
character in Riverdale,
Life With Archie which would
explore slightly more mature
themes than readers had
seen in those comics,
and even the simple concept
of distributing their comics digitally.
Kevin Keller's first
appearance in Veronica #202
would receive a second printing,
which was unprecedented for
Archie Comics at the time.
Life with Archie was also a huge hit,
and the company became the
first major American publisher
to offer same-day digital
releases of their comics,
something that new comics fans
might take for granted nowadays.
All of this happened
despite Nancy's input,
who reportedly hated all of these ideas.
But when she stopped teaching
and started working at Archie
full-time, things began to
get crazy as she and Jon
battled for the control of
the company's direction.
The work environment at Archie
Comics around this time was
absolutely next-level bonkers
in the worst way possible.
That is if any of these
allegations are to be believed.
I think that's important to
keep that in mind going forward.
Most of this is alleged behavior,
but it's way too crazy
not to at least mention.
Nancy claimed that Jon
and the other employees
conspired to push her out of the company
simply because they didn't like her.
But if any of it's true,
they kinda had a lot of good reasons.
Nancy Silberkleit reportedly
wanted long-time employees
fired based solely on their
appearance, age, or weight.
She allegedly wanted her dog to be given
free-reign to poop where
ever it wanted in the office.
There were claims that she
hired a member of Hells Angels
to come to the office
and intimidate employees,
although some reports say
that it was the former
football player Howard Jordan.
Honestly, I don't even know.
It could have been both.
Her former assistant
claimed that she asked him
to spy on everyone and dig
up dirt, but he refused,
later explaining, quote,
"This woman is trying to
"kill the company for her own purposes.
"It's the worse job
experience of my life."
End quote.
Everyone around the office
expressed the opinion that Nancy
was mentally unstable,
unreasonable, and prone to tantrums.
The best example of this behavior is when
she allegedly stormed into a meeting
pointed at each attendee,
and yelled, "Penis, penis, penis, penis,"
and then walked out.
Some reports claim that she
did the same stunt in 2010,
but also added the phrase,
quote, "My balls hurt!"
There were also claims that
she would refer to male
employees as penises instead
of their actual names.
Whether or not all of that
actually happened is beyond me,
but literally every employee
backed up the claims of her,
let's say unusual behavior.
There were lawsuits and counter suits
shooting back and forth.
The whole thing was an
enormous, complicated mess.
I'll have more info in
the description below,
but I would be remiss not
to read this one statement
from the case itself so
you can get a feeling
of just how much people did
not like Nancy Silberkleit.
Quote, "While World War II, the
Korean War, the Vietnam War,
"and the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan did not stop
"the publication of Archie Comics,
"the war-like attitude and
approach of Nancy Silberkleit
"may destroy Archie Comics
unless the court intervenes."
End quote.
I mean, you gotta
appreciate that language.
So dramatic.
Nowadays, Nancy doesn't do much
for the company as a
largely powerless co-CEO.
With Archie entering the
modern era under Goldwater,
the company started
seeing success and praise
for their new comics,
even the strange ones like
the crossover with KISS.
In fact, at a book signing
for Archie Meets KISS,
one of the co-producers
for the TV show Glee,
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa,
turned up to geek out about the book.
As a lifelong Archie fan,
he pitched the idea of a
Glee and Riverdale crossover.
Goldwater loved the idea so
much, the two made it happen,
becoming great friends in the process.
Later, Aguirre-Sacasa would
pitch the idea of a zombie
apocalypse story revolving
around the Riverdale gang.
Goldwater immediately
approved, and the acclaimed
Afterlife With Archie hit shelves in 2013.
Its success led to Aguirre-Sacasa
to be given the title
of the Chief Creative
Officer of Archie Comics.
Also, fun fact.
You remember that play about
Archie coming out of the closet
that got shut down by Richard Goldwater
and Michael Silberkleit?
Aguirre-Sacasa was the man who wrote it.
The same die-hard fan who
got a cease and desist
for tampering with the
Archie brand years before
was suddenly a major part of the company.
Awesome.
In 2015, Archie Comics rebooted.
Unlike other comic book reboots
where continuity was
making it hard for new
and even current readers
to follow the stories,
Archie rebooted to cement the idea
that they were about to embrace change.
They wanted to show that they
were willing to go all in
and give the characters a
fresh coat of paint with the
stellar creative team of
Mark Waid and Fiona Staples.
As titles like Jughead,
Betty and Veronica,
Life With Kevin, and
more started coming out,
it was clear that the Archie Comics brand
was strong once again.
So strong, in fact,
that The CW picked up an Archie show
that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
co-produced with Greg Berlanti
called Riverdale which premiered
its first episode earlier this year.
And boy,
it is just swell.
Right, Geoff?
- No, it's really not.
I'm a fan of a few other CW adaptations,
especially The Flash, but this
is not really Archie at all.
It's just this typical
teen melodrama that bears
only a passing resemblance
to the original comics.
It's basically the Gotham of Archie,
which also explains why
it's such a good hate-watch
when you're drunk with friends.
It's especially disappointing
given how well they've done
with the new run of Archie Comics.
I mean, those are also written
like a teen soap opera,
but a good one, where
the teenagers actually
act like teenagers,
while still staying true
to their original archetypes,
or Archie-types.
I am so sorry for that.
Even before their big re-boot,
Archie comics have been taking big risks,
like you said, Life With
Archie, Afterlife With Archie,
and Kevin Keller coming out as gay,
were all huge departures from the norm.
And their Archie vs. Predator
event uses the classic
homogenized Dan DeCarlo art
style in conjunction with some
absolutely shocking and
hilarious blood and gore,
to create a blood-bath that
would not be out of place
in the pages of Mad Magazine.
So it's baffling that
Riverdale plays things so safe.
Miring itself so deeply
in cliche televise formula
that the original material
disappears almost entirely.
As a long-time fan, I
couldn't be more disappointed.
- Thanks, Geoff.
Honestly, I was never a
big Archie fan growing up.
I just wasn't exposed to too much of it.
I always associated it as
stories belonging to a simpler
and largely manufactured
period in American history.
But that mindset overlooks
the other arguably
more important period of time
that the characters represent.
Even when the gang was
transported into stories set in
distant historical time periods,
whether that be ancient Egypt or Rome,
the teens from Riverdale were just that.
Teens.
This creates an interesting
paradox with Archie Comics.
One's teenage years are known for being
a time of change and transformation.
Yet Archie and the gang
remained in their teens,
unchanged for decades.
But as we've seen, Archie
in the past few years
has started to finally grow up.
And I can't wait to see what a clumsy,
redheaded teenager from
the 1940s and his friends
from Riverdale can
bring to a modern world.
♫ Sugar
♫ Aw honey, honey
♫ You are my candy girl
♫ And you got me rocking you
♫ Break it down won't you please
(applauding)
- We discussed a lot of
Archie's past in this video,
but if you want an
in-depth analysis of the
new Riverdale show, make sure
to go check out Geoff's video
where he tells you how much it sucks
and how you're wrong for liking it.
I pop up over there in that video
because I also have words
to say about that show.
Even though he is a long-time Archie fan,
it's kind of a new topic
for both of us to make videos about.
Geoff makes some truly amazing
videos analyzing anime.
I can't get enough of them,
and I don't even watch anime.
They're just that good!
We'll have his video linked
in the description below
and on the end card.
Also, I just wanted to say that there were
75 years of history that I had
to dig through for this video
so there are no doubt hardcore
Archie fans in the comments
writing about "How could you possibly
"skip over Harry Lucey?" or something.
A lot got cut out, and potentially
some of it was incorrect.
I do the best that I can and I leave you
with my sources in the description below,
so you can do further reading if you wish.
As always, I want to thank our patrons
who make these videos possible.
The names of those wonderful
nerds are right here.
Special shout outs to Alberto
Ramirez, Cristoffer Lange,
Patrick Caddy, Elizabeth
Moncel, and Austin Rogers.
I'll see you guys next
week for a new video.
In the meantime, I'm Scott reminding you
to read between the panels and
grow smarter through comics.
See ya.
