Has anyone ever hated teenagers with the gusto of the writers and artists at Archie Comics? Since the first story about Archie Andrews and his Riverdale High chums appeared in 1941 (as a backup feature in the superhero-heavy Pep Comics), the series has stealthily ripped everything rank and transitory about youth culture and passing fads, from the jitterbug to slam-dancing. As a result, anyone itching to do a cultural history of the United States might as well start with the seven volumes of the Archie Americana Series, which cover the '40s through the '80s. Below, we offer a quick tour through our collective pop past, à la Archie.
THE FORTIES
The first incarnation of Archie came before "the American teen" had really been codified in the popular media, so for most of its first decade, the series borrowed liberally from Andy Hardy movies and, presumably, the writers' own Roaring '20s college shenanigans. There are a lot of fraternity initiations and raccoon coats and jalopies covered with painted slogans, but not a lot of Archie nervously opening letters from the draft board, or stumping for presidential hopeful Thomas Dewey.
The decade exemplified: In the 1948 story "The Battle Of The Jitterbugs," Archie and Reggie decide to prove to Betty and Veronica that boys are better dancers than girls, by dancing with each other while the ladies do the same. Soon Archie's wearing a dress and Veronica a letter sweater, and they're both popping out slang like "Reet sweet! On your feet!"
THE FIFTIES
Here Archie starts to become Archie, thanks to an infusion of more realistic suburban high-school tomfoolery, plus the late-decade deployment of quintessential Archie Comics artist Dan DeCarlo, who more or less defined what the characters look like today. Archie and the gang take up roller skating, throw a sock-hop, spin plates on sticks, and in a preview of the pop-culture disdain to come, sell off their old hula hoops because "There's nothing deader than yesterday's fad."
The decade exemplified: In 1957's "Fan Clubbed," Betty and Veronica receive a visit from "Purley Gates," the dreamy, Elvis-like rock star responsible for lyrics like "Love me slender / Love me fat / Love me in the automat." Archie feigns disinterest, telling the swivel-hipped rocker, "I wouldn't worry about that twitch, Farley… You'll probably outgrow it."
Trendspotting with Jughead: Archie's pal joins him in a stab at the beatnik life in the 1959 story "Like Real Gone," which has the duo wearing frayed sweaters, slouching against trees, and muttering, "Man, dig that frantic set of threads."
THE SIXTIES
They say that the '60s didn't really start until after the Kennedy assassination, and Archie Comics in the '60s didn't really begin until the 1964 story "The Folk Singers," which featured our hero offering to sing all 917 verses of his original song, "The Yaller Dog." Within the year, the Riverdale gang would eagerly await the appearance of "The Termites Five" on The Ed Sullivan Show, and by the end of the decade, they'd try surfing, drag racing, protest-marching, quoting personal gurus, and—in the incredibly odd 1967 story "Champ Of Camp"—wearing crazy Mod clothes from Carnaby Street.
The decade exemplified: In 1969's "Ding-A-Ling," Archie gets so annoyed by the attention Reggie is getting for his Nehru jacket and love beads—complete with a bell that represents "brotherly love"—that he shows up at the dance with a cowbell around his neck, telling everyone, "It stands for world love!"
Trendspotting with Jughead: Yes, Jughead follows his beatnik adventure by becoming a hippie, in 1968's "Flower Power," in which he doffs his shoes and totes a daisy.
Betty & Veronica's fashion corner: In the '60s, the writers began to get a lot of mileage out of clothing trends by building entire stories around the two female leads' attempts to outdo each other by wearing the latest. In addition to their "Champ Of Camp" Swinging London phase, the decade saw the girls try on "slim jim" tight pants, and, of course, miniskirts.
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