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mysteries of Archie Comics -- witch in the midst awareness

It appears to be a running gag or plot premise in the 70s point of Sabrina where she shares the universe with Archie and resides in Riverdale -- Reggie suspects something, sometimes the whole she-bang. Really, why not -- what with Sabrina's care takers in full witch regalia. Another line has Sabrina picking up on a turn of phrase and so either worried "how did they know?" Beyond that, the knowledge and awareness of the witches in their midst shifted in and out of one and half page gags based on requirement. In the case of this one, it is not clear what the state of relations is -- maybe they know of Sabrina is a witch, or maybe they just know Sabrina has cool magic things.

Going back to the Madhouse days, version 2 -- have a new artist and it is now one Madhouse character into the universe of the other Madhouse character -- so "Donald" knows and I guess narrative wise for the payoff of the piece the guy has to know.

Our most recent period of Archie and apparently Jughead is in the know. Where elsewhere we see Sabrina do a mind sweep for Betty and Veronica (as she did a few times for Riverdale characters in the 70s after throwing out magic), here they just commiserate. Maybe this thread pulls out of Jughead's 2010s date with Sabrina or the Jughead 200th issue clue in. (I don't know the state of Archie's awareness after his 2010s coupling -- never read that one.)

#my first thought was that jug knows so much due to the time travel police they were like eh why not

rubysapphrald

tramp stamp of this

aiba2

Riverdale unanimously elected for best show on television

archie-sideblog

this was just the experience of reading afterlife with archie

In Jughead Jones #58, published April 1989, there's a comic (which I expect is a reprint) where Weatherbee says, and I quote...

"In many ways, the fall of the Roman Empire can be compared to what's happening today! For example... The Roman middle class started to shrink... with the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer! Plus, inflation was a problem in Rome, too! Their money was worth less and less! When I was a lad, comic books only cost ten cents... ...Nowadays, they cost much more! Our currency buys less than it used to, just like in Roman times! Finally, as if things weren't bad enough, the Roman citizens no longer wanted to serve in their army! Because of these similarities, some experts believe our society will collapse, as did the Roman Empire!"

which of course is abnormal in giving the Bee more than an entire page, uninterrupted, to preach (as a lead-up for Archie fantasizing about being in ancient Rome).

But it's also notable to me as sounding like something written today, almost 37 years later. I wonder just how long people have been predicting the fall of America as akin to the fall of the Roman empire.

#time marchies on #notable points of the fantasy part include: betty as a sexy enslaved person who betrays archie and confesses :/#and veronica as cleopatra - with a scantily dressed serving girl!

archie-sideblog

man. when they photoshop out the punchline and replace it with something unfunny, you really gotta wonder what the original said.

archie's dad: Hello, Veronica! I'm glad to see you're feeling better! ron: I haven't been sick, Mr. Andrews! archie's dad: Oh! Archie said you had a fever Saturday night! archie (words all squished together in like 8 pt font): DAD, I SAID "RONNIE LOOKED SO FINE, THAT SHE'S THE NEW HOTNESS!"

i mean surely that was a saturday night fever reference, right? this one was 2003. but how would you deliver that punchline anyway. why include the comic at all

second example just a few pages later

pop tate: Reggie, how is Moose doing in school these days? reggie: Let me put it this way, Pop! reggie (visibly different font): BUY STOCK IN RED PENS, BECAUSE MISS GRUNDY HAS A LOT OF "F'S" TO WRITE!

probably they changed that because the original gag was too insulting to moose? i know eventually they gave him dyslexia, and therefore had to stop making him the butt of every intelligence joke, but i don't think that happened for a while yet?

but really, an actual human wrote that. i assume 5 minutes before it went to press :/

Edit: and ah, later in the same volume, they've photoshopped out the price of gas for a moped into being $1.57. so specific. $20.16 for reggie's car, which is almost what mine costs today. did someone literally do an inflation adjustment?

but man, the way they leave so much blank space in the word balloon and sometimes forget punctuation.

same digest has what seems to be the first page of a story, page number in the bottom and everything, and nothing further. hm.

edit: li'l archie takes in a baby raccoon who was previously being picked up by the tail by hunters, and the reasoning has been edited to say "They captured his mom!"

yeah... i'll bet that's what happened.

edit: last story in the issue and they had a trigger finger I guess. archie's family is complaining about a vacation destination

archie: When we get there, it rains every day! archie's mom (in different font): AND THE HEATER ALWAYS BREAKS DOWN! archie (also in new font) (pulling at his collar): AND I USUALLY GET SICK! archie's dad: And we wind up with another long drive back!

like. truly! what did it originally SAY?

next page, archie's dialogue is edited when suggesting staycation options: "WE CAN WATCH THE FOOTBALL GAME!"

his mom, after suggesting they have a family bowl (??) (oh like superbowl? i thought they meant bowling lol) and seeing it rain outside, is edited to say "WELL, THERE GOES THE FAMILY BOWL GAME!" The bowl was mentioned in the original... I almost think some of these are like, they didn't approve of the kerning in the original or something and just redid it? what could they be censoring??

dirtyriver

This is why @jhsharman is such a wonderful blog.

Look for instance at this post, to take the first edit you listed:

💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 5 · dance dance revolution · The initial is more basic than you can imagine. No weird sexual inference -- odd comment from son

red-mercer

I assumed OP meant people shitposting but nope, Archie put that shit in print

archie-sideblog

Oh man, thank you, @dirtyriver. Gonna need to dive into this blog's archives.

archie and his two weed-smoking girlfriends

#for real i love that they were a throuple before that term existed

Woah! In this stack is the very first Archie comic I ever read/owned! A gift from my dad. The first pages are torn out but the cover has been taped together, and there's enough of a scrap of the first page to show the copyright info.

Betty and Veronica Double Digest number 76 - published December 1998. I thought I'd started reading when I was 5, but I guess I was 4?! I own lots of back-issues now, but I'm sure my dad picked it up at a Borders or Barnes & Noble.

#i still remember the smashing pumpkins joke #which of course was totally inscrutable at the time. in fact it's a lot of pop culture references

#archie out of context #queer reggie #queer archie

man. when they photoshop out the punchline and replace it with something unfunny, you really gotta wonder what the original said.

archie's dad: Hello, Veronica! I'm glad to see you're feeling better! ron: I haven't been sick, Mr. Andrews! archie's dad: Oh! Archie said you had a fever Saturday night! archie (words all squished together in like 8 pt font): DAD, I SAID "RONNIE LOOKED SO FINE, THAT SHE'S THE NEW HOTNESS!"

i mean surely that was a saturday night fever reference, right? this one was 2003. but how would you deliver that punchline anyway. why include the comic at all

second example just a few pages later

pop tate: Reggie, how is Moose doing in school these days? reggie: Let me put it this way, Pop! reggie (visibly different font): BUY STOCK IN RED PENS, BECAUSE MISS GRUNDY HAS A LOT OF "F'S" TO WRITE!

probably they changed that because the original gag was too insulting to moose? i know eventually they gave him dyslexia, and therefore had to stop making him the butt of every intelligence joke, but i don't think that happened for a while yet?

but really, an actual human wrote that. i assume 5 minutes before it went to press :/

Edit: and ah, later in the same volume, they've photoshopped out the price of gas for a moped into being $1.57. so specific. $20.16 for reggie's car, which is almost what mine costs today. did someone literally do an inflation adjustment?

but man, the way they leave so much blank space in the word balloon and sometimes forget punctuation.

same digest has what seems to be the first page of a story, page number in the bottom and everything, and nothing further. hm.

edit: li'l archie takes in a baby raccoon who was previously being picked up by the tail by hunters, and the reasoning has been edited to say "They captured his mom!"

yeah... i'll bet that's what happened.

edit: last story in the issue and they had a trigger finger I guess. archie's family is complaining about a vacation destination

archie: When we get there, it rains every day! archie's mom (in different font): AND THE HEATER ALWAYS BREAKS DOWN! archie (also in new font) (pulling at his collar): AND I USUALLY GET SICK! archie's dad: And we wind up with another long drive back!

like. truly! what did it originally SAY?

next page, archie's dialogue is edited when suggesting staycation options: "WE CAN WATCH THE FOOTBALL GAME!"

his mom, after suggesting they have a family bowl (??) (oh like superbowl? i thought they meant bowling lol) and seeing it rain outside, is edited to say "WELL, THERE GOES THE FAMILY BOWL GAME!" The bowl was mentioned in the original... I almost think some of these are like, they didn't approve of the kerning in the original or something and just redid it? what could they be censoring??

#there's also a big where the girls have 'kissing booth practice' with the 'staff'#and i swear they look like expies of the editors?#not that id know them on sight but they have enough details to look like Real People

And a page that seems fun to do fandom redraws of. Not very often that Archie's middle-aged dad gets a pinup but I suppose he IS nude under there.

#draw your otp

A couple Archies out of context. The more spunk the better!

#archie out of context #edited to add the fertilizer one #edited again to add domination. no sense cluttering the dash

[Image description: A one-page PSA/ad in Archie Comics, copyright 1993. Archie says "You can make a DIFFERENCE!" in a panel on top. Most of the page is taken up by Jughead eating a salad, with an apple, peas with butter, and celery beside him. Underneath the caption reads "Be lean / Eat some green! Romaine lettuce contains more vitamin A than iceberg lettuce!" End description]

#archie comics #jughead jones #the things that get me are 1) lettuce infighting???? and 2) does not say it was sponsored by anything #did someone on staff just feel real passionate and hate iceberg lettuce?#iceberg lettuce #romaine lettuce

archie-sideblog

In other news, I've got an Archie double digest (#70) where Betty and Ronnie refer to helping Jug and Archie make up after a fight as being "cupids."

And in the next story, Weatherbee is looking for something at the recycling center and asks permission to search - the guy running it says, "Whatever turns you on!"

That second one I would honestly take a pic of and post, but this digest has a lot of water damage so the word bubbles are smudgey.

archie-sideblog

sorry. same issue so i won't post it. but betty's helping flutesnoot clean some beakers. and she goes "I guess I make a fetish of neatness!"

and what's flutesnoot's response??? "You'll make some man a nice wife!"

#her response is 'Hmm! Not a bad idea! I think I'll start looking right at the top of the alphabet!#A is for Archie!!'#which ok setup for wordplay but the art is NOT old enough to get away with a teacher saying that #and there is no context in the world that the fetish for neatness makes sense lmao #approved by the comics code authority my ass #archie out of context

In other news, I've got an Archie double digest (#70) where Betty and Ronnie refer to helping Jug and Archie make up after a fight as being "cupids."

And in the next story, Weatherbee is looking for something at the recycling center and asks permission to search - the guy running it says, "Whatever turns you on!"

That second one I would honestly take a pic of and post, but this digest has a lot of water damage so the word bubbles are smudgey.

#queer jug #queer archie #queer weatherbee #i guess

archie-sideblog

My folks sent me my old collection (much smaller than I remember, but I think that's because the rest of me got bigger) and I've pulled out a couple digests to read. First one - great. Second one - no cover so I don't know what digest/year it is, but I start reading.

Hm, that's one I just read- and another - and another! In the approx 128 pages, there's 5 identical 1-page spreads and 10 stories. Wow. I started writing this post to complain, then flipped through. Ridiculous! They're rearranged and have some different stories between them, so it's not a reprint, but only barely.

I can at least tell by the ads and expiration dates for the coupons in the second book, it was published late 1993 or very early 1994. The first one is the B&V digest #36 from May 1989.

That's cutting it a little close, imo. Surely the back catalogue was big enough by then to pick out something republished at least 5 years ago.

(I'm missing some of the 2nd book, so at least I won't have to die wondering about the missing end of the last story, since it was one of the reprints.)

dirtyriver

The second comic is probably Betty and Veronica Double Digest #44, May 1994

archie-sideblog

Thanks!

archie-sideblog

Reading B&V June 1994, and a couple of the one-pagers were also reprints of one of the 3 digests I've read in the last several years. I remember recognizing reprints as a kid, but I thought that meant I just read a ton of Archie.

The back-catalogue is immense, after all, and they've never been shy about whiting out references to current decades (or even Pop Tate's prices). But now I'm thinking maybe they were just blatantly reprinting the same things over and over...

#hopefully a fluke??#I never wondered about management decisions when I was a kid reading these lol #I still don't remember most of the artists' names but I can recognize styles. eg the lil jinx artist #or the spire religious comics. and you roll your eyes because there's a 50% chance that #even the non religious comics will be kinda preachy and moralistic too

archie-sideblog

My folks sent me my old collection (much smaller than I remember, but I think that's because the rest of me got bigger) and I've pulled out a couple digests to read. First one - great. Second one - no cover so I don't know what digest/year it is, but I start reading.

Hm, that's one I just read- and another - and another! In the approx 128 pages, there's 5 identical 1-page spreads and 10 stories. Wow. I started writing this post to complain, then flipped through. Ridiculous! They're rearranged and have some different stories between them, so it's not a reprint, but only barely.

I can at least tell by the ads and expiration dates for the coupons in the second book, it was published late 1993 or very early 1994. The first one is the B&V digest #36 from May 1989.

That's cutting it a little close, imo. Surely the back catalogue was big enough by then to pick out something republished at least 5 years ago.

(I'm missing some of the 2nd book, so at least I won't have to die wondering about the missing end of the last story, since it was one of the reprints.)

dirtyriver

The second comic is probably Betty and Veronica Double Digest #44, May 1994

archie-sideblog

Thanks!

#some coupons expired feb 1994 though so i wonder. might not just be b and v- a lot of series in here

On another note - uploading this PSA from the Betty and Veronica comics digest magazine #38, published in May 1989, as a piece of 80s history.

[Image description: A single comic page of Mr. Weatherbee pointing at a chalkboard with the teen characters (right to left) Jughead, Chuck, Betty, Veronica, and Archie in a semicircle of desks facing the board. The caption reads "A PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE FROM ARCHIE COMICS."

The blackboard reads: HEALTH EDUCATION AIDS IS A SERIOUS WORLDWIDE PROBLEM THAT AFFECTS PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE. UNTIL A CURE IS FOUND, THERE IS ONLY ONE EFFECTIVE WEAPON AGAINST THIS PROBLEM. ... AND THAT WEAPON IS ... EDUCATION!! There is a panel at the bottom reading: "PARENTS: For More Information Call, The Centers For Disease Control's Hotline, Toll Free 1-800-342-AIDS." End image description]

#aids #history of aids #time marchies on #archie comics #history of hiv #gay history #lmk if that is not an appropriate tag but it seems like it to me due to public perception #although this psa is explicity aimed at a general audience #there's a tendence to think of archie comics as being conservative due to the comics code authority etc.#but this seems like a surprising and positive move? lmk if you disagree

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