The little town of Riverdale is never going to be the same again. Archie Andrews will no longer traverse its roads in his rickety old jalopy and squire around fair ladies at Pickens’ Park, Riverdale Mall or Pop Tate’s Chocklit Shoppe. There will be no hapless swain for Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper to wage war over or a fall guy for Reggie Mantle’s practical jokes. Jughead Jones, Dilton Doiley and Chuck Clayton will lose a good friend while Mr. Weatherbee, an unremarkable but eminently lovable student.
Archie Andrews of the red hair and freckled face is to die today. And though his life was commonplace enough, his death isn’t going to be so. He is shot while trying to protect his good friend — gay senator Kevin Keller (a fairly new entrant to Riverdale but a popular one) in the 36th edition of Life with Archie , a spin-off of the standard Archie tales.
His death, according to Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics publisher and co-CEO epitomises heroism and selflessness. And this, according to him, is what Archie has come to represent over the past almost 75 years.
Seventy-five years is a long time to be around but there is a timelessness associated with the character that still makes the comic series a fun read. It is certainly outdated (no longer representative of suburban America), clichéd (the love triangle, the school bully, the misogynist) and even regressive (Why does Betty moon over someone who treats her so badly?), but it still manages to find an audience.
“I love Archie comics and grew up reading them. I even read them today,” says Ravikumar Rajagopal, a marketing professional. “It was fun and I could relate to things like having to deal with a school bully, having crushes, getting into trouble with authority.”
Faizan Mohamed, associate manager, Business Excellence, adds, “I used to binge-read Archie as a kid. He was the representation of American culture and we would live the American Dream vicariously through him. The best thing was he remained a teenager — so while we grew up reading him; we never grew up along with him. It really is nice to have that bit of life that remains unchanged.”
But obviously things have changed. Archie is now dead.
Comic creator and graphic artist George Mathen aka Appupen admits to being relieved about it. “I know a lot of people love it but I’m not an Archie fan. He should have been killed a long time ago — the comic wasn’t relevant. It didn’t raise any questions and the story-line was almost Bollywoodish. I don’t think he will stay dead however, characters like this don’t. I’m sure he is going to come back.”
However, Gunjan Sharma, a human resource manager, says, “Why? Why did poor, silly Archie need to die? They could have just stopped the comic series, if it was getting too much. This way they are killing a childhood memory.”
