The Age Of Archie

Credit where credit is due, one thing the various eras of Archie comics get right is the emotional volitivity of teenagers.

Every emotion / feeling / urge is turned all the way up to eleven.  Teen brains are both still physically maturing and for the most part have not yet acquired the hard knock experience that brings wisdom and restraint.

Even allowing for the crazy comedic excesses of the stories -- slapstick on a level par with Buster Keaton or the Three Stooges -- the comics manage to capture teen angst and action remarkably well.

Which raises an interesting question: 
Exactly how old are the Archie characters? 

I’m deliberately excluding the Little Archie characters; they appear in stories ranging from pre-schoolers to 6th graders (they also play havoc with continuity in the main story line since Betty and Veronica are depicted as childhood friends while in the mainline Veronica Lodge moves into Riverdale in Pep Comics #26, April 1942).  I’m also excluding a handful of early ersatz Bettys and Veronicas, clearly stories about entirely different blonde / brunette pairs of college coed / career gal age characters rewritten and renamed to shoehorn them into the Archieverse to meet fan demand.  I’m also excluding radio and TV versions which met their own criteria.

Depending on individual stories, the Archie characters can be as young as sixteen (Archie is riding a bike, trying to impress Betty with stunts in his first appearance in Pep Comics #22, Dec. 1941; he’s shown owning and driving a jalopy in Pep Comics #25, March 1942) or as old as eighteen and thus eligible for the draft (Archie #16, Oct. 1971),

Physically they range from what appears to be thirteen to fourteen (Archie and Betty’s very first appearance in Pep Comics #22) to more recently as nearly physically mature young adults, high school seniors / college students.

Why does this matter?  Well, it really doesn’t, but the story editor portion of me widdle bwain itches at trying to figure out exactly who these characters are.

Unlike Greg Evans’ Luann comic strip (great comic strip, BTW; check it out), there’s no consistent growth of maturing in the stories.  Luann moves along at approximately 1/7th real time; the strip began with her as a freshman entering high school in 1985 and saw her graduate (finally!) in 2014.  Delayed growth, but growth nonetheless.

The Archies, however, can bounce around from age to age and back again.  They can go to summer camps as campers in one story, then be hired as counselors in the next, then return to being campers in a third.  Their physical appearances can range from early teens to lates teens / early twenties.  They take long trips by themselves to foreign lands without adult chaperones, yet they need to be back home from a date no later than ten o’clock.

Speaking of dating, most of the time the Archiverse characters seem to have their libidos stuck at age fourteen; i.e., obsessed with the idea of sex, not yet fully equipped emotionally to handle those urges.  On occasion they rise to the maturity level of moral older teens, willing to engage in physical affection yet holding themselves in check.

That may very well be the timeless appeal of these characters, the ability to be plugged into any age range of adolescence.

© Buzz Dixon