Archie Comics

Growing up, Archie Comics were despised by my parents for their lack of literary value ("You should be reading books instead of wasting your time with comics!"), but no less than wolfed down by me. There was nothing like spending an entire afternoon going through a pile of new Archies. In fact, when there were no new comics in the house, I had no qualms about reading the old ones again. Each could, in times of desperation, easily make it for two or sometimes even three readings. I remember, we would fight over which character we most resembled. Was I Archie? No he's Archie, I'm Jughead! Love food, hate girls...life is good!!

I was definitely an addict. I would look forward to going to the "library" (which, in 80s Bombay were basically privately run places where you could borrow books for cash) and picking up a stack of Archies. The "magazines" were good, but the "digests" were even better. I could go through a magazine in, like, fifteen minutes. In retrospect, it was almost like those things were made for "slow people" with the oversized graphics and lettering. But a digest, on the other hand, was packed with stories and could sometimes even be read over two sittings.

It would not be a stretch for me to say that one of my reasons for coming to the US was the stuff I read in those comics. The Archie world was the American suburban ideal. Blocks of houses with two-car garages and lawns to mow. Teenagers whose idea of being "naughty" was to mix two of the wrong chemicals in the chemistry class which invariably ended up with an explosion. Life where the best way to spend a summer afternoon was making money by mowing lawns and spending time at "Pop's" with your friends. Man, I think I even wanted to mow lawns then. This was the perfect world with colourful (literally and figuratively) characters and, no matter what happened, everything ultimately turned out allright.

Of course, real life is not like that. And, as I've become older, ostensibly wiser and definitely more cynical, I realize that the stories were hackneyed attempts at humour and/or adventure, with a lot (and I mean a lot) of recycling. And after spending a considerable amount of time here in the US, I feel that nothing could be further from the truth than the stuff in those comics. Although, I am sure, there are quite a few people who wished otherwise or worse yet, are in denial. In fact, so many of today's animated series on TV (The Simpsons, Family Guy) are essentially parodies of that suburban myth of the perfect "American" family, just like Archie Andrews'.

Well, I guess that is another piece of innocence and perfection (or, at least, the belief in perfection) lost with age...*sigh*

So what prompted me to write this long piece on Archie Comics of all things? Well, The Onion's A.V. Club has just written up a review on the Archie Americana Series, a seven volume set covering Archie from the Forties up to the Eighties. Who knows? I might just buy me a volume or two...

Postscript: If you are unfamiliar with Archie Comics and the antics of Archie and his gang, no worries: Tell me about your "Archie." Everyone has something which represents that period of innocence and happiness in childhood. The one right before adolescence hits and ruins everything. You know, when all is well with the world. What was yours?

Post-Postscript: On the off-chance that you're curious to learn more about Archie Comics, here's the Wikipedia article.