Changin' times in Riverdale: Funnybook life lessons from 1965 & 1972

Here's another peek back at the manner in which the various Archie Comics titles of the 1960s and 70s displayed their particular reflection of that era.

It should fit right in with most of the other Riverdale-related posts on this blog, and the accompanying (occasionally expanding) flickr set; 'Archie comics of the 1960's as a mirror to fads, fashion and trends'. (follow links)

Archie and his pals gain some valuable insights in each of the two 'timelessly timely' tales shown below.

First, from 1965, it's a lesson regarding gender roles.

Then, in 1972, another father-son battle leads to learning a little perspective.

A valuable insight the reader can gain from reading both of these stories might be that the streets of Riverdale can be a dangerous place...

...But it's not all life lessons - - Dig those groovy fashions!

'The First Step', from Betty and Veronica #119 (1965)

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'My Fathers Eyes', from Life With Archie #118 (1972)

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Scopitones in Archie comics, 1965

I've been working on updating some of the previously posted Archie Comics-related material I've gathered here on the blog, adding some more examples of how those comic books mirrored various aspects of 1960s and '70s pop culture.

Here's a little preview
(more below), one that might benefit from just a little background info...



Scopitones were the name of one variety of 'film jukebox' that first appeared in the early 1960s. ▶

It's also the name of the films themselves, which were precursors to today's music videos.

They were popular in Europe and in the U.S. throughout the sixties, and on the wane by the seventies.

Scopitones weren't part of my experience at that time, but I've been a big fan of Scopitones.Com (sister site to Bedazzled!) for several years.

- Follow the link to Scopitones.Com NOW and watch some fascinating and groovy musical performances!

Betty and Veronica's brief interlude below at Pop's Chok'lit Shoppe occured in
Archie's Joke Book #93 (1965).

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- Follow link to another informative site,
Scopitone Archive,
for a bit more history and background.

Riverdale Make-Over: The Changing Face of Big Ethel

Recently I found this
'Big Ethel Pin-up' page in an old and well-perused copy of the February, 1967 issue of Archie's Joke Book comics (#109).

I thought about adding it to a previous post I'd done, concerning 1960's fashion trends reflected in Archie comics (I may still), but then I caught wind of what's been happening in recent history with
Big Ethel.

For the uninitiated, in the world of Archie comics,
Big Ethel had traditionally been portrayed as the ugly gal who was always aggressively in pursuit of Jughead.

Sometimes it was taken as a given that they were a couple, though Jughead was generally shown to be disinterested.

For many years, to call Ethel merely 'homely' or 'plain' was unnecessary and missing the point.
All the right visual cues were there - - including the prominent buck teeth - - to tell you that Ethel was meant to be undesirable from a romantic perspective.

Using Ethel's appearance as the fuel for humor is a simplistic device that has not aged particularly well.
But part of what made her a compelling character was that her looks rarely seemed to deter her.
Ethel was not shy, but usually rather bold and confident.

Predictably, over the years many things have changed in the world of Archie comics, including various efforts to make them more politically correct for the kids of today.

That process included Big Ethel, whose looks and style began to soften sometime in the 1980's, though to what end I'm not altogether certain.

Likely there was some thought towards providing a more positive role model for 'plain' girls who read the comics.

Eventually, the 'Big' was divorced from Ethel, and she became known as Ethel Muggs (though she'd previously been Ethel Dinklehof).

Gone too, were the buck teeth. Fair enough.
I hear she even became a cheer leader.

In just the past couple of years, there's been a fair amount of critical attention paid to some revamping that's been done in the Archie Comics line.
More realistic drawing styles, ethnically diverse characters and 'relevant' story lines have supposedly given the books more of an appeal to today's younger readers (perhaps better reflecting their Nickelodeon and Disney Channel-infused upbringing?).

That's all sounds fine, and I suppose it should really be none of my business at this point...

◀ But then I saw this latest incarnation of Ethel.

What th' - - ?!?! Is this meant to be progress?
Generically pleasant-looking, but described as being 'beautiful on the inside' - - ?

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but 'plain' is now a concept, and 'ugly' cannot be portrayed- - ?

Is this what we've come to? Doesn't this send a message that 'ugly' is bad? Didn't we already get past that?

Seems to me that giving Ethel a makeover that makes her unrecognizable sends a far worse message than showing her with a scarecrow body and buck teeth...

This being the internet and all, there are plenty of folks who've blogged on the subject of
Formerly-Big Ethel, and have done so much more eloquently.

Here's a round-up of links worth following...

- 'In Praise Of Ethel Muggs' at Occasional Superheroine

- 'Glimpses of Big Ethel' at Comics Worth Reading

- Stupid Comics gave the lowdown on Spire Christian Comics' 1982 title, 'Archie and Big Ethel'. For more on the Archie / Spire connection, check out 'A History of Christian Archie Comics' at Generation Exploitation.

- 'My Favourite Archie Comic' at Living Between Wednesdays

- Prior to recent revamps, there was 'The Great Archie Comics Experiment of 1989-90', discussed at CBR's Comics Should Be Good!

- An interesting piece of fiction that employs the Riverdale crowd's familiar archetypes: 'From The Diary of Ethel Muggs'
by Susan O'Doherty in Eclectica Magazine

UPDATE, 10.5.08:
A few more classic Ethel appearances found, ranging from 1965 - 1972...

















































































































































































































4.26.08: Another cover scan found, ▶
in an interesting article at 'Comics Should Be Good';
"The Many (?!?!?) Loves of Jughead Jones".
(follow link)

Archie comics of the 1960's as a mirror to fads, fashion and trends (flickr link)

- Please follow this link to my Flickr set! (59 images)

A few weeks ago I was in a good old-fashioned
Junk shop (that's usually a sizeable step down from a thrift store or salvage shop, for the unitiated).

Rummaging around through the unkempt piles of - - um, treasures - - I did manage to find a big box of old and well-loved comic books, priced dirt-cheap.

Mostly Archies and other 'teen' comics, and almost all dating back to the latter half of the 1960's.

Clearly all the collection of one person - - somebody's trove of funnybooks from back in the day - - and sporting lots of particularly groovy sixties covers.

Let's say we'll just call this post 'part one', 'cuz I'd like to show you more of what I found, but for now let's just concentrate on the Archie stuff...





Archie and his gang from Riverdale have been a part of American culture since the 1940's.

Like all good ongoing pop ephemera, the comics have done much to reflect the era in which they were produced.

In the 1960's however, more so than ever before in its history, that reflection shown in the pages of all those Archie titles incorporated influences from what was happening in the real world.

Riverdale gradually left behind its generic Eisenhower-era limbo of the '50's and got more 'with-it'.

(okay, it was still pretty generic)

'Realism' is likely not a term that could (or should) ever be used in reference to Archie comics, but this collection of images circa 1965 - 1970 do pretty well in illustrating some of what was 'happening' in the
youth culture and pop culture of that time.

You'll catch glimpses of the surfing craze, the spy craze, the superhero and 'camp' fads.

Fashion, fashion, fashion, and ever-changing fashion.

The British Invasion, trendy boutiques,
mad mod happenings, flower power and hippies.
The battle of the sexes and the generation gap.

Rock music and counter-culture co-opted into the mainstream, and the rise of mass-marketed bubblegum pop music, all in a time when the teenager with disposable income became a much larger commercial target.



- Please follow this link to my Flickr set!
(59 images)




See also:
- 'A Busy Life With Archie', my previous post that centers primarily on the '60's spy and superhero phase in the 'Life With Archie' title. It also includes several links to pertinent background info.

- 'I Can't Believe It's Not Archie' at
Stupid Comics - - A focus on the many 'Archie knock-offs' over the years. A perfect preamble to a couple of posts I have planned as follow-ups to this one...

I Can't Believe It's Not Archie, part 1
I Can't Believe It's Not Archie, part 2
I Can't Believe It's Not Archie, part 3
I Can't Believe It's Not Archie, part 4

ADDENDUM, 11/26/07: For a similarly-themed gallery of Archie covers, click over to 'Archie Zeitgeist, Because I Have Learned to Share' at the always engaging Glyph Jockey.

A Busy Life With Archie: A few covers and some links

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In reference to those old Archie 'Christian' comics, a few days ago I stated that"...I (had) felt Archie and his friends shouldn't stray too far from the malt shop."

But of course, truth was that life could get pretty complicated for a Riverdale teenager.

It's hard to know how they could handle the busy schedule of adventure and international intrigue in addtion to the regular duties of hanging at Pop's, placating Mr. Weatherbee, overcoming Reggie's deviltry, keeping a jalopy running, and power dating.

It seemed that of all the myriad Archie titles, 'Life With Archie' could be counted upon for a fairly steady stream of those more far-out exploits.





And again, it being the internet, many others have made note of this long before I got around to it.

Some links:

- 'Life in Riverdale: Surprisingly Dangerous': A detailed accounting of the phenomenon at an earlier incarnation of Chris's Invincible Super-Blog.

- A few more examples in a small cover gallery at Comic Covers.Com.

- A 5-part feature chronicling the Archie gang's super-hero identities at the always-entertaining DIAL B for BLOG.

- Two from the archives of Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics...

1. Discussing 'A.R.C.H.I.E., The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.', and...

2. 'What is Geeko? Who is Geeko?', an in-depth look at issue #13, pictured above.

So let's see...
I wonder what vintage comic covers related thing I could post in the future that HASN'T already been done. Hmmm...

Apes? No...
Big heads? No...

Bondage? Nope.

Unintentional homo-eroticism?
No, can't swing a stick without...

Oh! Maybe an assortment of goofy old Jimmy Olsen covers!
Huh. Wow, there's a ton. No wait...

...well, shoot.

I'll have fun looking, anyway...
























































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