Archie Comics’ newest idea? Putting its beloved characters on the front line of war
The past few years at Archie Comics have been about embracing the future with new types of storytelling and visual style.
By not being limited to their classic and cartoony look— though it’s still a big part of Archie Comics in various titles — the longtime comics publisher is able to embrace new ways of presenting the Archie universe to the world, from groundbreaking characters (Kevin Keller), to horror (“Afterlife with Archie”) to the hip (Mark Waid and Fiona Staples’s “Archie”) to television (The CW’s “Riverdale”).
Now, Archie Comics is applying that same approach to the past.
“Archie 1941” debuted Wednesday in print and digitally. The five-issue miniseries will look at the lives of Archie and his pals as they graduate from high school and enter into a real world that is on the brink of World War II.
No stranger to writing daring and different Archie adventures is veteran comics scribe Mark Waid, who will co-write “Archie 1941” with Brian Augustyn. Peter Krause will illustrate.
“(We wanted) to combine the familiarity of Archie and his gang with the genuine feel of the era rather than a cartoon feel,” Waid told The Washington Post.
Though teen goofball Archie Andrews and his pals first appeared in Pep Comics in December 1941, the same month as the attacks on Pearl Harbor that led the United States to enter into the Second World War, those tales never embraced what was actually happening during that era. They were considered to be a friendly escape to many who read them in a time marked by war and fear.
“The era was so obviously oppressive to the national spirit. I think much of popular entertainment created during World War II was lighter and uplifting as a tonic to that tension,” Augustyn said. “Archie was created in that vein, I’m sure. ‘Archie 1941’ absolutely presented us the opportunity to bring the real world to Riverdale. The larger goal was to see how real history affected not just the teens, but also the adults and the town of Riverdale. Drama happened, obviously, on both the battlefront and the home front.”
Part of embracing the era entailed giving the lead character a gloomier than normal outlook on his environment. Archie’s head is in the clouds as always, but it’s out of worry, not goofy high jinks.
“We tend to forget that even the very concept of the ‘teenager’ as we think of it today — hanging out, playing games, knockin’ around — wasn’t a thing until after the war,” Waid said. “Until the war, teenagers were just short adults — expected to be responsible and productive and not given much leeway to relax or enjoy their youth. Our Archie Andrews reflects this.”
Augustyn says “Archie 1941” will see Archie face the future and adulthood without really knowing what that means.
“I know from my parents that going to college was not a given in the era. But what else would (Archie) do?” Augustyn said. “The possibility of war probably put a clock on Archie’s thinking, as war could make many unwanted decisions for him. Being thrust into the future after high school still creates that same ennui for all of us even now as well, I think.”