How Storytelling Has Continued To Evolve With Archie Comics

Archie Comics goes beyond a simple comic book.

This expansive and sometimes nostalgic yet forward-moving property now encompasses books, TV, film, webcomics and much more. Archie and his group of friends (across several plotlines and universes) continues to grow to include new trends and new characters.

Archie Comics is the leading mass market comic book publisher in the world and the home to a wide array of the most popular humor, action-adventure, and superhero characters in entertainment, including Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Reggie, Kevin Keller, Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Afterlife With Archie, the Dark Circle Comics superhero characters (The Black Hood, The Fox, The Shield, Sam Hill and more), Li’l Jinx, and many more. Archie Comics have sold over 2 billion comics worldwide and are published around the world in a number of languages. In addition to comics, the Archie Comics characters are spotlighted weekly on The CW’s Riverdale TV series, and have been featured in animation, television, film, and music throughout its 80+ year history.

I was able to sit down with Mike Pellerito, Editor in Chief and Jamie L. Rotante, Senior Director of Editorial at Archie Comics to talk about the a rather storied past and exciting future for the brand.

Goldie Chan: How long has Archie Comics existed for? What was the original inspiration?

Jamie L. Rotante: Archie Comics has been around for over 80 years (we actually just celebrated Archie's landmark 80^th year with a number of retrospective collections that fans loved—especially 80 Years, 80 Stories and Archie: 80 Years of Christmas.) But the publishing side of things goes back a little further. It began as MLJ Magazines in 1939, mostly focused on superhero comics. It wasn't until Pep Comics #22 in 1941 that Archie made his first appearance. The popular Andy Hardy movies at the time made it cool for relatable, younger heroes to take center stage. Archie was such a hit he went from being a feature to having his own title the following year. His popularity continued to grow so much that, in 1946, the company changed its name to Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

And the rest, as they say, is history!

Mike Pellerito: It's incredible to think about how long Archie has existed; the first media outside of comics to feature the Archie characters was a radio show! Kinda’ like a scripted podcast for those not in the know, lol. The company goes back even further to the days of pulp novels, which were cheap reading; pretty shocking and sensational stories, crime, westerns, romance, and some sci-fi. They had a lot of great writers who would go on to be household names, and the covers were very eye-catching. Then Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John L Goldwater formed MLJ Comics (MLJ from the first initials of their first names). The early MLJ stuff was similar to the pulps in many ways: crime, western, adventure, some funny stuff, and eventually, superhero material as Superman exploded onto the scene. Believe it or not, that’s where old (actually, forever young) Archie comes in, as sort of the antithesis of the “super man” and a champion of the everyman. Soon the company would focus on Archie and other teen characters, even renaming the once-MLJ Comics to Archie Comics.

Chan: Let’s go behind-the-scenes. How does each major department help tell the story of Archie comics?

Rotante: The folks behind Archie Comics really run the entire publishing business like a well-oiled machine. It's a small, but immensely dedicated team, so there's a ton of synergy across all titles. We currently have two distinct “departments” in terms of publishing output. Our classic line includes our popular digest magazines and standard-sized single-issue comic books. Both of those offer five-to-ten pages of new content along with reprints from our 80 years of publishing. Our modern line comprises all of our new/modern-style comics since the 2015 reboot of the Archie comic book series by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples, and our horror titles. Both departments work together on our graphic novel output.

Pellerito: I think Jamie covered it. We’ve both worked on a little bit of everything, so we have a really good sense of the characters and how to target each market best. It's nice to have moved back to classic Archie and taken over from my friend and Archie legend Victor Gorelick. Victor had been with Archie for over 60 years, and he was great to work with. Learning his way of thinking about the characters really helped me and Jamie understand how to be a good editor for the company.

Chan: What are 2-3 classic storytelling rules that Archie comics live by?

Rotante: A big one is: always keep the reader wanting more! Whether that’s by a great “cliffhanger” moment in the last panel before a page turn, or by just keeping a story short and sweet, with the ability to return to it in a longer format later on down the line.

And a good rule of thumb for any person creating comics is this: always leave room for the art to breathe! Trust that your artist can fill in the gaps and tell the story the best way possible; no need to overwrite to explain things. It’s best to aim for no more than 25 words per balloon / 40 per panel. If people wanted to read a novel, they’d pick one up. They’re here for the art just as much (if not more) than the story.

Pellerito: Yeah, less is more. The artist can do a lot of the heavy lifting with visuals; they need room to do it. Brevity is the soul of wit, as the expression goes. Identify the characters by name in the dialogue as soon as possible and in a natural way. New readers might not know who's who yet. Plus, readers are our guests, so we might as well introduce them to their comic book hosts. With classic Archie stories, whether it’s the Archie gang, Josie and the Pussycats, or Sabrina, if someone does something mean, I want them to get hit with karma pretty quick. Betty and Veronica are great at this since they're best friends but rivals in many ways, too. Also, Jughead is great this way. He's a master manipulator but almost always for good; after all, he's got to protect Archie from Reggie (and himself on occasion).

For the classic, modern, or horror versions of the characters, the secret is simple: They must be trying earnestly to do the right thing. Then, of course, things go wrong to comedic, romantic, or horrific degrees, depending on which universe we are playing in. That’s the magic ingredient. In Afterlife with Archie, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacassa and Francesco Francavilla, Jughead needs Sabrina’s help which sets off the zombie apocalypse. In the Archie reboot by Mark Waid and Fiona Staples, Betty tries to change something about herself to make Archie happier, and their relationship falls apart; it was an atomic breakup. In the Jughead reboot by Chip Zdarsky and Erica Henderson, a new principal comes in and changes the school menu. Jughead, well, goes full Jughead. And hey, it won an Eisner Award, too! Same with the classic stuff; the Archie kids are trying their level best to make money for the prom or have a fun day at the beach – something simple – and things progress to fun chaos from there. The challenge to keeping things fresh is how many ways you can think up a new way for the fun to happen. Another core secret to the Archie characters' universal love by generations is that who the gang are as teenagers are constant; from passing notes in the ‘40s to texting today.

Chan: Archie comics have evolved over the last few years, expanding into television and other media. What are you most excited about for the evolution of the brand?

Rotante: Evolution is so paramount to Archie and that’s due in large part to our CEO Jon Goldwater, who’s been ushering progressive change and forward movement for the past decade plus. One thing we, across the board at Archie, have really focused on is meeting our fans where they are—and wherever that may be. Accessibility is key. And we’re aware that we have fans that span multiple genres and ways of reading our comics. That’s why it’s been paramount to us to cover as many genres and avenues as possible. Our new one-shot anthologies help with this; the ability to have multiple stories by multiple teams allows us to expand and diversify our roster of talent. It’s dually helpful for onboarding new readers, as it knocks down a few barriers of entry by each one being an accessible #1. These also offer us the opportunities to span a multitude of genres, as well as spotlight lesser-known characters in Archie lore. And not just lesser-known! It also gives us the chance to focus on extensions of our franchises, with books like Fun with Little Archie.

Pellerito: I don’t think you can say enough good things about Jon Goldwater, our CEO, and what he's done in Hollywood. We’ve had Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a major Netflix success, and Riverdale on The CW is one of the biggest shows around. How many shows go that long? I remember people laughing at us when we announced Riverdale; people didn’t get it. That’s how the brand and the multiple IPs can continue to grow and thrive; the characters are powerful and have a lot of versatility.

And we have a lot more layers to our library to go through in addition to Archie. Much of what happens in media is foreshadowed in print first, with new characters, story ideas, etc. Kevin Keller was a great new addition to the cast, showing up in the Veronica comic book first, winning a GLAAD media award and acclaim for writer/artist Dan Parent’s work. The character Toni Topaz came out of a regular story idea with Jughead meeting someone who could eat just as much as him. Except we changed the character from a guy named Tony to a girl named Toni, and things took off from there.

We want the characters and stories to reflect the audience, showcase modern trends, and continue to expand what we can do with our comics. We have a bunch of new characters coming up, too, like Eliza Han, who gives Reggie a run for his money; she's Black and South Korean and openly pansexual. And Stacy Banks, who’s on Dilton’s level in the smarts category. Plus, we’ve been diving back into many favorites we haven’t visited in a while, like Harper Lodge, That Wilkin Boy, Trula Twyst, plus many of the Archie superheroes have been showing up for some of the fun. And that is not even mentioning all the appearances by Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Li’l Jinx, and more. So, I guess our approach to evolution is that more is better!

Chan: What is the most important element to a great story and/or product?

Pellerito: ​​In general, the most important is passion, and second is enjoying the challenge. You need both, but if you can’t have passion, you need to enjoy the challenge and put your all into it once it's “go time.” We need the entire team to buy in from the talent to the in-house team, promotion, distribution, etc.; every project is a total team effort. Once you have that setup, it’s the formalities of introducing plot, characters, clarity, and brevity, with classic Archie and an abundance of jokes.

Every writer and artist has their interests, and it’s fun to lean into that for inspiration. I look for trends or characters we can kick around with the talent; sometimes, it’s a more formed idea, and a lot of the time, they have a passion or a concept they'd like to try. Knowing the people you work with helps; some are great with pop culture, some are great with character stories, and with Archie's modern or classic versions of the characters, they have a lot more flexibility and depth.

Chan: What do you look for in artists or writers that you work with?

Rotante: Being fans of Archie! Only slightly kidding on that one–but having a good knowledge of these characters and their many iterations is always a bonus. Really, we just want folks who get the core of these characters and can keep them intact no matter what situations they’re put in. Like, for example, a horror story where the characters are still recognizable both in terms of looks and their personalities.

We’re also always actively looking to diversify our talent pool and expand the Archie universe to make sure everyone is included. It’s of the utmost importance to us that fans reading this can pick up a copy and see themselves reflected in the stories.

Pellerito: It depends on the project; certain people might be great for a horror title with Jamie, and someone might be perfect for me with the classic-style stuff. We try to put people in the best place to succeed. I only want to work with people who want to work with Archie, and that goes to the passion of it. We’ve expanded the team quite a bit, brought back some favorites, and added some additional voices to help us introduce new characters, and it's been a lot of fun. I think the best teams with the most success have a lot of veterans and rookies.

Chan: What is an exciting development for Archie in the future?

Pellerito: There's a lot of cool stuff in development both in print and wider media extensions. Things feel like they did a few years ago before we exploded with reboots and TV shows; there's a lot of positive, creative energy. People are becoming more collaborative, and once that clicks, you supercharge ideas. There's a Netflix Bollywood film in the works, which is extremely exciting. Archie has excellent international reach, and India, in particular, has been one of our best fan bases worldwide. Netflix India has given this project a high priority and the largest budget of any project so far, which speaks to that fanbase. Archie has been extremely fast to move to new tech with digital comics as an early leader there. Our Webtoon series Big Ethel Energy, overseen by Jamie, has seen enormous success and is getting ready for its first print collection. Also, Archie’s first webcomic Bite Sized Archie has enjoyed similar success and just came out with a paperback edition. Finally, we are almost finished with an Archie Encyclopedia; a who’s who of the characters. Fans have been after this for years, and the demand is crazy!

Chan: What is a future brand trend that you see?

Pellerito: That’s the thing about Archie; we've been hopping on trends since radio first appeared up to digital comics today, and we’ll continue to do so. The most significant overall trend is genuine authenticity; people want to see that passion I spoke of earlier. If you're selling a loaf of bread, a new phone, a comic, or a show, people want to see some level of passion about it; not something contrived, but made by people who are all in. That’s part of the DNA at Archie because our characters and stories mean something to people. So, trends like Tik Tok dances or Wordle make it into the stories, we introduce new characters to make sure every reader can see a reflection of themselves in some way, or we try something new with the IP like turning a classic character into a werewolf. Even new takes on Little Archie with different styles; it’s a lot of experimentation and keeping the fans guessing while we still deliver tried-and-true keeps people coming back and still engaged, looking for a new twist on their favorites. The fans have been just as passionate as us and we hope to keep that trend going.

Rotante: All of the above! And continuing to meet fans where they are: be it via our direct to consumer web store, our presence in comic shops, our partnerships with brands like Webtoon, our own web-based comics, or bookstores. If there’s a place where Archie fans are congregating, we’ll be there, too!

For more information and fun releases and updates on Archie Comics, head over to their website.