I’ve recently (i.e. last year) gotten obsessed with the Archie comics, and I want to ramble about them. Basically I think I’ll just be sending my random thoughts out into the void.
I’m not an expert or a superfan. I’m just saying the things that occur to me about the comics I happen to read, and posting panels that made me laugh. I’ll post art too.
#my art = my own fanart
#archie out of context = exactly that
Don’t forget to read the tags. I write so much in the tags. Too much, probably.
I’m not a Riverdale show fan, but neither do I have anything against it. I’ve never seen it. You can bring it up, I don’t mind, but I won’t know the first thing about it. (Except that apparently tabletop roleplaying games are the work of the devil or something like that. R.I.P.) (Also don’t get rabies or you’ll have to live in the sewer with the Rat King forever. Or something.) (I’ll admit I am becoming intensely curious, but I don’t have the time to binge a tv series right now.) (From my observations, people either love it or they despise it with all their hearts.) (But everyone hates the Heathers episode.)
I have opinions sometimes, but I can make no objective assessment of their quality.
(Disclaimer that I know literally nothing about Danni, besides the facts that she’s trans and dated Dilton at one point. I have no knowledge of her personality or backstory or anything. I’m improvising based solely on this one picture:)
I dunno if you draw anymore Archie Comics stuff, but I reeeeally love your Sabrina and Jughead art of them being friends!! TToTT It's a friendship I'd love to see more of (and have done some myself lol)!
Thank you so much!
I haven't drawn then in such a long time (in fact i'm only just getting back on tumblr after a multi year hiatus). I figure there's no harm in sharing some old art and concepts (even if it's a little embarrassing). I usually don't blog story concepts but I'm trying to write more lately.
So, I had this whole little story way back when whereby Jughead and Sabrina go on little adventures together.
how does it start?
Salem wants world domination (as per usual) and haribrain schemes a means to swaps bodies with random proximity victim Jughead Jones. Sabrina is left in a panic forced to set it right because now she's stuck with a glutenous cat and 'Jughead' (Salem) is slowly taking over Riverdale school. Sometime during the course of events things get set straight, Jughead proves he's able to keep the supernatural a secret (he just doesn't care about the supernatural, very comic accurate) and the three (Salem, Sabrina and him) are sentenced by the council to indefinite community service.
The trio get roped into an agency named 'E.C.L.I.P.S' (Enforcers of Council Law in Plain Sight) and are sent out on various adventures to investigating matters that bridge the supernatural and mortal, and earn good karma back.
I wanted to pitch it but got nervous, and couldn't find the right writing partner at the time. I also unfortunately lost most of my art when I lost my sketchbook in a taxi that same year. This is the reminder of what loose sketches I had left after that incident.
the whimsical boy genius has been hanging out by the monolith outside town too much and now all his charming inventions are made out of jagged black iron and animal carcasses
Because @diltonsstrangescience has returned I wanted to finish this playlist, lot of electronic music with a touch of her Archie Horror interpretation sprinkled in, plus just some songs I feel like she'd listen to. Enjoy!
After this I promise to stop talking about this and go back to posting art again like a normal person. But it finally occurred to me how to explain myself far more succinctly. (I had like eight whole months to condense my ramblings and I Did Not.)
Upon reflection, I think the three main points of the matter are thus:
1: Whether or not anyone successfully changes my mind, it won’t have any effect on what anybody else thinks about this character. I have no real influence in this fandom. It’s probably not worth the effort just to convert me.
2: I enjoy believing that aroace Jug has always been 100% canon, even in the original old comics. It makes me happy. I’m simply not interested in being proven wrong for the sake of factual accuracy. I’m having tons of fun being wrong in my own little wrong room.
3: As long as I’m not barging into the comments of other people’s posts to yell at them for making Jug allo or anything, who cares what I think? I keep to myself. I’m harmless. Enjoy my art, ignore my takes. I won’t bother anybody.
Okay, so I realize I’m the only person making a big deal out of that conversation in the comments, so perhaps it is an unwise decision to write and post all this. But I feel the need to clarify my point of view, even if no one actually reads it, before I post anything else here. (I procrastinated posting this for months, which is partially why I’ve been AWOL for so long.) In the few days after that post, I gave things some more thought, and I came to the conclusion that I’m not actually convinced and converted by this comment conversation like I thought I was. I still believe that Classic Jughead has always been aroace (at the very least, aro), and I’m still “mad” that the writers decided to give him a romance era, contradicting so much of his previously established characteristics.
I understand that I’m FAR from an expert on these comics, and I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind or start a debate or claim that I’m objectively “right.” I just want to state my own point of view on the matter so it’s clear where my opinions are coming from, if anyone cares to read about that. (There is a TLDR further down.) I’m not interested in corrections or explanations in this particular instance; I just want to lay all my cards on the table to clear my head, then move on to doing what I was doing with this blog before. (If I didn’t put this out there, I’d feel dishonest somehow.) (If any of this post sounds confrontational or snarky, that is not my intention.)
First of all, I always understood that Classic Jug’s hatred of romance was obviously not intended to be queer representation. These comics are super old! I knew it was just a running joke that only happened to be extremely validating for a lot of people. But through this joke there is a ton of evidence for the aromantic “headcanon,” and occasionally it’s more than just comedy. If Jug had spent decades expressing interest in boys as a “joke”, we wouldn’t assume he’s straight even if he had a girlfriend era, so surely decades of expressing a total disinterest in romance has to count for something. Perhaps it is irresponsible of me to assign modern ideas to the intentions of vintage media, but is it so wrong to put those ideas onto the content itself? Aspec people have always existed, and a lot of us have seen ourselves reflected in this character. The comics’ creators may not have realized they provided this representation, but I firmly believe that they did, so it was disappointing to me to see that taken away.
If it wasn’t for the girlfriend era, there would probably be a lot less debate here, but an era of extremely abnormal writing choices doesn’t erase the character’s history, even if it contradicts it. This universe isn’t meant to have consistency. These comics have seen too many changes and contradictions over the decades for every bit of canon to be correct at once, so you sort of have to choose what pieces you want to use, and I can’t help feeling like majority rules in an averaged-out understanding of a character. Sure aspec can’t ever be proven in media so inconsistent and long (and old—classic Jug was never going to say flat-out that he’s aro and/or ace), but it doesn’t need to be on the official wiki or anything. I simply think I’m justified in considering it more than a headcanon, and I don’t think I’m hurting anyone else by being so wholly convinced.
Even if the girlfriend era isn’t a queer issue, it’s still a character issue, which is still very frustrating to me. (Hence why I’m “mad” about it.) As I understand him, Jug has always been antithetical to society’s expectations, including the expectation that everyone needs to feel and express love in a certain specific way, so it’s disappointing to see him made more quote-unquote “normal.” (Again, by the standards of the people around him, don’t come after me.) It’s amazing to see a character from such old media repeatedly defy the tropes of his universe, so for him to suddenly start following those tropes was a disappointment. Seemingly everyone else in these comics is completely lost in romance, so Jug provides an interesting outside perspective on the matter. Why, from a writer’s point of view, would anyone want to put him in a role that’s already being fulfilled by many others, thereby removing his unique role, and limiting the types of storylines you can write? I’m not arguing whether this era of his character existed, I’m simply of the opinion that it was a bad writing choice (and one which I can choose to ignore). And judging by the fact that later comics and reprints did away with it, many people agree with me, even if it’s for different reasons.
There are a lot of things I simply don’t understand about these comics and characters, it’s a hazard of being a novice here. I don’t know the different writers and artists, or the historical context for most things, or many of the characters outside the main cast, or tons of other stuff. But as much as I want to learn more of the lore, I’m perfectly satisfied discovering it naturally and at my own very slow pace. I don’t want to have to do tons of second-guessing and research before I can post a doodle or write down some thoughts about the comic books I’m reading. (It’s not like I’m pretending to be any kind of authority on the subject.) As interesting as the real-world context is, I’m not particularly interested in becoming an expert on it—I just want to play around with the world of the comic itself, or at least the parts of it I’m aware of.
TLDR, at least read this one paragraph:
I accept that most of my ideas are half-baked and faulty, because my understanding of the comics is piecemeal, but I’m having fun with them anyway, and I don’t want this to stop being fun. Please don’t take me too seriously. A lot of my posts are written in a jokey or exaggerated manner, and my ramblings about my opinions and first impressions of things are meant to be fairly casual. I’m just hanging out in my own space and talking to myself, and sometimes other people stop to listen and like the things I say. And if they don’t like them, then frankly I can’t blame them, but I’m happy doing my own thing, and I don’t think it’s hurting anyone. If I go forward with the exact same opinions and net-zero character development, does it really matter that much in the grand scheme of things? Either my opinions will change naturally over time as I discover more content, or they won’t, but where better to ramble about my subjective opinions than on my own blog?
While that conversation in the comments was extremely civil and patient, it still made me feel deeply guilty for days afterwards. (I am not blaming anyone, I just tend to overreact about being wrong about things. Hence the fact that I felt the need to write all this.) I began to doubt whether much of my art and writing was “right” for me to have made (and shared) at all, and I felt I had lost a source of representation that had come to mean a lot to me, especially as something “canon.” I got very disproportionately stressed about it all, and afraid that anything else I made might also be wrong in some way. I feel better about it now, because I’m no longer worrying (too much) about whether I’m interpreting anything “correctly.” In any community, it is important to accept criticism and listen to those who are more experienced, and I did definitely listen, but in this particular situation I feel it’s not necessary to agree. These comics aren’t supposed to be complicated. The main point is just to have fun. So that’s what I’m going back to doing. And that may occasionally involve stating very strong unfounded opinions without much objective evidence, but again, where better to do so than on my own blog?
I'll fully respect anyone who wants to take canon material and run off into their own little fanon corner where they flesh out paltry characters and relationships into something they want to play with. I will NOT respect the person who does this and absolutely insists the author meant it that way from the start and everyone else just doesn't get it.
I am mad. I’m mad that the Time Police writers insisted on girlfriendifying our aromantic king. I’m mad.
But I also want to enjoy these comics, so I’m ignoring how mad I am. I’m pretending this is the one universe in the multiverse where Jug is allo and actually falls in love for real. It’s fine. I can tenuously tolerate it for the sake of time travel.
And despite everything… I do appreciate that (so far) allo Jug still acts like himself. They haven’t butchered his personality in order to give him romance plots.
Jug still remembers and acknowledges his own criticisms of Arch’s romantic pursuits. Just because he’s in the same boat now doesn’t make him forget his opinions. He’s not blinded by love, he’s just as rational as ever.
Jug thinks about how his choices will affect the emotions of the people he cares about. He understands the unfairness of Arch-style love triangles, understands that it’s not good to bounce between relationships like this. Unlike Arch, he actually wants to make a choice and commit to it, and he does so relatively quickly.
They have not forgotten Jug’s love for food. Dating people doesn’t suddenly become the one important thing in his life, and sometimes he prioritizes food above the people he’s dating. He even met one of these girls through her father’s restaurant—I’d like to assume they have a shared interest in cuisine, and bond over this.
So like… I’m obviously not thrilled about this romantical turn of events. But all things considered, they could have done a lot worse. This is actually more okay than I was expecting.
I do have to say though, if the writers were that determined to make Jug fall in love with a freckled redhead named Andrews, they jumped through SO many hoops to avoid the most obvious way to go about that.
