Archie wedding makes comic-book history

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This article was published 19/08/2009 (6179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Archie is hearing wedding bells after 67 years, and some fans are second guessing his choice in bride.

In the first instalment of a six-part series, Archie proposes to Veronica in a comic to be released Wednesday at comic specialty shops, and hits newsstands Sept. 1.

"There’s very few things that I can ever think of that will trump this type of event," said Jay Bardyla, owner of Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton, which will host a celebration Wednesday to mark the occasion. "Especially something that’s of characters that are known by so many people."

Bardyla believes the proposal is one of the most significant moments in pop culture history

Because Archie has been a constant since he first appeared in Pep Comics in 1941, the marriage announcement eclipses events like the deaths of Captain America and Batman that are huge "within our little geeky comic-book collective," Bardyla said.

"This transcends the few hundred thousand in North America that buy comics. This touches anyone and everyone."

Bardyla likened Archie to comfort food because it maintains its wholesome, entertaining nature for each generation to relish.

"There’s certainly something to be said for the stability of the institution of Archie," he said. "I don’t think it’ll ever kind of go away."

Tim Lasiuta, a comic book historian based in Red Deer, called the marriage "a bold step" to create a buzz among traditional and non-traditional Archie fans.

After chairman and publisher Michael Silberkleit died last year, Lasiuta said the comic ushered in new themes and concepts, depicting the characters more realistically, and Veronica fell for a new bad boy in town, Nick St. Clair.

"They’re not changing the characters," Lasiuta said. "They’re just adding a little bit of edge to them."

Fast-forwarding the story five years to post-college and orchestrating a wedding is in tune with that concept, Lasiuta said, and characteristic in an industry where sales are down.

The marriage "opens up a lot of doors that they didn’t have before." Like a second generation of Riverdale kids.

The covers of the second and third issues of the series have already been released with one showing Archie and Veronica at the altar and the following one depicts the couple, with two children, celebrating Christmas.

Bardyla doesn’t anticipate a divorce in Archie’s future, but isn’t ruling out the possibility he ends up with Betty.

"You’re looking at a girl who can play basketball, bake you a pie and fix your car, probably all at the same time," he said. "She’s just ridiculously talented."

Thirty-seven-year-old Marc Desgagne of Edmonton is a longtime fan and said he could not have predicted the storyline for issue 600.

"To be honest, it would have been Betty for me, because she was more down to earth compared to Veronica," Desgagne said.

But the apparent resolution to the love triangle between the gang from Riverdale hasn’t upset him. He vows to continue purchasing the comics. Desgagne has collected more than 10,000 Archie comics and a handful of related memorabilia worth at least $35,000. It’s the storylines that keep him a fan.

"At first, they were always different," Desgagne said, who reads a comic once, usually during breakfast and supper, before slipping it in a plastic cover. "They were always humorous. At the end, they’d have a point. Sometimes they’d have a moral."

Desgagne said that a happy ending with Betty could still be cooked up. Perhaps the union with Veronica is an attempt to ensure security in tough economic times, he said.

 

— Canwest News Service

 

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