Archie Comics has provided cartoony versions of Archie and his friends for more than 65 years. No matter what the decades have brought, they've always been drawn in the same style. Now the family-owned company, run by the two sons of the two original founders, is putting out a realistically drawn comic of Betty and Veronica, to move further into the graphic novel market. The Web campaign to promote realism in Archie's hometown of Riverdale has taken on a life of its own, spawning a blog-world that will soon pay tribute to Archie Comics' large and longstanding audience in India.
Also, Bollywood stars might visit Riverdale. No, really. It's true.
The publisher, which sees most of its sales at newsstands and supermarket checkouts in the U.S., has about 25 graphic novels out. The company hopes its new realistic line will increase its presence in regular bookstores and comic shops, and it's in negotiations to have Wal-Mart, which already carries the Archie digests, carry the graphic novels, too.
The plan is to serialize an existing Betty and Veronica story with the "new look" and put it out as 25-page segments running in four issues of Archie Comics' Double Digests. This serialization will be reprinted later as a graphic novel. Archie Comics has future plans to do the same with a Jughead story and with a story about Moose and Midge.
Copublisher Michael Silberkleit stresses that the move isn't simply business. Part of the company ethos is to listen to fans. "We'd been getting a lot of requests from fans asking what would the characters look like if drawn in a more realistic style," he said. While that may sound like market-speak, in this case it appears to be true. It was Archie Comics' desire to interact with fans about the new realism that led to a Web campaign that eventually became a series of blogs allowing fans to interact with their favorite Riverdale characters.
It started when Silberkleit decided in December 2006 that he was going to receive a public e-mail from Betty and Veronica complaining about their "new look." "It took off like crazy," said Silberkleit. Betty and Veronica started blogging about how much they hated it. "And I blogged back, explaining to them that it's only one story," he continued. Then Archie had his say. Now Jughead and Reggie have their own blogs. Characters talk about their lives; fans post comments, and the characters answer them. As part of the company's family-oriented style, all comments are moderated, and the site provides blogging rules to help keep kids safe.
The blogs have moved on to other topics beside the new look. Betty, who loves to cook, has been posting recipes, and she and Veronica have been discussing a recent camping trip. (Veronica dislikes insects.) Meanwhile, fans have been weighing in about Veronica's decision to forgive Jughead for a kayaking incident. "We've gotten thousands of comments from fans," said Silberkleit. Now Archie Comics is following the lead of other comic book companies and having kids write stories for them; the best one will be made into a comic.
The Web site is run by Patty and Debbie, the Archie Comics "Fairy Blog-mothers." Patty and Debbie write the blogs and choose which comments to post. Silberkleit declines to give their last names or anything that might identify them. "They're two professional women, with kids, somewhere in America."
The India connection comes through Raj Patel, a new Archie character debuting this month. Raj was born in America to East Indian parents. (His first act in Riverdale will be to get in trouble with Archie for skateboarding in the halls.) Raj will begin blogging in the next few months. But he's more a response to the market than a gesture to political correctness, or a desire to follow Richard Bronsen's Virgin Comics with its Indian-themed content.
"Archie is probably the largest-selling comic book in India," said Silberkleit. "We've been selling well there [for] about 40 years." Articles on comics in the Times of India speak of Archie Comics with the nostalgic glow of childhood. Silberkleit came up with Raj in a meeting about a year ago, when he told his staff, "You know, we sell a ton of books in India. And we slapped ourselves in the head and decided to come up with Raj."
Raj is already making a splash on the subcontinent. The Times of India ran articles about him, quoting actors, authors and a playwright. They've reported that Raj, who is a film buff, will eventually make references to Bollywood films, and that Archie's movie division is in talks with Bollywood stars to have them appear in future Archie comics. Archie and his friends will also visit India in Double Digest 183, where they will stay with Raj's uncle, who owns a video-game company. Once there, they will inspire the uncle to create a new video game, which the Times of India reports will be released as a real video game this November.
