Archie, as noted in the previous blog, rapidly achieved success. Within a few years after the character’s introduction, the Archie family added a hit newspaper strip to the successful comics line. Bob Montana, Archie’s co-creator, worked on the strip for nearly 30 years until his untimely passing in 1975.
IDW and the Library of American Comics intended to publish a complete sequential series of these strips, but ran into a problem: Finding the actual strips themselves. Archie had no strip archive, and collectors, who had kept clipped strips from the era, concentrated primarily on adventure series and mostly ignored Archie.
Fortunately, we managed one book each of dailies and Sundays from the period, and even a cursory glance reveals Montana’s cleverness in cartooning.
Early solicitations for the Montana dailies book included this preliminary cover, but imprint Editor Dean Mullaney ultimately went in a different direction for publication.
Archie Americana Volume 1: Best of the 1940s HC, 2011
Archie Andrews, (along with many of the rest of his timeless Riverdale gang), celebrates his 80th anniversary this year.
Starting as a back-up feature in MLJ’s Pep Comics #22 (cover date December 1941), Archie and his pals gradually took over the whole comic, and eventually, in 1946, the entire company.
Archie’s creation is generally credited to MLJ founder John Goldwater, and cartoonist Bob Montana. Montana apparently based many of the characters on friends and neighbors from his high school days in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
IDW Publishing and Dark Horse both relentlessly chased Archie Comics for archival reprint rights — an area the company itself was slow to develop, and in 2009, Archie ultimately split those reprint rights between the two publishers.
AT IDW, we published hardcover “Best of” collections, based on both era and artist. We also added the Archie strips to our Library of American Comics imprint headed by Dean Mullaney. (More on that later.)
Andrew Pepoy drew era-specific covers for all four Archie’s Americana volumes. This cover from the first volume — Best of the 40s — is a faithful and clever re-working of Montana’s cover for Archie’s Pals and Gals #3. Ironically, Montana’s original is from the 50s (1954), but I don’t think anyone complained.
More Archie coming up in the next few posts as we celebrate his very youthful 80th.
All four volumes in the IDW “Archie’s Americana” series feature era-specific covers by the talented Andrew Pepoy.
Starting as a back-up feature in MLJ’s Pep Comics #22 , Archie and his pals gradually took over the covers, the comic, and in 1946, the entire company.
Whether in a classroom, or stuck at home in front of a computer, the school year is indeed upon millions of kids and their folks.
And lets face it, when you’re a kid, the school calendar is much more important than the “yearly” calendar.
Archie comics was one of the few publishers that frequently employed the calendar to its advantage. New stories (or reprints for that matter) were typically timed to Christmas Vacation, Summer Vacation, camp time, and of course, school years.
In hindsight, Archie’s publishing schedule was similar to the merchandise planning of a department store. You have to stay ahead of the seasons.
And since the Archie gang were teens, school played an oversized role in the storytelling and gags.
Appropriately, here is a great one pager by Bob White. Sure the gags are corny, but 65 years ago they were probably the bee’s knees. (Actually, they were probably groaners then, too.)
But we grinned. And the cartooning is terrific.
(White credit confirmed by my friend, the late, great, Victor Gorelick, Archie’s EIC, who passed away earlier this year. Damn you, 2020.)
A simple rendering of the Shadow by the legendary Alex Toth leads us down the “What If” rabbit hole.
What if Archie Comics had phoned Toth in 1964, and said “Hey, we just acquired the rights to The Shadow, not sure what direction we should go with it, are you interested?”
Would Toth, who five years previously had beautifully illustrated another pulp icon, Zorro (based on the popular TV series) said yes? One can only imagine the results if he had.
Archie did indeed take the license for the Shadow. But instead of a classic version, illustrated by Toth, or someone comparable, we are left with a giant puzzle.
The cover of issue #1 features a classic rendition of the character.
But inside? A completely different version, with blonde hair no less.
Issue #2 amplifies the gaudy superhero costume, keeps the blonde hair.
Issue #3 keeps the costume, but changes the hair to black.
And so on. At this point, he looks — and pretty much acts — like a poor knock-off of any number of classic Archie / MLJ heroes from the golden age that they already owned.
Why license The Shadow if you’re going to create something wholly different? That indeed is a puzzle. (And also, it can’t capitalize on the “camp” craze,” because it appears well ahead of the Batman TV series.)
After eight issues, the title is mercifully cancelled.
As for Toth? He spent much of the 60s designing many of our favorite animated TV shows, including Space Ghost and Super Friends.
But he never strayed too far from comics, and has illustrated all-time classic stories, in many genres. And, many of his sketches and commissions reflect a passion for classic pulp characters and motifs.
A Toth Shadow series would have been something to see.
Toth, born in 1928 (and died in 2006 at his drawing table), would have turned 92 today. Happy Birthday, Alex!
Toth noir, as evidenced by the illustrations above.
Archie Comics’ version of The Shadow: A mystery wrapped in an enigma, etc….
From Zorro to Batman, Toth was a master of shadow and light.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons early concept art for Watchmen
The Price Of Greatness
Each time I consider a purchase of an original Watchmen page, the price becomes too rich for my taste and I get cold feet. And then, each succeeding time, the price is much higher. Lesson learned? Not yet.
That said, at IDW, we published a beautiful Watchmen Artifact Edition, so I did get to browse quite a few pages and see some impressive scans.
Archie’s Efforts
The MLJ/ Archie superhero universe is fascinating: Since the 80s there have been multiple attempts to launch and sustain the characters, and none have quite worked. Fingers crossed for the most recent efforts, although I’m not certain any new titles featuring the latest iterations were published last year. It’s also interesting that Archie has licensed them to DC a few times.
DC’s Appetites
And speaking of DC, it’s fascinating to me that they would own so many superhero characters, add more, and then license even more. To wit: They purchased the Quality library, the Marvel family, The Charlton superheroes, and Wildstorm. At one point or another, they’ve licensed the Archie superheroes, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, The Spirit, The Conde Naste pulp characters and Fighting American. And a host of other ones I’m likely overlooking. Whew.
Moore’s Luck
Did Alan Moore’s familiarity with the Charlton and Archie characters come from childhood? Or later perhaps when he attends some fan gatherings/ early UK conventions? You could barely find some of those comics in New York, so it’s intriguing (and ultimately fortunate) that they made their way into the UK.
Morisi Gets His Rights
Why did Peter Cannon Thunderbolt revert back to creator Pat Morisi? Why was his deal so different than Steve Ditko’s? Or, did he manage to find a copyright loophole later on? Questions, so many questions…
Not Too Desolate:
If Bob Dylan receives a royalty for the Desolation Row lyrics included in the Watchmen comics, it’s probably the easiest and most surprising money ever. If his people took a flat fee, all I can say is… oops.
Steve Rude delivers a nicely designed splash page for the one-shot Dollar Bill comic from the Before Watchmen series. Len Wein wrote the issue, and Steve penciled, inked and hand-lettered the entire issue himself, a definite rarity. It’s one of the better-looking Before Watchmen comics.
As Watchmen fans know, Dollar Bill is a member of the Golden Age Minutemen — tragically gunned down when his cape gets caught in a revolving door, as described/depicted in the comic book, film and television series.
His role in the series is pretty much limited to that one tragic moment, so this one-shot gives the creative team a nearly blank slate to flesh out his character.
Definitely a unique creation, he is sponsored and employed by a bank as an actor, and pressured by his employer to work with the Minutemen as an actual costumed crimefighter. Any derivation from an existing character would be in design only — and his costume is in fact similar to Archie’s (MLJ’s) Golden Age Captain Flag.
And Flag did reappear in the Archie superhero revival (Mighty Crusaders #4 and #5) in the 1960s, so Moore would have definitely seen him since he has already discussed his interest in those characters.
Not that aren’t enough patriotic-themed red and blue costumed superheroes to go around.
The published splash page flanked by the Rude painted cover and by a variant cover by the late, great Darwyn Cooke.
Captain Flag in three different incarnations: Golden Age introduction, Silver Age introduction, and in an ironic Modern Age introduction he stands front and center. Why ironic you ask? This 1989 version of the MLJ/Archie superheroes, despite the ad, never actually appeared. Archie’s management got cold feet over the potential mature themes conflicting with the company’s wholesome image and pulled the plug. .
Continuing our series on the roots of the Watchmen characters.
Alan Moore, on his original idea for Watchmen:
“I wanted more average super-heroes, like the Mighty Crusaders line … [the] original idea had started off with the dead body of the Shield being pulled out of a river somewhere.”
Although the Watchmen eventually morphed out of Charlton heroes instead, elements of the Crusaders and the other MLJ/Archie Superheroes found their way into Watchmen lore. Perhaps most notable is the Hangman, a Golden age Archie character who along with Black Hood, becomes the obvious inspiration for Hooded Justice, a member of the original Golden Age Minutemen in the Watchmen series. (And has a critical role in the Watchmen HBO show.)
Also notable is the Mothman, an obvious derivation of Archie’s (Simon and Kirby’s) Fly / Flyman.
The original MLJ superheroes disappeared into the mists after World War 2, which didn’t impact Archie financially as the title character and his teenage friends transformed the company, including the published actual name which changed from MLJ to Archie in 1946.
But Archie’s management seeing the giant superhero success down the road at DC and Marvel took another stab starting in 1959 with the Shield and the Fly. Ultimately, many of the golden age characters reappeared, forming a team, the Mighty Crusaders.
Superhero artist Mike Sekowsky was first a Timely (nee Marvel) staffer and then a long-time DC mainstay. He is perhaps best known for his work on Justice League of America, where he could draw almost any character.
So he is well suited to tackle the Mighty Crusaders, a team-up book developed to compete with Justice League and other superhero team books of the day.
But Jerry Siegel’s (yep, Superman’s creator) writing style had most definitely not kept up with the style of the day, and the book was cancelled after seven issues. In fact, the entire Archie superhero experiment fizzled out by late 1967.
But… not before they managed to bring together nearly all the dusty MLJ heroes and put them in one comic book. Issue #4 of Mighty Crusaders, is a goofy favorite, entitled “Too Many Heroes.”
Too many, perhaps, but certainly enough to reach into for character ideas twenty years later.
Issue #4 of the Mighty Crusaders is a… gas. Pretty much every MLJ/Archie hero (as seen twenty years later in this house ad) mysteriously reappears to apply for membership into the Crusaders. The Crusaders themselves disappear after a short-lived series in 1966, but re-emerge multiple times starting in the 80s.
The classic Minutemen team shot as drawn by Dave Gibbons and recreated by the late Darwyn Cooke 25 years later, and the nearly identical PR photos from the 2009 film and 2019 television series.
Final Scorecard — Minutemen and their original counterparts:
Silhouette = Completely unique. (Maybe an amalgam of Black Canary, Black Cat and a female version of the Fox if you want to stretch out the derivations…)
Mothman = Flyman
Dollar Bill = Captain Flag
Nite Owl 1 = Blue Beetle 1 (Dan Garrett)
Captain Metropolis = Shield (with some Steel Sterling thrown in)
Silk Spectre 1 = Phantom Lady (with some Black Canary thrown in)
Hooded Justice = Hangman (with some Black Hood thrown in)
Comedian = Peacemaker (with some Shield thrown in)
Classic Jack Kirby action highlights this dynamic page from the extremely short-lived Double Life of Private Strong in 1959.
Here though, “Classic” suggests a Kirby Golden Age look and feel. (As an example, The Shield is jumping out of a panel — very similar to earlier Simon and Kirby techniques.) Definitely a time warp, since we were theoretically a few years into the Silver Age at this point.
When did the Golden Age end, exactly? I devoured all the comics’ history books I could get my hands on as a youngster. (Steranko, Feiffer, Daniels, Lupoff / Thompson, et al.) I’m not sure they all agreed on, or even in some cases, identified, the exact point of the “end.”
So my youthful brain filled in the blanks: If the first appearance of Silver-Age Flash (Showcase #4, 1956) launches the Silver Age, then Flash #104, the final issue of the original Flash Comics (1949) obviously ends the Golden Age. (Let’s just call the in-between period the “EC Age.”)
Very neat and tidy, but it only took a short while before I realized it was much more complex than that.
If not Flash, then, how about when All-Star Comics kicks out the Justice Society and switches to All-Star Western (1951)? Perhaps the last issue of the Spirit newspaper supplement (1952)? Or maybe when Captain Marvel and Whiz Comics ceased publication (1953)? And what about the brief return (1954) of Marvel’s “Big Three” (Sub-Mariner, Torch and Captain America). Are those Golden Age Comics?
EBay defines Golden Age Comics as any published through 1955. The well-known back-issue retailer Sparkle City Comics says the era ends in 1956, leading directly into the Silver Age.
See, it gets complicated.
But, if we consider Golden Age as a style of superhero storytelling rather than a timeframe, my vote goes here: The final Simon and Kirby team-up.
Archie Comics, seeing DC’s success at re-introducing superheroes, hired Joe Simon, who in turn hired Jack Kirby (they were no longer partners at this point) to help create some new super suits for themselves.
Two titles came as an immediate result of that ideation: The Fly, and The Double of Life of Private Strong, featuring an updated version of their original patriotic superhero, The Shield. Both characters were Simon and Kirby superheroes. And both looked and felt like Simon and Kirby superheroes. (Even if Simon himself didn’t ink the page.) The page and the story don’t in any way capture the modern feel of DC’s sleeker and slicker Flash, Adam Strange, et al — or especially Kirby’s own Challengers of the Unknown.
The Fly buzzed around for a few years, although Simon and Kirby left after a few issues. Private Strong? A mess from the start, with a terrible title, retro trade dress that appears borrowed from Simon and Kirby’s Golden Age Speed Comics, some obvious knock-offs from Captain America, and a background story that seemed so similar to Superman, DC sent a cease and desist letter to Archie.
After two issues, The Shield was done. Shortly thereafter, the temporary reunion of the Simon and Kirby team was also finished.
A few months later, Kirby and Stan Lee, already churning out monster stories at Marvel, would collaborate for the first time on an ongoing character with Rawhide Kid #17. Although no one knew it at the time, the “Marvel Age” had begun, and the Silver Age was about to rev into high gear.
And the Golden Age of Comic Books was definitively over.
With some pretty great old-school art by Jack to usher it out.
Archie’s original version of the Shield predates Simon and Kirby’s Captain America. Not to ever give the patriotic superhero concept a rest, the two star creators develop Captain Freedom (below) for Harvey, and Fighting American, an early creator-owned series in the 50s.
Apparently Joe and Jack couldn’t decide on Captain Freedom’s costume from issue to issue. Notice the star on the mask that disappears and reappears, not to mention the proportions of the stars on the chest, and the belt too.
Meanwhile… Across town at DC, Kirby’s Silver Age Challengers of The Unknown look like… Jack Kirby in the Silver Age! Giant robots, futuristic cities, et al, are a sign of things to come.
What if EC Comics merged with the Archie line back in the ’50s and survived through the present day? Andrew Pepoy gives us the short answer with Betty and Veronica as Wally Wood-styled space girls on this cool variant cover for Archie #646.
Wrapping up our multi-part tribute to The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner, in honor of the late summer weather at the California coast.
From time to time, an offbeat Archie mash-up idea burrows its way into my consciousness, and Dan Parent always delivers. In fact, this homage to the original battle scene by the legendary Bill Everett is one of my favorites among the many terrific ones Dan’s produced.
Dan is easily among the top tier of all-time Archie stand-out talents, joining a terrific group of cartoonists that includes Bob Montana, Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucey, to name a few.
Incidentally, we matched the characters by overall appearance (Veronica/Namor, brunette and Betty/Torch, blonde) and, to some extent, personality. After all, Veronica is definitely the worse-tempered of the two, and Betty… does indeed carry a “torch” for Archie.
