Archie Comics began life as C.S.G. Magazine in 1939, named for the three founders, Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L. Goldwater. Most of the founders held degrees, Silberkleit was a registered pharmacist with a law degree and John Goldwater was one of the founders of the Comics Code Authority. Initially the comics featured characters like Rang-a-Tang and the Shield, a patriotic Superhero which came to inspire Captain America. The line was relaunched as Pep and among the new stars introduced was a teenage Boy named Archie Andrews.
In 1941 in Pep Comics #22, Archie, Betty, Veronica and Jughead were all introduced by Writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Mantana. Archie became so popular he took over both the comic line and the company in 1946. Archie Comics was born.
The Archie character made his way into Radio stories in the late 40's. The format of the Archie stories allowed it to survive attacks in the 1950's but to branch out,
Archie's Weird Mysteries was created as a safer alternative to Tales from the Crypt and other Horror Stories, starring the Archie gang encountering the supernatural.
In 1962, Harvey Kurtzman's
Help! magazine featured a parody of Archie and his cast in the
Goodman Beaver story, "Goodman Goes Playboy". Publisher Kim Warren was hit with a Copyright infringement suit and asked for remove the material but refused, leading to a short lawsuit. The Archie Comics Heroes were moved to a new imprint that copied the campy tone of the 60's Batman series, this did not last long and the line ended in 1967.
The time came to adapt the character into Television. Desilu, not yet hitting it big with Star Trek, made a pilot in 1962 with Frank Bank in the role of Archie but he was recast as Bank was associated with his character Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on
Leave it to Beaver and couldn't be seen as Archie. With Screen Gems and Harry Ackerman's support and the bringing in an unknown actor John Simpson to play the lead Role,
Archie was launched in 1964, and enjoyed some success thanks to Desilu touching up the series. The show's success led to the production of a Live Action show of the spinoff character
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch on ABC. The Show took several creative liberties with the concept. Sabrina was now the teenage daughter of a Witch named Samantha Spellman who married a mortal man named Darrin Stephens. The series lasted until 1969 when actor Dick York, who played Darrin Stephens became ill. Director William Asher asked York in his hospital bed "Do you want to quit?" and York responded with "if it's all right with you." The show ended. Asher commented that "No on else could play Darrin Stephens. I couldn't find another Dick for the role."
The show initially had crossovers with the Archie series. However a problem for both shows arose. When 1966 rolled around all the shows were transitioning to color. John Simpson's hair was not red enough to make a convincing Archie on screen and Lucille Ball cancelled the Archie Show. As she later commented: "I learned from my experience on I Love Lucy that some things just only work in Black and White when they were made to be Black and White, so the Archie show just had to go. Shame, really I always loved that Wacky Redhead."
However, there was a problem. Several Crossover Episodes between Archie and Sabrina the Teenage Witch had established a long distance romance between the two, though in Archie's case, Sabrina was one of many potential crushes, but the relationship was still seen as adorable and quite popular(It was homaged a few times in other media such as in
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls which also featured a female teenage magic user in a long distance relationship with a teenager redhead in High School that was later discovered to be bisexual). The Producers of Sabrina the Teenage Witch decided to pull forward with the romance in the Sabrina show. To this extent, they recast a redheaded actor for the role of Archie to bring him into Sabrina's colored world. Instead of seeing joy at the romance aspect continued, fans were angry. Many cried "Who the hell is this guy? He's not our Archie." and thus the trope gained the name "The Other Archie".
A third show was made following the cancellation of Archie and that was an adaptation of
Josie and the Pussycats. Unlike Archie, the show lived entirely in the colored world following Archie's cancellation and did well in the age where bands like the Monkees were popular, along with being progressive at the time due to featuring a black member of the band front and center with the other members. Creator Dan DeCarlo(who created Josie and the Pussycats after seeing his wife Josie dress up in a costume for a party) commented that the choice to adapt
Josie and the Pussycats probably saved the life of several characters that Archie was planning to remove entirely, namely the characters Albert, Sock and Pepper, which would have been replaced with new ones. Because they were adapted into the show, they gained a following and as such Archie Comics realized it could not cut them out.
By the early 70's most of the original founders of Archie Comics had stepped down with the sons of two of the founders Michael Silberkleit and Richard Goldwater taking over and moving the company to private ownership with Coyne retiring. Richard Goldwater was made President. Goldwater refused a deal with Spire Christian Comics to tell stories with strong Christian Morales. Instead, the company went the opposite way and returned to horror stories, even seeling the rights of its Superheroes to DC.
In 1990, a new Archie series was launched, starting with the TV Movie
Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, which depicted the characters 15 years later. Archie Comics gained the license to create
Sonic the Hedgehog comics and later gained the rights to other Video Game franchises like
Mario, Legend of Zelda and
Metroid.
On April 4, 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta was scheduled to debut a new play by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa titled
Archie's Weird Fantasy, in which Archie Andrews came out as gay and moved to New York. Archie nearly sent a cease and desist order but chose to approach the makers of the play. The play was such a success that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa would become Archie's Chief Creative Officer. Archie also nearly sued the music duo known as the Veronicas but decided it was not worth it.
Following Richard Goldwater's death in 2007 and Michael Silberkleit's in 2008, Silberkleit's widow Nancy and Goldwater's half brother Jonathan became co-CEOs in 2009. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa was given the position of overseeing theatre productions due to his experience but grew in the ranks. Archie himself had began to decline in comic sales, for example multiple comic book companies were now selling their comics at grocery stores, something which Archie Comics had pioneered that had led to great success. As such the time came to reboot Archie, starting in 2010 with
Life with Archie. Life with Archie followed the adult Archie and two possible futures. One where he married Betty and one where he married Veronica. The comic series dealt with issues such as death, marriage woes, same-sex marriage, cancer, financial problems and gun control. Sacasa, leaning on the success of his original play, proposed a third option in which Archie was revealed to be gay. In the actual show a gay character named Kevin Keller had been introduced. The line made history again by making their entire line digital.
Aguirre-Sacasa also wrote the Horror themed
Afterlife with Archie, which had Archie and friends battle a Zombie Apocalypse and included darker themes as a throwback to
Archie's Weird Mysteries which had received an Animated adaptation. It was followed by
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, also by Aguirre-Sacasa.
Afterlife with Archie received a finale with Archie finally ending the Zombie threat.
2014 was a big year for Archie. It began with his death. Archie Andrews, specifically both the versions depicted in
Life with Archie, died saving Senator Kevin Keller from an assassination attempt. As this was going on Archie Comics also relaunched its superhero characters including the Black Hood, the Fox. and the Shield. After his death, Archie was also relaunched in 2014 under Mark Waid and Fiona Staples which became one of the Best New Comics of 2015. Warner Bros released an
Archie Feature Film the same year with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa writing and Jason Moore directing. The film was a send up to John Hughes Movies starring the Archie cast. It also featured Katy Perry in a cameo role as Archie Comics character Katy Keene.
Despite the film's success, the rights towards a planned TV Series ended up going to Fox, who produced the TV follow with the same cast. Fox promised to keep the show faithful to the film's tone, making the series more of a sitcom with
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. serving as a darker companion series. The success of the series also led to a film adaptation of Archie Comics character Katy Keene, played by singer Katy Perry.